text:
Talk:Portishead (band)

Alien and Myspace

 * Their third album, Alien?, was released in 2003.

When? --Camembert

I guess not yet. Hum. --FvdP 18:48 Jan 9, 2003 (UTC)

Googling reveals there were a lot of rumours about it towards the back end of last year. But sadly, nothing yet. I've tweaked the page to reflect this. --Camembert

i deleted one of the external links, entitled 'portishead expert' as it just pointed to weblog www.robotwisdom.com, which appears to contain no information about portishead whatsoever.

I removed a link to a site about their third album Alien, and Portishead is cited in this article as saying that they are just rumors. Myspace isn't usually credible unless there's a link from the official website. SZadeh 21:31, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

I have just recently found a copy of the "Alien" album discussed. In fact, while researching it, I found this discussion page. While reminiscent of Portishead, it is very definitely NOT them, although I wouldn't be surprised if some members may be involved (Geoff Barrow comes to mind). The vocalist has some Beth Gibbons qualities to her voice, but it would be very clear to anyone that has every listened to PH more than a couple of times that it is not Beth.-RD

 * Has anyone figured out who this Alien album is actually by? Im curious because its not half bad and id be interested in finding more of this mislabeled band.(chubbstar) 06:56, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Do you have a link? I saw a "preview" on youtube but that's all I've seen so far. SZadeh 17:20, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

I have a feeling that myspace page might just actually be an official portishead site. primarily because it is linked at the bottom of their definite offical page ;) readding. --Quiddity 17:56, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I don't see it on Portishead's official page. Perhaps you could link me to where exactly it's located on their website? SZadeh 17:12, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

 * official site frontpage in bottom right-hand corner. (of course their official site is timing-out as i type this... but trust me, it's true. (And i wish it weren't, as those samples/blog-entries at the myspace page arent impressing me.)) --Quiddity 18:40, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * ..so it's real? D: You would think that they could do better than that. mah. Oh well, thanks :)SZadeh 23:55, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * i am pretty suspicious of that myspace page. Zmbe 00:48, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Anybody know where I can buy a copy of To Kill A Dead Man (the film)? Wandering Star 20:13, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, it's available on the PNYC DVD. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)

Influence references
"the band has been cited as influential by many modern musicians including underground producer Danger Mouse [1] and videogame musician/producer Akira Yamaoka"

Although the soundtrack to the Silent Hill games (namely, Silent Hill 2) sound identical to something Portishead would make, there seems to be no reference to confirm this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)

Saturnine?
Does anyone know if SATURNINE is a real Portishead project? -- The Anome 00:10, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Cowboys.ogg
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Fair use rationale for Image:Portishead-logo.png
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Fair use rationale for Image:Sour Times.ogg
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Bootlegs
Are Sweet Times, Desolation Row, and Melody Nelson among the bootlegs mentioned?68.58.169.135 10:38, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

4th Member?
I just finished watching the Live in Roseland DVD of Portishead and it states the members of Portishead as: Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley and Dave McDonald ??? Surely this is correct, and why is Dave missing completley from the wiki entry and there is no mention of him in the info box as either a past or current member? Would anyone care to clarify this before I add him to the page?

Thanks 61.68.166.83 05:30, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

 * I thought that Adrian Utley wasn't actually signed to Go! records unlike Beth and Geoff. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.73.78.184 (talk) 8 April 2008

 * Check my post under no 4th member below. --AresAndEnyo (talk) 06:28, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

POV?
Could it not be construed as Point of View, opinion, etc. in that it is stated that: "Oddly, Beth Gibbons' vocal performance sounds nothing like her previous Portishead contributions." Anyone in favour of editing this so that it states a more NPOV? --Frenkmelk talk 15:55, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

No 4th member
There is no 4th member in Portishead: http://www.myspace.com/PORTISHEADALBUM3

Dave McDonald was a session artist brought in to perform for the Roseland show, but he has not performed with the band since. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.132.26.87 (talk) 11:20, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

 * This is incorrect. He is an engineer and at least according to the credits of their second album engineered that. I'll do some research and add him. If he was just a session musician why not list him with all the other musicians that helped the Roseland show? At least at a time he was considered a member of Portishead and thus deserves at least a single mention on this page!! Just because he is not listed on a myspace page (which may not be run or endorsed by the band but I don't know) is no real proof at all. I will add something once I do a bit more research. --AresAndEnyo (talk) 06:27, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Was music actually pressed to vinyl, or did it simply use a 'grungeliser?'
You wrote for the description of the Portishead album:

"The album's sound differed from Dummy, the main differences being that much of the music was composed and recorded by the band, then pressed to vinyl. This created a grainy, harsher sound."

I'm no expert on Portishead, but I do write my own music. The sound of 'graininess' produced by a record being played back on vinyl is often these days simulated with a plug-in in the DAW (Cubase 4, the software I use, has a plug-in called 'grungeliser' that adds vinyl pops and crackles, plus other lo-fi effects associated with playing a record.) While this may not be a 100% perfect simulation, it's an effect used often because it is inexpensive and controllable.

My point is this: could you double-check that the music was actually pressed to vinyl, and not simply 'grungelised?' I know independent artists do often press their own records, but that tends to be for distribution purposes. If they want to achieve a vinyl effect, plug-ins are normally the way to go. Did you simply assume it was pressed to vinyl, or do you actually have a source of reference to back this up?

It's quite possible I am wrong, and that they really did press the record to vinyl. It's just that it would be a very unusual method given the abundance and ease of using plug-ins.

Just a thought,

Daniel —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dpolwarth (talk • contribs) 21 April 2008

your plugin did not exist in '96. the music was pressed to vinyl, per interviews w/ the band. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.171.187.135 (talk) 13:18, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

 * If I remember correctly, they recorded the *samples* and had them pressed to vinyl, then the DJ sampled that vinyl back into the main mix. That was done mainly so they could sample whatever they wanted (ie: specific notes, passages, etc) and not have to a)pay rights or b) force things to fit in their songs. The wording of the article makes it sound like they recorded EVERYING and thats why the album sounds the way it does... So, basically something's really wrong here, but I don't have the data (or a citation) to fix it. For now, I'm going to pull the sentence, its obviously untrue.JamesBenjamin (talk) 21:21, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

External link to Portisehead page on last.fm
Hello,

i would like to suggest an external link to portishead's last.fm page (http://www.last.fm/music/Portishead). Last.fm is, like wikipedia, a user generated music platform offering free contents such as charts, music streaming, videos, gigs listings, image galleries, etc. Regarding Portishead in particular their new album is yet available as an exclusive preview in free streaming on demand on last.fm (http://www.last.fm/music/Portishead/Third). As a member of last.fm staff i would like to point your attention to what we believe to be relevant and free contents for those wikipedia users interested in the band.

cheers,

Marco - Last.fm Staff (Mystical-bunny (talk) 17:00, 22 April 2008 (UTC))
 * Done. -- Quiddity (talk) 03:13, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Navbox
I think this group needs a {{NAVBOX} }. Even the Bay City Rollers have a navigation box! StevePrutz (talk) 01:40, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Be bold, but keep it simple at the start; follow an example from a Featured article if you can. -- Quiddity (talk) 03:13, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Pearl
I removed pearl from the discography, as it is not a real Portishead album. --Apostmodernrobot (talk) 03:45, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

 * So what is it? Isn't that worth mentioning if it's a cause of common misunderstanding? Malick78 (talk) 23:34, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Not as an official release of theirs, since it's not. If we had sources talking about it as an exceptionally clever bootleg we can mention it in that context. rootology  ( T ) 13:36, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

DJ Andy Smith
Isn't he worth mentioning? He is/was their tour DJ. Malick78 (talk) 23:33, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

I agree; not only that, but he was also responsible for the BBC Radio 1 Essential mix broadcast on April 23, 1995 which was credited to Portishead.92.27.201.11 (talk) 09:23, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Portishead, Somerset
Portishead shouldnt link here, It should link to Portishead, Somerset if it is named after that town. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.128.250.236 (talk) 15:01, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

Amazon.com is copyvio'ing this page
I've sent amazon.com a request to include GFDL attribution for copied content that is at http://www.amazon.com/Third-Portishead/dp/B0016HNOXQ. — xaosflux  Talk  01:43, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Rumor Temple Cloud Country Club
The only online source for the rumor that Barrow and Utley are the artists behind The Temple Cloud Country Club is this wikipedia article...guess it's just a viral campaign of their label. Or just a troll entry. -- SomeVapourTrails (talk) 15:11, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

 * The rumor is actually a troll entry. It's not true.85.178.101.80 (talk) 10:12, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Pronunciation
Sure this isn't stressed on the -por-, i. e. the first syllable? I'd never pronounce the band name on the last syllable, let alone that I'd ever heard it that way by others. -andy 92.230.14.232 (talk) 00:29, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, I'm sure. This is something of a shibboleth, actually. People from the area always put the stress on the final syllable. while for some reason everyone else puts the stress on the first syllable. No one is going to say that the other one is wrong, but it is more correct to stress the final syllable. (I'm from Bristol) --ascorbic (talk) 12:44, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

 * Good for you ... but yet I beg to differ. This is about the band; and NOT the town. That's the reason why the pronunciation should be given based on how it's pronounced by media people (producers, TV presenters, DJs, VJs etc.) And that does not apply for the pronunciation on the first syllable, which, no doubt about it, may be perfectly right for the town according to which the band have chosen their name from. Heh, maybe I should give another example. Ever heard of Mr. J. P. Joule? His name rhymes with "foul", but the physical unit--you won't believe it--is called "Joule", but its pronunciation rhymes on "cool" instead. -andy 92.229.185.19 (talk) 22:38, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * That analogy would only make sense if the unit was named after him *and* he pronounced the name of the unit the same as his surname. How about we go with how the members of the band pronounce it themselves: Geoff Barrow stressing the final syllable --ascorbic (talk) 15:59, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
 * yur, it be port'zhed, me babby, innit? (another Bristolian} Jezhotwells (talk) 19:11, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

No mention of the collaboration with Natalie Imbruglia
The article makes no mention of the song "Leave me Alone" which was a collaboration between Portishead and Natalie Imgruglia, for her debut album "Left of the Middle." Portishead is also not mentioned on Natalie's page either. I propose a simple line under the "Dummy" section about the song. No new section.

Source: http://caweb.madisoncollege.edu/Instructors/Samples/web_1/MMHanson4/portisweb/Discography.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.211.196.141 (talk) 03:13, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

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I, Claudius

I, Claudius is a historical novel by English writer Robert Graves, published in 1934. Written in the form of an autobiography of the Roman Emperor Claudius, it tells the history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the early years of the Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC to Caligula's assassination in AD 41. Though the narrative is largely fictionalized, most of the events depicted are drawn from historical accounts of the same time period by the Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus.

The "autobiography" continues in a sequel, Claudius the God (1935), which covers the period from Claudius' accession to his death in AD 54. The sequel also includes a section written as a biography of Herod Agrippa, a contemporary of Claudius and the king of Judaea (Roman province). Both books were adapted by the BBC into the award-winning television serial I, Claudius in 1976.

Graves stated in an interview with Malcolm Muggeridge in 1965, that he wrote I, Claudius mainly because he needed the money to pay off a debt, having been let down in a land deal. He needed to raise £4000 (equivalent to more than a quarter million pounds in ), but with the success of the books he brought in £8000 in six months, thus extricating himself from his precarious financial position.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked I, Claudius fourteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to present.

Historical context
Claudius was the fourth Emperor of the Roman Empire, from AD 41 to 54. A grandson of Mark Antony and great-nephew of Augustus, he was a member of the Julio-Claudian family, Rome's first imperial ruling family. Claudius' family kept him out of public life until his sudden coronation at the age of fifty because of his persistent stammer, limp, and other nervous tics, which caused others to perceive him as mentally deficient and not a threat to his ambitious relatives. Even as his symptoms began to wane in his teenage years, he ran into trouble as a budding historian; his work on a history of the Roman civil wars was either too truthful or too critical of the reigning emperor Augustus, and his mother Antonia Minor and grandmother Livia quickly put a stop to it. This episode reinforced their initial suspicions that Claudius was not fit for public office.

Claudius was portrayed this way by scholars for most of history, and Graves uses these peculiarities to develop a sympathetic character whose survival in a murderous dynasty depends upon his family's incorrect assumption that he is a harmless idiot. Graves' interpretation of the story owes much to the histories of Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, Plutarch, and (especially) Suetonius' Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Graves translated Suetonius before writing the novels and claimed that after reading Suetonius, Claudius came to him in a dream one night and demanded that his real story be told. The life of Claudius provided Graves with a way to write about the first four emperors of Rome from an intimate point of view. I, Claudius is written as a first-person narrative of Roman history from Claudius' perspective, covering the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula; Claudius the God is written as a later addition documenting Claudius' own reign. The real Claudius was a trained historian and is known to have written an autobiography (now lost) in eight books that covered the same period.

Graves provides a theme for the story by having the fictional Claudius describe a visit to Cumae, where he receives a prophecy in verse from the Sibyl and an additional prophecy contained in a book of "Sibylline Curiosities". The latter concerns the fates of the "hairy ones" (i.e. the Caesars – from the Latin word "caesar", meaning "a fine head of hair") who are to rule Rome. The penultimate verse concerns his reign and Claudius assumes that he can tell the identity of the last emperor described in the prophecy. Graves establishes a fatalistic tone that plays out at the end of Claudius the God when Claudius correctly predicts his assassination and succession by Nero.

At Cumae, the Sibyl tells Claudius that he will "speak clear". Claudius believes this means that his secret memoirs will one day be found and that he, having written the truth, will speak clearly, while his contemporaries, who had to distort their histories to appease the ruling family, will seem like stammerers. Since he wishes to record his life for posterity, Claudius explains that he chooses to write in Greek, which he believes will remain "the chief literary language of the world". This enables Graves' Claudius to offer explanations of Latin wordplay or etymologies that would seem unnecessary if his autobiography had been written for native Latin speakers. Claudius also portrays his grandmother Livia as a scheming Machiavellian, based on the works of Tacitus and Cassius Dio, who wrote that rumours persisted that Augustus was poisoned by Livia, but these are mainly dismissed as malicious fabrications spread by political enemies of the dynasty.

I, Claudius
Writing in the first-person (from an unspecified time period, presumably late in his own reign as emperor), Claudius establishes himself as the author of this history of his family and insists on writing the truth, which includes harsh criticisms of the deified Augustus and especially of Livia. The narrative begins prior to his own birth, as he describes many of the events leading to the foundation of the Roman Principate and the increasingly firm emplacement of Augustus as emperor despite Augustus' own publicly expressed intention to eventually restore the former Republic. During his prosperous reign, Augustus is plagued by personal losses as his favored heirs, Marcellus, Marcus Agrippa, Gaius Caesar, and Lucius Caesar, die. Claudius reveals that these untimely deaths are all the machinations of Augustus' third wife Livia (who is also Claudius' paternal grandmother), a calculating murderess who seeks to make her son Tiberius (Claudius' uncle) succeed Augustus as the next emperor.

As these intrigues occur, the sickly Claudius is born and is immediately shunned and mocked by his family. Only his brother Germanicus and his cousin Postumus treat him with any kindness. He is eventually given a great tutor, the reputable historian Athenodorus, who fosters a love of history and republican government in the young Claudius. During these early years, Claudius is advised by his idol Asinius Pollio to play the fool to survive.

Postumus is eventually framed for raping Claudius' sister Livilla and beating his own niece Aemilia; Augustus has him banished to an island off the coast of Italy, but not before Postumus reveals the truth to Claudius. Claudius then passes this on to Germanicus, who convinces Augustus of Postumus' innocence. Augustus exchanges the exiled Postumus with a double named Clemens and secretly writes a will restoring Postumus as his heir, but Livia manages to discover this and poisons Augustus.

Upon Augustus' death, Tiberius is declared emperor, though his mother Livia retains her power and influence as empress. The Roman legions campaigning in Germany refuse to accept the unpopular Tiberius and begin to mutiny, instead declaring Germanicus emperor. Shocked and confused, Germanicus refuses, declaring his loyalty to Tiberius. He sends his wife Agrippina and youngest son Caligula away from the military frontier and asks Claudius for an enormous sum of money to pay the soldiers. Claudius agrees and pretends that they are gambling debts. With the money and the return of Caligula, Germanicus ends the mutiny and leads several successful campaigns in Germany.

In the midst of this, Claudius is informed that Postumus is alive and secretly forming a resistance group to take back his rightful place in Rome. Claudius' letters to Germanicus about Postumus are intercepted by Livia; Postumus is later captured and executed by Tiberius. Livia, recognizing that Claudius is a threat, sends him to Carthage to prevent him from having contact with Germanicus. Growing to fear Germanicus' popularity more and more, Tiberius sends a hostile governor, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, to spy on Germanicus. Germanicus soon becomes plagued by witchcraft before dying of poison. It is later revealed that Germanicus' son Caligula was the instigator of the witchcraft.

As Tiberius becomes more hated by the public, he increasingly relies on his Praetorian Captain Sejanus to administer his edicts and punishments, who is able to manipulate Tiberius into suspecting that Germanicus' wife Agrippina and his own son Castor are plotting to usurp the monarchy. Sejanus meanwhile secretly plots with Livilla to usurp the monarchy for himself by poisoning Castor and systematically eliminating any ally of Agrippina and her sons. Agrippina only survives due to the protection of Livia, who holds vital information regarding Augustus' true opinion of Tiberius.

Livia then hosts a surprising dinner, to which Claudius and Caligula are invited. She predicts that Caligula (and not his older brothers) will become emperor and that Claudius will succeed him. She privately admits to Claudius to having ordered the poisonings and assassinations of many people, and then begs Claudius to swear to deify her as a goddess, believing it will grant her a blissful afterlife, to which he agrees. Claudius is later invited to Livia's deathbed and reveals that Caligula betrayed his promise. Claudius swears that Livia will become the Queen of Heaven, which moves Livia to declare he is no fool before she dies.

Tiberius, now free of Livia, loses all compunction and executes hundreds of influential citizens on false charges of treason. He banishes Agrippina and her son Nero, while Agrippina's son Drusus is imprisoned and starved to death in Rome. Tiberius retreats from public life to the island of Capri and Sejanus is given full command of the city in his absence, becoming de facto ruler of Rome. Tiberius is soon alerted to Sejanus' treachery by a letter from Antonia Minor and allies himself with Caligula, despite his awareness of Caligula's growing wickedness and narcissism, and transfers control of Rome to the even more despotic Naevius Sutorius Macro. Sejanus is executed along with his children; Claudius survives despite being married to Sejanus' sister, whom he quickly divorces. Livilla is locked in a room by her mother Antonia and starved to death, and Antonia punishes herself for having raised Livilla by listening to her daughter die.

On his deathbed, the old and feeble Tiberius is smothered to death by Macro. Caligula is declared emperor and at first appears to be enlightened and kind. To his surprise, Claudius is recalled to Rome from his peaceful life in Capua writing history and living with his prostitute companion Calpurnia. Claudius quickly becomes the butt of many taunts and practical jokes by the Imperial Court. After recovering from a severe illness, Caligula descends into madness, his behavior becoming ever more egomaniacal and irrational. He declares himself a god in human disguise, stages arguments and battles with other gods, bankrupts the country, and kills thousands.

The madness having reached a tempest is finally quelled by Cassius Chaerea, a captain of the Praetorian Guard who plots with the other captains to assassinate Caligula, along with his wife and daughter. Horrified, Claudius hides behind a curtain and is discovered by a disgruntled Praetorian Guard. Realizing they need a new emperor, the Guards suddenly and bemusedly declare Claudius emperor. Claudius pleads that he does not want to be emperor and only wants to see the Republic restored, but the Guards ignore him. He sadly accepts for the sake of his wife and unborn child, and for the access the emperorship will give him to valuable historical documents, on a whim deciding that as emperor he will finally be able to demand that people read his books.

Claudius the God
The story begins with an apology by Claudius for having ended his first history on a dramatic point and continues with a brief history of his friend Herod Agrippa. Herod was a schoolmate of Claudius and was liked by Claudius' mother Antonia. Herod always finds himself in debts and danger in the East and in Rome. He eventually gains the favour of Caligula and is made King of Bashan. Herod is in Rome when Caligula is assassinated and quickly is able to convince Claudius to accept the emperorship in order to avoid civil war.

Claudius reluctantly executes Cassius Chaerea and several of the other assassins and begins tirelessly working for the sake of Rome. He applies himself to the law courts, demonstrates his intelligence in being able to locate one of Augustus' lost Eagles, and orders the building of a harbour in Ostia to help preserve the Roman food supply. Claudius is also able to quell two mutinies and conquers Britain.

Herod Agrippa conspires to take over the East, as he regards himself as the Messiah. When he announces this he breaks the first commandment by declaring himself a god. Herod quickly dies a painful death, just as his grandfather had died, imploring Claudius to forgive him and not to trust anyone.

Throughout Claudius' reign he is unwittingly manipulated by his adulterous wife Messalina, who kills many of her enemies as well as being involved in bribery. She eventually conspires to usurp the monarchy with her lover Gaius Silius. Claudius is distraught and crushed by this news and is given an "Olympian Mixture" in order to manage through the ordeal. Claudius arrests Silius and the leaders of the coup. Messalina is executed without Claudius' consent and Claudius has no reaction during his "Olympian" state, even bemusedly joking about being worshipped as a god in Britain.

On being relieved of the "Olympian Mixture", Claudius is crushed and decides that the only way the Republic can be restored is by having a true mad monarch rather than the reign of a benevolent one. Comparing himself to the fable of the frogs who desired a King, Claudius privately refers to himself as "Old King Log" and plays a weak and easily manipulated fool. He then incestuously marries his niece Agrippinilla, whom he openly despises. In his feeble old age Claudius excessively enjoys gladiatorial games, is often intoxicated, and makes himself oblivious to Agrippinilla's schemes to gain power and make her son Nero emperor. Foreseeing that Nero will be a terrible ruler, Claudius plans on having his son Britannicus removed to live with the Northern Britons and later to return as Rome's saviour. Britannicus refuses and admits that while he loves the Republic, the Republic is dead and he wants to challenge Nero for the right to rule Rome as an emperor. Dismayed, Claudius agrees, knowing that he is sending his son to his death. Claudius resignedly accepts that his death will be soon with numerous signs suggesting such.

Literary significance
The I, Claudius novels became massively popular when published, both in 1934. In addition to instant popularity and enormous sales the books soon gained literary recognition; they were collectively awarded the 1934 James Tait Black Prize for fiction. Along with his autobiography, Good-Bye to All That, they remain Graves' best known work. Graves later claimed that the novels were written only from financial need on a strict deadline. Nonetheless, they are today regarded as pioneering masterpieces of historical fiction.

At the time of its original publication, Peter Monro Jack of The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Graves has made a fascinating novel out of [Claudius], and of the Rome of his times a piece of first-rate historical writing."

German translation
When the time came to translate the novels into German, Graves, who spoke the language, decided instead to rework them into a one volume edition. He collaborated with translator Hans Rothe and they jointly produced a shortened edition which left out the many digressions which were incorporated into the English original, with the aim of presenting Claudius' story in a clearer and more effective way. The contents of the books were thus roughly cut down to a half. The book is published as Ich, Claudius, Kaiser und Gott (I, Claudius, Emperor and God) with Graves being styled Robert von Ranke Graves, which is how he is credited in all German editions of his works.

Film and television
In 1937, abortive attempts were made to adapt the first book into a film by the film director Josef von Sternberg. The producer was Alexander Korda, who was then married to Merle Oberon, who was cast as Claudius' wife Messalina. Emlyn Williams was cast as Caligula, Charles Laughton was cast as Claudius, and Flora Robson was cast as Livia. Filming was abandoned after Oberon was injured in a serious motor car accident.

In 1976, BBC Television adapted the book and its sequel into the popular TV serial I, Claudius, starring Derek Jacobi, Siân Phillips, Brian Blessed, and John Hurt. The production was awarded three BAFTAs in 1977 and an Emmy in 1978.

In 2008, it was reported that Relativity Media had obtained the rights to produce a new film adaptation of I, Claudius. Jim Sheridan was named as director.

In 2011, rights then passed to HBO and BBC2 to film a miniseries adaptation. Jane Tranter and Anne Thomopoulos, who previously worked on HBO/BBC2's miniseries Rome have been named as producers.

Radio
In November and December 2010, as part of the Classic Serial strand, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a series of six hour-long episodes of a dramatisation of both novels, adapted by Robin Brooks and directed by Jonquil Panting. Performers were Derek Jacobi, Tom Goodman Hill and full cast. It won the 2012 Audie Award in the "Audio Dramatization" category.

Comics
An episode from "Claudius the God" was adapted for comics in the EC Comics Two-Fisted Tales #36, in a story titled "Battle!", written by Colin Dwakins and drawn by Reed Crandall.

Theatre
The novel has also been adapted for theatre. The 1972 production I, Claudius was written by John Mortimer and starred David Warner.

Audio
Several audio recordings of the novel have been produced. Derek Jacobi performed two separate readings of the novel, both as abridged versions, one for Dove Audio (1986) and one for CSA Word (2007). Nelson Runger performed unabridged readings of both I, Claudius and Claudius the God for Recorded Books (1987). Jonathan Oliver performed an unabridged reading for ISIS Audio Books (1988). Frederick Davidson performed an unabridged reading for Blackstone Audio (1994).

Opera
The novel has also been adapted for opera by Igor Escudero under the title I, Claudius and Claudius the God (2019).

The three parts, or chapters, that form the trilogy are titled Livia, Caligula and Claudius the God, and have been conceived to be performed not only sequentially, but also separately.

Legacy
A. E. van Vogt's 1950s science fiction novels Empire of the Atom and The Wizard of Linn drew heavily from the plot of Graves' Claudius novels, to the point of reusing slightly altered character names. For these reasons the critic Damon Knight has said their plots were "lifted almost bodily" from that of I, Claudius.

George R. R. Martin, the author of The Song of Ice and Fire series (1996—present), has spoken of the inspiration he took from I, Claudius. He especially noted the resemblance Stannis Baratheon bore to Tiberius Caesar, particularly as portrayed by George Baker in the 1976 BBC television adaptation.

David Chase, creator and showrunner of the acclaimed 1999 HBO series The Sopranos has spoken highly of the book, calling it one of his favorite works of fiction. While Chase has stopped short of drawing a direct connection, many have compared the Machiavellian Livia Soprano to Claudius' grandmother, Livia Drusilla. These suspicious tend to find confirmation in the maiden name Chase selected for Livia—Pollio, one shared by Gaius Asinius Pollio, who makes a decisive appearance in I, Claudius.

I, Claudia is a 2001 one-woman play written by Kristen Thomson. The play and its 2004 CBC adaptation recount the difficult transition into adolescence of Claudia, a 12-year-old girl struggling with her parents' divorce. Thomson played all of the roles, using masks to change character. A 2018 novel by Mary McCoy is also titled I, Claudia. This work resets the characters from Graves' book into a modern-day private high school that labors under a problematic power structure.

title: I, Claudius


text: Talk:The Skeptical Environmentalist

title: Talk:The Skeptical Environmentalist


text:
Robert Hardy

Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy (29 October 1925 – 3 August 2017) was an English actor who had a long career in theatre, film and television. He began his career as a classical actor and later earned widespread recognition for roles such as Siegfried Farnon in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small, Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter film series and Winston Churchill in several productions, beginning with the Southern Television series Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years. He was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor for All Creatures Great and Small in 1980 and Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years in 1982. Aside from acting, Hardy was an acknowledged expert on the medieval English longbow and wrote two books on the subject.

Early life
Hardy was born in Cheltenham on 29 August 1925 to Henry Harrison Hardy, MBE, of Old Farm, Bishop's Cleeve, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, and Edith Jocelyn, daughter of Rev. Sydney Dugdale, rector of Whitchurch, Shropshire, a member of a landed gentry family of Wroxall Abbey, Wroxall, Warwickshire. Henry Hardy was the headmaster of Cheltenham College and later of Shrewsbury School, and a Major in the Rifle Brigade.

Hardy was educated at Rugby School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where his studies were interrupted by service in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He trained as a pilot, receiving part of his instruction in the British Flying Training School Program in Terrell, Texas. Although he visited Los Angeles when on leave from flight training at Terrell, his later acting career never gained a foothold in Hollywood. After service in the RAF, he returned to gain a BA (Hons) in English. On BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs he described the degree he obtained as "shabby", although he treasured the time spent studying under C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Career
Hardy began his career as a classical actor. In 1959, he appeared as The King of France in All's Well That Ends Well in April 1959, directed by Tyrone Guthrie at Stratford-upon-Avon, with Vanessa Redgrave and Diana Rigg indicated as supporting extras. He subsequently appeared as Sicinius opposite Laurence Olivier in Coriolanus at Stratford-upon-Avon, directed by Peter Hall. In this production, Ian Holm featured as a "Third Aufidious Servant", Vanessa Redgrave as Valeria, and Diana Rigg as a "Roman Citizen". Albert Finney featured as a "First Roman Citizen". Hardy then appeared in Shakespeare's Henry V on stage and in television's An Age of Kings (1960), and subsequently played Coriolanus in The Spread of the Eagle (BBC, 1963) and Sir Toby Belch for the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Twelfth Night in 1980. Over the years, Hardy played a range of parts on television and film. His first continuing role in a TV series was as businessman Alec Stewart in the award-winning oil company drama The Troubleshooters for the BBC, which he played from 1966 to 1970. He won further acclaim for his portrayal of the mentally-unhinged Abwehr Sgt. Gratz in LWT's 1969 war drama Manhunt. In 1975, Hardy portrayed Albert, Prince Consort in the award-winning 13-hour serial Edward the Seventh (known as Edward the King to the American audience), which he regarded as one of his best performances. "I thought I'd done a good job there, although I believe the Royal Family didn't like it all. There are always people who don't like what one does."

He was seen as the irascible senior veterinary surgeon Siegfried Farnon in the long-running All Creatures Great and Small (1978–90), an adaptation of James Herriot's semi-autobiographical books. Hardy also made an appearance in the 1986–88 ITV comedy series Hot Metal, in which he played the dual roles of newspaper proprietor Twiggy Rathbone (who bore more than a passing resemblance to Rupert Murdoch) and his editor, Russell Spam. In 1993 Hardy appeared in an episode of Inspector Morse, playing Andrew Baydon in "Twilight of the Gods". In 1994, he played Arthur Brooke in the BBC production of Middlemarch. In 2002, he played the role of pompous and eccentric Professor Neddy Welch in a WTTV/WGBH Boston co-production of Lucky Jim, adapted from the novel by Kingsley Amis. It aired originally as part of the Masterpiece series on PBS in the U.S. and starred Stephen Tompkinson in the title role of Jim Dixon, a luckless lecturer at a provincial British university.

Hardy played both Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, each on more than one occasion. He played Churchill most notably in Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), for which he was nominated for a BAFTA award, but also in The Sittaford Mystery, Bomber Harris and War and Remembrance. On 20 August 2010, he read Churchill's famous wartime address "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the speech. He played Roosevelt in the BBC serial, Bertie and Elizabeth, and in the French TV mini-series, Le Grand Charles, about the life of Charles de Gaulle. He also played Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in Elizabeth R and took the role of Sir John Middleton in the 1995 film version of Sense and Sensibility.

His big screen roles included Professor Krempe in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter'' films.

His voice performance as Robin Hood in Tale Spinners For Children, an LP from the 1960s, is considered one of the best Robin Hood renditions. His voice was also the voice of D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers and of Frédéric Chopin, in The Story of Chopin.

Awards
Hardy was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1981 Birthday Honours.

Personal life
His first marriage, in 1952, was to Elizabeth Fox, the daughter of Sir Lionel Fox; they had a son, Paul. This marriage ended in 1956. In 1961 he married Sally Pearson, the daughter of the baronet Sir Neville Pearson and Dame Gladys Cooper as well as a half-sister of John Buckmaster and a sister-in-law of Robert Morley. From this marriage, which ended in 1986, Hardy had two other children, one of whom is Justine Hardy, a journalist, activist and psychotherapist who founded Healing Kashmir.

He was a close friend of actor Richard Burton, whom he met at Oxford University. He shared some memories of their wartime friendship and read extracts from Burton's newly published diaries at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2012.

While playing Henry V, Hardy developed an interest in medieval warfare, and in 1963 he wrote and presented an acclaimed television documentary on the subject of the Battle of Agincourt. He also wrote two books on the subject of the longbow, Longbow: A Social and Military History and The Great Warbow: From Hastings to the Mary Rose with Matthew Strickland. He was one of the experts consulted by the archaeologist responsible for raising the Mary Rose. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Bowyers of the City of London from 1988 to 1990. In 1996 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

In February 2013, Hardy withdrew from his scheduled performance as Winston Churchill in Peter Morgan's play, The Audience, after suffering cracked ribs as the result of a fall.

Hardy died on 3 August 2017, aged 91, at Denville Hall, a home for retired actors.

Television

 * David Copperfield (1956) ... David Copperfield
 * The Buccaneers (1957 TV serial)
 * An Age of Kings (1960)
 * The Spread of the Eagle (1963) .... Coriolanus
 * The Troubleshooters (1966–1970)
 * The Baron (1966), episode "A Memory of Evil"
 * The Saint (1968), series 6, episode 4, "The Desperate Diplomat" .... Walter Faber
 * Manhunt (1969) .... Abwehr Sgt. Graz
 * Elizabeth R (1971) .... Robert Dudley
 * The Stalls of Barchester (1971)... Dr. Haynes
 * The Incredible Robert Baldick (1972) .... Sir Robert Baldick
 * The Gathering Storm (1974) .... Joachim von Ribbentrop
 * Edward the Seventh (1975) .... Albert, Prince Consort
 * Upstairs, Downstairs (1975), series 5, episode 8, "Such A Lovely Man"
 * The Duchess of Duke Street (1976) Episode: "A Lady of Virtue" ... George Duggan
 * All Creatures Great and Small (1978–1980 and 1988–1990; entire series) .... Siegfried Farnon
 * Play for Today (1979) Sir Malcolm Campbell
 * Twelfth Night (1980)
 * The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1980), narrator of BAFTA winning animation by Cosgrove Hall Films
 * Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), Winston Churchill
 * The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984) .... King Richard
 * Jenny's War (1985) .... Klein
 * Hot Metal (1986–1988) .... Terence "Twiggy" Rathbone
 * Northanger Abbey (1987) .... General Tilney
 * War and Remembrance (1988) .... Winston Churchill
 * Bomber Harris (1989) .... Winston Churchill
 * The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, episode "The Master Blackmailer" (1992) .... Charles Augustus Milverton
 * Middlemarch (1994) .... Mr. Brooke
 * Gulliver's Travels (1996) ....TV Mini-Series, Dr. Parnell
 * Castle Ghosts of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (1997) .... Host
 * Inspector Morse (1993), series 7, episode 3, "Twilight of the Gods"
 * Midsomer Murders (1999), series 2, episode 3, "Dead Man's Eleven" - Robert Cavendish
 * The 10th Kingdom (2000) .... Chancellor Griswold
 * The Lost World (2001) .... Professor Illingworth
 * Foyle's War, "The German Woman"
 * The Falklands Play (2002) .... Anthony Parsons (HM Ambassador to the UN)
 * Lucky Jim (2003) .... 	Professor Neddy Welch
 * Spooks (2003), second series, episode 4, "Blood and Money" .... Governor of the Bank of England
 * Making Waves (2004)
 * Agatha Christie's Marple, series 2, episode 4, "The Sittaford Mystery" (2006) .... Winston Churchill
 * Little Dorrit (2008) .... Tite Barnacle
 * Margaret (2009) .... Willie Whitelaw
 * Lewis, series 4, episode 2, "Dark Matter" (2010)
 * Churchill: 100 Days That Saved Britain (2015) .... Winston Churchill

title: Robert Hardy


text:
Recumbent bicycle

A recumbent bicycle is a bicycle that places the rider in a laid-back reclining position. Some recumbent riders may choose this type of design for ergonomic reasons: the rider's weight is distributed comfortably over a larger area, supported by back and buttocks. On a traditional upright bicycle, the body weight rests entirely on a small portion of the sitting bones, the feet, and the hands.

Others may choose a recumbent because some models also have an aerodynamic advantage; the reclined, legs-forward position of the rider's body presents a smaller frontal profile. Recumbents are much faster than upright bicycles, but they were banned by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in 1934. Recumbent races and records are now overseen by the World Human Powered Vehicle Association (WHPVA) and International Human Powered Vehicle Association (IHPVA).

Recumbents are available in a wide range of configurations, including: long to short wheelbase; large, small, or a mix of wheel sizes; overseat, underseat, or no-hands steering; and rear wheel or front wheel drive. A variant with three wheels is a recumbent tricycle.

Description
Recumbents can be categorized by their wheelbase, wheel sizes, steering system, faired or unfaired, and front-wheel or rear-wheel drive.

Wheelbase
Long-wheelbase (LWB) models have the pedals located between the front and rear wheels; short-wheelbase (SWB) models have the pedals in front of the front wheel; compact long-wheelbase (CLWB) models have the pedals either very close to the front wheel or above it. Within these categories are variations, intermediate types, and even convertible designs (LWB to CLWB) – there is no "standard" recumbent.

Wheel sizes
The rear wheel of a recumbent is usually behind the rider and may be any size, from around 16 in to the 700c (or 27″ on some older models, as on upright road bikes of that time) of an upright racing cycle. The front wheel is commonly smaller than the rear, although a number of recumbents feature dual 26-inch (ISO 559), 650c (ISO 571), 700c (ISO 622), or even 29 × 4″ oversize all-terrain tires. Given the higher rolling resistance of the smaller front wheel, loss of steering and control are somewhat more likely attempting sharp or quick changes of direction while crossing over patches of loose dirt, sand or pebbles. Larger diameter wheels generally have lower rolling resistance but a higher profile leading to higher air resistance. High-racer aficionados also claim that they are more stable, and although it is easier to balance a bicycle with a higher center of mass, the wide variety of recumbent designs makes such generalizations unreliable. Another advantage of both wheels being the same size is that the bike requires only one size of inner tube.

One common arrangement is an ISO 559 (26-inch) rear wheel and an ISO 406 or ISO 451 (20-inch) front wheel. The small front wheel and large rear wheel combination is used to keep the pedals and front wheel clear of each other, avoiding the problem on a short wheelbase recumbent called "heel strike" (where the rider's heels catch the wheel in tight turns). A pivoting-boom front-wheel drive (PBFWD aka moving bottom bracket recumbent) configuration also overcomes heel strike since the pedals and front wheel turn together. PBFWD bikes may have dual 26 in wheels or larger.

Steering
Steering for recumbent bikes can be generally categorized as OSS/ASS is generally direct—the steerer acts on the front fork like a standard bicycle handlebar—but the bars themselves may extend well behind the front wheel (more like a tiller); alternatively the bars might have long rearward extensions (sometimes known as Superman or Kingcycle bars). Chopper-style bars are sometimes seen on LWB bikes.
 * over-seat (OSS) or above seat steering (ASS);
 * under-seat (USS); or
 * center steering or pivot steering.

USS is usually indirect—the bars link to the headset through a system of rods or cables and possibly a bell crank. Most tadpole trikes are USS.

Center steered or pivot steered recumbents, such as Flevobikes and Pythons, may have no handlebars at all.

In addition, some trikes such as the Sidewinder have used rear-wheel steer, instead of the more common front-wheel steer. They can provide good maneuverability at low speeds, but have been reported to be potentially unstable at speeds above 25 mph.

Drive
Most recumbents have the cranks attached to a boom fixed to the frame, with a long drive chain for rear wheel drive. However, due to the proximity of the crank to the front wheel, front wheel drive (FWD) can be an option, and it allows for a much shorter chain. One style requires the chain to twist slightly to allow for steering.

Another style, pivoting-boom FWD (PBFWD), has the crankset connected to and moving with the front fork. In addition to the much shorter chain, the advantages to PBFWD are use of a larger front wheel for lower rolling resistance without heel strike (you can pedal while turning) and use of the upper body when sprinting or climbing. The main disadvantage to all FWD designs is "wheelspin" when climbing steep hills covered with loose gravel, wet grass, etc. This mainly affects off-road riders, and can be ameliorated by shifting the weight forward, applying steady pressure to the pedals, and using tires with more aggressive tread. Another disadvantage of PBFWD for some riders is a slightly longer "learning curve" due to adaptation to the pedal-steer effect (forces applied to the pedal can actually steer the bike). Beginner riders tend to swerve along a serpentine path until they adapt a balanced pedal motion. After adaptation, a PBFWD recumbent can be ridden in as straight a line as any other bike, and can even be steered accurately with the feet only. Cruzbike is the only PBFWD recumbent currently in production, and features a traditional steering axis similar to most standard and recumbent bikes. Flevobike formerly produced a center-steered FWD bike similar to the Python Lowracer.

Yet another drive-train variation is on rowing cycles where the rider rows using arms and legs.

Fully suspended bikes
Modern recumbent bikes are increasingly being fitted with front and rear suspension systems for increased comfort and traction on rough surfaces. Coil, elastomer, and air-sprung suspension systems have all been used on recumbent bikes, with oil or air-damping in the forks and rear shock absorbers. The maturation of fully suspended conventional mountain bikes has aided the development of these designs, which often use many of the same parts, suitably modified for recumbent use.

Fairings
Some riders fit their bikes with aerodynamic devices called fairings. These can reduce aerodynamic drag and help keep the rider warmer and drier in cold and wet weather. Fairings are also available for upright bikes, but are much less common. Fully enclosed bikes and trikes are considered velomobiles.

Seats
The seats themselves are either of mesh stretched tightly over a frame or foam cushions over hard shells like the Stinger pictured, which might be moulded or assembled from sheet materials. Hard-shell seats predominate in Europe, mesh seats in the USA.

Mountain bike recumbents
With the right equipment and design, recumbent bikes can be used for riding unpaved roads and offroad, just as with conventional mountain bikes. Because of their longer wheelbase and the manner in which the rider is confined to the seat, recumbents are not as easy to use on tight, curving unpaved singletrack. Large-diameter wheels, mountain gearing and off-road specific design have been used since 1999. Crank-forward designs that facilitate climbing out of the saddle, such as the RANS Dynamik, also can be used off-road.

Lowracers
Lowracers are a type of recumbent more common in Europe among racing enthusiasts. These typically have two 20″ wheels or a 26″ wheel at the rear and 20″ wheel at the front. The seat is positioned between the wheels rather than above them. The extreme reclined position, and the fact that the rider is sitting in line with the wheels rather than atop them, makes this type the most aerodynamic of unfaired recumbents.

Highracers
Highracers are distinguished by using two large wheels (usually ISO 559, 650c or 700c). This necessitates a higher bottom bracket than on a lowracer so that the rider's legs are above the front wheel, and this in turn requires a higher seat. The seating position may be otherwise identical to that on a lowracer allowing similar aerodynamics. "Racer" in the name implies that this will often be the case, since these bikes strive for speed.

Highracers are generally more maneuverable than lowracers since their higher center of mass make them easier to balance at lower speeds. Given the same seating position they may be faster than lowracers, since it is widely believed that rolling resistance is inversely proportional to wheel diameter. However, lowracer proponents reply that their design is faster due to aerodynamics. The reasoning is that the riders body is in line with the wheels, reducing drag.

Hip and elbow injuries are more common on highracers than on lowracers due to the greater height from which the rider can fall. However, the injuries are very rare and seldom serious.

Semi-recumbent and crank forward bicycles
Bicycles that use positions intermediate between a conventional upright and a recumbent are called semi-recumbent or crank forward designs. These generally are intended for casual use and have comfort and ease of use as primary objectives, with aerodynamics sacrificed for this purpose.

Tandem recumbents
Just as with upright bicycles, recumbents are built and marketed with more than one seat, thus combining the advantages of recumbents with those of tandem bicycles. In order to keep the wheelbase from being any longer than absolutely necessary, tandem recumbents often place the stoker's crankset under the captain's seat. A common configuration for two riders in the recumbent position is the sociable tandem, wherein the two riders ride side by side. There are also hybrid recumbent designs such as the Hase Pino Allround that utilize a recumbent stoker in the front, and an upright pilot in the rear.

Recumbent tricycles

Recumbent tricycles (trikes) are closely related to recumbent bicycles, but have three wheels instead of two. The three wheels can be arranged in two ways: delta trikes have one front wheel and two rear wheels, while tadpole trikes have two front wheels and one rear wheel.

Handcycles
In order to accommodate paraplegics and other individuals with little or no use of their legs, many manufacturers have designed and released hand-powered recumbent trikes, or handcycles. Handcycles are a regular sight at human powered vehicle (HPV) meetings and are beginning to be seen on the streets. They usually follow a delta design with front wheels driven by standard dérailleur gearing powered by hand cranks. Brake levers are usually mounted on the hand holds, which are usually set with no offset rather than the 180° of pedal cranks. The entire crank assembly and the front wheel turn together, allowing the rider to steer and crank simultaneously.

Although arms are weaker than legs, many hand cyclists are able to make use of the power of the whole upper body. A good hand cyclist can still achieve a respectable pace in competitions. Handcycles have also been used for touring, though few designers incorporate mudguards or luggage racks. Also, the gear ratios of standard handcycles tend to be less useful for long steep climbs.

Hand-and-foot recumbent tricycles
Recumbent cycles offer the possibility of combined hand and foot power inputs, and thus the potential for a full-body workout, and the option for persons with a weak or missing leg(s) to power a cycle. In one recumbent tricycle design the user makes the two front wheels change direction by shifting his center of weight, and moves forward by rotating the rear wheel. There are also hybrids between a handcycle, a recumbent bike and a tricycle; these bikes enable cycling by use of legs, despite a spinal cord injury

Recumbent quadracycles
Recumbent four-wheel cycles have the same general advantages of tricycles. For quadracycles with only one seat the stability improvements of the fourth wheel offer only a marginal advantage over a tadpole recumbent tricycle. More wheels introduce more weight and more complexity. The fourth wheel is only of the most benefit to the single-seat rider when going off-road. When two and sometimes four riders want to ride together in a sociable configuration the four-wheel recumbent cycle is a viable option.

Homebuilts
As with upright bikes, there is a subculture of recumbent builders who design and build home-built recumbents. Often these are assembled of parts from other bikes, particularly mountain bikes. The frame designs may be as simple as a long steel tube bent into the appropriate shape, or as elaborate as hand-built carbon fiber frames. For many builders, the engineering and construction of the bikes is as much of a challenge as riding them.

Folding
Several manufacturers offer folding recumbents to facilitate packing and travelling.

Couplers
It is possible to add couplers either during manufacturing or as a retrofit so that the frame can be disassembled into smaller pieces to facilitate packing and travel.

Stationary recumbents
As well as road-going recumbent bicycles with wheels, stationary versions also exist. These are often found in gyms but are also available for home use. Like a regular stationary exercise bike, these stay in one place and the user pedals against some kind of resistance mechanism such as a fan or alternator but in a recumbent position. These have the same comfort advantages as road-going recumbents. Stationary recumbents almost always have a fairly upright seat and the pedal crank is lower than the level of the seat. The seat is normally adjustable and is adjusted by sliding it along a rail.

Compared to uprights
There are striking differences between recumbents and upright bikes. Since recumbents vary widely, the advantages and disadvantages listed below may apply to different types to different degrees or not at all. (For example, balance is not a concern with tricycles.)

History
Recumbent bicycle designs date back to the middle of the 19th century. Several designs were patented around 1900, but these early designs were unsuccessful.

Early recumbents
Recumbent designs of both prone and supine varieties can be traced back to the earliest days of the bicycle. Before the shape of the bicycle settled down following Starley's safety bicycle, there was a good deal of experimentation with various arrangements, and this included designs which might be considered recumbent. Although these dated back to the 1860s the first recorded illustration of a recumbent considered as a separate class of bicycle is considered to be in the magazine Fliegende Blätter of 10 September 1893. This year also saw what is considered the first genuine recumbent, the Fautenil Vélociped. Patent applications for a number of recumbent designs exist in the late years of the 19th century, and there were discussions in the cycling press of the relative merits of different layouts. The Challand designs of 1897 and the American Brown of 1901 are both recognisable as forerunners of today's recumbents.

The Mochet 'Vélo-Velocar' and 'Vélorizontal'

A four-wheeled, two-seater, pedal-propelled car called the 'Velocar' was built in the 1930s by French inventor and light car builder Charles Mochet. Velocars sold well to French buyers who could not afford a motor car, possibly because of a poor economy during the Great Depression. The four-wheeled Velocars were fast but didn't corner well at high speed. Mochet then experimented with a three-wheel design and finally a mould-breaking two-wheel design based on the Vélocar technology.

The early models of Mochet's 'La bicyclette de l'Avenir' (The bicycle of the Future), the 'Vélo-Vélocar', or 'V-V' as the factory referred to them, used a 40mm steel-tube, single-beam frame and 450 x 55 wheels with handlebars over the rider and steering torque transmitted by bevel gears. Various types of Mochet-designed derailleur gears were fitted, with a single gear for the track models. Gears were mid-mounted using primary and secondary chains. The back-rest was adjustable on more sporting models.

To demonstrate the speed of his recumbent bicycle, Mochet had the design ratified by the UCI and UVF and enlisted cyclist Francis Faure, a Category 2 racer, to ride it in races. Faure was highly successful, defeating many of Europe's top cyclists both on the track and in road races, and setting new world records at short distances. Another cyclist, Paul Morand, won the Paris-Limoges race in 1933 on one of Mochet's recumbents.

On 7 July 1933, at a Paris velodrome, Faure rode a modified Vélo-Velocar 45.055 km in one hour, beating an almost 20-year-old hour record held by Oscar Egg, and attracting a great deal of attention.

When the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) met in February 1934, manufacturers of 'upright' bicycles lobbied to have Faure's one-hour record declared invalid. On 1 April 1934, the UCI published a new definition of a racing bicycle that specified how high the bottom bracket could be above the ground, how far it could be in front of the seat and how close it could be to the front wheel. The new definition effectively banned recumbents from UCI events for a combination of tradition, safety, and economic reasons.

Charles Mochet died a short time after the ban was enacted, still protesting against the UCI decision, and the firm continued to make recumbents under his widow and, later, Georges Mochet until at least 1941 for a limited number of customers. Their final versions were a single-chain design named the 'Vélorizontal', the final model using a 'Cyclo' four-speed gear.

After the UCI decision, Faure continued to race, and consistently beat upright bicycles with the Velocar. In 1938, Faure and Mochet's son, Georges, began adding fairings to the Velocar in hopes of bettering the world record of one hour for a bicycle with aerodynamic components. On 5 March 1938, Faure rode a faired Velocar 50.537 kilometers in an hour and became the first cyclist to travel more than 50 kilometers in an hour without the aid of a pace vehicle.

The UCI ban on recumbent bicycles and other aerodynamic improvements virtually stopped development of recumbents for four decades and remains in force. Although recumbent designs continued to crop up over the years they were mainly the work of lone enthusiasts and numbers remained insignificant until the 1970s. Georges Mochet died in 2008.

1970s resurgence and the IHPVA
While developments had been made in this fallow period by Paul Rinkowski and others, the modern recumbent movement was given a boost in 1969 when the Ground Hugger by Robert Riley was featured in Popular Mechanics. There was also the work of Chester Kyle and particularly David Gordon Wilson of MIT, two Americans who opposed the UCI restrictions and continued to work on fairings and recumbents. In 1974, they also nucleated the International Human Power speed Championship in Long Beach, California, from which the IHPVA grew. Kyle and his students had been experimenting with fairings for upright bicycles, also banned by the UCI. In 1975 the brothers John and Randy Schlitter started producing recumbents at their company, Rans, and became the first U.S. company to do so.

In 1978, the "Vélérique" is the very first commercialized recumbent bicycle (fully faired), by the Belgian Erik Abergen.

The Avatar 2000, a LWB bike very much like the current Easy Racers products, arrived in 1979. It was featured in the 1983 film Brainstorm, ridden by Christopher Walken, and in the popular cycling reference Richard's Bicycle Book by Richard Ballantine. From 1983 to 1991 Steven Roberts toured the U.S. in a modified Avatar, pulling a trailer with solar panels and a laptop, gaining press coverage and writing the book Computing Across America. A faired Avatar 2000 was the first two-wheeler to beat the European Vector three-wheeler in the streamliner races. For about ten years afterward, speed records were exchanged between Easy Racers with Freddy Markham in the cockpit and the Lightning Team. So America's strength became the flying 200 meter sprint in the streamliner division. The oil crises of the 1970s sparked a resurgence in cycling coincident with the arrival of these "new" designs.

A parallel but somewhat separate scene grew up in Europe, with the first European human power championships being held in 1983. The European scene was more dominated by competition than was the US, with the result that European bikes are more likely to be low SWB machines, while LWB are much more popular in the US (although there have been some notable European LWB bikes, such as the Peer Gynt).

In the 1980s
In 1984, Linear Recumbents of Iowa began producing bicycles. In 2002, Linear Manufacturing's assets were bought by Bicycle Man LLC and moved to New York. Since then owner Peter Stull has been working with senior engineering students at Alfred University, local engineers and machinists utilizing available technology including computer FEA testing to improve their recumbent bikes.

In the UK in the 1980s, the most publicised recumbent cycle in the UK was the delta configuration, sometime electrically powered Sinclair C5. Although sold as an "electric car", the C5 could be characterised as a recumbent tricycle with electrical assistance.

A study by Bussolari and Nadel (1989) led them to pick a recumbent riding position for the Daedalus flight even though the English Channel crossing was accomplished in the Gossamer Albatross with an upright position. Drela in 1998 confirmed "that there was no significant difference in power output between recumbent and conventional bicycling."

In the 2000s
Three of the largest recumbent manufacturers in the US went out of business after the 1990s, including BikeE (August 2002), ATP-Vision (early 2004) and Burley Design Cooperative (September 2006).

Performance
Over distances recumbent bicycles outperform upright bicycles as evidenced by their dominance in ultra-distance events like 24 hours at Sebring. Official speed records for recumbents are governed by the rules of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association. A number of records are recognised, the fastest of which is the "flying 200 m", a distance of 200 m on level ground from a flying start with a maximum allowable tailwind of 1.66 m/s. The current record is 144.17 km/h, set by Todd Reichert of Canada in a fully faired front-wheel-drive recumbent lowracer bicycle. The official record for an upright bicycle under IHPVA-legal conditions (but at sea level, not high altitude) is 82.53 km/h set by Jim Glover in 1986 with an English-made Moulton bicycle with a USA-made hardshell fairing around him and the bike.

The IHPVA hour record is 90.60 km, set by Sam Whittingham on 19 July 2009. The latest known hour record is 92.432 km kilometers (57.434 miles), set by Francesco Russo of Switzerland, using Metastretto on the DEKRA Test Oval track in Klettwitz, Germany, 26.06.2016

The equivalent record for an upright bicycle is 55.089 km, set by Victor Campenaerts in 2019. The UCI no longer considers the bike Chris Boardman rode for his 1996 record to be in compliance with its definition of an upright bicycle. Boardman's Monocoque bike was designed by Mike Burrows, whose Windcheetah recumbent trike (see above) also holds the record from Land's End to John o' Groats, 861 mi in 41 h 4 min 22 s with Andy Wilkinson riding.

In 2003, Rob English took on and beat the UK 4-man pursuit champions VC St Raphael in a 4000 m challenge race at Reading, beating them by a margin of 4 min 55.5 s to 5 min 6.87 s – and dropping one of the St Raphael riders along the way.

In 2009 Team RANS won the Race Across America (RAAM) on recumbents.

title: Recumbent bicycle


text:
User:Sam Francis/Socialism

''The following was written as a response to a message board debate which began with someone posting a link to a Milton Friedman article. I'm posting it here in order to reference it from Talk:Libertarian socialism. I suppose it might be useful for some articles, so it's here under the GNU/FDL, like everything else. Of course, it was never intended to be NPOV, so don't blame me for that. (Jeb is a bit of an anarchist/socialist, and the original poster was a Libertarian, I think.) -- Sam 19:31 Jan 9, 2003 (UTC)''

My main point of contention with Milton Friedman is the way he frames economics in a fundamentally black and white picture. He tells us, right at the beginning of his lecture, that "society's resources can be organised in one of two ways, or by some mixture of them." These two ways, he continues, are market economics and command economics -- "bottom up" and "top down", repectively.

He asserts that the market mechanism is bottom up, the implication being that markets give people the power. He also equates command economics with 'socialist enterprises' -- so that socialism is the authoritarian, "top down" structure. By framing it like this, he seems to be telling us that There Is No Alternative (an argument fondely known as TINA).

If we want liberty, we must have markets: that's the message. The only alternative to markets is socialism, which is command economics, and we all know where that leads -- totalitarianism.

Like Jeb, I disagree. Because what I advocate is not a market system, nor is it a command economy. It seems Friedman would have difficulty visualising this anomaly.

The problem with "socialism", as it has been applied in command economies such as the Soviet Union and Cuba, is that it has not been democratic, because democratic socialist structures are dangerous to power structures; they will ultimately destroy them. We can see that conflict in the Russian and Spanish revoutions, where anarchist (libertarian socialist) groups and various scapegoats, independant unions etc. were attacked and crushed by the Bolsheviks and Stalinists. (You can read about the Spanish experience in Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.)

The Marxist theory on attaining communism, as I understand it, is that first the structures of power -- the state -- should be taken over. This should be done by a Communist Party, which would not represent the people, it would be the people (also, there would be a revolutionary leadership, the "vanguard", which would direct the efforts of the people). The state be taken over via a mixture of electoral politics and revolutionary action, each taking a greater or lesser role in any given country as the situation dictates (ie. where there is a relatively free democratic process, the Party can succeed in gaining political influence; where there is autocratic rule, revolution is a much more desirable option). Once the state has been taken over, the 'ruling class' will be thrown out and the state will be used to create a communist society. Eventually, this state will "whither away".

Now, from the beginning most socialist anarchists disagreed. Mikhail Bakunin was the most prominent, being Marx's contemporary and acquaintance in the First International Workingmen's Association. The major, central objection was that the state can never be used to achieve communism or a free society of any kind. If the Communist Party is really 'of the people', and they have taken over the state, why should it whither away? Freedom can only be created by freedom; any kind of dictatorship is undesirable, no matter what its aim. As O'Brien puts it in Nineteen Eighty-Four, "[t]he object of power is power." The aim of a state is to perpetuate itself. Not even a 'Communist' state will 'whither away'.

So where 'Communist' Parties have succeeded in taking over states, they have not created communism, or got closer to it; all they have done is give socialism this strong connection with command economics. They have, as Friedman likes to point out, created top down relationships. But Friedman is wrong to associate these relationships with socialism, and his folly goes further when he implies that only market systems would be 'bottom up'.

The argument is that with a market, the consumer rules. And we are all consumers, of course. So, obviously, with a market, the people rule, and we have democracy. No?

No. Because what else are we? We are workers. We are friends, lovers. We have a multitude of different relationships with people; no question about human society can be framed from that one viewpoint, the view of the mass of consumers.

Anarchists want bottom up structures, not top down ones. That is the most basic principle of anarchist organisation. Given Friedman's association of command economics and socialism, which I think he shares with so many others like himself, I can understand the confusion that the terms 'libertarian socialism' or 'anarchist communism' must sow. This confusion of terms is annoying, although its history is quite interesting as an academic pursuit (just read about revolutions in 19th-20th century Europe and Russia). Not all socialists are Marxists, not all anarchists are socialists, not all communists are Bolsheviks. Certainly, no anarchist is a Marxist!

The world is not black and white, it a fucking rainbow. Understand that our common wish is for liberty; we just disagree on how to attain it, and, to some extent, what it means.

title: User:Sam Francis/Socialism


text:
User:Vinodmp

ml:User:Vinodmp I contribute to Malayalam and Kerala related articles like Malayalam cinema, Travancore, Malayalam alphabet, Malayalam calendar, Malayalam literature etc.

I also work on Malayalam Wikipedia

title: User:Vinodmp


text:
Igloo

An igloo (Inuit languages: iglu, Inuktitut syllabics ᐃᒡᓗ (plural: igluit ᐃᒡᓗᐃᑦ )), also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of suitable snow.

Although igloos are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used only by the people of Canada's Central Arctic and the Qaanaaq area of Greenland. Other Inuit tended to use snow to insulate their houses, which were constructed from whalebone and hides.

Snow is used because the air pockets trapped in it make it an insulator. On the outside, temperatures may be as low as -45 C, but on the inside, the temperature may range from -7 to 16 C when warmed by body heat alone.

Nomenclature

In the Inuit languages, the word iglu (plural igluit) can be used for a house or home built of any material. The word is not restricted exclusively to snowhouses (called specifically igluvijaq, plural igluvijait), but includes traditional tents, sod houses, homes constructed of driftwood and modern buildings. Outside Inuit culture, however, igloo refers exclusively to shelters constructed from blocks of compacted snow, generally in the form of a dome.

Several Inuit language dialects throughout the Canadian Arctic (Siglitun, Inuinnaqtun, Natsilingmiutut, Kivalliq, North Baffin) use iglu for all buildings, including snowhouses, and it is the term used by the government of Nunavut. An exception to this is the dialect used in the Igloolik region of Nunavut. Iglu is used for other buildings, while igluvijaq, (plural igluvijait, Inuktitut syllabics: ᐃᒡᓗᕕᔭᖅ) is specifically used for a snowhouse.

Types

There are three traditional types of igloos. Each has a different size from small to large and is used for a different purpose.

The smallest-sized igloos are constructed as temporary shelters. They are usually used for one or two nights, and therefore, are easier to build. On rare occasions, these small types of igloos are used during hunting trips which are often on open sea ice.

Intermediate-sized igloos were for semi-permanent, family dwelling. This was usually a single room dwelling that housed one or two families. Often there were several of these in a small area, which formed an Inuit village.

The largest-sized igloos were normally built in groups of two. One of the buildings was a temporary structure built for special occasions, while the other one was built nearby for living. These large igloos could have up to five rooms and house 20 people. A large igloo could be constructed from several smaller igloos attached by their tunnels, giving common access to the outside. These large igloos were used to hold community feasts and traditional dances.

Construction

Snow igloos are not spherical, but are built in a catenary, a curved shape more closely resembling a paraboloid. Using this shape, the stresses of snow as it ages and compresses are less likely to cause it to buckle because in an inverted paraboloid or catenoid the pressures are nearer to being exclusively compressive.

The individual snow bricks are cut out of the ground with saws and machete-like blades. They are originally cut out in a four-sided shape. However, later the snow bricks are often cut into five- or six-sided shapes to increase structural interlocking, similar to the stones used in the architecture of the Inca Empire.

Igloos gradually become shorter with time due to the compressive creep of the snow.

Building methods
The snow used to build an igloo must have enough structural strength to be cut and stacked appropriately. The best snow to use for this purpose is snow which has been blown by wind, which can serve to compact and interlock the ice crystals. Snow that has settled gently to the ground in still weather is not useful. The hole left in the snow, where the blocks are cut, is usually used as the lower half of the shelter.

Snow's insulating properties enable the inside of the igloo to remain relatively warm. In some cases, a single block of clear freshwater ice is inserted to allow light into the igloo. Igloos used as winter shelters had beds made of loose snow, skins, and caribou furs. Sometimes, a short tunnel is constructed at the entrance, to reduce wind and heat loss when the door is opened. Animal skins or a snow block can be used as a door.

The igloo is architecturally unique in that it is a dome that can be raised out of independent blocks leaning on each other and polished to fit without an additional supporting structure during construction. An igloo that is built correctly will support the weight of a person standing on the roof.

Traditionally, an igloo might be deliberately consolidated immediately after construction by making a large flame with a kudlik (qulliq, stone lamp), briefly making the interior very hot, which causes the walls to melt slightly and settle. Body heat is also adequate, although slower. This melting and refreezing builds up a layer of ice that contributes to the strength of the igloo.

title: Igloo