Early life.

Vassiliou was born in Famagusta, Cyprus. His father, Vasos, was a member of the central committee of AKEL, the Cypriot communist party. He was a doctor by profession, and volunteered as a doctor on the side of the Communists in the Greek Civil War. During the civil war, the rest of the Vassiliou family settled in Hungary. Vassiliou himself went to university in Hungary and was a student of Imre Nagy. He fled Hungary following the Soviet invasion and continued his studies at the University of London. In 2018, György Markó's book The Rambo of Pest revealed that Vassiliou was a spy of the counter-intelligence in the Rákosi era, and after 1956 he was an informer of the Ministry of Interior under the name 'Gergely', and he reported on the economist János Kornai, among others.

Political career.

He was elected president as an independent candidate with support from AKEL in 1988, succeeding Spyros Kyprianou, who had served two presidential terms. During his time in office, Cyprus experienced economic growth and he was responsible for a number of reforms including stopping the police practice of keeping files on Cypriot citizens' political beliefs. He worked towards a negotiated solution to the Cyprus dispute based on the Ghali set of ideas, although the dispute remained unresolved by the time he left office in 1993.  After he lost the 1993 elections to Glafkos Klerides, he founded the Free Democrats Movement and he was elected president of the party. He was elected member of the Cypriot Parliamient, while his political party won two seats (out of 56) in the Parliamentary Elections in 1996. The same year the party was merged with the political party ADISOK and formed a new party United Democrats.  He elected as well president of United Democrats and remained president until 2005. In the Parliamentary Elections of 2001 his party lost one of its seats and he wasn't re-elected. Following the Cyprus referendum of 2004 in which he was a strong supporter of the Annan Plan he resigned from the presidency of United Democrats.  He has also served as Chief Negotiator for the accession of Cyprus to the European Union from 1998 to 2003.

Euro-Centrism.

He is a strong supporter of the European cause, he proved it recently by co-signing George Soros' open letter calling for more Europe in the single currency turmoil.  George Vassiliou takes active part in international political and social organizations and events. He is currently Member of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, jointly chaired by Poland's ex-President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and President of the European Jewish Congress Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor. ECTR is designed to monitor tolerance in Europe and prepare recommendations to national governments and IGOs in respect of fighting xenophobia, extremism and anti-Semitism.

Personal life.

Vassiliou has three children and is married to Androulla Vassiliou.

Post political career.

In 2014 Vassiliou published a book about his life before presidency called 'Odyssey'. In 2015 he began writing a sequel to his book about his life as president of Cyprus. It is expected to be released in late 2016.

Giorgos Vasos Vassiliou (; born May 20, 1931) is a Greek Cypriot politician who served as the third President of Cyprus from 1988 to 1993. He was also the founder and leader of the Cypriot United Democrats party (EDI) and a highly successful businessman.

Georges Vassiliou (Γιώργος Βασιλείου "Giorgos Vasiliou"; * 20. Mai 1931) ist ein griechisch-zypriotischer Politiker und war von 1988 bis 1993 Präsident der Republik Zypern.


Overview.

Of the six main varieties of pecorino, all of which have Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status under European Union law, pecorino romano is probably the best known outside Italy, especially in the United States, which has been an important export market for the cheese since the 19th century. Most pecorino is produced on the island of Sardinia, though its production is also allowed in Lazio and in the Tuscan provinces of Grosseto and Siena. Ancient Roman authors wrote about this cheese and its production technique.  The other five mature PDO cheeses are the pecorino sardo from Sardinia ("casu berbeghinu" in Sardinian language); pecorino toscano, whose production was already attested by Pliny the Elder in his "Natural History"; pecorino siciliano (or "picurinu sicilianu" in Sicilian) from Sicily; pecorino di Filiano from Basilicata; and pecorino crotonese from Province of Crotone in Calabria. Another well-known pecorino is the one that was produced in Abruzzo, the pecorino di Atri.  All come in a variety of styles depending on how long they have been aged. The more matured cheeses, referred to as "stagionato" ("seasoned" or "aged"), are harder but still crumbly in texture and have decidedly buttery and nutty flavours. The other two types, "semi-stagionato" and "fresco", have a softer texture and milder cream and milk tastes.

Tradition.

A variant from Southern Italy is pecorino pepato (literally, "peppered Pecorino"), to which black peppercorns are added. Today many other additions are made, for example walnuts, rocket, or tiny pieces of white or black truffle.  In Sardinia, the larvae of the cheese fly are intentionally introduced into pecorino sardo to produce a local delicacy called casu marzu.  Meals may be finished with a good pecorino stagionato, served with pears and walnuts or drizzled with strong chestnut honey. Pecorino is also often used to finish pasta dishes, and used to be the natural choice for most Italian regions from Umbria down to Sicily, rather than the more expensive Parmigiano-Reggiano. It is still preferred today for the pasta dishes of Rome and Lazio, for example pasta dressed with sugo all'amatriciana, cacio e pepe, and pasta alla Gricia.

Pecorino cheeses are hard Italian cheeses made from sheep's milk. The name "" simply means "ovine" or "of sheep" in Italian.

Pecorino (von ‚ Schaf; Plural dt.: "Pecorinos") ist ein italienischer Käse, der ursprünglich aus reiner Schafmilch hergestellt wurde. Heute gibt es auch preisgünstigere Sorten, denen Kuhmilch oder Ziegenmilch beigemischt ist.


Examples.

Trader A ("A") has 500 shares of XYZ stock, valued at $10,000. A sells (writes) 5 call option contracts, bought by Investor B ("B") (in the US, 1 option contract covers 100 shares) for $1500. This premium of $1500 covers a certain amount of decrease in the price of XYZ stock (i.e. only after the stock value has declined by more than $1500 would the owner of the stock, A, lose money overall). Losses cannot be prevented, but merely reduced in a covered call position. If the stock price drops, it will not make sense for the option buyer ("B") to exercise the option at the higher strike price since the stock can now be purchased cheaper at the market price, and A, the seller (writer), will keep the money paid on the premium of the option. Thus, A's loss is reduced from a maximum of $10000 to [$10000 - (premium)], or $8500.  This "protection" has its potential disadvantage if the price of the stock increases. If B exercises the option to buy, and the stock price has increased such that A's shares of XYZ are now worth more than $10,000 in the market, A (the option writer) will be forced to sell the stock below market price at expiration, or must buy back the calls at a price higher than A sold them for.  If, before expiration, the spot price does not reach the strike price, the investor might repeat the same process again if he believes that stock will either fall or be neutral.  A call option can be sold even if the option writer ("A") does not initially own the underlying stock, but is buying the stock at the same time. This is called a "buy write". If XYZ trades at $33 and $35 calls are priced at $1, then A can purchase 100 shares of XYZ for $3300 and write/sell one (100-share) call option for $100, for a net cost of only $3200. The $100 premium received for the call will cover a $1 decline in stock price. The break-even point of the transaction is $32/share. Upside potential is limited to $300, but this amounts to a return of almost 10%. (If the stock price rises to $35 or more, the call option holder will exercise the option and A's profit will be $35–32 = $3) If the stock price at expiry is below $35 but above $32, the call option will be allowed to expire, but A (the seller/writer) can still profit by selling the shares. Only if the price is below $32/share will A experience a loss.  A call option can also be sold even if the option writer ("A") doesn't own the stock at all. This is called a "naked call". It is more dangerous, as the option writer can later be forced to buy the stock at the then-current market price, then sell it immediately to the option owner at the low strike price (if the naked option is ever exercised).  To summarize:

Marketing.

This strategy is sometimes marketed as being "safe" or "conservative" and even "hedging risk" as it provides premium income, but its flaws have been well known at least since 1975 when Fischer Black published "Fact and Fantasy in the Use of Options". According to Reilly and Brown,: "to be profitable, the covered call strategy requires that the investor guess correctly that share values will remain in a reasonably narrow band around their present levels."  Two recent developments may have increased interest in covered call strategies: (1) in 2002 the Chicago Board Options Exchange introduced a benchmark index for covered call strategies, the CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index (ticker BXM), and (2) in 2004 the Ibbotson Associates consulting firm published a case study on buy-write strategies.  This type of option is best used when the investor would like to generate income off a long position while the market is moving sideways. It allows an investor/writer to continue a buy-and-hold strategy to make money off a stock which is currently inactive in gains. The investor/writer must correctly guess that the stock won't make any gains within the time frame of the option; this is best done by writing an out-of-the-money option. A covered call has lower risk compared to other types of options, thus the potential reward is also lower.

A covered call is a financial market transaction in which the seller of call options owns the corresponding amount of the underlying instrument, such as shares of a stock or other securities. If a trader buys the underlying instrument at the same time the trader sells the call, the strategy is often called a "buy-write" strategy. In equilibrium, the strategy has the same payoffs as writing a put option.

Eine gedeckte Kaufoption ( Covered Call) ist eine Optionsstrategie, bei der man Wertpapiere mit Optionen kombiniert. Gelegentlich wird für diese Variante auch der Name Buy-Write-Strategie verwendet.


Characteristics.

Sepiolite is opaque and off-white, grey or cream color, breaking with a conchoidal or fine earthy fracture, and occasionally fibrous in texture. Due to the fact it can be readily scratched with the finger nail, its hardness is ranked at about 2 on the Mohs scale. The specific gravity varies from 0.988 to 1.279, but the porosity of the mineral may lead to error. Sepiolite is a hydrous magnesium silicate having the chemical formula MgSiO(OH)·6HO.  When first extracted, sepiolite is soft. However, it hardens on exposure to solar heat or when dried in a warm room.

Location.

Most of the sepiolite of commerce is obtained chiefly from the plain of Eskişehir in Turkey, between Istanbul and Ankara. It occurs there in irregular nodular masses, in alluvial deposits, which are extensively worked for its extraction. It is said that in this district, there are 4000 shafts leading to horizontal galleries for extraction of the sepiolite. The principal workings are at Sepetçi Ocağı and Kemikçi Ocağı, about 20 miles southeast of Eskişehir. The mineral is associated with magnesite (magnesium carbonate), the primitive source of both minerals being a serpentine.  Sepiolite is also found, though less abundantly, in Greece, as at Thebes, and in the islands of Euboea and Samos. It occurs also in serpentine at Hrubschitz near Kromau in Moravia. Additionally, sepiolite is found to a limited extent at certain localities in France and Spain, and is known in Morocco. In the United States, it occurs in serpentine in Pennsylvania (as at Nottingham, Chester County) and in South Carolina and Utah.  Sepiolite occurs as a secondary mineral associated with serpentine. It can occur as a precipitate in arid environments. It may be associated with dolomite and opal.  Owing to its fibrous mineral nature, sepiolite veins may contain the hazardous material asbestos; however, this is true of only a very rare form of sepiolite, as the two are formed in very different environments. Even where asbestos is not present, sepiolite is often mistaken for it. Careful analytical techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) are able to easily distinguish the two.  Carved Turkish meerschaum products traditionally were made in manufacturing centers such as Vienna. Since the 1970s, though, Turkey has banned the exportation of meerschaum nodules, trying to set up a local meerschaum industry. The once famous manufacturers have therefore disappeared and European pipe producers turned to others sources for their pipes.  In the African Great Lakes region, large deposits of meerschaum were found in Tanganyika. The main deposit comes from the Amboseli basin surrounding the Lake Amboseli. Tanganyika Meerschaum is normally stained in shades of brown, black and yellow, and is considered to be somewhat inferior to Meerschaum from Turkey. The raw material was primarily mined by the Tanganyika Meerschaum Corporation and uncounted pipemakers throughout the world were supplied with Amboseli Meerschaum.

Applications.

Carved pipes.

Meerschaum has occasionally been used as a substitute for soapstone, fuller's earth, and as a building material; but its chief use is for smoking pipes and cigarette holders. The first recorded use of meerschaum for making pipes was around 1723 and quickly became prized as the perfect material for providing a cool, dry, flavorful smoke. The porous nature of meerschaum draws moisture and tobacco tar into the stone. Meerschaum became a premium substitute for the clay pipes of the day and remains prized to this day, though since the mid-1800s briar pipes have become the most common pipes for smoking.  When smoked, meerschaum pipes gradually change color, and old meerschaums will turn incremental shades of yellow, orange, red, and amber from the base on up. When prepared for use as a pipe, the natural nodules are first scraped to remove the red earthy matrix, then dried, again scraped and polished with wax. The crudely shaped masses thus prepared are turned and carved, smoothed with glass-paper, heated in wax or stearine, and finally polished with bone-ash, etc.

Other uses and substitutes.

In Somalia and Djibouti, sepiolite is used to make the dabqaad, a traditional incense burner. The mineral is mined in the town of El Buur, the latter of which serves as a center for quarrying. El Buur is also the place of origin of the local pipe-making industry.  Imitations are made in plaster of Paris and other preparations.  The soft, white, earthy mineral from Långbanshyttan, in Värmland, Sweden, known as aphrodite (), is closely related to sepiolite.  In construction, sepiolite can be used in lime mortars as water reservoir.  Processes for bacterial transformation based on the Yoshida effect can utilize sepiolite as an acicular nanofiber.

External links.

Sepiolite, also known as meerschaum (, ; ; meaning "foam of the sea"), is a soft white clay mineral, often used to make tobacco pipes (known as meerschaum pipes). A complex magnesium silicate, a typical chemical formula for which is MgSiO(OH)·6HO, it can be present in fibrous, fine-particulate, and solid forms.

Das Mineral Sepiolith, allgemein auch als Meerschaum bekannt, ist ein eher selten vorkommendes Magnesiumsilikat mit der chemischen Zusammensetzung Mg[(OH)SiO]·(4+8)HO. Nach seiner Kristallstruktur gehört es zu den Schichtsilikaten. Es kristallisiert im orthorhombischen Kristallsystem und wurde bisher nur in Form erdiger oder massiger, knolliger, selten auch feinfaseriger Mineral-Aggregate von weißer, grauweißer oder gelblichweißer Farbe gefunden.


Taxonomy and genetics.

The scientific name of the sitatunga is "Tragelaphus spekii". The species was first described by the English explorer John Hanning Speke in 1863. Speke first observed the sitatunga at a lake named "Little Windermere" (now Lake Lwelo, located in Kagera, Tanzania). In his book "Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile", Speke called the animal "nzoé" (Kiswahili name for the animal) or "water-boc" (due to its resemblance to the waterbuck). The scientific name has often been misstated as "T. spekei", and either Speke or Sclater is referred to as the binomial authority.  Speke had stated in a footnote in his book that the species had been named "Tragelaphus spekii" by English zoologist Philip Sclater. However, according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Article 50.1.1) and the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, that acknowledge the person who first described the species, simply declaring Sclater as the authority in a footnote is insufficient to recognise him as the author. Hence, Speke was recognised as the correct authority and "T. spekii" (where "spekii" is the genitive of the Latinised "Spekius") was considered the correct name for the species.  The sitatunga is placed under the genus "Tragelaphus" and in the family Bovidae. In 2005, Sandi Willows-Munro of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban) carried out a mitochondrial analysis of the nine "Tragelaphus" species. mtDNA and nDNA data were compared. The results showed that sitatunga plus bongo ("T. eurycerus") form a monophyletic clade with the mountain nyala ("T. buxtoni") and kéwel ("T. scriptus"). The greater kudu ("T. strepsiceros") split from this clade approximately 8.6 million years ago.  Within "Tragelaphus", the kéwel, bongo, sitatunga and nyala ("T. angasii") are particularly close relatives. The bushbuck, that includes both imbabala ("T. sylvaticus") and kéwel, and sitatunga are genetically similar enough to hybridise. Hybrids between bongo and sitatunga have proved to be fertile. The sitatunga is more variable in its general characters than any other member of the tribe Strepsicerotini, that consists of the genera "Taurotragus" (elands) and "Tragelaphus", probably because of their confinement to swampy and marshy habitats.  On the basis of physical characteristics such as hair texture, coat colour and the coat stripes, up to ten subspecies of the sitatunga have been described. However, these factors may not be reliable since hair texture could vary with the climate, while pelage colour and markings vary greatly among individuals. Moreover, the coat might darken and the stripes and spots on it might fade with age, especially in males. The species might even be monotypic, however, based on different drainage systems, three distinct subspecies are currently recognised:

Description.

The sitatunga is a medium-sized antelope. It is sexually dimorphic, with males considerably larger than females. The head-and-body length is typically between in males and in females. Males reach approximately at the shoulder, while females reach. Males typically weigh, while females weigh. The tail is long. The saucer-shaped ears are long. Only the males possess horns; these are spiral in shape, have one or two twists and are long. The sitatunga is almost indistinguishable from the nyala, except in pelage and spoor. Speke pointed out that, though "closely allied" to the waterbuck, the sitatunga lacks stripes and is spotted instead.  The coat colour varies geographically, but, in general, is a rufous red in juveniles and chestnut in females. There are white facial markings, as well as several stripes and spots all over, though they are only faintly visible. White patches can be seen on the throat, near the head and the chest. A pair of inguinal scent glands are present. The coats of males darken with age, becoming gray to dark brown. Males develop a rough and scraggy mane, usually brown in colour, and a white dorsal stripe. There is a chevron between the eyes of the males.  The body and legs of this antelope are specially adapted to its swampy habitat. The hooves of the male are elongated and widely splayed. The rubbery, shaggy, water-repellent coat is minimally affected by slimy and muddy vegetation. The wedge-like shape and lowering of the head, coupled with the backward bend of the horns (in males) provides for easy navigation through dense vegetation. The pasterns are flexible, and the hooves, banana-like in shape, can reach a length of up to in the hindlegs and in the forelegs. The pointed toes allow it to walk slowly and almost noiselessly through the water. Moreover, the colour of the coat provides an excellent camouflage. Hearing is acute, and the ears are so structured that the animal can accurately determine the direction from where a sound has originated. This adaptation is of profound use in habitats where long sight is of very little value due to the density and darkness of the environment.

Ecology and behaviour.

Sitatunga are active mainly during the early hours after dawn, the last one or two hours before dusk, and at night, and spend a large part of this time feeding. Basically sedentary, they rest in flat areas and reed beds, especially during the hotter part of the day. They seldom leave their swamp habitat during the daytime. Though sitatunga commonly form pairs or remain solitary, larger groups have also been observed. A study in Kenya recorded a herd of as many as nine individuals, comprising an adult male, four females and four juveniles. Loose groups may be formed but interaction among individuals is very low. Individuals generally associate only with their own sex.  The sitatunga is not territorial. Males may engage in locking horns with other males and attacking vegetation using their horns. They may perform feinting by raising their forelegs with the hindlegs rooted in the ground as a threat display. Sitatunga interact with each other by first touching their noses, which may be followed by licking each other and nibbling. Alarmed animals may stand motionless, with the head held high and one leg raised. Sitatunga may occasionally emit a series of coughs or barks, usually at night, which may cause other animals to join in, and these sounds can be heard across the swamp. This barking may be used by females to warn off other females. Males often utter a low bellow on coming across a female or a herd of females in the mating season. A low-pitched squeak may be uttered while feeding. Mothers communicate with their calves by bleats.  Sitatunga can feed or rest close to southern lechwe herds, but do not interact with them. They often attract yellow-billed oxpeckers, African jacanas and great egrets. Sitatunga are good swimmers, but limit themselves to water with profuse vegetation in order to escape crocodiles. In some cases, for instance when troubled by flies or pursued by predators, the sitatunga might fully submerge themselves in the water except for the nose and the eyes, which they keep slightly above the water surface. Due to its close association with water, the sitatunga are often described as "aquatic antelopes", like the waterbuck. They often dry themselves under the sun after feeding in water. Predators of the sitatunga include lions, wild dogs, crocodiles and leopards.

Diet.

Sitatunga are selective and mixed feeders. They feed mainly on new foliage, fresh grasses, sedges and browse. Preferred plants include: bullrushes ("Typha"), sedges ("Cyperus"), aquatic grasses ("Vossia", "Echinochloa", "Pennisetum", "Leersia", "Acroceras" and "Panicum". Species in Umbelliferae and Acanthaceae are preferred in Saiwa Swamp National Park (Kenya), and Fabaceae species are preferred in Bangweulu and Busanga (in Kafue National Park). They feed mostly in the wetland fringes. Diet preferences may vary seasonally in swamps where water levels change notably. Like the gerenuk, the sitatunga may stand on its hindlegs to reach higher branches of trees, or even use its horns to pull down the branches.  A study recorded forty major species eaten by the animal, the majority of which were herbs. Sweet potato was the most preferred crop. The study predicted an increase in preference for crops due to seasonal food variations. Another study showed that annual floods affect the seasonal movement and diet of the species. These floods force the animals out of the reed beds onto the flooded grasslands when the water levels are high. At low water levels the cattle take over the flooded plains and send the sitatunga back to their original place.

Reproduction.

Females are sexually mature by one year of age, while males take one-and-a-half-year before they mature. Breeding occurs throughout the year. When females gather, the males compete among each other for the right to mate, showing polygyny in males. The rutting male approaches the female in a lower bending posture, sniffing her vulva. The female may move slowly or react nervously. Even if the female flees, the male continues pursuing her steadily, without showing any sign of hurry. A receptive female will raise her head with her mouth wide open, following which the male will begin attempts at mounting. At the time of mounting the female lowers her head, while the male first bends and then straightens his forelegs and rests his head and neck on her back. The two remain together for one or two days, during which time the male ensures that no other male can approach the female.  Gestation lasts for nearly eight months, after which generally a single calf is born. Parturition occurs throughout the year, though a peak may occur in the dry season. Calves are hidden adroitly, and brought out of cover only in the presence of many other sitatunga. The mother gazes and nods at the calf to summon it for nursing. A calf follows its mother about even after she has given birth to another calf. The mother suckles and licks her calf for about six months. The calf takes time to master the specialised gait of the sitatunga, and thus often loses its balance and falls in water. Males, and even some females, have been observed to leave their herds even before reaching sexual maturity due to intrasexual competition. Lifespan recorded in captivity averages 22 to 23 years.

Habitat and distribution.

The sitatunga is an amphibious antelope (meaning it can live on both land and water) confined to swampy and marshy habitats. They occur in tall and dense vegetation of perennial as well as seasonal swamps, marshy clearings in forests, riparian thickets and mangrove swamps. Sitatunga move along clearly marked tracks in their swampy habitat, often leading to reed beds. These tracks, up to wide, can lead to feeding grounds and nearby riverine forests. The sitatunga hold small home ranges near water bodies In savannas, they are typically found in stands of papyrus and reeds ("Phragmites" species and "Echinochloa pyramidalis"). They share their habitat with the Nile lechwe in the Sudd swamps and with the southern lechwe in Angola, Botswana and Zambia.  The sitatunga is native to Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is extinct in Niger, where it formerly occurred in the Lake Chad region, and is feared to be extinct in Togo, where its habitat has been taken over by dense human settlements. While it is localised and sporadic in western Africa, the sitatunga is still common in the forests of central Africa and certain swampy regions in central, eastern and southern Africa.

Threats and conservation.

Habitat loss is the most severe threat to the survival of the sitatunga. Other threats include the increasing loss of wetlands, that has isolated populations; and long-term changes in the water level, that affects the nearby vegetation and thus bears upon their diet. Vast areas of Bangweulu and Busanga are burnt every year, placing animals like the sitatunga at grave risk given the inflammability of swamps. The sitatunga has been classified under the Least Concern category by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), and under Appendix III (Ghana) of the Washington Convention (CITES).  In Senegal, intensive hunting for meat and habitat degradation have made the sitatunga very rare. Formerly it was common throughout Gambia, but now it is confined to a few inaccessible swamps; a population has been introduced in the Abuko Nature Reserve. On the other hand, though the animal is hunted by locals primarily for food, Botswana still supports a large portion of the total population. The species is of great economic significance for northern Botswana, that produces some of the world's biggest sitatunga trophies. Its status is unclear in Chad, Ghana, Guinea, Burundi and Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Significant populations still exist in countries such as Cameroon, Central African Republic, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Tanzania and Zambia. The inaccessibility of its habitat has rendered population estimates very difficult. In 1999, Rod East of the IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group estimated a total population of 170,000, but this is likely to be an overestimate. Its numbers are decreasing in areas of heavy human settlement, but are stable elsewhere.  Around 40 percent of the populations (based on the overestimate of 170,000) occurs in protected areas, mainly in Okavango Delta and Linyanti and Chobe swamps (Botswana); Dja Faunal Reserve and Lobéké National Park (Cameroon); Bangassou (Central African Republic); Odzala National Park, Lake Télé Community Reserve, Likouala and Salongo (The Democratic Republic of Congo); Monte Alén National Park (Equatorial Guinea); Saiwa Swamp National Park (Kenya); Akagera National Park (Rwanda); Moyowosi and Kigosi Game Reserves (Tanzania); Bangweulu and Busanga Swamps (Zambia). However, only a few are of these parks and reserves are well-protected and managed.

The sitatunga or marshbuck ("Tragelaphus spekii") is a swamp-dwelling antelope found throughout central Africa, centering on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, parts of Southern Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Ghana, Botswana, Rwanda, Zambia, Gabon, the Central African Republic, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. The sitatunga is confined to swampy and marshy habitats. Here they occur in tall and dense vegetation as well as seasonal swamps, marshy clearings in forests, riparian thickets and mangrove swamps.

Die Sitatunga ("Tragelaphus spekii"), auch Wasserkudu, Sumpfbock oder Sumpfantilope genannt, ist eine afrikanische Antilope. Der Sitatunga ist die am meisten an Wasser gebundene Antilopenart. Sie leben in dichten und weitläufigen Papyrus-Marschen und kommen allenfalls in den Abendstunden an den Rand dieser Dickichte, um nach Nahrung zu suchen.


History.

First era (1980–1992).

Formed in 1980 with Vinnie Stigma (born Vincent Capuccio, formerly of the Eliminators) on guitar, with Diego on bass, Rob Krekus on drums and John Watson on vocals. Despite being billed at their first concert as the Zoo Crew, Stigma introduced them as Agnostic Front, saying that the poster had been made prior to deciding on the name. The band went through several singers, including Jimmy "The Mad Russian". Although never having spoken to him before, Stigma told some of his friends to ask Roger Miret (former bass player of The Psychos) if he wanted to be the vocalist of Agnostic Front, because he liked his style of slam dancing. They soon added Ray Barbieri, aka Raybeez, on drums and Adam Mucci on bass. Their debut EP, "United Blood", released in 1983 on an indie label, has since become a collector's item.  During its initial phase, the band consisted entirely of skinheads. Although this would change over time, Agnostic Front would continue to feature skinheads as part of their line-up. This led to a belief among some that the band espoused ultra-nationalist or fascist politics, an assertion denied by vocalist Roger Miret in a 1985 "Flipside" interview: "...We're skinheads. And the skinheads in England have a very bad name like with the fascists and stuff like that. But this is America not England. Just because the skinheads are fascists over there doesn't mean we got to grow our hair out if we don't feel like it... We love our country — but not necessarily how our government works.'  The follow-up, "Victim in Pain" (1984), is regarded as a seminal New York hardcore release. Dave Jones replaced Raybeez on drums, and Rob Kabula took over on bass. In 1984, Jimmy "The Kid" Colletti from Justified Violence joined on drums when the band went to tour with The Exploited later that year. The album pushed the band to the forefront of New York's fledgling hardcore scene, which was centered around CBGB, where they played with bands like Cro-Mags and Murphy's Law. Roger Miret asserts that all the songs on the album "are totally inspired by the streets of New York and my life and what was going on with my friends. It was dangerous. We did what we had to do to survive by any means necessary. It was like a war or a battlefield, and we stood our ground".  1986's "Cause for Alarm" was a difficult album to record, due to constant line-up changes and personnel problems. Released on Combat Records, it added thrash metal influences. With other bands such as Suicidal Tendencies and Stormtroopers of Death, this album would mark AF's foray into the world of crossover thrash. It also featured some lyrics written by Peter Steele and drumming by Louie Beateaux (both of Carnivore).  With yet another new line-up, the band soon released "Liberty and Justice for..." in 1987. The album featured stripped down punk with a lack of thrash influences, yet it contained many metal-style guitar solos. It did not sell nearly as well as previous releases. Sometime later, Miret was arrested on drug charges after releasing a live album, and spent his time in prison writing new songs while Stigma and the band toured Europe for the first time. The lyrics written by Miret while incarcerated formed most of 1992's "One Voice", which featured members of Madball and Sick of It All. Not long after its release, the band decided to call it quits. Their last show was at CBGB on December 20, 1992; "Last Warning", which was also released with "United Blood" EP on the end of the release.

Second era (1996–present).

Stigma and Miret reformed Agnostic Front in May 1996 and did a few reunion shows in December 1996, signing to Epitaph Records and recruiting Jimmy Colletti on drums and Rob Kabula on bass, who was playing with Against The Grain at the time. Their latest venture was titled "Something's Gotta Give". In 1999, they followed up with "Riot, Riot, Upstart". They also won an MTV award for the title track music video. Their comeback albums have sold well and been mostly acclaimed by music critics for their pure hardcore punk sound.  In 2001, they released the album "Dead Yuppies". Songs from this album were rarely played live, as the band considered it more a product of Loved and Hated, Jimmy Colletti's side-project band.  In 2002, Miret worked on a side-project band, Roger Miret and the Disasters, looking for a sound akin to old school punk rock and oi!. Also that year, the band appeared in Matthew Barney's film, Cremaster 3 along with Murphy's Law.  Agnostic Front came out in 2004 with "Another Voice". The album was regarded mainly as a follow-up to "One Voice". The album, however, did receive some criticism from fans and the press for apparently changing their music to fit the current wave of 'tough guy' bands. Musically, the album bears resemblance to bands that were heavily influenced by Agnostic Front, such as Hatebreed. Miret's vocals on the album particularly seemed to turn off many less hardcore punk-oriented fans. Later, the track "Peace" was contributed to the mash-up album Threat: Music That Inspired The Movie, where it was remixed by Schizoid and renamed "World At War."  On March 7, 2006, Agnostic Front released the DVD "Live at CBGB". This follows the efforts of many bands that tried to save CBGB from shutting down. Miret claims that "We played more shows at CBGB than any band ever, and we played more benefit shows for CBGB than any band ever" when the club did close, most nostalgia focused on 1970s punk bands.  On November 6, 2007, Agnostic Front released the album "Warriors" with the hit "For My Family" which was largely a continuation of the band's crossover thrash sound.  For the 25th anniversary of their debut LP "Victim in Pain", Bridge Nine Records released remastered versions of said album along with their first EP, United Blood, on November 17, 2009.  The band performed on the Persistence Tour in Europe in the winter of 2009 and have were confirmed for Rebellion Festival 2012 in Blackpool, U.K.  In 2015, the band released the album "The American Dream Died" via Nuclear Blast Records which consisted mostly of the bands older style of music with a modern touch. The band continued to tour extensively in Europe as well as the U.S. in support of the record.  In 2017, Stigma and Miret appeared in a documentary about Agnostic Front, "The Godfathers Of Hardcore", directed by Ian McFarland.

Agnostic Front is an American hardcore punk band from New York City. Founded in 1980, the band is considered an important influence to the New York hardcore scene, as well as for pioneering the crossover thrash genre.

Agnostic Front (häufig nur „AF“ genannt) ist eine US-amerikanische Hardcore-Punk-Band, die in den frühen 1980er-Jahren vom Gitarristen Vinnie Stigma gegründet wurde. Neben Stigma gehört zum beständigeren Teil der Besetzung Sänger Roger Miret. Die Band gehört zu den ältesten Hardcore-Punk-Gruppen, die heute noch aktiv sind. Sie war prägend für die Musikstile New York Hardcore, Crossover und Metalcore. Die Gruppe löste sich 1993 auf und formierte sich 1998 neu.


Overview of scientific legacy.

Despite his claim for a "new psychology" that he foresaw as a "science of the Superman" of the Communist future, Vygotsky's main work was in developmental psychology. In order to fully understand the human mind, he believed one must understand its genesis. Consequently, the majority of his work involved the study of infant and child behavior, as well as the development of language acquisition (such as the importance of pointing and inner speech) and the development of concepts; now often referred to as schemas or schemata.  Early in the psychological research period of his career (1920s), which focused upon mechanistic and reductionist "instrumental psychology" in many ways inspired by the work of Ivan Pavlov (his theory of "higher nervous activity") and Vladimir Bekhterev (and his "reflexologist" followers), Vygotsky argued that human psychological development could be formed through the use of meaningless (i.e., virtually random) signs that he viewed as the psychological equivalent of instrument use in human labor and industry. It was later during the "holistic" period of his career (the first half of the 1930s) that Vygotsky rejected this earlier reductionist views on signs.  While Vygotsky never met Jean Piaget, he had read a number of his works and agreed on some of his perspectives on learning. At some point (around 1929-30), Vygotsky came to disagree with Piaget's understanding of learning and development, and held a different theoretical position from Piaget on the topic of inner speech; Piaget asserted that egocentric speech in children "dissolved away" as they matured, while Vygotsky maintained that egocentric speech became internalized, what we now call "inner speech". However, in the early 1930s he radically changed his mind on Piaget's theory and openly praised him for his discovery of the social origin of children's speech, reasoning, and moral judgements. Piaget only read Vygotsky's work after his death.  Nearing the end of his life, Vygotsky's later work involved adolescent development. However, his most important and widely known contribution is his theory for the development of "higher psychological functions," which considers human psychological development as emerging through unification of interpersonal connections and actions taken within a given socio-cultural environment (i.e., language, culture, society, and tool-use). Vygotsky eventually came to dialogue with the mainstream Gestalt line of thought and adopted a more holistic approach to understanding development. Under the increasing influence of the holistic thinking of the scholars primarily associated with the German-American Gestalt psychology movement, Vygotsky adopted their views on "psychological systems" and—inspired by Kurt Lewin's "Topological (and vector) psychology"—introduced the enigmatic construct of the "zone of proximal development". It was during this period that he identified the play of young children as their "leading activity", which he understood to be the main source of preschoolers' psychological development, and which he viewed as an expression of an inseparable unity of emotional, volitional, and cognitive development. At this time, Vygotsky fully revealed his long-time interest in the philosophy of Spinoza, who would remain one of his favorite thinkers throughout his life. A fervent Spinozist in many respects, Vygotsky was profoundly influenced by Spinoza's thought, largely in response to Spinoza's examinations concerning human emotion. As his work matured, Spinoza's thought became a more central visitation in Vygotsky's later work, increasingly focused on the issue of human emotion and its role in higher psychological functions and development that he largely omitted in his earlier work and utterly needed for creating a holistic psychological theory.  As early as the mid-1920s, Vygotsky's ideas were introduced in the West, but he remained virtually unknown until the early 1980s when the popularity among educators of the constructivist developmental psychology and educational theory of Jean Piaget (1896-1980) started to decline and, in contrast, Vygotsky's notion of the "zone of proximal development" became a central component of the development of the so-called "social constructivist" turn in developmental and, primarily, educational psychology and practice. A "Review of General Psychology" study, published in 2002, ranked Vygotsky as the 83rd top psychologist of the twentieth century and the third (and the last) Russian on the top-100 list after Ivan Pavlov and Vygotsky's longtime collaborator Alexander Luria.

Biography.

Lev Semionovich Vygotsky (; – June 11, 1934) was born to the Vygodskii family in the town of Orsha, Belarus (then belonging to Russian Empire) into a non-religious middle-class family of Russian Jewish extraction. His father Simkha Vygodskii was a banker.  Lev Vygodskii was raised in the city of Gomel, where he was homeschooled until 1911 and then obtained formal degree (with distinction) in a private Jewish Gimnasium, which allowed him entrance to a university. In 1913 Lev Vygodskii was admitted to the Moscow University by mere ballot through a "Jewish Lottery": at the time a three percent Jewish student quota was administered for entry in Moscow and Saint Petersburg universities. He had interest in humanities and social sciences, but at the insistence of his parents he applied to the medical school in Moscow University. During the first semester of study he transferred to the law school. There he studied law and, in parallel, he attended lectures at Shaniavskii University.  Vygodskii's early interests were in the arts and, primarily, in the topics of the history of the Jewish people, the tradition, culture and Jewish identity. In contrast, during this period he was highly critical of the ideas of both socialism and Zionism, and proposed the solution of the "Jewish question" by return to the traditional Jewish Orthodoxy. His own academics, however, included a wide field of studies including linguistics, psychology, and philosophy.  Lev Vygotsky never completed his formal studies at the Imperial Moscow University and, thus, he never obtained a university degree: his studies were interrupted by the October Bolshevik uprising in 1917 in the country's capital Petrograd and the second largest city Moscow. Following these events, he left Moscow and eventually returned to Gomel, where he lived after the October Socialist Revolution of 1917 occurred. There is virtually no information about his life during the years in Gomel (that administratively belonged to the Ukrainian State at the time) after the German occupation during the WWI, until the Bolsheviks captured the town in 1919. After that, he was an active participant of major social transformation under the Bolshevik (Communist) rule and a fairly prominent representative of the Bolshevik government in Gomel from 1919 to 1923. By the early 1920s, as reflected in his journalistic publications of the time, he informally changed his Jewish-sounding birth name, 'Lev Símkhovich Výgodskii' (), with the surname becoming "Vygótskii" and the patronymic 'Símkhovich' becoming the Slavic 'Semiónovich'. It was under this pen-name that the fame subsequently came to him. His daughters (subsequently born in 1925 and 1930) and other relatives, though, preserved their original family name 'Vygodskii'. The traditional English spelling of his last name nowadays is 'Vygotsky'.  In January 1924, Vygotsky took part in the Second All-Russian Psychoneurological Congress in Petrograd (soon thereafter renamed Leningrad). After the Congress, Vygotsky received an invitation to become a research fellow at the Psychological Institute in Moscow. Vygotsky moved to Moscow with his new wife, Roza Smekhova. He began his career at the Psychological Institute as a "staff scientist, second class". He also became a secondary teacher, covering a period marked by his interest in the processes of learning and the role of language in learning.  By the end of 1925, Vygotsky completed his dissertation in 1925 entitled, "The Psychology of Art", that was not published until the 1960s and a book entitled, "Pedagogical Psychology", that apparently was created on the basis of lecture notes that he prepared in Gomel while he was a psychology instructor at local educational establishments. In the summer of 1925 he made his first and only trip abroad to a London congress on the education of the deaf. Upon return to the Soviet Union, he was hospitalized due to relapse of tuberculosis and, having miraculously survived, would remain an invalid and out of work until the end of 1926. His dissertation was accepted as the prerequisite of scholarly degree, which was awarded to Vygotsky in fall 1925 "in absentia".  After his release from the hospital, Vygotsky did theoretical and methodological work on the crisis in psychology, but never finished the draft of the manuscript and interrupted his work on it around mid-1927. The manuscript was published later with notable editorial interventions and distortions in 1982 and was presented by the editors as one of the most important of Vygotsky's works. In this early manuscript, Vygotsky argued for the formation of a general psychology that could unite the naturalist objectivist strands of psychological science with the more philosophical approaches of Marxist orientation. However, he also harshly criticized those of his colleagues who attempted to build a "Marxist Psychology" as an alternative to the naturalist and philosophical schools. He argued that if one wanted to build a truly Marxist Psychology, there were no shortcuts to be found by merely looking for applicable quotes in the writings of Marx. Rather one should look for a methodology that was in accordance with the Marxian spirit.  From 1926–30, Vygotsky worked on a research program investigating the development of higher cognitive functions of logical memory, selective attention, decision making, and language comprehension, from early forms of primal psychological functions. During this period he gathered a group of collaborators including Alexander Luria, Boris Varshava, Alexei Leontiev, Leonid Zankov, and several others. Vygotsky guided his students in researching this phenomenon from three different perspectives:  In the early 1930s, Vygotsky experienced deep crises, both personal and theoretical, and after a period of massive self-criticism he made an attempt at a radical revision of his theory. The work of the representatives of the Gestalt psychology and other holistic scholars was instrumental in this theoretical shift. In 1932–1934, Vygotsky aimed to establish a psychological theory of consciousness, but because of his death, this theory remained only unconfirmed and unfinished.

Life and scientific legacy.

Vygotsky was a pioneering psychologist and his major works span six separate volumes, written over roughly ten years, from "Psychology of Art" (1925) to "Thought and Language" [or "Thinking and Speech"] (1934). Vygotsky's interests in the fields of developmental psychology, child development, and education were extremely diverse. His philosophical framework includes interpretations of the cognitive role of mediation tools, as well as the re-interpretation of well-known concepts in psychology such as internalization of knowledge. Vygotsky introduced the notion of zone of proximal development, a metaphor capable of describing the potential of human cognitive development. His work covered topics such as the origin and the psychology of art, development of higher mental functions, philosophy of science and the methodology of psychological research, the relation between learning and human development, concept formation, interrelation between language and thought development, play as a psychological phenomenon, learning disabilities, and abnormal human development (aka "defectology"). His scientific thinking underwent several major transformations throughout his career, but generally Vygotsky's legacy may be divided into two fairly distinct periods, and the transitional phase between the two during which Vygotsky experienced the crisis in his theory and personal life. These are the mechanistic "instrumental" period of the 1920s, integrative "holistic" period of the 1930s, and the transitional years of, roughly, 1929–1931. Each of these periods is characterized by its distinct themes and theoretical innovations.

"Instrumental" period (1920s).

Cultural mediation and internalization.

Vygotsky studied child development and the significant roles of cultural mediation and interpersonal communication. He observed how higher mental functions developed through these interactions, and also represented the shared knowledge of a culture. This process is known as internalization. "Internalization" may be understood in one respect as "knowing how". For example, the practices of riding a bicycle or pouring a cup of milk, initially, are outside and beyond the child. The mastery of the skills needed for performing these practices occurs through the activity of the child within society. A further aspect of internalization is "appropriation", in which children take tools and adapt them to personal use, perhaps using them in unique ways. Internalizing the use of a pencil allows the child to use it very much for personal ends rather than drawing exactly what others in society have drawn previously.

The period of crisis, criticism, and self-criticism (1929–1932).

In the 1930s, Vygotsky was engaged in massive reconstruction of the theory of his "instrumental" period of the 1920s. Around 1929–1930, he realized numerous deficiencies and imperfections of the earlier work of the Vygotsky Circle and criticized it on a number of occasions: in 1929, 1930, in 1931, and in 1932. Specifically, Vygotsky criticized his earlier idea of radical separation between the "lower" and "higher" psychological functions and, around 1932, appears to abandon it.  Vygotsky's self-criticism was complemented by external criticism for a number of issues, including the separation between the "higher" and the "lower" psychological functions, impracticality and inapplicability of his theory in social practices (such as industry or education) during the time of rapid social change, and vulgar Marxist interpretation of human psychological processes. Critics also pointed to his overemphasis on the role of language and, on the other hand, the ignorance of the emotional factors in human development. Major figures in Soviet psychology such as Sergei Rubinstein criticized Vygotsky's notion of mediation and its development in the works of students. Following criticism and in response to a generous offer from the highest officials in Soviet Ukraine, a major group of Vygotsky's associates, the members of the Vygotsky Circle, including Luria, Mark Lebedinsky, and Leontiev, moved from Moscow to Ukraine to establish the Kharkov school of psychology. In the second half of the 1930s, Vygotsky was criticized again for his involvement in the cross-disciplinary study of the child known as paedology and uncritical borrowings from contemporary "bourgeois" science. Considerable critique came from alleged followers of Vygotsky, such as Leontiev and members of his research group in Kharkov. Much of this early criticism was later discarded by these Vygotskian scholars as well.

"Holistic" period (1932–1934).

There occurred a period of major revision of Vygotsky's theory, a transition from a mechanist orientation of his 1920s to an integrative holistic science of the 1930s. During this period, Vygotsky was under particularly strong influence of holistic theories of German-American group of proponents of Gestalt psychology, most notably, the peripheral participants of the Gestalt movement Kurt Goldstein and Kurt Lewin. However, Vygotsky's work of this period remained largely fragmentary and unfinished and, therefore, unpublished.

Zone of Proximal Development.

"Zone of Proximal Development" (ZPD) is a term Vygotsky used to characterize an individual's mental development. He originally defined the ZPD as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.” He used the example of two children in school who originally could solve problems at an eight-year-old developmental level (that is, typical for children who were age 8). After each child received assistance from an adult, one was able to perform at a nine-year-old level and one was able to perform at a twelve-year-old level. He said "This difference between twelve and eight, or between nine and eight, is what we call "the zone of proximal development."" He further said that the ZPD “defines those functions that have not yet matured but are in the process of maturation, functions that will mature tomorrow but are currently in an embryonic state.” The zone is bracketed by the learner's current ability and the ability they can achieve with the aid of an instructor of some capacity.  Vygotsky viewed the ZPD as a better way to explain the relation between children's learning and cognitive development. Prior to the ZPD, the relation between learning and development could be boiled down to the following three major positions: 1) Development always precedes learning (e.g., constructivism): children first need to meet a particular maturation level before learning can occur; 2) Learning and development cannot be separated, but instead occur simultaneously (e.g., behaviorism): essentially, learning is development; and 3) learning and development are separate, but interactive processes (e.g., gestaltism): one process always prepares the other process, and vice versa. Vygotsky rejected these three major theories because he believed that learning should always precede development in the ZPD. According to Vygotsky, through the assistance of a more knowledgeable other, a child is able to learn skills or aspects of a skill that go beyond the child's actual developmental or maturational level. The lower limit of ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child working independently (also referred to as the child's developmental level). The upper limit is the level of potential skill that the child is able to reach with the assistance of a more capable instructor. In this sense, the ZPD provides a prospective view of cognitive development, as opposed to a retrospective view that characterizes development in terms of a child's independent capabilities. The advancement through and attainment of the upper limit of the ZPD is limited by the instructional and scaffolding-related capabilities of the more knowledgeable other (MKO). The MKO is typically assumed to be an older, more experienced teacher or parent, but often can be a learner's peer or someone their junior. The MKO need not even be a person, it can be a machine or book, or other source of visual and/or audio input.

"Thinking and speech".

Perhaps Vygotsky's most important contribution concerns the inter-relationship of language development and thought. This problem was explored in Vygotsky's book, "Thinking and speech", entitled in Russian, "Myshlenie i rech", that was published in 1934. In fact, this book was a mere collection of essays and scholarly papers that Vygotsky wrote during different periods of his thought development and included writings of his "instrumental" and "holistic" periods. Vygotsky never saw the book published: it was published posthumously, edited by his closest associates (Kolbanovskii, Zankov, and Shif) not sooner than December, 1934, i.e., half a year after his death. The first English translation was published in 1962 (with several later revised editions) heavily abbreviated and under an alternative and incorrect translation of the title "Thought and Language" for the Russian title "Mysl' i iazyk". The book establishes the explicit and profound connection between speech (both silent inner speech and oral language), and the development of mental concepts and cognitive awareness. Vygotsky described inner speech as being qualitatively different from verbal external speech. Although Vygotsky believed inner speech developed from external speech via a gradual process of "internalization" (i.e., transition from the external to the internal), with younger children only really able to "think out loud", he claimed that in its mature form, inner speech would not resemble spoken language as we know it (in particular, being greatly compressed). Hence, thought itself developing socially.

Death (1934) and posthumous fame.

Vygotsky died of tuberculosis on June 11, 1934, at the age of 37, in Moscow, Soviet Union. One of Vygotsky's last private notebook entries gives a proverbial, yet very pessimistic self-assessment of his contribution to psychological theory:  This is the final thing I have done in psychology – and I will like Moses die at the summit, having glimpsed the promised land but without setting foot on it. Farewell, dear creations. The rest is silence.  Immediately after his death, Vygotsky was proclaimed one of the leading psychologists in the Soviet Union, although his stellar reputation was somewhat undermined by the decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of 1936 that denounced the mass movement, discipline, and related social practice of the so-called pedology. Yet, even despite some criticisms and censorship of his works—most notably, in the post-Stalin era in the Soviet Union of 1960s-1980s by his Russian alleged and self-proclaimed best students and followers—Vygotsky always remained among the most quoted scholars in the field and has become a cult figure for a number of contemporary intellectuals and practitioners in Russia and the international psychological and educational community alike.

Influence worldwide.

Eastern Europe.

In the Soviet Union, the work of the group of Vygotsky's students known as the Vygotsky Circle was responsible for Vygotsky's scientific legacy. The members of the group subsequently laid a foundation for Vygotskian psychology's systematic development in such diverse fields as the psychology of memory (P. Zinchenko), perception, sensation, and movement (Zaporozhets, Asnin, A. N. Leont'ev), personality (Lidiya Bozhovich, Asnin, A. N. Leont'ev), will and volition (Zaporozhets, A. N. Leont'ev, P. Zinchenko, L. Bozhovich, Asnin), psychology of play (G. D. Lukov, Daniil El'konin) and psychology of learning (P. Zinchenko, L. Bozhovich, D. El'konin), as well as the theory of step-by-step formation of mental actions (Pyotr Gal'perin), general psychological activity theory (A. N. Leont'ev) and psychology of action (Zaporozhets). Andrey Puzyrey elaborated the ideas of Vygotsky in respect of psychotherapy and even in the broader context of deliberate psychological intervention (psychotechnique), in general. Laszlo Garai founded a Vygotskian research group.

North America.

In North America, Vygotsky's work was known from the end of the 1920s through a series of publications in English, but it did not have a major impact on research in general. In 1962 a translation of his posthumous 1934 book, "Thinking and Speech", published with the title,"Thought and Language", did not seem to change the situation considerably. It was only after an eclectic compilation of partly rephrased and partly translated works of Vygotsky and his collaborators, published in 1978 under Vygotsky's name as "Mind in Society", that the Vygotsky boom started in the West: originally, in North America, and later, following the North American example, spread to other regions of the world. This version of Vygotskian science is typically associated with the names of its chief proponents Michael Cole, James Wertsch, their associates and followers, and is relatively well known under the names of "cultural-historical activity theory" (aka CHAT) or "activity theory". Scaffolding, a concept introduced by Wood, Bruner, and Ross in 1976, is somewhat related to the idea of ZPD, although Vygotsky never used the term.

Criticisms of North American "Vygotskian" and original Vygotsky's legacy.

A critique of the North American interpretation of Vygotsky's ideas and, somewhat later, its global spread and dissemination appeared in the 1980s. The early 1980s criticism of Russian and Western "Vygotskian" scholars continued throughout the 1990s. Van der Veer & Valsiner (1991) called these strands of Vygotskian thought "neo-Vygotskian fashions in contemporary psychology" and Cazden (1996) called them "selective traditions" in Vygotskian scholarship. Palincsar (1998) said that the zone of proximal development was "one of the most used and least understood constructs to appear in contemporary educational literature", and Fischer & Mercer (1992) said that the construct was "used as little more than a fashionable alternative to Piagetian terminology or the concept of IQ for describing individual differences in attainment or potential".  Van der Veer and Valsiner also suggest clearly distinguishing between Vygotsky's original notion of "zona blizhaishego razvitiia" ("ZBR") and what they think of as its "superficial interpretations" collectively known as "zone of proximal development" ("ZPD"). Valsiner and Van der Veer also identify certain statements in Vygotskian literature as mere "declarations of faith", i.e. hollow statements often repeated. Whereas Gillen (2000) talks of different "versions of Vygotsky" and Van der Veer (2008) speaks of "multiple readings of Vygotsky", Gradler (2007) simply speaks of "concepts and inferences curiously attributed to Lev Vygotsky". Toomela (2000) calls the strand known as "activity theory" a "dead end” for cultural-historical psychology and, moreover, for methodological thinking in cultural psychology.  Gredler & Schields (2004) question "if anyone actually reads Vygotsky’s words" and Gredler (2012) asks whether it is "too late to understand Vygotsky for the classroom", while Rowlands (2000) suggests "turning Vygotsky on his head". According to Miller (2011), inconsistencies, contradictions, and at times fundamental flaws in "Vygotskian" literature were revealed in critical publications on this subject and are typically associated with - but certainly not limited to - the North American legacy of Michael Cole and James Wertsch and their associates. Smagorinsky (2011) speaks of "challenges of claiming a Vygotskian perspective".  Lambert (2000) claims that Vygotsky's writings on play were too brief to be called a theory and furthermore were hardly relevant anymore. According to Zhang (2013), Vygotsky's theories are fundamentally flawed from a contemporary linguistic standpoint and Newman (2018) claims that "the support claimed from Vygotsky in accounts of second language acquisition is misplaced, first because of those difficulties and, second, because many who claim support from Vygotsky, do not need or even use his theory but instead focus their attention on his empirical observations and assume incorrectly that if their own empirical observations match Vygotsky's, then Vygotsky's theory can be accepted".

Revisionist movement in Vygotsky Studies.

During the early twenty-first century, several scholarly reevaluations of the popular version (sometimes disparagingly termed "Vygotsky cult", "the cult of Vygotsky", or even "the cult of personality around Vygotsky") of Vygotsky's legacy have been undertaken and are referred to as the "revisionist revolution in Vygotsky Studies". Vygotsky studies conducted within the framework of the "revisionist turn" during the 2010s revealed systematic and massive falsifications and distortions of Vygotsky's legacy., but also demonstrated a rapid and dramatic decrease of this author's popularity in international scholarship that began in 2017. The reasons of this crisis are not entirely clear yet and are being discussed in scholarly circles.  The revisionist movement in Vygotsky Studies was termed a "revisionist revolution" to describe a relatively recent trend that emerged in the 1990s. This trend is typically associated with growing dissatisfaction with the quality and scholarly integrity of available texts of Vygotsky and members of Vygotsky Circle, including their English translations made from largely mistaken, distorted, and even in a few instances falsified Soviet editions, which raises serious concerns about the reliability of Vygotsky's texts available in English. However, unlike critical literature that discusses Western interpretations of Vygotsky's legacy, the target of criticism and the primary object of research in the studies of the revisionist strand are Vygotsky's texts proper: the manuscripts, original lifetime publications, and Vygotsky's posthumous Soviet editions that most often were subsequently uncritically translated into other languages. The revisionist strand is solidly grounded in a series of studies in Vygotsky's archives that uncovered previously unknown and unpublished Vygotsky materials.  Thus, some studies of the revisionist strand show that certain phrases, terms, and expressions typically associated with Vygotskian legacy as its core notions and concepts—such as "cultural-historical psychology", "cultural-historical theory", "cultural-historical school", "higher psychical/mental functions", "internalization", "zone of proximal development", etc. in fact, either occupy not more than just a few dozen pages within the six-volume collection of Vygotsky's works, or never even occur in Vygotsky's own writings. Another series of studies revealed the questionable quality of Vygotsky's published texts that, in fact, were never finished and intended for publication by their author, but were nevertheless posthumously published without giving proper editorial acknowledgement of their unfinished, transitory nature, and with numerous editorial interventions and distortions of Vygotsky's text. Another series of publications reveals that another well-known Vygotsky's text that is often presented as the foundational work was back-translated into Russian from an English translation of a lost original and passed for the original Vygotsky's writing. This episode was referred to as "benign forgery".

"Complete Works of L. S. Vygotsky".

Scholars associated with the revisionist movement in Vygotsky Studies propose returning to Vygotsky's original uncensored works, critically revising the available discourse, and republishing them in both Russian and translation with a rigorous scholarly commentary. Therefore, an essential part of this revisionist strand is the ongoing work on ""PsyAnima" Complete Vygotsky" project that for the first time ever exposes full collections of Vygotsky's texts, uncensored and cleared from numerous mistakes, omissions, insertions, and blatant distortions and falsifications of the author's text made in Soviet editions and uncritically transferred in virtually all foreign translated editions of Vygotsky's works. This project is carried out by an international team of volunteers—researchers, archival workers, and library staff—from Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, and Switzerland, who joined their efforts and put together a collection of L. S. Vygotsky's texts. This publication work is supported by a stream of critical scholarly studies and publications on textology, history, theory and methodology of Vygotskian research that cumulatively contributes to the first ever edition of "The Complete Works of L.S. Vygotsky". Currently, this collection of Vygotsky's research is available and still in print in a series consisting of six total volumes of his work with added commentary/foreword.

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (; ; – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet psychologist, known for his work on psychological development in children. He published on a diverse range of subjects, and from multiple views as his perspective changed over the years. Among his students was Alexander Luria.

Lew Semjonowitsch Wygotski (, weißrussisch Леў Выгоцкі – "Leŭ Vyhocki", wiss. Transliteration ""; * in Orscha, Russisches Kaiserreich, heute Weißrussland; † 11. Juni 1934 in Moskau) war ein sowjetischer Psychologe und gilt als der Begründer der unter den Bezeichnungen Kulturhistorische Schule und Tätigkeitstheorie bekannt gewordenen Strömungen in den Humanwissenschaften. Er lieferte Beiträge zur Theorie des Bewusstseins, zur Behindertenpädagogik, zum Verhältnis von Sprachentwicklung und Denken und zur allgemeinen Entwicklungspsychologie des Kindes.


Early life.

Born in Levallois-Perret, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, Lamy studied at Sciences Po Paris, from HEC and ÉNA, graduating second in his year of those specialising in economics. Lamy is also an honorary graduate of the University of Warwick.  He then joined the civil service, and in this role he ended up serving as an adviser to Jacques Delors as Economics and Finance Minister and Pierre Mauroy as Prime Minister.  Lamy has been a member of the French Socialist Party since 1969.

Career.

Member of the European Commission.

In 1979 Pascal Lamy was appointed to the post of Secretary General of the “Mayoux Committee”. During 1979-1981 he worked as Deputy Secretary General, then Secretary General of the Interministerial Committee for the Remodelling of Industrial Structures (CIASI) in the Treasury Department. In 1981 Pascal Lamy was technical Adviser, then Deputy Director (June 1982), Office of the Ministers for Economic and Financial Affairs (Mr Jacques Delors).  Deputy Secretary General, then Secretary General of the Interministerial Committee for the Remodelling of Industrial Structures (CIASI) in the Treasury Department. When Delors became President of the European Commission in 1984, he took Lamy with him to serve as chef de cabinet, which he did until the end of Delors' term in 1994. During his time there, Lamy became known as the "Beast of the Berlaymont", the "Gendarme" and "Exocet" due to his habit of ordering civil servants, even Directors-General (head of departments) "precisely what to do – or else." He was seen as ruling Delors' office with a "rod of iron", with no-one able to bypass or manipulate him and those who tried being "banished to one of the less pleasant European postings".  Lamy briefly moved into business at Crédit Lyonnais. Promoted to second in command, he was involved in the restructuring and privatisation of the bank.  Returning to the European Commission in 1999, Lamy was appointed European Commissioner for Trade by Commission President Romano Prodi. Lamy served to the expiry of the commission's term in 2004. His ability to manage the powerful civil servants in his department was noted. During his time in office, he pushed for a new Doha round of world trade talks and advocated reform within the WTO.

Director-General of the WTO, 2005–2013.

On 13 May 2005, Lamy was chosen as the next director-general of the World Trade Organization, and took office on 1 September 2005 for a four-year term. He had been nominated by the European Union and won over candidates including Carlos Pérez del Castillo of Uruguay and Jaya Krishna Cuttaree of Mauritius.  On 30 April 2009, Lamy was re-elected unanimously by the WTO General Council for a second term of four years, beginning 1 September 2009. He also served as the chairman of the organization's Trade Negotiations Committee. He was the WTO's fifth director-general.  Also in 2009, Lamy served on the High Level Commission on the Modernization of World Bank Group Governance, which – under the leadership of Ernesto Zedillo – conducted an external review of the World Bank Group's governance.

Later career.

Since 2019, Lamy has been serving as President of the Paris Peace Forum. Pascal Lamy is a member of the advisory board of the Prague European Summit.

Personal life.

Lamy is married and has three sons. His hobbies include running and cycling.

Lectures.

"The Relationship between WTO Law and General International Law" in the Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law

Pascal Lamy (born 8 April 1947) is a French political consultant and businessman. He was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 1 September 2005 to 1 September 2013 for 8 years. In April 2009, WTO members reappointed Lamy for a second 4-year term, beginning on 1 September 2009. He was then succeeded by Roberto Azevêdo. Pascal Lamy was also European Commissioner for Trade and is an advisor for the transatlantic think-tank European Horizons, as well as currently serving as the Honorary President of the Paris-based think tank, Notre Europe.

Pascal Lamy [] (* 8. April 1947 in Levallois-Perret bei Paris) ist ein französischer Politiker. Lamy war von 1999 bis 2004 EU-Kommissar für Außenhandel. Von September 2005 bis August 2013 war er Generaldirektor der Welthandelsorganisation (WTO).


The author.

All knowledge of Sanchuniathon and his work comes from the "Praeparatio Evangelica" of Eusebius (I. chs ix-x), which contains some information about him, along with the only surviving excerpts from his writing, as summarized and quoted from his supposed translator, Philo of Byblos.  Eusebius quotes neo-Platonist writer Porphyry as stating that Sanchuniathon of Berytus (Beirut) wrote the truest history because he obtained records from Hierombalus priest of Ieuo, that Sanchuniathon dedicated his history to Abibalus king of Berytus, and that it was approved by the king and other investigators, the date of this writing being before the Trojan War (around 1200 BC) approaching close to the time of Moses, "when Semiramis was queen of the Assyrians." Thus Sanchuniathon is placed firmly in the mythic context of the pre-Homeric Greek Heroic Age, an antiquity from which no other Greek or Phoenician writings are known to have survived to the time of Philo. Curiously, however, he is made to refer disparagingly to Hesiod at one point, who lived in Greece ca. 700 BC.  Sanchuniathon claims to have based his work on "collections of secret writings of the "Ammouneis" discovered in the shrines", sacred lore deciphered from mystic inscriptions on the pillars which stood in the Phoenician temples, lore which exposed the truth—later covered up by allegories and myths—that the gods were originally human beings who came to be worshipped after their deaths and that the Phoenicians had taken what were originally names of their kings and applied them to elements of the cosmos (compare euhemerism), worshipping forces of nature and the sun, moon, and stars. Eusebius cites Sanchuniathon in his attempt to discredit pagan religion based on such foundations.  This rationalizing euhemeristic slant and the emphasis on Beirut, a city of great importance in the late classical period but apparently of little importance in ancient times, suggests that the work itself is not nearly as old as it claims to be. Some have suggested it was forged by Philo himself or assembled from various traditions and presented within an authenticating pseudepigraphical format to give the material a patina of believability. Philo may have translated genuine Phoenician works ascribed to an ancient writer known as Sanchuniathon but in fact written in more recent times. This judgment is echoed by the "Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition", which described Sanchuniathon as "belong[ing] more to legend than to history."  Not all readers have taken such a critical view: However that may be, much of what has been preserved in this writing, despite the euhemeristic interpretation given it, turned out to be supported by the Ugaritic mythological texts excavated at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in Syria since 1929; Otto Eissfeldt demonstrated in 1952 that it does incorporate genuine Phoenician elements that can now be related to the Ugaritic texts, some of which, as shown in extant versions of Sanchuniathon, remained unchanged since the second millennium BC. The modern consensus is that Philo's treatment of Sanchuniathon offered a Hellenistic view of Phoenician materials written between the time of Alexander the Great and the first century BC, if it was not a literary invention of Philo.

The work.

In surviving fragments of the text, it can be difficult to ascertain whether Eusebius is citing Philo's translation of Sanchuniathon or speaking in his own voice. Another difficulty is the substitution of Greek proper names for Phoenician ones and the possible corruption of some Phoenician names that do appear.

Philosophical creation story.

A philosophical creation story traced to "the cosmogony of "Taautus", whom Philo explicitly identifies with the Egyptian Thoth—"the first who thought of the invention of letters, and began the writing of records"—which begins with Erebus and Wind, between which "Eros" 'Desire' came to be. From this was produced "Môt" 'Death' but which the account says may mean'mud'. In a mixed confusion, the germs of life appear, and intelligent animals called "Zophasemin" (probably best translated 'observers of heaven') formed together as an egg. The account is not clear. Then Môt burst forth into light and the heavens were created and the various elements found their stations.  Following the etymological reasoning of Jacob Bryant in regard to the meaning of "Môt", it can be noted that according to Ancient Egyptian mythology, "Ma'at", wife of Thoth, is the personification of the fundamental order of the universe, without which all of creation would perish.

Allegorical culture heroes.

Copias and his wife Baau (translated as "Nyx" 'Night') give birth to mortals Aeon and Protogonus 'firstborn'); "and... when droughts occurred, they stretched out their hands to heaven towards the sun; for him alone (he says) they regarded as god the lord of heaven, calling him Beelsamen, which is in the Phoenician language 'lord of heaven,' and in Greek 'Zeus.'" (Eusebius, I, x). A race of Titan-like mountain beings arose, "sons of surpassing size and stature, whose names were applied to the mountains which they occupied... and they got their names, he says, from their mothers, as the women in those days had free intercourse with any whom they met." Various descendants are listed, many of whom have allegorical names but are described in the quotations from Philo as mortals who first made particular discoveries or who established particular customs.

The history of the gods.

The work includes a genealogy and history of various northwest Semitic deities who were widely worshipped. Many are listed in the genealogy under the names of their counterparts in the Greek pantheon, Hellenized forms of their Semitic names, or both. The additional names given for some of these deities appear usually in parentheses in the table below. Only equations made in the text appear here, but many of the hyperlinks point to the northwest Semitic deities that are probably intended. See the notes below the table for translations of the unlinked and several other names.  As in the Greek and Hittite theogonies, Sanchuniathon's Elus/Cronus overthrows his father Sky or Uranus and castrates him. However, Zeus Demarûs (that is, Hadad Ramman), purported son of Dagon but actually son of Uranus, eventually joins with Uranus and wages war against Cronus. To El/Cronus is attributed the practice of circumcision. Twice we are told that El/Cronus sacrificed his own son. At some point, peace is made, and Zeus Adados (Hadad) and Astarte reign over the land with Cronus' permission. An account of the events is written by the Cabeiri and by Asclepius, under Thoth's direction.

About serpents.

A passage about serpent worship follows in which it is not clear what part is from Sanchuniathon and what part from Philo of Byblus:

"On the Phoenician Alphabet".

A further work of Sanchuniathon noted by Eusebius ("P.E." 1.10.45) is a treatise "On the Phoenician Alphabet".

Sanchuniathon (; ; probably from, "[the god] Sakon has given"), also known as Sanchoniatho the Berytian, is the purported Phoenician author of three lost works originally written in the Phoenician language and surviving only in partial paraphrase and summary of a Greek translation by Philo of Byblos, according to the Christian bishop Eusebius. These few fragments comprise the most extended literary source concerning Phoenician religion in either Greek or Latin: Phoenician sources, along with all of Phoenician literature, were lost with the parchment on which they were written.

Sanchuniathon ( "Sanchuniáthōn", phönizisch "sknytn" „Sakon gibt“) war ein Phönizier, auf den sich der Geschichtsschreiber Philon von Byblos in seiner "Phönizischen Geschichte" stützte.