Early life, education, and early political career.

Emmer was born in South Bend, Indiana; his family later moved to Edina, Minnesota. He attended St. Thomas Academy, an all-male, Catholic, military, college-preparatory high school in Mendota Heights, near Saint Paul.  Emmer attended Boston College and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, graduating in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. He played hockey for both schools. In 1988 Emmer received a Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Private sector career.

Emmer began his legal career representing cities and counties through the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust and the League of Minnesota Counties Insurance Trust, handling lawsuits against police officers. He also represented volunteer firefighters and city and county inspectors, and handled a variety of land use issues. He was licensed to practice law in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.  Emmer served on city councils in Independence, Minnesota, and then in Delano, Minnesota.

Minnesota House of Representatives.

Elections.

In 2004 incumbent Republican State Representative Dick Borrell of Minnesota's House District 19B decided to retire. District 19B includes portions of Wright and Hennepin Counties and the cities of Otsego, Albertville, St. Michael, Rockford, Delano, Montrose, and Waverly. Emmer, the Republican candidate, defeated Democrat Lori M. Schmidt, an attorney, 60%–40%, in the November 2004 general election.  In 2006 Emmer won reelection to a second term with 61% of the vote. In 2008 he was reelected to a third term with 61% of the vote. In 2010 he chose to run for governor of Minnesota rather than seek reelection.  During legislative sessions, Emmer regularly rode the bus to the Minnesota State Capitol.

Committee assignments.

Emmer served on the Finance Committee, the Health Care and Human Services Policy and Oversight Committee, and the State and Local Government Operations Reform, Technology and Elections Committee. He was also a member of the Finance Subcommittee for the Health Care and Human Services Finance Division, and of the Health Care and Human Services Policy and Oversight Subcommittee for the Licensing Division.

2010 gubernatorial election.

Primary.

Emmer officially announced his candidacy for governor of the State of Minnesota in July 2009. In January 2010, Emmer came in second to Marty Seifert in a non-binding straw poll of Republican Party caucus participants. In April 2010, Emmer announced that his running mate would be Metropolitan Council member Annette Meeks. Emmer received the endorsements of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Governor Tim Pawlenty, and Lieutenant Governor Carol Molnau. On April 30, 2010, the Republican Party of Minnesota officially endorsed Emmer as its candidate for governor at the state convention in Minneapolis. His main opponent, Marty Seifert, withdrew from the race and endorsed Emmer when it became apparent that Emmer was nearing the threshold for party endorsement. On August 10, 2010, Emmer won the Republican primary with 82% of the vote, a 75-point margin over Bob Carney.

Corporate sponsorship.

The race attracted national attention as the "first case in this election cycle of a company hit by national protests over a campaign donation". Minnesota-based Target Corporation donated $150,000 to Minnesota Forward, a new political action committee paying for advertising that supported Emmer's gubernatorial election. Emmer said he viewed Target's donation as an exercise in free speech and wanted to keep his campaign focused on economic issues. Best Buy also donated $100,000 to Minnesota Forward.

Results.

Emmer trailed his Democratic opponent Mark Dayton by 9,000 votes in the initial general election results, a margin small enough to trigger an automatic recount. Most analysts felt it was unlikely that the Emmer campaign could overcome such a deficit in a recount. After the recount made little difference in the results, Emmer conceded the election on December 8, 2010.

Post-2010 election activities.

Emmer was a registered lobbyist in Minnesota, and co-hosted a morning talk radio program with Bob Davis on KTLK in Minneapolis.  In early 2011, he ran for an open Minnesota seat on the Republican National Committee, but lost that election to Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson.  Emmer hosted a 2011 event promoting the launch of Representative Ron Paul's presidential campaign in Minnesota.

U.S. House of Representatives.

Elections.

2014 election.

Upon the surprise retirement of U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann, Emmer was considered a possible candidate for the Sixth Congressional District seat; his state house district included a large slice of the congressional district's western portion. On June 5, 2013, Emmer officially announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the seat. On February 4, 2014, Emmer received 67.9% of the vote in a 6th district straw poll. On April 12 he received the Republican Party endorsement for the nomination on the first ballot with 76%, but he still faced a primary challenge from his two competitors, Anoka County Board Chairwoman Rhonda Sivarajah and former state representative Phil Krinkie. Emmer was endorsed by the Tea Party Express, Young Americans for Liberty's Liberty Action Fund, and many Minnesota legislators. He won the primary with 73% of the vote, and easily prevailed in the November general election.

2016 election.

In 2016 Emmer defeated Democratic nominee David Snyder, 66% to 34%.

2018 election.

In 2018 Emmer defeated Democratic nominee Ian Todd, 61% to 39%.

Tenure.

According to the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, Emmer held a Bipartisan Index Score of -0.0 in the 116th United States Congress for 2019, which placed him 192nd out of 435 members. Based on FiveThirtyEight's congressional vote tracker at ABC News, Emmer voted with Donald Trump's stated public policy positions 91.5% of the time, which ranked him average in the 116th United States Congress when predictive scoring (district partisanship and voting record) is used.

Political positions.

Abortion.

Emmer identifies as pro-life from conception to birth.

BPA.

In 2009, Emmer voted against S.F. 247. This Minnesota law states that as of January 1, 2010, no manufacturer, retailer, or wholesaler may sell or offer for sale in Minnesota any children's product that contains Bisphenol-A, except for used children's products, which were prohibited after January 1, 2011. Emmer said he voted against the law because of fear of "increased costs." As well-intentioned as people may be, he said, "they don't think about what this vote means five steps down the line."

Bullying.

During an October 9, 2010, televised debate, Emmer said he would oppose legislation to combat school bullying against gay and lesbian young people. Emmer, who voted against anti-bullying legislation as a state lawmaker, said that teachers are most responsible for halting bullies, but suggested that the threat of lawsuits keeps them from doing so. "I don't think we need more laws; I think we need more understanding," he said.

Copper nickel mining in northern Minnesota.

Emmer supports two copper nickel mines in the Superior National Forest planned by Polymet, which is owned by Switzerland-based mining giant Glencore, and Twin Metals, which is owned by Antofagasta, a Chilean mining company controlled by the Luksics, one of Chile's wealthiest families.  When the Department of Interior did not list copper or nickel as two of 35 "critical minerals" essential to national security, Emmer released a press release of a letter he wrote to Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke requesting that copper and nickel be included.  Emmer and Representative Pete Stauber both stood beside Assistant Secretary of the Interior Joseph Balash as he signed leases permitting Twin Metals to explore a large area of national forest land nine miles southeast of Ely for copper-nickel reserves on May 15, 2019. The Obama administration had mothballed the lease renewal pending an environmental review, but Twin Metals is now in possession of a 10-year lease to explore the area, with a view toward opening a mine there.

Drunk driving.

In 2009, Emmer sponsored a bill that would shorten the period of license revocation for driving under the influence and for refusing to take a sobriety test. Additionally, though "suspected drunken drivers [currently] face revocation before they go to court," Emmer's bill would have delayed revocations until after conviction. Supporters of Emmer's bill said "it's needed because pre-conviction revocations penalize drivers before proving they're guilty." Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the head of the Minnesota DWI task force opposed the legislation because it would allow arrested drivers to continue to drive during the time between their arrest and hearing.  Emmer's own history became an issue in relation to his bill. At age 20, Emmer received a driving under the influence-related ticket. In 1991 he pleaded guilty to careless driving while two charges for DWI and a license-plate violation were dropped. Emmer denied that his own drunk driving and legal consequences played a part in the bill, stating, "We all come to the Legislature with life experiences, but it has nothing to do with this bill." Emmer also said that his sentence in 1981 should have been harsher, because in that case he "probably wouldn't have taken the second chance" that led to his subsequent arrests and guilty plea in 1991.  On May 13, 2010, Emmer was one of three legislators not to vote on a bill that would have provided such tougher penalties for drunk drivers. He said he missed the vote when a previously scheduled lunch ran long, and that he had "no idea" how he would have voted on the bill, but that he "assume[d]" he would have supported it.

Healthcare.

Emmer favors repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). After supporting the March 2017 version of the American Health Care Act (a bill to repeal the ACA), he voted for it on May 4, 2017, before it had been scored by the Congressional Budget Office to determine its economic impact.

Minimum wage.

In 2005, as a state representative, Emmer introduced an amendment that would have eliminated Minnesota's minimum wage law.

National security.

Emmer supported President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to temporarily curtail immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries until better screening methods are devised, saying, "Everybody needs to take a deep breath. There is no litmus test based on religion. The administration and I understand it has — takes the seven countries identified by the Obama administration, not this administration, as the most dangerous countries when it comes to potential terrorists."

Pharmacy conscience clause.

Emmer has supported "conscience clause" legislation that would allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense contraception on the basis of "ethical, moral or legal grounds as long as the pharmacist notifies their employer in advance and the employer can ensure a patient has timely access to the drug or device".

Same-sex marriage.

Emmer supported a state constitutional amendment banning civil recognition of same-sex marriage or its legal equivalent, stating, "I believe marriage is the union between one man and one woman." In March 2007, Emmer introduced HF 1847, a proposed amendment to the Minnesota Constitution "recognizing as marriage or its legal equivalent only a union between one man and one woman." Voters later rejected this proposal.

State sovereignty.

In 2010 Emmer sponsored an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution that would allow the state to nullify federal laws.

Taxes.

Emmer strongly opposes tax increases. He has also proposed gradually reducing the state corporate tax, with the eventual goal of repealing it altogether.

"Tip credit".

On July 5, 2010, after visiting a restaurant in St. Paul, Emmer was asked during a press conference if he supported a tip credit, the policy of allowing businesses to subtract tips from a server's hourly wage. His response was "Yes... if you didn't have a minimum wage law", adding, "somebody could be taking home well over one hundred thousand dollars as a server" while the restaurant owner could be making much less.  One week after that press conference, Emmer announced a proposal that would exempt the first $20,000 a server makes in tips from state taxes. At the same press conference a protester dumped $20 in pennies in Emmer's lap.

Personal life.

In 1910 Emmer's great-grandfather and his two brothers founded Emmer Brothers Lumber. It is now called Viking Forest Products and is employee-owned.  Emmer has seven children with his wife, Jacqueline, whom he married in 1985. He is an avid hockey player and coach.

Thomas Earl Emmer Jr. (born March 3, 1961) is an American attorney and politician who has been the U.S. Representative for since January 2015. The district includes most of the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, as well as St. Cloud.

Thomas Earl „Tom“ Emmer Jr. (* 3. März 1961 in South Bend, Indiana) ist ein US-amerikanischer Politiker. Seit Januar 2015 vertritt er den Bundesstaat Minnesota im US-Repräsentantenhaus.


Biography.

Iset was the mother of Thutmose III, the only son of Thutmose II. Her son died on 11 March 1425 BC and her name is mentioned on his mummy bandages and a statue found in Karnak.  Although in these later instances Iset is referred to as Great Royal Wife, during the reign of Thutmose II the great royal wife was Hatshepsut. Thutmose II died in 1479 BC and, after his death, Hatshepsut became regent for the young king Thutmose III. Thutmose III became the head of the armies of Egypt as he grew up.  Hatshepsut ruled as pharaoh until her death in 1458 BC when her co-regent, Thutmose III, became pharaoh. At that time Iset received the title of ""King's Mother"" (since her son had become pharaoh) and she may then have been designated as a royal wife if she had not been previously when he was the co-regent.  At the time Thutmose III became pharaoh Neferure, the daughter of Hatshepsut and Thutmose II, was the God's Wife. She had served in this role throughout the reign of her mother as pharaoh. Neferure may have married Tuthmosis III but the sole evidence for this marriage is a stela showing Queen Satiah whose name may have been carved over that of another queen. The great royal wife, Hatshepsut-Meryetre, became the mother of his successor.  Her son Tuthmosis III depicts his mother several times in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. In KV34 there are depictions of the king with several female family members on one of the pillars. His mother Queen Isis is prominently featured.  Queen Isis is depicted behind her son on the boat. She is labeled as the King's Mother Isis. In the register below the boat Tuthmosis III is shown approaching a tree which is a representation of his mother Isis. Behind the king we see three of his wives: Queens Merytre, Sitiah, Nebtu and his daughter Nefertari.  It is not certain whether Iset was a concubine or a secondary wife of Thutmose II. She also received the title ""God's Wife"", but probably only posthumously.

Iset (or "Isis)" was a queen of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, and she was named after goddess Isis. She was a secondary wife or concubine of Thutmose II.

Isis war eine Nebenfrau des altägyptischen Königs (Pharao) Thutmosis II. und Mutter des Königs Thutmosis III. im 15. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Nach dem Tod ihres Gemahls und während der Regentschaft ihres Sohnes wurde sie nachträglich in den Stand einer Großen Königlichen Gemahlin erhoben. Sie ist nach der altägyptischen Göttin Isis benannt.


History.

1990s.

Fosun Group was founded in 1992 as the Guangxin Technology Development Company by five graduates of Fudan University in Shanghai: Guo Guangchang, Liang Xinjun, Wang Qunbin (), Fan Wei (), and Tan Jian (). Fosun started its business by doing market research. The major holding company of the group, Fosun Pharmaceutical Company, was incorporated in 1994 in mainland China. The company specialized in producing medication for Hepatitis A, which occurs often in China. Then Fosun extended its business into the healthcare industry, real estate, etc.

2000s.

In 2004, a new holding company of the group, Fosun International Limited was incorporated in Hong Kong. In July 2007, Fosun International was listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong as SEHK:656.

2010s.

During 2011, the three major growth engines of Fosun, industrial profits, investment profits and asset management profits rose rapidly, enabling Fosun to make strides toward its vision of becoming "a premium investment group with a focus on China's growth momentum".  From 2010 through 2015, Fosun spent billions buying foreign firms in the healthcare, tourism, fashion, and banking industries in the US and Europe. These included France's Club Med, Britain's Thomas Cook Group, Canada's Cirque du Soleil, American clothing label St John, and Greek jeweler Folli Follie. At the end of 2014 Fosun acquired the US insurer Meadowbrook for around $433 million, marking the first full purchase of a US insurer by a Chinese company. Fosun also purchased Australian oil company Roc Oil, its first acquisition in the petroleum industry.  On 11 December 2015, the chairman of Fosun, Guo Guangchang, was reported missing. Guo however reappeared on 14 December 2015 at a Fosun board of directors meeting. During his disappearance, Fosun requested that trading of shares be temporarily suspended. The Fosun board of directors issued a statement saying that Guo was assisting in a government inquiry which, in their opinion, did not present a “material adverse impact” on Fosun's finances or operations.  On 21 July 2016, it was confirmed that Fosun had bought the English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers from its previous owner Steve Morgan for an estimated £45 million. Under Fosun's ownership, Wolves have progressed from being a mid table side in the Football League Championship (second tier of English football) to finishing seventh in the FA Premier League, reaching an FA Cup semi-final and qualifying for European competition.  In 2016 Fosun began to invest in India. “Delhivery” was one such investment made in 2017, in addition to previous investments in MakeMyTrip, India's largest online travel company and Gland Pharma. Fosun is also involved in the Indian real estate market.  On 28 August 2019, Thomas Cook Group announced that the group "had agreed the main terms of a rescue package that will see Hong Kong’s Fosun Tourism take over its tour operations and creditor banks and bondholders acquire its airline"  In early November 2019, Fosun said it would purchase the Thomas Cook brand for £11m. The company viewed itself as a "potential saviour" by purchasing the name.

Response to COVID-19 pandemic.

During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, Fosun Pharmaceuticals partnered with German biotech firm Biopharmaceutical New Technologies, (BioNTech) to work on and distribute an experimental coronavirus vaccine. Once approved, Fosun will market the vaccine in China, and BioNTech will retain the rights to sell it internationally.  Fosun was part of an alliance of Chinese companies that donated medical supplies to 23 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.  In March 2020, Fosun brought medical supplies to Milan, Italy, including 5,500 protective suits and 40,000 N95 respirator masks together with the Longfor Group and Beijing Taikiang Yicai Foundation. This donation was in addition to 5,000 masks that had been donated to Milan’s municipal government earlier by Fosun.  Fosun launched the Global anti-Virus Relief Scheme which created a forum for China, the US, the UK, and Portugal to share information and experience about COVID-19 in early March 2020. Several companies have also joined the effort, including Baidu, New Oriental, Xiaomi and Sequoia Capital. Fosun has distributed close to 4 million units of medical supplies around the world, including surgical masks, protective suits, and diagnostic reagents.  Fosun donated medical protection supplies to South Korea in two shipments in March, 36,000 early in the month and additional 22,000 later in the month. The company also donated supplies to the UK, Japan and India.  At the end of March 2020, the Chinese National Medical Products Administration gave Fosun Pharmaceutical emergency approval for the use of a novel coronavirus nucleic acid detection kit that it developed.  Fosun, Haitong Securities, and the Portuguese football agency Gestifute brought 461 kilos representing 58,400 units of medical supplies to Shanghai’s sister city in Portugal, Porto at the end of March 2020.  Fosun delivered medical supplies in several shipments during March 2020 to the city of Wolverhampton, UK, the home of the Wolves football team, which is owned by Fosun.  The company donated N95 masks to New York’s NYU Langone Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital as well as similar donations to hospitals in Chicago, Boston, New Jersey, California and elsewhere in the United States. The Coalition of Asian-American IPA (CAIPA) accepted 7,000 N95 masks from Fosun, and then distributed them to hospitals throughout the New York area during March 2020.

Business Structure.

Fosun has a wide array of business activities, including investing in other firms, managing a number of private equity funds, and entering joint ventures.

Equity Investments.

Fosun has invested in a number of businesses throughout different sectors, such as asset management, insurance, and industrial operations.

Shareholders.

The major shareholder of Fosun International was a Hong Kong incorporated company Fosun Holdings, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of British Virgin Islands incorporated company Fosun International Holdings. Three founders of Fosun International, Guo Guangchang, Liang Xinjun and Wang Qunbin, owned 64.45%, 24.44% and 11.11% respectively in Fosun International Holdings. Fan Wei, another founder, withdrew his stake in Fosun International Holdings in September 2015.

Fosun International Limited is a Chinese conglomerate and investment company. Founded in 1992 by Guo Guangchang and four others, the company is headquartered in Shanghai and was incorporated in Hong Kong in 2004. Its Co-CEOs are Xu Xiaoliang and Chen Quiyu. Wang Qunbin joined Guo Guangchang as Co-Chairman in early 2020. The company is located in 16 countries and is one of the largest privately owned conglomerates in China. It was ranked 416th on the Forbes Global 2000 ranking in 2018.

Fosun International Limited () ist das größte in Privatbesitz befindliche Konglomerat in der Volksrepublik China. Von vier Absolventen der Fudan-Universität 1992 in Shanghai gegründet, hat das Unternehmen dort die Hauptverwaltung und wurde 2007 in Hongkong registriert und an der dortigen Börse gehandelt.


Biography.

Fabián Dobles was born in San Antonio de Belén, but his father, a medical doctor who had trained in the United States, soon resettled the family in the rural town of Atenas, in the province of Alajuela. The father was a very strict and devout Catholic and had intended that his son Fabían prepare for the priesthood, but a series of incidents, which he would later fictionalize in his last novel, "Los años, pequeños días" ("Years Like Brief Days"), led Fabián to abandon that career path and to study law at the University of Costa Rica. At an early age, he saw some of his poetry published in Joaquín García Monge's influential literary magazine "Repertorio Americano" ("American Repertoire").  Dobles was active in left-wing political causes, eventually becoming a leading figure within the Communist Party of Costa Rica. He worked in the legal department of the state's Child Welfare Agency and later in the Social Security Administration's division for savings and subsidies. Following the defeat of the government, to which the communists were allied, in the Costa Rican Civil War of 1949, the Communist Party was outlawed and Dobles spent time in prison. After his release, he had difficulty obtaining employment and over the years worked delivering milk, weaving blankets, and as an administrator for a lumber depot and for a door and window manufacturer. An attempt to participate in the 1957 election as the presidential candidate for the "Socialist Party" was scuttled by the authorities.  Dobles eventually found work as an English teacher at the Liceo de Costa Rica, and as a professor of social work at the University of Costa Rica. He was also a correspondent for Novosti, the Soviet international press agency, and for Prensa Latina, a news agency organized by Cuban government. He also worked for the Costa Rican state publisher ("Editorial Costa Rica"), eventually becoming one of its directors.  Over the course of his career, Dobles published eighteen books, including eight novels, seven collections of short stories, and three tomes of poetry. For his literary production, he was awarded the Magón Prize by the Costa Rican government, the nation's highest award for cultural work, in 1968. Some of the short stories in the collection "Historias de Tata Mundo" ("Tales of Daddy World") were anthologized by UNESCO and translated into several languages. The University of Costa Rica published his complete works in five volumes in 1993.  Except for his last novel, "Los años, pequeños días", which is autobiographical, most of Dobles's literary work concerns the struggle for subsistence of simple peasants in rural Costa Rica, or else, notably in "Ese que llaman pueblo", the plight of the urban poor. Most of this work could be classified as coming under the heading of social realism.  Fabián Dobles married Cecilia Trejos in 1942 and the couple had five daughters. He died in his home in San Isidro de Heredia, at the age of 79.

Fabián Dobles Rodríguez (January 17, 1918 – March 22, 1997) was a Costa Rican writer and left-wing political activist. An author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays, he earned international recognition as an author dealing with the plight of the poor and with social protest.

Fabián Dobles (* 17. Januar 1918 in San Antonio de Belén, Costa Rica; † 22. März 1997 in San José) war ein costa-ricanischer Schriftsteller.


Gameplay.

"Doom" is a first-person shooter presented with early 3D graphics. The player controls an unnamed space marine—later termed the Doomguy—through a series of levels set in military bases on the moons of Mars and in Hell. To finish a level, the player must traverse through the area to reach a marked exit room. Levels are grouped together into named episodes, with the final level focusing on a boss fight with a particularly difficult enemy. While the levels are presented in a 3D perspective, the enemies and objects are instead 2D sprites presented from several set viewing angles, a technique sometimes referred to as 2.5D graphics. Levels are often labyrinthine, and a full screen automap is available which shows the areas explored to that point.  While traversing the levels, the player must fight a variety of enemies, including demons and possessed undead humans, while managing supplies of ammunition, health, and armor. Enemies often appear in large groups, and the game features five difficulty levels which increase the quantity and damage done by enemies, with enemies respawning upon death

Plot.

"Doom" is divided into three episodes: "Knee-Deep in the Dead", "The Shores of Hell", and "Inferno". A fourth episode, "Thy Flesh Consumed", was added in an expanded version of the game, "The Ultimate Doom". The game itself contains very few plot elements, with the minimal story instead given in the instruction manual and short text segues between episodes.  In the future, the player character (an unnamed space marine) has been punitively posted to Mars after assaulting a superior officer, who ordered his unit to fire on civilians. The space marines act as security for the Union Aerospace Corporation's radioactive waste facilities, which are used by the military to perform secret experiments with teleportation by creating gateways between the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. Three years later, Deimos disappears entirely and "something fraggin' evil" starts pouring out of the teleporter gateways, killing or possessing all personnel. The Martian marine unit is dispatched to investigate, with the player character left to guard the perimeter with only a pistol while the rest of the group proceeds

Development.

Concept.

In May 1992, id Software released "Wolfenstein 3D", later called the "grandfather of 3D shooters", specifically first-person shooters, because it established the fast-paced action and technical prowess commonly expected in the genre and greatly increased the genre's popularity. Immediately following its release most of the id Software team began work on a set of episodes for the game, titled "Spear of Destiny", while id co-founder and lead programmer John Carmack instead focused on technology research for the company's next game. Following the release of "Spear of Destiny" in September 1992, the team began to plan their next title. They wanted to create another 3D game using a new engine Carmack was developing, but were largely tired of "Wolfenstein". They initially considered making another game in the "Commander Keen" series, as proposed by co-founder and lead

Development.

Early in development, rifts in the team began to appear. At the end of November, Hall delivered a design document, which he named the "Doom Bible", that described the plot, backstory, and design goals for the project. His design was a science fiction horror concept wherein scientists on the Moon open a portal from which aliens emerge. Over a series of levels the player discovers that the aliens are demons while hell steadily infects the level design over the course of the game. John Carmack not only disliked the idea but dismissed the idea of having a story at all: "Story in a game is like story

Engine.

"Doom" was programmed largely in the ANSI C programming language, with a few elements done in assembly language. Development was done on NeXT computers running the NeXTSTEP operating system. The data used by the game engine, including both level designs and graphics files, are all stored in WAD files, short for "Where's All the Data". This allows for any part of the game's design to be easily changed without needing to adjust the engine code. Carmack designed this system specifically to enable fans to be able to easily modify the game; he had been impressed by the modifications made by fans of "Wolfenstein 3D", and wanted to support that with an easily swappable file structure along with releasing the map editor online.  Unlike "Wolfenstein", which had flat levels with walls at right angles, the "Doom" engine allows for walls and floors at any angle or height, though two traversable areas cannot be on top of each other. The lighting system was based on adjusting the color palette of surfaces directly: rather than calculating how light traveled from light sources to surfaces using ray tracing, the game calculates the "light level" of a small section of a level

Music and sound.

As with "Wolfenstein 3D", id hired composer Bobby Prince to create the music and sound effects. Romero directed Prince to make the music in techno and metal styles; many tracks were directly inspired by songs by metal bands such as Alice in Chains and Pantera. Prince believed that ambient music would be more appropriate, and produced numerous tracks in both styles in the hopes of convincing the team; Romero put both styles in the game.

Release.

Because id planned to self-publish, as "Doom" neared completion they had to set up the systems to sell it. Jay Wilbur, who had been brought on as CEO and sole member of the business team, planned the marketing and distribution of "Doom". He believed that the mainstream press was uninterested in the game, and as id would make the most money off of copies they sold directly to customers—up to 85 percent of the planned price—he decided to leverage the shareware market as much as possible, buying only a single ad in any gaming magazine. Instead, he reached out directly to software retailers, offering them copies of the first "Doom" episode for free, allowing them to charge any price for it, in order to spur customer interest in buying the full game directly from id.  "Doom"s original release date was the third quarter of 1993, which the team did not meet. By December 1993, the team was working non-stop on the game, with several employees sleeping at the office; programmer Dave Taylor claimed that working on the game gave him such a rush that he would pass out from the intensity. Id began receiving calls from people interested in the game or angry that it had missed its planned release date, as hype for the game had been building online. At midnight on December 10, 1993, after working for 30 straight hours, the development team at id uploaded the first episode of the game to the internet, letting interested players distribute it for them. So many users were connected to the first network that they planned to upload the game to—the University of Wisconsin–Madison FTP network—that even after the network administrator increased the number of connections while on the phone with Wilbur, id was unable to connect, forcing them to kick all other users off to allow id to upload the game. When the upload finished thirty minutes later, 10,000 people attempted to download the game at once, crashing the university's network.  Within hours of "Doom"s release, university networks were banning "Doom" multiplayer games, as a rush of players overwhelmed their systems. After being alerted by network administrators the morning after release that the game's deathmatch network connection setup was crippling some computer networks, John Carmack quickly released a patch to change it, though many administrators had to implement "Doom"-specific rules to keep their networks from crashing due to the overwhelming traffic.  In late 1995, "Doom" was estimated to be installed on more computers worldwide than Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 95, even with Microsoft's million-dollar advertising campaigns. Microsoft hired id Software to port Doom to Windows with the WinG API, and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates briefly considered buying the company. Microsoft developed a Windows 95 port of "Doom" to promote Windows as a gaming platform. The development team was led by Gabe Newell, who later founded the game company Valve. One Windows 95 promotional video had Gates digitally superimposed into the game.

Reception.

"Doom" became a problem at workplaces, both occupying the time of employees and clogging computer networks. Intel, Lotus Development, and Carnegie Mellon University were among many organizations reported to form policies specifically disallowing "Doom"-playing during work hours. At the Microsoft campus, "Doom" was by one account equal to a "religious phenomenon". Doom was #1 on "Computer Gaming World"s "Playing Lately?" survey for February 1994. One reader said that "No other game even compares to the addictiveness of NetDoom with four devious players!... The only game I've stayed up 72+ straight hours to play", while another reported that "Linking four people together for a game of Doom is the quickest way to destroy a productive, boring evening of work". Although Petersen said "Doom" was "nothing more than the computer equivalent of Whack-A-Mole", "Doom" received critical acclaim and was widely praised in the gaming press, broadly considered to be one of the most important and influential titles in gaming history. Upon release, "GamesMaster" gave it a 90% rating. "Dragon" gave it five stars, praising the improvements over "Wolfenstein 3D", the "fast-moving arcade shoot 'em up" gameplay, and network play. "Computer and Video Games" gave the game a 93% rating, praising its atmosphere and stating that "the level of texture-mapped detail and the sense of scale is awe inspiring", but criticized the occasionally repetitive gameplay and considered the violence excessive. A common criticism of "Doom" was that it was not a true 3D game, since the game engine did not allow corridors and rooms to be stacked on top of one another (room-over-room), and instead relied on graphical trickery to make it appear that the player character and enemies were moving along differing elevations.  "Computer Gaming World" stated in February 1994 that "Wolfenstein 3D" fans should "look forward to a delight of insomnia", and "Since networking is supported, bring along a friend to share in the visceral delights". A longer review in March 1994 said that "Doom" "was worth the wait... a wonderfully involved and engaging game", and its technology "a new benchmark" for the gaming industry. The reviewer praised the "simply "dazzling"" graphics", and reported that "DeathMatches may be the most intense gaming experience available today". While criticizing the "ho-hum endgame" with a too-easy end boss, he concluded that "Doom" "is a virtuoso performance".  "Edge" criticized the "fairly simple" gameplay but praised the graphics and levels. The review concluded: "You’lI be longing for something new in this game. If only you could talk to these creatures, then perhaps you could try and make friends with them, form alliances... Now, that would be interesting." The sentiment attracted widespread mockery, and "if only you could talk to these creatures" became a running joke in gamer culture; however, a 2016 piece in the "International Business Times" defended the review as anticipating the dialogue systems of games such as "Skyrim", "Mass Effect" and "Undertale".  In 1994, "PC Gamer UK" named "Doom" the third best computer game of all time. The editors wrote, "Although it's only been around for a couple of months, "Doom" has already done more to establish the PC's arcade clout than any other title in gaming history." In 1994 "Computer Gaming World" named "Doom" Game of the Year.  In 1995, "Next Generation" said it was "The most talked about PC game ever – and with good reason. Running on a 486 machine (essential for maximum effect), "Doom" took PC graphics to a totally new level of speed, detail, and realism, and provided a genuinely scary degree of immersion in the gameworld."  In 1996, "Computer Gaming World" named it the fifth best video game of all time, and the third most-innovative game.  In 1998, "PC Gamer" declared it the 34th-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "Probably the most imitated game of all time, "Doom" continued what "Wolfenstein 3D" began and elevated the fledgling 3D-shooter genre to blockbuster status".  In 2001, "Doom" was voted the number one game of all time in a poll among over 100 game developers and journalists conducted by GameSpy.  In 2003, IGN ranked it as the 44th top video game of all time and also called it ""the" breakthrough game of 1993", adding: "Its arsenal of powerful guns (namely the shotgun and BFG), intense level of gore and perfect balance of adrenaline-soaked action and exploration kept this gamer riveted for years." "PC Gamer" proclaimed "Doom" the most influential game of all time in its ten-year anniversary issue in April 2004.  In 2004, readers of "Retro Gamer" voted "Doom" as the ninth top retro game, with the editors commenting: "Only a handful of games can claim that they've changed the gaming world, and "Doom" is perhaps the most qualified of them all." In 2005, IGN ranked it as the 39th top game.  On March 12, 2007, "The New York Times" reported that "Doom" was named to a list of the ten most important video games of all time, the so-called game canon. The Library of Congress took up this video game preservation proposal and began with the games from this list.  In 2009, GameTrailers ranked "Doom" as the number one "breakthrough PC game". That year "Game Informer" put "Doom" sixth on the magazine's list of the top 200 games of all time, stating that it gave "the genre the kick start it needed to rule the gaming landscape two decades later." "Game Informer" staff also put it sixth on their 2001 list of the 100 best games ever. IGN included "Doom" at 2nd place in the "Top 100 Video Game Shooters of all Time", just behind "Half-Life", citing the game's "feel of running and gunning", memorable weapons and enemies, pure and simple fun and its spreading on nearly every gaming platform in existence.  In 2012, "Time" named it one of the 100 greatest video games of all time as "it established the look and feel of later shooters as surely as Xerox PARC established the rules of the virtual desktop," adding that "its impact also owes a lot to the gonzo horror sensibility of its designers, including John Romero, who showed a bracing lack of restraint in their deployment of gore and Satanic iconography." Including "Doom" on the list of the greatest games of all time, GameSpot wrote that "despite its numerous appearances in other formats and on other media, longtime fans will forever remember the original 1993 release of "Doom" as the beginning of a true revolution in action gaming."  The game has been ported to numerous console gaming platforms both domestically and abroad where it maintained its popularity, receiving generally favorable critical reception.

Legacy.

"Doom" franchise.

"Doom" has appeared in several forms in addition to video games, including a "Doom" comic book, four novels by Dafydd Ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver (loosely based on events and locations in the games), a and a live-action film starring Karl Urban and The Rock released in 2005. The game's development and impact on popular culture is also the subject of the book "Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture" by David Kushner.  The "Doom" series remained dormant between 1997 and 2000, when "Doom 3" was finally announced. A retelling of the original "Doom" using entirely new graphics technology and a slower paced survival horror

Clones.

"Doom" was influential and dozens of new first-person shooter titles appeared following "Doom" release, and they were often referred to as ""Doom" clones" rather than "first-person shooters". The term ""Doom" clone" was used to describe the style of gameplay in "Doom"-style games. While the term was initially popular, it was, after 1996, gradually replaced by "first-person shooter", and the phrase "first-person shooter" had firmly superseded ""Doom" clone" around 1998. Some of these were certainly "clones", hastily assembled and quickly forgotten, while others explored new grounds of the genre and were highly acclaimed. Many of the games closely imitated features in "Doom" such as the selection of

Community.

In addition to the thrilling nature of the single-player game, the deathmatch mode was an important factor in the game's popularity. "Doom" was not the first first-person shooter with a deathmatch mode; "Maze War", an FPS released in 1974, was running multiplayer deathmatch over ethernet on Xerox computers by 1977. The widespread distribution of PC systems and the violence in "Doom" made deathmatching particularly attractive. Two-player multiplayer was possible over a phone line by using a modem, or by linking two PCs with a null-modem cable. Because of its widespread distribution, "Doom" hence became the game that introduced deathmatching to a large audience and was also the first game to use the term "deathmatch".  Although the popularity of the "Doom" games dropped with the release of more modern first-person shooters, the game still retains a strong fan base that continues to this day by playing competitively and creating WADs, and "Doom"-related news is still tracked

Doom is a 1993 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by id Software for MS-DOS. Players assume the role of a space marine, popularly known as Doomguy, fighting his way through hordes of invading demons from Hell. The first episode, comprising nine levels, was distributed freely as shareware and played by an estimated 15–20 million people within two years; the full game, with two further episodes, was sold via mail order. An updated version with an additional episode and more difficult levels, "Ultimate Doom", was released in 1995 and sold at retail.

Doom (engl.: "‚Verhängnis‘", "‚Verderben‘", "‚Verdammnis‘", "‚Untergang‘" oder "‚böses Schicksal‘") ist ein Ego-Shooter und der erste Titel der gleichnamigen Serie. Er wurde am 10. Dezember 1993 von id Software für MS-DOS veröffentlicht. Der Spieler steuert darin einen Soldaten, der nach einem gescheiterten Forschungsexperiment auf den Marsmonden Höllenkreaturen bekämpfen muss. Wegen der 3D-Grafik und des kommerziellen Erfolgs gilt der Titel als Meilenstein im Bereich der Computerspiele. In Deutschland war der Titel ab Mai 1994 indiziert, wurde nach einer Neuprüfung im August 2011 jedoch wieder von der Liste für jugendgefährdende Medien gestrichen und erhielt eine neue Altersfreigabe der Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle. Im Laufe der Jahre wurde der Titel für zahlreiche Plattformen portiert. 1994 erschien der Nachfolger "".


Personal life.

Van Kinckel was born the fifth son of August Wolfgang Künckelin, an official of the Duchy of Cleves, and Rosina Elisabetha Pancug (the daughter of a burgomaster of Heilbronn). The father was ennobled in 1752, as Freiherr von Kinckel, and this became the name under which van Kinckel was later known. He married baroness Elisabeth Charlotte Henriette Catherine von Botzheim in Wachenheim an der Pfrimm on 23 September 1789. The marriage remained childless.

Career.

Navy.

Van Kinckel entered the service of the Admiralty of Zeeland as a sub-lieutenant (without first having been an "adelborst" ) in 1764. He was probably sponsored by Johan Adriaan van de Perre, the representative of the First Noble in the States of Zeeland, and also a member of the Zeeland Admiralty Board, whose protégé he would be for many years. His first voyage was on the frigate "St. Maartensdijk" (24) under captain Cornelis Vis, that left Vlissingen on 27 August 1764 for a cruise against the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. After this first voyage he served on "De Jonge Prins van Oranje" for a number of voyages, in 1765 under captain de Kruijne, and later (between 1767 and 1770) four voyages under captain Hendrik Bernard Lodewijk van Bylandt. Van Kinckel had been promoted to lieutenant in 1766, after he passed his lieutenant's exam in September.  In 1771 the Dutch navy mounted a larger expedition to the Mediterranean, involving several ships of the line. Zeeland contributed the "Zierikzee" (captain Nebbens), and van Kinckel became its second lieutenant, charged with keeping the ship's journal. Soon after its departure, according to the journal, the ship's crew experienced health problems, many getting sick and dying, probably because of scurvy. This necessitated several lengthy visits to ports on its route, causing the "Zierikzee" to miss most of the cruise of the squadron (which was commanded by captain van Goor Hinloopen). Eventually, the ship would also lose captain Nebbens, who died of a stroke while on a shore excursion with van Goor Hinloopen near Livorno. After the ship's return under the second captain, Bonifacius Cau, in 1772, van Kinckel was promoted to commander, but for the next three years he did not have another ship. Only in 1775 did he receive a posting on the frigate "Walcheren" (captain Bonifacius Cau) for a cruise to again the Mediterranean. He returned home in November 1776, and asked his mentor van de Perre to obtain a promotion to captain for him. He was promoted to extraordinary captain on 11 November 1777.  Instead of immediately getting a Dutch command, van Kinckel made a curious excursion to the British Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War in 1778, where he served under Admiral Keppel against the French on "HMS Victory", which provided him with combat experience.  In June 1779 van Kinckel got his first command, as captain of the ship of the line "Zuid Beveland" (60). His first problem was to find a crew, as manning a ship was the captain's responsibility. As the Dutch navy at the time had a bad reputation as an employer, it was almost impossible to recruit Dutchmen. Van Kinckel therefore decided to set up four recruiting centers around his native Heilbronn, managed by his brothers. They recruited 250 Germans for the crew that eventually would number 472 men (two-thirds of whom Germans).  This experience motivated van Kinckel to write a report for the stadtholder, who was also Admiral-General of the Dutch Navy, in which he proposed to put the personnel policy of the navy on a new footing. Up to then the five Dutch admiralties had been responsible for manning and victualing their respective fleets, but in his report, entitled "Un projèt pour la levée d'un certain nombre d'hommes pour la service de la marine de la Republique" (1779), he proposed that there would be organised a "corps de marine", especially consisting of specialists like gunners and non-commissioned officers, who were otherwise difficult to recruit or retain, and would function directly under the Admiral-General. He wrote a more detailed proposal along these lines in 1780 with the title "Considérations sur la necessité et sur I'utilité d'un corps de mariniers pour la service de la Republique". This brought him to attention of the stadtholder, with whom he discussed the proposal for the first time in the Spring of 1781. On 17 April 1781 the plan was formally approved by six of the seven provinces in the States General of the Netherlands, but Zeeland vetoed it "for lack of money." In 1782 the stadtholder appointed van Kinckel as one of the two Adjutants of the "corps de marine" he had proposedThe appointment was only nominal, as the corps itself was not founded before 1792.  The "Zuid Beveland" was mainly employed to protect the Zeeland coastal waters in the first days of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War that started in December 1780. The ship was intended to join the squadron of rear-admiral Johan Zoutman before it fought the Battle of Doggerbank in August 1781, but the usual "adverse winds" had prevented it from getting out to sea. Van Kinckel therefore did not share in the glory. However, the ship later captured two English ships and van Kinckel shared in the prize money.  After peace had been concluded in 1784 van Kinckel asked to be promoted to ordinary captain, which request was granted on 26 September 1784. But van Kinckel did not receive a new command. Instead he was given a diplomatic assignment to the Electorate of Bavaria, where he was to report on the developments around the intrigues of Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken to exchange Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands  But van Kinckel in this period embarked on another career, that is only cursorily touched upon in his official biographies. Van Kinckel was clearly a partisan on the Orangist side in the political upheavals of the Patriottentijd in the Dutch Republic. In the period 1785-1787 the opponents of the stadtholder, William V, Prince of Orange, gained more and more influence. The British envoy to The Hague, Sir James Harris saw in this the perfidious hand of the French, and he made it his life's work to reclaim the influence of Great Britain on the Republic, by hook and by crook. One of his first actions was to lure the province of Zeeland away from the other provinces in the Spring of 1786 (a rather harebrained project to have Zeeland secede from the Union of Utrecht). The bait was a promise to save the Zeeland Chamber of the VOC from impending bankruptcy by providing a British loan for that purpose to the States of Zeeland. For the negotiations about this project Harris used van Kinckel as his political emissary, with whom Harris had established a relationship in October 1785, according to a letter from Harris to the British Foreign Secretary Carmarthen. From this moment on, van Kinckel was one of Harris' most trusted confidential agents. In May 1786 van Kinckel wrote a memo for Harris pointing out that instead of a real secession, the "threat" of it would be more useful to put pressure on the Patriots in the States of Holland. Van Kinckel used his Zeeland contacts to bring Harris in contact with the Zeeland Grand Pensionary Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel shortly thereafter. Harris managed to convince Van de Spiegel to become his main agent of influence in the Republic.  From this time on, van Kinckel assisted Harris in his projects, like the attempt to "flip" the States of Friesland to the Orangist side, by offering bribes to the grietmannen; and an attempt to sabotage the mission of the French diplomat Joseph Matthias Gérard de Rayneval to mediate between the warring Dutch factions in early 1787. In that context van Kinckel provided useful counter-intelligence on the French agitators in Amsterdam, that had established a kind of "parallel" French legation there.. Van Kinckel accompanied Harris on his secret visit to the British Cabinet at the end of May 1787, in which Harris managed to convince his superiors to go all out on a campaign of subversion in the Republic. For this he obtained a large secret fund, hat would be used to suborn Dutch States Army regiments that had been loyal to the States of Holland, after those withdrew those troops from the command of the stadtholder in 1786. When a month later the wife of the Stadtholder, Princess Wilhelmina, was detained by a Patriot Free Corps patrol at Goejanverwellesluis, Harris dispatched van Kinckel post-haste from The Hague, to prevent her capture by the die-hard Patriots in Utrecht under the Rhinegrave of Salm, who might have held her as a hostage.  Finally, van Kinckel played an important "bit part" in the conclusion of the Anglo-Prussian Treaty of Alliance in June 1788 at Het Loo Palace. King Frederick William II of Prussia was visiting his sister at this palace, when he was "waylaid" by Harris with the project of the treaty. The king did not have his usual advisers with him, except Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, who might have advised him against the treaty. But van Kinckel bribed the king's "valet de chambre" to deny Stein access to the king.  On 16 July 1787 (so while the crisis of the Prussian invasion of Holland was still unfolding), van Kinckel got his next command of a ship: the frigate "Tholen" (49). But he did not succeed in gathering a crew for this ship, so he had to relinquish this command to another captain. On 9 November 1788 van Kinckel was promoted to rear-admiral of the Zeeland Admiralty. When Vice-Admiral Cornelis Vis died in 1789 van Kinckel asked for his post, and a promotion to Vice-Admiral. But the Admiral-General wanted the advice of the successor of van de Perre in the Zeeland Admiralty Board, and that functionary apparently gave a negative advice, because the promotion was not given. Van Kinckel then left active service and married the baroness von Botzheim.

Diplomacy.

Van Kinckel then entered diplomatic service. His first posting was as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Elector of Bavaria in 1789. He remained here until the Batavian Revolution of 1795. After the War of the First Coalition broke out in 1792, in which the Republic, together with Prussia and Great Britain was part of a coaliion of European powers that fought against the French First Republic, van Kinckel attached himself to the campaign headquarters of the Prussian king, again with Harris, who had become the Earl of Malmesbury, but also Sir James Pulteney, Lord Elgin, and the Marquess of Hertford, who were subsequently his colleagues at this mobile court.  In 1795 he was dismissed from the naval service, like all other naval officers, by the new regime, and declined to join the Batavian Navy. Instead he again went into British service. He traveled with Lord Malmesbury to England. After his arrival he attempted to attach himself to the court of the exiled stadtholder, but he was told that there was not enough money to take him aboard. Fortunately, he obtained a pension of £500 annually from the British. After a while he went back to the Continent, becoming a liaison-officer between the Royal Navy, and the Orangists in Germany, who plotted a return of the stadtholder. He gathered intelligence for both the stadtholder in England, and his son Prince Frederick of Orange-Nassau in Prussia. At this time he bought the house in Mannheim where he would live till his death.  From van Kinckel's correspondence it becomes clear that he was very opposed to the Democratic developments of the time in the Batavian Republic and revolutionary France. With ex-stadtholder William V he deplored the "... malheur de la Révolution française." And he stated in another letter "je n'ai plus un brin de Patriotisme" (I don't have a bit of Patriotism left). His ideological conviction made him apply for a position in the Russian navy around the time of the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799, in which he had hoped to take a part. But his motivation was also: "'Les serviles raisons qui pourroit me motiver d'entrer au service de la Russie durant la guerre actuelle servit celle ambition pour me faire connaitre et tacher d'acquerir une reputation... au service de sa majesté l'imperatrice de toutes les Russies.". In any case, the appointment did not come through. Until the Peace of Amiens in 1802 he continued his liaison work for the British.  Of his experiences during the years from 1803 to 1813 little specific is known. But the fact that his biographer Van der Aa complains hat he was "persecuted" by "French agents" indicates that he may still have been active as a British agent. After the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 he joined the headquarters of the Allies. After the return of the Prince of Orange to the Netherlands in 1813 van Kinckel again joined the Dutch diplomatic service. He was appointed envoy at no less than three German princely courts at the same time: the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Kingdom of Württemberg, and the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1814. These embassies he would exercise until his death in 1821.  Like other Orangist naval officers, who had been dismissed in 1795, van Kinckel was readmitted to the new "Koninklijke Marine" and promoted to Vice-Admiral on 1 July 1814. But to his chagrin he was retired from active service in 1817, as an austerity measure. On 18 July 1815 he was made a Commander in the Military Order of William.  Van Kinckel died 74 years old in Mannheim on 10 November 1821. His wife inherited 20,000 guilders, and the Will noted that she was also entitled to an annual pension of 1,000 guilders from the Dutch navy "widows and orphans" fund that van Kinckel had originally proposed.

Hendrik August baron van Kinckel, born as Heinrich August Künckelin (14 August 1747 in Heilbronn – 10 November 1821 in Mannheim), though of German extraction, was a Dutch naval officer and reformer, diplomat, and British confidential agent.

Heinrich August von Kinckel (v. Kinkel), (* 14. August 1747 in Heilbronn; † 10. November 1821 in Mannheim) war ein niederländischer Marineoffizier und Diplomat. Er gab Anregungen zu einer Marinereform in den Niederlanden und ließ das Trappenseeschlösschen in Heilbronn zu seiner heutigen Gestalt umbauen.


Naming and classification.

"Vivaro-Alpine" had been considered as a sub-dialect of Provençal, and named "provençal alpin" (Alpine Provençal) or Northern Provençal.  Its use in the Dauphiné area has also led to the use of "dauphinois" or "dauphinois alpin" to name it. Along with Ronjat and Bec, it is now clearly recognized as a dialect of its own.  The "UNESCO Atlas of World's languages in danger" uses the "Alpine Provençal" name, and considers it as seriously endangered.

Characterization.

Vivaro-Alpine is classified as an Indo-European, Italic, Romance, or Western-Romance language.  Vivaro-Alpine shares the palatization of consonants k and g in front of a with the other varieties of North Occitan (Limosino, Alverniate), in particular with words such as "chantar"("cantare," to sing) and "jai" ("ghiandaia," jay). Southern Occitan has, respectively, "cantar" and "gai."  Its principal characteristic is the dropping of simple Latin dental intervocalics:  The verbal ending of the first person is -"o" (like in Italian, Catalan, Castilian, and Portuguese, but also in Piemontese, which is neighboring): "parlo" per "parli" or "parle" ("io parlo"), "parlavo" per "parlavi" or "parlave" ("io parlavo"), "parlèro" for "parlèri" or "parlère" ("io ho parlato, io parlavo").  A common trait is the rotacismo of l (passage from l to r):  In the dialects of the Alps, Vivaro-Alpine maintained the pronunciation of the r of the infinitive verbs (excepting modern Occitan).  An estimated 70% of languages are estimated to have "interrogative intonation contours which end with rising pitch." However, Vivaro Alpine follows the opposite pattern with yes/no questions—an initial high tone followed by a fall. Questions that end in a rising pitch are so common that they are often considered "natural." One reason that questions begin with a high tone in some languages is that the listener is immediately being alerted to the fact that they are being asked a question.

Status.

Vivaro-Alpine is an endangered language. There are approximately 200,000 native speakers of the language worldwide. Transmission of the language is very low. Speakers of Vivaro-Alpine typically also speak either French or Italian.

Examples.

These are the lyrics to a traditional Occitan song, called "Se chanta."  Lyrics:

Vivaro-Alpine () is a variety of Occitan spoken in southeastern France (namely, around the Dauphiné area) and northwestern Italy (the Occitan Valleys of Piedmont and Liguria). There is also a small Vivaro-Alpine enclave in the Guardia Piemontese, Calabria, where the language is known as gardiòl. It belongs to the Northern Occitan dialect bloc, along with Auvergnat and Limousin.The name “vivaro-alpine” was coined by Pierre Bec in the 1970s. The Vivaro-Alpine dialects are traditionally called “gavot” from the Maritime Alps to the Hautes-Alpes.

Vivaro-Alpinisch (französisch: "vivaro-alpin") ist eine alte regionale Variante des Okzitanischen, die im nordöstlichen Teil dieser Sprachregion, im nördlichen Bereich der Seealpen gesprochen wird. Das Verbreitungsgebiet erstreckt sich bis in den südlichen Teil der Dauphiné und in den westlichsten Teil Italiens. Überholt ist die Theorie, die Sprache sei unter der Bezeichnung Alpenprovenzalisch als Dialekt des Okzitanischen einzuordnen.


Life.

Christopher was born Dennis Carrelli in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is of half-Italian and half-Irish descent.

Career.

Christopher's breakthrough role was as Dave Stoller in the coming-of-age classic "Breaking Away" (1979). His performance won him the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer and the Youth in Film Award for Best Juvenile Actor in a Motion Picture, as well as garnering a Golden Globe nomination.  Christopher's other roles include American track star Charlie Paddock in "Chariots of Fire" (1981), as well as tragic film-buff psychopath Eric Binford in "Fade to Black" (1980), Damon in "The Falling" (1985), Nathan Flowers in "A Sinful Life" (1989) and Leech in "" (1994). Television roles include "Jack of All Trades" in the "Profiler" TV series, Eddie Kaspbrak in Stephen King's "It" (1990), Desmond Floyd in "Jake Speed" (1986) and in the HBO series "Deadwood".  Christopher has guest starred in two "Star Trek" episodes: the "" episode " (Part II)" and the "" episode "". He guest-starred as the demon-sorcerer Cyvus Vail in three episodes of "Angel".  He reunited with his "Breaking Away" "father" Paul Dooley, playing Dooley's son for a third time, in a of "". The two had first played father and son in Robert Altman's "A Wedding" (1978).  In December 2006, he played Dr. Martin Ruber in the Sci Fi Channel miniseries "The Lost Room".  Christopher's career, and life in general, changed dramatically when he was cast as Leonide Moguy in Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" (2012). He learned through his agent that the screenplay had been re-written to accommodate him. Furthermore, Tarantino later claimed to Christopher that he had seen every one of his films the week that they were released, even "Dead Women in Lingerie" (which Christopher considers his worst). Production of the film made a very positive impact on Christopher, who has said "...a lot of my idea of happiness came from working on this film...".

Dennis Christopher (born Dennis Carrelli; December 2, 1955) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in "Breaking Away" (1979), "Fade to Black" (1980), "It" (1990), "Chariots of Fire" (1981), and "Django Unchained" (2012). He has appeared in nearly 40 movies and made-for-TV movies since 1975.

Dennis Christopher (* 2. Dezember 1955 in Philadelphia als "Dennis Carrelli") ist ein US-amerikanischer Schauspieler. Er ist seit Anfang der 1970er Jahre als Film- und Fernsehschauspieler aktiv und war in über 80 Produktionen zu sehen. Für seine Hauptrolle in "Vier irre Typen – Wir schaffen alle, uns schafft keiner" ("Breaking Away") wurde er mit dem BAFTA Award und dem Youth in Film Award jeweils als bester Nachwuchsdarsteller ausgezeichnet.


Description.

Iterative-deepening-A* works as follows: at each iteration, perform a depth-first search, cutting off a branch when its total cost formula_1 exceeds a given "threshold". This threshold starts at the estimate of the cost at the initial state, and increases for each iteration of the algorithm. At each iteration, the threshold used for the next iteration is the minimum cost of all values that exceeded the current threshold.  As in A*, the heuristic has to have particular properties to guarantee optimality (shortest paths). See Properties below.

Pseudocode.

path "current search path (acts like a stack)"

Properties.

Like A*, IDA* is guaranteed to find the shortest path leading from the given start node to any goal node in the problem graph, if the heuristic function is admissible, that is  for all nodes, where is the true cost of the shortest path from to the nearest goal (the "perfect heuristic").  IDA* is beneficial when the problem is memory constrained. A* search keeps a large queue of unexplored nodes that can quickly fill up memory. By contrast, because IDA* does not remember any node except the ones on the current path, it requires an amount of memory that is only linear in the length of the solution that it constructs. Its time complexity is analyzed by Korf "et al." under the assumption that the heuristic cost estimate is "consistent", meaning that  for all nodes and all neighbors of ; they conclude that compared to a brute-force tree search over an exponential-sized problem, IDA* achieves a smaller search depth (by a constant factor), but not a smaller branching factor.  Recursive best-first search is another memory-constrained version of A* search that can be faster in practice than IDA*, since it requires less regenerating of nodes.

Applications.

Applications of IDA* are found in such problems as planning.

Iterative deepening A* (IDA*) is a graph traversal and path search algorithm that can find the shortest path between a designated start node and any member of a set of goal nodes in a weighted graph. It is a variant of iterative deepening depth-first search that borrows the idea to use a heuristic function to evaluate the remaining cost to get to the goal from the A* search algorithm. Since it is a depth-first search algorithm, its memory usage is lower than in A*, but unlike ordinary iterative deepening search, it concentrates on exploring the most promising nodes and thus does not go to the same depth everywhere in the search tree. Unlike A*, IDA* does not utilize dynamic programming and therefore often ends up exploring the same nodes many times.

IDA* () ist ein Begriff aus der Informatik. Er bezeichnet ein Verfahren zum Suchen des kürzesten Weges zwischen zwei Knoten (Graphentheorie) in einem Graphen. Der Algorithmus kombiniert die wünschenswerten Eigenschaften von Tiefensuche (geringer Speicherverbrauch) und einer Variante der Breitensuche, dem A*-Algorithmus (Steuerung der Suche durch eine Heuristik).


Biography.

Early years (Japan).

Leach was born in Hong Kong. His mother Eleanor (née Sharp) died in childbirth. He spent his first three years in Japan with his father, Andrew Leach, until he moved back to Hong Kong in 1890.  Leach attended the Slade School of Fine Art and the London School of Art, where he studied etching under Frank Brangwyn. Reading books by Lafcadio Hearn, he became interested in Japan. In 1909 he returned to Japan with his young wife Muriel (née Hoyle) intending to teach etching. Satomi Ton, Kojima Kikuo, and later Ryūsei Kishida were his pupils.  In Tokyo, he gave talks and attended meetings along with Mushanokōji Saneatsu, Shiga Naoya, Yanagi Sōetsu and others from the "Shirakaba-Group", who were trying to introduce western art to Japan after 250 years of seclusion. About 1911 he attended a Raku-yaki pottery party which was his first introduction to ceramics, and through introduction by Ishii Hakutei, he began to study under Urano Shigekichi (1851–1923), who stood as "Kenzan 6th" in the tradition of potter Ogata Kenzan (1663 -1743). Assisting as interpreter for technical terms was the potter Tomimoto Kenkichi, whom he had met already earlier. From this time Leach wrote articles for the Shirakaba.  In 1913 he also drafted covers for Shirakaba and "Fyūzan". Attracted by the Prussian philosopher and art scholar Dr. Alfred Westharp, who at the time was living in Peking, Leach moved to Peking in 1915. There he took on the Name (for "Leach"), but returned the following year to Japan. – It was the year 1919, when young Hamada Shōji visited Leach for the first time. Leach received a kiln from Kenzan and built it up in Yanagi's garden and called it "Tōmon-gama". Now established as a potter, he decided to move to England.  In 1920, before leaving, he had an exhibition in Osaka, where he met the potter Kawai Kanjirō. In Tokyo, a farewell exhibition was organized.

Back in England.

Leach returned to England in 1920 on the invitation of Frances Horne. Horne was establishing a Guild of Handicrafts within the existing artist colony of St Ives in Cornwall. On the recommendation of a family friend, Edgar Skinner, she contacted Leach to suggest that he become the potter within this group. Leach and his wife Muriel were accompanied by the young Hamada Shoji and, having identified a suitable site next to the Stennack river on the outskirts of St Ives, the two established the Leach Pottery in 1920. They constructed a traditional Japanese climbing kiln or 'Noborigama (登り窯)', the first built in the West. The kiln was poorly built and was reconstructed in 1923 by Matsubayashi Tsurunosuke.  In 1934, Leach and Mark Tobey travelled together through France and Italy, then sailed from Naples to Hong Kong and Shanghai, where they parted company, Leach heading on to Japan.  Leach formally joined the Baháʼí Faith in 1940. A pilgrimage to the Baháʼí shrines in Haifa, Israel, during 1954 intensified his feeling that he should do more to unite the East and West by returning to the Orient "to try more honestly to do my work there as a Baháʼí and as an artist..."  Leach promoted pottery as a combination of Western and Eastern arts and philosophies. His work focused on traditional Korean, Japanese and Chinese pottery, in combination with traditional techniques from England and Germany, such as slipware and salt glaze ware. He saw pottery as a combination of art, philosophy, design and craft – even as a greater lifestyle. "A Potter's Book" (1940) defined Leach's craft philosophy and techniques; it went through many editions and was his breakthrough to recognition.

Midlife.

Leach advocated simple and utilitarian forms. His ethical pots stand in opposition to what he called fine art pots, which promoted aesthetic concerns rather than function. Popularized in the 1940s after the publication of "A Potter's Book," his style had lasting influence on counter-culture and modern design in North America during the 1950s and 1960s. Leach's pottery produced a range of "standard ware" handmade pottery for the general public. He continued to produce pots which were exhibited as works of art.  Many potters from all over the world were apprenticed at the Leach Pottery, and spread Leach's style and beliefs. His British associates and trainees include Michael Cardew, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie, David Leach (his son), Janet Darnell (whom Leach married in 1956) and William Marshall. Another of his students at St Ives was William Worrall who became chief craftsman at the Chalice Well crafts guild in Glastonbury. His American apprentices include Warren MacKenzie (who likewise influenced many potters through his teaching at the University of Minnesota), Byron Temple, Clary Illian and Jeff Oestrich. He was a major influence on the leading New Zealand potter Len Castle who travelled to London to spend time working with him in the mid-1950s. Another apprentice was an Indian potter Nirmala Patwardhan who developed the so-called Nirmala glaze based on an 11th-century Chinese technique. Many of his Canadian apprentices made up the pottery scene of the Canadian west coast during the 1970s in Vancouver. The Cypriot potter Valentinos Charalambous trained with Leach in 1950-51.  Leach was instrumental in organising the only International Conference of Potters and Weavers in July 1952 at Dartington Hall, where he had been working and teaching. It included exhibitions of British pottery and textiles since 1920, Mexican folk art, and works by conference participants, among them Shoji Hamada and US-based Bauhaus potter Marguerite Wildenhain. Another important contributor was Japanese aesthetician Soetsu Yanagi, author of "The Unknown Craftsman". According to Brent Johnson, "The most important outcome of the conference was that it helped organize the modern studio pottery movement by giving a voice to the people who became its leaders...it gave them [Leach, Hamada and Yanagi] celebrity status...[while] Marguerite Wildenhain emerged from Dartington Hall as the most important craft potter in America."

Later years.

He continued to produce work until 1972 and never ended his passion for travelling, which made him a precursor of today's artistic globalism. He continued to write about ceramics even after losing his eyesight. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London held a major exhibition of his art in 1977. The Leach Pottery still remains open today, accompanied by a museum displaying many pieces by Leach and his students.

Edmund de Waal's book.

Edmund de Waal, British ceramic artist and Professor of Ceramics at the University of Westminster, had been taught pottery by Geoffrey Whiting, a disciple of Leach, at the King's School, Canterbury. Whilst in Japan de Waal worked on a monograph of Leach, researching Leach's papers and journals in the archive room of the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum,  De Waal's book on Bernard Leach was published in 1998. He described it as "the first 'de-mystifying' study of Leach." "The great myth of Leach," he said, "is that Leach is the great interlocutor for Japan and the East, the person who understood the East, who explained it to us all, brought out the mystery of the East. But in fact the people he was spending time with, and talking to, were very few, highly educated, often Western educated Japanese people, who in themselves had no particular contact with rural, unlettered Japan of peasant craftsmen".  De Waal noted that Leach did not speak Japanese and had looked at only a narrow range of Japanese ceramics.

Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979), was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery".

Bernard Howell Leach (, "Rīchi Bānādo"; * 5. Januar 1887, Hongkong; † 6. Mai 1979 in St Ives, Cornwall) war ein britischer Töpfer mit enger Beziehung zu Japan und Verfasser von Büchern zur Töpferei.


History.

Formation and "The Diary" (2014–2016).

The project was unveiled on 22 April 2014 and was described by Lucassen as "an epic double concept album, a combination of 'classical meets metal' and 'acoustic folk'." Lucassen's most recurrent collaborator Ed Warby will be featured once again on drums, and it will be his very first album featuring a double bass among the instruments. He confirmed that Johan van Stratum from his former band Stream of Passion would play bass on the album. Also, due to "unforeseen problems", Warby had to re-record all his drum parts in one day only. Other former collaborators will be back, such as Joost van den Broek (piano), Ben Mathot (violin) and Maaike Peterse (cello), along with two new guest instrumentalists: Hinse Mutter (double bass) and Jenneke de Jonge (French horn).  On September 2, 2014, Lucassen revealed that his collaboration with van Giersbergen was actually a new band, called The Gentle Storm. He stated that van Giersbergen would perform live with band next year, possibly ruling himself out of live shows.  On October 10, it was announced at The Gentle Storm's official Facebook profile that the album would be composed of two CDs with the same songs, but recorded in totally different arrangements. CD 1 will be "the 'Gentle' album, [...] all acoustic and folky with lots of exotic instruments", while CD2 will be "the 'Storm' album, [...] an all-out, bombastic orchestral metal album". The post also stated that there would be "plenty of progressive elements mixed in". The post invited fans to ask questions, and some of the answers revealed that the album is set for a March 2015 release, that the band will probably continue if the public reception is good enough and that the concept will be "a historic love-story". On 4 November, the album was revealed to be titled "The Diary", with a cover art by Alexandra V. Bach, who also drew the art of "A War of Our Own" by Stream of Passion, another band started by Arjen, but that continued after he left it.  On January 20, 2015 the project released two lyric videos for both versions of the song "Endless Sea".  The Gentle Storm did a small-scale tour in April 2016, after which Lucassen and Van Giersbergen focused on other projects, including together in the "Ayreon Universe" series of concerts. Van Giersbergen subsequently created the band VUUR, mostly with live members of The Gentle Storm.

The Gentle Storm is a Dutch musical project by singer and lyricist Anneke van Giersbergen and composer and musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen, founder and leader of other musical projects such as Star One, Ayreon, Guilt Machine and Ambeon. The duo has previously collaborated in Ayreon albums "Into the Electric Castle" and "01011001". The project's debut album, "The Diary", was released on March 23, 2015 in Europe, and the following day in the US.

The Gentle Storm ist eine niederländische Progressive-Rock-/Folk-Band. Die Band steht bei InsideOut Music unter Vertrag und hat bislang ein Studioalbum veröffentlicht.


Invention and application.

Very long "tubed" telescopes.

Telescopes built in the 17th and early 18th century used single element non-achromatic objective lenses that suffered from interfering rainbow halos (chromatic aberration) introduced by the non-uniform refractive properties of single glass lenses. This degraded the quality of the images they produced. Telescope makers from that era found that very long focal length objectives had no appreciable chromatic aberration (the uncorrected chromatic aberration fell within the large diffraction pattern at focus). They also realized that when they doubled the diameter of their objectives they had to make the objective's focal length 4 times as long (focal length had to be "squared") to achieve the same amount of minimal chromatic aberration. As the objective diameter of these refracting telescopes was increased to gather more light and resolve finer detail they began to have focal lengths as long as 150 feet. Besides having very long tubes, these telescopes needed scaffolding or long masts and cranes to hold them up. Their value as research tools was minimal since the telescope's support frame and tube flexed and vibrated in the slightest breeze and sometimes collapsed altogether.

Tubeless "aerial" telescopes.

Around 1675 the brothers Christiaan and Constantijn Huygens decided to accommodate the very long focal length objectives they were creating by eliminating the tube altogether. In the Huygens' "aerial" telescope the objective was mounted inside a short iron tube mounted on a swiveling ball-joint on top of an adjustable mast. The eyepiece was mounted in another short tube (sometimes on a stand), and the two tubes were kept aligned by a taut connecting string. Christiaan Huygens published designs for these tubeless "aerial telescopes" in his 1684 book "Astroscopia Compendiaria", and their invention has been attributed to him and his brother Constantijn, although similar designs were also used by Adrien Auzout; the idea is even sometimes attributed to Christopher Wren.  The Huygens contrived some ingenious arrangements for aiming these "aerial telescopes" at an object visible in the night sky. The telescope could be aimed at bright objects such as planets by looking for their image cast on a white pasteboard ring or oiled translucent paper screen and then centering them in the eyepiece. Fainter objects could be found by looking for the reflection of a lamp held in the observer's hand being bounced back by the objective and then centering that reflection on the object. Other contrivances for the same purpose are described by Philippe de la Hire and by Nicolaas Hartsoeker. The objectives for aerial telescopes sometimes had very long focal lengths. Christiaan Huygens states that in 1686 he and his brother made objectives of 8 inch (200 mm) and 8.5 inch (220 mm) diameter and 170 and 210 ft (52 and 64 m) focal length, respectively. Constantijn Huygens, Jr. presented a 7.5 inch (190 mm) diameter 123 ft (37.5 m) focal length objective to the Royal Society of London in 1690. Adrien Auzout and others made telescopes of from 300 to 600 ft (90 to 180 m) focal length, and Auzout proposed a huge aerial telescope 1,000 ft in length that he would use "to observe animals on the Moon".

Applications.

Astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini had the wooden Marly Tower, originally built as part of the Machine de Marly to lift water for the reservoirs and fountains at the Gardens of Versailles, moved to the grounds of the Paris Observatory. On this tower he mounted long tubed telescopes and the objectives of aerial telescopes made for him by the Italian optician Giuseppe Campani. In 1684 he used one of his aerial telescopes to find Dione and Tethys, two satellites of Saturn. James Bradley, on December 27, 1722, measured the diameter of Venus with an aerial telescope whose objective had a focal length of 212 ft (65 m). Francesco Bianchini tried to map the surface of that same planet and deduce its rotational period in Rome in 1726 using a 2.6" (66 mm) 100 foot focal length aerial telescope.

Obsolescence.

The extreme difficulty of using these very long focal length telescopes led astronomers to develop alternative designs. One was the reflecting telescope. In 1721 John Hadley showed a Newtonian reflecting telescope to the British Royal Society with 6 inch in diameter mirror. The instrument was examined by Society members James Pound and James Bradley who compared its performance to the 7.5 inch (190 mm) diameter aerial telescope built by Constantijn Huygens, Jr. that the Society had in their collection. In the comparison they noted that the Hadley reflector "will bear such a charge as to make it magnify the object as many times as the latter with its due charge", and that it represented objects as distinct, though not altogether so clear and bright as the Huygens aerial telescope.  The need for very long focal length refracting telescope objectives was finally eliminated with the invention of the achromatic lens in the middle of the 18th century.

Replicas.

In May 2014 a working replica of an aerial Huygens telescope was unveiled at the Old Leiden Observatory in Leiden. It was commissioned by Hans de Rijk, a Dutch science promoter. It was unveiled during the first annual 'Kaiser Lente Lezingen' (Kaiser Spring Lectures), which is a local astronomy lecture event. Unlike the original telescopes this one only has a 4-meter focal length, making it much easier to operate as compared to the original. The telescope is so far the only known fully working replica in the world. It can be seen on open days at the Old Observatory and on special request during tours.

An aerial telescope is a type of very long focal length refracting telescope, built in the second half of the 17th century, that did not use a tube. Instead, the objective was mounted on a pole, tree, tower, building or other structure on a swivel ball-joint. The observer stood on the ground and held the eyepiece, which was connected to the objective by a string or connecting rod. By holding the string tight and maneuvering the eyepiece, the observer could aim the telescope at objects in the sky. The idea for this type of telescope may have originated in the late 17th century with the Dutch mathematician, astronomer and physicist Christiaan Huygens and his brother Constantijn Huygens, Jr., though it is not clear if they actually invented it.

Ein Luftteleskop oder Luftfernrohr ist ein Fernrohr, bei dem das Objektiv und das Okular nicht durch einen Tubus (Rohr) verbunden sind. Dieser Teleskoptyp wurde 1675 von den Brüdern Christiaan und Constantijn Huygens erfunden und 1684 von Christiaan in seinem Werk "Astroscopia Compendiaria" veröffentlicht.


Exterior.

The design of the three-floored house is of three blocks linked by two segmentally curved corridors. The ground floor is rusticated, while the upper floors are of smooth-dressed stone. The central, corps de logis, the largest block, contains the state rooms and was intended only for formal entertaining. The East block was a self-contained country house in its own right, containing all the rooms for the family's private use, and the identical West block contained the kitchens and all other domestic rooms and staff accommodation.  Plans for two more pavilions (as the two smaller blocks are known), of identical size and similar appearance, were never executed. These further wings were intended to contain, in the south-east a music room, and in the southwest a conservatory and chapel. Externally these latter pavilions would have differed from their northern counterparts by large glazed Serlian windows on the "piano nobile" of their southern facades. Here the blocks were to appear as of two floors only; a mezzanine was to have been disguised in the north of the music room block. The linking galleries here were also to contain larger windows, than on the north, and niches containing classical statuary.  The north front, approximately 107 metres in length, is Palladian in character, dominated by a massive, six-columned Corinthian portico; however, the south front ("illustrated right") is pure neoclassical Robert Adam. This garden facade is divided into three distinct sets of bays; the central section is a four-columned, blind triumphal arch (based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome) containing one large, pedimented glass door reached from the rusticated ground floor by an external, curved double staircase. Above the door, at second-floor height, are stone garlands and medallions in relief.  The four Corinthian columns are topped by classical statues. This whole centre section of the facade is crowned by a low dome visible only from a distance. Flanking the central section are two identical wings on three floors, each three windows wide, the windows of the first-floor "piano nobile" being the tallest. Adam's design for this facade contains huge "movement" and has a delicate almost fragile quality.

Interior.

The neoclassical interior of the house was designed by Adam to be no less impressive than the exterior. Entering the house through the great north portico on the "piano nobile", one is confronted by the marble hall designed to suggest the open courtyard or atrium of a Roman villa. Twenty fluted alabaster columns with Corinthian capitals support the heavily decorated, high-coved cornice. Niches in the walls contain classical statuary; above the niches are grisaille panels. The floor is of inlaid Italian marble. Matthew Paine's original designs for this room intended for it to be lit by conventional windows at the northern end, but Adam, warming to the Roman theme, did away with the distracting windows and lit the whole from the roof through innovative glass skylight.  At Kedleston, the hall symbolises the atrium of the Roman villa and the adjoining saloon the vestibulum. The saloon, contained behind the triumphal arch of the south front, like the marble hall rises the full height of the house, 62 feet to the top of the dome, where it too is sky-lit through a glass oculus. Designed as a sculpture gallery, this circular room was completed in 1763. The decorative theme is based on the temples of the Roman Forum with more modern inventions: in the four massive, apse-like recesses are stoves disguised as pedestals for classical urns. The four sets of double doors giving entry to the room have heavy pediments supported by scagliola columns, and at second-floor height, grisaille panels depict classical themes. From the saloon, the atmosphere of the 18th-century Grand Tour is continued throughout the remainder of the principal reception rooms of the "piano nobile", though on a slightly more modest scale. The "principal apartment", or State bedroom suite, contains fine furniture and paintings as does the drawing room with its huge Venetian window; the dining room, with its gigantic apse, has a ceiling that Adam based on the Palace of Augustus in the Farnese Gardens.  The theme carries on through the library, music room, down the grand staircase (not completed until 1922) onto the ground floor and into the so-called "Caesar's hall". On the departure of guests, it must sometimes have been a relief to vacate this temple of culture and retreat to the relatively simple comforts of the family pavilion.  Below the Rotunda is the Tetrastyle Hall, which was converted into a museum in 1927. The kitchen is an oblong shape with a balustraded gallery at one end. This links the room to other household offices on each side.  Also displayed in the house are many curiosities pertaining to George, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, who succeeded to the house in 1916 and who had earlier served as Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905. Lord Curzon had amassed a large collection of subcontinental and Far Eastern artefacts. Also shown is Lady Curzon's Delhi Durbar Coronation dress of 1903. Designed by Worth of Paris, it was known as the peacock dress for the many precious and semi-precious stones sewn into its fabric. These have now been replaced by imitation stones; however, the effect is no less dazzling.  In addition to that described above, this great country house contains collections of art, furniture and statuary. Kedleston Hall's alternative name, "The Temple of the Arts", is truly justified.

Gardens and grounds.

The gardens and grounds, as they appear today, are largely the concept of Robert Adam. Adam was asked by Nathaniel Curzon in 1758 to "take in hand the deer park and pleasure grounds". The landscape gardener William Emes had begun work at Kedleston in 1756, and he continued in Curzon's employ until 1760; however, it was Adam who was the guiding influence. It was during this period that the former gardens designed by Charles Bridgeman were swept away in favour of a more natural-looking landscape. Bridgeman's canals and geometric ponds were metamorphosed into serpentine lakes. Adam designed numerous temples and follies, many of which were never built. Those that were include the North lodge (which takes the form of a triumphal arch), the entrance lodges in the village, a bridge, cascade and the Fishing Room. The Fishing Room is one of the most noticeable of the park's buildings. In the neoclassical style it is sited on the edge of the upper lake and contains a plunge pool and boat house below. Some of Adam's unexecuted design for follies in the park rivalled in grandeur the house itself.  A "View Tower" designed in 1760 – 84 feet high and 50 feet wide on five floors, surmounted by a saucer dome flanked by the smaller domes of flanking towers — would have been a small neoclassical palace itself. Adam planned to transform even mundane utilitarian buildings into architectural wonders. A design for a pheasant house (a platform to provide a vantage point for the game shooting) became a domed temple, the roofs of its classical porticos providing the necessary platforms; this plan too was never completed. Among the statuary in the grounds is a Medici lion sculpture carved by Joseph Wilton on a pedestal designed by Samuel Wyatt, from around 1760–1770.  In the 1770s, George Richardson designed the hexagonal summerhouse, and in 1800 the orangery. The Long Walk was laid out in 1760 and planted with flowering shrubs and ornamental trees. In 1763, it was reported that Lord Scarsdale had given his gardener a seed from rare and scarce Italian shrub, the "Rodo Dendrone" ("sic").  The gardens and grounds today, over two hundred years later, remain mostly unaltered. Parts of the park are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, primarily because of the "rich and diverse deadwood invertebrate fauna" inhabiting its ancient trees.

Later history.

Second World War.

In 1939, Kedleston Hall was offered by Richard Curzon, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale, for use by the War Office. The Hall was used in various ways during the War, including as a mustering point and army training camp.  It also formed one of the Y-stations used to gather signals intelligence by collecting radio transmissions which, if encrypted, were subsequently passed to Bletchley Park for decryption.

National Trust.

By the 1970s Kedleston Hall had become too expensive for the Curzon family to maintain. When Richard Nathaniel Curzon, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale, died, his cousin Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale, offered the house, park and gardens to the nation in lieu of death duties. A deal was agreed with the National Trust that it should take over Kedleston, along with an endowment, while still allowing the family to live rent-free in the 23-room Family Wing, which contained an adjoining garden and two rent-free flats for servants or other family members.. The Hon Richard Curzon and his family currently reside there.

See also.

The travel writer E. V. Lucas later commented that "It is easier in Calcutta to be suddenly transported to England than in any other Indian city that I visited. There are, it is true, more statues of Lord Curzon than we are accustomed to [in England]; but many of the homes are quite English, save for the multitude of servants; Government House, serene and spacious and patrician, is a replica of Kedlestone Hall in Derbyshire."

Kedleston Hall is an English country house in Kedleston, Derbyshire, approximately northwest of Derby, and is the seat of the Curzon family. Today it is a National Trust property.

Kedleston Hall ist ein Landhaus in "Kedleston" in der englischen Grafschaft Derbyshire, etwa 6,5 km nordwestlich von Derby. Es war der Sitz der Familie Curzon, deren Name aus dem Ort "Notre-Dame-de-Curson" in der Normandie stammt. Heute gehört das Anwesen dem National Trust.


Bibliography.

GREAT SHORT WORKS OF JACK LONDON, Harper Perennial Classics Series, Editor (Harper & Row, 1965; rev. ed., 1970).  A HANDBOOK OF CRITICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE, Co-Author with Wilfred L. Guerin, et al. (Harper & Row, 1966; 6th ed. Oxford UP, 2011).  MANDALA: LITERATURE FOR CRITICAL ANALYSIS, Co-Editor with Guerin, et al. (Harper & Row, 1970).  THE FUTURE OF COLLEGE ENGLISH: A CEA CHAP BOOK, Editor (The College English Association, 1972).  TUSAS JACK LONDON (Twayne, 1974; rev. ed. with Jeanne Campbell Reesman, 1994).  JACK LONDON: A KLONDIKE TRILOGY, Editor (Neville, 1983).  LIT: LITERATURE AND INTERPRETIVE TECHNIQUES, Co-Editor with Guerin, et al. (Harper & Row, 1986).  THE LETTERS OF JACK LONDON, 3 Vols., Co-Editor with Robert C. Leitz and I. Milo Shepard (Stanford UP, 1988).  THE CALL OF THE WILD, WHITE FANG, AND OTHER STORIES BY JACK LONDON, Co-Editor with Leitz, World's Classics Series (Oxford UP, 1990).  THE STORIES OF JACK LONDON: AUTHORIZED ONE-VOLUME EDITION, Co-Editor with Robert Leitz and I. Milo Shepard (Macmillan, 1991).  THE COMPLETE STORIES OF JACK LONDON, 3 Vols., Co-Editor with Robert Leitz and I. Milo Shepard (Stanford UP, 1993).  THE PORTABLE JACK LONDON, Editor (Viking/Penguin, 1994).  TO BUILD A FIRE AND OTHER STORIES, Afterword, World's Best Reading Series (Reader's Digest Association, 1994).  IN THE STEPS OF JACK LONDON by Vil Bykov, Co-Editor with Susan Nuernberg and Hensley C. Woodbridge (www.jacklondons.net, 2005).  JACK LONDON: THE SEA-WOLF AND SELECTED STORIES, Introduction, Signet Classics (New American Library, Penguin, 2013).  JACK LONDON: AN AMERICAN LIFE (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2013). Received Western Writers of America Golden Spur Award as Best Western Non-Fiction Biography.  THE FAR MUSIC: A MEMOIR (DeGolyer Library, SMU, 2016). Celebrates the unique but neglected “Era of Bright Expectations” in America between the end of WWII and beginning of the Korean War (1945-1950).  JACK LONDON: THE CALL OF THE WILD, WHITE FANG, AND SELECTED STORIES, Introduction, Penguin Classics Series (Penguin/Random House, November, 2019).

Earle Labor (b. March, 1928) is George Wilson Professor (Emeritus) of American Literature at Centenary College of Louisiana. His research and teaching career have been devoted to the study of the American author, Jack London. He taught the first undergraduate course devoted to London at Utah State University in 1966. Labor taught the first-ever graduate course on London in 1973-74 (University of Aarhus, Denmark) while on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Earle Gene Labor (geboren am 3. März 1928 in Tuskahoma, Oklahoma) ist ein amerikanischer Literaturwissenschaftler, der vor allem mit Arbeiten zu Jack London hervorgetreten ist.