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Cooperative binding

Cooperative binding occurs in molecular binding systems containing more than one type, or species, of molecule and in which one of the partners is not mono-valent and can bind more than one molecule of the other species. In general, molecular binding is an interaction between molecules that results in a stable physical association between those molecules.

Cooperative binding occurs in a molecular binding system where two or more ligand molecules can bind to a receptor molecule. Binding can be considered "cooperative" if the actual binding of the first molecule of the ligand to the receptor changes the binding affinity of the second ligand molecule. The binding of ligand molecules to the different sites on the receptor molecule do not constitute mutually independent events. Cooperativity can be positive or negative, meaning that it becomes more or less likely that successive ligand molecules will bind to the receptor molecule.

Cooperative binding is observed in many biopolymers, including proteins and nucleic acids. Cooperative binding has been shown to be the mechanism underlying a large range of biochemical and physiological processes.

Christian Bohr and the concept of cooperative binding
In 1904, Christian Bohr studied hemoglobin binding to oxygen under different conditions. When plotting hemoglobin saturation with oxygen as a function of the partial pressure of oxygen, he obtained a sigmoidal (or "S-shaped") curve. This indicates that the more oxygen is bound to hemoglobin, the easier it is for more oxygen to bind - until all binding sites are saturated. In addition, Bohr noticed that increasing CO2 pressure shifted this curve to the right - i.e. higher concentrations of CO2 make it more difficult for hemoglobin to bind oxygen. This latter phenomenon, together with the observation that hemoglobin's affinity for oxygen increases with increasing pH, is known as the Bohr effect.

A receptor molecule is said to exhibit cooperative binding if its binding to ligand scales non-linearly with ligand concentration. Cooperativity can be positive (if binding of a ligand molecule increases the receptor's apparent affinity, and hence increases the chance of another ligand molecule binding) or negative (if binding of a ligand molecule decreases affinity and hence makes binding of other ligand molecules less likely). The "fractional occupancy" $$\bar{Y}$$ of a receptor with a given ligand is defined as the quantity of ligand-bound binding sites divided by the total quantity of ligand binding sites:

\bar{Y}=\frac{[\text{bound sites}]}{[\text{bound sites}]+[\text{unbound sites}]} = \frac{[\text{bound sites}]}{[\text{total sites}]} $$

If $$\bar{Y}=0$$, then the protein is completely unbound, and if $$\bar{Y}=1$$, it is completely saturated. If the plot of $$\bar{Y}$$ at equilibrium as a function of ligand concentration is sigmoidal in shape, as observed by Bohr for hemoglobin, this indicates positive cooperativity. If it is not, no statement can be made about cooperativity from looking at this plot alone.

The concept of cooperative binding only applies to molecules or complexes with more than one ligand binding sites. If several ligand binding sites exist, but ligand binding to any one site does not affect the others, the receptor is said to be non-cooperative. Cooperativity can be homotropic, if a ligand influences the binding of ligands of the same kind, or heterotropic, if it influences binding of other kinds of ligands. In the case of hemoglobin, Bohr observed homotropic positive cooperativity (binding of oxygen facilitates binding of more oxygen) and heterotropic negative cooperativity (binding of CO2 reduces hemoglobin's facility to bind oxygen.)

Throughout the 20th century, various frameworks have been developed to describe the binding of a ligand to a protein with more than one binding site and the cooperative effects observed in this context.

The Hill equation
The first description of cooperative binding to a multi-site protein was developed by A.V. Hill. Drawing on observations of oxygen binding to hemoglobin and the idea that cooperativity arose from the aggregation of hemoglobin molecules, each one binding one oxygen molecule, Hill suggested a phenomenological equation that has since been named after him:

\bar{Y} = \frac{K\cdot{}[X]^n}{1+ K\cdot{}[X]^n} = \frac{[X]^n}{K^* + [X]^n} = \frac{[X]^n}{K_d^n + [X]^n} $$

where $$n$$ is the "Hill coefficient", $$[X]$$ denotes ligand concentration, $$K$$ denotes an apparent association constant (used in the original form of the equation), $$K^*$$ is an empirical dissociation constant, and $$K_d$$ a microscopic dissociation constant (used in modern forms of the equation, and equivalent to an $$\mathrm{EC}_{50}$$). If $$n<1$$, the system exhibits negative cooperativity, whereas cooperativity is positive if $$n>1$$. The total number of ligand binding sites is an upper bound for $$n$$. The Hill equation can be linearized as:

\log \frac{\bar{Y}}{1-\bar{Y}} = n\cdot{}\log [X] - n\cdot{}\log K_d $$

The "Hill plot" is obtained by plotting $$\log \frac{\bar{Y}}{1-\bar{Y}}$$ versus $$\log [X]$$. In the case of the Hill equation, it is a line with slope $$n_H$$ and intercept $$n\cdot\log(K_d)$$. This means that cooperativity is assumed to be fixed, i.e. it does not change with saturation. It also means that binding sites always exhibit the same affinity, and cooperativity does not arise from an affinity increasing with ligand concentration.

The Adair equation
G.S. Adair found that the Hill plot for hemoglobin was not a straight line, and hypothesized that binding affinity was not a fixed term, but dependent on ligand saturation. Having demonstrated that hemoglobin contained four hemes (and therefore binding sites for oxygen), he worked from the assumption that fully saturated hemoglobin is formed in stages, with intermediate forms with one, two, or three bound oxygen molecules. The formation of each intermediate stage from unbound hemoglobin can be described using an apparent macroscopic association constant $$K_i$$. The resulting fractional occupancy can be expressed as:

\bar{Y} = \frac{1}{4}\cdot{}\frac{K_I[X]+2K_{II}[X]^2+3K_{III}[X]^3+4K_{IV}[X]^4}{1+K_I[X]+K_{II}[X]^2+K_{III}[X]^3+K_{IV}[X]^4} $$

Or, for any protein with n ligand binding sites:

\bar{Y}=\frac{1}{n}\frac{K_I[X] + 2K_{II}[X]^2 + \ldots + nK_{n} [X]^n}{1+K_I[X]+K_{II}[X]^2+ \ldots +K_n[X]^n} $$

where n denotes the number of binding sites and each $$K_i$$ is a combined association constant, describing the binding of i ligand molecules. By combining the Adair treatment with the Hill plot, one arrives at the modern experimental definition of cooperativity (Hill, 1985, Abeliovich, 2005). The resultant Hill coefficient, or more correctly the slope of the Hill plot as calculated from the Adair Equation, can be shown to be the ratio between the variance of the binding number to the variance of the binding number in an equivalent system of non-interacting binding sites. Thus, the Hill coefficient defines cooperativity as a statistical dependence of one binding site on the state of other site(s).

The Klotz equation
Working on calcium binding proteins, Irving Klotz deconvoluted Adair's association constants by considering stepwise formation of the intermediate stages, and tried to express the cooperative binding in terms of elementary processes governed by mass action law. In his framework, $$K_1$$ is the association constant governing binding of the first ligand molecule, $$K_2$$ the association constant governing binding of the second ligand molecule (once the first is already bound) etc. For $$\bar{Y}$$, this gives:

\bar{Y}=\frac{1}{n}\frac{K_1[X] + 2K_1K_2[X]^2 + \ldots + n\left(K_1K_2 \ldots K_n\right)[X]^n}{1+K_1[X]+K_1K_2[X]^2+ \ldots +\left(K_1K_2 \ldots K_n\right)[X]^n} $$

It is worth noting that the constants $$K_1$$, $$K_2$$ and so forth do not relate to individual binding sites. They describe how many binding sites are occupied, rather than which ones. This form has the advantage that cooperativity is easily recognised when considering the association constants. If all ligand binding sites are identical with a microscopic association constant $$K$$, one would expect $$K_1=nK, K_2=\frac{n-1}{2}K, \ldots K_n=\frac{1}{n}K$$ (that is $$K_i=\frac{n-i+1}{i}K$$) in the absence of cooperativity. We have positive cooperativity if $$K_i$$ lies above these expected values for $$i>1$$.

The Klotz equation (which is sometimes also called the Adair-Klotz equation) is still often used in the experimental literature to describe measurements of ligand binding in terms of sequential apparent binding constants.

Pauling equation
By the middle of the 20th century, there was an increased interest in models that would not only describe binding curves phenomenologically, but offer an underlying biochemical mechanism. Linus Pauling reinterpreted the equation provided by Adair, assuming that his constants were the combination of the binding constant for the ligand ($$K$$ in the equation below) and energy coming from the interaction between subunits of the cooperative protein ($$\alpha$$ below). Pauling actually derived several equations, depending on the degree of interaction between subunits. Based on wrong assumptions about the localization of hemes, he opted for the wrong one to describe oxygen binding by hemoglobin, assuming the subunit were arranged in a square. The equation below provides the equation for a tetrahedral structure, which would be more accurate in the case of hemoglobin:

\bar{Y} = \frac{K[X]+3\alpha{}K^2[X]^2+3\alpha{}^3K^3[X]^3+\alpha{}^6K^4[X]^4}{1+4K[X]+6\alpha{}K^2[X]^2+4\alpha{}^3K^3[X]^3+\alpha{}^6K^4[X]^4} $$

The KNF model
Based on results showing that the structure of cooperative proteins changed upon binding to their ligand, Daniel Koshland and colleagues refined the biochemical explanation of the mechanism described by Pauling. The Koshland-Némethy-Filmer (KNF) model assumes that each subunit can exist in one of two conformations: active or inactive. Ligand binding to one subunit would induce an immediate conformational change of that subunit from the inactive to the active conformation, a mechanism described as "induced fit". Cooperativity, according to the KNF model, would arise from interactions between the subunits, the strength of which varies depending on the relative conformations of the subunits involved. For a tetrahedric structure (they also considered linear and square structures), they proposed the following formula:

\bar{Y} = \frac{K_{AB}^3(K_XK_t[X])+3K_{AB}^4K_{BB}(K_XK_t[X])^2+3K_{AB}^3K_{BB}^3(K_XK_t[X])^3+K_{BB}^6(K_XK_t[X])^4}{1+4K_{AB}^3(K_XK_t[X])+6K_{AB}^4K_{BB}(K_XK_t[X])^2+4K_{AB}^3K_{BB}^3(K_XK_t[X])^3+K_{BB}^6(K_XK_t[X])^4} $$

Where $$K_X$$ is the constant of association for X, $$K_t$$ is the ratio of B and A states in the absence of ligand ("transition"), $$K_{AB}$$ and $$K_{BB}$$ are the relative stabilities of pairs of neighbouring subunits relative to a pair where both subunits are in the A state (Note that the KNF paper actually presents $$N_s$$, the number of occupied sites, which is here 4 times $$\bar{Y}$$).

The MWC model
The Monod-Wyman-Changeux (MWC) model for concerted allosteric transitions went a step further by exploring cooperativity based on thermodynamics and three-dimensional conformations. It was originally formulated for oligomeric proteins with symmetrically arranged, identical subunits, each of which has one ligand binding site. According to this framework, two (or more) interconvertible conformational states of an allosteric protein coexist in a thermal equilibrium. The states - often termed tense (T) and relaxed (R) - differ in affinity for the ligand molecule. The ratio between the two states is regulated by the binding of ligand molecules that stabilizes the higher-affinity state. Importantly, all subunits of a molecule change states at the same time, a phenomenon known as "concerted transition".

The allosteric isomerisation constant L describes the equilibrium between both states when no ligand molecule is bound: $$L=\frac{\left[T_0\right]}{\left[R_0\right]}$$. If L is very large, most of the protein exists in the T state in the absence of ligand. If L is small (close to one), the R state is nearly as populated as the T state. The ratio of dissociation constants for the ligand from the T and R states is described by the constant c: $$c = \frac{K_d^R}{K_d^T}$$. If $$c=1$$, both R and T states have the same affinity for the ligand and the ligand does not affect isomerisation. The value of c also indicates how much the equilibrium between T and R states changes upon ligand binding: the smaller c, the more the equilibrium shifts towards the R state after one binding. With $$\alpha = \frac{[X]}{K_d^R}$$, fractional occupancy is described as:

\bar{Y} = \frac{\alpha(1+\alpha)^{n-1}+Lc\alpha(1+c\alpha)^{n-1}}{(1+\alpha)^n+L(1+c\alpha)^n} $$

The sigmoid Hill plot of allosteric proteins can then be analysed as a progressive transition from the T state (low affinity) to the R state (high affinity) as the saturation increases. The slope of the Hill plot also depends on saturation, with a maximum value at the inflexion point. The intercepts between the two asymptotes and the y-axis allow to determine the affinities of both states for the ligand.

In proteins, conformational change is often associated with activity, or activity towards specific targets. Such activity is often what is physiologically relevant or what is experimentally measured. The degree of conformational change is described by the state function $$\bar{R}$$, which denotes the fraction of protein present in the $$R$$ state. As the energy diagram illustrates, $$\bar{R}$$ increases as more ligand molecules bind. The expression for $$\bar{R}$$ is:

\bar{R}=\frac{(1+\alpha)^n}{(1+\alpha)^n+L(1+c\alpha)^n} $$

A crucial aspect of the MWC model is that the curves for $$\bar{Y}$$ and $$\bar{R}$$ do not coincide, i.e. fractional saturation is not a direct indicator of conformational state (and hence, of activity). Moreover, the extents of the cooperativity of binding and the cooperativity of activation can be very different: an extreme case is provide by the bacteria flagella motor with a Hill coefficient of 1.7 for the binding and 10.3 for the activation. The supra-linearity of the response is sometimes called ultrasensitivity.

If an allosteric protein binds to a target that also has a higher affinity for the R state, then target binding further stabilizes the R state, hence increasing ligand affinity. If, on the other hand, a target preferentially binds to the T state, then target binding will have a negative effect on ligand affinity. Such targets are called allosteric modulators.

Since its inception, the MWC framework has been extended and generalized. Variations have been proposed, for example to cater for proteins with more than two states, proteins that bind to several types of ligands or several types of allosteric modulators and proteins with non-identical subunits or ligand-binding sites.

Examples
The list of molecular assemblies that exhibit cooperative binding of ligands is very large, but some examples are particularly notable for their historical interest, their unusual properties, or their physiological importance.

As described in the historical section, the most famous example of cooperative binding is hemoglobin. Its quaternary structure, solved by Max Perutz using X-ray diffraction, exhibits a pseudo-symmetrical tetrahedron carrying four binding sites (hemes) for oxygen. Many other molecular assemblies exhibiting cooperative binding have been studied in great detail.

Multimeric enzymes
The activity of many enzymes is regulated by allosteric effectors. Some of these enzymes are multimeric and carry several binding sites for the regulators.

Threonine deaminase was one of the first enzymes suggested to behave like hemoglobin and shown to bind ligands cooperatively. It was later shown to be a tetrameric protein.

Another enzyme that has been suggested early to bind ligands cooperatively is aspartate trans-carbamylase. Although initial models were consistent with four binding sites, its structure was later shown to be hexameric by William Lipscomb and colleagues.

Ion channels
Most ion channels are formed of several identical or pseudo-identical monomers or domains, arranged symmetrically in biological membranes. Several classes of such channels whose opening is regulated by ligands exhibit cooperative binding of these ligands.

It was suggested as early as 1967 (when the exact nature of those channels was still unknown) that the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors bound acetylcholine in a cooperative manner due to the existence of several binding sites. The purification of the receptor and its characterization demonstrated a pentameric structure with binding sites located at the interfaces between subunits, confirmed by the structure of the receptor binding domain.

Inositol triphosphate (IP3) receptors form another class of ligand-gated ion channels exhibiting cooperative binding. The structure of those receptors shows four IP3 binding sites symmetrically arranged.

Multi-site molecules
Although most proteins showing cooperative binding are multimeric complexes of homologous subunits, some proteins carry several binding sites for the same ligand on the same polypeptide. One such example is calmodulin. One molecule of calmodulin binds four calcium ions cooperatively. Its structure presents four EF-hand domains, each one binding one calcium ion. The molecule does not display a square or tetrahedron structure, but is formed of two lobes, each carrying two EF-hand domains.

Transcription factors
Cooperative binding of proteins onto nucleic acids has also been shown. A classical example is the binding of the lambda phage repressor to its operators, which occurs cooperatively. Other examples of transcription factors exhibit positive cooperativity when binding their target, such as the repressor of the TtgABC pumps (n=1.6), as well as conditional cooperativity exhibited by the transcription factors HOXA11 and FOXO1.

Conversely, examples of negative cooperativity for the binding of transcription factors were also documented, as for the homodimeric repressor of the Pseudomonas putida cytochrome P450cam hydroxylase operon (n=0.56).

Conformational spread and binding cooperativity
Early on, it has been argued that some proteins, especially those consisting of many subunits, could be regulated by a generalized MWC mechanism, in which the transition between R and T state is not necessarily synchronized across the entire protein. In 1969, Wyman proposed such a model with "mixed conformations" (i.e. some protomers in the R state, some in the T state) for respiratory proteins in invertebrates.

Following a similar idea, the conformational spread model by Duke and colleagues subsumes both the KNF and the MWC model as special cases. In this model, a subunit does not automatically change conformation upon ligand binding (as in the KNF model), nor do all subunits in a complex change conformations together (as in the MWC model). Conformational changes are stochastic with the likelihood of a subunit switching states depending on whether or not it is ligand bound and on the conformational state of neighbouring subunits. Thus, conformational states can "spread" around the entire complex.

Impact of upstream and downstream components on module's ultrasensitivity
In a living cell, ultrasensitive modules are embedded in a bigger network with upstream and downstream  components. This components may constrain the range of inputs that the module will receive as well as the range of the module's outputs that network will be able to detect. The sensitivity of a modular system is affected by these restrictions. The dynamic range limitations imposed by downstream components can produce effective sensitivities much larger than that of the original module when considered in isolation.

title: Cooperative binding


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Incarnations of Immortality

Incarnations of Immortality is the name of an eight-book fantasy series by Piers Anthony. The books each focus on one of eight supernatural "offices" (Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, Good, and Night) in a fictional reality and history parallel to ours, with the exception that society has advanced both magic and modern technology. The series covers the adventures and struggles of a group of humans called "Incarnations", who hold these supernatural positions for a certain time.

The title alludes to William Wordsworth's 1804 poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality".

Themes
Incarnations uses its premise to ponder questions regarding the nature of life. As each character goes from a mortal life to the "office" of an Incarnation, they are forced to contemplate their actions on a daily basis. Each Incarnation may use their office, within limits, as they see fit. This system humanizes what would otherwise be impersonal forces, leading to both extensive considerations of the effects of the incarnation's work and the impact it has on not only humanity but also the other offices of immortality as well.

Another humorous side of Incarnations is the portrayed magic/technology duality. Most series emphasize one or the other means of understanding and manipulating the world, but in Incarnations, each method is equal in usefulness and respect. This leads to a number of amusing parallels, such as competition between automobile and magic-carpet manufacturers. By the future time period of Norton, magic is referred to as the Fifth Fundamental Force, with its own primary particle, the Magicon (similar to a graviton). A few other series have used the technology/magic combined motif, notably Apprentice Adept, another series by Piers Anthony, and Four Lords of the Diamond by Jack Chalker, although that book had an actual technological basis for the explanation of its magic, in contrast to Piers Anthony's work.

Anthony uses the number 5|five extensively. The five Incarnations are associated with the five elements (Death with Earth, Fate with Water, War with Fire, Nature with Air, and Time with Void), and often other items with fives (the previously mentioned Book of Five Rings). There are five fundamental interactions, magic being the fifth. The Llano consists of five songs. In On a Pale Horse, Gaea teaches Zane five patterns of thought, each represented by diagrams of five short lines.

A fourth theme of Incarnations is the multigenerational human story between the Incarnations. Previous characters repeatedly appear in later novels, and by the final novel, every major character is related by blood, marriage, or affair. See the family tree below.

Family tree
Note: Colors for each of the Incarnations used are from the covers of their respective books.

Note: Gawain II was conceived by Norton and Orlene, but has Gawain's genetic material instead of Norton's (a favor performed by Gaea)

Relationships:

 * Zane (Thanatos, the Incarnation of Death) is the lover and protector of Luna Kaftan (Niobe's granddaughter).
 * Norton (Chronos, the Incarnation of Time) is the lover of Orlene (who becomes Good) as well as the lover of Clotho.
 * Niobe (Clotho, and later Lachesis, Aspects of the Incarnation of Fate) is Orb's (Gaea) mother, and grandmother to Luna (Death's lover), and Orlene (Good). She is also lover to Chronos.
 * Mym (Mars, the Incarnation of War) is father to Orlene (Good) and former lover of Orb (Gaea).
 * Orb (Gaea, Mother Nature) is mother to Orlene (Good), daughter to Niobe (Clotho/Lachesis, Fate), and former lover of Mym (War).
 * Parry (Satan, the Incarnation of Evil) is married to Orb (Mother Nature), and stepfather to Orlene (Good).
 * Orlene (God, sometimes called "the Goddess", the Incarnation of Good) is Nature's daughter, War's daughter, Fate's granddaughter, Time's lover and mother to his biological son (prior to either of them taking their office), Evil's stepdaughter, and Death's wife's cousin.

In "Under a Velvet Cloak", Kerena (Nox, Incarnation of Night) is the lover of the original Sir Gawain, Knight of the Round Table, and mother of the original Gawain (Gaw-Two) who was tainted at birth and destined to die early. Kerena's quest to save Gaw-Two is what eventually leads her to become Nox, the Incarnation of Night and Keeper of Secrets. Gawain (Orlene's ghost husband) is the direct descendant of Sir Gawain, and carries the family taint, so the second Gaw-Two, born to Orlene and Ghost Gawain, is also tainted and destined to die early. Nox is also the great-aunt (many times removed) to Niobe and her children and grandchildren.

Lesser Incarnations

 * Hypnos: Incarnation of Sleep
 * JHVH: Incarnation of Jewish God (assumed to be Jehovah)

Lesser Incarnations serving Nature/Gaea

 * Eros: Incarnation of Love
 * Hope: Incarnation of Hope
 * Phobos & Deimos: Named after the Greek gods of fear and panic. These lesser Incarnations act as assistants to Gaea (Nature). Their functions are not explained in the books (although presumably they have similar natures to their Greek equivalents).

Lesser Incarnations serving War/Mars

 * Pestilence: disease in general, but especially consistent with the aftermath of battles.
 * Conquest: manager of individual battles
 * Famine: starvation consistent with battles (although this incarnation has served Death/Thanatos on at least one occasion)
 * Slaughter: a representation of the bloodshed associated with battles
 * The essentials formed a covenant

Cultural references

 * The Showtime series Dead Like Me was inspired by the book On a Pale Horse.
 * In 2007, Anthony wrote that Disney had sold the TV rights to On a Pale Horse to Touchstone/ABC, which were "filming a pilot program". In 2009 Javier Grillo-Marxuach wrote a pilot for the series for ABC, but it was not picked up.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Incarnations of Immortality


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Parliament (band)

Parliament was an American funk band formed in the late 1960s by George Clinton as a flagship act of his P-Funk collective. Evolving out of an earlier vocal group, Parliament became associated with a more commercial and less rock-oriented sound than its sister act Funkadelic. Their work incorporated Afrofuturism concepts, horn arrangements, synthesizer, and outlandish theatrics. The band scored a number of Top 10 hits, including the million-selling 1976 single "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)," and Top 40 albums such as Mothership Connection (1975).

History
Parliament was originally The Parliaments, a doo-wop vocal group based at a Plainfield, New Jersey barbershop. The group was formed in the late 1950s and included George Clinton, Ray Davis, Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon, and Grady Thomas. Clinton was the group leader and manager. The group scored a hit single in 1967 with "(I Wanna) Testify" (co-written by Clinton) on Revilot Records. To capitalize on this chart success, Clinton formed a touring band, featuring teenage barbershop employee Billy Nelson on bass and his friend Eddie Hazel on guitar, with the line-up eventually rounded out by Tawl Ross on guitar, Tiki Fulwood on drums, and Mickey Atkins on organ.

During a contractual dispute with Revilot, Clinton temporarily lost the rights to the name "The Parliaments", and signed the ensemble to Westbound Records as Funkadelic, which Clinton positioned as a funk-rock band featuring the five touring musicians with the five Parliaments singers as uncredited guests. With Funkadelic as a recording and touring entity in its own right, in 1970 Clinton relaunched the singing group, now known as Parliament, at first featuring the same ten members. Clinton was now the leader of two different acts, Parliament and Funkadelic, which featured the same members, but were marketed as creating two different types of funk.

The Parliament album entitled Osmium was released on Invictus Records in 1970, and was later reissued on CD with non-album tracks as both Rhenium and First Thangs. Osmium featured a mostly psychedelic soul sound that was more similar to the Funkadelic albums of the period, than to the later Parliament albums. The song "The Breakdown" was released separately as a single, and reached No. 30 on the R&B chart in 1971. Due to continuing contractual problems and the fact that Funkadelic releases were more successful at the time, Clinton temporarily abandoned the name Parliament (which he revived in 1974).

Following Osmium, the line-up of Parliament-Funkadelic began going through many changes and was expanded significantly, with the addition of important members such as keyboardist Bernie Worrell in 1970, singer/guitarist Garry Shider in 1971, and bassist Bootsy Collins (recruited from the James Brown backing band) in 1972. Dozens of singers and musicians would contribute to future Parliament-Funkadelic releases. Clinton relaunched Parliament in 1974 and signed the act to Casablanca Records. Parliament, now augmented by the Horny Horns (also recruited from James Brown's band) was positioned as a smoother R&B-based funk ensemble with intricate horn and vocal arrangements, and as a counterpoint to the guitar-based funk-rock of Funkadelic. By this point, Parliament and Funkadelic were touring as a combined entity known as Parliament-Funkadelic or simply P-Funk (which also became the catch-all term for George Clinton's rapidly growing stable of funk artists).

The album Up for the Down Stroke was released in 1974, with Chocolate City following in 1975. Both performed strongly on the Billboard R&B album chart and were moderately successful on the pop chart. Parliament began its period of greatest mainstream success with the concept album Mothership Connection (1975), the lyrics of which launched much of the P-Funk mythology. The subsequent albums The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (1976), Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (1977), and Motor Booty Affair (1978) all reached high on both the R&B and Pop charts, while Funkadelic was also experiencing significant mainstream success. Parliament scored the No. 1 R&B singles "Flash Light" in 1977 and "Aqua Boogie" in 1978.

The rapidly expanding ensemble of musicians and singers in the Parliament-Funkadelic enterprise, as well as Clinton's problematic management practices, began to take their toll by the late 1970s. Original Parliaments members Fuzzy Haskins, Calvin Simon, and Grady Thomas, who had been with Clinton since the barbershop days in the late 1950s, departed acrimoniously in 1977, after disputes over Clinton's management. Other important group members like singer/guitarist Glenn Goins and drummer Jerome Brailey left Parliament-Funkadelic in 1978 after disputes over Clinton's management. Two further Parliament albums, Gloryhallastoopid (1979) and Trombipulation (1980) were less successful than the albums from the group's prime 1975-1978 period.

In the early 1980s, with legal difficulties arising from the multiple names used by multiple groups, as well as a shakeup at Casablanca Records, George Clinton dissolved Parliament and Funkadelic as recording and touring entities. However, many of the musicians in later versions of the two groups remained employed by Clinton. Clinton continued to release new albums regularly, sometimes under his own name and sometimes under the name George Clinton & the P-Funk All-Stars. The P-Funk All-Stars continued to record and tour into the 1990s and 2000s, and regularly perform classic Parliament songs.

Parliament reformed in January 2018 and released the song "I'm Gon Make U Sick O'Me", which features the rapper Scarface. This was the first new Parliament release in 38 years. Clinton also announced the title of a new Parliament album, Medicaid Fraud Dogg, which was released on May 22, 2018. Most of the 23 tracks on the album were written by Clinton in collaboration with his son, Tracey Lewis. Guest musicians on the album include former long-time James Brown collaborators Fred Wesley and Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis.

Discography

 * Osmium (1970)
 * Up for the Down Stroke (1974)
 * Chocolate City (1975)
 * Mothership Connection (1975)
 * The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (1976)
 * Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (1977)
 * Motor Booty Affair (1978)
 * Gloryhallastoopid (1979)
 * Trombipulation (1980)
 * Medicaid Fraud Dogg (2018)

title: Parliament (band)


text:
Macromolecule

A macromolecule is a very large molecule important to biological processes, such as a protein or nucleic acid. It is composed of thousands of covalently bonded atoms. Many macromolecules are polymers of smaller molecules called monomers. The most common macromolecules in biochemistry are biopolymers (nucleic acids, proteins, and carbohydrates) and large non-polymeric molecules such as lipids, nanogels and macrocycles. Synthetic fibers and experimental materials such as carbon nanotubes are also examples of macromolecules.

Definition
The term macromolecule (macro- + molecule) was coined by Nobel laureate Hermann Staudinger in the 1920s, although his first relevant publication on this field only mentions high molecular compounds (in excess of 1,000 atoms). At that time the term polymer, as introduced by Berzelius in 1832, had a different meaning from that of today: it simply was another form of isomerism for example with benzene and acetylene and had little to do with size.

Usage of the term to describe large molecules varies among the disciplines. For example, while biology refers to macromolecules as the four large molecules comprising living things, in chemistry, the term may refer to aggregates of two or more molecules held together by intermolecular forces rather than covalent bonds but which do not readily dissociate.

According to the standard IUPAC definition, the term macromolecule as used in polymer science refers only to a single molecule. For example, a single polymeric molecule is appropriately described as a "macromolecule" or "polymer molecule" rather than a "polymer," which suggests a substance composed of macromolecules.

Because of their size, macromolecules are not conveniently described in terms of stoichiometry alone. The structure of simple macromolecules, such as homopolymers, may be described in terms of the individual monomer subunit and total molecular mass. Complicated biomacromolecules, on the other hand, require multi-faceted structural description such as the hierarchy of structures used to describe proteins. In British English, the word "macromolecule" tends to be called "high polymer".

Properties
Macromolecules often have unusual physical properties that do not occur for smaller molecules.

Another common macromolecular property that does not characterize smaller molecules is their relative insolubility in water and similar solvents, instead forming colloids. Many require salts or particular ions to dissolve in water. Similarly, many proteins will denature if the solute concentration of their solution is too high or too low.

High concentrations of macromolecules in a solution can alter the rates and equilibrium constants of the reactions of other macromolecules, through an effect known as macromolecular crowding. This comes from macromolecules excluding other molecules from a large part of the volume of the solution, thereby increasing the effective concentrations of these molecules.

Linear biopolymers
All living organisms are dependent on three essential biopolymers for their biological functions: DNA, RNA and proteins. Each of these molecules is required for life since each plays a distinct, indispensable role in the cell. The simple summary is that DNA makes RNA, and then RNA makes proteins.

DNA, RNA, and proteins all consist of a repeating structure of related building blocks (nucleotides in the case of DNA and RNA, amino acids in the case of proteins). In general, they are all unbranched polymers, and so can be represented in the form of a string. Indeed, they can be viewed as a string of beads, with each bead representing a single nucleotide or amino acid monomer linked together through covalent chemical bonds into a very long chain.

In most cases, the monomers within the chain have a strong propensity to interact with other amino acids or nucleotides. In DNA and RNA, this can take the form of Watson–Crick base pairs (G–C and A–T or A–U), although many more complicated interactions can and do occur.

Structural features
Because of the double-stranded nature of DNA, essentially all of the nucleotides take the form of Watson–Crick base pairs between nucleotides on the two complementary strands of the double helix.

In contrast, both RNA and proteins are normally single-stranded. Therefore, they are not constrained by the regular geometry of the DNA double helix, and so fold into complex three-dimensional shapes dependent on their sequence. These different shapes are responsible for many of the common properties of RNA and proteins, including the formation of specific binding pockets, and the ability to catalyse biochemical reactions.

DNA is optimised for encoding information
DNA is an information storage macromolecule that encodes the complete set of instructions (the genome) that are required to assemble, maintain, and reproduce every living organism.

DNA and RNA are both capable of encoding genetic information, because there are biochemical mechanisms which read the information coded within a DNA or RNA sequence and use it to generate a specified protein. On the other hand, the sequence information of a protein molecule is not used by cells to functionally encode genetic information.

DNA has three primary attributes that allow it to be far better than RNA at encoding genetic information. First, it is normally double-stranded, so that there are a minimum of two copies of the information encoding each gene in every cell. Second, DNA has a much greater stability against breakdown than does RNA, an attribute primarily associated with the absence of the 2'-hydroxyl group within every nucleotide of DNA. Third, highly sophisticated DNA surveillance and repair systems are present which monitor damage to the DNA and repair the sequence when necessary. Analogous systems have not evolved for repairing damaged RNA molecules. Consequently, chromosomes can contain many billions of atoms, arranged in a specific chemical structure.

Proteins are optimised for catalysis
Proteins are functional macromolecules responsible for catalysing the biochemical reactions that sustain life. Proteins carry out all functions of an organism, for example photosynthesis, neural function, vision, and movement.

The single-stranded nature of protein molecules, together with their composition of 20 or more different amino acid building blocks, allows them to fold in to a vast number of different three-dimensional shapes, while providing binding pockets through which they can specifically interact with all manner of molecules. In addition, the chemical diversity of the different amino acids, together with different chemical environments afforded by local 3D structure, enables many proteins to act as enzymes, catalyzing a wide range of specific biochemical transformations within cells. In addition, proteins have evolved the ability to bind a wide range of cofactors and coenzymes, smaller molecules that can endow the protein with specific activities beyond those associated with the polypeptide chain alone.

RNA is multifunctional
RNA is multifunctional, its primary function is to encode proteins, according to the instructions within a cell's DNA. They control and regulate many aspects of protein synthesis in eukaryotes.

RNA encodes genetic information that can be translated into the amino acid sequence of proteins, as evidenced by the messenger RNA molecules present within every cell, and the RNA genomes of a large number of viruses. The single-stranded nature of RNA, together with tendency for rapid breakdown and a lack of repair systems means that RNA is not so well suited for the long-term storage of genetic information as is DNA.

In addition, RNA is a single-stranded polymer that can, like proteins, fold into a very large number of three-dimensional structures. Some of these structures provide binding sites for other molecules and chemically active centers that can catalyze specific chemical reactions on those bound molecules. The limited number of different building blocks of RNA (4 nucleotides vs >20 amino acids in proteins), together with their lack of chemical diversity, results in catalytic RNA (ribozymes) being generally less-effective catalysts than proteins for most biological reactions.

The Major Macromolecules:

Branched biopolymers
Carbohydrate macromolecules (polysaccharides) are formed from polymers of monosaccharides. Because monosaccharides have multiple functional groups, polysaccharides can form linear polymers (e.g. cellulose) or complex branched structures (e.g. glycogen). Polysaccharides perform numerous roles in living organisms, acting as energy stores (e.g. starch) and as structural components (e.g. chitin in arthropods and fungi). Many carbohydrates contain modified monosaccharide units that have had functional groups replaced or removed.

Polyphenols consist of a branched structure of multiple phenolic subunits. They can perform structural roles (e.g. lignin) as well as roles as secondary metabolites involved in signalling, pigmentation and defense.

Synthetic macromolecules
Some examples of macromolecules are synthetic polymers (plastics, synthetic fibers, and synthetic rubber), graphene, and carbon nanotubes. Polymers may be prepared from inorganic matter as well as for instance in inorganic polymers and geopolymers. The incorporation of inorganic elements enables the tunability of properties and/or responsive behavior as for instance in smart inorganic polymers.

title: Macromolecule


text:
P-Funk mythology

The P-Funk mythology is a group of recurring characters, themes, and ideas primarily contained in the output of George Clinton's bands Parliament and Funkadelic. This "funkology" was outlined in album liner notes and song lyrics, in addition to album artwork, costumes, advertisements, and stage banter. P-Funk's "Dr. Seussian afrofunk" is often cited as a critical component of the Afrofuturism movement.

Background
George Clinton's space-age mythology began to emerge with the release of Funkadelic's self-titled debut album in 1970. Later that same year, Parliament released their debut album Osmium. Clinton's cosmology was largely absent from the latter release, and it took longer to blossom in Parliament's output. Generally speaking, Parliament was a dance-oriented band, while Funkadelic was more serious and psychedelic.

The two bands shared personnel, and Clinton blurred the lines between them both by referring to his touring band as "A Parliafunkadelicment Thang". The shorthand for this conglomerate became "P-Funk", and it grew to include offshoots like P-Funk All Stars, Bootsy's Rubber Band, Parlet, The Brides of Funkenstein, The Horny Horns, and solo albums by Eddie Hazel and Bernie Worrell. By the mid 70s, P-Funk was a massively successful group of acts. A ranking of the top live acts of 1977 included three bands from the conglomerate in the top fifteen slots.

After the bands' earlier releases, Clinton began to feel that something more conceptual was in order, and he expressed deep admiration for The Who's Tommy and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as "the classiest two pieces of music I had ever seen where everything related to each other. So I wanted to do one of those kinds of things." Clinton settled on the extraterrestrial concept because of its originality, saying, "Put niggas in places that you don't usually see 'em. And nobody had seen 'em on no spaceships! Once you seen 'em sittin' on spaceships like it was Cadillac then it was funny, cool."

The primary author of the P-Funk mythology aside from George Clinton was Pedro Bell, who illustrated the liners for many of P-Funk's releases. Bell's felt-tip illustrations included prolonged essays that expanded the mythos of Clinton's lyrics with a complementary syntax that "forged a new realm of black language". Though Bell coined terms like "Rumpasaurus" and made extensive contributions to the P-Funk mythology, his work has been largely overlooked.

Clinton has pointed to the show The Outer Limits as an influence in his elaborate narrative, but more importantly, he and Bootsy Collins allegedly encountered a UFO together while driving to Detroit. Clinton recalls light bouncing from one side of the street to the other, and remarking to Collins, "The Mothership was angry with us for giving up the funk without permission." The bouncing light eventually focused on their car, and Clinton asked Collins to "step on it".

The P-Funk mythology was just one tool in the conglomerate's arsenal. By the mid-1970s, Clinton was rebranding funk as many things at once, "an aesthetic, a marketing ploy, a black cultural nationalist battle-plan and a way of being if not a spiritual discipline." He was drawing on everything from "hipster lingo of the beboppers, early black radio deejays and the apocalyptic anti-slavemassa edicts of the Nation of Islam" as well as the Yippies and the Black Panthers. Clinton was positioning P-Funk as a "radical response to the American police state" and "the antithesis of everything that was sterile, one-dimensional, monochromatic, arhythmic and otherwise against freedom of bodily expression in the known universe." In its simplest iteration, Clinton posited that "funk" was equivalent with the "truth".

Funkadelic
Funkadelic albums are generally more abstract than Parliament's. Rather than tell the story of a cast of characters, the mythology of Funkadelic is defined as a socially conscious spiritualism. One of the defining traits of the P-Funk mythology is that it is indeed a form of social commentary in that it "took all the cheese America had to offer and ran with it, taking the fashions and technology of the day to their ultimate, preposterous conclusions, amplifying the aesthetics of the 70s into a throbbing, fish-eyed cartoon of itself, and in so doing glorified American culture and their role in its continuing evolution."

On "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?", the opening track of Funkadelic's 1970 self-titled debut album, Clinton's cosmology starts to emerge with the lines, "By the way, my name is Funk...I am not of your world...Hold still, baby, I won't do you no harm...I am Funkadelic, dedicated to the feeling of good.'" The same introduction of "Funkadelic" is repeated at the outset of the album's closing track "What Is Soul".

On Funkadelic's second album, Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow (1970), funk is posited as a path to enlightenment in the title track: "Open up your funky mind and you can fly...Free your mind and your ass will follow...The kingdom of heaven is within". This sentiment is echoed in subsequent songs like "Standing on the Verge of Getting It On" (1974) which contains the verse, "Music is designed to free your funky mind. We have come to help you cope out into another reality". A more scatological iteration comes in the song "Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo Doo Chasers)" (1978) where "funk" is defined as "the P-Preparation, The prune juice of the mind, A mental, musical bowel movement, Groove-lax...A psychological turd remover, A neurological enema".

Many of the lyrics in P-Funk songs imply that the band is merely a medium for a godhead that takes the form of funk. At other times, the band or Clinton are cast as priestly beings tasked with guiding humanity through music. In the song "Phunklords", they sing, "We are the Phunklords...Sent to you from eons away just to spread some funk your way". At the beginning of "The Electronic Spanking of War Babies", Clinton explains that he was "adopted by aliens" at the age of 17, and that "they have long since programmed me to return with this message." The liner notes of Standing on the Verge of Getting It On explain that, "On the Eighth Day, the Cosmic Strumpet of Mother Nature was spawned to envelope this Third Planet in FUNKADELICAL VIBRATIONS. And she birthed Apostles Ra, Hendrix, Stone, and CLINTON to preserve all funkiness of man unto eternity... But! Fraudulent forces of obnoxious JIVATION grew...only seedling GEORGE remained! As it came to be, he did indeed begat FUNKADELIC to restore Order Within the Universe."

The title of the band's third album, Maggot Brain (1971), became a lasting concept in the P-Funk mythology. The title track opens the album with the incantation, "Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time...for y'all have knocked her up. I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the Universe." Maggot brain is a "state of mind" with potentially disastrous consequences if nothing is done about it. The incantation on "Maggot Brain" concludes, "I knew I had to rise above it all or drown in my own shit." The song "Super Stupid" links maggot brain to fear with lyrics about a protagonist who snorts heroin thinking it is cocaine. Super Stupid is said to have a "maggot brain" and to have "lost the fight and the winner is fear". The album's liner notes reinforce the connection between maggot brain and fear by quoting from the writing of Robert de Grimston, "Fear is the root of man's destruction of himself. Without Fear there is no blame. Without blame there is no conflict. Without conflict there is no destruction."

The liner notes for One Nation Under a Groove (1978) are a typical example of how the P-Funk mythology expanded on song lyrics to develop a sprawling, satirical narrative. The liner includes a summary of "The Funk Wars 1984 B.C.", which is a parody of Star Wars. Just like George Lucas' movie, the Funk Wars take place "ONCE UPON A TIME... in a faraway parallel universe". Instead of Darth Vader, the villain is "BARFT VADA", and his soldiers wield "Blight Sabers". VADA has outlawed funk in favor of disco to "maintain mental constipation" and prevent Funkadelica from "deprogramming the population". The hero, JASPER SPATIC, has invented a Throb Gun, which he unleashes at a disco, triggering an epic battle and defeat for Barft Vada. The story ends with Jasper pondering what would happen the next time Barft Vada caused trouble, hoping that someone would warn people to "THINK! IT AIN'T ILLEGAL YET!", which is a chant heard in the live version of "Maggot Brain" that closes the album.

Parliament
Four years after their debut album, Parliament released their second album which makes the first direct reference to the mythology that had taken root in Funkadelic's early albums. On "I Just Got Back (From the Fantasy, Ahead of Our Time in the Four Lands of Ellet)", the narrator announces "I just got back from another world". It is located "across the mountain and through the seas, past the moon, beyond all the things that we've dreamed about". The place was so beautiful that the narrator did not want to leave, but felt that he must return to help the listener be a parent and to "show you the way, the right way, I feel you gotta live". Though the song was written by a street performer named Peter Chase, it bears all the narrative hallmarks of the P-Funk cosmology, with its voyage to a distant planet and a return after a long absence bearing enlightenment for a suffering audience.

Mothership Connection
The P-Funk mythology begins in earnest on Parliament's 1975 album Mothership Connection, which features Clinton emerging from a spaceship on the cover. The first track, "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" begins in the same way as the title track from Chocolate City, the band's previous album. A DJ talks directly to the audience as if he is on the radio, but on this album, the station call sign is announced as "WEFUNK". It is broadcasting from outer space "directly from the Mothership". The DJ reveals his name as "The Lollipop Man, alias the Long-Haired Sucker." He exhorts the listener to lay their body on the radio in order to be healed by the music because "Funk not only moves, it can re-move".

In the next song, "Mothership Connection (Star Child)", the titular Starchild explains, "I am the Mothership Connection" and that "we have returned to claim the Pyramids." Starchild invites the listener to "come on up to the Mothership". He later asks, "Are you hip to Easter Island? The Bermuda Triangle?", reinforcing the ancient aliens imagery of the song. "Unfunky UFO" depicts a spaceship full of people from "a dying world" who sing, "We're unfunky and we're obsolete". They are desperate for some funk, wanting to "take your funk and make it mine" and begging the listener to "show me how to funk like you do". This primal need for funk is echoed in the highest-charting song from the album, "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)", with its pleas of "Give up the funk...we gotta have that funk". The album's closing track introduces an important concept in the P-Funk mythology with its title: "Night Of The Thumpasorous Peoples". The lyrics are primarily "gaga googoo", but the Thumpasorous lineage is a recurring feature in subsequent releases.

Parliament's follow-up album, The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, is the motherlode for the narrative of their legendary stage show. The first half of the album introduces key characters like Dr. Funkenstein and expands on terms like "Thumpasorous".

Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome
With the P-Funk Earth Tour in high gear, Parliament released Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome in 1977. The first track, "Bop Gun (Endangered Species)", weaponizes funk as a self-protection device: "When the syndrome is around, don't let your guard down. All you got to do is call on the funk...to dance is a protection...On guard! Protect yourself!...Shoot them with the bop gun" The next song, "Sir Nose d'Voidoffunk (Pay Attention - B3M)", introduces the title character who claims to be "the subliminal seducer" and "devoid of funk". Sir Nose claims that Starchild may have won a battle, but that he will return. Later in the song, Starchild appears, "chasing noses away", and proclaims himself "Protector of the Pleasure Principle". "Nose" instantly became a recurring term for negativity in the P-Funk mythology, prompting lines like "a funk a day keeps the Nose away". The concept for the character originated in "The Pinocchio Theory" by Bootsy's Rubber Band, which asserts that if "you fake the funk; your nose got to grow". Sir Nose is "Cro-Nasal", predating the Cro-Magnon and the Neanderthal.

"Funkentelechy" sees a return of DJ Lollipop as he narrates a free-association meditation on overstimulation, which he terms "urge overkill", from things like pills and commercial jingles for Big Macs and Whoppers. Playing off Aristotle's concept of entelechy, DJ Lollipop, who also claims the name of "Mr. Prolong" during the song, reassures the listener that "this is mood de-control" and the "pleasure principle has been rescued". The last song on the album, "Flash Light", was Parliament's first #1 single. It contains a glancing reference to the P-Funk mythology when the Nose finds the funk, with the aid of the titular device, and begins to "Get on down". The ethos of the song, and Parliament as well, is that even the Nose can become funky because "Everybody's got a little light under the sun".

Later albums
Parliament's 1978 album Motor Booty Affair begins with "Mr. Wiggles". The titular character is a variation on DJ Lollipop. Now, WEFUNK is located in Emerald City in downtown Atlantis. The title character of the second song is "Rumpofsteelskin" who is so unfunky that "he don't rust and he don't bend". With the album set underwater, swimming becomes akin to dancing, and in "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)" Sir Nose returns to announce that he cannot swim and hates water. Overton Loyd's album art depicted the motto "We got ta raise Atlantis to the top", signifying the need for upward social mobility among African-Americans.

On Gloryhallastoopid (1979), Sir Nose defeats Starchild and turns him into a mule in "Theme From The Black Hole". While gloating over his victory, Sir Nose alludes to multiple songs from Funkentelechy and Clones with taunts like "Where's your flashlight? Where's your bop gun? Where's the Doctor (Funkenstein), Starchild?".

Stage show
By the mid-1970s, Clinton had flooded the market with P-Funk and sought to capitalize by mounting a stage show he called "Mothership Connection", also known as the P-Funk Earth Tour. The stage show employed the techniques of glam rock productions like David Bowie's Diamond Dogs Tour. P-Funk even used KISS' rehearsal hangar in Newburgh, NY to prepare for the tour. One of the recurring highlights of the show was the arrival of the Mothership, a prop designed by Jules Fisher. Casablanca Records underwrote the $200,000 budget for the show, which featured intergalactic outfits and space-age imagery. Clinton viewed the show as an antidote to the "placebo syndrome" of anodyne mass market music.

The film of P-Funk's Halloween 1976 concert at the Houston Summit provides an excellent snapshot of what the Earth Tour production was like. The incantation from "Prelude" from The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein plays in darkness as spotlights illuminate a pyramid with the Eye of Providence at its summit, echoing the official seal of the United States:

 * Funk upon a time, in the days of the Funkapus, the concept of specially-designed Afronauts capable of funkatizing galaxies was first laid on man-child.
 * But was later repossessed, and placed among the secrets of the pyramids until a more positive attitude towards this most sacred phenomenon, Clone Funk, could be acquired...

 * ...It would wait, along with its co-inhabitants of kings and pharaohs, like sleeping beauties with a kiss that would release them to multiply in the image of the chosen one: Dr Funkenstein...

The show is loosely structured around preparing the pyramid for the resurrection of the Afronauts, with dim oblations paid by members of the troupe during the first half of the set. Occasionally, an animated film based on Overton Loyd's album art would be shown during the concerts. The film loosely follows the plot of Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome with Starchild and his Bop Gun facing off against Sir Nose and his Snooze Gun. During the film, band members would encourage the audience to shine their flashlights to help the Mothership return. Concertgoers could purchase customized flashlights as part of the tour's merchandising.

A half hour later, the band plays "Children of Production" which expands on the clone imagery of "Prelude". The song is sung by the titular "children" who explain that Dr. Funkenstein "forenotioned the shortcomings of your condition" and cloned the children to "blow the cobwebs out your mind". The band launches into "Mothership Connection" which explicitly links back to the concepts of "Prelude" in its introduction, "Citizens of the Universe, Recording Angels, we have returned to claim the pyramids, partying on the Mothership." The band vamps over the closing mantra of the song, "Swing down, sweet chariot. Stop, and let me ride" as guitarist Glenn Goins exhorts the audience to sing along. Other members of the band warn that the mothership will not come if the audience does not do its part. Goins starts to repeatedly wail, "I see the Mothership coming!" as the spaceship finally comes into view, shrouded in smoke and shooting off a fusillade of magnesium sparks.

After the Mothership lands, Clinton appears at the top of a staircase as if he has emerged from the spaceship. He is dressed as Dr. Funkenstein, and the band launches into his titular song where he sings, "...call me the big pill, Dr. Funkenstein, the disco fiend with the monster sound, the cool ghoul with the bump transplant". Dr. Funkenstein proclaims that he is "preoccupied and dedicated to the preservation of the motion of hips", to which the Children of Production reply, "We love to funk you, Funkenstein. Your funk is the best!"

The parody of "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" is in line with so much of P-Funk's work, which relies heavily on appropriation. That this particular song is reworked to herald the arrival of the Mothership, which offers salvation from an unfunky existence, also aligns with the provenance of the song. Like many spirituals, "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" read superficially about deliverance to Heaven on a chariot like Elijah, but it also contained coded messages about escape to the North. By appropriating the song to score the arrival of the Mothership, it becomes a modern-day chariot sent to deliver the audience not back home to Africa, but to Outer Space. Clinton's stage show created a narrative link from the Egyptian pyramids, which often were used to symbolize black pride in a past achievements, to a Utopian vision of existence off-world. P-Funk was telling a tale of once and future greatness to a marginalized audience in a time of intense social upheaval. Their music afforded the black community an alternative to their oppressive environment with tales of the potential for black wealth and power.

P-Funk mythology in popular culture

 * The 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas features George Clinton as the Funktipus, the DJ of the in-game funk radio station Bounce FM, which is apparently broadcast from the Party Ship.
 * Adult Swim's 2010 animated special Freaknik: The Musical featured psychedelic aliens voiced by George Clinton and Bootsy Collins.
 * Playing on the storyline of Mothership Connection, an episode of The Mighty Boosh, "The Legend of Old Gregg" (season 2, episode 5), depicts the Funk as a living, multi-breasted extraterrestrial entity accidentally tossed overboard the Mothership by George Clinton. The episode further contains a sly reference to mythology with offerings of maggot-laced items at the local pub frequented by stodgy local fishermen. Near the episode's end, transformed by milk from the Funk, characters Howard Moon and Vince Noir perform a maritime parody of "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)".
 * Filmmaker Yvonne Smith created an animated segment for her documentary, Parliament-Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove, featuring a P-Funk mythology-inspired character, "Afronaut." The character was voiced by comedian Eddie Griffin. The documentary first aired on PBS in October 2005 as part of the Independent Lens series.
 * In the 2015 episode of Doctor Who, "The Zygon Invasion," the Doctor refers to himself as 'Doctor Funkenstein'.

title: P-Funk mythology


text:
Talk:P-Funk mythology

Relevance
Is this for real? Seems semi-humorous. Is that because the topic itself is tongue-in-cheek? --Ed Poor
 * It is semi-humorous. Or actually, I find it very humorous, but it is also real.  Including a description of what occurs in each concept album is useful (and I will do so) but would not give the complete picture.  Hence, P Funk mythology includes the overarching story which appears on multiple albums.  As for whether or not it is, technically, a "mythology" I have no idea--it is, kinda.  I'm certainly open to discussing a better title for the article. Tokerboy 17:20 Oct 17, 2002 (UTC)

 * I also don't think it should be listed as a type of mythology in the article mythology, or anything like that, though I am considering if the Funk is a type of mana. Tokerboy 17:22 Oct 17, 2002 (UTC)

 * Technically, I'd say P Funk designs itself and qualifies as a mythology in Roland Barthes' sense of the word (see Mythologies). Barthes' mythologies (which include lipstick and cowboys, if I remember rightly) also wouldn't suit inclusion in the mythology article. --212.84.121.37 11:51, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Phish fans refer to the story of Gamehenge as a myth or narrative. Is there some correlation here? -Tubby

 * Not sure exactly what you mean. There's no connection between Gamehenge and P Funk that I can think of, except maybe in a very abstract, philosophical sense.  I don't think most musicians deserve an article such as this (I can't think of anyone besides P Funk) because this describes connections between albums that would otherwise be very complex to research, if the info was split among several articles.  Gamehenge is a single piece of music that certainly qualifies as a narrative, and debatably as a myth, but is not a mythology in the same sense that Greek mythology is, nor in the sense that P Funk mythology is, because it is entirely self-contained.  As far as I know, there are no references to Gamehenge-related places, people, races or themes in other Phish albums, and there are certainly no overarching recurring elements.Tokerboy 22:21 Oct 17, 2002 (UTC)

 * Just as a point of interest: one other band who probably do merit an article such as this one are Gong. Great work on all this P-Funk stuff, by the way, Tokerboy. --Camembert

There is also at least on other character. His name is "The One". (Some people call him "The Funk"). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.23.76.138 (talk) 23:01, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

SIr last appearance was actually on Xavier's Work That Sucker to Death. He says the famous line, "It's Turk que sucka te Sell." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.166.47.172 (talk) 17:53, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Original research
This entire article consists of WP:original research. It needs to cite sources that describe some of the concepts behind the P-Funk albums. — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 17:50, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

African-American Influences
Failed to mention that the mythology stem from conditions of African American culture in America

For example,

Mr wiggles is a europeanized blackman etc. There is a documentary that discusses this even more. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykuHxOS0r10 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Darkman1984 (talk • contribs) 19:27, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Star Child vs. Dr. Funkenstein
I always thought that Star Child was embodied by Bootsy Collins and that Clinton was Dr. Funkenstein. Having gone to a P-Funk concert in 1997 that was my understanding although things were a bit hazy... Also I believe Bootsy is seen with a purple star shaped guitar and sun glasses furthering the concept as Star Child. Granted the P-Funk lore is at best a disjointed collection of songs and is still intended to be nothing but a good time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Doog37 (talk • contribs) 22:06, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Further Work
I've added many citations to academic literature and the songs themselves. It would be great to have some real citations of the liner notes for these albums, which is where the mythology really expands. I also think a major overhaul might be in order. This article is essentially chronological. It might be more helpful for it to be organized categorically.Trumpetrep (talk) 04:16, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Citation 1 regarding the animated film shown on the Earth Tour
2 issues with this: 1. It was during The Flashlight Tour that this film was shown, not The Earth Tour.

2. Overton Loyd did the animation based on his comic book which was included in early copies of the Funkentelechy album. Other than being a major influence on Loyd's own work, Pedro Bell had nothing to do with this film. 67.86.176.102 (talk) 18:34, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:P-Funk mythology


text:
Talk:Theodor Herzl

Famous photo on a balcony in Basel
hey, was trying to find a good source for the date of the photo File:Herzl on a balcony 1901.jpg, and different sources give different dates.
 * This one says "1898 DURING THE FIRST ZIONIST CONGRESS", but first congress was in 1897;
 * this one says "1901 during the 5th Congress", but it's reliability is a question itself.
 * this one says "1901, 1904";
 * this one says "Fifth Zionist Congress in December 1901";
 * this one says "Basle (1898)";
 * this one gives "28 VII 1903" (though it's a photo on a postcard);
 * this one says "First Zionist Congress in 1901" that is certainly wrong,
 * this one says "August 1897",
 * this one is just "Zionist Congress, early 1900s" (and they took photo from Commons), and, finally,
 * wall street journal says "first Zionist Congress in 1897."

Any thoughts? Artem.G (talk) 16:54, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

 * pinging several editors who might be interested (no obligations, of course!), , . Artem.G (talk) 17:56, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

 * This page you gave does not state a date for the photo. But more interestingly, at the bottom of the image it says "Beilage zu Nr. 28 'Die Welt'" (Supplement to Number 28, Die Welt). Die Welt was a Zionist newspaper published from 1897 to 1914. It is available here but is very hard to search exhaustively. There is no volume 28 but each of the 18 volumes has an issue 28. I first tried 1901 without success, also issue 28 was in August but the congress in that year was in December. I'll look at issue 28 in the other years next. Zerotalk 02:16, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Ok, it appears in issue 28 of volume 8 (1904) devoted to Herzl on his death. It is identical to this, including the caption "Dr. Theodor Herzl an der Rheinbrücke" (Dr. Theodor Herzl at the Rhine Bridge). It appears on a page by itself and doesn't seem to be mentioned in the text (though the archive has at least one page missing). Zerotalk 04:00, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Meanwhile, the National Library of Israel holds a negative from the "Pritzker Family National Photography Collection". No date for the photograph is given, which probably means they don't know it. We can trust them that the photographer was A. M. Lilian though. Zerotalk 04:00, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * But maybe not the spelling... Die Welt v40, issue 30, page 14 says "Das Bild 'Herzl an der Rheinbrücke' in Basel ist nach einer Photographie angefertigt, die von E. M. Lilien nergestellt wurde." (The picture "Herzl at the Rhine Bridge" in Basel is from a photograph taken by E. M. Lilien.) (I'm guessing Lilien->Lilian is a German->Hebrew thing.) Still no date. There is also mention of a second photo of Herzl at the Rhine Bridge not the same as this one. Zerotalk 04:16, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * E. M. Lilien was Ephraim Moses Lilien, known better as an illustrator. There is a lot about him in this book, including on page 158: "Later, his 1901 photograph of Theodor Herzl looking from the Rhine Bridge in Basel became the motto of the Jewish National Fund (Berkowitz 1993, 138)." The cited book of Berkowitz is here and has the image but not a date on page 136 (I can't see p135, can anyone?). There is a reference though: Alfred Werner, 'The Tragedy of Ephraim Moses Lilien', Herzl Year Book, vol 2, p92. I don't have it. There is quite a lot of work on Lilien and surely something has a definitive statement. Lilien was a delegate at the 1901 Zionist Congress in Basel (but is not mentioned at all in the Protokolls of earlier Congresses), so 1901 is looking good. Zerotalk 04:48, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Here documentary evidence for 1901 is claimed. Zerotalk 04:52, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Well done Zero, fantastic. Reading that last link shows it was a question that has puzzled many people. The summary is perfect: So there it is: chapter and verse. The most famous photograph of Theodor Herzl was taken sometime between December 26 and 30th - very pleasantly, he says in the letter to Lilien - at the Fifth Zionist Congress, in Basel, in 1901.
 * Onceinawhile (talk) 06:50, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Oh, thanks a lot for such detailed analysis! I'll go through your links, though I didn't expect it to be that obscure. The photo is really famous, they print it everywhere in Israel and elsewhere (e.g. I saw a mural in Vilnius, Lithuania just several months ago), but it looks like nobody even tried to date the photo correctly. Artem.G (talk) 06:51, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * The letter of 30 Jan 1902 from Herzl to Lilien thanking Lilien for the "Rheinhintergrundsbild" (picture with Rhine background) and asking for an additional copy for his mother can be seen here in Ost und West, vol 4 (1904) page 639. The text beside it says that the letter refers to our image, which is reproduced on page 509. This is very good confirmation. Zerotalk 08:13, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * A codicil to this photo is that several sources say Herzl is standing on the balcony of the hotel room he occupied during the 1st Zionist Congress (1897). I don't know a solid source for that, though it makes propaganda sense. Perhaps this explains why so many sources date the photo to 1897. Zerotalk 08:32, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

If you zoom into the source you can see something between "hintergründ" and "bild". I thought it was "r" (and google didn't mind) but now I think it is either a meaningless pen wiggle or an "s". I don't know what German dialect Herzl wrote in, but "Rhein+Hintergründ+s+Bild" is a plausible reading, is it not? Zerotalk 13:13, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Stone the effen crows, you swine! Ya got me out for my usual refusal to squint. I should wear glasses because otherwise I would have picked up the error in spelling that with an umlaut, Hintergründ. I jus'saw 'r' which ain't on, and just corrected/normalised to Hintergrundbild, of which Hintergrundsbild is a poifectly acceptable variant. It's not a matter of dialect:Herzl wrote flawless German, though in his private letters to kinfolk etc., he wasn't beyond using Viennese and Yiddish idioms.
 * Must be winter over there, so be careful of thunderbolts. I think the tetragrammaton is getting pissed off at your rival omniscience, and might be tempted to do the rest of us on wiki a favour by zeroing in on the likes of you with a blitz of a bolt even from the cerulean heights, of the kind that put the wind up James Joyce in his nomadic life from Oireland to Trieste. In the meantime I'm cleaning up my new keyboard from the mess my visceral reaction to your meticulous corrective note of doubt, and hiking to the local pharmacy to get some vaseline. Being caught by the short and curlies for sheer laziness does affect a chap that way, ya know. Nishidani (talk) 13:51, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Meanwhile I have learned that "u" with a little curve or circle above it is not a weird way to write "ü" but just a way to distinguish "u" from other letters that can look similar in hand-writing. Also a speculative suggestion that the irregular placement of that "s" might be the author's way to indicate that it is not a picture of the background but of himself with that background, basically "Rheinhintergrund-Bild" rather than "Rhein-Hintergrundbild". Zerotalk 03:27, 11 May 2023 (UTC)
 * It's the sort of orthographo-semantic quibble one would associate with his great adversary Karl Kraus, whose finicky precisian's heated insistence on the different implications instinct in such stylistic variants was so lovingly maniacal that he concluded at life's end that the world's woes were created by carelessness in news reporters' prose in the failure to attend to such minutiae. A Germanist will clarify of course, but if he thought such a nuance was critical, it would fit his well-known dandyesque narcissism (it was once quipped that the clothes he ripped metaphorically in expressing distress over the impoverished plight of the Ostjuden were cut to measure by the finest tailors in Vienna). I mean, with that Mosaic beard's eyecatching prominence would any normal chap need to clarify that the pic was of him, not the river, rather as of Leonardo da Vinci felt it necessary to underline that his most famous portrait was of Lisa Gherardini and not of the Arno river with its Romito di Laterina bridge in the background. Now that I still haven't woken up and am still struggling with the oneiric pressures that induce me to pompous blowhardery, one could note that he grew that beard, admirably, as a personal signature, to declare in the face of the rising antisemitism in Vienna that he too, though sharing nothing culturally or even somatically with the Ostjuden whose 'ugly' influx into the city was deplored by the usual racists, was Jewish. It was perhaps the one sensible gesture that lethal dreamer made in his feverishly rhetorical, theatrical, scribbler's life.Nishidani (talk) 05:49, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

Typo in "Family" Section
I think there's a small typo in the fourth paragraph of the "Family" section in the article. Currently, it reads "Hanz Herzl voluntarily had himself circumcised 29 May 1905". However, everywhere else in this section, the article spells the name of Theodor Herzl's son as "Hans" rather than "Hanz". Ariel Don (talk) 02:29, 23 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Fixed, thanks. Zerotalk 08:56, 23 June 2023 (UTC)
 * What is the supererogatory 'voluntarily' doing there? Hans was a deeply disturbed adolescent at the time (and for all of his life) as everyone knows, and Amos Elon for one states he 'underwent circumcision apparently at the urging of Herzl's disciples.' Nishidani (talk) 09:56, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 17 October 2023
Change "Pinkser" to "Pinsker" in the last paragraph of section "World Jewish Congress" of this article. I assume based on context that "Pinkser" refers to Leon Pinsker. Ariel Don (talk) 14:04, 17 October 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅. GoingBatty (talk) 14:16, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Atheism
There is an archived discussion about whether he was an atheist or not. I don’t know the answer. But I do know it’s strange for this article to have three separate categories at the bottom saying he was an atheist, while the rest of this article doesn’t address the question at all. Anythingyouwant (talk) 01:19, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

 * Apparently he was 2601:40F:600:32E0:4C28:4161:785F:11F4 (talk) 01:00, 25 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Can you please provide reliable sources about it? Anythingyouwant (talk) 01:02, 25 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Zionist forefather Theodor Herzl was an atheist, as was his close colleague Max Nordau. found on an LSE blog, not suitable for the article. imilarly, political Zionism’s founder, Theodor Herzl, was a secular agnostic and perhaps even an atheist. Israel’s founding generation was anti-religion and convinced that Judaism as a faith was on the verge of dying, as the veteran peace activist Uri Avnery recalls seems to be a thesis of some kind. I think "secular" is probably a better description, since it's not clear if he was agnostic, atheist, or simply not religious. Andre🚐 02:21, 25 December 2023 (UTC)

 * This is a difficult question without a clear answer. I've seen sources going both ways. In Herzl's diaries there are many statements invoking God in terms that a theist would use, but there are also things like this:"When I say “God” I do not mean to offend the free-thinkers. As far as I am concerned, they can use “World Spirit” or some other term in place of this dear old wonderful abbreviation by means of which I get across to the simple intelligences. In our academic battle of words, we still mean one and the same thing. In fact, in belief as well as in doubt we mean the very same thing: that it is inexplicable! (June 12, 1895)""I incidentally mentioned my views on the Deity. I want to bring up my children with a belief in what might be called the historical God. To me, “God” is a beautiful, dear old word which I want to retain. It is a wonderful abbreviation for conceptions that might be beyond the grasp of a childlike or limited intellect. By “God” I understand the Will to Goodl The omnipresent, infinite, omnipotent, eternal Will to Good, which does not immediately prevail everywhere but is always victorious in the end. For which Evil, too, is but a means. How and why, for example, does the Will to Good permit epidemics to exist? Because epidemics cause musty old cities to be torn down and new, bright, healthful cities to come into being, with inhabitants who draw a freer breath. Thus, anti-Semitism, too, probably contains the divine Will to Good, because it forces us to close ranks, unites us through pressure, and through our unity will make us free. My conception of God, is, after all, Spinozistic and also resembles the natural philosophy of the Monists. But I think of Spinoza’s “substance” as something inert, so to speak, and that incomprehensible universal ether of the Monists seems too intangible and too vague to me. But I can conceive of an omnipresent will, for I see it at work in the physical world. I see it as I can see the functioning of a muscle. The world is the body and God is the functioning of it. The ultimate purpose I do not and need not know; for me it is enough that it is something higher than our present condition. This I can again express with old words, and I gladly do so. Eritis sicut dei, scientes bonum et malum [Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil]. (August 18, 1895)"These quotations from "The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl", ed. Patai, trans. Zohn, Volume 1, are of course unusable without secondary source support. Zerotalk 06:01, 25 December 2023 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 20 February 2024
In this phrase:

On 2 July 1946, Norman wrote

please remove 1946, since two sentences earlier there's a reference to "29 June 1946". 123.51.107.94 (talk) 22:34, 20 February 2024 (UTC)
 * ✅ Thank you for your contribution! NotAGenious (talk) 09:31, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 20 February 2024 (2)
In this phrase:

Mission in Washington, D.C., In late August

please remove the second comma, since there are two separate sentences here. 123.51.107.94 (talk) 22:35, 20 February 2024 (UTC)
 * ✅ ARandomName123 (talk)Ping me! 01:24, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

Herzl's one-time dream to convert Jews to Christianity
It's INSANE that nothing of this is mentioned on the most consulted edition of Wikipedia. This is thoroughly covered on the Hebrew edition. In Israel, Haredim have delighted themselves for decades with sending around VHS tapes detailing this (YouTube now allows automatic subtitling from Hebrew, fyi)

I don't have much time right now to write that stuff, and you people might do a better job at this than me anyway. I found his complete translated diaries here, and the original German can be found around here. Happy learning. Synotia (moan) 15:29, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

 * The OCR'd diaries are here, even easier for Ctrl+F'ing. Synotia (moan) 15:34, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 14 June 2024
The following quote from his diary should include the text immediately before and after the chosen citation. It is all part of the same relatively small paragraph. The text in bold is what I think should be added.

When we occupy the land, we shall bring immediate benefits to the state that receives us. We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our own country The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly. '''Let the owners of immovable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back.'''

This is on PDF page 97 of the following document: https://ia903407.us.archive.org/2/items/the-complete-diaries-of-theodor-herzl/The%20Complete%20Diaries%20of%20Theodor%20Herzl.pdf

Additionally, the sentence in the Wiki article prior to that quote uses it for misleading purposes:

"Herzl had confided to his diary the idea of spiriting the Arab population away to make way for Jews"

But the entry is not talking about Arabs, it is talking about the poor. In fact, the diary section immediately following the prior quote and written on the same day reads:

"It goes without saying that we shall respectfully tolerate persons of other faiths and protect their property, their honor, and their freedom with the harshest means of coercion. This is another area in which we shall set the entire old world a wonderful example."

Thanks for reading :)

Baskismash (talk) 01:34, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

 * Better to use https://archive.org/details/completediarieso0001unse/page/88/mode/2up as the source since it leads directly to page with that entry. Mcljlm (talk) 05:51, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
 * That's pretty handy, didn't know it existed. Thank you!
 * I also just noticed that quote is used twice in seemingly contradicting ways. In the "Diplomatic liaison with the Ottomans" section it is used to show intent to remove Arabs from the region. But, in the "Writings" section, it is used to show tolerance, humanitarianism, and inclusion. I believe the latter is actually representative of Herzl's views as written in his diary, while the former is a mischaracterization. Baskismash (talk) 17:51, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
 * I knew that all 5 volumes were at https://archive.org/details/TheCompleteDiariesOfTheodorHerzl_201606/TheCompleteDiariesOfTheodorHerzlEngVolume1_OCR/mode/2up and https://archive.org/details/TheCompleteDiariesOfTheodorHerzlEngVolume3OCR/TheCompleteDiariesOfTheodorHerzlEngVolume1/mode/2up but I only discovered Vol. 1 on its own after entering Complete Diaries Of Theodor Herzl in IA's search box. Mcljlm (talk) 00:36, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

At the time he wrote these diary entries, Herzl was not certain that the future Jewish commonwealth would be in Palestine. So it is not precise to report it in terms of "Arabs", though of course a Palestine application of the principle could only be about Arabs. It is worth reading the following few pages regarding how Herzl envisaged the "voluntary expropriation" to be carried out by secret agents. Calling any of this humanitarian is a real stretch; actually it is the same "it will be good for the natives" claim that colonialists always make. But, anyway, our personal analysis is not valid content in this article. For a scholarly source, start with this article of Penslar. Penslar notes that Herzl later wrote much the same thing, though in more diplomatic language, in a public document. Zerotalk 03:54, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

 * If it is not precise to speak in terms of "Arabs" then why is the language in there? It shouldn't be. Making it about Arabs only serves the purpose of contradicting what Herzl was quoted as saying in the preceding paragraph about the letter, which showed him as, at a minimum, tolerant of the local population.
 * What follows is more about my personal response to you and less about the wiki article.
 * Penslar has his own controversies. The thought exercise you linked to (besides being sparsely sourced and largely opinion) is using this same quote to try to claim malevolence. That's a circular reference and a mischaracterization in the sense that it contradicts Herzl's own words. I am also curious which public document you're referring to where Herzl writes much the same thing? The language "dark scheme" shouldn't appear in anything serious in academia, anyway. But I digress...
 * I have read Herzl's diaries and he never once speaks ill of Arabs or the theoretical "local population." He spoke of trying to incentivize people to leave so they could bring more Jews in, but he never envisioned force.
 * Another diary quote incoming:
 * "There is an Arab movement which intends to make a descendant of Mohammed Caliph. The Caliphate was stolen by Sultan Selim. Now it ought to be restored, as a sort of papacy with Mecca as Rome!"
 * And finally, many real estate transactions are carried out by "secret agents" specifically to avoid prejudice and price gouging. There is nothing nefarious about that. Herzl consistently mentions his humanitarian intentions in his diary as well. His plan consisted of bringing Jews, prosperity, and inclusion to Palestine. Isn't that humane, and not in the "it will be good for the natives" sort of way?
 * Now, I understand that Israel itself is a complicated topic which does indeed include people who did bad things. This seems like it's projecting a bit of that onto the wrong person. Baskismash (talk) 05:50, 16 June 2024 (UTC)
 * (1) Whichever country Herzl had in mind when he wrote those words, "the penniless population" implies most of the population. (2) Herzl's malevolence or benevolence should be judged by independent experts, not by himself. (3) You misread the "descendant of Mohammed" entry; there he is just reporting the opinion given to him in person by Ali Nuri Bey. Nuri was a Swedish journalist who became a Turkish citizen then was appointed Turkish Consul-General in Rotterdam until he was sentenced to life imprisonment for intrigues against the Turkish government. Given how badly Herzl wished to make deals with the Turkish Sultan regarding the future of Arab Palestine, it is most unlikely that he would be proposing to replace the Sultan by an Arab. (4) Since you say you have read Penslar's article, why are you asking me which open document he is referring to? Zerotalk 12:35, 16 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Here is an article that may help you understand my view (linking to the Herzl part):
 * https://www.meforum.org/711/benny-morriss-reign-of-error-revisited#:~:text=Herzl.%5B15%5D-,Distorting%20Herzl,-Consider%2C%20for%20example
 * 1) That is true, but he also spoke of finding the least inhabited land to move to. Which is what they did end up doing. He also spoke of paying high prices, providing loans to displaced people, and doing land swaps with them. Hindsight shows us that did indeed happen. Omitting those in favor of a [kick out the locals] sort of view is disingenuous at best, and libelous at worst.
 * 2) I agree, but his words and actions are all we have to go by. It is not right for these people to put words in his mouth or to distort the meaning of what he did say. Particularly when they need to selectively quote him to do it.
 * 3) Fair point, I see that now. My mistake.
 * 4) Yes, I have read the entire thing and am still not sure what you are referencing. My guess is the JOLC charter? Not sure why you won't just tell me what you're referring to. After all, to assume is to make an ass out of u and me, right? Regardless, don't you see it as an issue that Penslar also selectively quoted that passage? It's manipulative to slice quotes like that in almost any context.
 * I think it's at least absolute fact that the paragraph I keep talking about is a partial quote. That prompts the question, "why was part of it left out?" To answer that, I think of the meaning conveyed. If the additional parts of the quote are included, it changes the meaning. That means those additional parts should not be left out. Right? Because if words need to be omitted to convey a desired message, that is not the honest message.
 * Wikipedia's own policy warns on this:
 * "Quotations should be representative of the whole source document; editors should be very careful not to quote material out of context to avoid misrepresenting the meanings and intentions of the source."
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Quotations#:~:text=Quotations%20should%20be%20representative%20of%20the%20whole%20source%20document%3B%20editors%20should%20be%20very%20careful%20not%20to%20quote%20material%20out%20of%20context%20to%20avoid%20misrepresenting%20the%20meanings%20and%20intentions%20of%20the%20source. Baskismash (talk) 18:13, 16 June 2024 (UTC)
 * There is a reason I never cite Karsh on Wikipedia. Anyway, I dispute "Penslar also selectively quoted that passage" as it is a false claim. Zerotalk 00:45, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
 * It leaves out the very first sentence in that paragraph in Herzl's diary:
 * "When we occupy the land, we shall bring immediate benefits to the state that receives us."
 * Why only quote 90% of the entire entry? That's what I mean by selectively quoting something. Baskismash (talk) 00:50, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Also, why don't you cite Karsh? I am unaware of and currently unable to find anything that brings his credibility into question. Baskismash (talk) 00:57, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
 * A scholar is entitled to consider that that sentence has no evidentiary value. So Herzl claimed to be proposing something of benefit to the state (note well: not to the residents of the state). Would you expect him to claim the opposite? As before, it is not for Herzl to judge his own historical standing anyway, and this sentence has no other content. Regarding your last question, I try to maintain a higher sourcing standard than the bare minimum demanded by policy and have a list of "wiki-reliable" sources that I consider unreliable from experience. Karsh and Pappe are both on that list. Some others, too. Zerotalk 01:06, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
 * It's pretty clear you've already made up your mind on this. Is this just your decision based on your preferences, or do other editors have a say as well? Baskismash (talk) 01:19, 18 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Well, thanks anyway for the time you spent on this. Baskismash (talk) 01:44, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Well, thanks anyway for the time you spent on this. Baskismash (talk) 01:44, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

IT doesn't look like there is any kind of consensus to implement this request, so I'm closing it. (t · c)  buidhe  23:16, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

two possible improvements
could someone with edit access please change the sentence in the last paragraph of the 'Diplomatic liaison with the Ottomans' section 'As to al-Khalidi concerns...' to ' As to al-Khalidi's concerns...'

the sentence requires an apostophe s to denote possession. also,the last paragraph of the 'World Jewish Congress' is pretty sub-standard.

thanks Potholehotline (talk) 20:18, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Theodor Herzl