Geography.

Located within the Bransfield Strait, the island is roughly circular and horseshoe-shaped, with a maximum diameter around. The highest peak, Mont Pond on the east side of the island, has an elevation of, while Mount Kirkwood on the west has an elevation of. Over half (57%) of the island is covered by glaciers up to 100 m thick, ice-cored moraines, or ice covered pyroclasts. The centre of the island has been flooded by the sea to form a large bay, now called Port Foster, about long and wide. The bay has a narrow entrance, just wide, called Neptune's Bellows. The port is a basin with a flat floor up to 170 m deep with several small submarine cones and domes. The port is rimmed by a shall coastal shelf with sandy-gravelly beaches. The outer coast of the island is characterized by cliffs of rock or ice.  Raven's Rock, a navigation hazard, lies below the water in the middle of the channel. Just inside Neptune's Bellows lies the cove Whalers Bay, which is bordered by a large black sand beach. Several maars line the inside rim of the caldera, with some containing crater lakes (including one named Crater Lake). Others form bays within the harbour, such as the wide Whalers Bay. Other features of the island include Mount Kirkwood, Fumarole Bay, Sewing-Machine Needles, Telefon Bay, and Telefon Ridge.  A 2016 study on Ardley Island, 120 km to the northeast, examined lake guano sediments and studied penguin population dynamics over 7,000 years. Three of five population growth phases were terminated by a sudden crash, due to volcanic eruptions from the active volcano of Deception Island. The history of volcanic eruptions is still under investigation, but several larger eruptions happened in the last 10,000 years.

Geology.

Deception Island is the exposed portion of an active shield volcano 30 km in diameter. The island is associated with Bransfield Basin seafloor spreading that includes a volcanic ridge and seamounts dating back to the Pleistocene. Deception Island ash layers have been found on other South Shetland Islands, the Bransfield Strait, the Scotia Sea and in South Pole ice cores. Volcanic tremors are common, originating from depths less than 10 km. Historical eruptions occurred in 1839–42, 1967, 1969, and 1970. Stratigraphy of the island is characterized by the pre-caldera Port Foster Group and the post-caldera Mount Pond Group, both within the Deception Island Volcanic Complex. The Port Foster Group's principal outcrops are located at South Point, Cathedral Crags near Entrance Point and north of Punta de la Descubierta forming spectacular coastal cliffs along the western portion of the island. The group is composed of the Fumarole Bay Formation consisting of hydrovolcanic tephra, the Basaltic Shield Formation consisting of lavas and Strombolian scoria, and the Outer Coast Tuff Formation consisting of lapilli-tuffs. The Mount Pond Group dominates the surface geology and consists of the pyroclastic Baily Head and Pendulum Cove formations, both formed during hydrovolcanic eruptions, and the Stonethrow Ridge Formation consisting of tuff cone and maar deposits. The caldera collapsed as either a hydrovolcanic eruption of the Outer Coast Tuff Formation, releasing about 30 cubic kilometers of magma, or passively due to regional tectonics, since the island is at the intersection of the Bransfield Strait rift and the orthogonal Hero Fracture Zone.

History.

The first authenticated sighting of Deception Island was by the British sealers William Smith and Edward Bransfield from the brig "Williams" in January 1820. It was first visited and explored by the American sealer Nathaniel Palmer on the sloop "Hero" the following summer, on 15 November 1820. He remained for two days, exploring the central bay. Palmer named it "Deception Island" on account of its outward deceptive appearance as a normal island, when the narrow entrance of Neptune's Bellows revealed it rather to be a ring around a flooded caldera.  Palmer was part of an American sealing fleet from Stonington, Connecticut, under the command of Benjamin Pendleton, consisting of 6 ships. Port Fisher was used as their operational base from 1820–21. Palmer met Bellingshausen close to the island in Jan. 1821, during the First Russian Antarctic Expedition.

Whaling and sealing.

Over the next few years, Deception became a focal point of the short-lived fur-sealing industry in the South Shetlands. The industry began with a handful of ships in the 1819–20 summer season, rising to nearly a hundred in 1821–22. While the island did not have a large seal population, it was a perfect natural harbour, mostly free from ice and winds, and a convenient rendezvous point. Some men likely lived ashore in tents or shacks for short periods during the summer, though no archaeological or documentary evidence survives to confirm this. Massive overhunting meant that the fur seals neared extinction in the South Shetlands within a few years, and the sealing industry collapsed as quickly as it had begun. Deception was abandoned again in approximately 1825.  Sealing captain Robert Fildes charted Port Foster in 1820–21, which in 1829 became the first published Antarctica nautical chart.  In 1829, the British Naval Expedition to the South Atlantic under the command of Captain Henry Foster in stopped at Deception. The expedition conducted a topographic survey and scientific experiments, particularly pendulum and magnetic observations. A watercolour made by Lieutenant Kendall of the "Chanticleer" during the visit may be the first image made of the island. A subsequent visit by the American elephant-sealer "Ohio" in 1842 reported the first recorded volcanic activity, with the southern shore "in flames".  The second phase of human activity at Deception began in the early 20th century. In 1904, an active whaling industry was established at South Georgia, taking advantage of new technology and an almost untouched population of whales to make rapid profits. It spread south into the South Shetland Islands, where the lack of shore-based infrastructure meant that the whales had to be towed to moored factory ships for processing; these needed a sheltered anchorage and a plentiful supply of fresh water, both of which could be found at Deception. In 1906, the Norwegian-Chilean whaling company Sociedad Ballenera de Magallanes started using Whalers Bay as a base for a single ship, the "Gobernador Bories".  Other whalers followed, with several hundred men resident at Deception during the Antarctic summers and as many as 13 ships operating in peak years. In 1908, the British government formally declared the island to be part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies, thus under British control, establishing postal services and appointing a magistrate and customs officer for the island. The magistrate was to ensure that whaling companies were paying appropriate licence fees to the Falklands government and ensuring adherence to catch quotas. A cemetery was built in 1908, a radio station in 1912, a hand-operated railway also in 1912, and a small permanent magistrate's house in 1914. The cemetery, by far the largest in Antarctica, held graves for 35 men along with a memorial to 10 more presumed drowned. These were not the only constructions; as the factory ships of the period were only able to strip the blubber from whales and could not use the carcasses, a permanent on-shore station was established by the Norwegian company Hvalfangerselskabet Hektor A/S in 1912 – up to an estimated 40% of the available oil was being wasted by the ship-based system. This was the only successful shore-based industry ever to operate in Antarctica, reaping high profits in its first years. A number of exploring expeditions visited Deception during these years, including the Wilkins-Hearst expedition of 1928, when a Lockheed Vega was flown from a beach airstrip on the first successful flights in Antarctica.  The development of pelagic whaling in the 1920s, where factory ships fitted with a slipway could tow aboard entire whales for processing, meant that whaling companies were no longer tied to sheltered anchorages. A boom in pelagic Antarctic whaling followed, with companies now free to ignore quotas and escape the costs of licences. This rapidly led to overproduction of oil and a collapse in the market, and the less profitable and more heavily regulated shore-based companies had trouble competing. In early 1931, the Hektor factory finally ceased operation, ending commercial whaling at the island entirely.

Scientific research.

On 16 Nov. 1928, Hubert Wilkins made the first Antarctic flight from a Whalers Bay ash runway.  Deception remained uninhabited for a decade, but was revisited in 1941 by the British auxiliary warship HMS "Queen of Bermuda", which destroyed the oil tanks and some remaining supplies to ensure it could not be used as a German supply base. In 1942, an Argentinean party aboard the "Primero de Mayo" visited and left signs and painted flags declaring the site Argentinean territory; the following year, a British party with returned to remove the signs.  In 1961, Argentina's president Arturo Frondizi visited the island to show his country's interest. Regular visits were made by other countries operating in the Antarctic, including the 1964 visit of the US Coast Guard icebreaker, which ran aground inside the harbour.  However, the volcano returned to activity in 1967 and 1969, destroying the existing scientific stations. Both British and Chilean stations were demolished, and the island was again abandoned for several years. The final major volcanic eruption was reported by the Russian Bellingshausen station on King George Island and the Chilean station Arturo Prat on Greenwich Island; both stations experienced major falls of ash on 13 August 1970. In 2000, there were two summer-only scientific stations, the Spanish Gabriel de Castilla Base and the Argentinian Decepción Station.  Remains of previous structures at Whalers Bay include rusting boilers and tanks, an aircraft hangar, and the British scientific station house (Biscoe House), with the middle torn out by the 1969 mudflows. A bright orange derelict airplane fuselage, which is that of a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter that belonged to the Royal Air Force, was recovered in 2004. Plans to restore the airplane and return it to the island have been made.  The Russian cruise ship ran aground at Deception Island on 27 November 2006. She was towed off by the Spanish Navy icebreaker "Las Palmas" and later became a ghost ship in the North Atlantic.

Tourism.

The first commercial cruise ship arrived in Jan. 1966. By 1999, over 10,000 tourists visited the island.

Research stations.

Aguirre Cerda.

President Pedro Aguirre Cerda Station was a Chilean Antarctic base, located at Pendulum Cove on Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, inaugurated in 1955. It was evacuated in December 1967 when volcanic eruptions forced the evacuation of the base.

Deception.

Deception Station is an Argentine antarctic base located at Deception Island. The station was founded on January 25, 1948, and was a year-round station until December 1967, when volcanic eruptions forced the evacuation of the base. Since then, it is inhabited only during the summer.

Gabriel de Castilla.

Gabriel de Castilla Base is a Spanish research station located on Deception Island. The station was constructed in 1990.

Gutiérrez Vargas Refuge.

The Gutiérrez Vargas Refuge, named after an aviation captain who died on December 30, 1955, was located at from Aguirre Cerda Station and was inaugurated on February 12, 1956. Its purpose was to serve as a refuge for the members of the station in case of fire. On December 4, 1967, the refuge was definitively abandoned, as was the Aguirre Cerda Station, due to a violent volcanic eruption. The remains of the refuge structure can still be seen on the beach where it was located.

Station B.

The island was finally reoccupied in early 1944 by a party of men from Operation Tabarin, a British expedition, who established a permanent scientific base named Station B. This was occupied until 5 December 1967, when an eruption forced a temporary withdrawal. It was used again between 4 December 1968 and 23 February 1969, when further volcanic activity caused it to be abandoned.

Environment.

Deception Island has become a popular tourist stop in Antarctica because of its several colonies of chinstrap penguins, as well as the possibility of making a warm bath by digging into the sands of the beach. Mount Flora is the first site in Antarctica where fossilized plants were discovered.  After the Norwegian Coastal Cruise Liner ran aground off the coast of Deception Island on 30 January 2007, fuel from the ship washed into a bay. Ecological damage has not yet been determined. On 4 February 2007, the Spanish Gabriel de Castilla research station on Deception Island reported that water and sand tests were clean and that they had not found signs of the oil, estimated as ).  Deception Island exhibits some wildly varying microclimates. Near volcanic areas, the air can be as hot as, and water temperature can reach.

Antarctic specially protected areas.

Some 11 terrestrial sites have been collectively designated as an Antarctic specially protected area (ASPA 140), primarily for their botanic and ecological values, because the island has the greatest number of rare plant species of any place in the Antarctic. This is largely due to frequent volcanic activity creating new substrates for plant colonisation:  In addition, two marine sites in Port Foster have collectively been designated ASPA 145, to protect their benthic communities.

Important bird area.

Baily Head, a prominent headland forming the easternmost extremity of the island, has been identified as an important bird area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a very large breeding colony of chinstrap penguins (100,000 pairs). The IBA comprises the ice-free headland and about of beach on either side of it. Other birds known to nest at the site include brown skuas, Cape petrels, and snowy sheathbills.

Deception Island is an island in the South Shetland Islands archipelago, with the safest harbours in Antarctica. This island is the caldera of an active volcano, which seriously damaged local scientific stations in 1967 and 1969. The island previously held a whaling station; it is now a tourist destination and scientific outpost, with Argentine and Spanish research bases. While various countries have asserted sovereignty, it is still administered under the Antarctic Treaty System.

Deception Island ist eine der Südlichen Shetlandinseln, einer subantarktischen Inselgruppe. Die Insel ist der Gipfelbereich eines vom Meeresgrund etwa 1500 m hoch aufragenden aktiven Vulkans; der bislang letzte Ausbruch fand im Jahr 1970 statt.


Biological function.

About 10% of sequenced bacterial genomes have a putative "shc" gene encoding a squalene-hopene cyclase and can presumably make hopanoids, which have been shown to play diverse roles in the plasma membrane and may allow some organisms to adapt in extreme environments.  Since hopanoids modify plasma membrane properties in bacteria, they are frequently compared to sterols, such as cholesterol, which modulate membrane fluidity and serve other functions in eukaryotes. Although hopanoids do not seem to rescue sterol deficiency, they do condense membranes and decrease permeability. Also, gammaproteobacteria and eukaryotic organisms such as lichens and bryophytes have been shown to produce both sterols and hopanoids, suggesting these lipids may have other distinct functions. Notably, the way hopanoids pack into the plasma membrane can change depending on what functional groups are attached. The hopanoid bacteriohopanetetrol assumes a transverse orientation in lipid bilayers, but diploptene localizes between the inner and outer leaflet, presumably thickening the membrane to decrease permeability.  The hopanoid diplopterol orders membranes by interacting with lipid A, a common membrane lipid in bacteria, in ways similar to how cholesterol and sphingolipids interact in eukaryotic plasma membranes. Diplopterol and cholesterol were demonstrated to promote condensation and inhibit gel-phase formation in both sphingomyelin monolayers and monolayers of glycan-modified lipid A. Furthermore, both diplopterol and cholesterol could rescue pH-dependent phase transitions in glycan-modified lipid A monolayers. The role of hopanoids in membrane-mediated acid tolerance is further supported by observations of acid-inhibited growth and morphological abnormalities of the plasma membrane in hopanoid-deficient bacteria with mutant squalene-hopene cyclases.  Hopanoids are produced in several nitrogen-fixing bacteria. In the actinomycete Frankia, hopanoids in diazovesicle membranes likely restrict the entry of oxygen by making the lipid bilayer more tight and compact. In "Bradyrhizobium", hopanoids chemically bonded to lipid A increase membrane stability and rigidity, enhancing stress tolerance and intracellular survival in Aeschynomene legumes. In the cyanobacterium "Nostoc punctiforme", large quantities of 2-methylhopanoids localize to the outer membranes of survival structures called akinetes. In another example of stress tolerance, hopanoids in the aerial hyphae (spore bearing structures) of the prokaryotic soil bacteria Streptomyces are thought to minimize water loss across the membrane to the air.

Biosynthesis.

Squalene synthesis.

Since hopanoids are a C30 terpenoid, biosynthesis begins with isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate (DMAP), which are combined to form longer chain isoprenoids. Synthesis of these smaller precursors proceeds either via the mevalonate pathway or the methylerythritol-4-phosphate pathway depending on the bacterial species, although the latter tends to be more common. DMAP condenses with one molecule of IPP to geranyl pyrophosphate, which in turn condenses with another IPP to generate farnesyl pyrophosphate. Squalene synthase, coded for by the gene "sqs", then catalyzes the condensation of two farnesyl pyrophosphate molecules to squalene while oxidizing NADPH.

Cyclization.

Next, a squalene-hopene cyclase catalyzes an elaborate cyclization reaction, engaging squalene in an energetically favorable all-chair conformation before creating 5 cycles, 6 covalent bonds, and 9 chiral centers on the molecule in a single step. This enzyme, coded for by the gene "shc," has a double ⍺-barrel fold characteristic of terpenoid biosynthesis and is present in the cell as a monotopic homodimer, meaning pairs of the cyclase are embedded in but do not span the plasma membrane. "In vitro", this enzyme exhibits promiscuous substrate specificity, also cyclizing 2,3-oxidosqualene.  Aromatic residues in the active site form several unfavorable carbocations on the substrate which are quenched by a rapid polycyclization. In the last substep of the cyclization reaction, after electrons comprising the terminal alkene bond on the squalene have attacked the hopenyl carbocation to close the E ring, the C-22 carbocation may be quenched by mechanisms that lead to different hopanoid products. Nucleophilic attack of water will yield diplopterol, while deprotonation at an adjacent carbon will form one of several hopene isomers, often diploptene.

Functionalization.

After cyclization, hopanoids are frequently modified by hopanoid biosynthesis enzymes encoded by genes in the same operon as "shc", "hpn". For instance, the radical SAM protein HpnH adds an adenosine group to diploptene, forming the extended C35 hopanoid adenosylhopane, which can then be further modified by other "hpn" gene products to form bacteriohopanetetrol (BHT). Additional modification occurs as the glycosyltransferase HpnI converts BHT to N-acetylglucosaminyl-BHT. In sequence, the hopanoid biosynthesis associated protein HpnK mediates deacetylation to glucosaminyl-BHT, from which radical SAM protein HpnJ generates a cyclitol ether.  Importantly, C30 and C35 hopanoids alike may be methylated at C-2 and C-3 positions by the radical SAM methyltransferases HpnP and HpnR, respectively. These two methylations are particularly geostable compared to side-chain modifications and have entertained geobiologists for decades.  In a biosynthetic pathway exclusive to some bacteria, diploptene is a precursor for the pentacyclic triterpenoid tetrahymanol, which instead is produced directly from squalene by a cyclase in eukaryotes.

In paleobiology.

Hopanoids have been estimated to be the most abundant natural products on Earth, remaining in the organic fraction of all sediments, independent of age, origin or nature. Biomolecules like DNA and proteins are degraded during diagenesis, but polycyclic lipids persist in the environment over geologic timescales due to their fused, stable structures. Although hopanoids and sterols are reduced to hopanes and steranes during deposition, these diagenetic products can still be useful biomarkers, or molecular fossils, for studying the coevolution of early life and Earth.  2-methylhopanes supposedly from photosynthetic cyanobacteria and steranes were reported by Roger Summons and colleagues as molecular fossils preserved in 2.7 Gya shales from the Pilbara region in Western Australia. The presence of abundant 2-alpha-methylhopanes preserved in these shales was interpreted as evidence of oxygenic photosynthesis at least 2.7 Gya, unexpectedly suggesting a 400 million year gap between the evolution of oxygenic metabolism and when atmosphere became oxidizing. This interpretation of the biomarker record was challenged when "Geobacter sulfurreducens" was demonstrated to synthesize diverse hopanols, although not 2-methyl-hopanols, when grown under strictly anaerobic conditions. The integrity of 2-methylhopanes as biomarkers for oxygenic photosynthesis was then further attenuated by evidence that the phototroph "Rhodopseudomonas palustris" produced 2-methyl-BHPs only under anoxic conditions. Concrete evidence came from studies showing that not all cyanobacteria make hopanoids and that genes coding for the methyltransferase HpnP are present in nonphotosynthetic alphaproteobacteria and acidobacteria.  Biomarker findings in the Pilbara-Craton shales were later rejected altogether during more recent evaluations of the fossil triterpenoid record. Currently, the oldest detected triterpenoid fossils are Mesoproterozoic okenanes, steranes, and methylhopanes from a 1.64 Gya basin in Australia. However, molecular clock analyses estimate that the earliest sterols were likely produced around 2.3 Gya, around the same time as the Great Oxidation Event, with hopanoid synthesis arising even earlier.  For several reasons, hopanoids and squalene-hopene cyclases have been hypothesized to be more ancient than sterols and oxidosqualene cyclases. First, diplopterol is formed from water quenching the C-22 carbocation, meaning it can be made without molecular oxygen and could have served as a sterol surrogate before Earth's atmosphere became oxic. Furthermore, squalene binds to squalene-hopene cyclases in a low-energy, all-chair conformation while oxidosqualene is cyclized in a more strained, chair-boat-chair-boat conformation. Squalene-hopene cyclases also display more substrate promiscuity in that they cyclize oxidosqualene "in vitro", causing some scientists to hypothesize that they are evolutionary predecessors to oxidosqualene cyclases. Other scientists have proposed that squalene-hopene and oxidosqualene cyclases diverged from a common ancestor, a putative bacterial cyclase that would have made a tricyclic malabaricanoid or tetracyclic dammarinoid product.

Industrial Relevance.

The elegant mechanism behind the protonase activity of squalene-hopene cyclase was appreciated and adapted by chemical engineers at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Active site engineering resulted in loss of the enzyme's ability to form hopanoids, but enabled Brønsted acid catalysis for the stereoselective cyclization of the monoterpenoids geraniol, epoxygeraniol, and citronellal.

Agricultural Relevance.

The application of hopanoids and hopanoid-producing nitrogen fixers has been proposed and patented as a biofertilizer technique that increases environmental resistance of plant-associated microbial symbionts.

Medical Relevance.

During later studies of interactions between diplopterol and lipid A in "Methylobacterium extorquens", multidrug transport was found to be a hopanoid-dependent process. Squalene-hopene cyclase mutants derived from a wild type capable of multidrug efflux, a drug-resistance mechanism mediated by integral transport proteins, lost the ability to perform both multidrug transport and hopanoid synthesis. Researchers indicate this could be due to direct regulation of transport proteins by hopanoids or indirectly by altering membrane ordering in a way that disrupts the transport system.

Hopanoids are a diverse subclass of triterpenoids with the same hydrocarbon skeleton as the compound hopane. This group of pentacyclic molecules therefore refers to simple hopenes, hopanols and hopanes, but also to extensively functionalized derivatives such as bacteriohopanepolyols (BHP) and hopanoids covalently attached to lipid A.

Die Hopanoide (Betonung auf dem vorletzten Vokal: "Hopanoide") sind membranverstärkende Moleküle. Sie sind äußerst stabile Triterpene und bestehen aus 4 Sechsringen, einem Fünfring sowie Resten unterschiedlicher Kettenlänge. Sie besitzen damit eine strukturelle Ähnlichkeit zu Steroiden.


Early life.

Hermann was born around 1818 in Offenbach am Main, Hesse-Darmstadt, to Johann Balthasar Spiess and his wife Luise Werner Spiess. The multi-lingual elder Spiess had been instrumental in founding the Offenbach public school system, and was a musician, pastor and writer.  The family was well-connected. Hermann's brother Adolph was a tutor to Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels. Adolph was involved with the 1833 Frankfurter Wachensturm attempt to overthrow the government. When events caused Adolph to flee to Burgdorf, Switzerland, he took young Hermann along. Hermann returned in 1835 and enrolled in the Gymnasium in Darmstadt, where he met Ferdinand Ludwig Herff. The same year, he enrolled in the University of Giessen but was expelled for 21⁄2 years because of student political activity opposing the university's administration. He spent the expulsion period enrolled at Polytechnic Institute in Karlsruhe. In 1842, he returned to the University of Giessen and passed his exams. From 1842–1845, Spiess worked for the Woods and Forests Commission in Darmstadt. He then took a two-year leave of absence.

Texas.

Bettina.

Spiess, Ferdinand Ludwig Herff and Gustav Schleicher founded the Socialistic Colony and Society, or Die Vierziger (the Society of Forty), which originally had plans to establish socialistic communes in Wisconsin.

Commissioner-General of Adelsverein.

In 1846, John O. Meusebach designated Dr. Friedrich A. Schubbert the director of the colony at Fredericksburg, recommended by Henry Francis Fisher. Unknown to Meusebach at the time, Schubbert's real name was Friedrich Armand Strubberg. He changed his name after fleeing two duels, one in Germany and one in New York City. On arrival in Texas in 1844, he used the alias Dr. Friedrich A. Schubbert. He and Henry Francis Fisher worked in tandem to entice immigrants away from the Verein settlements to the St. Gabriel colony he had established in Milam County.  In Fredericksburg, Schubbert instigated a failed coup d'état against Meusebach. On July 12, 1847, Meusebach sent Schubbert a letter of dismissal from his position as director of Fredericksburg, appointing Jean Jacques von Coll as his successor.  After a duel with Schubbert (Strubberg) trying to oust him from the Nassau Plantation, two men were shot. The State of Texas tried Spiess, and he was acquitted on September 27, 1848, on grounds of self-defense. With the finances of the Adelsverein on the verge of collapse, the administration of Fredericksburg and Indianola was ended.  Spiess continued the Verein activities of New Braunfels. In 1848, Spiess, Ludwig Bene and Louis Cachand Ervendberg established the Western Texas Orphan Asylum. In 1850, Spiess joined others to construct a toll bridge across the river in New Braunfels.

Personal life and death.

In 1851 Spiess married to Lena Spiess. The couple had ten children. Spiess owned property at Waco Springs, four miles north of New Braunfels, where he built a sawmill and a shingle mill. In 1867, the Spiess family moved to Warrensburg, Missouri where Hermann Spiess spent his final years. His date of death and final resting place are unknown. Lena Spiess died in Glendale, California on January 3, 1914.

Hermann Spiess (c. 1818–1873) was co-founder of the Bettina, Texas commune in 1847. He became Commissioner-General of the Adelsverein after the resignation of John O. Meusebach.

Hermann Spieß (* 1818 in Offenbach am Main, Hessen; † um 1873 in Texas, USA) war Studentenführer, wanderte 1847 nach Texas aus und war dritter und letzter Generalkommissar des „Mainzer Adelsvereins“.


Biography.

The family of Sandoval was ancient and powerful. Lerma was born and raised at Tordesillas. As long as Philip II lived, the nobles had little effective share in the government, with the exception of a few who were appointed viceroys or commanded armies abroad. The future duke of Lerma passed his time as a courtier, and made himself a favourite with the young prince Philip, heir to the Spanish throne. The dying king Philip II foresaw that Lerma was one of those nobles who were likely to mislead the new sovereign. The old king's fears were, it is claimed by some, fully justified after his death. Others however, claim that Lerma was a fully capable favourite, as he led Castile and the Habsburg dominions on a more modest and economically viable course of peace than both Phillip II and Olivares during the reign of Phillip IV – both figures that have received far more positive recognition by historians.  No sooner was Philip III king than he entrusted all authority to his favourite, who amassed power unprecedented for a "privado" or favorite and became the "king's shadow", the filter through whom all information passed, as he was appointed Sumiller de Corps and Caballerizo mayor to the King. Philip III, preoccupied with piety and indolence, soon created him Duke of Lerma (1599), pressured the papacy to form for his uncle Bernardo a Cardinalship and delegated to him governorship of certain public offices and management responsibility of particular lands, authorized by the King and Queen, of the Roman Catholic Christian Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.  Gifts poured in from outside the royal court. From the Medici in Florence in 1601 came an over-lifesize marble of Samson and a Philistine by Giovanni da Bologna, presented as a diplomatic gift. It had been made for a Medici garden, and though it had recently been in storage, it was a princely gift (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London). Lerma assembled a vast collection of paintings. Duke Mario Farnese sent over a Fra Angelico "Annunciation" (it was a little old-fashioned), which Lerma passed on to the Dominicans of Valladolid and is now at the Prado, Madrid.  As chief minister Lerma's ideas of foreign policy were firmly grounded in feudal ideas about royal patrimony. He cemented Spanish rule by many marriage alliances with the Austrian Habsburgs and then with the French Bourbons. Lerma's administration began with a treaty with France, the Treaty of Vervins in 1598, declaring peace, but he persisted in costly and useless hostilities with England till 1604, when Spain was forced by exhaustion to make peace. Lerma used all his influence against a recognition of the independence of the Low Countries.  Though in 1607 the monarchy declared itself bankrupt, Lerma carried out the ruinous measures for the expulsion of the Moriscos, Moors who had converted to Christianity, from 1609–14, a decision affecting over 300,000 people. A policy motivated by religious and political considerations, in which no economic consideration played a part, the expulsion secured him the admiration of the clergy and was popular with the masses of people. It also provided a short-term boost to the royal treasury from the impounded property of the Moors, but would ruin the economy of Valencia for generations. Lerma's financial horizons remained medieval: his only resources as a finance minister were the debasing of the coinage and edicts against luxury and the making of silver plate.  Bankrupt or not, the war with the Dutch dragged on till 1609, when the Twelve Years' Truce was signed with them. There was constant anti-Spanish agitation in Portugal, which had been dynastically joined to Spain since 1580.  In the end, Lerma was deposed by a palace intrigue carried out by his own son, Cristóbal de Sandoval, Duke of Uceda, manipulated by Olivares. It is probable that he would never have lost the confidence of Philip III, who divided his life between festivals and prayers, if not for the domestic treachery of his son, who allied himself with the king's confessor, Aliaga, whom Lerma had introduced. After a long intrigue in which the king remained silent and passive, Lerma was at last compelled to leave the court, on 4 October 1618.  As a protection, and as a means of retaining some measure of power in case he fell from favour, he had persuaded Pope Paul V to create him cardinal, the previous March, 1618. He retired to his palace in Lerma, and then to Valladolid, where it was reported that he celebrated Mass every day "with great devotion and tears". When the dying Philip III was presented with a list of prisoners and exiles to be forgiven, he granted grace to all except the cardinal-duke of Lerma. When Lerma learned the news, he started from Valladolid to Madrid but was intercepted on the road and commanded by Olivares, favorite of the heir to the throne, who professed an implacable hatred for the cardinal, to return to Valladolid. The cardinal was in Villacastin and remained there until he learned of the death of the king. Then he went back to Valladolid to celebrate the requiem in the church of San Pablo. He was ordered by the count of Olivares to reside in Tordesillas but he did not obey and appealed to the pope. Gregory XV and the Sacred College defended him, considering his banishment an attempt against ecclesiastical freedom and the prestige of the cardinalate.  Under the reign of Philip IV, which began in 1621, Lerma was despoiled of part of his wealth. The cardinal was sentenced, on August 3, 1624, to return to the state over a million ducates. Lerma died in 1625 at Valladolid.

Marriage and issue.

The Duke of Lerma married in 1576 with Catalina de la Cerda (1551-1603), daughter of Juan de la Cerda, 4th Duke of Medinaceli. They had 5 children :

Domestic policy.

When Lerma fell from power in 1618, his status as cardinal (which he had acquired for exactly this purpose 6 months earlier) gave him immunity from prosecution by his numerous enemies, who instead turned on Lerma's trusted and unscrupulous secretary, Rodrigo Calderón (d. 1621), who as Lerma's agent was made a scapegoat. Calderón was tortured and executed on trumped up charges of witchcraft and other crimes, which demonstrated what would likely have been Lerma's fate, if a cardinal's hat hadn't protected his head.  Lerma was also responsible for the appointment of Don Pedro Franqueza to reform royal finances, but who instead managed to embezzle enough funds to purchase the title of Count of Villalonga. He was placed on trial and forfeited his riches.  At a time when the state was practically bankrupt, he encouraged the king in extravagance, and accumulated for himself a fortune estimated by contemporaries at forty-four million ducats.  On the hilltop overlooking the village of Lerma in Old Castile that provided his grand title, the duke built a palace (1606–1617, by Francisco de Mora) capped with corner towers, on the site of a fortification, ranged round a double-arcaded courtyard facing an arcaded square and linked to the rebuilt church of San Pedro with a private passageway. Lerma was pious, spending lavishly on religious houses.

In fiction.

In the picaresque novel "Gil Blas" (chapter iv), the hero ingratiates himself with the count Olivarez, his new patron:  Gil Blas ruminates upon the cardinal's hat that Paul V gave the Duke of Lerma: "This pope, wishing to establish the inquisition in the kingdom of Naples, invested the minister with the purple, and by that means hoped to bring King Philip over to so pious and praiseworthy a design. Those who were best acquainted with this new member of the sacred college, thought much like myself, that the church was in a fair way for apostolical purity, after so spiritual an acquisition."  Young Mikhail Lermontov associated his surname with Lerma's title, which is an obvious fiction; even the family legend traced back the name to Thomas Learmonth the Rhymer from Scotland, but not to Lerma. The poet painted an imaginary portrait of the "Duke of Lerma" and created some other works featuring Spaniards.  Anachronistically, a "Duke of Lerma" features as one of the minor characters in the opera Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi.

Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, 1st Duke of Lerma, 5th Marquess of Denia, 1st Count of Ampudia (1552/1553 – 17 May 1625), was a favourite of Philip III of Spain, the first of the "validos" ('most worthy') through whom the later Habsburg monarchs ruled. He was succeeded by the Count-Duke of Olivares.

Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas (* 1553 in Tordesillas; † 17. Mai 1625 in Valladolid) war Marqués von Denia und seit 1599 Herzog von Lerma; er war der wichtigste Ratgeber und Erste Minister des spanischen Königs Philipp III. und wurde im Jahre 1618 von Papst Paul V. zum Kardinal der römisch-katholischen Kirche ernannt.


History.

The modern domestic turkey is descended from one of six subspecies of wild turkey: "Meleagris gallopavo", found in the area bounded by the present Mexican states of Jalisco, Guerrero, and Veracruz. Ancient Mesoamericans domesticated this subspecies, using its meat and eggs as major sources of protein and employing its feathers extensively for decorative purposes. The Aztecs associated the turkey with their trickster god Tezcatlipoca, perhaps because of its perceived humorous behavior.  Domestic turkeys were taken to Europe by the Spanish. Many distinct breeds were developed in Europe (e.g. Spanish Black, Royal Palm). In the early 20th century, many advances were made in the breeding of turkeys, resulting in breeds such as the Beltsville Small White.  The 16th-century English navigator William Strickland is generally credited with introducing the turkey into England. His family coat of arms — showing a turkey cock as the family crest — is among the earliest known European depictions of a turkey. English farmer Thomas Tusser notes the turkey being among farmer's fare at Christmas in 1573. The domestic turkey was sent from England to Jamestown, Virginia in 1608. A document written in 1584 lists supplies to be furnished to future colonies in the New World; "turkies, male and female".  Prior to the late 19th century, turkey was something of a luxury in the UK, with goose or beef a more common Christmas dinner among the working classes. In Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" (1843), Bob Cratchit had a goose before Scrooge bought him a turkey.  Turkey production in the UK was centered in East Anglia, using two breeds, the Norfolk Black and the Norfolk Bronze (also known as Cambridge Bronze). These would be driven as flocks, after shoeing, down to markets in London from the 17th century onwards - the breeds having arrived in the early 16th century via Spain.  Intensive farming of turkeys from the late 1940s dramatically cut the price, making it more affordable for the working classes. With the availability of refrigeration, whole turkeys could be shipped frozen to distant markets. Later advances in disease control increased production even more. Advances in shipping, changing consumer preferences and the proliferation of commercial poultry plants has made fresh turkey inexpensive as well as readily available.  Recent genome analysis has provided researchers with the opportunity to determine the evolutionary history of domestic turkeys, and their relationship to other domestic fowl.

Behaviour.

Young domestic turkeys readily fly short distances, perch and roost. These behaviours become less frequent as the birds mature, but adults will readily climb on objects such as bales of straw. Young birds perform spontaneous, frivolous running ('frolicking') which has all the appearance of play. Commercial turkeys show a wide diversity of behaviours including 'comfort' behaviours such as wing-flapping, feather ruffling, leg stretching and dust-bathing. Turkeys are highly social and become very distressed when isolated. Many of their behaviours are socially facilitated i.e. expression of a behaviour by one animal increases the tendency for this behaviour to be performed by others. Adults can recognise'strangers' and placing any alien turkey into an established group will almost certainly result in that individual being attacked, sometimes fatally. Turkeys are highly vocal, and'social tension' within the group can be monitored by the birds’ vocalisations. A high-pitched trill indicates the birds are becoming aggressive which can develop into intense sparring where opponents leap at each other with the large, sharp talons, and try to peck or grasp the head of each other. Aggression increases in frequency and severity as the birds mature.  Maturing males spend a considerable proportion of their time sexually displaying. This is very similar to that of the wild turkey and involves fanning the tail feathers, drooping the wings and erecting all body feathers, including the 'beard' (a tuft of black, modified hair-like feathers on the centre of the breast). The skin of the head, neck and caruncles (fleshy nodules) becomes bright blue and red, and the snood (an erectile appendage on the forehead) elongates, the birds'sneeze' at regular intervals, followed by a rapid vibration of their tail feathers. Throughout, the birds strut slowly about, with the neck arched backward, their breasts thrust forward and emitting their characteristic 'gobbling' call.

Size and weight.

The domestic turkey is the eighth largest living bird species in terms of maximum mass at 39 kg (86 lbs).

Commercial production.

In commercial production, breeder farms supply eggs to hatcheries. After 28 days of incubation, the hatched poults are sexed and delivered to the grow-out farms; hens are raised separately from toms because of different growth rates.  In the UK, it is common to rear chicks in the following way. Between one and seven days of age, chicks are placed into small circular brooding pens to ensure they encounter food and water. To encourage feeding, they may be kept under constant light for the first 48 hours. To assist thermoregulation, air temperature is maintained at for the first three days, then lowered by approximately 3 °C (5.4 °F) every two days to at 37 days of age, and infra-red heaters are usually provided for the first few days. Whilst in the pens, feed is made widely accessible by scattering it on sheets of paper in addition to being available in feeders. After several days, the pens are removed, allowing the birds access to the entire rearing shed, which may contain tens of thousands of birds. The birds remain there for several weeks, after which they are transported to another unit.  The vast majority of turkeys are reared indoors in purpose-built or modified buildings of which there are many types. Some types have slatted walls to allow ventilation, but many have solid walls and no windows to allow artificial lighting manipulations to optimise production. The buildings can be very large (converted aircraft hangars are sometimes used) and may contain tens of thousands of birds as a single flock. The floor substrate is usually deep-litter, e.g. wood shavings, which relies upon the controlled build-up of a microbial flora requiring skilful management. Ambient temperatures for adult domestic turkeys are usually maintained between. High temperatures should be avoided because the high metabolic rate of turkeys (up to 69 W/bird) makes them susceptible to heat stress, exacerbated by high stocking densities. Commercial turkeys are kept under a variety of lighting schedules, e.g. continuous light, long photoperiods (23 h), or intermittent lighting, to encourage feeding and accelerate growth. Light intensity is usually low (e.g. less than one lux) to reduce feather pecking.  Rations generally include corn and soybean meal, with added vitamins and minerals, and is adjusted for protein, carbohydrate and fat based on the age and nutrient requirements. Hens are slaughtered at about 14–16 weeks and toms at about 18–20 weeks of age when they can weigh over compared to a mature male wild turkey which weighs approximately.

Welfare concerns.

Stocking density is an issue in the welfare of commercial turkeys and high densities are a major animal welfare concern. Permitted stocking densities for turkeys reared indoors vary according to geography and animal welfare farm assurance schemes. For example, in Germany, there is a voluntary maximum of 52 kg/m and 58 kg/m for males and females respectively. In the UK, the RSPCA Freedom Foods assurance scheme reduces permissible stocking density to 25 kg/m for turkeys reared indoors. Turkeys maintained at commercial stocking densities (8 birds/m; 61 kg/m) exhibit increased welfare problems such as increases in gait abnormalities, hip and foot lesions, and bird disturbances, and decreased bodyweight compared with lower stocking densities. Turkeys reared at 8 birds/m have a higher incidence of hip lesions and foot pad dermatitis than those reared at 6.5 or 5.0 birds/m. Insufficient space may lead to an increased risk for injuries such as broken wings caused by hitting the pen walls or other turkeys during aggressive encounters and can also lead to heat stress. The problems of small space allowance are exacerbated by the major influence of social facilitation on the behaviour of turkeys. If turkeys are to feed, drink, dust-bathe, etc., simultaneously, then to avoid causing frustration, resources and space must be available in large quantities.  Lighting manipulations used to optimise production can compromise welfare. Long photoperiods combined with low light intensity can result in blindness from buphthalmia (distortions of the eye morphology) or retinal detachment.  Feather pecking occurs frequently amongst commercially reared turkeys and can begin at 1 day of age. This behaviour is considered to be re-directed foraging behaviour, caused by providing poultry with an impoverished foraging environment. To reduce feather pecking, turkeys are often beak-trimmed. Ultraviolet-reflective markings appear on young birds at the same time as feather pecking becomes targeted toward these areas, indicating a possible link. Commercially reared turkeys also perform head-pecking, which becomes more frequent as they sexually mature. When this occurs in small enclosures or environments with few opportunities to escape, the outcome is often fatal and rapid. Frequent monitoring is therefore essential, particularly of males approaching maturity. Injuries to the head receive considerable attention from other birds, and head-pecking often occurs after a relatively minor injury has been received during a fight or when a lying bird has been trodden upon and scratched by another. Individuals being re-introduced after separation are often immediately attacked again. Fatal head-pecking can occur even in small (10 birds), stable groups. Commercial turkeys are normally reared in single-sex flocks. If a male is inadvertently placed in a female flock, he may be aggressively victimised (hence the term 'henpecked'). Females in male groups will be repeatedly mated, during which it is highly likely she will be injured from being trampled upon.

Breeding and companies.

The dominant commercial breed is the Broad-breasted Whites (similar to "White Holland", but a separate breed), which have been selected for size and amount of meat. Mature toms are too large to achieve natural fertilization without injuring the hens, so their semen is collected, and hens are inseminated artificially. Several hens can be inseminated from each collection, so fewer toms are needed. The eggs of some turkey breeds are able to develop without fertilization, in a process called parthenogenesis. Breeders' meat is too tough for roasting, and is mostly used to make processed meats.

Waste products.

Approximately of poultry feathers are produced every year by the poultry industry. Most are ground into a protein source for ruminant animal feed, which are able to digest the protein keratin of which feathers are composed. Researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have patented a method of removing the stiff quill from the fibers which make up the feather. As this is a potential supply of natural fibers, research has been conducted at Philadelphia University's School of Engineering and Textiles to determine textile applications for feather fibers. Turkey feather fibers have been blended with nylon and spun into yarn, and then used for knitting. The yarns were tested for strength while the fabrics were evaluated as insulation materials. In the case of the yarns, as the percentage of turkey feather fibers increased, the strength decreased. In fabric form, as the percentage of turkey feather fibers increased, the heat retention capability of the fabric increased.

Turkeys as food.

Approximately 620 million turkeys are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. Turkeys are traditionally eaten as the main course of Christmas feasts in much of the English-speaking world (stuffed turkey) since appearing in England in the 16th century, as well as for Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada. While eating turkey was once mainly restricted to special occasions such as these, turkey is now eaten year-round and forms a regular part of many diets.  Turkeys are sold sliced and ground, as well as "whole" in a manner similar to chicken with the head, feet, and feathers removed. Frozen whole turkeys remain popular. Sliced turkey is frequently used as a sandwich meat or served as cold cuts; in some cases, where recipes call for chicken, turkey can be used as a substitute. Additionally, ground turkey is frequently marketed as a healthy ground beef substitute. Without careful preparation, cooked turkey may end up less moist than other poultry meats, such as chicken or duck.  Wild turkeys, while technically the same species as domestic turkeys, have a very different taste from farm-raised turkeys. In contrast to domestic turkeys, almost all wild turkey meat is "dark" (even the breast) and more intensely flavored. The flavor can also vary seasonally with changes in available forage, often leaving wild turkey meat with a gamier flavor in late summer due to the greater number of insects in its diet over the preceding months. Wild turkey that has fed predominantly on grass and grain has a milder flavor. Older heritage breeds also differ in flavor.  Unlike chicken, duck, and quail eggs, turkey eggs are not commonly sold as food due to the high demand for whole turkeys and the lower output of turkey eggs as compared with other fowl. The value of a single turkey egg is estimated to be about US$3.50 on the open market, substantially more than a single carton of one dozen chicken eggs.

Cooking.

Both fresh and frozen turkeys are used for cooking; as with most foods, fresh turkeys are generally preferred, although they cost more. Around holiday seasons, high demand for fresh turkeys often makes them difficult to purchase without ordering in advance. For the frozen variety, the large size of the turkeys typically used for consumption makes defrosting them a major endeavor: a typically sized turkey will take several days to properly defrost.  Turkeys are usually baked or roasted in an oven for several hours, often while the cook prepares the remainder of the meal. Sometimes, a turkey is brined before roasting to enhance flavor and moisture content. This is necessary because the dark meat requires a higher temperature to denature all of the myoglobin pigment than the white meat (which is very low in myoglobin), so that fully cooking the dark meat tends to dry out the breast. Brining makes it possible to fully cook the dark meat without drying the breast meat. Turkeys are sometimes decorated with turkey frills prior to serving.  In some areas, particularly the American South, turkeys may also be deep fried in hot oil (often peanut oil) for 30 to 45 minutes by using a turkey fryer. Deep frying turkey has become something of a fad, with hazardous consequences for those unprepared to safely handle the large quantities of hot oil required.

Nutritional value.

White turkey meat is often considered healthier than dark meat because of its lower fat content, but the nutritional differences are small. Although turkey is reputed to cause sleepiness, holiday dinners are commonly large meals served with carbohydrates, fats, and alcohol in a relaxed atmosphere, all of which are bigger contributors to post-meal sleepiness than the tryptophan in turkey.

Turkey litter for fuel.

Although most commonly used as fertilizer, turkey litter (droppings mixed with bedding material, usually wood chips) is used as a fuel source in electric power plants. One such plant in western Minnesota provides 55 megawatts of power using 500,000 tons of litter per year. The plant began operating in 2007.

The domestic turkey ("Meleagris gallopavo") is a large fowl, one of the two species in the genus "Meleagris" and the same as the wild turkey. Although turkey domestication was thought to have occurred in central Mesoamerica at least 2,000 years ago, recent research suggests a possible second domestication event in the Southwestern United States between 200 BC and AD 500. However, all of the main domestic turkey varieties today descend from the turkey raised in central Mexico that was subsequently imported into Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century.

Die Pute, auch Haustruthuhn ("Meleagris gallopavo" Linnaeus f. "domestica"), ist die domestizierte Form des Truthuhns und bildet mit diesem eine Art. Männliche Tiere werden "Puter", "Truthahn" oder "Welschhahn", weibliche Tiere "Pute", "Puthenne", "Dinde" oder "Truthenne" genannt. In der Schweiz bezeichnet man die Tiere auch als "Truter" und "Trute".


"Acéphale", the review.

Dated 24 June 1936, the first issue was only eight pages. The cover was illustrated by André Masson with a drawing openly inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing of "Vitruvian Man", who embodies classical reason. Masson's figure, however, is headless, his groin covered by a skull, and holds in his right hand a burning heart, while in his left he wields a dagger. Under the title "Acéphale" are printed the words "Religion. Sociologie. Philosophie" followed on the next line by the expression "the sacred conspiracy" ("la conjuration sacrée").  The first article, signed by Bataille, is titled "The Sacred Conspiracy" and claims that "Secretly or not... it is necessary to become different or else cease to be." Further on, Bataille wrote: "Human life is exasperated by having served as the head and reason of the universe. Insofar as it becomes this head and this reason, insofar as it becomes necessary to the universe, it accepts serfdom."  The second issue of the review begins with a large article titled "Nietzsche and Fascists", in which Bataille violently attacks Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, Nietzsche's sister, who had married the notorious antisemite Bernhard Förster — the wedding had led to a final rupture between Nietzsche and his sister. Bataille thereby called Elisabeth "Elisabeth Judas-Förster", recalling Nietzsche's declaration: "To never frequent anyone who is involved in this bare-faced fraud concerning races."  The same issue contains an unedited text of Nietzsche on Heraclitus from "Die Philosophie im tragischen Zeitalter der Griechen" ("Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks"), as well as an article from Jean Wahl titled "Nietzsche and the Death of God," which is a commentary on a text from Karl Jaspers on Nietzsche.  The other issues also centered on Nietzsche. The last one, prepared but ultimately not published, was titled "Nietzsche's madness" ("La folie de Nietzsche"). These references to Nietzsche were directed against the philosopher's appropriation by Nazism - despite Nietzsche's opposition against anti-semitism - as one of its seminal thinkers, leading to Nietzsche's unpopularity at the time in France.  Apart from Bataille, who signed most of the texts, Roger Caillois (issue 3 and 4), Pierre Klossowski (issue 1, 2, 3 and 4), André Masson, Jules Monnerot (issue 3 and 4), Jean Rollin and Jean Wahl (in the second issue) also participated in the review.

The secret society.

Because of its very nature, it is difficult to describe the society's acts. Bataille referred several times to Marcel Mauss who had studied secret societies in Africa, describing them as a "total social phenomenon". On this model, he organized several nocturnal meetings in the woods, near an oak which had been struck by lightning. Members of the "Acéphale" society were required to adopt several rituals, such as refusing to shake hands with anti-semites and celebrating the decapitation of Louis XVI, an event which prefigured the "chiefless crowd" targeted by "acéphalité". Members of the society were also invited to meditation, on texts of Nietzsche, Freud, Sade and Mauss read during the assemblies. To psychologically prepare for the violence and losses that active duty in the French Resistance to Vichy—Nazi occupation of France would bring, members discussed carrying out a human sacrifice, but this may never have been carried out.

The "Encyclopaedia Da Costa".

Acephale also published "Encyclopaedia Da Costa" "(Da Costa Encyclopédique)", meant to coincide with the 1947 International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris, but due to printing delays, the "Encyclopedia" was not distributed until months after the exhibition ended. Modelled after the format of a conventional encyclopedia, it lambasted social and individual conventions with an unprecedented fervor, as well as putting forth more obscure ideas.  Perhaps its most insolent entry was the "License to Live", a faux governmental form requesting vital statistics from the bearer in order to enforce its legal fiat; the penalty for failing to keep the document "in order" was death. The license was likely an invention of Marcel Duchamp, typographer for the "Encyclopaedia Da Costa", and was a gesture that had no obvious relationship to the "art object" as it is commonly known. A precursor to "License to Live" appears in an earlier note in Duchamp's "Green Box", published in 1934 but written 20 years earlier, where he imagines a society in which people must pay for the air they breathe.  By the end of the century the encyclopedia fell into obscurity, partly because those who created it actively discouraged interested parties from procuring copies.

Acéphale is the name of a public review created by Georges Bataille (which numbered five issues, from 1936 to 1939) and a secret society formed by Bataille and others who had sworn to keep silent. Its name is derived from the Greek ἀκέφαλος ("akephalos", literally "headless").

Die Organisation in Paris hielt – wie die jüngst von Marina Galletti zusammengetragenen Dokumente belegen – ihre Treffen streng geheim und verstand sich als spirituell-okkulte, aber weltliche und antireligiöse Organisation, in der – unter anderem bei nächtlichen Treffen in Wäldern – mythische und orgiastische Riten abgehalten wurden. Bataille forderte einmal sogar bei einem dieser nächtlichen und mit Schwefeldampf inszenierten Rituale seine eigene Opferung zum Tode; dieses Anliegen wurde ihm von den übrigen Mitgliedern jedoch verwehrt.


Name.

The origin of the name "Finger Lakes" is uncertain. Currently, the oldest known published use of "finger lakes" for this group of 11 lakes is in a United States Geological Survey paper by Thomas Chamberlin that was published in 1883. This paper was later cited and "Finger Lakes" formally used as a proper name by R. S. Tarr in a Geological Society of America paper published in 1893. Older usage of "Finger Lakes" in either maps, papers, reports, or any other documents remains to be verified.

Lakes.

The eleven Finger Lakes, from east to west, are:  Onondaga Lake to the east, although smaller, is sometimes called "the 12th Finger Lake", because it is similar in shape. It is in Appalachian hill terrain, with a historic village linked to other Finger Lakes by US 20. It may have been formed in the same manner as the Finger Lakes, as satellite photos show three valleys similar in character and spacing to the Finger Lakes east of Otisco Lake. The first is the Tully Valley, which includes a chain of small lakes at the south end that could be a "Finger Lake" that never formed because of a terminal moraine. The moraine caused the Tioughnioga River to flow south instead of north, the opposite of the Finger Lakes' waters. The next two valleys to the east contain Butternut Creek, which flows north, and the East Branch of the Tioughnioga River, which flows south. The next valley contains Limestone Creek, which flows north. The next valley after that contains Cazenovia Lake. Oneida Lake, to the northeast of Syracuse, is sometimes included as the "thumb", although it is shallow and somewhat different in character from the rest. As with Onondaga and Cazenovia Lakes, it drains into Lake Ontario via the Oswego River and then into the St. Lawrence River ultimately draining into the Atlantic Ocean. Chautauqua Lake, Findley Lake and Kinzua Lake to the west are not considered Finger Lakes; all three drain into the Allegheny River and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico, and in the case of Kinzua and Findley, the lakes are the artificial creation of dams.  Conesus, Hemlock, Canadice, Honeoye, and Otisco are considered the minor Finger Lakes. Other, smaller lakes, including Silver, Waneta, and Lamoka lakes, dot this region. Silver Lake, west of Conesus Lake, would seem to qualify because it is in the Great Lakes watershed, but Waneta and Lamoka lakes are part of the Susquehanna River watershed as they drain into a tributary of the Chemung River.  East of Oneida and Cazenovia Lakes are the headwaters of the Susquehanna River and Hudson River watersheds (the former in the foothills of the Catskills, the latter through the Mohawk Valley and southern Adirondack Mountains).  The muckland of a valley in Potter, New York, which is part of Torrey Farms, was almost a 12th Finger Lake, as the waterline is just below the surface. It lies between Lakes Canandaigua and Seneca, and was once a swamp.

Geology.

These glacial finger lakes originated as a series of northward-flowing streams. Around two million years ago, the first of many continental glaciers of the Laurentide Ice Sheet moved southward from the Hudson Bay area, initiating the Pleistocene glaciation. These scouring glaciers widened, deepened, and accentuated the existing river valleys. Glacial debris, possibly terminal moraine left behind by the receding ice, acted as dams, allowing lakes to form. Despite the deep erosion of the valleys, the surrounding uplands show little evidence of glaciation, suggesting the ice was thin, or at least unable to cause much erosion at these higher altitudes. The deep cutting by the ice left some tributaries hanging high above the lakes—both Seneca and Cayuga have tributaries hanging as much as 120 m above the valley floors.  Detailed studies of Marine Isotope Stage 3 and 4 age sediments exposed at a locality called Great Gully on the eastern flank of the Cayuga Lake, near Union Springs, New York, record the presence of a paleolake that existed prior to Cayuga Lake. This paleolake, which is called Glacial Lake Nanette, was a proglacial lake that filled the bedrock valley currently occupied by Cayuga Lake from about 50,000 BP calibrated until it was overridden by a glacial readvance that occurred prior to 30,000 BP calibrated and buried it beneath younger glacial till. This research shows that bedrock valleys, in which the Finger lakes lie, existed prior to the Last Glacial Maximum and developed over multiple glaciations.

Ecological concern.

Much of the Finger Lakes area lies upon the Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale, two prominent natural gas reserves. Due to the recent increase in fracking technology, the natural gas is now accessible to extraction. While some large landowners have leased their lands, and a number of small landowners would like to follow suit, many residents of the Finger Lakes oppose the fracking process due to concerns about groundwater contamination and the industrial impact of the extraction related activities. The first direct actions and local legislative actions against fracking occurred in the Finger Lakes bioregion. In December 2014, the government of New York banned all fracking in the state, citing pollution risks.

History.

The Finger Lakes region contains evidence of pre-Iroquois habitation, such as The Bluff Point Stoneworks, but little is known about who may have constructed these enigmatic structures.  The Finger Lakes region is a central part of the Iroquois homeland. The Iroquois tribes include the Seneca and Cayuga nations, for which the two largest Finger Lakes are named. The Tuscarora tribe lived in the Finger Lakes region as well, from ca. 1720. The Onondaga and Oneida tribes lived at the eastern edge of the region, closer to their namesake lakes, Oneida Lake and Onondaga Lake. The easternmost Iroquois tribe was the Mohawk.  During colonial times, many other tribes moved to the Finger Lakes region, seeking the protection of the Iroquois. For example, in 1753 remnants of several Virginia Siouan tribes, collectively called the Tutelo-Saponi, moved to the town of Coreorgonel at the south end of Cayuga Lake near present-day Ithaca, until 1779 when their village was destroyed.  Major Iroquois towns in the Finger Lakes region included the Seneca town of Gen-nis-he-yo (present-day Geneseo), Kanadaseaga (Seneca Castle, near present-day Geneva), Goiogouen (Cayuga Castle, east of Cayuga Lake), Chonodote (Cayuga town, present-day Aurora), Catherine's Town (near present-day Watkins Glen) and Ganondagan State Historic Site in Victor, New York.  As one of the most powerful Indian nations during colonial times, the Iroquois were able to prevent European colonization of the Finger Lakes region for nearly two centuries after first contact, often playing the French off against the British interests in savvy demonstrations of political competence. The renowned ingenuity and adaptibility of the Iroquois people were key tools of resistance against hostile European powers rapidly spreading throughout North America, eager to dominate and increasingly brutal toward native Americans in the Finger Lakes and beyond.  By the late 18th century with the French governmental influence gone from Canada Iroquois power had weakened, relative to the steady growth in European-Americans' populations, and internal strife eroded the political unity of the Iroquois Confederacy as they faced pressures from colonists itching to move west and a desire to keep them out of Amerindian lands. During the American Revolutionary War, some Iroquois sided with the British and some with the Americans, resulting in civil war among the Iroquois. In the late 1770s, British-allied Iroquois attacked various American frontier settlements, prompting counter-attacks, culminating in the Sullivan Expedition of 1779, which destroyed most of the Iroquois towns and effectively broke Iroquois power. After the Revolutionary War, the Iroquois and other Indians of the region were assigned reservations. Most of their land, including the Finger Lakes region, was opened up to purchase and settlement.  Roughly the western half of the Finger Lakes region comprised the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of 1790. The region was rapidly settled at the turn of the 19th century, largely by a westward migration from New England, and to a lesser degree by northward influx from Pennsylvania. The regional architecture reflects these area traditions of the Federal and Greek Revival periods.

Notable places.

The Finger Lakes region, together with the Genesee Country of Western New York, has been referred to as the burned-over district. There, in the 19th century, the Second Great Awakening was a revival of Christianity; some new religions were also formed.  The region was active in reform and utopian movements. Many of its Underground Railroad sites have been documented. For example, the Harriet Tubman Home at Auburn recalls the life and work of the African-American "Moses of her people."  On the northern end of the Finger Lakes are also Seneca Falls, the birthplace of the women's suffrage movement; Waterloo, the birthplace of Memorial Day; and Palmyra, the birthplace of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. An annual outdoor drama, The "Hill Cumorah Pageant", produced by the church, draws thousands of visitors each year.  Hammondsport was the home of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, and favorable air currents make the area a popular spot for glider pilots. Elmira, just to the south, was the home of Mark Twain in his later life, and the site of an infamous Civil War prison. Corning is most noted as the home of Corning Glass Works and the Corning Museum of Glass. Hornell, just southwest of the Finger Lakes, was a major railroad center; locomotives were repaired there until recently. Conesus remains the home of the oldest producer of pure grape sacramental wine in the Western hemisphere. Notable among the historic buildings of the region (most linked below) is the Granger Homestead (1816), a large village house in Federal Style at Canandaigua, New York. Another example of the Federal Style is the Prouty-Chew House (1829) at Geneva, portions of which were altered at various times in new fashions.  Three Greek Revival mansions are situated near three lakes: The Richard DeZeng House, Skaneateles (1839); Rose Hill, Geneva (1839); and Esperanza, Penn Yan (1838). The latter two are open to the public.  The Seward House in Auburn, a National Historic Landmark, is a mansion more characteristic of the Civil War era, virtually unchanged from the nineteenth century. Belhurst Castle, Geneva, a stone mansion in the Romanesque Revival style, now serves as an inn. Sonnenberg mansion at Canandaigua is later nineteenth-century residence in the Queen Anne style, known for its restored period gardens. Geneva on the Lake is a villa (1910–14) that recalls those on Italian lakes. Now an inn, it has European-style gardens. Many buildings and historic districts of the Finger Lakes region are notable, other than these historic houses.  Implemented in August 2010, the Hemlock-Canadice State Forest covers that encompass the two western Finger Lakes, Hemlock and Canadice. These lakes have provided drinking water for the City of Rochester for more than 100 years. To protect water quality, the city acquired much of the property around the lakes. Over the decades, the land reforested, but a few traces of its past, such as stone walls or cottage foundations, remain. Today these two lakes, with their steep, forested, largely undeveloped shorelines and deep clear water, provide visitors a glimpse of the Finger Lakes of the past. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) manages this State Forest for compatible public access for recreation, including fishing, hunting, nature study, boating and hiking. Activities in Hemlock-Canadice State Forest are subject the DEC's Rules and Regulations for the Use of State Lands, 6 NYCRR Part 190, as well as any other applicable state statutes, rules and regulations. These are sensitive areas because they protect public drinking water.  The 584 mile (939.9 km) Finger Lakes Trail and its branch trails run through the southern portion of the Finger Lakes region and also constitutes a portion of the 4,600 mile North Country National Scenic Trail.  Hemlock Lake is home to the state's oldest nesting bald eagle site, dating back to the early 1960s. The nesting bald eagles of Hemlock Lake have fostered a resurgence of bald eagles throughout New York State. Hemlock Lake, originally known as "O-Neh-Da" which is Seneca for "Lake of Hemlock Trees", is home to the nation's oldest sacramental winery, founded by Bishop McQuaid in 1872. Today, O-Neh-Da Vineyard continues to make premium natural pure grape wine for churches and foodies alike.

Wine.

The Finger Lakes area is New York's largest wine-producing region. Over 100 wineries and vineyards are around Seneca, Cayuga, Canandaigua, Keuka, Conesus, and Hemlock Lakes. Because of the lakes' great depth, they provide a lake effect to the lush vineyards that flank their shores. Retaining residual summer warmth in the winter, and winter's cold in the spring, the grapes are protected from disastrous spring frost during shoot growth, and early frost before the harvest. The main grape varieties grown are Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot noir, Cabernet Franc, Vidal blanc, Seyval blanc and many "Vitis labrusca" (American native) varieties or cultivars.  With the passage of the Farm Winery Act in 1976, numerous wineries are now open to visitors. Wineries are a growth industry of the region, contributing through their production and by attracting visitors. The Finger Lakes American Viticulture Area (AVA) includes two of America's oldest wineries, O-Neh-Da Vineyard (1872) on Hemlock Lake and The Pleasant Valley Wine Company (1860) on Keuka Lake.

Craft beer.

Aside from wine, the craft beer industry has exploded in the region, with the number of breweries doubling since 2012.

Educational institutions.

The area is also known for higher education learning. The largest is Ivy League institution Cornell University in Ithaca. Other notable schools are Ithaca College, also in Ithaca; Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate Medical University, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and Le Moyne College, in Syracuse; University of Rochester, Nazareth College, St. John Fisher College, Roberts Wesleyan College and Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester; Elmira College in Elmira; Corning Community College in Corning; Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden, Ithaca, and Cortland; Wells College in Aurora; Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva; Keuka College in Keuka Park; Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua and Geneva; and The State University of New York at Cortland in Cortland; New York Chiropractic College in Seneca Falls; Cayuga Community College in Auburn; and The State University of New York at Geneseo in Geneseo.

Museums.

The Finger Lakes region is home to several museums. These include the Corning Museum of Glass, the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, the Strong National Museum of Play, the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum, the Finger Lakes Boating Museum, the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center, the Sciencenter, the Museum of the Earth, the National Soaring Museum, the Rockwell Museum, the Seward House Museum, the William H. Seward and the Samuel Warren Homesteads of the New York Historical Society, birthplace of New York State's first successful commercial winery.  The Women's Rights National Historic Park is in Seneca Falls. The park includes the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Wesleyan Chapel, where she held the first convention on women's rights in 1848.

References.

Notes Basic Reading

The Finger Lakes are a group of 11 long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes in an area informally called the "Finger Lakes region" in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional edge, known as the "Finger Lakes Uplands and Gorges ecoregion," of the Northern Allegheny Plateau and the Ontario Lowlands ecoregion of the Great Lakes Lowlands.

Die Finger Lakes (dt. „Fingerseen“) sind eine Seengruppe im Norden des amerikanischen Bundesstaats New York. Ihren Namen erhielten sie nach der allen elf Seen eigenen länglichen Form und Nord-Süd-Ausrichtung. So hat etwa der Cayuga Lake, der größte der Seengruppe, eine Länge von rund 65 km, ist an seiner breitesten Stelle aber nur rund 5 km breit. Entstanden sind die Finger Lakes während der letzten Eiszeit, als sich an der Stelle der heutigen Seen riesige Gletscherzungen in den Untergrund eingruben.


Baroque palaces.

In a Baroque palace, access down an enfilade suite of state rooms typically was restricted by the rank or degree of intimacy of the visitor. The first rooms were more public, and usually at the end was the bedroom, sometimes with an intimate cabinet or boudoir beyond. Baroque protocol dictated that visitors of lower rank than their host would be escorted by servants down the enfilade to the farthest room their status allowed. If the visitor was of equal or higher rank, the host would advance down the enfilade to meet their guest, before taking the visitor back.  At parting, the same ritual would be observed, although the host might pay their guest a compliment by taking them back farther than their rank strictly dictated. If a person of much higher rank visited, these rituals extended beyond the enfilade to the entrance hall, the gates to the palace, or beyond (in modern State visits, to the airport).  Memoirs and letters of the period often note the exact details of where meetings and partings occurred, even to whether they were in the centre of the room, or at the door.

Royal palaces.

Royal palaces often had separate enfiladed state apartments for the king and queen, as at the Palace of Versailles, with the grand appartement du roi and the grand appartement de la reine (not to mention the petit appartement du roi), or at Hampton Court Palace. Such suites also were used for entertaining.  Noblemen's houses, especially if a visit from the monarch was hoped for, often feature enfiladed suites, as at Chatsworth House, Blenheim Palace, the Château de Louveciennes, or Boughton House. The bedrooms in such suites were often only slept in on royal visits, although as with many grand bedrooms before the nineteenth century, they might be used for other purposes. Other enfilades culminated in a room used as a throne room. The Palace of Westminster, shown below, comes into this category, as the monarch sits on a throne in the chamber of the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament.

Palace of Westminster.

Sir Charles Barry's Palace of Westminster, more commonly known as the Houses of Parliament, has an enfilade of three Royal apartments that continues through the two legislative Chambers of the Lords and Commons. The enfilade of State Rooms presents a view from the Robing Room and Royal Gallery – B and C on the plan at right – through to the Prince's Chamber. From the throne in the adjacent Lords' Chamber (D) there is an uninterrupted view through three lobbies – Lords', Central, and Members' Lobby – to the Speaker's Chair in the Commons Chamber at the other end of the Palace. (Lords' Lobby and Members' Lobby are the round and square spaces to the left and right of E on the Plan)

National Gallery, London.

Barry also used a number of enfilades in his extension to the National Gallery, London, built as an art gallery. These have been extended and added to in the recent Sainsbury Wing (despite the wing being at an angle to the earlier building), so that now the view down the longest enfilade traverses fifteen rooms.

In architecture, an enfilade is a suite of rooms formally aligned with each other. This was a common feature in grand European architecture from the Baroque period onward, although there are earlier examples, such as the Vatican stanze. The doors entering each room are aligned with the doors of the connecting rooms along a single axis, providing a vista through the entire suite of rooms. The enfilade may be used as a processional route and is a common arrangement in museums and art galleries, as it facilitates the movement of large numbers of people through a building.

Die Enfilade () oder auch "Raumflucht" ist ein barockes Architekturmittel. Sie besteht aus einer Aneinanderreihung von Räumen zu einer Zimmerflucht, wobei die Türöffnungen exakt gegenüberliegen. Dies hat zur Folge, dass man bei geöffneten Türen vom ersten Raum bis zur Wand des letzten Raums beziehungsweise durch das Fenster dort blicken kann.