History.

Mento draws on musical traditions brought by enslaved West Africa people. Enslaved musicians were often required to play music for their masters and often rewarded for such skills. The Africans created a creole music, incorporating such elements of these traditions, including quadrille, into their own folk music.  The Jamaican mento style has a long history of conflation with Trinidadian calypso. The lyrics of mento songs often deal with aspects of everyday life in a light-hearted and humorous way. Many comment on poverty, poor housing, and other social issues. Thinly veiled sexual references and innuendo are also common. Mento can be seen as a precursor of some of the movement motifs and themes dealing with such social issues found in modern dancehall. It became more popular in the late 1940s, with mento performances becoming a common aspect of dances, parties and other events in Jamaica.  Major 1950s mento recording artists include Louise Bennett, Count Lasher, Harold Richardson, Lord Flea, Lord Fly, Alerth Bedasse with Chin's Calypso Sextet, Laurel Aitken, Denzil Laing, Lord Composer, Lord Lebby, Lord Power, Hubert Porter, and Harry Belafonte, a New Yorker of Jamaican origin. His wildly popular hit records in 1956-1958, including "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" and "Jamaica Farewell," were mento songs sold as calypso. Previously recorded Jamaican versions of many Belafonte's classic "calypso" hits can be heard on the "Jamaica - Mento 1951-1958" CD released by Frémeaux & Associés in 2009.  Due in part to Belafonte's popularity, mento became widely conflated with calypso in the 1950s. In a 1957 interview for "Calypso Star" magazine, Lord Flea explained: "In Jamaica, we call our music'mento' until very recently. Today, 'calypso' is beginning to be used for all kinds of West Indian music. This is because it's become so commercialized there. Some people like to think of West Indians as carefree natives who work and sing and play and laugh their lives away. But this isn't so. Most of the people there are hard working folks, and many of them are smart business men. If the tourists want "calypso", that's what we sell them." This was the golden age of mento, as records pressed by Stanley Motta, Ivan Chin, Ken Khouri and others brought the music to a new audience. In the 1960s it became overshadowed by ska and reggae. Mento is still played in Jamaica, especially in areas frequented by tourists. Lloyd Bradley, reggae historian and author of the seminal reggae book, "Bass Culture," said that Lee "Scratch" Perry’s seminal 1976 dub album, "Super Ape," contained some of the purest mento influences he knew. This style of music was revived in popularity by the Jolly Boys in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the release of four recordings on First Warning Records/Rykodisc and a tour that included the United States. Stanley Beckford and Gilzene and the Blue Light Mento Band also revived rural mento in the 2000s. The mento dance is a Jamaican folk-form dance with acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums and rhumba box.

Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. It is a fusion of African rhythmic elements and European elements, which reached peak popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums, and the rhumba box — a large mbira in the shape of a box that can be sat on while played. The rhumba box carries the bass part of the music.

Mento ist die erste jamaikanische folkloristische Populärmusik, die Ende der 1930er Jahre entstand. Der Mento war eine rein unterhaltende und keine religiöse Musikform. Er gilt als die erste Stufe in der Entwicklung der jamaikanischen Populärmusik, da er eine Synthese vieler musikalischer Formen ist und nicht mit einer bestimmten Region, Gruppe oder Religion identifiziert wird.


History.

Ancient and medieval city.

Lucca was founded by the Etruscans (there are traces of an earlier Ligurian settlement in the 3rd century BC called "Luk" meaning marsh in which the name Lucca originated) and became a Roman colony in 180 BC. The rectangular grid of its historical centre preserves the Roman street plan, and the Piazza San Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum. Traces of the amphitheatre may still be seen in the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.  At the Lucca Conference, in 56 BC, Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus reaffirmed their political alliance known as the First Triumvirate. Frediano, an Irish monk, was bishop of Lucca in the early sixth century. At one point, Lucca was plundered by Odoacer, the first Germanic King of Italy. Lucca was an important city and fortress even in the sixth century, when Narses besieged it for several months in 553. Under the Lombards, it was the seat of a duke who minted his own coins. The Holy Face of Lucca (or Volto Santo), a major relic supposedly carved by Nicodemus, arrived in 742. During the eighth-tenth centuries Lucca was a center of Jewish life, the community being led by the Kalonymos family (which at some point during this time migrated to Germany to become a major component of proto-Ashkenazic Jewry). Lucca became prosperous through the silk trade that began in the eleventh century, and came to rival the silks of Byzantium. During the tenth–eleventh centuries Lucca was the capital of the feudal margraviate of Tuscany, more or less independent but owing nominal allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor.

First republic.

After the death of Matilda of Tuscany, the city began to constitute itself an independent commune with a charter in 1160. For almost 500 years, Lucca remained an independent republic. There were many minor provinces in the region between southern Liguria and northern Tuscany dominated by the Malaspina; Tuscany in this time was a part of feudal Europe. Dante’s "Divine Comedy" includes many references to the great feudal families who had huge jurisdictions with administrative and judicial rights. Dante spent some of his exile in Lucca.  In 1273 and again in 1277, Lucca was ruled by a Guelph "capitano del popolo" (captain of the people) named Luchetto Gattilusio. In 1314, internal discord allowed Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa to make himself lord of Lucca. The Lucchesi expelled him two years later, and handed over the city to another "condottiero", Castruccio Castracani, under whose rule it became a leading state in central Italy. Lucca rivalled Florence until Castracani's death in 1328. On 22 and 23 September 1325, in the battle of Altopascio, Castracani defeated Florence's Guelphs. For this he was nominated by Louis IV the Bavarian to become duke of Lucca. Castracani's tomb is in the church of San Francesco. His biography is Machiavelli's third famous book on political rule.  In 1408, Lucca hosted the convocation intended to end the schism in the papacy. Occupied by the troops of Louis of Bavaria, the city was sold to a rich Genoese, Gherardino Spinola, then seized by John, king of Bohemia. Pawned to the Rossi of Parma, by them it was ceded to Mastino II della Scala of Verona, sold to the Florentines, surrendered to the Pisans, and then nominally liberated by the emperor Charles IV and governed by his vicar. Lucca managed, at first as a democracy, and after 1628 as an oligarchy, to maintain its independence alongside of Venice and Genoa, and painted the word "Libertas" on its banner until the French Revolution in 1789.

After Napoleonic conquest.

Lucca had been the second largest Italian city state (after Venice) with a republican constitution ("comune") to remain independent over the centuries.  In 1805, Lucca was conquered by Napoleon, who installed his sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi as "Princess of Lucca".  From 1815 to 1847 it was a Bourbon-Parma duchy. The only reigning dukes of Lucca were Maria Luisa of Spain, who was succeeded by her son Charles II, Duke of Parma in 1824. Meanwhile, the Duchy of Parma had been assigned for life to Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, the second wife of Napoleon. In accordance with the Treaty of Vienna (1815), upon the death of Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma in 1847, Parma reverted to Charles II, Duke of Parma, while Lucca lost independence and was annexed to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. As part of Tuscany, it became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860 and finally part of the Italian State in 1861.

World War II internment camp.

In 1942, during World War II, a prisoner-of-war camp was established at the village of Colle di Compecito, in the municipality of Capannori, about from Lucca. Its official number was P.G. ("prigionieri di guerra") 60, and it was usually referred to as PG 60 Lucca. Although it never had permanent structures and accommodation consisted of tents in an area prone to flooding, it housed more than 3,000 British and Commonwealth prisoners of war during the period of its existence. It was handed over to the Germans on 10 September 1943, not long after the signing of the Italian armistice. During the Italian Social Republic, as a puppet state of the Germans, political prisoners, foreigners, common law prisoners and Jews were interned there, and it functioned as a concentration camp. In June 1944 the prisoners were moved to Bagni di Lucca.

Architecture.

Walls, streets, and squares.

The walls encircling the old town remain intact, even as the city expanded and modernized, unusual for cities in the region. Initially built as a defensive rampart, once the walls lost their military importance they became a pedestrian promenade, the Passeggiata delle Mura Urbane, a street atop the walls linking the bastions. It passes through the Bastions of Santa Croce, San Frediano, San Martino, San Pietro/Battisti, San Salvatore, La Libertà/Cairoli, San Regolo, San Colombano, Santa Maria, San Paolino/Catalani, and San Donato; and over the gates (Porte): San Donato, Santa Maria, San Jocopo, Elisa, San Pietro, and Sant'Anna. Each of the four principal sides of the structure is lined with a different tree species than the others.  The walled city is encircled by Piazzale Boccherini, Viale Lazzaro Papi, Viale Carlo Del Prete, Piazzale Martiri della Libertà, Via Batoni, Viale Agostino Marti, Viale G. Marconi ("vide" Guglielmo Marconi), Piazza Don A. Mei, Viale Pacini, Viale Giusti, Piazza Curtatone, Piazzale Ricasoli, Viale Ricasoli, Piazza Risorgimento ("vide" Risorgimento), and Viale Giosuè Carducci.  The town includes a number of public squares, most notably the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, site of ancient Roman amphitheater; but also Piazzale Verdi; Piazza Napoleone'; and Piazza San Michele.

Churches.

There are many medieval, a few as old as the eighth century, basilica-form churches with richly arcaded façades and campaniles

Culture.

Lucca is the birthplace of composers Giacomo Puccini ("La Bohème" and "Madama Butterfly)", Nicolao Dorati, Francesco Geminiani, Gioseffo Guami, Luigi Boccherini, and Alfredo Catalani. It is also the birthplace of artist Benedetto Brandimarte. Since 2004, Lucca is home to IMT Lucca, a public research institution and a selective graduate school and part of the Superior Graduate Schools in Italy ("Grandes écoles").

Events.

Lucca hosts the annual Lucca Summer Festival. The 2006 edition featured live performances by Eric Clapton, Placebo, Massive Attack, Roger Waters, Tracy Chapman, and Santana at the Piazza Napoleone.  Lucca hosts the annual Lucca Comics and Games festival, Europe's largest festival for comics, movies, games and related subjects.  Other events include:

Film and television.

Mauro Bolognini's 1958 film "Giovani mariti" with Sylva Koscina is set and was filmed in Lucca.  Top Gear filmed the episode'series 17, episode 3' here.

International relations.

Lucca is twinned with:

Lucca (, ) is a city and "comune" in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio, in a fertile plain near the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital of the Province of Lucca. It is famous for its intact Renaissance-era city walls.

Lucca (in der Antike: "Luca") ist die Hauptstadt der Provinz Lucca in der Toskana mit Einwohnern (Stand ). Sie liegt im Tal des Flusses Serchio etwa 20 km nordöstlich von Pisa und 20 km östlich der toskanischen Küste. Im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert zählte Lucca zu den einflussreichsten europäischen Städten. Große Bedeutung hatte insbesondere die Textilindustrie. Die großen Plätze, die romanischen Kirchen und die mittelalterlichen Türme zeugen von der einstigen Bedeutung dieser Stadt. Ihre von vier Toren durchbrochenen Befestigungsanlagen wurden 1504 begonnen und 1645 fertiggestellt. Die heute noch gut erhaltenen Anlagen, die lange zu den bemerkenswertesten in Italien zählten, tragen eine von Bäumen gesäumte Promenade um den Stadtkern.


Description.

The "Laburnum" trees are deciduous. The leaves are trifoliate, somewhat like a clover; the leaflets are typically long in "L. anagyroides" and long in "L. alpinum".  They have yellow pea-flowers in pendulous leafless racemes long in spring, which makes them very popular garden trees. In "L. anagyroides", the racemes are long, with densely packed flowers; in "L. alpinum" the racemes are long, but with the flowers sparsely along the raceme. The fruit develops as a pod and is extremely poisonous.  The yellow flowers are responsible for the old poetic name 'golden chain tree' (also spelled golden chaintree or goldenchain tree).  All parts of the plant are poisonous, although mortality is very rare. Symptoms of laburnum poisoning may include intense sleepiness, vomiting, convulsive movements, coma, slight frothing at the mouth and unequally dilated pupils. In some cases, diarrhea is very severe, and at times the convulsions are markedly tetanic. The main toxin in the plant is cytisine, a nicotinic receptor agonist.  It is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the Palearctic moth, the buff-tip.

Species.

Accepted binomials.

"Laburnum" comprises the following species:

Species names with uncertain taxonomic status.

The status of the following species is unresolved:

Hybrids.

The following hybrids have been described:  There is also a graft hybrid, +"Laburnocytisus adamii".

Uses.

Woodworking.

"Laburnum" has historically been used for cabinetmaking and inlay, as well as for musical instruments. In addition to such wind instruments as recorders and flutes, it was a popular wood for Great Highland Bagpipes before taste turned to imported dense tropical hardwoods such as "Brya ebenus" (cocus wood), ebony, and "Dalbergia melanoxylon" (African monkeywood). The heart-wood of a laburnum may be used as a substitute for ebony or rosewood. It is very hard and a dark chocolate brown, with a butter-yellow sapwood.

Cultivation.

"Laburnum" species and hybrids are cultivated as ornamental trees for gardens and parks. They are also trained as espaliers on pergolas, for ceilings of pendant flowers in season. In its natural form, "Laburnum" is a shrubby, multi-branched tree, but it is often pruned to maintain a single trunk which displays the smooth green bark.  Gardeners are advised to remove the spent seedpods after flowering because they sap the strength of the tree and are the most poisonous part. Generally "Laburnum" does not perform well in hot climates, and has a reduced life-span if grown in climates with warm winters. Afternoon shade and the occasional deep watering are advisable in areas with hot, dry summers. They do best in climates with moderate winter and summer temperatures, ideally Oceanic climates like those of the Pacific Northwest and Northern Europe. "Laburnum" trees are ubiquitous in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, where they are commonly planted as lawn specimens or in shrub borders.  Most garden specimens are of the hybrid between the two species, "Laburnum" ×"watereri" 'Vossii' (Voss's laburnum), which combines the longer racemes of "L. alpinum" with the denser flowers of "L. anagyroides"; it also has the benefit of low seed production. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Laburnum, sometimes called golden chain or golden rain, is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are "Laburnum anagyroides"—common laburnum and "Laburnum alpinum"—alpine laburnum. They are native to the mountains of southern Europe from France to the Balkans.

Goldregen ("Laburnum"), auch Bohnenbaum, Goldrausch oder Gelbstrauch genannt, ist eine Pflanzengattung aus der Unterfamilie der Schmetterlingsblütler (Faboideae) in der Familie der Hülsenfrüchtler (Fabaceae).


Term.

The index case may or may not indicate the source of the disease, the possible spread, or which reservoir holds the disease in between outbreaks, but may bring awareness of an emerging outbreak. Earlier cases may or may not be found and are labeled primary or coprimary, secondary, tertiary, etc. The term primary case can only apply to infectious diseases that spread from human to human, and refers to the person who first brings a disease into a group of people. In epidemiology, the term is often used by both scientists and journalists alike to refer to the individual known or believed to have been the first infected or source of the resulting outbreak in a population as the index case, but such would technically refer to the primary case.  "Patient zero" was used to refer to the supposed source of HIV outbreak in the United States, flight attendant Gaëtan Dugas, but later research found he was not the index case of this outbreak. The expression was based on a misunderstanding: in the 1984 study of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of the earliest recorded HIV-patients was code-named "patient O", which stands for "patient out of California". The letter "O", however, was interpreted by some readers of the report as the numeral "0". The designation "patient zero" (for Gaëtan Dugas) was subsequently propagated by the "San Francisco Chronicler" journalist and author Randy Shilts in his 1987 book "And the Band Played On."  The term has been expanded into general usage to refer to an individual identified as the first carrier of a communicable disease in a population (the primary case), or the first incident in the onset of a catastrophic trend. In some cases, a known or suspected patient zero may be informally referred to as an index case for the purpose of a scientific study, such as the two-year-old boy in a remote village in Guinea who was thought to be the source of the largest Ebola virus outbreak in history.  In genetics, the index case is the case of the original patient (i.e. "propositus" or "proband") that stimulates investigation of other members of the family to discover a possible genetic factor.  The term can also be used in non-medical fields to describe the first individual affected by something negative that since propagated to others, such as the first user on a network infected by malware.

Examples.

Gaëtan Dugas.

In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, a "patient zero" transmission scenario was compiled by Dr. William Darrow and colleagues at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This epidemiological study showed how patient zero had infected multiple partners with HIV, and they, in turn, transmitted it to others causing rapid spread of the virus to locations all over the world (Auerbach et al., 1984). The CDC identified Gaëtan Dugas as a carrier of the virus from Europe to the United States, who spread it to other men he had intimate relations with at gay bathhouses.  Journalist Randy Shilts subsequently wrote about patient zero, based on Darrow's findings, in his 1987 book "And the Band Played On" which identified patient zero as being Gaëtan Dugas. Dugas was a flight attendant who was sexually promiscuous in several North American cities, according to Shilts' book. He was vilified for several years as a "mass spreader" of HIV, and was seen as the original source of the HIV epidemic among homosexual men. Four years later, Darrow repudiated the study's methodology and how Shilts had represented its conclusions.  A 2007 study, published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America" by Michael Worobey and Dr. Arthur Pitchenik, claimed that based on the results of genetic analysis, current North American strains of HIV probably moved from Africa to Haiti before entering the United States around 1969; probably through a single immigrant. However, a teenager named Robert Rayford died in St. Louis, Missouri, of complications from AIDS in 1969, having most likely become infected with the virus "before" 1966. This would insinuate that there were prior carriers of HIV-strains in North America.  The phrase patient zero is now used in the media to refer to the primary case for infectious disease outbreaks, as well as for computer virus outbreaks, and more broadly, as the source of ideas or actions that have far-reaching consequences.  David Heymann, professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and formerly with the World Health Organization ("WHO"), has questioned the importance of finding patient zero, stating, "Finding patient zero may be important in some instances, but only if they are still alive and spreading the disease; and more often than not, especially in large disease outbreaks, they're not."

Non-medical usage.

The term is used to identify the first computer or user to be infected with malware on a network, which then infected other systems.  Monica Lewinsky has described herself as the "patient zero" of online harassment, meaning that she was the first person to receive widespread public harassment via the internet.

In the media.

In journalism and documentaries.

The thirteenth season of the WNYC radio series "Radiolab" included an hour-long segment on patient zero.

The index case (occasionally referred to as patient zero) is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study. It can also refer to the first case of a condition or syndrome (not necessarily contagious) to be described in the medical literature, whether or not the patient is thought to be the first person affected. An index case can achieve the status of a "classic" case study in the literature, as did Phineas Gage, the first known person to exhibit a definitive personality change as a result of a brain injury.

Als Indexpatient (wörtlich "Hinweispatient" von, ‚Hinweis‘) bezeichnet man in der Epidemiologie jene Person, von der die Ausbreitung einer Krankheit ihren gesicherten oder mutmaßlichen Ausgang genommen hat, wie es bei Infektions- oder Erbkrankheiten der Fall ist, die sich infektiös bzw. genetisch verbreiten.


History and context.

Internet art is rooted in disparate artistic traditions and movements, ranging from Dada to Situationism, conceptual art, Fluxus, video art, kinetic art, performance art, telematic art and happenings.  In 1974, Canadian artist Vera Frenkel worked with the Bell Canada Teleconferencing Studios to produce the work "String Games", the first artwork to use telecommunications technologies.  An early telematic artwork was Roy Ascott's work, "La Plissure du Texte", performed in collaboration created for an exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1983.  Media art institutions such as Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, or the Paris-based IRCAM (a research center for electronic music), would also support or present early Networked art. In 1997 MIT's List Visual Arts Center hosted "PORT: Navigating Digital Culture," that included internet art in a gallery space and "time-based Internet projects." Artists in the show included Cary Peppermint, Prema Murthy, Ricardo Dominguez, and Adrianne Wortzel. In 2000 the Whitney Museum of American Art included net art in their Biennial exhibit. It was the first time that internet art had been included as a special category in the Biennial, and it marked one of the earliest examples of the inclusion of internet art in a museum setting. Internet artists included Mark Amerika, Fakeshop, Ken Goldberg, and ®TMark.  With the rise of search engines as a gateway to accessing the web in the late 1990s, many net artists turned their attention to related themes. The 2001 'Data Dynamics' exhibit at the Whitney Museum featured 'Netomat' (Maciej Wisniewski) and 'Apartment' (Marek Walczak and Martin Wattenberg), which used search queries as raw material. Mary Flanagan's'The Perpetual Bed' received attention for its novel use of 3D nonlinear narrative space, or what she called "navigable narratives."  Her 2001 work in the Whitney Biennial, 'collection' collected items from hard drives around the world and displayed them in a 'computational collective unconscious.' Golan Levin's 'The Secret Lives of Numbers' (2000) visualized the "popularity" of the numbers 1 to 1,000,000 as measured by Alta Vista search results. Such works pointed to alternative interfaces and questioned the dominant role of search engines in controlling access to the net.  Nevertheless, the Internet is not reducible to the web, nor to search engines. Besides these unicast (point to point) applications, suggesting that there is some reference points, there is also a multicast (multipoint and uncentered) internet that has been explored by very few artistic experiences, such as the Poietic Generator. Internet art has, according to Juliff and Cox, suffered under the privileging of the user interface inherent within computer art. They argue that Internet is not synonymous with a specific user and specific interface, but rather a dynamic structure that encompasses coding and the artist's intention.  The emergence of social networking platforms, understood to be "web-based services that allow individuals to... construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system... articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and... view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system", facilitated a transformative shift in the distribution of internet art. Early online communities were organized around specific "topical hierarchies", whereas social networking platforms consist of egocentric networks, with the "individual at the center of their own community". Artistic communities on the Internet underwent a similar transition in the mid-2000s, shifting from Surf Clubs, "15 to 30 person groups whose members contributed to an ongoing visual-conceptual conversation through the use of digital media" and whose membership was restricted to a select group of individuals, to image-based social networking platforms, like Flickr, which permit access to any individual with an e-mail address. Internet artists make extensive use of the networked capabilities of social networking platforms, and are rhizomatic in their organization, in that "production of meaning is externally contingent on a network of other artists' content".

Internet art (also known as net art) is a form of digital artwork distributed via the Internet. This form of art has circumvented the traditional dominance of the gallery and museum system, delivering aesthetic experiences via the Internet. In many cases, the viewer is drawn into some kind of interaction with the work of art. Artists working in this manner are sometimes referred to as net artists.

Netzkunst ist ein Sammelbegriff für künstlerische Arbeit in Netzen oder Netzwerken. Darunter fallen als Kunstwerk definierte soziale Netze, die künstlerische Nutzung analoger Netze wie ursprünglich bei Mail Art, sowie künstlerische Arbeiten, die digitale Netzdienste wie das World Wide Web oder andere Kommunikationsnetze wie Mobilfunk benutzen.


Etymology.

The genus name "Carduus" is from the Latin for "a kind of thistle" or "thistlelike plant". It is related to the word "Cardonnacum" ("a place of chardons or thistles"), which is the origin of Chardonnay, the name of the grape variety. It is also related to the word "card", which as a noun means a device (often a stiff-bristled brush) for aligning and cleaning fibers, and as a verb means the action of processing fibers in that way.

Description.

These are usually annual or biennial herbs, sometimes perennial. Species often grow 2 meters in height but are known to reach 4 meters. The erect stems are winged and spiny, and usually have woolly hairs. The leaf blades are hairy to hairless and entire or divided into lobes, and they have spine-toothed edges. The flower heads are solitary or borne in inflorescences of up to 20. The head is spherical to cylindrical and covered in several layers of spreading or curving spine-tipped phyllaries. It contains long, tubular disc florets in shades of white, pink, or purple. The fruit is a cypsela tipped with a pappus of barbed bristles or scales.

Ecology.

Several "Carduus" are notorious invasive plants outside their native range, for example, in Australia and the United States. Species such as "C. acanthoides", "C. nutans", "C. pycnocephalus", and "C. tenuiflorus" easily become weedy in disturbed habitat, such as overgrazed pasture. "C. nutans" is allelopathic, producing compounds that inhibit the growth and development of other plants.  Agents of biological pest control that have been used against weedy "Carduus" thistles include the thistle head weevil ("Rhinocyllus conicus"), thistle crown weevil ("Trichosirocalus horridus"), and thistle crown fly ("Cheilosia corydon"). The musk thistle rust ("Puccinia carduorum"), a fungus, may also be used against "C. nutans".

Diversity.

There are about 90 to 127 species in the genus.  Species include:

Carduus is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae, and the tribe Cynareae, one of two genera considered to be true thistles, the other being "Cirsium". Plants of the genus are known commonly as plumeless thistles. They are native to Eurasia and Africa, and several are known elsewhere as introduced species. This genus is noted for its disproportionately high number of noxious weeds compared to other flowering plant genera.

Die Ringdisteln ("Carduus") sind eine Pflanzengattung in der Familie der Korbblütler (Asteraceae). Die etwa 90 Arten sind ursprünglich in Eurasien und Afrika verbreitet.


Background.

In 1221, Pope Honorius III was again worried about the situation in the Finnish-Novgorodian Wars after receiving alarming information from the Archbishop of Uppsala. He authorized the Bishop of Finland to establish a trade embargo against the "barbarians" that threatened Christianity in Finland. The nationality of the "barbarians", presumably a citation from Archbishop's earlier letter, remains unknown, and was not necessarily known even by the Pope. However, as the trade embargo was widened eight years later, it was specifically said to be against the Russians. Based on Papal letters from 1229, the Bishop of Finland requested the Pope enforce a trade embargo against Novgorodians on the Baltic Sea, at least in Visby, Riga and Lübeck. A few years later, the Pope also requested the Livonian Brothers of the Sword send troops to protect Finland. Whether any knights ever arrived remains unknown.  Hoping to exploit Novgorod's weakness in the wake of the Mongol and Swedish invasions, the Teutonic Knights attacked the neighboring Novgorod Republic and occupied Pskov, Izborsk, and Koporye in autumn 1240. When they approached Novgorod itself, the local citizens recalled to the city 20-year-old Prince Alexander Nevsky, whom they had banished to Pereslavl earlier that year. During the campaign of 1241, Alexander managed to retake Pskov and Koporye from the crusaders.  In the spring of 1242, the Teutonic Knights defeated a detachment of Novgorodians about 20 km south of the fortress of Dorpat (Tartu). Led by Prince-Bishop Hermann of Dorpat, the knights and their auxiliary troops of local Ugaunian Estonians then met with Alexander's forces by the narrow strait (Lake Lämmijärv or Teploe) that connects the north and south parts of Lake Peipus (Lake Peipus proper with Lake Pskovskoye).

Battle.

On April 5, 1242, Alexander, intending to fight in a place of his own choosing, retreated in an attempt to draw the often over-confident Crusaders onto the frozen lake. Estimates on the number of troops in the opposing armies vary widely among scholars. A more conservative estimation has it that the crusader forces likely numbered around 2,600, including 800 Danish and German knights, 100 Teutonic knights, 300 Danes, 400 Germans, and 1,000 Estonian infantry. The Russians fielded around 5,000 men: Alexander and his brother Andrei's bodyguards ("druzhina"), totalling around 1,000, plus 2,000 militia of Novgorod, 1,400 Finno-Ugrian tribesmen, and 600 horse archers.  The Teutonic knights and crusaders charged across the lake and reached the enemy, but were held up by the infantry of the Novgorod militia. This caused the momentum of the crusader attack to slow. The battle was fierce, with the allied Russians fighting the Teutonic and crusader troops on the frozen surface of the lake. After a little more than two hours of close quarters fighting, Alexander ordered the left and right wings of his army (including cavalry) to enter the battle. The Teutonic and crusader troops by that time were exhausted from the constant struggle on the slippery surface of the frozen lake. The Crusaders started to retreat in disarray deeper onto the ice, and the appearance of the fresh Novgorod cavalry made them retreat in panic.  It is commonly said that "the Teutonic knights and crusaders attempted to rally and regroup at the far side of the lake, however, the thin ice began to give way and cracked under the weight of their heavy armour, and many knights and crusaders drowned"; but Donald Ostrowski in "Alexander Nevskii’s "Battle on the Ice": The Creation of a Legend" contends that the part about the ice breaking and people drowning was a relatively recent embellishment to the original historical story. He cites a large number of scholars who have written about the battle, Karamzin, Solovev, Petrushevskii, Khitrov, Platonov, Grekov, Vernadsky, Razin, Myakotin, Pashuto, Fennell, and Kirpichnikov, none of whom mention the ice breaking up or anyone drowning when discussing the battle on the ice. After analysing all the sources Ostrowski concludes that the part about ice breaking and drowning appeared first in the 1938 film "Alexander Nevsky" by Sergei Eisenstein.

Casualties.

According to the Livonian Order's "Livonian Rhymed Chronicle", written in the late 1340s, The [Russians] had many archers, and the battle began with their bold assault on the king's men [Danes]. The brothers' banners were soon flying in the midst of the archers, and swords were heard cutting helmets apart. Many from both sides fell dead on the grass. Then the Brothers' army was completely surrounded, for the Russians had so many troops that there were easily sixty men for every one German knight. The Brothers fought well enough, but they were nonetheless cut down. Some of those from Dorpat escaped from the battle, and it was their salvation that they fled. Twenty brothers lay dead and six were captured.  According to the Novgorod First Chronicle, Prince Alexander and all the men of Novgorod drew up their forces by the lake, at Uzmen, by the Raven's Rock; and the Germans and the Estonians rode at them, driving themselves like a wedge through their army. And there was a great slaughter of Germans and Estonians... they fought with them during the pursuit on the ice seven versts short of the Subol [north-western] shore. And there fell a countless number of Estonians, and 400 of the Germans, and they took fifty with their hands and they took them to Novgorod.

Legacy.

The legacy of the battle, and its decisiveness, came because it halted the eastward expansion of the Teutonic Order and established a permanent border line through the Narva River and Lake Peipus dividing Eastern Orthodoxy from Western Catholicism. The knights' defeat at the hands of Alexander's forces prevented the crusaders from retaking Pskov, the linchpin of their eastern crusade. The Novgorodians succeeded in defending Russian territory, and the crusaders never mounted another serious challenge eastward. Alexander was canonised as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1574.  In 1983, a revisionist view proposed by historian John L. I. Fennell argues that the battle was not as important, nor as large, as has often been portrayed. Fennell claimed that most of the Teutonic Knights were by that time engaged elsewhere in the Baltic, and that the apparently low number of knights' casualties according to their own sources indicates the smallness of the encounter. He also says that neither the Suzdalian chronicle (the Lavrent'evskiy), nor any of the Swedish sources mention the occasion, which according to him would mean that the 'great battle' was little more than one of many periodic clashes. Russian historian Alexander Uzhankov suggested that Fennell distorted the picture by ignoring many historical facts and documents. To stress the importance of the battle, he cites two papal bulls of Gregory IX, promulgated in 1233 and 1237, which called for a crusade to protect Christianity in Finland against her neighbours. The first bull explicitly mentions Russia. The kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark and the Teutonic Order built up an alliance in June 1238, under the auspices of Danish king Valdemar II. They assembled the larger western cavalry force of their time. Another point mentioned by Uzhankov is the 1243 treaty between Novgorod and the Teutonic Order, where the knights abandoned all claims to Russian lands. Uzhankov also emphasizes, with respect to the scale of battle, that for each knight deployed on the field there were eight to 30 combatants, counting squires, archers and servants (though at his stated ratios, that would still make the Teutonic losses number at most a few hundred).

In popular culture.

The event was glorified in Sergei Eisenstein's patriotic historical drama film "Alexander Nevsky", released in 1938. The movie, bearing propagandist allegories of the Teutonic Knights as Nazi Germans, with the Teutonic infantry wearing modified World War I German Stahlhelm helmets, has created a popular image of the battle often mistaken for the real events. In particular, the image of knights dying by breaking the ice and drowning originates from the film. Sergei Prokofiev turned his score for the film into a concert cantata of the same title, the longest movement of which is "The Battle on the Ice".  During World War II, the image of Alexander Nevsky became a national Russian symbol of the struggle against German occupation. The Order of Alexander Nevsky was re-established in the Soviet Union in 1942 during the Great Patriotic War. Since 2010, the Russian government has given out an Order of Alexander Nevsky (originally introduced by Catherine I of Russia in 1725) given for outstanding bravery and excellent service to the country.  Heavy metal band Aria composed a song, "Ballad of an Ancient Russian Warrior", for their "Hero of Asphalt" album in 1987. The song describes the battle from a participant's point of view.  In a 2009 Russian-Canadian-Japanese World War II-related anime, "First Squad", the Battle on the Ice plays a vital part in the plot.  "Katabasis", the fourth volume of the Mongoliad Cycle of novels, by Joseph Brassey, Cooper Moo, et al., climaxes with the Battle of the Ice.  The battle is depicted in "" as young Russia and young Prussia with the Teutonic Knights are shown fighting.

The Battle on the Ice (, "Ledovoye poboishche"; ; ; ) was fought between the Republic of Novgorod led by Prince Alexander Nevsky and the forces of the Livonian Order and Bishopric of Dorpat led by Bishop Hermann of Dorpat on April 5, 1242, at Lake Peipus. The battle is notable for having been fought largely on the frozen lake, which gave the battle its name.

In der Schlacht auf dem Peipussee (auch: "Schlacht auf dem Eise") vernichtete am 5. April 1242 ein russisches Heer unter Führung des Nowgoroder Fürsten Alexander Newski eine Streitmacht des Livländischen Ordens – der Vereinigung aus Deutschem Orden und Schwertbrüderorden – und setzte damit deren Ostexpansion ein Ende. Während traditionelle russische Historiker die Bedeutung der Schlacht stark überhöht haben, werden ihr Umfang und ihre Tragweite in der internationalen Geschichtswissenschaft bis heute kontrovers diskutiert.


History.

Between 1600 and 1800, European settlers began to arrive in the region. Soon after, war, disease, and dispersal virtually destroyed the Native American settlements. However, evidence suggests some Native Americans remained in the area as late as the mid-1800s.  Originally charted on August 14, 1781, the Town of Montpelier was granted municipal powers by the "Governor, Council and General Assembly of the Freemen of the State of Vermont". The first permanent settlement began in May 1787, when Colonel Jacob Davis and General Parley Davis arrived from Charlton, Massachusetts. General Davis surveyed the land, while Colonel Davis cleared forest and erected a large log house on the west side of the North Branch of the Winooski River. His family moved in the following winter.  Colonel Davis selected the name "Montpelier" after the French city of Montpellier. There was a general enthusiasm for things French as a result of the country's aid to the American colonies during the Revolutionary War. The settlement grew quickly, and by 1791 the population reached 117.  The configuration of the early village was strongly influenced by geography. As early as 1799 a bridge was constructed across the Winooski River to Berlin.  The Town's Charter was reissued on February 6, 1804, to include a boundary description of the lands granted to the Town's inhabitants and proprietors. The confluence of the Winooski, North Branch and Dog Rivers provided a central point for the local population and commerce.  By 1805 the town had a population of 1,200. In that year the state legislature sought a permanent home. Montpelier was selected because of its central location and accessibility, and because local residents provided land and money. A humble State House was soon constructed on State Street.  In 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette visited Montpelier on a triumphal tour of the United States, 50 years after the Revolutionary War.  The town developed into a center for manufacturing, especially after the Central Vermont Railway opened in Montpelier on June 20, 1849. In response to Montpelier's growth and changing demographics, on November 9, 1848, the General Assembly divided the original Town into two district municipal corporations. The towns of East Montpelier and Montpelier were created. Later on, in an attempt to modernize its form of government, the town was reconstituted as the Village of Montpelier.  By 1858, the layout of the main streets paralleling the rivers was in place. The downtown street pattern has changed very little since that time.  Ten thousand people turned out to greet Major General Philip Sheridan when he visited to address the fourth annual meeting of Vermont former Union officers. He particularly thanked Vermont veterans of the Civil War for their performance at the Battle of Cedar Creek.  In 1875, a large fire destroyed many downtown buildings.  The village had the first municipal water driven hydro system in Vermont in 1884. Water pressure generated sufficient electricity for streetlights.  The first charter of Montpelier was granted in 1894, and was amended shortly thereafter in 1898, and again in 1900 and 1912. The first amendment permitted the city to annex a part of the Town of Berlin; the latter enactments amended the 1898 charter to deal with such matters as water works, the relationship between the city and the Washington County Grammar School, and composition of the City Council.  The state proclaimed October 12, 1899, as "Dewey Day" to honor native son George Dewey, the hero of Battle of Manila Bay in the Spanish–American War. Thousands turned out from the state to his hometown of Montpelier for the celebration. In 1899, Hubbard Park was established with a donation of land, known as "Hubbard Hill", bequeathed to the City of Montpelier by John Erastus Hubbard (1847–1899) with the intent to "preserve wilderness" for future generations. In 1911, additional land was donated and from 1915 to 1930 an observation tower was constructed on this donated land.  In 1927, after a particularly wet summer and fall, heavy rains began on the evening of November 2 that continued until the morning of November 4. The heaviest rain fell on November 3, when more than seven inches fell in a six-hour period. The prolonged heavy rains on top of the already saturated soil from the summer and fall proved to be more than the watercourses could handle. Brooks and rivers overflowed carrying trees and logs in their wake. Dams, bridges and embankments were destroyed. Buildings were submerged, farm animals drowned, and homes and barns were swept away. Rivers reached 13 feet or more above their normal depths. Flood waters gradually receded, leaving behind silt, gravel and debris. At least a foot of mud was left on the floors of downtown stores.  At the time only two stores in Montpelier carried flood insurance. The staggering loss represented an average of $400 for every man, woman, and child in town – equivalent to roughly $5,760 in 2018 dollars. In the days following the flood, Vermont was widely praised for its recovery efforts. President Calvin Coolidge, in particular, hailed the “indomitable spirit” of Vermonters, of whom he was one.  In response to the damage suffered by Montpelier and surrounding communities in the Great Flood of 1927, the Civilian Conservation Corps built the Wrightsville Dam during a period from 1933 to 1935. The resulting reservoir, Wrightsville Reservoir, required the disbandment and flooding of the village of Wrightsville, which contained at least 30 built structures at the time.  The City of Montpelier grew slowly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries during the period of intensive out-migration from the state to new lands in the West, or to industrial centers elsewhere in New England. Montpelier was already established as a government, market, service and industrial center in the region. When the automobile arrived, new state highways were routed to the city limits, and traffic then circulated through the original streets of the city. In 1954, a new bridge was constructed at Bailey Avenue which linked to an extension of Winooski Avenue, now Memorial Drive, and diverted some of the traffic from the downtown area.  An early spring thaw in March 1992 caused an ice jam to form in the Winooski River downstream of the Bailey Avenue bridge in Montpelier. In less than an hour, water levels in the Winooski and North Branch rivers rose upstream of the ice jam and flooded downtown Montpelier. The damage shut down 120 businesses, left 50 residents without homes, disrupted the operations the state government, and caused upwards of $5 million in damage.

Geography.

Montpelier is located in the north-central area of Vermont. The city center is a flat clay zone (elevation 520 ft/158 m), surrounded by hills and granite ledges. Towne Hill runs in a ridge (~900 ft/275 m) along the northern edge of the city.  According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which is land and 0.10% is water. The Winooski River flows west along the south edge of downtown village and is fed by several smaller tributaries that cut through residential districts. Montpelier is subject to periodic flooding in the flat city center, with two major floods occurring 1927 and 1992.  On its borders are the towns of Middlesex to the west, Berlin to the south, and East Montpelier to the north and east. Montpelier lies near the geographic center of the state. Though it does not share a border, Montpelier is frequently associated with the nearby city of Barre, and the two are often referred to together as "Barre-Montpelier".

Climate.

Montpelier features a humid continental climate (Köppen "Dfb"), with long, cold, and snowy winters, short springs and autumns, and warm, humid summers. From January to July, daily means range from. In winter, lows fall below on 24 mornings and daytime highs stay below freezing for the majority of afternoons from December to February. Snow is also frequent and remains on the ground for long stretches throughout the winter, though thaws are by no means infrequent. Average annual snowfall is. Summers are warm and often humid, with 2 or 3 days above, but rarely reaching.  Extremes have ranged from in January 1981 to, most recently recorded in July 1977.

Demographics.

Along with Barre, the city forms a small micropolitan area in the center of the state; together they are known as "the twin cities".  As of the census of 2010, there were 7,855 people, 3,739 households, and 1,940 families residing in the city. The population density was 784.0 people per square mile (302.7/km2). There were 3,899 housing units at an average density of 380.4 per square mile (146.9/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 93.7% White, 1.0% African American, 0.3% Native American, 2.2% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.39% from other races, and 2.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.1% of the population.  There were 3,739 households out of which 26.0% had children under the age of 18 years living with them, 38.5% were married couples living together, 10.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.1% were non-families. 39.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.09 and the average family size was 2.84.  In the city, the population was spread out with 21.3% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 28.2% from 25 to 44, 27.1% from 45 to 64, and 14.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 84.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.0 males.

Personal income.

The median income for a household in the city was $37,513, and the median income for a family was $51,818. Males had a median income of $35,957 versus $29,442 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,599. About 7.2% of families and 9.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.9% of those under age 18 and 5.7% of those age 65 or over.

Economy.

Government, higher education, insurance and tourism are principal businesses.

Industry.

Since the city's establishment as capital in 1805, the primary business in Montpelier has been government, and by the mid-19th century government and life and fire insurance. Companies based in Montpelier include the National Life Group.  Located in Montpelier are the New England Culinary Institute, the annual Green Mountain Film Festival and the headquarters of several insurance companies. The majority of businesses in the downtown area, mostly retail, are locally owned.  Montpelier is the only state capital in the United States of America that does not have a McDonald's. However, there is a McDonald's location in nearby Berlin, Vermont.

Tourism.

The Vermont History Museum, operated in The Pavilion by the Vermont Historical Society, is an attraction.

Sports.

The Vermont Mountaineers of the New England Collegiate Baseball League play at the Montpelier Recreation Field.

Parks and recreation.

The city has three city nature centers. Hubbard Park rises behind the state capitol building and extends along the ridge line towards the north past the pool to the stump dump. Accessible from Cummings Street off State Route 12, the North Branch River Park is the second-largest park in the city. The Mill Pond Park is located along State Route 12 approximately a from the cemetery and features boat access to the North Branch river, as well as benches and short-term parking. The North Branch Nature Center is located at the northern end of town and includes of protected land as well as a community nature center. A bridge from the North Branch Nature Center connects the land to the North Branch River Park on the opposite side of the North Branch River.

Government.

Montpelier's government maintains a city council, city manager, and mayor. The city council consists of a mayor and six members each elected from districts with each district electing two members for two year terms. The mayor is elected in a citywide vote to a two-year term. The council appoints the city manager who is the chief administrative officer of the city.  The city provides municipal services for its residents and businesses. These include local law enforcement, firefighting, planning and zoning regulation, and provision for potable drinking water and wastewater.

Infrastructure.

Transportation.

Montpelier has become one of Vermont's most readily accessible cities and towns, as Vermont's founders deliberately placed the capital near the geographic center of the state.

Roads.

The city is located along Interstate 89. East–west U.S. Route 2 and north–south Vermont Route 12 are two other principal routes that intersect in Montpelier. Both I-89 and U.S. 2 provide a direct link to Burlington and the populous Lake Champlain Valley in the northwestern corner of the state. U.S. Route 302 has its western terminus in Montpelier, connecting it with the nearby city of Barre and points east.

Rail.

Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides daily service from its station at Montpelier Junction in the neighboring town of Berlin, on the route known as the "Vermonter", operating between St. Albans, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

Bus.

Greyhound and Megabus operate buses that serve Montpelier. The Green Mountain Transit Authority (GMTA) operates a local bus network throughout the micropolitan area, with stops in Montpelier and Barre, including nearby Waterbury, the Vermont State House, the Ben & Jerry's factory, and the local Berlin Mall. GMTA and its sister bus company in Burlington, the Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA), operate a series of LINK commuter buses with stops in Montpelier, Burlington, Richmond, and Waterbury.

Air.

Air travelers in private planes can use the Edward F. Knapp State Airport in Berlin to access Montpelier. The Burlington International Airport in Chittenden County is the closest commercial air service, located northwest of Montpelier.

Other.

Two shared-use paths for walking and bicycling connect to Montpelier: the Cross Vermont Trail and the Central Vermont Regional Path. Montpelier's downtown is relatively compact and pedestrian-friendly, with sidewalks and crosswalks throughout the downtown area.

Montpelier () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Washington County. As the site of Vermont's state government, it is the least populous state capital in the United States. The population was 7,855 as of the 2010 census. However, the daytime population grows to about 21,000, due to the large number of jobs within city limits. The Vermont College of Fine Arts and New England Culinary Institute are located in the municipality. It was named after Montpellier, a city in the south of France.

Montpelier [] ist die Hauptstadt des US-Bundesstaates Vermont. Sie liegt in den Green Mountains und ist die kleinste Bundesstaatshauptstadt der Vereinigten Staaten. Zugleich ist Montpelier Verwaltungssitz (Shire Town) des Washington Countys.


Biography.

Hertling became professor of philosophy at the University of Munich and published books on Aristotle (1871) and on Albertus Magnus (1880). From 1875 to 1890, and again from 1893 to 1912, he was a member of the Reichstag, and from 1909 to 1912 he led the Centre (Catholic) Party faction in the Reichstag. In 1891, the Regent of Bavaria made him a life member of the upper house of the Bavarian Landtag.  As leader of the largest party in the Bavarian Landtag, in 1912 Hertling was appointed Bavarian Minister-President and Minister for Foreign Affairs by Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria. He was the first minister-president ever appointed who governed on the basis of a majority in the Landtag. King Ludwig III later elevated him to the rank of Count. Following the outbreak of World War I, Hertling supported the policy of Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg but declined to become his successor in 1917. After the fall of Georg Michaelis in November of that year, however, he accepted appointment as German Chancellor and Minister-President of Prussia. He was the first politician to hold either post; all of his predecessors had been career civil servants or military men.  Hertling was a staunch conservative who believed in total victory for Germany. His age and his conservatism made him unequipped to overcome the influence of the military high command, led by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. Like Michaelis before him, he was increasingly seen as a puppet of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who constituted a virtual military dictatorship in the last year of the war. Hertling presided over the last stage of the collapse of the German home front. When it became apparent that he was unable to manage the crisis, he was forced to resign in favour of Prince Maximilian of Baden.  He founded the important German Catholic fraternity Askania-Burgundia and was a member of K.St.V. Arminia at Bonn. His great-granddaughter is actress Gila von Weitershausen.

Georg Friedrich Karl Freiherr (From 1914, Graf) von Hertling (31 August 1843 – 4 January 1919) was a German politician who served as the Minister-President of Bavaria from 1912 to 1917 and then as Minister-President of Prussia and Chancellor of the German Empire from 1917 to 1918. He was the first party politician to hold the office.

Georg Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Hertling, ab 1914 Graf von Hertling (* 31. August 1843 in Darmstadt; † 4. Januar 1919 in Ruhpolding, Oberbayern), war ein deutscher Politiker der Zentrumspartei.


Origin.

The tale was published by the Brothers Grimm in the first edition of "Kinder- und Hausmärchen" in 1812, and has been only slightly changed in the successive editions. Their source was Gretchen Wild (1787–1819).

Synopsis.

A poor woodcutter and his wife had a three-year-old daughter that they could not feed. The Virgin Mary appeared to the woodcutter and promised to take care of the child, so they gave her the child. She grew up happily in Heaven. One day the Virgin had to go on a journey and gave the girl keys, telling her she could open twelve doors but not the thirteenth. She opened the first twelve and found the Apostles behind them. Then she opened the thirteenth door. Behind it was the Trinity, and her finger was stained with gold. She tried to hide it, lying three times, and the Virgin Mary said she could no longer remain for her disobedience and lying.  She fell asleep and woke to find herself in a forest. Lamenting her misfortune, she lived in a hollow tree, ate wild plants, and tore all her clothing until she was naked. One day, a king found her looking beautiful but incapable of speech. He took her home and married her.  A year later, she had a son. The Virgin Mary appeared and demanded that she confess to having opened the door. She lied again, the Virgin took her son, and the people whispered that she had killed and eaten the child. In another year, she had another son, and it went as before. The third year, she had a daughter, and the Virgin Mary took her to heaven and showed her her sons, but she would not confess. This time, the king could not restrain his councilors, and the queen was condemned to death. When she was brought to the stake, she relented and wished she could confess before she died. The Virgin Mary brought back her children, restored her the power of speech, and gave her happiness the rest of her life.

"Mary's Child" (also "Our Lady's Child", "A Child of Saint Mary" or "The Virgin Mary's Child"; German: "Marienkind") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in "Grimm's Fairy Tales" in 1812 (KHM 3). It is of Aarne-Thompson type 710.

Marienkind ist das dritte Märchen aus den Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm (KHM 3). Im Aarne-Thompson-Uther-Index wird es unter ATU 710 geführt unter dem Typ "Andere Geschichten vom Übernatürlichen".


Resonance.

In the simple aromatic ring of benzene the delocalization of six π electrons over the C ring is often graphically indicated by a circle. The fact that the six C-C bonds are equidistant is one indication that the electrons are delocalized; if the structure were to have isolated double bonds alternating with discrete single bonds, the bond would likewise have alternating longer and shorter lengths. In valence bond theory, delocalization in benzene is represented by resonance structures.

Electrical conduction.

Delocalized electrons also exist in the structure of solid metals. Metallic structure consists of aligned positive ions (cations) in a "sea" of delocalized electrons. This means that the electrons are free to move throughout the structure, and gives rise to properties such as conductivity.  In diamond all four outer electrons of each carbon atom are 'localized' between the atoms in covalent bonding. The movement of electrons is restricted and diamond does not conduct an electric current. In graphite, each carbon atom uses only 3 of its 4 outer energy level electrons in covalently bonding to three other carbon atoms in a plane. Each carbon atom contributes one electron to a delocalized system of electrons that is also a part of the chemical bonding. The delocalized electrons are free to move throughout the plane. For this reason, graphite conducts electricity along the planes of carbon atoms, but does not conduct in a direction at right angles to the plane.

Molecular orbitals.

Standard ab initio quantum chemistry methods lead to delocalized orbitals that, in general, extend over an entire molecule and have the symmetry of the molecule. Localized orbitals may then be found as linear combinations of the delocalized orbitals, given by an appropriate unitary transformation.  In the methane molecule for example, ab initio calculations show bonding character in four molecular orbitals, sharing the electrons uniformly among all five atoms. There are two orbital levels, a bonding molecular orbital formed from the 2s orbital on carbon and triply degenerate bonding molecular orbitals from each of the 2p orbitals on carbon. The localized sp orbitals corresponding to each individual bond in valence bond theory can be obtained from a linear combination of the four molecular orbitals.

In chemistry, delocalized electrons are electrons in a molecule, ion or solid metal that are not associated with a single atom or a covalent bond. The term delocalization is general and can have slightly different meanings in different fields. In organic chemistry, this refers to resonance in conjugated systems and aromatic compounds. In solid-state physics, this refers to free electrons that facilitate electrical conduction. In quantum chemistry, this refers to molecular orbital electrons that have extended over several adjacent atoms.

Von Delokalisierung (oft auch π-Elektronen-System) wird in der Chemie gesprochen, wenn ein oder mehrere Elektronen in einer Atomgruppe, sprich einem Molekül oder Molekülion, nicht genau lokalisierbar, sondern über die einzelnen Atome verteilt ist. Zur Beschreibung dieser Ladungsverteilung nach der VB-Theorie verwendet man mesomere Grenzstrukturen.


Thermal converters.

Thermionic converter.

A thermionic converter consists of a hot electrode, which thermionically emits electrons over a space-charge barrier to a cooler electrode, producing a useful power output. Caesium vapor is used to optimize the electrode work functions and provide an ion supply (by surface ionization) to neutralize the electron space charge.

Radioisotope thermoelectric generator.

A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) uses thermocouples. Each thermocouple is formed from two wires of different metals (or other materials). A temperature gradient along the length of each wire produces a voltage gradient from one end of the wire to the other; but the different materials produce different voltages per degree of temperature difference. By connecting the wires at one end, heating that end but cooling the other end, a usable, but small (millivolts), voltage is generated between the unconnected wire ends. In practice, many are connected in series (or in parallel) to generate a larger voltage (or current) from the same heat source, as heat flows from the hot ends to the cold ends. Metal thermocouples have low thermal-to-electrical efficiency. However, the carrier density and charge can be adjusted in semiconductor materials such as bismuth telluride and silicon germanium to achieve much higher conversion efficiencies.

Thermophotovoltaic cells.

Thermophotovoltaic cells work by the same principles as a photovoltaic cell, except that they convert infrared light (rather than visible light) emitted by a hot surface, into electricity. Thermophotovoltaic cells have an efficiency slightly higher than thermoelectric couples and can be overlaid on thermoelectric couples, potentially doubling efficiency. The University of Houston TPV Radioisotope Power Conversion Technology development effort is aiming at combining thermophotovoltaic cells concurrently with thermocouples to provide a 3- to 4-fold improvement in system efficiency over current thermoelectric radioisotope generators.

Stirling radioisotope generator.

A Stirling radioisotope generator is a Stirling engine driven by the temperature difference produced by a radioisotope. A more efficient version, the advanced Stirling radioisotope generator, was under development by NASA, but was cancelled in 2013 due to large-scale cost overruns.

Non-thermal converters.

Non-thermal converters extract a fraction of the nuclear energy as it is being degraded into heat. Their outputs are not functions of temperature differences as are thermoelectric and thermionic converters. Non-thermal generators can be grouped into three classes.

Direct-charging generators.

In the first type, the primary generator consists of a capacitor charged by the current of charged particles from a radioactive layer deposited on one of the electrodes. Spacing can be either vacuum or dielectric. Negatively charged beta particles or positively charged alpha particles, positrons or fission fragments may be utilized. Although this form of nuclear-electric generator dates back to 1913, few applications have been found in the past for the extremely low currents and inconveniently high voltages provided by direct-charging generators. Oscillator/transformer systems are employed to reduce the voltages, then rectifiers are used to transform the AC power back to direct current.  English physicist H. G. J. Moseley constructed the first of these. Moseley’s apparatus consisted of a glass globe silvered on the inside with a radium emitter mounted on the tip of a wire at the center. The charged particles from the radium created a flow of electricity as they moved quickly from the radium to the inside surface of the sphere. As late as 1945 the Moseley model guided other efforts to build experimental batteries generating electricity from the emissions of radioactive elements.

Betavoltaics.

Betavoltaics are generators of electric current, in effect a form of battery, which use energy from a radioactive source emitting beta particles (electrons). A common source used is the hydrogen isotope, tritium. Unlike most nuclear power sources, which use nuclear radiation to generate heat, which then generates electricity (thermoelectric and thermionic sources), betavoltaics use a non-thermal conversion process, using a semiconductor p-n junction.  Betavoltaics are particularly well-suited to low-power electrical applications where long life of the energy source is needed, such as implantable medical devices or military and space applications.

Alphavoltaics.

Alphavoltaic power sources are devices that use a semiconductor junction to produce electrical particle from energetic alpha particles.

Optoelectric.

An optolectric nuclear battery has also been proposed by researchers of the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. A beta-emitter (such as technetium-99) would stimulate an excimer mixture, and the light would power a photocell. The battery would consist of an excimer mixture of argon/xenon in a pressure vessel with an internal mirrored surface, finely divided Tc-99, and an intermittent ultrasonic stirrer, illuminating a photocell with a bandgap tuned for the excimer. The advantage of this design is that precision electrode assemblies are not needed, and most beta particles escape the finely divided bulk material to contribute to the battery's net power.

Reciprocating electromechanical atomic batteries.

Electromechanical atomic batteries use the buildup of charge between two plates to pull one bendable plate towards the other, until the two plates touch, discharge, equalizing the electrostatic buildup, and spring back. The mechanical motion produced can be used to produce electricity through flexing of a piezoelectric material or through a linear generator. Milliwatts of power are produced in pulses depending on the charge rate, in some cases multiple times per second (35 Hz).

Radioisotopes used.

Atomic batteries use radioisotopes that produce low energy beta particles or sometimes alpha particles of varying energies. Low energy beta particles are needed to prevent the production of high energy penetrating Bremsstrahlung radiation that would require heavy shielding. Radioisotopes such as tritium, nickel-63, promethium-147, and technetium-99 have been tested. Plutonium-238, curium-242, curium-244 and strontium-90 have been used.

Micro-batteries.

Nuclear engineers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison have explored the possibilities of producing minuscule batteries which exploit radioactive nuclei of substances such as polonium or curium to produce electric energy. As an example of an integrated, self-powered application, the researchers have created an oscillating cantilever beam that is capable of consistent, periodic oscillations over very long time periods without the need for refueling. Ongoing work demonstrate that this cantilever is capable of radio frequency transmission, allowing MEMS devices to communicate with one another wirelessly.  These micro-batteries are very light and deliver enough energy to function as power supply for use in MEMS devices and further for supply for nanodevices.  The radiation energy released is transformed into electric energy, which is restricted to the area of the device that contains the processor and the micro-battery that supplies it with energy.

An atomic battery, nuclear battery, tritium battery or radioisotope generator is a device which uses energy from the decay of a radioactive isotope to generate electricity. Like nuclear reactors, they generate electricity from nuclear energy, but differ in that they do not use a chain reaction. Compared to other batteries, they are very costly, but have an extremely long life and high energy density, and so they are mainly used as power sources for equipment that must operate unattended for long periods of time, such as spacecraft, pacemakers, underwater systems and automated scientific stations in remote parts of the world.

Eine Radionuklidbatterie, auch Radioisotopengenerator, Isotopenbatterie, Atombatterie oder kurz RTG (für "radioisotope thermoelectric generator"), wandelt thermische Energie des spontanen Kernzerfalls eines Radionuklids in elektrische Energie um. Sie gewinnt ihre Energie aus radioaktivem Zerfall, somit nicht aus Kernspaltung mit Kettenreaktion, und ist daher von Kernreaktoren zu unterscheiden.


Definitions.

Vicki Schultz states that we collectively have a shared knowledge about most concepts. How we interpret the reality of our actual understanding of a concept manifests itself through the different individual narratives that we tell about the origins and meanings of a particular concept. The difference in narratives, about the same set of facts, is what divides us. An individual has the ability to frame, or understand, something very differently than the next person. Evidence does not always lead to a clear attribution of the specific cause or meaning of an issue – meanings are derived through narratives. Reality, and the facts that surround it, are personally subjective and laden with assumptions based on clearly stated facts. Anna-Maria Marshall states, this shift in framing happens because our perceptions depend “on new information and experiences;” this very idea is the basis of Ewick and Sibley definition of legality – our everyday experiences shape our understanding of the law.  Ewik and Silbey define "legality" more broadly as, "those meanings, sources of authority, and cultural practices that are in some sense legal although not necessarily approved or acknowledged by official law. The concept of legality the opportunity to consider "how where and with what effect law is produced in and through commonplace social interactions...How do our roles and statuses our relationships, our obligations, prerogatives and responsibilities, our identities and our behavoiurs bear the imprint of law."  In a paper on "Normative Phenomena of Morality, Ethics and Legality", legality is defined taking the state's role in to account as, "The system of laws and regulations of right and wrong behavior that are enforceable by the state (federal, state, or local governmental body in the U.S.) through the exercise of its policing powers and judicial process, with the threat and use of penalties, including its monopoly on the right to use physical violence."

Principle of legality.

The "principle of legality" is the legal ideal that requires all law to be clear, ascertainable and non-retrospective. It requires decision makers to resolve disputes by applying legal rules that have been declared beforehand, and not to alter the legal situation retrospectively by discretionary departures from established law. It is closely related to legal formalism and the rule of law and can be traced from the writings of Feuerbach, Dicey and Montesquieu.  The principle has particular relevance in criminal and administrative law. In criminal law it can be seen in the general prohibition on the imposition of criminal sanctions for acts or omissions that were not criminal at the time of their commission or omission. The principle is also thought to be violated when the sanctions for a particular crime are increased with retrospective effect.  In administrative law it can be seen in the desire for state officials to be bound by and apply the law rather than acting upon whim. As such advocates of the principle are normally against discretionary powers.  The principle can be varyingly expressed in Latin phrases such as "Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali" (No crime can be committed, nor punishment imposed without a pre-existing penal law), "nulla poena sine lege" (no penalty without law) and "nullum crimen sine lege" (no crime without law). A law that violates the principle by retroactively making actions illegal that were committed before the enactment of the law is called an "ex post facto law".

Other related concepts.

Rule of law provides for availability of rules, laws and legal mechanism to implement them. Principle of legality checks for availability and quality of the laws. Legality checks for if certain behaviour is according to law or not. concept of Legitimacy of law looks for fairness or acceptability of fairness of process of implementation of law.  quality of being legal and observance to the law may pertain to lawfullness, i.e. being consistent to the law or it may get discussed in principle of legality or may be discussed as legal legitimacy.

Legality of purpose.

In contract law, legality of purpose is required of every enforceable contract. One can not validate or enforce a contract to do activity with unlawful purpose.

Constitutional legality.

The principle of legality can be affected in different ways by different constitutional models. In the United States, laws may not violate the stated provisions of the United States Constitution which includes a prohibition on retrospective laws. In Britain under the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty, the legislature can (in theory) pass such retrospective laws as it sees fit, though article 7 of the European convention on human rights, which has legal force in Britain, forbids conviction for a crime which was not illegal at the time it was committed. Article 7 has already had an effect in a number of cases in the British courts.  In contrast many written constitutions prohibit the creation of retroactive (normally criminal) laws. However the possibility of statutes being struck down creates its own problems. It is clearly more difficult to ascertain what is a valid statute when any number of statutes may have constitutional question marks hanging over them. When a statute is declared unconstitutional, the actions of public authorities and private individuals which were legal under the invalidated statute, are retrospectively tainted with illegality. Such a result could not occur under parliamentary sovereignty (or at least not before Factortame) as a statute was law and its validity could not be questioned in any court.

International law.

Legality, in its criminal aspect, is a principle of international human rights law, and is incorporated into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. However the imposition of penalties for offences illegal under international law or criminal according to "the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations" are normally excluded from its ambit. As such the trial and punishment for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity does not breach international law.  There is some debate about whether this is really a true exception or not. Some people would argue that it is a derogation or – perhaps somewhat more harshly – an infringement of the principle of legality. While others would argue that crimes such as genocide are contrary to natural law and as such are always illegal and always have been. Thus imposing punishment for them is always legitimate. The exception and the natural law justification for it can be seen as an attempt to justify the Nuremberg trials and the trial of Adolf Eichmann, both of which were criticized for applying retrospective criminal sanctions.  The territorial principle, generally confining national jurisdiction to a nation’s borders, has been expanded to accommodate extraterritorial, national interest.  In criminal law, the principle of legality assures the primacy of law in all criminal proceedings.

Legality can be defined as an act, agreement, or contract that is consistent with the law or state of being lawful or unlawful in a given jurisdiction. "Legal principle that an accused may not be prosecuted for an act that is not declared a crime in that jurisdiction" is actually about the Principle of legality which is part of the overall concept of legality.

Legalität ist die gesetzliche Zulässigkeit einer Handlung, einer Duldung oder eines Unterlassens. Der Rechtsbegriff umfasst auch das gesetzliche Bestehen von Rechtsbeziehungen zwischen Personen untereinander (z. B. legale Beziehung, legales Verhältnis), zwischen Personen und Sachen (z. B. legaler Waffenbesitz) und zwischen Personen und Rechten (z. B. Erlaubnis). Davon zu unterscheiden ist die Legitimität.