title: Liancourt Rocks

text: The Liancourt Rocks, also known by their Korean name of Dokdo or Tokto and their Japanese name of Takeshima, form a group of islets in the Sea of Japan between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago. The Liancourt Rocks comprise two main islets and 35 smaller rocks; the total surface area of the islets is and the highest elevation of is on the West Islet. The Liancourt Rocks lie in rich fishing grounds that may contain large deposits of natural gas. The English name "Liancourt Rocks" is derived from , the name of a French whaling ship that came close to being wrecked on the rocks in 1849.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: While South Korea controls the islets, its sovereignty over them is contested by Japan. North Korea also claims the territory. South Korea classifies the islets as Dokdo-ri, Ulleung-eup, Ulleung County, North Gyeongsang Province, while Japan classifies the islands as part of Okinoshima, Oki District, Shimane Prefecture.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: The Liancourt Rocks consist of two main islets and numerous surrounding rocks. The two main islets, called "Seodo" (, "Western Island") and "Dongdo" (, "Eastern Island") in Korean, and "Ojima" (, "Male Island") and "Mejima" (, "Female Island") in Japanese, are apart. The Western Island is the larger of the two, with a wider base and higher peak, while the Eastern Island offers more usable surface area.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: Altogether, there are about 90 islets and reefs, volcanic rocks formed in the Cenozoic era, more specifically 4.6 to 2.5 million years ago. A total of 37 of these islets are recognized as permanent land.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: The total area of the islets is about , with their highest point at on the West Islet. The western islet is about ; the eastern islet is about . The western islet consists of a single peak and features many caves along the coastline. The cliffs of the eastern islet are about high. There are two large caves giving access to the sea, as well as a crater.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: Restricted public access to the rocks for a variety of purposes is provided by ferry from Ulleng Island.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: The Liancourt Rocks are located at about . The western islet is located at and the Eastern Islet is located at .


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: The Liancourt Rocks are situated at a distance of from the main island of Japan (Honshu) and from mainland South Korea. The nearest Japanese island, Oki Islands, is at a distance of , and the nearest Korean island, Ulleungdo, is .


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: Owing to their location and small size, the Liancourt Rocks can have harsh weather. If the swell is greater than 3 to 5 metres, then landing is not possible, so on average ferries can only dock about once in forty days. Overall, the climate is warm and humid, and heavily influenced by warm sea currents. Precipitation is high throughout the year (annual average—), with occasional snowfall. Fog is common. In summer, southerly winds dominate. The water around the islets is about in early spring, when the water is coldest, warming to about in late summer.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: The islets are volcanic rocks, with only a thin layer of soil and moss. About 49 plant species, 107 bird species, and 93 insect species have been found to inhabit the islets, in addition to local marine life with 160 algal and 368 invertebrate species identified. Although between 1,100 and 1,200 litres of fresh water flow daily, desalinization plants have been installed on the islets for human consumption because existing spring water suffers from guano contamination. Since the early 1970s trees and some types of flowers were planted. According to historical records, there used to be trees indigenous to Liancourt Rocks, which have supposedly been wiped out by overharvesting and fires caused by bombing drills over the islets. A recent investigation, however, identified ten spindle trees aged 100–120 years. Cetaceans such as Minke whales, orcas, and dolphins are known to migrate through these areas.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: Records of the human impact on the Liancourt Rocks before the late 20th century are scarce, although both Japanese and Koreans claim to have felled trees and killed Japanese sea lions there for many decades.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: There are serious pollution concerns in the seas surrounding the Liancourt Rocks. The sewage water treatment system established on the islets has malfunctioned, so sewage produced by inhabitants of the Liancourt Rocks, such as South Korean Coast Guards and lighthouse staff, is being dumped directly into the ocean. Significant water pollution has been observed; sea water has turned milky white, sea vegetation is progressively dying off, and calcification of coral reefs is spreading. The pollution is also causing loss of biodiversity in the surrounding seas. In November 2004, eight tons of malodorous sludge was being dumped into the ocean every day. Efforts have since been made by both public and private organizations to help curb the level of pollution surrounding the Rocks.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: South Korea has carried out construction work on the Liancourt Rocks, by 2009 the islands had a lighthouse and helicopter pad, and a police barracks. In 2007, two desalination plants were built capable of producing 28 tons of clean water every day. Both of the major South Korean telecommunications companies have installed cellular telephone towers on the islets.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: In February 2017, there were two civilian residents, two government officials, six lighthouse managers, and 40 members of the coast guard living on the islets. Since the South Korean coast guard was sent to the islets, civilian travel has been subject to South Korean government approval; they have stated that the reason for this is that the islet group is designated as a nature reserve.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: In March 1965, Choi Jong-duk moved from the nearby Ulleungdo to the islets to make a living from fishing. He also helped install facilities from May 1968. In 1981, Choi Jong-duk changed his administrative address to the Liancourt Rocks, making himself the first person to officially live there. He died there in September 1987. His son-in-law, Cho Jun-ki, and his wife also resided there from 1985 until they moved out in 1992. Meanwhile, in 1991, Kim Sung-do and Kim Shin-yeol transferred to the islets as permanent residents, still continuing to live there. In October 2018, Kim Sung-do died, thus Kim Shin-yeol is the last civilian resident still living on the islands.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: The South Korean government gave its approval to allow 1,597 visitors to visit the islets in 2004. Since March 2005, more tourists have received approval to visit. The South Korean government lets up to 70 tourists land at any given time; one ferry provides rides to the islets every day. Tour companies charge around 350,000 Korean won per person (about US$310 ).


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: Sovereignty over the islands has been an ongoing point of contention in Japan–South Korea relations. There are conflicting interpretations about the historical state of sovereignty over the islets.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: South Korean claims are partly based on references to an island called "Usan-do" () in various medieval historical records, maps, and encyclopedia such as "Samguk Sagi", "Annals of Joseon Dynasty", "Dongguk Yeoji Seungnam", and "Dongguk munhon bigo". According to the South Korean view, these refer to today's Liancourt Rocks. Japanese researchers of these documents have claimed the various references to Usan-do refer at different times to Jukdo, its neighboring island Ulleungdo, or a non-existent island between Ulleungdo and Korea. The first printed usage of the name "Dokdo" was in a Japanese log book in 1904.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: Other key points of the dispute involve the legal basis that Japan used to claim the islands in 1905, and the legal basis of South Korea's claim on the islands in 1952.


title: Liancourt Rocks

text: The Liancourt Rocks were designated as a breeding ground for sea swallows, blackbirds, and black-tailed gulls as Natural Monument #336 of South Korea on November 29, 1982.


title: Deucalion

text: In Greek mythology, Deucalion (; ) was the son of Prometheus; ancient sources name his mother as Clymene, Hesione, or Pronoia. He is closely connected with the flood myth in Greek mythology.


title: Deucalion

text: According to folk etymology, Deucalion's name comes from , "deukos", a variant of , "gleucos", i.e. "sweet new wine, must, sweetness" and from , "haliéus", i.e. "sailor, seaman, fisher". His wife Pyrrha's name derives from the adjective , -ά, -όν, "pyrrhós, -á, -ón", i.e. "flame-colored, orange".


title: Deucalion

text: Deucalion and Pyrrha had at least two children, Hellen and Protogenea, and possibly a third, Amphictyon (who is autochthonous in other traditions).


title: Deucalion

text: Their children as apparently named in one of the oldest texts, "Catalogue of Women", include daughters Pandora and Thyia, and at least one son, Hellen. Their descendants were said to have dwelt and ruled in Thessaly.


title: Deucalion

text: One source mentioned three sons of Deucalion and his wife: Orestheus, Marathonios and Pronous (father of Hellen). In some accounts, Deucalion's other children were Melantho, mother of Delphus by Poseidon and Candybus who gave his name to the town of Candyba in Lycia.


title: Deucalion

text: The flood in the time of Deucalion was caused by the anger of Zeus, ignited by the hubris of Lycaon and his sons, descendants of Pelasgus. According to this story, King Lycaon of Arcadia had sacrificed a boy to Zeus, who, appalled by this offering, decided to put an end to the Bronze Age by unleashing a deluge. During this catastrophic flood, the rivers ran in torrents and the sea flooded the coastal plain, engulfing the foothills with spray, and washing everything clean.


title: Deucalion

text: Deucalion, with the aid of his father Prometheus, was saved from this deluge by building a chest. Like the biblical Noah and the Mesopotamian counterpart Utnapishtim, he used this device to survive the great flood with his wife, Pyrrha.


title: Deucalion

text: The fullest accounts were provided in Ovid's "Metamorphoses" (late 1 BCE to early 1 CE) and in the "Library" of Pseudo-Apollodorus. Deucalion, who reigned over the region of Phthia, had been forewarned of the flood by his father Prometheus. Deucalion was to build a chest and provision it carefully (no animals are rescued in this version of the flood myth), so that when the waters receded after nine days, he and his wife Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus, were the one surviving pair of humans. Their chest touched solid ground on Mount Parnassus, or Mount Etna in Sicily, or Mount Athos in Chalkidiki, or Mount Othrys in Thessaly.


title: Deucalion

text: Hyginus mentioned the opinion of a Hegesianax that Deucalion is to be identified with Aquarius, "because during his reign such quantities of water poured from the sky that the great Flood resulted."


title: Deucalion

text: Once the deluge was over and the couple had given thanks to Zeus, Deucalion (said in several of the sources to have been aged 82 at the time) consulted an oracle of Themis about how to repopulate the earth. He was told to "cover your head and throw the bones of your mother behind your shoulder". Deucalion and Pyrrha understood that "mother" was Gaia, the mother of all living things, and the "bones" to be rocks. They threw the rocks behind their shoulders and the stones formed people. Pyrrha's became women; Deucalion's became men. These people were later called the Leleges who populated Locris. This can be related to Pindar's account that recounted ". . ."Pyrrha and Deucalion came down from Parnassus and made their first home, and without the marriage-bed they founded a unified race of stone offspring, and the stones gave the people their name"."


title: Deucalion

text: The 2nd-century AD writer Lucian gave an account of the Greek Deucalion in "De Dea Syria" that seems to refer more to the Near Eastern flood legends: in his version, Deucalion (whom he also calls "Sisythus") took his children, their wives, and pairs of animals with him on the ark, and later built a great temple in Manbij (northern Syria), on the site of the chasm that received all the waters; he further describes how pilgrims brought vessels of sea water to this place twice a year, from as far as Arabia and Mesopotamia, to commemorate this event.


title: Deucalion

text: On the other hand, Dionysius of Halicarnassus stated Deucalion's parents to be Prometheus and Clymene, daughter of Oceanus, and mentioned nothing about a flood but instead named him as commander of those from Parnassus who drove the "sixth generation" of Pelasgians from Thessaly.


title: Deucalion

text: One of the earliest Greek historians, Hecataeus of Miletus, was said to have written a book about Deucalion, but it no longer survived. The only extant fragment of his to mention Deucalion does not mention the flood either, but named him as the father of Orestheus, king of Aetolia. The much later geographer Pausanias, following on this tradition, named Deucalion as a king of Ozolian Locris and father of Orestheus.


title: Deucalion

text: Plutarch mentioned a legend that Deucalion and Pyrrha had settled in Dodona, Epirus; while Strabo asserted that they lived at Cynus, and that her grave was still to be found there, while his may be seen at Athens. This can be related to an account that after the deluge, Deucalion, founder and king of Lycoreia in Mt. Parnassus was said to have fled from his kingdom to Athens with his sons Hellen and Amphictyon during the reign of King Cranaus. Shortly thereafter, Deucalion died there and was said to have been buried near Athens. During his stay in there, he was credited with having built the ancient sanctuary of Olympian Zeus. Additionally, Strabo mentioned a pair of Aegean islands named after the couple.


title: Deucalion

text: The 19th-century classicist John Lemprière, in "Bibliotheca Classica", argued that as the story had been re-told in later versions, it accumulated details from the stories of Noah: "Thus Apollodorus gives Deucalion a great chest as a means of safety; Plutarch speaks of the pigeons by which he sought to find out whether the waters had receded; and Lucian of the animals of every kind which he had taken with him. &c." However, the Epic of Gilgamesh contains each of the three elements identified by Lemprière: a means of safety (in the form of instructions to build a boat), sending forth birds to test whether the waters had receded, and stowing animals of every kind on the boat. These facts were unknown to Lemprière because the Assyrian cuneiform tablets containing the Gilgamesh Epic were not discovered until in the 1850s. This was 20 years after Lemprière had published his "Bibliotheca Classica". The Gilgamesh epic is widely considered to be at least as old as Genesis, if not older. Given the prevalence of religious syncretism in the ancient Greek world, these three elements may already have been known to some Greek-speaking peoples in popular oral variations of the flood myth, long before they were recorded in writing. The most immediate source of these three particular elements in the later Greek versions is unclear.


title: Deucalion

text: For some time during the Middle Ages, many European Christian scholars continued to accept Greek mythical history at face value, thus asserting that Deucalion's flood was a regional flood, that occurred a few centuries later than the global one survived by Noah's family. On the basis of the archaeological "stele" known as the Parian Chronicle, Deucalion's Flood was usually fixed as occurring some time around 1528 BC. Deucalion's flood may be dated in the chronology of Saint Jerome to 1460 BC. According to Augustine of Hippo ("City of God" XVIII,8,10,&11), Deucalion and his father Prometheus were contemporaries of Moses. According to Clement of Alexandria in his Stromata, "...in the time of Crotopus occurred the burning of Phaethon, and the deluges of Deucalion."


title: James Jamerson

text: James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases until 1971), and is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. As a session musician he played on twenty-three "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one hits, as well as fifty-six R&B number-one hits.


title: James Jamerson

text: In its special issue "The 100 Greatest Bass Players" in 2017, "Bass Player" magazine ranked Jamerson number one and the most influential bass guitarist. In 2020, "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked Jamerson number one in its list of the 50 greatest bassists of all time.


title: James Jamerson

text: A native of Edisto Island, South Carolina, he was born to James Jamerson Sr. and Elizabeth Bacon. He was raised in part by his grandmother who played piano, and his aunt who sang in church choir. As a youngster he was a competent piano player and performed in public. He briefly played the trombone. As a teenager he was a reserved person, and passionate about music. He listened to gospel, blues and jazz music on the radio.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson moved with his mother to Detroit in 1954. He attended Northwestern High School; there he started on the upright bass. He began playing in Detroit area blues and jazz clubs and was influenced by jazz bassists Ray Brown, Paul Chambers and Percy Heath. He was offered a scholarship to study music at Wayne State University, and he declined. After graduating from high school, he continued performing in Detroit clubs. He joined blues singer Washboard Willie's band and later toured with Jackie Wilson. His increasingly solid reputation started providing him opportunities for sessions at various local recording studios. Starting in 1959, he found steady work at Berry Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. studio, home of the Motown record label. He played bass on the Smokey Robinson single "Way Over There" (1959), John Lee Hooker album "Burnin"' (1962) and The Reflections' "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet" (1964). There he became a member of a core of studio musicians who informally called themselves The Funk Brothers. This close-knit group of musicians performed on the vast majority of Motown recordings during most of the 1960s. Jamerson's earliest sessions were performed on double bass but, in the early 1960s, he switched to playing an electric Fender Precision Bass for the most part.


title: James Jamerson

text: Like Jamerson, most of the Funk Brothers were jazz musicians who had been recruited by Gordy. For many years, they maintained a schedule of recording during the day at Motown's small basement "Studio A" (which they nicknamed "the Snakepit"), then playing gigs in jazz clubs at night. They also occasionally toured the U.S. with Motown artists. For most of their career, however, the Funk Brothers went uncredited on Motown singles and albums, and their pay was considerably less than that received by the main artists or the label, hence their occasional freelance work elsewhere. Eventually, Jamerson was put on retainer for $1,000 a week (US$ in dollars), which afforded him and his expanding family a comfortable lifestyle.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson's discography at Motown reads as a catalog of soul hits of the 1960s and early 1970s. His work includes hits such as, among hundreds of others, "You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes, "My Girl" by The Temptations, "Shotgun" by Jr. Walker & the All Stars, "For Once in My Life" and "I Was Made to Love Her" by Stevie Wonder, "Going to a Go-Go" by The Miracles, "Dancing in the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Gladys Knight & the Pips and later by Marvin Gaye, and most of the album "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye, "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Bernadette" by the Four Tops. He occasionally recorded for other labels, such as "Boom Boom" by John Lee Hooker in 1962 and "Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson in 1967. Motown released 537 singles in 1960s and over 200 albums. According to fellow Funk Brothers in the 2002 documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", Gaye was desperate to have Jamerson play on "What's Going On", and went to several bars to find the bassist. When he did, he brought Jamerson to the studio, but Jamerson was too intoxicated to stay upright, so James played the classic line while lying flat on his back. Jamerson had stopped touring in 1964 and did studio work on a full-time basis. He is reported to have played on nearly every Motown recording between 1963 and 1968, which includes over 60 top-fifteen pop singles. Jamerson performed on 23 number-one hits on the pop charts, a record narrowly surpassed only by Paul McCartney of The Beatles who cites Jamerson as an influence, and he performed on 56 number-one hits on the R&B charts.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson is noted for expanding the musical style and role of bass playing in popular music of the time, which, (in 1950s and '60s R&B, rock and roll, and country), largely consisted of root notes, fifths and simple, repetitive patterns. By contrast, many of Jamerson's basslines relied heavily on chromatic runs, syncopation, ghost notes and inversions, with frequent use of open strings. His nimble bass playing was considered an integral part of the "Motown Sound". He created melodic lines that were nonetheless locked to the drum groove.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson's transition from upright to electric bass was at a time when electric bass was a relatively new instrument, and its use and style of play was not well established. Jamerson's background as a jazz musician and upright bassist informed his playing style, and over time his technique and improvisational approach became more nuanced. By mid-1960s, his style became an indispensable part of the Motown sound and in turn impacted popular music. Early examples of Jamerson's impact are "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass and "You Won't See Me" and "Nowhere Man" by the Beatles.


title: James Jamerson

text: Bassists who have noted Jamerson's contribution or been influenced by him include Rocco Prestia, Anthony Jackson, Pino Palladino, Paul McCartney, Bob Babbitt, Nathan Watts, Will Lee, Geddy Lee, Chuck Rainey, Marcus Miller, Mike Mills, Phil Chen, John Entwistle, Michael League, Mike Watt, Sting, John Paul Jones, Bernard Odum, Victor Wooten, Robert DeLeo, Glenn Hughes, Tommy Shannon, Suzi Quatro, Ron Asheton, Tony Sales, Peter Cetera, Robert Kool Bell, Bootsy Collins, Michael "Flea" Balzary, Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, Michael Henderson, Jack Bruce, John Patitucci, Jason Newsted, Rick Danko, Garry Tallent, Alan Gorrie, Jerry Jemmott, Andy Fraser, Brian Wilson and others.


title: James Jamerson

text: Shortly after Motown moved their headquarters to Los Angeles, California in 1972, Jamerson moved there himself and found occasional studio work, but his relationship with Motown officially ended in 1973. He went on to perform on such 1970s hits as "Neither One of Us" by Gladys Knight & The Pips (1973), "Boogie Down" (Eddie Kendricks, 1974), "Boogie Fever" (The Sylvers, 1976), "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)" (Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., 1976), and "Heaven Must Have Sent You" (Bonnie Pointer, 1979). He also played on recordings by Robert Palmer ("Pressure Drop", 1975), Dennis Coffey ("Instant Coffey", 1974), Wah Wah Watson ("Elementary", 1976), Rhythm Heritage (1976), Al Wilson (1977), Dennis Wilson ("Pacific Ocean Blue", 1977), Eloise Laws (1977), Smokey Robinson (1978), Ben E. King (1978), Hubert Laws (1979), Tavares (1980), Joe Sample/David T. Walker ("Swing Street Cafe", 1981), and Bloodstone (1982). However, in Los Angeles Jamerson was not working with a steady group of musicians, and he was not as free to improvise. He felt out of place and over time his increased dependence on alcohol affected his work. As other musicians went on to use high-tech amplifiers, round-wound strings, and simpler, more repetitive bass lines incorporating new techniques like slapping, Jamerson's style fell out of favor with local producers as he was reluctant to try new things. By the 1980s he was unable to get any serious gigs working as a session musician.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson married Annie Wells shortly before graduating from high school. They had four children. His son, James Jamerson Jr., (1957–2016), was a professional session bassist and a member of the disco band Chanson. He had two other sons, Joey and Derek, and a daughter Dorene (Penny).


title: James Jamerson

text: Long troubled by alcoholism, Jamerson died of complications from cirrhosis of the liver, heart failure and pneumonia on August 2, 1983, in Los Angeles. He is interred at Detroit's historic Woodlawn Cemetery.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson (as is the case with the other Funk Brothers) received little formal recognition for his lifetime contributions. His work was uncredited until later in his career, and he remained largely anonymous, even to bassists who emulated his style. The first time he was credited on a major Motown release was in 1971 for his performance on Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On". He was noted as "the incomparable James Jamerson" on the record's sleeve.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson was the subject of a book by Allan Slutsky in 1989 titled "Standing in the Shadows of Motown". The book includes a biography of Jamerson, transcriptions of his bass lines, two CDs in which 26 bassists such as Pino Palladino, John Entwistle, Chuck Rainey, and Geddy Lee speak about Jamerson and play the transcriptions. His story was featured in the subsequent 2002 documentary film of the same title. Jamerson's work has continued to be the subject of various publications.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, among the first-ever group of "sidemen" to be inducted. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, and he was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007 both as a member of the Funk Brothers. In 2009 he was inducted into the Fender Hall of Fame by fellow Motown session bassist and friend, Bob Babbitt. He received the "Bass Player" magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. He received the and Zoom International Bassist Award in 2012. He was awarded a bust at the Hollywood Guitar Center's Rock Walk, and in 2013 the Funk Brothers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2015 songwriter and bassist Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys named Jamerson as his favorite bassist.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson has received several accolades in his home state of South Carolina. These include a two-day tribute hosted by the Charleston Jazz Initiative and the College of Charleston's Avery Research Center (2003), the Gullah/GeeChee Anointed Spirit Award (2008), the Independent Tone Award for lifetime achievement (2016), the Dr. Martin Luther King Dream Keeper Award (2018), induction to the Lowcountry Music Hall of Fame (2018), induction to the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame (2018). Also, the South Carolina Senate, the House of Representatives and the town of Edisto Island have passed resolutions in recognition of his contributions.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson started on a school owned upright bass. After graduating from high school, he bought a German upright bass which he later used on such Motown hits as "My Guy" by Mary Wells and "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas. This instrument is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


title: James Jamerson

text: In 1960 to 1961 he transitioned to electric bass. Jamerson played mainly the Fender Precision Bass, but is known to have briefly used a Fender Bass V and a Hagström eight-string later in his career. He continued to use the upright bass occasionally, as in 1964's "My Guy".


title: James Jamerson

text: His first electric bass was a 1957 Precision Bass, refinished in black, with a gold-anodized pickguard and maple fretboard, nicknamed "Black Beauty". The bass was previously owned by his fellow bass player Horace "Chili" Ruth. But the instrument was soon stolen.


title: James Jamerson

text: After his 1957 Precision Bass was stolen, he briefly replaced it with an early sixties sunburst Precision which was also stolen. He then acquired a stock 1962 Fender Precision Bass which was dubbed "The Funk Machine" by his fellow musicians. It had a three-tone sunburst finish, a tortoiseshell pickguard, rosewood fretboard and chrome pickup and bridge covers (the latter containing a piece of foam used to dampen sustain and some overtones). On the heel of the instrument he carved the word "FUNK" in blue ink. He typically set its volume and tone knobs on full. This instrument was also stolen, just days before Jamerson's death in 1983, and never recovered.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson used La Bella heavy-gauge (.052–.110) flatwound strings which were never replaced, unless a string broke. He did not particularly take care of the instrument, as he stated: "The dirt keeps the funk". The neck may have eventually warped, as many claimed it was impossible to play. While this made it more difficult to fret, Jamerson believed it improved the quality of the tone. In the mid-1970s, a producer attempted to modernize Jamerson's sound by asking the bassist to switch to brighter-sounding roundwound bass strings, but Jamerson politely declined.


title: James Jamerson

text: One aspect of Jamerson's upright playing that carried over to the electric bass guitar was the fact that he generally used only his right index finger to pluck the strings while resting his third and fourth fingers on the chrome pickup cover. Jamerson's index finger even earned its own nickname: "The Hook". Another aspect of Jamerson's upright playing that carried over was his use of open strings, a technique long used by jazz bass players, to pivot around the fretboard which served to give his lines a fluid feeling. He played with a relaxed and light touch.


title: James Jamerson

text: Jamerson's amplifier of choice at club performances was an Ampeg B-15; in larger venues, he used a blue Kustom with twin 15-inch speakers. On both, the bass knob was typically turned up full and the treble turned halfway up. On most of his studio recordings, his bass was plugged directly into the custom-made mixing console together with the guitars from Eddie Willis, Robert White and Joe Messina. He adjusted the console so that his sound was slightly overdriven and had a mild tube compression.


title: James Jamerson

text: In 2017, it was reported that Jamerson gave a 1961 Fender Precision bass to bassist Billy Hayes in 1967 or 1968; the instrument was auctioned in 2017. In 1977, Jamerson was photographed with a 1965–1968 Precision bass (a line of instruments which had a transition logo). There is speculation that in mid to late-1960s Jamerson's then-primary instrument was parted with, and that he acquired and replaced it with a 1966 model.


title: James Jamerson

text: In a 1983 interview with "Musician" magazine, Jamerson said about Motown's songwriting-production team that they "would give me the chord sheet, but they couldn't write for me. When they did, it didn't sound right. (...) When they gave me that chord sheet, I'd look at it, but then start doing what I felt and what I thought would fit. (...) I'd hear the melody line from the lyrics and I'd build the bass line around that."


title: James Jamerson

text: Motown's founder Berry Gordy called Jamerson an "incredible improviser" and said "I, like some of the other producers, would not do a session unless at least two of the Funk Brothers were present – namely, [drummer] Benny Benjamin and James Jamerson."


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch (Spinus tristis) is a small North American bird in the finch family. It is migratory, ranging from mid-Alberta to North Carolina during the breeding season, and from just south of the Canada–United States border to Mexico during the winter.


title: American goldfinch

text: The only finch in its subfamily to undergo a complete molt, the American goldfinch displays sexual dichromatism: the male is a vibrant yellow in the summer and an olive color during the winter, while the female is a dull yellow-brown shade which brightens only slightly during the summer. The male displays brightly colored plumage during the breeding season to attract a mate.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch is a granivore and adapted for the consumption of seedheads, with a conical beak to remove the seeds and agile feet to grip the stems of seedheads while feeding. It is a social bird and will gather in large flocks while feeding and migrating. It may behave territorially during nest construction, but this aggression is short-lived. Its breeding season is tied to the peak of food supply, beginning in late July, which is relatively late in the year for a finch. This species is generally monogamous and produces one brood each year.


title: American goldfinch

text: Human activity has generally benefited the American goldfinch. It is often found in residential areas, attracted to bird feeders which increase its survival rate in these areas. Deforestation also creates open meadow areas, which are its preferred habitat.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his work, "Systema Naturae", where he classified it in the genus "Fringilla". It was later placed in the genus "Spinus", a group containing New World goldfinches and siskins. In 1976, "Spinus" was merged into the genus "Carduelis" as a subgenus. Recent studies have resurrected the genus "Spinus". Its closest relatives are the lesser goldfinch ("S. psaltria"), Lawrence's goldfinch ("S. lawrencei"), and the siskins. Although it shares a name with the European goldfinch, the two are in separate genera and are not closely related. "Carduelis" is derived from "carduus", the Latin word for 'thistle'; the species name "tristis" is Latin for 'sorrowful'. There are four recognized subspecies of the American goldfinch:


title: American goldfinch

text: This seems to be the most ancient extant species of the Meso-American "Spinus"/"Carduelis" evolutive radiation, whose parental species is Lawrence's goldfinch ("Spinus lawrencei").


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch is a small finch, long, with a wingspan of . It weighs between . Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the tail is , the culmen is and the tarsus is .} The beak is small, conical, and pink for most of the year, but turns bright orange with the spring molt in both sexes.


title: American goldfinch

text: The shape and size of the beak aid in the extraction of seeds from the seed heads of thistles, sunflowers, and other plants.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch undergoes a molt in the spring and autumn. It is the only cardueline finch to undergo a molt twice a year. During the winter molt it sheds all its feathers; in the spring, it sheds all but the wing and tail feathers, which are dark brown in the female and black in the male. The markings on these feathers remain through each molt, with bars on the wings and white under and at the edges of the short, notched tail. The sexual dimorphism displayed in plumage coloration is especially pronounced after the spring molt, when the bright color of the male's summer plumage is needed to attract a mate.


title: American goldfinch

text: Once the spring molt is complete, the body of the male is a brilliant lemon yellow, a color produced by carotenoid pigments from plant materials in its diet, with a striking jet black cap and white rump that is visible during flight. The female is mostly brown, lighter on the underside with a yellow bib. After the autumn molt, the bright summer feathers are replaced by duller plumage, becoming buff below and olive-brown above, with a pale yellow face and bib. The autumn plumage is almost identical in both sexes, but the male has yellow shoulder patches.


title: American goldfinch

text: The immature bird has a dull brown back, and the underside is pale yellow. The shoulders and tail are a dull black with buff-colored, rather than white, markings on wings and rump. This coloration is the same in both sexes.


title: American goldfinch

text: The song is a series of musical warbles and twitters, often with a long note. A "tsee-tsi-tsi-tsit" call is often given in flight; it may also be described as "per-chic-o-ree". While the female incubates the eggs, she calls to her returning mate with a soft continuous "tee-tee-tee-tee-tee" sound. The young begin to use a call of "chick-kee" or "chick-wee" shortly before fledging, which they use until they have left the nest entirely. There are two defense calls made by adults during nesting; a "sweet" call made to rally other goldfinches to the nest and distract predators, and a "bearbee" used to signal to the nestlings to quiet them and get them to crouch down in the nest to become less conspicuous.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch prefers open country where weeds thrive, such as fields, meadows, flood plains, as well as roadsides, orchards, and gardens. It may also be found in open deciduous and riparian woodlands and areas of secondary growth. This habitat preference continues during the spring and autumn migrations.


title: American goldfinch

text: The summer breeding range stretches across North America from coast to coast. It is bounded on the north by Saskatchewan and stretches south across North America to North Carolina on the east coast, and northern California on the west coast. The American goldfinch is a short-distance migrant, moving south in response to colder weather and lessened food supply. According to ornithologist Marc Parnell, this responsive, southerly migratory pattern is thought to begin to occur as daily low temperatures approach freezing, and particularly as these temperatures near 0 °F. The migration is completed in compact flocks, which travel in an erratic, wavelike flight pattern.


title: American goldfinch

text: Its winter range includes southern Canada and stretches south through the United States to parts of Mexico. In winter, in the northern part of its range, the finch may move nearer to feeders if they are available. In southern ranges, during winter, they remain in areas like fields and flood plains where they live during the summer months.


title: American goldfinch

text: Attempts were made to introduce the American goldfinch into Bermuda in the 19th century and Tahiti in 1938, but the species failed to become established in either place.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch flies in a distinctive undulating pattern, creating a wave-shaped path. This normally consists of a series of wing beats to lift the bird, then folding in the wings and gliding in an arc before repeating the pattern. Birds often vocalize during the flapping phase of the pattern and then go silent during the coasting phase. The call made during flight is "per-twee-twee-twee", or "ti-di-di-di", punctuated by the silent periods. They communicate with several distinct vocalizations, including one that sounds like "po-ta-to-chip" to the listener.


title: American goldfinch

text: Birds do not act aggressively toward predators within their territory; their only reaction is alarm calling. Predators include snakes, weasels, squirrels, and blue jays, which may destroy eggs or kill young, and hawks and cats, which pose a threat to both young and adults. The oldest known American goldfinch was 10 years and 5 months old.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch is gregarious during the non-breeding season when it is often found in large flocks, usually with other finches. The social hierarchy, measured by how many aggressive encounters are won by each individual, tends towards the male being dominant in the non-breeding season. During the breeding season, this finch lives in loose colonies. While the nest is being constructed, the male will act aggressively toward other males who intrude into his territory, driving them away, and the female reacts in the same way toward other females. This aggressiveness subsides once the eggs have been laid. The social hierarchy in the breeding season generally has the female dominant over the male. Dominance may change based on the value of a resource; a study published in 1987 found that starved subordinate birds were sometimes dominant in competitions over feeder access.


title: American goldfinch

text: Birds indicate their level of aggression through a range of displays. The head-up display, where the neck and legs are slightly extended, shows mild aggression and is often performed by the victor of an encounter. The carpals-raised display has the neck retracted and the carpals raised; displayers are likely to attack their opponent. The head-forward display is where the legs are flexed, the neck extended, and the beak closed. At higher intensities, the neck is lowered, the beak is pointed at the opponent, and one or both wings are raised. In extreme cases, the neck is retracted, the bill opened, the body feathers sleeked, and the tail is fanned and raised slightly. Aggression is also displayed by showing the front of the body to another individual. Attacks include pecking at feathers, supplanting the opponent by landing next to it, and flying vertically with legs and feet extended, beaks open, and necks extended. Avoidance behaviors include showing only the side of the body to an aggressor, leaning away, flexing the legs, retracting the neck, and pointing the beak down.


title: American goldfinch

text: The breeding season begins later in the year than for any other finch and later than any other native North American bird, besides occasionally the sedge wren. This may be related to the abundance of seeds in the late summer months, as seeds represent most of their diet.


title: American goldfinch

text: The courtship rituals include aerial maneuvers and singing by males, who begin courtship in late July. The flight displays begin as the male pursues the female, who flies in zigzagging evasive patterns. The male can signal his quality and fitness, both in the short term (current body condition) and long term (genes), through ornamentation (bill color and plumage). If a female accepts the male as a mate, the pair will fly in wide circles, as the male warbles throughout the flight.


title: American goldfinch

text: Once a male has found a mate, he selects a territory, marking the boundaries by warbling as he flies from perch to perch. After circling the perimeter, he performs two flight displays, first repeating a low, flat flight, then flying in an exaggerated version of normal flight, tucking his wings close to his body, plummeting earthwards and catching himself as he spreads his wings to glide upward in a series of loops. Two or three pairs may group their territories together in a loose colony, perhaps to aid in defense against predators.


title: American goldfinch

text: The nest is built in late summer by the female in the branches of a deciduous shrub or tree at a height of up to . The nest-building lasts approximately six days, during which time the female works in 10–40 minute increments. The male frequently flies with the female as she collects nesting materials, and though he may carry some materials back to the nest, he leaves its construction to the female. The outer shell of the nest is built of bark, weeds, vines, and grass. The inside diameter of the finished nest is about . The rim is reinforced with bark bound by spiderwebs and caterpillar silk, and the cup is lined with plant down from milkweed, thistle, or cattail. The nest is so tightly woven that it can hold water, and it is possible for nestlings to drown following a rainstorm if the parents do not cover the nest.


title: American goldfinch

text: The clutch is four to six bluish-white eggs, which are oval in shape and about , roughly the size of a peanut. It is thought that they are laid during the night. The eggs are incubated by the female alone, though the male brings her food as she nests, and most mating pairs raise only one brood each year.


title: American goldfinch

text: The chicks hatch 12–14 days after incubation begins. Like all passerines, the chicks are altricial; they are hatched naked, with reddish bodies, pale grey down, and closed eyes. The mother bird feeds her young regurgitated seeds and insects as they grow. The hatchlings develop quickly, opening their eyes after three days, and completing the growth of olive-brown juvenile plumage after 11–15 days, at which time they begin to practice short flights close to the nest. For up to three weeks after fledging, they are still fed by the male, who locates them by listening for their fledging call. The chicks stop giving this call when they become entirely independent.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch is occasionally victim to brood parasites, particularly brown-headed cowbirds. One study found that 9% of nests had brown-headed cowbird eggs in them. It likely evades parasitism partly because of its late breeding season. The American goldfinch also makes a very poor host for brood parasites, with studies showing low hatching rates of brown-headed cowbird eggs and no fledging success. This is despite the lack of known behavioral adaptations against brood parasites in this finch. It is thought that the inability of brown-headed cowbird chicks to survive is due to a failure to get enough nutrition; the seed-rich diet of American goldfinch chicks varies from the usual insect-rich diet of other hosts.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch is a diurnal feeder. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the species is one of the strictest vegetarians in the bird world. It is mainly granivorous, but will occasionally eat insects, which are also fed to its young to provide protein. Its diet consists of the seeds from a wide variety of plants, often those of weeds, grasses, and trees, such as thistle, teasel, dandelion, ragweed, mullein, cosmos, goatsbeard, sunflower, and alder. However, it also consumes tree buds, maple sap, and berries. It will eat at bird feeders provided by humans, particularly in the winter months, preferring Niger seed (commonly and erroneously called thistle seed).


title: American goldfinch

text: Unlike some finch species, the American goldfinch uses its feet extensively in feeding. It frequently hangs from seedheads while feeding to reach the seeds more easily. In the spring, the American goldfinch feeds on the catkins hanging from birches and alders by pulling one up with its beak and using its toes to hold the catkin still against the branch. This dexterity enables it to take advantage of food sources relatively inaccessible to potential competitors, increasing its chances of survival.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch has a large range, with an estimated global extent of about and an increasing population. The species is evaluated as least concern on the 2016 IUCN Red List.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch is found in residential areas throughout its range. Backyard birders attract it using feeders containing niger seed, or by planting grasses and perennial plants, such as zinnias, cosmos, bee balm, or globe thistle, which produce seedheads favored by finches.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch is not threatened by human activity and is widespread throughout its range. The clearing of forests by humans, though harmful to many species, has benefited the American goldfinch. Clearing of woodlands causes declines in numbers of neotropical migrants, while favoring short-distance migrants and permanent residents. This benefits the American goldfinch both as a short-distance migrant, and because the created open areas are the preferred environment of the bird, where weeds thrive which produce the primary food source of the American goldfinch.


title: American goldfinch

text: The American goldfinch is the state bird of Iowa and New Jersey, where it is called the eastern goldfinch, and Washington, where it is called the willow goldfinch. It was chosen by schoolchildren in Washington in 1951.


title: Helmut Newton

text: Helmut Newton (born Helmut Neustädter; 31 October 192023 January 2004) was a German-Australian photographer. The "New York Times" described him as a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of "Vogue" and other publications."


title: Helmut Newton

text: Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara "Claire" (née Marquis) and Max Neustädter, a button factory owner. His family was Jewish. Newton attended the Heinrich-von-Treitschke-Realgymnasium and the American School in Berlin. Interested in photography from the age of 12 when he purchased his first camera, he worked for the German photographer Yva (Elsie Neuländer Simon) from 1936.


title: Helmut Newton

text: The increasingly oppressive restrictions placed on Jews by the Nuremberg laws meant that his father lost control of the factory in which he manufactured buttons and buckles; he was briefly interned in a concentration camp on Kristallnacht, 9 November 1938, which finally compelled the family to leave Germany. Newton's parents fled to Argentina. He was issued with a passport just after turning 18 and left Germany on 5 December 1938. At Trieste, he boarded the "Conte Rosso" (along with about 200 others escaping the Nazis), intending to journey to China. After arriving in Singapore, he found he was able to remain there, first briefly as a photographer for the "Straits Times" and then as a portrait photographer.


title: Helmut Newton

text: Newton was interned by British authorities while in Singapore and was sent to Australia on board the "Queen Mary", arriving in Sydney on 27 September 1940. Internees travelled to the camp at Tatura by train under armed guard. He was released from internment in 1942 and briefly worked as a fruit picker in Northern Victoria. In August 1942, he enlisted with the Australian Army and worked as a truck driver. After the war in 1945, he became a British subject and changed his name to Newton in 1946.


title: Helmut Newton

text: In 1948, he married actress June Browne, who performed under the stage name June Brunell. Later she became a successful photographer under the ironic pseudonym Alice Springs (after Alice Springs, the town in Central Australia).


title: Helmut Newton

text: In 1946, Newton set up a studio in fashionable Flinders Lane in Melbourne and worked on fashion, theatre and industrial photography in the affluent postwar years. He shared his first joint exhibition in May 1953 with Wolfgang Sievers, a German refugee like himself, who had also served in the same company. The exhibition of 'New Visions in Photography' was displayed at the Federal Hotel in Collins Street and was probably the first glimpse of New Objectivity photography in Australia. Newton went into partnership with Henry Talbot, a fellow German Jew who had also been interned at Tatura, and his association with the studio continued even after 1957, when he left Australia for London. The studio was renamed 'Helmut Newton and Henry Talbot'.


title: Helmut Newton

text: Newton's growing reputation as a fashion photographer was rewarded when he secured a commission to illustrate fashions in a special Australian supplement for "Vogue" magazine, published in January 1956. He won a 12-month contract with "British Vogue" and left for London in February 1957, leaving Talbot to manage the business. Newton left the magazine before the end of his contract and went to Paris, where he worked for French and German magazines. He returned to Melbourne in March 1959 to a contract for Australian "Vogue".


title: Helmut Newton

text: Newton and his wife finally settled in Paris in 1961 and the work continued as a fashion photographer. His images appeared in magazines including the French edition of "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar".


title: Helmut Newton

text: He established a particular style marked by erotic, stylised scenes, often with sado-masochistic and fetishistic subtexts. A heart attack in 1970 reduced Newton's output, nevertheless his wife's encouragement led to his profile continuing to expand, especially with a big success, the 1980 studio-bound stark infinity of the "Big Nudes" series. His "Naked and Dressed" portfolio followed and in 1992 "Domestic Nudes" which marked the pinnacle of his erotic-urban style, these series all underpinned with the prowess of his technical skills. Newton also worked in portraiture and more fantastical studies.


title: Helmut Newton

text: Newton shot a number of pictorials for "Playboy", including pictorials of Nastassja Kinski and Kristine DeBell. Original prints of the photographs from his August 1976 pictorial of DeBell, "200 Motels, or How I Spent My Summer Vacation" were sold at auctions of "Playboy" archives by Bonhams in 2002 for $21,075, and by Christie's in December 2003 for $26,290.


title: Helmut Newton

text: In 2009, June Browne conceptualised a tribute exhibition to Newton, based on three photographers that befriended Newton in Los Angeles in 1980: Mark Arbeit, Just Loomis, and George Holz. All three had been photography students at The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. All three became friends with Helmut and June Newton and to varying degrees assisted Helmut Newton. Each went on to independent careers. The exhibit premiered at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin and combined the work of all three with personal snapshots, contact sheets, and letters from their time with Newton.


title: Helmut Newton

text: Since the 1970s Newton regularly used Polaroid cameras and film for instant visualisation of compositions and lighting situations, especially for his fashion photography. By his own admission, for the shoot of Naked and Dressed series that started in 1981 for the Italian and French Vogue he used Polaroid film “by the crate”. These polaroids also served as a sketchbook, where he scribbled notes with regard to the model, client or location and date. In 1992 Newton published Pola Woman, a book consisting only of his Polaroids. Over 300 works based on the original Polaroids were shown at 2011 exhibition “Helmut Newton Polaroids” at the Museum für Fotografie in Berlin.


title: Helmut Newton

text: In his later life, Newton lived in both Monte Carlo and Los Angeles, California where he spent winters at the Chateau Marmont, which he had done every year since 1957. On 23 January 2004, he suffered a serious heart attack while driving his automobile down Marmont Lane from the Chateau Marmont to Sunset Boulevard. He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; doctors were unable to save him, and he was pronounced dead. His ashes are buried at the Städtischer Friedhof III in Berlin.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: Left-wing terrorism or far-left terrorism is terrorism committed with the aim of overthrowing current capitalist systems and replacing them with communist or socialist societies. Left-wing terrorism can also occur within already socialist states as criminal action against the current ruling government.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: Most left-wing terrorist groups that had operated in the 1970s and 1980s disappeared by the mid-1990s. One exception was the Greek Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N), which lasted until 2002. Since then, left-wing terrorism has been relatively minor in the Western world in comparison with other forms, and is now mostly carried out by insurgent groups in the developing world.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: Left-wing terrorists have been influenced by various communist and socialist currents, including Marxism. Narodnaya Volya, a 19th-century terrorist group that killed Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1881 and developed the concept of propaganda of the deed, is a major influence.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: According to Sarah Brockhoff, Tim Krieger and Daniel Meierrieks, while left-wing terrorism is ideologically motivated, nationalist-separatist terrorism is ethnically motivated. They argue that the revolutionary goal of left-wing terrorism is non-negotiable whereas nationalist terrorists are willing to make concessions. They suggest that rigidity of the demands of left-wing terrorists may explain their lack of support relative to nationalist groups. Nevertheless, many on the revolutionary left have shown solidarity for national liberation groups employing terrorism, such as Irish nationalists, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the South American Tupamaros, seeing them as engaged in a global struggle against capitalism. Since the nationalist sentiment is fueled by socio-economic conditions, some separatist movements, including the Basque ETA, the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation Army, incorporated communist and socialist ideology into their policies.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: David Brannan writes that left-wing terrorists and insurgents tend not to engage in indiscriminate attacks on the public as it not only runs contrary to the socialist ideals they espouse of being protectors of the working class, but they also do not want to alienate large swaths of the working population as such organizations and individuals seek to gain their support. Other researchers argue that left-wing terrorism may not be less indiscriminate than its right-wing counterpart.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: Left-wing terrorism has its roots in the 19th and early 20th century anarchist terrorism and became pronounced during the Cold War. Modern left-wing terrorism developed in the context of the political unrest of 1968. In Western Europe, notable groups included the West German Red Army Faction (RAF), the Italian Red Brigades (BR), the French Action Directe (AD), and the Belgian Communist Combatant Cells (CCC). Asian groups have included the Japanese Red Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, although the latter organization later adopted nationalist terrorism. In Latin America, groups that became actively involved in terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s included the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, the Peruvian Shining Path and the Colombian 19th of April Movement. A 2014 paper by Kis-Katos et al. concluded that left-wing terrorism was the most prevalent terrorism in the past but has largely declined in the present day.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Weather Underground was a domestic terrorist group that developed as "a small, violent offshoot of Students for a Democratic Society," a group that originated in the 1960s to advocate for social change. Between 1973 and 1975, the Symbionese Liberation Army was active, committing bank robberies, murders, and other acts of violence. Other terrorist groups such as the small New World Liberation Front resorted to death threats, drive-by shootings and planting of pipe-bombs in the late 1970s. During the 1980s, both the May 19th Communist Organization (M19CO) and the smaller United Freedom Front were active. After 1985, following the dismantling of both groups, one source reports there were no confirmed acts of left-wing terrorism by similar groups. Incidents of left-wing terrorism dropped off at the end of the Cold War (circa 1989), partly due to the loss of support for communism.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: In October 2020, the killing of Aaron Danielson was added to the CSIS terrorism database as a deadly "far-left" attack, the first such incident in over two decades. The killing is also referenced on the Anti-Defamation League's page on antifa, as the only "suspected antifa-related murder" to date; and the left-leaning liberal think tank New America Foundation's tally of killings during terrorist attacks in the U.S. since 9/11, as the first recorded fatality in a far-left attack.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The May 19th Communist Organization, also referred to as the 19 May Communist Coalition, was a United States-based, self-described revolutionary organization formed by splintered-off members of the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army. The M19CO name was derived from the birthdays of Ho Chi Minh and Malcolm X. The 19 May Communist Organization was active from 1978 to 1985. It also included members of the Black Panthers and the Republic of New Africa (RNA). According to a 2001 US government report, the alliance between Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground members had three objectives: free political prisoners from US prisons; appropriate capitalist wealth (through armed robberies) to fund their operations; and initiate a series of bombings and terrorist attacks against the United States.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: Stefan M. Aubrey describes the Sandinistas, Shining Path, 19th of April Movement, and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as the main organizations involved in left-wing terrorism in Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s. These organizations opposed the United States government and drew local support as well as receiving support from the Soviet Union and Cuba.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist organization in Colombia which has engaged in vehicle bombings, gas cylinder bombs, killings, landmines, kidnapping, extortion and hijacking as well as guerilla and conventional military. The United States Department of State includes the FARC-EP on its list of foreign terrorist organizations, as does the European Union. It funds itself primarily through extortion, kidnapping and their participation in the illegal drug trade. Many of their fronts enlist new and underage recruits by force, distribute propaganda and rob banks. Businesses operating in rural areas, including agricultural, oil, and mining interests, were required to pay "vaccines" (monthly payments) which "protected" them from subsequent attacks and kidnappings. An additional, albeit less lucrative, source of revenue was highway blockades in which guerrillas stopped motorists and buses in order to confiscate jewelry and money. An estimated 20 to 30 percent of FARC combatants are under 18 years old, with many as young as 12 years old, for a total of around 5000 children. Children who try to escape the ranks of the guerrillas are punished with torture and death.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Communist Party of Peru, more commonly known as the Shining Path, is a Maoist guerrilla organization that launched the internal conflict in Peru in 1980. Widely condemned for its brutality, including violence deployed against peasants, trade union organizers, popularly elected officials and the general civilian population, Shining Path is on the United States Department of State's "Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations" list. Peru, the European Union, and Canada likewise regard Shining Path as a terrorist group and prohibit providing funding or other financial support.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: According to Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the actions of the Shining Path claimed between 31,331 and 37,840 lives.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: Stefan M. Audrey describes the Japanese Red Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as the main left-wing terrorist organizations in Asia, although he notes that the LTTE later transformed into a nationalist terrorist organization.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: Armed Naxalite groups operate across large parts of the central and eastern rural regions of India. Informed by the People's War strategy of Maoism, the most prominent of the groups is the Communist Party of India (Maoist), formed through the merging of two previous Naxalite organizations, the People's War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCC). Armed Naxalite movements are considered India's largest internal security threat. Naxalite militants have engaged in numerous terrorist attacks and human rights violations in India's Red Corridor. A "Frontline" magazine article calls the Bhamragad taluka, where the Madia Gond Adivasis live, the heart of the Naxalite-affected region in Maharashtra.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has been responsible for hundreds of attacks on government and civilian targets.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: After the United People's Front of Nepal (UPF)'s Maoist wing, CPN-M, performed poorly in elections and was excluded from the 1994 election, the Maoists turned to insurgency. They aimed to overthrow Nepal's monarchy and parliamentary democracy, and to change Nepalese society, including a purge of the nation's elite class, a state takeover of private industry, and collectivization of agriculture. In Nepal, attacks against civilian populations occurred as part of Maoist strategy, leading Amnesty International to state: The CPN (Maoist) has consistently targeted private schools, which it ideologically opposes. On the 14 April 2005 the CPN (Maoist) demanded that all private schools shut down, although this demand was withdrawn on 28 April. Following this demand, it bombed two schools in western Nepal on 15 April, a school in Nepalganj, Banke district on 17 April and a school in Kalyanpur, Chitwan on 21 April. CPN (Maoist) cadres also reportedly threw a bomb at students taking classes in a school in Khara, Rukum district.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Communist Party of the Philippines has been responsible for several attacks on government and civilian targets. It was founded in 1968 by Jose Maria Sison, 4 years prior to Martial Law. They aimed to overthrow the Philippine President and the national government, and to change Philippine society, including a purge of the nation's elite class, a state takeover of private industry, and collectivization of agriculture thru National Democracy. The CPP's Armed wing, New People's Army is responsible for attacking the military in the Philippine Mountains. Between 2002 and 2005, these groups are designated as terrorists by the United States and the European Union.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Japanese Red Army (JRA) was founded in 1969 as the "Red Army Faction" by students impatient with the Communist Party. In 1970, they hijacked a plane to North Korea, where nine of their members were interned. Fourteen members were killed during an internal purge. In 1971, the renamed JRA formed a connection with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and established a base in Lebanon. Their major terrorist acts included an armed attack on the Tel Aviv airport, hijacking planes to Libya and Bangladesh, kidnapping the French ambassador to the Hague, and bombing a United Service Organizations (USO) nightclub in Naples, Italy. By the mid-1990s, their level of activity had declined and the US State Department no longer considered them a terrorist threat. In 2001, their leader announced the dissolution of the group, although some of its members were in prison and others were still wanted by police.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: Typically small and urban-based, left-wing terrorist organizations in Europe have been committed to overthrowing their countries' governments and replacing them with regimes guided by Marxist–Leninist ideology. Although none have achieved any degree of success in accomplishing their goals, they have caused serious security problems in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Greece, France, Turkey, Portugal and Spain.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: Action Directe (AD) was active in France between 1979 and 1987. Between 1979 and 1985, they concentrated on non-lethal bombings and strafings of government buildings, although they assassinated a French Ministry of Defense official. Following arrests of some of its members, the organization declined and became inactive. The French government has banned the group.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Communist Combatant Cells (CCC) was founded in 1982 in Belgium by Pierre Carette. With about ten members, the CCC financed its activities through a series of bank robberies. Over the course of 14 months, they carried out 20 attacks against property, mostly North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) facilities. Despite attempts to avoid loss of life, there were casualties as a result of these attacks. After Carette and other members were arrested in 1985, the group ceased to be operational. Carette served 17 years of a life sentence, although his colleagues that were convicted with him were released earlier.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups (GRAPO) was a Maoist terrorist group in Spain that was founded in 1975. Since its inception until 2007, it assassinated 84 people, including police, military personnel, judges and civilians; either by bombings or shootings. The group has committed a number of kidnappings, initially for political reasons, later on, mainly for extortion. Its last attack was committed in 2006, when GRAPO militants shot dead Ana Isabel Herrero, the owner of a temporary work agency in Zaragoza.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) is an Irish republican communist paramilitary group formed on 10 December 1974, during "the Troubles". It seeks to remove Northern Ireland from British control and create a socialist republic encompassing all of Ireland. It is the paramilitary wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP).


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The INLA was founded by former members of the Official Irish Republican Army who opposed that group's ceasefire. It was initially known as the "People's Liberation Army" or "People's Republican Army". The INLA waged a paramilitary campaign against the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Northern Ireland. It was also active to a lesser extent in the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain. High-profile attacks carried out by the INLA include the Droppin Well bombing, the 1994 Shankill Road killings and the assassinations of Airey Neave in 1979 and Billy Wright in 1997. However, it was smaller and less active than the main republican paramilitary group, the Provisional IRA. It was also weakened by feuds and internal tensions. Members of the group used the covernames People's Liberation Army (PLA), People's Republican Army (PRA) and Catholic Reaction Force (CRF) for attacks its volunteers carried out but the INLA did not want to claim responsibility for.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The INLA is a Proscribed Organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000 and an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Popular Forces 25 April (FP-25) was formed in Portugal under the leadership of Lt. Col. Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho who lead the Carnation Revolution in 1974. It was a far-left terrorist group operating in Portugal between 1980 and 1987. Most of its members had previously been active in the Revolutionary Brigades ("Brigadas Revolucionárias"), an armed group with links to the Revolutionary Party of the Proletariat ("Partido Revolucionário do Proletariado") extinguished in 1978. Over 7 years, FP-25 were responsible for 19 deaths, including a four-month-old baby, a General Director of Prison Service, a dissident/repentant terrorist, several National Republican Guards (GNR) soldiers and five terrorists killed during robberies or clashes with security forces. The violence was partially stopped in June 1984, with a secret police operation under a code name ""Orion"", which resulted in the arrest of most of its leaders and operatives. They would be later tried in October 1986.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Red Army Faction (RAF), which developed out of the Baader-Meinhof Group in Germany, carried out a series of terrorist attacks in the 1970s and remained active for over 20 years. The RAF was organized into small isolated cells, and had connections with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Carlos the Jackal. Although the group's leaders, including Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof were arrested in 1972, it carried out major attacks, including the kidnapping and murder of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations and of the Federation of German Industries, and the hijacking of the Lufthansa Flight 181 in the so-called "German Autumn" of 1977.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Red Brigades were founded in August 1970, mostly by former members of the Communist Youth movement who had been expelled from the parent party for extremist views. The largest terrorist group in Italy, its aim was to overthrow the government and replace it with a communist system.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Revolutionary Organization 17 November, also known as 17N or N17, was a long-lasting urban terrorist organization named in commemoration of a 1973 mass demonstration and riot against the military junta. Since 2001, the group had killed 23 people, including U.S. officials, NATO officials and Greek politicians, magistrates and businessmen. Attempts by the Greek police, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Scotland Yard to investigate the group were unsuccessful. The group was captured in 2002, after one of its members was wounded by a bomb he was carrying. It has been recognized as a terrorist organization by the Greek State, the US and international law enforcement agencies.


title: Left-wing terrorism

text: The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front is a militant Marxist–Leninist party in Turkey. The US, UK and EU categorize it as a terrorist organization. As of 2007, the Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security list it among the 12 active terrorist organizations in Turkey. It is one of the 44 names listed in the 2008 U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, one of the 48 groups and entities to which the EU's Common Position 2001–931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism applies and one of the 45 international terrorist organisations in the list of Proscribed Terrorist Groups of the UK Home Office.


title: Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson

text: Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarsson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; born 9th century) was the first Norseman to intentionally sail to Iceland. His story is documented in the "Landnámabók" manuscript; however, the precise year of his arrival is not clear. He settled in this new land then known as "Garðarshólmi".


title: Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson

text: In 868, Flóki left to search for the land found by Garðar Svavarsson way up in the north. He was accompanied by his family on his journey; his wife was named Gró and his children included Oddleifur and Þjóðgerður. From Western Norway he set sail to the Shetland Islands where it is said his daughter drowned. He continued his journey and landed in the Faroe Islands where another of his daughters was wed. There he took three ravens to help him find his way to Iceland, and thus, he was nicknamed Raven-Flóki (Old Norse and ) and he is commonly remembered by that name.


title: Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson

text: Others making the trip included Thorolf ("Þórólfr") and two men named Herjolf and Faxe ( and ). After sailing for a while from the Faroes, Flóki set the ravens free. The first raven flew back to the Faroes; later, the second flew up in the air and back on board, but the third flew northwest and did not return. Flóki now knew they were close to land, and so they followed the third raven. After sailing west past Reykjanes, they spotted a large bay. Faxe remarked that they seemed to have found great land. The bay facing Reykjavík was therefore known as "Faxaflói" ().


title: Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson

text: Flóki set up a winter camp in Vatnsfjörður at Barðaströnd. The summer was very good, so Flóki was ill-prepared for the cold winter that followed. Waiting for the spring, Flóki hiked up the highest mountain above his camp, now believed to be Nónfell in Westfjords. From there, he spotted a large fjord; Ísafjörður, then full of drift ice. Thus, he named the entire land (Iceland). When Flóki and the other men returned to Norway, they were asked about the newly found land. Flóki believed it to be worthless. Herjolf believed that the land had both good and bad qualities. Thorolf claimed that butter was smeared on every straw on the land that they had found. Thorolf was then nicknamed Thorolf Butter (). Despite speaking ill of the land, Flóki later returned and settled to live there to his death.


title: Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson

text: Floki the boat builder, a character played by Swedish actor Gustaf Skarsgård in the History channel's "Vikings" television series, is loosely based on Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson. In season 5 of the show he arrives in Iceland, believing he has found Asgard.


title: Sanjeeda Sheikh

text: Sanjeeda Sheikh (born 20 December 1984) is an Indian actress who works in the Hindi television industry. She is one of the most famous actresses on Indian television.


title: Sanjeeda Sheikh

text: On 2 March 2012, she married her longtime boyfriend Aamir Ali. In August 2020, it was revealed that the couple has a one-year old daughter, Ayra Ali, through surrogacy.


title: Sanjeeda Sheikh

text: They later separated in 2020 after 8 years of marriage and were granted divorce in 2021 with Sheikh getting their daughter's custody.


title: Sanjeeda Sheikh

text: On 29 May 2017, Sheikh's sister-in-law Zakerabanu Zakir Hussain Bagban filed a domestic violence case against her, her brother Anas Abdul Rahim Sheikh and their mother, Anisha Sheikh. Zakerabanu alleges that she was speaking with her father over the phone on 27 May when the trio started yelling at her and beating her up, saying that they did not want her in their Mumbai home anymore. Sheikh's family filed a petition against the FIR in the Ahmedabad High Court. The petition stated that Sheikh had been busy shooting on the day of the incident. On 30 August, Sanjeeda Sheikh was granted interim relief in the case as the Ahmedabad High Court waived the service of the notice.


title: Sanjeeda Sheikh

text: Sanjeeda has played various roles on television soap operas. She made her acting debut as Nimmo in the 2005 TV series "Kyaa Hoga Nimmo Kaa". After that, she appeared as a vamp in the 2007 Star Plus series "Kayamath". In the same year, she participated in a dancing competition show named "Nach Baliye 3", with husband Aamir Ali, the couple won the competition.


title: Sanjeeda Sheikh

text: In 2008, she appeared in the serial "Kya Dill Main Hai" opposite Aamir Ali which was telecasted on 9X channel.


title: Sanjeeda Sheikh

text: In 2014, Sheikh appeared as Durga Thakur, an ambitious and confident young woman, who is seeking justice for her sister, in "Ek Hasina Thi". The serial was the breakthrough of her career as her performance was acclaimed by critics and viewers and it was one of the most successful shows of Star Plus at that time.


title: Sanjeeda Sheikh

text: In 2016, she appeared as Dhani in "Ishq Ka Rang Safed" which was the first time Sheikh played an onscreen mother, of a 5-year-old child.


title: Sanjeeda Sheikh

text: In March 2017 Sheikh appeared as Renya in a supernatural web series, titled "Gehraiyaan", opposite her "Ek Hasina Thi" co-star Vatsal Sheth. The web series is directed by debutante director Sidhant Sachdev and produced by the Vikram Bhatt production house. In 2017, Sheikh appeared as Kamini Mathur, a superstar, in a tv series titled "Love Ka Hai Intezaar", opposite Keith Sequeira aired by Star Plus. The show was earlier titled as "Kya Tu Meri Lage".


A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled A Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Some early editions are titled A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur.


title: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

text: In the book, a Yankee engineer from Connecticut named Hank Morgan receives a severe blow to the head and is somehow transported in time and space to England during the reign of King Arthur. After some initial confusion and his capture by one of Arthur's knights, Hank realizes that he is actually in the past, and he uses his knowledge to make people believe that he is a powerful magician. He becomes a rival of Merlin, who appears to be little more than a fraud, and gains the trust of King Arthur. Hank attempts to modernize the past in order to make people's lives better. Hank is disgusted by how the Barons treat the commoners, and tries to implement democratic reforms, but in the end he is unable to prevent the death of Arthur. Hank declares England a republic, but the Catholic Church - growing fearful of his power - issues an interdict against him.


text: Twain wrote the book as a burlesque of Romantic notions of chivalry after being inspired by a dream in which he was a knight himself, severely inconvenienced by the weight and cumbersome nature of his armor. It is a satire of feudalism and monarchy that also celebrates homespun ingenuity and democratic values while questioning the for-profit ideals of capitalism and outcomes of the Industrial Revolution. At one point in the book, Twain even defends the French Revolution. It is among several works by Twain and his contemporaries that mark the transition from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era of socioeconomic discourse. It is often cited as a formative example of the fledgling time travel genre.


text: The novel is a comedy set in 6th-century England and its medieval culture through Hank Morgan's view; he is a 19th-century resident of Hartford, Connecticut, who, after a blow to the head, awakens to find himself inexplicably transported back in time to early medieval England, where he meets King Arthur himself. Hank, who had an image of that time that had been colored over the years by romantic myths, takes on the task of analyzing the problems and sharing his knowledge from 1300 years in the future to try to modernize, Americanize, and improve the lives of the people.


text: Many passages are quoted directly from Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur", a late medieval collection of Arthurian legends that constitutes one of the main sources on the myth of King Arthur and Camelot. The frame narrator is a 19th-century man (ostensibly Mark Twain himself) who meets Hank Morgan in modern times and begins reading Hank's book in the museum in which they both meet. Later, characters in the story retell parts of it in Malory's original language. A chapter on medieval hermits also draws from the work of William Edward Hartpole Lecky.


text: The story begins as a first-person narrative in Warwick Castle, where a man details his recollection of a tale told to him by an "interested stranger" who is personified as a knight through his simple language and familiarity with ancient armor.


text: After a brief tale of Sir Lancelot of Camelot and his role in slaying two giants from the third-person narrative, taken directly from "Le Morte d'Arthur", the man named Hank Morgan enters and, after being given whiskey by the narrator, he is persuaded to reveal more of his story. Described through first-person narrative as a man familiar with the firearms and machinery trade, Hank is a man who had reached the level of superintendent because of his proficiency in firearms manufacturing, with 2000 subordinates. He describes the beginning of his tale by illustrating details of a disagreement with his subordinates during which he sustained a head injury from a "crusher" caused by a man named "Hercules" using a crowbar.


text: After passing out from the blow, Hank describes waking up underneath an oak tree, having no idea how he got there. Hank soon encounters the knight Sir Kay, riding by. Kay challenges him to a joust, which is quickly lost by the unweaponed, unarmored Hank as he scuttles up a tree. Kay captures Hank and leads him towards Camelot Castle. Upon recognizing that he has time-traveled to the 6th century, Hank realizes that he is the "de facto" smartest person on Earth, and with his knowledge he should soon be running things.


text: Hank is ridiculed at King Arthur's court for his strange appearance and dress and is sentenced by them, particularly the magician Merlin, to burn at the stake on 21 June. By a stroke of luck, the date of the burning coincides with a historical solar eclipse in 528 of which Hank had learned in his earlier life. In prison, he sends the boy whom he christens Clarence (whose real name is Amyas le Poulet) to inform the king that he will blot out the sun if he is executed. Hank believes the current date to be 20 June; however, it is actually the 21st when he makes his threat, the day that the eclipse will occur at 12:03 p.m. When the King decides to burn him, the eclipse catches Hank by surprise. However, he quickly uses it to his advantage and convinces the people that he caused the eclipse. He makes a bargain with the king, is released, and becomes the second most powerful person in the kingdom. (Twain may have drawn inspiration for that part of the story from a historical incident in which Christopher Columbus exploited foreknowledge of a lunar eclipse).


text: Hank is given the position of principal minister to the king and is treated by all with the utmost fear and awe. His celebrity brings him to be known by a new title, elected by the people, "The Boss". However, he proclaims that his only income will be taken as a percentage of any increase in the kingdom's gross national product, which he succeeds in creating for the state as Arthur's chief minister, which King Arthur sees as fair. Although the people fear him and he has his new title, Hank is still seen as somewhat of an equal. The people might grovel to him if he were a knight or some form of nobility, but Hank faces problems from time to time since he refuses to seek to join such ranks.


text: After being made "the Boss," Hank learns about medieval practices and superstitions. Having superior knowledge, he is able to outdo the alleged sorcerers and miracle-working church officials. At one point, soon after the eclipse, people began gathering, hoping to see Hank perform another miracle. Merlin, jealous of Hank having replaced him both as the king's principal adviser and as the most powerful sorcerer of the realm, begins spreading rumors that Hank is a fake and cannot supply another miracle. Hank secretly manufactures gunpowder and a lightning rod, plants explosive charges in Merlin's tower, and places the lightning rod at the top and runs a wire to the explosive charges. He then announces (when storms are frequent) that he will soon call down fire from heaven and destroy Merlin's tower, challenging Merlin to use his sorcery to prevent it. Of course, Merlin's "incantations" fail utterly to prevent lightning from striking the rod, triggering the explosive charges, and leveling the tower, further diminishing Merlin's reputation.


text: Hank Morgan, in his position as King's Minister, uses his authority and his modern knowledge to industrialize the country behind the back of the rest of the ruling class. His assistant is Clarence, a young boy he meets at court, whom he educates and gradually lets in on most of his secrets, and eventually comes to rely on heavily. Hank sets up secret schools, which teach modern ideas and modern English, thereby removing the new generation from medieval concepts and secretly constructs hidden factories, which produce modern tools and weapons. He carefully selects the individuals he allows to enter his factories and schools, seeking to select only the most promising and least indoctrinated in medieval ideas, favoring selection of the young and malleable whenever possible.


text: As Hank gradually adjusts to his new situation, he begins to attend medieval tournaments. A misunderstanding causes Sir Sagramore to challenge Hank to a duel to the death. The combat will take place when Sagramore returns from his quest for the Holy Grail. Hank accepts and spends the next few years building up 19th-century infrastructure behind the nobility's back. He then undertakes an adventure with a wandering girl named the Demoiselle Alisande a la Carteloise, nicknamed "Sandy" by Hank in short order, to save her royal "mistresses" being held captive by ogres. On the way, Hank struggles with the inconveniences of plate armor (actually an anachronism, which would not be developed until the High Middle Ages or see widespread use until the Late Middle Ages) and encounters Morgan le Fay. The "princesses", "ogres", and "castles" are all revealed to be actually pigs owned by peasant swineherds, but to Sandy, they still appear as royalty. Hank buys the pigs from the peasants, and the two leave.


text: On the way back to Camelot, they find a travelling group of pilgrims headed for the Valley of Holiness. Another group of pilgrims, however, comes from that direction and bears the news that the valley's famous fountain has run dry. According to legend, long ago the fountain had gone dry as soon as the monks of the valley's monastery built a bath with it. The bath was destroyed and the water instantly returned, but this time it has stopped with no clear cause. Hank is begged to restore the fountain although Merlin is already trying to do so. When Merlin fails, he claims that the fountain has been corrupted by a demon and that it will never flow again. Hank, to look good, agrees that a demon has corrupted the fountain but also claims to be able to banish it; in reality, the "fountain" is simply leaking.


text: He procures assistants from Camelot trained by himself, who bring along a pump and fireworks for special effects. They repair the fountain and Hank begins the "banishment" of the demon. At the end of several long pseudo-Germanic "magical" phrases cued to his firework displays, he spouts a nonsense noise, "BGWJJILLIGKKK", but Merlin agrees with Hank that it is the name of the demon. The fountain restored, Hank goes on to debunk another magician who claims to be able to tell what any person in the world is doing, including King Arthur. However, Hank knows via telephone that the King is riding out to see the restored fountain and not "resting from the chase" as the "false prophet" had foretold to the people. Hank correctly states that the King will arrive in the valley.


text: Hank has an idea to travel among the poor disguised as a peasant to find out how they truly live. King Arthur joins him but has extreme difficulty in acting like a peasant convincingly. Although Arthur is somewhat disillusioned about the national standard of life after hearing the story of a mother infected with smallpox, he still ends up getting Hank and himself hunted down by the members of a village after making several extremely erroneous remarks about agriculture. Although they are saved by a nobleman's entourage, the same nobleman later arrests them and sells them into slavery.


text: Hank steals a piece of metal in London and uses it to create a makeshift lockpick. His plan is to free himself and the king, beat up their slave driver, and return to Camelot. However, before he can free the king, a man enters their quarters in the dark. Mistaking him for the slave driver, Hank rushes after him alone and starts a fight with him. They are both arrested. Hank lies his way out, but in his absence, the real slave driver has discovered Hank's escape. Since Hank was the most valuable slave, he was due to be sold the next day. The man becomes enraged and begins beating his other slaves, who fight back and kill him. All the slaves, including the king, will be hanged as soon as the missing one, Hank, is found. Hank is captured, but he and Arthur are rescued by a party of knights led by Lancelot, riding bicycles. Then, the king becomes extremely bitter against slavery and vows to abolish it when they get free, much to Hank's delight.


text: Sagramore returns from his quest and fights Hank, who defeats him and seven others, including Galahad and Lancelot, using a lasso. When Merlin steals Hank's lasso, Sagramore returns to challenge him again. This time, Hank kills him with a revolver. He proceeds to challenge the knights of Britain to attack him en masse, which they do. After he kills nine more knights with his revolvers, the rest break and flee. The next day, Hank reveals his 19th-century infrastructure to the country. With that fact, he was called a wizard since he told Clarence to do so as well.


text: Three years later, Hank has married Sandy, and they have a baby. While asleep and dreaming, Hank says, "Hello-Central", a reference to calling a 19th-century telephone operator, and Sandy believes that the mystic phrase to be the name of a former girlfriend or lover and thus to please him names their child accordingly. However, the baby falls critically ill, and Hank's doctors advise him to take his family overseas while the baby recovers. In reality, it is a ploy by the Catholic Church to get Hank out of the country to leave it without effective leadership. During the weeks that Hank is absent, Arthur discovers Guinevere's infidelity with Lancelot. That causes a war between Lancelot and Arthur, who is eventually killed by Sir Mordred.


text: The church then places the land under interdict, causing all people to break away from Hank and revolt. Hank sees that something is wrong by the lack of trade in the English Channel, and returns to Britain to meet with his good friend Clarence who informs him of the war thus far. As time goes on, Clarence gathers 52 young cadets, aged from 14 to 17, who are to fight against all of Britain. Hank's band fortifies itself in Merlin's Cave with a minefield, electric wire and Gatling guns. The Church sends an army of 30,000 knights to attack them, but they are slaughtered by the cadets wielding Hank's modern weaponry.


text: However, Hank's men are now trapped in the cave by a wall of dead bodies and sickened by the miasma bred by thousands of corpses. Hank attempts to go offer aid to any wounded, but is stabbed by the first wounded man he tries to help, Sir Meliagraunce. He is not seriously injured but is bedridden. Disease begins to set in. One night, Clarence finds Merlin weaving a spell over Hank, proclaiming that he will sleep for 1,300 years. Merlin begins laughing deliriously but ends up electrocuting himself on one of the electric wires. Clarence and the others all apparently die from disease in the cave.


text: More than a millennium later, the narrator finishes the manuscript and finds Hank on his deathbed and dreaming about Sandy. He attempts to make one last "effect" but dies before he can finish it.


text: Twain's first encounter with the "Morte d'Arthur" occurred in 1880, when someone in his household bought Sidney Lanier's bowdlerized edition, "The Boy's King Arthur". Whether he read this children's version or not isn't known. However he certainly read the unexpurgated work after his close friend George Washington Cable recommended it to him in November 1884. The pair were travelling on the lecture circuit as the "Twins of Genius" during the winter of 1884-1885 when Cable spotted the "Morte" on the front table of a Rochester, New York bookstore that both were perusing. Cable pointed to the volume and said "you will never lay it down until you have read it cover to cover." Twain bought this copy and read in nearly one sitting during a train ride to their next lecture date. After the book's great success Twain was careful to credit Cable for his inspiration, referring to him as "the Godfather of my book."


text: Soon thereafter, in December 1884, Twain conceived of the idea behind "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" and worked on its realization between 1885 and 1889. The bulk of its composition was done at Twain's summer home at Elmira, New York and was completed at Hartford, Connecticut. It was first published in England by Chatto & Windus under the title "A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur" in December 1889. Writer and critic William Dean Howells called it Twain's best work and "an object-lesson in democracy". The work was met with some indignation in Great Britain as it was perceived as "a direct attack on [its] the hereditary and aristocratic institutions".


text: The book pokes fun at contemporary society, but the main thrust is a satire of romanticized ideas of chivalry, and of the idealization of the Middle Ages common in the novels of Sir Walter Scott and other 19th-century literature. Twain had a particular dislike for Scott, blaming his kind of romanticizing of battle for the southern states' deciding to fight the American Civil War. He writes in "Life on the Mississippi":


text: For example, the book portrays the medieval people as being very gullible, as when Merlin makes a "veil of invisibility" which, according to him, will make the wearer imperceptible to his enemies, though friends can still see him. The knight Sir Sagramor wears it to fight Hank, who pretends that he cannot see Sagramor for effect to the audience.


text: Hank Morgan's opinions are also strongly denounciatory towards the Catholic Church of the medieval period; the Church is seen by the Yankee as an oppressive institution that stifles science and teaches peasants meekness only as a means of preventing the overthrow of Church rule and taxation. The book also contains many depictions and condemnations of the dangers of superstition and the horrors of medieval slavery.


text: The book provides evidence of Twain's growing interest in Georgist economics and social theory. This is particularly evident in the interpretative illustrations by Georgist activist Daniel Carter Beard. Twain approved and considered them an essential part of the work.


text: George Orwell strongly disapproved of the book: "[Twain] squandered his time on boffooneries [such as] "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", which is a deliberate flattery of all that is worst and most vulgar in American Life" (i.e. the various American inventions and institutions Hank Morgan introduces into sixth-century Britain and whose excellence and superiority are taken for granted).