This list of fictional plants describes invented plants that appear in works of fiction.

In fiction
Audrey Jr.: a man-eating plant in the 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors
Audrey II: a singing, fast-talking alien plant with a taste for human blood in the stage show Little Shop of Horrors and the 1986 film of the same name
 Bat-thorn: a plant, similar to wolfsbane, offering protection against vampires in Mark of the Vampire.
Biollante: a monster plant of very large proportions in the movie Godzilla vs Biollante.
Bush of many uses: a bush native to Vergon 6 in Futurama.
Cactacae: sentient races of cactus people from China Miéville's Bas-Lag series (unlike the real xerophyte family Cactaceae).
Dyson tree: a hypothetical genetically-engineered plant (perhaps resembling a tree) capable of growing on a comet, suggested by the physicist Freeman Dyson
Flower of Life: a flower featured in some anime series: The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, Robotech or Nurse Angel Ririka SOS
 G'Quan Eth: plant indigenous to the Narn homeworld, used as incense in religious ceremonies from Babylon 5 TV series. It is ritually burned as incense, and its seeds are a narcotic for Centauri when dropped in alcohol. The G'Quan Eth plant is "difficult to grow, expensive to transport, very expensive to own." Whether it affects other species in this way when in alcohol is not clear, but we know that Narn don't seem to use it as a recreational drug (Londo chides G'Kar for Narns "It's a shame you Narns waste them, burning them as incense") and that it is illegal to possess on B5 except in religious contexts. The plant is presumably named after Narn spiritual leader G'Quan.
Inkvine: a creeping plant frequently used to whip in the slave cribs in the Dune universe
Integral Trees: enormous trees from the science-fiction novel The Integral Trees by Larry Niven. They are 100 kilometers long and have a leafy "tuft" at each end oriented in opposite directions forming an ∫, the integral symbol.
Kite-Eating Tree: a tree featured in the comic strip Peanuts
Krynoid: extraterrestrial carnivorous plant in episode "The Seeds of Doom" from Doctor Who TV series
 Mariphasa lupina lumina (Wolf Flower): an extremely rare selenotropic, phosphorescent plant found only in the mountains of Tibet from the movie Werewolf of LondonPlant Men of Barsoom: a race of humanoid plants from the Martian novels of Edgar Rice BurroughsRe-annual plants: plants in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series which, due to a rare 4-dimensional twist in their genetic structure, flower and grow before their seed germinates.Red weed: a red plant from Mars brought to Earth possibly accidentally by the invading Martians in the novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.Sapient pearwood: a rare species of plant in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. When sapient pearwood is crafted into an item, the product gains a semblance of magical life, and becomes devoted to the owner. Snake vine: an odd-looking vine with dusky, variegated leaves hunkered around a stem that winds a stranglehold around nearby trees, eventually killing them from the Sword of Truth fantasy series by Terry Goodkind. It will bite at nearby creatures, leaving deadly toothlike thorns that burrow into their skin and eventually kill them. There is actually a plant commonly called by this name that is native to Australia. See Snake vineSerenna veriformans: a fictional plant that appears in the novel and movie Jurassic Park. There has never been reported a prehistoric fern genus named Serenna or a veriformans species. The word vermiform usually refers to something that is worm-like, like in Vermiform appendix. In the movie the plant is not a fern but an angiosperm.
Sukebind: fictional flower in the novel Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.
Tesla trees: large electrified trees from the planet Hyperion in Hyperion Cantos novels by Dan Simmons. They appear to store up electricity inside their body during certain seasons, releasing all of it in huge arcs of lightning from their crown, burning away all that was growing or walking near them and thus getting fertilizer.
Tree-of-Life: the ancestor of yams, with similar appearance and taste, from Larry Niven's Known Space novels.
Triffids: carnivorous plants which possess a whip-like poisonous sting as well as mobility by three foot-like appendages, from the novel The Day of the Triffids (1951) by John Wyndham. They subsequently appeared in a radio series (BBC, 1960), a motion picture (1962), a TV series (BBC, 1981) and a sequel novel, The Night of the Triffids (2001) by Simon Clark.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth

Aeglos: a plant similar to a gorse, named for the Elvish 'snow-thorn'
Athelas: a healing plant with long leaves (also known as Kingsfoil or asëa aranion)
Elanor: a small star-shaped yellow flower from Tol Eressëa and Lothlórien
Mallorn: a huge tree with green-and-silver leaves turning golden in autumn and remaining so till spring, upon which the Elves of Lothlórien housed
Nimloth: the White Tree of Númenor, a seedling of Celeborn, a seedling of Galathilion, created in the image of Telperion
Niphredil: a small white flower from Doriath and Lothlórien
Pipe-weed:  "a strain of the herb nicotiana" (tobacco), varieties mentioned include Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, Southern Star, grown in the Shire, and Southlinch, from Bree
Oiolairë: an evergreen fragrant tree highly esteemed by the Númenóreans
Simbelmynë: a white flower that grew in Gondolin and Rohan (also known as Evermind and Alfirin)
Valinor, Two Trees of: magic trees that illuminated the Blessed Realm in ancient times

In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series

 Leaping toadstool
Gillyweed: seaweed-like plant which, when you eat it, allows you to breathe underwater for a short period of time. You also temporarily grow fins and flippers.
Gurdyroot: resembles a green onion. Basis for a foul-tasting purple infusion brewed by the Lovegoods in order to fend off Gulping Plimpies. Considered not very original by Charles Elliott, depending on a funny name for effect.
Mandrakes: tubers that look like babies when young. Their screams can kill when fully grown. A potion made from mature mandrakes can restore victims who have been petrified. A different kind of mandrake is a real plant. Whilst the mandrake as it appears in the books and films is fictional, J. K. Rowling's description does reflect genuinely held beliefs about the mandrake, in particular, the danger surrounding its screams. This led to the practice of using dogs to collect the mandrake and the blocking of ears during collecting.
The Whomping Willow: a tree which has club-like branches which can move. The Whomping Willow is very hostile in the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets book; Harry Potter and Ron Weasley crash into it with a car, and are lucky to escape alive. There is a secret passage that leads into the Shrieking Shack, a haunted house, underneath the Whomping Willow's roots.
The Devil's Snare: a vine that prefers to grow in damp and dark areas and tangles its victims to death. Used by Orofessor Sprout as one of the protective measures to protect the Philosopher's Stone.
Dittany: a herb with geeat medicinal properties
Mimbulus mimbletonia: a Cactus like plant.
Chinese Chomping Cabbage: a flesh eating plant featured in Hogwarts Legacy game
Venoumous tentacula
Fanged Geranium
Honking Daffodil
Bobutuber: a slug like plant whose essence is useful in treating pimples
Dirigible plum: a tree, whose fruits (plums) hang upside down
Snargaluff: a flesh eating tree

In Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere Series

On the planet Roshar (The Stormlight Archive)

 Firemoss: A red-brown moss that, when activated by rubbing between the thumb and forefinger, releases wisps of smoke that create feelings of euphoria when inhaled and is used as a recreational drug. Firemoss is highly addictive, limiting its medicinal use, though it is sometimes used to reduce cranial swelling and offer pain relief.
 Knobweed: Like most of the plants found on Rohsar, knobweed has adapted to survive the planet's harsh storms. The reed-like stalk anchors itself directly to stone and the frond found at the top of the stalk has the ability to contract and retreat into the stalk during storms for protection. Knobweed reproduces by releasing fluffy pappuses that carry seeds into the air. The milky white sap found inside knobweed stems is a natural and highly valuable antiseptic used in the field and by established apothecaries.
 Prickletac: Prickletac plants are actually colonies of much smaller living buds. As each generation of buds dies it converts to a hard, stony material which the next generation builds upon. Prickletac's reproductive system is based on this oddity – when a 'limb' grows too large it breaks off and falls to the ground, scattering living buds. Also known as Twisted Spine.
 Rockbuds: Rockbud is both a general term for several shelled plants on Roshar, including Lavis Polyps, Vinebuds, and Prickletac Shrubs, and the proper name for a specific plant. The true Rockbud plant is a shelled plant containing lengthy tendrils that reach out to lap up water (and occasionally animal blood). The size of fully grown rockbuds depends largely on climate. In colder climates they grow no larger than a human fist, while rockbuds in warm climates can grow to the size of a barrel. Rockbuds are harvested for consumption, limited medicinal uses, and paper making.
 Shalebark: A class of stony, fanlike plants often used for decoration and landscaping.

On the planet Nalthis (Warbreaker)

 Tears of Edgli: Vibrantly colored flowers that grow only in the temperate T'Telir climate. Highly valuable both economically and magically.

On the planet First of the Sun (Sixth of the Dusk);

 Unnamed Telepathic Trees: Many flora and fauna on this planet communicate with a form of natural telepathy. Certain unnamed plants living on the islands that make up the Pantheon send false thoughts of wounded or frightened animals to attract predators, which often fight and leave victims dead near enough to the tree to provide nutrition. These plants are not directly carnivorous.

On the planet Taldain (White Sand Series)

 Dorim vines: Dorim vines live under the sand that covers most of Taldain's Dayside continent, reaching down to the water table where they fill themselves with water as a defensive mechanism against predators – the hard shells of many of the continents animals is dissolved by contact with water. Pouring water onto sand draws nearby vines out of the ground.

In Dungeons & Dragons
The role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons has a number of imaginary, according to Charles Elliott "not-very-ingenious", plant species, as well as "a taxonomy of fungal horrors", which Ben Woodard considers eerie not only for their poisonous nature, but because many have the ability to move.

Basidirond: a giant multi-stemmed fungus creature
Hangman tree: a tree that will attempt to strangle anyone who ventures under it
Kelpie: a shape-shifting mass of animate seaweed that can imitate a woman or other creatures, and drowns its victims
Myconid: A "race of [man-sized] sentient fungus creatures", "some of which pack a mean punch", and which have the "ability to spray poisons that can disable their foes".
Oaken defender: an enormous disk-shaped plant that lives in dryad groves and assists in their defense
Obliviax: "memory moss", a black moss that steals memories from intelligent creatures
Phantom fungus: a dangerous subterranean plant that grapples victims with tentacles
Shambling mound: an atrocious plant-like creature, also called a shambler
Shrieker: Ambulatory fungus, which "can be used as cheap alarm systems for Underdark societies, but they possess no combat abilities of their own. The only thing a shrieker can do is shriek". Scott Baird from Screen Rant ranked the man-sized shrieker among the weakest monsters in the game.
Tendriculos: an enormous, savage, sentient plant resembling a huge, tangled shrubbery
Treant: sentient trees with human characteristics that typically protect forests from antagonists
Vegepygmy: a "mold man", a former human transformed by russet mold
Wood woad: a creature resembling big, burly, bestial men made entirely of wood and bark bearing, but without foliage
Yellow musk creeper: a creeping plant that drains the intelligence of its victims, killing them or turning them into "yellow musk zombies" under the plant's control

In Monty Python's Flying Circus
The following plants appear in the David Attenborough sketch of the last Monty Python episode.
 Angolan sauntering tree (Amazellus robin ray).
 Gambian sidling bush.
 Puking Tree of Mozambique.
 The Turkish little rude plant.
 Walking tree of Dahomey (Quercus nicholas parsonus).

In Avatar
In the Avatar franchise, plants on Pandora have evolved according to the characteristics of their environment, which has an atmosphere that is thicker than on Earth, with higher concentrations of carbon dioxide, xenon and  hydrogen sulfide. Gravity is weaker in Pandora, thereby giving rise to gigantism. There is a strong magnetic field, causing plants to develop 'magneto-tropism'. A particularly intriguing quality of flora and fauna in Pandora is their ability to communicate with each other. This is explained in the movie as a phenomenon called 'signal transduction', pertaining to how plants perceive a signal and respond to it.

In video games
Video games frequently feature fictional plants as items that can be collected by the player, or occasionally appear as non-player characters.

 The Monster Hunter series has multiple fictional flowers and plants that can be gathered by the player character, including nulberries, might seeds, flowferns, and dragonstrike nuts.
The titular plants from the Plants vs. Zombies series, which are used to defeat zombie enemies.
 The Legend of Zelda series, plants play a significant role. In many games, bomb flowers allow the player character to explode rocks and obstacles. In Breath of the Wild in particular, the game is full of flowers and herbs that convey different abilities to Link, including the Silent Princess, Princess Zelda's favourite flower. The series also contains the Great Deku Tree, a guardian tree that watches over the forest in multiple games in the franchise.
Broc Flower: a plant in Fallout: New Vegas used as a medical remedy.
Plantera: a flower from the game Terraria which is used to be a two phase bossfight, when it is at 51% health and higher it is in its first phase moving towards the player and firing seeds, but when the player decreases its life to 50% it enters phase two, bursting a mouth with many sharp teeth, spawning biters and spores.
Candypop Bud: a flower found in the video games Pikmin and Pikmin 2.
Chuck the Plant: a plant found in several of LucasArts' games.
Elowan: a race of plant-like creatures in Starflight computer game.
Flowah: A Sunflower With the elements of plant and fire from the game My Singing Monsters. Flowah Makes A "Who Gochu" vocal sound.
Potbelly: Potbelly is a green venus flytrap with the element of plant from the game My Singing Monsters. Potbelly Makes A "Bap" Or "Bah" Vocal Sound.
Flowey: A sentient golden flower who is one of the main antagonists from the game Undertale. Flowey has no soul and in the neutral route Flowey consumes 6 human souls to become Photoshop Flowey, the final boss of that route.
Genesis Trees: trees located in the world of Legaia from the video game Legend of Legaia. They have the power to keep a large area free of the Mist.
Laganaphyllis simnovorii: a carnivorous cow-like plant found in The Sims series of games, commonly known as the Cowplant.
Lunar Tears, from Nier and Nier: Automata, by PlatinumGames.
Nirnroot: Is a very rare plant with strong alchemical properties from The Elder Scrolls series of video games. Appearing as a blueish green plant that emits a constant hum.
Piranha Plants: plants with mouths from the Mario series of video games, often depicted as sentient. It is also a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Wumpa fruits: Collectible fruits from Crash Bandicoot.
Fire Flower another famous flower from Mario series of videogames, used to enable Mario to shoot fire balls.
Supox utricularia: a race of kind, sentient plant creatures from Star Control computer game series.
Xander Root: a plant in Fallout: New Vegas used as a medical remedy.
Sylvari: a race of sapient plant people in the MMO Guild Wars 2, available as a playable race.

In DC Comics
Appearing in DC Comics, the Black Mercy is an extraterrestrial hallucinogenic plant used a weapon by the supervillain Mongul. Mongul first uses it in "For the Man Who Has Everything", a story by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons that was first published in Superman Annual #11 (1985). The story was later adapted into the Justice League Unlimited episode of the same name. Supergirl has an episode called "For the Girl Who Has Everything", where in this version the plant was sent by Kryptonian Non. The story also served as an inspiration for the episode of Krypton, "Mercy", where in this version the plant was put on Lyta-Zod by her son from the future, General Zod. Described in the original story by Mongul as "something between a plant and an intelligent fungus", the Black Mercy attaches itself to its victims in a form of symbiosis, and feeds from the victim's "bio-aura". The organism is telepathic, and reads its victim's heart's desire, giving them a logical simulation and an ending that the victim wants, which the victim experiences an entirely immersive, virtual experience in which their actual surroundings are masked to them. According to Mongul, victims are capable of "shrugging off" the hallucination, though some find the experience too compelling to do so unaided.

The Black Mercy is typically depicted as consisting of dark green, thorned vines that attach themselves to a humanoid victim's upper torso, with a set of pink flowers, each with a long, red, tentacle-like stigma, growing in the center of the victim's chest. When Mongul first uses the Black Mercy on Superman, they burrow through his costume and into his body, able to penetrate his otherwise invulnerable skin because, Wonder Woman senses, they are at least partially magical, which is one of Superman's weaknesses. During his experience with the organism, Superman's breathing appears faint, and his ability to sense the fraudulent nature of the simulation it feeds him and fight it manifests as tears produced by his actual eyes. The Black Mercy can be pulled off a victim by a strong humanoid such as Batman, and Mongul uses special protective gauntlets to handle the plant safely. Superman is not able to awaken from the Black Mercy's simulation without help from Batman, though Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan are both able to do so in a subsequent storyline when they are both trapped by the same plant, as this meant that the two were sharing an illusion and Hal's strength of will caused Oliver to experience what Hal believed was his friend's greatest desire rather than Oliver making the choice himself.

In the video game Injustice 2, Supergirl mentions Black Mercy in pre-battle dialogue with Scarecrow. She states dealing with him is no different than dealing with Black Mercy, causing Scarecrow to ask her what is Black Mercy out of curiosity, causing Supergirl to describe it as an evil space plant.

Characters who have experienced the Black Mercy include:
Superman sees himself on a still-intact Krypton with his biological parents, married to a retired actress named Lyla, and a son named Van.
Batman envisions a life in which his parents were not murdered during his childhood, and he is married to Kathy Kane.
Mongul envisions a life in which he successfully kills Superman, before setting out across the universe, killing all of his enemies, entire populations kneeling before him amid his destruction of countless galaxies.
Green Arrow envisions a life in which he is married to Sandra "Moonday" Hawke, and in addition to their older son Connor, they have a younger son, and a newborn third. When Mongul uses the Black Mercy on him, Green Arrow was caught along with Hal Jordan, with the result that he saw what Hal believed would be his perfect life.
Hal Jordan envisions a life in which his parents and his siblings are present in his life, and Sinestro is a friend who fights by his side as a member of the Green Lantern Corps. When Mongul uses the Black Mercy on him, Jordan was caught in the same illusion as Oliver Queen, which resulted in Jordan creating what he believed would be Queen's perfect life rather than Queen experiencing his own idea of a perfect life, allowing Queen to see through its simulation and thus awaken from it.

In mythology
 Aglaophotis: A type of Peony said to be magical
Austras koks: a tree which grows from the start of the Sun's daily journey across the sky in Latvian mythology
 Barnacle tree: mythical tree believed in the Middle Ages to have barnacles that opened to reveal geese. The story may have started from goose barnacles growing on driftwood.
Fern flower: a magic plant in Baltic mythology thought to only bloom one night, sought by lovers
Lotus tree: a plant in Greek mythology bearing a fruit that caused a pleasant drowsiness. It may have been real (a type of jujube (perhaps Ziziphus lotus) or the date palm).
Moly: a magic herb in Greek mythology with a black root and white blossoms
Raskovnik: a magic plant in Serbian mythology which can open any lock
Vegetable Lamb of Tartary: a mythical plant supposed by medieval thinkers to explain the existence of cotton
Yggdrasil: the World tree of Norse mythology

Hoaxes
Man-eating plant or Madagascar tree: a fictitious tree in the forests of Madagascar. There are stories of similar trees in the jungles of Mindanao Island in the Philippines. The tree is said to have a gray trunk and animated vine-like stems used to capture and kill humans and other large animals. Comparable plants are mentioned in tall tales and fiction.
Spaghetti tree: a tree from which spaghetti is harvested. It was an April Fool's Day joke launched by the BBC TV programme Panorama in 1957.

See also
 Talking trees
 Tree (mythology)
 World tree
 Tree of life (disambiguation)

Further reading

Notes

References

Plants, List of fictional

List of fictional plants


Winifred Mayer Ashby (October 13, 1879 – July 19, 1975)  was a British-born American pathologist known for developing the Ashby technique for determining red blood cell survival.

Biography
Ashby was born to George Mayer Ashby and Mary-Ann Brock in London, UK, in 1879, and emigrated with her family to the United States at the age of 14. She attended several universities, including Northwestern University and University of Chicago receiving a B.S degree from the latter in 1903 and she received a M.S. degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1905. She studied malnutrition among children in the Philippines. Upon returning to the United States, she taught physics and chemistry in the high schools of Berwyn, Ill. and Maryville, Mo. From 1914 to 1916 she worked in laboratories at Rush Medical College and Illinois Central Hospital in Chicago. She then took up a Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Immunology and pathology in February 1917, where she stayed a staff member until 1924. Her fellowship extended the length of seven years, during which she made historic contributions to hematology. In 1921, Ashby also received her PhD from the University of Minnesota, and affiliate of the Mayo Clinic, and one of the first women to receive a PhD diploma. She later became a staff member of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, DC where she did work in bacteriology. Her final study was a hypothesis on sudden infant death syndrome, which was cut short by her death in 1975.

During her life, it was widely believed that the life span of the erythrocyte (red blood cell) was no more than two to three weeks. She undertook a study of erythrocyte survival and devised a serologic technique for accurately measuring erythrocyte survival. She concluded that human red cells may remain in the circulation for as long as 110 days. Results of erythrocyte survival studies with the "Ashby method" remain a milestone in the development of the knowledge of erythrocyte physiology.

Her work on red blood cell survival rates was first published in 1919, which included the theories of the Ashby Technique. She never returned to Rochester, and for 47 years there was almost no communication. At St. Elizabeth's Hospital, she supervised serology and bacteriology laboratories until her retirement in 1949. During those 28 years, she published several studies concerning the standardization and relative sensitivity of serologic tests for syphilis. She also contributed many studies of the carbonic anhydrase activity of the central nervous system.

See also
Women of Mayo Clinic

References

External links

1975 deaths
American pathologists
1879 births
20th-century American women scientists
20th-century American scientists
English women scientists
Women pathologists
20th-century English women
20th-century English medical doctors
Mayo Clinic people
Northwestern University alumni
University of Chicago alumni
Washington University in St. Louis alumni
Rush Medical College faculty
University of Minnesota alumni
British emigrants to the United States

Winifred Ashby


Poggio Bustone () is a  (municipality) in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region of Latium, located about  northeast of Rome and about  north of Rieti.

Poggio Bustone borders the following municipalities: Cantalice, Leonessa, Rieti, Rivodutri.

St. Francis

St Francis of Assisi went to Poggio Bustone in 1208 and reputedly greeted the villagers by saying "buon giorno buona gente" (good morning good people) A gothic arch named "buon giorno" can be found in the village commemorating this event.

In the oldest section of the Franciscan monastery of Poggio Bustone, a room can be found where St. Francis stayed. On the mountainside above the village are seven small chapels containing, by tradition, impressions of objects relating to St. Francis, such as his knee. This path culminates with the small church Sacro Speco where St. Francis received forgiveness for his sins from the Archangel Gabriel.

People
Attilio Piccioni (1892–1976), Italian politician
Lucio Battisti (1943–1998), Italian singer and songwriter

Twin towns
 San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy, since 2009

References

Cities and towns in Lazio

Poggio Bustone


Michael "Huck" Huckleberry (born July 12, 1948) is a politician, restaurateur, and small business owner from Greenville, Michigan. In 2008, he was elected as a Democrat to the Michigan State House of Representatives. He represented the 70th House District, which includes all of Montcalm County and a portion of North-west Ionia County including the city of Ionia. In 2006 he unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Republican Congressman Dave Camp, who represents Michigan's 4th congressional district, located in central Michigan. In 2010 he was defeated by Rick Outman, 55%-43%.

Biography
Mike Huckleberry was born on July 12, 1948, in Cedar Springs, Michigan. He graduated from Cedar Springs High School in 1966. From 1967 to 1968, Huckleberry attended Grand Rapids Community College. In 1969, he attended Davenport University, located in Michigan], in business studies.  He has owned and operated Huckleberry's Restaurant in Greenville, Michigan since 1991. He is married to Linda Huckleberry and they have five children and three grandchildren.

Political career
Huckleberry served on the Greenville Task Force to save the Electrolux refrigerator plant, as well as on the Greenville Chamber Board of Directors (unfortunately, the owners of Electrolux ultimately decided to move the plant to Mexico). He was elected as president of the Cedar Springs Chamber of Commerce twice. He has previously served as Chair of the Montcalm County Democratic Party. In 2006, Mike Huckleberry unsuccessfully challenged Republican Congressman Dave Camp for his seat in Congress. Camp represents the 4th Congressional District, located in the Central Lower Peninsula. He lost to Camp by a margin of 60%-38%.

In 2008, Huckleberry ran for the 70th State House District of Michigan. The seat was vacated by Republican Judy Emmons, who retired due to term limits, which prevent a member for serving longer than three terms. Huckleberry was unopposed in the Democratic Primary and faced Republican Thomas Ginster in the General Election. He defeated Ginster by a 54%-46% margin. Huckleberry went on to lose his bid for reelection to that seat in 2010, and his bid to regain the seat in 2012.  His opponent in both the 2010 and 2012 elections was Republican Rick Outman.

Electoral history
2012 election for State House
Rick Outman (R), 54%
Mike Huckleberry (D), 46%
2010 election for State House
Rick Outman (R), 55%
Mike Huckleberry (D), 43%
2008 election for State House
Mike Huckleberry (D), 54%
Tom Ginster (R), 46%
2006 election for U.S. Congress
Dave Camp (R), 60%
Mike Huckleberry (D), 38%

External links
 Official Website
 House Democrats Website
 Campaign Site

1948 births
Living people
People from Greenville, Michigan
Democratic Party members of the Michigan House of Representatives
Davenport University alumni
People from Cedar Springs, Michigan
21st-century American politicians

Mike Huckleberry


Sir Giles Bullard  (24 August 1926 – 11 November 1992), was a British diplomat. His appointments included British Ambassador to Bulgaria and High Commissioner to the West Indies at the time of the American invasion of Grenada.

Early life
Giles Lionel Bullard was born in Oxford, England, one of five children of Sir Reader Bullard and his wife, Miriam Catherine (Biddy), née Smith (one of his brothers being the diplomat Sir Julian Bullard).

Bullard was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and at Blundell's School in Tiverton in Devon. He won a scholarship to Balliol College in Oxford, which he attended from 1944 to 1945, before three years of national service, including a year with the West African Rifles.

In 1948 Bullard returned to Balliol, where he was president of the junior common room, and played cricket and rugby for the college, and rugby for the university in 1950 and 1951, in the latter year as captain of the side that beat Cambridge 13–0 in the Varsity Match, Bullard contributing most of the Oxford score. In 1952 he captained the  Oxford University RFC team which made an unbeaten tour of Japan. He graduated with a second in modern history in 1951. On 20 December 1952 he married Hilary Chadwick (d. 1978), daughter of J. C. Brooks, of London; they had two sons and two daughters.

Career
After three years with a shipping firm, mostly in Norway, Bullard joined the foreign service in 1955, serving in Bucharest, Panama, Bangkok, and Islamabad. He had two home postings, in the mid-1960s to the personnel department of the Foreign Office, and in the mid-1970s as a senior inspector.

Bullard spent a year at the Centre for South-East Asia Studies in Cambridge, and from 1977 to 1980 was consul-general in Boston, where he met his second wife, Linda Lewis, née Rannells (d. 1995), whom he married in 1982. His next post was as British Ambassador in Sofia.

Bullard's next posting was as High Commissioner to the West Indies, based in Bridgetown, Barbados. Only two months after his arrival came the American invasion of Grenada, to topple a left-wing regime and a suspected pro-Cuban plot. This armed intervention in a Commonwealth country was greeted in London with official outrage, but Bullard, who knew the strong feelings about the Grenada regime in other West Indian countries, advised co-operation with the Americans, or at any rate doing nothing to hamper them. The fact that his advice was ignored was something he never referred to, though he was sorely tempted to do so in the face of American criticism.

Bullard was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1980 and Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1985.

After his retirement in 1986 Bullard lived at the Manor House, West Hendred, near Wantage, where he engaged in many country pursuits and local interests. Like his father, Bullard was quietly spoken, a rock of integrity, and a man of wide reading and subtle humour. He died at his home on 11 November 1992.

References

External links
 E. C. Hodgkin, 'Bullard, Sir Reader William (1885–1976)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, January 2010. Accessed 19 May 2010.
Details of the estate of Sir Giles Lionel Bullard, The Independent, 5 June 1993. Accessed 20 May 2010.

1926 births
1992 deaths
People educated at The Dragon School
People educated at Blundell's School
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Oxford University RFC players
Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Bulgaria
High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to Barbados
Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to Antigua and Barbuda
High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to Dominica
High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to Grenada
High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to Saint Kitts and Nevis
High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to Saint Lucia
High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Giles Bullard


Salil Vadhan is an American computer scientist. He is Vicky Joseph Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Harvard University. After completing his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Computer Science at Harvard in 1995, he obtained his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999, where his advisor was Shafi Goldwasser. His research centers around the interface between computational complexity theory and cryptography. He focuses on the topics of pseudorandomness and zero-knowledge proofs.  His work on the zig-zag product, with Omer Reingold and Avi Wigderson, was
awarded the 2009 Gödel Prize.

Contributions

Zig-zag graph product for constructing expander graphs
One of the main contributions of his work is a new type of graph product, called the zig-zag product.

Taking a product of a large graph with a small graph, the resulting graph inherits (roughly) its size from the large one, its degree from the small one, and its expansion properties from both. Iteration yields simple explicit constructions of constant-degree expanders of every size, starting from one constant-size expander.

Crucial to the intuition and simple analysis of the properties of the zig-zag product is the view of expanders as functions that act as "entropy wave" propagators—they transform probability distributions in which entropy is concentrated in one area to distributions where that concentration is dissipated. In these terms, the graph product affords the constructive interference of two such waves.

A variant of this product can be applied to extractors, giving the first explicit extractors whose seed length depends
 on only the entropy deficiency of the source (rather than its length) and that extract almost all the entropy of high min-entropy sources. These high min-entropy extractors have several interesting applications, including the first constant-degree explicit expanders that beat the "eigenvalue bound."

Vadhan also came up with another simplified approach to the undirected ST-connectivity problem following Reingold's breakthrough result.
Also the zig-zag product was useful in Omer Reingold's proof that SL=L.

Zero-knowledge proofs
His work in this area is to use complexity-theoretic methods to understand the power and limitations of zero-knowledge proofs. In a series of papers with Oded Goldreich and Amit Sahai, they gained thorough understanding of the class SZK of problems possessing statistical zero-knowledge proofs, characterized the class SZK and proved that SZK is closed under various operations. Recently his work was trying to work on the zero-knowledge proof beyond the confines of SZK class.

Randomness extractors
With Lu, Omer Reingold, and Avi Wigderson, he gave the first construction of randomness extractors that are "optimal up to constant factors," reaching a milestone in a decade of work on the subject.

With Trevisan, Zuckerman, Kamp, and Rao, he developed a theory of randomness extraction (and data compression) from samplable sources, which are random sources generated by an (unknown) efficient algorithm.

Recognition
Vadhan was elected as an ACM Fellow in 2018 for "advancing computational complexity and cryptography, and for promoting public support for theoretical computer science."

References

External links
Salil Vadhan's home page at Harvard.

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty
Theoretical computer scientists
Harvard College alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni
Gödel Prize laureates
American computer scientists
Living people
Simons Investigator
Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
Year of birth missing (living people)

Salil Vadhan


Lime Grove Studios was a film, and later television, studio complex in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England.

The complex was built by the Gaumont Film Company in 1915. It was situated in Lime Grove, a residential street in Shepherd's Bush, and when it first opened was described by Gaumont as "the finest studio in Great Britain and the first building ever put up in this country solely for the production of films". Many Gainsborough Pictures films were made here from the early 1930s. Its sister studio was Islington Studios, also used by Gainsborough; films were often shot partly at Islington and partly at Lime Grove.

In 1949, the complex was purchased by the BBC, who used it for television broadcasts until 1991. It was demolished in 1993.

Gaumont-British Picture Corporation
In 1922, Isidore Ostrer along with brothers Mark and Maurice, acquired control of Gaumont-British from its French parent. In 1932 a major redevelopment of Lime Grove Studios was completed, creating one of the best equipped studio complexes of that era. The first film produced at the remodelled studio was the Walter Forde thriller Rome Express (1932), which became one of the first British sound films to gain critical and financial success in the United States (where it was distributed by Universal Pictures).

The studios prospered under Gaumont-British, and in 1941 were bought by the Rank Organisation. By then Rank had a substantial interest in Gainsborough Pictures, and The Wicked Lady (1945), among other Gainsborough melodramas, was shot at Lime Grove.

BBC studios
In 1949 the BBC bought Lime Grove Studios as a "temporary measure"—because they were to build Television Centre at nearby White City—and began converting them from film to television use. The BBC studios were ceremonially opened  on 21 May 1950 by Violet Attlee (wife of the then prime minister Clement Attlee).

Lime Grove would be used for many BBC Television programmes over the next forty-two years, including: Quatermass II; Andy Pandy; The Sky at Night; Dixon of Dock Green; Nineteen Eighty-Four; Steptoe and Son; Doctor Who; Nationwide; Panorama; and The Grove Family, which took its title family from the studios, where it was made. A children's magazine-style programme, Studio E, was broadcast live from the studio of the same name from 1955 until 1958; it was hosted by Vera McKechnie.

The Queen and Prince Philip visited Lime Grove on 28 October 1953, when they observed production of the variety show For Your Pleasure, the quiz show Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?, and a drama production, The Disagreeable Man.

On 20 January 1966, the first edition of Top of the Pops from Lime Grove was broadcast, hosted by David Jacobs. The newly successful show had moved south from its original home at Dickenson Road Studios, a converted church building in Manchester, to the larger studio facilities at Lime Grove, where the production could attract a more trendy "Swinging London" studio audience. Top of the Pops was produced at Lime Grove for three years until the show moved to BBC Television Centre in 1969.

Lime Grove hosted a revolution in British TV when Breakfast Time began broadcasting from there on 17 January 1983, the start of popular daytime television hosted by Frank Bough, Selina Scott and Nick Ross.

Lime Grove's use for programmes outside current affairs declined over time, and later episodes of the continuing series were made at BBC Television Centre and BBC Elstree Centre. Indeed, in Lime Grove Studios' final years, its official name was Lime Grove Current Affairs Production Centre.

Humble Pie performed Desperation, a Steppenwolf single from the debut albums of both: Steppenwolf and Humble Pie; Natural Born Bugie, their debut single; Heartbeat, a Buddy Holly single, and; The Sad Bag of Shaky Jake, their second single, for a recording-and-broadcast for the BBC. Led Zeppelin performed White Summer and Black Mountain Side there, on The Julie Felix Show, on 23 April 1970.

In 1991 the BBC decided to consolidate its London television production at the nearby BBC Television Centre and to close its other studios including Lime Grove. The last live programme to be broadcast from Lime Grove was The Late Show on 13 June 1991 from Studio D, although the final portion of the programme, with a symbolic "unplugging" of a camera power cord in Studio D by Cliff Michelmore, was pre-recorded.

On 26 August 1991, a month after the studios were closed, the BBC transmitted a special day of programming called The Lime Grove Story, featuring examples of the many programmes and films that had been made at Lime Grove in its 76 years as a place of film and television production. BBC Television Theatre close by, near Shepherd's Bush Green, reverted to being the Shepherd's Bush Empire.

By the end, the building was in such a poor state of repair that the remaining BBC staff nicknamed it "Slime Grove". The building was put on the market and eventually bought by a development company, Notting Hill Housing Association, which demolished the studios in 1993, and redeveloped the site into a housing estate. The streets in the estate were named Gaumont Terrace and Gainsborough Court, in memory of the past owners of Lime Grove Studios.

In popular culture
Lime Grove Studios was the setting for the fictional current affairs programme The Hour in the BBC drama of the same name. The studios are also represented in the 2013 drama An Adventure in Space and Time which was shot at Wimbledon Studios.

See also
 Gaumont Film Company
 Gainsborough Pictures
 List of Gainsborough Pictures films

References

External links
 History of Lime Grove Studios
 History of Gaumont-British and Lime Grove Studios

Television studios in London
British film studios
BBC offices, studios and buildings
History of television in the United Kingdom
Shepherd's Bush
Buildings and structures demolished in 1993
Demolished buildings and structures in London

Lime Grove Studios


Bacteroides is a genus of gram-negative bacteria. Bacteroides species are non-endospore-forming, anaerobes, and may be either motile or non-motile, depending on the species. The DNA base composition is 40-48% GC. Unusual in bacterial organisms, Bacteroides membranes contain sphingolipids. They also contain meso-diaminopimelic acid in their peptidoglycan layer.

Gram-negative bacteria

Bacteroides


Lismore is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located  in Pictou County.

The name Lismore comes from Irish Lios Mór or Scottish Gaelic Lios Mòr, both meaning "great ringfort" or "great garden".

It's known mainly for its lobster.  It's considered the best tasting lobster caught and sold in the markets.  The area has some unique habitats for the lobster to survive in which is why many people believe the meat tastes better.

The largest Lobster fishing vessel in Pictou County (possibly Nova Scotia) is docked in the harbor.

References
 Lismore on Destination Nova Scotia

Communities in Pictou County
General Service Areas in Nova Scotia

Lismore, Nova Scotia


Rafique Alam (1 June 1929 – 3 April 2011), popularly known as Alam Saheb, was an Indian politician who had been active in politics for six decades. He was a union minister and a member of the Indian National Congress since the beginning of his political career in early 1960s.

Born at Kashibari in Purnea, Bihar on 1 June 1929, Shri Rafique Alam had his education at Russel High School, Kishanganj High School, Purnea, and Aligarh Muslim University. An agriculturist, Shri Rafique Alam was associated with several educational institutions in the Purnea district of Bihar. Shri Rafique Alam was the recipient of the National Integration Award in 1988. Shri Alam began his legislative career as a Member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from Bahadurganj Vidhan Sabha in 1962 and was a Member of that Assembly from 1962 to 1967, and again representing Kishanganj Vidhan Sabha from 1969 to 1972, 1972 to 77, 1977 to 1980. He served as Cabinet Minister in the Government of Bihar for several terms, holding portfolios of Transport, Local Self-Government, Irrigation, Housing, Jails, Animal Husbandry, Fishery and Wakf, PWD, Rural Reconstruction and Panchayati Raj. Shri Rafique Alam represented the State of Bihar in this House from April 1982 to April 1988 and again from April 1988 to April 1994. Shri Alam also served as Pradesh congress President of united Bihar. Shri Rafique Alam also served as Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas from February to June 1988; as Minister of State in the Ministry of Textiles from 1988 to 1989, and as Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from July to November 1989 in the Union Council of Ministers. He was the Chairman of the Committee on Petitions, Rajya Sabha, from 1986 to 1988. Shri Rafique Alam was also the Leader of the Indian Haj Goodwill Delegation in 1988. In the passing away of Shri Rafique Alam, the country has lost an able administrator and a distinguished parliamentarian.

References

1929 births
2011 deaths
Aligarh Muslim University alumni
Indian National Congress politicians
Union ministers of state of India
People from Purnia district
Rajya Sabha members from Bihar
Bihar MLAs 1962–1967
Bihar MLAs 1969–1972
Bihar MLAs 1977–1980
People from Kishanganj district
Indian National Congress politicians from Bihar
Transport Ministers of Bihar

Rafique Alam


The Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) is a magnetic tape sound recording format introduced by Philips and Matsushita Electric in late  and marketed as the successor to the standard analog Compact Cassette. It was also a direct competitor to Sony's MiniDisc (MD), but neither format toppled the then-ubiquitous analog cassette despite their technical superiority, and DCC was discontinued in .

Another competing format, the Digital Audio Tape (DAT), had by  also failed to sell in large quantities to consumers, although it was popular as a professional digital audio storage format. The DCC form factor is similar to the analog compact cassette (CC), and DCC recorders and players can play back either type: analog as well as DCC. This backward compatibility was intended to allow users to adopt digital recording without rendering their existing tape collections obsolete, but because DCC recorders couldn't record (only play back) analog cassettes, it effectively forced consumers to either replace their cassette deck with a DCC recorder and give up analog recording, or keep the existing cassette deck and make space to add the DCC recorder to their setup.

History

DCC signaled the parting of ways of Philips and Sony, who had previously worked together successfully on the audio CD, CD-ROM, and CD-i. The companies had also worked together on the Digital Audio Tape which was successful in professional environments, but was perceived as too expensive and fragile for consumers. Furthermore, the recording industry had been fighting against digital recording in court, resulting in the Audio Home Recording Act and SCMS.

Philips had developed the Compact Cassette in  and allowed companies to use the format royalty-free, which made it hugely successful but not a significant money-maker. The company saw a market for a digital version of the cassette, and expected that the product would be popular if it could be made compatible with the analog cassette.

Around , Philips participated in the Eureka 147 project that eventually produced the DAB standard. For this, it cooperated with the Institute for Perception Research of the Eindhoven University of Technology to create the PASC compression algorithm based on psychoacoustics.

On , Philips made the first formal announcement of DCC. Tandy Corporation announced at the same time that it would help Philips with the development and distribution through its Tandy and RadioShack stores. It was expected at the time that DCC recorders would be available in the beginning of 1992 and would cost several hundred dollars less than DAT recorders. Even though this first announcement already used the term "digital compact cassette" (without capitalization), some publications around this time also referred to it as S-DAT (Stationary-Head Digital Audio Tape), to distinguish it from R-DAT (Rotary-Head Digital Audio Tape).

On , Philips announced that Matsushita had joined forces with them to develop DCC.

The first DCC recorders were introduced at the CES in Chicago in  and at the Firato consumer electronics show in Amsterdam in . At that time, not only Philips and Technics (brand of Matsushita) announced DCC recorders but also other brands such as Grundig and Marantz (both related to Philips at the time). Around the same time, Sony introduced the MiniDisc.

More recorders and players were introduced by Philips and other manufacturers in the following years, including some portable players and recorders as well as in-dash DCC/radio combinations for automotive use.

At the "HCC-dagen" computer fair in Utrecht, Netherlands, between  and , Philips presented the DCC-175 portable recorder that can be connected to an IBM-compatible PC using the "PC-link" cable. This was the only DCC recorder that can be connected to, and controlled by a computer, and it was only ever available in the Netherlands.

Philips marketed the DCC format mostly in Europe, the United States, and Japan. According to the newspaper article that announced the demise of DCC, DCC was more popular than MiniDisc in Europe (especially in the Netherlands).

DCC was quietly discontinued in  after Philips admitted it had failed at achieving any significant market penetration with the format, and unofficially conceded victory to Sony. However, the MiniDisc format had not done very well either; the price of both systems had been too high for the younger market, while audiophiles rejected MD and DCC because in their opinion, the lossy compression degraded the audio quality too much.

Technology

Magneto-resistive stationary heads
Unlike helical scan systems such as DAT or VHS, the head is stationary and the tape moves in linear direction relative to the head.  Like analog audio tapes, the heads use half of the tape width in each direction. There are 9 tracks per side: eight tracks for the audio, and one track for auxiliary information.  The track pitch is 195 μm.  The head assembly has what Philips called "Fixed Azimuth Tape Guidance" (FATG) pins, which work together with the "Azimuth Locking Pins System" (ALPS) in the cassette to guide the tape.

DCC used magneto-resistive (MR) heads 70 μm wide for playback, and miniaturized coils 185 μm wide for recording. The heads were produced using photolithography.  Some DCC head assemblies had separate MR heads to play analog tapes, others re-used two DCC heads to pick up the left and right analog audio tracks from the tape.

All DCC players and recorders are auto-reverse, so every player and recorder must have a way to position the heads for the A-side as well as the B-side of the tape. In stationary recorders, the mechanism switched sides by pivoting the head assembly 180 degrees (Philips used a modified version of an analog auto-reverse cassette deck during development, on which this mechanism was based), but in portable recorders and players, the head assemblies had heads for the tracks on both sides, which saved space in the mechanism, but made the head assembly more complicated:

 Pivoting head mechanisms in stationary recorders such as the DCC-900 used a head assembly that had 9 (MR) playback heads and 9 (coil) recording heads for DCC, plus two (MR) heads for playing analog compact cassettes. The head assembly was mounted on a pivoting mechanism that rotated the head assembly by 180 degrees when it switched from one side of the tape to the other.
 Playback-only portable players such as the DCC-130 and DCC-134 used head assemblies with 18 MR heads, nine for each side of the tape. When playing analog cassettes, two of the DCC MR heads were used to pick up the analog audio.
 Portable recorders such as the DCC-170 and DCC-175 used head assemblies with 18 MR heads for DCC playback, 18 coil heads for DCC recording, and 4 MR heads for analog playback (a total of 40 heads in one head assembly).

Magneto-resistive heads do not use iron so they do not build up residual magnetism. They never need to be demagnetized, and if a magnetic field from e.g. a cassette demagnetizer is applied to MR heads, it induces so much current into the heads that they are damaged or destroyed. Also, it is recommended never to use a cleaning cassette as DCC heads are fragile and this operation could ruin them permanently.

Tape specifications and PASC audio compression
DCC tape is the same  width as in analog compact cassettes, and operates at the same speed:  per second. The tape that was used in production cassettes was chromium dioxide- or cobalt-doped ferric oxide, 3–4 µm thick in a total tape thickness of 12 µm, identical to the tape that was widely in use for video tapes.

Nine heads are used to read/write half the width of the tape; the other half of the width are used for the B-side. Eight of these tracks contain audio data, the ninth track is used for auxiliary information such as song titles and track markers, as well as markers to make the player switch from side A to side B (with or without winding towards the end of the tape first) and end-of-tape markers.

The (theoretical) maximum capacity of a DCC tape is 120 minutes, compared to 3 hours for DAT; however, no 120-minute tapes were ever produced. Also, because of the time needed for the mechanism to switch direction, there is always a short interruption in the audio between the two sides of the tape. DCC recorders could record from digital sources that used the S/PDIF standard, at sample rates of 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz, or they could record from analog sources at 44.1 kHz.

Because of the low tape speed, the achievable bit rate of DCC is limited. To compensate, DCC uses Precision Adaptive Sub-band Coding (PASC) for audio data compression. PASC was later integrated into the ISO/IEC 11172-3 standard as MPEG-1 Audio Layer I (MP1). Though MP1 allows various bit rates, PASC is fixed at 384 kilobits per second. The bandwidth of a CD recording of approximately 1.4 megabits per second is reduced to 384 kilobits per second, a compression ratio of around 3.68:1. The difference in quality between PASC and the 5:1 compression used by early versions of ATRAC in the original MiniDisc is largely a subjective matter.

After adding system information (such as emphasis settings, SCMS information, and time code) as well as adding Reed-Solomon error correction bits to the 384 kbit/s data stream, followed by 8b/10b encoding, the resulting bit rate on the eight main data tracks tape ends up being twice the rate of the original PASC data: 768 kbit/s, which is recorded onto the eight main data tracks at 96 kbit/s per track in an interleaved pattern. According to the Philips webpage, it is possible for a DCC player to recover all missing data from a tape, even if one of the 8 audio tracks is completely unreadable, or if all tracks are unreadable for 1.45 mm (about 0.03 seconds).

Auxiliary track
On prerecorded tapes, the information about album artist, album title, and track titles and lengths is recorded on the auxiliary ninth track continuously for the length of the entire tape. This makes it possible for players to recognize immediately what the tape position is and how to get to any of the other tracks (including which side of the tape to turn to), as soon as a tape was inserted and playback was started, regardless of whether the tape was rewound before inserting or not.

On user tapes, a track marker was recorded at the beginning of every track, so that it was possible to skip and repeat tracks automatically. The markers were automatically recorded when a silence was detected during an analog recording, or when a track marker was received in the S/PDIF signal of a digital input source (this track marker is automatically generated by CD players). It was possible to remove these markers (to "merge tracks"), or add extra markers (to "split tracks") without rerecording the audio. Furthermore, it was possible to add markers afterwards that would signal the end of the tape or the end of the tape side, so that during playback, the player would stop the mechanism, fast-forward to the end of the A-side, or switch from the A-side to the B-side immediately.

On later generations of recorders, it was possible to enter title information for each track, which was recorded on the auxiliary track after the start-of-track marker. Because the title information was only stored in one place (unlike prerecorded tapes where users could see the names of all tracks on a tape) it was not possible to see tracks names of any other track than the one that is currently playing.

There are some minor compatibility problems with user-recorded titles; for example:
 On stationary recorders that had simple fourteen-segment displays, all track information had to be converted to upper-case because on those displays, showing lower-case characters is impossible. They were capable of displaying symbols that are impossible to enter with their own track information editors (such as the apostrophe).
 The Philips DCC-822/DCC-824 car stereo with DCC player had a full dot-matrix text display which could display upper-case and lower-case characters on prerecorded tapes as well as user-recorded tapes.
 Later-generation portable recorders DCC-170 and DCC-175 were capable of displaying text information from prerecorded tapes, but not from user-recorded tapes. The DCC-175 was capable of writing and reading the text information to/from a super-user tape via the PC, but does not show the user-recorded text information on the display.

User Tapes vs. Super User Tapes
Some Philips documentation distinguishes between "user tapes" and "super user tapes". Super user tapes are tapes that have a continuously recorded stream of audio, with continuous absolute time codes relative to the start of the tape, and contiguously numbered tracks. In contrast, non-super user tapes may have one or more section that has no absolute time code and tracks that are unnumbered. The Renumber button that makes the recorder find all the track markers on a tape and makes sure that all track numbers are contiguous (which might not be the case if the user splits or merges tracks), only works on super-user tapes.

Other than absolute time codes and track numbers that may become discontinuous or unavailable on a non-super user tape, it's impossible to distinguish between user tapes and super user tapes.

To make sure that the absolute time codes remain continuous (and the tape remains a super user tape), the user should start every recording at a point where absolute time codes are available. Some recorders have an APPEND button to find the end of the last recording automatically and prepare the recorder for the next recording. When recording mode is engaged (with or without the APPEND function), the electronics actually read the tape for a fraction of a second, to synchronize the internal absolute time counter with the time recorded on tape, and then start the actual recording at the beginning of a tape frame so that the resulting data stream has a continuous absolute time code.

Copy protection
All DCC recorders used the SCMS copy-protection system, which uses two bits in the S/PDIF digital audio stream and on tape to differentiate between protected vs. unprotected audio, and between original vs. copy:
 Recording digitally from a source marked "protected" and "original" (produced by a prerecorded DCC or Minidisc, for example) was allowed, but the recorder will change the "original" bit to the "copy" state on the new tape to prevent copying of the copy. CDs do not have SCMS bits as the format predates this system. However, the recorder treats the absence of SCMS bits as "protected" and "original". Consequently the DCC recording cannot be further copied.
 Recording digitally from a source marked "unprotected" is also allowed; the "original/copy" marker is ignored. The "unprotected" bit is preserved in the copy.
 Recording digitally from a source marked "protected" and "copy" is not allowed: the record button will not work and any ongoing recordings will stop, and an error message is shown on the display.

Analog recording was not restricted: tapes recorded from analog source were marked "unprotected". The only limitation to analog recording on DCC as compared to that on DAT recorders is that the A/D converter was fixed to a sample frequency of 44.1 kHz. On the DCC-175 portable recorder it was possible to circumvent the SCMS protection by copying audio to the hard disk and then back to another tape, using the DCC Studio program.

Cassettes and cases
The DCC cassette and the case that Philips (but not some other cassette manufacturers) used were designed by Peter Doodson who also designed the CD jewel case.

DCCs are similar to analog compact cassettes, except that there are no "bulges" where the tape-access holes are located. DCC cassettes are flat and there are no access holes for the hubs on the top side (they are not required because auto-reverse is a standard feature on all DCC decks), so this side can be used for a larger label than can be used on an analog compact cassette. A spring-loaded metal shutter similar to the shutters on 3.5 inch floppy disks and MiniDiscs covers the tape access holes and locks the hubs while the cassette is not in use. Cassettes provide several extra holes and indentations so that DCC recorders can tell a DCC apart from an analog compact cassette, and so they can tell what the length of a DCC tape is. Also, there is a sliding write-protect tab on the DCC to enable and disable recording. Unlike the break-away notches on analog compact cassettes and VHS tapes, this tab makes it easier to make a tape recordable again, and unlike on analog compact cassettes, the marker protects the entire tape rather than just one side.

The cases that DCCs came in generally did not have the characteristic folding mechanism used for analog compact cassettes. Instead, DCC cases tended to be simple plastic boxes that were open on one of the short sides. The front side had a rectangular opening that exposed almost the entire cassette, so that any label on the cassette would be visible even when the cassette was in its case. This allowed the user to slide the cassette into and out of the case with one hand (which was seen as a major advantage for mobile use), and reduced production costs, especially for prerecorded cassettes, because the case did not need a separate label. Format partner Matsushita (now Panasonic) and others did, however, produce blank cassettes (under their Panasonic brand) with a clam-shell-style case. Because DCCs have no "bulges" near the tape access holes, there is more space in the case behind the cassette to insert, for example, a booklet for a prerecorded tape, or a folded up card on which users could write the contents of the tape. In spite of the differences, the outside measurements of the standard DCC cases were exactly identical to the cases of analog compact cassettes, so they could be used in existing storage systems. The Matsushita-designed clam-shell case was slightly thinner than an analog compact cassette case is.

Data recording
There is only one DCC recorder that has the capability of being connected to and controlled by a computer: the DCC-175. It is a portable recorder that was developed by Marantz in Japan (unlike most of the other Philips recorders which were developed in the Netherlands and Belgium), and looks very similar to the other portables available from Philips and Marantz at the time: the DCC-134 and the DCC-170. The DCC-175 was sold only in the Netherlands, and was available separately or in a package with the "PC-link" data cable which can be used to connect the recorder to a parallel port of an IBM-compatible PC. Only small quantities of both recorder and cable were made, leaving many people searching for one or both at the time of the demise of DCC.

The DCC-175 Service Manual shows that in the recorder, the cable is connected to the I²S bus that carries the PASC bitstream, and it is also connected to a dedicated serial port of the microcontroller, to allow the PC to control the mechanism and to read and write auxiliary information such as track markers and track titles. The parallel port connector of the cable contains a custom chip created especially for this purpose by Philips Key Modules, as well as a standard RAM chip. Philips made no detailed technical information available to the public about the custom chip and therefore it is impossible for people who own a DCC-175 but no PC-link cable to make their own version of the PC-link cable.

The PC-link cable package included software consisting of:
 DCC Backup for Windows, a backup program
 DCC Studio, a sound recorder and editor for Windows
 A DCC tape database program that works together with DCC Studio

Philips also provided a DOS backup application via their BBS, and later on they provided an upgrade to the DCC Studio software to fix some bugs and provide better compatibility with Windows 95 which had come out just before the release of the DCC-175. The software also works with Windows 98, Windows 98SE and Windows ME, but not with any later versions of Windows.

The backup programs for DOS as well as Windows does not support long file names which had been introduced by Windows 95 just a few months before the release. Also, because the tape runs at its usual speed and data rate, it takes 90 minutes to record approximately 250 megabytes of uncompressed data. Other backup media common in those days were faster, had more capacity, and supported long file names, so the DCC backup programs were relatively unhelpful for users.

The DCC Studio application, however, was a useful application that made it possible to copy audio from tape to hard disk and vice versa, regardless of the SCMS status of the tape. This made it possible to circumvent SCMS with DCC Studio. The program also allowed users to manipulate the PASC audio files that were recorded to hard disk in various ways: they could change equalization settings, cut/copy and paste track fragments, and place and move audio markers and name those audio markers from the PC keyboard. It was possible to record a mix tape by selecting the desired tracks from a list, and moving the tracks around in a playlist. Then the user could click on the record button to copy the entire playlist back to DCC tape, while simultaneously recording markers (such as reverse and end-of-tape) and track titles. It was not necessary to record the track titles and tape markers separately (as you would do with a stationary recorder), and thanks to the use of a PC keyboard, it was possible to use characters in song titles that were not available when using a stationary machine's remote control.

The DCC Studio program used the recorder as playback and recording device, avoiding the need for a separate sound card, an uncommon accessory at the time.  Working with the PASC data directly without the need to compress and decompress, also saved a lot of hard disk space, and most computers at the time would have had a hard time compressing and decompressing PASC data in real time anyway. However, many users complained that they would have liked to have the possibility of using uncompressed WAV audio files with the DCC Studio program, and Philips responded by mailing a floppy disk to registered users, containing programs to convert a WAV file to PASC and vice versa. Unfortunately this software was extremely slow (it takes several hours to compress a few minutes of PCM music in a WAV file to PASC) but it was soon discovered that the PASC files are simply MPEG-1 Audio Layer I files that use an under-documented padding feature of the MPEG standard to make all frames the same length, so then it became easy to use other MPEG decoding software to convert PASC to PCM and vice versa.

Derivatives
The technology of using stationary MR heads was later further developed by OnStream for use as a data storage media for computers. MR heads are now also commonly used in hard disks, although hard disks now use the giant magnetoresistance variant, whereas DCCs used the earlier anisotropic magnetoresistance.

A derivative technology developed originally for DCC is now being used for filtering beer. Silicon wafers with micrometer-scale holes are ideal for separating yeast particles from beer, as the beer flows through the silicon wafer leaving the yeast particles behind. This is desirable when the final beer is meant to be extremely clear. The manufacturing process for the filters was originally developed for the read/write heads of DCC decks.

See also
 DVD
 Universal Media Disc (UMD)

References

External links

DCC Museum
DCC FAQ
All DCC's listed at Discogs.com

Audio storage
Digital audio
Discontinued media formats
Audiovisual introductions in 1992

Digital Compact Cassette


Lappula squarrosa is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by several common names, including European stickseed, bur forget-me-not, bluebur, and bristly sheepbur. It is native to Europe and Asia, where it is common, and it is an introduced species in much of North America and Africa. It is well known as a noxious weed where it is naturalized and also in many parts of its native range. This is an annual herb producing an erect stem often with sprays of many long, bending branches, its form varying in different regions and climates. The plant may approach a meter in height. The stems are lined with linear to oval leaves up to 5 centimeters long and coated in whitish hairs, and the herbage emits a scent generally considered unpleasant. The inflorescence is a long, leafy raceme of tiny flowers near the ends of the branches. Each flower is 2 to 4 millimeters wide with five light blue corolla lobes. White-flowered plants are occasionally seen. The fruit is a cluster of four nutlets which are coated in hooked prickles. The seeds are dispersed when the prickles get caught on animal coats and human clothing, and when they are moved by wind.

This plant grows easily in a wide range of habitat types, including agricultural fields, roadsides, gravel beds, and rocky waste places. It thrives in overgrazed pastures.

References

External links
Jepson Manual Treatment

Photo gallery

Boraginoideae

Lappula squarrosa


In astronomy, a rubble pile is a celestial body that is not a monolith, consisting instead of numerous pieces of rock that have coalesced under the influence of gravity. Rubble piles have low density because there are large cavities between the various chunks that make them up.

The asteroids Bennu and Ryugu have a measured bulk density which suggests that their internal structure is a rubble pile. Many comets and most smaller minor planets  (<10 km in diameter) are thought to be composed of coalesced rubble.

Minor planets

Most smaller asteroids are thought to be rubble piles.

Rubble piles form when an asteroid or moon (which may originally be monolithic) is smashed to pieces by an impact, and the shattered pieces subsequently fall back together, primarily due to self-gravitation. This coalescing usually takes from several hours to weeks.

When a rubble-pile asteroid passes a much more massive object, tidal forces change its shape.

Scientists first suspected that asteroids are often rubble piles when asteroid densities were first determined. Many of the calculated densities were significantly less than those of meteorites, which in some cases had been determined to be pieces of asteroids.

Many asteroids with low densities are thought to be rubble piles, for example 253 Mathilde. The mass of Mathilde, as determined by the NEAR Shoemaker mission, is far too low for the volume observed, considering the surface is rock. Even ice with a thin crust of rock would not provide a suitable density. Also, the large impact craters on Mathilde would have shattered a rigid body. However, the first unambiguous rubble pile to be photographed is 25143 Itokawa, which has no obvious impact craters and is thus almost certainly a coalescence of shattered fragments.

The asteroid 433 Eros, the primary destination of NEAR Shoemaker, was determined to be riven with cracks but otherwise solid. Other asteroids, possibly including Itokawa, have been found to be contact binaries, two major bodies touching, with or without rubble filling the boundary.

Large interior voids are possible because of the very low gravity of most asteroids. Despite a fine regolith on the outside (at least to the resolution that has been seen with spacecraft), the asteroid's gravity is so weak that friction between fragments dominates and prevents small pieces from falling inwards and filling the voids.

All the largest asteroids (1 Ceres, 2 Pallas, 4 Vesta, 10 Hygiea, 704 Interamnia) are solid objects without any macroscopic internal porosity. This may be because they have been large enough to withstand all impacts, and have never been shattered. Alternatively, Ceres and some few other of the largest asteroids may be massive enough that, even if they were shattered but not dispersed, their gravity would collapse most voids upon recoalescing. Vesta, at least, has withstood intact one major impact since its formation and shows signs of internal structure from differentiation in the resultant crater that assures that it is not a rubble pile. This serves as evidence for size as a protection from shattering into rubble.

Comets

Observational evidence suggest that the cometary nucleus may not be a well-consolidated single body, but may instead be a loosely bound agglomeration of smaller fragments, weakly bonded and subject to occasional or even frequent disruptive events, although the larger cometary fragments are expected to be primordial condensations rather than collisionally derived debris as in the asteroid case.
However, in situ observations by the Rosetta mission indicate that it may be more complex than that.

Moons

The moon Phobos, the larger of the two natural satellites of the planet Mars, is also thought to be a rubble pile bound together by a thin regolith crust about  thick. Spectroscopy of Phobos' composition suggests that Phobos may be a captured main-belt asteroid.

See also
 Circumplanetary disk
 Comet nucleus
 List of slow rotators (minor planets)

References

External links
 Close-up images of Itokawa, a rubble pile asteroid

 Hyper-Velocity Impacts on Rubble Pile Asteroids pdf online @ kent.ac.uk

Astrophysics
Bodies of the Solar System

Rubble pile


, officially Izumo Ōyashiro, is one of the most ancient and important Shinto shrines in Japan.  No record gives the date of establishment. Located in Izumo, Shimane Prefecture, it is home to two major festivals. It is dedicated to the god , famous as the Shinto deity of marriage and to Kotoamatsukami, distinguishing heavenly kami. The shrine is believed by many to be the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan, even predating the Ise Grand Shrine.

A style of architecture, taisha-zukuri, takes its name from the main hall of Izumo-taisha. That hall, and the attached buildings, were designated National Treasures of Japan in 1952. According to tradition, the hall was previously much taller than at present. The discovery in the year 2000 of the remains of enormous pillars has lent credence to this.

The shrine has been rebuilt every 60 to 70 years to maintain the power of the kami and maintain architectural techniques. This regular rebuilding process is called "" (遷宮) and has long been practiced at a handful of important Shinto shrines, the Ise Grand Shrine being rebuilt every 20 years.

Several other buildings in the shrine compound are on the list of Important Cultural Properties of Japan.

Origins
According to the two oldest chronicles of Japan, the  and the , when Ninigi-no-Mikoto, grandson of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, descended from the heavens, the god Ōkuninushi granted his country to Ninigi-no-Mikoto. Amaterasu was much pleased by this action and she presented Izumo-taisha to Ōkuninushi.

At one time, the Japanese islands were controlled from Izumo, according to Shinto myths. Izumo, known as the realm of gods or the land of myths, is Izumo-taisha's province. Its main structure was originally constructed to glorify the great achievement of Ōkuninushi, considered the creator of Japan. Ōkuninushi was devoted to the building of the nation, in which he shared many joys and sorrows with the ancestors of the land. In addition to being the savior, Ōkuninushi is considered the guardian god and god of happiness, as well as the god who establishes good relationships.

According to the , the sun goddess Amaterasu said, "From now on, my descendants shall administer the affairs of state. You shall cast a spell of establishing good relationship over people to lead them a happy life. I will build your residence with colossal columns and thick and broad planks in the same architectural style as mine and name it Amenohisu-no-miya." The other gods were gathered and ordered by Amaterasu to build the grand palace at the foot of Mt. Uga.

There is no knowledge of exactly when Izumo-taisha was built, but a record compiled around 950 (Heian period) describes the shrine as the highest building, reaching approximately 48 meters, which exceeds in height the 45 meter-tall temple that enshrined the Great Image of Buddha, Tōdai-ji. This was due to early Shinto cosmology, when the people believed the gods (kami) were above the human world and belonged to the most extraordinary and majestic parts of nature. Therefore, Izumo-taisha could have been an attempt to create a place for the kami that would be above humans.

According to Kojiki, the legendary stories of old Japan, and Nihon Shoki, the chronicles of old Japan, Izumo-taisha was considered the largest wooden structure in Japan when it was originally constructed. Before being known as Izumo Ōyashiro or Izumo-taisha, the shrine was known as Okami-no-miya in Izumo, Itsukashinokami-no-miya, Kizuki-no-Oyashiro, Kizuki-no-miya, or Iwakumanoso-no-miya.

Evidence of the original Grand Shrine has been found. For example, part of one of the pillars for the structure was found: three cedar trees with a three-meter diameter at its base. It is on display at the shrine. Although there is not much early evidence one can see when visiting, there is a shop just before the main entrance that has a smaller scale model of the original main structure made by local college students.

History

During the Kamakura period, around 1200, the main structure was reduced in size. Then in 1744, the shrine was reconstructed to the present size of 24 meters high and 11 meters square at its base.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, as travel became more common in Japan, the shrine became a central place of pilgrimage.

Since the shrine spirit was settled in the inner shrine in 1744, it has been relocated three times for renovation of the inner shrine, using a traditional ceremony. The relocations took place in 1809, 1881, and 1953.

From 1871 through 1946, the Izumo-taisha was officially designated one of the , meaning that it stood in the first rank of government supported shrines.

In April 2008, the spirit was moved to temporary housing in the front shrine of Izumo-taisha in preparation for the Heisei-period renovations. Izumo-taisha's inner shrine was opened to the public for the first time in 60 years in the summer of 2008. On completion of the renovations, Ōkuninushi was returned to the inner shrine in a ceremony attended by over 8,000 people, held on May 11, 2013.

Architecture

The main structure of Izumo Oyashiro was built in the Taisha style, the oldest style of building shrines. An impressive sized gable-entrance structure is built for the main structure, which gave the name of The Great Shrine or The Grand Shrine. The main hall () bears an enormous chigi (scissor-shaped finials at the front and back ends of the roof). A Japanese architecture book states, "In plan, the present Main Shrine resembles that of the Daijoe Shoden, built for the accession of each new Emperor. The main shrine at Izumo is thought, therefore, to preserve a floor plan characteristic of ancient domestic architecture" (Nishi & Hozumi, 1985, p. 41). From the view of architectures, the original height of the main structure of Izumo Taisha makes it difficult to study the historical building styles and methods. However, what is known is that from the construction of a building as big as the main structure, major problems were presented. Because of this, structural and stylistic changes occurred each time the main structure was rebuilt, which caused the outer form to be less reflective of the original construction of the main structure. Although the outside of the structure changed with each reconstruction, the floor plan remained virtually unchanged. The layout consists of nine support pillars arranged so that the inside is divided into four sections and causes the entrance to be off-centered. A significant characteristic that is common among most shrines is the symmetrical design, making the main structure of Izumo-taisha peculiar for its asymmetrical floor plan. The main structure was built more like a home rather than a shrine which suggests that between the people and kami there was a less formal relationship than at other shrines.

Kagura-den

Izumo-taisha's  was first built in 1776 by the Senge family, Izumo no Kuni no Miyatsuko, or governor of Izumo, as a grand hall for performance of traditional rituals. It was rebuilt in 1981 to commemorate the centennial of the foundation of the Izumo Oyashiro-kyo order.

Traditional prayer by Izumo no Kuni no Miyatsuko, wedding ceremonies of believers, and the performances of sacred dance to ancient Japanese music involve the Oracle with 240 mats. Also worshipped with prayer is a frame with four dyed Kanji characters, meaning "the Oracle Filled with Aureole," by Prince Arisugawa above the altar.

The Kagura-den features the largest shimenawa (sacred straw rope) in Japan; it is 13.5 meters long and weighs around 5 tons. The rope is one of the most easily recognized and distinctive features of Izumo-taisha.

Shōkokan

The  consists of two floors. The first floor is the reception office for Kaguraden. The second floor consists of a museum for important items.

Some items in the museum are items designated as national treasure and important cultural assets, like jewelry, household articles, paintings, swords, and musical instruments.

Considered most important in Shōkokan are a set of Japan's oldest wooden pestle and an igniting board and a small boat that was hollowed out of a piece of wood. The small boat was believed to have come from the upper stream of the Yoshino River, through the Seto Inland Sea, and to the Inasa Beach near Izumo-taisha.

Festivals
Festivals or matsuri in Izumo are times when  people gather around the god to fulfill their wish to live a happy life. One of the most important in Izumo-taisha is the Imperial Festival held on May 14. Following the Imperial Festival is the Grand Festival on May 14 and 15.

Some other major festivals are January 1, Omike Festival; January 3, Fukumukae Festival; January 5, Beginning Sermon Festival; February 17, Kikoku (prayer for abundant crops) Festival; April 1, Kyoso Festival; June 1, Suzumidono Festival; and August 6–9 is Izumo Oyashiro-kyo Religion Festival.

In the tenth month of the traditional lunar calendar, a festival is held to welcome all the gods to Izumo Grand Shrine. It is believed that the gods convene at Izumo Shrine in October to discuss the coming year's marriages, deaths, and births. For this reason, people around the Izumo area call October kamiarizuki ("the month with gods"), but the rest of Japan calls October Kannazuki ("the month without gods").

Administrator's family
The descendants of , the second son of , the sun goddess whose first son is the ancestor of the imperial family, have been, in the name of  or governor of Izumo, taking over rituals because when Izumo-taisha was founded Amenohohi-no-mikoto rendered service to Okuninushi-no-kami. The family's conflict around 1340 made them separated into two lineages,  and .

After the separation those two families took the position of Izumo no Kuni no Miyatsuko by turns until the late 19th century. Shinto was reconstructed as modernized Japan's national religion in the late 19th century. In 1871, Izumo-taisha was designated as an Imperial-associated shrine and the government sent a new administrator so Izumo no Kuni no Miyatsuko families were no more the administrators of Izumo-taisha. Senge and Kitajima established their religious corporations respectively,  by Senge and  by Kitajima.

Under the Allied occupation after World War II, Shinto was separated from the government control and Izumo-taisha was reformed into a private shrine, then Senge and its Izumo-taisha-kyo took back the position of the administrator of Izumo-taisha. , the 83rd-generation Izumo no Kuni no Miyatsuko of Senge lineage, was chosen to be the chief priest of Izumo-taisha in 1947. He died in February 2002 at the age of 89.

Currently, the position of the administrator of Izumo-taisha is succeeded by Senge lineage. Its Izumo-taisha-kyo is better known nationwide and has more followers in total, " (1998/8)", but locally Kitajima lineage and its Izumo-kyo has more followers around Izumo region. Kitajima is the more orthodox Izumo no Kuni no Miyatsuko. " (1898)". On October 5, 2014, Kunimaro Senge, eldest son of the current administrator Takamasa Senge, married Princess Noriko at the shrine. Princess Noriko is a daughter of the late Prince Takamado, a cousin of the now-Emperor Emeritus of Japan.

Gallery

See also
List of National Treasures of Japan (crafts: others)
List of National Treasures of Japan (shrines)
Ōkuninushi
Ko-Shintō
Shinto shrine
Tourism in Japan
Izumo Taishakyo Mission of Hawaii

References

General references

 Ancient Izumo in the spotlight. (2007, February 26, p. 19). The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo), 1. Retrieved July 12, 2008, from the LexisNexis Academic database.
 Guide to Izumo Oyashiro. (n.d.). (Pamphlet available to visitors at the shrine)
 Izumo Shrine Find Points to Huge Ancient Building. (2000, April, p. 29). The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo), 1. Retrieved July 12, 2008, from the LexisNexis Academic database.
 Lucas, B. (2002, May 7). History and Symbolism in Shinto Shrine Architecture. Harvey Mudd College Web. Retrieved July 26, 2008
 Nishi, K., & Hozumi, K. (1985). What is Japanese Architecture?: A survey of traditional Japanese architecture, with a list of sites and a map. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
 Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959).  The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887
 Senge, chief priest of Izumo Shrine, dies at 89. (2002, April 18). Japan Economic Newswire. Retrieved July 28, 2008, from the LexisNexis Academic database.

External links

 Official Site (Japanese)
 Architecture of the Izumo Grand Shrine
 Heian-period discovery at Izumo

National Treasures of Japan
Shinto shrines in Shimane Prefecture
Izumo Province
Shinto
Beppyo shrines
Kanpei Taisha
Myōjin Taisha
Chokusaisha
Taisha-zukuri
Ichinomiya
Shimane Prefecture designated tangible cultural property
Izumo Shrine and Buddhism Sacred Sites

Izumo-taisha


A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water (drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petroleum), or gases (such as natural gas). It may also be part of a geotechnical investigation, environmental site assessment, mineral exploration, temperature measurement, as a pilot hole for installing piers or underground utilities, for geothermal installations, or for underground storage of unwanted substances, e.g. in carbon capture and storage.

Importance
Engineers and environmental consultants use the term borehole to collectively describe all of the various types of holes drilled as part of a geotechnical investigation or environmental site assessment (a so-called Phase II ESA). This includes holes advanced to collect soil samples, water samples or rock cores, to advance in situ sampling equipment, or to install monitoring wells or piezometers.  Samples collected from boreholes are often tested in a laboratory to determine their physical properties, or to assess levels of various chemical constituents or contaminants.

Typically, a borehole used as a water well is completed by installing a vertical pipe (casing) and well screen to keep the borehole from caving. This also helps prevent surface contaminants from entering the borehole and protects any installed pump from drawing in sand and sediment. Oil and natural gas wells are completed in a similar, albeit usually more complex, manner.

As detailed in proxy (climate), borehole temperature measurements at a series of different depths can be effectively "inverted" (a mathematical formula to solve a matrix equation) to help estimate historic surface temperatures.

Clusters of small-diameter boreholes equipped with heat exchangers made of plastic PEX pipe can be used to store heat or cold between opposing seasons in a mass of native rock. The technique is called seasonal thermal energy storage. Media that can be used for this technique ranges from gravel to bedrock. There can be a few to several hundred boreholes, and in practice, depths have ranged from 150 to 1000 feet.

History
Borehole drilling has a long history. By at least the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), the Chinese used deep borehole drilling for mining and other projects. The British sinologist and historian Michael Loewe states that borehole sites could reach as deep as 600 m (2000 ft). K.S. Tom describes the drilling process: "The Chinese method of deep drilling was accomplished by a team of men jumping on and off a beam to impact the drilling bit while the boring tool was rotated by buffalo and oxen." This was the same method used for extracting petroleum in California during the 1860s (i.e. "Kicking Her Down"). A Western Han Dynasty bronze foundry discovered in Xinglong, Hebei had nearby mining shafts which reached depths of 100 m (328 ft) with spacious mining areas; the shafts and rooms were complete with a timber frame, ladders and iron tools. By the first century BC, Chinese craftsmen cast iron drill bits and drillers were able to drill boreholes up to 4800 feet (1500 m) deep. By the eleventh century AD, the Chinese were able to drill boreholes up to 3000 feet in depth. Drilling for boreholes was time-consuming and long. As the depth of the holes varied, the drilling of a single well could last nearly one full decade. It wasn't up until the 19th century that Europe and the West would catch up and rival ancient Chinese borehole drilling technology.

For many years, the world's longest borehole was the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia. From 2011 until August 2012 the record was held by the  long Sakhalin-I Odoptu OP-11 Well, offshore the Russian island Sakhalin. The Chayvo Z-44 extended-reach well took the title of the world's longest borehole on 27 August 2012. Z-44's total measured depth is 12,376 m (40,604 ft). However, ERD wells are more shallow than the Kola Borehole, owing to a large horizontal displacement. In July 2023, China began drilling deep boreholes, one at the Sichuan Basin expected to reach 10,520 meters (34,514 feet) into the ground and the other at the Tarim Basin with a planned depth of 11,100 meters (36,417 feet).

Methodology

Drillers may sink a borehole using a drilling rig or a hand-operated rig. The machinery and techniques to advance a borehole vary considerably according to manufacturer, geological conditions, and the intended purpose. For offshore drilling floating units or platforms supported by the seafloor are used for the drilling rig.

Hand digging Methodology
Especially in developing countries many boreholes are stull dug by hand. The digging begins with manual labor using basic tools such as shovels, picks, and crowbars. Workers excavate the soil layer by layer, often using a circular motion to create a well-shaped hole. The process is slow and demanding, requiring teamwork and coordination. To prevent the walls from collapsing and to ensure water quality, the borehole is lined with materials like bricks, stones, or concrete rings. This reinforcement maintains the integrity of the borehole's structure and helps to prevent contamination. A concrete platform or slab may be installed at the bottom to prevent sediment from entering the water. The top of the borehole is capped to protect it from debris and contamination.

See also
 Askam Borehole in Pennsylvania
 Casing cutter
 Deep borehole disposal
 Hole opener
 Horizontal drillhole disposal
 Kola Superdeep Borehole
 Vertical seismic profile

References

External links

 Boreholes: Swiss Geological Survey

Chinese inventions
Drilling technology
Hole making

Borehole