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Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo) is a 1632 Italian-language book by Galileo Galilei comparing the Copernican system with the traditional Ptolemaic system. It was translated into Latin as Systema cosmicum (Cosmic System) in 1635 by Matthias Bernegger. The book was dedicated to Galileo's patron, Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who received the first printed copy on February 22, 1632.

In the Copernican system, the Earth and other planets orbit the Sun, while in the Ptolemaic system, everything in the Universe circles around the Earth. The Dialogue was published in Florence under a formal license from the Inquisition. In 1633, Galileo was found to be "vehemently suspect of heresy" based on the book, which was then placed on the Index of Forbidden Books, from which it was not removed until 1835 (after the theories it discussed had been permitted in print in 1822). In an action that was not announced at the time, the publication of anything else he had written or ever might write was also banned in Catholic countries.

Overview
While writing the book, Galileo referred to it as his Dialogue on the Tides, and when the manuscript went to the Inquisition for approval, the title was Dialogue on the Ebb and Flow of the Sea. He was ordered to remove all mention of tides from the title and to change the preface because granting approval to such a title would look like approval of his theory of the tides using the motion of the Earth as proof. As a result, the formal title on the title page is Dialogue, which is followed by Galileo's name, academic posts, and followed by a long subtitle. The name by which the work is now known was extracted by the printer from the description on the title page when permission was given to reprint it with an approved preface by a Catholic theologian in 1744. This must be kept in mind when discussing Galileo's motives for writing the book. Although the book is presented formally as a consideration of both systems (as it needed to be in order to be published at all), there is no question that the Copernican side gets the better of the argument.

Structure
The book is presented as a series of discussions, over a span of four days, among two philosophers and a layman:

 * Salviati argues for the Copernican position and presents some of Galileo's views directly, calling him the "Academician" in honor of Galileo's membership in the Accademia dei Lincei. He is named after Galileo's friend Filippo Salviati (1582–1614).
 * Sagredo is an intelligent layman who is initially neutral. He is named after Galileo's friend Giovanni Francesco Sagredo (1571–1620).
 * Simplicio, a dedicated follower of Ptolemy and Aristotle, presents the traditional views and the arguments against the Copernican position. He is supposedly named after Simplicius of Cilicia, a sixth-century commentator on Aristotle, but it was suspected the name was a double entendre, as the Italian for "simple" (as in "simple minded") is "semplice".  Simplicio is modeled on two contemporary conservative philosophers, Lodovico delle Colombe (1565–1616?), Galileo's opponent, and Cesare Cremonini (1550–1631), a Paduan colleague who had refused to look through the telescope. Colombe was the leader of a group of Florentine opponents of Galileo's, which some of the latter's friends referred to as "the pigeon league".

Content
The discussion is not narrowly limited to astronomical topics, but ranges over much of contemporary science. Some of this is to show what Galileo considered good science, such as the discussion of William Gilbert's work on magnetism. Other parts are important to the debate, answering erroneous arguments against the Earth's motion.

A classic argument against Earth motion is the lack of speed sensations of the Earth surface, though it moves, by the Earth's rotation, at about 1700 km/h at the equator. In this category there is a thought experiment in which a man is below decks on a ship and cannot tell whether the ship is docked or is moving smoothly through the water: he observes water dripping from a bottle, fish swimming in a tank, butterflies flying, and so on; and their behavior is the same whether the ship is moving or not. This is a classic exposition of the inertial frame of reference and refutes the objection that if we were moving hundreds of kilometres an hour as the Earth rotated, anything that one dropped would rapidly fall behind and drift to the west.

The bulk of Galileo's arguments may be divided into three classes:

 * Rebuttals to the objections raised by traditional philosophers; for example, the thought experiment on the ship.
 * Observations that are incompatible with the Ptolemaic model: the phases of Venus, for instance, which simply could not happen, or the apparent motions of sunspots, which could only be explained in the Ptolemaic or Tychonic systems as resulting from an implausibly complicated precession of the Sun's axis of rotation.
 * Arguments showing that the elegant unified theory of the Heavens that the philosophers held, which was believed to prove that the Earth was stationary, was incorrect; for instance, the mountains of the Moon, the moons of Jupiter, and the very existence of sunspots, none of which was part of the old astronomy.

Generally, these arguments have held up well in terms of the knowledge of the next four centuries. Just how convincing they ought to have been to an impartial reader in 1632 remains a contentious issue.

Galileo attempted a fourth class of argument:

 * Direct physical argument for the Earth's motion, by means of an explanation of tides.

As an account of the causation of tides or a proof of the Earth's motion, it is a failure. The fundamental argument is internally inconsistent and actually leads to the conclusion that tides do not exist. But, Galileo was fond of the argument and devoted the "Fourth Day" of the discussion to it. The degree of its failure is—like nearly anything having to do with Galileo—a matter of controversy. On the one hand, the whole thing has recently been described in print as "cockamamie." On the other hand, Einstein used a rather different description: It was Galileo's longing for a mechanical proof of the motion of the earth which misled him into formulating a wrong theory of the tides. The fascinating arguments in the last conversation would hardly have been accepted as proof by Galileo, had his temperament not got the better of him. [Emphasis added]

Omissions

The Dialogue does not treat the Tychonic system, which was becoming the preferred system of many astronomers at the time of publication and which was ultimately proven incorrect. The Tychonic system is a motionless Earth system but not a Ptolemaic system; it is a hybrid system of the Copernican and Ptolemaic models. Mercury and Venus orbit the Sun (as in the Copernican system) in small circles, while the Sun in turn orbits a stationary Earth; Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn orbit the Sun in much larger circles, which means they also orbit the Earth. The Tychonian system is mathematically equivalent to the Copernican system, except that the Copernican system predicts a stellar parallax, while the Tychonian system predicts none. Stellar parallax was not measurable until the 19th century, and therefore there was at the time no valid disproof of the Tychonic system on empirical grounds, nor any decisive observational evidence for the Copernican system.

Galileo never took Tycho's system seriously, as can be seen in his correspondence, regarding it as an inadequate and physically unsatisfactory compromise. A reason for the absence of Tycho's system (in spite of many references to Tycho and his work in the book) may be sought in Galileo's theory of the tides, which provided the original title and organizing principle of the Dialogue. While the Copernican and Tychonic systems are equivalent geometrically, they are quite different dynamically. Galileo's tidal theory entailed the actual, physical movement of the Earth; that is, if true, it would have provided the kind of proof that Foucault's pendulum apparently provided two centuries later. Without reference to Galileo's tidal theory, there would be no difference between the Copernican and Tychonic systems.

Galileo also fails to discuss the possibility of non-circular orbits, although Johannes Kepler had sent him a copy of his 1609 book, Astronomia nova, in which he proposes elliptical orbits—correctly calculating that of Mars. Prince Federico Cesi's letter to Galileo of 1612 treated the two laws of planetary motion presented in the book as common knowledge; Kepler's third law was published in 1619. Four and a half decades after Galileo's death, Isaac Newton published his laws of motion and gravity, from which a heliocentric system with planets in approximately elliptical orbits is deducible.

Summary
Preface: To the Discerning Reader refers to the ban on the "Pythagorean opinion that the earth moves" and says that the author "takes the Copernican side with a pure mathematical hypothesis". He introduces the friends Sagredo and Salviati with whom he had had discussions as well as the peripatetic philosopher Simplicio.

Day one
He starts with Aristotle's proof of the completeness and perfection of the world (i.e. the universe) because of its three dimensions. Simplicio points out that three was favoured by the Pythagoreans whereas Salviati cannot understand why three legs are better than two or four. He suggests that the numbers were "trifles which later spread among the vulgar" and that their definitions, such as those of straight lines and right angles, were more useful in establishing the dimensions. Simplicio's response was that Aristotle thought that in physical matters mathematical demonstration was not always needed.

Salviati attacks Aristotle's definition of the heavens as incorruptible and unchanging whilst only the lunar-bound zone shows change. He points to the changes seen in the skies: the new stars of 1572 and 1604 and sunspots, seen through the new telescope. There is a discussion about Aristotle's use of a priori arguments. Salviati suggests that Arisotle uses Aristotle’s personal experience to choose an appropriate argument to prove just as others do and that Aristotle would change his mind in the present circumstances.

Simplicio argues that sunspots could simply be small opaque objects passing in front of the Sun, but Salviati points out that some appear or disappear randomly and those at the edge are flattened, unlike separate bodies. Therefore, "it is better Aristotelian philosophy to say 'Heaven is alterable because my senses tell me' than 'Heaven is unalterable because Aristotle was so persuaded by reasoning.'"

Experiments with a mirror are used to show that the Moon's surface must be opaque and not a perfect crystal sphere as Simplicio believes. He refuses to accept that mountains on the Moon cause shadows, or that reflected light from the Earth is responsible for the faint outline in a crescent moon.

Sagredo holds that he considers the Earth noble because of the changes in it whereas Simplicio says that change in the Moon or stars would be useless because they do not benefit man. Salviati points out that days on the moon are a month long and despite the varied terrain that the telescope has disclosed, it would not sustain life. Humans acquire mathematical truths slowly and hesitantly, whereas God knows the full infinity of them intuitively. And when one looks into the marvellous things men have understood and contrived, then clearly the human mind is one of the most excellent of God's works.

Day two
The second day starts by repeating that Aristotle would be changing his opinions if he saw what they were seeing. "It is the followers of Aristotle who have crowned him with authority, not he who has usurped or appropriated it to himself."

There is one supreme motion—that by which the Sun, Moon, planets and fixed stars appear to be moved from east to west in the space of 24 hours. This may as logically belong to the Earth alone as to the rest of the universe. Aristotle and Ptolemy, who understood this, do not argue against any other motion than this diurnal one.

Motion is relative: the position of the sacks of grain on a ship can be identical at the end of the voyage despite the movement of the ship. Why should we believe that nature moves all these extremely large bodies with inconceivable velocities rather than simply moving the moderately sized earth? If the Earth is removed from the picture, what happens to all the movement?

The movement of the skies from east to west is the opposite of all the other motions of the heavenly bodies which are from west to east; making the Earth rotate brings it into line with all the others. Although Aristotle argues that circular motions are not contraries, they could still lead to collisions.

The great orbits of the planets take longer than the shorter: Saturn and Jupiter take many years, Mars two, whereas the Moon takes only a month. Jupiter's moons take even less. This is not changed if the Earth rotates every day, but if the Earth is stationary then we suddenly find that the sphere of the fixed stars rotates in 24 hours. Given the distances, that would more reasonably be thousands of years.

In addition some of these stars have to travel faster than others: if the Pole Star was precisely at the axis, then it would be entirely stationary whereas those of the equator have unimaginable speed. The solidity of this supposed sphere is incomprehensible. Make the earth the primum mobile and the need for this extra sphere disappears.

They consider three main objections to the motion of the Earth: that a falling body would be left behind by the Earth and thus fall far to the west of its point of release; that a cannonball fired to the west would similarly fly much further than one fired to the east; and that a cannonball fired vertically would also land far to the west. Salviati shows that these do not take account of the impetus of the cannon.

He also points out that attempting to prove that the Earth does not move by using vertical fall commits the logical fault of paralogism (assuming what is to be proved), because if the Earth is moving then it is only in appearance that it is falling vertically; in fact it is falling at a slant, as happens with a cannonball rising through the cannon (illustrated).

In rebutting a work which claims that a ball falling from the Moon would take six days to arrive, the odd-number rule is introduced: a body falling 1 unit in an interval would fall 3 units in the next interval, 5 units in the subsequent one, etc. This gives rise to the rule by which the distance fallen is according to the square of the time. Using this he calculates the time is really little more than 3 hours. He also points out that density of the material does not make much difference: a lead ball might only accelerate twice as fast as one of cork.

In fact, a ball falling from such a height would not fall behind but ahead of the vertical because the rotational motion would be in ever-decreasing circles. What makes the Earth move is similar to whatever moves Mars or Jupiter and is the same as that which pulls the stone to Earth. Calling it gravity does not explain what it is.

Day three
Salviati starts by dismissing the arguments of a book against the novas he has been reading overnight. Unlike comets, these were stationary and their lack of parallax easily checked and thus could not have been in the sublunary sphere.

Simplicio now gives the greatest argument against the annual motion of the Earth that if it moves then it can no longer be the center of the zodiac, the world. Aristotle gives proofs that the universe is finite bounded and spherical. Salviati points out that these disappear if he denies him the assumption that it is movable, but allows the assumption initially in order not to multiply disputes.

He points out that if anything is the centre, it must be the Sun not the Earth, because all the planets are closer or further away from the Earth at different times, Venus and Mars up to eight times. He encourages Simplicio to make a plan of the planets, starting with Venus and Mercury which are easily seen to rotate about the Sun. Mars must also go about the Sun (as well as the Earth) since it is never seen horned, unlike Venus now seen through the telescope; similarly with Jupiter and Saturn. Earth, which is between Mars with a period of two years and Venus with nine months, has a period of a year which may more elegantly be attributed to motion than a state of rest.

Sagredo brings up two other common objections. If the Earth rotated, the mountains would soon be in a position that one would have to descend them rather than ascend. Secondly, the motion would be so rapid that someone at the bottom of a well would have only a brief instance to glimpse a star as it traversed. Simplicio can see that the first is no different from travelling over the globe, as any who have circumnavigated but though he realises the second is the same as if the heavens were rotating, he still does not understand it. Salviati says the first is no different from those who deny the antipodes. For the second, he encourages Simplicio to decide what fraction of the sky can be seen from down the well.

Salviati brings up another problem, which is that Mars and Venus are not as variable as the theory would suggest. He explains that the size of a star to the human eye is affected by the brightness and the sizes are not real. This is resolved by use of the telescope which also shows the crescent shape of Venus. A further objection to the movement of the Earth, the unique existence of the Moon, has been resolved by the discovery of the moons of Jupiter, which would appear like Earth's Moon to any Jovian.

Copernicus has succeeded in reducing some of the uneven motions of Ptolemy who had to deal with motions that sometimes go fast, sometimes slow, and sometimes backwards, by means of vast epicycles. Mars, above the Sun's sphere, often falls far below it, then soars above it. These anomalies are cured by the annual movement of the Earth. This is explained by a diagram in which the varying motion of Jupiter is shown using the Earth's orbit.

Simplicio produces another booklet in which theological arguments are mixed with astronomic, but Salviati refuses to address the issues from Scripture. So he produces the argument that the fixed stars must be at an inconceivable distance with the smallest larger than the whole orbit of the Earth. Salviati explains that this all comes from a misrepresentation of what Copernicus said, resulting in a huge over-calculation of the size of a sixth magnitude star. But many other famous astronomers over-estimated the size of stars by ignoring the brightness factor. Not even Tycho, with his accurate instruments, set himself to measure the size of any star except the Sun and Moon. But Salviati (Galileo) was able to make a reasonable estimate simply by hanging a cord to obscure the star and measuring the distance from eye to cord.

But still many cannot believe that the fixed stars can individually be as big or bigger than the Sun. To what end are these? Salviati maintains that "it is brash for our feebleness to attempt to judge the reasons for God's actions, and to call everything in the universe vain and superfluous which does not serve us".

Has Tycho or any of his disciples tried to investigate in any way phenomena that might affirm or deny the movement of the Earth? Do any of them know how much variation is needed in the fixed stars? Simplicio objects to conceding that the distance of the fixed stars is too great for it to be detectable. Salviati points out how difficult it is even to detect the varying distances of Saturn. Many of the positions of the fixed stars are not known accurately and far better instruments than Tycho's are needed: say using a sight with a fixed position 60 miles away.

Sagredo then asks Salviati to explain how the Copernican system explains the seasons and inequalities of night and day. This he does with the aid of a diagram showing the position of the Earth in the four seasons. He points out how much simpler it is than the Ptolemaic system. But Simplicio thinks Aristotle was wise to avoid too much geometry. He prefers Aristotle's axiom to avoid more than one simple motion at a time.

Day four
They are in Sagredo's house in Venice, where tides are an important issue, and Salviati wants to show the effect of the Earth's movement on the tides. He first points out the three periods of the tides: daily (diurnal), generally with intervals of 6 hours of rising and six more of falling; monthly, seemingly from the Moon, which increases or decreases these tides; and annual, leading to different sizes at the equinoxes.

He considers first the daily motion. Three varieties are observed: in some places the waters rise and fall without any forward motion; in others they move towards the east and back to the west without rising or falling; in still others there is a combination of both—this happens in Venice where the waters rise on entering and fall on leaving. In the Straits of Messina there are very swift currents between Scylla and Charybdis. In the open Mediterranean the alteration of height is small but the currents are noticeable.

Simplicio counters with the peripatetic explanations, which are based on the depths of the sea, and the dominion of the Moon over the water, though this does not explain the risings when the Moon is below the horizon. But he admits it could be a miracle.

When the water in Venice rises, where does it come from? There is little rise in Corfu or Dubrovnik. From the ocean through the Straits of Gibraltar? It's much too far away and the currents are too slow.

So could the movement of the container cause the disturbance? Consider the barges that bring water into Venice. When they hit an obstacle, the water rushes forward; when they speed up it will go to the back. For all this disturbance there is no need for new water and the level in the middle stays largely constant though the water there rushes backwards and forwards.

Consider a point on the Earth under the joint action of the annual and diurnal movements. At one time these are added together and 12 hours later they act against each other, so there is an alternate speeding up and slowing down. So the ocean basins are affected in the same way as the barge particularly in an east-west direction. The length of the barge makes a difference to the speed of oscillations, just as the length of a plumb bob changes its speed. The depth of water also makes a difference to the size of vibrations.

The primary effect only explains tides once a day; one must look elsewhere for the six-hour change, to the oscillation periods of the water. In some places, such as the Hellespont and the Aegean the periods are briefer and variable. But a north-south sea like the Red Sea has very little tide whereas the Messina Strait carries the pent up effect of two basins.

Simplicio objects that if this accounts for the water, should it not even more be seen in the winds? Salviati suggests that the containing basins are not so effective and the air does not sustain its motion. Nevertheless, these forces are seen by the steady winds from east to west in the oceans in the tropical zone.

It seems that the Moon also is taking part in the production of the daily effects, but that is repugnant to his mind. The motions of the Moon have caused great difficulty to astronomers. It's impossible to make a full account of these things given the irregular nature of the sea basins.


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Preference regression

Preference regression is a statistical technique used by marketers to determine consumers’ preferred core benefits. It usually supplements product positioning techniques like multi dimensional scaling or factor analysis and is used to create ideal vectors on perceptual maps.

Application
Starting with raw data from surveys, researchers apply positioning techniques to determine important dimensions and plot the position of competing products on these dimensions. Next they regress the survey data against the dimensions. The independent variables are the data collected in the survey. The dependent variable is the preference datum. Like all regression methods, the computer fits weights to best predict data. The resultant regression line is referred to as an ideal vector because the slope of the vector is the ratio of the preferences for the two dimensions.

If all the data is used in the regression, the program will derive a single equation and hence a single ideal vector. This tends to be a blunt instrument so researchers refine the process with cluster analysis. This creates clusters that reflect market segments. Separate preference regressions are then done on the data within each segment. This provides an ideal vector for each segment.

Alternative methods
Self-stated importance method is an alternative method in which direct survey data is used to determine the weightings rather than statistical imputations. A third method is conjoint analysis in which an additive method is used.

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

title: Preference regression


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Jedna si jedina

"Jedna si jedina" ("You Are the One and Only") was the national anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1998.

History
The music was taken from the old Bosnian folk song "S one strane Plive" ("On the far bank of the Pliva river" or "On the other side of the Pliva river"), which was reportedly inspired by the Turkish song "Sivastopol Marşı". The lyrics were written by Bosnian singer Dino Merlin; that version is featured on his 1993 album, Moja Bogda Sna. It was adopted in November 1992, several months after independence in March 1992. Political leaders of dominant Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat nationalist parties objected to it, and thus a new composition, the "Intermezzo", was approved and adopted by the United Nations as the country's national anthem in 1999.

Legacy
"Jedna si jedina" is still considered to be the de facto national anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina by many Bosniaks; many Bosniaks still sing this song during performances of the Bosnian national anthem, as they believe that it should still be current as the present national anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have any official lyrics.

Lyrics
On most occasions, only the first verse followed by the chorus were performed.

title: Jedna si jedina


text:
March Forward, Dear Mother Ethiopia

"March Forward, Dear Mother Ethiopia" (ወደፊት ገስግሺ ውድ እናት ኢትዮጵያ ), also known by its incipit as "Honour of Citizenship" (የዜግነት ክብር), is the national anthem of Ethiopia.

History
The lyrics were written by Dereje Melaku Mengesha, and the music was composed by Solomon Lulu Mitiku. The song was adopted in 1992, as part of reforms that followed the collapse of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

title: March Forward, Dear Mother Ethiopia


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The Faraway Tree

The Faraway Tree is a series of popular novels for children by British author Enid Blyton. The titles in the series are The Enchanted Wood (1939), The Magic Faraway Tree (1943), The Folk of the Faraway Tree (1946) and Up the Faraway Tree (1951).

The stories take place in an enchanted wood in which a gigantic magical tree grows – the eponymous 'Faraway Tree'. The tree is so tall that its topmost branches reach into the clouds and it is wide enough to contain small houses carved into its trunk. The wood and the tree are discovered by three children who move into a house nearby. They befriend many of the residents and have adventures in magical lands that visit the top of the tree.

Books
The first title of the main trilogy, The Enchanted Wood, was published in 1939, although the Faraway Tree and Moon-Face had already made a brief appearance in 1936 in The Yellow Fairy Book. A picture-strip book, Up the Faraway Tree, was published in 1951. Over the years, the Faraway Tree stories have been illustrated by various artists including Dorothy M. Wheeler (first editions), Rene Cloke, Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone, and Georgina Hargreaves.

The Enchanted Wood
In the first novel in the series, Jo, Bessie and Fanny (edited to Joe, Beth and Frannie in revised editions) move to live near a large forest, which the locals call "The Enchanted Wood". One day they go for a walk in the wood and discover it really is enchanted. They encounter a group of elves who have been robbed of important papers by a gnome. They chase the gnome and recover the papers, but the gnome himself escapes up a huge tree whose branches seem to reach into the clouds. This is the Faraway Tree.

Against the elves' advice, the children climb the Faraway Tree. They discover that it is inhabited by magical people, including Moon-Face, Silky, The Saucepan Man, Dame Washalot, Mr. Watzisname, and the Angry Pixie, whose houses are carved into the trunk. They befriend some of these people, in particular Moon-Face and Silky. At the very top of the tree they discover a ladder which leads them to a magical land which is different on each visit, because each place moves on from the top of the tree to make way for a new land. The children are free to come and go, but they must leave before the land moves on, or they will be stuck there until that same land returns to the Faraway Tree. In various chapters, one of the children gets stuck in the land.

The lands at the top are sometimes extremely unpleasant – for example, the Land of Dame Slap (altered to Dame Snap in revised editions), an aggressive school teacher; and sometimes fantastically enjoyable - notably the Land of Birthdays, the Land of Goodies, the Land of Take-What-You-Want, and the Land of Do-As-You-Please.

The first land the three children visit is the Roundabout Land, in which everything turns constantly. They encounter a pair of rabbits, who dig a hole for the children to help them escape the land when they discover that the hole back to the tree had closed up after the ground turned above it. After several more adventures, the people of the Faraway Tree need the children's help when they are invaded by an army of Red Goblins. The last land they visit in this book is the Land of Birthdays, where the brownies and the inhabitants of the Faraway Tree celebrate Bessie's birthday.

The Magic Faraway Tree
Dick (later Rick), the cousin of Jo, Bessie and Fanny, comes to stay and he joins the secret adventures in the lands of the Faraway Tree. Dick is not interested at first, but later on he becomes interested and gets into mischief. Together they venture into many new lands and have a lot of fun. For example, in the Land of Goodies, some houses are made of chocolate.

The Folk of the Faraway Tree
Connie, a spoilt and stuck-up girl, comes to stay for the summer with the three children while her mother is sick. At first, Connie refuses to believe in the Faraway Tree or the magical folk who live in it, even when the Angry Pixie throws ink at her and when Dame Washalot soaks her. When the children visit the lands at the top of the tree, Connie gets a few surprises. The Saucepan Man's mother decides to live in the tree, leaving her job as a baker in Dame Slap's land. She sets up a surprising cake shop in the tree.

Up the Faraway Tree
Unlike the first three books in the series, this work is not a novel, but a series of illustrations with short text underneath. The plot follows two new children, Robin and Joy, who have read The Enchanted Wood and want to join in the adventures. They go to the wood to meet Jo, Bessie and Fanny and meet some of the wood's residents, including Silky and Moon Face.

Characters
The main characters are Jo, Bessie and Fanny (updated in recent revisions to Joe, Beth and Frannie), who are three siblings. Fanny is the youngest, Bessie is next in age and Jo is their big brother. They live near the Enchanted Wood and are friends of the residents of the Faraway Tree. Other characters include:

 * The Angry Pixie, who lives in a house with a tiny window and has a habit of throwing cold water or any liquid at hand over people who dare to peep inside;
 * The barn owl, who lives in the house next to the Angry Pixie's. He is a friend of Silky's;
 * Silky is so named because of her long, golden hair. She is one of the regular companions of the children when they go up the Tree to other worlds. Throughout the books, Silky is referred to as both an elf and a pixie. (When the children first meet Silky, she is described as an elf: ″At that moment the yellow door opened and a small elf looked out.″ Yet in the fourth book by Blyton, Up The Faraway Tree, Silky is introduced to Robin and Joy as a pixie: ″So Joy knocked—and the door flew open, and there stood little Silky the pixie...″);
 * Mr. Watzisname cannot remember his name. He sleeps and snores all the time. During a particular story at the Land of Secrets, Mr. Watzisname discovers his name, Kollamoolitumarellipawkyrollo, then forgets it almost immediately as it is so long;
 * Dame Washalot, who spends her time washing her clothes and throwing the dirty wash-water down the tree. If she has no clothes to wash, she washes the dirty laundry of other people and even the leaves of the Faraway Tree;
 * Moon-Face is so named for his round face that looks like the moon. His house is similarly round and is filled with curved furniture. He is the owner of the slippery-slip, a slide which starts in the middle of his house which lets you slide down to the bottom of the Faraway Tree instead of climbing down. It is used as a means of exiting the tree and has played an important part in some of the adventures, where others have sought control of the tree or their rooms;
 * The Saucepan Man, who lives with Mr. Watzisname. His name stems from the fact that he is covered all over with saucepans and kettles. Sometimes, he cannot understand what his friends are saying because he is partially deaf, which is further aggravated by all the noise from the pans and kettles which he carries all the time. In the cartoon series, he looks very similar to Horace and Jasper from the 1961 Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians. The Saucepan Man also appears in another, lesser-known Blyton book, The Book of Brownies (aka Brownie Tales), helping the travellers out of one of their many bouts of trouble on their journey;
 * The Saucepan Man's mother, who lives with Dame Washalot after The Folk of the Faraway Tree. She runs a cake shop;
 * Dame Slap, who runs a school for bad pixies which, in some of the adventures, the friends accidentally land in. Her name has been updated in later revisions of the book to Dame Snap.

Updates
In modern reprints, the names of some of the characters have been changed. Jo has been changed to Joe, the more common spelling for males, and Bessie is now Beth, the former name having fallen out of use as a nickname for Elizabeth. Fanny and Dick have been renamed Frannie and Rick because in the United Kingdom and some countries in the Commonwealth of Nations they are now more widely used as slang terms for genitalia.

The supporting character Dame Slap has also become Dame Snap, and no longer practises corporal punishment but instead reprimands her students by shouting at them.

Entire passages of the original have been rewritten to remove references to fighting. For instance, when the tree is taken over by Goblins in The Enchanted Wood, the Goblins were originally fought off, with descriptions of Mr. Watzisname 'pummelling them as if he were beating carpets' and the Saucepan Man throwing his saucepans at them. These have been replaced with cursory references to 'chasing'.

Some of the changes were criticised in a review by Alison Flood.

Continuations by other authors
Silky's Story by Jeanne Willis, 2020.

Moonface's Story by Emily Lamm, 2021 (picture book).

The Magic Faraway Tree: A New Adventure by Jacqueline Wilson was published in May 2022.

The Magic Faraway Tree: A Christmas Adventure by Jacqueline Wilson published in October 2023, continues the story of Milo, Mia and Birdy from Wilson's earlier book.

Film
In October 2014, it was announced that the books will be adapted for the cinema for the first time and are being developed for a live action film version by Sam Mendes' production company, Neal Street Productions. As of 2021, the film was still listed as being "in development".

In May 2024, it was announced that the film adaptation, under the script of Simon Farnaby and direction by Ben Gregor, will be starred by Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy.

Television
In 1997, stories from the novels were adapted into animated ten-minute episodes for the TV series Enid Blyton's Enchanted Lands. The series, entitled Enchanted Lands: The Magic of the Faraway Tree had 13 episodes:

 * 1) The Land of Toys
 * 2) The Land of Take What You Want
 * 3) The Land of Dame Tickle
 * 4)  The Land of Ice And Snow
 * 5)  The Land of Dreams
 * 6)  The Land of Spells
 * 7)  The Land of Marvels
 * 8) The Land of Know Alls
 * 9) The Land of Secrets
 * 10)  The Land of Topsy Turvy
 * 11)  The Rocking Land
 * 12)  The Land of Wizards
 * 13)  The Land of Giants

Voices: Roy Hudd, Richard Pearce, Kate Harbour, John Baddeley, Jimmy Hibbert, Janet James and David Holt.

title: The Faraway Tree


text:
God Bless Fiji

"Meda Dau Doka", or "God Bless Fiji", is the national anthem of Fiji. The lyrics were written by Michael Francis Alexander Prescott (1928–2006) to the tune of the hymn "Dwelling in Beulah Land" by Charles Austin Miles (1911), and the music was adapted by Viliame Bale, Superintendent and Director of Music in the Royal Fiji Police Band. The anthem was adopted upon independence from the United Kingdom in 1970.

Lyrics
The anthem's English version is usually sung. The English and Fijian lyrics are not translations of each other and have very little in common.

In August 2008, the draft version of the People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress, a government document intended to supplement the Constitution and reconcile ethnic and linguistic divides, suggested that the national anthem should be in the country's three main languages: Fijian, Hindi and English. The Charter later served as the basis for the 2013 Constitution of Fiji.

title: God Bless Fiji


text:
La Concorde

"La Concorde" is the national anthem of Gabon. Written and composed by politician Georges Aleka Damas, it was adopted upon independence in 1960.

History
In a speech in Port-Gentil on 15 March 1962, President Léon M'ba stated his intention to have the national anthem translated into the various Gabonese dialects "so that in the remotest village in the country everyone will be able to understand its meaning."

title: La Concorde


text:
For The Gambia Our Homeland

"For The Gambia Our Homeland" is the national anthem of the Gambia. National anthem of the Gambia, written by Virginia Julia Howe and composed by Jeremy Frederic Howe, adopted after an international competition before independence in 1965

History
In the lead-up to The Gambia's independence from the United Kingdom on 18 February 1965, a National Anthem Selection Committee was set up to accept submissions for a national anthem for the country. The Committee would ultimately receive three submissions. One submission, by Reverend John Colley Faye, although acknowledged as "superb" in content, was rejected for being too long, with the Committee preferring something more to the point and easy to memorise.

Mandinka musician Jali Nyama Suso was approached by the government to compose an entry. He responded that he would base his proposal on a traditional Mandinka tune dedicated to Foday Kabba Dumbuya (or Fodee Kaba Dumbuya), a Muslim reformer and warrior remembered for his conquests for Islam, and a patron of Jali Nyama's grandfather. Jali Nyama stated that basing national anthems on odes to local historical figures had been done in nearby Guinea and Mali. Jali Nyama wrote his own Mandinka lyrics to the tune.

Jali Nyama's proposal was recorded and sent to be heard in the Prime Minister's office in the Cabinet, where it was liked by Prime Minister Dawda Jawara. After it was also well received by Governor-General John Paul, it was sent to be translated into English by Jeremy Frederick Howe, Chairman of the Selection Committee. Howe was a member of the Gambia Colonial Service from 1954 to 1965, an Administrative Officer in the Ministry of Local Government. Howe would ultimately be credited for the composition of the anthem, while his wife, Virginia Julia Howe, a university-trained composer, would be credited for the English translation.

Lyrics
The original lyrics are in English, and translated into Wolof.

title: For The Gambia Our Homeland


text:
Bai people

The Bai, or Pai (Bai: Baipho, (白和); ; endonym pronounced ), are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province, Bijie area of Guizhou Province, and Sangzhi area of Hunan Province. They constitute one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by China. They numbered 1,933,510 as of 2010.

Names

The Bai people hold the colour white in high esteem and call themselves "Baipzix" (', Baizi, 白子), "Bai'ho" (', Baihuo, 白伙), "Bai yinl" (, Baini, 白尼), or "Miep jiax". Bai means "white" in Chinese. In 1956, the Chinese authorities named them the Bai nationality according to their preference.

The Bai were also been called Minjia (民家) by the Chinese from the 14th century to 1949.

The origin of the name Bai is not clear, but scholars believe that it is connected to the first state in which the Bai people built, in the 3rd century CE. This state, called Baizi Guo (白子國, State of Bai), was not documented in Chinese orthodox history, but was frequently mentioned in the oral history of Yunnan Province. It was believed to have been built by the first king, Longyouna (龍佑那), who was given the family name "Zhang" (張) by Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of the state of Shu Han (221–263 CE). Zhuge Liang conquered the Dali region at that time, and assisted Longyouna in building the State of Bai. The State of Bai was located in present-day Midu County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province.

Modern identity
The Bai people are one of the most sinicized minorities in China. Although technically one of China's 56 official ethnic groups, it is difficult to qualify them as a distinct ethnic minority. As early as the 1940s, some rejected their non-Chinese origin and preferred to identify themselves solely as Chinese. The Bai ethnic label was not widely used or known until 1958. Today, the Bai people accept minority status for pragmatic reasons; however, they are culturally nearly indistinguishable from Han Chinese.

Location
Bai people live primarily in the provinces of Yunnan (Dali area), and in neighboring Guizhou (Bijie area) and Hunan (Sangzhi area) provinces. Of the 2 million Bai people, eighty percent live in concentrated communities in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province.

History

The origin of the Bai people has been heavily debated over the past century, though those debates mainly focus on the groups of people who were assimilated. According to archaeological excavations around Lake Erhai, the Bai people could have originated in the area around the lake. The earliest human site was discovered in the early 20th century, which was called the paleolithic Malong relics of Mt. Cangshan (苍山马龙遗址), dated circa 4000 bp. The late sites include Haimenkou of Jianchuan (剑川海门口, 3000 bp), Baiyangcun of Binchuan (宾川白羊村, 3500 bp), and Dabona of Xiangyun (祥云大波那, 2350 bp).

The Bai are mentioned in Tang dynasty texts as the 'Bo (or Bai) People'. Assuming the Bo transcription is correct, the earliest mention of the Bai was in the third century BCE in a text called Lüshi Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Lü Buwei). They were mentioned again in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian in the first century BCE.

The Bai were one of the tribes that helped establish the Nanzhao Kingdom (649–902). The Dali Kingdom (937–1253) was founded by Duan Siping, a Bai man whose family had played major roles in the Nanzhao Kingdom. It is likely that the Bai were one of the elite ethnic groups that ruled and composed the population of the two kingdoms. After the collapse of the Dali Kingdom by the Mongols, the Bai never again enjoyed full political independence.

Language

An estimated 1,240,000 (as of 2003) of the Bai speak the Bai language in all its varieties. As of 2004, only Bai people who lived in the mountains spoke Bai as their only language, but some Han Chinese in Dali also spoke Bai due to local influence. Among modern Bai people, Chinese is usually used for popular media such as radio, television, and news, while Bai is relegated to folk-arts related activities. No book in the Bai language has been published as of 2005.

The origins of the language have been obscured by many years of intensive Chinese influence. Several theories have been proposed, including categorizing it as a sister language of Chinese, a separate group within the Sino-Tibetan family, or in a category more related to the Thai language or Hmong language. Superficially, the Bai lexicon and grammar are closer to Chinese languages, but they also share common vocabulary items with the Lolo-Burmese languages. According to the Manshu (Book of Barbarians) by Fan Chuo (9th century), the Baiman's pronunciation of Chinese was the most accurate out of all the tribes in the area. Scriptures from Nanzhao unearthed in 1950s show that they were written in the Bai language (similar to Chữ Nôm and the Old Zhuang script) but it does not seem Nanzhao ever attempted to standardize or popularize the script. The same was true for its successor, the Dali Kingdom. During the Ming dynasty, the government began offering state examinations in Yunnan, which solidified Classical Chinese as the official language.

Religion
Although most Bai people adhere to Azhaliism, a form of Buddhism that traces its history back to the Nanzhao Kingdom, they also have a native religion of Benzhuism: the worship of ngel zex, local gods and ancestors. Ngel zex could be any hero in history—the prince of the Nanzhao regime, a hero of folklore or even a tiger (for instance, Laojun Jingdi 老君景帝 is a tiger).

Most Bai people don't belong to any religion. There are minorities practicing Taoism and Christianity. George Clarke, who arrived in 1881, was the first Protestant missionary to the Bai population. The most recent estimation of Bai Christian population is 50,000.

There are a few villages in Yunnan where residents are Muslims, but speak Bai as their first language. These people are officially classified by Chinese authorities as belonging to the Hui nationality and call themselves Bai Hui ("Bai-speaking Muslims"). They usually say that their ancestors were Hui people, who came to Yunnan as followers of the Mongolian army in the 14th century.

Gender
Gender roles were relatively equal in Bai society and women were not considered inferior to men. Having only daughters and no sons was not considered a tragedy.

Agriculture
Most Bai were subsistence rice farmers, but they also cultivated wheat, vegetables, and fruits. Unlike the Han and most other Chinese minority groups, the Bai ate cheese and made it from either cow or goat milk. The leftover whey from the process of cheese-making was fed to pigs. Those who lived around Erhai Lake fished.

Clothing
The Bai people, as their name would suggest, favor white clothes and decorations. Women generally wear white dresses, sleeveless jackets of red, blue, or black color, embroidered belts, loose trousers, embroidered shoes of white cloth, and jewelry made of gold or silver. Women in Dali traditionally wear a white coat trimmed with a black or purple collar, loose blue trousers, embroidered shoes, silver bracelets, and earrings. Unmarried women wear a single pigtail on the top of their head, while married women roll their hair. The men wear white jackets, black-collared coats, and dark loose shorts. Their headwear and costume reflect the Bai symbols: the snow, the moon, the flower, and the wind.

Many Bai women style their hair in a long braid wrapped in a headcloth. This style is called "the phoenix bows its head".

Arts
The Bai have a traditional form of theater called Chuichuiqiang. However, this local tradition is endangered just as traditional Bai culture is in general.

Raosanlin
The three major Bai festivals are called the Raosanlin (Walking Around Three Souls). The most important one is the Third Month Fair, held annually at the foot of Mount Cang in Dali between the fifteenth and twentieth days of the third lunar month. Originally, it was a religious activity to rally and pay homage, but it gradually evolved into a fair that included performances of traditional sports and dance as well as the trade of merchandise from different regions. The second festival is the Shibaoshan Song Festival, and the third is the Torch Festival, held on the 25th day of the sixth lunar month to wish health and a good harvest. On that evening, the countryside is decorated with banners with auspicious words written upon them. Villagers then light torches in front of their gates and walk around the fields while holding yet more torches in order to catch pests.

Tea ceremony
The Bai tea ceremony, San Dao Cha 三道茶 (Three Course Tea), is most popular among the Bai in the Dali area and is a common sight at festivals and marriages. It is both a cultural ceremony and a method of honouring a guest. The ceremony is often described in Mandarin as 'Yiku, Ertian, sanhuiwei' 一苦二甜三回味 (First is bitter, Second is sweet, Third brings reflection (aftertaste)).

The first tea course starts with baking the tea leaves in a clay pot over a small flame, shaking the leaves often while they bake. When they turn slightly brown and give off a distinct fragrance, heated water is added to the pot. The water should immediately begin bubbling. When the bubbling ceases, a small amount of bitterly fragrant, concentrated tea remains. Due to the sound the hot water makes when it enters the clay pot, the first course tea was, in previous times, also known as Lei Xiang Cha 雷响茶 (Sound of Thunder Tea).

The second course is sweet tea. Pieces of walnut kernel and roasted rushan (乳扇, lit. milk fan), a dried cheese specific to the Dali region, are put into a tea cup with brown sugar and other ingredients. Boiling water is added and the tea is then offered to the guest. This tea is sweet without being oily, so the guest can easily drink it.

The third tea is made by mixing honey, Sichuan pepper, slices of ginger, and cassia together in a china cup with hot Cangshan Xue green tea. The product is a tea that is sweet, coarse and spicy all at once. This Dali specialty has a noticeable aftertaste, which meant it was known as Hui Wei Cha 回味茶 (Reflection Tea).

The 18 procedures of the tea ceremony are governed by strict etiquette, which follows the principles of etiquette, honesty and beauty. As such, the tea ceremony is considered by some to perfectly embody the hospitable Bai people's current customs.

Primary occupations
Most Bai are agriculturalists. They cultivate many crops like rice, wheat, rapeseed, sugar, millet, cotton, cane, corn, and tobacco. However, some Bai also engage in fishing and selling local handicrafts to tourists.

Cormorant fishing
Bai fishermen have trained cormorants to fish since the 9th century. Decreases in water quality and the high costs of cormorant training have resulted in the recent disuse of the practice, though cormorant fishing is still done by local fishers today for tourists.

Architecture
The Bai architecture is characterized by three buildings forming a U and a fourth wall as a screen. The middle has a courtyard. The houses are usually built out of brick and wood, and the main room is in the middle (opposite the screen wall). The screen wall is built with brick and stone. The house is painted white with black tile paintings depicting animals and other natural images. The detailing is usually made of clay sculptures, woodcarving, colored drawings, stone inscriptions, marble screens and dark brink. It produces a very striking and elegant effect.

Dali is well known for its marble. The name for marble is 'Dali marble' in Chinese. It is used in modern architecture by the Bai.

Notable Bai

 * Duan Siping (段思平) – founder of the Kingdom of Dali
 * Shen Yiqin (谌贻琴) – Communist Party Secretary of Guizhou
 * Wang Xiji (王希季) is an aerospace engineer, designer of the Long March 1 rocket
 * (徐琳) is a linguist and one of the two founders of modern grammar of Bai language.
 * Yang Chaoyue (杨超越) - actress, pop music singer, former member of Rocket Girls 101
 * Yang Liping (杨丽萍) – dancer
 * Yang Rong (楊蓉) – actress
 * Yang Yuntao (楊雲濤) – dancer
 * Zhang Le Jin Qiu (张乐进求) – legendary ancestor of the Bai
 * Zhang Lizhu (张丽珠) – gynecologist
 * Zhang Jiebao (张结宝) was a famous bandit leader, active in the 1920s in northwestern Yunnan.
 * Zhao Fan (趙藩) – scholar, calligrapher and poet
 * Zhao Shiming (赵式铭) – scholar, the first one who studied the Bai language the most systematically.
 * Zhao Yansun (赵衍荪) – linguist, one of two founders of modern grammar of Bai language.
 * Zhou Baozhong (周保中) – military general, who led the battles against the Japanese invasion in Northeastern China.
 * Fiona Ma (馬世雲) – American Politician.
 * Dianxi Xiaoge (滇西小哥) – Youtuber

title: Bai people


text:
Bellbird

Bellbird may refer to:

Birds

 * Neotropical bellbird (genus Procnias), of South and Central America
 * Crested bellbird (Oreoica gutturalis), of Australia
 * New Zealand bellbird (Anthornis melanura)
 * Bell miner (Manorina melanophrys), colloquially known in Australia as the bellbird

Other uses

 * Bellbird, New South Wales, Australia
 * Bellbird (TV series), a 1967-1977 Australian TV production
 * Bellbird (film), a 2019 New Zealand film by director Hamish Bennett

title: Bellbird


text:
Battle of Dyrrhachium (48 BC)

The Battle of Dyrrachium (or Dyrrhachium) took place from April to late July 48 BC near the city of Dyrrachium, modern day Durrës in what is now Albania. It was fought between Gaius Julius Caesar and an army led by Gnaeus Pompey during Caesar's civil war.

Caesar attempted to capture the vital Pompeian logistics hub of Dyrrachium but was unsuccessful after Pompey occupied it and the surrounding heights. In response, Caesar besieged Pompey's camp and constructed a circumvallation thereof, until, after months of skirmishes, Pompey was able to break through Caesar's fortified lines, forcing Caesar to make a strategic retreat into Thessaly.

After the battle, Pompey pursued Caesar into Thessaly and then towards Pharsalus, where the decisive battle of Caesar's Greek campaign would be fought.

Background
Starting in 49 BC, Julius Caesar had crossed the Rubicon and started a civil war in the Roman republic. Starting in January with a lightning advance against the Pompeian and senatorial forces in Italy, Pompey withdrew across the Adriatic for Rome's eastern provinces. Following Caesar's defeat of Pompey's legates in Spain, Caesar turned east and crossed the Adriatic in January 48 BC.

As Pompey raised troops in the east, Caesar needed to strike quickly: he moved some his troops across the Adriatic but was intercepted, stranding him with seven legions in Greece while the rest of his army remained in Brundisium under Mark Antony. Seeking supplies, Caesar attempted to seize Dyrrachium – a major Pompeian supply hub – but withdrew when Pompey arrived in the city first. In early April, Antony and his reinforcements were able to join Caesar's manoeuvres against Pompey outside Dyrrachium.

The siege
Caesar first attempted to offer battle with Pompey, but was rebuffed, with Pompey seeking to wear down Caesar's forces with hunger; in response, Caesar attempted again to capture Dyrrachium, which remained logistically vital.

At Dyrrachium, Pompey held a strong defensive position; his back was guarded by the sea, and at his front there were hills that commanded the immediate area. There, Pompey established his camp on the top of a rocky outcrop called Petra overlooking a natural harbour from which he could be resupplied by sea. Caesar's camp, however, was on high ground inland, which forced his troops to rely on forage. Caesar started a circumvallation: to prevent Pompey from getting fodder for his animals, to render his cavalry ineffective and thus protect his own foraging parties, and to reduce Pompey's standing in the eyes of the foreigners and his own men by putting him on the defensive and making him openly refuse battle. In response, Pompey also started construction of a fortified line facing Caesar. On completion, the interior Pompeian line stretched some fifteen Roman miles with twenty-four forts, while Caesar's exterior line stretched some 17 miles.

While Caesar lacked for food during the winter – reckoning by natural seasons rather than the out-of-sync Roman calendar – he cut off the streams sustaining the Pompeian water supply; the supply situation led to outbreaks of camp disease as well. As Caesar continued his fortified encirclement, hoping to force Pompey either to withdraw by sea, break out, or watch his army wither away, skirmishes and raids against the fortified lines continued.

Pompey decided to try and lure Caesar away from the fortifications by means of a false message that some of the inhabitants of Dyrrachium were prepared to betray the town to him, and meanwhile launch a three-pronged attack against forts in the centre of the siege-line. At two of these forts one cohort under Lucius Minucius Basilus and three cohorts under Gaius Volcatius Tullus put up stiff resistance against five of Pompey's legions until they were relieved by a force of two legions from the main camp under Publius Cornelius Sulla. The Pompeians became cut off on a hill-top between the two lines for five days before Pompey could withdraw them. Caesar reckoned the Pompeian losses at two thousand.

It was difficult, however, for Caesar's forces to hold a longer line than his numerically superior enemy, leading him to deploy aggressively before, but out of range of, the enemy walls: Pompey was forced similarly to respond with a similar force concentration.

The battle
When two Gallic chieftain auxiliaries defected from Caesar to Pompey with their retinues, Pompey discovered a weakness in the southernmost sector of Caesar's lines and prepared for a major attack to break through Caesar's fortified lines. The initial attack was successful, and the position only held when Antony brought up twelve cohorts, followed by further reserves led by Caesar personally. While the Ninth's fort held, Pompey built a camp in the area and also secured lines of communication into the hinterland.

After Pompey's forces occupied a relatively exposed fortified encampment that had previously been abandoned by the Caesarians, Caesar launched an attack against it. The attack, plagued by confused directions, was a costly failure for Caesar, sending his men into a hasty retreat with losses of some 960 men and more than 32 officers. While Pompey held the field, he ordered a halt. Caesar remarked on that decision saying, "[Pompey's forces] would have won today, if only they were commanded by a winner".

In the aftermath, Titus Labienus, a trusted lieutenant of Caesar's during the Gallic wars who had deserted to Pompey at the start of the civil war, had the Caesarian prisoners executed before the enemy lines.

Aftermath
Tactically, Caesar's position was substantially weakened: Pompey had captured one of the ends of his fortified line and Caesar would not be able to construct an even longer line to encircle Pompey's extended fortifications. In response, Caesar withdrew to Apollonia under cover of darkness, leaving two legions to deceive the Pompeians into thinking they were still present. When this was discovered, Pompey sent cavalry in pursuit, but they were held off in a skirmish with Caesar's rear-guard.

By this time it was summer and Caesar made way for areas not yet visited by foraging parties, meaning that they would be able to support more prolonged operations. After being denied entrance to Gomphi by its city magistrates, who did not want to aid a leader seemingly likely to lose the war, Caesar had his men sack the city as a successful example of ruthlessness.

In a broader sense, the Pompeians elated at the victory, being the first time in the civil war that Caesar had suffered a non-trivial defeat. Men like Domitius Ahenobarbus urged Pompey to bring Caesar to decisive battle and crush him; others urged a return to Rome and Italy to retake the capital. Pompey remained steadfast in believing that committing to a pitched battle was both unwise and unnecessary, deciding on strategic patience to wait for reinforcements from Syria and to exploit Caesar's weak supply lines. The elation of victory turned into overconfidence and mutual suspicion, putting significant pressure on Pompey to provoke a final encounter with the enemy. Beginning to place too much trust in his forces and under the influence of overconfident officers, he chose to engage Caesar in Thessaly shortly after being reinforced from Syria.

title: Battle of Dyrrhachium (48 BC)


text:
God Bless Our Homeland Ghana

"God Bless Our Homeland Ghana" is the national anthem of Ghana; it was adopted in 1957 when Ghana declared its independence from the United Kingdom.

History

The music for the national anthem was originally composed by Philip Gbeho and sung to lyrics written by Emmanuel Pappoe-Thompson. However the words were revised by a literary committee in the Office of the then head of state, Kwame Nkrumah. Michael Kwame Gbordzoe has made claims to the current lyrics being used saying that it was written by him after the overthrow of President Nkrumah. A competition was held and Kwame Gbordzoe, who was then a student at Bishop Herman College, presented the current lyrics which were chosen to replace "Lift High The Flag Of Ghana" which had been officially adopted after independence and used as Ghana's national anthem during Nkrumah's presidency.

Current lyrics
The current lyrics of the "God Bless Our Homeland Ghana" national anthem that has been in use since the 1970s were written by Michael Kwame Gbordzoe while a student within the framework of a national competition, and is accompanied by Ghana's national pledge.

Thus, the official current lyrics of "God Bless Our Homeland Ghana" are as follows:

Thus, although Philip Gbeho’s composition is still being used, the current lyrics beginning "God Bless our Homeland Ghana" do not originate from him.

Michael Kwame Gbordzoe, who became a scientist by profession, has drawn the attention of the Ghana Government to the fact that although his lyrics have been adopted for the country’s national anthem since the 1970s, there has so far been no official Ghana Government recognition for his work, which may be attributed to the abrupt changes in regimes in Ghana in the past.

Messages were sent to various Ghanaian government agencies, and was also discussed on air at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Uniiq FM programme PTGlive, on 9 March 2008.

National Pledge of Ghana
The National Pledge of Ghana is recited immediately after "God Bless Our Homeland Ghana".

title: God Bless Our Homeland Ghana