History.

In 1999, Philip Rosedale formed Linden Lab with the intention of developing computer hardware to allow people to become immersed in a virtual world. In its earliest form, the company struggled to produce a commercial version of the hardware, known as "The Rig", which in prototype form was seen as a clunky steel contraption with computer monitors worn on shoulders. That vision changed into the software application Linden World, in which people participated in task-based games and socializing in a three-dimensional online environment. That effort eventually transformed into the better known, user-centered "Second Life". Although he was familiar with the metaverse of Neal Stephenson's novel "Snow Crash", Rosedale has said that his vision of virtual worlds predates that book, and that he conducted early virtual world experiments during his college years at the University of California, San Diego, where he studied physics.  In 2005 and 2006, "Second Life" began to receive significant media attention, including a cover story in "BusinessWeek" magazine featuring the virtual world and "Second Life" avatar Anshe Chung. By that time, Anshe Chung had become "Second Life"s poster child and symbol for the economic opportunities that the virtual world offers to its residents. At the same time, the service saw a period of exponential growth of its user base.  On December 11, 2007,

Classification.

During a 2001 meeting with investors, Rosedale noticed that the participants were particularly responsive to the collaborative, creative potential of "Second Life". As a result, the initial objective-driven, gaming focus of "Second Life" was shifted to a more user-created, community-driven experience.  "Second Life"s status as a virtual world, a computer game, or a talker, is frequently debated. Unlike a traditional computer game, "Second Life" does not have a designated objective, nor traditional game play mechanics or rules. It can also be argued that "Second Life" is a multi-user virtual world, because its virtual world facilitates interaction between multiple users.

Residents and avatars.

There is no charge for creating a "Second Life" account or for making use of the world for any period of time. Linden Lab reserves the right to charge for the creation of large numbers of multiple accounts for a single person (5 per household, 2 per 24 hours) but at present does not do so. A Premium membership (US$11.99 monthly, US$32.97 quarterly, or US$99 annually) extends access to an increased level of technical support, and also pays an automatic stipend of L$300/week into the member's avatar account, and after 45 days that resident will receive a L$700 bonus, making it L$1,000 for that week. This amount has decreased since the original stipend of L$500, which is still paid to older accounts. Certain accounts created during an earlier period may receive L$400. This stipend, if changed into USD, means that the actual cost for the benefit of extended tech support for an annual payment of US$72 is only about US$14, depending on the currency exchange rates. However, the vast majority of casual users of "Second Life" do not upgrade beyond the free "basic" account.  Avatars may take any form users choose (human, animal, vegetable, mineral, or a combination thereof) or residents may choose to resemble themselves as they are in real life. They may choose even more abstract forms, given that almost every aspect of an avatar is fully customizable. "Second Life" Culture consists of many activities and behaviors that are also present in real life. A single resident account may have only one avatar at a time, although the appearance of this avatar can

Content.

The ability to create content and shape the "Second Life" world is one of the key features that separate this from online games.  Built into the software is a 3D modeling tool based on simple geometric shapes that allows residents to build virtual objects. There is also a procedural scripting language, Linden Scripting Language, which can be used to add interactivity

Economy.

"Second Life" has an internal economy and closed-loop virtual token called the "Linden dollar (L$)". L$ can be used to buy, sell, rent or trade land or goods and services with other users. The "Linden Dollar" is a closed-loop virtual token for use only within the Second Life platform. Linden Dollars have no monetary value and are not redeemable for monetary value from Linden Lab. A resident with a surplus of Linden Dollars earned via a Second Life business or experiential play can request to refund their Linden Dollar surplus to PayPal. Linden Lab reports that the "Second Life" economy generated US$3,596,674 in economic activity during the month of September 2005, and in September 2006 "Second Life" was reported to have a GDP of $64 million. In 2009, the total size of the "Second Life" economy grew 65% to US$567 million, about 25% of the entire U.S. virtual goods market. Gross resident earnings are US$55 million in 2009 – 11% growth over 2008. In 2013, Linden Labs released an info graphic that showed that over 10 years $3.2 billion in transactions for virtual goods had exchanged between "Second Life" residents, with an average of 1.2 million daily transactions.  There is a high level of entrepreneurial activity in "Second Life". Residents of "Second Life" are able to create virtual objects and other content. "Second Life" is unique in that users retain all the rights

Technology.

"Second Life" comprises the "viewer" (also known as the "client") executing on the user's personal computer, and several thousand servers operated by Linden Lab.

Client.

Linden Lab provides official viewers for Windows, macOS, and most distributions of Linux. The viewer renders 3D graphics using OpenGL technology. The viewer source code was released under the GPL in 2007  There are now several mature third party viewer projects that contain features not available in the Linden Lab 'Official' client, target other platforms or cater to specialist & accessibility

Server.

Each full region (an area of 256×256 meters) in the "Second Life" "grid" runs on a single dedicated core of a multi-core server. Homestead regions share 3 regions per core and Openspace Regions share 4 regions per core, running proprietary software on Debian Linux. These servers run scripts in the region, as well as providing communication between avatars and objects present in the region.  Every item in the "Second Life" universe is referred to as an "asset". This includes the shapes of basic 3D polygon objects formally known as "Primitive Mesh" (commonly known as "primitives" or "prims" for short), the digital images referred to as "textures" that decorate primitives, digitized audio clips, avatar shape and appearance, avatar skin textures, LSL scripts, information written on notecards, and so on. Each asset is referenced with a universally unique identifier or "UUID".  Assets are stored on Isilon Systems storage clusters, comprising all data that has ever been created by anyone

OpenSimulator.

In January 2007, OpenSimulator was founded as an open-source simulator project. The aim of this project is to develop a full open-source server software for "Second Life"

Applications.

Arts.

"Second Life" residents express themselves creatively through virtual world adaptations

Competitive entertainment.

A wide variety of recreational activities, both competitive and non-competitive,

Education.

"Second Life" is used as a platform for education by many institutions, such as colleges, universities, libraries and government entities. Since 2008, the University of San Martin de Porres of Peru has been developing "Second Life" prototypes of

Embassies.

The Maldives was the first country to open an embassy in "Second Life". The Maldives' embassy is located on "Second Life's" "Diplomacy Island", where visitors will be able to talk face-to-face with a computer-generated ambassador about visas, trade and other issues. "Diplomacy Island" also hosts Diplomatic Museum and Diplomatic Academy. The Island is established by DiploFoundation as part of the Virtual Diplomacy Project.  In May 2007, Sweden became the second country to open an embassy in "Second Life". Run by the Swedish Institute, the embassy serves to promote Sweden's image and culture, rather than providing any real or virtual services. The Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt, stated on his blog that he

Religion.

Religious organizations have also begun to open virtual meeting places within "Second Life". In early 2007, LifeChurch.tv, a Christian church headquartered in Edmond, Oklahoma, and with eleven campuses in the US, created "Experience Island" and opened its twelfth campus in "Second Life". In July 2007, an Anglican cathedral was established in "Second Life"; Mark Brown, the head of the group that built the cathedral, noted that there is "an interest in what I call depth, and a moving away

Relationships.

Romantic relationships are common in "Second Life", including some couples who have married online. The social engagement offered by the online environment helps those who might be socially isolated. In addition, sex is often encountered. However, to access the adult sections requires age verification. There is also a large BDSM community.  "Second Life" relationships have been taken from virtual online relationships into personal, real-world relationships. Booperkit Moseley and Shukran Fahid were possibly the first couple to meet in "Second Life" and then marry in real life. Booperkit travelled

Science.

"Second Life" is used for scientific research, collaboration, and data visualization. Examples

Social network.

"Second Life" can be a real-time, immersive social space for people including those with physical or mental disabilities that impair their first lives, who often find comfort and security interacting

Music streams.

ShoutCast and Icecast Internet radio stations can be streamed into a land parcel in "Second Life". Streaming codecs are currently MP3 as AAC and OGG are not currently supported. There are internet radio providers that offer

Work solutions.

"Second Life" gives companies the option to create virtual workplaces to allow employees to virtually meet, hold events, practice any kind of corporate communications, conduct training sessions in 3D immersive virtual learning environment, simulate business processes, and prototype new

Criticism and controversy.

"Second Life" has seen a number of controversies, as well. Issues range from the technical (budgeting of server resources), to moral (pornography), to legal (legal position of the Linden Dollar, "Bragg v. Linden Lab"). Security issues have also been a concern.

Regulation.

In the past, large portions of the "Second Life" economy consisted of businesses that are regulated or banned. Changes to "Second Life"s Terms of Service in this regard have largely had the purpose of bringing activity within "Second Life" into compliance with various international laws, even though the person running the business may be in full compliance with the law in their own country.  On July 26, 2007, Linden Lab announced a ban on in-world gambling due to federal and state regulations on Internet gambling that could affect Linden Lab if it

Technical issues.

"Second Life" has suffered from difficulties related to system instability. These include increased system latency, and intermittent client crashes. However, some faults are caused by the system's use of an "asset server" cluster, on which the actual data governing objects is stored separately from the areas of the world and the avatars that use those objects. The communication between the main servers and the asset cluster appears to constitute a bottleneck which frequently causes problems. Typically, when asset server downtime is announced, users are advised not to build, manipulate objects, or engage in business, leaving them with little to do but chat and generally reducing confidence in all businesses on the grid.  Another problem is inventory loss, in which items in a user's inventory, including those which have been paid for, can disappear without warning or permanently enter a state where

Quality assurance.

Criticism of quality assurance of Second Life states that Linden Lab focuses too much on bringing new features to the production environment instead of fixing long-standing bugs that, in

Frame rate.

Computer hardware and Internet connections capable of smoothly rendering high quality content in other MMOGs may perform poorly in "Second Life", resulting in low frame rates and unresponsive controls on even minimal graphical configurations. The problem is especially prevalent when large numbers of avatars congregate in one area. The problem is largely due to the fact that the world is entirely

Congestion.

A single region (65536 m of land hosted on a single CPU) is set to accommodate a limited number of Residents (40 on'mainland' regions, up to 100 on

Interface.

The control scheme for "Second Life" combines controls useful for 3D editing with those useful for game play, which can be highly unintuitive for many. This requires

Alternative accounts.

The ability for a single real individual to create an unlimited number of accounts for

Customer security.

On September 8, 2006, Linden Lab released a news bulletin that revealed their "Second Life" database had been compromised and customer information, including encrypted passwords and users' real names,

Fraud and intellectual property protection.

Although "Second Life"s client and server incorporate digital rights management technology, the visual data of an object must ultimately be sent to the client in order for it to be drawn; thus unofficial third-party clients can bypass them. One such program, CopyBot, was developed in 2006 as a debugging tool to enable objects to be backed up, but was immediately hijacked for use in copying objects; additionally, programs that generally attack client-side processing of data, such as GLIntercept, can copy certain pieces of data. Such

The Emerald client and in-world logging scripts.

The Emerald client was developed by a group of users based on Snowglobe, an opensource fork of the Second Life client. Several groups alleged that the Emerald viewer contained Trojan code which tracked user details and demographics in a way that the developers could later recover. One of these groups was banned from "Second Life" by Linden Lab after publishing their discovery. Shortly afterward, a member of the

Ban of Woodbury University.

Linden Lab has twice, in 2007 and 2010, banned a California educational institution, Woodbury University, from having a representation within "Second Life". On April 20, 2010, four simulators belonging to the university were deleted and the accounts of several students and professors terminated, according to "The Chronicle of Higher Education". Edward Clift, dean of the School of Media, Culture and Design at Woodbury University, told "The

"The Alphaville Herald".

In 2004, the newspaper "The Alphaville Herald", founded and edited by the philosopher Peter Ludlow, migrated to "Second Life", and in the following years the newspaper played a prominent role in reporting on "Second Life"

Internal regulation.

Linden Lab have made it a strong policy that they will not act to investigate or enforce any contracts or agreements made purely between users of "Second Life", although they will co-operate with real-life courts or law enforcement in doing so. This has led

False DMCA takedown notices.

There have been issues with the use of false DMCA takedown notices. Once a DMCA takedown notice is served, reversing it requires an individual to expose his personal information to the filer (filing a notice does not require this); for the penalty of perjury to be enacted, a lawsuit is required (anything less, the false DMCA claimer can just claim it from a different account every week causing legitimate business unlimited losses). In addition, the technical process of removal and re-instatement of

Terms of Service changes.

Linden Lab typically offer no compensation when a change to the platform or Terms of Service is made, even when it

"Virtual Riot".

In January 2007, a "virtual riot" erupted between members of the French National Front (FN) who had established a virtual

OpenSpaces.

Linden Lab, for a long period, offered "OpenSpace" regions to users: regions which were purchased in packs of four, with all four running on a single CPU core, intended to be placed next to an existing region to create the effect of larger size. The fee for 4 OpenSpaces was identical to that for a single private region. However, in March 2008, this rule was modified to permit OpenSpaces to be bought individually and placed elsewhere, as well as increasing the prim load each one could handle. OpenSpaces were

Marketing.

Linden Lab has been accused of manipulation of user count statistics to make the world seem more popular than it is. This includes counting multiple avatars created by the same real person as separate accounts, never removing accounts from the database no matter

Separate grids.

Previously, there were two age-differentiated grids (one for teens 13–17, one for adults 18 or over). When a teen turned 18, he/she was transferred from the Teen Grid to the Main Grid. Linden Lab had received controversy for the lack of integration between teens and adults. The teen grid and the adult grid actually were technically parts of one grid called Agni, due to "Second Life"s tradition of naming grids after Hindu gods. However, teen residents could not access the adult regions, and adult residents could not access the teen regions. Underage users, who were

Content.

Sex.

In "Second Life", users can do almost anything that they can do in their physical lives. There are some who do things that they would normally do, like talk to people, while others do things that normally would be more rare for them to do in the physical world.  Some media attention has been given to sexual activity involving avatars with a childlike appearance. The United Kingdom and Germany are among the countries investigating new laws to combat simulated child pornography. The USA has attempted to pass several laws forbidding simulated child pornography, however, each one has been struck down by the US Supreme Court as an infringement on the First Amendment right to free speech.  As of May 2007, two such countries, Germany and Belgium, have launched a police investigation into Age of Consent-related offenses in "Second Life" (including both trading of non-virtual photography and involuntary virtual sexual activity with childlike avatars by means of virtual identity theft). Linden Lab responded by issuing a statement that any "depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving

Griefing and denial of service attacks.

Second Life has been attacked several times by groups of Residents abusing the creation tools to create objects that harass other users or damage the system. This included Grey Goo objects which infinitely reproduce, eventually overwhelming the servers; "orbiters" which throw an avatar so far upwards they cannot get back down in a reasonable timeframe without teleporting; "cages" which surround avatars, preventing them from moving, and similar tools. Although combat between users is sanctioned in

Unauthorized copying of content.

"Second Life" features a built-in digital rights management system that controls the movement of textures, sounds, scripts, and models with the "Second Life" servers at Linden Lab. At some point, though, this data must be sent to a user's computer to be displayed or played—an issue fundamental to any system attempting to apply restrictions to digital information.  In November 2006 controversy arose over a tool called CopyBot, developed as part of libsecondlife and was intended to allow users to legitimately back up their "Second Life" data. For a brief period, an unmodified CopyBot allowed any user to replicate SL items or avatars (although not scripts, which run only on the servers at Linden Lab). Later changes to the SecondLife protocols prevented unmodified copies of CopyBot from working. Nevertheless, the basic issue of users being able to duplicate content that is sent to them remains.  Residents who copy content belonging to other users face being banned from "Second Life", but Linden Lab has so far never sued any of these users for copyright infringement; since the resident creators (and not Linden Lab) retain ownership of the rights, it is not clear whether Linden Lab would legally

International issues.

Legality.

Second Life users are expected to obey the laws of their own local countries with regard to their actions in the virtual world; however, a problem can arise in countries which have tough laws regarding material downloaded from the Internet, such as pornography. It is possible, for example, for a US user - even in a non-adult area – to approach German users and create an object

Taxation.

In late 2006, Linden Lab announced that, in accordance to sales tax regulations of the European Union (EU), they are required to charge "value added tax" (VAT) to EU residents on all

Litigation.

"Bragg v. Linden Lab".

In 2006, attorney Marc Bragg sued Linden Lab, claiming that it had illegally deprived him of access to his account after he discovered a loophole in the online land auction system which allowed regions to be purchased at prices below reserve. Although most users and commentators believed that Bragg would have no chance of winning, a number of legal developments occurred as a result of the case, including a court ruling that parts of

"Eros, LLC and Grei v. Linden Lab".

Eros, LLC and Shannon Grei brought forth a class action suit in US District Court in Northern California against Linden Research, Inc on September 15, 2009 (Case4:09-cv-04269-PJH). Court papers allege the defendants

"Evans et al. v. Linden Lab".

In 2010, a group of banned SL users filed suit against Linden Lab and CEO Philip Rosedale, in the same Pennsylvania Federal District Court that the Bragg case was adjudicated in, with the same judge, to deal with further land seizures and account suspensions by the Lab against various customers. Due to the Terms of Service agreement changes since the Bragg case, defendants attorneys successfully argued to move the suit to federal court in California, where the case lingered for several years. The judge did rule that there was a basis to turn the litigation into a class action, and that there were two classes under which claimants could file claims. The primary class was those who suffered economic damages to their

In popular culture.

Since its debut in 2003, "Second Life" has been referred to by various popular culture mediums, including literature, television, film and music. In addition, various personalities in such mediums have themselves used or employed "Second Life" for both their own works and for private purposes.  In September 2006, former Governor of Virginia Mark Warner became the first politician to appear in a MMO when he gave a speech in "Second Life". Musicians followed suit, with Redzone being credited by "Wired" and Reuters as the first band to tour in "Second Life" in February 2007. Then, in June 2008, author Charles Stross held a conference in "Second Life" to promote an upcoming novel. "Second Life" was also featured prominently, and used as a tool to locate a suspect, in the television show "" in 2007. In the American sitcom "The Office", Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) is known to play the game, most notably in the episode ”Local Ad“.

Research.

Much of the published research conducted in "Second Life" is associated with education and learning. Unlike computer games, "Second Life" does not have a pre-defined purpose and allows for highly realistic enactment of real life activities online. One such study tested the usefulness of "SL" as an action learning environment in a senior course for management information systems students. Another presented a case study in which university students were tasked with building an interactive learning experience using "SL" as a platform. Both problem-based learning and constructionism acted as framing pedagogies for the task, with students working in teams to design and build a learning experience which could be possible in real life.  Situated learning has also been examined in "SL", in order to determine how the design and social dynamics of the virtual world support as well as constrain various types of learning. The paper, "The future for (second) life and learning", published in the "British Journal of Educational Technology", examines the potential of "Second Life" to further innovative learning techniques. It notes trends within the "SL" innovation to date, including the provision of realistic settings, the exploitation of pleasant simulated environments for groups, and the links with other learning technologies. It also considers the creativity sparked by "SL"s potential to offer the illusion of 3-D ‘spaces’ and buildings, and points to infinite imaginative educational possibilities. Healthinfo Island offers Second Life residents tips on how to stay healthy.  Second Life has also offered educational research potential within the medical and healthcare fields. Examples include in-world research

Second Life is an online virtual world, developed and owned by the San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab and launched on June 23, 2003. It saw rapid growth for some years and in 2013 it had approximately one million regular users; growth stabilised and by the end of 2017 active user count had declined to "between 800,000 and 900,000". In many ways, "Second Life" is similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing games; nevertheless, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective".

Second Life (SL) est un métavers (ou univers virtuel) en 3D sorti en 2003 fondé sur le modèle du free to play. Ce programme informatique permet à ses utilisateurs d'incarner des personnages virtuels dans un monde créé par les résidents eux-mêmes. Les utilisateurs peuvent créer le contenu du jeu : vêtements, bâtiments, objets, animations et sons, etc., ainsi qu'acquérir des parcelles de terrain dont ils obtiennent la jouissance en utilisant une monnaie virtuelle auprès de Linden Lab, la société qui édite le programme informatique open-source gérant la connexion et le rendu graphique de l'univers virtuel, et assure la maintenance du matériel requis pour l'hébergement des données. Ayant connu une grande médiatisation en 2003-2007 (d'où l'investissement de divers acteurs commerciaux et institutionnels pour y être représenté), l'univers connaît un franc déclin à partir de début à la fois à cause de la crise des subprimes – affectant aussi les banques de "Second Life" – mais également à cause du fait que la plupart des investisseurs et clients ont déserté un espace virtuel (offre en ligne) considéré comme trop complexe et redondant. Cependant l'univers est pérenne, le nombre de connexions quotidiennes étant de l'ordre de depuis le janvier 2012.


Early life.

Ferdinand Louis Zecca was born in Paris on 19 February 1864 into a family steeped in the entertainment world. His father was the stage manager at the Paris "Théâtre de l'Ambigu" while his brothers were actors. Zecca also became a stage manager and then an actor, before working as an entertainer, playing the cornet and singing in Parisian cafés. He was playing the cornet at the "Foire au Pain d'épices", when he encountered filmmaker Léon Gaumont.

Filmmaking.

From 1891, Zecca had worked occasionally recording voice-overs for phonograph records for the Pathé Frères company, a pioneer in the cinema and audio recording industries. After 1895, Pathé became more involved in cinema. Gaumont first hired Zecca as an actor in 1898 but Zecca directed his first film for Pathé, an experimental sound production, "Le Muet mélomane" (1899) based on a musical Zecca and another artist, Charlus, were performing. At the request of entrepreneur Georges Dufayel, owner of the "Grands Magasins Dufayel", they acted the piece before a ciné camera. His next film, "Les Méfaits d'une tête de veau" (1899) was for Gaumont.  In 1900, unable to personally do the work, Charles Pathé had Zecca set up the Pathé pavilion in the Paris World Fair (Exposition Universelle). After seeing his work, Pathé offered Zecca a position in his film company in Vincennes, first as an assistant to a director. Engaging Zecca "for a few weeks", he quickly became Pathé's right-hand man and was soon creating and directing his own films.  Zecca explored many themes from the mundane to the fantastic. In "À la conquête de l'air" (1901), a strange flying machine, called "Fend-l'air", was seen flying over the rooftops of Belleville. By using trick photography, the one-minute short was notable in being the first aviation film, predating the flight by the Wright Brothers by two years.  Zecca also pioneered one of the first crime dramas, "Histoire d'un crime" (1901), stylistically innovative in its use of superimposition. The story was of a man condemned to death, awaiting execution with his crimes appearing on his cell wall. The film is an early example of flashbacks as a film device. Other films included comedies, trick films or fairy tales, such as "Les Sept châteaux du Diable", both 1901, and "La Belle au bois dormant" in 1902, as well as social dramas like "Les Victimes de l'alcoolisme" (1902), "Au pays noir" (1905) and reconstructions of actual events, the most famous being "La Catastrophe de la Martinique" (1902).  Zecca acted in many of his films. At the end of 1906, assisted by the Spaniard Segundo de Chomón's photography and special effects, Zecca continued to experiment. He co-directed "La Vie et la passion de Jésus Christ" (1903), which, at a running time of 44 minutes, was one of the first feature-length films about Jesus. He started filming in colour, with second "Vie et Passion de N.S. Jésus Christ", shot in four parts with 38 scenes, 990 metres long, which was finished in 1907.  Between 1900 and 1907, Zecca oversaw the production of hundreds of Pathé films from many important Pathé directors including Nonguet Lucien, Gaston Velle, Albert Capellani, Louis J. Gasnier, André Heuzé and Henri Pouctal. Zecca also acted, directed, produced, and, on occasion, wrote films. After Pathé bought the rights to Star films, Zecca started editing films by George Méliès.  Appointed Managing Director of Pathé in 1905, in 1913 Zecca was sent to the United States to take charge of the American Pathé production house. He returned to France in 1919, where as a co-director with René Leprincee, he made "Le Calvaire d'une reine", his last film. In the same year, Zecca was appointed to head the Pathé-Baby division, producing equipment and cameras for thin film, where he worked until his retirement in 1939.  In March 1947 at the age of 83, in his residence at Saint-Mandé, France, Ferdinand Zecca died.

Filmography.

as director  All films below are co-directed by René Leprincee  As producer  as actor  as writer

Ferdinand Zecca (19 February 1864 – 23 March 1947) was a pioneer French film director, film producer, actor and screenwriter. He worked primarily for the Pathé company, first in artistic endeavors then in administration of the internationally based company.

Ferdinand Louis Zecca né le à Paris 10 et mort le à Saint-Mandé, est un réalisateur, producteur, acteur et scénariste français.


History.

The Soviet and American teams.

The Soviet Union entered the Lake Placid games as the heavy favorite, having won four consecutive gold medals dating back to the 1964 games. In the four Olympics following their 1960 bronze-medal finish at Squaw Valley, Soviet teams had gone 27–1–1 (wins-losses-ties) and outscored their opponents 175–44. In head-to-head matchups against the United States, the cumulative score over that period was 28–7. The Soviet team had not lost a game in Olympic play since 1968.  The Soviets were led by legendary players in world ice hockey, such as Boris Mikhailov (a top line right winger and team captain), Vladislav Tretiak (the consensus best goaltender in the world at the time), the speedy and skilled Valeri Kharlamov, and talented, dynamic players such as defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov and forwards Vladimir Krutov and Sergei Makarov. From that team, Tretiak, Kharlamov, Makarov, and Fetisov were eventually enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Many of the Soviet players had gained attention in the Summit Series eight years before and, in contrast to the American players, were "de facto" professionals with long histories of international play, employed by industrial firms or military organizations for the sole purpose of playing hockey on their organization's team. Western nations protested the Soviet Union's use of full-time athletes, as they were forced to use amateur (mainly college) players due to the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) amateur-only policy. The situation even led to Canadian withdrawal from the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, but the IOC did not change the rules until the late 1980s.  U.S. head coach Herb Brooks held tryouts in Colorado Springs in the summer of 1979. Of the 20 players who eventually made the final Olympic roster, Buzz Schneider was the only one returning from the 1976 Olympic team. Nine players had played under Brooks at the University of Minnesota (including Rob McClanahan, Mike Ramsey, and Phil Verchota), while four more were from Boston University (Dave Silk, Jack O'Callahan, goaltender Jim Craig, and team captain Mike Eruzione). As Boston University and Minnesota were perennial rivals in college hockey (for instance, they had faced off in a bitter NCAA national semifinal in 1976), Brooks' selection process was a 300-question psychological test that would give him insight on how every player would react under stress; anyone who refused to take the test would automatically fail. Brooks had to select from 68 players who started the tryout.  The average age of the U.S. team was 21 years old, making it the youngest team in U.S. history to play in the Olympics (in addition to being the youngest team in the 1980 Olympic tournament), but Brooks had selected carefully and he knew the limits of every player. As forward John Harrington said, "He knew exactly where to quit. He'd push you right to the limit where you were ready to say, 'I've had it, I'm throwing it in' — and then he'd back off." Brooks continued the organization by campaigning for the players' selection of Eruzione as the captain, and Craig had been the goalie for him in the 1979 World Championship tournament. Assistant coach Craig Patrick had played with Brooks on the 1967 U.S. national team.  The Soviet and American teams were natural rivals due to the decades-old Cold War. In addition, President Jimmy Carter was at the time considering a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, to be held in Moscow, in protest of the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. On February 9, the same day the American and Soviet teams met in an exhibition game in New York City, U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance denounced the impending Moscow games at an IOC meeting. President Carter eventually decided in favor of the boycott.

Exhibitions.

In exhibitions that year, Soviet club teams went 5–3–1 against National Hockey League (NHL) teams and, a year earlier, the Soviet national team had routed the NHL All-Stars 6–0 to win the Challenge Cup. In 1979–80, virtually all the top North American players were Canadians, although the number of U.S.-born professional players had been on the rise throughout the 1970s. The 1980 U.S. Olympic team featured several young players who were regarded as highly promising, and some had signed contracts to play in the NHL immediately after the tournament.  In September 1979, before the Olympics, the American team started exhibition play. They played a total of 61 games in five months against teams from Europe and the United States. Through these games, Brooks instilled a European style of play in his team, emphasizing wide-open play with sufficient body contact. He believed it would be the only way for the Americans to compete with the Soviets. From the start of the exhibition matches, he conducted the team through skating wind sprints consisting of end line to blue line and back, then end line to red line and back, then end line to far blue line and back, and finally end line all the way down and back. Some of the players took to calling these "Herbies". On September 17, the team played to a 3–3 tie in Norway. Believing the team wasn't putting up sufficient effort, an angry Brooks had them skate Herbies after the game and, after a while, arena custodians turned the lights off and the Herbies continued in the dark. The two teams played again the next night, with the US winning handily 9-0. Near the end of the exhibition season, Brooks, because of subpar play, threatened to cut Eruzione (the captain) from the team and replace Craig with Steve Janaszak as the starting goaltender, although he had supported them throughout.  In their last exhibition game, against the Soviets at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, February 9, the Americans were crushed 10–3. Soviet head coach Viktor Tikhonov later said that this victory "turned out to be a very big problem" by causing the Soviets to underestimate the American team. The game was also costly for the Americans off-ice, as defenseman Jack O'Callahan pulled a ligament in his knee; however, Brooks kept O'Callahan on the roster, which meant the U.S. was virtually playing with only 19 players throughout the tournament. O'Callahan eventually returned for the game against the Soviets, playing limited minutes.

Olympic group play.

In Olympic group play, the Americans surprised many observers with their physical, cohesive play. In their first game on February 12 against favored Sweden, Team USA earned a dramatic 2–2 draw by scoring with 27 seconds left after pulling goalie Jim Craig for an extra attacker. Then came a stunning 7–3 victory over Czechoslovakia, who were a favorite for the silver medal. With its two toughest games in the group phase out of the way, the U.S. team reeled off three more wins, beating Norway 5–1, Romania 7–2, and West Germany 4–2 to go 4–0–1 and advance to the medal round from its group, along with Sweden.  In the other group, the Soviets stormed through their opposition undefeated, often by grossly lopsided scores. They defeated Japan 16–0, the Netherlands 17–4, Poland 8–1, Finland 4–2, and Canada 6–4 to easily qualify for the next round, although both the Finns and the Canadians gave the Soviets tough games for two periods. In the end, the Soviet Union and Finland advanced from their group.

Game summary.

Prior to the Friday game, ABC requested that it be rescheduled from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST, so that it could be broadcast live in primetime. However, the IIHF declined the request after the Soviets complained that it would cause the game to air at 4 a.m. Moscow Time, as opposed to 1 a.m. As a result, ABC decided not to broadcast the game live for the U.S. audience and tape delayed it for broadcast during its primetime block of Olympics coverage. Before the game aired, ABC's Olympics host Jim McKay openly stated that the game had already occurred but that they had promised not to spoil its results. In order to accommodate coverage of the men's slalom competition, portions of the game were also edited for time. ABC's 8 to 8:30 p.m. timeslot was instead, devoted to the animated special "". To this day, some who watched the game on television still believe that it was live.  With a capacity of 8,500, the Field House was packed. The home crowd waved U.S. flags and sang patriotic songs such as "God Bless America". Before the game, Brooks read his players a statement he had written out on a piece of paper, telling them that "You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours." Brooks believed they could win and later said, "The Russians were ready to cut their own throats. But we had to get to the point to be ready to pick up the knife and hand it to them. So the morning of the game I called the team together and told them, 'It's meant to be. This is your moment and it's going to happen.' It's kind of corny and I could see them thinking, 'Here goes Herb again...' But I believed it."

First period.

As in several previous games, the U.S. team fell behind early. Vladimir Krutov deflected a slap shot by Alexei Kasatonov past U.S. goaltender Jim Craig at the 9:12 mark to give the Soviets a 1–0 lead. At the 14:03 mark, Buzz Schneider scored for the United States on a 50-foot shot from the left boards to tie the game. The Soviets struck again when Sergei Makarov scored with 17:34 gone. With his team down 2–1, Craig improved his play, turning away many Soviet shots before the U.S. team had another shot on goal.  In the waning seconds of the first period, Dave Christian fired a slap shot on Tretiak from away. The Soviet goalie saved the shot but misplayed the rebound, which bounced out some in front of him. Mark Johnson sliced between the two defenders, found the loose puck, and fired it past a diving Tretiak to tie the score with one second left in the period. The first period ended with the game tied 2–2.

Second period.

Tikhonov replaced Tretiak with backup goaltender Vladimir Myshkin immediately after Johnson's tying goal, a move that shocked players on both teams. Tikhonov later identified this as the "turning point of the game" and called it "the biggest mistake of my career". Years later, when Johnson asked Viacheslav Fetisov, now an NHL teammate, about the move, Fetisov responded with "Coach crazy." Myshkin allowed no goals in the second period. The Soviets dominated play in the second period, outshooting the Americans 12–2, but scored only once, on a power play goal by Aleksandr Maltsev 2:18 into play. After two periods the Soviet Union led, 3–2.

Third period.

Vladimir Krutov was sent to the penalty box at the 6:47 mark of the third period for high-sticking. The Americans, who had managed only two shots on Myshkin in 27 minutes, had a power play and a rare offensive opportunity. Myshkin stopped a Mike Ramsey shot, then U.S. team captain Mike Eruzione fired a shot wide. Late in the power play, Dave Silk was advancing into the Soviet zone when Valeri Vasiliev knocked him to the ice. The puck slid to Mark Johnson. Johnson fired off a shot that went under Myshkin and into the net at the 8:39 mark, as the power play was ending, tying the game at 3. Only a couple of shifts later, Mark Pavelich passed to Eruzione, who was left undefended in the high slot. Eruzione, who had just come onto the ice, fired a shot past Myshkin, who was screened by Vasili Pervukhin. This goal gave Team USA a 4–3 lead, its first of the game, with exactly 10 minutes remaining to play.  The Soviets, trailing for the first time in the game, attacked ferociously. Moments after Eruzione's goal, Maltsev fired a shot which ricocheted off the right goal post. As the minutes wound down, Brooks kept repeating to his players, "Play your game. Play your game." Instead of going into a defensive crouch, the United States continued to play offense, even getting off a few more shots on goal. The Soviets began to shoot wildly, and Sergei Starikov admitted that "we were panicking." As the clock ticked down below a minute, the Soviets got the puck back into the American zone, and Mikhailov passed to Vladimir Petrov, who shot wide. The Americans fully expected Tikhonov to pull the goalie in the waning seconds. To their surprise, Myshkin stayed in the game. Starikov later explained that "We never did six-on-five," not even in practice, because "Tikhonov just didn't believe in it." Craig kicked away a Petrov slap shot with 33 seconds left. Kharlamov fired the puck back in as the clock ticked below 20 seconds. A wild scramble for the puck ensued, ending when Johnson found it and passed it to Ken Morrow. As the U.S. team tried to clear the zone (move the puck over the blue line, which they did with seven seconds remaining), the crowd began to count down the seconds left. Sportscaster Al Michaels, who was calling the game on ABC along with former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Ken Dryden, picked up on the countdown in his broadcast, and delivered his famous call:  As his team ran all over the ice in celebration, Herb Brooks sprinted back to the locker room and cried. In the locker room afterwards, players spontaneously broke into a chorus of "God Bless America". After the gold medal-securing victory over Finland, they received a congratulatory phone call from President Jimmy Carter.  During the broadcast wrap-up after the game, ABC Olympic sports anchor Jim McKay compared the American victory over the Soviet professionals to a group of Canadian college football players defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers (the recent Super Bowl champions and at the height of their dynasty).

American aftermath.

Gold medal.

The United States did not win the gold medal by defeating the USSR. In 1980, the medal round was a round-robin, not a single elimination format as it is today. Under Olympic rules at the time, the group game with Sweden was counted along with the medal round games versus the Soviet Union and Finland, so it was mathematically possible for the United States to finish anywhere from first to third.  Needing to win to secure the gold medal, Team USA came back from a 2–1 third-period deficit to defeat Finland 4–2. According to Mike Eruzione, coming into the dressing room for the second intermission, Brooks turned to his players, looked at them, and said, "If you lose this game, you'll take it to your fucking graves." He then walked towards the locker room door, paused, looked over his shoulder, and said to them again, "Your fucking graves."  At the time, the players ascended a podium to receive their medals and then lined up on the ice for the playing of the national anthem, as the podium was only meant to accommodate one person. Only the team captains remained on the podium for the duration. After the completion of the anthem, Eruzione motioned for his teammates to join him on the podium. Today, podiums are not used for ice hockey; the teams line up on their respective blue lines after the final game.  The cover of the March 3, 1980, issue of "Sports Illustrated" was a photograph by Heinz Kluetmeier of the American players celebrating and waving an American flag; it did not feature any explanatory captions or headlines, because, as Kluetmeier put it, "It didn't need it. Everyone in America knew what happened." The U.S. team also received the magazine's "Sportsmen of the Year" award, and were also named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press and ABC's "Wide World of Sports". In 2004, ESPN, as part of its 25th anniversary, declared the Miracle on Ice to be the top sports headline moment and game of the period 1979–2004. The victory was voted the greatest sports moment of the 20th century by "Sports Illustrated".

After the 1980 Winter Olympics.

At the 1981 Canada Cup, the United States, with seven players from their 1980 Olympic team, again faced the Soviet Union. The Soviets took the opening round encounter 4–1 in Edmonton. At the 1982 World Championship in Finland, with Mike Ramsey, Mark Johnson, Buzz Schneider, and John Harrington, the Americans again met the Soviets, but once again the U.S. lost, 8–4.

Later careers.

Of the 20 players on Team USA, 13 eventually played in the NHL. Five of them played over 500 NHL games, and three of them played over 1,000 NHL games.

Soviet aftermath.

Silver medal.

In the Soviet locker room, Tikhonov singled out first-line players Tretiak, Kharlamov, Petrov, and Mikhailov, and told each of them, "This is your loss!" Two days after the Miracle on Ice, the Soviet team defeated Sweden 9–2, winning the silver medal. The Soviet players were so upset at their loss that they did not turn in their silver medals to get their names inscribed on them, as is custom. The result stunned the Soviet Union and its news media.

After the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Despite the loss, the USSR remained the pre-eminent power in Olympic hockey until its 1991 break-up. The Soviet team did not lose a World Championship game until 1985 and did not lose to the United States again until 1991. Throughout the 1980s, NHL teams continued to draft Soviet players in hopes of enticing them to eventually play in North America. Soviet emigrant Victor Nechayev made a brief appearance with the Los Angeles Kings in the 1982–83 season and, during the 1988–89 season, the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation agreed to let veteran Sergei Pryakhin join the Calgary Flames.

NHL careers.

In the 1989-90 season, Soviet authorities permitted six more 1980 Olympians – Helmuts Balderis, Viacheslav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov, Vladimir Krutov, Sergei Makarov, and Sergei Starikov – to join NHL clubs, but only after they agreed to play in their final World Championship (where they won gold). Makarov won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year in 1989–90, becoming the oldest player to win that award. Fetisov was a teammate of Mike Ramsey on the 1995 Detroit Red Wings team that lost the Stanley Cup Final to Neal Broten and the New Jersey Devils. Fetisov completed his career by winning Cups with the Red Wings in 1997 and 1998; the first Cup win also made Fetisov a member of the Triple Gold Club, consisting of individuals who have won a Stanley Cup plus gold medals at the Olympics and World Championships.

Notable rematches.

The U.S. and the Soviet Union next met at the Winter Olympics in 1988. As in 1980, the Soviets were represented by their star-studded veterans, while the Americans fielded a team of college players. The Soviets won the encounter 7–5 and won the gold medal, while the U.S. placed seventh.  The two teams met again at the 1992 Olympics in a semi-final match. There, the Unified Team (the successor to the Soviet Union) won 5–2. While some stars had left the Soviet Union to play in the NHL, the Unified Team still boasted many veterans from their domestic professional league, while the Americans were represented primarily by college players. The Unified Team eventually won the gold medal, while the U.S. placed fourth.  The U.S., coached by Herb Brooks, and Russia, coached by Viacheslav Fetisov, met twice in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which included a 2–2 round-robin draw and a 3–2 semi-final win for the Americans. The semi-final match was played 22 years to the day after the "Miracle on Ice" game. The U.S. eventually won silver, while Russia won bronze.  The U.S. and Russia played each other in a round-robin game at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The game was tied 2–2 after overtime before the Americans prevailed in an eight-round shootout, with T.J. Oshie scoring on 4 of 6 attempts for the United States. The match has been dubbed by some as the "Marathon on Ice" due to its length. Both teams, however, failed to medal; the Americans finished fourth (losing to Canada in the semifinals), while the Russians placed fifth (losing to Finland in the quarterfinals).

Popular culture.

A made-for-TV movie "Miracle on Ice", starring Karl Malden as Brooks and Steve Guttenberg as Craig, aired on ABC television in 1981. It incorporated actual game footage and original commentary from the 1980 Winter Games.  The final episode of "People's Century", "Fast Forward", featured the Miracle on Ice as illustrating the Cold War.  The documentary film "Do You Believe in Miracles?", narrated by Liev Schreiber, premiered on HBO in 2001 and was subsequently released on home video.  In 2004, Walt Disney Pictures released the film "Miracle", directed by Gavin O'Connor and starring Kurt Russell as Brooks. Al Michaels recreated his commentary for most of the games. The final ten seconds, however, and his "Do you believe in miracles? YES!" call, were from the original broadcast and used in the film since the filmmakers felt that they could not ask him to recreate the emotion he felt at that moment. The film was dedicated to Brooks, who died shortly after principal photography completed.  The documentary "Of Miracles And Men", which was directed by Jonathan Hock, premiered on ESPN in 2015 as part of the channel's "30 for 30" series. The story of the 1980 matchup is told from the Soviet perspective.

Team rosters.

Soviet Union.

<nowiki>* Starting line up</nowiki

The "Miracle on Ice" was a medal-round game during the men's ice hockey tournament at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, played between the hosting United States and the four-time defending gold medalists, the Soviet Union.

Le « miracle sur glace » (ou Miracle on Ice en anglais) désigne l'improbable victoire de l'équipe des États-Unis d'Amérique sur l'Union soviétique lors du tour final du tournoi olympique de hockey sur glace lors des Jeux olympiques d'hiver, tenus en 1980 à Lake Placid dans l'État de New York aux États-Unis.


Personal life.

Pinchot was born in New York City. His mother, Rosina (née Asta) was an Italian American and a typist, and his father, Henry (originally Poncharavsky) was of Russian descent and a bookbinder, who was born in New York and raised in Paris. His younger brother Justin is also an actor. Pinchot was raised in Southern California where he graduated from South Pasadena High School at the top of his class and was appointed valedictorian. He earned a full scholarship to Yale University where he studied fine art in Morse College, graduating "magna cum laude". After he was cast in a college play a casting director discovered him, which led to his film debut, "Risky Business".  In the 1970s, Pinchot often organized Winkie (west) conventions of The International Wizard of Oz Club.  In 1999 Pinchot spent a great deal of time in Harford, Pennsylvania, restoring the circa 1839 mansion of former Pennsylvania state Senator Edward Jones. He purchased six properties in the small rural town of 1,300 residents "in an effort to revive the town's 19th-century aesthetic." In 2015 Pinchot filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, claiming liabilities between $100,000 and $500,000. All of his properties in Harford were subsequently put up for sale. Bronson told The Citizen's Voice, "I have two skills: I can make old houses beautiful and I can make people laugh. Other than that I'm a waste of space. Well, I'm a dedicated son and brother but I have no head for businesses."

Career.

Pinchot appeared in several feature films, such as "Risky Business", "Beverly Hills Cop", "The First Wives Club", "True Romance", "Courage Under Fire" and "It's My Party". He also played Dennis Kemper in the short-lived NBC sitcom "Sara". Pinchot was hired to replace Fisher Stevens as Ben Jabituya in the 1986 film "Short Circuit", but Pinchot eventually left the production in order to begin work on "Perfect Strangers", and Stevens was subsequently rehired for the role.  Starting in 1986, Pinchot played Balki Bartokomous on the long-running ABC sitcom "Perfect Strangers". When the show concluded filming its eight-season run in September 1992 (with the condensed final season airing during the summer of 1993), Pinchot immediately secured the starring role on a new sitcom for CBS, entitled "The Trouble with Larry". The series premiered just three weeks after ABC's "Perfect Strangers" finale in August 1993, and one episode (which never aired) was directed by Mark Linn-Baker, Pinchot's co-star on "Strangers". After three weeks of dismal ratings and poor reviews, "The Trouble with Larry" was canceled. Pinchot would subsequently get rehired by "Perfect Strangers" producers Tom Miller and Bob Boyett for roles on two more of their sitcoms: "Step By Step", where he played French hairdresser Jean-Luc Rieupeyroux in early 1997, and, that fall, on "Meego", where he played an alien who crash-landed on Earth and took up residence with an American family.  In 2008, Pinchot read for the audio version of "The Learners", author Chip Kidd's followup to "The Cheese Monkeys". He also voiced Max, the fully restored Black 1964 VW Beetle, in the 2009 Volkswagen "Das Auto" campaign. Between 2009 and 2014, Pinchot narrated over 100 audiobooks, for which he won a number of awards. In 2010, Pinchot read the audio version of the novels "" and "Blood Oath". For the Blackstone Audio collection "Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories," he provided a reading of several stories, including Highsmith's novel "Strangers on a Train". Pinchot recently narrated for Christopher Healy's children's series, "The Hero's Guide". He was chosen by Audible.com as their 2010 Narrator of the Year. On February 12, 2012, Pinchot starred in a home restoration show on DIY Network titled "The Bronson Pinchot Project". The program is based on his hobby of restoring old homes using salvaged materials.  On March 8, 2018, it was announced that Pinchot would play George Hawthorne, the villainous, puritanical principal of Baxter High, who regularly clashes with Sabrina Spellman and her friends in the Netflix series "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina". The series premiered in October 2018.

Bronson Alcott Pinchot (born May 20, 1959) is an American actor and voice artist. He is best known for playing Balki Bartokomous in the ABC sitcom "Perfect Strangers" (1986–93). He also performed in films, such as "Risky Business" (1983), "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984), "True Romance" (1993), "Beverly Hills Cop III" (1994), "It's My Party" (1996), "Courage Under Fire" (1996) and "The First Wives Club" (1996), as well as on television series, such as The Prankster on "". In 2012, he starred in his own reality series, "The Bronson Pinchot Project" on the DIY Network.

Bronson Pinchot est un acteur américain né le 20 mai 1959 à Manhattan (New York, États-Unis). En France, il est connu pour son rôle de Craig Toomey dans le Téléfilm "Les Langoliers" (1995), mais également de Jean-Luc Rieupeyroux dans la série télévisée "Notre belle famille", et pour son rôle de Serge dans les volets 1 et 3 du "Flic de Beverly Hills". Il est parfaitement bilingue anglais/français.


Placing his work chronologically.

His birth and death dates are not known—historians have suggested that he wrote his work sometime between the mid-1st century BCE and 400 CE. The earlier estimates rely on the fact that Cleomedes refers extensively in his writing to the work of mathematician and astronomer Posidonius of Rhodes (135 BC-51 BCE), and yet seemingly not at all to the work of Ptolemy (85-165 CE). (Cleomedes also refers to Aristotle (384-322 BCE), Pytheas of Massalia (325 BCE), Aratus (310-240 BCE), Eratosthenes (276-195 BCE), and Hipparchus (190-120 BCE).). These conclusions have been challenged on the grounds that Cleomedes' work was in relatively elementary astronomy, and that reference to Ptolemy would not necessarily be expected. The 20th century mathematician Otto Neugebauer, however, looked closely at the astronomical observations made by Cleomedes, and concluded that a date of 371 CE (±50 years) better explains what is found there. Neugebauer's estimate has been challenged on the grounds that Cleomedes makes observational errors with enough frequency that there is difficulty in deciding which observations to trust for the purpose of dating his work.

"On the Circular Motions of the Celestial Bodies".

The book for which Cleomedes is known is a fairly basic astronomy textbook in two volumes. His purpose in writing seems to have been as philosophical as it was scientific—he spends an extensive amount of time criticizing the scientific ideas of the Epicureans.  Cleomedes' book is valued primarily for preserving, apparently "verbatim", much of Posidonius' writings on astronomy (none of Posidonius' books have survived to the modern day). Cleomedes is accurate in some of his remarks on lunar eclipses, especially his conjecture that the shadow on the Moon suggests a spherical Earth. He also remarks presciently that the absolute size of many stars may exceed that of the Sun (and that the Earth might appear as a very small star, if viewed from the surface of the Sun).  This book is the original source for the well-known story of how Eratosthenes measured the Earth's circumference. Many modern mathematicians and astronomers believe the description to be reasonable (and believe Eratosthenes' achievement to be one of the more impressive accomplishments of ancient astronomy).  Cleomedes deserves credit for the earliest clear statement of the apparent distance explanation of the Sun Illusion or Moon Illusion. He argued that the sun appeared farther away on the horizon than in the zenith, and therefore larger (since its angular size was constant). He attributed this explanation to Posidonius.

Optics.

As a disciple of Posidonius, Cleomedes noted some elementary qualitative properties of refraction, such as the bending of a ray toward the perpendicular in passing from a less dense to a more dense medium, and suggested that due to atmospheric refraction, the Sun and its rainbow may be visible when the Sun is below the horizon.

Legacy.

Cleomedes is now memorialized by the crater Cleomedes in the northeastern portion of the visible Moon.

Cleomedes () was a Greek astronomer who is known chiefly for his book "On the Circular Motions of the Celestial Bodies" (Κυκλικὴ θεωρία μετεώρων).

Cléomède (en grec, ) est un philosophe stoïcien, astronome et mathématicien de la Grèce antique. Un cratère situé au nord-est de la face visible de la Lune a été baptisé en son honneur.


Early life.

Robert Clive was born at Styche, the Clive family estate, near Market Drayton in Shropshire, on 29 September 1725 to Richard Clive and Rebecca (née Gaskell) Clive. The family had held the small estate since the time of Henry VII. The family had a lengthy history of public service: members of the family included an Irish chancellor of the exchequer under Henry VIII, and a member of the Long Parliament. Robert's father, who supplemented the estate's modest income as a lawyer, also served in Parliament for many years, representing Montgomeryshire. Robert was their eldest son of thirteen children; he had seven sisters and five brothers, six of whom died in infancy.  Clive's father was known to have a temper, which the boy apparently inherited. For reasons that are unknown, Clive was sent to live with his mother's sister in Manchester while still a toddler. Biographer Robert Harvey

First journey to the East (1744–1753).

In 1744 Clive's father acquired for him a position as a "factor" or company agent in the service of the East India Company, and Clive set sail for Bombay, (present day Mumbai, India). After running aground on the coast of Brazil, his ship was detained for nine months while repairs were completed. This enabled him to learn some Portuguese, one of the several languages then in use in south India because of the Portuguese centre at Goa. At this time the East India Company had a small settlement at Fort St. George near the village of Madraspatnam, later Madras, now the Indian metropolis of Chennai, in addition to others at Calcutta, Bombay, and Cuddalore. Clive arrived at Fort St. George in June 1744, and spent the next two years working as little more than a glorified assistant shopkeeper, tallying books and arguing with suppliers of the East India Company over the quality and quantity of their wares. He was given access to the governor's library, where he became a prolific reader.

Political situation in south India.

The land Clive arrived in was divided into a number of successor states to the Mughal Empire. Over the forty years, since the death of the Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, the power of the emperor had gradually fallen into the hands of his provincial viceroys or "Subahdars". The dominant rulers on the Coromandel Coast were the Nizam of Hyderabad, Asaf Jah I, and the Nawab of the Carnatic, Anwaruddin Muhammed Khan. The nawab nominally owed fealty to the nizam, but in many respects acted independently.

First Carnatic War.

In 1720 France effectively nationalized the French East India Company, and began using it to expand its imperial interests. This became a source of conflict with the British in India with the entry of Britain into the War of the Austrian Succession in 1744. The Indian theatre of the conflict is also known as the First Carnatic War, referring to the Carnatic region on the southeast coast of India. Hostilities in India began with a British naval attack on a French fleet in 1745, which led the French Governor-General Dupleix to request additional forces. On 4 September 1746, Madras was attacked by French forces led by La Bourdonnais. After several days of bombardment the British surrendered and the French entered the city. The British leadership was taken prisoner and sent to Pondicherry. It was originally agreed that the town would be restored to the British after negotiation but this was opposed by Dupleix, who sought to annex Madras to French holdings. The remaining British residents were asked to

Tanjore expedition.

The end of the war between France and Britain did not, however, end hostilities in India. Even before news of the peace arrived in India, the British had sent an expedition to Tanjore on behalf of a claimant to its throne. This expedition, on which Clive, now promoted to lieutenant, served as a volunteer, was a disastrous failure. Monsoons ravaged the land forces, and the local support claimed by their client was not in evidence. The ignominious retreat of the British force (which lost its baggage train to the pursuing Tanjorean army while crossing a swollen river) was a blow to the British reputation. Major Lawrence, seeking to recover British prestige, led the entire Madras garrison to Tanjore in response. At the fort of Devikottai on the Coleroon River the British force was confronted by the much larger

Second Carnatic War.

The death of Asaf Jah I, the Nizam of Hyderabad, in 1748 sparked a struggle to succeed him that is known as the Second Carnatic War, which was also furthered by the expansionist interests of French Governor-General Dupleix. Dupleix had grasped from the first war that small numbers of disciplined European forces (and well-trained sepoys) could be used to tip balances of power between competing interests, and used this idea to greatly expand French influence in southern India. For many years he had been working to negotiate the release of Chanda Sahib, a longtime French ally who had at one time occupied the throne of Tanjore, and sought for himself the throne of the Carnatic. Chanda Sahib had been imprisoned by the Marathas in 1740; by 1748 he had been released from custody and was building an army at Satara.  Upon the death of Asaf Jah I, his son, Nasir Jung, seized the throne of Hyderabad, although Asaf Jah had designated as his successor his grandson, Muzaffar Jung. The grandson, who was ruler of Bijapur, fled west to join Chanda Sahib,

Siege of Arcot.

In the summer of 1751, Chanda Sahib left Arcot to besiege Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah at Trichinopoly. This placed the British at Madras in a precarious position, since the latter was the last of their major allies in the area. The British company's military was also in some disarray, as Stringer Lawrence had returned to England in 1750 over a pay dispute, and much of the company was apathetic about the dangers the expanding French influence and declining British influence posed. The weakness of the British military command was exposed when a force was sent from Madras to support Muhammed Ali at Trichinopoly, but its commander, a Swiss mercenary, refused to attack an outpost at Valikondapuram. Clive, who accompanied the force as commissary, was outraged at the decision to abandon the siege. He rode to Cuddalore, and offered his services to lead an attack on Arcot if he was given a captain's commission, arguing this would force Chanda Sahib to either abandon the siege of Trichinopoly or significantly reduce the force there.  Madras and Fort St David could supply him with only 200 Europeans, 300 sepoys, and three small cannons; furthermore,

Second journey to India (1755–1760).

In July 1755, Clive returned to India to act as deputy governor of Fort St. David at Cuddalore. He arrived after having lost a considerable fortune en route, as the "Doddington", the lead ship of his convoy, was wrecked near Port Elizabeth, losing a chest of gold coins belonging to Clive worth £33,000. Nearly 250 years later in 1998, illegally salvaged coins from Clive's treasure chest were offered for sale, and in 2002 a portion of the coins were given to the South African government after protracted legal wrangling.  Clive, now promoted to lieutenant-colonel in the British Army, took part in the capture of the fortress of Gheriah, a stronghold of the Maratha Admiral Tuloji Angre. The action was led by Admiral James Watson and the British had several ships available, some Royal troops and some Maratha allies. The overwhelming strength of the joint British and Maratha forces ensured that the battle was won with few losses. A fleet surgeon, Edward Ives, noted that Clive refused to take any part of the treasure divided among the victorious forces as was custom at the time.

Fall and recapture of Calcutta (1756–57).

Following this action Clive headed to his post at Fort St. David and it was there he received news of twin disasters for the British. Early in 1756, Siraj Ud Daulah had succeeded his grandfather Alivardi Khan as Nawab of Bengal. In June, Clive received news that the new Nawab had attacked the British at Kasimbazar and shortly afterwards on 20 June he had taken the fort at Calcutta. The losses to the Company because of the fall of Calcutta were estimated by investors at £2,000,000. Those British who were captured were placed in a punishment cell which became infamous as the Black Hole of Calcutta. In stifling summer heat, it was reported that 43 of the 64 prisoners died as a result of suffocation or heat stroke. While the Black Hole became infamous in Britain, it is debatable whether the Nawab was aware of the incident.  By Christmas 1756, as no response had been received to diplomatic letters to the Nawab, Admiral Charles Watson and Clive were dispatched to attack the

War with Siraj Ud Daulah.

As Britain and France were once more at war, Clive sent the fleet up the river against the French colony of Chandannagar, while he besieged it by land. There was a strong incentive to capture the colony, as capture of a previous French settlement near Pondicherry had yielded the combined forces prizes valued at £130,000. After consenting to the siege, the Nawab unsuccessfully sought to assist the French. Some officials of the Nawab's court formed a confederacy to depose him. Jafar Ali Khan, also known as Mir Jafar, the Nawab's commander-in-chief, led the conspirators. With Admiral Watson, Governor Drake and Mr. Watts, Clive made a gentlemen's agreement in which it was agreed to give the office of viceroy of Bengal, Bihar and

Plassey.

The whole hot season of 1757 was spent in negotiations with the Nawab of Bengal. In the middle of June Clive began his march from Chandannagar, with the British in boats and the sepoys along the right bank of the Hooghly River. During the rainy season, the Hooghly is fed by the overflow of the Ganges to the north through three streams, which in the hot months are nearly dry. On the left bank of the Bhagirathi, the most westerly of these, above Chandernagore, stands Murshidabad, the capital of the Mughal viceroys of Bengal. Some miles farther down is the field of Plassey, then an extensive grove of mango trees.  On 21 June 1757, Clive arrived on the bank opposite Plassey, in the midst of the first outburst of monsoon rain. His whole army amounted to 1,100 Europeans and 2,100 sepoy troops, with nine field-pieces. The Nawab had drawn up 18,000 horse, 50,000-foot and 53 pieces of heavy ordnance, served by French artillerymen. For once in his career Clive hesitated, and called a council of sixteen officers to decide, as he put it, "whether in our present situation, without assistance, and on our own bottom, it would be prudent to attack the Nawab, or whether we should wait till joined by some country (Indian) power." Clive himself headed the nine who voted for delay; Major Eyre Coote led the seven who counselled immediate attack. But, either because his daring asserted itself, or because of a letter received from Mir Jafar, Clive was the first to change his mind and to communicate with Major Eyre Coote. One tradition, followed by Macaulay, represents him as spending an hour in thought under the shade of some trees, while he resolved the issues of what was to prove one of the decisive battles of the world. Another, turned into verse by Sir Alfred Lyall, pictures his resolution as the result of a dream. However that may be, he did well as a soldier to trust to the dash and even rashness that had gained Arcot and triumphed at Calcutta since retreat, or even delay, might have resulted in

Further campaigns.

Battle of Condore.

While busy with the civil administration, Clive continued to follow up his military success. He sent Major Coote in pursuit of the French almost

Mughals.

Clive came into direct contact with the Mughal himself, for the first time, a meeting which would prove beneficial in his later career. Prince Ali Gauhar escaped from Delhi after his father, the Mughal Emperor Alamgir II, had been murdered by the usurping Vizier Imad-ul-Mulk and his Maratha associate Sadashivrao Bhau.  Prince Ali Gauhar was welcomed and protected by Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh. In 1760, after gaining control over Bihar, Odisha and some parts of the Bengal, Ali Gauhar and his Mughal Army of 30,000 intended to overthrow Mir Jafar and the Company in

Dutch aggression.

While Clive was preoccupied with fighting the French, the Dutch directors of the outpost at Chinsurah, not far from Chandernagore, seeing an opportunity to expand their influence, agreed to send additional troops to Chinsurah. Despite Britain and the Dutch Republic not formally being at war, a Dutch fleet of seven ships, containing more than fifteen hundred European and Malay troops, came from Batavia and arrived at the mouth of the Hooghly River in October 1759, while Mir Jafar, the Nawab of Bengal, was meeting with Clive in Calcutta. They met a mixed force of British and local troops at Chinsurah, just outside Calcutta. The British, under Colonel Francis Forde, defeated the Dutch in the Battle of Chinsurah, forcing them to withdraw. The British engaged and defeated the ships the Dutch used to deliver the troops in a separate naval battle on November 24. Thus Clive avenged the massacre of Amboyna – the occasion when he wrote

Return to Great Britain.

In 1760, the 35-year-old Clive returned to Great Britain with a fortune of at least £300,000 and the quit-rent of £27,000 a year. He financially supported his parents and sisters, while also providing Major Lawrence, the commanding officer who had early encouraged his military genius, with a stipend of £500 a year. In the five years of his conquests and administration in Bengal, the young man had crowded together a succession of exploits that led Lord Macaulay, in what that historian termed his "flashy" essay on the subject,

Third journey to India.

On 3 May 1765 Clive landed at Calcutta to learn that Mir Jafar had died, leaving him personally £70,000. Mir Jafar was succeeded by his son-in-law Kasim Ali, though not before the government had been further demoralized by taking £100,000 as a gift from the new Nawab; while Kasim Ali had induced not only the viceroy of Awadh, but the emperor of Delhi himself, to invade Bihar. At this point a mutiny in the Bengal army occurred, which was a grim precursor of the Indian rebellion of 1857, but on this occasion it was quickly suppressed by blowing the sepoy ringleader from a gun. Major Munro, "the Napier of those times", scattered the united armies on the hard-fought field of Buxar. The emperor, Shah Alam II, detached himself from the league, while the Awadh viceroy threw himself on the mercy of the British.  Clive had now an opportunity of repeating in Hindustan, or Upper India, what he had accomplished in Bengal. He might have secured what is now called Uttar Pradesh, and have rendered unnecessary the campaigns of Wellesley and Lake. But he believed he had other work in the exploitation of the revenues and resources of rich Bengal itself, making it a base from which British India would afterwards steadily grow. Hence he returned to the Awadh viceroy all his territory save the provinces of Allahabad and Kora, which he presented to the weak emperor.

Mughal "Firman".

In return for the Awadhian provinces Clive secured from the emperor one of the most important documents in British history in India, effectively granting title of Bengal to Clive. It appears in the records as "firman from the King Shah Aalum, granting the diwani rights of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha to the Company 1765." The date was 12 August 1765, the place Benares, the throne an English dining-table covered with embroidered cloth and surmounted by a chair in Clive's tent. It is all pictured by a Muslim contemporary, who indignantly exclaims that so great a "transaction was done and finished in less time than would have been taken up in the sale of a jackass". By this deed the company became the real sovereign rulers of thirty

Attempts at administrative reform.

Having thus founded the Empire of British India, Clive sought to put in place a strong administration. The salaries of civil servants were increased, the acceptance of gifts from Indians was forbidden, and Clive exacted covenants under which participation in the inland trade was stopped. Unfortunately this had very little impact in reducing corruption, which remained widespread until the days of Warren Hastings. Clive's military

Retirement and death.

Clive left India for the last time in February 1767. In 1768, he lived for a time at the Chateau de Larzac in Pézenas in the Hérault département of the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Local tradition says that he was responsible for introducing the local pastry makers of Pézenas to a sweet pastry, le petit pâté de Pézenas, the size and shape of a large cotton reel with a sweet centre, and that he (or, more likely, his chef) had brought the recipe from India as a refined version of the savoury keema naan. Pézenas is now known for these delicacies.  Later in 1768, Clive was made a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and in the same year served as treasurer of the Salop Infirmary in Shrewsbury.  In 1769, he acquired the house and gardens at Claremont near Esher and commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown to remodel the garden and rebuild the house.  In 1772 Parliament opened an inquiry into the Company's practices in India. Clive's political opponents turned these hearings into attacks on Clive. Questioned about some of the large sums of money he had received while in India, Clive pointed out that they were not contrary to accepted company practice, and defended his behaviour by stating "I stand astonished at my own moderation" given opportunities for greater gain. The hearings highlighted the need for reform of the Company, and a vote to censure Clive for his actions failed. Later in 1772, Clive was invested Knight of the Bath (eight years after his knighthood had been awarded), and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire.  There was a great famine in Bengal between 1769 and

Family.

Robert Clive married Margaret Maskelyne (d. 28 December 1817) on 18 February

Criticism.

While Clive was loyal to his employers, the British East India Company, some of his actions resulted in the plundering of Indian treasures and also in famines caused by policies disastrous to local Indian farm production. The historian William Dalrymple has called Clive an "unstable sociopath", due to these policies and his actions leading to famines and other atrocities towards native populations in Bengal. Changes caused by Clive to the revenue system and existing agricultural practices, to maximize profits for the East India Company, led to the Bengal Famine of 1770 and increased poverty in Bengal. A proportion of the loot of Bengal went directly into Clive's pocket.  Clive quoted about the oppression of Bengal:  "I shall only say that such a scene of anarchy, confusion, bribery, corruption, and extortion was never seen or heard of in any country but Bengal; nor did such and so many fortunes acquire in so unjust and rapacious a manner. The three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa producing a clear revenue of 3 millions sterling, have been under the absolute management of the company's servants, ever since Mir Jafar's restoration to the subahship ; and they have, both civil and military,exacted and levied contributions from every man of power and consequence, from the Nawab down to the lowest zamindar."

Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. He began as a writer for the East India Company (EIC) who established the military and political supremacy of the EIC by securing a decisive victory in Bengal. In return for supporting the Nawab Mir Jafar on the throne, Clive was granted a jaghire of 30,000 pounds per year which was the rent the EIC would otherwise pay to the Nawab for their tax farming concession, when he left India he had a fortune of 180,000 pounds which he remitted through the Dutch East India Company.. Blocking impending French mastery of India, and eventual British expulsion from the continent, Clive improvised a military expedition that ultimately enabled the EIC to adopt the French strategy of indirect rule via puppet government. Hired by the EIC to return a second time to India, Clive conspired to secure the Company's trade interests by overthrowing the Ruler of Bengal, the richest state in India. Back in England, he used his loot from India to secure an Irish barony from the then Whig PM, Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, and a seat for himself in Parliament, via Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis, representing the Whigs in Shrewsbury, Shropshire (1761–1774), as he had previously in Mitchell, Cornwall (1754–1755).

Le major-général Robert Clive (né le à Market Drayton, Shropshire et mort le, Londres, Berkeley Square) est un noble anglais : Clive de Plassey et pair d'Irlande, il a été gouverneur du Bengale.


Career.

Banking industry.

Wasson began his banking career at Guaranty Trust Company in 1928, and moved to J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1934, where he became a vice president in 1943. Also that year, Wasson published a book on the Hall Carbine Affair, in which he attempted to exonerate John Pierpont Morgan from guilt with respect to this incident, which had been viewed as an example of wartime profiteering.  As early as 1937, Wasson had been attempting to influence historians Allan Nevins and Charles McLean Andrews regarding Morgan's role in the affair, and then he used Nevins' report as a reference for his own book on the topic.  Wasson worked in public relations for J.P. Morgan & Co., and his authorship of a book on J.P. Morgan. The matter of Morgan's responsibility for the Hall Carbine Incident remains controversial.

Ethnomycology.

Wasson's studies in ethnomycology began during his 1927 honeymoon trip to the Catskill Mountains when his wife, Valentina Pavlovna Guercken, a pediatrician, chanced upon some edible wild mushrooms. Fascinated by the marked difference in cultural attitudes towards fungi in Russia compared to the United States, the couple began field research that led to the publication of "Mushrooms, Russia and History" in 1957.  In the course of their investigations they mounted expeditions to Mexico to study the religious use of mushrooms by the native population, and claimed to have been the first Westerners to participate in a Mazatec mushroom ritual.  It was the "curandera" María Sabina who both allowed the Wassons to participate in the ritual and who taught them about the uses and effects of the mushroom. Sabina let him take her picture on the condition that he keep it private, but Wasson nonetheless published the photo along with Sabina's name and the name of the community where she lived.

CIA funding.

Wasson's 1956 expedition was funded by the CIA's MK-Ultra subproject 58, as was revealed by documents obtained by John Marks under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents state that Wasson was an 'unwitting' participant in the project.  The funding was provided under the cover name of the "Geschickter Fund for Medical Research" (credited by Wasson at the end of his subsequent "Life" piece about the expedition).

Role in popularizing psilocybin mushrooms.

In May 1957, "Life" magazine published an article titled "Seeking the Magic Mushroom", which introduced psychoactive mushrooms to a wide audience for the first time.  In his memoir, author Tom Robbins talks about the impact of this article on "turning on" Americans himself included. The article sparked immense interest in the Mazatec ritual practice among beatniks and hippies, an interest that proved disastrous for the Mazatec community and for María Sabina in particular. As the community was besieged by Westerners wanting to experience the mushroom-induced hallucinations, Sabina attracted attention by the Mexican police who thought that she sold drugs to the foreigners. The unwanted attention completely altered the social dynamics of the Mazatec community and threatened to terminate the Mazatec custom. The community blamed Sabina, and she was ostracized in the community and had her house burned down. Sabina later regretted having introduced Wasson to the practice, but Wasson contended that his only intention was to contribute to the sum of human knowledge.

Methodology.

Together, Wasson and botanist Roger Heim collected and identified various species of family "Strophariaceae" and genus "Psilocybe", while Albert Hofmann, using material grown by Heim from specimens collected by the Wassons, identified the chemical structure of the active compounds, psilocybin and psilocin. Hofmann and Wasson were also among the first Westerners to collect specimens of the Mazatec hallucinogen "Salvia divinorum", though these specimens were later deemed not suitable for rigorous scientific study or taxonomic classification. Two species of mushroom, "Psilocybe wassonii" R.Heim and "Psilocybe wassoniorum" Guzman & S.H.Pollock, were named in honor of Wasson by Heim and Gastón Guzmán, the latter of whom Wasson met during an expedition to Huautla de Jiménez in 1957.  Wasson's next major contribution was a study of the ancient Vedic intoxicant soma, which he hypothesized was based on the psychoactive fly agaric ("Amanita muscaria") mushroom. This hypothesis was published in 1967 under the title "Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality". His attention then turned to the Eleusinian Mysteries, the initiation ceremony of the ancient Greek cult of Demeter and Persephone. In "The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries" (1978), co-authored with Albert Hofmann and Carl A. P. Ruck, it was proposed that the special potion "kykeon", a pivotal component of the ceremony, contained psychoactive ergoline alkaloids from the fungus Ergot ("Claviceps spp.").  Several of his books were self-published in illustrated, limited editions, using handmade paper and printed in Italy, that have never been reprinted, with one exception. His last completed work, "The Wondrous Mushroom", initially part of the self-published works, was republished by City Lights Publishers in 2014.

Ethnography.

Prior to his work on soma, theologians had interpreted the Vedic and Magian practices to have been based on alcoholic beverages that produced inebriation. Wasson was the first researcher to propose that the actual form of Vedic intoxication was entheogenic..

Robert Gordon Wasson (September 22, 1898 – December 23, 1986) was an American author, ethnomycologist, and Vice President for Public Relations at J.P. Morgan & Co.

Robert Gordon Wasson ( - ) est un auteur et un chercheur amateur ainsi qu'un banquier. Ses recherches indépendantes sont une contribution significative pour l'ethnobotanique, la botanique et l'anthropologie.