Background and early years.

Born in Vail, Colorado, Shiffrin is the second child of Eileen (née Condron) and Jeff Shiffrin, both originally from the Northeastern United States and former ski racers. Shiffrin's father Jeff grew up in New Jersey, but was an avid skier on weekends in Vermont with his family; as an undergraduate, he raced for Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Her mother Eileen raced in high school in northwestern Massachusetts in the Berkshires, and brother Taylor (born 1992), raced for the University of Denver.  When Mikaela was eight in 2003, the family moved to rural New Hampshire near Lyme, where her father, an anesthesiologist, worked at Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center. After five years, he took a new job in Denver; her older brother Taylor was in high school at Burke Mountain Academy, a ski academy in northeastern Vermont, and stayed in the east. Shiffrin also attended middle school at Burke, but went with her parents to Colorado, before returning to Burke. She has been treated for anxiety disorder and hyperactive type ADHD ever since she was a child.  Shiffrin began rising up through the ranks in alpine racing as soon as she was old enough to compete in FIS-sanctioned races. While meeting the minimum age requirement of 15 years, she won a Nor-Am Cup super combined race in December 2010 at Panorama in British Columbia, only the eighth FIS-level race in which she had competed. Shiffrin followed it up with three podiums in her next three Nor-Am races: runner-up in a super-G, third in a GS, and victory in a slalom. Weeks later, she won a pair of Nor-Am slalom races held at Sunday River, Maine. A month later Shiffrin took the slalom bronze medal at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships held at Crans-Montana, Switzerland (after having been down with a stomach flu the day before)..In January 2015,Shiffrin named former Croatian ski racer Janica Kostelić as her idol while growing up.

World Cup.

Shiffrin made her World Cup debut on March 11, 2011, in a giant slalom at Špindlerův Mlýn in the Czech Republic. In early April, just a few weeks after her 16th birthday, she won the slalom title at the US National Championships at Winter Park, Colorado, and became the youngest American ski racer to claim a national alpine crown.

2012 season.

During the 2012 Alpine Skiing World Cup, Shiffrin took her first World Cup podium on December 29, 2011, at a slalom in Lienz, Austria. She started 40th and lost her left shin guard halfway down, but finished in 12th place in the first run. Shiffrin, age 16, then posted the fastest time in the second run to secure third place.

2013 season.

Shiffrin won her first World Cup race in December 2012 at age 17, in a night slalom in Åre, Sweden. She became the second-youngest American to win an alpine World Cup event, behind Judy Nagel (17 yr, 5 mo.). Shiffrin's second win came two weeks later at a night slalom at Zagreb, Croatia; and her third win 11 days later at another night slalom in Flachau, Austria. After winning the slalom at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, she secured the 2013 season title in the slalom discipline. Though she spent most of her last two years of high school in Europe on the World Cup circuit, she graduated on time from Burke Mountain Academy in June.

2014 season.

Shiffrin opened the 2014 season in October 2013 in Sölden, Austria, with a career-best sixth in giant slalom, within a half-second of the podium. She won the next event, a slalom at Levi, Finland, improving on her podium finish the previous year for her fifth World Cup victory. At Beaver Creek, she was runner-up in the giant slalom, her first World Cup podium in that discipline. On January 5, Shiffrin secured first place in a two-run slalom race in Bormio, Italy (the race took place there instead of being, as scheduled, in Zagreb due to bad snow/weather conditions). She also won the world cup slalom races in Flachau, Åre and Lenzerheide, to secure a consecutive World Cup slalom title. Shiffrin ended the season as the reigning Olympic, World Cup, and world champion in slalom. That year, she was named one of ESPNW's Impact 25.

2015 season.

Shiffrin opened the 2015 season in October 2014 in Sölden with her first World Cup win in giant slalom. She had some trouble with slalom at first and ended up outside the podium in the first three World Cup slalom races, but emerged victorious in the races at Kühtai, Zagreb, Maribor, Åre and Méribel. She ended up winning the slalom world cup title once again. Shiffrin also won the World Championship in slalom held in Beaver Creek next to her home city of Vail, Colorado, USA.

2016 season.

In the first two slalom races of the 2016 season, both in Aspen, Shiffrin won by large margins, and in her first race, she achieved a new record margin for women's slalom, 3.07 seconds over the runner-up. On December 12, 2015, during the warm-up for the giant slalom in Åre, she fell and injured her knee. After two months away from racing, Shiffrin made a successful return in her first race back on February 15, 2016, where she took her 18th victory in Crans-Montana. In the 2016 season, she won all five slaloms she started. She missed the other five slaloms due to injuries, and chose not to compete in a parallel slalom in Stockholm.

2017 season.

Shiffrin opened the 2017 season with a second-place finish in giant slalom at Sölden in October 2016. This was followed by a victory in slalom at Levi on November 12. On November 26, 2016, she finished fifth in giant slalom at Killington in her first World Cup race in Vermont, but she returned the following day to a first-place finish in the slalom. On December 11, 2016, Shiffrin won her 11th straight World Cup win in the slalom in Sestriere, Italy. On December 27, Shiffrin won the giant slalom in Semmering, Austria, her second career giant slalom win and her first solo giant slalom win. The next day, she repeated and won her third career giant slalom and 25th World cup career victory. Shiffrin subsequently won the final race held at Semmering, a slalom, on December 29, 2016, achieving her 26th World cup victory and completing her sweep of races at the resort. This made her the first woman to take three wins in three consecutive days in technical disciplines since Vreni Schneider won two giant slaloms in Schwarzenberg and a slalom in Mellau in January 1989. However she missed out on equalling the record of eight consecutive slalom wins, jointly held by Schneider and Janica Kostelić, when she failed to finish first run of the Snow Queen Trophy race in Zagreb on January 3 – her first DNF in slalom since a race in Semmering in 2012. On January 29 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Shiffrin posted her best result in a speed event, finishing fourth in the super-G, only 0.03 seconds off the podium. She won her first parallel slalom on January 31 in Stockholm, Sweden.  At the World Championships in St. Moritz in February, she won the gold medal in slalom and took the silver in giant slalom. The gold was her third consecutive in slalom at the World Championships; she became the first woman to do this in the World Cup era, and the first since Germany's Christl Cranz in 1939, when the Worlds were held annually.  On February 26, Shiffrin won her first super combined race at Crans-Montana. It was her ninth World Cup victory of the season, and extended her lead in the overall standings. She has more World Cup victories before the age of 22 than Ingemar Stenmark, the record holder for number of World Cup victories. In Squaw Valley, the first World Cup races there since 1969, she won the giant slalom on March 10 and the slalom the following day, taking her to 31 World Cup victories and 11 for the season. This secured her her fourth slalom world cup. In Aspen, Colorado, the World Cup finals of the season took place. Shiffrin secured her first overall World Cup, but did not win the giant slalom World Cup that year. After the season, she received the "Skieur d’Or" (golden skier) award, given by the international ski journalist association to the best alpine skier of the year (one award for both genders).

2018 season.

Shiffrin started the 2018 season with a 5th place finish in giant slalom at Sölden. In early December she competed in downhill at Lake Louise, where she reached her first downhill podium (3rd place) and the next day she won her first downhill race in her fourth ever start.  Between December 19 and January 9, Shiffrin won 8 of the 9 races on the World Cup circuit (4 SL, 2 GS, and 2 PSL). She made history winning the very first FIS parallel slalom with the win in Courchevel, France. Then she won the slalom in Lienz, Austria to finish her 2017 year. She started 2018 with the win in the City Event in Oslo, Norway and became the first women ever with 2 wins in City Event. Two days later she won the slalom in Zagreb, Croatia. With wins in both the giant slalom and slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, Shiffrin clocked up her 39th and 40th World Cup wins at age 22. She then won the slalom in Flachau, Austria to equal Annemarie Moser-Pröll's record of 41 World Cup wins before 23rd birthday. She also became the first woman in history to win the first 5 World Cup races of a calendar year and the first one in 20 years (since Katja Seizinger) to win 5 straight World Cup races. After a third place in downhill, things stopped going her way. The rest of January had two 7th places and three races where she did not finish.  At the 2018 Winter Olympics, in Pyeongchang, South Korea – after several days of weather postponements, which caused the first three and final two races to be held on consecutive days, Shiffrin won gold in giant slalom as well as silver in super combined. In the giant slalom she finished second after the first run behind Italian Manuela Moelgg, but was able to secure the gold when Moelgg made mistakes on the second run. Due to weather delays, the slalom was contested the day after the giant slalom. Shiffrin entered the heavy favorite as the reigning Olympic champion, three-time consecutive world champion, reigning World Cup champion and the world cup leader in the event. She finished the first run in fourth, and was unable to improve her ranking after the second run, missing the podium after winning every single major slalom title that she entered in her career beforehand. Although she had originally intended to run at least 4 races, she pulled out of the super-G due to it being held the day after slalom, believing that she would not be able to perform well if she did 3 races in as many days. The weather delays also caused the downhill and the super combined to be held on consecutive days, choosing to run only one of the two. Believing she had her best chance at a medal in super combined, she pulled out of the downhill after running all three training runs, her best finish being 5th in the 3rd and final training run. In the super combined, the final individual alpine event on the Olympic schedule, she finished 6th after downhill. However, she was far behind the leader, 1.98 seconds behind compatriot Lindsey Vonn. However, due to having the 3rd fastest slalom run—and many of the leaders of the first run having mistakes in the second—she was able to move up to the silver medal position behind Michelle Gisin of Switzerland. Her gold and silver medals coming out of the Olympics made her the most decorated American Olympian, the most decorated female alpine skier, and the second most decorated alpine skier overall, only behind Marcel Hirscher of Austria who won two gold medals.  Shiffrin secured her second consecutive World Cup overall title on March 9, 2018 with 5 races left in the season. At the World Cup Finals in Åre, Sweden she won the slalom by 1.58 seconds over Wendy Holdener of Switzerland, her 12th win of the season. This tied her for second with her teammate Lindsey Vonn for most World Cup wins in a single season by a woman, behind Swiss skier Vreni Schneider holding the record of 14.

2019 season.

On December 2, 2018 she won a super-G race in Lake Louise, becoming the only alpine skier ever — male or female — to win all six currently contested alpine skiing disciplines. These include slalom, giant slalom, downhill, super-G, combined, and the most recently added, parallel slalom (also called a city event). Tina Maze and Lindsey Vonn never won a parallel slalom race since its introduction into World Cup competition. With her 1st super-G World Cup win at Lake Louise, Shiffrin become the seventh woman to win in the five more traditional disciplines (not including parallel slalom). She joined Lindsey Vonn, Tina Maze, Janica Kostelić, Anja Pärson, Pernilla Wiberg and Petra Kronberger.  On December 8, 2018 she won her second Super-G at St. Moritz, Switzerland for her first back-to-back speed wins. The next day, December 9, she won her 4th parallel slalom with a dramatic win over her main slalom rival, the Slovakian Petra Vlhová. This marked her 5th win out of 9 season races to start the 2018/2019 season. On December 22, 2018, she won the slalom in Courchevel, France and became the youngest skier ever – female or male – to win 50 World Cup ski races, at the age of 23 years and nine months. With that race she also equalled the record of the Austrian Marlies Schild for the most wins in women's slalom – 35, and put herself in joint seventh place in all-time World Cup victories with Alberto Tomba of Italy.  One week later, she took another World Cup slalom win in Semmering, Austria, becoming the first alpine skier to take 15 World Cup wins in a single calendar year, moving ahead of Marcel Hirscher, who had taken 14 wins in 2018: both had broken the old record of 13 wins which had been set by Ingemar Stenmark in 1979. The race was also her 36th World Cup slalom win, breaking Schild's record: Shiffrin subsequently described Schild as "my biggest idol beside Bode Miller".  At the start of February 2019, shortly before the 2019 Alpine World Ski Championships, Shiffrin moved into third place on the list female skiers with the most World Cup race wins at a meeting in Maribor, tieing with Vlhová for the win in a giant slalom to put her equal with Vreni Schneider on 55 wins before winning a slalom the following day to overtake the Swiss skier.  At the World Championships, Shiffrin won the gold medal in the super-G before taking a bronze in the giant slalom in windy, changeable conditions, finishing behind Vlhová and Viktoria Rebensburg. She went on to secure a second gold in the slalom, becoming the first alpine skier to win four consecutive World Championships in the same discipline, despite suffering from a lung infection on the day of the race.  Following the Worlds, in March 2019 Shiffrin became the first alpine skier to take 15 World Cup wins in a season when she took victory in a slalom in Špindlerův Mlýn, breaking the record she had previously held jointly with Vreni Schneider. At the World Cup finals in Soldeu, Shiffrin started her campaign by clinching the super-G crystal globe, finishing fourth in the final race to take her tenth World Cup title and her first in a speed discipline, having already built an unassailable lead to secure the overall and slalom titles earlier in the season. She became the first skier to win World Cups in a technical and a speed event in the same season since Tina Maze six years earlier. She went on to win the slalom, her 16th win of the season and the 40th slalom win of her career, tying with Stenmark for the most World Cup slalom race wins. The following day she took her 17th win of the season and the 60th win of her career in the giant slalom to secure the GS crystal globe, becoming the first skier to win the overall, super-G, giant slalom and slalom World Cup titles in a single season. She also later won her 41st slalom race, making her the skier who has won the most World Cup slalom races.

2020 season.

Shiffrin had inconsistent performances in the technical races in the first half of the 2020 season, winning three slalom races to start, but placing runner up to Petra Vlhova later in the season. She also experienced similar fluctuations in ranking in Giant Slalom. However, she competed more frequently in speed races and following the Bansko World Cup in January 2020, had recorded 6 victories for the season, 3 slaloms and one each in giant slalom, Super G and Downhill; off pace with her performance in previous seasons, but still the most on the World Cup tour and with a considerable lead in the Overall Standings. However, on February 3, 2020, her father unexpectedly died in an accident, causing her to take an indefinite break from the World Cup tour and her chances of a fourth consecutive title. She did attend the final competition in Are, Sweden, but the race was canceled due to coronavirus. As a result, Petra Vlhova took over the top spot of the slalom rankings following a World Cup in Slovenia, the first time Shiffrin wasn’t leading slalom at that point in the season since 2016 and Federica Brignone reduced her lead in the overall from over 400 points to just over 100, and later took over the lead in the overall,

World Championship results.

Shiffrin competed in her first World Championships in 2013 at Schladming, Austria, and finished sixth in the giant slalom at Planai. Two days later in the slalom, she won the world title at age 17.

Olympic results.

Favored to win the slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Shiffrin led after the first run and nearly fell in the second, but held on for victory at Rosa Khutor. Three weeks shy of her 19th birthday, she became the youngest slalom champion in Olympic history. Three days earlier, she finished fifth in the giant slalom, held in the rain.  She competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang where she won the gold medal in the giant slalom and silver medal in the Combined. She placed 4th in the slalom despite being favored to win the gold medal in the event.

Media appearances and documentaries.

Days after her first World Cup finals in 2013, Shiffrin was interviewed by David Letterman on the "Late Show" on March 19.  In 2014, Shiffrin was featured in a one-hour special on NBC television, "How to Raise an Olympian," on February 5. Hosted by Meredith Vieira, it chronicled the journeys of seven US Olympians and featured interviews from parents and coaches along with home video and photos from each athlete's childhood. The event was broadcast on television with live social-media components to enhance each segment. After Shiffrin's first gold medal win, she played "Catch Phrase" with Reese Witherspoon and Usher on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon". On July 12, 2014, Shiffrin was a guest on the NPR radio show "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!", where she won the show's Not My Job game at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre.  On October 27, 2016, Shiffrin, speaking in German, presented the award for the best Austrian sportsman to Marcel Hirscher at a sports gala in Austria. In 2017, Shiffrin discussed her skiing roots and aptitude for napping on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers". In 2018, Shiffrin was profiled on CBS News' "60 Minutes".  In the weeks after the February 2019 World Ski Championship, Amanda Ruggeri twice profiled Shiffin in "Deadspin", and she was featured in "The Wall Street Journal". In March 2019, after the conclusion of her record-setting World Cup season, she discussed handling anxiety on NBC's "Today", addressed dealing with social media trolls on CNN, discussed pay equity on ABC's "Good Morning America" and the entertainment news show "Access", and taught host Jimmy Fallon how to do the shuffle dance on NBC's "Tonight Show". "The New York Times" profiled Shiffrin as "the face of American skiing,", a theme echoed in a "Sports Illustrated" profile and video where Shiffrin talked in detail about her history with Lindsey Vonn.  Shiffrin has been the subject of long-form documentary videos. She is often featured in Outside's "In Search of Speed," including in 2015, 2017 and 2018. After covering Shiffrin's training regimen in 2017, Red Bull in 2018 produced the 48-minutes long documentary "Peak Season: The Determination of Mikaela Shiffrin." In April 2019, NBC's Olympia channel devoted 25 hours of prime-time to feature 20 of Shiffrin's races in the 2018-2019 season; her fanclub also released a compilation of highlights from her 2018-2019 season.

Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin (born March 13, 1995) is an American two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup alpine skier. She is a three-time Overall World Cup champion, the four-time reigning world champion in slalom, and a six-time winner of the World Cup discipline title in that event. Shiffrin is the youngest slalom champion in Olympic alpine skiing history, at 18 years and 345 days.

Mikaela Shiffrinová, rodným jménem Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin, (* 13. března 1995 Vail, Colorado) je americká alpská lyžařka, specializující se především na točivé disciplíny – obří slalom a slalom. Na olympiádě v Soči v roce 2014 se stala nejmladší olympijskou vítězkou v historii slalomových závodů, když triumfovala ve věku 18 let a 345 dní. Druhé zlato přidala v obřím slalomu na Zimních olympijských hrách 2018 v Pchjongčchangu.


Biography.

Born on January 31, 1990, he attended the Realschule Galgenberg in Aalen, Germany, and later Johannes-Gutenberg-Schule, a vocational school in Stuttgart, Germany. He began recording music at the age of 13. He learned to play the piano and the guitar. In 2009, he released his first mixtape "Trash". On February 11, 2011, his second mixtape "Meine Musik" was released. It was available for free download. Cro produced the entire mixtape by himself. Through the mixtape German hip-hop musician Kaas took notice of Cro. Besides his musical career, Cro is also active as a designer. Since 2010, he has been designing under his clothing label "Vio Vio". After receiving his Mittlere Reife, he completed an apprenticeship as a media designer and worked for the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" as a cartoonist.  Through Kaas, Cro met Sebastian Andrej Schweizer, founder of the independent-label, Chimperator Productions, and Kodimey Awokou. At the end of September 2011, a "Making of" video for a new artist was published by the label leading to speculations about which artist had been actually signed. In October 2011, Schweizer announced that he had signed Cro.  From October 30 until November 7, 2011, Cro was a supporting act for the Norwegian band Madcon during their "Glow Tour 2011". During the concert and also for photos, Cro wore a panda-mask. Psaiko.Dino, producer at Chimperator Productions, adopted the role as a spokesperson for Cro, especially for the video-blogs.  In November 2011, the music video for "Easy", which had been directed by Harris Hodovic and was announcing the upcoming mixtape, was released on tape.tv. A few days later, the video was released on YouTube, where it gained more than 500,000 views in the first two weeks. In the beginning of 2012, it had gained 12,000,000 views, mid-May, the views had risen to a number of more than 44,000,000. The American blog hypetrak.com also reported about the video and Cro. German hip hop and funk musician Jan Delay posted the video on his Facebook page and said, Cro was the "future of German rap." Besides "Easy", "Hi Kids" and "Kein Benz" were also released prior to the release of the mixtape. On December 1, 2011, Cro was a guest on the show "NeoParadise" by the channel ZDFneo, where he performed snippets of three songs from his mixtapes "Meine Musik" and "Easy". One day later, Chimperator Productions released the mixtape "Easy" which is available for free download on their website.  In the beginning of 2012, Cro signed an author's contract with Universal Music Publishing Group. On January 27, 2012, Cro embarked on a concert tour named "Pandas Gone Wild!", on which he was accompanied by Psaiko.Dino. In mid February 2012, the music video for "Easy" gained 1,000,000 views on YouTube. In mid May the number of the views rose to 3,000,000. On March 23, 2012, the song "Easy" was released as a single. Besides the Standard version, the Limited Edition version included the songs "Hi Kids," "Lieblingssong," as well as "Konfetti," a collaboration with Ahzumjot and Rockstah. "Easy" entered the German Single-Charts on second place.  In June 2012, Cro's single "Easy" was certified gold in Germany. The music video for the single gained 20,000,000 views on YouTube. From June 29 until July 1, Cro released on Single each day, "Du," "King of Raop," and "Meine Zeit." Music videos were also filmed for every single. On July 6, Cro released his debut album, "Raop". Mid-July, "Easy," "Hi Kids," "Du," "King of Raop," and "Meine Zeit," all of his five released singles were placed in the Top 100 in the German Single-Charts.  On September 7, 2012 Cro released a free mixtape called "Raop" which included 16 remixes of songs from his album "Raop". On September 28, Cro competed in the Bundesvision Song Contest with his and Die Orsons' song "Horst & Monika" and took the fifth place. On October 19, 2012 Cro released the track "1 Millionen" through the iTunes and made it available for free download. He dedicated this track to having more than 1 million fans on Facebook. On October 21, he released a music video to accompany the track.  On October 27, 2012 Cro released the music video for his fifth single "Einmal um die Welt" which was released on November 2. In November, Cro's debut album, "Raop" and single "Easy" reached platinum status in Germany whereas "Du" was certified gold. In Austria, "Raop" and "Easy" and in Switzerland, "Easy" were also certified gold. He also won the Bambi award in the category "Pop National". On December 6, he won the 1LIVE Krone for "Beste Single" for his debut single, "Easy". He was also named Newcomer of the Year 2012 by iTunes. His debut album, "Raop" was named "Album of the Year" by MTV.  In March 2013, Cro won a Swiss Music Award in the category "Best Album Urban - International" for his album "Raop". Cro has cooperated with H&M and has designed a collection of clothes for men and women which was released on April 4, 2013. On March 11, H&M and Cro released additional behind the scenes images plus an interview.

Design.

Apart from his music, Cro also works as a Designer. And in 2010 he also founded his own fashion label called VioVio. In 2015 he made a unique design for a Mercedes-Benz CLA which was given as a prize to one of his fans and is now part of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

Artist.

After the release of his last studio album tru. Cro started showing more of his art in general. So at 8 September 2017 he had his first vernissage at the circle culture gallery in Berlin, where he showed several pieces of art, including masks that he colored and self-made paintings.

Director.

In 2016 Cro made his first movie named "Unsere Zeit ist jetzt", where he was working together with the German actor Til Schweiger. The story of the film is, that Cro sent out an ideas contest for his movie and the realization of it with the three winners. The movie started at 6 October 2016 in German cinemas.

Panda mask.

Cro wears a panda mask whenever he is on stage or doing something media related. His first mask was a cut version made out of latex. He once said that the main reason for his wearing it is to protect his privacy. In 2014, he wore an alternate mask made of cotton. Since the premiere of the video to "Unendlichkeit", Cro now wears a more minimalistic mask that is made of plastic and is fully white.

Carlo Christopher Simon Waibel, better known by his stage name Cro (born January 31, 1990), is a German musician, artist, fashion designer, director and producer. He was represented by Chimperator Productions until July 2018. He describes his music as a mixture between rap and pop, which he calls "raop".

Carlo Waibel (* 31. ledna 1990), lépe známý jako Cro, je německý rapper, zpěvák, producent a návrhář, který působí pod vydavatelstvím Chimperator Productions. Svou hudbu popisuje jako něco mezi rapem a popem, což nazývá "Raop".


Biography.

Little is known of Gabirol's life, and some sources give contradictory information. Sources agree that he was born in Málaga, but are unclear whether in late 1021 or early 1022 CE. The year of his death is a matter of dispute, with conflicting accounts having him dying either before age 30 or by age 48.  Gabirol lived a life of material comfort, never having to work to sustain himself, but he lived a difficult and loveless life, suffering ill health, misfortunes, fickle friendships, and powerful enemies. From his teenage years, he suffered from some disease, possibly lupus vulgaris, that would leave him embittered and in constant pain. He indicates in his poems that he considered himself short and ugly. Of his personality, Moses ibn Ezra wrote: "his irascible temperament dominated his intellect, nor could he rein the demon that was within himself. It came easily to him to lampoon the great, with salvo upon salvo of mockery and sarcasm." He has been described summarily as "a social misfit."  Gabirol's writings indicate that his father was a prominent figure in Córdoba, but was forced to relocate to Málaga during a political crisis in 1013. Gabirol's parents died while he was a child, leaving him an orphan with no siblings or close relatives. He was befriended, supported and protected by a prominent political figure of the time, Yekutiel ibn Hassan al-Mutawakkil ibn Qabrun, and moved to Zaragoza, then an important center of Jewish culture. Gabirol's anti-social temperament, occasionally boastful poetry, and sharp wit earned him powerful enemies, but as long as Jekuthiel lived, Gabirol remained safe from them and was able to freely immerse himself in study of the Talmud, grammar, geometry, astronomy, and philosophy. However, when Gabirol was seventeen years old, his benefactor was assassinated as the result of a political conspiracy, and by 1045 Gabirol found himself compelled to leave Zaragoza. He was then sponsored by no less than the grand vizier and top general to the kings of Granada, Samuel ibn Naghrillah (Shmuel HaNaggid). Gabirol made ibn Naghrillah an object of praise in his poetry until an estrangement arose between them and ibn Naghrillah became the butt of Gabirol's bitterest irony. It seems Gabirol never married, and that he spent the remainder of his life wandering.  Gabirol had become an accomplished poet and philosopher at an early age:  As mentioned above, the conflicting accounts of Gabirol's death have him dying either before age 30 or by age 48. The opinion of earliest death, that he died before age 30, is believed to be based upon a misreading of medieval sources. The remaining two opinions are that he died either in 1069 or 1070, or around 1058 in Valencia. As to the circumstances of his death, one legend claims that he was trampled to death by an Arab horseman. A second legend relates that he was murdered by a Muslim poet who was jealous of Gabirol's poetic gifts, and who secretly buried him beneath the roots of a fig tree. The tree bore fruit in abundant quantity and of extraordinary sweetness. Its uniqueness excited attention and provoked an investigation. The resulting inspection of the tree uncovered Gabirol's remains, and led to the identification and execution of the murderer.

Historical identity.

Though Gabirol's legacy was esteemed throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, it was historically minimized by two errors of scholarship that mis-attributed his works.

False ascription as King Solomon.

Gabirol seems to have often been called "the Málagan", after his place of birth, and would occasionally so refer to himself when encrypting his signature in his poems (e.g. in "שטר עלי בעדים", he embeds his signature as an acrostic in the form "אני שלמה הקטן ברבי יהודה גבירול מאלקי חזק" – meaning: "I am young Solomon, son of Rabi Yehuda, from Malaqa, Hazak"). While in Modern Hebrew the city is also called Málaga (), that is in deference to its current Spanish pronunciation. In Gabirol's day, when it was ruled by Arabic speakers, it was called "Mālaqa" (), as it is to this day by Arabic speakers. The 12th-century Arab philosopher Jabir ibn Aflah misinterpreted manuscript signatures of the form "שלמה... יהודה... אלמלאק" to mean "Solomon... the Jew.. the king", and so ascribed to Solomon some seventeen philosophical essays of Gabirol. The 15th-century Jewish philosopher Yohanan Alemanno imported that error back into the Hebrew canon, and added another four works to the list of false ascriptions.

Identification as Avicebron.

In 1846, Solomon Munk discovered among the Hebrew manuscripts in the French National Library in Paris a work by Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera. Comparing it with a Latin work by Avicebron entitled "Fons Vitæ", Munk proved them to both excerpt an Arabic original of which the "Fons Vitæ" was evidently the translation. Munk concluded that Avicebron or Avencebrol, who had for centuries been believed to be a Christian or Arabic Muslim philosopher, was instead identical with the Jewish Solomon ibn Gabirol. The centuries-long confusion was in part due to a content feature atypical in Jewish writings: "Fons Vitæ" exhibits an independence of Jewish religious dogma and does not cite Biblical verses or Rabbinic sources.  The progression in the Latinization of Gabirol's name seems to have been ibn Gabirol, Ibngebirol, Avengebirol. Avengebrol, Avencebrol, Avicebrol, and finally Avicebron. Some sources still refer to him as Avicembron, Avicenbrol, or Avencebrol.

Philosophy.

Gabirol, in his poem "כשרש עץ" (line 24), claims to have written twenty philosophical works. Through scholarly deduction (see above), we know their titles, but we have the texts of only two.  Gabirol made his mark on the history of philosophy under his alias as Avicebron, one of the first teachers of Neo-Platonism in Europe, and author of "Fons Vitæ". As such, he is best known for the doctrine that all things, including soul and intellect, are composed of matter and form (“Universal Hylomorphism”), and for his emphasis on divine will.  His role has been compared to that of Philo: both were ignored by their fellow Jews, but exercised considerable influence upon Gentiles (Philo upon primitive Christianity, Gabirol upon medieval Christian scholasticism); and both served as cultural intermediaries (Philo between Hellenistic philosophy and the Oriental world; Gabirol between Greco-Arabic philosophy and the Occident).

"Fons Vitæ".

"Fons Vitæ", originally written in Arabic under the title "Yanbu' al-Hayat" () and later translated into Hebrew by Ibn Tibbon as,, lit. "Source of Life", (cf. ) is a Neo-Platonic philosophical dialogue between master and disciple on the nature of Creation and how understanding what we are (our nature) can help us know how to live (our purpose). "His goal is to understand the nature of being and human being so that he might better understand and better inspire the pursuit of knowledge and the doing of good deeds." The work stands out in the history of philosophy for introducing the doctrine that all things, including soul and intellect, are composed of matter and form, and for its emphasis on divine will.  In the closing sentences of the Fons "Vitæ" (5.43, p. 338, line 21), ibn Gabirol further describes this state of “return” as a liberation from death and a cleaving to the source of life.  The work was originally composed in Arabic, of which no copies are extant. It was preserved for the ages by a translation into Latin in the year 1150 by Abraham ibn Daud and Dominicus Gundissalinus, who was the first official director of the Toledo School of Translators, a scholastic philosopher, and the archdeacon of Segovia, Spain. In the 13th century, Shem Tov ibn Falaquera wrote a summary of "Fons" "Vitæ" in Hebrew, and only in 1926 was the full Latin text was translated into Hebrew.  "Fons Vitæ" consists of five sections:  "Fons Vitæ" posits that the basis of existence and the source of life in every created thing is a combination of "matter" () and "form". The doctrine of matter and form informed the work's subtitle: ""De Materia et Forma."" Its chief doctrines are:

Influence within Judaism.

Though Gabirol as a philosopher was ignored by the Jewish community, Gabirol as a poet was not, and through his poetry, he introduced his philosophical ideas. His best-known poem,, is a philosophical treatise in poetical form, the "double" of the "Fons Vitæ". For example, the eighty-third line of the poem points to one of the teachings of the "Fons Vitæ"; namely, that all the attributes predicated of God exist apart in thought alone and not in reality.  Moses ibn Ezra is the first to mention Gabirol as a philosopher, praising his intellectual achievements, and quoting several passages from the "Fons Vitæ" in his own work, "Aruggat ha-Bosem". Abraham ibn Ezra, who cites Gabirol's philosophico-allegorical Bible interpretation, borrows from the "Fons Vitæ" both in his prose and in his poetry without giving due credit.  The 12th-century philosopher Joseph ibn Tzaddik borrows extensively from the "Fons Vitæ" in his work "Microcosmos".  Another 12th-century philosopher, Abraham ibn Daud of Toledo, was the first to take exception to Gabirol's teachings. In "Sefer ha-Kabbalah" he praises Gabirol as a poet. But to counteract the influence of ibn Gabirol the philosopher, he wrote an Arabic book, translated into Hebrew under the title "Emunah Ramah", in which he reproaches Gabirol for having philosophized without any regard to the requirements of the Jewish religious position and bitterly accuses him of mistaking a number of poor reasons for one good one. He criticizes Gabirol for being repetitive, wrong-headed and unconvincing.  Occasional traces of ibn Gabriol's thought are found in some of the Kabbalistic literature of the 13th century. Later references to ibn Gabirol, such as those of Elijah Chabillo, Isaac Abarbanel, Judah Abarbanel, Moses Almosnino, and Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, are based on an acquaintance with the scholastic philosophy, especially the works of Aquinas.  The 13th-century a Jewish philosopher Berechiah ha-Nakdan drew upon Gabirol's works in his encyclopedic philosophical text "Sefer Haḥibbur" (,, lit. "The Book of Compilation").

Influence on Scholasticism.

For over six centuries, the Christian world regarded "Fons Vitæ" as the work of a Christian philosopher or Arabic Muslim philosopher, and it became a cornerstone and bone of contention in many theologically charged debates between Franciscans and Dominicans. The Aristotelian Dominicans led by St. Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas opposed the teachings of "Fons Vitæ"; the Platonist Franciscans led by Duns Scotus supported its teachings, and led to its acceptance in Christian philosophy, influencing later philosophers such as the 16th-century Dominican friar Giordano Bruno. Other early supporters of Gabirol's philosophy include the following:  The main points at issue between Gabirol and Aquinas were as follows:

Ethics.

"The Improvement of the Moral Qualities".

"The Improvement of the Moral Qualities", originally written in Arabic under the title Islah al-Khlaq (), and later translated by Ibn Tibbon as (, ) is an ethical treatise that has been called by Munk "a popular manual of morals." It was composed by Gabirol at Zaragoza in 1045, at the request of some friends who wished to possess a book treating of the qualities of man and the methods of effecting their improvement.  The innovations in the work are that it presents the principles of ethics independently of religious dogma and that it proposes that the five physical senses are emblems and instruments of virtue and vice, but not their agents; thus, a person's inclination to vice is subject to a person's will to change. Gabirol presents a tabular diagram of the relationship of twenty qualities to the five senses, reconstructed at right, and urges his readers to train the qualities of their souls unto good through self-understanding and habituation. He regards man's ability to do so as an example of divine benevolence.  While this work of Gabirol is not widely studied in Judaism, it has many points in common with Bahya ibn Paquda's very popular work "Chovot HaLevavot", written in 1040, also in Zaragoza.

"Mivchar HaPeninim".

"Mukhtar al-Jawahir" (), "Mivchar HaPeninim" (. lit. "The Choice of Pearls"), an ethics work of sixty-four chapters, has been attributed to Gabirol since the 19th century, but this is doubtful. It was originally published, along with a short commentary, in Soncino, Italy, in 1484, and has since been re-worked and re-published in many forms and abridged editions (e.g. Joseph Ḳimcḥi versified the work under the title ""Shekel ha-Kodesh"").  The work is a collection of maxims, proverbs, and moral reflections, many of them of Arabic origin, and bears a strong similarity to the Florilegium of Hunayn ibn Ishaq and other Arabic and Hebrew collections of ethics sayings, which were highly prized by both Arabs and Jews.

Poetry.

Gabirol wrote both sacred and secular poems, in Hebrew, and was recognized even by his critics (e.g. Moses ibn Ezra and Yehuda Alharizi) as the greatest poet of his age. His secular poems express disillusionment with social mores and worldliness, but are written with a sophistication and artistry that reveals him to have been socially influenced by his worldly Arabic contemporaries.  Gabirol's lasting poetic legacy, however, was his sacred works. Today, "his religious lyrics are considered by many to be the most powerful of their kind in the medieval Hebrew tradition, and his long cosmological masterpiece, "Keter Malchut", is acknowledged today as one of the greatest poems in all of Hebrew literature." His verses are distinctive for tackling complex metaphysical concepts, expressing scathing satire, and declaring his religious devotion unabashedly.  Gabirol wrote with a pure Biblical Hebrew diction that would become the signature style of the Spanish school of Hebrew poets, and he popularized in Hebrew poetry the strict Arabic meter introduced by Dunash ben Labrat. Abraham ibn Ezra calls Gabirol, not ben Labrat, "the writer of metric songs," and in "Sefer Zaḥot" uses Gabirol's poems to illustrate various poetic meters.  He wrote also more than one hundred piyyuṭim and selichot for the Sabbath, festivals, and fast-days, most of which have been included in the Holy Day prayer books of Sephardim, Ashkenazim, and even Karaites. Some of his most famous in liturgical use include the following:  Gabirol's most famous poem is "Keter Malchut" (lit. Royal Crown), which, in 900 lines, describes the cosmos as testifying to its own creation by God, based upon the then current (11th-century) scientific understanding of the cosmos.  Gabirol's poetry has been set to music by the modern composer Aaron Jay Kernis, in an album titled "Symphony of Meditations."  In 2007 Gabirol's poetry has been set to music by the Israeli rock guitarist Berry Sakharof and the Israeli modern composer Rea Mochiach, in a piece titled "Red Lips" ("Adumey Ha-Sefatot" "אֲדֻמֵּי הַשְּׂפָתוֹת")

Solomon ibn Gabirol (also Solomon ben Judah; "Shlomo Ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol", ; "Abu Ayyub Sulayman bin Yahya bin Jabirul", ) was an 11th-century Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher in the Neo-Platonic tradition. He published over a hundred poems, as well as works of biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics and satire. One source credits ibn Gabirol with creating a golem, possibly female, for household chores.

Šlomo ibn Gabirol (: שלמה אבן גבירול, též Šlomo ben Jehuda, שלמה בן יהודה, : "Avicebron"; asi 1020 – asi 1057) byl židovský filosof, básník a představitel židovského novoplatonismu, který ovlivnil křesťanskou teologii i židovský mysticismus. Je autorem důležitého filosofického díla Pramen života (Fons vitae) a náboženské básně Keter malchut („Koruna království“). Byl prvním významným židovským filosofem ve Španělsku a jedním z nejoriginálnějších středověkých židovských filosofů.


History.

Rosoboronexport is a legal successor of the state arms exporters which existed in the ex-USSR and present-day Russia. A state intermediary agency in the military-technical area was first created on May 8, 1953, when the General Engineering Department within the Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade of the USSR was founded in accordance with the decision of the Soviet Government.  With the scope of military industrial complex expanding, a number of new specialized export agencies were set up. By the late 1990s, there were two state intermediary companies in the country, Rosvooruzhenie and Promexport. On November 4, 2000, the two state-owned companies were merged by Decree No1834 of the Russian President, establishing the Rosoboronexport Unitary enterprise as the sole state intermediary agency for Russia's military exports/imports.  On August 4, 2006, the Bush administration imposed sanctions on Rosoboronexport accusing it of supplying Iran in violation of the United States Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000. The Russian defense ministry said the move reflected U.S. annoyance at arms sales to Venezuela. Rosoboronexport was prohibited from doing business with the Federal government of the United States from 2008 until 2010, when the U.S. lifted such sanctions in response to Russian support for a UN resolution concerning Iran's nuclear program.  On January 19, 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree making Rosoboronexport responsible for all arms exports.  It was reported that Rosoboronexport was to be folded into a state holding company called Rostec by the end of the year 2007.  On September 18, 2008 it was reported that Rosoboronexport had agreed to go ahead with the sale of advanced S-300 Russian made anti-aircraft systems to Iran in light of the news that the United States had agreed to supply Israel with GBU-39s (Small Diameter Bunker Buster Bombs)  The 2011 volume of military supplies to foreign customers made by Rosoboronexport was US$10.7 billion considering the expected US$9.19 billion. A continuous increase in sales (US$2 billion in 2011) makes Russia the second largest exporter of military products after the USA. In 2012, the export revenues from Russian-made weapons was US$15.2 billion, and the order portfolio for Russian military products reached US$46.3 billion.  In 2012, Rosoboronexport was widely reported to be Syria’s main weapons supplier, but Russia maintains that its arms deals with the Syrian government are based on longstanding contracts between the two countries. Russia holds that the weapons sold to Syria are purely defensive in nature, cannot be used against civilians, and are primarily air defense installations. The refurbishment of Russian-made helicopters, and the delivery of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles caused great international attention. The US, Germany and Israel were all opposed to weapons transfers to Syria.  In July 2013, Rosoboronexport recorded $34 billion in orders for 66 countries.  In 2017, Angola's first satellite will be launched. Rosoboronexport served as the leader of the project team. The contract which began in 2009 was worth an estimated US$328 million.

Management.

The founding director of Rosvooruzhenie, appointed in 1993, was Viktor I. Samoilov. He was followed by Aleksandr Kotelkin. Sergey Chemezov was the Director General of Rosoboronexport during 2004–2007, Anatoly Isaikin came after.

United States sanctions.

On July 16, 2014, the Obama administration imposed sanctions through the US Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) by adding Rosoboronexport and other entities to the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN) in retaliation for the ongoing Ukrainian crisis, annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by the Kremlin, and the Russian interference in Ukraine.

See also.

List of countries by arms exports

JSC Rosoboronexport (, "Rosoboroneksport") is the sole state intermediary agency for Russia's exports/imports of defense-related and dual use products, technologies and services. The Rosoboronexport Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FSUE) was set up in 2000 by a Decree of the President of Russia and is charged with implementation of the policy of the State in the area of military-technical cooperation between Russia and foreign countries. In 2007, the enterprise was re-registered as Rosoboronexport Open joint-stock company (OJSC). In 2011, Rostekhnologii non-profit state corporation acquired 100% of Rosoboronexport OJSC.

Rosoboronexport () je ruská státní akciová společnost, která zprostředkovává vývoz a dovoz zbraňových a obranných systémů, produktů, technologií a služeb.


Background.

The BRAIN Initiative reflects a number of influences, stemming back over a decade. Some of these include: planning meetings at the National Institutes of Health that led to the NIH's Blueprint for Neuroscience Research; workshops at the National Science Foundation (NSF) on cognition, neuroscience, and convergent science, including a 2006 report on "Grand Challenges of Mind and Brain"; reports from the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders, including "From Molecules to Mind: Challenges for the 21st Century," a report of a June 25, 2008 Workshop on Grand Challenges in Neuroscience.; years of research and reports from scientists and professional societies; and congressional interest.  One important activity was the Brain Activity Map Project. In September 2011, molecular biologist Miyoung Chun of The Kavli Foundation organized a conference in London, at which scientists first put forth the idea of such a project. At subsequent meetings, scientists from US government laboratories, including members of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Allen Institute for Brain Science, along with representatives from Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm, discussed possibilities for a future government-led project.  Other influences included the interdisciplinary "Decade of the Mind" project led by James L. Olds, who is currently the Assistant Director for Biological Sciences at NSF, and the "Revolutionizing Prosthetics" project at DARPA, led by Dr. Geoffrey Ling and shown on 60 Minutes in April 2009.  Development of the plan for the BRAIN Initiative within the Executive Office of the President (EOP) was led by OSTP and included the following EOP staff: Philip Rubin, then Principal Assistant Director for Science and leader of the White House Neuroscience Initiative; Thomas Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation; Cristin Dorgelo, then Assistant Director for Grand Challenges, and later Chief of Staff at OSTP; and Carlos Peña, Assistant Director for Emerging Technologies and currently the Division Director for the Division of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices, in the Office of Device Evaluation, Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Announcement.

On April 2, 2013, at a White House event, President Barack Obama announced The BRAIN Initiative, with proposed initial expenditures for fiscal year 2014 of approximately $110 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The President also directed the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to explore the ethical, legal, and societal implications raised by the initiative and by neuroscience in general. Additional commitments were also made by the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and The Kavli Foundation. The NIH also announced the creation of a working group of the Advisory Committee to the Director, led by neuroscientists Cornelia Bargmann and William Newsome and with "ex officio" participation from DARPA and NSF, to help shape NIH's role in the BRAIN Initiative. NSF planned to receive advice from its directorate advisory committees, from the National Science Board, and from a series of meetings bringing together scientists in neuroscience and related areas.

Experimental approaches.

News reports said the research would map the dynamics of neuron activity in mice and other animals and eventually the tens of billions of neurons in the human brain.  In a 2012 scientific commentary outlining experimental plans for a more limited project, Alivisatos "et al." outlined a variety of specific experimental techniques that might be used to achieve what they termed a "functional connectome", as well as new technologies that will have to be developed in the course of the project. They indicated that initial studies might be done in "Caenorhabditis elegans", followed by "Drosophila", because of their comparatively simple neural circuits. Mid-term studies could be done in zebrafish, mice, and the Etruscan shrew, with studies ultimately to be done in primates and humans. They proposed the development of nanoparticles that could be used as voltage sensors that would detect individual action potentials, as well as nanoprobes that could serve as electrophysiological multielectrode arrays. In particular, they called for the use of wireless, noninvasive methods of neuronal activity detection, either utilizing microelectronic very-large-scale integration, or based on synthetic biology rather than microelectronics. In one such proposed method, enzymatically produced DNA would serve as a "ticker tape record" of neuronal activity, based on calcium ion-induced errors in coding by DNA polymerase. Data would be analyzed and modeled by large scale computation. A related technique proposed the use of high-throughput DNA sequencing for rapidly mapping neural connectivity.

Timeline.

The timeline proposed by the Working Group in 2014 is:

Working group.

The advisory committee is:

Participants.

As of December 2018, the BRAIN Initiative website lists the following participants and affiliates:

Reactions.

Scientists offered differing views of the plan. Neuroscientist John Donoghue said that the project would fill a gap in neuroscience research between, on the one hand, activity measurements at the level of brain regions using methods such as fMRI, and, on the other hand, measurements at the level of single cells. Psychologist Ed Vul expressed concern, however, that the initiative would divert funding from individual investigator studies. Neuroscientist Donald Stein expressed concern that it would be a mistake to begin by spending money on technological methods, before knowing exactly what would be measured. Physicist Michael Roukes argued instead that methods in nanotechnology are becoming sufficiently mature to make the time right for a brain activity map. Neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinás declared at the first Rockefeller meeting "What has happened here is magnificent, never before in neuroscience have I seen so much unity in such a glorious purpose."  The projects face great logistical challenges. Neuroscientists estimated that the project would generate 300 exabytes of data every year, presenting a significant technical barrier. Most of the available high-resolution brain activity monitors are of limited use, as they must be invasively implanted surgically by opening the skull. Parallels have been drawn to past large-scale government-led research efforts including the map of the human genome, the voyage to the moon, and the development of the atomic bomb.

The White House BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies), is a collaborative, public-private research initiative announced by the Obama administration on April 2, 2013, with the goal of supporting the development and application of innovative technologies that can create a dynamic understanding of brain function.

Brain Activity Map Project je projekt, který vzniknul z iniciativy Baracka Obamy v roce 2013. Cílem projektu je zmapování aktivity každého neuronu lidského mozku během deseti let. Cena projektu se odhaduje na 300 milionů dolarů ročně po dobu deseti let.


Biography.

Bookchin was born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants Nathan Bookchin and Rose (Kaluskaya) Bookchin. He grew up in the Bronx, where his grandmother, Zeitel, a Socialist Revolutionary, imbued him with Russian populist ideas. After her death in 1930, he joined the Young Pioneers, the Communist youth organization (for children 9 to 14) and the Young Communist League (for older children) in 1935. He attended the Workers School near Union Square, where he studied Marxism. In the late 1930s he broke with Stalinism and gravitated toward Trotskyism, joining the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). In the early 1940s he worked in a foundry in Bayonne, New Jersey where he was an organizer and shop steward for the United Electrical Workers as well as a recruiter for the SWP. Within the SWP he adhered to the Goldman-Morrow faction, which broke away after the war ended. He was an auto worker and UAW member at the time of the great General Motors strike of 1945-46. In 1949, while speaking to a Zionist youth organization at City College, Bookchin met a mathematics student, Beatrice Appelstein, whom he married in 1951. They were married for 12 years and lived together for 35, remaining close friends and political allies for the rest of his life. They had two children, Debbie and Joseph.  From 1947, he collaborated with a fellow lapsed Trotskyist, the German expatriate Josef Weber, in New York in the Movement for a Democracy of Content, a group of 20 or so post-Trotskyists who collectively edited the periodical "Contemporary Issues – A Magazine for a Democracy of Content". "Contemporary Issues" embraced utopianism. The periodical provided a forum for the belief that previous attempts to create utopia had foundered on the necessity of toil and drudgery; but now modern technology had obviated the need for human toil, a liberatory development. To achieve this "post-scarcity" society, Bookchin developed a theory of ecological decentralism. The magazine published Bookchin's first articles, including the pathbreaking "The Problem of Chemicals in Food" (1952). In 1958, Bookchin defined himself as an anarchist, seeing parallels between anarchism and environmentalism. His first book, "Our Synthetic Environment," was published under the pseudonym Lewis Herber in 1962, a few months before Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring". The book described a broad range of environmental ills but received little attention because of its political radicalism.  In 1964, Bookchin joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and protested racism at the 1964 World's Fair. During 1964-67, while living on Manhattan's Lower East Side, he cofounded and was the principal figure in the New York Federation of Anarchists. His groundbreaking essay "Ecology and Revolutionary Thought" introduced environmentalism as a concept in radical politics. In 1968, he founded another group that published the influential "Anarchos" magazine, which published that and other innovative essays on post-scarcity and on sustainable technologies such as solar and wind energy, and on decentralization and miniaturization. Lecturing throughout the United States, he helped popularize the concept of environmentalism to the counterculture. His widely republished 1969 essay "Listen, Marxist!" warned Students for a Democratic Society (in vain) against an impending takeover by a Marxist group. "Once again the dead are walking in our midst," he wrote, "ironically, draped in the name of Marx, the man who tried to bury the dead of the nineteenth century. So the revolution of our own day can do nothing better than parody, in turn, the October Revolution of 1917 and the civil war of 1918-1920, with its 'class line,' its Bolshevik Party, its 'proletarian dictatorship,' its puritanical morality, and even its slogan, 'Soviet power'". These and other influential 1960s essays are anthologized in "Post-Scarcity Anarchism" (1971).  In 1969-1970, he taught at Alternate U, a counter-cultural radical school based on 14th Street in Manhattan. In 1971, he moved to Burlington, Vermont, with a group of friends, to put into practice his ideas of decentralization. In the fall of 1973, he was hired by Goddard College to lecture on technology; his lectures led to a teaching position and to the creation of the Social Ecology Studies program in 1974 and the Institute for Social Ecology (ISE) soon thereafter, of which he became the director. In 1974, he was hired by Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey, where he quickly became a full professor. The ISE was a hub for experimentation and study of appropriate technology in the 1970s. In 1977-78 he was a member of the Spruce Mountain Affinity Group of the Clamshell Alliance. Also in 1977, he published "The Spanish Anarchists", a history of the Spanish anarchist movement up to the revolution of 1936. During this period, Bookchin forged some ties with the nascent libertarian movement. "He spoke at a Libertarian Party convention and contributed to a newsletter edited by Karl Hess. In 1976, he told a Libertarian activist that 'If I were a voting man, I'd vote for MacBride' — LP nominee Roger MacBride, that is." Bookchin's affiliations to libertarianism during this period reflect his disillusionment with the authoritarianism of Marxist-Leninists, resulting in him stating in a 1979 interview with Jeff Riggenbach that he felt closer to free-market libertarians who defend the rights of the individual than he did to "the totalitarian liberals and Marxist-Leninists of today." Nevertheless, Bookchin rejected the types of libertarianism that advocated unconstrained individualism.  In "From Urbanization to Cities" (published in 1987 as "The Rise of Urbanization and the Decline of Citizenship"), Bookchin traced the democratic traditions that influenced his political philosophy and defined the implementation of the libertarian municipalism concept. A few years later, "The Politics of Social Ecology", written by his partner of 19 years, Janet Biehl, briefly summarized these ideas.  In 1988, Murray Bookchin and Howie Hawkins founded the Left Green Network "as a radical alternative to U.S. Green liberals", based around the principles of social ecology and libertarian municipalism.  In 1995, Bookchin lamented the decline of American anarchism into primitivism, anti-technologism, neo-situationism, individual self-expression, and "ad hoc adventurism," at the expense of forming a social movement. Arthur Verslius said, "Bookchin... describes himself as a'social anarchist' because he looks forward to a (gentle) societal revolution.... Bookchin has lit out after those whom he terms 'lifestyle anarchists.'" The publication of "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism" in 1995, criticizing this tendency, was startling to anarchists. Thereafter Bookchin concluded that American anarchism was essentially individualistic and broke with anarchism publicly in 1999. He placed his ideas into a new political ideology: Communalism (spelled with a capital "C" to differentiate it from other forms of communalism), a form of libertarian socialism that retains his ideas about assembly democracy and the necessity of decentralization of settlement, power/money/influence, agriculture, manufacturing, etc.  In addition to his political writings, Bookchin wrote extensively on philosophy, calling his ideas dialectical naturalism. The dialectical writings of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, which articulate a developmental philosophy of change and growth, seemed to him to lend themselves to an organic, environmentalist approach. Although Hegel "exercised a considerable influence" on Bookchin, he was not, in any sense, a Hegelian. His philosophical writings emphasize humanism, rationality, and the ideals of the Enlightenment. His last major published work was "The Third Revolution", a four-volume history of the libertarian movements in European and American revolutions.  He continued to teach at the ISE until 2004. Bookchin died of congestive heart failure on July 30, 2006, at his home in Burlington at the age of 85.

Thought.

General sociological and psychological views.

Bookchin was critical of class-centered analysis of Marxism and simplistic anti-state forms of libertarianism and liberalism and wished to present what he saw as a more complex view of societies. In "The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy," he says that: My use of the word hierarchy in the subtitle of this work is meant to be provocative. There is a strong theoretical need to contrast hierarchy with the more widespread use of the words class and State; careless use of these terms can produce a dangerous simplification of social reality. To use the words hierarchy, class, and State interchangeably, as many social theorists do, is insidious and obscurantist. This practice, in the name of a "classless" or "libertarian" society, could easily conceal the existence of hierarchical relationships and a hierarchical sensibility, both of which-even in the absence of economic exploitation or political coercion-would serve to perpetuate unfreedom. Bookchin also points to an accumulation of hierarchical systems throughout history that has occurred up to contemporary societies which tends to determine the human collective and individual psyche: The objective history of the social structure becomes internalized as a subjective history of the psychic structure. Heinous as my view may be to modern Freudians, it is not the discipline of work but the discipline of rule that demands the repression of internal nature. This repression then extends outward to external nature as a mere object of rule and later of exploitation. This mentality permeates our individual psyches in a cumulative form up to the present day-not merely as capitalism but as the vast history of hierarchical society from its inception.

Humanity's environmental predicament.

Murray Bookchin's book about humanity's collision course with the natural world, "Our Synthetic Environment", was published six months before Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring."  Bookchin rejected Barry Commoner's belief that the environmental crisis could be traced to technological choices, Paul Ehrlich's views that it could be traced to overpopulation, or the even more pessimistic view that traces this crisis to human nature. Rather, Bookchin felt that our environmental predicament is the result of the cancerous logic of capitalism, a system aimed at maximizing profit instead of enriching human lives: "By the very logic of its grow-or-die imperative, capitalism may well be producing ecological crises that gravely imperil the integrity of life on this planet."  The solution to this crisis, he said, is not a return to hunter-gatherer societies, which Bookchin characterized as xenophobic and war-like. Bookchin likewise opposed "a politics of mere protest, lacking programmatic content, a proposed alternative, and a movement to give people direction and continuity." We need"a constant awareness that a given society's irrationality is deep seated, that its serious pathologies are not isolated problems that can be cured piecemeal but must be solved by sweeping changes in the often hidden sources of crisis and suffering—that awareness alone is what can hold a movement together, give it continuity, preserve its message and organization beyond a given generation, and expand its ability to deal with new issues and developments."The answer then lies in Communalism, a system encompassing a directly democratic political organization anchored in loosely confederated popular assemblies, decentralization of power, absence of domination of any kind, and replacing capitalism with human-centered forms of production.

Social ecology.

In the history of environmentalism, social ecology is not a movement but a theory primarily associated with Bookchin and elaborated over his body of work. He presents a utopian philosophy of human evolution that combines the nature of biology and society into a third "thinking nature" beyond biochemistry and physiology, which he argues is a more complete, conscious, ethical, and rational nature. Humanity, by this line of thought, is the latest development from the long history of organic development on Earth. Bookchin's social ecology proposes ethical principles for replacing a society's propensity for hierarchy and domination with that of democracy and freedom.  Bookchin wrote about the effects of urbanization on human life in the early 1960s during his participation in the civil rights and related social movements. Bookchin then began to pursue the connection between ecological and social issues, culminating with his best-known book, "The Ecology of Freedom", which he had developed over a decade. His argument, that human domination and destruction of nature follows from social domination between humans, was a breakthrough position in the growing field of ecology. Life develops from self-organization and evolutionary cooperation (symbiosis). Bookchin writes of preliterate societies organized around mutual need but ultimately overrun by institutions of hierarchy and domination, such as city-states and capitalist economies, which he attributes uniquely to societies of humans and not communities of animals. He proposes confederation between communities of humans run through democracy rather than through administrative logistics.

Libertarian municipalism.

Starting in the 1970s, Bookchin argued that the arena for libertarian social change should be the municipal level. In "The Next Revolution", Bookchin stresses the link that libertarian municipalism has with his earlier philosophy of social ecology. He writes:  "Libertarian Municipalism constitutes the politics of social ecology, a revolutionary effort in which freedom is given institutional form in public assemblies that become decision-making bodies."  Bookchin proposes that these institutional forms must take place within differently scaled local areas. In a 2001 interview he summarized his views this way: "The overriding problem is to change the structure of society so that people gain power. The best arena to do that is the municipality—the city, town, and village—where we have an opportunity to create a face-to-face democracy." In 1980 Bookchin used the term "libertarian municipalism", to describe a system in which libertarian institutions of directly democratic assemblies would oppose and replace the state with a confederation of free municipalities. Libertarian municipalism intends to create a situation in which the two powers—the municipal confederations and the nation-state—cannot coexist. Its supporters—Communalists—believe it to be the means to achieve a rational society, and its structure becomes the organization of society.

Legacy and influence.

Though Bookchin, by his own recognition, failed to win over a substantial body of supporters during his own lifetime, his ideas have nonetheless influenced movements and thinkers across the globe.  Among these are the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and closely aligned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey, which have fought the Turkish state since the 1980s to try to secure greater political and cultural rights for the country's Kurds. The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by the Turkish and United States governments, while the YPG has been considered an ally of the US against ISIS. Though founded on a rigid Marxist–Leninist ideology, the PKK has seen a shift in its thought and aims since the capture and imprisonment of its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, in 1999. Öcalan began reading a variety of post-Marxist political theory while in prison, and found particular interest in Bookchin's works.  Öcalan attempted in early 2004 to arrange a meeting with Bookchin through his lawyers, describing himself as Bookchin's "student" eager to adapt his thought to Middle Eastern society. Bookchin was too ill to accept the request. In May 2004 Bookchin conveyed this message "My hope is that the Kurdish people will one day be able to establish a free, rational society that will allow their brilliance once again to flourish. They are fortunate indeed to have a leader of Mr. Öcalan's talents to guide them". When Bookchin died in 2006, the PKK hailed the American thinker as "one of the greatest social scientists of the 20th century", and vowed to put his theory into practice.  "Democratic Confederalism", the variation on Communalism developed by Öcalan in his writings and adopted by the PKK, does not outwardly seek Kurdish rights within the context of the formation of an independent state separate from Turkey. The PKK claims that this project is not envisioned as being only for Kurds, but rather for all peoples of the region, regardless of their ethnic, national, or religious background. Rather, it promulgates the formation of assemblies and organisations beginning at the grassroots level to enact its ideals in a non-state framework beginning at the local level. It also places a particular emphasis on securing and promoting women's rights. The PKK has had some success in implementing its programme, through organisations such as the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), which coordinates political and social activities within Turkey, and the Koma Civakên Kurdistan (KCK), which does so across all countries where Kurds live.

Murray Bookchin (January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006) was an American social theorist, author, orator, historian, and political philosopher. A pioneer in the environmental movement, Bookchin formulated and developed the theory of social ecology and urban planning, within anarchist, libertarian socialist, and environmental philosophy. He was the author of two dozen books covering topics in politics, philosophy, history, urban affairs, and social ecology. Among the most important were "Our Synthetic Environment" (1962), "Post-Scarcity Anarchism" (1971), "The Ecology of Freedom" (1982) and "Urbanization Without Cities" (1987). In the late 1990s he became disenchanted with what he saw as an increasingly apolitical "lifestylism" of the contemporary anarchist movement, stopped referring to himself as an anarchist, and founded his own libertarian socialist ideology called Communalism, which seeks to reconcile Marxist and anarchist thought.

Murray Bookchin (14. ledna 1921, New York – 30. července 2006, Burlington) byl americký filozof a politický aktivista pocházející z newyorské židovské rodiny z Bronxu.


Visiting.

Corcovado National Park is open to the public and can be visited on day trips and for overnight visits, as of February 1, 2014 all Corcovado visitors must be accompanied by certified professional guides. As of August 2014, admission is $15 per person per day for non-Costa Rican residents. Reservations for overnight visits in the park can be made in Puerto Jiménez on the east coast of the peninsula. One may camp (for a maximum of four days) or stay indoors at one of several ranger stations equipped with bunks. If one wants basic meals served, reservations should be made about a week in advance. Take note that researchers get preference over other visitors (though there is usually enough room for self-catering campers).  One can make day visits into the park from several lodging options on both the north and south entrances to the park, as well as through organized excursions that fly into the park. One can get to the Corcovado National Park via Puerto Jimenez or Drake Bay. These two towns serve as the main entry points to the park. There are two tracks, one coastal and one inland, and four ranger stations in the park where one can stay overnight; three at the park entrances and one at the intersection of the two tracks. One track runs Northwest to Southeast along the coast to La Leona ecolodge, with the Estación Sirena roughly in the middle. The second track runs inland from Estacion Sirena to Estación Los Patos at the Eastern end of the park. One can fly into the park (via chartered aircraft) to Estación Sirena, from where one can follow relatively short loop-trails. Carate (near Estacion La Leona), also has an airstrip and road access from Puerto Jimenez. To walk through the park one needs a reasonable fitness, at least two or three days (except on El Tigre trail which is a one-day hike), good planning and caution. During the wet months (July to November) parts of the park may be closed.  On February 5, 2015 a new trail into Corcovado was opened in Dos Brazos de Rio Tigre. Sendero El Tigre is the most accessible trail into Corcovado as it is possible to travel to and walk in one day. The trail is 5 miles/8 kilometers long and takes between six and eight hours; depending upon walking speeds and time taken to stop to view wildlife.  On the coastal track there are several rivers that need to be forded. These rivers can all be very dangerous if forded at high tide or if one is inexperienced in this kind of an environment. Rio Sirena is commonly regarded as the most dangerous of crossings, primarily because it flows directly into the massive Laguna Corcovado in the isolated heart of the park. Bull sharks are present within the river and can sometimes be seen at the river mouth during high tide. American crocodiles are also present within the river, but most are small and recent surveys indicate that the population may be much smaller than initially believed. Spectacled caiman are present further up river and within Laguna Corcovado in larger numbers. Rumors that large American crocodiles are present within Laguna Corcovado are false. The Rio Claro, which is approximately 40 minutes south of Rio Sirena, is said to be safer, although both appear to the naked eye as very similar in size. Small American crocodiles and spectacled caiman are also present within the Rio Claro, albeit in smaller numbers than Rio Sirena. Bull sharks are not believed to be present within the Rio Claro. Despite the presence of these predators, by far the greatest risk you will face while crossing any river is the strong current. Upstream Rio Claro is a popular night swimming spot amongst guides and their groups, therefore it is doubtful that attacks by crocodiles or sharks in this river are a concern. The Rio Madrigal, just north of the park entrance, is much smaller and may be home to spectacled caiman.  The inland track to Estación Los Patos goes through secondary growth for much of the way, but it is still a beautiful walk with a little more variation and it is easier walking with no sand and no sizable river crossings.

Biodiversity.

Corcovado is home to a sizable population of the endangered Baird's tapir and even a small population of the very rare harpy eagle. The park's rivers and lagoons are home to populations of both the American crocodile and spectacled caiman, along with bull sharks. Corcovado is also one of the final strongholds of the jaguar within Central America and several other felines are also present, including ocelot, margay, jaguarundi, and puma. All four Costa Rican monkey species can be seen within the park, including the endangered Central American squirrel monkey, white-faced capuchin, mantled howler, and Geoffroy's spider monkey. Other mammals present include two-toed and three-toed sloth, collared peccary, northern tamandua and silky anteater. Poison dart frogs and several species of snake (including the venomous fer-de-lance and bushmaster) are also common within the park.  The elusive Jaguar is a large, beautiful and potentially intimidating feline but is generally regarded as shy and harmless. They are capable of taking down prey as large as Tapir but appear to be reclusive and uninterested in human activity. Most animal sightings can be expected on the coastal track, with scarlet macaws (the largest population in the country) flying overhead, hermit crabs on the beach, pelicans fishing in the sea and, on the sections that go slightly inland, spider monkeys (take care not to get urinated on when they are in a tree overhead), tamandua anteaters, pumas, white faced capuchin monkeys, lineated woodpeckers and coatis (to name just a few). With luck one might even spot a tapir, even though they are nocturnal. Corcovado is also a good place to spot the red-eyed tree frog, as well as the glass frog with its transparent skin, and the enamel-bright poison-arrow frogs. From Estación Sirena one can follow many short tracks, on which one can also take short night-strolls into the forest with a good chance of running into a tapir. They are impressive to see but harmless if left in peace. Jaguars are present and some individuals frequent the beach near Madrigal at night. One is very likely to see their tracks, sometimes very fresh and frequent, but very unlikely to see the actual cat. The most common animal in the park is by far the white-nosed coati, which one can expect to encounter dozens of times on the beach hike between La Leona and Sirena, digging for and feeding on the abundant moon crabs.  Other animals in the park include Central American squirrel monkeys, mantled howler monkeys, both two-toed and three-toed sloths, agoutis, giant anteaters, great curassows, black hawks, spectacled owls, hummingbirds, 220 species of butterflies, golden orb spiders (who build huge webs), otters and raccoons. Four species of sea turtle (green, Pacific ridley, hawksbill, and leatherback) nest on the beaches.  The abundance in wildlife can in part be explained by the variety of vegetation types, at least 13, including montane forest (more than half the park), cloud forest, jolillo forest (palm swamp), prairie forest, alluvial plains forest, swamp forest, freshwater herbaceous swamp and mangrove, together holding over 500 tree species, including purple heart, poponjoche, nargusta, banak, cow tree, espave and crabwood. Another reason for the diversity (as with all of Costa Rica) is that it lies on a north-south corridor for flora and fauna; part of the "land bridge" and wildlife corridor that links the large continents of North America and South America. Corcovado has been merchandised worldwide as one of the places with greatest biodiversity on the planet. In 41800 hectares, Corcovado houses 3% of the world's biodiversity. Two decades ago the National Geographic Society defined it as the most biologically intense place in the world.

Creation and threats.

Because of the remoteness of the peninsula, logging started only in the 1960s. By 1975 there were plans for a major international logging operation. Researchers petitioned President Daniel Oduber to protect the area, which he did by making it a National Park. For this he received the Albert Schweitzer Award from the Animal Welfare Institute. The already present goldminers were allowed to stay. By 1986 their number had increased to about 1,000 (not counting their families), who also hunted the wildlife. It was decided to evict them. There is, however, still some illegal mining going on (using more destructive modern mining methods), considered the second invasion, there are about 400 miners currently. It is estimated that 38% of the park (16.000 hectares) have been exploited by gold miners. Illegal logging is not frequent, but the trees that are removed are scarce and essential to the ecosystem.  Increased tourism has led to an increased presence of humans in the park, which may threaten the long-term survival of the park's larger mammals. To help combat the threat of over-exposure, many agencies and other groups (including Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, WWF–U.S., rain-forest conservation groups in several countries, Catholic Relief Service, Organization of American States, and the Costa Rican, Danish, Dutch, Swedish and United States governments) have come together to provide aid to the conservation cause.

Corcovado National Park () is a National Park on the Osa Peninsula in Osa Canton, southwestern Costa Rica (9° North, 83° West), which is part of the Osa Conservation Area. It was established on 24 October 1975, and encompasses an area of. It is the largest park in Costa Rica and protects about a third of the Osa Peninsula. It is widely considered the crown jewel in the extensive system of national parks and biological reserves spread across the country. The ecological variety is quite stunning. National Geographic has called it "the most biologically intense place on Earth in terms of biodiversity". Not only is the park very popular with tropical ecologists, a visitor can expect to see an abundance of wildlife.

Corcovado je jedním z kostarických národních parků. Nachází se na poloostrově Osa na jihu země. Je jedním z nejvzácnějších chráněných území v Kostarice. Je tvořen především tropickým lesem, nachází se zda však i mangrové porosty a mokřady. Zdejší biodiverzita (jak živočišná, tak rostlinná) patří k nejvyšším na celé Zemi. Národní park je ohrožován ilegální těžbou dřeva i nadměrným turismem.


Background.

In early 1916, the tactical conditions on the Western Front could leave infantry who had captured positions exhausted, disorganised, short of supplies, out of touch with the rear and incapable of defeating a counter-attack. Allied artillery was being moved by tractor and an armoured, tracked vehicle would allow artillery to be moved in areas under German fire. Major John Greg, an engineer working for Metropolitan, Carriage, Wagon and Finance, proposed to build special mechanised artillery, using parts of the Tank Mark I. Greg began work on a design with Major Walter Wilson, an inventor who had worked on the Tank Mark I, on 7 March.. At first, carriage of the BL 6-inch howitzer, 8-inch howitzer or the 60-pounder gun (5-inch) was envisaged but the idea of transporting the 8-inch howitzer was dropped. On 3 March 1917, the prototype was tested at Oldbury with other experimental vehicles at a Tank Trials Day.

Design.

The prototype Gun Carrier Mark I (War Department serial number "GC" 100) was long, and included a Tank Mark I steering tail; with the tail and carrying a gun, the equipment was long. The vehicle was wide and high. The gun carrier moved on tracks wide and about high. The empty weight was and the vehicle was propelled by a Daimler engine The vehicle had a Tank Mark I transmission of a primary gearbox with two forward and one reverse gear; there were two-speed secondary gears for each track. The gun carrier was operated by a commander, driver and two gearsmen. An armoured box enclosed the rear half of the vehicle, overhanging the tracks which ran through a gap. The front half of the machine had a platform for a gun with two armoured cabs, one for the driver and one for the commander, above the tracks at the front on each side. The vehicle had an endurance of about eleven hours, with a top speed of on flat ground and could cross trenches up to wide. There was no room for track spuds to be attached and in tests, it was found that mud and debris clogged the track runs, pierced the superstructure and holed the radiators above them. A 6-inch howitzer or a 60-pounder gun could be winched backwards onto the gun platform at the front and secured, the wheels being removed and hung over the sides of the gun carrier. Sixty rounds of ammunition were carried for either gun bringing the weight to for the 6-inch howitzer and for the 60-pounder. The armoured box at the back accommodated an eight-man gun crew and each vehicle carried a machine-gun.

Production.

Gun Carrier Mark I.

Work by Greg and Wilson began on 7 March 1916 but only with GHQ approval, which was received on 17 May 1916. The Ordnance Board refused to approve the design on 15 June 1916 and Albert Stern, the Secretary of the Landship Committee appealed to David Lloyd George, the Minister of Munitions. Lloyd George over-ruled the Board and unilaterally placed an order for fifty vehicles the next day. On 29 May 1917 the War Office ordered  The prototype was built by the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon & Finance Co. and was finished on 1 January 1917. An order was placed with Kitson & Co. in Leeds for 49 gun carriers (changed to 47 gun carriers and two salvage vehicles on 16 October 1917). Trials of the prototype began around 2 February 1917 and at Shoeburyness ranges the 60-pounder was fired from the carrier. Six gun carriers and the two salvage vehicles were delivered to the army in the second quarter of 1917, the third quarter, the fourth quarter and the last five in the first quarter of 1918 at a price of £168,000 for the carriers and £10,000 for the two salvage vehicles.

Salvage vehicles.

The two forward driving cabs were removed, the carrying platform was covered and a hand-crane to lift -loads on a jib or using shear legs. The box had a cab in front, behind which was a winding drum connected to the engine for hauling with a wire hawser; the price of the two vehicles was £10,000. In December a third vehicle was equipped with a Priestman Brothers clamshell steam-grab. David Fletcher suggests this was the track chassis of the prototype Gun Carrier

Gun Carrier Mark II.

A revised Gun Carrier Mark II was designed but only a mock-up was built. The hull covered two-thirds of the length of the vehicle and the carrying platform was moved to the back. The front end was built on similar lines to Tank Marks IV and V, with the tracks raised at the front for climbing obstacles. The vehicle was to be powered by a 150-hp Ricardo engine through epicyclic gears. Guns would be embarked at the rear and retain their wheels but not fire from the vehicle.

Operational service.

1917.

Gun Carrier arrived in France before the Third Battle of Ypres (31 July – 10 November 1917) and was attached to XVIII Corps for field trials. The gun carrier was first used at the Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31 July – 2 August 1917) and the steering tail was soon dispensed with. During the fighting in Flanders, the carrier brought several hundred tons of ammunition and several 60-pounder guns forward. On at least one occasion, a 6-inch howitzer was fired from which then changed position to confuse the Germans. The 1st Gun Carrier Company was formed on 6 September and greatly eased the task of moving supplies, each carrier moving loads of which would have needed a carrying party of By the end of the year carriers were in France. As supply tanks, the gun carriers had much greater capacity than converted Mark I and Mark IV tanks and were in constant demand. Seven gun carriers were available for the opening of the Battle of Cambrai on 20 November 1917.

1918.

In June 1918, the two gun carrier companies were converted to supply companies and attached to the 3rd and 5th Tank Brigades. At the Battle of Hamel (4 July 1918), Captain James Smith led the four machines of the 1st Gun Carrier Company forward with of engineer stores to within of the final objective, within thirty minutes of its capture. As the vehicles returned the crews picked up seventy wounded soldiers and transported them to a dressing station. Four officers and sixteen men transported the equivalent of the equivalent of about two infantry battalions' worth of stores and equipment. One gun carrier moved of barbed wire, pickets, sheets, fifty tins of water, bombs, of ammunition and twenty boxes of hand grenades. When the 1st and 2nd Supply companies reached France, they joined the 1st and 4th Tank Brigades and the 3rd, 4th and 5th Supply companies were posted to Blingel Camp, near Bermicourt which had driving and maintenance facilities. In late July the 3rd and 5th Supply companies were re-equipped with Mark IV supply tanks and Mark IVs with fitments to haul sledges full of supplies. By August the 1st Gun Carrier Company was attached to the 5th Tank Brigade and the 2nd Company to the 3rd Tank Brigade.  The carriers of the 1st Gun Carrier Company were allotted to the Australian Corps during the Battle of Amiens (8–12 August 1918). On the night of the 1st Gun Carrier Company drove to an orchard on the west of Villers-Bretonneux carrying explosives. A shell from a German battery near Chipilly ignited a camouflage net on one of the carriers, thick smoke rose and German artillery bombarded the orchard. The vehicle crews and some Australian gunners rescued three carriers which were driven out of danger but the rest exploded; Major W. Partington, commander of the 1st Gun Carrier Company was wounded. When not needed for tank support, the gun carriers shifted engineer stores and ammunition for the infantry, being of great use in areas swept by machine-gun fire. The 2nd Gun Carrier Company carried forward a 6-inch howitzer to conduct harassing fire at night, moving around to deceive the Germans. Several gas attacks were carried out by gun carriers moving Livens projectors and gas bombs over ground too cut up for wheeled vehicles. The cross-country mobility of the gun carriers enabled more bombs to be fired in the dark and the carriers to vacate the area before dawn. For the remainder of the war, gun carriers were in great demand to carry tank supplies over ground unfit for wheeled vehicles. On 18 September, during the Hundred Days Offensive, Australian infantry were so understrength during operations against the Hindenburg outpost-line, that two gun carriers moved supplies to the first objective. Eleven days later, the 5th Tank Supply Company, with supported the Australian Corps at the Hindenburg Line.

Analysis.

Once the gun had been winched aboard and fixed to a cross beam, it was near its usual firing position. In a 2013 publication, John Glanfield described the vehicle as a "dual self-propelled gun/gun carrier". The vehicle had been designed for the 6-inch howitzer, which could be fired from the vehicle and the 60-pounder Mk II, none of which were in France in 1917 and the Mk I had to be disembarked to fire. As supply vehicles, the gun carriers excelled, being able to carry a heavy load on the platform, rather than inconveniently placed inside a converted tank.

Bibliography.

Books  Theses

The Gun Carrier Mark I was a British vehicle of the First World War. The gun carrier was designed to transport a 6-inch howitzer or a 60-pounder gun forward soon after an attack to support infantry in advanced positions. Gun carriers were first used in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31 July – 2 August 1917) during the Third Battle of Ypres (31 July – 10 November 1917). The carriers moved guns and equipment but were used for the rest of the war mainly for carrying equipment and supplies through areas under fire, where porters in the open would have suffered many casualties. The 6-inch howitzer could be fired while mounted, making the Gun Carrier Mark I the first modern self-propelled gun, a weapon capable of independent action and having tactical mobility on the battlefield.

Gun Carrier Mark I (Nosič děla typ I) byl prvním samohybným dělem na světě, které vzniklo během první světové války ve Velké Británii. Konstrukce jeho pojezdového ústrojí byla odvozena od tanku Mark I.