Bertha C. Boschulte

Bertha C. Boschulte (March 8, 1906 – August 18, 2004) was a Virgin Islands educator, women's rights activist, statistician and politician. During her tenure as a teacher, she actively worked to attain women's suffrage in the Virgin Islands. After obtaining her Master's Degree in Public Health, she worked as the director of the Statistical Service from 1952 and was then appointed as director of the Division of Vital Records and Statistical Services. From 1955 to 1957, she was the General Services director of the Department of Health. Boschulte ran for a Senate seat and was elected in 1964, serving one term. She worked on the Commission on the Status of Women from 1969 and in 1970 was elected chair of the Virgin Islands Board of Education. In 1976, the new Junior High School in Bovoni Estate was named the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School, in her honor.
Early life.
Bertha Christina Boschulte was born on March 8, 1906 on Saint Thomas in the Danish Virgin Islands to Jessie Alexandrina (née Millen) and Rupert R. Boschulte. She attended school in the local school system at James Monroe Elementary School and Charlotte Amalie Junior-Senior High School. After teaching for a year in 1924, she then moved to Virginia and attended the Hampton Institute, graduating in 1929 with distinction, gaining a Bachelor of Science in English and mathematics.
Career.
After her graduation, Boschulte returned to the Virgin Islands and began teaching at the Charlotte Amalie High School. During her time at Hampton, she had become aware of women's issues and was particularly interested in the suffrage movement. When she returned to St. Thomas, Boschulte joined with other women, including Ella Gifft, Eulalie Stevens, and Edith L. Williams to try to gain the vote for women in the Virgin Islands. She was the secretary of the St. Thomas Teacher's Association in 1935, when women teachers attempted to register and were rejected. The Teacher's Association filed suit and Judge Albert Levitt, ruled in their favor, ordering the Election Board to allow qualified women to register to vote.
In 1938, Boschulte was appointed acting principal of the school and in 1940 officially became the principal. She returned to the mainland to attend Teachers College, Columbia University and graduated with master's degree in educational administration in 1945. She attained a license to teach in New York and taught at P.S. 81 in 1946. While she was in the states, Boschulte attended the International Assembly of Women held in New York. The conference, sponsored by Eleanor Roosevelt had representatives from 53 countries and was convened to get the women's perspective on post-war social organization. Resolutions made at the gathering supported the creation of the United Nations and endorsed legal and political equality for women.
Returning to St. Thomas in 1947, Boschulte worked with other teachers in the Teacher Association to organize the Teacher's Institute and Evening School. The goal of the Association was to increase the standard of professionalism in teaching and they offered classes for teachers to upgrade their training. Boschulte was one of the instructors for both initiatives. In 1949, she was offered a post as a statistician in the Health Department. Deciding to forgo a PhD in education at Columbia, she accepted the offer, which included attending a training program at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and resigned as principal of the high school.
In 1950, Boschulte moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan and began her studies, which included field trips to local health departments to evaluate their operations. Joining Delta Omega, she graduated in 1951 with a master's degree in public health. Returning to St. Thomas, she was appointed as director of the Statistical Service for the Health Department in 1952. When the Division of Vital Records and Statistical Services was founded, she became the first director, and then from 1955 to 1957, she was the General Services director of the Department of Health. She resigned from the Health Department in 1963, though she continued to work for the department on a contractual basis.
In 1964, Boschulte was elected as a Senator in the Legislature of the Virgin Islands. In 1965, the local chapter of the Federation of Business and Professional Women named her "Woman of the Year". She ran for a second legislative term in 1966, but lost her race by 30 votes. In 1969, she was appointed to serve on the Commission on the Status of Women and the following year was elected to the board of the territorial Department of Education, and served as its chair. In 1976, a new junior high school was approved to be built in Bovoni bearing her name. The Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School was dedicated on March 1, 1981.
Death and legacy.
Boschulte died on August 18, 2004 on St. Thomas. She is remembered for her dedication to the development of the educational system in the Virgin Islands.


Melbourne Underground Film Festival

The Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF) was formed out of disagreements over the content and running of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). When director Richard Wolstencroft's film "Pearls Before Swine" was not accepted by the Melbourne International Film Festival, Wolstencroft claimed it was because his film was too confrontational for the tastes of MIFF. As a response to the film's rejection by MIFF, Wolstencroft founded MUFF in 2000 as an alternative independent film festival, featuring mostly genre, controversial, transgressive and avant garde material. MUFF has been known for controversy with a screening of Bruce LaBruce's "LA Zombie" gaining worldwide attention including coverage in the "New York Times". Over the years, the festival has been outspoken on the poor state of the Australia film industry and the need to make more local genre films, and has championed many issues of freedom of speech and outsider politics and ideas. The festival has also discovered (first world festival to show the work of) Australian directors like James Wan, Greg McLean, Scott Ryan, Spierig brothers, Stuart Simpson, Patrick Hughes, Andrew Traucki, Dave de Vries, David Nerlich, Neil McGregor, Mark Savage and many others. International Guests of MUFF have included Bruce LaBruce, Lloyd Kaufman, William Lustig, Ron Jeremy, American film director Chris Folino, Michael Tierney, Peter Christopherson, Jim Van Bebber, Bret Easton Ellis, Gene Gregorits, Terry McMahon and Geretta Geretta.


Enid Charles

Enid Charles (29 December 1894 – 26 March 1972) was a British socialist, feminist and statistician who was a pioneer in the fields of demography and population statistics.
She was born Dorothy Enid Charles in Denbigh, Wales. She obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics, economics and statistics at Newnham College, Cambridge University, where she became friends with Dorothy (Dodo) Crowther, sister of James Crowther. She gained a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Charles met the conscientious objector Lancelot Hogben while at Cambridge; they married in 1918. Out of a dozen or so socialist and feminist couples in Britain in the early 20th century, Charles was the only wife to keep her name. The couple who had two sons and two daughters, separated in 1953 and divorced in 1957.
Charles worked on fertility rates and nuptiality for the Dominion Bureau of Statistics in Canada. In 1934, Charles projected drastic decline in population of the United Kingdom should the fertility rates continue to fall. These results led her to speak out against the then commonly accepted principle of eugenics. She subsequently worked as a Regional Adviser in Epidemiology and Health Statistics and as a Population Statistics Consultant for the World Health Organization in Singapore and New Delhi.
She died in Torquay, England, in 1972, aged 77.


Neolin (instrument)

The neolin is a modern custom variant of the violin which incorporates a fretted fingerboard, cutaway body, and tremolo mechanism based on the electric guitar. The instrument was developed by luthier Bodo Vosshenrich, of Villemur sur Tarn, France.


7224 Vesnina


3458 Boduognat


GCE Advanced Level in Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan Advanced Level (A-level), is a General Certificate of Education (GCE) qualification exam in Sri Lanka, similar to the British Advanced Level, conducted annually by the Department of Examinations of the Ministry of Education. It is usually taken by students during the optional final two years of collegiate level (grade 12 and 13 (usual age 18-19) or external (non-school) candidates, after they have completed GCE Ordinary Level exams. The majority of candidates enter the exams via their respective schools, while candidates who have finished school education can also apply as private applicants. The qualification also serves as an entrance requirement for Sri Lankan state universities. The exams are held in three mediums: Sinhala, Tamil and English.
Fields of Study.
The candidates are expected to study for 2 years at collegiate level before taking the examination. The examination diversifies over 5 major fields of study,
In each stream, candidates are expected to face 3 subjects related to the specific stream. Additionally, there would be a General English test and a Common General test. Although the result of the General English test is not taken into account for the University Entrance selection criteria, candidates are expected to obtain a pass mark for the Common General test.
Exam procedure.
The exams are conducted each year in August, in selected national schools across the country. Invigilators and supervisors are appointed by the Department of Examinations and they are typically qualified teachers of the local school system. Candidates are allowed to sit for the exam 3 times to qualify for a state university, i.e. the candidates have to meet the minimum requirements for university admission within 3 attempts in order gain university admission. The test assessments are carried out by marking panels usually consisting of qualified and experienced school teachers in service, who are guided by supervisors (usually university lecturers). It takes about 4–5 months for the final results of the island wide examination to be released and candidates have to wait further for around one year to enter a local university, depending on the university and the course/field of study.
Physical Science stream.
Physical Science stream is also known as Maths stream. Physical science stream has four main subjects: Combined Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Under the recent syllabus, candidates can choose between either Chemistry or ICT, though Combined Mathematics and Physics are mandatory.
Combined Mathematics is a combination of Pure Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. Previously, the candidates had to follow these two subjects separately; by introducing Combined Mathematics syllabi, the two separate subjects were appended and redrafted.
The curriculum also consists of practical experiments that students are expected to participate in school laboratories.
Biological Science stream.
Biological Science stream consists of four subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Agricultural science.
candidates do have option of selecting physics or Agricultural science , while biology and chemistry are mandatory .
Commerce stream.
Commerce Stream has three main subjects. They are Accounting, Business Studies and Economics. Candidates do have the option of selecting either Business Studies or Business Statistics and Economics or Information Technology (IT)
Technology stream.
Technology stream was introduced in 2013. the stream contains three subject categories ; A , B and C. candidates can select Engineering Technology or Bio-system Technology from category A with Science for Technology as category B subject , and Information communication technology, or any other subject from the category C subject group. Science for Technology (Category B) is a compulsory subject for both Engineering and Bio-system candidates.
Since the stream is relatively new, number of schools that have the facilities to teach the stream is limited or null in some areas for those who want to study those subjects.
Criticism.
It has been noted that in recent years the exam has become extremely competitive and even traumatic for most high school students in Sri Lanka. For the academic year of 2013, out of 55,241 candidates who applied for university admission, only 43.8% were able to gain access to the state universities through the University Grants Commission (UGC), despite satisfying minimum requirements for admission. According to a 2010 study by Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, symptoms of anxiety and depression were common more among students in GCE Advanced Level classes compared to other grades. Students in grade 13 had the second highest depression and anxiety scores, with examination related issues being the most commonly cited problem. Out of the 445 students that were assessed, 22.9% of students in grade 12 and 28.6% in grade 13 reportedly had severe depression, while 28.6% in grade 12 and 32.1% in grade 13 had severe anxiety. Due to the intimidating nature of the exam, family pressure, and social stigma resulting from exam results, most students tend to get severely depressed if they fail to achieve desired results. Some cases of suicide have been linked to the exam.


Multi mode interferometer

A multi-mode interferometer (MMI), also known as a multimode interference coupler, is a micro-scale structure in which light waves can travel, such that the optical power is split or combined in a predictable way. In an MMI, light is confined and guided, and thus the MMI is essentially a broad optical waveguide. For example, an ideal 1x2 MMI would be a 50-50 splitter, such that light enters along one path and exits along two paths, with half the power in each exit path. These entrance and exit paths are narrow waveguides, and the MMI itself is in the shape of a broad rectangular box. An ideal 50-50 splitter is nearly impossible in practice, due to the complex behavior of light. Optical loss will always occur as light travels through an MMI, which means that the total output power of a real MMI is less than the total input power. Additionally, the light propagates through the rectangular box in multiple modes, while also experiencing reflection and interference. This leads to mathematical models and equations that are too complex to solve by hand, and thus MMIs are typically designed through computer simulations.
MMIs are usually described by their coupling ratio, in which the output power of one port is compared to the total output power (summing over all output ports.) An ideal 1x2 MMI would have a 50% coupling ratio for each output port. For a real 1x2 MMI, values such as 48% and 52% may occur, due to imperfections in fabrication and manufacturing.


Decimal inch


Lot in Sodom

Lot in Sodom is a 1933 short silent experimental film, based on the Biblical tale of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was directed by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber.
The movie uses experimental techniques, avant-garde imagery and strong allusions to sexuality, especially homosexuality.
Louis Siegel was the sound composer, according to the film's opening credits.
Storyline.
The story is much closer to the tale than other films like "Sodom and Gomorrah".
Sodom is a place of sin. An angel appears there and he is welcomed by Lot. The people of Sodom want to have sex with him. Lot refuses; then the angel tells him to escape the city with his wife and daughter. Sodom is then destroyed by flames; Lot's wife is turned to a pillar of salt for having looked back.
All intertitles are quotes from the Bible.


329 Svea

Svea (minor planet designation: 329 Svea) is an asteroid from the asteroid belt and the namesake of the small Svea family, approximately in diameter. The C-type asteroid and is probably composed of carbonaceous material.
It was discovered by Max Wolf on 21 March 1892 in Heidelberg.
The light curve of 329 Svea shows a periodicity of , during which time the brightness of the object varies by in magnitude.


5275 Zdislava


Electret microphone

An electret microphone is a type of electrostatic capacitor-based microphone, which eliminates the need for a polarizing power supply by using a permanently charged material.
An "electret" is a stable dielectric material with a permanently embedded static electric dipole moment (which, due to the high resistance and chemical stability of the material, will not decay for hundreds of years). The name comes from "electr"ostatic and magn"et"; drawing analogy to the formation of a magnet by alignment of magnetic domains in a piece of iron. Electrets are commonly made by first melting a suitable dielectric material such as a plastic or wax that contains polar molecules, and then allowing it to re-solidify in a powerful electrostatic field. The polar molecules of the dielectric align themselves to the direction of the electrostatic field, producing a permanent electrostatic "bias". Modern electret microphones use PTFE plastic, either in film or solute form, to form the electret.
History.
Electret materials have been known since the 1920s and were proposed as condenser microphone elements several times, but they were considered impractical until the foil electret type was invented at Bell Laboratories in 1961 by James West and Gerhard Sessler, using a thin metallized Teflon foil.
This became the most common type, used in many applications from high-quality recording and lavalier use to built-in microphones in small sound recording devices and telephones.
Types.
There are three major types of electret microphones, differing in the way the electret material is used:
Unlike other condenser microphones, electret types require no polarizing voltage, but they normally contain an integrated preamplifier, which does require a small amount of power (often incorrectly called polarizing power or bias). This preamp is frequently phantom powered in sound reinforcement and studio applications. Other types simply include a 1.5 V battery in the microphone housing, which is often left permanently connected as the current drain is usually very small.


3670 Northcott


City of Indianapolis v. Edmond

City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32 (2000), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States limited the power of law enforcement to conduct suspicionless searches, specifically, using drug-sniffing dogs at roadblocks. Previous Supreme Court decisions had given the police power to create roadblocks for the purposes of border security, and removing drunk drivers from the road. This decision stated that the power was limited to situations in which the search was "designed to serve special needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement."
The Court drew a line on check point programs that followed "Police v. Sitz", "whose primary purpose" is "to detect evidence of ordinary criminal wrongdoing". The Court refused to "credit the 'general interest in crime control' as justification for a regime of suspicionless stops."
The opinion was delivered by Justice O'Connor, joined by Justices Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer.
Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Thomas joined, and Justice Scalia joined as to part I.
Justice Thomas also filed a separate dissent.


Homestead Records

Homestead Records was a Long Island, New York-based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading that operated from 1983 to 1996. The label was known for not paying its artists and not spending any money on promotion.
History.
The label was created by Barry Tenenbaum. Tenenbaum started a mail-order business, called Lord Sitar Records, from his bedroom when he was a teenager, importing records by the Beatles and other artists from England that he could sell for a profit in the States. Tenenbaum had established an extensive distribution network, called Dutch East India Trading, so when the Copyright Act of 1976 curtailed his ability to import artists who already had U.S. labels, he began licensing records for release and he created the Homestead Records imprint for this purpose. Sam Berger, who worked for Dutch East, became the new label's first manager.
Sam Berger left Homestead in 1984 and was replaced by Gerard Cosloy, the creator of the underground art fanzine "Conflict". Cosloy would be the sole employee of the label until 1987 when Craig Marks was hired to assist him in running the label. Cosloy and Marks both resigned in 1990. Ken Katkin was the manager from 1990 to 1992, and Steven Joerg from 1992 to 1996. The label closed in 1996 with its last release being Ivo Perelman's "Cama de Terra".


Rewire Festival

Rewire Festival is an annual international festival for adventurous music, held since 2011 in The Hague, Netherlands. The festival presents a broad program with a focus on contemporary electronic music, neo-classical, new jazz, experimental pop, sound art and multidisciplinary collaborations. It has featured artists such as Laurie Anderson, James Holden, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Ricardo Villalobos, Arca & Jesse Kanda, Nils Frahm, Animal Collective, Nina Kraviz, and The Field (the band). The 2019 edition took place on March 29, 30 and 31. Venues differ from churches, old factories and abandoned spaces to the more institutional theatres and pop venues. According to "Resident Advisor" "[The festival] prides itself on musical diversity first and foremost."
Besides the festival, the organization is focussing on presenting several other affiliated activities year round.
Previous editions.
Rewire 2019
Actress & Young Paint / Adam Harper / Alex Zhang Hungtai / All Sounds Considered / Anat Spiegel / Andrea Belfi & Valerio Tricoli / Angel Bat Dawid / Angel-Ho / Animistic Beliefs / Anna Mikkola / Annelies Monseré / Ash Koosha / Astrid Sonne / Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman & But What About / Bamba Pana & Makaveli / Bill Orcutt / Bob Sturm / CCL / Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt / Clara! Y Maoupa / Creative Sound Lab / CTM / CURL / De Methode / Diamanda Dramm / Dianne Verdonk / Doon Kanda / Elaine Mitchener / Eli Keszler / Emmanuel Biard / Enrique Manjavacas / Federico Campagna / Flohio / Foodman / Free Fall Improvisers Orchestra / Geomancer / Giant Swan / Haron & Anne Veinberg / Henry Vega & Jan Willem Troost / Iona Fortune & NYX / Ipek Gorgun / Jasmín / Jason Sharp / Jennifer Walshe & Memo Akten / Jesse Osborne-Lanthier / Jessica Pratt / Jessica Sligter / Jlin & Company Wayne McGregor / John Bence / Julia Holter Duo / Justin Bennett / Kampire / Kelly Moran / Kit Downes & Ensemble Klang / Lafawndah / Laura Agnusdei / Laurel Halo / Lotic / Low / Lucrecia Dalt & Alessandra Leone / Maria W Horn / Mark Fell / Mark IJzerman / Maurice Louca Elephantine Band / Mette Henriette / Mick Grierson / Mohammad Reza Mortazavi / Nicolás Jaar & Group / Nicolás Jaar presents Free 2 Move / Niels Broos & Jamie Peet / No history in a room filled with people with funny names 5 / Nosedrip / Obol Le / Otim Alpha / Party on the CAPS / Patrick Higgins / Pierre Bastien & Tomaga / Puce Mary / RAFF / Rebecca Fiebrink / Red Brut / Refree / Rian Treanor / Róisín Loughran / Sébastien Robert / Sega Bodega / Sinjin Hawke & Zora Jones / Sosena Gebre Eyesus / Sote / Spekki Webu / Spinifex / Stekkerdoos / Tanya Tagaq / Tashi Wada Group / Thor Magnusson / Tim Hecker & Konoyo Ensemble / Tirzah / upsammy / Violet / vtgnike / Walled Unwalled / William Basinski & Lawrence English / Xiu Xiu / YEK: Mohammad Reza Mortazavi & Burnt Friedman / Yona ft. Ash Koosha / Yves Tumor / Zeno van den Broek / Zoe Reddy
----Rewire 2018
AMMAR 808 / Antenes / Arto Lindsay & Zs / Avalon Emerson / Beatriz Ferreyra / Ben Vince / Boi Mesa / Carmen & Matthew Schoen / Chino Amobi / Clifford Sage / CocoonDance / Daniel O'Sullivan & Dream Lion Ensemble / Deena Abdelwahed / E. Jane / Ellen Arkbro + Zinc & Copper / Elysia Crampton / FAKA / Fatima Al Qadiri / Floating Points / Frances Morgan / Gagi Petrovic / Gary Hill / Glice & Dieter Vandoren / Golden Retriever / Identified Patient / Irreversible Entanglements / Ivan Vukosavljević & Il Hoon Son / JASSS / James Holden & The Animal Spirits / Jasper Stadhouders' Polyband / Jeremy Gilbert / Ji Youn Kang / Jon Davies / Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society / Juju & Jordash / Juliana Huxtable / Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith / Kareem Lotfy / Karen Gwyer / Kepla / LYZZA / Lanark Artefax / Laura Agnusdei / Laurence Pike / Laurie Anderson / Le poème électronique / Legacy Russell / Lori Napoleon / MHYSA / Marija Bozinovska Jones / Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca & Tamer Abu Ghazaleh / Mia Zabelka, James Plotkin and Benjamin Finger / Music Hackspace / Mykki Blanco / Nadah El Shazly / Nadia Struiwigh / New Emergences / Nina Kraviz / Ninos Du Brasil / Oberman / Oceanic / PAUS / Panda Bear / Park Jiha / Paul Twin / Quantum Natives / Ragazze Quartet / Raphael Vanoli / Royal Conservatoire String Ensemble / Rupert Clervaux & Ben Vince / SCRAAATCH / Širom / SUUNS / Stephan Meidell / Sugai Ken / Sven Kacirek / Syncom Data / The Hague Record Fair / The Music of Stranger Things by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein / The School of Noise / The Thing / Tom Rogerson / Tristan Perich / UUUU / Umfang / Underbelly Books & Vinyl / Vicky Chow / Visionist + Pedro Maia / Volvox / Yon Eta / ZA! / Zimpel/Ziolek / Ziúr
----Rewire 2017
Adele Cutting / AGF & Kubra Khademi / Anni Nöps / Arca & Jesse Kanda / Aurora Halal / Baiba Yurkevich / Bertus Gerssen / Blanck Mass / CAO / Carla dal Forno / Cloud Becomes Your Hand / Concertzender Live / Croatian Amor / Daniel Lanois / Daniel Wohl + Slagwerk Den Haag + Matangi Quartet / Darien Brito / Das Ensemble Ohne Eigenschaften / David Housden / Dazion / DSR Lines / Forest Swords / Gábor Lázár / GAIKA / Greg Fox / Helena Hauff / HOEK & Dieter Vandoren / Horse Lords / Igor C Silva & Trash Panda Collective / Jace Clayton / Jace Clayton presents Uproot / Jameszoo Quintet / Jeff Mills & Tony Allen / Jessy Lanza / John Broomhall / Kassel Jaeger / Kassem Mosse / Kobe van Cauwenberghe / Lorenzo Senni / Moor Mother / N.M.O. / NAH / Nimbus 3000 / Oliver Coates / Paul Weir / Pete Harden & Ensemble Klang / Peter Zinovieff & Lucy Railton / Pharmakon / Pussy Mothers / Radian / 2017 DJ-team / Ryan Teague Ensemble / S.T. Cordell / Sarathy Korwar / Sex Swing / SHXCXCHCXSH / Slowdive / Smudged Toads / SØS Gunver Ryberg / SUMS: Kangding Ray & Barry Burns (Mogwai) / Swans / The Chi Factory/ Peter Zinovieff / These Hidden Hands / This Is Not This Heat / Tony Conrad / Torus & Nikki Hock / Wing / Waclaw Zimpel / Willem Marijs + Gert-Jan Prins + Peter van Bergen / Wolf Eyes / Zs
----Rewire 2016
Alessandro Bosetti / Amnesia Scanner / Animal Collective / Anna Meredith / Ash Koosha / Babyfather / Bas van Huizen / Battles / Beatrice Dillon / Ben UFO / Brokenchord / Chris Watson / Cocktail Party Effect / Colleen / Elektrovolt / Emily Wells / Ensemble Economique / Factory Floor / Félicia Atkinson / Gazelle Twin: Kingdom Come / Gebben / Gerri Jäger / Glice / Hilde Marie Holsen / In Code [Wentink, Snoei, Hulskamp] / ITPDWIP / J(ay).A.D / James Holden & Maalem Houssam Guinia / James Welburn / Jlin / Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith / Kara-Lis Coverdale + MFO / Lakker present Struggle & Emerge / Lena Willikens / Leo Svirsky / Lussuria / Matana Roberts / Mica Levi & Stargaze present Under The Skin / Michel Banabila & Oene van Geel / Mikael Seifu / Mykki Blanco / Norberto Lobo & João Lobo Sextet / Not Waving / Olivier Messiaen: Pierre Henry - Timbres-durées / Peverelist / Pierre Alexandre Tremblay / Poppy Ackroyd / Ricardo Donoso / Roly Porter & MFO / Royal Conservatoire presents KHZ kollektiv / Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld / Total Freedom / Truss / Vessel + Black Rain + Pete Swanson / Via App / Xiu Xiu plays Twin Peaks
----Rewire 2015
96wlrd / Aïsha Devi / Akka / Alessandro Cortini / Antenna / Blue Daisy / Bronze Teeth / Casperelectronics / Chris Corsano & Mette Rasmussen / Cliff Lothar / Cloudface / Dandana / De Tuinen / DJ Sniff / DJ Stingray / Evian Christ / Fetter / FilosofischeStilte / Gaby Felten / Garoeda / Gerben Louw / Gnod / Godspeed You! Black Emperor / Grouper / Gut & Irmler / HOEK / Holly Herndon / IVVVO / Jac Berrocal + David Fenech + Vincent Epplay / Jenny Hval & Susanna / Julianna Barwick Expanded / Klankman / Leslie Nagel / Lorn / Marsman / Mbongwana Star / MGBG / Mischa Daams / Neneh Cherry & Rocketnumbernine / Omer Eilam / Oren Ambarchi / Organisms / Paul Panhuysen / Pearson Sound / Powell / Ron Morelli / RP Boo / Sara Pape García / Saskia Lankhoorn / Kate Moore / Shabazz Palaces / Shit and Shine / Siinai / Sima Kim / Stoka Ensemble / Svengalisghost / TCF / The Bug / The Cult of Dom Keller / The Void Pointers / Thomas Ankersmit / Tomaga / Tomas Järmyr / Total Life / Unit Moebius Anonymous / Yara van der Velden / Yodok III
----Rewire 2014
James Holden presents The Inheritors live / Tatu Rönkkö & Efterklang / Henrik Schwarz & Nik Bärtsch / Colin Stetson / Bohren & der Club of Gore / Simian Mobile Disco / Gold Panda / The Field / Herman Kolgen & Bl!ndman / Vessel / Ital / Jozef van Wissem / Chantal Acda / DNMF [Dead Neanderthals & Machinefabriek] / Maarten Vos & Greg Haines / Gardland / Albert van Abbe / Fiium Shaarrk / Klara Lewis / Hydras Dream (Anna von Hausswolff & Matti Bye) / Wanda Group / Greg Haines solo / Koreless / Dauwd / Von Nohrfeldt Ensemble / Lee Gamble / Siinai / Noveller / Valerio Tricoli / Drvg Cvltvre / Will Samson / Lee Noble / Bram Stadhouders / KRK / Aron Birtalan / Moritz Alive / Geritz / Kaffa / Void of Sound / Dotlights / Wouter van Veldhoven / Cabaret Contemporain / Inga Copeland / Kode9
----Rewire 2013
751 / Baths / Black Marble / Cloud Boat / Food + Fennesz / Holly Herndon / Iceage / Intergalactic Gary / James Ferraro / Jerusalem in My Heart / Julia Holter / Kelpe / Lone [cancelled ]/ Loyu / Lucrecia Dalt / Lumisokea / Modeselektor / Moon Ate the Dark / Nathan Fake / Nils Petter Molvær & Moritz von Oswald / Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer present Re:ECM live / Seams / Stellar OM Source / Still Serious Nic / Tape / The KVB / Traxx / Valgeir Sigurðsson
----Rewire 2012
Alberto Novello a.k.a. JesterN / Alex Smoke presents Wraetlic / Black Rain / Deaf Center / DIIV / Errors / Filosofische Stilte /Handsome Thomas & Still Serious Nic / Henry Vega & Anat Spiegel / H-SIK / Halls / Jacob 2-2 / Juffage / Kangding Ray / Knalpot / Kreng / Laurel Halo / Legowelt / Lichens / Lotus Plaza / Lukid / Mark du Mosch / Micachu & The Shapes / Nosaj Thing [cancelled] / Palmbomen live / patten / Pete Swanson / Presk / Rocketnumbernine / Shackleton / Some Clouds / Stelios Manousakis / Torus / Xosar / Young Magic
----Rewire 2011
Andy Stott / Applescal / Bomb Diggy Crew / Comfort Fit / Dagga Dagga / Daniel Haaksman / Dirty Beaches / Dorian Concept / Eklin / Holy Other / Hype Williams / I am Oak / Juha / Kuedo / Martyn / Narain Ashad / Nils Frahm & Anne Müller / oOoOO / Patrice Bäumel / Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek / Plaid / Rustie / Sylvain Chauveau / Tonik / Tropics / Vondelpark / Walls / Washed Out


Cristal baschet

The Cristal Baschet is a contemporary musical instrument developed in 1952 by the brothers Bernard and François Baschet. Models of the crystal organs range from 3.5 to 6 octaves and are made of 56 chromatically tuned glass rods. To play it, musicians rub the rods with wet fingertips.
Operation.
Metal rods are embedded in a heavy plate to form the elements. Each metal rod is accompanied by an attached glass rod. The metal rod's length, weight and position at the equilibrium point determine the sound's pitch. The glass rod is gently stroked with a wet finger to produce sound.
The vibration of the rod with greater amplitude and weaker pressure is transmitted into the metal fitting. This causes a transformation in the vibrations and the shape of the wave produced. The vibrations propagating through the metal have a high pressure and a weak amplitude. This amplification in pressure is the result of fiberglass cones that are fixed in a wood frame alongside a tall, cut-out metal part in the shape of a flame. "Whiskers," placed on the side of the instrument, amplify high-pitched sounds.
The Cristal Baschet is also known as the Crystal Organ and the Crystal Baschet. The range of a concert instrument is five octaves. The Cristal is related to the glass harmonica.
History.
The Cristal Baschet was invented in 1952 by the French instrument makers and artists Bernard and Francois Baschet. They specialized in creating sculptures that could be played to produce music. They invented the inflatable guitar, an aluminum piano and an "educational instrumentarium" for the purpose of giving young people exposure to musical concepts.
The Cristal Baschet was developed around the same time as "musique concrète" (the avant-garde musical style popularised by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry), and electro-acoustic music. The Cristal Baschet produces music similar in style to these other musical forms, but through purely acoustic means, no electrical amplification is involved.
Repertoire.
It was originally used in the field of concrete music (avant-garde musical style introduced by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry) and gradually found its technique and repertoire, mainly thanks to the "crystallists" Jacques and Yvonne Lasry (1952) and then Michel Deneuve, who devoted himself to it in 1978, or Thomas Bloch.
A workshop of instrumental practice of the Cristal Baschet was opened in 1993 at the Conservatory of Albi with Cathy Tardieu which still conducts it. A class of Cristal Baschet was also opened at the Conservatoire de Brive la Gaillarde in 2003 by Michel Deneuve. This class has been conducted since 2010 by Antoine Mas.
The Cristal Baschet has been used in various fields: dance performance, film music (La Marche de l'empereur, Traffic, Solaris, The Testament of Orpheus ...), theater, jazz, improvisation, tales (Bruno de La Salle), contemporary music, song and rock. Thomas Bloch has played with Manu Dibango, Fred Frith, Phil Minton, Lindsay Cooper, David Coulter, Vanessa Paradis, Arthur H and Bachibouzouk Band, Zazie, Jad Wio, Marie Laforêt, Zoe, Lokua Kanza, Daft Punk...
Among the composers are François Bayle, Michel Deneuve, Luc Ferrari, Guy Reibel, Jacques Lasry, Bernard Baschet, Etienne Rolin, Toru Takemitsu, Jean Michel Jarre, Cliff Martinez, Beatriz Ferreyra, Michel Redolfi, Damon Albarn / Gorillaz, Tom Waits, Philippe Sarde, Jean-Michel Hasler, Jean-Michel Calvin, Horatiu Radulescu, Bruno Giner, Richard Hawley, Johan Söderqvist, Eric Fischer, Emmanuel Séjourné, Roger Steptoe, Alain Voirpy and others.


Kranky (record label)

Kranky is an American independent record label in Chicago, Illinois. It was started in 1993 by Bruce Adams and Joel Leoschke. It houses predominantly experimental music artists, often branching into or inspired by ambient, rock, electronic or psychedelic music. Their first release was Labradford's 1993 debut album "Prazision". Adams left the label in 2006, after which Leoschke continued running it, with the help of Brian Foote of Kranky band Nudge.


Coddington magnifier

A Coddington magnifier is a magnifying glass consisting of a single very thick lens with a central deep groove diaphragm at the "equator", thus limiting the rays to those close to the axis, which minimizes spherical aberration. This allows for greater magnification than a conventional magnifying glass, typically 10× up to 20×. Most single lens magnifiers are limited to 5× or so before significant distortion occurs. The drawback is that the diaphragm groove reduces the area seen through the magnifier.
History.
In 1812 William Hyde Wollaston introduced a much improved version of the earliest magnifiers consisting of a spherical glass by employing two hemispheres of glass mounted together with a small stop between them. Sir David Brewster found that Wollaston's form worked best when the two lenses were hemispheres and the central space was filled up with a transparent cement having the same refractive index as the glass. He therefore used a sphere from a single piece of glass with a deep groove cut in it. In 1829, Henry Coddington brought the Wollaston–Brewster lens into general notice and further refined the design by modifying the shape of the groove, though Coddington laid no claim to being its inventor.


Stanford Laptop Orchestra


Simple hypothesis


Content negotiation

Content negotiation refers to mechanisms defined as a part of HTTP that make it possible to serve different versions of a document (or more generally, representations of a resource) at the same URI, so that user agents can specify which version fits their capabilities the best. One classical use of this mechanism is to serve an image in GIF or PNG format, so that a browser that cannot display PNG images (e.g. MS Internet Explorer 4) will be served the GIF version.
A resource may be available in several different representations; for example, it might be available in different languages or different media types. One way of selecting the most appropriate choice is to give the user an index page and let them select the most appropriate choice; however it is often possible to automate the choice based on some selection criteria.
Mechanisms.
HTTP provides for several different content negotiation mechanisms including: server-driven (or proactive), agent-driven (or reactive), transparent, and/or hybrid combinations thereof.
Server-driven.
Server-driven or proactive content negotiation is performed by algorithms on the server which choose among the possible variant representations. This is commonly performed based on user agent-provided acceptance criteria.
To summarize how this works, when a user agent submits a request to a server, the user agent informs the server what media types or other aspects of content presentation it understands with ratings of how well it understands them. More precisely, the user agent provides HTTP headers that lists acceptable aspects of the resource and quality factors for them. The server is then able to supply the version of the resource that best fits the user agent's needs.
For example, a browser could indicate that it would like information in German by setting the codice_1 like this:
codice_2
The browser may instead say that German is preferred, if possible, but that English is also acceptable by setting:
codice_3
Where the 'q' - quality - factor for German is higher than that for English.
Multiple HTTP headers are often supplied together for content format or, specifically media type, language and a few other aspects of a resource. In addition to the commonly used codice_4 header for Media Type, the codice_1 header for language negotiation, RFC 7231 also describes codice_6 & codice_7 for character encodings and content codings (compression) respectively.
An example of a more complex request is where a browser sends headers about language indicating German is preferred but that English is acceptable, as above, and that, regarding formats, HTML (codice_8) is preferred over other text types (codice_9) , GIF (codice_10) or JPEG (codice_11) images are preferred over other image formats (codice_12) but that any other media type (codice_13) is accepted as a last resort:
Accept-Language: de; q=1.0, en; q=0.5
Accept: text/html; q=1.0, text/*; q=0.8, image/gif; q=0.6, image/jpeg; q=0.6, image/*; q=0.5, */*; q=0.1
In addition to aspects of server-driven content negotiation by content type and by language specified in RFC 7231, there are extensions defining other aspects of content negotiation, such as "Memento" which describes use of a codice_14 header to retrieve version of a resource's representation at particular points in time and the IETF/W3C's "Content Negotiation by Profile" which describes use of an codice_15 header to retrieve resource representations conforming to data profiles.
Neither RFC 7231 nor the more recent related specifications such as "Content Negotiation by Profile" specify how to resolve trade-offs in cases where different headers specify conflicting requirements, such as, in the above example, choosing between an HTML page in English and a GIF image in German.
Agent-driven.
Agent-driven or reactive content negotiation is performed by algorithms in the user-agent which choose among the possible variant representations. This is commonly performed based on a server provided list of representations and metadata about them.
To summarize how this works, when a user agent submits a request to a server, the server informs the user-agent which representations it has available as well as any metadata it has about each representation (e.g., content-type, quality, language, etc.). The user-agent then resubmits the request to a specific URL for the chosen representation. This can be automatically chosen by the user-agent or the user-agent can present the user with the choices and the user can directly choose such. More precisely, the server responds with either 300 Multiple Choices or 406 Not Acceptable (when server-driven, user-agent provided acceptance criteria is provided but the server cannot automatically make a selection). Unfortunately HTTP leaves the format of the list of representations and metadata along with selection mechanisms unspecified.


Cavell Brownie

Cavell Brownie (née Sherlock) is a Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the North Carolina State University. Her research considered biometric methods and wildlife sampling.
Education and career.
Brownie is African-American, and was born in Jamaica. She earned her doctoral degree at Cornell University in 1973, developing mathematical models to estimate bird populations. Her dissertation, "Stochastic Models Allowing Age-Dependent Survival Rates for Banding Experiments on Exploited Bird Populations", was supervised by D. S. Robson.
Brownie was a faculty member at North Carolina State University from 1982 to 2007.
Research.
Brownie's research involved wildlife sampling and biometric methods.
Her publications include:
Recognition.
Brownie was awarded the George W. Snedecor award in 1983 and 1990, and the North Carolina State University D.D. Mason Faculty Award in 1988.
She was elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2003. The Department of Statistics at North Carolina State University award an annual Cavell Brownie Mentoring Faculty prize in her honour.
Personal life.
Brownie married Cecil Brownie, a Veterinarian at North Carolina State University, in August 1968. Together they have two sons.


PIGA accelerometer

A PIGA ("Pendulous Integrating Gyroscopic Accelerometer") is a type of accelerometer that can measure acceleration and simultaneously integrates this acceleration against time to produce a speed measure as well. The PIGA's main use is in Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) for guidance of aircraft and most particularly for ballistic missile guidance. It is valued for its extremely high sensitivity and accuracy in conjunction with operation over a wide acceleration range. The PIGA is still considered the premier instrument for strategic grade missile guidance, though systems based on MEMS technology are attractive for lower performance requirements.
Principle of operation.
The sensing element of a PIGA is a pendulous mass, free to pivot by being mounted on a bearing. A spinning gyroscope is attached such that it would restrain the pendulum against "falling" in the direction of acceleration. The pendulous mass and its attached gyroscope are themselves mounted on a pedestal that can be rotated by an electric torque motor. The rotational axis of this pedestal is mutually orthogonal to the spin axis of the gyroscope as well as the axis that the pendulum is free to move in. The axis of rotation of this pedestal is also in the direction of the measured acceleration.
The position of the pendulum is sensed by precision electrical contacts or by optical or electromagnetic means. Should acceleration displace the pendulum arm from its null position the sensing mechanism will operate the torque motor and rotate the pedestal such that the property of gyroscopic precession restores the pendulum to its null position. The rate of rotation of the pedestal gives the acceleration while the total number of rotations of the shaft gives the speed, hence the term "integrating" in the PIGA acronym. A further level of integration of shaft rotations by either electronic means or by mechanical means, such as a Ball-and-disk integrator, can record the displacement or distance traveled, this latter mechanical method being used by early guidance systems prior to the availability of suitable digital computers.
In most implementations of the PIGA the gyroscope itself is cantilevered on the end of the pendulum arm to act as the pendulous mass itself. Up to three such instruments may be required for each dimension of an INS with the three accelerometers mounted orthogonally generally on a platform stabilized gyroscopically within a system of gimbals.
A critical requirement for accuracy is low static friction (stiction) in the bearings of the pendulum; this is achieved by various means ranging from double ball bearing with a superimposed oscillatory motion to dither the bearing above its threshold or through the use of gaseous or fluid bearings or by the alternative method of floating the gyroscope in a fluid and restraining the residual mass by jewel bearings or electromagnetic means. Although this later method still has the viscous friction of the fluid this is linear and has no threshold and has the advantage of having minimal static friction. Another aspect is the accurate control of the gyroscope's rotational rate.
Missiles using PIGAs were the Polaris, Titan, Redstone, Jupiter, Saturn Series and MX Peacekeeper.
History.
The PIGA was based on an accelerometer developed by Dr. Fritz Mueller, then of the Kreiselgeraete Company, for the LEV-3 and experimental SG-66 guidance system of the Nazi era German V2 (EMW A4) ballistic missile and was known among the German rocket scientists as the MMIA "Mueller Mechanical Integrating Accelerometer". This system used precision electrical contacts to actuate the torque motor and achieved an accuracy of 1 part in 1000 to 1 part per 10000 known in technical parlance as a scale error of 1000 to 100. This was equivalent to about 600m of accuracy over the V2 1500m/s speed and 320km flight. Since the number of shaft rotations represented speed, a Cam Switch was used to initiate missile control sequences such as engine throttle-down and shut-off.
PIGA accelerometers mounted in the AIRS (Advanced Inertial Reference Sphere) are part of most accurate inertial navigation (INS) developed for the MX Missile. The INS drift rates are less than 1.5 x 10−5 degrees per hour of operation, about 8.5m per hour with the overall accuracy of the missile affected more by defects in the gravitational maps.
A recovered MMIA accelerometer from an unexploded V2 was presented to Dr Charles Stark Draper of the United States's MIT instrumentation lab who had been developing the basis of inertial navigation for aircraft by initially concentrating efforts on achieving extremely low drift rate gyroscopes known as a floated integrating gyroscope. Draper combined ideas from his integrating gyroscopes, which were mounted in cans that floated in fluids that were held in place by jeweled bearings, with the recovered V2 accelerometer by floating the pendulum-gyroscope portion. The more generic name of PIGA was suggested by Dr Draper due to the addition of various refinements such as electromagnetic or optical sensing of pendulum position. Such accelerometers were used in the Titan II and Polaris Systems and Minuteman systems.
At the Redstone Arsenal and the adjoining Marshall Space Flight Center, near Huntsville Alabama the contingent of ex-German rocket scientists which had been brought into the United States under Operation Paperclip, including Dr Mueller, continued to refine their original instruments in conjunction with American engineers and scientists. At the suggestion of Dr Mueller, the technically difficult task of replacing the original ball bearings with gaseous bearings was achieved. Initially compressed nitrogen was used but later fluorocarbons which had the advantage of being recyclable on board the missile or aircraft during extended waiting periods was used. Hence US accelerometers either consisted of the floated type or the gaseous bearing type with the US Army and US Space program relying on the later type of instrument.


SYUN

SYUN was a Japanese record label founded by Susumu Hirasawa in 1994. Hirasawa created the label to be able to have freedom to release some of his less commercial works (which later expanded to works by his associates, mostly members of P-MODEL, with most of the albums having Hirasawa involved in some way); the label was named after Syun, Hirasawa's experimental sampler unit, the label's logo is the cover of the Syun album "SHUN・4", which was designed by Quiyoshi Inagaki. Distribution was handled by DIW Records, an independent label owned by the music store chain disk UNION. It released music sparsely, always in a pair of two (although the first release had a bonus third product if one were to order both first and second products; the third release was a similar case, although the bonus offer was two booklets; the sixth release had a bonus P-MODEL product for those who had purchased all 6 previous P-MODEL products), which were sold in record stores and through mail order. Hirasawa's direct releases were mostly material that was created years before it was released (the oldest one being from 1978). The label eventually stopped after Hirasawa/P-MODEL signed with Nippon Columbia and later on formed the Chaos Union company, giving himself more freedom to release what he wants. Hirasawa eventually released the "Ashu-on [Sound Subspecies] in the solar system" and "HALDYN DOME" box sets (alongside reissuing the P-MODEL video), reissuing most of the SYUN catalog, with most of the remaining releases being out of print since their release under the SYUN label.


Blazed grating

A blazed grating – also called echelette grating (from French "échelle" = ladder) – is a special type of diffraction grating. It is optimized to achieve maximum grating efficiency in a given diffraction order. For this purpose, maximum optical power is concentrated in the desired diffraction order while the residual power in the other orders (particularly the zeroth) is minimized. Since this condition can only exactly be achieved for one wavelength, it is specified for which "blaze wavelength" the grating is optimized (or "blazed"). The direction in which maximum efficiency is achieved is called the "blaze angle" and is the third crucial characteristic of a blazed grating directly depending on blaze wavelength and diffraction order.
Blaze angle.
Like every optical grating, a blazed grating has a constant line spacing formula_1, determining the magnitude of the wavelength splitting caused by the grating. The grating lines possess a triangular, sawtooth-shaped cross section, forming a step structure. The steps are tilted at the so-called blaze angle formula_2 with respect to the grating surface. Accordingly, the angle between step normal and grating normal is formula_2.
The blaze angle is optimized to maximize efficiency for the wavelength of the used light. Descriptively, this means formula_2 is chosen such that the beam diffracted at the grating and the beam reflected at the steps are both deflected into the same direction. Commonly blazed gratings are manufactured in the so-called Littrow configuration.
Littrow configuration.
The Littrow configuration is a special geometry in which the blaze angle is chosen such that diffraction angle and incidence angle are identical. For a reflection grating, this means that the diffracted beam is back-reflected into the direction of the incident beam (blue beam in picture). The beams are perpendicular to the step and therefore parallel to the step normal. Hence it holds in Littrow configuration formula_5.
Diffraction angles at the grating are not influenced by the step structure. They are determined by the line spacing and can be calculated according to the grating equation:
where:
For the Littrow configuration, this becomes formula_15. By solving for formula_2 the blaze angle can be calculated for arbitrary combinations of diffraction order, wavelength and line spacing:
Blazed transmission grating.
Blazed gratings can also be realized as transmission gratings. In this case the blaze angle is chosen such that the angle of the desired diffraction order coincides with the angle of the beam refracted at the grating material.
Echelle grating.
A special form of a blazed grating is the "echelle grating". It is characterized by particularly large blaze angle (>45°). Therefore, the light hits the short legs of the triangular grating lines instead of the long legs. Echelle gratings are mostly manufactured with larger line spacing but are optimized for higher diffraction orders.
Echelle gratings are useful in planet-finding astronomy, and are used on the successful HARPS and PARAS (PRL Advanced Radial-velocity All-sky Search) spectrograph.


Statistical Methods for Research Workers

Statistical Methods for Research Workers is a classic book on statistics, written by the statistician R. A. Fisher. It is considered by some to be one of the 20th century's most influential books on statistical methods, together with his "The Design of Experiments" (1935). It was originally published in 1925, by Oliver & Boyd (Edinburgh); the final and posthumous 14th edition was published in 1970.
Reviews.
According to Denis Conniffe:
Ronald A. Fisher was "interested in application and in the popularization
of statistical methods and his early book "Statistical Methods for Research Workers", published in 1925, went through many editions and
motivated and influenced the practical use of statistics in many fields of
study. His "Design of Experiments" (1935) [promoted] statistical technique and application. In that book he
emphasized examples and how to design experiments systematically from
a statistical point of view. The mathematical justification of the methods
described was not stressed and, indeed, proofs were often barely sketched
or omitted altogether ..., a fact which led H. B. Mann to fill the gaps with a rigorous mathematical treatment in his well-known treatise, ."
Chapters.
In the second edition of 1928 a chapter 9 was added: The Principles of Statistical Estimation.


Ramsey interferometry

Ramsey interferometry, also known as Ramsey–Bordé interferometry or the separated oscillating fields method,
is a form of particle interferometry that uses the phenomenon of magnetic resonance to measure transition frequencies of particles. It was developed in 1949 by Norman Ramsey, who built upon the ideas of his mentor, Isidor Isaac Rabi, who initially developed a technique for measuring particle transition frequencies. Ramsey's method is used today in atomic clocks and in the S.I. definition of the second. Most precision atomic measurements, such as modern atom interferometers and quantum logic gates, have a Ramsey-type configuration.
A modern interferometer using a Ramsey configuration was developed by French physicist Christian Bordé and is known as the Ramsey–Bordé interferometer. Bordé's main idea was to use atomic recoil to create a beam splitter of different geometries for an atom-wave. The Ramsey–Bordé interferometer specifically uses two pairs of counter-propagating interaction waves, and another method named the "photon-echo" uses two co-propagating pairs of interaction waves.
Introduction.
A main goal of precision spectroscopy of a two-level atom is to measure the absorption frequency formula_1 between the ground state and excited state of the atom. One way to accomplish this measurement is to apply an external oscillating electromagnetic field at frequency formula_2 and then find the difference formula_3 (also known as the detuning) between formula_2 and formula_1 formula_6 by measuring the probability to transfer to . This probability can be maximized when formula_7, when the driving field is on resonance with the transition frequency of the atom. Looking at this probability of transition as a function of the detuning formula_8, the narrower the peak around formula_7 the more precision there is. If the peak were very broad about formula_7 then it would be difficult to distinguish precisely where formula_7 is located due to many values of formula_3 having close to the same probability.
Physical principles.
The Rabi method.
A simplified version of the Rabi method consists of a beam of atoms, all having the same speed formula_13 and the same direction, sent through one interaction zone of length formula_14. The atoms are two-level atoms with a transition energy of formula_15 (this is defined by applying a field formula_16 in an excitation direction formula_17, and thus formula_18, the Larmor frequency), and with an interaction time of formula_19 in the interaction zone. In the interaction zone, a monochromatic oscillating magnetic field labeled formula_20 is applied perpendicular to the excitation direction, and this will lead to Rabi oscillations between and at a frequency of formula_21.
The Hamiltonian in the rotating frame (including the rotating wave approximation) is:
The probability of transition from and can be found from this Hamiltonian and is
This probability will be at its maximum when formula_24. The line width formula_25 of this formula_26 vs. formula_27 determines the precision of the measurement. Because formula_28, by increasing formula_29, or formula_14, and correspondingly decreasing formula_31 so that their product is formula_32, the precision of the measurement increases, i.e. the peak of the graph becomes narrower.
In reality, however, inhomogeneities such as the atoms having a distribution of velocities or there being an inhomogeneous formula_33 will cause the line shape to broaden and lead to decreased precision. Having a distribution of velocities means having a distribution of interaction times, and therefore there would be many angles through which state vectors would flip on the Bloch sphere. There would be an optimal length in the Rabi setup that would give the greatest precision, but it would not be possible to increase the length formula_14 "ad infinitum" and expect ever increasing precision, as was the case in the perfect, simple Rabi model.
The Ramsey method.
Ramsey improved upon Rabi's method by splitting the one interaction zone into two very short interaction zones, each applying a formula_35 pulse. The two interaction zones are separated by a much longer non-interaction zone. By making the two interaction zones very short, the atoms spend a much shorter time in the presence of the external electromagnetic fields than they would in the Rabi model. This is advantageous because the longer the atoms are in the interaction zone, the more inhomogeneities (such as an inhomogeneous field) lead to reduced precision in determining formula_3. The non-interaction zone in Ramsey's model can be made much longer than the one interaction zone in Rabi's method because there is no perpendicular field formula_33 being applied in the non-interaction zone (although there is still
The Hamiltonian in the rotating frame for the two interaction zones is the same for that of the Rabi method, and in the non-interaction zone the Hamiltonian is only the formula_38 term. First a formula_39 pulse is applied to atoms in the ground state, whereupon the atoms reach the non-interaction zone and the spins precess about the z-axis for time formula_40. Another formula_39 pulse is applied and the probability measured—practically this experiment must be done many times, because one measurement will not be enough to determine the probability of measuring any value. (See the Bloch Sphere description below). By applying this evolution to atoms of one velocity, the probability to find the atom in the excited state as a function of the detuning and time of flight formula_40 in the non-interaction zone is (taking formula_43 here)
This probability function describes the well-known Ramsey fringes.
If there is a distribution of velocities and a "hard pulse" formula_45 is applied in the interaction zones so that all of the spins of the atoms are rotated formula_35on the Bloch sphere regardless of whether or not they all were excited to exactly the same resonance frequency, the Ramsey fringes will look very similar to those discussed above. If a hard pulse is not applied, then the variation in interaction times must be taken into account. What results are Ramsey fringes in an envelope in the shape of the Rabi method probability for atoms of one velocity. The line width formula_25 of the fringes in this case is what determines the precision with which formula_3 can be determined and is
By increasing the time of flight in the non-interaction zone, formula_40, or equivalently increasing the length formula_14 of the non-interaction zone, the line width can be improved by as much as 0.6 times those of other methods.
Because Ramsey's model allows for a longer observation time, one can more precisely differentiate between formula_2 and formula_1. This is a statement of the time-energy uncertainty principle: the larger the uncertainty in the time domain, the smaller the uncertainty in the Energy domain, or equivalently the frequency domain. Thought of another way, if two waves of almost exactly the same frequency are superimposed upon each other, then it will be impossible to distinguish them if the resolution of our eyes is larger than the difference between the two waves. Only after a long period of time will the difference between two waves become large enough to differentiate the two.
Early Ramsey interferometers used two interaction zones separated in space, but it is also possible to use two pulses separated in time, as long as the pulses are coherent. In the case of time-separated pulses, the longer the time between pulses, the more precise the measurement.
Applications of the Ramsey interferometer.
Atomic clocks and the SI definition of the second.
An atomic clock is fundamentally an oscillator whose frequency formula_2 is matched to that of an atomic transition of a two-level atom, formula_1. The oscillator is the parallel external electromagnetic field in the non-interaction zone of the Ramsey–Bordé interferometer. By measuring the transition rate from the excited to the ground state, one can tune the oscillator so that formula_56 by finding the frequency that yields the maximum transition rate. Once the oscillator is tuned, the number of oscillations of the oscillator can be counted electronically to give a certain time interval (e.g. the SI second, which is 9,192,631,770 periods of a cesium-133
Experiments of Serge Haroche.
Serge Haroche won the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics (with David J. Wineland)
for work involving cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) in which the research group used microwave-frequency photons to verify the quantum description of electromagnetic fields. Essential to their experiments was the Ramsey interferometer, which they used to demonstrate the transfer of quantum coherence from one atom to another through interaction with a quantum mode in a cavity. The setup is similar to a regular Ramsey interferometer, with key differences being there is a quantum cavity in the non-interaction zone and the second interaction zone has its field phase shifted by some constant relative to the first interaction zone.
If one atom is sent into the setup in its ground state formula_57 and passed through the first interaction zone, the state would become a superposition of ground and excited states formula_58, just as it would with a regular Ramsey interferometer. It then passes through the quantum cavity, which initially contains only a vacuum, and then is measured to be formula_57 or formula_60. A second atom initially in formula_57 is then sent through the cavity and then through the phase-shifted second Ramsey interaction zone. If the first atom is measured to be in formula_57, then the probability that the second atom is in formula_60 depends on the amount of time between sending in the first and the second atoms. The fundamental reason for this is that if the first atom is measured to be in formula_57, then there is a single mode of the electromagnetic field within the cavity that will subsequently affect the measurement outcome of the second atom.
The Ramsey–Bordé interferometer.
Early interpretations of atom interferometers, including those of Ramsey, used a classical description of the motion of the atoms, but Bordé introduced an interpretation that used a quantum description of the motion of the atoms. Strictly speaking, the Ramsey interferometer is not an interferometer in real space because the fringe patterns develop due to changes of the pseudo-spin of the atom in the internal atomic space. However, an argument could be made for the Ramsey interferometer to be an interferometer in real space by thinking about the atomic movement quantumly—the fringes can be thought of as the result of the momentum kick imparted to the atoms by the detuning formula_3.
The four traveling-wave interaction geometry.
The problem that Bordé et al. were trying to solve in 1984 was the averaging-out of Ramsey fringes of atoms whose transition frequencies were in the optical range. When this was the case, first-order Doppler shifts caused the Ramsey fringes to vanish because of the introduced spread in frequencies. Their solution was to have four Ramsey interaction zones instead of two, each zone consisting of a traveling wave but still applying a formula_39 pulse. The first two waves both travel in the same direction, and the second two both travel in the direction opposite that of the first and second. There are two populations that result from the interaction of the atoms first with the first two zones and subsequently with the second two. The first population consists of atoms whose Doppler-induced de-phasing has cancelled, resulting in the familiar Ramsey fringes. The second consists of atoms whose Doppler-induced de-phasing has doubled and whose Ramsey fringes have completely disappeared (this is known as the "backward-stimulated photon echo", and its signal goes to zero after integrating over all velocities).
The interaction geometry of two pairs of counter-propagating waves that Bordé et al. introduced allows improved resolution of spectroscopy of frequencies in the optical range, such as those of Ca and I2.
The interferometer.
Specifically, however, the Ramsey–Bordé interferometer is an atom interferometer that uses this four-traveling-wave geometry and the phenomenon of atomic recoil. In Bordé's notation, is the ground state and is the excited state. When an atom enters any of the four interaction zones, the wavefunction of the atom is divided into a superposition of two states, where each state is described by a specific energy and a specific momentum: , where α is either "a" or "b." The quantum number "m"α is the number of light momentum quanta formula_67 that have been exchanged from the initial momentum, where formula_68 is the wavevector of the laser. This superposition is due to the energy and momentum exchanged between the laser and the atom in the interaction zones during the absorption/emission processes. Because there is initially one atom-wave, after the atom has passed through three zones it is in a superposition of eight different states before it reaches the final interaction zone.
Looking at the probability to transition to after the atom has passed through the fourth interaction zone, one would find dependence on the detuning in the form of Ramsey fringes, but due to the difference in two quantum mechanical paths. After integrating over all velocities, there are only two closed circuit quantum mechanical paths that do not integrate to zero, and those are the and path and the and path, which are the two paths that lead to intersections of the diagram at the fourth interaction zone. The atom-wave interferometer formed by either of these two paths leads to a phase difference that is dependent on both internal and external parameters, i.e. it is dependent on the physical distances by which the interaction zones are separated and on the internal state of the atom, as well as external applied fields. Another way to think about these interferometers in the traditional sense is that for each path there are two arms, each of which is denoted by the atomic state.
If an external field is applied to either rotate or accelerate the atoms, there will be a phase shift due to the induced de Broglie phase in each arm of the interferometer, and this will translate to a shift in the Ramsey fringes. In other words, the external field will change the momentum states, which will lead to a shift in the fringe pattern, which can be detected. As an example, apply the following Hamiltonian of an external field to rotate the atoms in the interferometer:
This Hamiltonian leads to a time evolution operator to first order in formula_70:
If formula_72 is perpendicular to formula_73, then the round trip phase factor for one oscillation is given by formula_74, where formula_75 is the length of the entire apparatus from the first interaction zone to the final interaction zone. This will yield a probability such that
where formula_77 is the wavelength of the atomic two-level transition. This probability represents a shift from formula_1 by a factor of
For a calcium atom on the Earth's surface that rotates at formula_80, using formula_81 and looking at the formula_82 transition, the shift in the fringes would be formula_83, which is a measurable effect.
A similar effect can be calculated for the shift in the Ramsey fringes caused by the acceleration of gravity. The shifts in the fringes will reverse direction if the directions of the lasers in the interaction zones are reversed, and the shift will cancel if standing waves are used.
The Ramsey–Bordé interferometer provides the potential for improved frequency measurements in the presence of external fields or rotations.


Wald test

In statistics, the Wald test (named after Abraham Wald) assesses constraints on statistical parameters based on the weighted distance between the unrestricted estimate and its hypothesized value under the null hypothesis, where the weight is the precision of the estimate. Intuitively, the larger this weighted distance, the less likely it is that the constraint is true. While the finite sample distributions of Wald tests are generally unknown, it has an asymptotic χ2-distribution under the null hypothesis, a fact that can be used to determine statistical significance.
Together with the Lagrange multiplier and the likelihood-ratio test, the Wald test is one of three classical approaches to hypothesis testing. An advantage of the Wald test over the other two is that it only requires the estimation of the unrestricted model, which lowers the computational burden as compared to the likelihood-ratio test. However, a major disadvantage is that (in finite samples) it is not invariant to changes in the representation of the null hypothesis; in other words, algebraically equivalent expressions of non-linear parameter restriction can lead to different values of the test statistic. That is because the Wald statistic is derived from a Taylor expansion, and different ways of writing equivalent nonlinear expressions lead to nontrivial differences in the corresponding Taylor coefficients. Another aberration, known as the Hauck–Donner effect, can occur in binomial models when the estimated (unconstrained) parameter is close to the boundary of the parameter space—for instance a fitted probability being extremely close to zero or one—which results in the Wald test no longer monotonically increasing in the distance between the unconstrained and constrained parameter.
Mathematical details.
Under the Wald test, the estimated formula_1 that was found as the maximizing argument of the unconstrained likelihood function is compared with a hypothesized value formula_2. In particular, the squared difference formula_3 is weighted by the curvature of the log-likelihood function.
Test on a single parameter.
If the hypothesis involves only a single parameter restriction, then the Wald statistic takes the following form:
which under the null hypothesis follows an asymptotic χ2-distribution with one degree of freedom. The square root of the single-restriction Wald statistic can be understood as a (pseudo) "t"-ratio that is, however, not actually "t"-distributed except for the special case of linear regression with normally distributed errors. In general, it follows an asymptotic "z" distribution.
where formula_6 is the standard error of the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE), the square root of the variance. There are several ways to consistently estimate the variance matrix which in finite samples leads to alternative estimates of standard errors and associated test statistics and "p"-values.
Test(s) on multiple parameters.
The Wald test can be used to test a single hypothesis on multiple parameters, as well as to test jointly multiple hypotheses on single/multiple parameters. Let formula_7 be our sample estimator of "P" parameters (i.e., formula_7 is a formula_9 vector), which is supposed to follow asymptotically a normal distribution with covariance matrix "V", formula_10.
The test of "Q" hypotheses on the "P" parameters is expressed with a formula_11 matrix "R":
The test statistic is:
where formula_15 is an estimator of the covariance matrix.
Suppose formula_16. Then, by Slutsky's theorem and by the properties of the normal distribution, multiplying by R has distribution:
Recalling that a quadratic form of normal distribution has a Chi-squared distribution:
Rearranging "n" finally gives:
What if the covariance matrix is not known a-priori and needs to be estimated from the data? If we have a consistent estimator formula_20 of formula_21, then by the independence of the covariance estimator and equation above, we have:
Nonlinear hypothesis.
In the standard form, the Wald test is used to test linear hypotheses that can be represented by a single matrix "R". If one wishes to test a non-linear hypothesis of the form:
The test statistic becomes:
where formula_26 is the derivative of c evaluated at the sample estimator. This result is obtained using the delta method, which uses a first order approximation of the variance.
Non-invariance to re-parameterisations.
The fact that one uses an approximation of the variance has the drawback that the Wald statistic is not-invariant to a non-linear transformation/reparametrisation of the hypothesis: it can give different answers to the same question, depending on how the question is phrased. For example, asking whether "R" = 1 is the same as asking whether log "R" = 0; but the Wald statistic for "R" = 1 is not the same as the Wald statistic for log "R" = 0 (because there is in general no neat relationship between the standard errors of "R" and log "R", so it needs to be approximated).
Alternatives to the Wald test.
There exist several alternatives to the Wald test, namely the likelihood-ratio test and the Lagrange multiplier test (also known as the score test). Robert F. Engle showed that these three tests, the Wald test, the likelihood-ratio test and the Lagrange multiplier test are asymptotically equivalent. Although they are asymptotically equivalent, in finite samples, they could disagree enough to lead to different conclusions.
There are several reasons to prefer the likelihood ratio test or the Lagrange multiplier to the Wald test:


Madame X (album)

Madame X is the fourteenth studio album by American singer and songwriter Madonna. It was released on June 14, 2019, by Interscope Records. The album was creatively influenced by her expatriate life in Lisbon, Portugal, after relocating there in summer 2017. Madonna co-wrote and co-produced the album with a number of musicians, including Mirwais, Mike Dean, and Jason Evigan. It also features guest appearances by Maluma, Quavo, Swae Lee, and Anitta.
The album includes the singles "Medellín", "Crave", "I Rise" and "I Don't Search I Find" as well as two other promotional singles. All four singles reached the top spot on the Dance Club Songs in the United States, extending her record as the artist with the most number-one songs on a singular "Billboard" chart, with a total of 50. She also became the second artist to achieve a number-one song on any "Billboard" chart in five consecutive decades (Cher currently holds this record with 6 decades). However, "Madame X" also became her first album to fail to produce a "Billboard" Hot 100-charting single.
The Madame X Tour, an all-theatre tour in North America and Europe, began on September 17, 2019 and concluded on March 8, 2020. Music critics gave generally positive reviews for the album, praising its experimental composition. "Madame X" debuted atop the "Billboard" 200 chart, becoming her ninth number-one album in the United States. It also reached the number-two spot in several other countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Background and development.
In January 2018, Madonna announced on Instagram that she had begun working on her fourteenth studio album. Four months later, in May 2018, she performed at the Met Gala in New York. As part of her performance of her hit single "Like a Prayer", Madonna sang a brand new song "Dark Ballet" (then known as "Beautiful Game"). In October 2018, she was featured on the song "Champagne Rosé" by rapper Quavo, who in return became her collaborator on this album.
Madonna relocated to Lisbon, Portugal in 2017, seeking a top football academy for boys for her son David, who wanted to become a professional soccer player. However, she later found her life becoming relatively dull, so she decided to meet artists, painters, and musicians. One of the first musicians Madonna met in Lisbon was a man named Dino D'Santiago, who she said introduced her to a great many more musicians in the area, including the Batukadeiras, a collective of drummers who she collaborated with on the track "Batuka" on this album.
Believing "music is the soul of the universe", she felt connected to her new influences, so she then decided to record an album based on her musical experience in the Portuguese city, which she believed to be "a melting pot of culture musically, from Angola to Guinea-Bissau to Spain to Brazil to France to Cape Verde".
During the period while the album was being worked on, Madonna posted short video clips and images chronicling her work on the album. French producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï, who has previously co-produced three of Madonna's albums, "Music" (2000), "American Life" (2003) and "Confessions on a Dance Floor" (2005), was confirmed to be one of the key producers for "Madame X". Mike Dean, who co-produced "Rebel Heart" (2015), was also enlisted in the album's production. In February 2019, Maluma uploaded a picture on his Instagram account with Madonna in a studio. In her interview with "Vogue Italia", Madonna divulged that her album was due for release in 2019. On April 14, 2019, she posted a series of teaser clips on her Instagram account, revealing "Madame X" as the album title.
Title, artwork, and themes.
In a one-minute teaser uploaded to Madonna's official Instagram and YouTube accounts, Madonna declares herself as "Madame X", an alter-ego her album is named after, which is also the title of a 1908 play written by Alexandre Bisson. The video opens with Madonna singing an excerpt of a song, soon identified via Shazam as being "Extreme Occident", as it follows, "The thing that hurt the most was that I wasn't lost...I wasn't lost..."
She then elaborates that Madame X features different personas and characters:
Madame X is a secret agent. Traveling around the world. Changing identities. Fighting for freedom. Bringing light to dark places. She is a dancer. A professor. A head of state. A housekeeper. An equestrian. A prisoner. A student. A mother. A child. A teacher. A nun. A singer. A saint. A whore. A spy in the house of love. I am Madame X.
Madonna claims she was given the nomenclature "Madame X", at the age of 19, by her then dance teacher Martha Graham. According to Madonna, Graham said "I'm going to give you a new name: Madame X. Every day, you come to school and I don't recognize you. Every day, you change your identity. You're a mystery to me."
The album artwork features a close-up of the Madame X persona, with the title etched across her ruby red lips to give the illusion of her mouth being sewn shut. Mike Wass from "Idolator" called it an "already-iconic artwork" and compared the imagery to that of Frida Kahlo. In an interview with iHeartRadio's "The Box", Madonna disclosed that she is representing her mother, Madonna Fortin, as the photo depicts what she "look[ed] like". It is used in most digital and physical formats of the album, except the digital deluxe and box set, both of which feature another photograph of blonde Madonna.
Music and lyrics.
According to AllMusic and "The Daily Telegraph", the album consists of three main sounds: Latin music, trap music, and art pop. According to Rich Juzwiak of "Pitchfork", the album has a very diverse sound. He stated that it combines genres "as disparate as Portuguese fado, baile funk, Cape Verdean batuque, and good old American trap to make a literal, at times clinical, rendering of world music." CJ Thorpe-Tracey of "The Quietus" deemed the record a "swirling fusion of trap, fado, dub, and disco", while Craig Mathieson of "The Sydney Morning Herald" classified it under the electronic pop genre. "Madame X" is Madonna's most linguistically diverse album, sung in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. When dissecting the purpose of this album, she explained that it's a love letter to multiculturalism. "Art belongs to everyone. It's not a question of appropriating what other people do and taking it as your own. For me, it's an homage to all the music that I've listened to – and giving a platform and a voice to all of this incredible music that the rest of the world doesn't really have the privilege to hear."
The album opens with "Medellín", a Latin pop duet with Colombian reggaeton singer Maluma that depicts the pair longing for a trip to the song's titular Colombian city while reflecting on their past struggles. Madonna revealed after "Madame X" was released that she decided to collaborate with Maluma after she realized that he loves horses, as she does. The following track, "Dark Ballet", is an experimental pop song, featuring heavy use of Daft Punk-like vocoder and orchestral music, structured similarly to that of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Additionally, the song features a sample of "The Nutcracker Suite: Dance of the Reed-Flutes" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In an interview, Madonna revealed that the concept behind the song was influenced by one of her favourite films, "A Clockwork Orange". She also revealed in the album's press release announcement that it was based on Joan of Arc's life. In Madonna's own words, "Joan of Arc fought the English and she won, still the French were not happy. Still they judged her. They said she was a man, they said she was a lesbian, they said she was a witch, and, in the end, they burned her at the stake, and she feared nothing. I admire that."
"God Control” is an experimental disco song that blends a gospel choir, gunshots and vocodered vocals. While describing the inspiration behind the song, Madonna stated that she wanted to incorporate elements of disco music from the late '70s, as it reminded her of when she first moved to New York City and would frequently hang out at Studio 54 – a place where she felt liberated. It talks about standing up against authoritarianism and America's gun-control laws. Madonna further recounted the song's theme as how “Nowhere is safe any more – places where we used to go to dance and escape and have fun… or pray, or go to school… No public gathering is safe. I was thinking about Studio 54, because I caught the end of that wave – I moved to New York in 1979 that was the last year that Studio 54 was sort of in existence before [co-founders] Ian [Schrager] and Steve [Rubel] got arrested. And so, just the idea that those kinds of places, that used to bring people together, are no longer safe, is a really scary thought to me. And sad. People feel like gods when they have guns in their hands.” Controversy arose in November 2019 when Casey Spooner alleged that he wrote "God Control" with Mirwais and was subsequently not credited nor paid for his work.
The fourth track, "Future", is a dancehall song featuring American rapper Quavo. Lyrically, it discusses how one's viewpoint regarding the poor and underprivileged affects us on the long run. "Batuka" is heavily inspired by the music of Cape Verde, specifically Batuque. It features background vocals by The Batukadeiras Orchestra, a collective of all-female drummers, and its narrative is about commencing a revolution in an effort to defeat oppression. The sixth track, "Killers Who Are Partying", is heavily inspired by fado and it features a Portuguese guitar accompanied by a minimal beat. According to Madonna, this was the first track she wrote for the record. While elaborating its topic, Madonna specified that it's about her carrying the burden of all marginalized people. She further elucidated that "we have all these powerful men positioned in places all around the world who are celebrating and abusing their power while minorities are suffering, being degraded. The civil rights that we fought for the LGBTQ community, women's rights, everything started to go backwards and I felt that it was really important to reflect my rage, my sense of betrayal." Madonna also sings a few verses in Portuguese.
"Crave", is a midtempo pop and trap ballad featuring acoustic guitar, hand-clap beat, and guest vocals by American rapper and singer Swae Lee. Madonna stated in an interview backstage at the 2019 "Billboard" Music Awards that it was one of the first songs she wrote for the album and that she wanted to sing with a man on the track. On working with Swae Lee, Madonna said: "He's really talented...I think he's a great writer, a great singer and he's so cute. Cute's important." It paints the pair singing about an unreciprocated lover. The eighth track, "Crazy", is a soul-inflected track featuring a Portuguese accordion. Lyrically, it portrays Madonna as a woman madly in love who refuses to get consumed by her feelings. This is the second song on the record to feature verses sung in Portuguese. "Come Alive" pays homage to the music of North Africa, specifically that of the Gnawa tribe. In the track, Madonna further unfolded that "there's an interesting story [about] the shackles that the slaves wore so they couldn't escape. Once they were free, they turned what enslaved them into music – and they made those krakebs. I wanted to bring that instrument back into the story." The tenth track, "Extreme Occident", features elements of morna and Indian music. Madonna is once more heard singing a few lines in Portuguese. Its subject matter centres around Madonna's travels around the world searching for her own identity.
"Faz Gostoso", is a cover of the Brazilian-born Portuguese singer Blaya's signature hit. It features guest vocals by Brazilian singer Anitta and it remains faithful to the original version's baile funk style. Madonna felt it was pivotal to pay tribute to her Brazilian fans by singing in Brazilian Portuguese. According to the singer, it felt very different than Portugal's Portuguese, so she had to relearn the language. Lyrically, it's about engaging in an extramarital affair. The twelfth track, "Bitch I'm Loca", is a reggaeton song, and the second duet on the record with Maluma. It features Madonna singing most of her verses in Spanish. "I Don't Search I Find", is a house-inflected EDM and deep house track that heavily draws influence from Madonna's own work with Shep Pettibone, namely "Vogue". Chuck Arnold of "New York Post" also drew comparisons between the song, "Vogue", and Madonna's 2005 album "Confessions on a Dance Floor". The fourteenth track, "Looking for Mercy", displays Madonna at her most autobiographical – in which she admits to feeling isolated. "I Rise", described as a "powerful and uplifting anthem", deconstructs surviving and rising up from the adversities from the modern world. It contains a spoken intro taken from the speech of social activist, advocate for gun control Emma González, survivor from the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and co-founder of committee Never Again MSD, during an interview in February 2018.
The bonus disc of the deluxe 2-CD release and the box set edition of the album feature 3 additional songs: "Funana", "Back That Up to the Beat" and "Ciao Bella". In "Funana", an electropop track, she sings about idealizing a scenario of union and while name-dropping several musical icons, such as Elvis Presley, Bob Marley, Whitney Houston, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, George Michael, David Bowie, Tupac Shakur, Freddie Mercury and Prince. In addition to these, she mentions Swedish DJ and former collaborator Avicii and Mac Miller. "Back That Up to the Beat" is a reworked version of a leaked demo from Madonna's previous album "Rebel Heart". "Ciao Bella" features uncredited vocals from Bissau-Guinean musician Kimi Djabate.
Release and promotion.
Interscope Records released "Madame X" on June 14, 2019. A 23-minute documentary titled "World of Madame X" was released on June 29 on paid streaming service Amazon Prime. Directed by Nuno Xico, the short film breaks down the album production and the inspiration behind the music, as well as featuring sneak peaks of album photoshoot and behind the scenes of music videos. An exclusive Madame X Radio channel was launched on Sirius XM Satellite Radio on July 1. It showcased music spanning her career, especially "Madame X" songs and the background stories behind them. On March 24, 2020, Madonna announced via her Instagram page and her Twitter account that she would release her third fragrance, subsequent to Truth or Dare, called Madame X Eau De Parfum. The perfume was announced on Twitter and released on her official store on the 13th October 2020, described as a limited edition fragrance, "made up of fresh and floral scents from the Mediterranean coast, mystical flavours of the Orient, all transcended by Madame X's sensuality and rebellious spirit." The flavours include: orange blossom, raspberry, rose, patchouli, musk and amber.
Singles.
The album's lead single, "Medellín", was released on April 17, 2019, coinciding with the album becoming available to pre-order. The music video premiered on April 24, during a live MTV special broadcast simultaneously around the world. It aired across numerous MTV networks and digital channels. Spanish director Diana Kunst and multi-disciplinary artist Mau Morgó, directed the video. "Medellín" reached the top-ten of the charts in several countries, including Colombia, Croatia, Hungary, Israel, and Venezuela. In the United States, the song charted at number 18 on the Hot Latin Songs and number 1 on the Hot Dance Club Songs.
"Crave" was released as the second single on May 10. It officially impacted Hot/Modern/AC radio in the United States on May 20. The music video, directed by Nuno Xico, was released two days later. The song achieved her highest debut on the US Adult Contemporary chart, launching at number 19 and reaching number 11. It was her 37th entry on the chart and her second appearance for the 2010s after "Ghosttown" in 2015 and became her best-charting AC hit since "Frozen" in 1998. The official remixes for "Crave" were released 26 October 2019.
"I Rise" was first released as a promotional single on May 3, 2019. Madonna partnered with Time Studios to create the music video for "I Rise", released on June 19, 2019. It was directed by Peter Matkiwsky and includes footage of Parkland shooting survivors, LGBTQ supporters, women's rights protesters, Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman's testimony about sexual abuse and other social justice movements. The song's remixes, produced by Tracy Young, were commercially released on July 19, 2019 as part of Worldpride 2019. This remix won a Grammy award for Best Remixed Recording at the 62nd annual ceremony. The song peaked at number 1 on the US Dance Club Songs chart, becoming Madonna's 65th entry on the chart. It also reached number 37 on the US Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart.
"I Don't Search I Find" was released as the fourth single to Italian radio stations on May 22, 2020. Two remixes EPs were released featuring remixes from Honey Dijon, Chris Cox, Offer Nissim and other producers on December 6, 2019 and May 1, 2020.
Promotional singles and music videos.
In the lead up to the full release of "Madame X", "Future" and "Dark Ballet" were released as promotional singles on May 17 and June 7, respectively. The music video of "Dark Ballet" stars a Joan of Arc-inspired story-line featuring Mykki Blanco, where several heads of the church arrest and execute him. Within the video, Blanco is shown to be interpretative dancing in the iconic conical bra. The Honey Dijon remix of "I Don't Search I Find" was released on download and streaming services as of December 6, 2019. On February 14, 2020, the song became Madonna's record-breaking 50th number 1 on the Hot Dance Club Songs, the first artist to achieve this on any chart as well as in the span of 5 decades.
A music video for "God Control" was released on June 26, 2019. The video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund and depicts a shooting scene in a nightclub that resembles the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, and contains a call to action in favor of gun control.
A music video for the track "Batuka", directed by Emmanuel Adjei (who also had directed "Dark Ballet"), premiered on July 19, 2019. The video is very simple and revolves around Madonna and the Orquestra Batukadeiras dancing and playing Batuque. Near the end of the video, they stand together in a line, holding hands, watching the sunset and waves. The video's final shot shows what appears to be ghost sailing ships fading away as a storm forms over the ocean.
The track "Faz Gostoso", featuring Anitta, peaked at number 53 on the Portuguese Singles Chart and 47 on the monthly streaming chart published by Pro-Música Brasil.
Live performances.
Madonna and Maluma performed "Medellín" together at the 2019 "Billboard" Music Awards on May 1, 2019. Madonna appeared as an interval act during the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 18, 2019. She performed "Like a Prayer", a portion of "Dark Ballet", and "Future", accompanied by Quavo as a guest performer.
On June 30, Madonna included "God Control" and "I Rise" during her mini concert for Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 at Pier 97, Hudson River Park, New York City.
On May 6, 2019, the Madame X Tour was officially announced, with concerts in theatres between September 2019 and March 2020.
Critical reception.
"Madame X" was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 70, based on 21 reviews. Album of the Year collected 24 reviews and calculated an average of 71 out of 100. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album 6.9 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. These are the highest scores for a Madonna studio album in nearly 14 years, since "Confessions on a Dance Floor" (2005).
The more positive reviews of the album generally praised its unique and experimental nature. Kitty Empire of "The Guardian" hailed it as being a "splendidly bizarre return to form" for Madonna, describing the production as "fluid... but one tempered by Madonna's solid confidence in her own aesthetic decisions". Similarly, Nick Smith of "musicOMH" praised the album, calling it "bold, bizarre, brazen and beguiling". In his "Consumer Guide" column, Robert Christgau viewed "Madame X" as an indication that Madonna remains a "colorful" professional who releases solid records, even the songs "about forswearing dope and feeling the oppressed … well-intended ideas executed with the appropriate brio and calm, respectively".
However, mixed reviews of the album criticized its production aspects, as well as the nature of the singer's artistic direction. Neil McCormick of "The Daily Telegraph" summarized "Madame X" as being "a mad mishmash of an album" and criticized its lack of cohesiveness, stating that Madonna was "fighting on too many fronts at the same time". Similarly, Rob Sheffield of "Rolling Stone" described the album as being "admirably bizarre", remarking that its "strongest songs" were buried beneath "disasters". In a more critical review, Rich Juzwiak from "Pitchfork" denounced the album as being "muddled and convoluted", calling it "lyrically inarticulate".
At the end of the year, "Madame X" won an online poll hosted by "Billboard" as the best album of 2019. Various music publications such as "NME", "Billboard" and "Slant Magazine" included "Madame X" in their "Best Albums of 2019" lists.
The "World of Madame X" documentary won at the "Best Documentary" category during the Buenos Aires Music Video Festival in 2020.
Commercial performance.
"Madame X" debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200 with 95,000 album-equivalent units, of which 90,000 were pure album sales. It became Madonna's ninth number-one album in the United States. Madonna also topped the "Billboard" Artist 100 chart for the first time since its launch in 2014. Due to lack of sales and streaming, the album fell to number 77 on the next week's "Billboard" 200, and dropped out of that chart on its third week (the shortest American performance for a Madonna studio album), but it remained for nine weeks on the Top Album Sales chart.
In the UK, it entered the album chart at number two (behind Bruce Springsteen's "Western Stars") with just over 25,000 combined sales. It spent a total of five weeks in the UK Album Chart before dropping off the Top 100. In France, it started at number four on the album chart with 15,900 traditional units. It also entered the Sales Albums Chart at number five. In Germany, "Madame X" became Madonna's lowest charting studio album since 1992's "Erotica", peaking at number five.
Track listing.
Notes