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A torque motor is a specialized form of DC electric motor which can operate indefinitely while stalled, without incurring damage. In this mode of operation, the motor will apply a steady torque to the load (hence the name). A torque motor that cannot perform a complete rotation is known as a limited angle torque motor. Brushless torque motors are available; elimination of commutators and brushes allows higher speed operation. Construction Torque motors normally use toroidal construction. Their main differences from other similar motors are their wide diameter, to allow for high levels of torque, and their thermal performance, to allow their continuous operation while drawing high current in a stalled state.
Linear versions An analogous device, moving linearly rather than rotating, is described as a ''. These are widely used for refrigeration compressors and ultra-quiet air compressors, where the force motor produces simple harmonic motion in conjunction with a restoring spring. Applications Tape recorders A common application of a torque motor would be the supply- and take-up reel motors in a tape drive. In this application, driven from a low voltage, the characteristics of these motors allow a relatively constant light tension to be applied to the tape whether or not the capstan is feeding tape past the tape heads. Driven from a higher voltage, (and so delivering a higher torque), the torque motors can also achieve fast-forward and rewind operation without requiring any additional mechanics such as gears or clutches.
Computer games In the computer gaming world, torque motors are used in force feedback steering wheels. Throttle control Another common application is the control of the throttle of an internal combustion engine in conjunction with an electronic governor. In this usage, the motor works against a return spring to move the throttle in accordance with the output of the governor. The latter monitors engine speed by counting electrical pulses from the ignition system or from a magnetic pickup and, depending on the speed, makes small adjustments to the amount of current applied to the motor. If the engine starts to slow down relative to the desired speed, the current will be increased, the motor will develop more torque, pulling against the return spring and opening the throttle.
Should the engine run too fast, the governor will reduce the current being applied to the motor, causing the return spring to pull back and close the throttle. Actuators Torque motors can be used as actuators for direct drive mechanisms in some situations where otherwise geared electric motors would be used: for example, in motion control systems or servomechanisms. Actuators are hardware devices that converts the controller command signal into a change in a physical parameters. References External links https://www.machinedesign.com/motors-drives/article/21832523/torque-motors-do-the-trick overview article in trade journal https://www.kollmorgen.com/sites/default/files/public_downloads/Kollmorgen%20Inland%20Motor%20Direct%20Drive%20DC%20Motors%20Catalog%20EN.pdf Category:Electric motors Category:Actuators
Dorothy Ann Willis Richards (September 1, 1933 – September 13, 2006) was an American politician and 45th Governor of Texas (1991–95). A Democrat, she first came to national attention as the Texas State Treasurer, when she delivered the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Richards was the second female governor of Texas (the first being Miriam A. Ferguson) and was frequently noted in the media for her outspoken feminism and her one-liners. Born in McLennan County, Texas, Ann Richards became a schoolteacher after graduating from Baylor University. She won election to the Travis County Commissioners' Court in 1976 and took office as Texas State Treasurer in 1983.
She delivered a nominating speech for Walter Mondale at the 1984 Democratic National Convention and the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Richards won the 1990 Texas gubernatorial election, defeating Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox in a Democratic primary run-off election and businessman Clayton Williams in the general election. She was defeated in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election by George W. Bush. She remained active in public life until her death in 2006. To date, Richards remains the last Democrat to serve as Governor of Texas. Early life Richards was born Dorothy Ann Willis in Lakeview (now part of Lacy Lakeview), in McLennan County, Texas, the only child of Robert Cecil Willis and Mildred Iona Warren.
She grew up in Waco, participated in Girls State, and graduated from Waco High School in 1950. She attended Baylor University on a Debate team scholarship, and earned a bachelor's degree. After marrying high school sweetheart David "Dave" Richards, she moved to Austin, where she earned a teaching certificate from the University of Texas. David and Ann Richards had four children Cecile, Daniel, Clark, and Ellen. Richards taught social studies and history at Fulmore Junior High School in Austin from 1955 to 1956. She campaigned for Texas liberals and progressives such as Henry B. Gonzalez, Ralph Yarborough, and future U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes.
Political career Early political career By the 1970s, Richards was an accomplished political worker, having worked to elect liberal Democrats Sarah Weddington and Wilhelmina Delco to the Texas Legislature, and having presented training sessions throughout the state on campaign techniques for women candidates and managers. She supported ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, presenting the amendment to the delegates of the National Women's Conference, held in Houston in 1978, but the amendment was never ratified by enough states to become part of the Constitution. In 1976, Richards ran against and defeated a three-term incumbent on the four-member Travis County, Texas Commissioners' Court; she took 81.4 percent of the vote against Libertarian opponent Laurel Freeman to win re-election in 1980.
During this time, her marriage ended. Richards' drinking became more pronounced, and she sought and completed treatment for alcoholism in 1980. Richards and her ex-husband were virtually estranged after the divorce. State Treasurer After incumbent Texas State Treasurer Warren G. Harding (no relation to the U.S. president) became mired in legal troubles in 1982, Richards won the Democratic nomination for that post. Winning election against a Republican opponent in November that year, Richards became the first woman elected to statewide office in more than fifty years. In 1986, she was re-elected treasurer without opposition. Richards was a popular and proactive treasurer who worked to maximize the return of Texas state investments.
Richards said that when she took office, the Treasury Department was run something like a 1930s country bank, with deposits that didn't earn interest. At the 1984 Democratic National Convention, Richards delivered one of the nominating speeches for nominee Walter Mondale, and she campaigned actively for the Mondale/Ferraro ticket in Texas, even though President Ronald Reagan enjoyed great popularity in her state. 1988 Democratic National Convention Richards' keynote address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention put her in the national spotlight. The speech was highly critical of the Reagan Administration and then-Vice President George H. W. Bush. Her address was notable for including several humorous remarks displaying her down-home Texas charm such as: "I'm delighted to be here with you this evening, because after listening to George Bush all these years, I figured you needed to know what a real Texas accent sounds like", "Poor George, he can't help it.
He was born with a silver foot in his mouth", "…two women in 160 years is about par for the course. But if you give us a chance, we can perform. After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels." and "When we pay billions for planes that won't fly, billions for tanks that won't fire, and billions for systems that won't work, that old dog won't hunt. And you don't have to be from Waco to know that when the Pentagon makes crooks rich and doesn't make America strong, that it's a bum deal."
Richards' convention address has been cited by rhetorical experts as a historically significant speech. The speech set the tone for her political future. In 1989, with co-author Peter Knobler, she wrote her autobiography, Straight from the Heart: My Life in Politics and Other Places. Governor (1991-1995) In 1990, Texas' Republican governor, Bill Clements, decided not to run for re-election to a third nonconsecutive term. Richards painted herself as a sensible progressive, and won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination against Attorney General (and former U.S. representative) Jim Mattox of Dallas and former Governor Mark White of Houston. Mattox ran a particularly abrasive campaign against Richards, accusing her of having had drug problems beyond alcoholism.
The Republicans nominated colorful multi-millionaire rancher Clayton W. Williams, Jr., of Fort Stockton and Midland. Republican political activist Susan Weddington of San Antonio, a Williams supporter, placed a black wreath that read "Death to the Family" at the door of Richards's campaign headquarters in Austin. After a series of legendary gaffes by Williams (most notably a joke about the crime of rape), Richards narrowly won on November 6, 1990, by a margin of 49-47 percent. Libertarian Party candidate Jeff Daiell drew 3.3 percent in an effort that included television spots and considerable personal campaigning. Richards was inaugurated governor the following January.
Although officially she was the second woman to hold Texas's top office, Richards is considered the first woman elected governor of Texas in her own right, since twice-elected Miriam "Ma" Ferguson is often discounted as having been a proxy for impeached governor James E. "Pa" Ferguson, her husband. The economy of Texas had been in a slump since the mid-1980s, compounded by a downturn in the U.S. economy. Richards responded with a program of economic revitalization, yielding growth in 1991 of 2 percent when the U.S. economy as a whole shrank. Richards also attempted to streamline Texas's government and regulatory institutions for business and the public; her efforts in the former tried but failed to help revitalize Texas's corporate infrastructure for its explosive economic growth later in the decade, and her audits on the state bureaucracy saved $600 million.
As governor, Richards reformed the Texas prison system, establishing a substance abuse program for inmates, reducing the number of violent offenders released, and increasing prison space to deal with a growing prison population (from less than 60,000 in 1992 to more than 80,000 in 1994). She backed proposals to reduce the sale of semi-automatic firearms and "cop-killer" bullets in the state. She signed into law the amendment of the Texas Financial Responsibility Law where renewal of a motor vehicle's registration (also covers initial registration of a motor vehicle), safety inspection sticker, driver's license, and/or obtaining new license plates require that a motorist must have a valid auto insurance policy.
The law, which passed on September 1, 1991, broadens the 1982 law where a police officer will request a driver's license and proof of insurance during a traffic stop. She appointed then State Representative Lena Guerrero of Austin to a vacancy on the Texas Railroad Commission. The Hispanic Guerrero (1957–2008) was the first non-Anglo to serve on the commission in history. However, problems over falsification of her resume led to her resignation from the commission and defeat by the Republican Barry Williamson in the 1992 general election. The Texas Lottery was also instituted during her governorship—advocated as a means of supplementing school finances; Richards purchased the first lottery ticket on May 29, 1992, in Oak Hill, near Austin.
School finance remained one of the key issues of Richards' governorship and of those succeeding hers; the famous Robin Hood plan was launched in the 1992–1993 biennium and attempted to make school funding more equitable across school districts. Richards also sought to decentralize control over education policy to districts and individual campuses; she instituted "site-based management" to this end. In 1993, Richards signed into law the re-codified Texas Penal Code which included anti-homosexual Section 21.06, the state's "Homosexual Conduct" law which states: "(a) A person commits an offense if he engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.
(b) An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.". In 1990, Richards had campaigned in Houston to repeal the law. But, as governor, her signature criminalized same-sex sexual relations in Texas. Despite outspending the Bush campaign by 23%, she was defeated in 1994 by George W. Bush, with 45.88% of the vote to Bush's 53.48% while Libertarian Keary Ehlers received 0.64%. The Richards campaign had hoped for a misstep from the relatively inexperienced Republican candidate, but none appeared, while Richards created many of her own, including calling Bush "some jerk", "shrub" and "that young Bush boy". Governor Richards redefined feminine leadership and oratory style.
She blended traditionally feminine traits such as nurturing and relationship building with traditionally masculine traits such as assertiveness and speaking directly and with candor. She was an inspiration to female voters and commanded the attention of male voters. Governor Richards successfully navigated the cutting edge that divides being "too masculine" and not being "too feminine.” Her ability to speak her mind with a refusal to be a soft voice in the background commanded the attention of not only voters, but also lawmakers allowing her to be an agent of change in Texas government. Post-governorship Richards was defeated in the 1994 Republican landslide that also unseated New York Governor Mario Cuomo and brought a Republican majority to the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.
Richards and Cuomo appeared in a series of humorous television commercials for the snack food Doritos shortly afterward, in which they discussed the "sweeping changes" occurring. The changes they are discussing turn out to be the new Doritos packaging. Beginning in 2001, Richards was a senior advisor to the communications firm Public Strategies, Inc. in Austin and New York. From 1995 to 2001, Richards was also a senior advisor with Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, a Washington, D.C.-based international law firm. Richards sat on the boards of the Aspen Institute, J.C. Penney, and T.I.G. Holdings. One of her daughters, Cecile Richards, became president of Planned Parenthood in 2006.
Ann Richards demonstrated interest in social causes such as equality, abortion, and women's rights. She was a tireless campaigner for Democratic candidates throughout the United States. In the 2004 presidential election, Richards endorsed Howard Dean for the Democratic nomination, and campaigned on his behalf. Richards later stumped for Democratic nominee John Kerry, highlighting the issues of health care and women's rights. Some political pundits mentioned her as a potential running mate to Kerry; however, she did not make his list of top finalists, and he selected North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Richards said that she was "not interested" in a political comeback.
Teaching Richards taught social studies and history at Fulmore Junior High School in Austin (1954–1957). She continued teaching in later years. She served at Brandeis University as the Fred and Rita Richman Distinguished Visiting Professor of Politics from 1997 to 1998. In 1998 she was elected as a trustee of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, she was reelected in 2004, and continued to hold the position until her death. Richards was diagnosed with osteoporosis in 1996, having lost  inch in height and broken her hand and ankle. She changed her diet and lifestyle, and then her bone density stabilized. She spoke frequently about this experience, teaching or advocating a healthier lifestyle for women at risk of the disease.
In 2004, she authored I'm Not Slowing Down, with the gynaecologist Richard U. Levine, which describes her own battle with osteoporosis and offers guidance to others with the disease. In Steve Labinski's review, he described the book as inspiring women to fight the disease with various tactics, such as: identifying factors that might increase vulnerability to osteoporosis including lack of estrogen, menopause, and usage of drugs related to caffeine, tobacco and alcohol; emphasizing the impact of bone-density tests and explaining the process using Ann Richard's own bone test as an example; supplying an extensive list of calcium-enriched foods which are beneficial, plus noting some foods to avoid; listing everyday tips to improve muscle condition and prevent bone injuries.
Labinski also noted that in the mission to help women overcome osteoporosis, Richards had created a useful, and often humorous, book that would inspire many. In the fall of 2005, Richards taught a class called "Women and Leadership" at the University of Texas at Austin; 21 female students were selected for that class. Arts and film One of her first legislative requests was to move the Texas Music Office (created in 1990 during the administration of Governor Bill Clements) and the Texas Film Commission (created in 1971 during Governor Preston Smith's term) from the Texas Department of Commerce to the Office of the Governor.
Her longtime personal interest in Texas film and music greatly raised the public profile of both industries and brought the two programs into the Governor's Office. As a result, these industries were institutionalized as key high-profile parts of Texas' future economic growth plans. Other of her music milestones include publishing the first "Texas Music Industry Directory" (1991) and her "Welcome to Texas" speech to the opening day registrants of the 1993 South By Southwest Music and Media Conference. She was involved with the Texas Film Hall of Fame from the beginning. At the first ceremony, she inducted Liz Smith. She was emcee every subsequent year but had to cancel at the last minute in 2006 because of her diagnosis with cancer.
Richards said, "I've been a friend to Texas film since the number of people who cared about Texas film could have fit in a phone booth." She was an advocate for the Texas film industry and traveled to Los Angeles to market her state. Gary Bond, the director of the Austin Film Commission, noted, "She was far from being the first governor to appoint a film commissioner; I think she was the first that really brought the focus of Hollywood to Texas." She was also a mentor to other women. She advised Rebecca Campbell, executive director of the Austin Film Society, "Whenever you speak in public you've got to tell them what you need from them."
She put the spotlight on film as a genuine industry, brought more focus to Texas, and had a tremendous network of people in the entertainment industry. She gave more focus to film as a business than had been done before. She was interviewed in the 1996 Ken Burns documentary series The West about the history of Texas and the United States in the 1800s. In the film she claims that the colonization of the United States required genocide and dispossession, "But even knowing all of that. And wishing that part of it were not there, cannot take away the spirit and idealism and the excitement that people (settlers) felt that actually did it and that we still feel when we think about them doing it."
Richards also appeared in a 2009 documentary film, Sam Houston: American Statesman, Soldier, and Pioneer. It is believed that her last appearance in film was in a short public announcement used at the Alamo Drafthouse, asking patrons not to be disruptive during the film. The Alamo Drafthouse still uses it today, with an addition at the end in honor of Ann Richards. Richards was active in the Austin City Limits Festivals, and the SXSW festival: the interactive, music, and film festival, held each year in Austin.
Awards and recognitions During her career, Ann Richards received many awards and honors including: Baylor Distinguished Alumna, the Texas NAACP Presidential Award for Outstanding Contributions to Civil Rights, the National Wildlife Federation Conservation Achievement Award, the Orden del Aguila Azteca (Order of the Aztec Eagle) presented by the government of Mexico, the Maurice N. Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award from the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and the Texas Women's Hall of Fame honoree for Public Service. Final years and death While the events of 9/11 motivated many New Yorkers to leave the city, Liz Smith wrote that it drove the former governor to that city in which she would spend the last five years of her life.
In March 2006, Richards disclosed that she had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and received treatment at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Alcohol and tobacco exposure are major risk factors for certain types of esophageal cancer; Richards had "admitted to heavy drinking and smoking in her younger years, saying she 'smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish.'" She died from cancer on the night of September 13, 2006, at her home in Austin, surrounded by her family. Her remains are interred at Texas State Cemetery in Austin. She was survived by her four children, their spouses, and eight grandchildren.
Three memorial services were held. Legacy On November 16, 2006, the City of Austin changed the official name of Congress Avenue Bridge (which opened in 1910) to "Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge". Her 1988 DNC keynote address was listed as #38 in American Rhetoric's Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century (listed by rank). The Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders in Austin, Texas, which Ann Richards helped to create, is named for her. The Ann Richards School, a college preparatory school for girls in grades 6-12, opened in the fall of 2007 in Austin, and continues to celebrate the life and legacy of Governor Richards.
She also inaugurated a school in the year 1999 named Ann Richards Middle School in Palmview, Texas. A tribute to Richards was featured during the "HerStory" video tribute to notable women on U2's tour in 2017 for the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree during a performance of "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" from the band's 1991 album Achtung Baby. In popular culture In 2001, Richards guest starred as herself in a fifth-season episode of the Texas-based animated TV series King of the Hill. In the episode entitled "Hank and the Great Glass Elevator", she gets mooned by Hank Hill and then enters into a brief relationship with Bill Dauterive.
She is also seen in the closing credits of King of the Hill Season 1 Episode 4, playing tether ball with Willie Nelson's roadie. Richards made a voice cameo in Disney's 2004 animated film Home on the Range, where she voiced a saloon owner named Annie. Richards was a topic in the film Bush's Brain (by Joseph Mealey and Michael Shoob), in a long segment regarding her defeat in the 1994 election for Texas governor. The film presents the case that the defeat of Richards involved a whisper campaign that the governor (mother of four children) was a lesbian because she had allegedly hired many gays and lesbians to work on her re-election campaign.
In the 2008 Oliver Stone film W., Richards is mentioned during George Bush's campaign as "Ms. Big Mouth, Big Hair". Richards was one of the characters portrayed by Anna Deavere Smith in her play, Let Me Down Easy, which explores the meaning of the word "grace." The show opened in 2008, played in cities around the country, and was featured as part of PBS's Great Performances series on January 13, 2012. In 2010, actress Holland Taylor debuted in a one-woman show called "Ann: An Affectionate Portrait of Ann Richards" at the Charline McCombs Empire Theater in San Antonio, Texas. The show was subsequently staged at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York City's Lincoln Center in 2013.
Taylor said of her subject, "She was brave, strong, and funny—Bill Clinton has said the wittiest person he'd ever met!...She ran as a liberal in conservative Texas, so I had to write a play about her four incredible years in Austin.... She was ahead of Obama by about 10 years as an 'inclusive' leader." In 2012 a documentary about her political life, Ann Richards' Texas, was released. On April 28, 2014, HBO released a documentary, All About Ann: Governor Richards of the Lone Star State. Videos Richards's inauguration from January 15, 1991 Inaugural Parade Part I Inaugural Parade Part II Electoral history Notes References Ann Richards, Richard U. Levine, I'm Not Slowing Down; Winning My Battle With Osteoporosis, publisher: Plume, July 27, 2004, Paperback, 208 pages, .
Ann Richards, Richard U. Levine, I'm Not Slowing Down; Winning My Battle With Osteoporosis, publisher: E.P. Dutton, August 7, 2003, Hardcover, 256 pages, . Ann Richards, Peter Knobler, Straight from the Heart: My Life in Politics and Other Places, publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York, 1989, Hardcover, 256 pages, illustrated with 14 black & white photographs, . External links Texas State Library: Governors of Texas Ann Richards' 1988 Democratic Convention Keynote Address 1995 Commencement speech, Mount Holyoke College 2002–2003 Fiscal Size-up (PDF) by the Texas Legislative Budget Board Remembering Ann Richards by Molly Ivins TX Governor Race-November 8, 1994 TX Governor Race-November 6, 1990 TX Governor Democratic Primary Runoff Race-April 10, 1990 TX Governor Democratic Primary Race-March 13, 1990 TX State Treasurer Race-November 4, 1986 TX State Treasurer Race-November 2, 1982 A Conversation with Ann Richards - January 22, 2003, The Texas Politics Project, University of Texas at Austin.
|- |- |- |- Category:1933 births Category:2006 deaths Category:20th-century American politicians Category:20th-century American women politicians Category:American Methodists Category:Baylor University alumni Category:Burials at Texas State Cemetery Category:County commissioners in Texas Category:Deaths from cancer in Texas Category:Deaths from esophageal cancer Category:Democratic Party state governors of the United States Category:Governors of Texas Category:People from Austin, Texas Category:People from Waco, Texas Category:Recipients of the Order of the Aztec Eagle Category:State treasurers of Texas Category:Texas Democrats Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni Category:Women in Texas politics Category:Women state governors of the United States Category:Waco High School alumni
The Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) is a large, state-run facility in California, United States, serving the needs of people with developmental disabilities. It is located in Eldridge in Sonoma County. History It opened at its current location on November 24, 1891, though it had existed at previous locations in Vallejo and Santa Clara since 1884. The facility's current name dates from 1986. Former names include: California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble Minded Children (1883) Sonoma State Home (1909) Sonoma State Hospital (1953) Sonoma Developmental Center (1986) History: 1883 - First home opened at White Sulphur Springs near Vallejo.
1884 - Fasking Park, Alameda County. 1885-1891 - The Home was located in Santa Clara, California, near the intersection of Market and Washington Street. 1891 - A new site for the Home was purchased from former State Senator William Hill for $51,000. Two railroads ran through the site until World War II. The superintendent was Dr. Antrim Edgar Osborn. Superintendents 1891- Antrim Edgar Osborn, M.D. 1900 - William. P. Lawlor, M.D. 1903 - W. J. G. Dawson, M.D. 1919 - Frederick Otis Butler, M.D. 1949 - M.E.Porter, M.D. 1918 - A Spanish influenza epidemic killed dozens of inmates. Dr. Lawlor was also killed.
The Home had primarily four types of residents: the mentally handicapped, the epileptic, the physically disabled, and the "psychopathic delinquent." From almost the start, the Home was overcrowded. In 2000 the main building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Closure and reuse plan In 2015, the State announced the closure of SDC by the end of 2018. This meant the relocation of more than 300 residents, and the development of a reuse plan for the property. The October 2017 Nuns Fire had a dramatic impact on SDC, necessitating a mandatory evacuation of hundreds of residents and staff, and burning the eastern third of the property along California State Route 12.
The main area of SDC withstood the fires, and the remaining residents all moved back in; however, the fire forced a major interruption of the State's site assessment process. In May 2017, the State hired Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT) to provide architectural and engineering services to prepare “a comprehensive existing conditions study and an opportunities and constraints summary and analysis for SDC.” The State incorporated a strong community engagement plan as part of the WRT contract. In order to ensure that the site assessment was based on the best available data—and that the analysis is designed to answer the most pressing concerns of the local community—WRT created an SDC Community Advisory Committee (CAC).
This Committee is composed of a broad range of local stakeholders, and its purpose is “to provide comments to the WRT team on the Site Assessment findings and to offer input regarding the opportunities and constraints for the SDC site.” The first meeting of the CAC was September 28, 2017. Ten days later, the fires raged through the North Bay, and WRT's goal of producing its reports and holding a series of community meetings by the end of 2017 was lost in the tumult of wildlife disaster response. After a three-month delay, CAC scheduled a meeting with WRT on March 22, 2018.
After the cancelled September CAC meeting, WRT had planned to finish the site assessment, presenting the findings one more time to the CAC, and then holding a public meeting in Sonoma where the whole community would be briefed on this critical information. According to the new timeline, after the CAC meets in March, the public meeting is likely to happen in mid-April. Research resources The State Archive in Sacramento have extensive holdings on the early history of the Home. Including patient registers, photographs, maps, and records. The Gosney Archive at Caltech in Pasadena, CA contains information about sterilization from the 1920s.
The SDC does have some historical resources, but these are not open to the general public. Scholarly Fictional works The Center provided the setting for Jack London's short story Told in the Drooling Ward (1914). Downloadable version of Jack London's short story Told in the Drooling Ward (1914) with an introduction by Ed Davis The book In All Things: A Return to the Drooling Ward is a fictionalized account based on the author's experiences while training as a psychiatric technician at the former hospital.
See also Lake Suttonfield National Register of Historic Places listings in Sonoma County, California Eugenics Unethical human experimentation in the United States SDC Closing Ceremony hosted by Ed Davis, retrieved November 19, 2018 References External links California Department of Developmental Services Category:Buildings and structures in Sonoma County, California Category:History of Sonoma County, California Category:Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California Category:National Register of Historic Places in Sonoma County, California Category:Healthcare in the San Francisco Bay Area
SMA* or Simplified Memory Bounded A* is a shortest path algorithm based on the A* algorithm. The main advantage of SMA* is that it uses a bounded memory, while the A* algorithm might need exponential memory. All other characteristics of SMA* are inherited from A*. Process Like A*, it expands the most promising branches according to the heuristic. What sets SMA* apart is that it prunes nodes whose expansion has revealed less promising than expected. The approach allows the algorithm to explore branches and backtrack to explore other branches. Expansion and pruning of nodes is driven by keeping two values of for every node.
Node stores a value which estimates the cost of reaching the goal by taking a path through that node. The lower the value, the higher the priority. As in A* this value is initialized to , but will then be updated to reflect changes to this estimate when its children are expanded. A fully expanded node will have an value at least as high as that of its successors. In addition, the node stores the value of the best forgotten successor. This value is restored if the forgotten successor is revealed to be the most promising successor. Starting with the first node, it maintains OPEN, ordered lexicographically by and depth.
When choosing a node to expand, it chooses the best according to that order. When selecting a node to prune, it chooses the worst.
Properties SMA* has the following properties It works with a heuristic, just as A* It is complete if the allowed memory is high enough to store the shallowest solution It is optimal if the allowed memory is high enough to store the shallowest optimal solution, otherwise it will return the best solution that fits in the allowed memory It avoids repeated states as long as the memory bound allows it It will use all memory available Enlarging the memory bound of the algorithm will only speed up the calculation When enough memory is available to contain the entire search tree, then calculation has an optimal speed Implementation The implementation of SMA* is very similar to the one of A*, the only difference is that when there isn't any space left, nodes with the highest f-cost are pruned from the queue.
Because those nodes are deleted, the SMA* also has to remember the f-cost of the best forgotten child with the parent node. When it seems that all explored paths are worse than such a forgotten path, the path is re-generated.
Pseudo code: function SMA-star(problem): path queue: set of nodes, ordered by f-cost; begin queue.insert(problem.root-node); while True do begin if queue.empty() then return failure; //there is no solution that fits in the given memory node := queue.begin(); // min-f-cost-node if problem.is-goal(node) then return success; s := next-successor(node) if !problem.is-goal(s) && depth(s) == max_depth then f(s) := inf; // there is no memory left to go past s, so the entire path is useless else f(s) := max(f(node), g(s) + h(s)); // f-value of the successor is the maximum of // f-value of the parent and // heuristic of the successor + path length to the successor endif if no more successors then update f-cost of node and those of its ancestors if needed if node.successors ⊆ queue then queue.remove(node); // all children have already been added to the queue via a shorter way if memory is full then begin badNode := shallowest node with highest f-cost; for parent in badNode.parents do begin parent.successors.remove(badNode); if needed then queue.insert(parent); endfor endif queue.insert(s); endwhile end References Category:Graph algorithms Category:Routing algorithms Category:Search algorithms Category:Game artificial intelligence Category:Articles with example pseudocode
New York City's waste management system is a refuse removal system largely run by the New York City Department of Sanitation who maintain the waste collection infrastructure and hire the public and private contractors who dispose of 10,000s of pounds a day of waste created by New York City's population of more than eight million. History Waste management Waste management has been an issue for New York City since it's New Amsterdam days. “It has been found, that within this City of Amsterdam in New Netherland many burghers and inhabitants throw their rubbish, filth, ashes, dead animals and suchlike things into the public streets to the great inconvenience of the community" reads a New Amsterdam ordinance dated February 20, 1657.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, New York residents were encouraged to throw their trash into the East River to shore up low-lying sections of Lower Manhattan. In the 1950s and 60s, city planner Robert Moses encouraged residents to dump their trash to fill numerous swamps and rivers around the city to make them more hospitable to development for parkland, fairgrounds, and airports. Landfills At the height of its use, Staten Island’s Fresh Kills landfill was the largest dump in the world, sprawling across 2,200 acres. Fresh Kills first opened as a temporary landfill and closed in 2001. Starting in the late 20th century, NYC is making an effort to turn old landfill sites into parks.
Notable examples of this are Freshkills Park in Staten Island and Shirley Chisholm State Park in Brooklyn. Most of NYC’s waste ends up in landfills outside of the city. In 2017, the DSNY disposed of 3.2 million tons of refuse to facilities outside of New York City. Trash incineration In 1885, New York City opened the nation’s first trash incinerator on Governor’s Island. All the way up to the 1960s, 11 unfiltered trash incinerators operated in NYC, burning garbage without regulation. Street cleaning In the late 1800s, New York City implemented a street cleaning program that picked-up after the large amounts of litter in the streets, as well as; cleaning up after the horse-powered transportation that transported the city.
Recycling in New York City New York City began recycling in the late 1980s. Canning New York City is a hotbed of canning activity largely due to the city's high population density mixed with New York state's current deposit laws. Canning remains a contentious issue in NYC with the canners often facing pushback from the city government, the New York City Department of Sanitation, and other recycling collection companies. Sure We Can, a redemption center co-founded by nun Ana Martinez de Luco, is the only canner friendly redemption center in the city, providing lockers and communal space for the canners to sort their collections of redeemables.
Ongoing waste management issues in New York City As of 2020, excessive littering remains an issue in all boroughs of NYC, especially Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. References Category:Environmental issues in New York City Category:Environmental justice in New York City Category:Waste management infrastructure of New York City Category:Recycling in New York City
Yang Yang (, born 9 September 1991) is a Chinese actor. He made his acting debut in the Chinese television drama The Dream of Red Mansions (2010). Since then, he has received recognition for his roles in television dramas The Lost Tomb (2015), The Whirlwind Girl (2015), Love O2O (2016), Martial Universe (2018), The King's Avatar (2019) and films The Left Ear (2015), I Belonged to You (2016), Once Upon a Time (2017). He was ranked fifth on the 2017 Forbes China Celebrity 100 list, and 27th in 2019. Early life At age 11, Yang was enrolled in the Department of Dance in People's Liberation Army Arts College in China.
He also has studied at the Central Academy of Drama for a period of time. Career 2007–2014: Beginning In December 2007, he was chosen to play the lead role Jia Baoyu by director Li Shaohong in The Dream of Red Mansions. One of the most expensive Chinese TV series produced at RMB118 million (US$17.55 million), the 50-episode drama premiered on July 6, 2010. In 2011, Yang featured in The Founding of a Party, a patriotic tribute detailing the process of establishing the Communist Party of China. He continued to build up his filmography, featuring in war dramas The War Doesn't Believe in Tears (2012) and Ultimate Conquest (2013), and romance series Flowers of Pinellia Ternata (2013).
On April 29, 2014, Yang ended his contract of 7 years with his company Rosat Entertainment. 2015–2016: Rising popularity and breakthrough In 2015, Yang started to gain recognition for his performance in The Left Ear, a coming-of-age film which is also the directorial debut of Alec Su. The film was a box-office hit, and Yang received positive for his performance as Xu Yi. He then participated in travel-reality show Divas Hit the Road, which was a huge topic online when it aired and helped Yang top the "2015 Chinese Reality Show Star Ranking". He next starred in action-adventure web-drama The Lost Tomb based on the novel of the same name.
The Lost Tomb was the most watched web drama of the year, and Yang gained acclaim from novel fans and audience for his portrayal of Zhang Qiling. Yang then played the male lead in youth sports drama The Whirlwind Girl, which gained one of the highest viewership ratings of the year. He also released his first single, "Tender Love". At the end of the year, Yang won several awards including the Most Popular TV Actor of the Year at iQiyi All-Star Carnival Night 2016; and the Most Anticipated Actor and Most Influential Actor awards at the China TV Drama Awards.
In 2016, Yang appeared in CCTV New Year's Gala for the first time, where his song item "Father and Son" alongside Tong Tiexin was voted the most popular program. He starred in youth romance drama Love O2O, based on Gu Man's novel of the same name. The drama was an international hit, and is the most viewed modern drama in China. Following the airing of Love O2O, Yang experienced a huge surge in popularity and successfully broke into the mainstream. To thank his fans, Yang released the song "Love is Crazy", a jazz/rock single. He next starred in romance film I Belonged to You, which was a huge success and broke the box-office sales record for mainland-produced romance films.
He was named as one of the Top 10 Chinese celebrities with most commercial value by CBN Weekly. 2017–present: Continued success In 2017, Yang starred alongside Liu Yifei in romantic fantasy film Once Upon a Time. In 2018, Yang starred in the fantasy action drama Martial Universe. Forbes China listed Yang under their 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 list which consisted of 30 influential people under 30 years old who have had a substantial effect in their fields. In 2019, Yang played the leading role Ye Xiu in the eSports drama The King's Avatar. In 2020, Yang starred in disaster film Vanguard alongside Jackie Chan.
The same year he is set to star in the military drama Glory of the Special Forces directed by Xu Jizhou. Other activities In January 2016, Yang became the first artist to be featured on the China Post postage stamp. On February 19, 2017, Yang had his wax figure of himself displayed at Madam Tussauds Shanghai. His second wax figure was displayed at Madame Tussauds Beijing on July 19, 2017. Filmography Film Television series Short film Variety show Music videos Theatre Discography Singles Awards and nominations References External links Category:1991 births Category:Living people Category:Male actors from Shanghai Category:21st-century Chinese male actors Category:Chinese male film actors Category:Chinese male television actors Category:People's Liberation Army Arts College alumni
Sex comedy or more broadly sexual comedy is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sex comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary works such as those of Ovid and Chaucer may be considered sex comedies. Sex comedy was popular in 17th century English Restoration theatre. From 1953 to 1965, Hollywood released a number of sex comedies, some featuring stars such as Doris Day, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. The United Kingdom released a spate of sex comedies in the 1970s notably the Carry On series.
Hollywood released Animal House in 1978, which was followed by a long line of teen sex comedies in the early 1980s, e.g. Porky's, Bachelor Party and Risky Business. Other countries with a significant sex comedy film production include Brazil (pornochanchada), Italy (commedia sexy all'italiana) and Mexico (sexicomedias). Antiquity Although the ancient Greek theatre genre of the satyr play contained farcical sex, perhaps the best-known ancient comedy motivated by sexual gamesmanship is Aristophanes' Lysistrata (411 BC), in which the title character persuades her fellow women of Greece to protest the Peloponnesian War by withholding sex. The "boy-meets-girl" plot that is distinctive of Western sexual comedy can be traced to Menander (343–291 BC), who differs from Aristophanes in focusing on the courtship and marital dilemmas of the middle classes rather than social and political satire.
His successor Plautus, the Roman playwright whose comedies inspired the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, regularly based his plots on sexual situations. The popularity of Plautus's comedies was a major influence on the creation of situation sex comedy. Restoration sex comedy During the decade 1672–82, sex comedy such as The Country Wife (1675) flourished as part of the revival of theatre in England resulting from the Restoration. Forerunners of the craze were John Dryden's An Evening's Love (1668) and Thomas Betterton's The Amorous Widow (ca. 1670). Sexual content was favored by the presence of female performers, in contrast to the drag performances of the Elizabethan stage.
The main character was often a self-important rake or libertine, posturing heroically. Adultery was a major theme, and the couple is sometimes found in flagrante delicto, represented by the stage direction "in disorder." The plays are often characterized by sexually charged banter, "swaggering masculine energy," and a superficially innocent heroine who is nonetheless alluring. This theatrical milieu produced the first woman of the Western tradition who made her living as playwright, Aphra Behn (The Rover). Sex comedy embraces a realm of drama in which women can be contenders. The war is fought with glances and flirtations, wit and beauty, manipulation and desire.
And in this battle, women often win—even if the victory is sometimes equivocal. Presenting seduction and adultery as funny eased moral anxieties that might otherwise have attached to these themes. It is an open question as to whether the plays portraying libertinism endorse the lifestyle, or hold it up to satire and criticism. After the main vogue of Restoration sex comedy, William Congreve revived and reinvented the form, and bawdy comedy remained popular into the 18th century. Modern sex comedy American sex comedy Film historian Tamar Jeffers McDonald highlights the period 1953 to 1965 as an era where sex comedy came to be the main form of romantic comedy in Hollywood.
She claims that 1953 was a key year as the producers of the film The Moon Is Blue challenged the Motion Picture Production Code rules against using the word 'virgin', Hugh Hefner introduced Playboy magazine, and sexologist Alfred Kinsey drew attention to the way women were having sex before marriage. In the movies, playboys played by actors such as Rock Hudson or Tony Curtis would try to bed marriage-minded women played by actresses such as Doris Day or Marilyn Monroe, and the central question would seem to be "will she or won't she? ", but in the end, the man would fall for the "girl", and sometimes agree to marry her.
Notable sex comedies in this period were Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Pillow Talk, Irma La Douce, The Seven Year Itch, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Lover Come Back. According to McDonald, by 1965, the sexual revolution was under way, so "will she or won't she?" could no longer serve as the central dynamic, and filmmakers moved on to different topics. In 1978, National Lampoon's Animal House success led to a string of raunchy gross-out and sex comedies in the late 1970s and early to mid 1980s. Animal House featured many scenes that would become iconic and often parodied, such as the scene where John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi) acts as a "peeping tom" to spy on a half-naked pillow fight at a sorority.
In 1981, the film Porky's cemented the wide appeal of the sex comedy. Although it would go on to become the fifth highest-grossing film of the year, it proved to be unpopular with critics, with many accusing it of being degrading to women as well as objectifying of them. The film would lead to three sequels and is credited by many as the start of the "teen" subgenre of the sex comedy. Other sex comedies during this period include the first two Meatballs sequels, Screwballs, Revenge of the Nerds, Spring Break, Bachelor Party, and Hardbodies. Although not widely considered a "sex comedy," the 1998 critical and financial hit There's Something About Mary has many moments that have entered the pop culture lexicon, particularly the infamous scene in which Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller), following a scene of vigorous masturbation, discovers that his semen is hanging off of his ear.
Mary (Cameron Diaz), mistaking it for hair gel, nonchalantly grabs it and runs it through her hair. A year later, the film American Pie was credited with reviving the "teen sex comedy" subgenre. In the film, a group of high schoolers make a pact to lose their virginity before they graduate. The film's most famous scene (which also provides its namesake) involves one of the high schoolers, Jim (Jason Biggs), having intercourse with a fresh apple pie after being told by a friend that it is similar to "getting to third base." The film spawned numerous sequels and spin-off films, all with varying degrees of financial and critical success, and kicked off a second wave of American sex comedy in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
A third wave of American sex comedy emerged in the mid to late 2000s and into the early 2010s with a string of successful sex comedy films by Judd Apatow and his associates. Apatow's 2005 directorial debut The 40-Year-Old Virgin follows Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) as he struggles with the pressures of reaching the age of 40 without ever having "done the deed." Although the film featured crude sexual humor, it was critically praised for balancing it with an underlying romantic message. Much of the film centers on the attempts of Andy's co-workers to help him lose his virginity, but it is suggested throughout that they know just as little (or possibly less) than Andy about sex, relationships, and what can make a person happy.
British sex comedy According to David McGillivray in his history of the British sex film, Doing Rude Things, Mary Had a Little... (1961) was the first British sex comedy. Bridging the gap between documentary nudist films and the later sex comedies was the film The Naked World of Harrison Marks (1965). George Harrison Marks' love of music hall and slapstick found its way into this spoof documentary biopic. Norman Wisdom's last starring role, What's Good for the Goose (1969), was a sex comedy made by Tony Tenser. He specialised in producing exploitation films and founded his own production company Tigon British Film Productions in 1966.
In the movie, he leaves his wife and kids to go off on a business trip and has an affair with a young girl, played by Sally Geeson There apparently are two versions of the film: the 98-minute cut version was released in the UK, while the uncensored version (105 minutes) which shows nudity from Sally Geeson, was released in continental Europe. Percy was directed by Ralph Thomas and starred Hywel Bennett, Denholm Elliott, Elke Sommer, and Britt Ekland. The film is about a successful penis transplant. An innocent and shy young man (Bennett) whose penis is mutilated in an accident and has to be amputated wakes up after an operation to find out that it has been replaced by a womanizer's, which is very large.
The rest of the movie is about its new owner following in his predecessor's footsteps and meeting all the women who are able to recognize it. There was a sequel, Percy's Progress, released in 1974. To move with the times, the Carry On series added nudity to its saucy seaside postcard innuendo. Series producer Peter Rogers saw the George Segal movie Loving and added his two favourite words to the title, making Carry On Loving the twentieth in the series. Starring "countess of cleavage" Imogen Hassall, the story of a dating agency service is still very innocent stuff. It was followed by Carry On Girls, based around a Miss World-style beauty contest.
Next in the series was Carry On Dick, with more risqué humour and Sid James and Barbara Windsor's on- and off-screen lovemaking. The Confessions series The Confessions series consisted of four sex comedy films released during the 1970s starring Robin Askwith. The films in the Confessions series—Confessions of a Window Cleaner, Confessions of a Driving Instructor, Confessions of a Pop Performer, and Confessions from a Holiday Camp—concern the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea and are based on the novels of Christopher Wood, writing as Timothy Lea. Soon came Adventures of..., directed by Stanley Long, which started with Adventures of a Taxi Driver, starring sitcom star Barry Evans, and was followed by Adventures of a Private Eye and Adventures of a Plumber's Mate, starring future record producer Christopher Neil.
Long began his career as a photographer before producing striptease shorts (or "glamour home movies", as they were sometimes known), for the 8 mm market. Beginning in the late fifties, Long's feature film career would span the entire history of the British sex film, and as such exemplifies its differing trends and attitudes. His work ranges from coy nudist films (Nudist Memories 1959), to moralizing documentary (The Wife Swappers, 1970) to a more relaxed attitude to permissive material (Naughty!, 1971) to out and out comedies at the end of the 1970s. He did not like sex scenes and was dismissive of pornography, saying it did not turn him on and he turned his back when such scenes were being filmed.
Carry Ons become sexy British sex comedy films became mainstream with the release in 1976 of Carry On England, starring Judy Geeson, Patrick Mower, and Diane Langton, in which an experimental mixed-sex anti-aircraft battery in wartime is enjoying making love not war. However, the arrival of the new Captain S. Melly brings an end to their cosy life and causes terror in the ranks. In Carry On Emmannuelle, the beautiful Emmannuelle Prevert just cannot get her own husband into bed. A spoof of Emmanuelle, the film revolves around the eponymous heroine (Suzanne Danielle) and her unsuccessful attempts to make love to her husband, Emile (Kenneth Williams), a French ambassador.
Emile grants Emmannuelle permission to sleep with anyone she likes, and her promiscuity turns her into a celebrity and a frequent talk show guest. Meanwhile, Theodore Valentine is besotted by her and wants them to get married. But Emmannuelle is obsessed with arousing her husband's sexual desire at almost any cost. This was the last of the original Carry On films. Sleaze and sexploitation Producer/director Kenneth F. Rowles made a copycat cash-in with his The Ups and Downs of a Handyman. His next movie, Take an Easy Ride, purports to be a public information film warning of the dangers of hitchhiking but is actually a sexploitation film showing young girls being sexually assaulted and murdered (although Rowles says he had to add those scenes on request of the movie's distributor).
Films like Dreams of Thirteen, The Younger the Better, Geilermanns Töchter - Wenn Mädchen mündig werden, Erika's Hot Summer, Mrs. Stone's Thing, and Come Play With Me played in Soho and elsewhere, but with the arrival of the Margaret Thatcher government in 1979 the Eady Levy was abolished in 1985, killing off the genre. Japanese sex comedy In Japanese, sexy movies or TV shows tend to be referred to as 'oiroke' お色気 which might be translated as 'with a tinge of colour.' 'Pink films' ピンク映画 are more narrowly sexy films made by independent studios for release to adult theatres. The traditional word for comedy is 'kigeki' 喜劇.
It was applied to Kyōgen, short comic plays performed in theatres. The word 'kigeki' is also used in the titles of some movies from the 1960s, but more recently the loan word 'komedi' コメディ　has become the usual way of referring to humorous films or TV shows. In 1959, director Kon Ichikawa produced an adaptation of Junichirō Tanizaki's novel The Key titled Odd Obsession wherein a man whose powers are failing finds he can restore his vigor by spying on his daughter and her fiancé, so he hatches a scheme to involve his wife. Yasuzo Masumura's 1964 film adaptation of Junichirō Tanizaki's novel Quicksand(Manji) took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the melodrama of a housewife falling in love with a younger woman.
Shohei Imamura released The Pornographers in 1966, parodying the workings of a small pornographic film company. In 1970–1, Yuji Tanno and Isao Hayashi directed a number of movies based on Go Nagai's manga Harenchi Gakuen. Go Nagai's Kekkou Kamen manga has also been adapted into a movie and several Original Videos. Norifumi Suzuki has directed a number of sex comedies: Ero Shogun to Juuichinin no Aishou (The Erotic Shogun and his 11 Concubines 1972), Onsen Mimizu Geisha (Hot Springs Worm Geisha 1972), Onsen Suppon Geisha (Hot Springs Turtle Geisha 1972) all for big budget studio Toei as well as the teen sex comedy Pantsu no Ana (Hole in her Panties 1984).
Yoshimitsu Morita has directed a number of racey comedies including Something Like It (No You na Mono) (1981), Hot Stripper (Maru Hon Uwasa no Sutorippaa)(1982) and 24 Hour Playboy (Ai to Heisei no Iro Otoko) (1989). Director Juzo Itami's films such as The Funeral, Tampopo and A Taxing Woman are comedies principally about non-sexual topics, but all have a side story that deals with sex, and features nudity. Takeshi Kitano's Getting Any? movie is about the quest for sex. Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series was usually fairly serious, but Morita's Love Hard Love Deep and manga adaptation Minna Agechau were Roman Pornos, and other films in the series such as Pink Tush Girl and Abnormal Family: Older Brother's Bride have been described as comedies.
Recently there has been a spate of sexy coming of age comedies, e.g. Haruka Ayase's Oppai Volleyball and live action adaptations of the manga Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari, Ibitsu, Moteki and Recently, My Sister Is Unusual. The 2003 Japanese TV drama Stand Up! starring Kazunari Ninomiya is the story of four virgin boys, and bears some resemblance to American sex comedies of the 1980s. See also Ribaldry Penis jokes Ecchi :Category:Sex comedy television series :Category:British_sex_comedy_films References Further reading McDonald, Tamar Jeffers. 2007. Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. Wallflower Press McDonald, Tamar Jeffers, ed. 2010. Virgin Territory: Representing Sexual Inexperience in Film.
Wayne State University Press. Sheridan, Simon. 2011. Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema. Titan Books. 4th edition. Category:Comedy films by genre Category:Erotic films by genre Category:Stand-up comedy
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (, ; 2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798) was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life), is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century. As was not uncommon at the time, Casanova, depending on circumstances, used more or less fictitious names, such as baron or count of Farussi (the name of his mother) or (). He often signed his works Jacques Casanova de Seingalt after he began writing in French following his second exile from Venice.
He has become so famous for his often complicated and elaborate affairs with women that his name is now synonymous with "womanizer". He associated with European royalty, popes, and cardinals, along with luminaries such as Voltaire, Goethe, and Mozart. He spent his last years in the Dux Chateau (Bohemia) as a librarian in Count Waldstein's household, where he also wrote the story of his life. Biography Youth Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was born in Venice in 1725 to actress Zanetta Farussi, wife of actor and dancer Gaetano Casanova. Giacomo was the first of six children, being followed by Francesco Giuseppe (1727–1803), Giovanni Battista (1730–1795), Faustina Maddalena (1731–1736), Maria Maddalena Antonia Stella (1732–1800), and Gaetano Alvise (1734–1783).
At the time of Casanova's birth, the city of Venice thrived as the pleasure capital of Europe, ruled by political and religious conservatives who tolerated social vices and encouraged tourism. It was a required stop on the Grand Tour, traveled by young men coming of age, especially men from the Kingdom of Great Britain. The famed Carnival, gambling houses, and beautiful courtesans were powerful drawing cards. This was the milieu that bred Casanova and made him its most famous and representative citizen. Casanova was cared for by his grandmother Marzia Baldissera while his mother toured about Europe in the theater.
His father died when he was eight. As a child, Casanova suffered nosebleeds, and his grandmother sought help from a witch: "Leaving the gondola, we enter a hovel, where we find an old woman sitting on a pallet, with a black cat in her arms and five or six others around her." Though the unguent applied was ineffective, Casanova was fascinated by the incantation. Perhaps to remedy the nosebleeds (a physician blamed the density of Venice's air), Casanova, on his ninth birthday, was sent to a boarding house on the mainland in Padua. For Casanova, the neglect by his parents was a bitter memory.
"So they got rid of me," he proclaimed. Conditions at the boarding house were appalling, so he appealed to be placed under the care of Abbé Gozzi, his primary instructor, who tutored him in academic subjects, as well as the violin. Casanova moved in with the priest and his family and lived there through most of his teenage years. In the Gozzi household, Casanova first came into contact with the opposite sex, when Gozzi's younger sister Bettina fondled him at the age of 11. Bettina was "pretty, lighthearted, and a great reader of romances. ... The girl pleased me at once, though I had no idea why.
It was she who little by little kindled in my heart the first sparks of a feeling which later became my ruling passion." Although she subsequently married, Casanova maintained a lifelong attachment to Bettina and the Gozzi family. Early on, Casanova demonstrated a quick wit, an intense appetite for knowledge, and a perpetually inquisitive mind. He entered the University of Padua at 12 and graduated at 17, in 1742, with a degree in law ("for which I felt an unconquerable aversion"). His guardian's hope was that he would become an ecclesiastical lawyer. Casanova had also studied moral philosophy, chemistry, and mathematics, and was keenly interested in medicine.
("I should have been allowed to do as I wished and become a physician, in which profession quackery is even more effective than it is in legal practice.") He frequently prescribed his own treatments for himself and friends. While attending the university, Casanova began to gamble and quickly got into debt, causing his recall to Venice by his grandmother, but the gambling habit became firmly established. Back in Venice, Casanova started his clerical law career and was admitted as an abbé after being conferred minor orders by the Patriarch of Venice. He shuttled back and forth to Padua to continue his university studies.
By now, he had become something of a dandy—tall and dark, his long hair powdered, scented, and elaborately curled. He quickly ingratiated himself with a patron (something he was to do all his life), 76-year-old Venetian senator Alvise Gasparo Malipiero, the owner of Palazzo Malipiero, close to Casanova's home in Venice. Malipiero moved in the best circles and taught young Casanova a great deal about good food and wine, and how to behave in society. However, Casanova was caught dallying with Malipiero's intended object of seduction, actress Teresa Imer, and the senator drove both of them from his house. Casanova's growing curiosity about women led to his first complete sexual experience, with two sisters, Nanetta and Marton Savorgnan, then 14 and 16, who were distant relatives of the Grimanis.
Casanova proclaimed that his life avocation was firmly established by this encounter. Early career in Italy and abroad Scandals tainted Casanova's short church career. After his grandmother's death, Casanova entered a seminary for a short while, but soon his indebtedness landed him in prison for the first time. An attempt by his mother to secure him a position with Bishop Bernardo de Bernardis was rejected by Casanova after a very brief trial of conditions in the bishop's Calabrian see. Instead, he found employment as a scribe with the powerful Cardinal Acquaviva in Rome. On meeting the pope, Casanova boldly asked for a dispensation to read the "forbidden books" and from eating fish (which he claimed inflamed his eyes).
He also composed love letters for another cardinal. When Casanova became the scapegoat for a scandal involving a local pair of star-crossed lovers, Cardinal Acquaviva dismissed Casanova, thanking him for his sacrifice, but effectively ending his church career. In search of a new profession, Casanova bought a commission to become a military officer for the Republic of Venice. His first step was to look the part: He joined a Venetian regiment at Corfu, his stay being broken by a brief trip to Constantinople, ostensibly to deliver a letter from his former master the Cardinal. Finding his advancement too slow and his duty boring, he managed to lose most of his pay playing faro.
Casanova soon abandoned his military career and returned to Venice. At the age of 21, he set out to become a professional gambler, but losing all the money remaining from the sale of his commission, he turned to his old benefactor Alvise Grimani for a job. Casanova thus began his third career, as a violinist in the San Samuele theater, "a menial journeyman of a sublime art in which, if he who excels is admired, the mediocrity is rightly despised. ... My profession was not a noble one, but I did not care. Calling everything prejudice, I soon acquired all the habits of my degraded fellow musicians."
He and some of his fellows, "often spent our nights roaming through different quarters of the city, thinking up the most scandalous practical jokes and putting them into execution ... we amused ourselves by untying the gondolas moored before private homes, which then drifted with the current". They also sent midwives and physicians on false calls. Good fortune came to the rescue when Casanova, unhappy with his lot as a musician, saved the life of a Venetian patrician of the Bragadin family, who had a stroke while riding with Casanova in a gondola after a wedding ball. They immediately stopped to have the senator bled.
Then, at the senator's palace, a physician bled the senator again and applied an ointment of mercury—an all-purpose but toxic remedy at the time—to the senator's chest. This raised his temperature and induced a massive fever, and Bragadin appeared to be choking on his own swollen windpipe. A priest was called as death seemed to be approaching. However, despite protests from the attending physician, Casanova ordered the removal of the ointment and the washing of the senator's chest with cool water. The senator recovered from his illness with rest and a sensible diet. Because of his youth and his facile recitation of medical knowledge, the senator and his two bachelor friends thought Casanova wise beyond his years, and concluded that he must be in possession of occult knowledge.
As they were cabalists themselves, the senator invited Casanova into his household and became a lifelong patron. Casanova stated in his memoirs: For the next three years under the senator's patronage, working nominally as a legal assistant, Casanova led the life of a nobleman, dressing magnificently and, as was natural to him, spending most of his time gambling and engaging in amorous pursuits. His patron was exceedingly tolerant, but he warned Casanova that some day he would pay the price; "I made a joke of his dire Prophecies and went my way." However, not much later, Casanova was forced to leave Venice, due to further scandals.