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Bibliography

Bibliography (from βιβλίον and -γραφία), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from -λογία). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes bibliography as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is "the study of books as physical objects" and "the systematic description of books as objects" (or descriptive bibliography).

Etymology
The word bibliographia(βιβλιογραφία) was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to mean the copying of books by hand. In the 12th century, the word started being used for "the intellectual activity of composing books." The 17th century then saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of description of books. Currently, the field of bibliography has expanded to include studies that consider the book as a material object. Bibliography, in its systematic pursuit of understanding the past and the present through written and printed documents, describes a way and means of extracting information from this material. Bibliographers are interested in comparing versions of texts to each other rather than in interpreting their meaning or assessing their significance.

Field of study
Bibliography is a specialized aspect of library science (or library and information science, LIS) and documentation science. It was established by a Belgian, named Paul Otlet (1868–1944), who was the founder of the field of documentation, as a branch of the information sciences, who wrote about "the science of bibliography." However, there have recently been voices claiming that "the bibliographical paradigm" is obsolete, and it is not today common in LIS. A defence of the bibliographical paradigm was provided by Hjørland (2007).

The quantitative study of bibliographies is known as bibliometrics, which is today an influential subfield in LIS and is used for major collection decisions such as the cancellation of big deals, through data analysis tools like Unpaywall Journals.

Branches
Carter and Barker describe bibliography as a twofold scholarly discipline—the organized listing of books (enumerative bibliography) and the systematic description of books as physical objects (descriptive bibliography). These two distinct concepts and practices have separate rationales and serve differing purposes. Innovators and originators in the field include W. W. Greg, Fredson Bowers, Philip Gaskell and G. Thomas Tanselle.

Bowers (1949) refers to enumerative bibliography as a procedure that identifies books in "specific collections or libraries," in a specific discipline, by an author, printer, or period of production (3). He refers to descriptive bibliography as the systematic description of a book as a material or physical artefact. Analytical bibliography, the cornerstone of descriptive bibliography, investigates the printing and all physical features of a book that yield evidence establishing a book's history and transmission (Feather 10). It is the preliminary phase of bibliographic description and provides the vocabulary, principles and techniques of analysis that descriptive bibliographers apply and on which they base their descriptive practice.

Descriptive bibliographers follow specific conventions and associated classification in their description. Titles and title pages are transcribed in a quasi-facsimile style and representation. Illustration, typeface, binding, paper, and all physical elements related to identifying a book follow formulaic conventions, as Bowers established in his foundational opus, The Principles of Bibliographic Description. The thought expressed in this book expands substantively on W. W. Greg's groundbreaking theory that argued for the adoption of formal bibliographic principles (Greg 29). Fundamentally, analytical bibliography is concerned with objective, physical analysis and history of a book while descriptive bibliography employs all data that analytical bibliography furnishes and then codifies it with a view to identifying the ideal copy or form of a book that most nearly represents the printer's initial conception and intention in printing.

In addition to viewing bibliographic study as being composed of four interdependent approaches (enumerative, descriptive, analytical, and textual), Bowers notes two further subcategories of research, namely historical bibliography and aesthetic bibliography. Both historical bibliography, which involves the investigation of printing practices, tools, and related documents, and aesthetic bibliography, which examines the art of designing type and books, are often employed by analytical bibliographers.

D. F. McKenzie extended previous notions of bibliography as set forth by Greg, Bowers, Gaskell and Tanselle. He describes the nature of bibliography as "the discipline that studies texts as recorded forms, and the processes of their transmission, including their production and reception" (1999 12). This concept broadens the scope of bibliography to include "non-book texts" and an accounting for their material form and structure, as well as textual variations, technical and production processes that bring sociocultural context and effects into play. McKenzie's perspective contextualizes textual objects or artefacts with sociological and technical factors that have an effect on production, transmission and, ultimately, ideal copy (2002 14). Bibliography, generally, concerns the material conditions of books [as well as other texts] how they are designed, edited, printed, circulated, reprinted, collected.

Bibliographic works differ in the amount of detail depending on the purpose and can generally be divided into two categories: enumerative bibliography (also called compilative, reference or systematic), which results in an overview of publications in a particular category and analytical or critical bibliography, which studies the production of books. In earlier times, bibliography mostly focused on books. Now, both categories of bibliography cover works in other media including audio recordings, motion pictures and videos, graphic objects, databases, CD-ROMs and websites.

Enumerative bibliography
An enumerative bibliography is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from "works cited" lists at the end of books and articles, to complete and independent publications. A notable example of a complete, independent publication is Gow's A. E. Housman: A Sketch, Together with a List of His Classical Papers (1936). As separate works, they may be in bound volumes such as those shown on the right, or computerized bibliographic databases. A library catalog, while not referred to as a "bibliography", is bibliographic in nature. Bibliographical works are almost always considered to be tertiary sources.

Enumerative bibliographies are based on a unifying principle such as creator, subject, date, topic or other characteristic. An entry in an enumerative bibliography provides the core elements of a text resource including a title, the creator(s), publication date and place of publication. Belanger (1977) distinguishes an enumerative bibliography from other bibliographic forms such as descriptive bibliography, analytical bibliography or textual bibliography in that its function is to record and list, rather than describe a source in detail or with any reference to the source's physical nature, materiality or textual transmission. The enumerative list may be comprehensive or selective. One noted example would be Tanselle's bibliography that exhaustively enumerates topics and sources related to all forms of bibliography. A more common and particular instance of an enumerative bibliography relates to specific sources used or considered in preparing a scholarly paper or academic term paper.

Citation styles vary. An entry for a book in a bibliography usually contains the following elements:
 * creator(s)
 * title
 * place of publication
 * publisher or printer
 * date of publication

An entry for a journal or periodical article usually contains:
 * creator(s)
 * article title
 * journal title
 * volume
 * pages
 * date of publication

A bibliography may be arranged by author, topic, or some other scheme. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. These descriptions, usually a few sentences long, provide a summary of the source and describe its relevance. Reference management software may be used to keep track of references and generate bibliographies as required.

Bibliographies differ from library catalogs by including only relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. However, the catalogs of some national libraries effectively serve as national bibliographies, as the national libraries own almost all their countries' publications.

Descriptive bibliography
Fredson Bowers described and formulated a standardized practice of descriptive bibliography in his Principles of Bibliographical Description (1949). Scholars to this day treat Bowers' scholarly guide as authoritative. In this classic text, Bowers describes the basic function of bibliography as, "[providing] sufficient data so that a reader may identify the book described, understand the printing, and recognize the precise contents" (124).

Descriptive bibliographies as scholarly product
Descriptive bibliographies as a scholarly product usually include information on the following aspect of a given book as a material object:
 * Format and Collation/Pagination Statement—a conventional, symbolic formula that describes the book block in terms of sheets, folds, quires, signatures, and pages

 * According to Bowers (193), the format of a book is usually abbreviated in the collation formula:
 * Broadsheet: I° or b.s. or bs.
 * Folio: 2° or fol.
 * Quarto: 4° or 4to or Q° or Q
 * Octavo: 8° or 8vo
 * Duodecimo: 12° or 12mo
 * Sexto-decimo: 16° or 16mo
 * Tricesimo-secundo: 32° or 32mo
 * Sexagesimo-quarto: 64° or 64mo
 * The collation, which follows the format, is the statement of the order and size of the gatherings.
 * For example, a quarto that consists of the signed gatherings:
 * 2 leaves signed A, 4 leaves signed B, 4 leaves signed C, and 2 leaves signed D
 * would be represented in the collation formula:
 * 4°: A2B-C4D2

 * Binding—a description of the binding techniques (generally for books printed after 1800)
 * Title Page Transcription—a transcription of the title page, including rule lines and ornaments
 * Contents—a listing of the contents (by section) in the book
 * Paper—a description of the physical properties of the paper, including production process, an account of chain-line measurements, and a description of watermarks (if present)
 * Illustrations—a description of the illustrations found in the book, including printing process (e.g. woodblock, intaglio, etc.), measurements, and locations in the text
 * Presswork—miscellaneous details gleaned from the text about its production
 * Copies Examined—an enumeration of the copies examined, including those copies' location (i.e. belonging to which library or collector)

Analytical bibliography
This branch of the bibliographic discipline examines the material features of a textual artefact—such as type, ink, paper, imposition, format, impressions and states of a book—to essentially recreate the conditions of its production. Analytical bibliography often uses collateral evidence—such as general printing practices, trends in format, responses and non-responses to design, etc.—to scrutinize the historical conventions and influences underlying the physical appearance of a text. The bibliographer utilizes knowledge gained from the investigation of physical evidence in the form of a descriptive bibliography or textual bibliography. Descriptive bibliography is the close examination and cataloging of a text as a physical object, recording its size, format, binding, and so on, while textual bibliography (or textual criticism) identifies variations—and the aetiology of variations—in a text with a view to determining "the establishment of the most correct form of [a] text" (Bowers 498[1]).

Bibliographers
A bibliographer is a person who describes and lists books and other publications, with particular attention to such characteristics as authorship, publication date, edition, typography, etc. A person who limits such efforts to a specific field or discipline is a subject bibliographer."

A bibliographer, in the technical meaning of the word, is anyone who writes about books. But the accepted meaning since at least the 18th century is a person who attempts a comprehensive account—sometimes just a list, sometimes a fuller reckoning—of the books written on a particular subject. In the present, bibliography is no longer a career, generally speaking; bibliographies tend to be written on highly specific subjects and by specialists in the field.

The term bibliographer is sometimes—in particular subject bibliographer—today used about certain roles performed in libraries and bibliographic databases.

One of the first bibliographers was Conrad Gessner who sought to list all books printed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew in Bibliotheca Universalis (1545).

Non-book material
Systematic lists of media other than books can be referred to with terms formed analogously to bibliography:
 * Discography—recorded music
 * Filmography—films
 * Webography (or webliography)—websites
 * Arachniography, a term coined by NASA research historian Andrew J. Butrica, which means a reference list of URLs about a particular subject. It is equivalent to a bibliography in a book. The name derives from arachne in reference to a spider and its web.

title: Bibliography


text:
King's X (album)

King's X is the fourth studio album by American rock band King's X, released in 1992 through Atlantic Records. The album marked the end of the band's relationship with producer Sam Taylor.

Track listing
The European version of the album includes the song "Junior's Gone Wild" (3:08) as track 7, between "Ooh Song" and "Not Just for the Dead". That song is also featured on the Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey soundtrack.

Accolades
In 2022, Guitar World ranked King's X #15 on their list of "The 30 Greatest Rock Guitar Albums of 1992".

Charts
Singles – Billboard (North America)

King's X

 * Doug Pinnick – bass guitar, vocals
 * Ty Tabor – guitars, dulcimer, sitar, Concertmate 650, vocals
 * Jerry Gaskill – drums & percussion, vocals

Additional musicians

 * Max Dyer – cellos
 * Sam Taylor (billed as "Little Willie T.") – 'pianto', organ splatches

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

title: King's X (album)


text:
Talk:Soft science fiction

Ca:n't everything be soft SciFi?
Every scifi book I read is character driven. Jurrasic Park, for example, is about the characters. It goes into some detail about the science, but the science itself is generally considered impossible. Terminal Man is another one. Books are character driven. You can't write a book (at least a popular one) that isn't character driven
 * "Soft science" doesn't mean that it's based less around science, it just means it's based around the social sciences as opposed to the natural sciences. Owen 19:52, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Isaac Asimov? Really? Where has he been classified that way? MightCould

Hmm. It might be a good idea for Hard Science Fiction and Soft Science Fiction to not contain too names on both at the same time... Cimon avaro

Asimov wrote a huge number of novels and stories. I think that at least some of them could be considered soft sci-fi. For instance, his Foundation series has little to do with technology or science and a lot to do with history, politics, human nature, empire-building, etc.

Should Philip K. Dick be on this list?

 * You really should sign your posts.
 * Anyway, to point, I'm not clear as to what "soft" sci-fi really is. Why again is Asimov soft sci-fi?  What's not scientific about it?  I think that the editor who wrote this is just not really sure what s/he is trying to say.  And I do mean what s/he is trying to say, because I've never seen this distinction in any literature on sci-fi.

 * And it does seem like this cockamamie definition would include Philip K. Dick, even such canonically sci-fi works as "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and "Minority Report."

 * Almondwine 19:22, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Personally, I am skeptical of the entire notion of soft science fiction as a genre or even a useful term. Within science fiction fandom this seems to be mostly used as a term of insult. For a genre, the term is overtly broad, as you can also see from the writers mentioned as examples. Lois McMaster Bujold certainly does not belong on this list. The historical example of Jack London's Iron Heel belongs under Dystopia/utopia, etc. User:Martin Wisse

This is what makes this whole issue confusing. You see, pilitics, history and human nature ARE SUBJECTS OF DIFFERENT SCIENCES. SCIENCE IS NOT JUST TECHNOLOGY. Actually, I even dare to say that if there is a huge explanation on how a technology works, it falls into the category of "Engineering fiction" (it doesnt exist Im making it up). Science fiction should deal with something thats scientific, in a broader sense than just something empirical like astronomy or biology. It should be a broader term, going to sociology, human sciences, including philosophy (especially contemporary philosophy that deals with the theory of knowledge).

--Mailrobot

Agreeing strongly with you here, Mailrobot. This is in itself an important SF concept I believe - the possibility of converging scientific paradigms and its consequenses - that is currently a blind spot in the majority of SF, that is stuck in the flow of mainstream science-technology representations, that are steered by dominant political discourses.

--Random scientist — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.114.119.190 (talk) 10:42, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

It's a very useful term.
I don't like hard science fiction. I find it nerdy and boring. The more common this term becomes, the easier it will be for me to find Bradbury-like authors. I found this short article very retarded.

I find it helpful
There really does seem to be a wide gap between "hard" scifi writers and "soft". The fringe work can be hard to define, yes, but there are some where you tell plainly that the author is focusing on the characters, on what the situation is doing to them and how they react. And there are others where you can tell that the characters are mostly cursory, and there only to move along the action and the plot, while the technology is the real star.

Not to be insulting, because this is mostly personal preference, but for me the split is basically between good and bad science fiction. I just can't get into stories where the "characters" jet back and forth across the galaxy, getting into fights and using technology, but never really growing. How humans react in these situations, what they DO instead of what is done to them. That's what really great writing is about.

-

I think that what makes sci-fi what it is, is how the story is based on a logic surrounding a science, mostly an experimental science, and ow character development comes from there. Star Trek TNG is a good example in TV. The problem the characters faced, and how they grew, it was all dictated by the IDEA behind the show: the speculation of what the "final frontier" is and its mystery, humans reacting in fron tof that. From there, humans face aliens, the Qs and all these things that have the answers they seek. I also think that sociology is an important aspect in sci-fi, present in books like Brave New World, even in Star Trek.

---Mailrobot

Needs expansion
Personally, I find the term quite useful, but I don't think that's the issue here. The point is, the term exists, and it needs better explanation than this article provides. Both the Hard SF and Space opera articles are more in-depth and provide examples of the genre in many media. This article is heavy on its literary critique of Asimov, which, while interesting, seems slightly inappropriate to me. It's on my watchlist; if someone else sees fit to fix it up before I get around to it, that would also be nice. Grammar nazi 06:42, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

 * A few suggestions and ideas to keep in mind for revision: 1) Historically, the term plays off "hard SF"--it's a back formation--and cannot be understood outside that context. 2) The notion that in soft SF "plots and themes tend to focus on human characters and their relations and feelings, while de-emphasizing the details of technological hardware and physical laws" is tempting but does not hold up under examination--any more than the contrary proposition does for hard SF. I have made a similar argument in the Hard SF discussion area. 3) Neither term should be seen as operating as a logical definition or rigorous and reliable genre label--they evolved out of readers' impressions and reflect (and fossilize) the tastes and biases of particular historical segments of the readership. Some commentators have tried to turn them into rigorous definitions, but with very limited success. ("The squirming facts exceed the squamous mind.")

 * So it's probably best to do what lexicographers do and stick to the terms as they have been and continue to be used. There are authorities who have already done the heavy lifting on this--Gary K. Wolfe, the Clute-Nicholls Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, among others. Much of the discussion here is engaged in re-inventing the wheel, and the bulk of the article itself is needlessly (and, if I understand Wiki culture correctly, inappropriately) dedicated to applying the label to this or that writer. If Bradbury is seem by a significant number of commentators to be a writer of soft SF, that, and not an argument supporting that proposition, is the point. RLetson 04:53, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Mostly a club to beat each other with
I don't think that hard vs. soft science fiction is a terribly useful distinction. Mostly it is used to denigrate the works someone doesn't like. Just because something is good doesn't make it "hard" science fiction, and just because something is bad doesn't make it "soft". There is a distinction that could be made, often, in hard science fiction, the story is about the science; while often in soft science fiction, the story is not about the science, and the science is the means to tell the story. But it is a rather peculiar distinction, as we rarely divide other types of literature in such a way. A war movie might be about a war, or the war might be a means to tell the story. We don't talk about hard and soft war stories.--RLent 21:12, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Dune

 * Dune generally maintains scientific and technical plausibility

Now come on, magical spice, prescience, and all human memory written into every cell of the body ? Even Star Trek was more hard science fiction than that. Taw 23:02, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree. The suggestion in that section that what is in Dune is conceivable in any scientific sense is ridiculous, especially the suggestion that Unified Field Theory would resolve it. I tried to see how I could rewrite it, but really I don't see scientific and technicial plausibility at all, so I deleted the entire section -- if someone wants to try again, feel free to look up the history, but current contents were garbage. --shoyer 00:14, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

All sci fi is speculative.
There's really no hard or soft science when you get right down to it. Sure, others use actual empirical facts to support the concepts in their stories, but they are all purely based on logic.

And ALL of modern science's concepts are derived from philosophy, so all science has a common background.

Im just asking whether this distinction actually exist, or if its just a Star Wars vs Star Trek kind of argument.

I do agree some science fiction are more scientifically accurate than others. But, I think the common assumption we can all agree with is that if you can have the exact same problem, and take out all the sci fi -ish elements, then its not sci fi (of "hard sci fi"). Thats the problem with the new Battlastar Galactica series, and arguably, Star Wars. I think there should be something about this in the articles of both hard and soft scifi. If there is already, I may have looked it up. I think it should be added because I think most editors would agree with this: if you can have the same story work in a different setting, it may not be sci-fi per se.

Mailrobot

Deletion?
Seeing as this article makes no references to any literature on science fiction, nor does it seem to reflect any understanding of the genre beyond the original authors hazy distinctions between what appears to be Star Wars/Star Trek-type sci-fi and the far more critically celebrated everything else that gets lumped in "soft science fiction", I suggest that this article be nominated for deletion.

I've NEVER seen a such a distinction among critics of sci-fi, and the fact that the article has no references leads me to believe that such a distinction does not really exist.

Almondwine 19:17, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I can assure Almondwine that the term "hard science fiction" has been around the critical/commentary literature on SF for a good fifty years, with the "soft" back-formation not far behind. (See my comments from April, above.) Since, like "space opera," it comes out of fandom, it's not really part of a rigorous critical vocabulary and thus makes for problems in a critical context. Still, both terms have been used by fans, reviewers, and even academic critics for decades. That said, I'm not sure that the term deserves an article all to itself--the concept might better be incorporated in the "Hard Science Fiction" article, since it's really part of a terminological dyad. RLetson 17:08, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Well Orson Scott Card has used the both the term soft and hard science fiction in the way wikipedia refrences. Unfortunatly, his is the only book I have handy that possibly mentions the word. Adam Y 14:20, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Major revision in order
The article as it stands is imprecise, unsourced, and much too long. Some of the points and examples are worth preserving, but it should be brought into line with the complementary article on hard science fiction (truth in advertising: current version edited my me) and the main article-in-progress on science fiction. The hard-soft pair really needs to be coordinated, and strong articles on those terms will also take some of the pressure off the science fiction article to cover every sub-term in detail. I will try to get to this sometime in the near future, but anyone else who feels up to it should pitch in. I strongly recommend starting with a look at the relevant articles in the Clute & Nicholls Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Wolfe's Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the example citations at the Jessesword SF lexicography site (http://www.jessesword.com). RLetson 18:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Proposed new lead paragraph
This is rough yet, but it does one thing I think is essential: to tie this article to the "hard SF" one.

 * Soft science fiction, or soft SF, like its complementary opposite hard science fiction, is a descriptive term that points to the role and nature of the science content in a science fiction story. The earliest sense of "soft SF" is SF based not on engineering or the "hard" sciences (for example, physics, astronomy, or chemistry) but on the "soft" sciences, and especially the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, and so on). (insert Jessesword/OED entry here as ref) Soft SF may also be less rigorous in its application of scientific ideas, for example allowing faster-than-light space travel in a setting that otherwise follows more conservative standards. A later-developed sense is that soft SF is more concerned with character, society, or other matters that are not centrally tied to scientific or engineering speculations, but this is not the sense in which the term is used by most critics and scholars.

I'd like to add some examples of actual uses (earlier the better) for both senses of the term and then a short list of exemplary works. RLetson 06:43, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

 * That's a lot better. :) It brings it into context with hard science fiction, and defines both its early and more mature forms.  I've got a few suggestions, though...  Perhaps use the phrase "physical, or 'hard' sciences"?  I like the 'feelings/emotions' part of the current intro, but can't say it made it into here.  Also like the telepathy thing, although, as was noted on Talk:Science fiction, there's sod all citations for it.  Perhaps that could be reworded as being "The use of paranormal phenomena is also a literary device of the soft science fiction genre".  Can't say I like the phrase 'points to', but I can't think of an alternative atm.  alludes?  Why is the FTL space travel thingie an example of soft SF?  Is it because the only different thing in this setting would be the FTL travel?  Have added a couple of tags to it where it confuses me/is vaguely worded/needs a reference, and put some minor grammar tweaks.  -Malkinann 10:45, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure if it needs to be in the lede, but there needs to be some discussion of the fact that soft sf / hard sf has been a common refrain in discussing sf writing by men vs. women. I'm somewhat amazed that it's not there already. Will work on it when I get the chance. --lquilter 16:02, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I've been considering an even more radical solution: to merge hard and soft SF articles (with appropriate redirects or whatever the Wiki term is). It would certainly simplify certain challenges to clear explanation to treat the pair as a pair (even though hard SF is the senior term). Of course, there are good reasons for retaining separate articles (people look up single terms, not pairs or families or whatever), but if I were doing a class prep to explain a bunch of critical and descriptive terms relating to SF, that's the way I would arrange it.

About FTL: that seems to me to be one of those SF enabling devices that is often allowed in stories that otherwise follow an "only real/plausible science or tech allowed" path. There are others--notably alien-intelligence designs that permit us to interact with them so there can be a story at all. My point would be that the issues addressed by the hard/soft labels are what are sometimes called decorum issues, and that they are by their nature flexible or variable or relative. Hard and soft SF are not subgenres of SF but an axis along which stories can be arranged, and given the variability of the rules that readers can apply, there is nothing universal or inevitable about any given arrangement. (How "hard" is Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations"? Poul Anderson's "Kyrie"? Nancy Kress's "Beggars in Spain"?) And if I were to continue to use the hard-soft axis metaphor, I would have to admit that it's not just one axis but an indeterminate number of them, which yields an N-dimensional descriptive space. But that's probably more than anyone wants to hear about my take on the problems of literary taxonomy.

About hard, soft, and gender: There have been discussions about such correlations, but those strike me as not particularly close to the heart of the problem of definition-and-example that I take to be Job One of an encyclopedia article. In fact, I take the issue to be a distraction from plain old taxonomy and an artifact of subcultural tensions (e.g., Real Men Don't Do Biology/Anthropology/Whatever) that are now or ought to be moot. But we can certainly talk about it. RLetson 17:32, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure what you mean by "plain old taxonomy" but I heartily agree that the terms were used -- invented, some would say -- as an "artifact of cultural tensions". The artifactual nature of the hard/soft distinction is one reason why it doesn't work very well as taxonomy -- and is in fact encyclopedic and part of the "definition". Lest we risk ahistoricity, we should surely explain why & how these terms were invented, used, and popularized, and gender dynamics was a significant part of that. I'll work on it ... next week after the job talk. --lquilter 00:54, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

 * (It's not even historical -- see, e.g., Joe Quirk's comment 1/19) --lquilter 19:46, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Please don't merge hard and soft science fiction. They are very intertwined, but they are also interesting in their own right. Merging soft and social science fiction may be a start, though. - Malkinann 22:34, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

An actual draft proposal
I suggested a revision for this article a while back, and here is a more finished version of what I've come up with to replace the current first two paragraphs. I would also propose cutting nearly all of the long body of material that follows those paragraphs--it's not sourced and in fact sounds like someone's own working out of the issues. There is probably a place for a brief set of examples of writers and texts that exemplify the various senses of "soft SF," but this should be compiled from existing criticism and commentary rather than pulled out of one or more of our own heads. In any case, here's the draft--

 * Soft science fiction, or soft SF, like its complementary opposite hard science fiction, is a descriptive term that points to the role and nature of the science content in a science fiction story. The term first appeared in the late 1970s and early 1980s and indicated SF based not on engineering or the "hard" sciences (for example, physics, astronomy, or chemistry) but on the "soft" sciences, and especially the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, and so on).REF HERE Science Fiction Citations: Soft Science Fiction REF END A sense that may have developed from this hard/soft opposition is that soft SF is more concerned with character, society, or other speculative ideas and themes that are not centrally tied to scientific or engineering speculations. Soft SF may also be seen as less rigorous in its application of scientific ideas, for example allowing faster-than-light space travel in a setting that otherwise follows more conservative standards.

 * Peter Nicholls writes that soft SF is a "not very precise item of sf terminology" and that the contrast between hard and soft is "sometimes illogical."REF HERE "Soft SF," Encyclopedia of Science FictionREF END In fact, in all senses of the term, the boundaries between "hard" and "soft" are not definite or universally agreed-upon, and there is no single standard of scientific "hardness" or "softness." Some readers might consider any deviation from the possible or probable (for example, including faster-than-light travel or paranormal powers) to be a mark of "softness." Others might see an emphasis on character or the social implications of technological change (however possible or probable) as a departure from the science-engineering-technology issues that ought to be the focus of hard SF. Given this lack of objective and well-defined standards, "soft science fiction" is not a term for a genre or subgenre of SF but for a tendency or quality--one pole of an axis that has "hard science fiction" as the other pole.

Comments, questions, objections, clarifications, and so on encouraged. RLetson 03:22, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Posted rewrite. RLetson 22:42, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Reverted examples
Because they were unsourced and not connected to the understanding of "soft science fiction" that is being developed in the article. Exemplars need to be drawn from authorities ("says who?" is always an appropriate question here) and ideally should illustrate the abstract definition--and, if appropriate, lead to a more refined and precise definition. (I suspect that this is not going to be easy, since there is no single, sharp-edged definition of the term. . . .) RLetson 03:26, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Misleading
I think the idea that soft science fiction is that which is based on social sciences isn't really true, despite what that one cited source may say. While science fiction based on social sciences is usually soft, not all science fiction based on physics or biology is "hard". Social science fiction is already a term, and it's just part of soft SF. Soft science fiction is simply used to denote works that aren't "hard" (i.e. works where the focus is on the technology itself, and the rigorous detail put into it, with usually little focus on traditional plot or character development). For example, Back To the Future isn't based on psychology or sociology, but it's very much soft science fiction. From what I've seen soft SF falls into three main categories: Social SF, Space Opera or Adventure/Pulp SF, and Literary SF focused more on character development than on the technology itself, all of which may or may not involve made up science, time-travel, or things such as psychic abilities. Brc2000 (talk) 12:46, 23 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm going to second this. The muddling of "soft" and "social" is definitely not in congruence with my experience of the science fiction community. I've always experienced it as a Cartesian plane where the axes are hardness and socialness (sic). Of course anecdotal evidence is blah blah etc. Winston Spencer (talk) 14:38, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

I also agree. There is an enormous difference between social-SF works like Orwell's quite realistic 1984 and "plain" SF with implausible or unscientific elements (e.g. Star Trek when featuring telepathy or telekinesis without even an attempt to create some scientific backing for it). How could those two examples be classified as a same subgenre? Moreover, some of the works classified as "hard SF" even here on WP, have strong social or psychological messages, for example Carl Sagan's and Stanislaw Lem's novels. This article really needs some rethinking I say... --Arny (talk) 12:38, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Need list of examples
I'll like to see a list of prominent examples of soft science fiction, like that in Hard science fiction. Dough34 (talk) 19:00, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

Surface Tension both hard and soft SF?
Surface Tension (1952) is listed as an example of both hard SF and soft SF. Which is it? 2603:3024:1C01:5C00:311D:8763:AEA3:E5C9 (talk) 19:25, 23 October 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Soft science fiction


text:
Mingrelian

Mingrelian may refer to:
 * the Mingrelians
 * the Mingrelian language

title: Mingrelian


text:
Lüneburg (region)

Lüneburg was one of the four Regierungsbezirke of Lower Saxony, Germany, located in the north of the federal state between the three cities Bremen, Hamburg and Hanover.

The region was created under royal Hanoverian rule in 1823 as Landdrostei Lüneburg (roughly: High Bailiwick of Lüneburg), renamed Regierungsbezirk (roughly: governorate) in 1885, when it was a subdivision of the Prussian province of Hanover. On 1 February 1978 the Lüneburg Region incorporated the neighbouring Stade Region. The governorate, like all the other Lower Saxon governorates, was dissolved in 2004.

Kreise (districts)
 * 1) Celle
 * 2) Cuxhaven
 * 3) Harburg
 * 4) Lüchow-Dannenberg
 * 5) Lüneburg
 * 6) Osterholz
 * 7) Rotenburg
 * 8) Heidekreis
 * 9) Stade
 * 10) Uelzen
 * 11) Verden

title: Lüneburg (region)


text:
Martha Stewart

Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, merchandising and e-commerce. She has written numerous bestselling books, was the publisher of Martha Stewart Living magazine and hosted two syndicated television programs: Martha Stewart Living, which ran from 1993 to 2004, and The Martha Stewart Show, which ran from 2005 to 2012.

In 2004, Stewart was convicted of felony charges related to the ImClone stock trading case; she served five months in federal prison for fraud and was released in March 2005. There was speculation that the incident would effectively end her media empire, but in 2005 Stewart began a comeback campaign and her company returned to profitability in 2006. Stewart rejoined the board of directors of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in 2011 and became chairwoman of her namesake company again in 2012. The company was acquired by Sequential Brands in 2015. Sequential Brands Group agreed in April 2019 to sell Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia including the Emeril brand to Marquee Brands for $175 million with benchmarked additional payments.

Early life
Martha Stewart was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on August 3, 1941. She is the second of six children born to parents Edward Kostyra (1912–1979) and Martha (née Ruszkowski; 1914–2007) and is of Polish heritage. Both her parents were teachers, her father later becoming a pharmaceutical salesman. When Stewart was three years old, the family moved to Nutley, New Jersey. She adopted the name "Grace" for her Catholic confirmation name.

When Stewart was 10, she worked as the occasional babysitter for the children of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Gil McDougald, all players for the New York Yankees. Mickey and Merlyn Mantle had four sons, whom Stewart watched and for whom she organized birthday parties. She also began modeling. At 15, Stewart was featured in a television commercial for Unilever. She went on to appear in television commercials and in magazines, including one of Tareyton's "Smokers would rather fight than switch!" cigarette advertisements. During her college years, she supplemented her scholarship money through "modeling jobs at $15/hour — which was a lot of money at that time." Among the companies she modeled for was Chanel.

Stewart's mother taught her how to cook and sew. Later, she learned the processes of canning and preserving when she visited her grandparents' home in Buffalo, New York. Her father had a passion for gardening and passed on much of his knowledge and expertise to his daughter. Stewart was also active in many extracurricular activities, such as the school's newspaper and art club.

Stewart graduated from Nutley High School. She attended Barnard College of Columbia University, originally planning to major in chemistry, but switching to art, history, and later architectural history. To help pay her college tuition, she did fashion modeling for Chanel. During this time, she met Andrew Stewart, who finished his law degree at Yale Law School. They married in July 1961. She returned to Barnard a year after their marriage to graduate with a double major in history and architectural history.

Career
In 1967, Martha Stewart began a second career as a stockbroker, her father-in-law's profession. Meanwhile, Andrew Stewart founded a publishing house and served as chief executive of several others. Andrew and Martha Stewart moved to Westport, Connecticut, where they purchased and restored the 1805 farmhouse on Turkey Hill Road that would later become the model for the TV studio of Martha Stewart Living. During the project, Stewart's panache for restoring and decorating became apparent.

In 1976, Stewart started a catering business in her basement with a friend from her modeling days, Norma Collier. The venture quickly became successful but soured when Collier alleged that Stewart was difficult to work with, and was also taking catering jobs on the side. Stewart soon bought Collier's portion of the business. Stewart was also hired as the manager of a gourmet food store, the Market Basket, but after a disagreement with the owners at the mini-mall she was forced out and opened her own store.

Andrew had become the president of prominent New York City publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. In 1977, he was responsible for releasing the English-language edition of The Secret Book of Gnomes series, by Dutch authors Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet, which quickly became a blockbuster success and was on The New York Times Best Seller list. He contracted Stewart's company to cater the book release party, where Stewart was introduced to Alan Mirken, head of Crown Publishing Group. Mirken was impressed by Stewart's talent as a chef and hostess and later contacted her to develop a cookbook, featuring recipes and photos from the parties that Stewart hosted. The result was her first book, Entertaining (December 13, 1982), ghostwritten by Elizabeth Hawes.

Following the success of Entertaining, Stewart released many more books under the Clarkson Potter publishing imprint, including Martha Stewart's Quick Cook (1983), Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres (1984), Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts (1985), Weddings (1987), which was also ghostwritten by Elizabeth Hawes, The Wedding Planner (1988), Martha Stewart's Secrets for Entertaining (1988), Martha Stewart's Quick Cook Menus (1988), and Martha Stewart's Christmas (1989), among others. During this time, she also authored dozens of newspaper columns, magazine articles, and other pieces on homemaking, and made numerous television appearances on programs such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live.

Andrew and Martha Stewart separated in 1987 and divorced in 1990.

Later career
In 1990, Stewart signed with Time Publishing Ventures to develop a new magazine, Martha Stewart Living, for which Stewart would serve as editor-in-chief. The first issue was released in late 1990 with an initial rate base of 250,000. Circulation would peak in 2002 at more than 2 million copies per issue.

In 1993, Stewart began a weekly half-hour television program, also called Martha Stewart Living, based on her magazine. The show expanded to weekdays in 1997 and later to a full hour show in 1999 with half-hour episodes on weekends, and ran until 2004. Stewart also became a frequent contributor to NBC's Today Show and later to CBS's The Early Show, and starred in several prime time holiday specials on the CBS network.

On the cover of their May 1995 issue, New York Magazine declared Stewart "the definitive American woman of our time".

In 2019, it was reported that Stewart was entering the cannabis industry with her own brand.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
In September 1997, with the assistance of business partner Sharon Patrick, Stewart was able to secure funding to purchase the various television, print, and merchandising ventures related to the Martha Stewart brand, and consolidate them into a new company, named Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO). Stewart served as chairwoman, president, and CEO of the new company and Patrick became Chief Operations Officer. By organizing all of the brand's assets under one roof, Stewart thought she could promote synergy and have greater control of the brand's direction through the business's activities. That same month, Stewart announced in Martha Stewart Living the launch of a companion website and a catalogue business, called Martha by Mail. The company also had a direct-to-consumer floral business.

On October 19, 1999, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MSO. The initial public offering was set at US$18 per share, and rallied to US$38 by the end of trading, making Stewart a billionaire on paper and the first female self-made billionaire in the United States. The stock price slowly went down to $16 per share by February 2002. Stewart was then and continues to be the majority shareholder, commanding 96% control of voting power in the company.

Stock trading case and conviction
According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Stewart avoided a loss of $45,673 by selling all 3,928 shares of her ImClone Systems stock on December 27, 2001, after receiving material, nonpublic information from Peter Bacanovic, her broker at Merrill Lynch. The day following her sale, the stock value fell 16%.

In the months that followed, Stewart drew heavy media scrutiny, including a Newsweek cover headlined "Martha's Mess". Notably, on June 25, 2002, CBS anchor Jane Clayson grilled Stewart on the air about ImClone during her regular segment on The Early Show. Stewart continued chopping cabbage and responded: "I want to focus on my salad." On October 3, 2002, Stewart resigned her position, held for four months, on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange, following a deal prosecutors had made with Douglas Faneuil, an assistant to Bacanovic.

On June 4, 2003, Stewart was indicted by a grand jury on nine counts, including charges of securities fraud and obstruction of justice. Stewart voluntarily stepped down as CEO and Chairwoman of MSLO, but stayed on as chief creative officer. She went on trial in January 2004. Prosecutors showed that Bacanovic had ordered his assistant to tell Stewart that the CEO of ImClone, Samuel D. Waksal, was selling all his shares in advance of an adverse Food and Drug Administration ruling. The FDA action was expected to cause ImClone shares to decline.

Monica Beam, a shareholder of MSLO, also brought a derivative suit against Stewart and other directors and officers of the company. It went before the Supreme Court of Delaware in 2004 and was ultimately dismissed.

Sentence
After a highly publicized six-week jury trial, Stewart was found guilty in March 2004 of felony charges of conspiracy to obstruct, of obstruction of an agency proceeding, and of making false statements to federal investigators and was sentenced in July 2004 to serve a five-month term in a federal correctional facility and a two-year period of supervised release (including five months of electronic monitoring).

Bacanovic and Waksal were also convicted of federal charges and sentenced to prison terms. Stewart also paid a fine of $30,000.

In August 2006, the SEC announced that it had agreed to settle the related civil case against Stewart. Under the settlement, Stewart agreed to disgorge $58,062 (including interest from the losses she avoided), as well as a civil penalty of three times the loss avoided, or $137,019. She also agreed to a five-year ban from serving as a director, CEO, CFO, or any other officer role responsible for preparing, auditing, or disclosing financial results of any public company. In June 2008, the UK Border Agency refused to grant her a visa to enter the United Kingdom because of her criminal conviction for obstructing justice. She had been planning to speak at the Royal Academy on fashion and leisure industry matters.

Incarceration
Despite Stewart's preference to be incarcerated in Connecticut or Florida, her confinement was set in Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia. This location was disfavored by Stewart; in 2004, her lawyer said that the remoteness would make it difficult for her then-90-year-old mother to visit. Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum recommended to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that Stewart be given her first choice, Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, or her second choice, Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman. However, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice said the BOP would not send her to FCI Danbury, because the news media could too easily access the facility. The bureau could not send Stewart to FCC Coleman, because of complications from Hurricane Ivan; the Coleman complex filled because inmates from Federal Correctional Institution, Marianna, were moved to Coleman. Therefore, the Federal Bureau of Prisons assigned Stewart to Alderson. The spokesperson said he was concerned the assignment to Alderson could be perceived as being vindictive. Stewart's daughter, Alexis, said she believed the BOP "may have made a point of sending her far away."

Stewart reported to FPC Alderson for her prison sentence on October 8, 2004. While in confinement, she took a job and became an informal liaison between the administration and her fellow inmates. The People special ''Scandals! That Rocked America'' stated, "Some expected America's goddess of domestic perfection to fall into terminal despair." Stewart was released from FPC Alderson at 12:30 AM on March 4, 2005. She was then placed in a two-year term of supervised release; during five of those months, she was placed in home confinement with electronic monitoring. Stewart served her home confinement at her residence in Bedford, New York. She was allowed to leave her house for 48 hours per week for work-related visits. After her home confinement ended, but while her supervised release continued, she was required to remain employed and not to associate with people with criminal records. In addition, during the supervised release, she was required to receive permission from federal officials if she was going to leave the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Post-conviction and current projects
Following her release from prison in March 2005, Stewart launched a highly publicized comeback and was once again involved in Martha Stewart Living. Offerings of her company's Martha Stewart Everyday line at Kmart were expanded to include a new line of ready-made home furnishings, and its mass market interior paint line became available at the larger Sears stores. However, the most heavily promoted aspect of her comeback was in television. Stewart returned to daytime television with The Martha Stewart Show and appeared in an adapted version of The Apprentice (called The Apprentice: Martha Stewart). Both shows premiered in September 2005, and both were produced by Mark Burnett. Her prime time Apprentice spin-off received poor ratings. The Apprentice: Martha Stewart was not renewed for a second season.

In October 2005, Stewart released a new book, titled The Martha Rules, on starting and managing a new business, and a month later, her company released Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. In October 2006, Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook, a reference book about looking after a house, was published by Clarkson Potter. She also is a regular contributor of cooking, crafts, and gardening segments on NBC's Today show. Stewart's daily talk show was nominated in six categories for the 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards in 2006, including Best Host and Best Show. MSLO launched a line of houses that carry her name to be built by KB Home, initially in Cary, North Carolina, and ultimately in various other locations nationwide. The first homes, which were inspired by Stewart's homes in New York and Mount Desert Island in Maine, were completed in early 2006. Ultimately, 650 homes are planned, with prices from the low $200,000s to mid-$400,000s. A line of paper-based crafts for EK Success is also in development. In September 2007, she launched an upscale line of housewares for Macy's, which was the largest brand launch in Macy's history. Appearing in commercials for the line, Stewart stated she had designed more than 2,000 items exclusively for Macy's. The line includes bedding, bath, cookware, and dinnerware. In addition to television and merchandising, MSLO launched a 24-hour satellite radio channel with Sirius in November 2005, on which Stewart currently hosts a weekly call-in show.

Stewart also made a special appearance on the comedy-drama series Ugly Betty, in the November 16, 2006, episode "Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral", in which she gave her friend Wilhelmina Slater (played by Vanessa Williams) tips on how to prepare a turkey. Justin Suarez (played by Mark Indelicato) is a fan of Stewart.

In July 2006, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced a multi-year agreement with FLOR, Inc., the eco-friendly manufacturer of high-style modular floor coverings, to manufacture and market a new line of Martha Stewart-branded carpet tiles. The Martha Stewart Floor Designs by FLOR line debuted in 2007 with the distinctive design and color palette associated with the Martha Stewart brand. The agreement with FLOR was part of the Martha Stewart organization's growing home furnishings program, which includes a wide range of products such as furniture with Bernhardt, wall color with Lowe's, and floor coverings with FLOR.

On September 14, 2007, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced that it had signed a partnership with E & J Gallo Winery to produce a wine brand with label Martha Stewart Vintage (for sale in six cities, in January 2008, at $15). The 15,000 cases to be sold included 2006 Sonoma County Chardonnay, 2005 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2006 Sonoma County Merlot (for Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, North Carolina, Denver, Phoenix, and Portland, Oregon). Martha Stewart also signed a contract with Costco to offer frozen and fresh food under the Kirkland Signature label.

In July 2008, craft items under the names "Martha Stewart Celebrate" and "Martha Stewart Create", two divisions of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, premiered in Walmart stores. The deal came about, in part, due to the closing of more than 600 Kmart stores in the U.S.

In a move from broadcast television to cable, on January 26, 2010, Hallmark Channel and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced a multi-year strategic partnership. Her hour-long daytime television series Martha, formerly The Martha Stewart Show, moved to the Hallmark Channel on September 13, 2010. It aired on Hallmark for two seasons, before cancellation in early 2012, with the final episode airing on May 11, 2012.

New York Magazine reported in 2011 that Martha Stewart Living had only made a profit in one of the previous eight years. That same year, Stewart debuted a new 30-minute show, Martha Bakes, on the Hallmark Channel.

Stewart made another foray into acting with a debut on the NBC legal drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She played a private school headmistress in the episode entitled "Learning Curve" (airdate April 2012).

A new television series, Martha Stewart's Cooking School, debuted on PBS in October 2012. Each weekly, 30-minute episode covers cooking techniques and basics. It is based on her eponymous book.

In 2014, Stewart reportedly partnered with eBay to create the American Made Martha Stewart online store. This marketplace allows a platform to more than 400 American vendors and offers them a chance to grow their brand and popularize their products.

In the fall of 2016, VH1 premiered a new show featuring Stewart and her friend Snoop Dogg called Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party, featuring games, recipes, and musical guests. Snoop Dogg and Stewart also later starred together in a Super Bowl commercial for T-Mobile during Super Bowl LI in February 2017.

Marley Spoon is a project of packaged and home-delivered ingredients and recipes for preparation at home. Stewart was originally a blind-tester and then joined CEO Fabian Siegel on a joint venture.

In June 2018, Stewart started appearing as a recurring judge for Chopped, a cooking competition on the Food Network. In October 2018, she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show alongside Julia Roberts.

In February 2019, Canopy Growth (CGC), a Canadian marijuana company, announced that Stewart would join their company as an adviser.

A gardening show called Martha Knows Best premiered on HGTV on July 31, 2020. In it, Stewart provides gardening help to individual callers and to some of her celebrity friends. She also demonstrates some of the projects and improvements at her large (150 acre) estate. A second season aired from October 28 to December 4, 2020. A continuation entitled Martha Gets Down and Dirty premiered on Discovery+ on July 1, 2021.

In September 2020, Martha Stewart launched a line of CBD gummy supplements in association with Canopy Growth. In September 2022, Oregon-based CBD producer Wyld filed a lawsuit against the company for copyright infringement relating to the packaging of the line of products.

In June 2022, Martha Stewart announced that she would be launching her first original podcast, entitled The Martha Stewart Podcast, in partnership with iHeart Radio. On June 15, 2022, Stewart shared that Snoop Dogg would be the guest on the first episode of the podcast, which debuted on June 22, 2022. Stewart introduced three new shows on The Roku Channel in 2022:  Martha Gardens,  Martha Cooks, and  Martha Holidays.

In May 2023, Stewart appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue as the cover model. At 81 years old, Stewart is the oldest model to feature on the cover.

Personal life
In 1961, she married Andrew Stewart, then a student at Yale Law School. Their only child, daughter Alexis, was born in 1965. The couple separated in 1987 and divorced in 1990. Subsequently, Martha Stewart dated Anthony Hopkins but ended the relationship after she saw The Silence of the Lambs. She stated she was unable to avoid associating Hopkins with the character of Hannibal Lecter.

Stewart dated billionaire Charles Simonyi, who was an early employee of Microsoft and head of their software group, on and off for 15 years. She featured footage of him as a space tourist aboard Soyuz on her television show in 2007. They broke up around February 2008.

Stewart is an animal lover. Her pets include champion show Chow Chow dogs, French Bulldogs, Himalayan cats, a Fell Pony named Ben Chunch, and Friesian horses. After her daughter informed her about fur farming, Stewart ceased to wear real furs.

Martha Kostyra, Stewart's mother, died at the age of 93 on November 16, 2007. Kostyra, also called "Big Martha" by her family, had appeared on Martha Stewart Living numerous times.

Stewart resides in Katonah, a hamlet of the town of Bedford, New York. She also maintains a 35000 sqft residence on Mount Desert Island in Seal Harbor, Maine, known as Skylands, the former summer estate of automobile designer and tycoon Edsel Ford, with gardens designed by renowned landscape architect Jens Jensen (1922).

In 2020, an appearance by Jimmy Kimmel on the TV show Finding Your Roots revealed that he and Stewart are cousins.

Recognition
In 1995, Stewart received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

In 1997, Martha Stewart was honored with an Edison Achievement Award for her commitment to innovation throughout her career.

In 2018, Stewart was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

In 2020, Stewart was inducted into the Licensing International Hall of Fame.

Portrayal in popular media
Martha Stewart has been portrayed and parodied in all forms of media. Two television films have been made out of her life story: Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart (2003) and Martha: Behind Bars (2005). She was portrayed by Cybill Shepherd in both films. A character loosely based on her, Judy King, featured in the television series Orange is the New Black.

She also made a cameo appearance in the fourth season of HBO's High Maintenance.

title: Martha Stewart


text:
Lignin

Lignin is a class of complex organic polymers that form key structural materials in the support tissues of most plants. Lignins are particularly important in the formation of cell walls, especially in wood and bark, because they lend rigidity and do not rot easily. Chemically, lignins are polymers made by cross-linking phenolic precursors.

History
Lignin was first mentioned in 1813 by the Swiss botanist A. P. de Candolle, who described it as a fibrous, tasteless material, insoluble in water and alcohol but soluble in weak alkaline solutions, and which can be precipitated from solution using acid. He named the substance "lignine", which is derived from the Latin word lignum, meaning wood. It is one of the most abundant organic polymers on Earth, exceeded only by cellulose and chitin. Lignin constitutes 30% of terrestrial non-fossil organic carbon on Earth, and 20 to 35% of the dry mass of wood.

Lignin is present in red algae, which suggest that the common ancestor of plants and red algae also synthesised lignin. This finding also suggests that the original function of lignin was structural as it plays this role in the red alga Calliarthron, where it supports joints between calcified segments.

Composition and structure
The composition of lignin varies from species to species. An example of composition from an aspen sample is 63.4% carbon, 5.9% hydrogen, 0.7% ash (mineral components), and 30% oxygen (by difference), corresponding approximately to the formula (C31H34O11)n.

Lignin is a collection of highly heterogeneous polymers derived from a handful of precursor lignols. Heterogeneity arises from the diversity and degree of crosslinking between these lignols. The lignols that crosslink are of three main types, all derived from phenylpropane: coniferyl alcohol (3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylpropane; its radical, G, is sometimes called guaiacyl), sinapyl alcohol (3,5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxyphenylpropane; its radical, S, is sometimes called syringyl), and paracoumaryl alcohol (4-hydroxyphenylpropane; its radical, H, is sometimes called 4-hydroxyphenyl).

The relative amounts of the precursor "monomers" (lignols or monolignols) vary according to the plant source. Lignins are typically classified according to their syringyl/guaiacyl (S/G) ratio. Lignin from gymnosperms is derived from the coniferyl alcohol, which gives rise to G upon pyrolysis. In angiosperms some of the coniferyl alcohol is converted to S. Thus, lignin in angiosperms has both G and S components.

Lignin's molecular masses exceed 10,000 u. It is hydrophobic as it is rich in aromatic subunits. The degree of polymerisation is difficult to measure, since the material is heterogeneous. Different types of lignin have been described depending on the means of isolation.

Many grasses have mostly G, while some palms have mainly S. All lignins contain small amounts of incomplete or modified monolignols, and other monomers are prominent in non-woody plants.

Biological function
Lignin fills the spaces in the cell wall between cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin components, especially in vascular and support tissues: xylem tracheids, vessel elements and sclereid cells.

Lignin plays a crucial part in conducting water and aqueous nutrients in plant stems. The polysaccharide components of plant cell walls are highly hydrophilic and thus permeable to water, whereas lignin is more hydrophobic. The crosslinking of polysaccharides by lignin is an obstacle for water absorption to the cell wall. Thus, lignin makes it possible for the plant's vascular tissue to conduct water efficiently. Lignin is present in all vascular plants, but not in bryophytes, supporting the idea that the original function of lignin was restricted to water transport.

It is covalently linked to hemicellulose and therefore cross-links different plant polysaccharides, conferring mechanical strength to the cell wall and by extension the plant as a whole. Its most commonly noted function is the support through strengthening of wood (mainly composed of xylem cells and lignified sclerenchyma fibres) in vascular plants.

Finally, lignin also confers disease resistance by accumulating at the site of pathogen infiltration, making the plant cell less accessible to cell wall degradation.

Economic significance
Global commercial production of lignin is a consequence of papermaking. In 1988, more than 220 million tons of paper were produced worldwide. Much of this paper was delignified; lignin comprises about 1/3 of the mass of lignocellulose, the precursor to paper. Lignin is an impediment to papermaking as it is colored, it yellows in air, and its presence weakens the paper. Once separated from the cellulose, it is burned as fuel. Only a fraction is used in a wide range of low volume applications where the form but not the quality is important.

Mechanical, or high-yield pulp, which is used to make newsprint, still contains most of the lignin originally present in the wood. This lignin is responsible for newsprint's yellowing with age. High quality paper requires the removal of lignin from the pulp. These delignification processes are core technologies of the papermaking industry as well as the source of significant environmental concerns.

In sulfite pulping, lignin is removed from wood pulp as lignosulfonates, for which many applications have been proposed. They are used as dispersants, humectants, emulsion stabilizers, and sequestrants (water treatment). Lignosulfonate was also the first family of water reducers or superplasticizers to be added in the 1930s as admixture to fresh concrete in order to decrease the water-to-cement (w/c) ratio, the main parameter controlling the concrete porosity, and thus its mechanical strength, its diffusivity and its hydraulic conductivity, all parameters essential for its durability. It has application in environmentally sustainable dust suppression agent for roads. Also, lignin can be used in making biodegradable plastic along with cellulose as an alternative to hydrocarbon-made plastics if lignin extraction is achieved through a more environmentally viable process than generic plastic manufacturing.

Lignin removed by the kraft process is usually burned for its fuel value, providing energy to power the paper mill. Two commercial processes exist to remove lignin from black liquor for higher value uses: LignoBoost (Sweden) and LignoForce (Canada). Higher quality lignin presents the potential to become a renewable source of aromatic compounds for the chemical industry, with an addressable market of more than $130bn.

Given that it is the most prevalent biopolymer after cellulose, lignin has been investigated as a feedstock for biofuel production and can become a crucial plant extract in the development of a new class of biofuels.

Biosynthesis
Lignin biosynthesis begins in the cytosol with the synthesis of glycosylated monolignols from the amino acid phenylalanine. These first reactions are shared with the phenylpropanoid pathway. The attached glucose renders them water-soluble and less toxic. Once transported through the cell membrane to the apoplast, the glucose is removed, and the polymerisation commences. Much about its anabolism is not understood even after more than a century of study.

The polymerisation step, that is a radical-radical coupling, is catalysed by oxidative enzymes. Both peroxidase and laccase enzymes are present in the plant cell walls, and it is not known whether one or both of these groups participates in the polymerisation. Low molecular weight oxidants might also be involved. The oxidative enzyme catalyses the formation of monolignol radicals. These radicals are often said to undergo uncatalyzed coupling to form the lignin polymer. An alternative theory invokes an unspecified biological control.

Biodegradation
In contrast to other bio-polymers (e.g. proteins, DNA, and even cellulose), lignin resists degradation. It is immune to both acid- and base-catalyzed hydrolysis. The degradability varies with species and plant tissue type. For example, syringyl (S) lignin is more susceptible to degradation by fungal decay as it has fewer aryl-aryl bonds and a lower redox potential than guaiacyl units. Because it is cross-linked with the other cell wall components, lignin minimizes the accessibility of cellulose and hemicellulose to microbial enzymes, leading to a reduced digestibility of biomass.

Some ligninolytic enzymes include heme peroxidases such as lignin peroxidases, manganese peroxidases, versatile peroxidases, and dye-decolourizing peroxidases as well as copper-based laccases. Lignin peroxidases oxidize non-phenolic lignin, whereas manganese peroxidases only oxidize the phenolic structures. Dye-decolorizing peroxidases, or DyPs, exhibit catalytic activity on a wide range of lignin model compounds, but their in vivo substrate is unknown. In general, laccases oxidize phenolic substrates but some fungal laccases have been shown to oxidize non-phenolic substrates in the presence of synthetic redox mediators.

Lignin degradation by fungi
Well-studied ligninolytic enzymes are found in Phanerochaete chrysosporium and other white rot fungi. Some white rot fungi, such as Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, can degrade the lignin in lignocellulose, but others lack this ability. Most fungal lignin degradation involves secreted peroxidases. Many fungal laccases are also secreted, which facilitate degradation of phenolic lignin-derived compounds, although several intracellular fungal laccases have also been described. An important aspect of fungal lignin degradation is the activity of accessory enzymes to produce the H2O2 required for the function of lignin peroxidase and other heme peroxidases.

Lignin degradation by bacteria
Bacteria lack most of the enzymes employed by fungi to degrade lignin, and lignin derivatives (aliphatic acids, furans, and solubilized phenolics) inhibit the growth of bacteria. Yet, bacterial degradation can be quite extensive, especially in aquatic systems such as lakes, rivers, and streams, where inputs of terrestrial material (e.g. leaf litter) can enter waterways. The ligninolytic activity of bacteria has not been studied extensively even though it was first described in 1930. Many bacterial DyPs have been characterized. Bacteria do not express any of the plant-type peroxidases (lignin peroxidase, Mn peroxidase, or versatile peroxidases), but three of the four classes of DyP are only found in bacteria. In contrast to fungi, most bacterial enzymes involved in lignin degradation are intracellular, including two classes of DyP and most bacterial laccases.

In the environment, lignin can be degraded either biotically via bacteria or abiotically via photochemical alteration, and oftentimes the latter assists in the former. In addition to the presence or absence of light, several of environmental factors affect the biodegradability of lignin, including bacterial community composition, mineral associations, and redox state.

In shipworms, the lignin it ingests is digested by "Alteromonas-like sub-group" bacteria symbionts in the typhlosole sub-organ of its cecum.

Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis of lignin during the combustion of wood or charcoal production yields a range of products, of which the most characteristic ones are methoxy-substituted phenols. Of those, the most important are guaiacol and syringol and their derivatives. Their presence can be used to trace a smoke source to a wood fire. In cooking, lignin in the form of hardwood is an important source of these two compounds, which impart the characteristic aroma and taste to smoked foods such as barbecue. The main flavor compounds of smoked ham are guaiacol, and its 4-, 5-, and 6-methyl derivatives as well as 2,6-dimethylphenol. These compounds are produced by thermal breakdown of lignin in the wood used in the smokehouse.

Chemical analysis
The conventional method for lignin quantitation in the pulp industry is the Klason lignin and acid-soluble lignin test, which is standardized procedures. The cellulose is digested thermally in the presence of acid. The residue is termed Klason lignin. Acid-soluble lignin (ASL) is quantified by the intensity of its Ultraviolet spectroscopy. The carbohydrate composition may be also analyzed from the Klason liquors, although there may be sugar breakdown products (furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural).

A solution of hydrochloric acid and phloroglucinol is used for the detection of lignin (Wiesner test). A brilliant red color develops, owing to the presence of coniferaldehyde groups in the lignin.

Thioglycolysis is an analytical technique for lignin quantitation. Lignin structure can also be studied by computational simulation.

Thermochemolysis (chemical break down of a substance under vacuum and at high temperature) with tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) or cupric oxide has also been used to characterize lignins. The ratio of syringyl lignol (S) to vanillyl lignol (V) and cinnamyl lignol (C) to vanillyl lignol (V) is variable based on plant type and can therefore be used to trace plant sources in aquatic systems (woody vs. non-woody and angiosperm vs. gymnosperm). Ratios of carboxylic acid (Ad) to aldehyde (Al) forms of the lignols (Ad/Al) reveal diagenetic information, with higher ratios indicating a more highly degraded material. Increases in the (Ad/Al) value indicate an oxidative cleavage reaction has occurred on the alkyl lignin side chain which has been shown to be a step in the decay of wood by many white-rot and some soft rot fungi.

Lignin and its models have been well examined by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. Owing to the structural complexity of lignins, the spectra are poorly resolved and quantitation is challenging.

title: Lignin


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Ear Candy (King's X album)

Ear Candy is the sixth studio album by American rock band King's X, released in 1996. It was produced by Arnold Lanni and King's X.

The album has two songs which are rewritten versions of earlier songs: "Picture" is also known as "The Door", a song with different lyrics, released on their pre-King's X release Sneak Preview. The song "Mississippi Moon" is mainly inspired on the song "If I Could Fly", which King's X played in shows after they had changed their name to its definite version, King's X.

The bonus track "Freedom" can also be found as a b-side of the single "A Box". It was later given a proper release on the album Ogre Tones.

Personnel

 * Doug Pinnick – bass, vocals
 * Ty Tabor – guitar, vocals
 * Jerry Gaskill – drums, vocals

Album notes

 * This would be the last studio album King's X would release on Atlantic Records.
 * "American Cheese (Jerry's Pianto)" is the second released song to feature Jerry Gaskill on lead vocals. The term pianto is a made-up word and is meant as a joke.
 * "American Cheese (Jerry's Pianto)" and "Lies in the Sand (The Ballad of...)" produced by Ty Tabor and King's X.
 * "A Box" features additional vocals by Glen Phillips of Toad The Wet Sprocket.
 * "Sometime" is not to be confused with "Sometimes", which is taken from King's X's first album Out of the Silent Planet.

title: Ear Candy (King's X album)


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Hanover (region)

Hanover (Hannover) was a Regierungsbezirk of the German state of Lower Saxony from 1946 until 2004. It was located in the centre and the south of the state, centered on the Lower Saxon capital of Hanover.

History
There was a similar, equally named administrative unit within the then Prussian Province of Hanover from 1885 until the end of World War II; and before that, a 1823 established Landdrostei within the Kingdom of Hanover.

 * Kreise (districts) from 2001 to 2004
 * 1) Diepholz
 * 2) Hamelin-Pyrmont (Hameln-Pyrmont)
 * 3) Hanover (Hannover)
 * 4) Hildesheim
 * 5) Holzminden
 * 6) Nienburg
 * 7) Schaumburg

title: Hanover (region)


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Johann Gustav Droysen

Johann Gustav Bernhard Droysen (6 July 1808 – 19 June 1884) was a German historian. His history of Alexander the Great was the first work representing a new school of German historical thought that idealized power held by so-called "great" men.

Early life and education
Droysen was born at Treptow in Pomerania (now Trzebiatów in Poland) on 6 July 1808. His father, Johann Christoph Droysen, was an army chaplain who had been present at the celebrated siege of Kolberg in 1806–1807. As a child, Droysen witnessed some of the military operations during the War of Liberation, his father by then being pastor at Greifenhagen, in the immediate neighbourhood of Stettin, which was held by the French for most of 1813. These youthful impressions laid the foundation of his ardent attachment to the Kingdom of Prussia. He was educated at the gymnasium of Stettin and at the University of Berlin; from 1827 to 1829 he was the private tutor of Felix Mendelssohn, who set several of his poems in his Op. 9 12 Songs. In 1829 he became a master at the Graues Kloster, one of the oldest schools in Berlin; in addition, he gave lectures at the University of Berlin, from 1833 as Privatdozent, and from 1835 as professor, without a salary. The famed historian Jacob Burckhardt visited his class in his last semester (1839–40).

During these years Droysen studied classical antiquity; he published a translation of Aeschylus in 1832 and a paraphrase of Aristophanes (1835–1838), but the work by which he made himself known as a historian was his Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen (History of Alexander the Great; Berlin, 1833 and other editions), a book that long remained the best work on Alexander the Great. It was in some ways the herald of a new school of German historical thought, for it idealized power and success, a conceptual framework Droysen had learned from the teaching of Hegel. Droysen followed the biography of Alexander with other works dealing with Alexander's Greek successors, published under the title of Geschichte des Hellenismus (Hamburg, 1836–1843), in which he created the term "Hellenistic" to refer to the period between Alexander's conquests and the emergence of the Roman Empire. A new and revised edition of the whole work was published in 1885, and translated into French, but not at the time into English. His Vorlesung des Freiheits Krieg (in English: Lectures of the War of Liberation) appeared in 1846 and his Outlines of the Principles of History, published 1858, translated 1893, was widely read throughout German universities. He followed this with Erhebung der Geschichte zum Rang einer Wissenschaft (1863), a methodological study that reflected his new approach to research and writing.

History meets politics
In 1840, Droysen was appointed professor of history at the University of Kiel. There, the political movement for the defense of the rights of the Elbe duchies, of which Kiel was the center, attracted his interest. Like Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, he placed his historical learning at the service of the estates of Schleswig and Holstein and composed the address of 1844, in which the estates protested against the claim of King Christian VIII of Denmark to alter the law of succession in the duchies. The issue was diplomatically negotiated through the London Protocol of 1852, and ultimately resolved in a war between Denmark and allied forces from Austria and Prussia in the Second Schleswig War.

Droysen's first major political appearance occurred in 1843, on the one thousand year anniversary of the Verdun agreement between Karl the Bald and Ludwig the German, grandsons of Charlemagne.

Support of Prussian hegemony
In 1848, Droysen was elected a member of the revolutionary Frankfurt parliament and acted as secretary to the committee for drawing up a proposed constitution. He was a determined supporter of Prussian ascendancy, seeing this as the only feasible route to German unification.

"We cannot conceal the fact that the whole German question is a simple alternative between Prussia and Austria. In these states, German life has its positive and negative poles — in the former, all the interests which are national and reformative, in the latter, all that are dynastic and destructive. The German question is not a constitutional question, but a question of power; and the Prussian monarchy is now wholly German, while that of Austria cannot be."

Droysen was one of the first members to retire from the Frankfurt Parliament after King Frederick William IV of Prussia refused the imperial crown in 1849. In the following two years, Droysen continued to support the cause of the duchies, and in 1850, with Carl Samwer, he published a history of the dealings of Denmark with Schleswig and Holstein, Die Herzogthümer Schleswig-Holstein und das Königreich Dänemark seit dem Jahre 1800 (Hamburg, 1850). A translation was published in London in the same year under the title The Policy of Denmark towards the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein. The work was one of great political importance and contributed to the formation of German public opinion on the rights of the duchies in their struggle with Denmark.

Legacy to Prussian historiography
In his later years, Droysen was almost entirely occupied with Prussian history. After 1851, he was appointed to a professorship at Jena; in 1859, he was called to Berlin, where he remained until his death. In 1851, he brought out a life of Count Yorck von Wartenburg (Berlin, 1851–1852), generally considered one of the best biographies in the German language and then began his great work on the Geschichte der preussischen Politik, or, in English, The History of Prussian Politics (Berlin, 1855–1886). Seven volumes were published, the last posthumously; in total the work consumed 32 volumes. It forms a complete history of the growth of the Prussian monarchy to the year 1756. This, like all Droysen's work, shows a strongly marked individuality, and a penchant of tracing the manner in which important dynamic forces worked themselves out in history.

Personal life
Droysen was twice married, and died in Berlin. His eldest son, Gustav, wrote several well-known historical works, namely, Gustav Adolf (Leipzig, 1869–1870), a study of the Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden during the Thirty Years War, and Herzog Bernhard von Weimar (Leipzig, 1885), a study of Duke Bernhard, another able Protestant General during the Thirty Years War; an Historischer Handatlas (Leipzig, 1886), a geographic analysis of historical and territorial changes, and several writings on various events of the Thirty Years' War. Another son, Hans Droysen, was the author of some works on Greek history and antiquities.

title: Johann Gustav Droysen