text:
Albrecht von Haller

Albrecht von Haller (also known as Albertus de Haller; 16 October 1708 – 12 December 1777) was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist, encyclopedist, bibliographer and poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave and Jacob Winslow, he is sometimes referred to as "the father of modern physiology."

Early life
Haller was born into an old Swiss family at Bern. Prevented by long-continued ill-health from taking part in boyish sports, he had more opportunity for the development of his precocious mind. At the age of four, it is said, he used to read and expound the Bible to his father's servants; before he was ten he had sketched a Biblical Aramaic grammar, prepared a Greek and a Hebrew vocabulary, compiled a collection of two thousand biographies of famous men and women on the model of the great works of Bayle and Moréri, and written in Latin verse a satire on his tutor, who had warned him against a too great excursiveness. When still hardly fifteen he was already the author of numerous metrical translations from Ovid, Horace and Virgil, as well as of original lyrics, dramas, and an epic of four thousand lines on the origin of the Swiss confederations, writings which he is said on one occasion to have rescued from a fire at the risk of his life, only, however, to burn them a little later (1729) with his own hand.

Medicine
Haller's attention had been directed to the profession of medicine while he was residing in the house of a physician at Biel after his father's death in 1721. While still a sickly and excessively shy youth, he went in his sixteenth year to the University of Tübingen (December 1723), where he studied under Elias Rudolph Camerarius Jr. and Johann Duvernoy. Dissatisfied with his progress, he in 1725 exchanged Tübingen for Leiden, where Boerhaave was in the zenith of his fame, and where Albinus had already begun to lecture in anatomy. At that university he graduated in May 1727, undertaking successfully in his thesis to prove that the so-called salivary duct, claimed as a recent discovery by Georg Daniel Coschwitz (1679–1729), was nothing more than a blood-vessel.

"Sensibility" and "irritability"
In 1752, at the University of Göttingen, Haller published his thesis (De partibus corporis humani sensibilibus et irritabilibus) discussing the distinction between "sensibility" and "irritability" in organs, suggesting that nerves were "sensible" because of a person's ability to perceive contact while muscles were "irritable" because the fiber could measurably shorten on its own, regardless of a person's perception, when excited by a foreign body.

"Nerve impulses" vs. "muscular contractions"
Later in 1757, he conducted a famous series of experiments to distinguish between nerve impulses and muscular contractions.

Other disciplines
Haller then visited London, making the acquaintance of Sir Hans Sloane, William Cheselden, John Pringle, James Douglas and other scientific men; next, after a short stay in Oxford, he visited Paris, where he studied under Henri François Le Dran and Jacob Winslow; and in 1728 he proceeded to Basel, where he devoted himself to the study of higher mathematics under John Bernoulli. It was during his stay there also that his interest in botany was awakened; and, in the course of a tour (July/August, 1728), through Savoy, Baden and several of the cantons of Switzerland, he began a collection of plants which was afterwards the basis of his great work on the flora of Switzerland. From a literary point of view the main result of this, the first of his many journeys through the Alps, was his poem entitled Die Alpen, which was finished in March 1729, and appeared in the first edition (1732) of his Gedichte. This poem of 490 hexameters is historically important as one of the earliest signs of the awakening appreciation of the mountains, though it is chiefly designed to contrast the simple and idyllic life of the inhabitants of the Alps with the corrupt and decadent existence of the dwellers in the plains.

In 1729 he returned to Bern and began to practice as a physician; his best energies, however, were devoted to the botanical and anatomical researches which rapidly gave him a European reputation, and procured for him from George II in 1736 a call to the chair of medicine, anatomy, botany and surgery in the newly founded University of Göttingen. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1743, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1747, and was ennobled in 1749.

The quantity of work achieved by Haller in the seventeen years during which he occupied his Göttingen professorship was immense. Apart from the ordinary work of his classes, which entailed the task of newly organizing a botanical garden (now the Old Botanical Garden of Göttingen University), an anatomical theatre and museum, an obstetrical school, and similar institutions, he carried on without interruption original investigations in botany and physiology, the results of which are preserved in the numerous works associated with his name. He also continued to persevere in his youthful habit of poetical composition, while at the same time he conducted a monthly journal (the Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen), to which he is said to have contributed twelve thousand articles relating to almost every branch of human knowledge. He also warmly interested himself in most of the religious questions, both ephemeral and permanent, of his day; and the erection of the Reformed church in Göttingen was mainly due to his unwearied energy. Like his mentor Boerhaave, Haller was a Christian and a collection of his religious thoughts can be read in a compilation of letters to his daughter.

Notwithstanding all this variety of absorbing interests, Haller never felt at home in Göttingen; his untravelled heart kept on turning towards his native Bern, where he had been elected a member of the great council in 1745, and in 1753 he resolved to resign his chair and return to Switzerland.

Botany
Haller made important contributions to botanical taxonomy that are less visible today because he resisted binomial nomenclature, Carl Linnaeus's innovative shorthand for species names that was introduced in 1753 and marks the starting point for botanical nomenclature as accepted today. "Haller was among the first botanists to realize the importance of herbaria to study variation in plants, and he therefore purposely included material from different localities, habitats and developmental phases. Haller also grew many plants from the Alps himself."

The plant genus Halleria, an attractive shrub from Southern Africa, was named in his honour by Carl Linnaeus.

Later life
The twenty-one years of his life which followed were largely occupied in the discharge of his duties in the minor political post of a Rathausmann which he had obtained by lot, and in the preparation of his Bibliotheca medica, the botanical, surgical and anatomical parts of which he lived to complete; but he also found time to write the three philosophical romances Usong (1771), Alfred (1773) and Fabius and Cato (1774), in which his views as to the respective merits of despotism, of limited monarchy and of aristocratic republican government are fully set forth.

In about 1773, his poor health forced him to withdraw from public business. He supported his failing strength by means of opium, on the use of which he communicated a paper to the Proceedings of the Göttingen Royal Society in 1776; the excessive use of the drug is believed, however, to have hastened his death.

Haller, who had been three times married, left eight children. The eldest, Gottlieb Emanuel, attained to some distinction as a botanist and as a writer on Swiss historical bibliography (1785–1788, 7 vols). Another son, Albrecht was also a botanist.

See also:
 * History of anatomy in the 17th and 18th centuries

Importance for homoeopathy
Albrecht von Haller is quoted in the footnote to paragraph 108 in the Organon of Medicine, the principal work by the founder of homoeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann. In this paragraph, Hahnemann describes how the curative powers of individual medicines can only be ascertained through accurate observation of their specific effects on healthy persons:

"Not one single physician, as far as I know, during the previous two thousand five hundred years, thought of this so natural, so absolutely necessary and only genuine mode of testing medicines for their pure and peculiar effects in deranging the health of man, in order to learn what morbid state each medicine is capable of curing, except the great and immortal Albrecht von Haller. He alone, besides myself, saw the necessity of this (vide the Preface to the Pharmacopoeia Helvet., Basil, 1771, fol., p. 12); Nempe primum in corpore sano medela tentanda est, sine peregrina ulla miscela; odoreque et sapore ejus exploratis, exigua illiu dosis ingerenda et ad ommes, quae inde contingunt, affectiones, quis pulsus, qui calor, quae respiratia, quaenam excretiones, attendum. Inde ad ductum phaenomenorum, in sano obviorum, transeas ad experimenta in corpore aegroro," etc. But no one, not a single physician, attended to or followed up this invaluable hint."

The quotation from Haller's Preface may be translated from the Latin as follows: "Of course, firstly the remedy must be proved on a healthy body, without being mixed with anything foreign; and when its odour and flavour have been ascertained, a tiny dose of it should be given and attention paid to all the changes of state that take place, what the pulse is, what heat there is, what sort of breathing and what exertions there are. Then in relation to the form of the phenomena in a healthy person from those exposed to it, you should move on to trials on a sick body..."

Reception
In his Science of Logic, Hegel mentions Haller's description of eternity, called by Kant "terrifying" in the Critique of Pure Reason (A613/B641). According to Hegel, Haller realizes that a conception of eternity as infinite progress is "futile and empty". In a way, Hegel uses Haller's description of eternity as a foreshadowing of his own conception of the true infinite. Hegel claims that Haller is aware that: "only by giving up this empty, infinite progression can the genuine infinite itself become present to him."

Works

 * Onomatologia medica completa. Gaum, Ulm 1755 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
 * Deux Memoires sur le mouvement du sang et sur les effets de la saignée: fondés sur des experiences faites sur des animaux 1756
 * Historia stirpium indigenarum Helvetiae inchoata. Bernae, 1768. Vol. 1&2 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Ode sur les Alpes, 1773
 * Materia medica oder Geschichte der Arzneyen des Pflanzenreichs. Vol. 1&2. Leipzig: Haug, 1782. Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Histoire des Plantes suisses ou Matiere médicale et de l'Usage économique des Plantes par M. Alb. de Haller ... Traduit du Latin. Vol. 1&2. Berne 1791 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Deux Memoires sur le mouvement du sang et sur les effets de la saignée: fondés sur des experiences faites sur des animaux 1756
 * Historia stirpium indigenarum Helvetiae inchoata. Bernae, 1768. Vol. 1&2 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Ode sur les Alpes, 1773
 * Materia medica oder Geschichte der Arzneyen des Pflanzenreichs. Vol. 1&2. Leipzig: Haug, 1782. Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Histoire des Plantes suisses ou Matiere médicale et de l'Usage économique des Plantes par M. Alb. de Haller ... Traduit du Latin. Vol. 1&2. Berne 1791 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Ode sur les Alpes, 1773
 * Materia medica oder Geschichte der Arzneyen des Pflanzenreichs. Vol. 1&2. Leipzig: Haug, 1782. Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Histoire des Plantes suisses ou Matiere médicale et de l'Usage économique des Plantes par M. Alb. de Haller ... Traduit du Latin. Vol. 1&2. Berne 1791 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Ode sur les Alpes, 1773
 * Materia medica oder Geschichte der Arzneyen des Pflanzenreichs. Vol. 1&2. Leipzig: Haug, 1782. Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Histoire des Plantes suisses ou Matiere médicale et de l'Usage économique des Plantes par M. Alb. de Haller ... Traduit du Latin. Vol. 1&2. Berne 1791 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Materia medica oder Geschichte der Arzneyen des Pflanzenreichs. Vol. 1&2. Leipzig: Haug, 1782. Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 * Histoire des Plantes suisses ou Matiere médicale et de l'Usage économique des Plantes par M. Alb. de Haller ... Traduit du Latin. Vol. 1&2. Berne 1791 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.

title: Albrecht von Haller


text:
George W. Johnson (singer)

George Washington Johnson (c. October 1846 – January 23, 1914) was an American singer and pioneer sound recording artist. Johnson was the first African American recording star of the phonograph. His most popular songs were "The Whistling Coon" and "The Laughing Song".

Early life
Johnson was born in Virginia, either in Fluvanna County or near Wheatland in Loudoun County. His father was a slave, and he was likely freed in 1853. From an early age, Johnson was raised near Wheatland as the companion and servant of a prosperous white farmer's son. During his time with this family, he developed his musical ability and even learned to read and write, which was illegal for a black child in Virginia before the American Civil War. Johnson later worked as a laborer, and in his late twenties he moved to New York City. By the late 1870s he was making his living as a street entertainer in New York, specializing in whistling.

Musical career
Some time between January and May 1890, Johnson was recruited by two different regional phonograph distributors who were looking for recording artists for their coin-operated machines. Charles Marshall of the New York Phonograph Company and Victor Emerson of the New Jersey Phonograph Company both heard Johnson performing in Manhattan, probably at the ferry terminals on the Hudson River. Both of them invited Johnson to record his loud raggy whistling on wax phonograph cylinders for a fee of twenty cents per two-minute performance. Although Johnson could whistle all the tunes of the day, one of his first recordings for both companies was a popular vaudeville novelty song called "The Whistling Coon". Johnson sang as well as whistled, and also was able to give a boisterous laugh in musical pitch. From this he developed the second performance that made him famous, "The Laughing Song". Although he recorded other material, including whistling the song "Listen to the Mockingbird" and some short minstrel show performances done with other performers, it was these two songs that Johnson would perform and record over and over for years.

In the earliest days of the recording industry, every record was a "master". A singer with a strong voice could make three or four usable recordings at once, with as many machines running simultaneously with their recording horns pointed towards the singer's mouth. Johnson would sometimes sing the same song over and over again in the recording studio fifty or more times a day.

By 1895, Johnson's two tunes "The Whistling Coon" and "The Laughing Song" were the best-selling recordings in the United States. "The Laughing Song" was number one for ten weeks from April to June 1891, while "The Whistling Coon" was number one for five weeks in July and August 1891. Johnson was the first African American to appear on the pop chart, and his song on the chart was the first to have been written by an African American. The total sales of his wax cylinders between 1890 and 1895 have been estimated at 25,000 to 50,000, each one recorded individually by Johnson. Remarkably, the New Jersey record company marketed Johnson as a black man, during an era when much of American life was strongly segregated by race. "The Whistling Coon" was characterized by a light-hearted tune and lyrics which would be unacceptable today, in which a black man is compared to a baboon.

Johnson continued recording for the New York and New Jersey companies, and in 1891 also started recording for their parent company, the North American Phonograph Company. At least one of his 1891 recording sessions was held at Thomas Edison's laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. Johnson also made appearances in Vaudeville. His repertory on stage was pretty much limited to his two famous songs, but this was sufficient to get him bookings on bills.

In 1894, Johnson began recording with Len Spencer, a Vaudeville star of the era, and the two would remain friends until the end of Johnson's life. In 1895, Johnson made his first recordings on the new disc technology for Berliner Gramophone. In addition to Berliner, Johnson recorded for Edison Records, Columbia, the Victor Talking Machine Company, the Chicago Talking Machine Company, Bettini and numerous other small cylinder and disc companies through the 1890s and up to 1909 or 1910.

In 1897, Johnson recorded two new songs, "The Laughing Coon" and "The Whistling Girl". They remained in the Edison and Columbia catalogs for years, although neither was as popular as his two original tunes.

Later life
By 1905, Johnson's popularity had declined. New recording technology enabled the pressing of thousands of duplicate records from a single master, and Johnson was no longer needed to record each copy individually. His friend Len Spencer, now a successful artist and booking agent, hired Johnson as an office doorman. Johnson worked for Spencer and lived in his office building for several years, then moved back to Harlem. Johnson died from pneumonia and myocarditis in 1914 at the age of 67. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York.

Personal life and rumors
False rumors have circulated that Johnson died either in a racially motivated lynching, or alternatively that he was hanged after he committed murder. While neither story is true, Johnson did have an 'eventful' personal life. There is no evidence that he ever legally married or had any children, but Johnson did have at least two 'common-law wives', both of whom died while living with him. The first, an unnamed "German woman", was found dead in their apartment on West 39th Street in late 1894 or early 1895. No charges were filed. The second, Roskin Stuart, was found beaten and unconscious in their apartment on West 41st Street on October 12, 1899. Stuart was taken to the hospital and died a few hours later. Johnson was tried for first-degree murder and found not guilty.

Honors
In 2013 the Maple Grove Historical Preservation Society began a campaign to honor Johnson, and received a grant from the MusiCares Foundation to erect a plaque on his grave site. On April 12, 2014, a century after his death, the singer was finally recognized in a ceremony including displays, presentations and a performance by actor Larry Marshall who impersonated Johnson.

Also in 2013, his c. 1896 recording of "The Laughing Song" was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.

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

title: George W. Johnson (singer)


text:
Whooping crane

The whooping crane (Grus americana) is an endangered crane species, native to North America, named for its “whooping” calls. Along with the sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis), it is one of only two crane species native to North America, and it is also the tallest North American bird species. The whooping crane's lifespan is estimated to be 22-24 years in the wild. After being pushed to the brink of extinction, due to unregulated hunting and loss of habitat, and just 21 wild (and two captive) cranes remaining by 1941, conservation efforts would lead to a partial recovery. The total number of cranes in the surviving migratory population, plus three reintroduced flocks and in-captivity, only slightly exceeds 800 birds.

Description
An adult whooping crane is white with a red crown and a long, dark, pointed bill. However, immature whooping cranes are cinnamon brown. While in flight, their long necks are kept straight and their long dark legs trail behind. Adult whooping cranes' black wing tips are visible during flight. On average, the whooping crane is the fifth-largest extant species of crane in the world. Whooping cranes are the tallest bird native to North America and are anywhere from the third to the fifth heaviest species on the continent, depending on which figures are used. The species can reportedly stand anywhere from 1.24 to 1.6 m in height. Wingspan, at least typically, is from 2 to 2.3 m. Widely reported averages put males at a mean mass of 7.3 kg, while females weigh 6.2 kg on average (Erickson, 1976). However, one small sample of unsexed whooping cranes weighed 5.82 kg on average. Typical weights of adults seem to be between 4.5 and 8.5 kg. The body length, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, averages about 132 cm. The standard linear measurements of the whooping cranes are a wing chord length of 53 - 63 cm, an exposed culmen length of 11.7 - 16 cm and a tarsus of 26 - 31 cm. The only other very large, long-legged white birds in North America are: the great egret, which is over a foot (30 cm) shorter and one-seventh the weight of this crane; the great white heron, which is a morph of the great blue heron in Florida; and the wood stork. All three other birds are at least 30% smaller than the whooping crane. Herons and storks are also quite different in structure from the crane. Larger individuals (especially males of the larger races) of sandhill crane can overlap in size with adult whooping cranes but are obviously distinct at once for their gray rather than white color.

Their calls are loud and can carry several kilometers. They express "guard calls", apparently to warn their partner about any potential danger. A crane pair jointly calls rhythmically ("unison call") after waking in the early morning, after courtship, and when defending their territory. The first unison call ever recorded in the wild was taken in the whooping cranes' wintering area of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge during December 1999.

Distribution and habitat
At one time, the range for the whooping crane extended throughout midwestern North America as well as southward to Mexico. By the mid-20th century, the muskeg of the taiga in Wood Buffalo National Park, Alberta and Northwest Territories, Canada, and the surrounding area had become the last remnant of the former nesting habitat of the Whooping Crane Summer Range. However, with the recent Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership Reintroduction Project, whooping cranes nested naturally for the first time in 100 years in the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin, United States, and these have subsequently expanded their summer range in Wisconsin and surrounding states, while reintroduced experimental non-migratory populations have nested in Florida and Louisiana.

Whooping cranes nest on the ground, usually on a raised area in a marsh. The female lays 1 or 2 eggs, usually in late-April to mid-May. The blotchy, olive-coloured eggs average 2½ inches in breadth and 4 inches in length (60 by 100 mm), and weigh about 6.7 oz. The incubation period is 29–31 days. Both parents brood the young, although the female is more likely to directly tend to the young. Usually no more than one young bird survives in a season. The parents often feed the young for 6–8 months after birth and the terminus of the offspring-parent relationship occurs after about 1 year.

Breeding populations winter along the Gulf coast of Texas, United States, near Rockport on the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and along Sunset Lake in Portland, Matagorda Island, Isla San Jose, and portions of the Lamar Peninsula and Welder Point, which is on the east side of San Antonio Bay.

The Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma is a major migratory stopover for the crane population, hosting over 75% of the species annually.

As many as nine whooping cranes were observed at various times on Granger Lake in Central Texas in the 2011/2012 winter season. Drought conditions in 2011 exposed much of the lake bed, creating ample feeding grounds for these cranes just as they were taking their autumn migration through Texas.

Predators
Their many potential nest and brood predators include the American black bear, wolverine, gray wolf, cougar, red fox, Canada lynx, bald eagle, and common raven. Golden eagles have killed some young whooping cranes and fledglings. Due to their large size, adult birds in the wild have few predators. However, American alligators have taken a few whooping cranes in Florida, and the bobcat has killed many captive-raised whooping cranes in Florida and Texas. In Florida, bobcats have caused the great majority of natural mortalities among whooping cranes, including several ambushed adults and the first chick documented to be born in the wild in 60 years. Adult cranes can usually deter or avoid attacks by medium-sized predators such as coyotes when aware of a predator's presence, but the captive-raised cranes haven't learned to roost in deep water, which makes them vulnerable to ambush. As they are less experienced, juvenile cranes may be notably more vulnerable to ambushes by bobcats. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center scientists believe that this is due to an overpopulation of bobcats caused by the absence or decrease in larger predators (the endangered Florida panther and the extirpated red wolf) that formerly preyed on bobcats. At least 12 bobcats have been trapped and relocated in an attempt to save the cranes.

Diet
These birds forage while walking in shallow water or in fields, sometimes probing with their bills. They are omnivorous but tend to be more inclined to animal material than most other cranes. Only the red-crowned crane may have a more carnivorous diet among living cranes. In their Texas wintering grounds, this species feeds on various crustaceans, mollusks, fish (such as eel), small reptiles and aquatic plants. Potential foods of breeding birds in summer include frogs, small rodents, small birds, fish, aquatic insects, crayfish, clams, snails, aquatic tubers, and berries. Six studies from 1946 to 2005 have reported that blue crabs (callinectes sapidus) are a significant food source for whooping cranes wintering at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, constituting up to 90 percent of their energy intake in two winters; 1992–93 and 1993–94.

Waste grain, including wheat, barley, and corn, is an important food for migrating whooping cranes, but whooping cranes don't swallow gizzard stones and digest grains less efficiently than sandhill cranes.

Individual recognition, territorial and partnership fidelity
In earlier years, whooping crane chicks had been caught and banded (in the breeding areas of Wood Buffalo National Park), which has delivered valuable insight into individual life history and behaviour of the cranes. This technique, however, has been abandoned due to imminent danger for the cranes and the people performing the catching and banding activities.

By recording guard and unison calls followed by frequency analysis of the recording, a "voiceprint" of the individual crane (and of pairs) can be generated and compared over time. This technique was developed by B. Wessling and applied in the wintering refuge in Aransas and also partially in the breeding grounds in Canada over 5 years. It delivered interesting results, i.e. that besides a certain fraction of stable pairs with strong affinity to their territories, there is a big fraction of cranes who change partners and territories. Only one of the exciting results was to identify the "Lobstick" male when he still had his band; he later lost his band and was recognized by frequency analysis of his voice and then was confirmed to be over 26 years old and still productive.

Conservation efforts

Whooping cranes are believed to have been naturally rare, and major population declines caused by habitat destruction and overhunting led them to them become critically endangered. Even with hunting bans, illegal hunting has continued in spite of potential substantial financial penalties and possible prison time. The population went from an estimated 10,000+ birds before the settling of Europeans on the continent to 1,300-1,400 birds by 1870. By 1938 there were just 15 adults in a single migratory flock, plus about thirteen additional birds living in a non-migratory population in Louisiana, but the latter were scattered by a 1940 hurricane that killed half of them, while the survivors never again reproduced in the wild.

In the early 1960s, Robert Porter Allen, an ornithologist with the National Audubon Society, appeared as a guest challenger on the network television show To Tell The Truth, which gave the Conservation movement some opportunity to update the public on their efforts to save the whooping crane from extinction. His initial efforts focused on public education, particularly among farmers and hunters. Beginning in 1961, the Whooping Crane Conservation Association (WCCA), was established to improve the status of the whooping cranes. This non-profit organization functioned largely by influencing federal, state and provincial political decisions and educating the general public about the critical status of the bird. The whooping crane was declared endangered in 1967.

Allen had begun an effort at captive breeding with a female crane named 'Josephine', the sole survivor of the Louisiana population, injured and taken into captivity in 1940, and two successive injured birds from the migratory population, 'Pete' and 'Crip', at the Audubon Zoo and the Aransas refuge. Josephine and Crip produced the first whooping crane born in captivity in 1950, but this chick only lived four days, and though decades of further efforts produced more than 50 eggs before Josephine's death in 1965, only four chicks survived to adulthood and none of them bred. At the same time, the wild population was not thriving. In spite of the efforts of conservationists, hunting bans and educational programs, the aging wild population would gain only 10 birds in the first 25 years of monitoring, with entire years passing without a single new juvenile joining those that returned to the Texas wintering grounds. This led to a renewed tension between those who favored efforts to preserve the wild population and others seeing a captive breeding program as the only hope for whooping crane survival, even though it must depend on individuals withdrawn from the extremely-vulnerable wild population.

Identification of the location of the summer breeding grounds of the whooping cranes at Wood Buffalo National Park in 1954 allowed more detailed study of their reproductive habits in the wild, and led to the observation that while many breeding pairs laid two eggs, rearing efforts seemed to favor a single chick, and both chicks would almost never survive to fledge. It was concluded that the removal of a single egg from a two-egg clutch should still leave a single hatchling most likely to survive, while providing an individual for captive breeding. Such removals in alternating years showed no decline in the reproductive success of the wild cranes. The withdrawn eggs were transferred to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, where approaches for hatching and rearing crane chicks in captivity had already been optimized using the more-numerous sandhill cranes. Initial challenges getting the resultant birds to reproduce, even using artificial insemination approaches, would give impetus to the first, unsuccessful attempt at reintroduction, by swapping whooping crane eggs into the nests of the more numerous sandhill cranes as a way to establish a backup population.

In 1976, with the wild population numbering only 60 birds and having increased at an average of only one bird per year over the past decades, ornithologist George W. Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, began working with 'Tex', a female whooping crane hatched at the San Antonio Zoo in 1967 to Crip and his new mate, the wild-captured 'Rosie', to get her to lay a fertile egg through artificial insemination. Archibald pioneered several techniques to rear cranes in captivity, including the use of crane costumes by human handlers. Archibald spent three years with Tex, acting as a male crane – walking, calling, dancing – to shift her into reproductive condition. As Archibald recounted the tale on The Tonight Show in 1982, he stunned the audience and host Johnny Carson with the sad end of the story – the death of Tex shortly after the hatching of her one and only chick, named 'Gee Whiz'. Gee Whiz was successfully raised and mated with female whooping cranes. The techniques pioneered at Patuxent, the International Crane Foundation and a program at the Calgary Zoo would give rise to a robust multi-institutional captive breeding program that would supply the cranes used in several additional captive breeding and reintroduction programs. A single male crane, 'Canus', rescued in 1964 as an injured wild chick and taken to Patuxent in 1966, would by the time of his 2003 death be the sire, grandsire or great-grandsire of 186 captive-bred whooping cranes. In 2017, the decision was made for the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center to end its 51-year effort to breed and train whooping cranes for release, due to changing priorities and in the face of budget cuts by the Trump administration. Their flock of 75 birds was moved in 2018 to join captive breeding programs at zoos or private foundations, including the Calgary Zoo, the International Crane Foundation, the Audubon Species Survival Center in Louisiana, and other sites in Florida, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. This relocation is expected to negatively impact the reproductive success of the captive cranes, at least in the short term, and concerns were raised over its impact on the reintroduction efforts for which the Patuxent program had been providing birds.

Meanwhile, the wild crane population began a steady increase, such that in 2007 the Canadian Wildlife Service counted 266 birds at Wood Buffalo National Park, with 73 mating pairs that produced 80 chicks, 39 of which completed the fall migration, while a United States Fish and Wildlife Service count in early 2017 estimated that 505 whooping cranes, including 49 juveniles, had arrived at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge that season. As of 2020, there were an estimated 677 birds living in the wild, in the remnant original migratory population as well as three reintroduced populations, while 177 birds were at the time held in captivity at 17 institutions in Canada and the United States, putting the total population at over 800.

The wild cranes winter in marshy areas along the Gulf Coast in and surrounding the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. An environmental group, The Aransas Project, has sued the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), maintaining that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to ensure adequate water supplies for the birds' range. The group attributes the deaths of nearly two dozen whooping cranes in the winter of 2008 and 2009 to inadequate flows from the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers. In March 2013 during continuing drought conditions, a federal court ordered TCEQ to develop a habitat protection plan for the crane and to cease issuing permits for waters from the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers. A judge amended the ruling to allow TCEQ to continue issuing permits necessary to protect the public's health and safety. An appeals court eventually granted a stay in the order during the appeals process. The Guadalupe-Blanco and San Antonio river authorities joined TCEQ in the lawsuit, warning that restricting the use of their waters would have serious effects on the cities of New Braunfels and San Marcos as well as major industrial users along the coast. To address the potential of future crowding that may result from the increasing migratory population, in 2012 and following years, purchases of small plots of land and acquisition of conservation easements covering larger areas has led to the protection of tens of thousands of additional acres of potential coastal habitat near the Aransas reserve. A large purchase of over 17,000 acres in 2014 was paid for with $35 million made available from the settlement over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and an additional $15 million raised by a Texas parks non-profit.

Concerns have been raised over the effects of climate change on the migratory cycle of the surviving wild population. The cranes arrive on their nesting grounds in April and May to breed and begin their nesting. When young whooping cranes are ready to leave the nest, they depart in September and follow the migratory trail through Texas.

Reintroduction
Several attempts have been made to establish other breeding populations outside of captivity.
 * The first project, carried out by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service and initiated in 1975, involved cross-fostering second eggs from the wild population in the nests of sandhill cranes to establish a second self-sustaining flock using a flyway from Idaho across Utah to New Mexico. The 289 transplanted eggs resulted in 85 chicks that learned to migrate, but the whooping cranes failed to mate with other whooping cranes due to imprinting on their sandhill foster parents.  The project was discontinued in 1989, and no members of this population survived. The initiation of this effort and the problem of imprinting are explored in the 1976 documentary A Great White Bird.
 * A second effort involved the establishment of a non-migratory population near Kissimmee, Florida, by a cooperative effort led by the U.S. and Canadian Whooping Crane Recovery Team in 1993. A total of 289 captive-bred birds provided by the International Crane Foundation were released in the wild between 1993 and 2004. Though in 2003 the population had produced the first chick conceived in the wild to reintroduced cranes, a decision was made in 2005 to release no further birds into the population until problems with high mortality and poor reproductive success were resolved. Studies of the population were discontinued in 2012. The population numbered about 50 adults and 4 chicks in October 2006 but subsequently dwindled to just 14 cranes in March 2018. The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a plan to relocate the surviving Kissimmee crane population to join the newer Louisiana reintroduced non-migratory flock, and due to the lack of available mates, two Florida birds were moved to Louisiana in February 2019, including the mother of the first wild-born chick. As of 2020, there were just 9 birds remaining in the Florida population, with another relocated to Louisiana in 2021.
 * A third attempt has involved reintroducing the whooping crane to a new flyway established east of the Mississippi river, with its southern end just west of the Atlantic flyway. This project used isolation rearing of young whooping cranes and trained them to follow ultralight aircraft, a method of re-establishing migration routes pioneered by Bill Lishman and Joe Duff working with Canada geese. The ultralight flights were managed by a non-profit organization, Operation Migration, working with the larger Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), which oversees all aspects of the reintroduced Eastern Migratory Population. Subsequent to hatching, the Operation Migration cranes were taught to follow the ultralight, fledged over their future breeding territory in Wisconsin, and led by the aircraft on their first migration from Wisconsin to Florida.  Having learned the migratory route, they then returned north on their own the following spring. With the growth of this reintroduced population, WCEP also began releasing captive-reared juvenile cranes directly into the flock to learn migratory behavior from their peers, in a process referred to as Direct Autumn Release (DAR).

 * This reintroduction began in fall 2001 and added birds to the population in subsequent years. Two whooping crane chicks were hatched in the wild from one nest in 2006, to parents that had been part of the first ultralight-led release in 2002, and one of these survived to successfully migrate with her parents to Florida. In early February, 2007, 17 yearlings in a group of 18 were killed by the 2007 Central Florida tornadoes, with the sole survivor dying in late April an unknown cause, possibly related to the storm trauma. Two of the four DAR chicks from 2006 were also lost due to predation. In spite of this, as of May, 2011, there were 105 surviving whooping cranes in the Eastern Migratory Population (EMP), including 17 that had formed pairs, several of which are nesting and are incubating eggs.

 * In December 2011, the Operation Migration escort of nine cranes was interrupted by the Federal Aviation Administration due to a regulation prohibiting paid pilots of ultralight aircraft. After a month with the cranes kept in a pen, the FAA finally granted a one-time exemption to allow completion of the migration. In January 2016, citing the near-total failure of the hand-raised and guided birds to reproduce in the wild, the Fish and Wildlife Service made a decision to discontinue the ultralight program in favor of alternatives with reduced human interaction.  In June 2018, the size of this population was estimated at 102 birds. This number had dropped to 86 birds in 2020.

 * Due to the vulnerability and low reproductive success of the Florida non-migratory population, a new effort was made to establish a non-migratory population in Louisiana's White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area, the home of the historical non-migratory population of whooping cranes. This is a cooperative effort of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Louisiana Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at LSU, and the International Crane Foundation. In March 2011, 10 cranes were released, but all but three had been lost by the time a second group of 16 were released in December. Subsequent annual cohorts followed, ranging in size from 10 to 27 birds.     In 2019, the population began receiving birds relocated from the failed Florida reintroduction effort with the arrival of a 21-year old reintroduced female and her wild-born 4-year-old daughter, followed by the transfer of a juvenile female in 2021.

 * The flock has established a range centered on southwestern Louisiana but also including central and northeastern Louisiana and east Texas, with an occasional stray found more broadly. None of the first released group survived to full maturity, but in the Spring of 2014 the second cohort of birds began to form pairs and nest, producing the population's first eggs, although since the parents were still juveniles these eggs were infertile. The next year saw fertile eggs but none survived to hatching.  However, in April 2016 a pair of reintroduced cranes hatched two chicks, one of which survived to fledge, represented the first in the wild in Louisiana since 1939.  Starting in 2017, a novel strategy was introduced: eggs in the process of hatching, taken from captive birds, were swapped into Louisiana nests in place of infertile eggs, allowing the chicks to be raised by substitute crane parents in the wild.  In 2018, a combination of naturally-laid and substituted eggs added five wild-raised juveniles to the population, which all survived to fledge.  As of August 2018, 125 birds had been released, with at least 65 surviving, while in 2020 following further releases, relocations from Florida, and several wild fledgings, there were 76 birds in this population.

A major hurdle with some of these reintroduced populations has been deaths to illegal hunting. Over a period of two years, five of the approximately 100 whooping cranes in the Eastern Migratory Population were illegally shot and killed. One of the dead cranes was the female known as "First Mom". In 2006, she and her mate were the first eastern captive raised and released pair to successfully raise a chick to adulthood in the wild. This was a particular blow to that population because whooping cranes do not yet have an established successful breeding situation in the East. On March 30, 2011, Wade Bennett, 18, of Cayuga, Indiana and an unnamed juvenile pleaded guilty to killing First Mom. After killing the crane, the juvenile had posed holding up her body. Bennett and the juvenile were sentenced to a $1 fine, probation, and court fees of about $500, a penalty which was denounced by various conservation organizations as being too light. The prosecuting attorney has estimated that the cost of raising and introducing to the wild one whooping crane could be as much as $100,000. Overall, the International Crane Foundation estimates that the nearly 20% of deaths among the reintroduced cranes in the Eastern Migratory Population are due to shootings.

Illegal shootings have accounted for an even larger proportion of mortality among the birds introduced into the Louisiana population, with about 10% of the first 147 released cranes being shot and killed. Two juveniles were apprehended for a 2011 incident, a Louisiana man was sentenced to 45 days imprisonment and a $2500 fine after pleading guilty to a killing in November 2014, and a Texas man was fined $25,000 for a January 2016 shooting and barred from possessing firearms during a 5-year probation period, on subsequent violation of which he was given an 11-month custodial sentence. On the other hand, a Louisiana man cited for a July 2018 shooting received probation, community service and hunting and fishing restrictions but no fine or firearms restriction. Two Louisiana juveniles were cited in 2018 for a May 2016 incident.

title: Whooping crane


text:
Gymnosophists

Gymnosophists (γυμνοσοφισταί, gymnosophistaí, i.e. "naked philosophers" or "naked wise men" (from Greek γυμνός gymnós "naked" and σοφία sophía "wisdom")) is the name given by the Greeks to certain ancient Indian philosophers who pursued asceticism to the point of regarding food and clothing as detrimental to purity of thought. They were noted to have been vegetarian by several Greek authors. There were also gymnosophists in Upper Egypt who were called Ethiopian Gymnosophists by Apollonius of Tyana.

In Greek literature, they are mentioned in association with the Persian magi, the Chaldaeans of the Assyrians or the Babylonians, the druids of the Celts, and the priests of Egypt. Some sources claim that famous figures such as Lycurgus, Pythagoras, and Democritus may have met them. They are mentioned by authors such as Philo, Lucian, Clement of Alexandria, Philostratus, and Heliodorus of Emesa. These reports are thought to have served as models to Cynics as well as Christian ascetics. Many authors have discussed the purported questions by Alexander the Great and answers by the Gymnosophists.

Ancient accounts

The term gymnosophist was used by Plutarch (c. 46–120 CE) in the 1st century CE, when describing an encounter by Alexander the Great with ten gymnosophists near the banks of the Indus river in what is now Pakistan.

"He (Alexander) captured ten of the gymnosophists who had done most to get Sabbas to revolt, and had made the most trouble for the Macedonians. These philosophers were reputed to be clever and concise in answering questions, and Alexander therefore put difficult questions to them, declaring that he would put to death he who first made an incorrect answer, and then the rest, in an order determined in like manner; and he commanded one of them, the oldest, to be the judge in the contest. The first one, accordingly, being asked which, in his opinion, were more numerous, the living or the dead, said that the living were, since the dead no longer existed. The second, being asked whether the earth or the sea produced larger animals, said the earth did, since the sea was but a part of the earth. The third, being asked what animal was the most cunning, said: "That which up to this time man has not discovered." The fourth, when asked why he had induced Sabbas to revolt, replied: "Because I wished him either to die nobly or live." The fifth, being asked which, in his opinion, was older, day or night, replied: "Day, by one day"; and he added, upon the king expressing dissatisfaction, that unusual questions must have unusual answers. Passing on, then, to the sixth, Alexander asked how a man could be most loved; "If," said the philosopher, "he is most powerful, and yet does not inspire fear." Of the three remaining, he who was asked how one might become a god instead of man, replied: "By doing something which a man cannot do"; the one who was asked which was the stronger, life or death, answered: "Life, since it supports so many ills." And the last, asked how long it were well for a man to live, answered: "Until he does not regard death as better than life." So, then, turning to the judge, Alexander bade him give his opinion. The judge declared that they had answered one worse than another. "Well, then," said Alexander, "thou shalt die first for giving such a verdict." "That cannot be, O King," said the judge, "unless thou falsely saidst that thou wouldst put to death first him who answered worst." These philosophers, then, he dismissed with gifts..."

- Plutarch, "Life of Alexander", Parallel Lives, 64–65.

Diogenes Laërtius (fl. 3rd century AD) refers to them, and reports that Pyrrho of Ellis was influenced by the gymnosophists while in India with Alexander the Great, and on his return to Ellis, imitated their habits of life and caused him to found the Hellenistic philosophy of Pyrrhonism.

Strabo (64 or 63 BC – c. AD 24) says that gymnosophists were religious people among the Indians (XVI,I), and otherwise divides Indian philosophers into Brahmanas and Śramaṇas (XV,I,59–60), following the accounts of Megasthenes. He further divides the Sramanas into "Hylobioi" (forest hermits, c.f. Aranyaka) and "Physicians".

"Of the Sarmanes, the most honourable, he says, are the Hylobii, who live in the forests, and subsist on leaves and wild fruits: they are clothed with garments made of the bark of trees, and abstain from commerce with women and from wine."

- Strabo XV

"Of the Sarmanes ... second in honour to the Hylobii, are the physicians, for they apply philosophy to the study of the nature of man. They are of frugal habits, but do not live in the fields, and subsist upon rice and meal, which every one gives when asked, and receive them hospitably. ... Both this and the other class of persons practise fortitude, as well in supporting active toil as in enduring suffering, so that they will continue a whole day in the same posture, without motion."

- Strabo XV

Philo Judaeus (c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE), also called mentions the gymnosophists twice in the course of listing foreign ascetics and philosophers who are, in his estimation, "prudent, and just, and virtuous" and therefore truly free:

"And among the Indians there is the class of the gymnosophists, who, in addition to natural philosophy, take great pains in the study of moral science likewise, and thus make their whole existence a sort of lesson in virtue."

- Philo Judaeus

"But it is necessary for us ... to bring forward as corroborative testimonies the lives of some particular good men who are the most undeniable evidences of freedom. Calanus was an Indian by birth, one of the gymnosophists; he, being looked upon as the man who was possessed of the greatest fortitude of all his contemporaries, and that too, not only by his own countrymen, but also by foreigners, which is the rarest of all things, was greatly admired by some kings of hostile countries, because he had combined virtuous actions with praiseworthy language."

- Philo Judaeus

In the 2nd century CE, the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria distinguishes the gymnosophists, the philosophers of the Indians, from the Sramanas, "the philosophers of the Bactrians":

"Philosophy, then, with all its blessed advantages to man, flourished long ages ago among the barbarians, diffusing its light among the gentiles, and eventually penetrated into Greece. Its hierophants were the prophets among the Egyptians, the Chaldeans among the Assyrians, the Druids among the Galatians, the Sramanas of the Bactrians, and the philosophers of the Celts, the Magi among the Persians who announced beforehand the birth of the Saviour, being led by a star until they arrived in the land of Judaea, and among the Indians the Gymnosophists, and other philosophers of barbarous nations."

- Clement of Alexandria

Porphyry in the Peri Apoches gives a description of the Indian philosophers’ diet structured around the distinction between two kinds of gymnosophists: the "Brahmins" and the "Samaneans". The Brahmins are described as theosophoi by descent. They are vegetarians and eat only fruit, yogurt and rice. They are independent from the king and devote all their time to the worship. "Samaneans" probably refers to Buddhist monks from Bactria. They become philosophers by choice and may descend from any Indian caste. When they become Samaneans, they renounce all their possessions and shave the superfluous hair on their body. They live in communities and spend their time in debates about the divine.

Indian
The philosophical, religious, and tribal identities of the gymnosophists that the Greeks encountered in the 3rd century BC at the town of Taxila in Ancient India were not preserved in the ancient Greek literature, leading to much modern speculation. The following have been proposed as non-mutually exclusive possibilities.

Brahmin
Some sects of Brahmins belonging to Hinduism remained naked, lived in forests, practiced austerities, shaved their heads, ate only fruit and milk and meditated.

Ājīvika
The Ājīvika went without clothes. Their antinomian ethics match those Pyrrho brought back to Greece from his meetings with the gymnosophists.

Brachmanes
The Brachmanes or Bragmanes, who are identified with the Brahmanas of Vedic religion, remained unclothed. Porphyry mentions that they lived on milk and fruits, similar to Vedic Brahmins.

Digambara
Jain Digambara went naked and preached non-violence and were identified as gymnosophists.

Naga sadhu
The Naga sadhus ("naked saints") have been identified with the gymnosophists by some modern writers: they are historically known to carry arms, and learn martial arts which are promoted in their akharas. They move totally naked except for the arms they carry. The Naga sadhus are often called Indian gymnosophists. They are mostly worshipers of Shiva and carry Trishula, swords and even other weapons. They were known for taking up arms to defend their faith.

Shramanas
The ancient Shramanas, who included both the Digambara sect of Jain monks and Buddhist priests, have been identified as gymnosophists by researchers.

Ethiopian
The school of naked philosophers in upper Egypt was visited by the Neopythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyana (c. 15 – c. 100 AD) who called them Ethiopian Gymnosophists. Apollonius had met the gymnosophists of India before his arrival in Egypt, and repeatedly compared the Ethiopian Gymnosophists with them. He regarded them to be derived from the Indians. They lived without any cottages nor houses, but had a shelter for the visitors. They did not wear any clothes and thus compared themselves to the Olympian athletes. They shared their vegetarian meal with him.

title: Gymnosophists


text:
DZ Bank building

The DZ Bank building (formerly DG Bank building) is an office, conference, and residential building located at Pariser Platz 3 in Berlin. It was designed by architect Frank Gehry and engineered by Hans Schober of Schlaich Bergermann & Partner. Construction began in 1998 and was completed in 2000.

The building is mixed-use. Facing the Brandenburg Gate are offices, the headquarters of Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank. On the other side, facing Behrenstraße, are 39 residential apartments. Between the two is a large atrium, designed to be used as a conference or performance space. This is covered with a sophisticated glass-grid roof, curved in a complex form typical of Gehry's designs.

title: DZ Bank building


text:
Individual Visit Scheme

The Individual Visit Scheme (Visto Individual) begun on 28 July 2003 allowing travelers from Mainland China to visit Hong Kong and Macau on an individual basis; prior to the Scheme, Mainland residents could only visit on business visas or on group tours.

The outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong from March to June 2003 resulted in a sharp drop in Mainland and foreign visitors to an unprecedented low, adversely affecting the tourist industry.

The main reason for launching the Individual Visit Scheme was to boost the economy of Hong Kong and Macau. In the initial stage of the scheme, residents of Beijing, Shanghai, and 8 Guangdong provincial cities (Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Zhongshan and Zhuhai) could apply for visas to visit the two 'Special Administrative Regions' individually.

The scheme was extended to all 21 cities of Guangdong province in July 2004, and to 9 other cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian provinces in July 2004.

The visas, issued by the Public Security Bureau of the People's Republic of China, were valid for 7 days and could be renewed upon return from Hong Kong to the Mainland.

The scheme brought an immediate surge in the number of Mainland visitors. In the short period between 28 July and 4 November 2003, more than 600,000 individuals on the Mainland applied for visas and 450,000 visas were issued. The number of visitors under the scheme reached two million by May 2004.

Development
The Individual Visit Scheme allows select tourists from designated cities and provinces in mainland China to visit Hong Kong and Macau by using individual visas (as opposed the needing to travel as part of a government-approved tour group).

Initially, the Individual Visit Scheme was only open to residents of Beijing, Shanghai, and eight cities in Guangdong province. China's central government expanded the program once it was shown to be successful. As of 2023, the Individual Visa Scheme is open to residents of 49 Chinese cities.

1 October Golden Week
1 October Golden Week is the period from 1 to 7 October, coinciding with the National Day of the People's Republic of China on 1 October. Therefore, more Mainlanders are able to visit Hong Kong during the holiday. In 2003, this holiday drew 287,000 Mainland visitors to Hong Kong, including 80,000 to 90,000 individual travellers. During, the hotel occupancy rate reached 75% to 80%. The Mass Transit Railway Corporation organised promotional programs at Telford Plaza in Kowloon Bay and Maritime Square in Tsing Yi during the National Day holiday.

In addition, the HKSAR Government has adopted a number of measures to deal with the huge influx of individual visitors. At the Lo Wu border crossing, there was an increase in the number of Hong Kong immigration officers on duty, and the time for checking in was reduced. Also, the number of MTR trains departing from Lo Wu was increased to reduce congestion. In addition, visitors from Shanghai and Beijing were encouraged to travel by plane to prevent congestion in Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau.

According to the statistics released by the Immigration Department, about 800,000 to 900,000 Mainland visitors travel to Hong Kong monthly. The ratio of visitors under the scheme rose from 5% to 16.8% between August and October 2003, and to more than 30% in May 2004.

The increase in the number of Mainland tourists has benefits the economy of Hong Kong, demonstrating the economy is on an upward track. Average occupancy rate across all categories of hotels and tourist guest houses in September 2003 was 82%, the same as that in September 2002. This performance was spread across different types of hotels, with the top-tariff hotels achieving 81% occupancy and those of medium tariff recording 83%. The average achieved room rate was HK$684, the highest figure since April 2003, although this is still 2.8% below the comparable rate for September 2002. And in 2006,among the spending of all the visitors in Hong Kong, mainland visitors has taken up to $400 billion, which is one-third of the income.

The government has set up an Economy Relaunch Campaign, which includes raffles, the Lantau Festival, and Individual Visits to provide extra resources to revive the economy. These enhance the appeal of the Individual Visit Scheme.

"As the scheme is attracting a large number of Mainlanders to Hong Kong, it created a 'positive by-product' to attract overseas travelers to visit Hong Kong," said Miss Kinnie Wong, the assistant commissioner of the Tourism Commission. She added that tourists from overseas markets such as the United States and Australia may feel safe visiting Hong Kong again in the coming winter or during the Chinese New Year.

It has been suggested that more and more Mainlanders coming to Hong Kong will lead to the authorised saving of Ain Hong Kong. This change enables Mainland travellers access to money more easily when they need it. As a result, it will be more convenient for them to shop and trade in Hong Kong. Besides, the simplicity of the visa application process makes it beneficial. Since people are usually not willing to perform complicated procedures to apply for visas before visiting another place, the Individual Visit Scheme helps encourage visitors to Hong Kong. These two effects are considered long term.

She also pointed out that women joining the Individual Visit Scheme come to Hong Kong because they want to purchase brand-name products. An individual traveller, Mrs. Chiu, said that the brand-name products in Hong Kong are of more variety and are much cheaper when compared with other foreign countries.

As a short-term effect, there will be a rise in the employment rate and investment. Owners of shops or companies can foresee this vital trend and will employ more people to meet the needs of the influx of Mainland travellers.

Social impact
The establishment of the Individual Visa Scheme resulted in a surge of tourism to Macau.

The Hong Kong Government repeatedly pointed out that the crime rate of Mainland visitors under the scheme was very low. From August 2003 to May 2004, the number of individual visitors who were arrested for committing crimes such as theft or fraud was only 183, compared with more than 2 million visitors under the scheme.

Mr. Chan Wing-Kai, the head of the Consumer Complaints & Advice Council, said, "The percentage of complaints made by individual visitors is 9.3%, which is relatively low." The number of complaints made by individual visitors up to October was around 50. Many cases were due to misunderstandings, such as differences between consumer cultures.

Timetable of implementation

 * 28 July 2003: Dongguan, Foshan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen
 * 20 August 2003: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Huizhou
 * 1 September 2003: Shanghai, Beijing
 * 1 January 2004: Shantou, Chaozhou, Meizhou, Zhaoqing, Qingyuan, Yunfu
 * 1 May 2004: Shanwei, Maoming, Zhanjiang, Shaoguan, Jieyang, Heyuan, Yangjiang (That covered the whole Guangdong province.)
 * 1 July 2004: Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Taizhou, Fuzhou (urban area only), Xiamen, Quanzhou
 * 1 March 2005: Tianjin, Chongqing (15 districts and counties only)
 * 1 November 2005: Chengdu, Jinan, Dalian, Shenyang
 * 1 May 2006: Nanchang, Changsha, Nanning, Haikou, Guiyang, Kunming
 * 1 January 2007: Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Changchun, Hefei, Wuhan
 * 6 March 2024: Qingdao, Xi'an
 * 27 May 2024: Taiyuan, Hohhot, Harbin, Lhasa, Lanzhou, Xining, Yinchuan, Urumqi

Macau visa restrictions

 * April 2007: 2 visits per month.
 * May 2008: 1 visit per month.
 * July 2008: 1 visit per two months.
 * August 2008: travellers through Macao to another destination in China are only allowed to stay in Macao for 7 days vs. prior 14 days.
 * September 2008: eliminated a loophole that allowed Chinese residents to travel to Macao using a Hong Kong visa.
 * October 2008: 1 visit per three months.

title: Individual Visit Scheme


text:
Caber toss

The caber toss (tilgeil a' chabair) is a traditional Scottish athletic event in which competitors toss a large tapered pole called a "caber" (/ˈkeɪbər/). It is normally practised at the Scottish Highland Games. In Scotland, the caber is usually made from a larch tree, and it can be between 16-20 ft tall and weigh 90-150 lb. The term "caber" derives from the Gaelic word cabar, which refers to a wooden beam.

The person tossing the caber is called a "tosser" or a "thrower".

Although the sport is primarily associated with Scotland, a similar exercise, "casting the bar", was popular in England in the 16th century, and similar sports exist around the world, such as stångstörtning in Sweden.

The record for most caber tosses in three minutes is currently held by the Canadian Danny Frame. He managed to perform 16 successful caber tosses on 20 July 2018 at the Heart of the Valley Festival in Middleton, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Braemar Caber is the worlds most famous Caber being 19ft 6 inches long and 132lbs in weight and has been won the most times by Alistair Gunn of Halkirk who has won it 8 times, the 8th time in 2007.

Objective and technique
The primary objective is to toss the caber so that it turns end over end, falling away from the tosser. Ideally it should fall directly away from the tosser in the "12 o'clock" position. The distance thrown is unimportant.

The tosser balances the caber upright, tapered end downwards, against his or her shoulder and neck, the caber being supported by stewards or fellow-competitors while being placed into position. The tosser then crouches, sliding their interlocked hands down the caber and under the rounded base, and lifts it in their cupped hands. The tosser must balance the caber upright; this is not easy with the heavier end at the top, and less-experienced tossers may be unable to stop the caber falling to one side after lifting it. The tosser then walks or runs a few paces forward to gain momentum, and flips the tapered end upwards so that the large end hits the ground first, and, if well tossed, the caber falls directly away from the tosser.

Weight and strength are essential for success, but technique is also important for balancing the caber when lifting it, and flipping up the held (tapered) end to promote a clean toss.

Scoring
The straightest end-over-end toss scores highest. If the caber lands on its end but falls back towards the thrower, the score is lower than for any end-over-end throw but is based upon the maximum vertical angle that the caber achieved (side-judging may involve a second judge).

End-over-end tosses are scored according to the hours on a clock, with a 12:00 score being highest (falling directly away from the thrower), down to a 9 or 3 for cabers that reach a vertical, before falling to the side.

title: Caber toss


text:
Talk:The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Lede
There's a slight problem with last sentence of the first paragraph:

Widely admired for its credible presentation of a comprehensively imagined future human society on both the Earth and the moon, it is generally considered one of Heinlein's major novels as well as one of the most important science fiction novels ever written.[1]

Mostly, by whom is it "generally considered one of Heinlein's major novels" and "one of the most important science fiction novels ever written"? I've read through the source, and 1) I didn't see Ted Gioia comment to that effect, and 2) even if he had, he doesn't exactly seem to be qualified in making this assessment. The source seems like just a fancy blog. If there are no strong objections, I'll remove it from the lede. Ljpernic (talk) 12:15, 11 May 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress


text:
Emil Leon Post

Emil Leon Post (February 11, 1897 – April 21, 1954) was an American mathematician and logician. He is best known for his work in the field that eventually became known as computability theory.

Life
Post was born in Augustów, Suwałki Governorate, Congress Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) into a Polish-Jewish family that immigrated to New York City in May 1904. His parents were Arnold and Pearl Post.

Post had been interested in astronomy, but at the age of twelve lost his left arm in a car accident. This loss was a significant obstacle to being a professional astronomer, leading to his decision to pursue mathematics rather than astronomy.

Post attended the Townsend Harris High School and continued on to graduate from City College of New York in 1917 with a B.S. in mathematics.

After completing his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1920 at Columbia University, supervised by Cassius Jackson Keyser, he did a post-doctorate at Princeton University in the 1920–1921 academic year. Post then became a high school mathematics teacher in New York City.

Post married Gertrude Singer in 1929, with whom he had a daughter, Phyllis Post Goodman (1932–1995). Post spent at most three hours a day on research on the advice of his doctor in order to avoid manic attacks, which he had been experiencing since his year at Princeton.

In 1936, he was appointed to the mathematics department at the City College of New York. He died in 1954 of a heart attack following electroshock treatment for depression; he was 57.

Early work
In his doctoral thesis, later shortened and published as "Introduction to a General Theory of Elementary Propositions" (1921), Post proved, among other things, that the propositional calculus of Principia Mathematica was complete: all tautologies are theorems, given the Principia axioms and the rules of substitution and modus ponens. Post also devised truth tables independently of C. S. Peirce and Ludwig Wittgenstein and put them to good mathematical use. Jean van Heijenoort's well-known source book on mathematical logic (1966) reprinted Post's classic 1921 article setting out these results.

While at Princeton, Post came very close to discovering the incompleteness of Principia Mathematica, which Kurt Gödel proved in 1931. Post initially failed to publish his ideas as he believed he needed a 'complete analysis' for them to be accepted. As Post said in a postcard to Gödel in 1938:

 * I would have discovered Gödel's theorem in 1921—if I had been Gödel.

Recursion theory
In 1936, Post developed, independently of Alan Turing, a mathematical model of computation that was essentially equivalent to the Turing machine model. Intending this as the first of a series of models of equivalent power but increasing complexity, he titled his paper Formulation 1. This model is sometimes called "Post's machine" or a Post–Turing machine, but is not to be confused with Post's tag machines or other special kinds of Post canonical system, a computational model using string rewriting and developed by Post in the 1920s but first published in 1943. Post's rewrite technique is now ubiquitous in programming language specification and design, and so with Church's lambda calculus is a salient influence of classical modern logic on practical computing. Post devised a method of 'auxiliary symbols' by which he could canonically represent any Post-generative language, and indeed any computable function or set at all.

Correspondence systems were introduced by Post in 1946 to give simple examples of undecidability. He showed that the Post correspondence problem (PCP) of satisfying their constraints is, in general, undecidable. The undecidability of the correspondence problem turned out to be exactly what was needed to obtain undecidability results in the theory of formal languages.

In an influential address to the American Mathematical Society in 1944, he raised the question of the existence of an uncomputable recursively enumerable set whose Turing degree is less than that of the halting problem. This question, which became known as Post's problem, stimulated much research. It was solved in the affirmative in the 1950s by the introduction of the powerful priority method in computability theory.

Polyadic groups
Post made a fundamental and still-influential contribution to the theory of polyadic, or n-ary, groups in a long paper published in 1940. His major theorem showed that a polyadic group is the iterated multiplication of elements of a normal subgroup of a group, such that the quotient group is cyclic of order n − 1. He also demonstrated that a polyadic group operation on a set can be expressed in terms of a group operation on the same set. The paper contains many other important results.

Selected papers

 * Introduces the important concept of many-one reduction.
 * Introduces the important concept of many-one reduction.
 * Introduces the important concept of many-one reduction.
 * Introduces the important concept of many-one reduction.
 * Introduces the important concept of many-one reduction.
 * Introduces the important concept of many-one reduction.

title: Emil Leon Post


text:
Witold Hurewicz

Witold Hurewicz (June 29, 1904 – September 6, 1956) was a Polish mathematician.

Early life and education
Witold Hurewicz was born in Łódź, at the time one of the main Polish industrial hubs with economy focused on the textile industry. His father, Mieczysław Hurewicz, was an industrialist born in Wilno, which until 1939 was mainly populated by Poles and Jews. His mother was Katarzyna Finkelsztain who hailed from Biała Cerkiew, a town that belonged to the Kingdom of Poland until the Second Partition of Poland (1793) when it was taken by Russia.

Hurewicz attended school in a German-controlled Poland but with World War I beginning before he had begun secondary school, major changes occurred in Poland. In August 1915 the Russian forces that had held Poland for many years withdrew. Germany and Austria-Hungary took control of most of the country and the University of Warsaw was refounded and it began operating as a Polish university. Rapidly, a strong school of mathematics grew up in the University of Warsaw, with topology one of the main topics. Although Hurewicz knew intimately the topology that was being studied in Poland he chose to go to Vienna to continue his studies.

He studied under Hans Hahn and Karl Menger in Vienna, receiving a PhD in 1926. Hurewicz was awarded a Rockefeller scholarship, which allowed him to spend the year 1927–28 in Amsterdam. He was assistant to L. E. J. Brouwer in Amsterdam from 1928 to 1936. He was given study leave for a year, which he decided to spend in the United States. He visited the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and then decided to remain in the United States and not return to his position in Amsterdam.

Career
Hurewicz worked first at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill but during World War II he contributed to the war effort with research on applied mathematics. In particular, the work he did on servomechanisms at that time was classified because of its military importance. From 1945 until his death he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hurewicz's early work was on set theory and topology. The Dictionary of Scientific Biography states: "...a remarkable result of this first period [1930] is his topological embedding of separable metric spaces into compact spaces of the same (finite) dimension.*"

In the field of general topology his contributions are centred on dimension theory. He wrote an important text with Henry Wallman, Dimension Theory, published in 1941. A reviewer writes that the book "...is truly a classic. It presents the theory of dimension for separable metric spaces with what seems to be an impossible mixture of depth, clarity, precision, succinctness, and comprehensiveness."

Hurewicz is best remembered for three remarkable contributions to mathematics: his discovery of the higher homotopy groups in 1935–36, his discovery of the long exact homotopy sequence for fibrations in 1941, and the Hurewicz theorem connecting homotopy and homology groups. His work led to homological algebra. It was during Hurewicz's time as Brouwer's assistant in Amsterdam that he did the work on the higher homotopy groups; "...the idea was not new, but until Hurewicz nobody had pursued it as it should have been. Investigators did not expect much new information from groups, which were obviously commutative..."

In the late 1940s, he was the doctoral advisor of Yael Dowker.

Hurewicz had a second textbook published, but this was not until 1958 after his death. Lectures on ordinary differential equations is an introduction to ordinary differential equations that again reflects the clarity of his thinking and the quality of his writing.

He died after participating in the International Symposium on Algebraic Topology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. He tripped and fell off the top of a Mayan step pyramid during an outing in Uxmal, Mexico. In the Dictionary of Scientific Biography it is suggested that he was "...a paragon of absentmindedness, a failing that probably led to his death."

title: Witold Hurewicz