Video Synthesizers as Real Time performance instruments.

The history of video synthesis is tied to a "real time performance" ethic. The equipment is usually expected to function on input camera signals the machine has never seen before, delivering a processed signal continuously and with a minimum of delay in response to the ever-changing live video inputs. Following in the tradition of performance instruments of the audio synthesis world such as the Theremin, video synthesizers were designed with the expectation they would be played in live concert theatrical situations or set up in a studio ready to process a videotape from a playback VCR in real time while recording the results on a second VCR. Venues of these performances included "Electronic Visualization Events" in Chicago, The Kitchen in NYC, and museum installations. Video artist/performer Don Slepian designed, built and performed a foot-controlled Visual Instrument at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1983) and the NY Open Center that combined genlocked early micro-computers Apple II Plus with the Chromaton 14 Video Synthesizer. and channels of colorized video feedback.  Analog and early real time digital synthesizers existed before modern computer 3D modeling. Typical 3D renderers are not real time, as they concentrate on computing each frame from, for example, a recursive ray tracing algorithm, however long it takes. This distinguishes them from video synthesizers, which must deliver a new output frame by the time the last one has been shown, and repeat this performance continuously (typically delivering a new frame regularly every 1/60 or 1/50 of a second). The real time constraint results in a difference in design philosophy between these two classes of systems.  Video synthesizers overlap with video special effects equipment used in real time network television broadcast and post-production situations. Many innovations in television broadcast equipment as well as computer graphics displays evolved from synthesizers developed in the video artists' community and these industries often support "electronic art projects" in this area to show appreciation of this history.

Confluence of ideas of Electronics and Arts.

Many principles used in the construction of early video synthesizers reflected a healthy and dynamic interplay between electronic requirements and traditional interpretations of artistic forms. For example, Rutt & Etra and Sandin carried forward as an essential principle ideas of Robert Moog that standardized signal ranges so that any module's output could be connected to "voltage control" any other module's input. The consequence of this in a machine like the Rutt-Etra was that position, brightness, and color were completely interchangeable and could be used to modulate each other during the processing that led to the final image. Videotapes by Louise and Bill Etra and Steina and Woody Vasulka dramatized this new class of effects. This led to various interpretations of the multi-modal synthesesia of these aspects of the image in dialogues that extended the McLuhanesque language of film criticism of the time. In the UK Richard Monkhouse working for Electronic Music Studios (London) Limited (EMS) developed a hybrid video synthesiser – Spectre – later renamed 'Spectron' which used the EMS patchboard system to allow completely flexible connections between module inputs and outputs. The video signals were digital, but they were controlled by analog voltages. There was a digital patchboard for image composition and an analog patchboard for motion control.

Evolution into Frame Buffers.

Video synthesizers moved from analog to the precision control of digital. The first digital effects as exemplified by Stephen Beck's Video Weavings used digital oscillators optionally linked to horizontal, vertical, or frame resets to generate timing ramps. These ramps could be gated to create the video image itself and were responsible for its underlying geometric texture. Schier and Vasulka advanced the state of the art from address counters to programmable (microcodable) AMD Am2901 bit slice based address generators. On the data path, they used 74S181 arithmetic and logic units, previously thought of as a component for doing arithmetic instructions in minicomputers, to process real time video signals, creating new signals representing the sum, difference, AND, XOR, and so on, of two input signals. These two elements, the address generator, and the video data pipeline, recur as core features of digital video architecture.  The address generator supplied read and write addresses to a real time video memory, which can be thought of as evolution into the most flexible form of gating the address bits together to produce the video. While the video frame buffer is now present in every computer's graphics card, it has not carried forward a number of features of the early video synths. The address generator counts in a fixed rectangular pattern from the upper left hand corner of the screen, across each line, to the bottom. This discarded a whole technology of modifying the image by variations in the read and write addressing sequence provided by the hardware address generators as the image passed through the memory. Today, address based distortions are more often accomplished by blitter operations moving data in the memory, rather than changes in video hardware addressing patterns.

A video synthesizer is a device that electronically creates a video signal. A video synthesizer is able to generate a variety of visual material without camera input through the use of internal video pattern generators. It can also accept and "clean up and enhance" or "distort" live television camera imagery. The synthesizer creates a wide range of imagery through purely electronic manipulations. This imagery is visible within the output video signal when this signal is displayed. The output video signal can be viewed on a wide range of conventional video equipment, such as TV monitors, theater video projectors, computer displays, etc.


Peter Parker (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Concept and creation.

Peter Parker first premiered as a comic book character in the anthology comic book "Amazing Fantasy" #15 (August 1962). Following a surge in teenage demand for comic books, Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee wanted to create a character with whom teens could identify. Lee cited pulp magazine crime fighter the Spider as an influence, and stated that he was further inspired by seeing a spider climb up a wall—adding in his autobiography that he has told that story so often he has become unsure of whether or not this is true. Lee "wanted the character to be a very human guy, someone who makes mistakes, who worries, who gets acne, has trouble with his girlfriend, things like that". Jack Kirby, meanwhile, had an unpublished character on which he had collaborated with Joe Simon in the 1950s, in which an orphaned boy living with an old couple finds a magic ring that granted him superhuman powers. Lee and Kirby had a story conference, and Lee directed Kirby to flesh out the character and draw some pages. Unsatisfied with Kirby's story direction, Lee turned the project over to Steve Ditko, who designed the character with a costume with a face mask, a clinging power, and wrist-fired webs. Under Kirby's direction, the character "became high-school student Peter Parker, who gets his spider powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider".  A tokusatsu (live-action) series featuring an original character named Takuya Yamashiro assuming the mantle of Spider-Man, "Supaidā-Man" was produced by Toei and aired in Japan from 1978 to 1979. The character was featured in a trilogy of live-action films directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire as the titular superhero, with installments released from 2002 to 2007. A third sequel was originally scheduled to be released in 2011, but Sony later decided to reboot the franchise with a new director and cast. The reboot, titled "The Amazing Spider-Man", was released in 2012; directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield as the new Spider-Man, followed by a sequel in 2014.  Following the November 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures' computers, emails between Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad were released stating that Marvel wanted to include Spider-Man (whose film rights are licensed to Sony) in "Captain America: Civil War", but talks between the studios concerning this were believed to have broken down. However, in February 2015, the studios reached a licensing deal for the use of Spider-Man in an MCU film, and reports indicated that the character would indeed appear in "Civil War". According to the deal, Sony Pictures would continue to own, finance, distribute, and exercise final creative control over the "Spider-Man" films. The next month, Marvel Entertainment CCO Joe Quesada indicated that the Peter Parker version of the character would be used, which Feige confirmed in April. Feige also stated that Marvel had been working to add Spider-Man to the MCU since at least October 2014. The following June, Feige clarified that the initial Sony deal does not allow the character to appear in any of the MCU television series, as it was "very specific... with a certain amount of back and forth allowed." The same month, the companies announced that after many auditions, Tom Holland had been cast to play Spider-Man within the MCU. Tom Holland made his debut as Spider-Man in "Civil War", before later starring in "" (2017); directed by Jon Watts. Holland reprised his role as Spider-Man in "" (2018), "" (2019) and "" (2019).  In August 2019, negotiations between Sony and Marvel broke down, leaving the character's future in the MCU uncertain. The following month, however, the companies agreed to a new deal to have Spider-Man return to the MCU, beginning with a sequel to "Spider-Man: Far From Home", to be released on November 5, 2021. Disney will provide 25% of the film's budget and receive 25% of its profit.

Characterization.

Tom Holland first appears as Peter Parker in the MCU in "", where he is recruited by Tony Stark to help him arrest Captain America and his rogue Avengers. Producer Kevin Feige said that Parker would be torn between superhero ideologies, saying, "Does he want to be like these other characters? Does he want nothing to do with these other characters? How does that impact his experience, being this grounded but super powerful hero? Those are all the things that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko played with in the first 10 years of his comics, and that now we can play with for the first time in a movie." On aligning with Tony Stark, Anthony Russo said that, despite entering the conflict after the two factions have formed and not having much political investment, Parker's choice comes from "a very personal relationship" he develops with Stark. The Russos hoped "to take a very logical and realistic and naturalistic approach to the character" compared to the previous film portrayals. Anthony Russo added that the character's introduction had to fit "that specific tonal stylistic world" of the MCU, as well as the tone established by the directors in "Winter Soldier", saying, "It's a little more grounded and a little more hard-core contemporary." That was "coloring our choices a lot" with Parker. On the Spider-Man suit, Joe Russo described it as "a slightly more traditional, Steve Ditko influenced suit," and that the film would explore the way the suit operates, particularly the mechanical eyes.

Fictional character biography.

Early life.

In the continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Peter Benjamin Parker was born in Queens, New York City on August 10, 2001. Since his childhood, Parker was raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, the latter of whom died later in his life. Parker attended the Midtown School of Science and Technology, where he befriended his classmate Ned Leeds but also found himself deadlocked in rivalry with Flash Thompson. In 2010, Parker visited the Stark Expo. During his visit, Hammer Drones began attacking the expo sent by Ivan Vanko, prompting Tony Stark, to fight them as Iron Man. One drone landed in front of Parker, who held his hand up in defiance. Iron Man arrived shortly afterward and annihilated the drone, thanking Parker for his help before flying off to continue his battle, leaving Parker awestruck. In adolescence, Parker was bitten by a spider and acquired superhuman powers, including strength and speed proportional to that of a spider and an uncanny ability to adhere to walls. After the death of his uncle, Parker resolved to use his abilities to help those in need and becoming Spider-Man.

Civil War.

In "Captain America: Civil War", Parker is found in New York City by Tony Stark, who recruits Parker into the Avengers and provides him with a new suit in exchange for his help in dealing with Steve Rogers and his faction, the latter having gone rogue in the wake of the implementation of the Sokovia Accords. During the battle Parker proves to be a formidable opponent, going toe-to-toe with Falcon, Winter Soldier, and finally Captain America himself. Parker later helps Stark and War Machine take down Giant-Man / Ant-Man but is injured in the fight and sent home by a grateful Stark.

Conflict with the Vulture.

In "", he is mentored and monitored by Stark primarily through the latter's chauffeur Happy Hogan, while balancing his high school life with his vigilantism. He later stumbles on a group of smugglers and criminals led by the mysterious Vulture, who is revealed to be the father of his high school crush and Decathlon leader Liz Toomes and goes on a quest to defeat them to prove his mettle to Stark and his worthiness of being an Avenger which he dreams of becoming. However, after defeating Vulture, he declines Stark's offer of membership and decides to be a friendly-neighbourhood Spider-Man instead.

The Infinity War.

In "" on a school bus, being alerted to Thanos' invasion by his spider-sense. He sets out to investigate and ends up saving Iron Man from Cull Obsidian. He later joins Stark, much to the latter's chagrin, in rescuing an abducted Doctor Strange from Ebony Maw. The two kill Maw by ejecting him out of his ship into deep space, and free Strange. The trio then head to Titan to confront Thanos, where they are joined by several members of the Guardians of the Galaxy in combating the Mad Titan. The heroes are ultimately defeated and, upon Thanos snapping his fingers with a completed Infinity Gauntlet in Wakanda, Parker along with Strange and the Guardians (except Nebula) are reduced to dust, alongside half of all life in the universe.  Five years later, in "", Bruce Banner uses a reconstructed Infinity Gauntlet to bring back everyone who had been destroyed by Thanos, including Parker, who is then transported to Earth by Doctor Strange to help fight an invasion by Thanos and his armies. Parker has an emotional reunion with Stark, and helps to protect the new Infinity Gauntlet from being taken by Thanos, until he is overwhelmed, and passes the gauntlet on to Captain Marvel. Tony Stark sacrifices his life to use the Infinity Gauntlet to disintegrate Thanos and his army, and Parker later attends Stark's funeral.

School Trip to Europe.

Eight months later, Parker's school restarts its academic year to accommodate the students who were among those resurrected. The school organizes a two-week summer field trip to Europe. Parker, while still distraught over Stark's death, plans to confess his growing feelings for classmate MJ. He attends a fundraiser for the homeless, coordinated by his Aunt May. There he disconnects a call from Fury and leaves after being posed questions about Stark.  In Venice, Italy, during the trip, Parker and his friends are among those attacked by the Water Elemental, which proceeds to wreak havoc on the city; Quentin Beck arrives and destroys the creature, while Parker attempts to help. Fury sabotages Parker's trip and gives him Stark's glasses, equipped with the artificial intelligence E.D.I.T.H., which were meant for Stark's successor. Parker rejects Fury's plea for help and rejoins his class, but Fury covertly redirects the school trip's itinerary to Prague, where the Fire Elemental is projected to strike. It appears there at a carnival, but Beck, with Parker's help, destroys it. Fury and Hill invite Parker and Beck to Berlin to discuss the formation of a new superhero team. Parker considers Beck worthy of being Stark's successor and bequeaths him the E.D.I.T.H. glasses.  MJ deduces that Parker is Spider-Man. They discover that a piece of detritus she retrieved during the battle is a projector that presents an image of the Air Elemental. The two realize Beck is a fraud. At a nearby pub, Beck — a former holographic-illusions specialist at Stark Industries who was fired for being unstable — thanks his team of fellow disgruntled ex-Stark employees. Parker travels to Berlin and meets with Fury, only to realize that the version before him is an illusion created by Beck. Parker battles multiple illusions and is ultimately hit by a train. Surviving the impact badly injured, he falls unconscious in a train car. Awakening in a jail cell in the Netherlands, he breaks out and contacts Happy Hogan. Hogan flies Parker to London and reveals a suit-manufacturing machine left behind by Stark, which Parker uses to synthesize a customized costume. In London, Beck, seeking to kill MJ and any others to whom she might have revealed his secret, orchestrates a tempest Elemental. Parker breaks through the illusion using his "Peter-Tingle", gains control of E.D.I.T.H., and defeats Beck, who is shot by a misfired gun and apparently dies. Peter reunites with MJ on the bridge, where he tells her he wanted to romance her on the European trip. The two confess their feelings to each other and share their first kiss, leading them to becoming a couple.

Exposed.

Parker returns to New York City and begins a relationship with MJ. In a mid-credits scene, J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of "TheDailyBugle.net", blames Spider-Man for the Elementals' attacks, broadcasting modified footage of the incident filmed and recorded by Beck in which he reveals Parker is Spider-Man.

Differences from the comics.

Although inconsistently referred to, the MCU depiction of Peter Parker omits explicit reference to the death of Parker's Uncle Ben, whose death was a significant event both in the comic books and in previous film series. Parker only constructed his first, "homemade" suit and webshooters by himself, and his later, proper Spider-Man suit are instead designed by Stark, or built by Parker with Stark Industries technology, whereas in the comics Parker designed and constructed his suits entirely by himself.  Another change is Parker's close paternal relationship with Stark. This was partially adapted from J. Michael Straczynski's run on "The Amazing Spider-Man" (from #519 to #536), the first five issues of the limited series "Civil War" and the Ultimate Comics where Stark and Parker share a trainer-trainee relationship.  Peter Parker's relationship with Mary Jane "MJ" Watson is also omitted; instead, Parker falls in love with Michelle "MJ" Jones, a fellow high school student.

Accolades.

Holland has received numerous nominations and awards for his portrayal of Peter Parker.

Peter Parker is a fictional character portrayed by Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film franchise—based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name—commonly known by his alter ego, Spider-Man. In the films, Parker is a high school student at Midtown School of Science and Technology while secretly being a vigilante. He is also the protégé of Tony Stark.


Location.

Džidžikovac is located above central parts of the old city center and just above area where Building of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is located, and it is part of Centar municipality.  Džidžikovac and immediate surroundings is also location of several major embassies, with French and Austrian located at the heart of the neighborhood.

History.

Central area of the neighbourhood was designed and developed after the World War II, mostly between 1946 and 1959, while streets and areas in immediate surroundings were already developed and had many luxurious villas and buildings constructed during second half of the 19th century, in numerous styles of the era under the architect from around Austro-Hungarian Empire. Neighborhood is conceived as residential, on a steep hillside above city center with much greenery, never developed before, where, beside many small private flower gardens, also existed numerous plum, apple, cherry and pear orchard – hence the name Džidžikovac, which comes from the word ""džidži"" which is Bosnian pronunciation of Ottoman Turkish word ""güzel"", and which in Bosnian means: nadžidžan, nagizdan, gizdav, ukrašen, in, ornate or florid.

Features.

As in many other cases around central parts of Sarajevo, neighborhood designers utilized the presence of abundant natural greenery on the location and developed designated space while preserving as much as possible. This became a characteristic of the neighborhood, one which constitutes important quality and attraction.

National monument.

In 2008 Džidžikovc was proclaimed National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina as ""Residential complex on Džidžikovac – the architectural ensemble"" by the Commission to preserve national monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, due to its architectural and landscaping qualities.

Džidžikovac "(from "džidži" Bosnian pronunciation for ; in, nađiđan, lijep; or )" is a neighborhood in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and since 2008 a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina


Description.

Despite the common name, it is not a bamboo but an erect evergreen shrub up to tall by wide, with numerous, usually unbranched stems growing from ground level. The glossy leaves are sometimes deciduous in colder areas, long, bi- to tri-pinnately compound, with the individual leaflets long and 1.5–3 cm broad.  The young leaves in spring are brightly coloured pink to red before turning green; old leaves turn red or purple again before falling. Its petiolate leaves are 50–100 cm long, compound (two or three pinnacles) with leaflets, elliptical to ovate or lanceolate and of entire margins, 2–10 cm long by 0.5–2 cm wide, with petioles swollen at their bases.  The inflorescences are panicles axillary or terminal erect with numerous flowers hermaphrodite with numerous ovate-oblong sepals of pinkish white color and spirally imbricated and 6 oblong petals of 4 by 2.5 mm, white, patent at the beginning. The flowers are white, borne in early summer in conical clusters held well above the foliage. The fruit is a bright red berry 5–10 mm diameter, ripening in late autumn and often persisting through the winter.

Garden history and cultivation.

"N. domestica", grown in Chinese and Japanese gardens for centuries, was brought to Western gardens by William Kerr, who sent it to London in his first consignment from Canton, in 1804. The English, unsure of its hardiness, kept it in greenhouses at first. The scientific name given to it by Carl Peter Thunberg is a Latinized version of a Japanese name for the plant, "nan-ten". Over 65 cultivars have been named in Japan, where the species is particularly popular and a national Nandina society exists. In Shanghai berried sprays of nandina are sold in the streets at New Year, for the decoration of house altars and temples. Nandina does not berry profusely in Great Britain, but it can be grown in USDA hardiness zones 6–10 with some cultivars hardy into zone 5. Nandina can take heat and cold, from. It generally needs no pruning, but can spread via underground runners and can be difficult to remove.  Nandina is extremely toxic to birds and animals. Spent berry stalks can easily be snapped off by hand in spring. Due to the naturally occurring phytochemicals (see above) this plant is commonly used in rabbit, deer, and javelina resistant landscape plantings.

Cultivars.

These are some of the popular cultivars of this plant:

Toxicity.

All parts of the plant are poisonous, containing compounds that decompose to produce hydrogen cyanide, and could be fatal if ingested. The plant is placed in Toxicity Category 4, the category "generally considered non-toxic to humans", but the berries are considered toxic to cats and grazing animals. Excessive consumption of the berries will kill birds such as cedar waxwings, because they are subject to cyanide toxicosis, resulting in death to multiple individuals at one time.  The berries also contain alkaloids such as nantenine, which is used in scientific research as an antidote to MDMA (ecstasy).

Status as an invasive species.

"Nandina" is considered invasive in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. It was placed on the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council's invasive list as a Category I species, the highest listing. It has been observed in the wild in Florida in Gadsden, Leon, Jackson, Alachua and Citrus counties, in conservation areas, woodlands and floodplains. In general, the purchase or continued cultivation of non-sterile varieties in the southeastern United States is discouraged.  "Nandina" is also becoming invasive in wild areas farther north, and in May 2017 was added to the Maryland invasive plant list with a tier 2 status.  Although grown extensively in Texas because of its tolerance for dry conditions, fruiting varieties of "Nandina" are considered invasive there. This is primarily due to birds spreading seeds into natural areas where "Nandina" proliferates and crowds out native species, both through seeding and by the growth of rhizomatous underground stems.

Nandina domestica ( ) commonly known as nandina, heavenly bamboo or sacred bamboo, is a species of flowering plant in the family Berberidaceae, native to eastern Asia from the Himalayas to Japan. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Nandina. It is widely grown in gardens as an ornamental plant since it has a number of cultivars that display bright-red fall foliage in the cool months with attractive new foliage growth in spring.


Early life.

Margaret Lamb Bodine was born in Gambier, Ohio, the daughter of Rev. William Budd Bodine (1841-1907) and Rachel Alice Allen Bodine (1840-1921). Her father was the president of Kenyon College from 1876 to 1891. Judge Joseph Lamb Bodine was her first cousin; their fathers were brothers. She graduated from Harcourt Place Seminary in Gambier in 1891.

Career.

In 1905, Bodine was a founder and first president of the Lantern and Lens Gild, a club for women photographers, which grew out of Mathilde Weil's photography classes for women at Drexel University. Bodine and Nina Fisher Lewis shared first prize for a botanical photograph, second prize for an interior photograph, and second prize for a portrait, at the guild's first annual exhibition in 1913.  Bodine photographed plants and animals, especially hummingbirds, finches, and flying squirrels, during summers in Northeast Harbor, Maine, and made documentary films about them. She wrote in detail about the equipment she used and the challenges she faced in this work. "I know of no branch of picture-taking more interesting than this special kind," she said of her work, adding that "there is infinite variety in it, sufficient difficulties to make it absorbing, and a very large proportion of rewarding results."  Bodine was a member of the Amateur Motion Picture Club of America of Philadelphia. Films by Bodine included "Humming-birds" (1931), "Ruby-Throated Humming-bird" (1931). Bodine wrote articles about her work, including "Adventures in Taming Wild Birds at Birdbank" (1923), and "Holiday with Humming Birds" (1928) for "National Geographic" magazine. The latter article described rigging bottles of sweet liquid disguised as flowers to attract hummingbirds, and inspired the creation of blown-glass hummingbird feeders by Laurence and May Rogers Webster, soon after.  Bodine spoke to the Woman's City Club in 1925, the national conference of the National Audubon Society in 1930, and to a meeting of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia in 1939.

Personal life.

Margaret L. Bodine and Nina Fisher Lewis worked and lived together for over 40 years, until Lewis's death in 1948. Bodine received a life income from Lewis's estate, "in partial appreciation of her long friendship, devotion, and companionship." She died in 1960, aged 84 years, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

Margaret L. Bodine (July 27, 1876 — November 24, 1960) was an American naturalist, photographer and filmmaker, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was founder of the Lantern and Lens Gild, a women's photography club in Philadelphia.


History.

Originally only vacant abbeys, or such as were temporarily without an actual superior, were given in commendam, in the latter case only until an actual superior was elected or appointed. Pope Gregory the Great (590–604) on various occasions gave vacant abbeys "in commendam" to bishops who had been driven from their episcopal sees by invading barbarians or whose own churches were too poor to furnish them a decent livelihood.  The practice began to be seriously abused in the eighth century when the Anglo-Saxon and Frankish kings assumed the right to set commendatory abbots over monasteries that were occupied by religious communities. Often these commendatory abbots were laymen, vassals of the kings, or others who were authorized to draw the revenues and manage the temporal affairs of the monasteries in reward for military services. The practice was especially widespread during the reigns of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, Philip I of France, William the Conqueror, William Rufus, Henry I and Henry II of England. Such a system often proved disastrous for monastic discipline, as the commendatory “abbot” of the community was rarely a monk, nor was he often even present in the monastery.  Such a system divided the revenues of the monastery between the "mensa abbatialis" (the “abbot’s table”) and the "mensa conventualis" (the “monk’s table”) The commendatory abbot would take his portion, thereby reducing the resources of the monks. It was a common arrangement that the commendatory abbot would retain two thirds of the revenue for his own use and leave the remaining third for the support of the abbey. The commendatory bishop was bound to defray the expenses of the community, to keep the buildings in repair, to furnish the ornaments for divine service, and to give suitable alms. Nonetheless, many did not and buildings fell into disrepair and new members could even be turned away on account of a simple lack of funds.  After the eighth century various attempts were made by popes and councils to regulate the appointment of commendatory abbots. At the Concordat of Worms in 1122, when the Investiture Controversy was settled in favour of the church, the appointment of laymen as commendatory abbots was abolished. The practice again increased during the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) and especially during the Papal Schism (1378–1417), when the papal claimants gave numerous abbeys "in commendam" in order to increase the number of their adherents. Boniface VIII (1294–1303) decreed that a benefice with the cure of souls attached should be granted "in commendam" only in great necessity or when evident advantage would accrue to the Church, but never for more than six months. Clement V (1305–1314) revoked benefices which had been granted by him "in commendam" earlier. The Council of Trent determined that vacant monasteries should be bestowed only on pious and virtuous regulars, and that the motherhouse of an order, and the abbeys and priories founded immediately from it, should no longer be granted "in commendam". The succeeding bull "Superna" of Gregory XIII and the constitution "Pastoralis" of Innocent X greatly checked "in commendam" appointments but did not abolish them entirely. In spite of various efforts to reform such a system, it continued to plague the monastic orders throughout the centuries.  Especially in France, they continued to flourish to the detriment of the monasteries; for example Cluny Abbey. On the eve of the French Revolution of 1789, of the two-hundred-thirty-seven Cistercian institutions in France, only thirty-five were governed by regular Cistercian abbots.  Finally the French Revolution and the general secularization of monasteries in the beginning of the eighteenth century reduced the significance of commendatory abbots along with the significance of monasteries in general. Since that time commendatory abbots have become very rare, and the former abuses have been abolished by careful regulations. There are still a few commendatory abbots among the cardinals; Pope Pius X himself was Commendatory Abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Subiaco near Rome.

Authority.

If the monastery is occupied by a religious community where there is a separate "mensa abbatialis", i.e. where the abbot and the convent have each a separate income, the commendatory abbot, who must then be an ecclesiastic, has jurisdiction "in foro externo" over the members of the community and enjoys all the rights and privileges of an actual abbot.  Under the title of Claustral Prior a regular superior was appointed to supervise the internal discipline of the house. If there is no separate "mensa abbatialis", the power of the commendatory abbot extends only over the temporal affairs of the monastery. In case of vacant monasteries the commendatory abbot generally has all the rights and privileges of an actual abbot.

A commendatory abbot () is an ecclesiastic, or sometimes a layman, who holds an abbey "in commendam", drawing its revenues but not exercising any authority over its inner monastic discipline. If a commendatory abbot is an ecclesiastic, however, he may have limited jurisdiction.


Cuisine.

Main staples.

As in many other Latin American countries, corn is a staple. It is used in many of the widely consumed dishes, such as nacatamal, and indio viejo. Corn is not only used in food; it is also an ingredient for drinks such as pinolillo and chicha as well as in sweets and desserts. Other staples are rice and beans. Rice is eaten when corn is not, and beans are consumed as a cheap protein by the majority of Nicaraguans. It is common for rice and beans to be eaten as a breakfast dish. There are many meals including these two staples; one popular dish, gallo pinto, is often served as lunch, sometimes with eggs. Nicaraguans do not limit their diet solely to corn, rice, and beans. Many Nicaraguans have small gardens of their own full of vegetables. From time to time, flowers are incorporated into their meals.  Commonly used ingredients (including fruits and vegetables) are peanuts, cabbage (shredded in vinegar, this is called "ensalada" and used as a side dish. Sometimes carrots and beets are added.) carrots, beets, butternut squash, plantains, bananas, fresh ginger, onion, potato, peppers, jocote, grosella, mimbro, mango, papaya, tamarind, pipian, apples, avocado, yuca, and quequisque. Herbs such as culantro, oregano, and achiote are also used in cooking.

Typical Nicaraguan dishes.

Platos (Dishes)

Refrescos (drinks).

Nicaraguan cuisine makes use of fruits, some of which are only grown in that particular region due to their location. Many fruits are made into drinks, such as melon, papaya, guayaba, guanábana, coconut, pineapple, and pitahaya. Pinolillo is very popular among Nicaraguans, as many times they refer to themselves as "pinoleros", which means "pinolillo drinkers". Many drinks are also made from grains and seeds, mixed with milk, water, sugar and ice. Other drinks include:

Nicaraguan cuisine includes a mixture of indigenous Native American cuisine, Spanish cuisine, and Creole cuisine. Despite the blending and incorporation of pre-Columbian and Spanish-influenced cuisine, traditional cuisine differs on the Pacific coast from the Caribbean coast. While the Pacific coast's main staple revolves around beef, poultry, local fruits, and corn, the Caribbean coast's cuisine makes use of seafood and coconut.


Collections.

The museum's permanent collection includes work from artists from "Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Denmark Egypt, France, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kabardino Balkaria, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal. Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, UK, USA, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and the Former Republic of Yugoslavia."

Museum facilities.

The museum building renovation and expansion under architect Mohamed al-Asad received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2007.

70 Years of Contemporary Jordanian Art.

Under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, The Royal Society of Fine Arts (RSOFA) was organising Jordan’s Largest Art Exhibition and hosted an art exhibition titled “70 Years of Contemporary Jordanian Art”, on May 21, 2013. The event was showcasing over 200 works created by 195 Jordanian artists from different generations and includes paintings, sculpture, video art, photography, graphic arts, ceramics, and installations thus offering viewers a wide spectrum of creativity by Jordanian artists.  Boasting historical documentation of the Jordanian artistic heritage throughout the years, the collection on display manifests the efforts made by the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts to compile a comprehensive visual representation of Jordan’s rich visual art history. This exhibition is Jordan’s biggest to date, effectively reflecting the gallery’s role as a patron of the arts and as a reference source for those wishing to know more about Jordanian artists.  The works on display will also be featured in a catalog that documents biographical information about their creators. The book will also include a chronological history of the Jordanian art movement in its various phases while reflecting the role played by the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts as a promoter and patron of the arts. The exhibition was open to the public for a period of three months.

Touring Museum.

The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts launched the project of the Touring Museum, under the patronage of Princess Rajwa Bint Ali, President of the Royal Society of Fine Arts on Monday, May 18, 2009, in the occasion of International Museum Day.  This pioneering project aims to increase the cultural awareness in plastic and visual arts and to introduce the artistic movement in Jordan and in the Arab and developing world in different villages and provinces of the Kingdom.  The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts believes in the importance of spreading and introducing the artistic movement for those who live in remote areas of our beloved country.  It was first launched at Al Yazedieh secondary school for girls in the province of Salt on Monday 18 May 2009.  Many thanks for our sponsors the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation for their support for this project, Touring Museum for the year, 2009. And also many thanks for the Ministry of Education for its cooperation.  The Project includes an Exhibition for original artworks from the permanent collection of the Gallery, as well as Workshops and Lectures by artists and specialized academics.

The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts is a major contemporary art museum located in Amman, Jordan. The Official inauguration of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts (JNGFA) was held under the patronage of the late King Hussein and Queen Noor Al Hussein and was Established in by the Royal Society of Fine Arts, the museum's permanent collection "comprises over 2000 works including paintings, prints, sculptures, photographs, installations, weavings, and ceramics by more than 800 artists from 59 countries mainly in Asia and Africa."


Beverages.

Fruit juices, including coconut water, are often used for beverages. Switcha is a "lemonade" made with native limes. Goombay Punch is a commercially prepared, highly sweetened soft drink. It differs from the Goombay Smash, which is an alcoholic preparation. Triple B is a non-alcoholic malt drink made by the Bahamian Brewery.  Alcoholic beverages include rum, which is sometimes infused with coconut. Rum is also used in mixed drinks such as rum punch. Sky juice is a drink consisting of coconut water blended with condensed milk and gin. The Yellow Bird (cocktail), the Bahama Mama, the Goombay Smash, and Planter's Punch are popular local drinks. Nassau Royale is a Bahamian liqueur and is used to make the C. C. Rider. The Bahamian Brewery makes beers including: Sands, Bush Crack, High Rock (named for a geographic feature: High Rock) and Strong Back. Kalik is a Bahamian beer.

Soups.

Bahamians enjoy many soups popular throughout the Caribbean including conch chowder or stewed conch, stewed fish and split pea soup (made with ham). Peas are used in various soups, including a soup made with dumplings and salt beef. Souse is a soup usually made with chicken, lime, potatoes and pepper., if made with fish it is called boiled fish. These soup dishes are usually served with Johnny cake or grits.  Turtle soup was once a mainstay before turtles became endangered.

Seafood.

Seafood is a staple in the Bahamas. Conch, a large tropical mollusk (sea snail) with firm, white flesh, is the national dish of the Bahamas. Conch can be prepared in a number of ways: served raw with lime juice, raw vegetables and even fruit called conch salad. It can be steamed, stewed, deep-fried ("cracked conch" or conch fritters), used in soups (especially conch chowder), or served in salads. Other popular shellfish are crab (including the Florida stone crab), which is often served baked, or another dish called crab fat and dough. The clawless spiny lobster, also known as rock lobster and sometimes referred to as crayfish. Grouper is often served fried, sautéed, grilled or, more traditionally, boiled (called boiled fish) and offered with grits or Johnny cake. Bonefish, found in great numbers in Bahamian waters, is served baked.  Fish may be served escabeche style, in a mixture of lime juice or vinegar with seasoning. In escabeche the fish is cooked first, differentiating it from the similarly prepared ceviche. "Stewed fish" is a method of preparing fish with celery, onions, potatoes, tomatoes and spices.

Meat.

Popular meat dishes are made with chicken, pork, and goat (also referred to as mutton). Iguana is still hunted and eaten, especially in the outlying islands, although some species, such as the Northern Bahamian rock iguana, are endangered. A popular Bahamian dish which is known to locals as a fast and cheap dish is fire engine which is steamed corned beef and white rice.

Side dishes.

Bahamian cuisine shares many side dishes with the American South: grits, baked macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, potato salad, boiled vegetables, and johnnycake. Other more traditional Caribbean sides include pigeon peas, fried plantain, peas and rice and cassava bread. Salt pork is also served.

Seasonings.

Bahamian dishes are frequently seasoned with Old Sour sauce especially fish dishes.

Fruit.

Bahamian cuisine incorporates many tropical fruits. Guavas are used to make duff (dessert). Ice cream is popular, including fruit flavors such as soursop. Puddings are eaten, including a sapodilla pudding. Papaya (called pawpaw or melon tree) is the most famous Bahamian fruit and is used for desserts, chutneys, "Goombay" marmalade (made with papaya, pineapple, and green ginger), or simply eaten fresh at breakfast. Papaya is also used as a meat tenderizer, and in tropical drinks such as the Bahama Mama. Melons, pineapples, passion fruit, and mangoes are also grown.

Desserts.

Bahamians enjoy a variety of desserts, including tarts (coconut and pineapple), guava duff, bread pudding, rum cake and cornmeal pudding. Fruit cake is eaten during the Christmas holiday. Benny and peanut cake (which are not cakes at all) are also favorites among Bahamians.

Bahamian Cuisine is to the foods and beverages of The Bahamas. It includes seafood such as fish, shellfish, lobster, crab, and conch, as well as tropical fruits, rice, peas, pigeon peas, potatoes, and pork. Popular seasonings commonly used in dishes include chilies (hot pepper), lime, tomatoes, onions, garlic, allspice, cinnamon, rum, and coconut. Rum-based beverages are popular on the island. Since the Bahamas consist of a multitude of islands, notable culinary variations exist.


Background.

Numerous synods held in France in the sixth and seventh centuries passed decrees against this abuse of church property. The Merovingians had bestowed church lands on laymen, or at least allowed them their possession and use, though not ownership. The Merovingian kings were also in the habit of appointing abbots to monasteries which they had founded; moreover, many monasteries, though not founded by the king, placed themselves under royal patronage in order to share his protection, and so became possessions of the Crown.

History.

This custom of the Merovingian rulers was taken as a precedent by the French kings for rewarding laymen with abbeys, or giving them to bishops "in commendam". Charles Martel was the first to bestow outright extensive existing ecclesiastical property upon laymen, political friends and soldiers. St. Boniface and later Hincmar of Reims picture most dismally the consequent downfall of church discipline, and though Boniface tried to reform the Frankish Church, the bestowal of abbeys on secular abbots was not abolished.  Charlemagne also frequently gave church property, and sometimes abbeys, in feudal tenure. The abbey of Saint-Riquier (Centula) in Picardy had secular abbots from the time of Charlemagne, who had given it to his friend Angilbert, the poet and the lover of his daughter Bertha, and father of her two sons. After Angilbert's death in 814, the abbey was given to other laymen.  Louis the Pious aided St. Benedict of Aniane in his endeavours to reform the monastic life. In order to accomplish this it was necessary to restore the free election of abbots, and the appointment as well of blameless monks as heads of the monastic houses. Although Louis shared these principles, he continued to bestow abbeys on laymen, and his sons imitated him. Although not a cleric, Einhard was lay abbot of the monastery of St. Bavo in Ghent and at his own foundation at Michelstadt.  Various synods of the ninth century passed decrees against this custom; the Synod of Diedenhofen (October, 844) decreed in its third canon, that abbeys should no longer remain in the power of laymen, but that monks should be their abbots In like manner the Synods of Meaux and Paris (845-846) complained that the monasteries held by laymen had fallen into decay, and emphasized the king's duty in this respect. But abbeys continued to be bestowed upon laymen, especially in France and Lorraine, e.g. St. Evre near Toul, in the reign of Lothair I. Lothair II, however, restored it to ecclesiastical control in 858, but the same king gave Bonmoutier to a layman; and the Abbeys of St. Germain and St. Martin, in the Diocese of Toul, were also given to secular abbots. In the Diocese of Metz, the Abbey of Gorze was long in the hands of laymen, and under them fell into decay. Stavelot and Malmedy, in the Diocese of Liège, were in the eleventh century bestowed on a certain Count Raginarius, as also St. Maximin near Trier on a Count Adalhard, etc. In 888 a Synod of Mainz decreed (canon xxv) that the secular abbots should place able provosts and provisors over their monasteries.  In a synod held at Trosly, in the Diocese of Soissons, in 909, sharp complaints were made (ch. iii) about the lives of monks; many convents, it was said, were governed by laymen, whose wives and children, soldiers and dogs, were housed in the precincts of the religious. To better these conditions it was necessary, the synod declared, to restore the regular abbots and abbesses; at the same time ecclesiastical canons and royal capitularies declared laymen quite devoid of authority in church affairs.  Lay abbots existed in the tenth century, also in the eleventh. Crínán of Dunkeld (d. 1045) was the lay abbot of the monastery of Dunkeld. While the title of Hereditary Lay Abbot was a feudal position that was often exercised in name only, Crinán seems to have acted as Abbot in charge of the monastery in his time. He was thus a man of high position in both clerical and secular society.  Gosfred, Duke of Aquitaine, was Abbot of the monastery of St. Hilary at Poitiers, and as such he published the decrees issued (1078) at the Synod of Poitiers. It was only through the so-called investitures conflict that the Church was freed from secular domination; the reforms brought about by the papacy put an end to the bestowal of abbeys upon laymen.

Lay abbot ("abbatocomes", "abbas laicus", "abbas miles") is a name used to designate a layman on whom a king or someone in authority bestowed an abbey as a reward for services rendered; he had charge of the estate belonging to it, and was entitled to part of the income. The custom existed principally in the Frankish Empire from the eighth century until the ecclesiastical reforms of the eleventh.


Sartre's view.

The Sartrean claim is best understood in contrast to the scholastic thesis that "essence" precedes "existence", i.e. a typical claim for this traditional thesis would be a human is essentially selfish, or that they are a rational being.  To Sartre, "existence precedes essence" means that a personality is not built over a previously designed model or a precise purpose, because it is the human being who chooses to engage in such enterprise. While not denying the constraining conditions of human existence, he answers to Spinoza who affirmed that people are determined by what surrounds them. Therefore, to Sartre an oppressive situation is not intolerable in itself, but once regarded as such by those who feel oppressed the situation "becomes" intolerable. So by projecting my intentions onto my present condition, "It is I who freely transform it into action". When he said that "the world is a mirror of my freedom", he meant that the world obliged me to react, to overtake myself. It is this overtaking of a present constraining situation by a project to come that Sartre names transcendence. He added that "we are condemned to be free".  When it is said that people define themselves, it is often perceived as stating that they can "wish" to be something – anything, a bird, for instance – and then be it. According to Sartre's account, however, this would be a kind of bad faith. What is meant by the statement is that people are (1) defined only insofar as they act and (2) that they are responsible for their actions. To clarify, it can be said that a person who acts cruelly towards other people is, by that act, defined as a cruel person and in that same instance, they (as opposed to their genes, for instance) are defined as being responsible for being this cruel person. Of course, the more positive therapeutic aspect of this is also implied: You can choose to act in a different way, and to be a good person instead of a cruel person. Here it is also clear that since people can choose to be either cruel or good, they are, in fact, neither of these things "essentially".  To claim that existence precedes essence is to assert that there is no such predetermined essence to be found in humans, and that an individual's essence is defined by the individual through how that individual creates and lives his or her life. As Sartre puts it in his Existentialism is a Humanism: "man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards".  Existentialism tends to focus on the question of human existence and the conditions of this existence. What is meant by existence is the concrete life of each individual, and their concrete ways of being in the world. Even though this concrete individual existence must be the primary source of information in the study of people, certain conditions are commonly held to be "endemic" to human existence. These conditions are usually in some way related to the inherent meaninglessness or absurdity of the earth and its apparent contrast with our pre-reflexive lived lives which normally present themselves to us as meaningful. A central theme is that since the world "in-itself" is absurd, that is, not "fair", then a meaningful life can at any point suddenly lose all its meaning. The reasons why this happens are many, ranging from a tragedy that "tears a person's world apart", to the results of an honest inquiry into one's own existence. Such an encounter can make a person mentally unstable, and avoiding such instability by making people aware of their condition and ready to handle it is one of the central themes of existentialism. Albert Camus, for instance, famously claimed in "Le Mythe de Sisyphe" that "there is only one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide".  Aside from these "psychological" issues, it is also claimed that these encounters with the absurd are where we are most in touch with our condition as humans. Such an encounter cannot be without philosophical significance, and existentialist philosophers derive many metaphysical theories from these encounters. These are often related to the self, consciousness and freedom as well as the nature of meaning.

The proposition that existence precedes essence () is a central claim of existentialism, which reverses the traditional philosophical view that the essence (the nature) of a thing is more fundamental and immutable than its existence (the mere fact of its being). To existentialists, human beings—through their consciousness—create their own values and determine a meaning for their life because the human being does not possess any inherent identity or value. That identity or value must be created by the individual. By posing the acts that constitute them, they make their existence more significant.


Origin.

The term cargo cult as an idiom, originally referred to aboriginal religions that grew up in the South Pacific after World War II. The practices of these groups centered on building elaborate mock-ups of airplanes and military landing strips in the hope of summoning the god-like airplanes that had brought marvelous cargo during the war. Use of the term in computer programming probably derives from Richard Feynman's characterization of certain practices as "cargo cult science". In recent decades, anthropology has distanced itself from the term “cargo cult,” which is now seen as having been reductively applied to a lot of complicated and disparate social and religious movements that arose from the stress and trauma of colonialism, and sought to attain much more varied and amorphous goals—things like self-determination—than material cargo.

Cargo cult software engineering.

A related term in software engineering is "cargo cult software engineering", coined by Steve McConnell.  McConnell describes software development organizations that attempt to emulate more successful development houses, either by slavishly following a software development process without understanding the reasoning behind it, or by attempting to emulate a commitment-oriented development approach (in which software developers devote large amounts of time and energy toward seeing their projects succeed) by mandating the long hours and unpaid overtime, while in successful companies these might instead be consequences of high motivation instead of causes of success.  In both cases, McConnell contends that competence ultimately determines whether a project succeeds or fails, regardless of the development approach taken; furthermore, he claims that incompetent "impostor organizations" (which merely imitate the "form" of successful software development organizations) are in fact engaging in what he calls "cargo cult software engineering".

Cargo cult programming is a style of computer programming characterized by the ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose. Cargo cult programming is symptomatic of a programmer not understanding either a bug they were attempting to solve or the apparent solution (compare shotgun debugging, deep magic). The term "cargo cult programmer" may apply when an unskilled or novice computer programmer (or one inexperienced with the problem at hand) copies some program code from one place to another with little understanding of how it works or whether it is required.


Tombs.

The decoration of the tombs of non-royals is quite different from previous eras. These tombs do not feature any funerary or agricultural scenes, nor do they include the tomb occupant unless he or she is depicted with a member of the royal family. There is an absence of gods and goddesses, apart from the Aten, the sundisc. However, the Aten does not shine its rays on the tomb owner, only on members of the royal family. There is neither a mention of Osiris nor other funerary figures. There is also no mention of a journey through the underworld. Instead, excerpts from the Hymn to the Aten are generally present.

Sculpture.

Sculptures from the Amarna period are set apart from other periods of Egyptian art. One reason for this is the accentuation of certain features. For instance, the portrayals feature an elongation and narrowing of the neck and head, sloping of the forehead and nose, a prominent chin, large ears and lips, spindle-like arms and calves, and large thighs, stomachs and hips.  In a relief of Akhenaten, he is portrayed in an intimate setting with his primary wife, Nefertiti, and their children, the six princesses. His children appear to be fully grown, only shrunken to appear smaller than their parents, a routine stylistic feature of traditional Egyptian art. They also have elongated necks and bodies. An unfinished head of a princess from this time, in the "Tutankhamun, and the golden age of the pharaohs" exhibition, displays a very prominent elongation to the back of the head.  The unusual, elongated skull shape often used in portrayal of the royal family "may be a slightly exaggerated treatment of a hereditary trait of the Amarna royal family", according to the Brooklyn Museum, given that "the mummy of Tutankhamun, presumed to be related to Akhenaten, has a similarly shaped skull, although not so elongated as [in typical Amarna-style art]". However, it is possible that the style is purely ritualistic. The hands at the end of each ray extending from Aten in the relief are delivering the ankh, which symbolized "life" in the Egyptian culture, to Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and often also reach the portrayed princesses. The importance of the Sun God Aten is central to much of the Amarna period art, largely because Akhenaten's rule was marked by the monotheistic following of Aten.  In several sculptures of Akhenaten, if not most, he has wide hips and a visible paunch. His lips are thick, and his arms and legs are thin and lack muscular tone, unlike his counterparts of other eras in Egyptian artwork. Some scholars suggest that the presentation of the human body as imperfect during the Amarna period is in deference to Aten. Others think Akhenaten suffered from a genetic disorder, most likely the product of inbreeding, that caused him to look that way. Others interpret this unprecedented stylistic break from Egyptian tradition to be a reflection of the Amarna Royals' attempts to wrest political power from the traditional priesthood and bureaucratic authorities.  Much of the finest work, including the famous Nefertiti bust in Berlin, was found in the studio of the second and last Royal Court Sculptor Thutmose, and is now in Berlin and Cairo, with some in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.  The period saw the use of sunk relief, previously used for large external reliefs, extended to small carvings, and used for most monumental reliefs. Sunk relief appears best in strong sunlight. This was one innovation that had a lasting effect, as raised relief is rare in later periods.

Architecture.

Not many buildings from this period have survived the ravages of later kings, partially as they were constructed out of standard size blocks, known as talatat, which were very easy to remove and reuse. In recent decades, re-building work on later buildings has revealed large number of reused blocks from the period, with the original carved faces turned inwards, greatly increasing the amount of work known from the period.  Temples in Amarna did not follow the traditional Egyptian design. They were smaller, with sanctuaries open to the sun, containing large numbers of altars. They had no closing doors. See Great Temple of the Aten, Small Temple of the Aten and the Temple of Amenhotep IV.

Amarna art, or the Amarna style, is a style adopted in the Amarna Period during and just after the reign of Akhenaten (r. 1351–1334 BC) in the late Eighteenth Dynasty, during the New Kingdom. Whereas Ancient Egyptian art was famously slow to alter, the Amarna style was a significant and sudden break from its predecessor, which was restored after Akhenaten's death. It is characterized by a sense of movement and activity in images, with figures having raised heads, many figures overlapping and many scenes busy and crowded. The human body is portrayed differently; figures, always shown in profile on reliefs, are slender, swaying, with exaggerated extremities. In particular, depictions of Akhenaten give him distinctly feminine qualities such as large hips, prominent breasts, and a larger stomach and thighs. Other pieces, such as the most famous of all Amarna works, the Nefertiti Bust in Berlin, show much less pronounced features of the style.


Taxonomy.

The extremely halophilic, aerobic members of Archaea are classified within the family Halobacteriaceae, order Halobacteriales in Class III. Halobacteria of the phylum Euryarchaeota (International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes, Subcommittee on the taxonomy of Halobacteriaceae). As of May 2016, the family Halobacteriaceae comprises 213 species in 50 genera.  Classification of Gupta et al.  Halobacteriales "Haladaptatus", "Halalkalicoccus", "Haloarchaeobius", "Halarchaeum", Halobacterium, "Halocalculus", "Halorubellus", "Halorussus", ""Halosiccatus"", "Halovenus", "Natronoarchaeum", "Natronomonas", "Salarchaeum". "Halapricum", Haloarcula, "Halomicroarcula", "Halomicrobium", "Halorientalis", "Halorhabdus", "Halosimplex". Halococcus.  Haloferacales "Halabellus", Haloferax, "Halogeometricum", ("Halogranum"), "Halopelagius", "Haloplanus", "Haloquadratum", "Halosarcina".  "Halobaculum", ("Halogranum"), "Halohasta", "Halolamina", "Halonotius", "Halopenitus", Halorubrum, "Salinigranum".  Natrialbales "Halobiforma", "Halopiger", "Halostagnicola", "Haloterrigena", "Halovarius", "Halovivax", Natrialba, "Natribaculum", "Natronobacterium", "Natronococcus", "Natronolimnobius", "Natronorubrum", "Salinarchaeum".

Living environment.

Haloarchaea require salt concentrations in excess of 2 M (or about 10%) to grow, and optimal growth usually occurs at much higher concentrations, typically 20–25%. However, Haloarchaea can grow up to saturation (about 37% salts).  Haloarchaea are found mainly in hypersaline lakes and solar salterns. Their high densities in the water often lead to pink or red colourations of the water (the cells possessing high levels of carotenoid pigments, presumably for UV protection). Some of them live in underground rock salt deposits, including one from middle-late Eocene (38-41 million years ago). Some even older ones from more than 250 million years ago have been reported.

Adaptations to environment.

Haloarchaea can grow at an a close to 0.75, yet a water activity (a) lower than 0.90 is inhibitory to most microbes. The number of solutes causes osmotic stress on microbes, which can cause cell lysis, unfolding of proteins and inactivation of enzymes when there is a large enough imbalance. Haloarchaea combat this by retaining compatible solutes such as potassium chloride (KCl) in their intracellular space to allow them to balance osmotic pressure. Retaining these salts is referred to as the “salt-in” method where the cell accumulates a high internal concentration of potassium. Because of the elevated potassium levels, haloarchaea have specialized proteins that have a highly negative surface charge to tolerate high potassium concentrations.  Haloarchaea have adapted to use glycerol as a carbon and energy source in catabolic processes, which is often present in high salt environments due to Dunaliella species that produce glycerol in large quantities.

Phototrophy.

Bacteriorhodopsin is used to absorb light, which provides energy to transport protons (H) across the cellular membrane. The concentration gradient generated from this process can then be used to synthesize ATP. Many haloarchaea also possess related pigments, including halorhodopsin, which pumps chloride ions in the cell in response to photons, creating a voltage gradient and assisting in the production of energy from light. The process is unrelated to other forms of photosynthesis involving electron transport, however, and haloarchaea are incapable of fixing carbon from carbon dioxide. Early evolution of retinal proteins has been proposed as the purple Earth hypothesis.

Cellular shapes.

Haloarchaea are often considered pleomorphic, or able to take on a range of shapes—even within a single species. This makes identification by microscopic means difficult, and it is now more common to use gene sequencing techniques for identification instead.  One of the more unusually shaped Haloarchaea is the "Square Haloarchaeon of Walsby". It was classified in 2004 using a very low nutrition solution to allow growth along with a high salt concentration, square in shape and extremely thin (like a postage stamp). This shape is probably only permitted by the high osmolarity of the water, permitting cell shapes that would be difficult, if not impossible, under other conditions.

As exophiles.

Haloarchaea have been proposed as a kind of life that could live on Mars; since the Martian atmosphere has a pressure below the triple point of water, freshwater species would have no habitat on the Martian surface. The presence of high salt concentrations in water lowers its freezing point, in theory allowing for halophiles to exist in saltwater on Mars.

Haloarchaea (halophilic archaea, halophilic archaebacteria, halobacteria) are a class of the Euryarchaeota, found in water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. Halobacteria are now recognized as archaea, rather than bacteria and are one of the largest groups. The name 'halobacteria' was assigned to this group of organisms before the existence of the domain Archaea was realized, and while valid according to taxonomic rules should be updated. Halophilic archaea are generally referred to as haloarchaea to distinguish them from halophilic bacteria.


Primary units.

In 1928, Ralph Hartley observed a fundamental storage principle, which was further formalized by Claude Shannon in 1945: the information that can be stored in a system is proportional to the logarithm of "N" possible states of that system, denoted. Changing the base of the logarithm from "b" to a different number "c" has the effect of multiplying the value of the logarithm by a fixed constant, namely. Therefore, the choice of the base "b" determines the unit used to measure information. In particular, if "b" is a positive integer, then the unit is the amount of information that can be stored in a system with "N" possible states.  When "b" is 2, the unit is the shannon, equal to the information content of one "bit" (a portmanteau of binary digit). A system with 8 possible states, for example, can store up to log8 = 3 bits of information. Other units that have been named include:  The trit, ban, and nat are rarely used to measure storage capacity; but the nat, in particular, is often used in information theory, because natural logarithms are mathematically more convenient than logarithms in other bases.

Units derived from bit.

Several conventional names are used for collections or groups of bits.

Byte.

Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a character of text in the computer, which depended on computer hardware architecture; but today it almost always means eight bits – that is, an octet. A byte can represent 256 (2) distinct values, such as non-negative integers from 0 to 255, or signed integers from −128 to 127. The IEEE 1541-2002 standard specifies "B" (upper case) as the symbol for byte (IEC 80000-13 uses "o" for octet in French, but also allows "B" in English, which is what is actually being used). Bytes, or multiples thereof, are almost always used to specify the sizes of computer files and the capacity of storage units. Most modern computers and peripheral devices are designed to manipulate data in whole bytes or groups of bytes, rather than individual bits.

Nibble.

A group of four bits, or half a byte, is sometimes called a nibble or nybble. This unit is most often used in the context of hexadecimal number representations, since a nibble has the same amount of information as one hexadecimal digit.

Crumb.

A pair of two bits or a quarter byte was called a crumb, often used in early 8-bit computing (see Atari 2600, ZX Spectrum). It is now largely defunct.

Word, block, and page.

Computers usually manipulate bits in groups of a fixed size, conventionally called "words". The number of bits in a word is usually defined by the size of the registers in the computer's CPU, or by the number of data bits that are fetched from its main memory in a single operation. In the IA-32 architecture more commonly known as x86-32, a word is 16 bits, but other past and current architectures use words with 4, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 42, 44, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 60, 64, 72, 80 bits or others.  Some machine instructions and computer number formats use two words (a "double word" or "dword"), or four words (a "quad word" or "quad").  Computer memory caches usually operate on "blocks" of memory that consist of several consecutive words. These units are customarily called "cache blocks", or, in CPU caches, "cache lines".  Virtual memory systems partition the computer's main storage into even larger units, traditionally called "pages".

Systematic multiples.

Terms for large quantities of bits can be formed using the standard range of SI prefixes for powers of 10, e.g., kilo = 10 = 1000 (as in kilobit or kbit), mega = 10 = (as in megabit or Mbit) and giga = 10 = (as in gigabit or Gbit). These prefixes are more often used for multiples of bytes, as in kilobyte (1 kB = 8000 bit), megabyte (1 MB = ), and gigabyte (1 GB = ).  However, for technical reasons, the capacities of computer memories and some storage units are often multiples of some large power of two, such as 2 = bytes. To avoid such unwieldy numbers, people have often repurposed the SI prefixes to mean the nearest power of two, e.g., using the prefix "kilo" for 2 = 1024, "mega" for 2 =, and "giga" for 2 =, and so on. For example, a random access memory chip with a capacity of 2 bytes would be referred to as a 256-megabyte chip. The table below illustrates these differences.  In the past, uppercase "K" has been used instead of lowercase "k" to indicate 1024 instead of 1000. However, this usage was never consistently applied.  On the other hand, for external storage systems (such as optical discs), the SI prefixes were commonly used with their decimal values (powers of 10). There have been many attempts to resolve the confusion by providing alternative notations for power-of-two multiples. In 1998 the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) issued a standard for this purpose, namely a series of binary prefixes that use 1024 instead of 1000 as the main radix:  The JEDEC memory standards however define uppercase K, M, and G for the binary powers 2, 2 and 2 to reflect common usage.

Obsolete and unusual units.

Several other units of information storage have been named:  Some of these names are jargon, obsolete, or used only in very restricted contexts.

In computing and telecommunications, a unit of information is the capacity of some standard data storage system or communication channel, used to measure the capacities of other systems and channels. In information theory, units of information are also used to measure the entropy of random variables and information contained in messages.


Oracles.

Oracles were individuals committed to and capable of practice.  Amongst others, there were oracles at Delphi and Dodona, although Greek divination had less of an institutional facet.

Tiresias.

Of all oracles of ancient Hellenic culture and society, a man named Tiresias was thought as the most vital and important.

Oracular deities.

Zeus.

Zeus was known as Zeus Moiragetes, which is to refer to the power of Zeus to know the fate of mortals. The newly-born Zeus himself learnt his fate by the night and, accordingly, by Phanes, while within a dark cave.  Herodotus stated the earliest oracle was the oracle of Zeus located at Dodona, although archaeological remains at Delphi date to earlier. There was an oracle at Dodona from the 5th century BCE, although the oracle of Zeus might have still have had a practice at the same locus earlier, prior to construction of the temple, a possibility which seems probable since the temple remains show an oak tree at the location.

Apollo.

Apollo, the most important oracular deity, is most closely associated with the supreme knowledge of future events which is the possession of Zeus. Apollo was known as Apollo Moiragetes, referring to Apollo as the god of fate. The oracle at Delphi gave oracles from Apollo.  Apollo in an oracular function is associated with both, purification and truth. Even though the prophecies given by him were ambiguous, he is said to have never uttered a lie.  Apollo's oracle at Delphi is the most famous and was the most important oracular site of ancient Greece.  According to Homer and Callimachus, Apollo was born with prophetic abilities and the power of reading the will of Zeus. However, a less popular belief is that he was instructed by Pan in divination as found within myth.

Apollo and Hermes.

Apollo transfers to Hermes a skill in cleromancy, upon the request of Hermes. Speaking within the hymn, Apollo expounds on the difficulty he experiences with his own divination, and then proceeds to provide the gift of divination to his brother Hermes, though a lesser skill, because the mantic dice are not under the control and influence of the will of Zeus. Hermes' skill at divination, though inferior to the skill of Apollo, is still of a divine nature.  The gift of Apollo is bee maidens with oracular abilities.

Hermes.

Hermes is associated with divination by lottery, otherwise known as cleromancy.  The triad of bee maidens are prophetic via Hermes.

Pan and the nymphs.

In Arcadia Pan was the principal oracular deity, instead of Apollo. Prophecy is associated with caves and grottoes within Greek divination, and the Nymphs and Pan were associated variously with caves. Panolepsy is a cause of inspirational states of mind, including abilities of a mantic nature.

Prometheus.

The god Prometheus gave the gift of divination to humanity.  Aeschylus wrote Prometheus Bound during the 5th century BCE in which Prometheus founded all the art of civilization including divination. This he did by stealing fire from the gods and gifting this fire to humankind. The 5th century BCE telling is a re-telling of a story told by Hesiod within the 8th century BCE

Methodologies.

Greek practice made use of various techniques for divination, which are classified as direct or indirect, spontaneous or artificial.

Classifications.

Direct.

In direct divination, a divinater might experience dreams, temporary madness, or "phrensy" (frenzy); all these things being states in which an "inspired" recognition of truth is attained. The divinator must take steps to produce a state of being and mind which allow for the experience of divination. Attested techniques include, sleeping in conditions whereby dreams might be more likely to occur, inhaling mephitic vapour, chewing leaves from the bay plant, and drinking of blood.

Indirect.

This is divination whereby a divinator observes natural conditions and phenomenon

Augury.

Augury, or divination by omens, is a practice which still survives to the modern era (circa 2013).

Cleromancy.

This is divination by throwing of lots, stones, or dice. Cleromancy was practiced at places including Dodona, and by "the Pythia" at Delphi.  Astragalomancy is a type of cleromancy performed by throwing the knuckle-bones of sheep or other ruminants (astragaloi) to be able to tell the future. As each face of the astragalos is assigned a numerical value, astragaloi can be rolled like dice and the resultant roll matched to a table of possible outcomes. A number of these tables were engraved on public monuments in southern Anatolia.

Extispicy.

Divination by way of the making of a sacrifice took the form of examination of entrails, by which is meant the bowels and viscera.

Enthusiastic.

Enthusiastic prophecy is when a god speaks through the mouth of a diviner.  Pan was able to dwell within people, which is known as panolepsy. A degree of possession of an individual by a nymph is known as nympholepsy.  Greek thinkers thought epileptic fitting and thus epilepsy had an origin with a divinity, and the means of making this association is thought through divination. This conclusion on the consciousnesses of ancient Greek thinkers is drawn by the fact of the sheer number of divine signs observed within society of the time, and the propensity of people to know a variety things as all having divine causes.

Hydromancy.

Hydromancy, or divination by water, is a Hellenic practice which still survives in the modern era (circa 2013).

Necromancy.

Necromancy is a divinatory practice of consulting the dead.

Pyromancy.

Pyromancy, divination by fire is a practice that has survived to the modern era (circa 2013).

Stikhomanteia.

Divination of this type utilizes writings, either by scraps of paper with writing upon them chosen from within a vessel, or by opening a book at random. The first of these two type was practiced by the Sibylline oracles.

Thriai.

This is divination by using pebbles. The Thriai were personification of this type of divination.

Ancient sources.

Democritus advocated divination. Herodotus provided a record of the prophetic productions resulting from Delphi. Dicaearchus dismissed any notion of the trueness of divination by any means other than dreams and frenzy. Aristophanes mentions an oracle in his comedy "Knights". Aristotle wrote On Divination in Sleep, written 350 BCE. Posidonius attempted to elaborate a theory of divination; he envisioned the sight of the future, as a cable might unwind, so insight into the future unfolds within the mind. Chrysippus claimed empirical evidence for the truthfulness of divination. Plutarch advocated the divination at the Oracle of Delphi; he considered enthusiastic prophecy to be possible when the soul of the Pythia becomes incorporated with Apollo in an inner vortex internal to the Pythia. Cicero wrote a book "On Divination". Xenophon recorded his own meeting with a diviner named Eucleides, in chapter 7 of his work "Anabasis".  Pythagoras was said to have practiced divination. Socrates both practiced and advocated divination. Xenophon was thought to be skilled at foretelling from sacrifices, and attributed much of his knowledge to Socrates in "The Cavalry Commander".

Greek divination is the divination practiced by ancient Greek culture as it is known from ancient Greek literature, supplemented by epigraphic and pictorial evidence. Divination is a traditional set of methods of consulting divinity to obtain prophecies (theopropia) about specific circumstances defined beforehand. As it is a form of compelling divinity to reveal its will by the application of method, it is, and has been since classical times, considered a type of magic. Cicero condemns it as superstition. It depends on a presumed "sympathy" (Greek sumpatheia) between the mantic event and the real circumstance, which he denies as contrary to the laws of nature. If there were any sympathy, and the diviner could discover it, then "men may approach very near to the power of gods."