title: Dortmund

text: The German Football Museum () aka DFB-Museum is the national museum for German football. It is located close to the Dortmund Hauptbahnhof and is part of an art and culture mile between the creative center Dortmund U-Tower and the Theater Dortmund, founded to preserve, conserve and interpret important collections of football memorabilia. In its permanent exhibition, the Museum presents the history of Germany national football team and the Bundesliga.


title: Dortmund

text: The Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte or MKK ("Museum of Art and Cultural History") is a municipal museum located in an Art Deco building which was formerly the Dortmund Savings Bank. The collection includes paintings, sculptures, furniture and applied art, illustrating the cultural history of Dortmund from early times to the 20th century. There are regular temporary exhibitions of art and culture, as well as a permanent exhibition on the history of surveying, with rare geodetic instruments.


title: Dortmund

text: The Steinwache is a memorial museum of the exhibition Widerstand und Verfolgung in Dortmund 1933–1945 ("Resistance and Persecution in Dortmund 1933–1945"), which demonstrates the persecution under National Socialism with many photographs, short texts and sometimes with reports from contemporary witnesses. The museum is located in an old prison and had a reputation as Die Hölle von Westdeutschland ("The hell of western Germany"). Between 1933 and 1945 more than 66,000 people were imprisoned in the Steinwache prison.


title: Dortmund

text: Dortmund offers a variety of restaurants, bars and clubs. Clubs concentrate in and around the city centre (Wallring) and in the Kreuzviertel district. After the Molotov in Hamburg and the Berghain in Berlin, the FZW (Freizeitzentrum West) in the Union district is one of the three best clubs in Germany. With 307 events in 2015, including concerts, parties, festivals, readings and football public viewings have strengthened the FZW's reputation as an "it club" in the Ruhr region.


title: Dortmund

text: Furthermore, Dortmund is one of the main centres of the Electronic dance music and techno subculture. With the Mayday and Syndicate festivals, the Westfalenhalle Arena has become one of the most important techno strongholds in Europe. After negotiations with several German cities, it was announced that the Love Parade would move to the Ruhr Area for five years (2007–2012).


title: Dortmund

text: After Essen in 2007 the festival took 2008 place on the Bundesstraße 1 under the motto "Highway of Love". The event was planned as a "Love Weekend", with parties throughout the region. For the first time the Turkish electronic scene was represented by its own float, called "Turkish Delights". The official estimate is that 1.6 million visitors attended, making it the largest parade to date.


title: Dortmund

text: Every year, the Juicy Beats music festival turns the Westfalenpark into a huge festival ground for pop, rap, electro, indie, alternative, reggae and urban beats – most recently with over 50,000 visitors.


title: Dortmund

text: Traditional meals in the region are Pfefferpotthast (A form of Goulash, though containing more beef), Balkenbrij, Heaven and Earth (Himmel und Äd; black pudding with stewed apples mixed with mashed potatoes), Currywurst and Pumpernickel with Griebenschmalz (German lard with crispy pieces of pork skin).


title: Dortmund

text: In summer the people like to eat a Dortmunder Salzkuchen (Bread buns with caraway fruits, salt, meat and onions). Also a special meal in the winter is Reibekuchen (fried potato pancake served with apple sauce).


title: Dortmund

text: Dortmund had more than 550 years of brewing tradition, some of the oldest breweries in Westphalia are founded around the Old Market in Dortmund. Dortmund is known for its pale lager beer called Dortmunder Export or Dortmunder, it became popular with industrial workers and was responsible for Dortmunder Union becoming Germany's largest brewery and Dortmund having the highest concentration of breweries in Germany. Popular and traditionally beer brands are Dortmunder Actien Brauerei, Bergmann Bier, Kronen, Union, Brinkhoff's, Dortmunder Hansa, Hövels, Ritter, Thier and Stifts.


title: Dortmund

text: "Stösschen" is a beer in a small glass "Stösschen" 0.2 litres and can be drunk in about two draughts. The idea of a Stößchen came about in the 19th century when people would have to wait at the level crossing to cross the Nordstadt Railway Line that divided the city centre from the Nordstadt district. A local innkeeper saw the potential of serving quick drinks to people waiting, and a Dortmund tradition began.


title: Dortmund

text: The Dortmunder Tropfen Schnaps is a type of liqueur that is flavored with herbs or spices and traditionally drunk neat as a digestif.


title: Dortmund

text: Dortmund calls itself "Sportstadt" (City of Sports). The city is the home of the biggest handball association in the world the German Handball Association (German: Deutscher Handballbund) (DHB) and the German professional handball league Handball-Bundesliga (HBL). Furthermore, Dortmund is home of the Olympic centre of Westphalia.


title: Dortmund

text: The city is home of many sports clubs, iconic athletes and annually organises several world-renowned sporting events, such as the Ruhrmarathon and the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting.


title: Dortmund

text: Dortmund is home to the sports club Borussia Dortmund, one of the most successful clubs in German football history. Borussia Dortmund are former Bundesliga champions most recently in 2011–12. Borussia Dortmund won the UEFA Champions League and the Intercontinental Cup in 1997, as well as the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1966. 'Die Borussen' are eight-time German Champions and have won five German Cups. Borussia Dortmund play at Westfalenstadion, currently known as Signal Iduna Park. It was built for the 1974 FIFA World Cup and also hosted some matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It is Germany's largest football stadium with a maximum capacity of 81,359 spectators.


title: Dortmund

text: The Dortmund Giants, established on 22 May 1980, is an American football team from Dortmund. The official name of the club is 1. Dortmunder Footballclub Dortmund 1980 "Giants" e.V. The club spent the 1994 season in the 2. Bundesliga before dropping for two seasons to the third tier Regionalliga West. Five more 2. Bundesliga seasons followed from 1997 to 2001, the final one in a combined team with the Bochum Cadets as the Dortmund B1 Giants. After a five-season spell in the Regionalliga the club finished the 2014 season without a win and had to return to the Oberliga once more.


title: Dortmund

text: Eisadler Dortmund is the city's ice hockey club that plays in Eissportzentrum Westfalenhallen an indoor sporting arena at the Strobelallee. They played in 2016/17 in the Oberliga, the third level of ice hockey in Germany.


title: Dortmund

text: The city's basketball club is SVD 49 Dortmund basketball team plays in its respective second national divisions.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Lake Titicaca (; ; ) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, it is also the largest lake in South America.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Lake Titicaca has a surface elevation of . The "highest lake" claim is generally considered to refer to commercial craft. Numerous smaller bodies of water (that are not considered lakes) around the world are at higher elevations. For many years, the largest vessel afloat on the lake was the 2,200-ton (2,425 U.S. tons), SS "Ollanta". Today, the largest vessel is most likely the similarly sized train barge/float "Manco Capac", operated by PeruRail.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Other cultures lived on Lake Titicaca prior to the arrival of the Incas. In 2000, a team of international archaeologists and divers found the ruins of an underwater temple, thought to be between 1,000 and 1,500 years old, most likely built by the Tiwanaku people. The ruins have been measured to be . The temple was accompanied by a village, some roads, terraces for farming and a retaining wall that ran for 800 metres.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The lake is located at the northern end of the endorheic Altiplano basin high in the Andes on the border of Peru and Bolivia. The western part of the lake lies within the Puno Region of Peru, and the eastern side is located in the Bolivian La Paz Department.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The lake consists of two nearly separate subbasins connected by the Strait of Tiquina, which is across at the narrowest point. The larger subbasin, "Lago Grande" (also called "Lago Chucuito"), has a mean depth of and a maximum depth of . The smaller subbasin, Wiñaymarka (also called "Lago Pequeño", "little lake"), has an average depth of and a maximum depth of . The overall average depth of the lake is .


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Five major river systems feed into Lake Titicaca. In order of their relative flow volumes these are Ramis, Coata, Ilave, Huancané, and Suchez. More than 20 other smaller streams empty into Titicaca. The lake has 41 islands, some of which are densely populated.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Having only a single season of free circulation, the lake is monomictic, and water passes through Lago Huiñaimarca and flows out the single outlet at the Río Desaguadero, which then flows south through Bolivia to Lake Poopó. This only accounts for about 10% of the lake's water balance. Evapotranspiration, caused by strong winds and intense sunlight at high altitude, balances the remaining 90% of the water loss. It is nearly a closed lake.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Since 2000, Lake Titicaca has experienced constantly receding water levels. Between April and November 2009 alone, the water level dropped by , reaching the lowest level since 1949. This drop is caused by shortened rainy seasons and the melting of glaciers feeding the tributaries of the lake. Water pollution is also an increasing concern because cities in the Titicaca watershed grow, sometimes outpacing solid waste and sewage treatment infrastructure. According to the Global Nature Fund (GNF), Titicaca's biodiversity is threatened by water pollution and the introduction of new species by humans. In 2012, the GNF nominated the lake "Threatened Lake of the Year".


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The cold sources and winds over the lake give it an average surface temperature of . In the winter (June – September), mixing occurs with the deeper waters, which are always between .


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Neither the protohistoric nor prehistoric name for Lake Titicaca is known. Given the various Indigenous groups that occupied the Lake Titicaca region, it likely lacked a single, commonly accepted name in prehistoric times and at the time the Spaniards arrived.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The terms "titi" and "caca" can be translated in multiple ways. In Aymara, "titi" can be translated as either puma, lead, or a heavy metal. The word "caca" ("kaka") can be translated as white or grey hairs of the head and the term "k’ak’a" can be translated as either crack or fissure, or alternatively, comb of a bird. According to Weston La Barre, the Aymara considered in 1948 that the proper name of the lake is "titiq’aq’a," which means gray, discolored, lead-colored puma. This phrase refers to the sacred carved rock found on the Isla del Sol. In addition to names including the term "titi" and/or "caca," Lake Titicaca was also known as "Chuquivitu" in the 16th century. This name can be loosely translated as lance point. This name survives in modern usage in which the large lake is occasionally referred to as "Lago Chucuito."


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Stanish argues that the logical explanation for the origin of the name Titicaca is a corruption of the term "thakhsi cala," which is the 15th- to 16th-century name of the sacred rock on the Isla del Sol. Given the lack of a common name for Lake Titicaca in the 16th century, the Spaniards are thought to have used the name of the site of the most important indigenous shrine in the region, "thakhsi cala" on the Isla del Sol, as the name for the lake. In time and with usage, this name developed into "Titicaca."


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Locally, the lake goes by several names. The southeast quarter of the lake is separate from the main body (connected only by the Strait of Tiquina) and the Bolivians call it Lago Huiñaymarca (also Wiñay Marka, which in Aymara means the Eternal City) and the larger part Lago Chucuito. The large lake also is occasionally referred to as Lago Mayor, and the small lake as Lago Menor. In Peru, these smaller and larger parts are referred to as Lago Pequeño and Lago Grande, respectively.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The lake holds large populations of water birds and was designated as a Ramsar Site on August 26, 1998. Several threatened species such as the huge Titicaca water frog and the flightless Titicaca grebe are largely or entirely restricted to the lake, and the Titicaca orestias has likely become extinct (last seen in 1938) due to competition and predation by the introduced rainbow trout and the silverside "Odontesthes bonariensis". In addition to the Titicaca orestias, native fish species in the lake's basin are other species of "Orestias", and the catfish "Trichomycterus dispar", "T. rivulatus", and "Astroblepus stuebeli" (the last species not in the lake itself, but in associated ecosystems). The many "Orestias" species in Lake Titicaca differ significantly in both habitat preference and feeding behavior. About 90% of the fish species in the basin are endemic, including 23 species of "Orestias" that only are found in the lake. In addition to the threatened Titicaca grebe, some of the birds associated with water at Titicaca are the white-tufted grebe, Puna ibis, Chilean flamingo, Andean gull, Andean lapwing, white-backed stilt, greater yellowlegs, snowy egret, black-crowned night-heron, Andean coot, common gallinule, plumbeous rail, various ducks, wren-like rushbird, many-colored rush-tyrant, and yellow-winged blackbird.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Titicaca is home to 24 described species of freshwater snails (15 endemics, including several tiny "Heleobia" spp.) and less than half a dozen bivalves (all in family Sphaeriidae), but in general these are very poorly known and their taxonomy is in need of a review. The lake also has an endemic species flock of amphipods consisting of 11 "Hyalella" (an additional Titicaca "Hyalella" species is nonendemic).


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Reeds and other aquatic vegetation are widespread in Lake Titicaca. Totora sedges grow in water shallower than , less frequently to , but macrophytes, notably "Chara" and "Potamogeton", occur down to . In sheltered shallow waters, such as the harbour of Puno, "Azolla", "Elodea", "Lemna" and "Myriophyllum" are common.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The Tinajani Basin, in which Lake Titicaca lies, is an intermontane basin. This basin is a pull-apart basin created by strike-slip movement along regional faults starting in the late Oligocene and ending in the late Miocene. The initial development of the Tinajani Basin is indicated by volcanic rocks, which accumulated between 27 and 20 million years ago within this basin. They lie upon an angular unconformity which cuts across pre-basin strata. Lacustrine sediments of the Lower Tinajani Formation, which are exposed within the Tinajani Basin, demonstrate the presence of a pre-Quaternary, ancestral Lake Titicaca within it between 18 and 14 million years ago (Mya). Little is known about the prehistory of Lake Titicaca between 14 Mya and 370,000 BP because the lake sediments dating to this period lie buried beneath the bottom of Lake Titicaca and have not yet been sampled by continuous coring.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The Lake Titicaca drilling project recovered a 136-m-long drill core of sediments from the bottom of Lake Titicaca at a depth of and at a location just east of Isla del Sol. This core contains a continuous record of lake sedimentation and paleoenvironmental conditions for Lake Titicaca back to about 370,000 BP. For this period of time, Lake Titicaca was typically fresher and had higher lake levels during periods of expanded regional glaciation that corresponded to global glacial periods. During periods of reduced regional glaciation that corresponded to global interglacial periods, Lake Titicaca had typically low lake levels.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Lacustrine sediments and associated terraces provide evidence for the past existence of five major prehistoric lakes that occupied the Tinajani Basin during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Within the northern Altiplano (Tinajani Basin), these prehistoric lakes were Lake Mataro at an elevation of , Lake Cabana at an elevation of , Lake Ballivián at an elevation of , Lake (North) Minchin at an elevation of , and Lake (North) Tauca at an elevation . The age of Lake Mataro is uncertain—it may date back to the Late Pliocene. Lake Cabana possibly dates to the Middle Pleistocene. Lake Ballivián existed between 120,000 and 98,000 BP. Two high lake stands, between 72,000 and 68,000 BP and 44,000–34,000 BP, have been discerned for Lake Minchin within the Altiplano. Another ancient lake in the area is Ouki. The high lake levels of Lake Tauca have been dated as having occurred between 18,100 and 14,100 BP.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Lake Titicaca has a borderline subtropical highland/alpine climate with cool to cold temperatures for most of the year. The average annual precipitation is 610 mm (24 in) mostly falling in summer thunderstorms. Winters are dry with very cold nights and mornings and warm afternoons. Below are the average temperatures of the town of Juliaca, in the northern part of the lake.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The "Floating Islands" are small, man-made islands constructed by the Uros (or Uru) people from layers of cut totora, a thick, buoyant sedge that grows abundantly in the shallows of Lake Titicaca. The Uros harvest the sedges that naturally grow on the lake's banks to make the islands by continuously adding sedges to the surface.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: According to legend, the Uru people originated in the Amazon and migrated to the area of Lake Titicaca in the pre-Columbian era, where they were oppressed by the local population and were unable to secure land of their own. They built the sedge islands, which could be moved into deep water or to different parts of the lake, as necessary, for greater safety from their hostile neighbors on land.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Golden in color, many of the islands measure about , and the largest are roughly half the size of a football field. Each island contains several thatched houses, typically belonging to members of a single extended family. Some of the islands have watchtowers and other buildings, also constructed of sedges.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Historically, most of the Uros islands were located near the middle of the lake, about from the shore; however, in 1986, after a major storm devastated the islands, many Uros rebuilt closer to shore. , about 1,200 Uros lived on an archipelago of 60 artificial islands, clustering in the western corner of the lake near Puno, Titicaca's major Peruvian port town. The islands have become one of Peru's tourist attractions, allowing the Uros to supplement their hunting and fishing by conveying visitors to the islands by motorboat and selling handicrafts.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Amantani is another small island on Lake Titicaca populated by Quechua speakers. About 4,000 people live in 10 communities on the roughly circular island. Two mountain peaks, called Pachatata (Father Earth) and Pachamama (Mother Earth) and ancient ruins are on the top of both peaks. The hillsides that rise up from the lake are terraced and planted with wheat, potatoes, and vegetables. Most of the small fields are worked by hand. Long stone fences divide the fields, and cattle and sheep graze on the hillsides.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: No cars and no hotels are on the island. Since machines are not allowed on the island, all agriculture is done by hand. A few small stores sell basic goods, and a health clinic and six schools are found. Electricity was produced by a generator and provided limited power a few hours each day, but with the rising price of petroleum, they no longer use the generator. Most families use candles or flashlights powered by batteries or hand cranks. Small solar panels have recently been installed on some homes.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Some of the families on Amantani open their homes to tourists for overnight stays and provide cooked meals, arranged through tour guides. The families who do so are required to have a special room set aside for the tourists and must conform to a code specified by the tourist companies that help them. Guests typically take food staples (cooking oil, rice, etc., but no sugar products, as they have no dental facilities) as a gift, or school supplies for the children on the island. The islanders hold nightly traditional dance shows for the tourists, where they offer to dress them up in their traditional clothes and allow them to participate.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Taquile is a hilly island located east of Puno. It is narrow and long and was used as a prison during the Spanish Colony and into the 20th century. In 1970, it became property of the Taquile people, who have inhabited the island since then. The current population is around 2,200. The island is in size (maximum measurements), with an area of . The highest point of the island is above sea level, and the main village is at . Pre-Inca ruins are found on the highest part of the island, and agricultural terraces on hillsides. From the hillsides of Taquile, one has a view of the tops of Bolivian mountains. The inhabitants, known as "Taquileños", are southern Quechua speakers.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Taquile is especially known for its handicraft tradition, which is regarded as being of the highest quality. "Taquile and Its Textile Art" were honored by being proclaimed "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO. Knitting is exclusively performed by males, starting at age eight. The women exclusively make yarn and weave.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Taquileans are also known for having created an innovative, community-controlled tourism model, offering home stays, transportation, and restaurants to tourists. Ever since tourism started coming to Taquile in the 1970s, the "Taquileños" have slowly lost control over the mass day-tourism operated by non-Taquileans. They have thus developed alternative tourism models, including lodging for groups, cultural activities, and local guides who have completed a 2-year training program. The local Travel Agency, Munay Taquile, has been established to regain control over tourism.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The people in Taquile run their society based on community collectivism and on the Inca moral code "ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla," (do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy). The island is divided into six sectors or "suyus" for crop rotation purposes. The economy is based on fishing, terraced farming based on potato cultivation, and tourist-generated income from the roughly 40,000 tourists who visit each year.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Situated on the Bolivian side of the lake with regular boat links to the town of Copacabana, Bolivia, Isla del Sol ("Island of the Sun") is one of the largest islands of the lake. Geographically, the terrain is harsh; it is a rocky, hilly island. No motor vehicles or paved roads are on the island. The main economic activity of the approximately 800 families on the island is farming, with fishing and tourism augmenting the subsistence economy.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Over 180 ruins remain on the island. Most of these date to the Inca period around the 15th century AD. Many hills on the island contain terraces, which adapt steep and rocky terrain to agriculture. Among the ruins on the island are the Sacred Rock, a labyrinth-like building called Chinkana, Kasa Pata, and Pilco Kaima. In the religion of the Incas, the sun god was believed to have been born here.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: During 1987–92, Johan Reinhard directed underwater archaeological investigations off of the Island of the Sun, recovering Inca and Tiahuanaco offerings. These artifacts are currently on display in the site museum of the village of Challapampa.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Isla de la Luna is situated east from the bigger Isla del Sol. Both islands belong to the La Paz Department of Bolivia. According to legends that refer to Inca mythology Isla de la Luna (Spanish for "island of the moon") is where Viracocha commanded the rising of the moon. Ruins of a supposed Inca nunnery (Mamakuna) occupy the oriental shore.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Archaeological excavations indicate that the Tiwanaku peoples (around 650–1000 AD) built a major temple on the Island of the Moon. Pottery vessels of local dignitaries dating from this period have been excavated on islands in Lake Titicaca. Two of them were found in the 19th century and are now in the British Museum in London. The structures seen on the island today were built by the Inca ("circa" 1450–1532) directly over the earlier Tiwanaku ones.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Suriki lies in the Bolivian part of lake Titicaca (in the southeastern part also known as lake Wiñaymarka).


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Suriki is thought to be the last place where the art of reed boat construction survives, at least as late as 1998. Craftsmen from Suriqui helped Thor Heyerdahl in the construction of several of his projects, such as the reed boats "Ra II" and "Tigris", and a balloon gondola.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The dual gauge car float "Manco Capac" links PeruRail's line at Puno with the Bolivian railways' line at Guaqui.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: The lake has had a number of steamships, each of which was built in the United Kingdom in "knock down" form with bolts and nuts, disassembled into many hundreds of pieces, transported to the lake, and then riveted together and launched.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: In 1862 Thames Ironworks on the River Thames built the iron-hulled sister ships SS "Yavari" and SS "Yapura" under contract to the James Watt Foundry of Birmingham. The ships were designed as combined cargo, passenger, and gunboats for the Peruvian Navy. After several years' delay in delivery from the Pacific coast to the lake, "Yavari" was launched in 1870 and "Yapura" in 1873. "Yavari" was long, but in 1914 her hull was lengthened for extra cargo capacity and she was re-engined as a motor vessel.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: In November 1883, during the final phase of the War of the Pacific, the Chilean military command sent the to the lake, via railroad, from Mollendo to Puno to control the area. It was the first warship to navigate the lake.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: In 1892, William Denny and Brothers at Dumbarton on the River Clyde in Scotland built . She was long and was launched on the lake in 1893.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: In 1905, Earle's Shipbuilding at Kingston upon Hull on the Humber built . By then, a railway served the lake, so the ship was delivered in kit form by rail. At long and 1,809 tons (1,994 U.S. tons), "Inca" was the lake's largest ship thus far. In the 1920s, Earle's supplied a new bottom for the ship, which also was delivered in kit form.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: Trade continued to grow, so in 1930, Earle's built . Her parts were landed at the Pacific Ocean port of Mollendo and brought by rail to the lake port of Puno. At long and 2,200 tons (425 U.S. tons), she was considerably larger than the "Inca", so first a new slipway had to be built to build her. She was launched in November 1931.


title: Lake Titicaca

text: In 1975, "Yavari" and "Yapura" were returned to the Peruvian Navy, which converted "Yapura" into a hospital ship and renamed her BAP "Puno". The Navy discarded "Yavari", but in 1987, charitable interests bought her and started restoring her. She is now moored at Puno Bay and provides static tourist accommodation while her restoration continues. "Coya" was beached in 1984, but restored as a floating restaurant in 2001. "Inca" survived until 1994, when she was broken up. "Ollanta" is no longer in scheduled service, but PeruRail has been leasing her for tourist charter operations.


title: Meritocracy

text: Meritocracy ("merit", from Latin , and "-cracy", from Ancient Greek 'strength, power') is the notion of a political system in which economic goods and/or political power are vested in individual people based on talent, effort, and achievement, rather than wealth or social class. Advancement in such a system is based on performance, as measured through examination or demonstrated achievement. Although the concept of meritocracy has existed for centuries, the first known use of the term was by sociologist Alan Fox in the journal "Socialist Commentary" in 1956. It was then popularized by sociologist Michael Dunlop Young, who used the term in his dystopian political and satirical book "The Rise of the Meritocracy" in 1958.


title: Meritocracy

text: Meritocracy was most famously argued by Plato, in his book "The Republic" and stood to become one of the foundations of politics in the Western world. The "most common definition of meritocracy conceptualizes merit in terms of tested competency and ability, and most likely, as measured by IQ or standardized achievement tests". In government and other administrative systems, "meritocracy" refers to a system under which advancement within the system turns on "merits", like performance, intelligence, credentials, and education. These are often determined through evaluations or examinations.


title: Meritocracy

text: In a more general sense, meritocracy can refer to any form of evaluation based on achievement. Like "utilitarian" and "pragmatic", the word "meritocratic" has also developed a broader connotation, and is sometimes used to refer to any government run by "a ruling or influential class of educated or able people".


title: Meritocracy

text: This is in contrast to the original, condemnatory use of the term in 1958 by Michael Dunlop Young in his work ""The Rise of the Meritocracy"", who was satirizing the ostensibly merit-based Tripartite System of education practiced in the United Kingdom at the time; he claimed that, in the Tripartite System, "merit is equated with intelligence-plus-effort, its possessors are identified at an early age and selected for appropriate intensive education, and there is an obsession with quantification, test-scoring, and qualifications".


title: Meritocracy

text: Meritocracy in its wider sense, may be any general act of judgment upon the basis of various demonstrated merits; such acts frequently are described in sociology and psychology.


title: Meritocracy

text: In rhetoric, the demonstration of one's merit regarding mastery of a particular subject is an essential task most directly related to the Aristotelian term "Ethos". The equivalent Aristotelian conception of meritocracy is based upon aristocratic or oligarchic structures, rather than in the context of the modern state.


title: Meritocracy

text: In the United States, the assassination of President James A. Garfield in 1881 prompted the replacement of the American spoils system with a meritocracy. In 1883, The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was passed, stipulating government jobs should be awarded on the basis of merit through competitive exams, rather than ties to politicians or political affiliation.


title: Meritocracy

text: The most common form of meritocratic screening found today is the college degree. Higher education is an imperfect meritocratic screening system for various reasons, such as lack of uniform standards worldwide, lack of scope (not all occupations and processes are included), and lack of access (some talented people never have an opportunity to participate because of the expense, most especially in developing countries). Nonetheless, academic degrees serve some amount of meritocratic screening purpose in the absence of a more refined methodology. Education alone, however, does not constitute a complete system, as meritocracy must automatically confer power and authority, which a degree does not accomplish independently.


title: Meritocracy

text: Ray Dalio uses the term "idea meritocracy" for a system that promotes good ideas rather than just the originator.


title: Meritocracy

text: Although the concept has existed for centuries, the term "meritocracy" is relatively new. It was first used pejoratively by sociologist Alan Fox in 1956, and then by British politician and sociologist Michael Dunlop Young in his 1958 satirical essay "The Rise of the Meritocracy". Young's essay pictured the United Kingdom under the rule of a government favouring intelligence and aptitude (merit) above all else, being the combination of the root of Latin origin "merit" (from "mereō" meaning "earn") and the Ancient Greek suffix "-cracy" (meaning "power", "rule"). The "purely" Greek word is axiocracy (αξιοκρατία), from axios (αξιος, worthy) + "-cracy" (-κρατία, power).


title: Meritocracy

text: In this book the term had distinctly negative connotations as Young questioned both the legitimacy of the selection process used to become a member of this elite and the outcomes of being ruled by such a narrowly defined group.


title: Meritocracy

text: The essay, written in the first person by a fictional historical narrator in 2034, interweaves history from the politics of pre- and post-war Britain with those of fictional future events in the short (1960 onward) and long term (2020 onward).


title: Meritocracy

text: The essay was based upon the tendency of the then-current governments, in their striving toward intelligence, to ignore shortcomings and upon the failure of education systems to utilize correctly the gifted and talented members within their societies.


title: Meritocracy

text: Young's fictional narrator explains that, on the one hand, the greatest contributor to society is not the "stolid mass" or majority, but the "creative minority" or members of the "restless elite". On the other hand, he claims that there are casualties of progress whose influence is underestimated and that, from such stolid adherence to natural science and intelligence, arises arrogance and complacency. This problem is encapsulated in the phrase "Every selection of one is a rejection of many".


title: Meritocracy

text: It was also used by Hannah Arendt in her essay "Crisis in Education", which was written in 1958 and refers to the use of meritocracy in the English educational system. She too uses the term pejoratively. It was not until 1972 that Daniel Bell used the term positively.


title: Meritocracy

text: M. Young's formula to describe meritocracy is: m = IQ + E. The formula of L. Ieva instead is: m = f (IQ, Cut, ex) + E. That is, for Young, meritocracy is the sum of intelligence and energy; while, for Ieva it is represented by the function between intelligence, culture and experience, to which energy is then added.


title: Meritocracy

text: Some of the earliest example of an administrative meritocracy, based on civil service examinations, dates back to Ancient China. The concept originates, at least by the sixth century BC, when it was advocated by the Chinese philosopher Confucius, who "invented the notion that those who govern should do so because of merit, not of inherited status. This sets in motion the creation of the imperial examinations and bureaucracies open only to those who passed tests".


title: Meritocracy

text: As the Qin and Han dynasties developed a meritocratic system in order to maintain power over a large, sprawling empire, it became necessary for the government to maintain a complex network of officials. Prospective officials could come from a rural background and government positions were not restricted to the nobility. Rank was determined by merit, through the civil service examinations, and education became the key for social mobility. After the fall of the Han Dynasty, the nine-rank system was established during the Three Kingdoms period.


title: Meritocracy

text: Both Plato and Aristotle advocated meritocracy, Plato in his "The Republic", arguing that the wisest should rule, and hence the rulers should be philosopher kings.


title: Meritocracy

text: The first European power to implement a successful meritocratic civil service was the British Empire, in their administration of India: "company managers hired and promoted employees based on competitive examinations in order to prevent corruption and favoritism". British colonial administrators advocated the spread of the system to the rest of the Commonwealth, the most "persistent" of which was Thomas Taylor Meadows, Britain's consul in Guangzhou, China. Meadows successfully argued in his "Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China", published in 1847, that "the long duration of the Chinese empire is solely and altogether owing to the good government which consists in the advancement of men of talent and merit only", and that the British must reform their civil service by making the institution meritocratic. This practice later was adopted in the late nineteenth century by the British mainland, inspired by the "Chinese mandarin system".


title: Meritocracy

text: The British philosopher and polymath John Stuart Mill advocated meritocracy in his book, "Considerations on Representative Government". His model was to give more votes to the more educated voter. His views are explained in Estlund (2003:57–58):


title: Meritocracy

text: <poem>Mill's proposal of plural voting has two motives. One is to prevent one group or class of people from being able to control the political process even without having to give reasons in order to gain sufficient support. He calls this the problem of class legislation. Since the most numerous class is also at a lower level of education and social rank, this could be partly remedied by giving those at the higher ranks plural votes. A second, and equally prominent motive for plural voting is to avoid giving equal influence to each person without regard to their merit, intelligence, etc. He thinks that it is fundamentally important that political institutions embody, in their spirit, the recognition that some opinions are worth more than others. He does not say that this is a route to producing better political decisions, but it is hard to understand his argument, based on this second motive, in any other way.


title: Meritocracy

text: So, if Aristotle is right that the deliberation is best if participants are numerous (and assuming for simplicity that the voters are the deliberators) then this is a reason for giving all or many citizens a vote, but this does not yet show that the wiser subset should not have, say, two or three; in that way something would be given both to the value of the diverse perspectives, and to the value of the greater wisdom of the few. This combination of the Platonic and Aristotelian points is part of what I think is so formidable about Mill's proposal of plural voting. It is also an advantage of his view that he proposes to privilege not the wise, but the educated. Even if we agreed that the wise should rule, there is a serious problem about how to identify them. This becomes especially important if a successful political justification must be generally acceptable to the ruled. In that case, privileging the wise would require not only their being so wise as to be better rulers, but also, and more demandingly, that their wisdom be something that can be agreed to by all reasonable citizens. I turn to this conception of justification below.


title: Meritocracy

text: Mill's position has great plausibility: good education promotes the ability of citizens to rule more wisely. So, how can we deny that the educated subset would rule more wisely than others? But then why shouldn't they have more votes?</poem>


title: Meritocracy

text: The Ashanti King Osei Kwadwo who ruled from c. 1764 to 1777, began the meritocratic system of appointing central officials according to their ability, rather than their birth.


title: Meritocracy

text: In the United States, the federal bureaucracy used the spoils system from 1828 until the assassination of United States President James A. Garfield by a disappointed office seeker in 1881 proved its dangers. Two years later in 1883, the system of appointments to the United States Federal Bureaucracy was revamped by the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, partially based on the British meritocratic civil service that had been established years earlier. The act stipulated that government jobs should be awarded on the basis of merit, through competitive exams, rather than ties to politicians or political affiliation. It also made it illegal to fire or demote government employees for political reasons.


title: Meritocracy

text: To enforce the merit system and the judicial system, the law also created the United States Civil Service Commission. In the modern American meritocracy, the president may hand out only a certain number of jobs, which must be approved by the United States Senate.


title: Meritocracy

text: Australia began establishing public universities in the 1850s with the goal of promoting meritocracy by providing advanced training and credentials. The educational system was set up to service urban males of middle-class background, but of diverse social and religious origins. It was increasingly extended to all graduates of the public school system, those of rural and regional background, and then to women and finally to ethnic minorities. Both the middle classes and the working classes have promoted the ideal of meritocracy within a strong commitment to "mate-ship" and political equality.


title: Meritocracy

text: Singapore describes meritocracy as one of its official guiding principles for domestic public policy formulation, placing emphasis on academic credentials as objective measures of merit.


title: Meritocracy

text: There is criticism that, under this system, Singaporean society is being increasingly stratified and that an elite class is being created from a narrow segment of the population. Singapore has a growing level of tutoring for children, and top tutors are often paid better than school teachers. Defenders of this system recall the ancient Chinese proverb "Wealth never survives past three generations" (), suggesting that the nepotism or cronyism of elitists eventually will be, and often are, limited by those lower down the hierarchy.


title: Meritocracy

text: Singaporean academics are continuously re-examining the application of meritocracy as an ideological tool and how it's stretched to encompass the ruling party's objectives. Professor Kenneth Paul Tan at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy asserts that "meritocracy, in trying to 'isolate' merit by treating people with fundamentally unequal backgrounds as superficially the same, can be a practice that ignores and even conceals the real advantages and disadvantages that are unevenly distributed to different segments of an inherently unequal society, a practice that in fact perpetuates this fundamental inequality. In this way, those who are picked by meritocracy as having merit may already have enjoyed unfair advantages from the very beginning, ignored according to the principle of nondiscrimination".


title: Meritocracy

text: How meritocracy in the Singaporean context relates to the application of pragmatism as an ideological device, which combines strict adherence to market principles "without" any aversion to social engineering and little propensity for classical social welfarism, is further illustrated by Kenneth Paul Tan in subsequent articles:


title: Meritocracy

text: There is a strong ideological quality in Singapore's pragmatism, and a strongly pragmatic quality in ideological negotiations within the dynamics of hegemony. In this complex relationship, the combination of ideological and pragmatic maneuvering over the decades has resulted in the historical dominance of government by the PAP in partnership with global capital whose interests have been advanced without much reservation.Within the Ecuadorian Ministry of Labor, the Ecuadorian Meritocracy Institute was created under the technical advice of the Singaporean government.


title: Meritocracy

text: The "meritocracy trap", a concept introduced by Daniel Markovits in his eponymous book, criticizes the aspirational view of meritocracy as being the cause of all problems associated with this matter: it is meritocracy itself that creates radical inequality and causes so many people in society, including those who are supposed to benefit from the situation, to be worse off. The accelerating inequality has been evolving under meritocracy’s own conditions. However, the author does not reject the whole idea of meritocracy; he tries to look for different and more suitable approaches to the matter. While many critics support the idea that the inequality that has been increasing since the middle of twentieth century is actually a result of inadequate meritocracy, based on the analysis of its indicators Markovits finds that increasing inequality is actually a result of meritocracy itself.


title: Meritocracy

text: The author points out the shift from the last five, six, seven decades, when the elite "leisure class" worked only rarely and spent days enjoying their fortune, while hard working people stayed poor for their whole lives. But lately, an important change occurred: according to a Harvard Business survey, members of the elite social circles are working more and harder than ever before. More than 60% of individuals with high income work circa 50 hours per week, around 30% of them work more than 60 hours per week and the last 10% spend over 80 hours per week occupied with their work responsibilities. Also, by having access to the best possible education available since starting school, members from the top 1% of households prevail in the world leading universities around the world. The interaction of these elements creates unusual and never-seen-before living situation for members of the elite circles: by hard work, higher amount of hours spent at work and performing with higher skills obtained from the best universities, they gain respect and position of the "superordinate" working class while losing their unflattering label of "leisure class". As the author implies in his calculations, the income of a typical elite household is now from three quarters made up of earnings from labor instead of ancestors' heritage.


title: Meritocracy

text: Secondly, Markovits introduces the idea of "snowball inequality", which is basically an ongoing cycle of widening gap between elite workers and members of the middle class. While the high-profile individuals obtain exclusive positions thanks to higher level of their skills, they occupy jobs and oust middle class workers from the core of economic events. After that, the elites take advantage of their high earnings by securing the best education for their own offspring so that they obtain the highest qualification and are desired by the market for their great skills. Hence the gap between elite and middle class members is widening with every generation, inequality extensively triumphing over social mobility and forming a "time divide" – with long hours working high-profile individuals on one side, and substantially inactive middle class workers that are less and less required on the other side.


title: Meritocracy

text: One side of the coin is in this case a clear loser: the middle class, which is unwillingly being excluded from economic prosperity, social benefit and the long desired ideal of American Dream. While it is impossible to measure the exact effects on the middle class, the side effects are more obvious: opioid epidemic, dramatic raise in "deaths of despair" (suicides, mental health and alcoholism), and lowering level of life expectancy in these societies are just some of them. Quite surprisingly however, the high-profile member of society is being harmed by meritocracy as well: they have to pay a significant price for their hectic working life. Many of them admit suffering from physical and mental health issues, inability to sustain a good quality personal life and lack of time spent with their families. What is of even higher importance is that meritocracy causes a continuous "competitive trap" within the elite social circles as its members are from a very early age basically contestants of a meritocratic marathon that starts in their exclusive preschools, continues at colleges and universities and finally moves its second half to the work environment. They are truly trapped in this vicious race where they are compelled to constantly compete with others and, most importantly, with themselves. In this matter, the author encounters the basic weakness of the aspirational lifestyle, which promotes the idea of meritocracy as a means for fair evaluation of the most skilled, gifted and hard-working.


title: Meritocracy

text: Markovits proposes a different approach to meritocracy, one where socioeconomic life conveniences are freely distributed to the people who are sufficiently successful at the things they are doing rather than creating an environment of ongoing competition. He promotes the idea that striving for being the best and brightest is a road to personal destruction and the people should be more open to the idea of just being good enough. Restructuring of economic roles, organizations and institutions is desirable in order to include a wider population and hence narrow the increasing inequality gap by questioning the social hegemony of high-profile workers, and intervening with redistribution of earnings, working hours and social identity on behalf of middle class workers.


title: Meritocracy

text: Michael Sandel develops the argument in his 2020 book "The Tyranny of Merit", making a case for overhauling western neo-liberalism. Elite institutions including the Ivy League and Wall Street have corrupted the virtue, according to Sandel, and the sense of who deserves power.


title: Meritocracy

text: The term "meritocracy" was originally intended as a negative concept. One of the primary concerns with meritocracy is the unclear definition of "merit". What is considered as meritorious can differ with opinions as on which qualities are considered the most worthy, raising the question of which "merit" is the highest—or, in other words, which standard is the "best" standard. As the supposed effectiveness of a meritocracy is based on the supposed competence of its officials, this standard of merit cannot be arbitrary and has to also reflect the competencies required for their roles.


title: Meritocracy

text: The reliability of the authority and system that assesses each individual's merit is another point of concern. As a meritocratic system relies on a standard of merit to measure and compare people against, the system by which this is done has to be reliable to ensure that their assessed merit accurately reflects their potential capabilities. Standardized testing, which reflects the meritocratic sorting process, has come under criticism for being rigid and unable to accurately assess many valuable qualities and potentials of students. Education theorist Bill Ayers, commenting on the limitations of standardized testing, writes that "standardized tests can't measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable dispositions and attributes. What they can measure and count are isolated skills, specific facts and function, content knowledge, the least interesting and least significant aspects of learning". Merit determined through the opinionated evaluations of teachers, while being able to assess the valuable qualities that cannot be assessed by standardized testing, are unreliable as the opinions, insights, biases, and standards of the teachers vary greatly. If the system of evaluation is corrupt, non-transparent, opinionated or misguided, decisions regarding who has the highest merit can be highly fallible.


title: Meritocracy

text: The level of education required in order to become competitive in a meritocracy may also be costly, effectively limiting candidacy for a position of power to those with the means necessary to become educated. An example of this was Chinese student self-declared messiah, Hong Xiuquan, who despite ranking first in a preliminary, nationwide imperial examination, was unable to afford further education. As such, although he did try to study in private, Hong was ultimately noncompetitive in later examinations and unable to become a bureaucrat. This economic aspect of meritocracies has been said to continue nowadays in countries without free educations, with the Supreme Court of the United States, for example, consisting only of justices who attended Harvard or Yale and generally only considering clerkship candidates who attended a top-five university, while in the 1950s the two universities only accounted for around one fifth of the justices. Even if free education were provided, the resources that the parents of a student are able to provide outside of the curriculum, such as tutoring, exam preparation, and financial support for living costs during higher education will influence the education the student attains and the student's social position in a meritocratic society. This limits the fairness and justness of any meritocratic system. Similarly, feminist critics have noted that many hierarchical organisations actually favour individuals who have received disproportionate support of an informal kind (e.g. mentorship, word-of-mouth opportunities, and so on), such that only those who benefit from such supports are likely to understand these organisations as meritocratic.


title: Meritocracy

text: Cornell University economist Robert H. Frank rejects meritocracy in his book "Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy". He describes how chance plays a significant role in deciding who gets what that is not objectively based on merit. He does not discount the importance of hard work, but, using psychological studies, mathematical formulae, and examples, demonstrates that among groups of people performing at a high level, chance (luck) plays an enormous role in an individual's success.


title: Meritocracy

text: Another concern regards the principle of incompetence, or the "Peter Principle". As people rise in a meritocratic society through the social hierarchy through their demonstrated merit, they eventually reach, and become stuck, at a level too difficult for them to perform effectively; they are promoted to incompetence. This reduces the effectiveness of a meritocratic system, the supposed main practical benefit of which is the competence of those who run the society.


title: Meritocracy

text: In his book "Meritocratic Education and Social Worthlessness" (Palgrave, 2012), the philosopher Khen Lampert argued that educational meritocracy is nothing but a post-modern version of Social Darwinism. Its proponents argue that the theory justifies social inequality as being meritocratic. This social theory holds that Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is a model, not only for the development of biological traits in a population, but also as an application for human social institutions—the existing social institutions being implicitly declared as normative. Social Darwinism shares its roots with early progressivism, and was most popular from the late nineteenth century to the end of World War II. Darwin only ventured to propound his theories in a biological sense, and it is other thinkers and theorists who have applied Darwin's model normatively to unequal endowments of human ambitions.


title: Meritocracy

text: Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel in his latest book makes a case against meritocracy, calling it a "tyranny". Ongoing stalled social mobility and increasing inequality are laying bare the crass delusion of the American Dream, and the promise "you can make it if you want and try". The latter, according to Sandel, is the main culprit of the anger and frustration which brought some Western countries towards populism.


title: Meritocracy

text: School meritocracy is the belief that hard work leads to success. Research shows that teachers give better grades and value a lot more children who explain their problems or their behaviour with inner explanations (like the amount of efforts they gave), than those who give environmental or factual explanations (like predispositions or family background). Moreover, pupils who want to show a good image of themselves will prefer explaining their success or failures with inner characteristics rather than with external facts.


title: Meritocracy

text: However, social classes and sex are other important factors which explain academic success, merit being only one of the determining aspects.


title: Meritocracy

text: Education system has two functions: one is to educate, and the other is to select. Indeed, in occidental societies, the education system assigns occupations to students, occupations that are very different in wealth, power, and position, through grades and diplomas that act as merit indicators. Students with very good degrees will be directed to high status jobs and students with lower degrees or no degree at all will be directed to low status jobs. As a result, one’s future depends entirely on one’s success or failure during school career, which itself depends, according to school meritocracy, on its own efforts to make it a success. School meritocracy is also linked with favouritism and with group membership.


title: Meritocracy

text: However, school career, grades and degrees depend a lot on group belonging (sex, being from privileged or unprivileged background) to the extent that growing up with less resources (computer, educated parents who can help with homework…) and less serenity, will penalise a pupil no matter how many efforts he or she makes.


title: Meritocracy

text: It has also been discovered that the more a woman tend to believe in meritocracy, the less they would reject system explanations about men’s superiority. Believing in meritocracy is sometimes a bias, as some scientific results from studies showed that participants would work harder when they were told that success on the task was due to luck, for instance. They would also value much more one study among similar ones, based on meritocracy believes.


title: Meritocracy

text: The belief in school meritocracy (BSM) is a way to justify the social order. It is linked to the theory of social reproduction. High status group members are better off than low status group members who are disadvantaged by the hierarchies. Justifying the status by school meritocracy is a way to legitimize their position. However, school meritocracy is also a positive belief to the extent that it promotes the idea of social mobility and the fact that when one has a strong will, one can reach any status. This fact makes students from lower status groups more dependent to the meritocratic belief than students from the higher status groups, because it represents their probability to reach a higher status group. Therefore, it has been shown they can end up agreeing more in school meritocracy.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean and operated by BP. On 20 April 2010, while drilling at the Macondo Prospect, a blowout caused an explosion on the rig that killed 11 crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from away. The fire was inextinguishable and, two days later, on 22 April, the "Horizon" sank, leaving the well gushing at the seabed and causing the largest marine oil spill in history.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: Built in 2001 in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the rig was commissioned by R&B Falcon (a later asset of Transocean), registered in Majuro, and leased to BP from 2001 until September 2013. In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a vertical depth of and measured depth of in the Tiber Oil Field at Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately southeast of Houston, in of water.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: "Deepwater Horizon" was a fifth-generation, RBS-8D design (i.e. model type), deepwater, dynamically positioned, column-stabilized, semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, designed to drill subsea wells for oil exploration and production using an , blowout preventer, and a outside diameter marine riser.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: "Deepwater Horizon" was the second semi-submersible rig constructed of a class of two, although "Deepwater Nautilus", its predecessor, is not dynamically positioned. The rig was and capable of operating in waters up to deep, to a maximum drill depth of . In 2010 it was one of approximately 200 deepwater offshore rigs capable of drilling in waters deeper than . Its American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) class notations were "A1, Column Stabilized Drilling Unit, AMS, ACCU, DPS-3".


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: In 2002, the rig was upgraded with "e-drill", a drill monitoring system whereby technical personnel based in Houston, Texas, received real-time drilling data from the rig and transmitted maintenance and troubleshooting information.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: Advanced systems played a key role in the rig's operation, from pressure and drill monitoring technology, to automated shutoff systems and modelling systems for cementing. The OptiCem cement modelling system, used by Halliburton in April 2010, played a crucial part in cement slurry mix and support decisions. These decisions became a focus for investigations into the explosion on the rig that month.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: "Deepwater Horizon" was built for R&B Falcon (which later became part of Transocean) by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea. Construction started in December 1998, the keel was laid on 21 March 2000, and the rig was delivered on 23 February 2001, after the acquisition of R&B Falcon by Transocean. Until 29 December 2004 the rig was registered in the Republic of Panama.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: Transocean, through its Steinhausen, Switzerland subsidiary Triton Asset Leasing GmbH, operated the rig under the Marshallese flag of convenience. The rig was leased to BP on a 3-year contract for deployment in the Gulf of Mexico following construction. The lease was renewed in 2004 for a year, 2005 for 5 years, and 2009 for 3 years covering 2010 to 2013. The last contract was worth $544 million, or $496,800 a day, for a "bare rig", with crew, gear and support vessels estimated to cost the same.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: According to R&B Falcon's filings to SEC in 2001, the transfer document between R&B Falcon and Transocean was dated 17 August 2001, and the rig was specified as "official registration number of 29273-PEXT-1, IMO number of 8764597, with gross tonnage of 32,588 and net tonnage of 9,778" and the transfer value as . , the rig was insured for covering the replacement cost and wreckage removal.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: "Deepwater Horizon" worked on wells in the Atlantis (BP 56%, BHP 44%) and Thunder Horse (BP 75%, ExxonMobil 25%) oil fields. It was described at times as a "lucky" and "celebrated" rig, and in 2007 was still described as "one of the most powerful rigs in the world". In 2006 it discovered oil in the Kaskida oil field, and in 2009 the "giant" Tiber oil field. The well in the Tiber field had a true vertical depth of and a measured depth of , below of water. The well was the deepest oil well in the world, and more than farther below the seabed than the rig's official drilling specification stated on the company's fleet list.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: In February 2010, "Deepwater Horizon" commenced drilling an exploratory well at the Macondo Prospect (Mississippi Canyon Block 252), about off the southeast coast of Louisiana, at a water depth of approximately . The Macondo prospect exploration rights had been acquired by BP in 2009, with the prospect jointly owned by BP (65%), Anadarko Petroleum (25%) and MOEX Offshore 2007 (10%). "Deepwater Horizon" was still working on the Macondo site on 20 April 2010, when a violent explosion occurred leading to destruction of the rig and the subsequent oil spill. This oil spill has been recorded as the largest offshore spill to occur to date, resulting in of coastal pollution. The well was in the final stages of completion after cement had been emplaced for its last casing string. The exploratory work had been described as "concluded" with permission already having been requested from MMS to terminate operations at the Macondo site. The rig was scheduled to move to its next roles as semi-permanent production platforms, initially at the Tiber site followed by a return to the Kaskida field, an oil dome 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: During its operational lifetime, the rig was actively in operation for 93% of its working life (2,896 of 3,131 days). The remainder partly was time spent moving between sites.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: The Minerals Management Service (renamed on 18 June 2010 to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, or Bureau of Ocean Energy (BOE)) is the regulatory and inspecting body for offshore oil drilling and rigs in the United States of America. According to an "Associated Press" investigation, certain safety documentation and emergency procedure information, including documentation for the exact incident that later occurred, was absent. The exact number of required monthly inspections performed varied over time; the inspections were carried out as required for the first 40 months, but after that around 25% of inspections were omitted, although the investigation notes this is partly expected, since there are circumstances such as weather and movement which preclude an inspection. Reports of the last three inspections for 2010 were provided under Freedom of Information legislation. Each of these inspections had taken two hours or less.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: During its lifetime the rig received 5 citations for non-compliance, 4 of which were in 2002 (safety, including the blowout preventer) and the other in 2003 (pollution). A sixth citation in 2007 related to non-grounded electrical equipment was later withdrawn when the equipment was determined to be compliant with regulations. Overall the "Deepwater Horizon" safety record was "strong" according to a drilling consultant reviewing the information. In 2009 the Minerals Management Service "herald[ed] the Deepwater Horizon as an industry model for safety". According to AP's investigation "its record was so exemplary, according to MMS officials, that the rig was never on inspectors' informal 'watch list' for problem rigs".


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: At CDT on 20 April 2010, during the final phases of drilling the exploratory well off the gulf of Mexico, a geyser of seawater erupted from the marine riser onto the rig, shooting 70 m into the air. This was soon followed by the eruption of a slushy combination of drilling mud, methane gas, and water. The gas component of the slushy material quickly transitioned into a fully gaseous state and then ignited into a series of explosions and then a firestorm. An attempt was made to activate the blowout preventer, but it failed. The final defense to prevent an oil spill, a device known as a blind shear ram, was activated but failed to plug the well.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: Ten workers were presumed killed in the initial explosion: Karl Kleppinger Jr., 38, Natchez, Mississippi; Dewey Revette, 48, of State Line, Mississippi; Shane Roshto, 22, Liberty, Mississippi; Donald Clark, 49, of Newellton, Louisiana; Stephen Ray Curtis, 40, of Georgetown, Louisiana; Gordon Jones, 28, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, Jonesville, Louisiana; Keith Blair Manuel, 56, of Gonzales, Louisiana; Adam Weise, 24, Yorktown, Texas; Jason Anderson, 35, of Midfield, Texas. An eleventh was crane operator Aaron Dale Burkeen, 37, Philadelphia, Mississippi, who died in the subsequent fire.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: The rig was evacuated, with injured workers airlifted to medical facilities. After approximately 36 hours, "Deepwater Horizon" sank on 22 April 2010. The remains of the rig were located resting on the seafloor approximately 1,500 m deep at that location, and about 400 m northwest of the well.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: The resultant oil spill continued until 15 July when it was closed by a cap. Relief wells were used to permanently seal the well, which was declared "effectively dead" on 19 September 2010. NOAA established the Gulf Spill Restoration project, under the Deep Water Horizon National Resource Damage Assessment Trustees, to help to restore much of the coastline.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: Transocean received an early partial insurance settlement for total loss of the "Deepwater Horizon" of around 5 May 2010. Financial analysts noted that the insurance recovery was likely to outweigh the value of the rig (although not necessarily its replacement value) and any liabilities the latter estimated at up to .


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: Litigation, ultimate roll call of damage, and the scope of final insurance recovery were all unknown , with analysts reporting that the aftermath was of unprecedented scale and complexity compared to previous disasters which themselves took many years to unfold and resolve. A July 2010 analysis by the "Financial Times" on the aftermath cited legal sources as saying that "at some point the scale of the litigation becomes so large that it really is novel", that "the situation is likely to be complicated further because the variety of probable cases means it will be hard to aggregate them into so-called class actions" and that there was "no way to put this in historical context because we have never faced anything like this before". As with the Exxon Valdez disaster, litigation was being discussed in terms of a 20-year timescale.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: In January 2013, Transocean agreed to pay US$1.4 billion for violations of the US Clean Water Act. BP had earlier agreed to pay $2.4 billion but faced additional penalties that could range from $5 billion to $20 billion. In September 2014, Halliburton agreed to settle a large percentage of legal claims against them by paying $1.1 billion into a trust by way of three installments over two years. On 4 September 2014, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled BP was guilty of gross negligence and willful misconduct under the Clean Water Act (CWA). He described BP's actions as "reckless," while he said Transocean's and Halliburton's actions were "negligent." He apportioned 67% of the blame for the spill to BP, 30% to Transocean, and 3% to Halliburton. BP issued a statement strongly disagreeing with the finding, and saying the court's decision would be appealed.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: On 8 December 2014, The US Supreme Court rejected BP's legal challenge to a compensation deal over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The settlement agreement had no cap, but BP initially estimated that it would pay roughly $7.8bn (£6.1bn) to compensate victims.


title: Deepwater Horizon

text: The biographical disaster movie Deepwater Horizon, released in 2016, depicts the events of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill. The film is based on "The New York Times" article "Deepwater Horizon's Final Hours",


title: John Jay

text: John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the first chief justice of the United States. He directed U.S. foreign policy for much of the 1780s and was an important leader of the Federalist Party after the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788.


title: John Jay

text: Jay was born into a wealthy family of merchants and New York City government officials of French Huguenot and Dutch descent. He became a lawyer and joined the New York Committee of Correspondence, organizing American opposition to British policies such as the Intolerable Acts in the leadup to the American Revolution. Jay was elected to the First Continental Congress, where he signed the Continental Association, and to the Second Continental Congress, where he served as its president. From 1779 to 1782, Jay served as the ambassador to Spain; he persuaded Spain to provide financial aid to the fledgling United States. He also served as a negotiator of the Treaty of Paris, in which Britain recognized American independence. Following the end of the war, Jay served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, directing United States foreign policy under the Articles of Confederation government. He also served as the first Secretary of State on an interim basis.


title: John Jay

text: A proponent of strong, centralized government, Jay worked to ratify the United States Constitution in New York in 1788. He was a co-author of "The Federalist Papers" along with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, and wrote five of the eighty-five essays. After the establishment of the new federal government, Jay was appointed by President George Washington the first Chief Justice of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1795. The Jay Court experienced a light workload, deciding just four cases over six years. In 1794, while serving as chief justice, Jay negotiated the highly controversial Jay Treaty with Britain. Jay received a handful of electoral votes in three of the first four presidential elections but never undertook a serious bid for the presidency.


title: John Jay

text: Jay served as the governor of New York from 1795 to 1801. Although he successfully passed gradual emancipation legislation as governor of the state, he owned five slaves as late as 1800. In the waning days of President John Adams' administration, Jay was confirmed by the Senate for another term as chief justice, but he declined the position and retired to his farm in Westchester County, New York.


title: John Jay

text: The Jays were a prominent merchant family in New York City, descended from Huguenoy who had come to New York to escape religious persecution in France. In 1685, the Edict of Nantes had been revoked, thereby abolishing the civil and legal rights of Protestants, and the French Crown proceeded to confiscate their property. Among those affected was Jay's paternal grandfather, Auguste Jay. He moved from France to Charleston, South Carolina, and then New York, where he built a successful merchant empire. Jay's father, Peter Jay, born in New York City in 1704, became a wealthy trader in furs, wheat, timber, and other commodities.


title: John Jay

text: Jay's mother was Mary Van Cortlandt, of Dutch ancestry, who had married Peter Jay in 1728 in the Dutch Church. They had ten children together, seven of whom survived into adulthood. Mary's father, Jacobus Van Cortlandt, was born in New Amsterdam in 1658. Cortlandt served in the New York Assembly, was twice elected as mayor of New York City, and held a variety of judicial and military offices. Both Mary and his son Frederick Cortlandt married into the Jay family.


title: John Jay

text: Jay was born on December 23, 1745 (following the Gregorian calendar, December 12 following the Julian calendar), in New York City; three months later the family moved to Rye, New York. Peter Jay had retired from business following a smallpox epidemic; two of his children contracted the disease and suffered blindness.


title: John Jay

text: Jay spent his childhood in Rye. He was educated there by his mother until he was eight years old, when he was sent to New Rochelle to study under Anglican priest Pierre Stoupe. In 1756, after three years, he returned to homeschooling in Rye under the tutelage of his mother and George Murray. In 1760, 14-year-old Jay entered King's College (later renamed Columbia College) in New York City. There he made many influential friends, including his closest friend, Robert Livingston. Jay took the same political stand as his father, a staunch Whig. Upon graduating in 1764 he became a law clerk for Benjamin Kissam, a prominent lawyer, politician, and sought-after instructor in the law. In addition to Jay, Kissam's students included Lindley Murray.


title: John Jay

text: In 1768, after reading law and being admitted to the bar of New York, Jay, with the money from the government, established a legal practice and worked there until he opened his own law office in 1771. He was a member of the New York Committee of Correspondence in 1774 and became its secretary, which was his first public role in the revolution.


title: John Jay

text: Jay represented the "Radical Whig" faction that was interested in protecting property rights and in preserving the rule of law, while resisting what it regarded as British violations of American rights. This faction feared the prospect of mob rule. Jay believed the British tax measures were wrong and thought Americans were morally and legally justified in resisting them, but as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774, Jay sided with those who wanted conciliation with Parliament. Events such as the burning of Norfolk, Virginia, by British troops in January 1776 pushed Jay to support independence. With the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, he worked tirelessly for the revolutionary cause and acted to suppress the Loyalists. Jay evolved into first a moderate and then an ardent Patriot, because he had decided that all the colonies' efforts at reconciliation with Britain were fruitless and that the struggle for independence was inevitable. In 1780, Jay was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.


title: John Jay

text: On April 28, 1774, Jay married Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, eldest daughter of the New Jersey Governor William Livingston. At the time of the marriage, Sarah was seventeen years old and John was twenty-eight. Together they had six children: Peter Augustus, Susan, Maria, Ann, William, and Sarah Louisa. She accompanied Jay to Spain and later was with him in Paris, where they and their children resided with Benjamin Franklin at Passy. Jay's brother-in-law Henry Brock Livingston was lost at sea through the disappearance of the Continental Navy ship "Saratoga" during the Revolutionary War. While in Paris, as a diplomat to France, Jay's father died. This event forced extra responsibility onto Jay. His brother and sister Peter and Anna, both blinded by smallpox in childhood, became his responsibility. His brother Augustus suffered from mental disabilities that required Jay to provide both financial and emotional support. His brother Fredrick was in constant financial trouble, causing Jay additional stress. Meanwhile, his brother James was in direct opposition in the political arena, joining the Loyalist faction of the New York State Senate at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, which made him an embarrassment to Jay's family.


title: John Jay

text: From the age of three months old until he attended Kings College in 1760, Jay was raised in Rye, on a farm acquired by his father Peter in 1745 that overlooked Long Island Sound. After negotiating the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War, Jay returned to his childhood home to celebrate with his family and friends in July 1784. Jay inherited this property upon the death of his older brother Peter in 1813 after Jay had already established himself at Katonah. He conveyed the Rye property to his eldest son, Peter Augustus Jay, in 1822.


title: John Jay

text: What remains of the original property is a parcel called the Jay Estate. In the center rises the 1838 Peter Augustus Jay House, built by Peter Augustus Jay over the footprint of his father's ancestral home, "The Locusts"; pieces of the original 18th century farmhouse, were incorporated into the 19th century structure. Stewardship of the site and several of its buildings for educational use was entrusted in 1990 by the New York State Board of Regents to the Jay Heritage Center. In 2013, the non-profit Jay Heritage Center was also awarded stewardship and management of the site's landscape which includes a meadow and gardens.


title: John Jay

text: As an adult, Jay inherited land from his grandparents and built Bedford House, located near Katonah, New York, where he moved in 1801 with his wife Sarah to pursue retirement. This property passed down to their younger son William Jay and his descendants. It was acquired by New York State in 1958 and named "The John Jay Homestead". Today this 62 acre park is preserved as the John Jay Homestead State Historic Site.


title: John Jay

text: Both homes in Rye and Katonah have been designated National Historic Landmarks and are open to the public for tours and programs.


title: John Jay

text: The Jay family participated significantly in the slave trade, as investors and traders as well as slaveholders. For example, the New York Slavery Records Index records Jay's father and paternal grandfather as investors in at least 11 slave ships that delivered more than 120 slaves to New York between 1717 and 1733. John Jay himself purchased, owned, rented out and manumitted at least 17 slaves during his lifetime. He is not known to have owned or invested in any slave ships. In 1783, one of Jay's slaves, a woman named Abigail, attempted to escape in Paris, but was found, imprisoned, and died soon after the illness. Jay was irritated by her escape attempt, suggesting that she be left in prison for some time. To his biographer Walter Stahr, this reaction indicates that "however much [Jay] disliked slavery in the abstract, he could not understand why one of "his" slaves would run away."


title: John Jay

text: Despite of being a founder of the New York Manumission Society, Jay is recorded as owning five slaves in the 1790 and 1800 U.S. censuses. He freed all but one by the 1810 census. Rather than advocating for immediate emancipation, he continued to purchase enslaved people and to manumit them once he considered their work to "have afforded a reasonable retribution." Abolitionism following the American Revolution contained some Quaker and Methodist principles of Christian brotherly love but was also influenced by concerns about the growth of the black population within the United States and the "degradation" of black people under slavery.


title: John Jay

text: In 1774, Jay drafted the "Address to the People of Great Britain", which compared American chattel slavery to British tyranny. Such comparisons between American slavery and British policy had been made regularly by American Patriots starting with James Otis,and took little account of the far harsher reality of chattel slavery. Jay was the founder and president of the New York Manumission Society in 1785, which organized boycotts against newspapers and merchants involved in the slave trade and provided legal counsel to free blacks.


title: John Jay

text: The Society helped enact the 1799 law for gradual emancipation of slaves in New York, which Jay signed into law as governor. "An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery" provided that, from July 4, 1799, all children born to slave parents would be free (subject to lengthy apprenticeships) and that slave exports would be prohibited. These same children would be required to serve the mother's owner until age 28 for males and age 25 for females, years beyond the typical period of indenture. It did not provide government payment of compensation to slave owners but failed to free people who were already enslaved as of 1799. The act provided legal protection and assistance for free blacks kidnapped for the purposes of being sold into slavery. All slaves were emancipated by July 4, 1827.


title: John Jay

text: In the close 1792 election, Jay's antislavery work was thought to hurt his election chances in upstate New York Dutch areas, where slavery was still practiced. In 1794, in the process of negotiating the Jay Treaty with the British, Jay angered many Southern slave owners when he dropped their demands for compensation for slaves who had been freed and transported by the British to other areas after the Revolution.


title: John Jay

text: Jay was a member of the Church of England and later of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America after the American Revolution. Since 1785, Jay had been a warden of Trinity Church, New York. As Congress's Secretary for Foreign Affairs, he supported the proposal after the Revolution that the Archbishop of Canterbury approve the ordination of bishops for the Episcopal Church in the United States. He argued unsuccessfully in the provincial convention for a prohibition against Catholics holding office. While considering New York's Constitution, Jay also suggested erecting "a wall of brass around the country for the exclusion of Catholics."


title: John Jay

text: Jay, who served as vice-president (1816–21) and president (1821–27) of the American Bible Society, believed that the most effective way of ensuring world peace was through propagation of the Christian gospel. In a letter addressed to Pennsylvania House of Representatives member John Murray, dated October 12, 1816, Jay wrote, ""Real" Christians will abstain from violating the rights of others, and therefore will not provoke war. Almost all nations have peace or war at the will and pleasure of rulers whom they do not elect, and who are not always wise or virtuous. Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." He also expressed a belief that the moral precepts of Christianity were necessary for good government, saying, "No human society has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty apart from the moral precepts of the Christian Religion. Should our Republic ever forget this fundamental precept of governance, we will then, be surely doomed."


title: John Jay

text: Having established a reputation as a reasonable moderate in New York, Jay was elected to serve as delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses which debated whether the colonies should declare independence. Jay was originally in favor of rapprochement. He helped write the Olive Branch Petition which urged the British government to reconcile with the colonies. As the necessity and inevitability of war became evident, Jay threw his support behind the revolution and the Declaration of Independence. Jay's views became more radical as events unfolded; he became an ardent separatist and attempted to move New York towards that cause.


title: John Jay

text: In 1774, upon the conclusion of the Continental Congress, Jay elected to return to New York. There he served on New York City's Committee of Sixty, where he attempted to enforce a non-importation agreement passed by the First Continental Congress. Jay was elected to the third New York Provincial Congress, where he drafted the Constitution of New York, 1777; his duties as a New York Congressman prevented him from voting on or signing the Declaration of Independence. Jay served for several months on the New York Committee to Detect and Defeat Conspiracies, which monitored and combated Loyalist activity. New York's Provincial Congress elected Jay the Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature on May 8, 1777, which he served on for two years.


title: John Jay

text: The Continental Congress turned to Jay, a political adversary of the previous president Henry Laurens, only three days after Jay became a delegate and elected him President of the Continental Congress. In previous congresses, Jay had moved from a position of seeking conciliation with Britain to advocating separation sooner than Laurens. Eight states voted for Jay and four for Laurens. Jay served as President of the Continental Congress from December 10, 1778, to September 28, 1779. It was a largely ceremonial position without real power, and indicated the resolve of the majority and the commitment of the Continental Congress.


title: John Jay

text: On September 27, 1779, Jay was appointed Minister to Spain. His mission was to get financial aid, commercial treaties and recognition of American independence. The royal court of Spain refused to officially receive Jay as the Minister of the United States, as it refused to recognize American independence until 1783, fearing that such recognition could spark revolution in their own colonies. Jay, however, convinced Spain to loan $170,000 to the U.S. government. He departed Spain on May 20, 1782.


title: John Jay

text: On June 23, 1782, Jay reached Paris, where negotiations to end the American Revolutionary War would take place. Benjamin Franklin was the most experienced diplomat of the group, and thus Jay wished to lodge near him, in order to learn from him. The United States agreed to negotiate with Britain separately, then with France. In July 1782, the Earl of Shelburne offered the Americans independence, but Jay rejected the offer on the grounds that it did not recognize American independence during the negotiations; Jay's dissent halted negotiations until the fall. The final treaty dictated that the United States would have Newfoundland fishing rights, Britain would acknowledge the United States as independent and would withdraw its troops in exchange for the United States ending the seizure of Loyalist property and honoring private debts. The treaty granted the United States independence, but left many border regions in dispute, and many of its provisions were not enforced. John Adams credited Jay with having the central role in the negotiations noting he was "of more importance than any of the rest of us."


title: John Jay

text: Jay's peacemaking skills were further applauded by New York Mayor James Duane on October 4, 1784. At that time, Jay was summoned from his family seat in Rye to receive "the Freedom" of New York City as a tribute to his successful negotiations.


title: John Jay

text: Jay served as the second Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1784 to 1789, when in September, Congress passed a law giving certain additional domestic responsibilities to the new Department and changing its name to the Department of State. Jay served as acting Secretary of State until March 22, 1790. Jay sought to establish a strong and durable American foreign policy: to seek the recognition of the young independent nation by powerful and established foreign European powers; to establish a stable American currency and credit supported at first by financial loans from European banks; to pay back America's creditors and to quickly pay off the country's heavy War-debt; to secure the infant nation's territorial boundaries under the most-advantageous terms possible and against possible incursions by the Indians, Spanish, the French and the English; to solve regional difficulties among the colonies themselves; to secure Newfoundland fishing rights; to establish a robust maritime trade for American goods with new economic trading partners; to protect American trading vessels against piracy; to preserve America's reputation at home and abroad; and to hold the country together politically under the fledgling Articles of Confederation.


title: John Jay

text: Jay believed his responsibility was not matched by a commensurate level of authority, so he joined Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in advocating for a stronger government than the one dictated by the Articles of Confederation. He argued in his "Address to the People of the State of New-York, on the Subject of the Federal Constitution" that the Articles of Confederation were too weak and an ineffective form of government, contending:


title: John Jay

text: The Congress under the Articles of Confederation may make war, but are not empowered to raise men or money to carry it on—they may make peace, but without power to see the terms of it observed—they may form alliances, but without ability to comply with the stipulations on their part—they may enter into treaties of commerce, but without power to [e]nforce them at home or abroad ... —In short, they may consult, and deliberate, and recommend, and make requisitions, and they who please may regard them.


title: John Jay

text: Jay did not attend the Constitutional Convention but joined Hamilton and Madison in aggressively arguing in favor of the creation of a new and more powerful, centralized but balanced system of government. Writing under the shared pseudonym of "Publius", they articulated this vision in "The Federalist Papers", a series of eighty-five articles written to persuade New York state convention members to ratify the proposed Constitution of the United States. Jay wrote the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixty-fourth articles. The second through the fifth are on the topic "Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence". The sixty-fourth discusses the role of the Senate in making foreign treaties.


title: John Jay

text: In September 1789, Jay declined George Washington's offer of the position of Secretary of State (which was technically a new position but would have continued Jay's service as Secretary of Foreign Affairs). Washington responded by offering him the new title, which Washington stated "must be regarded as the keystone of our political fabric," as Chief Justice of the United States, which Jay accepted. Washington officially nominated Jay on September 24, 1789, the same day he signed the Judiciary Act of 1789 (which created the position of Chief Justice) into law. Jay was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate on September 26, 1789; Washington signed and sealed Jay's commission the same day. Jay swore his oath of office on October 19, 1789. Washington also nominated John Rutledge, William Cushing, Robert Harrison, James Wilson, and John Blair Jr. as Associate Judges. Harrison declined the appointment, however, and Washington appointed James Iredell to fill the final seat on the Court. Jay would later serve with Thomas Johnson, who took Rutledge's seat, and William Paterson, who took Johnson's seat. While Chief Justice, Jay was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1790. Jay served as Circuit Justice for the Eastern Circuit from the Spring of 1790, until the Spring of 1792. He served as Circuit Justice for the Middle Circuit from the Spring of 1793, until the Spring of 1794.


title: John Jay

text: The Court's business through its first three years primarily involved the establishment of rules and procedure; reading of commissions and admission of attorneys to the bar; and the Justices' duties in "riding circuit", or presiding over cases in the circuit courts of the various federal judicial districts. No convention then precluded the involvement of Supreme Court Justices in political affairs, and Jay used his light workload as a Justice to participate freely in the business of Washington's administration.


title: John Jay

text: Jay used his circuit riding to spread word throughout the states of Washington's commitment to neutrality and published reports of French minister Edmond-Charles Genet's campaign to win American support for France. However, Jay also established an early precedent for the Court's independence in 1790, when Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton wrote to Jay requesting the Court's endorsement of legislation that would assume the debts of the states. Jay replied that the Court's business was restricted to ruling on the constitutionality of cases being tried before it and refused to allow it to take a position for or against the legislation.


title: John Jay

text: The Jay Court's first case did not occur until early in the Court's third term, with "West v. Barnes" (1791). The Court had an early opportunity to establish the principle of judicial review in the United States with the case, which involved a Rhode Island state statute permitting the lodging of a debt payment in paper currency. Instead of grappling with the constitutionality of the law, however, the Court unanimously decided the case on procedural grounds, strictly interpreting statutory requirements.


title: John Jay

text: "Hayburn's Case" (1792) concerned whether a federal statute could require the courts to decide whether petitioning veterans of the American Revolution qualified for pensions, a non-judicial function. The Jay Court wrote a letter to President Washington to say that determining whether petitioners qualified was an "act ... not of a judicial nature" and that because the statute allowed the legislative branch and the executive branch to revise the court's ruling, the statute violated the separation of powers of the US Constitution.


title: John Jay

text: In "Chisholm v. Georgia" (1793), the Jay Court had to decide if a suits against state governments by state citizens could be heard in federal court. In a 4–1 ruling (Iredell dissented, and Rutledge did not participate), the Jay Court ruled in favor of two South Carolina Loyalists whose land had been seized by Georgia. That ruling sparked debate, as it implied that old debts must be paid to Loyalists. The ruling was overturned when the Eleventh Amendment was ratified, which stated that a state could not be sued by a citizen of another state or foreign country. The case was brought again to the Supreme Court in "Georgia v. Brailsford", and the Court reversed its decision. However, Jay's original "Chisholm" decision established that states were subject to judicial review.


title: John Jay

text: In "Georgia v. Brailsford" (1794), the Court upheld jury instructions stating "you [jurors] have ... a right to take upon yourselves to ... determine the law as well as the fact in controversy." Jay noted for the jury the "good old rule, that on questions of fact, it is the province of the jury, on questions of law, it is the province of the court to decide," but that amounted to no more than a presumption that the judges were correct about the law. Ultimately, "both objects [the law and the facts] are lawfully within your power of decision."