Names.

The name of "Christchurch" was agreed on at the first meeting of the Canterbury Association on 27 March 1848. It was suggested by founder John Robert Godley, whose alma mater was Christ Church, Oxford.  The Māori name "Ōtautahi" ("the place of Tautahi") was adopted in the

History.

Māori settlement.

Archaeological evidence found in a cave at Redcliffs in 1876 has indicated that the Christchurch area was first settled by moa-hunting tribes about 1250 CE. These first inhabitants were thought to have been followed by the Waitaha

European settlement.

Following the purchase of land at Putaringamotu (modern Riccarton) by the Weller brothers, whalers of Otago and Sydney, a party of European settlers led by Herriott and McGillivray established themselves in what is now Christchurch, early in 1840. Their abandoned holdings were taken over by brothers William and John Deans in 1843 who stayed. The First Four Ships were chartered by the Canterbury Association and brought the first 792 of the "Canterbury Pilgrims" to Lyttelton Harbour. These sailing vessels were the "Randolph", "Charlotte Jane",, and "Cressy". The "Charlotte Jane" was the first to arrive on 16 December 1850. The Canterbury Pilgrims had aspirations of building a city around a cathedral and college, on the model of Christ Church in Oxford.  The name "Christ Church" was decided prior to the ships' arrival, at the Association's first meeting, on 27 March 1848. The exact basis for the name is not known. It has been suggested that it is named for Christchurch, in Dorset, England; for Canterbury Cathedral; or in honour of Christ Church, Oxford. The last explanation is the one generally accepted.  At the request of the Deans brothers —

1900–2000.

In 1947, New Zealand's worst fire disaster occurred at Ballantyne's Department Store in the inner city, with 41 people killed

Modern history.

2010–2012 earthquakes.

On Saturday 4 September 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Christchurch and the central Canterbury region at 4:35 am. With its epicentre near Darfield, west of the city at a depth of, it caused widespread damage to the city and minor injuries, but no direct fatalities.  Nearly six months later on Tuesday 22 February 2011, a second earthquake measuring magnitude 6.3 struck the city at 12:51 pm. Its epicentre was located closer to the city, near Lyttelton at a depth of. Although lower on the moment magnitude scale than the previous earthquake, the intensity and violence of the ground shaking was measured to be IX ("Violent"), among the strongest ever recorded globally in an urban area and 185 people were killed. People from

2013 to 2018.

On 13 February 2017, two bush fires started on the Port Hills. These merged over the next two days and the single very large wild fire extended down both sides of the

2019 terrorist attacks.

Fifty-one people died from two consecutive terrorist attacks at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre by an Australian white supremacist carried out on 15 March 2019. The terrorist attacks have been described by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as "One of New Zealand's darkest days".

Geography.

Christchurch lies in Canterbury, near the centre of the east coast of the South Island, east of the Canterbury Plains. It is located near the southern end of Pegasus Bay, and is bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean coast and the estuary of the Avon and Heathcote Rivers. To the south and south-east the urban portion of the city is limited by the volcanic slopes of the Port Hills separating it from Banks Peninsula. To the north the city is bounded by the braided Waimakariri River.  Christchurch is one of a group of only four current cities in the world to have been carefully planned following the same layout of a central city square, four complementing city squares surrounding it and a parklands area that embrace the city centre. The first city built with this pattern was Philadelphia. Later came Savannah and Adelaide, before Christchurch.  Christchurch has one of the highest-quality water supplies in the world, with its water rated among the purest and cleanest in the world. Untreated, naturally filtered water is sourced, via more than 50 pumping stations surrounding the city, from aquifers emanating from the foothills of the Southern Alps.

Central City.

At the city's centre is Cathedral Square, surrounding the now-earthquake-damaged – landmark Anglican cathedral, Christ Church. The area around this square and within the Four Avenues of Christchurch (Bealey Avenue, Fitzgerald Avenue, Moorhouse Avenue and Deans Avenue) is considered to be the central business district (CBD) of the city. The central city also has a number of residential areas, including Inner City East, Inner City West, Avon Loop, Moa Neighbourhood and Victoria, but many of the residential buildings in the CBD were

Climate.

Christchurch has a temperate oceanic climate with a mild summer, cool winter, and regular moderate rainfall. It has mean daily maximum air temperatures of in January and in July. Under the Köppen climate classification, Christchurch has an oceanic climate ("Cfb"). Summer in the city is mostly warm but is often moderated by a sea breeze from the Northeast. A record temperature of was reached in February 1973. A notable feature of the weather is the "nor'wester", a hot föhn wind that occasionally reaches storm force, causing widespread minor damage to property. Like many cities, Christchurch experiences an urban heat island effect; temperatures are slightly higher within the inner city regions

Demographics.

The area administered by the Christchurch City Council has a population of making it the second-largest in New Zealand, and the largest city in the South Island.  The Christchurch urban area at is the second-largest in the country by population, after Auckland. The urban area differs from the city by excluding most of the Banks Peninsula. Christchurch City had a population of 369,006 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 27,537 people (8.1%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 20,550 people (5.9%) since the 2006 census. There were 138,381 households. There were 183,972 males and 185,034 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.99 males per female. Of the total population, 63,699 people (17.3%) were aged up to 15 years, 82,971 (22.5%) were 15 to 29, 166,959 (45.2%) were 30 to 64, and 55,377 (15.0%) were 65 or older. Figures may not add up to the total due to rounding.  Ethnicities were 77.9% European/Pākehā, 9.9% Māori, 3.8% Pacific peoples, 14.9% Asian, and 2.9% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.  The percentage of people born overseas was 26.8, compared with 27.1% nationally.  Although some people objected to giving their religion, 50.8% had no religion, 36.3% were Christian, and 6.7% had other religions.  Of those at least 15 years old, 75,207 (24.6%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 49,554 (16.2%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $32,900. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 153,480 (50.3%) people were employed full-time, 46,011 (15.1%) were part-time, and 11,466 (3.8%) were unemployed.

Culture and identity.

The following table shows the ethnic profile of Christchurch's population, as recorded in the censuses held between 2001 and 2018. The percentages add up to more than 100%, as some people counted themselves as belonging to more than one

Economy.

Farming.

The agricultural industry has always been the economic core of Christchurch. Its surrounding farming countryside has long been the basis of its industry, part of the original "package" sold to New Zealand immigrants. PGG Wrightson, New Zealand's leading agribusiness, is based in Christchurch. Its local roots go back to Pyne Gould Guinness, an old stock and station agency serving the South Island. Other agribusinesses in Christchurch have included malting, seed development and dressing, wool and meat processing, and small biotechnology operations using by-products from meat works. Dairying has grown strongly in the surrounding areas with high world prices for milk products and the use

Industry.

Christchurch is the second largest manufacturing centre in New Zealand behind Auckland, the sector being the second largest contributor to the local economy, with firms such as Anderson's making steel work for bridges, tunnels, and hydro-electric dams in the early days of infrastructure work. Now manufacturing is mainly of light products and the key market is Australia, with firms such as those pioneered by the Stewart family among the larger employers. Before clothing manufacture largely moved to Asia, Christchurch was the centre of the New Zealand clothing industry, with firms such as LWR Industries. The firms that remain mostly design and market, and manufacture in Asia. The city also had five footwear manufacturers, but these have been replaced by imports.  In the last few decades, technology-based industries

Tourism.

Tourism is also a significant factor of the local economy. The close proximity of the ski fields and other attractions of the Southern

Gateway to the Antarctic.

Antarctic exploration.

Christchurch has a history of involvement in Antarctic exploration – both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton used the port of Lyttelton as a departure point for expeditions, and in the central city there is a statue of Scott sculpted by his widow, Kathleen Scott. Within the city, the Canterbury Museum preserves and exhibits many historic artefacts and stories of Antarctic exploration.  The International Antarctic Centre provides both base facilities and a museum and visitor centre focused upon current Antarctic activities. The United States Navy and United States Air National Guard, augmented by the New Zealand and Australian air forces, use Christchurch Airport as the take-off point for the main supply route to McMurdo and Scott Bases in Antarctica. The Clothing Distribution Center in Christchurch had more than 140,000 pieces of extreme cold weather gear for issue to nearly 2,000 US Antarctic Program participants in the 2007–08 season.

Government.

Local government.

Christchurch's local government is a democracy with various elements including:  Some of the

Central government.

Christchurch is covered by seven general electorates (,,,,, and ) and one Māori electorate (Te Tai Tonga), each

Education.

Secondary schools.

Christchurch is home to the fourth largest school in New Zealand, co-educational state school Burnside High School, with pupils. Cashmere High School, Papanui High School and Riccarton High School are other large schools. There are four single-sex state schools: Shirley Boys' High School, Christchurch Boys' High School, Avonside Girls' High School and

Tertiary institutions.

A number of tertiary education institutions

Transport.

Christchurch is served by Christchurch Airport and by buses (local and long-distance) and trains. The local bus service, known as Metro, is provided by Environment Canterbury. The car, however, remains the dominant form of transport in the city, as with the rest of New Zealand.  Christchurch has over 2,300 km of roads, of this 360 km is unpaved and 26 km is motorway. Christchurch has three motorways consisting of the Christchurch Northern Motorway (includes the Western Belfast Bypass), Christchurch Southern Motorway and the Christchurch-Lyttelton Motorway.  Christchurch has an extensive bus network with bus routes serving most areas of the city and satellite towns. Nearly all bus routes travelled through the central city Bus Exchange before the earthquake but due to reduced passenger numbers since the earthquakes, especially in the central city, the bus network was reorganised to direct more localised services to 'hubs', such as major shopping centres, where they connect to the central station via core bus routes. Before the 2011 earthquakes, in addition to normal bus services, Christchurch also had a pioneering zero-fare hybrid bus service, the "Shuttle", in the inner city. The service has been suspended following the earthquakes and it is unclear whether it will resume again in the future. Bus services are also available leaving Christchurch, daily passenger bus services operates between Dunedin and Christchurch on the State Highway 1.  Historically, Christchurch has been known as New Zealand's cycling city and currently still attracts about 7% of commuters cycling. The central city has very flat terrain and the Christchurch City Council has established a network of cycle lanes and paths, such as the Railway Cycleway. Post-quake public consultation on

Culture and entertainment.

Christchurch is a distinctly English city, however it contains various European elements, with strong Gothic Revival architecture. As early settlers of New Zealand, Māori culture is also prevalent in the city. It features many public open spaces and parks, river beds and cafés and restaurants situated in the city centre and surrounding suburbs.

Cinema.

While historically most cinemas were grouped around Cathedral Square, only two cinemas remain there. The Regent complex was rebuilt as 'Regent on Worcester' in 1996. In 2009 Metro Cinemas opened in Worcester Street with three screens.  Only one of the first generation of suburban cinemas, the Hollywood in Sumner, remains open. The largest multiplexes were the Hoyts 8 in the old railway station on Moorhouse Avenue (now demolished) and Reading Cinemas (also eight screens) in the Palms shopping centre in

Parks and nature.

The large number of public parks and well-developed residential gardens with many trees has given Christchurch the name of "The Garden City". Hagley Park and the 30-hectare (75 acre) Christchurch Botanic Gardens, founded in 1863, are in the central

Television.

Television broadcasts began in Christchurch on 1 June 1961 with the launch of channel CHTV3, making Christchurch the second New Zealand city (behind Auckland) to receive regular television broadcasts. In November 1969. CHTV3 was networked with its counterpart stations in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin for form NZBC TV, the predecessor to today's TVNZ 1.  Christchurch had its own regional television station Canterbury Television. CTV was first formed in 1991 and ceased broadcasting on 16 December 2016.

Theatre.

Christchurch has one full-time professional theatre, the Court Theatre, founded in 1971. Originally based in the Christchurch Arts Centre, the Court Theatre has been located in the suburb of Addington in temporary accommodation following the 2011 earthquakes. Alongside the Court, the co-operative and experimental Free Theatre Christchurch was established in 1979 and based in the Arts Centre from 1982.

Music.

The city is known for its many live acts, including a professional symphony orchestra. After the closure of Canterbury Opera in 2006, due to financial reasons, in 2009 another professional opera company, Southern Opera, was founded. After the 2010 and 2011 earthquaques, it suspended its activities, before merging with New Zealand Opera in 2013. Christchurch is a home for the experimental music scene of New Zealand. The town is the home to such bands as The Bats, The Narcs, Shocking Pinks and Bailter Space.  There are usually buskers around the town square and Christchurch also hosts the World Buskers Festival in January each year. Singer-songwriter Hayley Westenra launched her international career by busking in Christchurch.

Venues.

The Horncastle Arena is New Zealand's second largest permanent multipurpose arena, seating between 5000 and 8000, depending on configuration. It is home of the Mainland Tactix netball side. It was the venue for the 1999 World Netball championships and has been host to many concerts in recent years.  The Christchurch Town Hall auditorium (2500 seats, opened 1972) was the first major auditorium design by architects Warren and Mahoney and acoustician Marshall Day. It is still recognised as a model example of concert-hall design with an excellent modern pipe organ. The hall reopened on 23 February 2019,

Utilities.

Electricity.

The Christchurch City Council established the city's first public electricity supply in 1903, and the city was connected to Coleridge Power Station in 1914. Up until 1989, electricity distribution and retailing in Christchurch was the responsibility of four entities: the Christchurch City Council Municipal Electricity Department (MED), Riccarton Electricity, the Port Hills Energy Authority, and the Central Canterbury Electric Power Board. In 1989, all four companies entered a joint venture, named Southpower. The 1998 electricity sector reforms required all electricity companies to separate

Sister cities.

Christchurch has seven sister

References.

Notes  Bibliography

Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. The Christchurch urban area lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula. The urban area is home to residents, and the territorial authority has people, which makes it the second-most populous city in New Zealand after Auckland and before Wellington. The Avon River flows through the centre of the city, with an urban park located along its banks.

' (, : ""), offiziell'genannt, ist die größte Stadt ("City") auf der Südinsel von Neuseeland und zugleich eine eigenständige (Gebietskörperschaft) in der Region.


Federal popular initiative.

The federal popular initiative (German: "Eidgenössische Volksinitiative", French: "Initiative populaire fédérale", Italian: "Iniziativa popolare federale") is an instrument of direct democracy in Switzerland. It allows citizens to propose changes to the Swiss Federal Constitution. A votation will be organised for every proposition of modification that collected 100,000 valid signatures in 18 months.  The most frequent themes tackled by initiatives are healthcare, taxes, welfare, drug policy, public transport, immigration, asylum, and education. There are only two kinds of restrictions on the content:  It is different from the mandatory referendum in that the proposition to change the constitution comes from the population and not from the parliament. The authorities, even if they don't like it, cannot prevent an initiative which has collected enough signatures from being held, but they can make a counter proposal, known as counter-project.  A double majority of people and cantons is required to change the constitution.  Popular initiatives exist at the federal, cantonal (cantons) and communal (town) levels.

History.

Popular initiatives were introduced as a tool at the federal level in the 1891 partial revision of the Swiss Federal Constitution. Between 1893 and 2014, out of a total of 192 federal initiatives put to the vote, 22 were successful. Another 73 were withdrawn, mostly in favour of a counter-proposal.  The first successful initiative was the first ever launched, asking for "prohibition of slaughter without prior anesthesia" (ostensibly phrased as a matter of animal rights, but in practice directed against shechita in particular, a practice that remains outlawed in Switzerland to the present day).  The successful initiatives date to the following years: 1893, 1908 (absinthe), 1918, 1920 (gambling), 1921, 1928 (gambling), 1949, 1982, 1987 (protection of wetlands), 1990 (nuclear power moratorium), 1993 (National Day), 1994 (protection of alpine ecosystems), 2002 (UN membership), 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 (minaret ban), 2010, 2012, 2013 (executive pay), 2014 (immigration), 2014 (paedophile work ban).  Successful initiatives were thus quite rare, with a gap of 20 years during 1929–1949, and even of more than 30 years during 1949–1982 during which not a single initiative found favour with the electorate. In the 21st century, the picture changes significantly, with five successful initiatives during the 2000s, and another five just during 2010–2014.  Among the 170 rejected initiatives (as of October 2014), there are several that still played a major role in Swiss politics. Notable among them, also for the high voter turnout they inspired, were the anti-immigration initiatives of James Schwarzenbach in 1970 and 1974 (74.7% and 70.3% turnout, respectively), and the 1989 initiative with the aim of abolishing the Swiss Army (69.2% turnout).

Suggested revisions.

At the time of its introduction to the Swiss Constitution in 1891, the federal initiative system was initially meant to let groups that were not represented in the parliamentary process voice their concerns.  Since the 2000s, it has been increasingly used by political parties to bypass the parliamentary process. Some critics argue that it undermines the whole Swiss political system, based on compromise and adaptation to one another, as it suppresses any possibility to negotiate on an issue (an initiative can only be accepted or rejected as a whole). Others argue that it is democracy in its purest form.  Critics also argue that the multiplication of initiatives undermines the stability of the legal framework, as initiatives proposing drastic reforms are more and more frequent.

A popular initiative (German: "Volksinitiative", French "Initiative populaire", Italian "Iniziativa popolare", Romansh "Iniziativa dal pievel") allows the people to suggest law in Switzerland on a federal, cantonal and municipal level. On a federal and cantonal level it suggests changing the respective constitution. Besides referendum and, in some cantons, recall, it is a means of direct democracy in Switzerland.

Die Volksinitiative (,, ) ist ein schweizerisches politisches Recht, das von Stimmberechtigten auf Bundes-, Kantons- und Gemeindeebene ergriffen werden kann. Die direkte Demokratie der Schweiz kennt zwei grundsätzlich unterschiedliche Instrumente der direkten politischen Einflussnahme. Mit dem Instrument der Volksinitiative entscheidet der Souverän über die Aufnahme einer neuen Bestimmung in die Verfassung. Mit dem Instrument des Referendums ergreift der Souverän die abschliessende Entscheidungshoheit über neue Gesetze.


Brothers' names, family background, and lifetimes.

The Marx Brothers were born in New York City, the sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and France. Their mother Miene "Minnie" Schoenberg (professionally known as Minnie Palmer, later the brothers' manager) was from Dornum in East Frisia, and their father Samuel ("Sam"; born Simon) Marx was a native of Mertzwiller, a small Alsacian village, and worked as a tailor. (His name was changed to Samuel Marx, and he was nicknamed "Frenchy".) The family lived in the Yorkville district of New York City's Upper East Side, centered in the Irish, German and Italian quarters. The brothers are best known by their stage names:  Another brother, Manfred ("Mannie"), the first-born son of Sam and Minnie, was born in 1886 and died in infancy:  Family lore told privately of the firstborn son, Manny, born in 1886 but surviving for only three months, and carried off by tuberculosis. Even some members of the Marx family wondered if he was pure myth. But Manfred can be verified. A death certificate of the Borough of Manhattan reveals that he died, aged seven

Stage beginnings.

The brothers were from a family of artists, and their musical talent was encouraged from an early age. Harpo was particularly talented, learning to play an estimated six different instruments throughout his career. He became a dedicated harpist, which gave him his nickname. Chico was an excellent pianist, Groucho a guitarist and singer, and Zeppo a vocalist.  They got their start in vaudeville, where their uncle Albert Schönberg performed as Al Shean of Gallagher and Shean. Groucho's debut was in 1905, mainly as a singer. By 1907, he and Gummo were singing together as "The Three Nightingales" with Mabel O'Donnell. The next year, Harpo became the fourth Nightingale and by 1910, the group briefly expanded to include their mother Minnie and their Aunt Hannah. The troupe was renamed "The Six Mascots".

Comedy.

One evening in 1912, a performance at the Opera House in Nacogdoches, Texas, was interrupted by shouts from outside about a runaway mule. The audience hurried out to see what was happening. Groucho was angered by the interruption and, when the audience returned, he made snide comments at their expense, including "Nacogdoches is full of roaches" and "the jackass is the flower of Tex-ass". Instead of becoming angry, the audience laughed. The family then realized that it had potential as a comic troupe. (However, in his autobiography "Harpo Speaks", Harpo Marx stated that the runaway mule incident occurred in Ada, Oklahoma. A 1930 article in the "San Antonio Express" newspaper stated that the incident took place in Marshall, Texas.)  The act slowly evolved from singing with comedy to comedy with

Origin of the stage names.

The stage names of the brothers (except Zeppo) were coined by monologist Art Fisher during a poker game in Galesburg, Illinois, based both on the brothers' personalities and Gus Mager's "Sherlocko the Monk", a popular comic strip of the day that included a supporting character named "Groucho". As Fisher dealt each brother a card, he addressed them, for the very first time, by the names they kept for the rest of their lives.  The reasons behind Chico's and Harpo's stage names are undisputed, and Gummo's is fairly well established. Groucho's and Zeppo's are far less clear. Arthur was named Harpo because he played the harp, and Leonard became Chico (pronounced "Chick-o") because he was, in the slang of the period, a "chicken chaser". ("Chickens"—later "chicks"—was period slang for women. "In England now," said Groucho, "they were called 'birds'.")  In his autobiography, Harpo explained that Milton became Gummo because he crept about the theater like a gumshoe detective. Other sources reported that Gummo was the family's hypochondriac, having been the sickliest of the brothers in childhood, and therefore wore rubber overshoes, called gumshoes, in all kinds of weather. Still others reported that Milton was the troupe's best dancer, and dance shoes tended to

Motion pictures.

Paramount.

The Marx Brothers' stage shows became popular just as motion pictures were evolving to "talkies". They signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and embarked on their film career at Paramount's studios in New York City's Astoria section. Their first two released films (after an unreleased short silent film titled "Humor Risk") were adaptations of the Broadway shows "The Cocoanuts" (1929) and "Animal Crackers" (1930). Both were written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. Production then shifted to Hollywood, beginning with a short film that was included in Paramount's twentieth anniversary documentary, "The House That Shadows Built" (1931), in which they adapted a scene from "I'll Say She Is". Their third feature-length film, "Monkey Business" (1931), was their first movie not based on a stage production.  "Horse Feathers" (1932), in which the brothers satirized the American college system and Prohibition, was their most popular film yet, and won them the cover of "Time" magazine. It included a running gag from their stage work, in which Harpo produces

MGM, RKO, and United Artists.

After expiration of the Paramount contract Zeppo left the act to become an agent. He and brother Gummo went on to build one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood, helping the likes of Jack Benny and Lana Turner get their starts. Groucho and Chico did radio, and there was talk of returning to Broadway. At a bridge game with Chico, Irving Thalberg began discussing the possibility of the Marxes joining Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. They signed, now billed as "Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Marx Bros."  Unlike the free-for-all scripts at Paramount, Thalberg insisted on a strong story structure that made the brothers more sympathetic characters, interweaving their comedy with romantic plots and non-comic musical numbers, and targeting their mischief-making at obvious villains. Thalberg was adamant that scripts include a "low point", where all seems lost for both the Marxes and the romantic leads. He instituted the innovation of testing the film's script before live audiences before filming began, to perfect the comic timing, and to retain jokes that earned laughs and replace those that did not. Thalberg restored

Later years.

From the 1940s onward Chico and Harpo appeared separately and together in nightclubs and casinos. Chico fronted a big band, the Chico Marx Orchestra (with 17-year-old Mel Tormé as a vocalist). Groucho made several radio appearances during the 1940s and starred in "You Bet Your Life", which ran from 1947 to 1961 on NBC radio and television. He authored several books, including "Groucho and Me" (1959), "Memoirs of a Mangy Lover" (1964) and "The Groucho Letters" (1967).  Groucho and Chico briefly appeared in a 1957 color short film promoting "The Saturday Evening Post" entitled "Showdown at Ulcer Gulch," directed by animator Shamus Culhane, Chico's son-in-law. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo worked together (in separate scenes) in "The Story of Mankind" (1957). In 1959, the three began production of "Deputy Seraph", a TV series starring Harpo and

Impact on modern entertainment.

On January 16, 1977, the Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame. With the deaths of Gummo in April 1977, Groucho in August 1977, and Zeppo in November 1979, the brothers were gone. But their impact on the entertainment community continues well into the 21st century. Among famous comedians who have cited them as influences on their style have been Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Judd Apatow, Mel Brooks, John Cleese, Elliott Gould, Spike Milligan, Monty Python, Carl Reiner, as well as David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams. Comedian Frank Ferrante made impersonations of Groucho a career. Other celebrity fans of the comedy ensemble have been Antonin Artaud, The Beatles, Anthony Burgess, Alice Cooper, Robert Crumb, Salvador Dalí, Eugene Ionesco, George Gershwin, (who dressed up as Groucho once ) René Goscinny, Cédric Klapisch, J. D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut.

Art.

Salvador Dali once

Film.

Peter Sellers imitates Groucho in "Let's Go Crazy" (1951).  In "The Way We Were" (1972) the main characters attend a party, dressed as the Marx Brothers. The real Groucho Marx also visited the set, of which a photograph was taken by David F. Smith.  In Woody Allen's "Take the Money and Run" (1969) Virgil's parents give an interview while wearing Groucho masks. "Annie Hall" (1977) starts off with a Groucho Marx joke, which is referred to again later. In "Manhattan" (1979), he names the Marx Brothers as the first thing that makes life worth living. In "Stardust Memories" there is a huge Groucho poster in the main character's flat. In Allen's film "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986), Woody's character, after a suicide attempt, is inspired to go on living after seeing a revival showing of "Duck Soup". In "Everyone Says

Animation.

In the Fleischer Brothers' "Betty Boop" cartoon "Betty in Blunderland" (1934) Betty sings "Everyone Says I Love You", a song owned by Paramount Pictures, which also owned Betty's cartoons as well as the Marx Brothers film it was taken from: "Horse Feathers".  The Marx Brothers have cameos in the Disney cartoons "The Bird Store" (1932), "Mickey's Gala Premier" (1932), "Mickey's Polo Team" (1936), "Mother Goose Goes Hollywood" (1938) and "The Autograph Hound" (1939). Dopey in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was inspired

Live-action television.

Harpo Marx appeared as himself on a 1955 episode of "I Love Lucy" in which first, he performed "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on his harp, then, he and Lucille Ball reprised the mirror routine from "Duck Soup", with Lucy dressed up as Harpo. Lucy had worked with the Marxes when she appeared in a supporting role in an earlier Marx Brothers film, "Room Service". Chico once appeared on "I've Got a Secret" dressed up as Harpo; his secret was shown in a caption reading, "I'm pretending to be Harpo Marx (I'm Chico)".  Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) on "M*A*S*H" occasionally put on a fake nose and glasses, and, holding a cigar, did a Groucho impersonation to amuse patients recovering from surgery. Early episodes also featured a singing and off-scene character named Captain Spaulding as a tribute.  In the

Theatre.

The Marx Brothers were spoofed in the second act of the Broadway Review "A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine".  In

Music.

Jacques Brel's song "Le Gaz" was inspired by the cabin scene in "A Night at the Opera".  Rock band Queen named two of their albums after Marx Brothers films; "A Night at the Opera" (1975) and "A Day at the Races" (1976), and in Freddie Mercury's solo album "Mr. Bad Guy " in the song titled “Living on My Own” he sings; "I ain't

Literature.

Jack Kerouac wrote a poem "To Harpo Marx".  Ron

Advertising.

In the Vlasic Pickles commercials, the stork associated with the product holds a pickle the way

Filmography.

Films with the four Marx Brothers:

Legacy.

Awards and honors.

In the 1974 Academy Awards telecast, Jack Lemmon presented Groucho with an honorary Academy Award to a standing ovation. The award was also on behalf of Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo, whom Lemmon mentioned by name. It was one of Groucho's final major public appearances. "I wish that Harpo and Chico could be here to share with me this great honor", he said, naming the two deceased brothers (Zeppo

The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) as among the top 100 comedy films, with two of them, "Duck Soup" (1933) and "A Night at the Opera" (1935), in the top fifteen. They are widely considered by critics, scholars, and fans to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century. The brothers were included in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list of the 25 greatest male stars of Classical Hollywood cinema, the only performers to be inducted collectively.

Die Marx Brothers waren eine US-amerikanische Komikertruppe, die durch Filme sowie Fernseh- und Theaterauftritte mit musikalischen Einlagen bekannt wurde und ihnen nachfolgende Komiker maßgeblich inspiriert hat. Sie zählten über Jahrzehnte zu den beliebtesten Komikern Amerikas.


History.

The scapular may have emerged from an apron-like piece of cloth worn by monks. Item 55 of the Rule of Saint Benedict, dating to the 7th century refers to the use of the scapular. In the Catholic Church the key elements of a monk's habit eventually became the tunic, the cincture, the scapular and the hood. A nun's clothing included the tunic, the scapular and the head veil. Some authors interpret the scapular as a symbolic apron based on the fact that monks and nuns, when engaged on some manual labor, tend to cover it with a protective apron or carefully tuck it up or throw the front length back over their shoulder to prevent it from getting in the way.

Varieties.

Monastic scapular.

Today, the monastic scapular is part of the garb, the habit, of many Christian religious orders, of both monks and nuns. It is an outer garment about the width of the chest, from shoulder to shoulder. It hangs down in the front and back almost to the feet, but is open on the sides (it was originally joined by straps at the waist). It is related to the "analavos" worn in the Eastern tradition.  Historically, the monastic scapular was at times referred to as "scutum" (i.e. shield), as it was laid over the head, which it originally covered and protected with one portion (from which the hood afterwards developed). A specific aspect of the use of the monastic scapular from its earliest days was obedience and the term "jugum Christi", i.e. "yoke of Christ", was used to refer to it. The term "yoke of Christ" signified obedience and removing a scapular was like removing the yoke of Christ, i.e. rebelling against authority. For instance, the Carmelite constitution of 1281 prescribed that the scapular should be worn to bed under penalty of serious fault, and the constitution of 1369 included automatic excommunication for a Carmelite saying Mass without a scapular.  Over the centuries the religious orders adapted the basic scapular as they considered appropriate for themselves, as a result of which there are now several distinct designs, colors, shapes and lengths in use. The Carthusians and others attached a hood to their scapular, rather than keeping the former a separate item of their habit, while some, like the Dominican Order or Carmelites, wear it beneath another layer, like a shoulder cape or capuce (that is, the "hood"). The color selection could change over time; for instance, prior to 1255, the Augustinian scapulars for novices were black and those of the lay brethren were white, but thereafter all scapulars but those of the lay brethren had to be white.  In some cases the monastic scapular was used to distinguish the rank or level of the wearer within a religious order. For instance, in some Byzantine monastic practices, two levels of fully professed monk or nun exist: those of the "little habit" and those other of the "great habit", these being more senior and not having to do manual labor. In these cases, the "great habit" was simply distinguished from the "little habit" by the addition of a scapular decorated with the instruments of the Passion.  Just as the stole is the vestment that came to mark the office of a priest, the monastic scapular became the equivalent for those in the monastic life and even today, a long scapular identifies its wearer as a member of a religious order. It is a symbol of the confraternal way, combining in itself the principle of "ora et labora" (prayer and work), and so the form was later adopted by pious laity who wished to have an open sign of their devotion.

Non-monastic reduced scapular.

Some authors suggest that the tradition of wearing a reduced form of a non-monastic scapular started in the 11th century with Saint Peter Damian and the monastic scapular was gradually transformed from an item of clothing that was part of the habit of monks and nuns to a smaller item that expressed devotion by individuals, called oblates, who lived in the world, but wished to be affiliated with a monastery.  In the Middle Ages, it became common for Christian faithful to share in the spirituality of the new mendicant orders in an auxiliary sense, sometimes called Third Orders because they were founded after the initial orders of the friars and nuns. Although these people (called Tertiaries) were permitted to wear the "tertiary habit", because they had not taken religious vows they were not usually permitted to wear the full habit of the order. With time, it was considered a high honor and great privilege to be granted a small cloth attached by bands which would be worn over the torso in the same manner as the full monastic scapular. Confraternities came to be formed in which people would be granted the wearing of this item as a mark of their sharing in the good works of a particular order. Among Franciscans, they were known as "Cordbearers", due to their also wearing a small cord around the waist in imitation of the one worn by the friar.  After the disruptions of religious life during the period of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic invasions of France and Italy, wearing of the tertiary habit became prohibited. Thus it eventually became common that a smaller form of an order's scapular would be bestowed upon the non-monastic. Rather than a full length of cloth, it consisted of two rectangles (several inches wide, and much larger than a modern devotional scapular) of wool joined by bands in some fashion. These are still worn today by the "Third Order" members of the Franciscans, Carmelites, and Dominicans. In order to gain the benefits of the order, the members must wear these scapulae constantly. However, in 1883 in his ""Constitution On the Law of the Franciscan Third Order"" called "Misericors Dei Filius", Pope Leo XIII declared that wearing either these medium-sized scapulae of the "Third Order" or the miniature forms of the smaller devotional scapular entitled the wearer equally to gain the indulgences associated with the order. Some religious orders still give a short version (sometimes called the "reduced scapular", but this usage is archaic) of their large scapular to non-monastics that are spiritually affiliated with them. Such short scapulars are designed to be unobtrusive and can be worn under regular clothing at home and at work.

Devotional scapular.

Devotional scapulars are objects of popular piety, primarily worn by Roman Catholics, as well as some Anglicans and Lutherans, designed to show the wearer's pledge to a confraternity, a saint, or a way of life, as well as reminding the wearer of that promise. Some devotional scapulars bear images, or verses from scripture. Devotional scapulars typically consist of two rectangular pieces of cloth, wool or other fabric that are connected by bands. One rectangle hangs over the chest of the wearer, while the other rests on the back, with the bands running over the shoulders. Some scapulars have extra bands running under the arms and connecting the rectangles to prevent them from getting dislodged underneath the wearer's top layer of clothes.  The roots of devotional scapulars can be traced to the gathering of laity into confraternities for spiritual direction, whereby the faithful would be assigned some badge or token of affiliation and devotion. The image or message on the scapular usually reflects the order's focus, tradition or favored devotion. Devotional scapulars and the indulgences attached to them grew along with the growth of Catholic confraternities during the 17th and 18th centuries. The fact that specific promises and indulgences were attached to the wearing of scapulars helped increase their following, as was seen with the early example of the Brown Scapular, habit of the Carmelites. This promise was based on the Carmelite tradition that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock at Cambridge, England in 1251 in answer to his appeal for help for his oppressed order and recommended the Brown Scapular of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel to him and promised salvation for the faithful who wore it piously. Regardless of the scholarly debates regarding the exact origin of the Brown Scapular, it is clear that it has been a part of the Carmelite habit since the late 13th century. The Blue Scapular of the Immaculate Conception that dates to 1617 was eventually granted a significant number of indulgences, and many graces were promised to those who would honor the Immaculate Conception by wearing the Blue Scapular and live chastely according to their state in life. In 1885 Pope Leo XIII approved the Scapular of the Holy Face, (also known as "The Veronica") and elevated the "Priests of the Holy Face" to an archconfraternity. He also approved the Scapular of Our Lady of Good Counsel and the Scapular of St. Joseph, both in 1893, and the Scapular of the Sacred Heart in 1900. In 1611, the Servite Order's confraternity and their Black Scapular of the Seven Sorrows of Mary received indulgences from Pope Paul V.  During the 19th century, a number of other Scapulars were approved. The green Scapular of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was approved by Pope Pius IX in 1877 and the white Scapular of Our Lady of Good Counsel received the approval of Leo XIII in 1893 for the purpose of invoking Mary's guidance upon its wearer. The black Scapular of Our Lady Help of the Sick, (for the Confraternity founded by St. Camillus de Lellis) was approved by Pius IX in 1860. In 1863 he also approved the Green Scapular, which is not from a Confraternity but an image inspired by a vision of the Blessed Mother experienced by Sr. Justine Bisqueyburu from the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul.  By the early 20th century the devotional scapular had gained such a strong following among Catholics worldwide that Joseph Hilgers, in the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912 stated: "Like the rosary, [the Brown Scapular] has become the badge of the devout Catholic". In the 1917 reported apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared "with a Rosary in one hand and a scapular in the other". Sister Lúcia (one of the three Fátima children visionaries) stated that the Virgin Mary told her: ""The Rosary and the Scapular are inseparable"". In the United States "Scapular Magazine" helped enroll one million Americans to pray the Rosary based on the Fatima messages. The Rosary and the devotional scapular continue to be linked in the 21st century.  While a number of scapulars (e.g. the Scapular of the Holy Face, also known as "The Veronica") are entirely Christocentric, the most widespread scapulars (including the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the Blue Scapular of the Immaculate Conception) relate to Marian devotions and consecrations. John Paul II stated that he received his first Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel at age ten when his Marian devotion was taking shape and he continued to wear it into his papacy.  The Catholic Encyclopedia lists 18 small scapulars approved by the Roman Catholic church:  Of all the types recognized by the Roman Catholic Church the best-known, and perhaps the most popular, is the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, sometimes referred to as the Brown Scapular from the color of its bands. The wearing of a devotional scapular has been viewed as a "constant meditation" by Bishop Leo De Goesbriand: "Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, Mary never sees me without seeing upon my body an evidence of my devotion to her." This scapular, with its history in Britain, along with the Scapular of Our Lady of Walsingham are also popular devotions in the Anglican Church. The Green Scapular, "instituted for the conversion of those without faith" is another popular scapular among the Christian community.  From a spiritual viewpoint, Father Etienne Richer argues that devotional scapular is one of key Roman Catholic devotions that "harmonize" with Catholic Liturgy in the meditative process.

In Protestant churches.

Scapular wearing is sometimes found in Protestant churches including Anglican, Lutheran, and Methodist. Instructions are provided in United Methodist Church allowing scapular to be worn over the alb by anyone lay or clergy, not as a pastoral stole or chasuble, either colored for the Church season or not.  Some Anglican churches use the scapular to designate the difference of vestments between choristers boys and girls, a tradition that continues in Church of South India for women and men.  Lutheran churches sometimes use scapulars as vestments for both men and women servers over cassocks which are regarded as clerical clothing not vestments. Scapulars in Protestant churches do not necessarily have the same meaning as in Catholic church.  Choirs may wear scapular over alb in Lutheran colleges.

Investment, blessing and rules.

Though each scapular has its own particular qualifications and usage, the Roman Catholic Church has set down certain rules that pertain to all its types, be they monastic or devotional. A scapular associated with a confraternity must be invested by an ordained representative of that group. A scapular associated with a mystery or devotion may simply be blessed by a priest and given to the wearer. To receive the benefits or indulgences granted the scapular generally must be worn constantly. It may be placed aside for a time but, during that period, the wearer does not receive the scapular's benefits. Should the wearer take up the wearing of it again, the benefits are again conferred.  A devotional scapular must be in good repair with both bands intact. Multiple scapulae may be worn on the same bands, but the bands must be the color of those prescribed by the scapular with the most preeminence, and that scapular must be foremost with the others behind in order of precedence. If a scapular becomes damaged to the point where it cannot be in good repair, it must be replaced. However, it is not necessary for the wearer to be reinvested as it is the devotion of the wearer, not the object itself, that confers the benefit of the scapular.

External links.

Articles

The scapular (from Latin "scapulae", "shoulders") is a Western Christian garment suspended from the shoulders. There are two types of scapular, the monastic and devotional scapular, although both forms may simply be referred to as "scapular". As an object of popular piety, it serves to remind the wearers of their commitment to live a Christian life.

Ein Skapulier (von lat. "scapularium" „Schulterkleid“) ist ein Überwurf über die Tunika einer Ordenstracht. Es besteht aus einem vorn und hinten bis fast zum Fußboden reichenden Tuch, das normalerweise durchgehend gerade oder an den Schultern etwas breiter und auf Saumhöhe geringfügig schmaler ist. Manchmal wird es über dem Zingulum (z. B. Benediktiner, Karmeliten, Kartäuser), manchmal darunter (z. B. Trappisten, Prämonstratenser) getragen.


History and implementation.

Sun Microsystems released JDBC as part of Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.1 on February 19, 1997. Since then it has been part of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE).  The JDBC classes are contained in the Java package and.  Starting with version 3.1, JDBC has been developed under the Java Community Process. JSR 54 specifies JDBC 3.0 (included in J2SE 1.4), JSR 114 specifies the JDBC Rowset additions, and JSR 221 is the specification of JDBC 4.0 (included in Java SE 6).  JDBC 4.1, is specified by a maintenance release 1 of JSR 221 and is included in Java SE 7.  JDBC 4.2, is specified by a maintenance release 2 of JSR 221 and is included in Java SE 8.  The latest version, JDBC 4.3, is specified by a maintenance release 3 of JSR 221 and is included in Java SE 9.

Functionality.

JDBC ('Java Database Connectivity') allows multiple implementations to exist and be used by the same application. The API provides a mechanism for dynamically loading the correct Java packages and registering them with the JDBC Driver Manager. The Driver Manager is used as a connection factory for creating JDBC connections.  JDBC connections support creating and executing statements. These may be update statements such as SQL's CREATE, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE, or they may be query statements such as SELECT. Additionally, stored procedures may be invoked through a JDBC connection. JDBC represents statements using one of the following classes:  Update statements such as INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE return an update count that indicates how many rows were affected in the database. These statements do not return any other information.  Query statements return a JDBC row result set. The row result set is used to walk over the result set. Individual columns in a row are retrieved either by name or by column number. There may be any number of rows in the result set. The row result set has metadata that describes the names of the columns and their types.  There is an extension to the basic JDBC API in the.  JDBC connections are often managed via a connection pool rather than obtained directly from the driver.

Examples.

When a Java application needs a database connection, one of the codice_1 methods is used to create a JDBC connection. The URL used is dependent upon the particular database and JDBC driver. It will always begin with the "jdbc:" protocol, but the rest is up to the particular vendor. Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection( try { } finally { Starting from Java SE 7 you can use Java's try-with-resources statement to make the above code simpler:  try (Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection( } // the VM will take care of closing the connection Once a connection is established, a statement can be created. try (Statement stmt = conn.createStatement()) {  Note that Connections, Statements, and ResultSets often tie up operating system resources such as sockets or file descriptors. In the case of Connections to remote database servers, further resources are tied up on the server, e.g., cursors for currently open ResultSets. It is vital to codice_2 any JDBC object as soon as it has played its part; garbage collection should not be relied upon. The above try-with-resources construct is a code pattern that obviates this.  Data is retrieved from the database using a database query mechanism. The example below shows creating a statement and executing a query. try (Statement stmt = conn.createStatement();  An example of a codice_3 query, using codice_4 and class from first example. try (PreparedStatement ps =  } // try If a database operation fails, JDBC raises an. There is typically very little one can do to recover from such an error, apart from logging it with as much detail as possible. It is recommended that the SQLException be translated into an application domain exception (an unchecked one) that eventually results in a transaction rollback and a notification to the user.  An example of a database transaction:  boolean autoCommitDefault = conn.getAutoCommit(); try {  } catch (Throwable e) { } finally {  For an example of a codice_5 (to call stored procedures in the database), see the documentation. import java.sql.Connection; import java.sql.DriverManager; import java.sql.Statement;  public class Mydb1 {

JDBC drivers.

JDBC drivers are client-side adapters (installed on the client machine, not on the server) that convert requests from Java programs to a protocol that the DBMS can understand.

Types.

Commercial and free drivers provide connectivity to most relational-database servers. These drivers fall into one of the following types:  Note also a type called an internal JDBC driver - a driver embedded with JRE in Java-enabled SQL databases. It is used for Java stored procedures. This does not fit into the classification scheme above, although it would likely resemble either a type 2 or type 4 driver (depending on whether the database itself is implemented in Java or not). An example of this is the KPRB (Kernel Program Bundled) driver supplied with Oracle RDBMS. "jdbc:default:connection" offers a relatively standard way of making such a connection (at least the Oracle database and Apache Derby support it). However, in the case of an internal JDBC driver, the JDBC client actually runs as part of the database being accessed, and so can access data directly rather than through network protocols.

Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is an application programming interface (API) for the programming language Java, which defines how a client may access a database. It is a Java-based data access technology used for Java database connectivity. It is part of the Java Standard Edition platform, from Oracle Corporation. It provides methods to query and update data in a database, and is oriented toward relational databases. A JDBC-to-ODBC bridge enables connections to any ODBC-accessible data source in the Java virtual machine (JVM) host environment.

Java Database Connectivity (JDBC, für "Java Datenbankverbindungsfähigkeit") ist eine Datenbankschnittstelle der Java-Plattform, die eine einheitliche Schnittstelle zu Datenbanken verschiedener Hersteller bietet und speziell auf relationale Datenbanken ausgerichtet ist.


Features.

Like GNOME, Xfce is based on the GTK toolkit, but it is not a GNOME fork. It uses the Xfwm window manager, described below. Its configuration is entirely mouse-driven, with the configuration files hidden from the casual user. Xfce does not feature any desktop animations, but Xfwm supports compositing.

History.

Olivier Fourdan started the project in 1996 as a Linux version of the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), a Unix desktop environment that was initially proprietary and later released as free software. However, over time, Xfce diverged from CDE and now stands on its own. The name "XFCE" was originally an acronym for "XForms Common Environment", but since that time it has been rewritten twice and no longer uses the XForms toolkit. The name survived, but it is no longer capitalized as "XFCE", but rather as "Xfce". The developers' current stance is that the initialism no longer stands for anything specific. After noting this, the FAQ on the Xfce Wiki comments "(suggestion: X Freakin' Cool Environment)". The Slackware Linux distribution has nicknamed Xfce the "Cholesterol Free Desktop Environment", a loose interpretation of the initialism.

Mascot.

Per the FAQ, the logo of Xfce is "a mouse, obviously, for all kinds of reasons like world domination and monsters and such." In the "SuperTuxKart" game, in which various open source mascots race against each other, the mouse is said to be a female named "Xue".

Early versions.

Xfce began as a simple project created with XForms. Olivier Fourdan released the program, which was just a simple taskbar, on SunSITE.  Fourdan continued developing the project and in 1998, Xfce 2 was released with the first version of Xfce's window manager, Xfwm. He requested to have the project included in Red Hat Linux, but was refused due to its XForms basis. Red Hat only accepted software that was open source and released under either a GPL or BSD compatible license, whereas, at the time, XForms was closed source and free only for personal use. For the same reason, Xfce was not in Debian before version 3, and Xfce 2 was only distributed in Debian's contrib repository.  In March 1999, Fourdan began a complete rewrite of the project based on GTK, a non-proprietary toolkit then rising in popularity. The result was Xfce 3.0, licensed under the GPL. Along with being based completely on free software, the project gained GTK drag-and-drop support, native language support, and improved configurability. Xfce was uploaded to SourceForge.net in February 2001, starting with version 3.8.1.

Modern Xfce.

In version 4.0.0, released 25 September 2003, Xfce was upgraded to use the GTK 2 libraries. Changes in 4.2.0 included a compositing manager for Xfwm which added built-in support for transparency and drop shadows, as well as a new default SVG icon set. In January 2007, Xfce 4.4.0 was released. This included the Thunar file manager, a replacement for Xffm. Support for desktop icons was added. Also, various improvements were made to the panel to prevent buggy plugins from crashing the whole panel. In February 2009, Xfce 4.6.0 was released. This version had a new configuration backend, a new settings manager and a new sound mixer, as well as several significant improvements to the session manager and the rest of Xfce's core components.  In January 2011, Xfce 4.8.0 was released. This version included changes such as the replacement of ThunarVFS and HAL with GIO, udev, ConsoleKit and PolicyKit, and new utilities for browsing remote network shares using several protocols including SFTP, SMB, and FTP. Window clutter was reduced by merging all Thunar file progress dialog boxes into a single dialog. The panel application was also rewritten for better positioning, transparency, and item and launcher management. 4.8 also introduced a new menu plugin to view directories. The 4.8 plugin framework remains compatible with 4.6 plugins. The display configuration dialog in 4.8 supports RandR 1.2, detecting screens automatically and allowing users to pick their preferred display resolution, refresh rate, and display rotation. Multiple displays can be configured to either work in clone mode, or be placed next to each other. Keyboard selection was revamped to be easier and more user-friendly. Also, the manual settings editor was updated to be more functional.  The 4.8 development cycle was the first to use the new release strategy formed after the "Xfce Release and Development Model" developed at the Ubuntu Desktop Summit in May 2009. A new web application was employed to make release management easier, and a dedicated Transifex server was set up for Xfce translators. The project's server and mirroring infrastructure was also upgraded, partly to cope with anticipated demand following the release announcement for 4.8.  Xfce 4.10, released 28 April 2012, introduced a vertical display mode for the panel and moved much of the documentation to an online wiki. The main focus of this release was on improving the user experience. Xfce 4.12 was released on 28 February 2015, two years and ten months later, contrary to mass Internet speculation about the project being "dead". The target of 4.12 was to improve user experience and take advantage of technologies introduced in the interim. New window manager features include an Alt+Tab dialog, and smart multi-monitor handling. Also, a new power management plugin for the panel's notification area was introduced, as well as a re-written text editor and an enhanced file manager. Xfce 4.12 also started the transition to GTK 3 by porting application and supporting plugins and bookmarks. With 4.12, the project reiterated its commitment to Unix-like platforms other than Linux by featuring OpenBSD screenshots.  Xfce 4.13 is the development release during the transition of porting components to be fully GTK3-compatible, including xfce-panel and xfce-settings.  The planned release of Xfce 4.14 was announced in April 2016. The main goals of the release include porting the remaining core components from GTK 2 to GTK 3; replacing the dependency on with GDBus, GNOME's implementation of the D-Bus specification; and removing deprecated widgets. Major features are postponed for a later 4.16 release. The minimum GTK 3 version was bumped from 3.14 to 3.22. Xfce 4.14 was officially released on 12 August 2019.

Software components.

Applications developed by the Xfce team are based on GTK and self-developed Xfce libraries. Other than Xfce itself, there are third-party programs which use the Xfce libraries.

Development framework.

Xfce provides a development framework which contains the following components:  One of the services provided to applications by the framework is a red banner across the top of the window when the application is running with root privileges, warning the user that they could damage system files.

Xfce Panel.

Xfce Panel is a highly configurable taskbar with a rich collection of plug-ins available for it.  Many aspects of the panel and its plug-ins can be configured easily through graphical dialogs, but also by GTK style properties and hidden Xfconf settings.

Xfce Terminal.

A terminal emulator is provided as part of the Xfce project, but it can be used in other X Window System environments as well. It supports tabs, customizable key bindings, colors, and window sizes. It was designed to replace GNOME Terminal, which depends on the GNOME libraries. Like GNOME Terminal, though, it is based on the VTE library. Xfce Terminal can be configured to offer a varying background color for each tab. It can also be used as a drop-down terminal emulator, similar to Guake or Tilda.

Xfwm.

Xfwm is a window manager, supporting custom themes. Starting with version 4.2, Xfwm integrates its own compositing manager.

Catfish.

A file searching tool, able to perform in-name and in-text matching, as well searching by file type and last modified time. It is also capable of performing indexing by using an mlocate database.

Thunar.

Thunar is the default file manager for Xfce, replacing Xffm. It resembles GNOME's Nautilus, and is designed for speed and a low memory footprint, as well as being highly customizable through plugins. Xfce also has a lightweight archive manager called Xarchiver, but this is not part of the core Xfce 4.4.0. More recently, "Squeeze" has been started as an archive manager designed to integrate better into the Xfce desktop, and though no releases have been made since 2008, the git repository of squeeze has been active and this version is more feature rich than the last stable release.

Orage.

Starting with version 4.4, Xfcalendar was renamed to "Orage" (French for "thunderstorm") and several features were added. Orage has alarms and uses the iCalendar format, making it compatible with many other calendar applications, e.g. vdirsyncer to sync via CalDAV. It also includes a panel clock plugin and an international clock application capable of simultaneously showing clocks from several different time zones.

Mousepad.

Mousepad is the default text editor for Xfce in some Linux distributions, including Xubuntu. Mousepad aims to be an easy-to-use and fast editor, meant for quickly editing text files, not a development environment or an editor with a large plugin ecosystem. It originated as a fork of Leafpad, developed by Erik Harrison and Nick Schermer, but since then, it has been rewritten from scratch.

Parole.

"Parole" is a simple media player based on the GStreamer framework. It is designed with simplicity, speed and resource usage in mind, and is part of the Xfce Goodies and uses at least 3 libraries from the Xfce project (libxfce4ui, libxfce4util, libxfconf).  It is similar to GNOME Videos, but has some advantages and disadvantages compared to:

Ristretto.

An image and slideshow viewer. Ristretto operates on folders of images, displaying thumbnails along with the active image.

Xfburn.

A CD/DVD burning program. Starting with the 4.12 release of Xfce, Xfburn is also able to burn Blu-ray discs.

Xfce Screensaver.

A screen saver and session-locking program first packaged with the 4.14 release of Xfce. It uses screensaver themes compatible with Xscreensaver. Although forked from MATE Screensaver, it depends only on Xfce libraries.

Products and distributions using Xfce.

Xfce is included as one of the graphical user interfaces on the Pandora handheld gaming system.  It is the default desktop environment in the following Linux distributions:  It is also included as a standard desktop option on FreeBSD and in many other Linux distributions not listed above, including Antergos, Arch Linux, Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, Kali, Korora, Linux Mint, Slackware, Mageia, OpenMandriva and Void Linux. Kali Linux also uses Xfce as the desktop environment when running on the ARM platform. Debian makes a separate netinstall CD available that installs Xfce as the default desktop environment. In 2013, Debian briefly made it the default environment, replacing GNOME.

Xfce or XFCE (pronounced as four individual letters) is a free and open-source desktop environment for Linux and BSD operating systems.

Xfce ist eine modular aufgebaute, freie Desktop-Umgebung für Unix und unixartige Betriebssysteme. Sie ist als freie Software unter GPL, LGPL und 2-Klausel-BSD-Lizenz veröffentlicht. Nach einer Umfrage von LinuxQuestions.org ist Xfce hinter KDE die am zweitweitesten verbreitete Desktop-Umgebung auf dem Linux-Desktop (Stand: 2017).


Background.

DNA may be modified, either naturally or artificially, by a number of physical, chemical and biological agents, resulting in mutations. Hermann Muller found that "High temperatures" have the ability to mutate genes in the early 1920s, and in 1927, demonstrated a causal link to mutation upon experimenting with an x-ray machine and noting phylogenetic changes when irradiating fruit flies with relatively high dose of X-rays. Muller observed a number of chromosome rearrangements in his experiments, and suggested mutation as a cause of cancer. The association of exposure to radiation and cancer had been observed as early as 1902, six years after the discovery of X-ray by Wilhelm Röntgen and radioactivity by Henri Becquerel. Muller's contemporary Lewis Stadler also showed the mutational effect of X-ray on barley in 1928, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation on maize in 1936. In 1940s, Charlotte Auerbach and J. M. Robson, found that mustard gas can also cause mutations in fruit flies.  While changes to the chromosome caused by X-ray and mustard gas were readily observable to the early researchers, other changes to the DNA induced by other mutagens were not so easily observable, and the mechanism may be complex and takes longer to unravel. For example, soot was suggested to be a cause of cancer as early as 1775, and coal tar was demonstrated to cause cancer in 1915. The chemicals involved in both were later shown to be polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). PAHs by themselves are not carcinogenic, and it was proposed in 1950 that the carcinogenic forms of PAHs are the oxides produced as metabolites from cellular processes. The metabolic process was identified in 1960s as catalysis by cytochrome P450 which produces reactive species that can interact with the DNA to form adducts,; the mechanism by which the PAH adducts give rise to mutation, however, is still under investigation.  Mammalian nuclear DNA may sustain more than 60,000 damage episodes per cell per day, as listed with references in DNA damage (naturally occurring). If left uncorrected, these adducts, after misreplication past the damaged sites, can give rise to mutations. In nature, the mutations that arise may be beneficial or deleterious—this is the driving force of evolution. An organism may acquire new traits through genetic mutation, but mutation may also result in impaired function of the genes, and in severe cases, cause the death of the organism. Mutation is also a major source for acquisition of resistance to antibiotics in bacteria and possibly to antifungal agents in yeasts. In the laboratory, however, mutagenesis is a useful technique for generating mutations that allows the functions of genes and gene products to be examined in detail, producing proteins with improved characteristics or novel functions, as well as mutant strains with useful properties. Initially, the ability of radiation and chemical mutagens to cause mutation was exploited to generate random mutations, but later techniques were developed to introduce specific mutations.  Humans on average naturally pass 60 new mutations to their children but fathers pass more mutations depending on their age, transmitting an average of two new mutations with every additional year of their age to the child.

Distinction between a mutation and DNA damage.

DNA damage is an abnormal alteration in the structure of DNA that cannot, itself, be replicated when DNA replicates. In contrast, a mutation is a change in the nucleic acid sequence that can be replicated; hence, a mutation can be inherited from one generation to the next. Damage can occur from chemical addition (adduct), or structural disruption to a base of DNA (creating an abnormal nucleotide or nucleotide fragment), or a break in one or both DNA strands. Such DNA damage may result in mutation. When DNA containing damage is replicated, an incorrect base may be inserted in the new complementary strand as it is being synthesized (see ). The incorrect insertion in the new strand will occur opposite the damaged site in the template strand, and this incorrect insertion can become a mutation (i.e. a changed base pair) in the next round of replication. Furthermore, double-strand breaks in DNA may be repaired by an inaccurate repair process, non-homologous end joining, which produces mutations. Mutations can ordinarily be avoided if accurate DNA repair systems recognize DNA damage and repair it prior to completion of the next round of replication. At least 169 enzymes are either directly employed in DNA repair or influence DNA repair processes. Of these, 83 are directly employed in the 5 types of DNA repair processes indicated in the chart shown in the article DNA repair.

Mechanisms.

Mutagenesis may occur endogenously, for example, through spontaneous hydrolysis, or through normal cellular processes that can generate reactive oxygen species and DNA adducts, or through error in replication and repair. Mutagenesis may also arise as a result of the presence of environmental mutagens that induce changes to the DNA. The mechanism by which mutation arises varies according to the causative agent, the mutagen, involved. Most mutagens act either directly, or indirectly via mutagenic metabolites, on the DNA producing lesions. Some, however, may affect the replication or chromosomal partition mechanism, and other cellular processes.  Mutagenesis may also be self-induced by unicellular organisms when environmental conditions are very restrictive, for instance, in presence of toxic substances like antibiotics or, in yeasts, in presence of an antifungal agent or in absence of a nutrient  Many chemical mutagens require biological activation to become mutagenic. An important group of enzymes involved in the generation of mutagenic metabolites is cytochrome P450. Other enzymes that may also produce mutagenic metabolites include glutathione S-transferase and microsomal epoxide hydrolase. Mutagens that are not mutagenic by themselves but require biological activation are called promutagens.  Many mutations arise as a result of problems caused by DNA lesions during replication, resulting in errors in replication. In bacteria, extensive damage to DNA due to mutagens results in single-stranded DNA gaps during replication. This induces the SOS response, an emergency repair process that is also error-prone, thereby generating mutations. In mammalian cells, stalling of replication at damaged sites induces a number of rescue mechanisms that help bypass DNA lesions, but which also may result in errors. The Y family of DNA polymerases specializes in DNA lesion bypass in a process termed translesion synthesis (TLS) whereby these lesion-bypass polymerases replace the stalled high-fidelity replicative DNA polymerase, transit the lesion and extend the DNA until the lesion has been passed so that normal replication can resume. These processes may be error-prone or error-free.

Spontaneous hydrolysis.

DNA is not entirely stable in aqueous solution. Under physiological conditions the glycosidic bond may be hydrolyzed spontaneously and 10,000 purine sites in DNA are estimated to be depurinated each day in a cell. Numerous DNA repair pathways exist for DNA; however, if the apurinic site is not repaired, misincorporation of nucleotides may occur during replication. Adenine is preferentially incorporated by DNA polymerases in an apurinic site.  Cytidine may also become deaminated to uridine at one five-hundredth of the rate of depurination and can result in G to A transition. Eukaryotic cells also contain 5-methylcytosine, thought to be involved in the control of gene transcription, which can become deaminated into thymine.

Modification of bases.

Bases may be modified endogenously by normal cellular molecules. For example, DNA may be methylated by S-adenosylmethionine, and glycosylated by reducing sugars.  Many compounds, such as PAHs, aromatic amines, aflatoxin and pyrrolizidine alkaloids, may form reactive oxygen species catalyzed by cytochrome P450. These metabolites form adducts with the DNA, which can cause errors in replication, and the bulky aromatic adducts may form stable intercalation between bases and block replication. The adducts may also induce conformational changes in the DNA. Some adducts may also result in the depurination of the DNA; it is, however, uncertain how significant such depurination as caused by the adducts is in generating mutation. Alkylation and arylation of bases can cause errors in replication. Some alkylating agents such as N-Nitrosamines may require the catalytic reaction of cytochrome-P450 for the formation of a reactive alkyl cation. N and O of guanine and the N and N of adenine are most susceptible to attack. N-guanine adducts form the bulk of DNA adducts, but they appear to be non-mutagenic. Alkylation at O of guanine, however, is harmful because excision repair of O-adduct of guanine may be poor in some tissues such as the brain. The O methylation of guanine can result in G to A transition, while O-methylthymine can be mispaired with guanine. The type of the mutation generated, however, may be dependent on the size and type of the adduct as well as the DNA sequence.  Ionizing radiation and reactive oxygen species often oxidize guanine to produce 8-oxoguanine.

DNA damage and spontaneous mutation.

As noted above, the number of DNA damage episodes occurring in a mammalian cell per day is high (more than 60,000 per day). Frequent occurrence of DNA damage is likely a problem for all DNA- containing organisms, and the need to cope with DNA damage and minimize their deleterious effects is likely a fundamental problem for life.  Most spontaneous mutations likely arise from error-prone trans-lesion synthesis past a DNA damage site in the template strand during DNA replication. This process can overcome potentially lethal blockages, but at the cost of introducing inaccuracies in daughter DNA. The causal relationship of DNA damage to spontaneous mutation is illustrated by aerobically growing "E. coli" bacteria, in which 89% of spontaneously occurring base substitution mutations are caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced DNA damage. In yeast, more than 60% of spontaneous single-base pair substitutions and deletions are likely caused by trans-lesion synthesis.  An additional significant source of mutations in eukaryotes is the inaccurate DNA repair process non-homologous end joining, that is often employed in repair of double strand breaks.  In general, it appears that the main underlying cause of spontaneous mutation is error prone trans-lesion synthesis during DNA replication and that the error-prone non-homologous end joining repair pathway may also be an important contributor in eukaryotes.

Crosslinking.

Some alkylating agents may produce crosslinking of DNA. Some natural occurring chemicals may also promote crosslinking, such as psoralens after activation by UV radiation, and nitrous acid. Interstrand cross-linking is more damaging as it blocks replication and transcription and can cause chromosomal breakages and rearrangements. Some crosslinkers such as cyclophosphamide, mitomycin C and cisplatin are used as anticancer chemotherapeutic because of their high degree of toxicity to proliferating cells.

Dimerization.

UV radiation promotes the formation of a cyclobutyl ring between adjacent thymines, resulting in the formation of pyrimidine dimers. In human skin cells, thousands of dimers may be formed in a day due to normal exposure to sunlight. DNA polymerase η may help bypass these lesions in an error-free manner; however, individuals with defective DNA repair function, such as sufferers of xeroderma pigmentosum, are sensitive to sunlight and may be prone to skin cancer.

Intercalation between bases.

The planar structure of chemicals such as ethidium bromide and proflavine allows them to insert between bases in DNA. This insert causes the DNA's backbone to stretch and makes slippage in DNA during replication more likely to occur since the bonding between the strands is made less stable by the stretching. Forward slippage will result in deletion mutation, while reverse slippage will result in an insertion mutation. Also, the intercalation into DNA of anthracyclines such as daunorubicin and doxorubicin interferes with the functioning of the enzyme topoisomerase II, blocking replication as well as causing mitotic homologous recombination.

Backbone damage.

Ionizing radiation may produce highly reactive free radicals that can break the bonds in the DNA. Double-stranded breakages are especially damaging and hard to repair, producing translocation and deletion of part of a chromosome. Alkylating agents like mustard gas may also cause breakages in the DNA backbone. Oxidative stress may also generate highly reactive oxygen species that can damage DNA. Incorrect repair of other damage induced by the highly reactive species can also lead to mutations.

Insertional mutagenesis.

Transposons and viruses may insert DNA sequences into coding regions or functional elements of a gene and result in inactivation of the gene.

Effects on replication and DNA repair.

While most mutagens produce effects that ultimately result in errors in replication, for example creating adducts that interfere with replication, some mutagens may directly affect the replication process or reduce its fidelity. Base analog such as 5-bromouracil may substitute for thymine in replication. Metals such as cadmium, chromium, and nickel can increase mutagenesis in a number of ways in addition to direct DNA damage, for example reducing the ability to repair errors, as well as producing epigenetic changes.

Adaptive mutagenesis mechanisms.

Adaptive mutagenesis has been defined as mutagenesis mechanisms that enable an organism to adapt to an environmental stress. Since the variety of environmental stresses is very broad, the mechanisms that enable it are also quite broad, as far as research on the field has shown. For instance, in bacteria, while modulation of the SOS response and endogenous prophage DNA synthesis has been shown to increase "Acinetobacter baumannii" resistance to ciprofloxacin. Resistance mechanisms are presumed to be linked to chromosomal mutation untransferable via horizontal gene transfer in some members of family Enterobacteriaceae, such as "E. coli, Salmonella" spp., "Klebsiella" spp., and "Enterobacter" spp. Chromosomal events, specially gene aplification, seem also to be relevant to this adaptive mutagenesis in bacteria.  Research in eukaryotic cells is much scarcer, but chromosomal events seem also to be rather relevant: while an ectopic intrachromosomal recombination has been reported to be involved in acquisition of resistance to 5-fluorocytosine in "Saccharomyces cerevisiae", genome duplications have been found to confer resistance in S. cerevisiae to nutrient-poor environments.

As a laboratory technique.

Mutagenesis in the laboratory is an important technique whereby DNA mutations are deliberately engineered to produce mutant genes, proteins, or strains of organism. Various constituents of a gene, such as its control elements and its gene product, may be mutated so that the functioning of a gene or protein can be examined in detail. The mutation may also produce mutant proteins with interesting properties, or enhanced or novel functions that may be of commercial use. Mutant strains may also be produced that have practical application or allow the molecular basis of particular cell function to be investigated.  Early methods of mutagenesis produced entirely random mutations; however, later methods of mutagenesis may produce site-specific mutation.

Mutagenesis is a process by which the genetic information of an organism is changed, resulting in a mutation. It may occur spontaneously in nature, or as a result of exposure to mutagens. It can also be achieved experimentally using laboratory procedures. In nature mutagenesis can lead to cancer and various heritable diseases, but it is also a driving force of evolution. Mutagenesis as a science was developed based on work done by Hermann Muller, Charlotte Auerbach and J. M. Robson in the first half of the 20th century.

Die Mutagenese (ein Kompositum, siehe auch Genesis bzw. Genese) ist die Erzeugung von Mutationen im Erbgut von Lebewesen. In der biologischen und medizinischen Forschung sowie in der Züchtung wird die Mutagenese eingesetzt, um erwünschte Eigenschaften zu erreichen.


History.

Poles were used as a practical means of passing over natural obstacles in marshy places such as the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, along the North Sea, and the great level of the Fens in England across Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Artificial draining of these marshes created a network of open drains or canals intersecting each other. To cross these without getting soaked, while avoiding tedious roundabout journeys over bridges, a stack of jumping poles was kept at every house and used for vaulting over the canals.  Distance pole vaulting competitions continue to be held annually in the lowlands around the North Sea. These far-jumping competitions (Frisian: "Fierljeppen") are not based on height.  In his book "The Mechanics of the Pole Vault," Richard Ganslen reports that the London Gymnastic Society under Professor Voelker held measured pole vaulting events in 1826, involving 1,300 participants and recording heights up to. Other early pole vaulting competitions where height was measured took place at the Ulverston Football and Cricket Club, Lancashire, north of the sands (now Cumbria) in 1843. Modern competition began around 1850 in Germany, when pole vaulting was added to the exercises of the Turner gymnastic clubs by Johann C. F. GutsMuths and Friedrich L. Jahn. In Great Britain, it was first practiced at the Caledonian Games.  Initially, vaulting poles were made from stiff materials such as bamboo or aluminum. The introduction of flexible vaulting poles in the early 1950s made from composites such as fiberglass or carbon fiber allowed vaulters to achieve greater height.  In 2000, IAAF rule 260.18a (formerly 260.6a) was amended, so that "world records" (as opposed to "indoor world records") can be set in a facility "with or without roof". This rule was not applied retroactively, With many indoor facilities not conforming to outdoor track specifications for size and flatness, the pole vault is the only world record set indoors.

Modern vaulting.

Today, athletes compete in the pole vault as one of the four jumping events in track and field. Because the high jump and pole vault are both vertical jumps, the competitions are conducted similarly. Each athlete can choose what height they would like to enter the competition. Once they enter, they have three attempts to clear the height. If a height is cleared, the vaulter advances to the next height, where they will have three more attempts. Once the vaulter has three consecutive misses, they are out of the competition and the highest height they cleared is their result. A "no height", often denoted "NH", refers to the failure of a vaulter to clear any bar during the competition.  Once the vaulter enters the competition, they can choose to pass heights. If a vaulter achieves a miss on their first attempt at a height, they can pass to the next height, but they will only have two attempts at that height, as they will be out once they achieve three consecutive misses. Similarly, after earning two misses at a height, they could pass to the next height, when they would have only one attempt.  The competitor who clears the highest height is the winner. If two or more vaulters have finished with the same height, the tie is broken by the number of misses at the final height. If the tied vaulters have the same number of misses at the last height cleared, the tie is broken by the total number of misses in the competition.  If there is still a tie for first place, a jump-off occurs to break the tie. Marks achieved in this type of jump-off are considered valid and count for any purpose that a mark achieved in a normal competition would.  If a tie in the other places still exists, a jump-off is not normally conducted, unless the competition is a qualifying meet, and the tie exists in the final qualifying spot. In this case, an administrative jump-off is conducted to break the tie, but the marks are not considered valid for any other purpose than breaking the tie.  A jump-off is a sudden death competition in which the tied vaulters attempt the same height, starting with the last attempted height. If both vaulters miss, the bar goes down by a small increment, and if both clear, the bar goes up by a small increment. A jump-off ends when one vaulter clears and the other misses. Each vaulter gets one attempt at each height until one makes and one misses.  The equipment and rules for pole vaulting are similar to the high jump. Unlike high jump, however, the athlete in the vault has the ability to select the horizontal position of the bar before each jump and can place it a distance beyond the back of the box, the metal pit that the pole is placed into immediately before takeoff. The range of distance the vaulter may place the standards varies depending on the level of competition.  If the pole used by the athlete dislodges the bar from the uprights, a foul attempt is ruled, even if the athlete has cleared the height. An athlete does not benefit from quickly leaving the landing pad before the bar has fallen. The exception to this rule if the vaulter is vaulting outdoors and has made a clear effort to throw the pole back, but the wind has blown the pole into the bar; this counts as a clearance. This call is made at the discretion of the pole vault official. If the pole breaks during the execution of a vault, it is considered an equipment failure and is ruled a non-jump, neither a make nor a miss. Other types of equipment failure include the standards slipping down or the wind dislodging the bar when no contact was made by the vaulter.  Each athlete has a set amount of time in which to make an attempt. The amount of time varies by level of competition and the number of vaulters remaining. If the vaulter fails to begin an attempt within this time, the vaulter is charged with a time foul and the attempt is a miss.  Poles are manufactured with ratings corresponding to the vaulter's maximum weight. Some organizations forbid vaulters to use poles rated below their weight as a safety precaution. The recommended weight corresponds to a flex rating that is determined by the manufacturer by placing a standardized amount of stress (most commonly a weight) on the pole and measuring how much the center of the pole is displaced. Therefore, two poles rated at the same weight are not necessarily the same stiffness.  Because pole stiffness and length are important factors to a vaulter's performance, it is not uncommon for an elite vaulter to carry as many as ten poles to a competition. The effective properties of a pole can be changed by gripping the pole higher or lower in relation to the top of the pole. The left and right handgrips are typically a bit more than shoulder width apart. Poles are manufactured for people of all skill levels and body sizes, with sizes as short as to as long as, with a wide range of weight ratings. Each manufacturer determines the weight rating for the pole and the location of the maximum handhold band.  However speed is the most essential element to higher jumps, because the energy produced by the run formula_1 is converted to vertical propulsion formula_2. Assuming no loss of energy formula_3, this means that formula_4.

Technology.

Competitive pole vaulting began using solid ash poles. As the heights attained increased, the bamboo poles gave way to tubular aluminum, which was tapered at each end. Today's pole vaulters benefit from poles produced by wrapping pre-cut sheets of fiberglass that contains resin around a metal pole mandrel, to produce a slightly curved pole that bends more easily under the compression caused by an athlete's take-off. The shape of the fiberglass sheets and the amount of fiberglass used is carefully planned to provide the desired length and stiffness of pole. Different fiber types, including carbon-fiber, are used to give poles specific characteristics intended to promote higher jumps. In recent years, carbon fiber has been added to the commonly used E-glass and S-glass materials to create a lighter pole.  As in the high jump, the landing area was originally a heap of sawdust or sand where athletes landed on their feet. As technology enabled higher vaults, mats evolved into bags of large chunks of foam. Today's high-tech mats are foam usually thick. Mats are growing larger in area as well to minimize risk of injury. Proper landing technique is on the back or shoulders. Landing on the feet should be avoided, to eliminate the risk of injury to the lower extremities, particularly ankle sprains.  Rule changes over the years have resulted in larger landing areas and additional padding of all hard and unyielding surfaces.  The pole vault crossbar has evolved from a triangular aluminum bar to a round fiberglass bar with rubber ends. This is balanced on standards and can be knocked off when it is hit by a pole vaulter or the pole. Rule changes have led to shorter pegs and crossbar ends that are semi-circular.

Technique.

Although many techniques are used by vaulters at various skill levels to clear the bar, the generally accepted technical model can be broken down into several phases:

Approach.

During the approach the pole vaulter sprints down the runway in such a way as to achieve maximum speed and correct position to initiate takeoff at the end of the approach. Top class vaulters use approaches with 18 to 22 strides, often referred to as a "step" in which every other foot is counted as one step. The run-up to the vaulting pit begins forcefully with the vaulter running powerfully in a relaxed, upright position with knees lifted and torso leaning very slightly forward. The head, shoulders and hips are aligned, the vaulter increasing speed as the body becomes erect. The tip of the vaulting pole is angled higher than eye level until three paces from takeoff, when the pole tip descends efficiently, amplifying run speed as the pole is planted into the vault box. The faster the vaulter can run and the more efficient their take-off is, the greater the kinetic energy that can be achieved and used during the vault.

Plant and take-off.

The plant and take off is initiated typically three steps out from the final step. Vaulters will usually count their steps backwards from their starting point to the box only counting the steps taken on the left foot (vice versa for left-handers) except for the second step from the box, which is taken by the right foot. For example; a vaulter on a "ten count" (referring to the number of counted steps from the starting point to the box) would count backwards from ten, only counting the steps taken with the left foot, until the last three steps taken and both feet are counted as three, two, one. These last three steps are normally quicker than the previous strides and are referred to as the "turn-over". The goal of this phase is to efficiently translate the kinetic energy accumulated from the approach into potential energy stored by the elasticity of the pole, and to gain as much initial vertical height as possible by jumping off the ground. The plant starts with the vaulter raising their arms up from around the hips or mid-torso until they are fully outstretched above the head, with the right arm extended directly above the head and the left arm extended perpendicular to the pole (vice versa for left-handed vaulters). At the same time, the vaulter is dropping the pole tip into the box. On the final step, the vaulter jumps off the trail leg which should always remain straight and then drives the front knee forward. As the pole slides into the back of the box the pole begins to bend and the vaulter continues up and forward, leaving the trail leg angled down and behind.

Swing up.

The swing and row simply consists of the vaulter swinging the trail leg forward and rowing the pole, bringing the top arm down to the hips, while trying to keep the trail leg straight to store more potential energy into the pole, the rowing motion also keeps the pole bent for a longer period of time for the vaulter to get into optimum position. Once in a "U" shape the left arm hugs the pole tight to efficiently use the recoil within the pole. The goal is to carry out these motions as thoroughly and as quickly as possible; it is a race against the unbending of the pole. Effectively, this causes a double pendulum motion, with the top of the pole moving forward and pivoting from the box, while the vaulter acts as a second pendulum pivoting from the right hand. This action gives the vaulter the best position possible to be "ejected" off the pole. The swing continues until the hips are above the head and the arms are pulling the pole close to the chest; from there the vaulter shoots their legs up over the cross bar while keeping the pole close.

Extension.

The extension refers to the extension of the hips upward with outstretched legs as the shoulders drive down, causing the vaulter to be positioned upside down. This position is often referred to as "inversion". While this phase is executed, the pole begins to recoil, propelling the vaulter quickly upward. The hands of the vaulter remain close to the body as they move from the shins back to the region around the hips and upper torso.

Turn.

The turn is executed immediately after or even during the end of the rockback. As the name implies, the vaulter turns 180° toward the pole while extending the arms down past the head and shoulders. Typically the vaulter will begin to angle their body toward the bar as the turn is executed, although ideally the vaulter will remain as vertical as possible. A more accurate description of this phase of the vault may be "the spin" because the vaulter spins around an imaginary axis from head to toe.

Fly-away.

This is often highly emphasized by spectators and novice vaulters, but it is the easiest phase of the vault and is a result of proper execution of previous phases. This phase mainly consists of the vaulter pushing off the pole and releasing it so it falls away from the bar and mats. As the torso goes over and around the bar, the vaulter is facing the bar. Rotation of the body over the bar occurs naturally, and the vaulter's main concern is making sure that their arms, face and any other appendages do not knock the bar off as they go over. The vaulter should land near the middle of the foam landing mats, or pits, face up.

Six metres club.

The "six metres club" consists of pole vaulters who have reached at least 6.00. In 1985 Sergey Bubka became the first pole vaulter to clear six metres.

Five metres club.

Three women have cleared 5 metres. Yelena Isinbayeva was the first to clear on July 22, 2005. On March 2, 2013, Jenn Suhr cleared indoors to become the second. Sandi Morris cleared 5.00 meters on September 9, 2016, to become the third.

Milestones.

This is a list of the first time a milestone height was cleared.

Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long flexible pole (which today is usually made either of fiberglass or carbon fiber) as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, Cretans and Celts. It has been a full medal event at the Olympic Games since 1896 for men and since 2000 for women.

Stabhochsprung ist eine Disziplin in der Leichtathletik, bei der die Springer nach ihrem Anlauf eine hochliegende Sprunglatte mit Hilfe eines langen, flexiblen Stabes überwinden. Diese Latte ist 4,50 Meter lang und so auf zwei Sprungständern gelagert, dass sie bei leichter Berührung herunterfällt.