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The Life of Birds

The Life of Birds is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 21 October 1998.

A study of the evolution and habits of birds, it was the third of Attenborough's specialised surveys following his major trilogy that began with Life on Earth. Each of the ten 50-minute episodes discusses how the huge variety of birds in the world deal with a different aspect of their day-to-day existence.

The series was produced in conjunction with BBC Worldwide Americas Inc. and PBS. The executive producer was Mike Salisbury and the music was composed by Ian Butcher and Steven Faux. It won a Peabody Award in 1999 for combining "spectacular imagery and impeccable science."

Part of Attenborough's 'Life' series of programmes, it was preceded by The Private Life of Plants (1995), and followed by The Life of Mammals (2002). Before the latter was transmitted, David Attenborough presented State of the Planet (2000) and narrated The Blue Planet (2001).

Background
In common with Attenborough's previous productions, the programmes include sequences that were filmed in many locales. The series took three years to make, involving visits to 42 countries. The subject matter had been covered before by Attenborough within Life on Earth, in an episode entitled "Lords of the Air", but now he was free to expand on it. However, by his own confession, despite being especially fascinated by one family, the birds of paradise, Attenborough was not an expert in ornithology. Nevertheless, the notion of an entire series devoted to the creatures excited him, as he would be able to not only communicate his findings to the viewing audience, but further his own knowledge as well.

From the outset, the production team were determined that the sound of birds calling and singing would not be dubbed on to the filmed pictures afterwards: it would be recorded simultaneously. To that end, meticulous care was taken not to include man-made 'noises off' from the likes of cars and aeroplanes. For one particular sequence, Britain's dawn chorus, it was important that the movement of the beak and the expelled warm air was synchronous with the accompanying song.

A trick used to entice some of the animals near the camera was to play a recording of the same species in the hope that the target would not only answer back, but investigate its source as well. This was employed in the episode "Signals and Songs", where Attenborough encouraged a superb lyrebird—one of nature's best mimics—to perform on cue. Despite such fortuity, filming on the series was not all plain sailing: in "Finding Partners", Attenborough was chased by a capercaillie, which didn't even stop when the presenter fell over.

A technique that had been previously used for The Living Planet was again called for to film greylag geese in flight. The newly hatched goslings were imprinted with a human 'mother', and, when fully grown, were able to be photographed flying alongside an open-top car. Computer animation was utilised in the first episode to illustrate extinct species, such as the terror bird and the moa.

Production was suddenly halted during a trip to New Zealand in early 1997 when Attenborough's wife, Jane, died:

The next filming trip for the Birds series was, of course, cancelled. But I could not simply abandon the series. Three quarters of the filming had been done. The film of some of the programmes had been edited but none of the commentaries had yet been written. There was a lot of work that I had to do—and I was grateful that this was so.

Segments that were shot after the passing of his wife include those in the Galápagos Islands, which were filmed in mid-1997.

Episodes
"Birds are the most accomplished aeronauts the world has ever seen. They fly high and low, at great speed, and very slowly. And always with extraordinary precision and control."

1. "To Fly or Not to Fly?"

Broadcast 21 October 1998, the first episode looks at how birds first took to the skies in the wake of the insects. It begins in Mexico, where Attenborough observes bats being outmaneuvered by a red-tailed hawk. Pterosaurs were the birds' forerunners, some 150 million years after dragonflies developed the means of flight, but eventually became extinct together with the dinosaurs. Birds had by then already evolved from early forms like Archaeopteryx, the first creature to possess feathers. Its ancestry can be traced through reptiles, and some current species, such as the flying lizard, possibly show paths this evolution may have taken. One of the biggest birds to have ever existed was the terror bird, which proliferated after dinosaurs vanished and stood up to 2.5 metres tall. By comparison, the ostrich, while not closely related, is the largest and heaviest living bird. It was probably the evasion of predators that drove most birds into the air, so their flightless cousins evolved because they had few enemies. Accordingly, such species are more likely to be found on islands, and Attenborough visits New Zealand to observe its great variety, most especially the kiwi. Also depicted is the moa, another huge creature that is now gone. The takahe is extremely rare, and high in the mountains of New Zealand, Attenborough discovers one from a population of only 40 pairs. Finally, another example on the brink of extinction is the kakapo, which at one point numbered only 61 individuals. A male is heard calling — an immensely amplified deep note that can be heard at great distances from its nest.

2. "The Mastery of Flight"
Broadcast 28 October 1998, the second programme deals with the mechanics of flight. Getting into the air is by far the most exhausting of a bird's activities, and Attenborough observes shearwaters in Japan that have taken to climbing trees to give them a good jumping-off point. The albatross is so large that it can only launch itself after a run-up to create a flow of air over its wings. A combination of aerodynamics and upward air currents (or thermals), together with the act of flapping or gliding is what keeps a bird aloft. Landing requires less energy but a greater degree of skill, particularly for a big bird, such as a swan. Weight is kept to a minimum by having a beak made of keratin instead of bone, a light frame, and a coat of feathers, which is maintained fastidiously. The peregrine falcon holds the record for being fastest in the air, diving at speeds of over 300 km/h. Conversely, the barn owl owes its predatory success to flying slowly, while the kestrel spots its quarry by hovering. However, the true specialists in this regard are the hummingbirds, whose wings beat at the rate of 25 times a second. The habits of migratory birds are explored. After stocking up with food during the brief summer of the north, such species will set off on huge journeys southwards. Some, such as the snow goose, travel continuously, using both the stars and the sun for navigation. They are contrasted with hawks and vultures, which glide overland on warm air, and therefore have to stop overnight.

3. "The Insatiable Appetite"
Broadcast 4 November 1998, the next installment focuses on dietary needs and how different species have evolved beaks to suit their individual requirements. The latter come in a multitude of forms. Blue tits and goldfinches have beaks akin to tweezers, with which to extract seeds, while the hawfinch's razor-like bill can deal with a cherry-stone. However, the crossbill is the only finch that can twist its mandibles in opposite directions. Jays store acorns for winter by burying them in the ground, whereas woodpeckers can keep up to 60,000 of them in one tree trunk. Sap is also desirable, and there are a variety of methods used to obtain it. The hoatzin is the only specialised leaf-eater, and accordingly has a digestive system more akin to that of cattle. Plants recruit birds to aid pollination, and offer nectar as a reward. hummingbirds eat little else, and the sword-bill's beak is the longest of any bird in relation to its body. Insects are also highly prized, and Galápagos finches are shown to possess some ingenuity as they not only strip bark, but also use 'tools' to reach their prey. Crows are hailed as being among the most intelligent birds, and one is shown using a twig to spear a grub within a fallen log. The robin is an opportunist, and Attenborough observes one seizing morsels as he digs a patch of earth. In South America, a cattle tyrant sits atop an obliging capybara and uses its vantage point to spot passing food that may be dislodged by its grazing partner.

4. "Meat-Eaters"

Broadcast 11 November 1998, this episode examines those birds whose sustenance comes from flesh and their methods of hunting. In New Zealand, Attenborough observes keas, parrots that do not eat meat exclusively, raiding a shearwater's burrow for a chick. However, it is the dedicated birds of prey, such as owls, buzzards, eagles, falcons and vultures, to which much of the programme is devoted. In order to spot and pursue their victims, senses of sight and hearing are very acute. Vultures are the exception, in that they eat what others have left, and once a carcass is found, so many birds descend on it that the carrion seems submerged beneath them. The turkey vulture is an anomaly within its group, as it also has a keen sense of smell. Eagles defend their territory vigorously, and a pair of sea eagles are shown engaging in an aerial battle. The Galápagos hawk hunts marine iguanas, but can only do so when its quarry is vulnerable, during the breeding season. The African harrier-hawk has adapted to extracting burrowing animals by virtue of an especially long, double-jointed pair of legs. By contrast, a shrike is not equipped with the requisite sharp beak and talons needed for butchery, and so dismembers its kill by impaling it on the thorns of acacias. The lammergeier eats bones, and will drop them on to rocks from a great height in order to break them down to a digestible size. Also featured are the Eurasian sparrowhawk, goshawk and peregrine falcon.

5. "Fishing for a Living"
Broadcast 18 November 1998, the next programme details river and ocean dwellers. The dipper swims completely below water to search for food, whereas the kingfisher uses a 'harpoon' technique, diving from a vantage point. However, the darter uses a combination of both methods, stalking its prey underwater before spearing it. By contrast, the reddish egret uses a kind of dance to flush out the aquatic inhabitants. Skimmers have different-sized mandibles, the lower one being used to skim the water's surface for small fish. Ducks have developed an assortment of angling skills. Some dabble, like the mallard, while others are of a more streamlined design and are at home underwater, such as the merganser. Waders, which specialise in feeding on mud flats at low tide, include avocets, godwits, dowitchers and sanderlings. The pelican feeds in groups, their pouch-like bills being more successful when used collectively. Boobies fish in the open ocean and are shown dive-bombing shoals en masse. Attenborough visits Lord Howe Island, off Australia, and by imitating the calls of various birds, invites a group of curious Providence petrels — which are indigenous — to investigate. Because there are no humans in their habitat, they are a very trusting species, as Attenborough discovers when one perches on his hand. Out on a seemingly empty area of ocean, the presenter is able to fill it with various sea birds within seconds, simply by throwing fish oil on to the water.

6. "Signals and Songs"
Broadcast 25 November 1998, this installment describes ways of communicating. A colony of fieldfares in Sweden deters a raven from raiding a nest by collectively raising an audible alarm. However, in an English wood, all species co-operate to warn each other surreptitiously of approaching danger. By contrast, a sunbittern is shown expanding its plumage to discourage a group of marauding hawks. The members of the finch family exemplify how colour aids recognition. Birds have excellent colour vision, and the feathers of many species react to ultraviolet light. Flocking birds, such as sparrows, also have a 'ranking system' that determines seniority. In Patagonia, Attenborough demonstrates the effectiveness of sound: he summons a Magellanic woodpecker by knocking on a tree. The nature of tropical rainforests means that their occupants tend to make much louder calls than those in other habitats, and several such species are shown. Saddlebacks vary their calls so that even individuals from different areas can be identified. The dawn chorus provides a mystery, as there is still much to learn about why so many different birds sing together at the same time of day. (Proclaiming territory or attracting mates are two likely reasons.) Finally, Attenborough introduces the superb lyrebird as one of the most versatile performers: it is a skilled mimic, and this particular one imitates not only other species, but also cameras, a car alarm and a chain saw.

7. "Finding Partners"

Broadcast 2 December 1998, this programme discusses mating rituals. If a male bird is on the lookout for a partner and has a suitable nest, it must advertise the fact, either by its call, a visual display or both. The frigatebird provides an example of the latter, with its inflated throat pouch. The hornbill's courtship, among that of many others, also runs to the offer of a gift. For some species, dancing can also be an important component, and grebes are shown performing a pas de deux. The cock-of-the-rock, which dances solo within a group, is contrasted with the team performance of the manakin. Once trust has been established between a pair, mutual preening can follow. After mating, the individuals usually remain together to rear their eventual family. The Temminck's Tragopan with its beautiful and colorful neck, the Himalayan Monal with glowing feather's colors and the huge tailed great argus to the peacock with its colorful and huge tail.

In this regard, the rhea and the phalarope are highlighted as unusual because in both instances, it is the male that incubates the eggs. Some females judge a prospective companion on its nest-building ability, and this is a conspicuous part of the weaver's behaviour. The bowerbird puts on one of the most elaborate displays: a hut-like construction, completed by a collection of objects designed to impress. Competition among males can be fierce and in Scotland, Attenborough observes rival capercaillies engaging in battle — after one of them chases the presenter. Avian polyandry is not widespread, but is illustrated by the superb fairy-wren, where the male's family can easily comprise young that it did not father.

8. "The Demands of the Egg"
Broadcast 9 December 1998, this episode explores the lengths to which birds will go to ensure that their chicks are brought into the world. Attenborough begins on an island in the Seychelles, where sooty terns, which have hitherto spent their lives on the wing, have landed to lay their eggs. This is a necessity for birds, as eggs are too heavy to be borne in the air for any considerable length of time. It is imperative that nests are kept as far away from predators as possible, and unusual locations for them are shown, such as: behind the water curtain of Iguazu Falls in South America (as chosen by swifts), cliffs on Argentina's coast favoured by parrots, an ants' nest occupied by a woodpecker, and a tree hole inside which a female hornbill seals itself. Eggs require warmth, and some nests are insulated by the owners' feathers, others from ones found elsewhere. External temperatures dictate how the eggs are incubated. The snowy owl has to do so itself, because of its habitat; however, the maleo is able to take advantage of solar heating. The amount of eggs laid also varies: for example, the kiwi lays just one, whereas the blue tit will deposit many. Their mottled surface serves to camouflage them. Birds that steal eggs include toucans and currawongs. A number of strategies are employed to deter the thieves, as illustrated by the yellow-rumped thornbill, which builds a decoy nest atop its actual one, and the plover, which distracts marauders by feigning injury.

9. "The Problems of Parenthood"
Broadcast 16 December 1998, the penultimate installment concentrates on the ways in which birds rear their offspring. Having successfully incubated their eggs, the moment arrives when they hatch — and then the real challenge begins: feeding the chicks. Lapland buntings and dippers are shown doing so virtually non-stop throughout the day. The Gouldian finch has a further problem in that its tree-hollow nest is dark inside, so its young have conspicuous markings inside their mouths for identification. Grebes are fed feathers with which to line the stomach, and so protect it from fish bones. Coots and pelicans are among those that turn on their own and force death by starvation if there is insufficient food. The European cuckoo tricks other species into raising its chick, but it is by no means alone in doing this. Protecting a family is also a priority, and brent geese are shown nesting close to snowy owls as a means of insurance, but as soon as the eggs hatch, they and their young must flee to avoid giving their neighbours an easy meal. The million or so sooty terns in the Seychelles prove that there is safety in numbers and the nearby predatory egrets have little success when attempting to steal. The behaviour of Arabian babblers is more akin to that of a troop of monkeys: they do everything for the benefit of a group as a whole. Eventually the day will come when flight beckons, and the grown bird will leave the nest to start a family of its own.

10. "The Limits of Endurance"

Broadcast 23 December 1998, the final programme investigates the challenges that must be surmounted if birds are to survive. The sandgrouse is a species that has adapted to desert living: its breast feathers are capable of absorbing water, which it can pass on to its young. The crab plover also nests in the sand, and burrows until it finds a comfortable temperature. Birds that choose remote places can proliferate hugely, like the flamingos on an African soda lake. Meanwhile, during winter, the entire world population of spectacled eiders can be found in just a few assemblies on patches of the Arctic Ocean. The city is a relatively recent habitat, but many have become accustomed to it, such as the American black vultures in São Paulo. In Japan, crows have learned to crack nuts by dropping them on to pedestrian crossings — and waiting for the traffic to stop before collecting them. In North America, purple martins have become totally dependent on humans for their nest sites. Attenborough highlights man's influence by describing the Pacific island of Guam, whose bird population was wiped out following the accidental introduction of brown tree snakes during the 1940s. Examples of species that were hunted to extinction are the huia, the great auk and, most famously, the dodo. However, there are conservation efforts being made, such as those for Australia's orange-bellied parrot, the pink pigeon and the echo parakeet (the latter two both of Mauritius).

"Birds were flying from continent to continent long before we were. They reached the coldest place on Earth, Antarctica, long before we did. They can survive in the hottest of deserts. Some can remain on the wing for years at a time. They can girdle the globe. Now, we have taken over the earth and the sea and the sky, but with skill and care and knowledge, we can ensure that there is still a place on Earth for birds in all their beauty and variety—if we want to... And surely, we should."

DVD and book
The series is available in the UK for Regions 2 and 4 as a three-disc DVD (BBCDVD1020, released 4 December 2000) and as part of The Life Collection. Each episode features additional footage, accessed separately.

The accompanying book, The Life of Birds by David Attenborough, was published by BBC Books on 24 September 1998.

title: The Life of Birds


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The Life of Mammals

The Life of Mammals is a nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 20 November 2002.

A study of the evolution and habits of the various mammal species, it was the fourth of Attenborough's specialised surveys following his major trilogy that began with Life on Earth. Each of the ten episodes looks at one (or several closely related) mammal groups and discusses the different facets of their day-to-day existence and their evolutionary origins. All the programmes are of 50 minutes' duration except the last, which extends to 59 minutes.

The series was produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in conjunction with the Discovery Channel. The executive producer was Mike Salisbury and the music was composed by Dan Jones and Ben Salisbury. It was later shown on the Discovery Channel.

Part of David Attenborough's Life series, it was preceded by The Life of Birds (1998), and followed by Life in the Undergrowth (2005). However, in between the former and this series, David Attenborough presented State of the Planet (2000) and narrated The Blue Planet (2001).

Background
The mammals are such a widespread, varied and successful group of animals that Attenborough had previously devoted no fewer than five episodes of Life on Earth to them. Nevertheless, there was much that remained untold and behaviour that was not hitherto filmed. The Life of Mammals was intended to be his definitive account of the subject.

Attenborough took on the series at the suggestion of the BBC Natural History Unit. The naturalist's wife, Jane, had died in 1997, midway through the making of The Life of Birds, which had caused its postponement. However, Attenborough had been grateful for the fact that there was still work to be done to ensure its completion. Similarly, he was glad of another opportunity to keep himself occupied: "The Life of Birds was transmitted in the autumn of 1998, and was sufficiently well received for the Unit to ask me if I would like to tackle another similar series about another group of animals. How about mammals? I was in my mid-seventies but I decided I would rather do that than sit at home by myself."

Production
Despite his age, Attenborough travelled just as extensively as in all his previous productions, with each episode leapfrogging to a multitude of locations around the world.

The filming, as ever, provided many challenges. To capture footage for the first time of skunks foraging in a cave of bats, extra protective measures had to be taken for the crew, as it was a very hostile environment. The air was full of ammonia, the main occupants urinated copiously from above, and other inhabitants included flesh-eating maggots and a rattlesnake.

For a sequence featuring grizzly bears at close quarters, the camera team were accompanied by Buck Wilde, an ursine specialist. When a bear was too inquisitive he was able to command it to turn away simply by raising his hands. However, a cameraman confessed that at the time, he was sure there would come a moment when the animal would just continue towards them regardless.

To get themselves up into the canopy of a tropical rainforest the crew used a catapult to fire a fishing line 100 metres into the uppermost branches. This was then attached to a rope and pulley counterbalance system. The difficulties involved were first actually finding an ideal tree, and then, having settled on one, watching out for passing snakes and primates en route to the top.

Big cats that hunt nocturnally, such as lions, leopards and tigers, had never been extensively filmed doing so before. But the latest infrared technology revealed behaviour that had previously been guessed at from evidence discovered the next day.

The series was among the first to benefit from the features of digital television. After each episode's transmission on BBC One, terrestrial viewers were shown a ten-minute featurette on an aspect of its making. Those with digital equipment had the option of switching to an interactive quiz, hosted by Attenborough.

Themes
In his previous natural history series, Attenborough had been reticent about describing man's impact on the natural environment (unless it was relevant to the content, as in the last episode of The Living Planet or The First Eden). However, since State of the Planet, the presenter had become more publicly outspoken on the subject. In the final programme of this series, "Food for Thought", he took the opportunity to put the case explicitly for finding ways to deal with overpopulation.

Episodes
"'Warm-bloodedness is one of the key factors that have enabled mammals to conquer the Earth, and to develop the most complex bodies in the animal kingdom. In this series, we will travel the world to discover just how varied and how astonishing mammals are.'"

"'Three and a half million years separate the individual who left these footprints in the sands of Africa from the one who left them on the moon. A mere blink in the eye of evolution. Using his burgeoning intelligence, this most successful of all mammals has exploited the environment to produce food for an ever-increasing population. In spite of disasters when civilisations have over-reached themselves, that process has continued, indeed accelerated, even today. Now mankind is looking for food, not just on this planet but on others. Perhaps the time has now come to put that process into reverse. Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps it's time we control the population to allow the survival of the environment.'"

DVD and book
The series is available in the UK for Regions 2 and 4 as a 4-disc DVD (BBCDVD1128, released 7 April 2003) and as part of The Life Collection. Its special features include six "behind the scenes" featurettes, fact files, a photo gallery, the original score and a special 10-minute video-to-music montage.

The accompanying book, The Life of Mammals by David Attenborough (ISBN 0-563-53423-0), was published by BBC Books on 17 October 2002.

Both DVD and book have been translated to other languages.

The Dutch version of the DVD produced by Evangelische Omroep removed all references to (amongst others) evolution, fossils, and continental drift. The narration by David Attenborough has been replaced by a not always accurate Dutch translation, and cuts were made to the episodes. The tenth episode was not broadcast at all on Evangelische Omroep, and is not included on the EO DVD of the series. The Dutch version of the book includes the full text of the original book, as did the Dutch language version of the programme broadcast on the Belgian broadcaster Canvas.

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

title: The Life of Mammals


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Almost periodic function

In mathematics, an almost periodic function is, loosely speaking, a function of a real number that is periodic to within any desired level of accuracy, given suitably long, well-distributed "almost-periods". The concept was first studied by Harald Bohr and later generalized by Vyacheslav Stepanov, Hermann Weyl and Abram Samoilovitch Besicovitch, amongst others. There is also a notion of almost periodic functions on locally compact abelian groups, first studied by John von Neumann.

Almost periodicity is a property of dynamical systems that appear to retrace their paths through phase space, but not exactly. An example would be a planetary system, with planets in orbits moving with periods that are not commensurable (i.e., with a period vector that is not proportional to a vector of integers). A theorem of Kronecker from diophantine approximation can be used to show that any particular configuration that occurs once, will recur to within any specified accuracy: if we wait long enough we can observe the planets all return to within a second of arc to the positions they once were in.

Motivation
There are several inequivalent definitions of almost periodic functions. The first was given by Harald Bohr. His interest was initially in finite Dirichlet series. In fact by truncating the series for the Riemann zeta function ζ(s) to make it finite, one gets finite sums of terms of the type

 * $$e^{s\log n}\,$$

with s written as (σ + it) – the sum of its real part σ and imaginary part it. Fixing σ, so restricting attention to a single vertical line in the complex plane, we can see this also as

 * $$n^\sigma e^{(\log n)it}.\,$$

Taking a finite sum of such terms avoids difficulties of analytic continuation to the region σ < 1. Here the 'frequencies' log n will not all be commensurable (they are as linearly independent over the rational numbers as the integers n are multiplicatively independent – which comes down to their prime factorizations).

With this initial motivation to consider types of trigonometric polynomial with independent frequencies, mathematical analysis was applied to discuss the closure of this set of basic functions, in various norms.

The theory was developed using other norms by Besicovitch, Stepanov, Weyl, von Neumann, Turing, Bochner and others in the 1920s and 1930s.

Uniform or Bohr or Bochner almost periodic functions
Bohr (1925) defined the uniformly almost-periodic functions as the closure of the trigonometric polynomials with respect to the uniform norm
 * $$\|f\|_\infty = \sup_x|f(x)|$$

(on bounded functions f on R). In other words, a function f is uniformly almost periodic if for every ε > 0 there is a finite linear combination of sine and cosine waves that is of distance less than ε from f with respect to the uniform norm. The sine and cosine frequencies can be arbitrary real numbers. Bohr proved that this definition was equivalent to the existence of a relatively dense set of ε almost-periods, for all ε > 0: that is, translations T(ε) = T of the variable t making

 * $$\left|f(t+T)-f(t)\right|<\varepsilon.$$

An alternative definition due to Bochner (1926) is equivalent to that of Bohr and is relatively simple to state: "A function f is almost periodic if every sequence {ƒ(t + Tn)} of translations of f has a subsequence that converges uniformly for t in (−∞, +∞)."

The Bohr almost periodic functions are essentially the same as continuous functions on the Bohr compactification of the reals.

Stepanov almost periodic functions
The space Sp of Stepanov almost periodic functions (for p ≥ 1) was introduced by V.V. Stepanov (1925). It contains the space of Bohr almost periodic functions. It is the closure of the trigonometric polynomials under the norm

 * $$\|f\|_{S,r,p}=\sup_x \left({1\over r}\int_x^{x+r} |f(s)|^p \, ds\right)^{1/p}$$

for any fixed positive value of r; for different values of r these norms give the same topology and so the same space of almost periodic functions (though the norm on this space depends on the choice of r).

Weyl almost periodic functions
The space Wp of Weyl almost periodic functions (for p ≥ 1) was introduced by Weyl (1927). It contains the space Sp of Stepanov almost periodic functions. It is the closure of the trigonometric polynomials under the seminorm

 * $$\|f\|_{W,p}=\lim_{r\to\infty}\|f\|_{S,r,p}$$

Warning: there are nonzero functions ƒ with ||ƒ||W,p = 0, such as any bounded function of compact support, so to get a Banach space one has to quotient out by these functions.

Besicovitch almost periodic functions
The space Bp of Besicovitch almost periodic functions was introduced by Besicovitch (1926). It is the closure of the trigonometric polynomials under the seminorm

 * $$\|f\|_{B,p}=\limsup_{x \to\infty}\left({1\over 2x} \int_{-x}^x |f(s)|^p \, ds \right)^{1/p}$$

Warning: there are nonzero functions ƒ with ||ƒ||B,p = 0, such as any bounded function of compact support, so to get a Banach space one has to quotient out by these functions.

The Besicovitch almost periodic functions in B2 have an expansion (not necessarily convergent) as

 * $$\sum a_ne^{i\lambda_n t}$$

with Σa finite and λn real. Conversely every such series is the expansion of some Besicovitch periodic function (which is not unique).

The space Bp of Besicovitch almost periodic functions (for p ≥ 1) contains the space Wp of Weyl almost periodic functions. If one quotients out a subspace of "null" functions, it can be identified with the space of Lp functions on the Bohr compactification of the reals.

Almost periodic functions on a locally compact group
With these theoretical developments and the advent of abstract methods (the Peter–Weyl theorem, Pontryagin duality and Banach algebras) a general theory became possible. The general idea of almost-periodicity in relation to a locally compact abelian group G becomes that of a function F in L∞(G), such that its translates by G form a relatively compact set. Equivalently, the space of almost periodic functions is the norm closure of the finite linear combinations of characters of G. If G is compact the almost periodic functions are the same as the continuous functions.

The Bohr compactification of G is the compact abelian group  of all possibly discontinuous characters of the dual group of G, and is a compact group containing G as a dense subgroup. The space of uniform almost periodic functions on G can be identified with the space of all continuous functions on the Bohr compactification of G. More generally the Bohr compactification can be defined for any topological group G, and the spaces of continuous or Lp functions on the Bohr compactification can be considered as almost periodic functions on G. For locally compact connected groups G the map from G to its Bohr compactification is injective if and only if G is a central extension of a compact group, or equivalently the product of a compact group and a finite-dimensional vector space.

A function on a locally compact group is called weakly almost periodic if its orbit is weakly relatively compact in $$L^\infty$$.

Given a topological dynamical system $$(X,G)$$ consisting of a compact topological space X with an action of the locally compact group G, a continuous function on X is (weakly) almost periodic if its orbit is (weakly) precompact in the Banach space $$C(X)$$.

Quasiperiodic signals in audio and music synthesis
In speech processing, audio signal processing, and music synthesis, a quasiperiodic signal, sometimes called a quasiharmonic signal, is a waveform that is virtually periodic microscopically, but not necessarily periodic macroscopically. This does not give a quasiperiodic function, but something more akin to an almost periodic function, being a nearly periodic function where any one period is virtually identical to its adjacent periods but not necessarily similar to periods much farther away in time. This is the case for musical tones (after the initial attack transient) where all partials or overtones are harmonic (that is all overtones are at frequencies that are an integer multiple of a fundamental frequency of the tone).

When a signal $$ x(t) \ $$ is fully periodic with period $$ P \ $$, then the signal exactly satisfies

 * $$ x(t) = x(t + P) \qquad \forall t \in \mathbb{R} $$

or

 * $$ \Big| x(t) - x(t + P) \Big| = 0 \qquad \forall t \in \mathbb{R}. \ $$

The Fourier series representation would be

 * $$x(t) = a_0 + \sum_{n=1}^\infty \big[a_n\cos(2 \pi n f_0 t) - b_n\sin(2 \pi n f_0 t)\big]$$

or

 * $$x(t) = a_0 + \sum_{n=1}^\infty r_n\cos(2 \pi n f_0 t + \varphi_n)$$

where $$ f_0 = \frac{1}{P} $$ is the fundamental frequency and the Fourier coefficients are

 * $$a_0 = \frac{1}{P} \int_{t_0}^{t_0+P} x(t) \, dt \ $$

 * $$a_n = r_n \cos \left( \varphi_n \right) = \frac{2}{P} \int_{t_0}^{t_0+P} x(t) \cos(2 \pi n f_0 t) \, dt \qquad n \ge 1 $$

 * $$b_n = r_n \sin \left( \varphi_n \right) = - \frac{2}{P} \int_{t_0}^{t_0+P} x(t) \sin(2 \pi n f_0 t) \, dt \ $$

 * where $$ t_0 \ $$ can be any time:  $$ -\infty < t_0 < +\infty \ $$.

The fundamental frequency $$ f_0 \ $$, and Fourier coefficients $$ a_n \ $$, $$ b_n \ $$, $$ r_n \ $$, or $$ \varphi_n \ $$,  are constants, i.e. they are not functions of time. The harmonic frequencies are exact integer multiples of the fundamental frequency.

When $$ x(t) \ $$ is quasiperiodic then

 * $$ x(t) \approx x \big( t + P(t) \big) \ $$

or

 * $$ \Big| x(t) - x \big( t + P(t) \big) \Big| < \varepsilon \ $$

where

 * $$ 0 < \epsilon \ll \big \Vert x \big \Vert = \sqrt{\overline{x^2}} = \sqrt{ \lim_{\tau \to \infty} \frac{1}{\tau} \int_{-\tau/2}^{\tau/2} x^2(t)\, dt }. \ $$

Now the Fourier series representation would be

 * $$x(t) = a_0(t) \ + \ \sum_{n=1}^\infty \left[a_n(t)\cos \left(2 \pi n \int_{0}^{t} f_0(\tau)\, d\tau \right) - b_n(t)\sin \left( 2 \pi n \int_0^t f_0(\tau)\, d\tau \right) \right]$$

or

 * $$x(t) = a_0(t) \ + \ \sum_{n=1}^\infty r_n(t)\cos \left( 2 \pi n \int_0^t f_0(\tau)\, d\tau + \varphi_n(t) \right) $$

or

 * $$x(t) = a_0(t) + \sum_{n=1}^\infty r_n(t)\cos \left( 2 \pi \int_0^t f_n(\tau)\, d\tau + \varphi_n(0) \right)$$

where $$ f_0(t) = \frac{1}{P(t)} $$ is the possibly time-varying fundamental frequency and the time-varying Fourier coefficients are

 * $$a_0(t) = \frac{1}{P(t)} \int_{t-P(t)/2}^{t+P(t)/2} x(\tau) \, d\tau \  $$

 * $$a_n(t) = r_n(t) \cos\big(\varphi_n(t)\big) = \frac{2}{P(t)} \int_{t-P(t)/2}^{t+ P(t)/2} x(\tau) \cos\big( 2 \pi n f_0(t) \tau \big) \, d\tau \qquad n \ge 1  $$

 * $$b_n(t) = r_n(t) \sin\big(\varphi_n(t)\big) = -\frac{2}{P(t)} \int_{t-P(t)/2}^{t+P(t)/2} x(\tau) \sin\big( 2 \pi n f_0(t) \tau \big) \, d\tau \  $$

and the instantaneous frequency for each partial is

 * $$ f_n(t) = n f_0(t) + \frac{1}{2 \pi} \varphi_n^\prime(t). \, $$

Whereas in this quasiperiodic case, the fundamental frequency $$ f_0(t) \ $$, the harmonic frequencies $$ f_n(t) \ $$, and the Fourier coefficients $$ a_n(t) \ $$, $$ b_n(t) \ $$,  $$ r_n(t) \ $$, or $$ \varphi_n(t) \ $$ are not necessarily constant, and are functions of time albeit slowly varying functions of time. Stated differently these functions of time are bandlimited to much less than the fundamental frequency for $$ x(t) \ $$ to be considered to be quasiperiodic.

The partial frequencies $$ f_n(t) \ $$ are very nearly harmonic but not necessarily exactly so. The time-derivative of $$ \varphi_n(t) \ $$, that is $$ \varphi_n^\prime(t) \ $$, has the effect of detuning the partials from their exact integer harmonic value $$ n f_0(t) \ $$. A rapidly changing $$ \varphi_n(t) \ $$ means that the instantaneous frequency for that partial is severely detuned from the integer harmonic value which would mean that $$ x(t) \ $$ is not quasiperiodic.

title: Almost periodic function


text:
Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives

In New Zealand, the speaker of the House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House (te mana whakawā o te Whare), is the presiding officer and highest authority of the New Zealand House of Representatives. The individual who holds the position is elected by members of the House from among their number in the first session after each general election. They hold one of the highest-ranking offices in New Zealand. The current Speaker is Gerry Brownlee, who was elected on 5 December 2023.

The speaker's role in presiding over New Zealand's House of Representatives is similar to that of speakers elsewhere in other countries that use the Westminster system. The speaker presides over the House's debates, determining which members may speak; the speaker is also responsible for maintaining order during debate, and may discipline members who break the rules of the House. Aside from duties relating to presiding over the House, the speaker also performs administrative and procedural functions, and remains a member of Parliament (MP).

In the debating chamber
The speaker's most visible role is that of presiding over the House of Representatives when it is in session. The speaker presides from an elevated chair behind the Table in the debating chamber. This involves overseeing the order in which business is conducted, and determining who should speak at what time. The speaker is also responsible for granting or declining requests for certain events, such as a snap debate on a particular issue.

An important part of the speaker's role is enforcing discipline in the House. They are expected to conduct the business of the House in an impartial manner. The speaker defers to 'Standing Orders', which are the written rules of conduct governing the business of the House. Included in these rules are certain powers available to the speaker to ensure reasonable behaviour by MPs, including the ability to order disruptive MPs to leave the debating chamber. MPs who feel one of these rules has been breached by another member can interrupt a debate by using a procedure known as a 'point of order'. The speaker must then determine whether the complaint is just. Earlier Speaker's rulings on similar points of order are referred to in considering the point raised. The clerk of the House, who sits directly in front of the speaker, assists the speaker in making such rulings.

By convention, speakers have traditionally been addressed inside the debating chamber as "Mr Speaker" or "Madam Speaker".

Outside the debating chamber
The speaker is also responsible for directing and overseeing the administration and security of the buildings and grounds of Parliament (including the Beehive, Parliament House, Bowen House and the Parliamentary Library building), and the general provision of services to members. In doing so, the speaker consults and receives advice from the Parliamentary Service Commission, which comprises MPs from across the House.

As the most senior office of Parliament, the speaker has other statutory responsibilities, for example under the Electoral Act 1993. In this role a portion of the Parliament Buildings are given over to the speaker. Known as the Speaker's Apartments these include his personal office, sitting rooms for visiting dignitaries and a small residential flat which the speaker may or may not use as living quarters.

The speaker chairs three select committees:
 * the Standing Orders Committee
 * the Business Committee
 * the Officers of Parliament Committee.

The Business Committee chaired by the speaker controls the organisation of the business of the House. Also on the committee, established after the first mixed member proportional (MMP) election in 1996, is the leader of the House, the Opposition shadow leader and the whips of each party.

Neutrality
The speaker is expected to conduct the functions of the office in a neutral manner, even though the speaker is generally a member of the governing party. Only three people have held the office despite not being from the governing party. In 1923, Charles Statham (an independent, but formerly a member of the Reform Party) was backed by Reform so as not to endanger the party's slim majority, and later retained his position under the United Party. In 1993, Peter Tapsell (a member of the Labour Party) was backed by the National Party for the same reason. Bill Barnard, who had been elected Speaker in 1936, resigned from the Labour Party in 1940 but retained his position.

Historically, a speaker lost the right to cast a vote, except when both sides were equally balanced. The speaker's lack of a vote created problems for a governing party – when the party's majority was small, the loss of the speaker's vote could be problematic. Since the shift to MMP in 1996, however, the speaker has been counted for the purposes of casting party votes, to reflect the proportionality of the party's vote in the general election. The practice has also been for the speaker to participate in personal votes, usually by proxy. In the event of a tied vote the motion in question lapses.

Election
The speaker is always a member of Parliament (MP), and is elected to the position by other MPs at the beginning of a parliamentary term, or when a speaker dies, resigns or is removed from the position (via a vote of no confidence ) intra-term. The election of a speaker is presided over by the clerk of the House. It is unusual for an election to be contested, with only six votes since 1854 having more than one candidate. The first such contested vote did not occur for 69 years until 1923. It took 73 years for the second contested vote for Speaker in 1996. If there are two candidates, members vote in the lobbies for their preferred candidate. In the case of three or more candidates, a roll-call vote is conducted and the candidate with the fewest votes eliminated, with the process continuing (or reverting to a two-way run-off) until one candidate has a majority. Members may vote only if they are present in person: no proxy votes are permitted.

It is traditional for the newly elected speaker to pretend he or she did not want to accept the position; the speaker feigns resistance as they are 'dragged' to their chair, in a practice dating from the days when British speakers risked execution if the news they reported to the king was displeasing.

After being elected by the House, the speaker-elect is formally confirmed in office by the governor-general. At the start of a term of Parliament, the newly confirmed speaker follows the tradition of claiming the privileges of the House.

Precedence, salary and privileges
Each day, prior to the sitting of the House of Representatives, the speaker and other officials travel in procession from the speaker's personal apartments to the debating chamber. The procession includes the doorkeeper, the serjeant-at-arms, the speaker and the speaker's assistant. When the speaker reaches the chamber, the serjeant-at-arms announces the Speaker's arrival and places the Mace on the Table of the House.

, the annual salary is NZ$296,007.

The office is third most important constitutionally, after the governor-general and the prime minister. (See New Zealand order of precedence.)

Official dress
Originally, speakers wore a gown and formal wig in the chamber. This practice has fallen into disuse since the 1990s. Speakers now generally wear what they feel appropriate, usually an academic gown of their highest held degree or a Māori cloak.

Holders of the office
The current Speaker is Gerry Brownlee, a member of the National Party.

Since the creation of Parliament, 32 people have held the office of speaker. Two people have held the office on more than one occasion. A full list of speakers is below.

† indicates Speaker died in office.
 * Key

Deputies
There are currently four presiding officers appointed to deputise for the Speaker:

 * Deputy Speaker: Barbara Kuriger
 * First Assistant Speaker: Maureen Pugh
 * Second Assistant Speaker: Greg O'Connor
 * Third Assistant Speaker: Teanau Tuiono

Between 1854 and 1992, the Chairman of Committees chaired the House when in Committee of the whole House (i.e., taking a bill's committee stage) and presided in the absence of the Speaker or when the Speaker so requested. These arrangements were based on those of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Until 1992, the Chairman of Committees was known as the Deputy Speaker only when presiding over the House. That year, the position of Deputy Speaker was made official, and the role of Chairman of Committees was discontinued. The first Deputy Speaker was appointed on 10 November 1992. Additionally, two Assistant Speakers are usually appointed. The first Assistant Speaker was appointed in 1996, replacing the position of Deputy Chairman of Committees, which had been established in 1975. The Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speakers take the chair and may exercise the Speaker's authority in his or her absence.

Notably during the 53rd New Zealand Parliament a succession of temporary Assistant Speakers were appointed. Ian McKelvie was appointed as a third Assistant Speaker from 1 March 2022 but only while the House was sitting with some members participating remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two further temporary Assistant Speakers (David Bennett and Greg O'Connor) were added for the sitting week of 9 to 11 August 2022, to cover absences. Barbara Kuriger was added for the period of 22 to 26 November 2022, when the government accorded urgency to business as a result of the sitting time lost from the death of Elizabeth II. Poto Williams was reappointed as Assistant Speaker during the final week of the Parliament, from 29 to 31 August. A review of standing orders at the end of the Parliament recommended a permanent appointment of a third Assistant Speaker starting from the 54th Parliament.

Deputy speakers

 * Key

First assistant speakers

 * Key

Second assistant speakers

 * Key

Third assistant speakers

 * Key

Temporary assistant speakers

 * Key


text:
Edward Fredkin

Edward Fredkin (October 2, 1934 – June 13, 2023) was an American computer scientist, physicist and businessman who was an early pioneer of digital physics.

Fredkin's primary contributions included work on reversible computing and cellular automata. While Konrad Zuse's book, Calculating Space (1969), mentioned the importance of reversible computation, the Fredkin gate represented the essential breakthrough. In more recent work, he used the term digital philosophy (DP).

During his career, Fredkin was a professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Fairchild Distinguished Scholar at Caltech, a distinguished career professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and a Research Professor of Physics at Boston University.

Early life and education
Fredkin's mother and father were both Russian immigrants who met in Los Angeles, and he was the youngest child of four. His mother was a concert pianist, although she did not perform professionally. She died from cancer when he was 11. His father was a businessman but had lost everything in the 1929 stock market crash and as a result, the family was relatively poor. At times he lived with other families or with his older sister. Eventually, his father remarried, and he and his sister moved back in. As a child, he was both entrepreneurial and interested in science and how things work. He did various weekend and after-school things to earn money, eventually handling a large newspaper delivery route. At age 10 he bought chemistry supplies and made his own fireworks, which were then illegal in Los Angeles. He did poorly in school because he didn't do homework. He graduated from John Marshall High School a semester early so that he could earn money for Caltech tuition and living expenses. Caltech later told him he had been admitted with the worst high school grades they had ever seen. He quit Caltech partway through his sophomore year.

In 1952, he joined the United States Air Force (USAF) to become a fighter pilot avoid being drafted into the Korean War. His computer career started in 1956 when the Air Force assigned him to MIT Lincoln Laboratory where he worked on the SAGE computer.

Career
Fredkin worked with a number of companies in the computer field and held academic positions at a number of universities. He was a computer programmer, a pilot, an advisor to businesses and governments, and a physicist. His main interests concerned digital computer-like models of basic processes in physics.

Fredkin's initial focus was physics; however, he became involved with computers in 1956 when he was sent by the Air Force, where he had trained as a jet pilot, to the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. On completing his service in 1958, Fredkin was hired by J. C. R. Licklider to work at the research firm, Bolt Beranek & Newman (BBN). After seeing the PDP-1 computer prototype at the Eastern Joint Computer Conference in Boston, in December 1959, Fredkin recommended that BBN purchase the very first PDP-1 to support research projects at BBN. The new hardware was initially delivered with no software whatsoever.

Fredkin wrote a PDP-1 assembler language called FRAP (Free of Rules Assembly Program, also sometimes called Fredkin's Assembly Program), and its first operating system (OS). He organized and founded the Digital Equipment Computer Users' Society (DECUS) in 1961, and participated in its early projects. Working directly with Ben Gurley, the designer of the PDP-1, Fredkin designed significant modifications to the hardware to support time-sharing via the BBN Time-Sharing System. He invented and designed the first modern interrupt system, which Digital called the "Sequence Break". He went on to become a contributor in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In 1962, he founded Information International, Inc., an early computer technology company which developed high-precision film-to-digital scanners, as well as other leading-edge hardware. The company became publicly traded and Fredkin became a millionaire.

In 1968, Marvin Minsky (who he had met at BBN) recruited Fredkin to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a full professor despite the fact that he had never graduated from college. From 1971 to 1974, Fredkin was the Director of Project MAC at MIT. (Project MAC was renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science in 1976. ) He spent a year at Caltech as a Fairchild Distinguished Scholar, teaching Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman about computing and learning quantum mechanics from him. Then he was a Professor of Physics at Boston University for six years.

Fredkin had formal and informal associations with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) over several decades. His later academic interests were in the area of digital mechanics, which is the study of discrete models of fundamental process in physics. Fredkin has been a Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science at CMU, and also a visiting scientist at MIT Media Laboratory. , he was Distinguished Career Professor of Robotics at CMU.

Fredkin served as the founder or CEO of a diverse set of companies, including Information International, Three Rivers Computer Corporation, New England Television Corporation (owner of Boston's then CBS affiliate WNEV on channel 7), and The Reliable Water Company (manufacturer of advanced sea water desalination plants).

Fredkin was broadly interested in computation, including hardware and software. He was the inventor of the trie data structure, radio transponders for vehicle identification, the concept of computer navigation for automobiles, the Fredkin gate, and the Billiard-Ball Computer Model for reversible computing. He has also been involved in computer vision, chess, and other areas of Artificial Intelligence research.

Fredkin also worked at the intersection of theoretical issues in the physics of computation with computational models of physics. He invented the SALT Cellular Automata family. Dan Miller designed and programmed the Busy Boxes implementation of Salt, with assistance from Suresh Kumar Devanathan. The early SALT models are 2+1 dimensional quasi-physical, reversible, universal cellular automata, that are second order in time, and that follow rules that model CPT reversibility.

Fredkin's version of digital philosophy
Digital Philosophy (DP) is one type of digital physics/pancomputationalism, a school of philosophy which claims that all the physical processes of nature are forms of computation or information processing at the most fundamental level of reality. Pancomputationalism is related to several larger schools of philosophy: atomism, determinism, mechanism, monism, naturalism, philosophical realism, reductionism, and scientific empiricism.

Pancomputationalists believe that biology reduces to chemistry which reduces to physics which reduces to the computation of information. Fredkin's career and achievements had much of their motivation in digital philosophy, a particular type of "pancomputationalism" described in Fredkin's papers, including "Introduction to Digital Philosophy", "On the Soul", "Finite Nature", "A New Cosmogony", and "Digital Mechanics".

Fredkin's digital philosophy contains several fundamental ideas:

 * Everything in physics and physical reality must have a digital informational representation.
 * All changes in physical nature are consequences of digital informational processes.
 * Nature is finite and digital.
 * The traditional Judaeo-Christian concept of the soul has a counterpart in a static/dynamic soul defined in terms of digital philosophy.

PDP-1 Restoration Project
Fredkin chaired the PDP-1 Restoration Project, which was able to restore and reactivate the Computer History Museum's PDP-1 computer after seven months of work.

Death
Fredkin died in Brookline, Massachusetts, on June 13, 2023, at the age of 88.

Awards and honors
In 1984, Fredkin was awarded the Carnegie Mellon University Dickson Prize in Science, given annually to the person who has been judged to have made the most progress in a scientific field in the United States during that year. In 1999, CMU established the Fredkin professorship.

Cultural references
A profile of Fredkin, along with a readable explanation of some of his theories, can be found in the first part of Three Scientists and Their Gods by Robert Wright (1988). The section of the book covering Fredkin was excerpted in The Atlantic Monthly in April 1988.

According to biographer Robert Wright, the character Stephen Falken in the film WarGames was modeled after Fredkin.

title: Edward Fredkin


text:
User talk:FeZn~enwiki

Hello, welcome to Wikipedia.

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If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!

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 * Thank you very much for your message.
 * Because I'm born in Japan and my mother tongue is Japanese, I can contribute in English little. But little by little, I'll edit Wikipedia. Thank you! FeZn 14:42, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

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text:
Blue-gray gnatcatcher

The blue-gray gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) is a very small songbird native to North America.

Description
It is 10 - 13 cm in length, 6.3 in (16 cm) in wingspan, and weighing only 5 - 7 g. Adult males are blue-gray on the upperparts with white underparts, slender dark bill, and a long black tail edged in white. Females are less blue, while juveniles are greenish-gray. Both sexes have a white eye ring.

Distribution and habitat
The blue-gray gnatcatcher's breeding habitat includes open deciduous woods and shrublands in southern Ontario, the eastern and southwestern United States, and Mexico. Though gnatcatcher species are common and increasing in number while expanding to the northeast, it is the only one to breed in Eastern North America. They migrate to the southern United States, Mexico, northern Central America (Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras), Cuba, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Cayman Islands.

Diet and behaviour
These birds prefer humid areas with large leaves, woodlands, and more open sandy areas with sparse trees where they mainly eat insects, insect eggs, and spiders. The males often work to build nests, help incubate and raise the young, as well as feed the children, often thought to be a mother's role. Their nests are often built far out on a tree's branch with spider silks and lichen plants holding them together. They may hover over foliage while snatching prey (gleaning), or fly to catch insects in flight (hawking). The tail is often held upright while defending territory or searching for food.

Sounds
The songs (and calls) are often heard on breeding grounds, (usually away from nest) and occasionally heard other times of the year. Calls: "zkreee, zkreee, zkreee", Songs: "szpree zpree spreeeeey spree spre sprzrreeeee"

Breeding
Both parents build a cone-like nest on a horizontal tree branch, and share feeding the young. The incubation period is 10-15 days for both sexes, and two broods may be raised in a season.

title: Blue-gray gnatcatcher


text:
User talk:Jose Antonio Fernandez~enwiki

Hello, welcome to Wikipedia.

You might find these links helpful in creating new pages or helping with the above tasks: How to edit a page, How to write a great article, Naming conventions, Manual of Style. You should read our policies at some point too.

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!

UtherSRG 12:27, 17 Dec 2003 (UTC)

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Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Jose Antonio Fernandez. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Jose Antonio Fernandez~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

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text:
The World and the Child

The World and the Child (Mundus et Infans) is an anonymous English morality play. Its source is a late 14th-century or 15th-century poem The Mirror of the Periods of Man's Life, from which the play borrows significantly while reducing the number of characters. It is thought to have influenced William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1.

Date
The earliest surviving edition (printed by Wynkyn de Worde) is dated 17 July 1522, although the play is believed to have been written earlier than that and to have circulated in manuscript form. A bookseller in Oxford records the sale of "mundus a play" in 1520. T. W. Craik suggests a date of 1508 while MacCracken offers sometime in the late 15th century.

title: The World and the Child


text:
W and Z bosons

In particle physics, the W and Z bosons are vector bosons that are together known as the weak bosons or more generally as the intermediate vector bosons. These elementary particles mediate the weak interaction; the respective symbols are, , and. The bosons have either a positive or negative electric charge of 1 elementary charge and are each other's antiparticles. The boson is electrically neutral and is its own antiparticle. The three particles each have a spin of 1. The bosons have a magnetic moment, but the  has none. All three of these particles are very short-lived, with a half-life of about $80.377 GeV/c2$. Their experimental discovery was pivotal in establishing what is now called the Standard Model of particle physics.

The bosons are named after the weak force. The physicist Steven Weinberg named the additional particle the " particle", and later gave the explanation that it was the last additional particle needed by the model. The bosons had already been named, and the  bosons were named for having zero electric charge.

The two bosons are verified mediators of neutrino absorption and emission. During these processes, the boson charge induces electron or positron emission or absorption, thus causing nuclear transmutation.

The boson mediates the transfer of momentum, spin and energy when neutrinos scatter elastically from matter (a process which conserves charge). Such behavior is almost as common as inelastic neutrino interactions and may be observed in bubble chambers upon irradiation with neutrino beams. The boson is not involved in the absorption or emission of electrons or positrons. Whenever an electron is observed as a new free particle, suddenly moving with kinetic energy, it is inferred to be a result of a neutrino interacting with the electron (with the momentum transfer via the Z boson) since this behavior happens more often when the neutrino beam is present. In this process, the neutrino simply strikes the electron (via exchange of a boson) and then scatters away from it, transferring some of the neutrino's momentum to the electron.

Basic properties
These bosons are among the heavyweights of the elementary particles. With masses of $91.188 GeV/c2$ and $2.085 GeV$, respectively, the and  bosons are almost 80 times as massive as the proton – heavier, even, than entire iron atoms.

Their high masses limit the range of the weak interaction. By way of contrast, the photon is the force carrier of the electromagnetic force and has zero mass, consistent with the infinite range of electromagnetism; the hypothetical graviton is also expected to have zero mass. (Although gluons are also presumed to have zero mass, the range of the strong nuclear force is limited for different reasons; see Color confinement.)

All three bosons have particle spin s = 1. The emission of a or  boson either lowers or raises the electric charge of the emitting particle by one unit, and also alters the spin by one unit. At the same time, the emission or absorption of a boson can change the type of the particle – for example changing a strange quark into an up quark. The neutral Z boson cannot change the electric charge of any particle, nor can it change any other of the so-called "charges" (such as strangeness, baryon number, charm, etc.). The emission or absorption of a boson can only change the spin, momentum, and energy of the other particle. (See also Weak neutral current.)

Relations to the weak nuclear force
The and  bosons are carrier particles that mediate the weak nuclear force, much as the photon is the carrier particle for the electromagnetic force.

W bosons
The bosons are best known for their role in nuclear decay. Consider, for example, the beta decay of cobalt-60.

This reaction does not involve the whole cobalt-60 nucleus, but affects only one of its 33 neutrons. The neutron is converted into a proton while also emitting an electron (often called a beta particle in this context) and an electron antineutrino:

Again, the neutron is not an elementary particle but a composite of an up quark and two down quarks. It is one of the down quarks that interacts in beta decay, turning into an up quark to form a proton. At the most fundamental level, then, the weak force changes the flavour of a single quark:

which is immediately followed by decay of the itself:

Z bosons
The boson is its own antiparticle. Thus, all of its flavour quantum numbers and charges are zero. The exchange of a boson between particles, called a neutral current interaction, therefore leaves the interacting particles unaffected, except for a transfer of spin and/or momentum.

boson interactions involving neutrinos have distinct signatures: They provide the only known mechanism for elastic scattering of neutrinos in matter; neutrinos are almost as likely to scatter elastically (via boson exchange) as inelastically (via W boson exchange). Weak neutral currents via boson exchange were confirmed shortly thereafter (also in 1973), in a neutrino experiment in the Gargamelle bubble chamber at CERN.

Predictions of the W$2.495 GeV$, W$3 s$ and Z$80.4 GeV/c2$ bosons
Following the success of quantum electrodynamics in the 1950s, attempts were undertaken to formulate a similar theory of the weak nuclear force. This culminated around 1968 in a unified theory of electromagnetism and weak interactions by Sheldon Glashow, Steven Weinberg, and Abdus Salam, for which they shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics. Their electroweak theory postulated not only the bosons necessary to explain beta decay, but also a new  boson that had never been observed.

The fact that the and  bosons have mass while photons are massless was a major obstacle in developing electroweak theory. These particles are accurately described by an SU(2) gauge theory, but the bosons in a gauge theory must be massless. As a case in point, the photon is massless because electromagnetism is described by a U(1) gauge theory. Some mechanism is required to break the SU(2) symmetry, giving mass to the and  in the process. The Higgs mechanism, first put forward by the 1964 PRL symmetry breaking papers, fulfills this role. It requires the existence of another particle, the Higgs boson, which has since been found at the Large Hadron Collider. Of the four components of a Goldstone boson created by the Higgs field, three are absorbed by the, , and bosons to form their longitudinal components, and the remainder appears as the spin-0 Higgs boson.

The combination of the SU(2) gauge theory of the weak interaction, the electromagnetic interaction, and the Higgs mechanism is known as the Glashow–Weinberg–Salam model. Today it is widely accepted as one of the pillars of the Standard Model of particle physics, particularly given the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson by the CMS and ATLAS experiments.

The model predicts that and  bosons have the following masses:
 * $$\begin{align}

m_{\text{W}^\pm} &= \tfrac{1}{2}vg \\ m_{\text{Z}^0} &= \tfrac{1}{2} v\sqrt{g^2+{g'}^2} \end{align}$$ where $$g$$ is the SU(2) gauge coupling, $$g'$$ is the U(1) gauge coupling, and $$v$$ is the Higgs vacuum expectation value.

Discovery
Unlike beta decay, the observation of neutral current interactions that involve particles requires huge investments in particle accelerators and particle detectors, such as are available in only a few high-energy physics laboratories in the world (and then only after 1983). This is because bosons behave in somewhat the same manner as photons, but do not become important until the energy of the interaction is comparable with the relatively huge mass of the  boson.

The discovery of the and  bosons was considered a major success for CERN. First, in 1973, came the observation of neutral current interactions as predicted by electroweak theory. The huge Gargamelle bubble chamber photographed the tracks produced by neutrino interactions and observed events where a neutrino interacted but did not produce a corresponding lepton. This is a hallmark of a neutral current interaction and is interpreted as a neutrino exchanging an unseen boson with a proton or neutron in the bubble chamber. The neutrino is otherwise undetectable, so the only observable effect is the momentum imparted to the proton or neutron by the interaction.

The discovery of the and  bosons themselves had to wait for the construction of a particle accelerator powerful enough to produce them. The first such machine that became available was the Super Proton Synchrotron, where unambiguous signals of bosons were seen in January 1983 during a series of experiments made possible by Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer. The actual experiments were called UA1 (led by Rubbia) and UA2 (led by Pierre Darriulat), and were the collaborative effort of many people. Van der Meer was the driving force on the accelerator end (stochastic cooling). UA1 and UA2 found the boson a few months later, in May 1983. Rubbia and van der Meer were promptly awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics, a most unusual step for the conservative Nobel Foundation.

The, , and bosons, together with the photon , comprise the four gauge bosons of the electroweak interaction.

2022 unexpected measurement of W boson mass
Before 2022, measurements of the W boson mass appeared to be consistent with the Standard Model. For example, in 2021, experimental measurements of the W boson mass were assessed to converge around $91.2 GeV/c2$.

However, in April 2022, a new analysis of data that was obtained by the Fermilab Tevatron collider before its closure in 2011 determined the mass of the W boson to be $+$, which is seven standard deviations above that predicted by the Standard Model, meaning that if the model is correct there should only be a one-trillionth chance that such a large mass would arise by non-systematic observational error. According to Ashutosh Kotwal of Duke University and the leader of the Collider Detector at Fermilab collaboration, the lower beam luminosity used reduced the chance that events of interest would be obscured by other collisions and that the use of proton–antiproton collisions simplifies the process of quark–antiquark annihilation, which then decayed to give a lepton and a neutrino. The team deliberately encrypted its data and withheld any preliminary results from themselves until the analysis was complete, to prevent "confirmation bias" bending their interpretation of the data. Kotwal described it as the 'largest crack in this beautiful theory', speculating that it might be the 'first clear evidence' of other forces or particles not accounted for by the Standard Model, and which might be accounted for by theories such as supersymmetry. The Nobel-winning theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek described the result as a 'monumental piece of work'.

Besides being inconsistent with the Standard Model, the new measurement is also inconsistent with previous measurements such as ATLAS. This suggests that either the old or the new measurements, despite all precautions, have an unexpected systematic error, such as an undetected quirk in the equipment. Future experiments with the LHC may help determine which set of measurements, if either, are the correct ones. Fermilab Deputy Director Joseph Lykken reiterated that "... the (new) measurement needs to be confirmed by another experiment before it can be interpreted fully." Matthias Schott, of the University of Mainz, commented that "I do not think we have to discuss which new physics could explain the discrepancy between CDF[Collider Detector at Fermilab] and the Standard Model – we first have to understand why the CDF measurement is in strong tension with all [other measurements]".

In 2023, the ATLAS experiment released an improved measurement for the mass of the W boson, $−$, which aligned with predictions from the Standard Model. The combination of all measurements of the W boson mass, excluding the measurement from CDF, yields a value of (80369.2 ± 13.3) MeV/c², which deviates from the CDF measurement with a significance of 3.6σ.

Decay
The and  bosons decay to fermion pairs but neither the  nor the  bosons have sufficient energy to decay into the highest-mass top quark. Neglecting phase space effects and higher order corrections, simple estimates of their branching fractions can be calculated from the coupling constants.

W bosons
 bosons can decay to a lepton and antilepton (one of them charged and another neutral) or to a quark and antiquark of complementary types (with opposite electric charges $0$ and $80,379 MeV$). The decay width of the W boson to a quark–antiquark pair is proportional to the corresponding squared CKM matrix element and the number of quark colours, $80,433 MeV$$80,360 MeV$ = 3. The decay widths for the W$± 1⁄3$ boson are then proportional to:
 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

!colspan="2" width="100"|Leptons !colspan="6" width="100"|Quarks
 * 1
 * 3 $$|V_\text{ud}|^2$$
 * 3 $$|V_\text{us}|^2$$
 * 3 $$|V_\text{ub}|^2$$
 * 1
 * 3 $$|V_\text{cd}|^2$$
 * 3 $$|V_\text{cs}|^2$$
 * 3 $$|V_\text{cb}|^2$$
 * 1
 * colspan="6"|Energy conservation forbids decay to.
 * }
 * 1
 * 3 $$|V_\text{cd}|^2$$
 * 3 $$|V_\text{cs}|^2$$
 * 3 $$|V_\text{cb}|^2$$
 * 1
 * colspan="6"|Energy conservation forbids decay to.
 * }
 * 1
 * colspan="6"|Energy conservation forbids decay to.
 * }
 * colspan="6"|Energy conservation forbids decay to.
 * }
 * }

Here,, , denote the three flavours of leptons (more exactly, the positive charged antileptons). ,, denote the three flavours of neutrinos. The other particles, starting with and, all denote quarks and antiquarks (factor $∓ 2⁄3$$N$ is applied). The various $$\, V_{ij} \,$$ denote the corresponding CKM matrix coefficients.

Unitarity of the CKM matrix implies that $$~ |V_\text{ud}|^2 + |V_\text{us}|^2 + |V_\text{ub}|^2 ~ = $$ $$~|V_\text{cd}|^2 + |V_\text{cs}|^2 + |V_\text{cb}|^2 = 1 ~,$$ thus each of two quark rows sums to 3. Therefore, the leptonic branching ratios of the boson are approximately $$\, B( \mathrm{e}^{+} \mathrm{\nu}_\mathrm{e}) = \,$$$$\, B(\mathrm{\mu}^{+} \mathrm{\nu}_\mathrm{\mu}) = \,$$$$\, B(\mathrm{\tau}^{+} \mathrm{\nu}_\mathrm{\tau}) = \,$$ $C$. The hadronic branching ratio is dominated by the CKM-favored and  final states. The sum of the hadronic branching ratios has been measured experimentally to be $+$, with $\, B( \ell^{+} \mathrm{\nu}_\ell ) = \,$ $N$.

Z0 boson
 bosons decay into a fermion and its antiparticle. As the boson is a mixture of the pre-symmetry-breaking  and  bosons (see weak mixing angle), each vertex factor includes a factor $$~ T_3 - Q \sin^2 \,\theta_\mathsf{W} ~,$$ where $$\, T_3 \,$$ is the third component of the weak isospin of the fermion (the "charge" for the weak force), $$\, Q \,$$ is the electric charge of the fermion (in units of the elementary charge), and $$\; \theta_\mathsf{w} \;$$ is the weak mixing angle. Because the weak isospin $$(\, T_3 \,)$$ is different for fermions of different chirality, either left-handed or right-handed, the coupling is different as well.

The relative strengths of each coupling can be estimated by considering that the decay rates include the square of these factors, and all possible diagrams (e.g. sum over quark families, and left and right contributions). The results tabulated below are just estimates, since they only include tree-level interaction diagrams in the Fermi theory.

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

!colspan=2 | Particles !colspan=2 | Weak isospin $$(\, T_3 \,)$$ !rowspan=2 | Relative factor !colspan=2 | Branching ratio ! Name ! Symbols ! ! ! Predicted for $C$ = 0.23 ! Experimental measurements
 * align="left" | Neutrinos (all)
 * 0
 * 3 ($1⁄9$)$%67.6$
 * align="left" | Charged leptons (all)
 * colspan=2 |
 * 3 (−$%10.8$ + $x$)$1⁄2$+ 3$1⁄2$$2$
 * align="right" | Electron
 * −$%20.5$ + $%20$
 * (−$1⁄2$ + $x$)$2$+ $x$$2$
 * align="right" | Muon
 * −$%10.2$ + $%10.097$
 * (−$1⁄2$ + $x$)$x$+ $1⁄2$$x$
 * align="right" | Tau
 * −$2$ + $x$
 * (−$2$ + $%3.4$)$%3.363$+ $1⁄2$$x$
 * align="left" | Hadrons
 * colspan=4|
 * align="right" | Down-type quarks
 * −$x$ + $1⁄2$$x$
 * 3 (−$2$ + $x$$2$)$%3.4$+ 3 ($%3.366$$1⁄2$)$x$
 * align="right" | Up-type quarks (* except )
 * −$x$$1⁄2$
 * 3 ($x$ − $2$$x$)$2$+ 3 (−$%3.4$$%3.367$)$%69.2$
 * }
 * To keep the notation compact, the table uses $$~ x = \sin^2 \,\theta_\text{W} ~.$$
 *  *  The impossible decay into a top quark–antiquark pair is left out of the table.
 * Subheadings ' and ' denote the chirality or "handedness" of the fermions.
 * (−$%69.91$ + $1⁄2$)$1⁄3$+ $x$$1⁄3$
 * align="right" | Tau
 * −$x$ + $1⁄2$
 * (−$1⁄3$ + $x$)$2$+ $1⁄3$$x$
 * align="left" | Hadrons
 * colspan=4|
 * align="right" | Down-type quarks
 * −$2$ + $%15.2$$%15.6$
 * 3 (−$1⁄2$ + $2⁄3$$x$)$2⁄3$+ 3 ($x$$1⁄2$)$2⁄3$
 * align="right" | Up-type quarks (* except )
 * −$x$$2$
 * 3 ($2⁄3$ − $x$$2$)$%11.8$+ 3 (−$%11.6$$T$)$3$
 * }
 * To keep the notation compact, the table uses $$~ x = \sin^2 \,\theta_\text{W} ~.$$
 *  *  The impossible decay into a top quark–antiquark pair is left out of the table.
 * Subheadings ' and ' denote the chirality or "handedness" of the fermions.
 * align="right" | Down-type quarks
 * −$Q$ + $\sqrt{s}$⇭⇭⇭
 * 3 (−⇭⇭⇭ + ⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭)⇭⇭⇭+ 3 (⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭)⇭⇭⇭
 * align="right" | Up-type quarks (* except )
 * −⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭
 * 3 (⇭⇭⇭ − ⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭)⇭⇭⇭+ 3 (−⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭)⇭⇭⇭
 * }
 * To keep the notation compact, the table uses $$~ x = \sin^2 \,\theta_\text{W} ~.$$
 *  *  The impossible decay into a top quark–antiquark pair is left out of the table.
 * Subheadings ' and ' denote the chirality or "handedness" of the fermions.
 * align="right" | Up-type quarks (* except )
 * −⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭
 * 3 (⇭⇭⇭ − ⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭)⇭⇭⇭+ 3 (−⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭⇭)⇭⇭⇭
 * }
 * To keep the notation compact, the table uses $$~ x = \sin^2 \,\theta_\text{W} ~.$$
 *  *  The impossible decay into a top quark–antiquark pair is left out of the table.
 * Subheadings ' and ' denote the chirality or "handedness" of the fermions.
 * }
 * To keep the notation compact, the table uses $$~ x = \sin^2 \,\theta_\text{W} ~.$$
 *  *  The impossible decay into a top quark–antiquark pair is left out of the table.
 * Subheadings ' and ' denote the chirality or "handedness" of the fermions.

In 2018, the CMS collaboration observed the first exclusive decay of the boson to a ψ meson and a lepton–antilepton pair.

title: W and Z bosons


text:
Wynkyn de Worde

Wynkyn de Worde (died, London) was a printer and publisher in London known for his work with William Caxton, and is recognised as the first to popularise the products of the printing press in England.

Name
Wynkyn de Worde was a German immigrant to England. His name is given in the forms Wynkyn de Worde, Wynken de Worde, Wynkyn de Word, Wijnkijn de Worde, and Winandus van Worden ("Wynkyn" is a diminutive of "Wynand"). It is also given 15 times in the sacrist's roll of Westminster Abbey and in city records as variants of "John Wynkyn", including John Wynkyn, Johannes Wynkyn, Jan Wynkyn, and Jan van Wynkyn. He is also recorded as Willelmo Wynkyn ("William Wynkyn") once and as Mr. Wylkyns eight times. His son Richard is recorded as Richard Wynkyn and Rycharde de Worde.

Some authors have therefore concluded that his real name was John Wynkyn (or Wynand) and that "de Worde" was "merely a place name," while others have concluded that his real name was Wynkyn (or Wynand) de Worde and that "John" was an added name: "It is… possible that John Wynkyn was an Anglicized alias devised by de Worde himself for occasional use—though why, and for what occasions, remains obscure."

Life and work
De Worde was likely born in either Wörth an der Sauer in Alsace or Wörth am Rhein in the Palatinate. Traditionally, he was believed to have accompanied William Caxton to England in 1476; more recently, it has been argued that de Worde actually arrived around 1481, and that Caxton brought him to England to counter the competition of a second printer, John Lettou, who set up a press in London in 1480. Sometime while in England, de Worde married a woman named Elizabeth. De Worde improved the quality of Caxton's product; he was, in this view, "England's first typographer". In 1495, following Caxton's death in 1492 and a three-year litigation, de Worde took over Caxton's print shop.

De Worde is generally credited for moving English printing away from its late-medieval beginnings and toward a "modern" model of functioning. Caxton had depended on noble patrons to sustain his enterprise; while de Worde enjoyed the support of patrons too (principally Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII), he shifted his emphasis to the creation of relatively inexpensive books for a commercial audience and the beginnings of a mass market. Where Caxton had used paper imported from the Low Countries, de Worde exploited the product of John Tate, the first English papermaker. Manuscripts that served as early printer's copy, studied by Gavin Bone was the earliest attempt to identify and examine setting copy for an incunable edition of a Middle English work. De Worde published more than 400 books in over 800 editions (though some are extant only in single copies and many others are extremely rare). His greatest success, in terms of volume, was the Latin grammar of Robert Whittington, which he issued in 155 editions. Religious works dominated his output, in keeping with the tenor of the time; but de Worde also printed volumes ranging from romantic novels to poetry (he published the work of John Skelton and Stephen Hawes), and from children's books to volumes on household practice and animal husbandry. He innovated in the use of illustrations: while only about 20 of Caxton's editions contained woodcuts, 500 of Wynkyn de Worde's editions were illustrated.

He moved his firm from Caxton's location in Westminster to London; he was the first printer to set up a site on Fleet Street (1500), which for centuries became synonymous with printing. He was also the first person to build a book stall in St Paul's Churchyard, which soon became a centre of the book trade in London. The site of Wynkyn de Worde's press is marked by a plaque on the wall of the hall of the Worshipful Company of Stationers off Ludgate Hill and Ave Maria Lane, near St Paul's Cathedral in London.

De Worde was the first to use italic type (1528) and Hebrew and Arabic characters (1524) in English books; and his 1495 version of Polychronicon by Ranulf Higden was the first English work to use movable type to print music. These musical notes, created using non-musical symbols, are often cited as the first instance of music printing in England. For a long time, De Worde was mistakenly attributed with a songbook from 1530 (frequently named after him), which is considered one of the greatest examples of music printing of that era.

His name lives on via the Wynkyn de Worde Society, founded in the United Kingdom in 1957 for "people dedicated to excellence in all aspects of printing and the various stages of its creation, production, finishing and dissemination".

Published works
Books printed by Wynkyn de Worde include:

 * Treatise of Love
 * Le Morte d'Arthur
 * Vitae Sanctorum Patrum
 * Bartholomaeus de Proprietatibus Rerum by John Trevisa
 * The Chastising of God's Children
 * Dives and Pauper
 * The Book of Saint Albans
 * The Canterbury Tales
 * Contemplacyon of sinners by William Touris
 * Mandeville's Travels
 * Beves of Hamtoun
 * Guy of Warwick
 * The Squire of Low Degree
 * Robin Hood
 * The Miracles of Our Lady
 * Golden Legend
 * Ordynarye of Crysten Men
 * The Rote or mirror of Consolation
 * The Twelve profits of tribulation
 * The Bowge of Court by John Skelton
 * The History of the Three Kings of Cologne
 * The Ship of Fools
 * Mundus et Infans (1522)
 * Gesta Romanorum
 * Christmasse Carolles
 * Richard Coer de Lyon

title: Wynkyn de Worde


text: User talk:62.171.194.36

title: User talk:62.171.194.36


text: User talk:62.171.194.4

title: User talk:62.171.194.4


text:
P. A. Sangma

Purno Agitok Sangma (1 September 1947 – 4 March 2016) was an Indian politician who has served as the 4th Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990 and the 11th Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1996 to 1998. He served as a member of the Lok Sabha from Tura in Meghalaya from 2014 to 2016, 1991 to 2008 and from 1977 to 1989 and the minister of Information and Broadcasting in the Rao ministry from 1995 to 1996. He was the founder of National People's Party and co-founder of Nationalist Congress Party.

Sangma contested the 2012 Indian presidential election, supported by the Bharatiya Janta Party and the AIADMK. However he lost to Pranab Mukherjee of the Indian National Congress. Sangma was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, posthumously in 2017, in the field of Public Affairs and was the first recipient of the award from Meghalaya.

Early and personal life
Sangma was born on 1 September 1947 in Chapahati, a village in the erstwhile Garo Hills district of Assam (in present-day West Garo Hills, Meghalaya), to Dipchon Ch. Marak and Chimri A. Sangma as one of their seven children. He lost his father when he was 11 and had to quit studies due to poverty. He was helped to return to school by a Salesian Father Giovanni Battista Busolin. Later, Sangma obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Anthony's College in Shillong before shifting to Dibrugarh in Assam, where he taught in the Don Bosco High School while pursuing Master of Arts in international politics from Dibrugarh University.

Sangma married Soradini K. Sangma in 1973. They have two sons and two daughters together. Son Conrad serves as the Chief Minister of Meghalaya and daughter Agatha is the Member of Parliament from the Tura constituency. Agatha was elected from Tura to the 15th Lok Sabha elections in 2009, and at 29, was the youngest minister in the UPA ministry.

Sangma called himself a devout Christian.

Political Career
In 1973, Sangma became Vice-President of the Pradesh Youth Congress in Meghalaya and became the General Secretary of the party in 1975. He served in that position from 1975 to 1980.

In 1977, he was elected to the 6th Lok Sabha from Tura constituency in Meghalaya and represented the same constituency multiple times, from 1977-1988, 1991-2008, 2014-2016. The breaks in 1988 and 2008 were caused by his return to Meghalaya state politics. He became Speaker of Lok Sabha in 1996.

Chief Minister of Meghalaya
He was the Chief Minister of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990.

Formation of Nationalist Congress Party
Sangma was expelled from the Congress on 20 May 1999, along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar, for raising the banner of revolt against Sonia Gandhi over the fact that she was a foreign-born citizen. Sangma along with Pawar and Anwar wanted a native-born citizen to be projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate. After his departure from the Congress Party, he was one of the founders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar in 1999. In January 2004, P.A. Sangma created a split in the NCP after Sharad Pawar became close to the NCP's former rival, Sonia Gandhi. After losing a battle for the NCP election symbol, Sangma later merged his faction with Mamata Banerjee's All India Trinamool Congress, forming the Nationalist Trinamool Congress .Sangma was one of two NTC MPs elected. He resigned from his Lok Sabha seat on 10 October 2005 as a member of AITC, and was re-elected as an NCP candidate in February 2006. He resigned from the 14th Lok Sabha for the second time in March 2008 to take part in the 2008 Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election.

On 5 January 2013, Sangma launched the National People's Party at the national level. The National People's Party managed to win two seats in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly in the 2013 Meghalaya Legislative Assembly election. In 2014, Sangma was elected to Lok Sabha from Tura, and died mid-term in 2016.

Presidential election
Sangma's candidature for the 2012 presidential election was proposed by AIADMK and Biju Janta Dal, and later, supported by BJP as well. Sangma resigned from the NCP on 20 June 2012 after opposition from Sharad Pawar over his presidential candidature. Former Union Minister and a Congress tribal leader Arvind Netam also came out strongly in favour of the candidature of Sangma for the presidential post.

On 22 July, Pranab Mukherjee was declared the victor over Sangma, crossing the half-way mark of 525,140 votes after votes in half the states had been tallied. While securing the required quota, Mukherjee secured 558,194 votes to Sangma's 239,966. After the final results were published, Mukherjee secured 7,13,424 value of votes, while Sangma secured 3,17,032 values of votes. The Returning Officer for the election, and the Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha, Vivek Agnihotri, then declared Mukherjee to be elected as President of India. Sangma subsequently accused the President-elect of graft.

Death
On the morning of 4 March 2016, Sangma died from cardiac arrest in New Delhi. He was aged 68.

Positions held
President, (i) Indian Parliamentary Group, (ii) National Group of Inter-Parliamentary Union; and (iii) India Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
 * 1974 - Vice President of Meghalaya Pradesh Youth Congress
 * 1975 - The General Secretary of the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee
 * 1977 - Member of Parliament, Tura constituency (1977 to 1988, first stint)
 * 1980 - Joint Secretary of the All India Congress Committee
 * 1980 - Deputy Minister in charge of Industry
 * 1982 - Deputy Minister, Ministry of Commerce
 * 1984 - Minister of State holding charge of Commerce and Supply
 * 1984 - Minister of State for Home Affairs
 * 1986 - Minister of State for Labour with Independent Charge
 * 1988 - Member, Meghalaya Legislative Assembly
 * 1988 - Chief Minister of Meghalaya
 * 1990 - Leader of Opposition, Meghalaya Legislative Assembly
 * 1991 - Re-elected, Member of Parliament, Tura constituency (1991-2008, second stint)
 * 1991-93 - Union Minister of State, Coal (Independent Charge)
 * 1993-95 - Union Minister of State, Labour (Independent Charge)
 * February–September 1995 - Union Minister of State, Labour
 * 1995-96 - Union Cabinet Minister of Information and Broadcasting
 * 1996 - Re-elected, Member of Parliament, Tura constituency
 * 1996-98 - Speaker of Lok Sabha -Chairman, (i) Business Advisory Committee; (ii) Rules Committee; (iii) General Purposes Committee; (iv) Standing Committee of the Conference of Presiding Officers of the Legislative Bodies in India; and (v) Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies;
 * 1998 - Re-elected, Member of Parliament, Tura constituency, as member of Congress
 * 1998 - Member, Committee on External Affairs and its Sub-Committee-I
 * 1998 - Vice-President, Indian Institute of Public Administration
 * 1998 - Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of External Affairs
 * 1999 - Re-elected, Member of Parliament, Tura constituency, as member of NCP
 * 1999 - Member, Committee on Labour and Welfare
 * 2000 - Member, National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution
 * 2002 - Member, Committee on External Affairs
 * 2003 - Member, Committee on Home Affairs
 * 2004 - Re-elected, Member of Parliament, Tura constituency
 * 2004 - Member, Committee on External Affairs, Member, Committee on Private Members Bills and Resolutions, Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Home Affairs
 * 2006 - Re-elected to Lok Sabha as N.C.P. candidate on 23.2.2006, Tura constituency
 * 2008 - Member, Meghalaya Legislative Assembly
 * 2014 - Elected to Lok Sabha from Tura

title: P. A. Sangma


text:
Interlude of Youth

The Interlude of Youth is an English 16th-century morality play. It is one of the earliest printed morality plays to have survived. Only two or three copies of any edition are known to exist. Waley's edition of the work appeared probably about the year 1554, and has a woodcut on the title-page of two figures, representing Charity and Youth, two of the characters in the interlude. Another edition was printed by William Copland, and has also a woodcut on the title-page, representing Youth between Charity, and another figure which has no name over its head. The colophon is: "Imprinted at London, in Lothbury, over against Sainct Margarytes church, by me, Wyllyam Copland." A fragment of a black-letter copy of the interlude has survived at Lambeth Palace.

title: Interlude of Youth