Early life and education.

Erskine was born in New York City, New York, the son of Eliza Jane (née Hollingsworth) and James Morrison Erskine. and raised in Weehawken, New Jersey. He graduated from Columbia University, B.A., 1900, M.A. 1901 and Ph. D., 1903 and D. Litt. 1929, besides D. Litt. degree from Amherst in 1923.

Career.

Professor Erskine was English professor at Amherst College from 1903 to 1909, and subsequently taught at Columbia University from 1909 to 1937. In 1910, he led foundation of the Boar's Head Society for literature. In 1920, he instituted Columbia College's General Honors Course, a two-year undergraduate seminar that would later help inspire "Masterworks of Western Literature," now known commonly as "Literature Humanities," the second component of Columbia College's Core Curriculum. This course taught the classics in translation instead of the original Latin or Greek, a concept he elaborated in his noted essay "The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent". He found little support for the course from the senior faculty, and junior faculty members like Mark Van Doren and later after 1923, Mortimer Adler took up sections of the course. This course would later go on to inspire the Great Books movement, centered on the Great Books of the Western World. The course was discontinued in 1928, though later reconstituted. In 1929, Adler left Columbia to join University of Chicago, where he continued to work on the theme with Robert Hutchins, President of the University. Together they subsequently went on to found the Great Books of the Western World program and the Great Books Foundation.  Erskine co-wrote the 1900 Varsity Show at Columbia, writing the musical score for "The Governor's Vrouw" (1900), a two-act comic opera by Henry Sydnor Harrison and poet Melville Cane, who also wrote the lyrics. He won the Butler Medal in 1919. During his career Erskine published over 100 books, though as a writer he first received acclaim with his novel "The Private Life of Helen of Troy" (1925). This novel was made into a silent film by the same the name in 1927, directed by Alexander Korda. Other films based on his works included "A Lady Surrenders" (1930) by John M. Stahl, "Bachelor of Arts" (1934) by Louis King and "The President's Mystery" (1936) directed by Phil Rosen. The 1956 biopic of French noblewoman Diane de Poitiers entitled "Diane" was based on his story with a screenplay by Christopher Isherwood. He was also the author of numerous publications, including several humorous novels retelling myths and legends, besides essays, criticism, and two volumes of autobiography. These included "Penelope's Man" and "Adam and Eve, Though He Knew Better".  Erskine was also an accomplished composer, pianist and musician. He wrote several books of music and the libretto for George Antheil's opera "Helen Retires" (1931), which was based on "The Private Life of Helen of Troy". He was the first president of the Juilliard School of Music from 1928 to 1937. He was also director of the Metropolitan Opera Association, which runs the Metropolitan Opera, a noted opera company based in New York City.  Erskine is also credited with writing the subtitles for a number of films, including Sacha Guitry's "Le Roman d'un tricheur" (The Story of a Cheat) in 1938, Marcel Pagnol's "The Baker's Wife" in 1940 and Mario Camerini's "The Spirit and the Flesh", an adaptation of Alessandro Manzoni's classic novel "The Betrothed", in 1948.  To commemorate the seven hundredth anniversary of Roger Bacon, Erskine wrote "A Pageant of the Thirteenth Century," a biographical play which was produced at Columbia University and published as a book by Columbia University Press in 1914. The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds a collection of his papers. In 1946 he served as the first chairman of the American Writers Association.

Personal life.

He was married twice to Pauline Ives (m. 1910–1945) and Helen Worden Erskine (m. 1946–1951). With his wife Pauline (Ives), he was the grandfather of actress Lindsay Crouse and the great-grandfather of actress Zosia Mamet. He died on June 2, 1951 in New York at the age of 71. Erskine Place, a street in the New York City borough of The Bronx, was named after him.

John Erskine (October 5, 1879 – June 2, 1951) was an American educator and author, pianist and composer. He was an English professor at Amherst College from 1903 to 1909, followed by Columbia University from 1909 to 1937. During his tenure at Columbia University he formulated the General Honors Course—responsible for inspiring the influential Great Books movement. He published over 100 books, novels, criticism, and essays including his most important essay, "The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent" (1915).

John Erskine (5. října 1879 – 2. června 1951) byl americký pedagog a spisovatel. Narodil se v New Yorku, promoval na Columbia University (magistr umění 1901, Ph.D. 1903). Profesor Erskine byl zaměstnán na Columbia University, kde založil "Columbia College of Columbia University" (dvouletý pregraduální seminář), kde později vedl program „"Masterworks of Western Literature"“ (Mistrovská díla západní literatury), dnes známý spíše pod názvem „"Literature Humanities"“ (Literární humanitní vědy), který dnes tvoří druhou nejdůležitější složku osnov Columbia University.


Production, composition and uses.

Technical chlordane development was by chance by Julius Hyman in 1948, during a search for possible uses of a by-product of synthetic rubber manufacturing. By chlorinating this by-product, persistent and potent insecticides were easily and cheaply produced. The chlorine atoms, 7 in the case of heptachlor and 8 in chlordane, and 9 in the case of nonachlor, surround and stabilize the cyclodiene ring and thus these compounds are referred to as cyclodienes. Other members of the cyclodiene family of organochlorine insecticides are aldrin and its epoxide, dieldrin, as well as endrin, which is a stereoisomer of dieldrin. Cyclodiene derives its name from hexachlorocyclopentadiene, a precursor in its production.  Hexachlorocyclopentadiene forms a Diels-Alder adduct with cyclopentadiene to give chlordene intermediate [3734-48-3]; chlorination of this adduct gives predominantly two chlordane isomers, α and β, in addition to other products such as "trans"-nonachlor and heptachlor. The β-isomer is popularly known as gamma and is more bioactive. The mixture that is composed of 147 components is called technical chlordane.  Chlordane appears as a white or off-white crystals when synthesized, but it was more commonly sold in various formulations as oil solutions, emulsions, sprays, dusts, and powders. These products were sold in the United States from 1948 to 1988. Because of concern for harm to human health and to the environment, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned all uses of chlordane in 1983, except termite control in wooden structures (e.g. houses). After many reports of chlordane in the indoor air of treated homes, EPA banned the remaining use of chlordane in 1988. The EPA recommends that children should not drink water with more than 60 parts of chlordane per billion parts of drinking water (60 ppb) for longer than 1 day. EPA has set a limit in drinking water of 2 ppb.  Chlordane is very persistent in the environment because it does not break down easily. Tests of the air in the residence of U.S. government housing, 32 years after chlordane treatment, showed levels of chlordane and heptachlor 10-15 times the Minimal Risk Levels (20 nanograms/cubic meter of air) published by the Centers for Disease Control. It has an environmental half-life of 10 to 20 years.

Origin, pathways of exposure, and processes of excretion.

In the years 1948–1988 chlordane was a common pesticide for corn and citrus crops, as well as a method of home termite control. Pathways of exposure to chlordane include ingestion of crops grown in chlordane-contaminated soil, inhalation of air in chlordane-treated homes and from landfills, and ingestion of high-fat foods such as meat, fish, and dairy, as chlordane builds up in fatty tissue. The United States Environmental Protection Agency reported that over 30 million homes were treated with technical chlordane or technical chlordane with heptachlor. Depending on the site of home treatment, the indoor air levels of chlordane can still exceed the Minimal Risks Levels (MRLs) for both cancer and chronic disease by orders of magnitude. Chlordane is excreted slowly through feces, urine elimination, and through breast milk in nursing mothers. It is able to cross the placenta and become absorbed by developing fetuses in pregnant women. A breakdown product of chlordane, the metabolite oxychlordane, accumulates in blood and adipose tissue with age.

Environmental impact.

Being hydrophobic, chlordane adheres to soil particles and enters groundwater only slowly, owing to its low solubility (0.009 ppm). It requires many years to degrade. Chlordane bioaccumulates in animals. It is highly toxic to fish, with an of 0.022–0.095 mg/kg (oral).  Oxychlordane (CHClO), the primary metabolite of chlordane, and heptachlor epoxide, the primary metabolite of heptachlor, along with the two other main components of the chlordane mixture, "cis"-nonachlor and "trans"-nonachlor, are the main bioaccumulating constituents. "trans"-Nonachlor is more toxic than technical chlordane and "cis"-nonachlor is less toxic.  Chlordane and heptachlor are known as persistent organic pollutants (POP), classified among the "dirty dozen" and banned by the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Health effects.

Exposure to chlordane/heptachlor and/or its metabolites (oxychlordane, heptachlor epoxide) are risk factors for type-2 diabetes, for lymphoma, for prostate cancer, for obesity, for testicular cancer, for breast cancer.  An epidemiological study conducted by the National Cancer Institute reported that higher levels of chlordane in dust on the floors of homes were associated with higher rates of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in occupants. Breathing chlordane in indoor air is the main route of exposure for these levels in human tissues. Currently, EPA has defined a concentration of 24 nanogram per cubic meter of air (ng/M) for chlordane compounds over a 20-year exposure period as the concentration that will increase the probability of cancer by 1 in 1,000,000 persons. This probability of developing cancer increases to 10 in 1,000,000 persons with an exposure of 100 ng/m and 100 in 1,000,000 with an exposure of 1000 ng/m.  The non-cancer health effects of chlordane compounds, which include diabetes, insulin resistance, migraines, respiratory infections, immune-system activation, anxiety, depression, blurry vision, confusion, intractable seizures as well as permanent neurological damage, probably affects more people than cancer. Trans-nonachlor and oxychlordane in serum of mothers during gestation has been linked with behaviors associated with autism in offspring at age 4-5. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has defined a concentration of chlordane compounds of 20 ng/m as the Minimal Risk Level (MRLs). ATSDR defines Minimal Risk Level as an estimate of daily human exposure to a dose of a chemical that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of adverse non-cancerous effects over a specific duration of exposure.

Remediation.

Chlordane was applied under the home/building during treatment for termites and the half-life can be up to 30 years. Chlordane has a low vapor pressure and volatilizes slowly into the air of home/building above. To remove chlordane from indoor air requires either ventilation (Heat Exchange Ventilation) or activated carbon filtration. Chemical remediation of chlordane in soils was attempted by the US Army Corps of Engineers by mixing chlordane with aqueous lime and persulfate. In a phytoremediation study, Kentucky bluegrass and Perennial ryegrass were found to be minimally affected by chlordane, and both were found to take it up into their roots and shoots. Mycoremediation of chlordane in soil have found that contamination levels were reduced. The fungus "Phanerochaete chrysosporium" has been found to reduce concentrations of chlordane by 21% in water in 30 days and in solids in 60 days.

Chlordane, or chlordan, is an organochlorine compound used as a pesticide. It is a white solid. In the United States, chlordane was used for termite-treatment of approximately 30 million homes until it was banned in 1988. Chlordane was banned 10 years earlier for food crops like corn and citrus, and on lawns and domestic gardens.

Chlordan (plným chemickým názvem 1,2,4,5,6,7,8,8-oktachlor-3a,4,7,7a-tetrahydro-4,7-methanoindan) je pesticid, který se používal zejména v zemědělství k ošetření obilí a citrusů a v domácnostech proti termitům.


Background.

The initiative came from Pavel Jozef Šafárik and Josip Jelačić, but was organized by Czech activists František Palacký,, Karel Havlíček Borovský, and František Ladislav Rieger.  The exact goal of the Congress was unclear even as it was beginning. In addition to lacking a goal, the conference planners also quarreled over the format and the agenda of the gathering. Perhaps this was an indication of how difficult the conference would be for the factions to come together.  Once underway, the conference met in three sections: Poles and Ukrainians (at that time Ruthenians); South Slavs; and Czecho-Slovaks. The Pole-Ukrainian section contained a combination of Ruthenes, Mazurians, Greater Poles, and Lithuanians. Of the total 340 delegates at the Congress, the greatest number came from the Czecho-Slovak section. 237 Czecho-Slovaks participated along with 42 South Slavs and 61 Pole-Ukrainian. German was the primary language used during discussions.  During the Congress, there was debate about the role of Austria in the lives of the Slavs. Dr. Josef Frič argued that the “primary goal is the preservation of Austria”, adding that the Congress “only differs on the means.” This point was disputed by Ľudovít Štúr who told the Congress, “our goal is self-preservation”. Such a disconnect was typical of the environment of this conference.  One important statement did come out of the conference around 10 June, when the "Manifesto to the Nations of Europe" was pronounced. The statement was a strongly worded proclamation that demanded an end to the oppression of the Slav people. The Slavs did not look for any type of revenge, but they wanted to “extend a brotherly hand to all neighbouring nations who are prepared to recognize and effectively champion with us the full equality of all nations, irrespective of their political power or size”. This was an important development because it indicated some sort of unity among all of the Slav people of Europe.  The Congress was cut short on 12 June because of the Prague Uprising of 1848 that erupted due to Austrian garrison in Prague opened fire on a peaceful demonstration. This later became known as the Whitsuntide events because of the timing during the Christian holiday of Pentecost. The delegates left in disgust and some were even arrested because of the revolutionary nature of the Congress which marked a period in the history of Austria as the Bach's absolutism (after the Interior Minister Baron Alexander von Bach). Among arrested was Mikhail Bakunin who became apprehended in Dresden in 1849 for his involvement in 1848 Prague events and deported to the Russian Empire.

Congress Commissions.

Polish-Ukrainian Commission.

The commission was created on the initiative of František Palacký and Mikhail Bakunin. It was headed by Leon Sapieha and discussed issues of the Polish-Ruthenian relations. Galician Ruthenians (native pronunciation Rusyns, modern Ukrainians) were represented by the political organizations Supreme Ruthenian Council and Ruthenian sobor.

The Prague Slavic Congress of 1848 (, ) took place in Prague between 2 June and 12 June 1848. It was the first occasion on which voices from nearly all Slav populations of Europe were heard in one place.

Slovanský sjezd v Praze probíhal ve dnech 2. až 12. června 1848. Snažil se sjednotit všechny Slovany žijící v rakouské monarchii.


Geography.

The source of the Lualaba River is on the Katanga Plateau, at an elevation of above sea level. The river flows northward to end near Kisangani, where the name Congo River officially begins.  From the Katanga Plateau it drops, with waterfalls and rapids marking the descent, to the Manika Plateau. As it descends through the upper Upemba Depression (Kamalondo Trough), in. Near Nzilo Falls it is dammed for hydroelectric power at the Nzilo Dam.  At Bukama in Haut-Lomami District the river becomes navigable for about through a series of marshy lakes in the lower Upemba Depression, including Lake Upemba and Lake Kisale.  Ankoro lies on the west bank of the Lualaba River, opposite its confluence with the Luvua River from the east. Some geographers call the combined river below this point the "Upper Congo".  Below Kongolo, the river becomes unnavigable as it enters the narrow gorge of Portes d'Enfer ("Gates of Hell"). Between Kasongo and Kibombo, the river is navigable for about, before rapids make it unnavigable again between Kibombo and Kindu ("Port-Empain"). From Kindu up to the Boyoma Falls at Ubundu, the stream is navigable again for more than 300 kilometres. The Boyoma Falls or Stanley Falls are made up of seven cataracts, over a stretch of of the river, between Ubundu and Kisangani. The river's end is marked after the seventh cataract, near Kisangani, where its name becomes the Congo River.  The Lualaba River serves as the northern and western boundary of Upemba National Park, protecting habitats on the Kibara Plateau in Katanga Province of the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tributaries.

The largest tributaries of the Lualaba River are:

Cities and towns.

Cities and towns along and near the Lualaba River include:

History.

The Lualaba River was once considered a possible source of the Nile, until Henry Morton Stanley journeyed down it and proved that it drained into the Atlantic Ocean. Stanley himself referred to it as the Livingstone. "Had not Livingstone spoken of the river at Nyangwe as the Lualaba, I should not have mentioned the word except as a corruption by the Waguha of the Wenya term Lu-al-ow-wa..."  French colonial governor Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza also explored the Lualaba.

The Lualaba River flows entirely within the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the greatest river source (headstream) of the Congo River by volume of water. The Lualaba is long. Its headwaters are in the country's far southeastern corner near Musofi and Lubumbashi in Katanga Province, next to Zambia. The Chambeshi River is the longest river source (headstream) of the Congo.

Lualaba je řeka v Demokratické republice Kongo. Je to horní tok řeky Kongo. Je největší zdrojnicí podle průtoku, nicméně podle délky toku je Chambeshi delší. Je 1800 km dlouhá.


History.

In 1109 Gummersbach was mentioned in official documents for the first time. The document in question concerned the lowering of the episcopal tax for the church in Gummersbach by Archbishop Frederick I. At that time the name of the town was spelled as "Gumeresbracht". Gummersbach received town privileges in 1857. In 1855 Gummersbach's industrial history began with the foundation of the company Steinmüller. With the company's success the little village began to grow to a town. After going out of business most of the company's area was unused. Due to the fact that by the time this area made up half of the downtown area the town of Gummersbach bought this area to develop it. Today (2016) a multifunctional arena, a shopping mall, university buildings and offices have already been built.

The coat of arms.

The arms were granted on July 27, 1892. Gummersbach developed rapidly from a small village to a large town during the early 19th century, due to the metal and textile industry. The right part of the arms thus show a spindle as a symbol for the textile industry. The left part shows the arms of the Counts of the Mark, as the area belonged to the Mark since 1287.

Communities, localities and villages.

Apfelbaum - Becke - Berghausen - Bernberg - Birnbaum - Börnchen - Bracht - Bredenbruch - Brink - Bruch - Brunohl - Berghausen - Deitenbach - Derschlag - Dieringhausen - Drieberhausen - Dümmlinghausen - Elbach - Erbland - Erlenhagen - Flaberg - Frömmersbach - Grünenthal - Gummeroth - Hardt - Hardt-Hanfgarten - Helberg - Herreshagen - Hesselbach - Höfen -Hömel - Hülsenbusch - Hunstig - Kalkuhl - Karlskamp - Koverstein - Lantenbach - Lieberhausen - Liefenroth - Lobscheid - Lützinghausen - Luttersiefen - Mühle - Neuenhaus - Neuenschmiede - Niedergelpe - Niedernhagen - Niederseßmar - Nochen - Oberrengse - Ohmig -Peisel - Piene - Rebbelroth - Recklinghausen - Reininghausen - Remmelsohl - Rodt - Rospe - Schneppsiefen - Schönenberg - Schusterburg - Sonnenberg - Steinenbrück - Straße - Strombach - Unnenberg - Veste - Vollmerhausen - Waldesruh - Wasserfuhr - Windhagen - Wörde - Würden

Twin towns.

Gummersbach is twinned with:

Sport.

The men's team VfL Gummersbach was one of the most successful handball teams of Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. It is still in the top league of the German handball competition: the Handball-Bundesliga.

Gummersbach is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, being the district seat of the Oberbergischer Kreis. It is located east of Cologne. The town is famous for its first league handball team VfL Gummersbach.

Gummersbach je německé město ve spolkové zemi Severní Porýní-Vestfálsko. Nachází se 50 km východně od Kolína nad Rýnem. V současnosti zde žije 52 467 obyvatel (2007). Zdejší házenkářský tým VfL Gummersbach byl v sedmdesátých letech jedním z nejlepších týmů v Evropě.


Geography.

Definition.

Under the most strict definition, the Yungui Plateau stretches from the Red River Fault in Yunnan in the southwest to the Wuling Mountains in Hunan in the northeast. This plateau region includes most of eastern Yunnan and most of Guizhou. It is common, however, for much of the rest of Yunnan and surrounding highland areas to be referred to as part of the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau even where there are no plateau-like characteristics.  Under the broader definition of the Yungui Plateau, the provinces would include not only Yunnan and Guizhou but also Gulin County and the southernmost extremes of Sichuan, eastern Chongqing, southwestern Hubei, western Hunan, and northwestern Guangxi.

Human geography.

Located in Southwest China, the Yungui Plateau separates the Sichuan Basin from South China. The area has long been considered a backwater region of China. Historically, the plateau has been home to many minority peoples who have traditionally engaged in intensive agriculture along hills and in valleys. Today, the Yungui region is one of the most economically depressed areas of China and both Guizhou and Yunnan provinces are in the bottom three in rankings for the Human Development Index in China. Many residents on the Yungui Plateau live in a traditional fashion in rural villages.  Major cities on the Yungui Plateau include Kunming, Guiyang, and Zunyi. The Yungui Plateau is home to many extreme engineering feats where railways and expressways have been built to traverse the challenging terrain. The world's highest bridge, the Beipanjiang Bridge, is located on the Yunnan-Guizhou border in the heart of the plateau.

Physical geography.

The Yungui Plateau is a large mountainous region with rugged terrain including steep karst peaks and deep gorges. The plateau is buttressed by the large Hengduan Mountains to the northwest and by lowland regions to the north, east, and southeast. Other major mountain ranges cross or surround portions of the Yungui Plateau. The Wumeng Mountains and Wulian Feng form a barrier through north-central Yungui along the Jinsha (Upper Yangtze) River. To the north, the Dalou Mountains run along the Yungui's edge with the Sichuan Basin. The Wuling Mountains in the northeast form a transitional terrain between the plateau and the Yangtze Plain. In the south, the Miao Range steps down to the karst hills of South China. Across the Red River to the southwest, the Ailao Mountains form a definitive barrier.  The high mountain peaks of Eastern Tibet are the source of many of Asia's great rivers, which flow southerly towards the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau. The rivers split around the plateau, with the Salween and Mekong keeping south and the Yangtze turning northeast. Most of the western Yungui Plateau is drained by the Nanpan and Beipan Rivers, both headwaters of the Pearl River. The eastern Yungui Plateau is largely drained by the Wu River, a tributary of the Yangtze.  Major lakes have formed in the Yunnan portions of the Yungui Plateau, including Dian Chi and Fuxian Lake. Erhai Lake is located on the plateau's western edge at the southern base of the Hengduan Mountains.

Climate and ecology.

The climate gradually transitions from drier in the southwest to rainier in the northeast. In east-central Yunnan, parts of the Yungui Plateau experience a semi-arid climate. In most of Guizhou, the climate is classified as humid subtropical. The Yungui Plateau is covered by subtropical evergreen forests for much of its Yunnan portions and by mixed broadleaf forests for the Guizhou portions.

The Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau or Yungui Plateau () is a highland region located in southwest China. The region is primarily spread over the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou. In the southwest, the Yungui is a true plateau with relatively flatter highland areas, while in the northeast, the Yungui is a generally mountainous area of rolling hills, gorges, and karst topography.

Jünnansko-kuejčouská vysočina (čínsky 云贵高原, pinyin "Yúnguì Gāoyuán," český přepis "Jün-kuej-kao-jüan)" je geomorfologická jednotka v jihovýchodní Číně. Patří do jižní podoblasti východočínské oblasti. Jak název napovídá, táhne se přes čínské provincie Jün-nan a Kuej-čou, částečně až do Chu-pej. Na severu je ohraničena Čchang-ťiangem, na východě Jihočínskou hornatinou, na jihovýchodě Tonkinským zálivem a na západě sinotibetskými horskými pásmy. Dosahuje výšek 1 500 – 2 000 m n. m., nejvyšší bod 3 505 m leží v pásmu Wu-liang-šan na západě.


Early life.

Fillon was born on 4 March 1954 in Le Mans, Sarthe, France. His father, Michel, is a civil law notary, while his mother, Anne Soulet Fillon, is a celebrated historian of Basque descent. His youngest brother, Dominique, is a pianist and jazz musician.  Fillon received a baccalauréat in 1972. He then studied at the University of Maine in Le Mans where he received a master's degree in public law in 1976. He subsequently received a master of Advanced Studies ("diplôme d'études approfondies") in public law from Paris Descartes University.

Political career.

Prime Minister.

The day after Nicolas Sarkozy became President he appointed Fillon as Prime Minister of France, charging him with the task of forming a new cabinet, which was announced on 18 May 2007. By appointing as Secretary of State André Santini, who had been indicted in the "Fondation Hamon" affair on charges of corruption, Fillon made the first break since 1992 with the so-called "Balladur jurisprudence", according to which an indicted governmental personality should resign until the case is closed. On 13 November 2010, Fillon resigned, paving the way for a cabinet reshuffle. One day later Sarkozy reappointed Fillon as Prime Minister, allowing Fillon to formally name a new cabinet.  Following the defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy to François Hollande in the 2012 presidential election, Fillon resigned on 10 May. Following the inauguration of Hollande as President on 15 May 2012, Jean-Marc Ayrault, Mayor of Nantes, was appointed to succeed Fillon as Prime Minister.

UMP presidential election.

Aiming at building consensus within the diverging views at the UMP after Francois Hollande's victory in the French presidential elections in 2012, Fillon declared his candidacy to become the President of the UMP party. On the day of the vote, both candidates (Fillon and Jean-François Copé) claimed victory and accused the other of cheating. This led to a major political crisis within the party with votes being recounted twice and Copé finally being declared winner.  Fillon threatened to split from UMP unless new elections were organised. In December 2012, Copé agreed to organising elections in 2013, thus putting an end to the crisis.

Presidential bid.

Fillon entered the 2016 Republican presidential primary, held on 20 November 2016, and seemed a likely third as late as a week before the vote. In early counting, Fillon emerged as the clear frontrunner, with Alain Juppé in second place. Third place Sarkozy conceded, bringing his support to Fillon, and Fillon and Juppé went into the run-off on 27 November 2016. Juppé conceded to Fillon, pledging his support for him as the Republican nominee in the 2017 presidential election.  As of November 2016, Fillon was seen as the frontrunner for the Presidency against the Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. However, a series of revelations of political scandals at the end of January shattered his presidential bid, being outed of the second round behind Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron in polls. Fillon's visits on the ground then attracted far-left protesters to destabilise his campaign. The news provocated consternation in Germany where Fillon was seen as a serious and trusted candidate.  On 23 April 2017, he secured 20.0% of the votes at the first round of the French presidential election, arriving third, and failing to enter the runoff.

Political positions.

Economy, budget and taxation.

Fillon has been described as economically liberal and fiscally conservative. For many observers, he is more liberal than his mentor Philippe Séguin. A few months after taking office as prime minister, he declared that he was "at the head of a state that is bankrupt financially, [...] which for 15 years has been in chronic deficit, [...] that has not voted a balanced budget for 25 years." He then committed publicly to "bring the state budget to balance by the end of the five-year", and reiterated this promise in 2012 and proposed a referendum on registration of the fiscal golden rule in the Constitution. In defending a policy of controlling the deficit, Fillon is in favour of abolishing the wealth tax, which he considers one of the causes of the debt of France. According to him, this tax discourages foreign entrepreneurs. This tax would be offset by the creation of a top slice of income tax to 50%, which would be included in the CSG.  As a presidential candidate, Fillon aims to reduce the public sector and cut 500,000 civil-service jobs. Fillon has been compared to Margaret Thatcher due to his ambition to reduce the size of the state. He says in 2016 that he wants the state healthcare program ("securité sociale") to work better with fewer payments.  Fillon is in favour of increasing the retirement age to 65. During the 2012 presidential election, he proposed that each job seeker should be offered vocational training and be forced to accept the employment offered to them after training.

Domestic policy.

Fillon' stances on domestic and social issues are mostly perceived as conservative. As member of the National Assembly, he voted against the equalisation of the age of consent for homosexual relations in 1982, against civil solidarity pacts in 1999, and against the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2013. However, he says he will not ban the same-sex marriage law if elected President. He opposes adoption by same-sex couples.  Fillon has stated that he is personally opposed to abortion but would not vote to ban it.  Fillon blamed the 2017 social unrest in French Guiana on President Hollande's policies, which he said had failed.

Foreign policy.

Fillon is an advocate of cracking down on Salafism and Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups and has stridently warned against the threat of "Islamic totalitarianism". He has called for dialogue with Syria under Bashar al-Assad and with the Russian Federation, under Vladimir Putin. Putin has been described as a friend of Fillon, although Fillon himself rejects that description.

Personal life.

Fillon lives with his wife, Penelope, and five children, Marie, Charles, Antoine, Édouard and Arnaud, in the 12th-century Manoir de Beaucé, set in 20 acres (8 ha) of woodland on the banks of the River Sarthe 4 km east of the monastery village of Solesmes, near Sablé-sur-Sarthe, and about halfway between Le Mans and Angers. They had lived in various other properties, always in the Sarthe, throughout their marriage, before buying Beaucé in 1993.  Fillon has a reputation as an Anglophile. His wife Penelope Kathryn Fillon, "née" Clarke, was born in Llanover in Wales, the daughter of a solicitor. They met while she was teaching English during her gap year in Le Mans, and they were married in the bride's family church in June 1980.  François Fillon has spoken at a wide variety of universities in Britain, notably King's College London and the London School of Economics. On 1 September 2017, Fillon became a partner at asset manager Tikehau Capital.  Fillon's younger brother, Pierre, an ophthalmic specialist (and now President of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest), later married Penelope Fillon's younger sister, Jane.

Fictitious employment allegations.

In January 2017, "Le Canard enchaîné" published an article in which Penelope Fillon was accused of alleged fictitious employment, as her husband's ""assistante parlementaire"" for a total salary of €500,000 over eight years on the one hand, and as a "literary adviser" of "Revue des deux Mondes" on the other, with a monthly salary of €5,000, amounting to a total of another €100,000. A preliminary hearing immediately opened. The public outcry around this so-called "Penelopegate" was such that doubts were voiced about François Fillon himself, who was the frontrunner for the 2017 presidential election, with an immediate sharp decline in the opinion polls.  On 31 January, new reporting by "Le Canard enchaîné" found that Penelope Fillon was actually paid €300,000 more than previously reported, for a total sum of €831,440 for 15 years of her parliamentary assistant work. It also reported that Fillon had paid two of his children €84,000 for little apparent actual work. On 6 February 2017 Fillon held a press conference. He said "It was a mistake and I apologize to the French [people]" but also said that the salary of his wife was "perfectly justified".  On 3 March 2017, the (Central office for the fight against corruption and financial and fiscal crime) executed a search at the Manoir de Beaucé where François and Penelope Fillon reside in the Sarthe department. This followed a search by the same agency on 2 March 2017 at the Fillons' Paris residence in the 7th arrondissement. On 6 March 2017, the inner circle of Fillon's party had a crisis meeting. Beforehand, Alain Juppé had definitively excluded becoming a replacement candidate. Fillon continues his candidacy, despite his promise (given on 26 January on TV) to withdraw from the race if subjected to criminal prosecution. On 23 March, Fillon said on national television that "Bienvenue Place Beauvau", a book co-authored by Didier Hassoux of "Le Canard enchaîné", suggested President François Hollande ran a shadow cabinet to spread rumours about his opponents. Hassoux denied this was the case.

2F Conseil affair.

In its edition of 22 March 2017, satirical weekly "Le Canard enchaîné" reported that Fillon introduced a Lebanese billionaire to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a business forum in St. Petersburg in 2015 as part of a $50,000 contract for Fillon's consulting firm 2F Conseil.

Le Mans race.

Having lived all his life in the Le Mans area and represented it politically, Fillon is an enthusiastic supporter of the city's famous 24-hour sportscar race, which he has attended nearly every year since he was a small child. He is a member of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, which stages the event, and is on the race's organisation committee. He has also competed in the Le Mans Legend historic sportscar races on the full 24-hour circuit and in a number of other classic road rallies. Fillon's younger brother Pierre currently serves as the President of the ACO, having been elected in 2013.

François Charles Armand Fillon (; born 4 March 1954) is a retired French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was the nominee of the Republicans (previously known as the Union for a Popular Movement), the country's largest centre-right political party, for the 2017 presidential election.

François Fillon (výslovnost ; * 4. března 1954 Le Mans) je francouzský právník a politik. V letech 2007–2012 postupně vedl tři francouzské vlády. V listopadu roku 2016 vyhrál obě kola primárek francouzské pravice a stal se tak kandidátem na francouzského prezidenta ve volbách v roce 2017, ovšem v prvním kole volby skončil s 20,01 % až třetí a tedy nepostoupil do druhého kola.


Geography.

The sea borders Italy as far as its border with France, and the French island of Corsica. In the east the sea borders the Tyrrhenian Sea, while in the west it borders the Mediterranean Sea proper. Genoa is the most prominent city in the area. The northwest coast is noted for its scenic beauty and favourable climate.  The Gulf of Genoa is its northernmost part. The sea receives the Arno River from the east and many other rivers that originate in the Apennines. The ports of Genoa, La Spezia, and Livorno are on its rocky coast. It reaches a maximum depth of more than northwest of Corsica.

Extent.

The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Ligurian Sea as follows:  "On the Southwest." A line joining Cape Corse (Cape Grosso, 9°23′E) the Northern point of Corsica to the frontier between France and Italy (7°31′E).  "On the Southeast." A line joining Cape Corse with Tinetto Island () and thence through Tino and Palmaria Islands to San Pietro Point () on the Coast of Italy.  "On the North" The Ligurian Coast of Italy.

Conservation.

In order to provide protection for the numerous cetacean (whales and dolphins; porpoises are not found in this part of the Mediterranean Sea) species in the Ligurian Sea the bordering countries established the sea as a SPAMI in 1999. The International Ligurian Sea Cetacean Sanctuary now covers covering territorial waters as well as high sea.

The Ligurian Sea (; ) is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, between the Italian Riviera (Liguria) and the island of Corsica. The sea is theorized to be named after the ancient Ligures people.

Ligurské moře (, ) je částí Středozemního moře. Nachází se v severní části mezi ligurským pobřežím Itálie, Korsikou, Elbou a východní částí Azurového pobřeží (francouzské riviéry). Zaujímá plochu přibližně 120 000 km2, jeho největší hloubka je 2 569 m. Mezi nejvýznamnější přístavy na pobřeží patří Janov, La Spezia a Livorno.


Types.

Museum collections are widely varied. There are collections of art, of scientific specimens, of historic objects, of living zoological specimens and much more. Because there are so many things to collect, most museums have a specific area of specialization. For example, a history museum may only collect objects relevant to a particular county or even a single person, or focus on a type of object such as automobiles or stamps. Art museums may focus on a period, such as modern art, or a region. Very large museums will often have many subcollections, each with its own criteria for collecting. A natural history museum, for example, will have mammals in a separate collection from insects.  Because museums cannot collect everything, each potential new addition must be carefully considered as to its appropriateness for a given museum's defined area of interest.

Accessioning.

Accessioning is the formal, legal process of accepting an object into a museum collection. Because accessioning an object carries an obligation to care for that object in perpetuity, it is a serious decision. While in the past many museums accepted objects with little deliberation, today most museums have accepted the need for formal accessioning procedures and practices. These are typically set out as part of a museum's Collections Management Policy or CMP.  While each museum has its own procedures for accessioning, in most cases it begins with either an offer from a donor to give an object to a museum, or a recommendation from a curator to acquire an object through purchase or trade.  Several issues must be considered in the decision to accept an object. Common issues include:  Answering these questions often required investigating an object's provenance, the history of an object from the time it was made.  Many museums will not accession objects that have been acquired illegally or where other parties have an interest in the object. In art museums, special care is given to objects that changed hands in European countries during World War II and archaeological objects unearthed after the 1970 UNESCO Convention covering the transport of cultural property. Other disciplines have different concerns. For example, anthropology museums will pay special attention to Native American objects that may be subject to repatriation, and paleontology museums may look carefully at whether proper permitting procedures were followed when they are offered fossil collections.  While in the past, museums often accepted objects with donor-based restrictions, many museums today ask that gifts be given unrestricted. Common donor restrictions include requiring that an object always be exhibited, or that a collection stays together. However, such restrictions can prevent museums from changing their exhibits as scholarship evolves and may introduce conservation issues for delicate objects not suited to continued display.  Final decision to accept an object generally lies with the museum's board of trustees. In large museums, a special committee may meet regularly to review potential acquisitions. Once the decision has been made to accept an object, it is formally accessioned through a Deed of Gift and entered into the museum's catalog records. Each object is given a unique catalog number to identify it. Objects are then packed for appropriate archival storage, or prepared for exhibition or other educational use.

Care.

Once accessioned into the collection, museum objects must be appropriately cared for. New objects may be examined by a conservator and treated for any pre-existing damage. The object is then cataloged by a curator or other specialist with knowledge of the object's importance and history. The object will then be given an appropriate storage location.  Museum storage conditions are meant to protect the object and to minimize any deterioration. This often means keeping objects in a stable climate, preventing exposure to pests, minimizing any handling, and using only archival materials that will not deteriorate or harm the objects. Object safety also include providing appropriate security, and planning for disasters and other threats, and making sure that museum staff are trained in proper handling procedures.  Different types of objects have different requirements, and many museums have specialized storage areas. For example, framed paintings may be stored in racks in one room while unframed paintings are kept in large drawers in another. Some objects have extremely specialized needs. For example, material from underwater archaeological sites may need to be kept wet, and some very rare and badly deteriorated objects require oxygen-free environments.  At any given time, museums display only a portion of their collections. This is often because exhibition requires much more space than storage, and is impractical for the entire collection to be out. Museums may also contain many duplicate or similar objects and find that a few specimens are better suited to display than others. In addition, certain objects, particularly works on paper and textiles, are damaged by light and must only be displayed for short periods of time.  Museum collections are often made up of a variety of materials in a single collection including, but not limited to: canvas, oil and/or acrylic paints, wood, ivory, paper, bone, leather, and textiles. The biggest conservation issue for museum collections is the fluctuations in relative humidity and temperature. Relative Humidity (RH) is a measure of the percentage of saturation of the air.  Temperature is not as important to the life of a work of art, but it is true that chemical reactions occur faster at higher temperatures. However, a museum must take into account the comfort of its staff and visitors and it has been widely accepted that 68 °F-75 °F does not cause a lot of problems for most artifacts and is comfortable for most humans.  It has also been internationally agreed upon that the RH should be set at 50%–55%. This has become widely accepted because the lower limit was set at 45% since damage to organic materials begin to occur below this point. The upper limit is placed at 65% because mold flourishes at 70% RH. It is also cheaper for most institutions to maintain 50% RH rather than 45% or 60%. There is some exception when it comes to tropical climates since the indigenous artifacts are acclimated to RH levels higher than the “museum norm”. Changes can be made to a museum’s RH to accommodate the changing seasons, but they must be made gradually. Humidity should change in 2% per month increments (an increase in 1 °F will affect a decrease of about 2% RH).

Deaccessioning.

Deaccessioning, the process of disposing, selling or trading objects from a museum collection, is not undertaken lightly in most museums. There are ethical issues to consider since many donors of objects typically expect the museum to care for them in perpetuity. Deaccessioning of an object in a collection may be appropriate if a museum has more than one example of that object and if the object is being transferred to another museum. It may also be appropriate if an object is badly deteriorated or threatening other objects.  The decision to deaccession includes two parts. These are making the decision to deaccession and deciding the method of disposal. Generally, first choice is to transfer an object to another use or division in a museum, such as deaccessioning a duplicate object from a permanent collection into a teaching collection. Second choice is to transfer the object to another institution, generally with local institutions having priority. The American Alliance of Museums and other regional associations often operate lists or boards to help facilitate such transfers. Last choice is sale on the open market. Open market sales are generally expected to take place at auction rather than through private sale, and are typically most common in art museums due to the high monetary value of art collections.  A controversial example occurred when the last remaining complete dodo mount in a museum collection at Oxford University was deaccessioned due to its deterioration in 1775. Another case was the sale of a J. M. W. Turner painting in the collection of Royal Holloway, University of London to the Getty Museum to fund the maintenance of the building, despite the fact that the original benefactor had expressly requested that the collection be kept intact.  Many ethical guidelines for deaccessioning require that the funds generated by disposing of collection items be used only to increase or maintain the remaining collection. For example, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Code of Ethics states that:  "Money or compensation received from the deaccessioning and disposal of objects and specimens from a museum collection should be used solely for the benefit of the collection and usually for acquisitions to that same collection".  In the United Kingdom, guidelines governing deaccessioning and other ethically difficult issues can be found in the Museums Association's "Code of Ethics". In the United States, the guidelines on these matters are issued by the American Alliance of Museums.  The American Alliance of Museums Code of Ethics takes the position that "in no event shall they [deaccessioning proceeds] be used for anything other than acquisition or direct care of collections".  Other museums may have additional restrictions on the use of funds from deaccessioning. For example, at some museums funds from deaccessioning a work of art can only be used to purchase a work of similar style or period (for example, funds from selling a 20th-century American print could not be used to buy a 17th-century Italian painting) and the name of the donor of the sold work remains associated with the purchased artwork.  Selling artwork to fund budget deficits and pay salaries is like "burning down your house to heat the kitchen."

A museum is distinguished by a collection of often unique objects that forms the core of its activities for exhibitions, education, research, etc. This differentiates it from an archive or library, where the contents may be more paper-based, replaceable and less exhibition oriented, or a private collection of art formed by an individual, family or institution that may grant no public access. A museum normally has a collecting policy for new acquisitions, so only objects in certain categories and of a certain quality are accepted into the collection. The process by which an object is formally included in the collection is called "accessioning" and each object is given a unique accession number. Museum collections, and archives in general, are normally catalogued in a collection catalogue, traditionally in a card index, but nowadays in a computerized database. Transferring collection catalogues onto computer-based media is a major undertaking for most museums. All new acquisitions are normally catalogued on a computer in modern museums, but there is typically a backlog of old catalogue entries to be computerized as time and funding allows.

Sbírkou muzejní povahy se označuje množina předmětů, která je ve své celistvosti významná pro prehistorii, historii, umění, literaturu, techniku nebo přírodní vědy. Tvoří ji soubor sbírkových předmětů shromážděných lidskou činností. Muzeální sbírka je soubor předmětů, které jsou vzájemně propojeny určitými vazbami a které nám pomáhají dokumentovat určitou skutečnost. Jde o soubor předmětů vyjmutých z reality a přenesených do nových uměle vytvořených prostor v muzeu.


Concept.

Prior to the popularity of IBM PC compatibles, most home computers of a given line had relatively little variance in their basic hardware, which made their capabilities practically identical. Therefore, the variations among demos created for one computer line were attributed to programming alone, rather than one computer having better hardware. This created a competitive environment in which demoscene groups would try to outperform each other in creating outstanding effects, and often to demonstrate why they felt one machine was better than another (for example Commodore 64 or Amiga versus Atari 8-bit family or Atari ST).  Demo writers went to great lengths to get every last bit of performance out of their target machine. Where games and application writers were concerned with the stability and functionality of their software, the demo writer was typically interested in how many CPU cycles a routine would consume and, more generally, how best to squeeze great activity onto the screen. Writers went so far as to exploit known hardware errors to produce effects that the manufacturer of the computer had not intended. The perception that the demo scene was going to extremes and charting new territory added to its draw.

Categories.

There are several categories demos are informally classified into, the most important being the division between freeform demos and size-restricted intros, a difference visible in the competitions of nearly any demo party. The most typical competition categories for intros are the 64K intro and the 4K intro, where the size of the executable file is restricted to 65536 and 4096 bytes, respectively. In other competitions the choice of platform is restricted; only 8-bit computers like the Atari 800 or Commodore 64, or the 16-bit Amiga or Atari ST. Such restrictions provide a challenge for coders, musicians and graphics artists, to make a device do more than was intended in its original design.

History.

The earliest computer programs that have some resemblance to demos and demo effects can be found among the so-called display hacks. Display hacks predate the demoscene by several decades, with the earliest examples dating back to the early 1950s.  Demos in the demoscene sense began as software crackers' "signatures", that is, crack screens and crack intros attached to software whose copy protection was removed. The first crack screens appeared on the Apple II in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and they were often nothing but plain text screens crediting the cracker or their group. Gradually, these static screens evolved into increasingly impressive-looking introductions containing animated effects and music. Eventually, many cracker groups started to release intro-like programs separately, without being attached to unlicensed software. These programs were initially known by various names, such as "letters" or "messages", but they later came to be known as "demos".  In 1980, Atari, Inc. began using a looping demo with visual effects and music to show off the features of the Atari 400/800 computers in stores. At the 1985 Consumer Electronics Show, Atari showed a demoscene-style demo for its latest 8-bit computers that alternated between a 3D walking robot and a flying spaceship, each with its own music, and animating larger objects than typically seen on those systems; the two sections were separated by the Atari logo. The program was released to the public. Also in 1985, a large, spinning, checkered ball—casting a translucent shadow—was the signature demo of what the hardware was capable of when Commodore's Amiga was announced.  Simple demo-like music collections were put together on the C64 in 1985 by Charles Deenen, inspired by crack intros, using music taken from games and adding some homemade color graphics. In the following year the movement now known as the demoscene was born. The Dutch groups 1001 Crew and The Judges, both Commodore 64-based, are often mentioned as the earliest demo groups. Whilst competing with each other in 1986, they both produced pure demos with original graphics and music involving more than just casual work, and used extensive hardware trickery. At the same time demos from others, such as Antony Crowther, had started circulating on Compunet in the United Kingdom. On the ZX Spectrum, Castor Cracking Group released their first demo called "Castor Intro" in 1986. The ZX Spectrum demo scene was slow to start, but it started to rise in the late 1980s, most noticeably in Eastern Europe.

Culture.

The demoscene is mainly a European phenomenon, and is predominantly male. It is a competition-oriented subculture, with groups and individual artists competing against each other in technical and artistic excellence. Those who achieve excellence are dubbed "elite", while those who do not follow the demoscene's implicit rules are called "lamers"; such rules emphasize creativity over "ripping" (or else licensing) the works of others, having good contacts within the scene, and showing effort rather than asking for help. Both this competitiveness and the sense of cooperation among demosceners have led to comparisons with the earlier hacker culture in academic computing. The demoscene is a closed subculture, which seeks and receives little mainstream public interest., the size of the scene was estimated at some 10,000.  In the early days, competition came in the form of setting records, like the number of "bobs" (blitter objects) on the screen per frame, or the number of DYCP (Different Y Character Position) scrollers on a C64. These days, there are organized competitions, or compos, held at demoparties, although there have been some online competitions as well. It has also been common for diskmags to have voting-based "charts" which provide ranking lists for the best coders, graphicians, musicians, demos and other things. However, the respect for charts has diminished since the 1990s.  Party-based competitions usually require the artist or a group member to be present at the event. The winners are selected by a public voting amongst the visitors and awarded at a prizegiving ceremony at the end of the party. Competitions at a typical demo event include a "demo compo", an "intro compo" (usually 4 kB and 64 kB), a "graphics compo" and a "music compo". Most parties also split some categories by platform, format or style.  There are no criteria or rules the voters should be bound by, and a visitor typically just votes for those entries that made the biggest impression on them. In the old demos, the impression was often attempted with programming techniques introducing new effects and breaking performance records in old effects; the emphasis has moved from technical excellence to more artistic values such as overall design, audiovisual impact and mood.  In recent years, an initiative to award demos in an alternative way arose by the name of the Scene.org Awards. The essential concept of the awards was to avoid the subjectivity of mass-voting at parties, and select a well-renowned jury to handle the task of selecting the given year's best productions on several aspects, such as Best Graphics or Best 64k Intro. This award was canceled in 2012.  In 2020, Finland added its demoscene to its national UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. It is the first digital subculture to be put on an intangible cultural heritage list.

Groups.

Demosceners typically organize in small, tightly-knit groups, centered around a "coder" (programmer), a "musician" and a "graphician" (graphics designer). Various other supporting roles exist and groups can grow to dozens of people, but most demos are actually created by a small number of people.  Groups always have names, and similarly the individual members pick a handle by which they will be addressed in the large community. While the practice of using handles rather than real names is a borrowing from the cracker/warez culture, where it serves to hide the identity of the cracker from law enforcement, in the demoscene (oriented toward legal activities) it mostly serves as a manner of self-expression. Group members tend to self-identify with the group, often extending their handle with their group's name, following the patterns ""Handle" of "Group"" or ""Handle"/"Group"".

Parties.

A demoparty is an event that gathers demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to partake in competitions called "Demoscene compos" of "demos" (short audio-visual presentations of computer art). A typical demoparty is a non-stop event spanning a weekend, providing the visitors a lot of time to socialize. The competing works, at least those in the most important competitions, are usually shown at night, using a video projector and loudspeakers. The most important competition is usually the demo compo.

Concept.

The visitors of a demoparty often bring their own computers to compete and show off their works. To this end, most parties provide a large hall with tables, electricity and usually a local area network connected to the Internet. In this respect, many demoparties resemble LAN parties, and many of the largest events also gather gamers and other computer enthusiasts in addition to demosceners. A major difference between a real demoparty and a LAN party is that demosceners typically spend more time socializing (often outside the actual party hall) than in front of their computers.  Large parties have often tried to come up with alternative terms to describe the concept to the general public. While the events have always been known as "demoparties", "copyparties" or just "parties" by the subculture itself, they are often referred to as "computer conferences", "computer fairs", "computer festivals", "computer art festivals", "youngsters' computer events" or even "geek gatherings" or "nerd festivals" by the mass media and the general public.  Demoscene events are most frequent in continental Europe, with around fifty parties every year—in comparison, the United States only has two or three each year. Most events are local, gathering demomakers mostly from a single country, while the largest international parties (such as Breakpoint and Assembly) attract visitors from all over the globe.  Most demoparties are relatively small in size, with the number of visitors varying from dozens to a few hundred. The largest events typically gather thousands of visitors, although most of them have little or no connection to the demoscene. In that aspect, the scene separates "pure" parties (which abandons non-scene related activities and promotion) from "crossover" parties.

History.

Demoparties started to appear in the 1980s in the form of copyparties, where software pirates and demomakers gathered to meet each other and share their software. Competitions did not become a major aspect of the events until the early 1990s.  Copyparties mainly pertained to the Amiga and C64 scene. As the PC compatibles started to take over the market, the difficulties in easily making nice demos and intros increased. Along with increased police crackdowns on copying of copyrighted software, the "underground" copyparties were gradually replaced by slightly higher-profile events that came to be known as demoparties. However, some of the "old-school" demosceners still prefer to use the word "copyparty" even for today's demoparties.  During the 1990s, the focus of the events shifted away from illegal activities into demomaking and competitions. The copying of copyrighted material was often explicitly prohibited by the organizers, and many events also forbade the consumption of alcohol. However, illegal copying and "boozing" still continued to take place, although in a less public form.  Three well-known and appreciated large-scale demoparties were established in the early 1990s: The Party in Denmark, Assembly in Finland and The Gathering in Norway. Taking place every year and gathering thousands of visitors, these parties used to be the leading demoscene events in this period. Assembly still retains this status today. The Gathering continues to be organized yearly as a generic "computer party", but most of the demosceners now prefer Revision in Germany, which takes place at the same time.  The emergence of high-profile demoparties gave rise to phenomena that were not always well welcomed by the scene. The events started to attract unaffiliated computer enthusiasts who were often generally referred to as "lamers" by the original attendants. A particularly visible group in the large gatherings since the mid-1990s have been the LAN gamers, who often have very little interest in the demoscene and mainly use the party facilities for playing multi-player computer games. However, many of today's demosceners received their first interest for demos and demomaking from a visit to a large demoparty.

Common properties.

Parties usually last from two to four days, most often from Friday to Sunday to ensure that sceners who work or study are also able to attend. Small parties (under 100 attendants) usually take place in cultural centers or schools, whereas larger parties (over 400–500 people) typically take place in sports halls or concert halls.  Entrance fees are usually between €10 and €40, given the size and location of the party. During the 90s it was common practice in many countries to allow females to enter the party for free (mostly due to the low concentration of female attendees, which is usually under 20%), albeit most parties still enforced an "only vote with ticket" rule, which means that an attendee who got in free was only able to vote with a paid ticket. This practice was largely abandoned in the 2010s.  Attendees are allowed to bring their desktop computer along, but this is by no means a necessity and is usually omitted by most sceners, especially those who travel long distance. Those who have computer-related jobs may even regard a demoparty as a well-deserved break from sitting in front of a computer. For those who do bring a computer, it is becoming increasingly common to bring a laptop or some sort of handheld device rather than a complete desktop PC.  Partygoers often bring various senseless gadgets to parties to make their desk space look unique; this can be anything from a disco ball or a plasma lamp to a large LED display panel complete with a scrolling message about how "elite" its owner is. Many visitors also bring large loudspeakers for playing music. This kind of activity is particularly common among new partygoers, while the more experienced attendees tend to prefer a more quiet and relaxed atmosphere.  Those who need housing during the party are often offered a separate "sleeping room", usually an isolated empty room with some sort of carpet or mats, where the attendees are able to sleep, separated from the noise. Most sceners prefer bringing sleeping bags for this, as well as air mattresses or sleeping pads. Parties that do not offer a sleeping room generally allow sceners to sleep under the tables.  Partyplaces often become decorated by visitors with flyers and banners. These all serve promotional reasons, in most cases to advertise a certain group, but sometimes to create promotion for a given demoscene product, such as a demo or a diskmag, possibly to be released later at the party.  A major portion of the events at a demoparty often takes place outdoors. Demosceners usually spend considerable time outside to have a beer and talk, or engage into some sort of open-air activity such as barbecuing or sport, such as hardware throwing or soccer. It is also a common tradition to gather around a bonfire during the night, usually after the compos.  In recent years, many parties were available for spectators through the Internet: This tradition was first started by the live team of demoscene.tv, who broadcast from the event live or created footage for a postmortem video-report. This has since been ostensibly replaced by the SceneSat radio crew, who provide live streaming radio shows from parties, and larger parties now offer their own dedicated streaming video solution.

List of demoparties.

This is an incomplete list, but shows major parties over the years. "(Note: Year ranges might include years when the party wasn't organized, but was organized both before and after.)"

Influence.

Although demos are still a more or less obscure form of art even in the traditionally active demoscene countries, the scene has influenced areas such as computer games industry and new media art.  A great deal of European game programmers, artists and musicians have come from the demoscene, often cultivating the learned techniques, practices and philosophies in their work. For example, the Finnish company Remedy Entertainment, known for the Max Payne series of games, was founded by the PC group Future Crew, and most of its employees are former or active Finnish demosceners. Sometimes demos even provide direct influence even to game developers that have no demoscene affiliation: for instance, Will Wright names demoscene as a major influence on the Maxis game Spore, which is largely based on procedural content generation. Similarly, at QuakeCon in 2011, John Carmack noted that he "thinks highly" of people who do 64k intros, as an example of artificial limitations encouraging creative programming. Jerry Holkins from Penny Arcade claimed to have an "abiding love" for the demoscene, and noted that it is "stuff worth knowing".  Certain forms of computer art have a strong affiliation with the demoscene. Tracker music, for example, originated in the Amiga games industry but was soon heavily dominated by demoscene musicians; producer Adam Fielding claims to have tracker/demoscene roots. Currently, there is a major tracking scene separate from the actual demoscene. A form of static computer graphics where demosceners have traditionally excelled is pixel art; see "artscene" for more information on the related subculture. Origins of creative coding tools like Shadertoy and Three.js can be directly traced back to the scene.  Over the years, desktop computer hardware capabilities have improved by orders of magnitude, and so for most programmers, tight hardware restrictions are no longer a common issue. Nevertheless, demosceners continue to study and experiment with creating impressive effects on limited hardware. Since handheld consoles and cellular phones have comparable processing power or capabilities to the desktop platforms of old (such as low resolution screens which require pixel-art, or very limited storage and memory for music replay), many demosceners have been able to apply their niche skills to develop games for these platforms, and earn a living doing so. One particular example is Angry Birds, whose lead designer Jaakko Iisalo was an active and well-known demoscener in the 90s.  Some attempts have been made to increase the familiarity of demos as an art form. For example, there have been demo shows, demo galleries and demoscene-related books, sometimes even TV programs introducing the subculture and its works.  The museum IT-ceum in Linköping, Sweden, has an exhibition about the demoscene.

Video games industry.

4players.de reported that "numerous" demo and intro programmers, artists, and musicians were employed in the games industry by 2007. Video game companies with demoscene members on staff included Digital Illusions, Starbreeze, Ascaron, 49Games, Remedy, Techland, Lionhead Studios, Bugbear, Digital Reality, Guerrilla Games and Akella.

The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audio-visual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual art, and musical skills. Demos and other demoscene productions are shared at festivals known as demoparties, voted on by those who attend, and released online.

Carla del Ponte (* 9. února 1947 Lugano, Švýcarsko) byla do konce roku 2007 hlavní žalobkyní Mezinárodního trestního tribunálu pro bývalou Jugoslávii (ICTY), v letech 2008 až 2011 byla švýcarskou velvyslankyní v Argentině.


Origin.

The term "discriminant" was coined in 1851 by the British mathematician James Joseph Sylvester.

Definition.

Let be a polynomial of degree (this means formula_4), such that the coefficients formula_5 belong to a field, or, more generally, to a commutative ring. The resultant of and its derivative formula_6 is a polynomial in formula_5 with integer coefficients, which is the determinant of the Sylvester matrix of and. The nonzero entries of the first column of the Sylvester matrix are formula_8 and formula_9 and the resultant is thus a multiple of formula_10 So, the discriminant, up to its sign, is defined as the quotient of the resultant of and by formula_11  Historically, this sign has been chosen such that, over the reals, the discriminant will be positive when all the roots of the polynomial are real. The division by formula_8 may be not well defined if the ring of the coefficients contains zero divisors. Such a problem may be avoided by replacing formula_8 by 1 in the first column of the Sylvester matrix "before" computing the determinant. "In any case, the discriminant is a polynomial in" formula_5 "with integer coefficients".

Expression in terms of the roots.

When the polynomial is defined over a field, the fundamental theorem of algebra implies that it has roots,, not necessarily all distinct, in an algebraically closed extension of the field (for a polynomial with real coefficients, this algebraically closed extension is generally chosen as the field of complex numbers).  In terms of the roots, the discriminant is equal to  It is thus the square of the Vandermonde polynomial times.  This expression of the discriminant is often taken as a definition. It makes clear that if the polynomial has a multiple root, then its discriminant is zero, and that if all the roots are real and simple, then the discriminant is positive.

Low degrees.

The discriminant of a linear polynomial (degree 1) is rarely considered. If needed, it is commonly defined to be equal to 1 (using the usual conventions for the empty product and considering that one of the two blocks of Sylvester matrix is empty). There is no common convention for the discriminant of a constant polynomial (degree 0).  For small degrees, the discriminant is rather simple (see below), but for higher degrees it becomes unwieldy. The discriminant of a general quartic has 16 terms, that of a quintic has 59 terms, and that of a sextic has 246 terms. This is OEIS sequence.

Degree 2.

The quadratic polynomial formula_17 has discriminant  The square root of the discriminant appears in the quadratic formula for the roots of the quadratic polynomial:  The discriminant is zero if and only if the two roots are equal. If are real numbers, the polynomial has two distinct real roots if the discriminant is positive, and two complex conjugate roots if it is negative. If are rational numbers, then the discriminant is the square of a rational number if and only if the two roots are rational numbers.

Degree 3.

The cubic polynomial formula_20 has discriminant  In particular, the polynomial formula_22 has discriminant  The discriminant is zero if and only if at least two roots are equal. If the coefficients are real numbers, and the discriminant is not zero, the discriminant is positive if the roots are three distinct real numbers, and negative if there is one real root and two complex conjugate roots. The square root of the product of the discriminant by (and possibly also by the square of a rational number) appears in the formulas for the roots of a cubic polynomial.  If the polynomial is irreducible and its coefficients are rational numbers (or belong to a number field), then the discriminant is a square of a rational number (or a number from the number field) if and only if the Galois group of the cubic equation is the cyclic group of order three.

Degree 4.

The quartic polynomial formula_24 has discriminant  The discriminant is zero if and only if two or more roots are equal. If the coefficients are real numbers and the discriminant is negative there are two real roots and two complex conjugate roots, likewise if the discriminant is positive the roots are either all real or all non-real.

Properties.

Zero discriminant.

The discriminant of a polynomial over a field is zero if and only if the polynomial has a multiple root in some field extension.  The discriminant of a polynomial over an integral domain is zero if and only if the polynomial and its derivative have a non-constant common divisor.  In characteristic 0, this is equivalent to saying that the polynomial is not square-free (that is, the polynomial is divisible by the square of a non-constant polynomial).  In nonzero characteristic, the discriminant is zero if and only if the polynomial is not square-free or it has an irreducible factor which is not separable (that is, the irreducible factor is a polynomial in formula_26).

Invariance under change of the variable.

The discriminant of a polynomial is, up to a scaling, invariant under any projective transformation of the variable. As a projective transformation may be decomposed into a product of translations, homotheties and inversions, this results of the following formulas for simpler transformations, where denotes a polynomial in the variable of degree, with formula_8 as leading coefficient.  This results of the expression in terms of the roots, or of the quasi-homogeneity of the discriminant.

Invariance under ring homomorphisms.

Let formula_34 be a homomorphism of commutative ring. Given a polynomial in, the homomorphism formula_36 acts on for producing the polynomial in.  The discriminant is invariant under formula_36 in the following sense. If formula_39 then As the discriminant is defined in terms of a determinant, this property results immediately from the similar property of determinants.  If formula_41 then formula_42 may be zero or not. One has, when formula_41  When, as it is generally the case in algebraic geometry, one is interested only to know if a discriminant is zero or not, these properties may be summarised into:  This is often interpreted by saying that formula_45 if and only if formula_49 has a multiple root, possibly at infinity.

Product of polynomials.

If is a product of polynomials in, then where formula_51 denotes the resultant with respect to the variable, and and are the respective degrees of and.  This property follows immediately by substituting the expression for the resultant, and the discriminant, in terms of the roots of the respective polynomials.

Homogeneity.

The discriminant is a homogeneous polynomial in the coefficients; it is also a homogeneous polynomial in the roots and thus quasi-homogeneous in the coefficients.  The discriminant of a polynomial of degree is homogeneous of degree in the coefficients. This can be seen two ways. In terms of the roots-and-leading-term formula, multiplying all the coefficients by does not change the roots, but multiplies the leading term by. In terms of its expression as a determinant of a matrix (the Sylvester matrix) divided by, the determinant is homogeneous of degree in the entries, and dividing by makes the degree.  The discriminant of a polynomial of degree is homogeneous of degree in the roots. This follows from the expression of the discriminant in terms of the roots, which is the product of a constant and formula_52 squared differences of roots.  The discriminant of a polynomial of degree is quasi-homogeneous of degree in the coefficient, if, for every, the coefficient of formula_53 is given the weight. It is also quasi-homogeneous of the same degree, if, for every, the coefficient of formula_53 is given the weight formula_55 This is a consequence of the general fact that every polynomial which is homogeneous and symmetric in the roots may be expressed as a quasi-homogeneous polynomial in the elementary symmetric functions of the roots.  Consider the polynomial It follows from what precedes that the exponents in every monomial appearing in the discriminant satisfy the two equations and and also the equation which is obtained by subtracting the second equation from the first one multiplied by.  This restricts the possible terms in the discriminant. For the general quadratic polynomial there are only two possibilities and two terms in the discriminant, while the general homogeneous polynomial of degree two in three variables has 6 terms. For the general cubic polynomial, there are five possibilities and five terms in the discriminant, while the general homogeneous polynomial of degree 4 in 5 variables has 70 terms  For higher degrees, there may be monomials which satisfy above equations and do not appear in the discriminant. The first example is for the quartic polynomial, in which case the monomial satisfies the equations without appearing in the discriminant.

Real roots.

In this section, all polynomials have real coefficients.  It has been seen in that the sign of the discriminant provides a full information on the nature of the roots for polynomials of degree 2 and 3. For higher degrees, the information provided by the discriminant is less complete, but still useful. More precisely, for a polynomial of degree, one has:

Homogeneous bivariate polynomial.

Let be a homogeneous polynomial of degree in two indeterminates.  Supposing, for the moment, that formula_61 and formula_8 are both nonzero, one has Denoting this quantity by formula_64 one has and  Because of these properties, the quantity formula_67 is called the "discriminant" or the "homogeneous discriminant" of.  If formula_61 and formula_8 may be zero, the polynomials and may have a degree smaller than. In this case, above formulas and definition remain valid, if the discriminants are computed as if all polynomials would have the degree. This means that the discriminants must be computed with formula_61 and formula_8 indeterminate, the substitution for them of their actual values being done "after" this computation. Equivalently, the formulas of must be used.

Use in algebraic geometry.

The typical use of discriminants in algebraic geometry is for studying algebraic curve and, more generally algebraic hypersurfaces. Let be such a curve or hypersurface; is defined as the zero set of a multivariate polynomial. This polynomial may be considered as a univariate polynomial in one of the indeterminates, with polynomials in the other indeterminates as coefficients. The discriminant with respect to the selected indeterminate defines a hypersurface in the space of the other indeterminates. The points of are exactly the projection of the points of (including the points at infinity), which either are singular or have a tangent hyperplane that is parallel to the axis of the selected indeterminate.  For example, let be a bivariate polynomial in and with real coefficients, such that is the implicit equation of a plane algebraic curve. Viewing as a univariate polynomial in with coefficients depending on, then the discriminant is a polynomial in whose roots are the -coordinates of the singular points, of the points with a tangent parallel to the -axis and of some of the asymptotes parallel to the -axis. In other words, the computation of the roots of the -discriminant and the -discriminant allows one to compute all of the remarkable points of the curve, except the inflection points.

Generalizations.

There are two classes of the concept of discriminant. The first class is the discriminant of an algebraic number field, which, in some cases including quadratic fields, is the discriminant of a polynomial defining the field.  Discriminants of the second class arise for problems depending on coefficients, when degenerate instances or singularities of the problem are characterized by the vanishing of a single polynomial in the coefficients. This is the case for the discriminant of a polynomial, which is zero when two roots collapse. Most of the cases, where such a generalized discriminant is defined, are instances of the following.  Let be a homogeneous polynomial in indeterminates over a field of characteristic 0, or of a prime characteristic that does not divides the degree of the polynomial. The polynomial defines a projective hypersurface, which has singular points if and only the partial derivatives of have a nontrivial common zero. This is the case if and only if the multivariate resultant of these partial derivatives is zero, and this resultant may be considered as the discriminant of. However, because of the integer coefficients resulting of the derivation, this multivariate resultant may be divisible by a power of, and it is better to take, as a discriminant, the primitive part of the resultant, computed with generic coefficients. The restriction on the characteristic is needed, as, otherwise, a common zero of the partial derivative is not necessarily a zero of the polynomial (see Euler's identity for homogeneous polynomials).  In the case of a homogeneous bivariate polynomial of degree, this general discriminant is formula_72 times the discriminant defined in. Several other classical types of discriminants, that are instances of the general definition are described in next sections.

Quadratic forms.

A quadratic form is a function over a vector space, which is defined over some basis by a homogeneous polynomial of degree 2:  or, in matrix form,  for the formula_75 symmetric matrix formula_76, the formula_77 row vector formula_78, and the formula_79 column vector formula_80. In characteristic different from 2, the discriminant or determinant of is the determinant of.  The Hessian determinant of is formula_81 times its discriminant. The multivariate resultant of the partial derivatives of is equal to its Hessian determinant. So, the discriminant of a quadratic form is a special case of the above general definition of a discriminant.  The discriminant of a quadratic form is invariant under linear changes of variables (that is a change of basis of the vector space on which the quadratic form is defined) in the following sense: a linear change of variables is defined by a nonsingular matrix, changes the matrix into formula_82 and thus multiplies the discriminant by the square of the determinant of. Thus the discriminant is well defined only up to the multiplication by a square. In other words, the discriminant of a quadratic form over a field is an element of, the quotient of the multiplicative monoid of by the subgroup of the nonzero squares (that is, two elements of are in the same equivalence class if one is the product of the other by a nonzero square). It follows that over the complex numbers, a discriminant is equivalent to 0 or 1. Over the real numbers, a discriminant is equivalent to −1, 0, or 1. Over the rational numbers, a discriminant is equivalent to a unique square-free integer.  By a theorem of Jacobi, a quadratic form over a field of characteristic different from 2 can be expressed, after a linear change of variables, in diagonal form as More precisely, a quadratic forms on may be expressed as a sum where the are independent linear forms and is the number of the variables (some of the may be zero). Equivalently, for any symmetric matrix, there is an elementary matrix such that formula_85 is a diagonal matrix. Then the discriminant is the product of the, which is well-defined as a class in.  Geometrically, the discriminant of a quadratic form in three variables is the equation of a quadratic projective curve. The discriminant is zero if and only if the curve is decomposed in lines (possibly over an algebraically closed extension of the field).  A quadratic form in four variable is the equation of a projective surface. The surface has a singular point if and only its discriminant is zero. In this case, either the surface may be decomposed in planes, or it has a unique singular point, and is a cone or a cylinder. Over the reals, if the discriminant is positive, then the surface either has no real point or has everywhere a negative Gaussian curvature. If the discriminant is negative, the surface has real points, and has a negative Gaussian curvature.

Conic sections.

A conic section is a plane curve defined by an implicit equation of the form where are real numbers.  Two quadratic forms, and thus two discriminants may be associated to a conic section.  The first quadratic form is Its discriminant is the determinant It is zero if the conic section degenerates into two lines, a double line or a single point.  The second discriminant, which is the only one that is considered in many elementary textbooks, is the discriminant of the homogeneous part of degree two of the equation. It is equal to  and determines the shape of the conic section. If this discriminant is negative, the curve either has no real points, or is an ellipse or a circle, or, if degenerated, is reduced to a single point. If the discriminant is zero, the curve is a parabola, or, if degenerated, a double line or two parallel lines. If the discriminant is positive, the curve is a hyperbola, or, if degenerated, a pair of intersecting lines.

Real quadric surfaces.

A real quadric surface in the Euclidean space of dimension three is a surface that may be defined as the zeros of a polynomial of degree two in three variables. As for the conic sections there are two discriminants that may be naturally defined. Both are useful for getting information on the nature of a quadric surface.  Let formula_90 be a polynomial of degree two in three variables that defines a real quadric surface. The first associated quadratic form, formula_91 depends on four variables, and is obtained by homogenizing ; that is Let us denote its discriminant byformula_93  The second quadratic form, formula_94 depends on three variables, and consists of the terms of degree two of ; that is Let us denote its discriminant byformula_96  If formula_97 and the surface has real points, it is either a hyperbolic paraboloid or a one-sheet hyperboloid. In both cases, this is a ruled surface that has a negative Gaussian curvature at every point.  If formula_98 the surface is either an ellipsoid or a two-sheet hyperboloid or an elliptic paraboloid. In all cases, it has a positive Gaussian curvature at every point.  If formula_99 the surface has a singular point, possibly at infinity. If there is only one singular point, the surface is a cylinder or a cone. If there are several singular points the surface consists of two planes, a double plane or a single line.  When formula_100 the sign of formula_101 if not 0, does not provide any useful information, as changing into does not change the surface, but changes the sign of formula_96 However, if formula_103 and formula_104 the surface is a paraboloid, which is elliptic of hyperbolic, depending on the sign of formula_93

In mathematics, the discriminant of a polynomial is a quantity that depends on the coefficients and determines various properties of the roots. The discriminant of a polynomial is generally defined in terms of a polynomial function of its coefficients. The discriminant is widely used in factoring polynomials, number theory, and algebraic geometry.

Diskriminant je polynom s reálnými nebo imaginárními koeficienty, který se používá při řešení polynomických rovnic, zvláště pak kvadratických rovnic. Diskriminant rozhoduje o kvalitě a počtu kořenů.


History.

In the late 1980s, HP was building four series of computers, all based on CISC CPUs. One line was the IBM PC compatible Intel i286-based Vectra Series, started in 1986. All others were non-Intel systems. One of them was the HP Series 300 of Motorola 68000-based workstations, another Series 200 line of technical workstations based on a custom silicon on sapphire (SOS) chip design, the SOS based 16-bit HP 3000 classic series, and finally the HP 9000 Series 500 minicomputers, based on their own (16 and 32-bit) FOCUS microprocessor.  Precision Architecture is the result of what was known inside Hewlett-Packard as the Spectrum program. HP planned to use Spectrum to move all of their non-PC compatible machines to a single RISC CPU family.  The first processors were introduced in 1986. It had thirty-two 32-bit integer registers and sixteen 64-bit floating-point registers. The number of floating-point registers was doubled in the 1.1 version to 32 once it became apparent that 16 were inadequate and restricted performance. The architects included Allen Baum, Hans Jeans, Michael J. Mahon, Ruby Bei-Loh Lee, Russel Kao, Steve Muchnick, Terrence C. Miller, David Fotland, and William S. Worley.  The first implementation was the TS1, a central processing unit built from discrete transistor–transistor logic (74F TTL) devices. Later implementations were multi-chip VLSI designs fabricated in NMOS processes (NS1 and NS2) and CMOS (CS1 and PCX). They were first used in a new series of HP 3000 machines in the late 1980s – the 930 and 950, commonly known at the time as Spectrum systems, the name given to them in the development labs. These machines ran MPE-XL. The HP 9000 machines were soon upgraded with the PA-RISC processor as well, running the HP-UX version of UNIX.  Other operating systems ported to the PA-RISC architecture include Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD and NeXTSTEP.  An interesting aspect of the PA-RISC line is that most of its generations have no Level 2 cache. Instead large Level 1 caches are used, formerly as separate chips connected by a bus, and now integrated on-chip. Only the PA-7100LC and PA-7300LC had L2 caches. Another innovation of the PA-RISC was the addition of vectorized instructions (SIMD) in the form of MAX, which were first introduced on the PA-7100LC.  Precision RISC Organization, an industry group led by HP, was founded in 1992, to promote the PA-RISC architecture. Members included Convex, Hitachi, Hughes Aircraft, Mitsubishi, NEC, OKI, Prime, Stratus, Yokogawa, Red Brick Software, and Allegro Consultants, Inc..  The ISA was extended in 1996 to 64 bits, with this revision named PA-RISC 2.0. PA-RISC 2.0 also added fused multiply–add instructions, which help certain floating-point intensive algorithms, and the MAX-2 SIMD extension, which provides instructions for accelerating multimedia applications. The first PA-RISC 2.0 implementation was the PA-8000, which was introduced in January 1996.

PA-RISC is an instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Hewlett-Packard. As the name implies, it is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture, where the PA stands for Precision Architecture. The design is also referred to as HP/PA for Hewlett Packard Precision Architecture.

PA-RISC je mikroprocesorová architektura vyvinutá společností Hewlett-Packard pro použití v serverech a integrovaných kancelářských systémech. Používá technologii RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing), PA v názvu označuje zkratku "Precision Architecture" („přesná architektura“). PA-RISC je také znám pod názvem "HP/PA" "(Hewlett Packard Precision Architecture).