text:
Frank M. Robinson

Frank Malcolm Robinson (August 9, 1926 – June 30, 2014) was an American science fiction and techno-thriller writer. He was a speechwriter for gay politician Harvey Milk and Milk's designated successor in the event of his death but declined to be appointed to or run for office.

Biography
Born in Chicago, Illinois. Robinson was the son of a check forger. He started out in his teens working as a copy boy for International News Service and then became an office boy for Ziff Davis. He was drafted into the Navy for World War II, and when his tour was over attended Beloit College, where he majored in physics, graduating in 1950. He could find no work as a writer, so he ended up back in the Navy and serving in Korea, where he kept writing and reading, as well as publishing in Astounding magazine.

After the Navy, he attended graduate school in journalism, then worked for a Chicago-based Sunday supplement. Soon he switched to Science Digest, where he worked from 1956 to 1959. From there, he moved into men's magazines: Rogue (1959–65) and Cavalier (1965–66). In 1969, Playboy asked him to take over the Playboy Advisor column. He remained there, without revealing that he was gay, until 1973, when he left to write full-time.

After moving to San Francisco in the 1970s, Robinson was a speechwriter for gay politician Harvey Milk; he had a small role in the film Milk. After Milk's assassination, Robinson was co-executor, with Scott Smith, of Milk's last will and testament.

Robinson was the author of 16 books, the editor of two others, and penned numerous articles. Three of his novels have been made into films. The Power (1956) was a supernatural science fiction and government conspiracy novel about people with superhuman skills, filmed in 1968 as The Power. The technothriller The Glass Inferno, co-written with Thomas N. Scortia, was combined with Richard Martin Stern's The Tower to produce the 1974 feature film The Towering Inferno. The Gold Crew, also co-written with Scortia, was a nuclear threat thriller filmed as an NBC miniseries and re-titled The Fifth Missile.

He collaborated on several other works with Scortia, including The Prometheus Crisis, The Nightmare Factor, and Blow-Out. More recent works include The Dark Beyond the Stars (1991), and an updated version of The Power (2000), which closely followed Waiting (1999), a novel with similar themes to The Power. His novel is a medical thriller about organ theft called The Donor.

In the 1970s, Robinson started seriously collecting the vintage pulp-fiction magazines that he had grown up reading. The collection spawned a book on the history of the pulps as seen through their vivid cover art: Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines (with co-author Lawrence Davidson). He attended numerous pulp conventions and in 2000 won the Lamont Award for lifetime achievement at Pulpcon.

In 2009 he was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

Novels

 * The Power (1956)
 * The Glass Inferno (1974, with Thomas N. Scortia)
 * The Prometheus Crisis (1975, with Thomas N. Scortia)
 * The Nightmare Factor (1978, with Thomas N. Scortia)
 * The Gold Crew (1980, with Thomas N. Scortia)
 * The Great Divide (1982, with John F. Levin)
 * Blow-Out! (1987, with Thomas N. Scortia)
 * The Dark Beyond the Stars (1991)
 * Death of a Marionette (1995, with Paul Hull)
 * Waiting (1999)
 * The Donor (2004)

Short story collections

 * A Life in the Day of... and Other Short Stories (1981). Contains 9 short stories:
 * "The Maze" (1950)
 * "The Reluctant Heroes" (1951). Novelette
 * "The Fire and the Sword" (1951). Novelette
 * "The Santa Claus Planet" (1951). Novelette
 * "The Hunting Season" (1951). Novelette
 * "The Wreck of the Ship John B." (1967). Novelette
 * ""East Wind, West Wind"" (1972). Novelette
 * "A Life in the Day of..." (1969)
 * "Downhill All the Way" (1974)
 * Through My Glasses Darkly, Edited by Robin Wayne Bailey (2002). Contains 5 short stories:
 * "Causes" (1997). Novelette
 * ""East Wind, West Wind"" (1972). Novelette
 * "The Hunting Season" (1951). Novelette
 * "A Life in the Day Of..." (1969)
 * "Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll" (1994)

Short stories
Uncollected short stories.

 * "Situation Thirty" (1951)
 * "Two Weeks in August" (1951)
 * "Beyond the Ultra-Violet" (1951)
 * "Good Luck, Columbus!" (1951)
 * "Untitled Story" (1951). Novelette
 * "You've Got to Believe" (1951)
 * "The Girls from Earth" (1952). Novelette
 * "Viewpoint" (1953)
 * "The Night Shift" (1953)
 * "Muscle Man" (1953)
 * "Quiz Game" (1953)
 * "The Day the World Ended" (1953)
 * "Decision" (1953)
 * "Guaranteed - Forever!" (1953)
 * "The Siren Sounds at Midnight" (1953)
 * "Planted!, AKA The Observer" (1953)
 * "Quarter in the Slot" (1954)
 * "The Lonely Man" (1954)
 * "The Worlds of Joe Shannon" (1954)
 * "One Thousand Miles Up" (1954)
 * "The Oceans Are Wide" (1954). Novelette
 * "The Dead End Kids of Space" (1954). Novelette
 * "Cosmic Saboteur" (1955). Novelette
 * "Dream Street" (1955)
 * "Four Hours to Eternity" (1955)
 * "You Don't Walk Alone" (1955)
 * "Wanted: One Sane Man" (1955). Novelette
 * "A Rover I Will Be" (1960)
 * "Merry Christmas, No. 30267" (1993)
 * "The Greatest Dying" (1993)
 * "1969 Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll" (1994)
 * "Dealer's Choice" (1994)
 * "One Month in 1907" (1994) (collected in Mike Resnick's alternate history anthology Alternate Outlaws)
 * "The Phantom of the Barbary Coast" (1995). Novelette
 * "Infallibility, Obedience, and Acts of Contrition" (1997) (collected in Mike Resnick's alternate history anthology Alternate Tyrants)
 * "Love Story" (2003)
 * "The Errand Boy" (2010). Novelette

Poems

 * The Nether Gardens (1945)

Nonfiction

 * Autobiographies:
 * Not So Good a Gay Man: A Memoir (2017)

 * Guides:
 * Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines (1998, with Lawrence Davidson)
 * Science Fiction of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History (1999)

 * Self Help:
 * Therapeutic Re-Creation: Ideas and Experiences (1974)
 * A Holistic Perspective on the Disabled Child: Applications in Camping, Recreation, and Community Life (1985)
 * Coping+plus: Dimensions of Disability (1995, with Dwight Woodworth Jr., Doe West)

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

title: Frank M. Robinson


text:
Desiderata

"Desiderata" (Latin: "things desired") is a 1927 prose poem by the American writer Max Ehrmann. The text was widely distributed in poster form in the 1960s and 1970s.

History
Max Ehrmann of Terre Haute, Indiana started writing the work in 1921, but he did not assign it a title. He registered for his U.S. copyright in 1927 using the poem's first phrase as its title. The April 5, 1933 issue of Michigan Tradesman magazine published the full, original text on its cover, crediting Ehrmann as its author. In 1933, he distributed the poem in the form of a Christmas card, now officially titled "Desiderata."

Psychiatrist Merrill Moore distributed more than 1,000 unattributed copies to his patients and soldiers during World War II. After Ehrmann died in 1945, his widow published the work in 1948 in The Poems of Max Ehrmann. The 1948 version was in the form of one long prose paragraph, so earlier and later versions were presumably also in that form.

The reverend Frederick Kates distributed about 200 unattributed copies as devotional materials for his congregation at Old Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore during 1959 or 1960. The papers mentioned the church's foundation date of 1692, which has caused many to falsely assume that the date is that of the poem's origination.

The text was widely distributed in poster form in the 1960s and 1970s, often with the incorrect date of 1692. It was first partitioned into a few subparagraphs separated by "distinctive spacing figures" in 1970 by Pro Arts and Crescendo Publishers. Later, it was divided into four or more subparagraphs separated by new lines in DePauw University's Mirage for 1978 and in the July/August 1999 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. In some versions, almost all instances of "and" are replaced by ampersands. Other versions change "the noise and the haste" to "the noise and haste" and change "be cheerful" to "be careful," notably in the 1971 spoken-word recording by Les Crane.

Copyright status
Ehrmann's widow renewed the copyright in 1954. In 1967, Robert L. Bell acquired the publishing rights from Bruce Humphries Publishing Company, and then bought the copyright from Richard Wright, nephew and heir to the Ehrmann work.

In August 1971, the poem was published in Success Unlimited magazine without permission from Bell. In a 1975 lawsuit against the magazine's publisher Combined Registry Co., the court ruled that copyright had been forfeited because the poem had been authorized for publication without a copyright notice in 1933 and 1942, meaning that the poem was therefore in the public domain. The ruling was upheld by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals but was denied consideration by the Supreme Court. However, Bell refused to recognize the ruling. As the decision was only valid in the appeals court's jurisdiction of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, Bell continued to litigate in other jurisdictions, seeking removal of the poem from offending publications or payment of royalties.

The poem is now officially in the public domain throughout the U.S., as written works registered before 1928 entered the public domain in 2023.

Significant usages of the poem

 * A Spanish-language version by Mexican actor Arturo Benavides topped the Mexican charts for six weeks in 1972.
 * In 1971, Les Crane used a spoken-word recording of the poem as the lead track of his album Desiderata. His producers had assumed that the poem was too old to be copyrighted, but the publicity surrounding the record led to clarification of Ehrmann's authorship and the eventual payment of royalties. Crane's version peaked at #4 in Australia in December 1971.
 * In 2010, Ehrmann's hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana unveiled a bronze statue by Bill Wolfe of Ehrmann sitting on a park bench.
 * Following his government's loss of majority in the 1972 Canadian federal election, prime minister Pierre Trudeau reassured the nation by quoting Desiderata: "Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
 * In a 1982 episode of The Professionals titled "Discovered in a Graveyard", a framed copy is found in Ray Doyle's apartment and is read aloud by George Cowley.
 * In a 2012 interview on Oprah Winfrey's Master Class television special, actor Morgan Freeman explained how deeply the poem had shaped his life.
 * When former Illinois governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson died in 1965, a copy of the poem was found near his bedside, as he had planned to use it in his Christmas cards. This discovery contributed further to the poem's popularity.

title: Desiderata


text:
Real tree

In mathematics, real trees (also called $$\mathbb R$$-trees) are a class of metric spaces generalising simplicial trees. They arise naturally in many mathematical contexts, in particular geometric group theory and probability theory. They are also the simplest examples of Gromov hyperbolic spaces.

Formal definition

A metric space $$X$$ is a real tree if it is a geodesic space where every triangle is a tripod. That is, for every three points $$x, y, \rho \in X$$ there exists a point $$c = x \wedge y$$ such that the geodesic segments $$[\rho,x], [\rho,y]$$ intersect in the segment $$[\rho,c]$$ and also $$c \in [x,y]$$. This definition is equivalent to $$X$$ being a "zero-hyperbolic space" in the sense of Gromov (all triangles are "zero-thin"). Real trees can also be characterised by a topological property. A metric space $$X$$ is a real tree if for any pair of points $$x, y \in X$$ all topological embeddings $$\sigma$$ of the segment $$[0,1]$$ into $$X$$ such that $$\sigma(0) = x, \, \sigma(1) = y$$ have the same image (which is then a geodesic segment from $$x$$ to $$y$$).

Simple examples

 * If $$X$$ is a connected graph with the combinatorial metric then it is a real tree if and only if it is a tree (i.e. it has no cycles). Such a tree is often called a simplicial tree. They are characterised by the following topological property: a real tree $$T$$ is simplicial if and only if the set of singular points of $$X$$ (points whose complement in $$X$$ has three or more connected components) is closed and discrete in $$X$$.
 * The $$\mathbb R$$-tree obtained in the following way is nonsimplicial. Start with the interval [0, 2] and glue, for each positive integer n, an interval of length 1/n to the point 1 − 1/n in the original interval. The set of singular points is discrete, but fails to be closed since 1 is an ordinary point in this $$\mathbb R$$-tree. Gluing an interval to 1 would result in a closed set of singular points at the expense of discreteness.
 * The Paris metric makes the plane into a real tree. It is defined as follows: one fixes an origin $$P$$, and if two points are on the same ray from $$P$$, their distance is defined as the Euclidean distance. Otherwise, their distance is defined to be the sum of the Euclidean distances of these two points to the origin $$P$$.
 * The plane under the Paris metric is an example of a hedgehog space, a collection of line segments joined at a common endpoint. Any such space is a real tree.

Characterizations
Here are equivalent characterizations of real trees which can be used as definitions:

1) (similar to trees as graphs) A real tree is a geodesic metric space which contains no subset homeomorphic to a circle.

2) A real tree is a connected metric space $$(X,d)$$ which has the four points condition (see figure):
 * For all $$x,y,z,t\in X,$$ $$ d(x,y)+d(z,t)\leq \max[d(x,z)+d(y,t)\,;\, d(x,t)+d(y,z)]$$.

3) A real tree is a connected 0-hyperbolic metric space (see figure). Formally,
 * For all $$x,y,z,t\in X,$$ $$ (x,y)_t\geq \min [ (x,z)_t\, ; \, (y,z)_t ],$$

where $$(x,y)_t$$ denotes the Gromov product of $$x$$ and $$y$$ with respect to $$t$$, that is, $$\textstyle\frac 1 2 \left( d(x, t) + d(y, t) - d(x, y) \right).$$

4) (similar to the characterization of plane trees by their contour process). Consider a positive excursion of a function. In other words, let $$e$$ be a continuous real-valued function and $$[a,b]$$ an interval such that $$e(a)=e(b)=0$$ and $$e(t)>0$$ for $$t\in ]a,b[$$.

For $$x, y\in [a,b]$$, $$x\leq y$$, define a pseudometric and an equivalence relation with:

 * $$ d_e( x, y) := e(x)+e(y)-2\min(e(z)\, ;z\in[x,y]), $$

 * $$ x\sim_e y \Leftrightarrow d_e(x,y)=0.$$

Then, the quotient space $$([a,b]/\sim_e\, ,\, d_e) $$ is a real tree. Intuitively, the local minima of the excursion e are the parents of the local maxima. Another visual way to construct the real tree from an excursion is to "put glue" under the curve of e, and "bend" this curve, identifying the glued points (see animation).

Examples
Real trees often appear, in various situations, as limits of more classical metric spaces.

Brownian trees
A Brownian tree is a stochastic process whose value is a (non-simplicial) real tree almost surely. Brownian trees arise as limits of various random processes on finite trees.

Ultralimits of metric spaces
Any ultralimit of a sequence $$(X_i)$$ of $$\delta_i$$-hyperbolic spaces with $$\delta_i \to 0$$ is a real tree. In particular, the asymptotic cone of any hyperbolic space is a real tree.

Limit of group actions
Let $$G$$ be a group. For a sequence of based $$G$$-spaces $$(X_i, *_i, \rho_i)$$ there is a notion of convergence to a based $$G$$-space $$(X_\infty, x_\infty, \rho_\infty)$$ due to M. Bestvina and F. Paulin. When the spaces are hyperbolic and the actions are unbounded the limit (if it exists) is a real tree.

A simple example is obtained by taking $$G = \pi_1(S)$$ where $$S$$ is a compact surface, and $$X_i$$ the universal cover of $$S$$ with the metric $$i\rho$$ (where $$\rho$$ is a fixed hyperbolic metric on $$S$$).

This is useful to produce actions of hyperbolic groups on real trees. Such actions are analyzed using the so-called Rips machine. A case of particular interest is the study of degeneration of groups acting properly discontinuously on a real hyperbolic space (this predates Rips', Bestvina's and Paulin's work and is due to J. Morgan and P. Shalen ).

Algebraic groups
If $$F$$ is a field with an ultrametric valuation then the Bruhat–Tits building of $$\mathrm{SL}_2(F)$$ is a real tree. It is simplicial if and only if the valuations is discrete.

$$\Lambda$$-trees
If $$\Lambda$$ is a totally ordered abelian group there is a natural notion of a distance with values in $$\Lambda$$ (classical metric spaces correspond to $$\Lambda = \mathbb R$$). There is a notion of $$\Lambda$$-tree which recovers simplicial trees when $$\Lambda = \mathbb Z$$ and real trees when $$\Lambda = \mathbb R$$. The structure of finitely presented groups acting freely on $$\Lambda$$-trees was described. In particular, such a group acts freely on some $$\mathbb R^n$$-tree.

Real buildings
The axioms for a building can be generalized to give a definition of a real building. These arise for example as asymptotic cones of higher-rank symmetric spaces or as Bruhat-Tits buildings of higher-rank groups over valued fields.

title: Real tree


text:
Modern Talking

Modern Talking was a German pop duo consisting of arranger, songwriter and producer Dieter Bohlen and singer Thomas Anders. They have been referred to as Germany's most successful pop duo, and have had a number of hit singles, reaching the top five in many countries. Their most popular singles are "You're My Heart, You're My Soul", "You Can Win If You Want", "Cheri, Cheri Lady", "Brother Louie", "Atlantis Is Calling (S.O.S. for Love)" and "Geronimo's Cadillac".

Modern Talking worked together from 1983 to 1987, when the band disbanded. They made a successful comeback, recording and releasing music from 1998 to 2003. The duo released singles (many of which involved American rapper Eric Singleton) which again entered the top ten in Germany and elsewhere, one of which was a re-recorded version of "You're My Heart, You're My Soul", to whose title "'98" was added. By the duo's final break-up in 2003, their combined global sales (singles and albums) had reached 120 million.

1983–1987: Beginning

First formed in West Berlin in early 1983, they unexpectedly became popular at the beginning of 1985 with "You're My Heart, You're My Soul", with which they occupied top ten positions in 35 countries, including their homeland, where the single perched at the top of the charts for six consecutive weeks. The single would go on to sell eight million copies worldwide. It was followed by another chart-topping hit, "You Can Win If You Want", which was released in the middle of 1985 off the debut album The 1st Album. The album was certified platinum in Germany for selling over 500,000 units.

Soon after their second hit, Modern Talking released the single "Cheri, Cheri Lady" which also quickly climbed to number one in West Germany, Finland, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Norway, and made it into the top ten in Denmark, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands. As the sole track released from Let's Talk About Love, it procured that second album's platinum status in West Germany (for sales over 500,000). Success continued with two further number-one singles, "Brother Louie" and "Atlantis Is Calling (S.O.S. for Love)", from the third album, Ready for Romance. The duo also charted high with their sixth single, "Geronimo's Cadillac", from the fourth album, In the Middle of Nowhere, and "Jet Airliner" from their fifth album, Romantic Warriors.

Due to the lacklustre reception accorded the sixth album, Bohlen announced the project's termination in a German interview given while Anders was away in Los Angeles. The two had had a relationship that was quarrelsome, if not tumultuous, and this only worsened the animosity. Bohlen cited as the main reason for breaking up Anders' then wife Nora: she'd forbidden her husband from being interviewed by female reporters and repeatedly demanded major changes to shows, videos and recordings, a fact that Anders would admit to in his biography. After a last phone call, heavily laden with reciprocal invective, they broke off all contact for over ten years.

During their early era, Modern Talking knew success in Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East and Iran. In Britain, they only entered the chart with 4 songs, with "Brother Louie" being their highest at number 4. In 1985, RCA signed Modern Talking for a US deal and released their first album there, but they remained virtually unknown there, and certainly didn't make the US charts.

They released two albums each year from 1985 to 1987, while also promoting their singles on television across Europe, eventually selling 65 million records in three years.

Notably, Modern Talking were one of the first Western bloc bands sale of whose records was allowed in the Soviet Union. After four decades of Cold War censorship and import restrictions, Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost reforms in the USSR in 1986 opened up the Soviet sphere to western bands, including Modern Talking at the height of their popularity. As a result, they nurtured a large, enduring fanbase in Eastern Europe.

Between 1987 and 1997
Immediately after the duo split in mid-1987, Bohlen formed his own project called Blue System and enjoyed several high chart positions, with tracks like "Sorry Little Sarah", "My Bed Is Too Big", "Under My Skin", "Love Suite", "Laila" and "Déjà vu". Meanwhile, Anders went solo, touring under the name Modern Talking on several continents until the beginning of 1989, when he started to record some of his new pop-like material in Los Angeles and London, as well as Germany. Anders recorded five solo albums in English (Different, Whispers, Down on Sunset, When Will I See You Again and Souled) and one in Spanish - Barcos de Cristal. He was more successful elsewhere than at home, even if he did achieve several hits in Germany. Overcoming past differences, Bohlen and Anders embarked on more amenable relations when Anders moved back to Koblenz, Germany, in 1994.

1998–2003: Reunion
At the beginning of 1998, the duo got back together, performing in the March on the German TV show Wetten, dass..?. They released a remixed version of their 1984 single "You're My Heart, You're My Soul", featuring Eric Singleton on rap vocals. Their first comeback album Back for Good, which included four new tracks, as well as all of the previous hits remixed with up-to-date techniques, took the number-one spot in 15 countries, occupying Germany's for five consecutive weeks. It would sell three million copies in Europe alone. The duo won Best Selling German Band at the World Music Awards that year. The follow-up album, Alone, also went straight to number one in Germany, and was very successful elsewhere: over one million sales in Europe alone.

Bohlen and Anders followed their 1980s practice of choosing to release two singles from an album. A series of singles and four further albums followed: Year of the Dragon, America, Victory and Universe. In 2003, after chalking up over 400 gold and platinum awards worldwide, Bohlen and Anders disbanded again, just before releasing another best-of compilation. This second break-up was reportedly sparked by Bohlen's negative portrayal of Anders in his autobiography, published 4 October 2003. The period of division between them was one in which Bohlen was involved with Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS), the German edition of the UK's TV talent show Pop Idol. 2003's compilation, entitled The Final Album, contained all of the duo's singles. Thomas Anders relaunched his solo career immediately after the end of Modern Talking, while Bohlen was devoting most of his time to new talent, especially those discovered on DSDS.

Musical style and production
In 1984, Bohlen cited the hit single "Precious Little Diamond" (by Fox the Fox) as his inspiration for using falsetto choruses. The studio vocal line-up of Rolf Köhler, Michael Scholz, Detlef Wiedeke and (on early albums) Birger Corleis, in addition to Bohlen and Anders, produced the high choruses characteristic of Modern Talking. Köhler, Scholz and Wiedeke later went on to work with Bohlen in Blue System, before joining with songwriter Thomas Widrat to form Systems in Blue. Köhler, Scholz and Wiedeke were never credited on the Modern Talking albums, and eventually went to court over the matter. They received an out of court settlement and Bohlen published a sleeve note for his next release (Obsession, by Blue System), acknowledging the trio's contribution.

Further influences include German-language schlager music, disco-pop (the Bee Gees) and romantic English-language songs of Italian and French origin, like Gazebo's "I Like Chopin". After the 1998 reunion, Bohlen produced Eurodance as well as American-style MOR ballads.

Dieter Bohlen also composed for other artists while still in Modern Talking, such as for Chris Norman and Smokie, whose song "Midnight Lady" (1986) remains Bohlen's most popular composition. He also composed a large number of tracks for C. C. Catch, using an accelerated, less-romantic sound. Some English Bohlen songs such as "You're My Heart, You're My Soul" were also recorded with German lyrics by Mary Roos, using the same playback tracks. When Modern Talking disbanded in 1987, a number of tracks written for the last album were re-arranged and then transferred onto Bohlen's first solo album by Blue System. Modern Talking's sixth album was released about the same time as the first single from Blue System, "Sorry Little Sarah", where Bohlen competed on the charts against Modern Talking's "In 100 Years" hit song.

Global sales of Modern Talking when the duo definitively broke up in 2003 stood at 120 million singles and albums combined, making them the biggest-selling German music act in history.

Post years and legacy
In 2006, Bohlen included a secret message in his song "Bizarre Bizarre", which, when played backwards, is revealed as: "There will never be an end to Modern Talking." To which was added: "I meant to say that the music of Modern Talking will live forever." Anders has kept the Modern Talking songs in his repertoire and produced songs in a similar vein for his solo records ("Independent Girl"). In 2006, he produced an album Songs Forever of swing and jazz versions of popular songs (including Modern Talking's first hit). Bohlen has written two autobiographical books about Modern Talking's history from his perspective. The first book sold a million copies in Germany. The sequel was heavily criticised for his unfairness towards the people he worked with. As a result of that, Bohlen withdrew from the public for a year until 2006, when he said he regretted putting out the second book. Anders had not been the only one pressing charges against Bohlen and demanding that sections of the book be modified. Frank Farian was also angered by Bohlen's literary output and released a book in which he tried to expose Bohlen as a fraud. Bohlen's first book was the basis of an animated comedy film called Dieter: Der Film. The soundtrack of this film contains a new Modern Talking song "Shooting Star" which had been created using fragments of vocal recordings from previous Modern Talking titles from the "Year of the Dragon" album.

Music critics were unenthusiastic about Modern Talking and gave the band's music and performance lacklustre reviews. Although recognizing the catchiness and professional production of the songs, the lack of originality was criticized by British representatives of these genres of music, such as the Pet Shop Boys or Erasure. In particular, criticism was levelled at the "sameness" among many of their songs, something Bohlen himself conceded to Der Spiegel in 1989:

"'I won't in any way deny that Modern Talking hits all have a very, very similar sound. The tracks we've lifted from our LPs as singles have always been those that sound closest to what we did the last time.'"

Studio albums

 * The 1st Album (1985)
 * Let's Talk About Love (1985)
 * Ready for Romance (1986)
 * In the Middle of Nowhere (1986)
 * Romantic Warriors (1987)
 * In the Garden of Venus (1987)
 * Back for Good (1998)
 * Alone (1999)
 * Year of the Dragon (2000)
 * America (2001)
 * Victory (2002)
 * Universe (2003)

title: Modern Talking


text:
User:Mark Patterson

Hi! I'm Mark Patterson, CEO of Big Picture Tours.

At Big Picture Tours we're focused on helping local business leverage Internet Advertising.

I'm also a software developer (Microsoft .NET).

I'm an avid student of anti-aging medicine, molecular cell biology, and cognitive neuroscience.

I'm a founding volunteer supporting the Methuselah Foundation and the MPrize.

You can learn more about me at my site.

I'm impressed with the genius behind the Wikipedia project and I'm glad to be on board as a contributor.

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title: User:Mark Patterson


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User:Cookies933

If you'd like to contact me to praise/trash my work, my sn on AIM is cookies933, my email is cookies933@Hotmail.com, and my xanga is cookies933 (yes, "cookies933" is kinda my trademark... so if you see it ne where it's probably ME! :-O *o0o0o0o0o... scary thought there*)  Also, if you are in a major fix as far as homework goes... my policy is that old homework of mine that I saved, is yours too and I'll gladly email it to you on request. I have old essays, poems, stories, research papers, etc. All I ask is that you parafrase my work... use it as a "source" ;-P

title: User:Cookies933


text:
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/China- and Chinese-related articles

These conventions should be followed when making edits involving Chinese-language text, or when editing articles concerning China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and other Chinese-speaking areas.

Lead section
The lead section should include the article's title in Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin, especially if the title is originally from Chinese (such as kung fu or Chongqing). Characters and pinyin can be put either in the first sentence or in an infobox.

Introductory sentences
The zh template may be used to add Chinese to articles' introductory sentences in a consistent manner. The template automatically converts ordinary tone numbers to superscripted ones for the Wade-Giles and Sidney Lau romanisations. For example:

If there are different simplified and traditional forms, consider including both. Simplified characters should be listed first in articles with strong ties to modern mainland China and Singapore; traditional characters should be listed first in articles with strong ties to modern Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The zh template puts simplified characters first by default: use t to specify that traditional characters should appear first.

Name order
If the title is a Chinese personal name, it may not be obvious which part is the family name and which is the given name. Editors can add either a hatnote or a footnote identifying the family name (see ).

To add a footnote, use the family name footnote after the first bolded instance of a person's name:

To add a hatnote, place the family name hatnote at the top of the article:

Infoboxes
Where there is more than one parameter in use in a given article, an Infobox Chinese template can be used instead of zh. This removes the characters, romanization and pronunciations from the opening sentence, thus making it more readable while keeping it accessible to readers; see Infobox Chinese/doc for how to use it. In general, both simplified and traditional characters should be displayed in Infobox Chinese; however, case-by-case consensus can determine exceptions to the rule.

Chinese can be used in other infoboxes. Some such as Infobox settlement have native_name and native_name_lang which can be used for Chinese. In others Chinese text can be added to the name field, separated from the English by a to put it on a new line. In this way English-language infoboxes can be used for Chinese topics; for instance, Infobox royalty should be used for Chinese emperors.

Characters
Avoid displaying Chinese characters in italics or bold, as they are already distinctive enough, and the formatting makes them less legible: 国 国 国 国. The templates nobold, noitalic, and normal can be used to remove this formatting in places where it is the default, such as within infoboxes.

Unless it has its own article, when a name, term, or phrase that comes from Chinese is mentioned for the first time in an article, it is often helpful to include the original Chinese-language text. There are many distinct Chinese words and names with similar or identical romanisations, and translations of Chinese terms into English may be inexact or easily conflated without additional context. Including the characters is often helpful for disambiguation in these cases. Appropriate romanisations should be usually be presented alongside characters whenever they are included in an article.

Nonetheless, text that most of the audience cannot read should interrupt the flow of reading as little as possible. Put characters and romanisations in parentheses, as if they were interjections detached from the sentence. As an exercise, read the sentence out loud while skipping everything inside the parentheses. If the sentence can be successfully read without confusion or interruption while remaining grammatical, then it is likely to be formatted acceptably. When tagging Chinese-language text using the zh template, use no to prevent labels from being shown, or use the shorter zhi alias. For example:

 * His name was (Liu Renjing).
 * His name was Liu Renjing.

For ease of reading and to reduce redundancy, Chinese text should generally be included for names or term that have their own articles. Readers who wish to see the native representation should be able to find it on the linked article.

 * Liu Bang (刘邦), along with King ...
 * Liu Bang, along with King ...

However, as articles should stand on their own, characters for terms be included if their native representation is itself key to the subject of the article or their absence leaves other statements in the article unexplained:

 * Local nobility often had the surname Ji, indicating descent from the Zhou royal family.
 * Local nobility often had the surname Ji (姬), indicating descent from the Zhou royal family.

Romanisation
English Wikipedia uses Hanyu Pinyin without tone marks as the default method of romanising Chinese characters. Romanisations should be italicised to differentiate them from English-language text, unless the term has been assimilated into English. Pinyin should be spaced according to words, not characters. Where a source uses a romanisation that must be converted to pinyin, consider also providing the spelling used in the source to make verification easier for other users.

Exceptions arise where non-pinyin spellings are used by a clear majority of reliable sources. For example, the name of the longest river in China is most commonly rendered as Yangtze in English, though a minority of sources render it as Yangzi. This often occurs in personal names:

 * Sun Yat-sen, not Sun Yixian.
 * Shiing-shen Chern or S. S. Chern, not Chen Xingshen.
 * Chen-ning Yang or C. N. Yang, not Yang Zhenning.

Other examples would be places or things relating to non-Mandarin-speaking regions of China including, but not limited to, articles on Hong Kong and Xinjiang subjects. Hanyu Pinyin–derived romanizations in Taiwan rarely use the syllable-dividing apostrophe : e.g. Daan District, Taipei, not Da'an District. Tongyong Pinyin is used for some Taiwanese place names, e.g. Cijin District, Kaohsiung.

Where a non-pinyin romanisation has been used, other romanisations within the article should still use pinyin by default. For example, Tsingtao Brewery is a trademark using a non-pinyin romanisation, but Tsingtao Brewery uses the pinyin spelling when mentioning the city of Qingdao itself:

 * Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. is located in Qingdao, Shandong.
 * Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. is located in Tsingtao, Shan-tung.

Titles of works
When the best available sources are consistent in capitalizing the pinyin romanisation, Wikipedia should also render such titles of works in title case. When reliable sources are inconsistent or most often lowercase, the romanised title should be rendered in sentence case. For example, write Xinxiu bencao, not Xinxiu Bencao.

Tones
The Chinese language has tones that are transcribed in different ways depending on the romanisation system. Tone marks should only appear within templates, parentheticals, or infoboxes; for example, the introductory sentence for Gu Yanwu could read:

 * Gu Yanwu was a Chinese philologist ...

Romanised terms used in running text should omit tone marks:
 * A bronze was recovered from the tomb.
 * A bronze was recovered from the tomb.

In pinyin, tones are indicated with diacritics placed above vowels for each syllable. If a syllable contains more than one vowel, the diacritic is added to the vowel that comes first in the sequence a o e i u ü. The only exception is the vowel pair $⟨iu⟩$ which takes the tone mark on $⟨u⟩$.
 * , not
 * , not
 * , not
 * , not

Diacritical characters can be input using the clickable characters under the edit box. Additionally, the pinyin template can convert tone numbers to diacritics.

Accessibility
For accessibility and other reasons, Chinese-language text must be tagged. If another template is not already handling the tagging, lang and transliteration may be used to do it.

Linking to Wiktionary
The Linktext template can be used to link directly to Wiktionary. For example,  produces. Separate characters with a pipe  to link them individually.

Ruby characters
Ruby annotations place pinyin above the corresponding characters. Modern browsers fully support it: see the compatibility table at the MDN Web Docs. However, ruby is not used for body text on Wikipedia, as it would display at too small a size. It may be used in other situations:

"， .    ，    .        ..

In the North there is a lady, stunning and singular. One look confounds a city; a touch dooms an empire. Rather not wishing to know, the ruination that may follow, rare beauty is here and now."

The markup is as follows:

Modern polities
While perfect consistency across articles is not required on Wikipedia, it is important to be aware of site policies and existing consensus. Where "China" or the "People's Republic of China" is used, it should not be changed arbitrarily. In many contexts, the terms are interchangeable: if China and People's Republic of China both seem appropriate, editors should use their own discretion.

According to longstanding consensus, Taiwan is the common name for the contemporary state officially called the Republic of China. To avoid confusion with the People's Republic of China, Taiwan should generally only be referred to as the Republic of China when discussing the state as it existed prior to 1949, or in the context of specific proper names, such as the Constitution of the Republic of China. Taiwanese is usually acceptable as a demonym for people from Taiwan.

Non-neutral terms such as Free China and Red China should not be used in Wikipedia's own voice.

Language
The Chinese language comprises hundreds of mutually-unintelligible varieties, or "lects". It is often viewed both as a single language with many dialects, and as a large language family, depending on context. When used informally, or when describing a specific, mutually-intelligible spoken language, the term "Chinese language" typically refers to Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese (MSC), a standardized variety originally based on the dialect of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Beijing. When used to describe a written language, "Chinese" usually refers to the form of written vernacular Chinese corresponding to spoken Standard Chinese, as contrasted with forms such as written Cantonese.

Often, "Chinese" is adequate: it is unnecessary, and often confusing, to call Standard Chinese "Mandarin", as Mandarin is a large language family in itself. The standardized form should be referred to as "Standard Chinese" when being contrasted with other Chinese varieties, such as Shanghainese or Cantonese.

Ethnicity
When identifying people by their ethnicity in China-related articles, refer to Han Chinese people specifically as such, rather than as just "Chinese", especially when contrasting Han Chinese to other ethnic groups in China. In English, "Chinese" also describes the Chinese nationality, so care is warranted to avoid conflating the two concepts, including accidentally implying that ethnic minorities are not true Chinese nationals.

Unless the nationality of the groups in question clearly differ, use parallel terms within phrases to clarify their meaning: for example, use Han Chinese when you use Zhuang Chinese, Han people when you use Zhuang people, or simply Han when you use Zhuang. This avoids the confusion that may arise when a phrase uses Han Chinese alongside Zhuang people, for example.

Some find an explicit or implicit dichotomy between "Chinese" and "Taiwanese" people to be objectionable. A dichotomy between mainland Chinese and Taiwanese people is more politically neutral, depending on context. The term mainlander poses issues: it is often ambiguous whether it refers to a resident of mainland China, or to a resident of Taiwan who had originally arrived from the mainland along with the KMT in 1949. When referring to the latter group, mainlander is mildly objectionable in English, but its literal translation is highly offensive in Chinese. To unambiguously refer to these two groups, prefer mainland Chinese for the former, and waishengren for the latter.

Maps
On most maps, Taiwan should not be indicated as being part of the People's Republic of China. (discussion)

On maps specifically about the PRC, Taiwan may be included if a distinction with the mainland is made reflecting its status. For the convention on colouring Taiwan and other disputed areas, see WikiProject_Maps/Conventions.

Citation style
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If an author is Chinese, their name should use the common form used in English-language publications; if no common name exists, the name should be rendered in pinyin without tone marks. Access to the characters for Chinese or Japanese names is helpful. As elsewhere, it is preferable to link to the author's article (which can be done with the author-link parameter) and omit characters from the citation:

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For Chinese-language works, the language should be indicated with the zh parameter. The characters of the title can be included using the script-title parameter, which should begin with zh followed by a colon, and then the characters of the title—e.g., zh:汉语方言槪要. English translations of titles should be placed in brackets or parentheses after the native title, which can be done using the trans-title parameter. For publishing houses without a common name in English, their names are transliterated without tone marks, but not translated. An English translation of the title can be included with trans-title. For example:


text:
User talk:Cookies933

If you'd like to contact me to praise/trash my work, my sn on AIM is cookies933, my email is cookies933@Hotmail.com, and my xanga is cookies933 (yes, "cookies933" is kinda my trademark... so if you see it ne where it's probably ME! :-O *o0o0o0o0o... scary thought there*) Also, if you are in a major fix as far as homework goes... my policy is that old homework of mine that I saved, is yours too and I'll gladly email it to you on request. I have old essays, poems, stories, research papers, etc. All I ask is that you parafrase my work... use it as a "source" ;-P

title: User talk:Cookies933


text:
Talk:Timeline of Canadian history (1941-1964)

Wouldn't better to rename this article to Timeline of Canadian history (1941-1964)? --FallingInLoveWithPitoc 05:06, 19 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * I moved this page, because i think this name is more appropriate (See Timeline of United States history (1600-1699)). If no one disapproves of it, I will move all Timeline of Canadian history- XXXX-XXXX to Timeline of Canadian history (XXXX-XXXX). BTW, that's the standard of dividing years? why 1941-1964 but not 1940-1960 or 1900s? --FallingInLoveWithPitoc 10:05, 19 Nov 2003 (UTC)


text:
User:Evjohn

e-mail. xmlix@netzero.com

title: User:Evjohn


text:
Os Lusíadas

Os Lusíadas, usually translated as The Lusiads, is a Portuguese epic poem written by Luís Vaz de Camões (c. 1524/5 – 1580) and first published in 1572. It is widely regarded as the most important work of Portuguese-language literature and is frequently compared to Virgil's Aeneid (1st c. BC). The work celebrates the discovery of a sea route to India by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (1469–1524). The ten cantos of the poem are in ottava rima and total 1,102 stanzas.

Written in Homeric fashion, the poem focuses mainly on a fantastic interpretation of the Portuguese voyages of discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries. Os Lusíadas is often regarded as Portugal's national epic, much as Virgil's Aeneid was for the Ancient Romans, or Homer's Iliad and Odyssey for the Ancient Greeks. It was written when Camões was an exile in Macau and was first printed in 1572, three years after the author returned from the Indies.

Internal structure
The poem consists of ten cantos, each with a different number of stanzas (1102 in total). It is written in the decasyllabic ottava rima, which has the rhyme scheme ABABABCC, and contains a total of 8816 lines of verse.

The poem is made up of four sections:
 * An introduction (proposition – presentation of the theme and heroes of the poem)
 * Invocation – a prayer to the Tágides, the nymphs of the Tagus;
 * A dedication – (to Sebastian of Portugal)
 * Narration (the epic itself) – starting in stanza 19 of canto I, in medias res, opening in the midst of the action, with the background story being told later in the epic.

The narration concludes with an epilogue, starting in stanza 145 of canto X. The most important part of Os Lusíadas, the arrival in India, was placed at the point in the poem that divides the work according to the golden section at the beginning of Canto VII.

The heroes
The heroes of the epic are the Lusiads (Lusíadas), the sons of Lusus—in other words, the Portuguese. The initial strophes of Jupiter's speech in the Concílio dos Deuses Olímpicos (Council of the Olympian Gods), which open the narrative part, highlight the laudatory orientation of the author.

In these strophes, Camões speaks of the first and second Viriathus and Quintus Sertorius, the people of Lusus, a people predestined by the Fates to accomplish great deeds. Jupiter says that their history proves it because, having emerged victorious against the Moors and Castilians, this tiny nation has gone on to discover new worlds and impose its law in the concert of the nations. At the end of the poem, on the Island of Love, the fictional finale to the glorious tour of Portuguese history, Camões writes that the fear once expressed by Bacchus has been confirmed: that the Portuguese would become gods.

The extraordinary Portuguese discoveries and the "new kingdom that they exalted so much" ("novo reino que tanto sublimaram") in the East, and certainly the recent and extraordinary deeds of the "strong Castro" ("Castro forte", the viceroy Dom João de Castro), who had died some years before the poet's arrival in Indian lands, were the decisive factors in Camões' completion of the Portuguese epic. Camões dedicated his masterpiece to King Sebastian of Portugal.

The narrators and their speeches
The vast majority of the narration in Os Lusíadas consists of grandiloquent speeches by various orators: the main narrator; Vasco da Gama, recognized as "eloquent captain" ("facundo capitão"); Paulo da Gama; Thetis; and the Siren who tells the future in Canto X. The poet asks the Tágides (nymphs of the river Tagus) to give him "a high and sublime sound,/ a grandiloquent and flowing style" ("um som alto e sublimado, / Um estilo grandíloquo e corrente"). In contrast to the style of lyric poetry, or "humble verse" ("verso humilde"), he is thinking about this exciting tone of oratory. There are in the poem some speeches that are brief but notable, including Jupiter's and the Old Man of the Restelo's.

There are also descriptive passages, like the description of the palaces of Neptune and the Samorim of Calicute, the locus amoenus of the Island of Love (Canto IX), the dinner in the palace of Thetis (Canto X), and Gama's cloth (end of Canto II). Sometimes these descriptions are like a slide show, in which someone shows each of the things described there; examples include the geographic start of Gama's speech to the king of Melinde, certain sculptures of the palaces of Neptune and the Samorim, the speech of Paulo da Gama to the Catual, and the Machine of the World (Máquina do Mundo).

Examples of dynamic descriptions include the "battle" of the Island of Mozambique, the battles of Ourique and Aljubarrota, and the storm. Camões is a master in these descriptions, marked by the verbs of movement, the abundance of visual and acoustic sensations, and expressive alliterations. There are also many lyrical moments. Those texts are normally narrative-descriptive. This is the case with the initial part of the episode of the Sad Inês, the final part of the episode of the Adamastor, and the encounter on the Island of Love (Canto IX). All these cases resemble eclogues.

On several occasions the poet assumes a tone of lamentation, as at the end of Canto I, in parts of the speech of the Old Man of the Restelo, the end of Canto V, the beginning and end of Canto VII, and the final strophes of the poem. Many times, da Gama bursts into oration at challenging moments: in Mombasa (Canto II), on the appearance of Adamastor, and in the middle of the terror of the storm. The poet's invocations to the Tágides and nymphs of Mondego (Cantos I and VII) and to Calliope (beginning of Cantos III and X), in typological terms, are also orations. Each one of these types of speech shows stylistic peculiarities.

Canto I
The epic begins with a dedication section, with the poet paying homage to Virgil and Homer. The first line mimics the opening line of the Aeneid, and pays a hopeful tribute to the young King Sebastião. The story then (in imitation of the classical epics) portrays the gods of Greece watching over the voyage of Vasco da Gama. Just as the gods had divided loyalties during the voyages of Odysseus and Aeneas, here Venus, who favors the Portuguese, is opposed by Bacchus, who is here associated with the east and resents the encroachment on his territory. We encounter Vasco da Gama's voyage in medias res as they have already rounded the Cape of Good Hope. At the urging of Bacchus, who is disguised as a Moor, the local Muslims plot to attack the explorer and his crew.

Canto II
Two scouts sent by Vasco da Gama are fooled by a fake altar created by Bacchus into thinking that there are Christians among the Muslims. Thus, the explorers are lured into an ambush but successfully survive with the aid of Venus. Venus pleads with her father Jove, who predicts great fortunes for the Portuguese in the east. The fleet lands at Melinde where it is welcomed by a friendly Sultan.

Canto III
After an appeal by the poet to Calliope, the Greek muse of epic poetry, Vasco da Gama begins to narrate the history of Portugal. He starts by referring to the situation of Portugal in Europe and the legendary story of Lusus and Viriathus. This is followed by passages on the meaning of Portuguese nationality and then by an enumeration of the warrior deeds of the 1st Dynasty kings, from Dom Afonso Henriques to Dom Fernando.

Episodes that stand out include Egas Moniz and the Battle of Ourique during Dom Afonso Henriques' reign, formosíssima Maria (the beautiful Maria, in 16th-century Portuguese) in the Battle of Salado, and Inês de Castro during Dom Afonso IV's reign.

Canto IV
Vasco da Gama continues the narrative of the history of Portugal by recounting the story of the House of Aviz from the 1383–85 Crisis until the moment during the reign of Dom Manuel I when the armada of Vasco da Gama sails to India. The narrative of the Crisis of 1383–85, which focuses mainly on the figure of Nuno Álvares Pereira and the Battle of Aljubarrota, is followed by the events of the reigns of Dom João II, especially those related to expansion into Africa. Following this incident, the poem narrates the maritime journey to India—an aim that Dom João II did not accomplish during his lifetime, but would come true with Dom Manuel, to whom the rivers Indus and Ganges appeared in dreams foretelling the future glories of the Orient. This canto ends with the sailing of the Armada, the sailors in which are surprised by the prophetically pessimistic words of an old man who was on the beach among the crowd. This is the episode of the Old Man of the Restelo.

Canto V
The story moves on to the King of Melinde, describing the journey of the Armada from Lisbon to Melinde. During the voyage, the sailors see the Southern Cross, St. Elmo's Fire (maritime whirlwind), and face a variety of dangers and obstacles such as the hostility of natives in the episode of Fernão Veloso, the fury of a monster in the episode of the giant Adamastor, and the disease and death caused by scurvy. Canto V ends with the poet's censure of his contemporaries who despise poetry.

Canto VI
After Vasco da Gama's narrative, the armada sails from Melinde guided by a pilot to teach them the way to Calicut. Bacchus, seeing that the Portuguese are about to arrive in India, asks for help of Neptune, who convenes a "Concílio dos Deuses Marinhos" (Council of the Sea Gods) whose decision is to support Bacchus and unleash powerful winds to sink the armada. Then, while the sailors are listening to Fernão Veloso telling the legendary and chivalrous episode of Os Doze de Inglaterra (The Twelve Men of England), a storm strikes.

Vasco da Gama, seeing the near destruction of his caravels, prays to his own God, but it is Venus who helps the Portuguese by sending the Nymphs to seduce the winds and calm them down. After the storm, the armada sights Calicut, and Vasco da Gama gives thanks to God. The canto ends with the poet speculating about the value of the fame and glory reached through great deeds.

Canto VII
After condemning some of the other nations of Europe (who in his opinion fail to live up to Christian ideals), the poet tells of the Portuguese fleet reaching the Indian city of Calicut. A Muslim named Monçaide greets the fleet and tells the explorers about the lands they have reached. The king, Samorin, hears of the newcomers and summons them. A governor and official of the king, called the Catual, leads the Portuguese to the king, who receives them well. The Catual speaks with Monçaide to learn more about the new arrivals. The Catual then goes to the Portuguese ships himself to confirm what Monsayeed has told him and is treated well.

Canto VIII
The Catual sees a number of paintings that depict significant figures and events from Portuguese history, all of which are detailed by the author. Bacchus appears in a vision to a Muslim priest in Samorin's court and convinces him that the explorers are a threat. The priest spreads the warnings among the Catuals and the court, prompting Samorin to confront da Gama on his intentions. Da Gama insists that the Portuguese are traders, not buccaneers. The king then demands proof from da Gama's ships, but when he tries to return to the fleet, da Gama finds that the Catual, who has been corrupted by the Muslim leaders, refuses to lend him a boat at the harbor and holds him prisoner. Da Gama manages to get free only after agreeing to have all of the goods on the ships brought to shore to be sold.

Canto IX
The Muslims plot to detain the Portuguese until the annual trading fleet from Mecca can arrive to attack them, but Monçaide tells da Gama of the conspiracy, and the ships escape from Calicut. To reward the explorers for their efforts, Venus prepares an island for them to rest on and asks her son Cupid to inspire Nereids with desire for them. When the sailors arrive on the Isle of Love, the ocean nymphs make a pretense of running but surrender quickly.

Canto X
During a sumptuous feast on the Isle of Love, Tethys, who is now the lover of da Gama, prophecies the future of Portuguese exploration and conquest. She tells of Duarte Pacheco Pereira's defense of Cochin (Battle of Cochin); the Battle of Diu fought by Francisco de Almeida and his son Lourenço de Almeida against combined Gujarati-Egyptian fleets; the deeds of Tristão da Cunha, Pedro de Mascarenhas, Lopo Vaz de Sampaio and Nuno da Cunha; and battles fought by Martim Afonso de Sousa and João de Castro. Tethys then guides da Gama to a summit and reveals to him a vision of how the (Ptolemaic) universe operates. The tour continues with glimpses of the lands of Africa and Asia. The legend of the martyrdom of the apostle St. Thomas in India is told at this point. Finally, Tethys relates the voyage of Magellan. The epic concludes with more advice to young King Sebastião.

The Council of the Olympic gods
This episode, which comes right after the first strophe of the narration (no. 19 of Canto I) and depicts the entry of the caravan of carracks in the poem, sailing into the unknown upon the sheet of white foam of the Indian Ocean, has huge significance in the organization of the poem. The gods of the four corners of the world are reunited to talk about "the future matters of the East" ("as cousas futuras do Oriente"); in fact, what they are going to decide is whether the Portuguese will be allowed to reach India and what will happen next.

The gods are described by Jupiter as residents of the "shiny, / starry Pole and bright Seat" ("luzente, estelífero Pólo e claro Assento"); this shiny, starry Pole and bright Seat or Olympus had already been described before as "luminous"; the Gods walk on the "beautiful crystalline sky" ("cristalino céu fermoso"), to the Milky Way. In strophes 22 and 23 they are also said to be shining. Jupiter is described as the "Father" ("Padre" – archaic Portuguese for 'father') who "vibrates the fierce rays of Vulcan" ("vibra os feros raios de Vulcano") and presides from a "crystalline seat of stars" ("assento de estrelas cristalino"), carrying "a gleaming crown and sceptre / of another rock clearer than diamond" ("hua coroa e ceptro rutilante / de outra pedra mais clara que diamante"). Jupiter's chair is a crystalline seat of stars and the rest of the Olympian furniture is equally ornate: "In shiny seats, enamelled / of gold and pearls, under there were / the other gods (...)" ("Em luzentes assentos, marchetados / de ouro e perlas, mais abaixo estavam / os outros Deuses (...)").

During the council, the behaviour of the gods is described as disgraceful. It starts as "Reason and Order demanded" "a Razão e a Ordem concertavam", but it ends in insubordination, to which Mars brutally puts an end.

Jupiter, after the end of his speech, entirely neglects the guidance of the other Gods, so two parties are formed: the party of Venus, favourable to the Portuguese, and the party of Bacchus, defending the interests of this god who wanted to stop the Portuguese from reaching their goal. The council ends by accepting the point of view earlier expressed by Jupiter; however, Bacchus will not accept this.

The speech that Jupiter uses to start the meeting is a finished piece of oratory. It opens with an exordium (1st strophe), in which, after an original welcome, Jupiter briefly defines the subject. This is followed, in the ancient rhetorical fashion, by the narration (the past shows that the intention of the Fados is the same one that the orator presented). There is then a confirmation of suggestions already put forth in the narration of the 4th strophe. This episode then ends with two strophes of peroration, where Jupiter appeals to the benevolence of the gods concerning the sons of Lusus, with Jupiter's speech eventually settling the debate.

A lyric-tragic episode
The episode, usually known as "of Inês de Castro", is one of the most famous of Os Lusíadas (canto iii, stanzas 118–135). It is normally classified as a lyric, thus distinguishing it from the more common war episodes. The episode discusses destiny, and leads the action to its tragic end, even something close to the coir (apostrophes).

The nobility of the characters is also emphasised, in a way that is intended to create feelings of sympathy when the protagonist suffers. This technique is used most strongly when Inês fears the orphaning of her children more than losing her own life and she begs for the commutation of capital punishment for an exile in Siberia (Cítia) or in Libya in order to have an opportunity to raise her children, and she is compared with "the young beautiful Policena". Strophes 134 and 135 are written to evoke this pity.

Adamastor
The Adamastor episode is divided into three segments. The first, a theophany, goes from strophe 37 to 40; the second, which in chronological-narrative terms is a prolepsis, occupies strophes 41 to 48; finally, the third part, a marine eclogue with some points of contact with Écloga III of Camões, ends in strophe 59.

The vigorous theophany that the first part describes is in the following verses: "Chill the flesh and the hairs/ to me and all [the others] only by listening and seeing him" ("Arrepiam-se as carnes e os cabelos / a mi e a todos só de ouvi-lo e vê-lo"). This is intended to convey pure fear, the imminent threat of annihilation. The evil demigod is preceded by a black cloud, which appears above the heads of the sailors. Expressing the surprise he experiences, Gama quotes himself: "Oh divine power – [I] said – sublimated, / what divine threat or what secret / this clime and this sea presents to us / that seems a bigger thing than a storm?" ("Ó potestade – disse – sublimada, / que ameaço divino ou que segredo / este clima e este mar nos apresenta, / que mor cousa parece que tormenta?") The "strange Colossus" ("estranhíssimo Colosso"): "Rude son of the Earth" ("Filho aspérrimo da Terra") is described as having: "huge stature", "squalid beard", "earthy colour", "full of earth and crinkly of hairs / blacken the mouth, yellow the teeth" ("disforme estatura", "barba esquálida", "cor terrena", "cheios de terra e crespos os cabelos / a boca negra, os dentes, amarelos").

Such emphasis on the appearance of Adamastor is intended to contrast with the preceding scenery, which was expressed as: "seas of the South" ("mares do Sul"): "(...) / the winds blowing favourably / when one night, being careless/ watching in the cutting bow, / (...)" ("(...) / prosperamente os ventos assoprando, / quando hua noite, estando descuidados / na cortadora proa vigiando, / (...)"). The final marine eclogue conforms to a pattern that is common to many of Camões' lyrical compositions: falling in love, forced separation, grieving over the frustrated dream.

The eclogue of the Island of Love
The locus amoenus: the strophes that come after strophe 52 of Canto IX, and some of the main parts that appear from strophe 68 to 95 describe the scenery where the love encountered between the sailors and the Nymphs take place. The poet also talks about the fauna that live there and of fruits produced instantly. It is portrayed as a paradise.

The allegory in the second part of Canto IX sees Camões describing the scene between the sailors – whom the Nymphs were expecting – prepared by Venus. Given in an allegoric sense:

The Canto is ended with the poet communicating to the reader:

The Machine of the World
In Canto X, before the sailors return home the Siren invites Gama to the spectacle of the Machine of the World (Máquina do Mundo) with these words:

The Machine of the World is presented as the spectacle unique, divine, seen by "corporeal eyes". In the words of literary historian António José Saraiva, "it is one of the supreme successes of Camões", "the spheres are transparent, luminous, all of them are seen at the same time with equal clarity; they move, and the movement is perceptible, although the visible surface is always the same. To be able to translate this by the "painting that talks" is to achieve one of the highest points in universal literature."

Responses
Manuel de Faria e Sousa wrote a commentary about the work in the 17th century. Published after Sousa's death, the work was originally written in Spanish and eventually translated into Portuguese in the 19th century.

English translations

 * The Lusiad, trans. Richard Fanshawe (1655)
 * The Lusiads, trans. William Julius Mickle (1776)
 * The Lusiad, trans. Thomas Moore Musgrave (1826)
 * The Lusiad, trans. Thomas Mitchell (1854)
 * The Lusiads, trans. John James Aubertin (1878)
 * The Lusiads, trans. Richard Francis Burton (1880)
 * The Lusiads, trans. William C. Atkinson (Penguin, 1952)
 * The Lusiads, trans. Landeg White (Oxford, 1997)

Google books

 * The Lusiads translated by Richard Francis Burton
 * The Lusiads of Camoens, translated by John James Aubertin, first part.
 * The Lusiads of Camoens, translated by John James Aubertin, second part.

Episodes illustrated

 * Strophes 70 to 79 of Canto VI, surviving a hurricane or the Portuguese defeating Neptune, as a tile masterpiece

title: Os Lusíadas