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Pyrethrin

The pyrethrins are a class of organic compounds normally derived from Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium that have potent insecticidal activity by targeting the nervous systems of insects. Pyrethrin naturally occurs in chrysanthemum flowers and is often considered an organic insecticide when it is not combined with piperonyl butoxide or other synthetic adjuvants. Their insecticidal and insect-repellent properties have been known and used for thousands of years.

Pyrethrins are gradually replacing organophosphates and organochlorides as the pesticides of choice as the latter compounds have been shown to have significant and persistent toxic effects to humans. They first appeared on markets in the 1900's and have been continually used since then in products such as bug bombs, building insect sprays, and even to spray animals so that they do not get infectious diseases.

History
The pyrethrins occur in the seed cases of the perennial plant pyrethrum (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium), which has long been grown commercially to supply the insecticide. Pyrethrins have been used as an insecticide for thousands of years. It is believed that the Chinese crushed chrysanthemum plants and used the powder as an insecticide as early as 1000 BC. It was widely known that the Zhou Dynasty in China widely used pyrethrin for its insecticide properties. For centuries, crushed Chrysanthemum flowers have been used in Iran to produce Persian Powder, an insecticide for household use. Pyrethrins were identified as the potent chemical in the Chrysanthemum plants responsible for the insecticidal properties in the crushed flowers around 1800 in Asia. In the Napoleonic Wars, French soldiers used the flowers to keep away fleas and body lice.

Biosynthesis
Well after their use as insecticides began, their chemical structures were determined by Hermann Staudinger and Lavoslav Ružička in 1924. Pyrethrin I (CnH28O3) and pyrethrin II (CnH28O5) are structurally related esters with a cyclopropane core. Pyrethrin I is a derivative of (+)-trans-chrysanthemic acid. Pyrethrin II is closely related, but one methyl group is oxidized to a carboxymethyl group, the resulting core being called pyrethric acid. Knowledge of their structures opened the way for the production of synthetic analogues, which are called pyrethroids. Pyrethrins are classified as terpenoids. The key step in the biosynthesis of the naturally occurring pyrethrins involves two molecules of dimethylallyl pyrophosphate, which join to form a cyclopropane ring by the action of the enzyme chrysanthemyl diphosphate synthase.

Production

Commercial pyrethrin production mainly takes place in mountainous equatorial zones. The commercial cultivation of the Dalmatian chrysanthemum (C. cinerariifolium) takes place at an altitude of 1600 to 3000 meters above sea level. This is done because pyrethrin concentration has been shown to increase as elevation increases to this level. Growing these plants does not require much water because semiarid conditions and a cool winter deliver optimal pyrethrin production. The Persian chrysanthemum C. coccineum also produces pyrethrins but at a much lower level. Both may be planted in low-altitude zones in dry soil, but the pyrethrin level is lower.

Most of the world's supply of pyrethrin and C. cinerariaefolium comes from Kenya, which produces the most potent flowers. Other countries include Croatia (in Dalmatia) and Japan. The flower was first introduced into Kenya and the highlands of Eastern Africa during the late 1920s. Since the 2000s, Kenya has produced about 70% of the world's supply of pyrethrum. A substantial amount of the flowers are cultivated by small-scale farmers who depend on it as a source of income. It is a major source of export income for Kenya and source of over 3,500 additional jobs. About 23,000 tons were harvested in 1975. The active ingredients are extracted with organic solvents to give a concentrate containing the six types of pyrethrins: pyrethrin I, pyrethrin II, cinerin I, cinerin II, jasmolin I, and jasmolin II.

Processing the flowers to cultivate the pyrethrin is often a lengthy process, and one that varies from area to area. For instance, in Japan, the flowers are hung upside down to dry which increases pyrethrin concentration slightly. To process pyrethrin, the flowers must be crushed. The degree to which the flower is crushed has an effect on both the longevity of the pyrethrin usage and the quality. The finer powder produced is better suited for use as an insecticide than the more coarsely crushed flowers. However, the more coarsely crushed flowers have a longer shelf life and deteriorate less.

Use as an insecticide
Pyrethrin is most commonly used as an insecticide and has been used for this purpose since the 1900s. In the 1800s, it was known as "Persian powder", "Persian pellitory", and "zacherlin". Pyrethrins delay the closure of voltage-gated sodium channels in the nerve cells of insects, resulting in repeated and extended nerve firings. This hyperexcitation causes the death of the insect due to loss of motor coordination and paralysis. Resistance to pyrethrin has been bypassed by pairing the insecticide with synthetic synergists such as piperonyl butoxide. Together, these two compounds prevent detoxification in the insect, ensuring insect death. Synergists make pyrethrin more effective, allowing lower doses to be effective. Pyrethrins are effective insecticides because they selectively target insects rather than mammals due to higher insect nerve sensitivity, smaller insect body size, lower mammalian skin absorption, and more efficient mammalian hepatic metabolism. Also, mammals are able to process pyrethrin quickly and have higher body temperatures which prevent pyrethrin from working effectively

Although pyrethrin is a potent insecticide, it also functions as an insect repellent at lower concentrations. Observations in food establishments demonstrate that flies are not immediately killed, but are found more often on windowsills or near doorways. This suggests, due to the low dosage applied, that insects are driven to leave the area before dying. Because of their insecticide and insect repellent effect, pyrethrins have been very successful in reducing insect pest populations that affect humans, crops, livestock, and pets, such as ants, spiders, and lice, as well as potentially disease-carrying mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks.

As pyrethrins and pyrethroids are increasingly being used as insecticides, the number of illnesses and injuries associated with exposure to these chemicals is also increasing. However, few cases leading to serious health effects or mortality in humans have occurred, which is why pyrethroids are labeled "low-toxicity" chemicals and are ubiquitous in home-care products. Pyrethrins are widely regarded as better for the environment, and can be harmless if used only in the field with localized sprays, as UV exposure breaks them down into harmless compounds. Additionally, they have little lasting effect on plants, degrading naturally or being degraded by the cooking process.

Specific pest species that have been successfully controlled by pyrethrum include: potato, beet, grape, and six-spotted leafhopper, cabbage looper, celery leaf tier, Say's stink bug, twelve-spotted cucumber beetle, lygus bugs on peaches, grape and flower thrips, and cranberry fruitworm.

Toxicity
Pyrethrins are among the safest insecticides on the market due to their rapid degradation in the environment.

Similarities between the chemistry of pyrethrins and synthetic pyrethroids include a similar mode of action and almost identical toxicity to insects (i.e., both pyrethrins and pyrethroids induce a toxic effect within the insect by acting on sodium channels).

Some differences in the chemistry between pyrethrins and synthetic pyrethroids have the result that synthetic pyrethroids have relatively longer environmental persistence than do pyrethrins. Pyrethrins have shorter environmental persistence than synthetic pyrethroids because their chemical structure is more susceptible to the presence of UV light and changes in pH. The use of pyrethrin in products such as natural insecticides and pet shampoo, for its ability to kill fleas, increases the likelihood of toxicity in mammals that are exposed. Medical cases have emerged showing fatalities from the use of pyrethrin, prompting many organic farmers to cease use. One fatal case of an 11-year-old girl with a known asthmatic condition and who used shampoo containing only a small amount (0.2% pyrethrin) to wash her dog was documented.

Chronic pyrethrin toxicity in humans
Chronic toxicity in humans occurs most quickly through respiration into the lungs, or more slowly through absorption through the skin. Allergic reactions may occur after exposure, leading to itching and irritated skin as well as burning sensations. These types of reactions are rare because the allergenic component of pyrethrin in semi-synthetic pyrethroids has been removed. The metabolite compounds of pyrethrin are less toxic to mammals than their originators, and compounds are either broken down in the liver or gastrointestinal tract, or excreted through feces; no evidence of storage in tissues has been found.

Pyrethrum toxicity
Exposure to pyrethrum, the crude form of pyrethrin, causes harmful health effects for mammals. Pyrethrum also has an allergenic effect that commercial pyrethroids don't have. In mammals, toxic exposure to pyrethrum can lead to tongue and lip numbness, drooling, lethargy, muscle tremors, respiratory failure, vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, paralysis, and death. Exposure to pyrethrum in high levels in humans may cause symptoms such as asthmatic breathing, sneezing, nasal stuffiness, headache, nausea, loss of coordination, tremors, convulsions, facial flushing, and swelling. A possibility of damage to the immune system exists that leads to a worsening of allergies following toxicity. Infants are unable to resourcefully break down pyrethrum due to the ease of skin penetration, causing similar symptoms as adults, but with an increased risk of death.

Aquatic habitats
In aquatic settings, toxicity of pyrethrin fluctuates, increasing with rising temperatures, water, and acidity. Run-off after application has become a concern for sediment-dwelling aquatic organisms because pyrethroids can accumulate in these areas. Aquatic life is extremely susceptible to pyrethrin toxicity, and has been documented in species such as the lake trout. Although pyrethrins are quickly metabolized by birds and most mammals, fish and aquatic invertebrates lack the ability to metabolize these compounds, leading to a toxic accumulation of byproducts. To combat the accumulation of pyrethroids in bodies of water, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has introduced two labeling initiatives. The Environmental Hazard and General Labeling for Pyrethroid and Synergized Pyrethrins Non-Agricultural Outdoor Products was revised in 2013 to reduce runoff into bodies of water after use in residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial areas. The Pyrethroid Spray Drift Initiative updated language for labeling all pyrethroid products to be used on agricultural crops. Because of its high toxicity to fish and aquatic invertebrates even at low doses, the EPA recommends alternatives such as pesticide-free methods or alternative chemicals that are less harmful to the surrounding aquatic environment.

Terrestrial Habitats
Pyrethrin is mainly used on land and can also have impacts in the places that it is used. For instance pyrethrin has the ability to be persistent in the fields that it is sprayed on. This persistence in crops can lead to negative effects for meat production.

Bees
Pyrethrins are applied broadly as nonspecific insecticides. Bees have been shown to be particularly sensitive to pyrethrin, with fatal doses as small as 0.02 micrograms. Due to this sensitivity and pollinator decline, pyrethrins are recommended to be applied at night to avoid typical pollinating hours, and in liquid rather than dust form.

title: Pyrethrin


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Claude Buffier

Claude Buffier (25 May 1661 – 17 May 1737), French philosopher, historian and teacher, was born in Poland of French parents, who returned to France and settled in Rouen soon after his birth.

He was educated at the Jesuit college there, and he was received into the Order at the age of nineteen. A dispute with the archbishop compelled him to leave Rouen. After a short stay in Rome, he returned to Paris to the college of the Jesuits, where he spent the rest of his life. He seems to have been a good teacher and lucid expositor.

Works
His goal in the Traité des premières vérités (Paris: 1724), his best-known work, was to discover the ultimate principle of knowledge. This he found in the sense we have of our own existence and of what we feel within ourselves. He thus took substantially the same ground as Descartes, but he rejected the a priori method. In order to know what exists distinct from the self, common sense is necessary. Common sense he defined as that disposition which nature has placed in all or most men, in order to enable them, when they have arrived at the age and use of reason, to form a common and uniform judgment with respect to objects different from the internal sentiment of their own perception, which judgment is not the consequence of any anterior judgment.

The truths which this disposition of nature obliges us to accept can be neither proved nor disproved; they are practically followed even by those who reject them speculatively. But Buffier did not claim for these truths of common sense the absolute certainty which characterizes the knowledge we have of our own existence or the logical deductions we make from our thoughts; they possess merely the highest probability, and the man who rejects them is to be considered a fool, though he is not guilty of a contradiction.

Buffier's aversion to scholastic refinements gives to his writings an appearance of shallowness and want of metaphysical insight, and unquestionably he failed entirely even to indicate the nature of that universality and necessity which he ascribed to his common verities; he was, however, one of the earliest to recognize the psychological as distinguished from the metaphysical side of Descartes's principle, and to use it, with no inconsiderable skill, as the basis of an analysis of the human mind, similar to that enjoined by Locke. In this he has anticipated Thomas Reid and the Scottish school. Voltaire described him as the only Jesuit who has given a reasonable system of philosophy.

He also wrote Elémens de métaphysique (1725), Suite de la Grammaire française sur un plan nouveau (1709) ["Sequel to A New Method of French Grammar"], and a number of historical essays. Most of his works appeared in a collected form in 1732, and an English translation of the Traité was published in 1780.

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

title: Claude Buffier


text:
Talk:Worcester College, Oxford

Alumni
Should Emma Watson be listed here as she's still at the college so not technically an alumni yet? ChevronTango (talk) 11:07, 19 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Well, I would say that an alumnus/alumna is someone who has acquired some sort of qualification at a school/college/university/etc., but it rather looks as if the word now has a wider meaning which would include someone who spent some time at such an institution whether or not they received any qualification. As for Emma Watson, I see here that she'll have left Worcester by now, if this not-necessarily-reliable-source is to be believed, so she probably could be included in the alumni list. --GuillaumeTell 16:43, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

File:UK-2014-Oxford-Worcester College 02.jpg to appear as POTD soon
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:UK-2014-Oxford-Worcester College 02.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on March 25, 2017. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2017-03-25. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 01:23, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Emma Watson is only a one-year visiting student, she's not an officially Worcester's alumni.
According to the list of http://www.ox.ac.uk/about/oxford-people/famous-oxonians famous oxonians, Watson not included inside the list. Therefore her name was removed from the worcester's notable alumni list.Politsi (talk) 13:34, 26 December 2017 (UTC)

Like other Oxford colleges, Worcester regards participants of its Visiting Student Programme for Junior Year Abroad students at American universities as full members of the College, with residency, Junior Common Room membership, and alumni status. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.68.13.182 (talk) 10:01, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

 * I see she has now been added. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:52, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

Notable alumni images
The article lists 74 notable alumni. There are currently images of five of these. On what basis have these been selected? Martinevans123 (talk) 13:58, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Worcester College, Oxford


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Maria Weston Chapman

Maria Weston Chapman (July 25, 1806 – July 12, 1885) was an American abolitionist. She was elected to the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839 and from 1839 until 1842, she served as editor of the anti-slavery journal The Non-Resistant.

Early life
Maria Weston was born in 1806 in Weymouth, Massachusetts to Captain Warren Richard Weston and Anne (née Bates) Weston. Eventually she had seven younger siblings—five sisters and two brothers. Though the Westons were not wealthy, they were well connected through her uncle's patronage. She spent several years of her youth living with family in England, where she received a robust education.

Weston returned to Boston in 1828 to serve as principal of a newly-founded, socially-progressive girls' high school. She left the field of education two years later to marry.

Abolitionism
Maria and her husband Henry were both "Garrisonian" abolitionists, meaning that they believed in an "immediate" and uncompromising end to slavery, brought about by "moral suasion" or non-resistance. They rejected all political and institutional coercion—including churches, political parties and the federal government—as agencies for ending slavery. They did, however, support moral coercion that encompassed "come-outerism" and disunion, both of which opposed association with slaveholders. Gerald Sorin writes, "In [Maria's] nonresistance principles and in her 'come-outerism,' she was rigidly dogmatic and self-righteous, believing that 'when one is perfectly right, one neither asks nor needs sympathy.'"

Anti-slavery work
Though Chapman came to the anti-slavery cause through her husband's family, she quickly and stalwartly took up the cause, enduring pro-slavery mobs, social ridicule, and public attacks on her character. Her sisters, notably Caroline and Anne, were also active abolitionists, though Maria is generally considered to be the most outspoken and active among her family. According to Lee V. Chambers, through their "kin-work", the sisters supported each other through family responsibilities in order to take their active public roles. The Chapmans became central figures in the "Boston Clique," which primarily consisted of wealthy and socially prominent supporters of William Lloyd Garrison. In 1835, Chapman assumed the leadership of the Boston Anti-Slavery Bazaar, which had been founded the previous year by Lydia Maria Child and Louisa Loring as a major fundraising event. She directed the fair until 1858, when she unilaterally decided to replace the bazaar with the Anti-Slavery Subscription Anniversary. Chapman said that the fair had become passé; she argued that the Anniversary—an exclusive, invitation-only soirée featuring music, food and speeches—was more au courant and would raise more funds than the bazaar. As described by historian Benjamin Quarles, through these years Chapman and other abolitionists became experienced in using "all the refined techniques of solicitation" in their fundraising for the cause of abolitionism.

In addition to her fair work, between 1835 and 1865, Chapman served on the executive and business committees of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (MASS), the New England Anti-Slavery Society (NEASS) and the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). Through these she was active in the petition campaigns of the 1830s. She wrote the annual reports of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) and published tracts to raise public awareness.

For nearly 20 years, between 1839 and 1858, Chapman edited The Liberty Bell, an annual anti-slavery gift book sold at the Boston Bazaar as part of fundraising. The giftbook was composed of contributions from various notable figures: Longfellow, Emerson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Harriet Martineau, and Bayard Taylor, among others, none of whom was paid for their contributions aside from a copy of The Liberty Bell. She also served as editor to The Liberator in Garrison's absence, and was on the editorial committee of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, the official mouthpiece of the AASS. Chapman was also a member of the peace organisation, the Non-Resistance Society, which published The Non-Resistant.

Chapman was a prolific writer in her own right, publishing Right and Wrong in Massachusetts in 1839 and How Can I Help to Abolish Slavery? in 1855. Aside from these works, she published her poems and essays in abolitionist periodicals. In 1840 divisions between Garrisonians and the more political wing of the anti-slavery movement split the AASS and correspondingly the BFASS into two opposing factions. Maria, nicknamed "Captain Chapman" and the "great goddess" by her opponents and "Lady Macbeth" even by her friends, outmaneuvered the opposition. She took control of a resurrected BFASS, which from then on mainly focused on organizing the Boston bazaar as a major fundraiser for abolitionism.

The church she attended, Federal Street Church, Unitarian, is featured on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.

Travels
Throughout her three decades of involvement in the anti-slavery movement, Chapman spent considerable amounts of time outside of the United States, first in Haiti (1841-1842) and later in Paris (1848-1855). In spite of her prolonged absences, she still figured centrally in the Boston movement generally and the Boston bazaar particularly. While abroad, she tenaciously solicited support and contributions for the Boston fairs from elite members of British and European society, such as Lady Byron, Harriet Martineau, Alexis de Tocqueville, Victor Hugo, and Alphonse de Lamartine.

When she returned to the U.S. in 1855, "Bloody Kansas" and the rise of the Republican Party brought the issue of slavery to the centre of national debate. It was in this period that Chapman began to manifestly deviate from Garrisonian ideolog, by endorsing the Republican party and later by supporting both the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln's proposal in 1862 for gradual compensated slave emancipation. Unlike many Garrisonians such as Garrison himself, Chapman gave no indication of being conflicted between the principle of non-coercion and the Civil War's objective of abolishing slavery through violent force. Characteristically, Chapman was as resolute and unapologetic in her new beliefs as she had been in her old. Yet, in spite of her newly-expressed confidence in the state, Chapman seemingly felt little responsibility to former slaves once they had been freed.

Personal life
In 1830, Henry Grafton Chapman (1804–1842), a second-generation abolitionist and wealthy Boston merchant; his parents were enthusiastic abolitionists. By all accounts, the Chapmans had a good marriage that was free from ideological and financial strain. During their 12-year marriage, which ended in Henry's death from tuberculosis in 1842, they had four children, one of whom died in early childhood, including:

 * Henry Grafton Chapman Jr. (1833–1883), who married Eleanor Kingsland Jay (1839–1921), the daughter of John Jay, the U.S. Minister to Austria-Hungary, granddaughter of William Jay and great-granddaughter of John Jay, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

In 1863, except for a passing interest in the AASS, Chapman retired from public life, and for the next two decades, until her death in Weymouth on July 12, 1885, she "savored the perceived success of her cause and, equally, her own role in the victory."

Works

 * Songs of the Free and Hymns of Christian Freedom (1836)
 * Right and Wrong in Boston (1836)
 * Right and Wrong in Massachusetts (1839)
 * "Pinda: A True Tale" (1840)
 * "The Times That Try Men's Souls" (1848)
 * "How Can I Help Abolish Slavery? or, Counsels to the Newly Converted" (1855) - also at Gutenberg.org
 * Memorials of Harriet Martineau (1877)

title: Maria Weston Chapman


text:
Pervigilium Veneris

Pervigilium Veneris (or The Vigil of Venus) is a Latin poem of uncertain date, variously assigned to the 2nd, 4th or 5th centuries.

It is sometimes thought to have been by the poet Tiberianus, because of strong similarities with his poem Amnis ibat, though other scholars attribute it to Publius Annius Florus, and yet others find no sufficient evidence for any attribution. It was written professedly in early spring on the eve of a three-night festival of Venus (probably April 1–3) in a setting that seems to be Sicily. The poem describes the annual awakening of the vegetable and animal world through the "benign post-Lucretian" goddess, which contrasts with the tragic isolation of the silent "I" of the poet/speaker, against the desolate background of a ruined city, a vision that prompts Andrea Cucchiarelli to note the resemblance of the poem's construction to the cruelty of a dream. It is notable for its Romanticism which marks a transition between Classical Roman poetry and medieval poetry. It consists of ninety-three verses in trochaic septenarius, and is divided into strophes of unequal length by the refrain:

"Cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit cras amet.

"Let the one love tomorrow who has never loved, and let the one who has loved love tomorrow."

Or by Parnell:

"Let those love now who never loved before, Let those who always lov'd, now love the more.""

The ending
The poem ends with the nightingale's song, and a poignant expression of personal sorrow:

"illa cantat; nos tacemus; quando ver venit meum? Quando fi(am) uti chelidon, ut tacere desinam? Perdidi Musam tacendo, nec me Phoebus respicit. Sic Amyclas, cum tacerent, perdidit silentium. Cras amet qui nunqu(am) amavit; quiqu(e) amavit cras amet.

"She sings, but we are silent; when is my springtime coming? When shall I become like the swallow, so that I may cease to be silent? I have destroyed my Muse by being silent, nor does Apollo respect me; It is in this way that Amyclae, when it would not speak, was destroyed by silence. Tomorrow let him love, who has never loved; and who has loved, let him love tomorrow.""

The nightingale and swallow motif refers to the myth of the two sisters Philomela and Procne, one of whom was turned into a nightingale and the other into a swallow. In the myth, Procne was unable to speak, having had her tongue cut out; but when she was transformed into a swallow, she found her voice again.

The words Quando fiam uti chelidon? were famously quoted by T. S. Eliot in the ending of his poem The Waste Land.

The reference at the end is to a legend that the people of Amyclae, a town near Sparta, made a law that no one was to speak of the Spartans' approach; so that when the Spartans came to attack the city in the 8th century BC, no one gave a warning; hence the proverb Amyclis ipsis taciturnior ("more unwilling to speak than Amyclae itself").

English verse translations
There are translations into English verse by the 17th-century poet Thomas Stanley (1651); by the 18th-century "graveyard school" poet Thomas Parnell (1679-1718); by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems by "Q"; by F. L. Lucas (1939; reprinted in his Aphrodite, Cambridge, 1948); and by Allen Tate (1947; see his Collected Poems).

Musical settings
The poem has appealed to 20th-century composers and has been set to music by Frederic Austin for chorus and orchestra (first performance, Leeds Festival, 1931); by Timothy Mather Spelman, for soprano and baritone solo, chorus and orchestra (1931); by Virgil Thomson as "The Feast of Love", for baritone and chamber orchestra, text translated by himself (1964); and by George Lloyd for soprano, tenor, chorus, and orchestra (1980).

Modern editions

 * Editio princeps (1577)
 * Franz Bücheler (1859)
 * Alexander Riese, in Anthologia Latina (1869)
 * E. Bahrens in Unedierte lateinische Gedichte (1877)
 * S. G. Owen (with Catullus) (1893)
 * D. R. Shackleton Bailey in volume six of the Loeb classical library: Gaius Valerius Catullus, Tibullus and [Tiberianus] Pervigilium veneris, G. P. Goold, editor, translated by Francis Warre Cornish, John Percival Postgate, John William Mackail, second edition, revised (Harvard University Press, 1988)
 * Andrea Cucchiarelli. La veglia di Venere. Pervigilium Veneris in BUR Classici Greci e Latini. Biblioteca Universale (Milano: Rizzoli, 2003) ISBN 88-17-10635-6.  Paperback. With notes and facing translation in Italian.  This new edition, with Latin text based largely on Shackelton Bailey, includes a brief anthology of commentary – from Voltaire to contemporary criticism (pp. 51–60) and an up-to-date bibliography (pp. 61–72). There is also an appendix (pp. 155–65) of texts and Italian translations of some of the most famous poems of late antiquity devoted to the theme of the rose – many from the so-called Latin Anthology, a collection of poems from the imperial age thought to have been assembled at Carthage "during the cultural renaissance of Vandalic Africa in the 5th century CE.  This appendix highlights the vitality of the rose topos and of the symbolism associated with it, which spread from the ancient world into European literature of all ages, and it offers the reader a welcome opportunity for reading and appreciating, this time in an Italian translation, a series of poems scarcely studied or known."
 * William M. Barton (2018). The Pervigilium Veneris: A New Critical Text, Translation and Commentary. Bloomsbury.

Influence
John Fowles' The Magus ends indeterminately with the vigil's refrain, a passage to which he often directed readers wishing greater clarity about the novel's conclusion.

title: Pervigilium Veneris


text:
GVB (Amsterdam)

GVB (often informally called de GVB or het GVB) is the municipal public transport operator for Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, operating metro, tram, bus and ferry services in the metropolitan area of Amsterdam.

History
The forerunner of the GVB, the Gemeentetram Amsterdam (GTA) (Amsterdam Municipal Tramway), was established on 1 January 1900 by the city after it acquired a number of private companies. The first electric tram ran on 14 August 1900. In 1925, the GTA introduced its first bus line. In 1943, Gemeentetram merged with Gemeenteveren Amsterdam (established in 1897), the municipal ferry company, to form Gemeente Vervoerbedrijf Amsterdam (lit. 'Amsterdam Municipality Transportation Company'). In 1977, the first metro line was introduced.

By 2002, the organization was simply called GVB. In 2007, the GVB became a private corporation under the name GVB Activa B.V., wholly owned by the City of Amsterdam; previously, the GVB was part of the City Of Amsterdam. Between 2006 and 2016, Stadsregio Amsterdam was the authority responsible for all public transport in the greater Amsterdam area; it granted a concession (contract) to the GVB to provide public transport services. In 2010, Stadsregio Amsterdam extended the concession of the GVB for the period 2012–2017, and at the end of 2013, further extended it until 2024. On 1 January 2017, Vervoerregio Amsterdam replaced Stadsregio Amsterdam as the public transport authority for the greater Amsterdam area.

Network
The GVB operates a number of public transportation networks in and around the city of Amsterdam, including:
 * 5 metro lines, partly elevated, no level crossings.
 * 14 tram routes, on street, partly mixed with all other traffic, partly on lanes shared with buses and taxis, and partly on separate lanes.
 * 46 bus routes; buses often mix with other traffic, but sometimes on lanes shared with trams and taxis, or for buses only.
 * 10 Ferry routes across the IJ; at least one is frequent, operating 24 hours a day, free of charge.

The newest metro line is the North/South line, which was opened on 22 July 2018.

Metro

 * (standard gauge)
 * Power: 750V DC (third rail)
 * Amsterdam, Diemen, Ouder-Amstel

Metro routes

 * 50: Isolatorweg – Station Sloterdijk – Station Lelylaan – Station Zuid – Station Bijlmer ArenA – Gein
 * 51: Isolatorweg – Station Sloterdijk – Station Lelylaan – Station Zuid – Amstelstation – Centraal Station
 * 52: Station Zuid – Rokin – Amsterdam Centraal - Station Noord
 * 53: Amsterdam Centraal – Amstelstation – Station Diemen Zuid – Gaasperplas
 * 54: Amsterdam Centraal – Amstelstation – Station Bijlmer ArenA – Gein

Light rail

 * (standard gauge)
 * Power: 600V DC (overhead)
 * Amsterdam, Amstelveen

Former light rail route

 * 51: Amsterdam Centraal – Amstelstation – Station Zuid – Buitenveldert – Amstelveen Westwijk

Until 3 March 2019, line 51 to Amstelveen was a metro service between Central Station and Station Zuid. At Station Zuid it switched from third rail to pantograph and catenary wires. From there to Amstelveen Centrum it shared its track with tram line 5. The light rail vehicles on this line are capable of using both 600V (overhead) and 750V DC (third rail) power supplies.

Tram

 * (standard gauge)
 * Power: 600V DC (overhead)
 * Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Diemen

Tram routes

 * 1: Amsterdam Muiderpoort – Vijzelgracht – Leidseplein – Station Lelylaan – Osdorp De Aker
 * 2: Amsterdam Centraal – Leidsestraat – Hoofddorpplein – Nieuw Sloten
 * 3: Zoutkeetsgracht – Ceintuurbaan – Muiderpoortstation – Flevopark
 * 4: Amsterdam Centraal – Utrechtsestraat – Station RAI
 * 5: Westerpark – Elandsgracht – Leidseplein – Museumplein – Station Zuid – Amstelveen Stadshart
 * 7: Slotermeer – Leidseplein – Azartplein
 * 12: Amsterdam Centraal – Leidseplein – Museumplein – Ceintuurbaan – Amstelstation
 * 13: Amsterdam Centraal – Rozengracht – Geuzenveld
 * 14: Amsterdam Centraal – Dam – Artis Zoo – Flevopark
 * 17: Amsterdam Centraal – Rozengracht – Station Lelylaan – Osdorp Dijkgraafplein
 * 19: Amsterdam Sloterdijk – Bos en Lommer – Elandsgracht – Leidseplein – Vijzelgracht – Diemen Sniep
 * 24: Amsterdam Centraal – Rokin – Vijzelgracht – De Pijp – Ceintuurbaan – VU Medisch Centrum
 * 25: Station Zuid – Buitenveldert – Amstelveen Westwijk
 * 26: Amsterdam Centraal – Piet Heintunnel – IJburg
 * 27: Dijkgraafplein - Surinameplein (This route operates during Weekday AM rush hour only)

Buses
, GVB bus services had 22 regular daytime routes (numbered between 15–68), 8 rush-hour routes (200-series route numbers), 11 night routes (numbered as "N" plus two digits) of which just 2 routes run seven days a week. One route (369) runs between Schiphol Airport and Sloterdijk station (railway and metro connections). Three routes (461, 463, 464) offer free rides to the Gelderlandplein shopping centre in the Buitenveldert neighbourhood of Amsterdam.

, there were 233 buses in the fleet of which 31 were electric.

The busiest bus route as of 2017, is bus route 21, running every 8 minutes or less, seven days a week.

Night bus routes
These routes operate as a hub and spoke model. Hours of operation are extended longer on Saturday and Sunday mornings due to a later start of service for daytime routes.

Ferries
Since 1 July 2013, GVB Veren (veren meaning ferries) has been operating ferry services crossing both the IJ and the North Sea Canal on behalf of the City of Amsterdam. Most of these ferries offer free rides for pedestrians and cyclists. Within the City of Amsterdam, there are seven ferry routes across the IJ, two of which operate overnight. Outside of Amsterdam, the GVB operates three ferry routes across the North Sea Canal at Zaandam, Velsen and Assendelft. The GVB has 19 ferry boats servicing these routes, and is replacing diesel-powered ferries with electrically-operated vessels. The ferries have a maximum speed of 19 kph.

Ferry routes crossing the IJ are:
 * F1: Azartplein to Zamenhofstraat
 * F2: Central Station to IJplein
 * F3: Central Station to Buiksloterweg (24/7 with a 12-minute frequency between 12:00am and 6:24am)
 * F4: Central Station to NDSM
 * F5: Central Station to NDSM via Pontsteiger
 * F6: Pontsteiger to Distelweg
 * F7: Pontsteiger to NDSM
 * F9: Zeeburgereiland to Sporenburg

Ferry routes crossing the North Sea Canal are:
 * F20 Hempontplein to Zaandam
 * F21 Spaarndam to Assendelft (24/7)
 * F22 Velsen Zuid to Velsen Noord (24/7)

Ticketing
The Amsterdam public transport network falls under the National Tariff System of the Netherlands and the GVB has a few of its own tickets, notably the 24-, 48- and 72- hour tickets. The electronic OV-chipkaart has been the only ticketing system valid in the Amsterdam metro since the summer of 2009, and in the rest of the network (tram, bus) since June 2010. Most trams carry conductors, but as they no longer stamp passengers' strippenkaarten their role has been deskilled; it now consists in ensuring security along with selling the occasional OV-chipkaart and optionally announcing the stops.

title: GVB (Amsterdam)


text:
GVB

GVB may refer to:

Companies and organizations

 * Gaither Vocal Band, an American gospel group
 * Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf, a municipal transport company in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Places

 * Garibaldi Volcanic Belt, in British Columbia, Canada
 * Grover Beach (Amtrak station), in Grover Beach, California, United States

Science

 * Generalized valence bond, in chemistry
 * Grapevine virus B, a plant virus

Other uses

 * Giovanni van Bronckhorst, a Dutch football player
 * Girls v. Boys, an American reality television series
 * Godzilla vs. Biollante, a 1989 film
 * Golf license (Dutch: Golfvaardigheidsbewijs), a certification for European golfers

title: GVB


text:
Battery

Battery or batterie most often refers to:

 * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
 * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact

Battery may also refer to:

Energy source

 * Automotive battery, a device to provide power to certain functions of an automobile
 * Battery indicator, a device which gauges the state of charge for electronics
 * Energy storage, including batteries that are not electrochemical
 * List of battery types

Law

 * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of intentional harmful or offensive contact

Military and naval uses

 * Artillery battery, an organized group of artillery pieces
 * Main battery, the primary weapons of a warship
 * Secondary battery (artillery), the smaller guns on a warship
 * Battery, a position of a cartridge in a firearm action

Music

 * Battery (electro-industrial band)
 * Battery (hardcore punk band)
 * "Battery" (song), a song by Metallica from the 1986 album Master of Puppets
 * Drums, which have historically been grouped into ensembles called a battery
 * Drumline, the marching percussion section of a marching ensemble
 * Percussion section, of an orchestra or wind ensemble
 * Battery, a software music sampler by Native Instruments

Other uses in arts and entertainment

 * Battery (chess), a playing tactic
 * Battery (novel series), by Atsuko Asano
 * Battery Records (disambiguation), the name of several record labels
 * The Battery (disambiguation), the name of two films

Places

 * The Battery (Manhattan), or Battery Park, New York, U.S.
 * The Battery (disambiguation), the name of several places
 * Battery Island, Tasmania, Australia
 * Battery Park (disambiguation), the name of several places
 * Battery Point, Tasmania, Australia

Other uses

 * Battery (baseball), the pitcher and catcher collectively
 * Battery, or stamp mill, a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding
 * Battery (drink), a brand of energy drinks in Finland
 * Battery Ventures, an investment firm

title: Battery


text:
Safrole

Safrole is an organic compound with the formula CH2O2C6H3CH2CH=CH2. It is a colorless oily liquid, although impure samples can appear yellow. A member of the phenylpropanoid family of natural products, it is found in sassafras plants, among others. Small amounts are found in a wide variety of plants, where it functions as a natural antifeedant. Ocotea pretiosa, which grows in Brazil, and Sassafras albidum, which grows in eastern North America, are the main natural sources of safrole. It has a characteristic "sweet-shop" aroma.

It is a precursor in the synthesis of the insecticide synergist piperonyl butoxide, the fragrance piperonal via isosafrole, and the empathogenic/entactogenic substance MDMA.

History
Safrole was obtained from a number of plants, but especially from the sassafras tree (Sassafras albidum), which is native to North America, and from Japanese star anise (Illicium anisatum, called shikimi in Japan). In 1844, the French chemist Édouard Saint-Èvre (1817–1879) determined safrole's empirical formula. In 1869, the French chemists Édouard Grimaux (1835–1900) and J. Ruotte investigated and named safrole. They observed its reaction with bromine, suggesting the presence of an allyl group. By 1884, the German chemist Theodor Poleck (1821–1906) suggested that safrole was a derivative of benzene, to which two oxygen atoms were joined as epoxides (cyclic ethers).

In 1885, the Dutch chemist Johann Frederik Eijkman (1851–1915) investigated shikimol, the essential oil that is obtained from Japanese star anise, and he found that, upon oxidation, shikimol formed piperonylic acid, whose basic structure had been determined in 1871 by the German chemist Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig (1835–1910) and his student, the American chemist Ira Remsen (1846–1927). Thus Eijkman inferred the correct basic structure for shikimol. He also noted that shikimol and safrole had the same empirical formula and had other similar properties, and thus he suggested that they were probably identical. In 1886, Poleck showed that upon oxidation, safrole also formed piperonylic acid, and thus shikimol and safrole were indeed identical. It remained to be determined whether the molecule's C3H5 group was a propenyl group (R−CH=CH−CH3) or an allyl group (R−CH2−CH=CH2). In 1888, the German chemist Julius Wilhelm Brühl (1850–1911) determined that the C3H5 group was an allyl group.

Natural occurrence
Safrole is the principal component of brown camphor oil made from Ocotea pretiosa, a plant growing in Brazil, and sassafras oil made from Sassafras albidum.

In the US, commercially available culinary sassafras oil is usually devoid of safrole due to a rule passed by the U.S. FDA in 1960.

Safrole can be obtained through natural extraction from Sassafras albidum and Ocotea cymbarum. Sassafras oil for example is obtained by steam distillation of the root bark of the sassafras tree. The resulting steam distilled product contains about 90% safrole by weight. The oil is dried by mixing it with a small amount of anhydrous calcium chloride. After filtering-off the calcium chloride, the oil is vacuum distilled at 100 °C under a vacuum of 11 mmHg or frozen to crystallize the safrole out. This technique works with other oils in which safrole is present as well.

Safrole is typically extracted from the root-bark or the fruit of Sassafras albidum (native to eastern North America) in the form of sassafras oil, or from Ocotea odorifera, a Brazilian species. Safrole is also present in certain essentials oils and in brown camphor oil, which is present in small amounts in many plants. Safrole can be found in anise, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper. Safrole can be detected in undiluted liquid beverages and pharmaceutical preparations by high-performance liquid chromatography.

Applications
Safrole is a member of the methylenedioxybenzene group, of which many compounds are used as insecticide synergists; for example, safrole is used as a precursor in the synthesis of the insecticide piperonyl butoxide. Safrole is also used as a precursor in the synthesis of the drug ecstasy (MDMA, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine). Before safrole was banned by the US FDA in 1960 for use in food, it was used as a food flavor for its characteristic ‘candy-shop’ aroma. It was used as an additive in root beer, chewing gum, toothpaste, soaps, and certain pharmaceutical preparations.

Safrole exhibits antibiotic and anti-angiogenic functions.

Synthesis
It can be synthesized from catechol first by conversion to methylenedioxybenzene, which is brominated and coupled with allyl bromide.

Safrole is a versatile precursor to many compounds. Examples are N-acylarylhydrazones, isosters, aryl-sulfonamide derivatives, acidic sulfonylhydrazone derivatives, benzothiazine derivatives. and many more.

Isosafrole
Isosafrole is produced synthetically from safrole. It is not found in nature. Isosafrole comes in two forms, trans-isosafrole and cis-isosafrole. Isosafrole is used as a precursor for the psychoactive drug MDMA (ecstasy). When safrole is metabolized several metabolites can be identified. Some of these metabolites have been shown to exhibit toxicological effects, such as 1′-hydroxysafrole and 3′-hydroxysafrole in rats. Further metabolites of safrole that have been found in urine of both rats and humans include 1,2-dihydroxy-4-allylbenzene or 1(2)-methoxy-2(1)hydroxy-4-allylbenzene.

Metabolism
Safrole can undergo many forms of metabolism. The two major routes are the oxidation of the allyl side chain and the oxidation of the methylenedioxy group. The oxidation of the allyl side chain is mediated by a cytochrome P450 complex, which will transform safrole into 1′-hydroxysafrole. The newly formed 1′-hydroxysafrole will undergo a phase II drug metabolism reaction with a sulfotransferase enzyme to create 1′-sulfoxysafrole, which can cause DNA adducts. A different oxidation pathway of the allyl side chain can form safrole epoxide. So far, this has only been found in rats and guinea pigs. The formed epoxide is a small metabolite due to the slow formation and further metabolism of the compound. An epoxide hydratase enzyme will act on the epoxide to form dihydrodiol, which can be secreted in urine.

The metabolism of safrole through the oxidation of the methylenedioxy proceeds via the cleavage of the methylenedioxy group. This results in two major metabolites: allylcatechol and its isomer, propenylcatechol. Eugenol is a minor metabolite of safrole in humans, mice, and rats. The intact allyl side chain of allylcatechol may then be oxidized to yield 2′,3′-epoxypropylcatechol. This can serve as a substrate for an epoxide hydratase enzyme, and will hydrate the 2′,3′-epoxypropylcatechol to 2′,3′-dihydroxypropylcatechol. This new compound can be oxidized to form propionic acid (PPA), which is a substance that is related to an increase in oxidative stress and glutathione S-transferase activity. PPA also causes a decrease in glutathione and Glutathione peroxidase activity. The epoxide of allylcatechol may also be generated from the cleavage of the methylenedioxy group of the safrole epoxide. The cleavage of the methylenedioxy ring and the metabolism of the allyl group involve hepatic microsomal mixed-function oxidases.

Toxicity
Toxicological studies have shown that safrole is a weak hepatocarcinogen at higher doses in rats and mice. Safrole requires metabolic activation before exhibiting toxicological effects. Metabolic conversion of the allyl group in safrole is able to produce intermediates which are directly capable of binding covalently with DNA and proteins. Metabolism of the methylenedioxy group to a carbene allows the molecule to form ligand complexes with cytochrome P450 and P448. The formation of this complex leads to lower amounts of available free cytochrome P450. Safrole can also directly bind to cytochrome P450, leading to competitive inhibition. These two mechanisms result in lowered mixed function oxidase activity.

Furthermore, because of the altered structural and functional properties of cytochrome P450, loss of ribosomes which are attached to the endoplasmatic reticulum through cytochrome P450 may occur. The allyl group thus directly contributes to mutagenicity, while the methylenedioxy group is associated with changes in the cytochrome P450 system and epigenetic aspects of carcinogenicity. In rats, safrole and related compounds produced both benign and malignant tumors after intake through the mouth. Changes in the liver are also observed through the enlargement of liver cells and cell death.

In the United States, it was once widely used as a food additive in root beer, sassafras tea, and other common goods, but was banned for human consumption by the FDA after studies in the 1960s suggested that safrole was carcinogenic, causing permanent liver damage in rats;  food products sold there purporting to contain sassafras instead contain a safrole-free sassafras extract. Safrole is also banned for use in soap and perfumes by the International Fragrance Association.

According to a 1977 study of the metabolites of safrole in both rats and humans, two carcinogenic metabolites of safrole found in the urine of rats, 1′-hydroxysafrole and 3′-hydroxyisosafrole, were not found in human urine. The European Commission on Health and consumer protection assumes safrole to be genotoxic and carcinogenic. It occurs naturally in a variety of spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and black pepper, and herbs such as basil. In that role, safrole, like many naturally-occurring compounds, may have a small but measurable ability to induce cancer in rodents. Despite this, the effects in humans were estimated by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to be similar to risks posed by breathing indoor air or drinking municipally supplied water.

Adverse effects
Besides being a hepatocarcinogen, safrole exhibits further adverse effects in that it will induce the formation of hepatic lipid hydroperoxides. Safrole also inhibits the defensive function of neutrophils against bacteria. In addition to the inhibition of the defensive function of neutrophils, it has also been discovered that safrole interferes with the formation of superoxides by neutrophils. Furthermore, safrole oxide, a metabolite of safrole, has a negative effect on the central nervous system. Safrole oxide inhibits the expression of integrin β4/SOD, which leads to apoptosis of the nerve cells.

Use in MDMA manufacture
Safrole is listed as a Table I precursor under the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Due to their role in the manufacture of MDMA, safrole, isosafrole, and piperonal are Category I precursors under regulation no. 273/2004 of the European Community. In the United States, safrole is currently a List I chemical.

The root bark of American sassafras contains a low percentage of steam-volatile oil, which is typically 75% safrole. Attempts to refine safrole from sassafras bark in mass quantities are generally not economically viable due to low yield and high effort. However, smaller quantities can be extracted quite easily via steam distillation (about 10% of dry sassafras root bark by mass, or about 2% of fresh bark). Demand for safrole is causing rapid and illicit harvesting of the Cinnamomum parthenoxylon tree in Southeast Asia, in particular the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia. However, it is not clear what proportion of illicitly harvested safrole is going toward MDMA production, as over 90% of the global safrole supply (about 2,000 t per year) is used to manufacture pesticides, fragrances, and other chemicals. Sustainable harvesting of safrole is possible from leaves and stems of certain plants, including the roots of camphor seedlings.

title: Safrole


text:
User:Secretlondon/Useful Stuff

Useful links

 * List of Life Peers
 * UK government portal
 * UK foreign office
 * rulers.org
 * electionworld.org

title: User:Secretlondon/Useful Stuff


text:
Lena (river)

The Lena is a river in the Russian Far East, and is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean (the other two being the Ob and the Yenisey). The Lena is the eleventh-longest river in the world, and the longest river entirely within Russia, with a length of 4,294 km and a drainage basin of 2,490,000 km2. Permafrost underlies most of the catchment, 77% of which is continuous.

Course
Originating at an elevation of 1640 meters at its source in the Baikal Mountains south of the Central Siberian Plateau, 7 km west of Lake Baikal, the Lena flows northeast across the Lena-Angara Plateau, being joined by the Kirenga, Vitim and Olyokma. From Yakutsk it enters the Central Yakutian Lowland and flows north until joined by its right-hand tributary the Aldan and its most important left-hand tributary, the Vilyuy. After that, it bends westward and northward, flowing between the Kharaulakh Range, part of the Verkhoyansk Range, in the east and the Chekanovsky Ridge in the west. Making its way nearly due north it expands into a large delta and ends in the Laptev Sea, a division of the Arctic Ocean, south-west of the New Siberian Islands. The Lena Delta is 30000 km2 in area, being traversed by seven main branches, the most important being the Bykovsky channel, farthest east.

Basin
The area of the Lena river basin is calculated at 2490000 km2 and the mean annual discharge is 489 cubic kilometers per year. Gold is washed out of the sands of the Vitim and the Olyokma, and mammoth tusks have been dug out of the delta. There are numerous lakes in the floodplain of the river. Lakes Nedzheli and Ulakhan-Kyuel are the largest in the basin of the Lena.

Tributaries
The Kirenga flows north between the upper Lena River and Lake Baikal. The Vitim drains the area northeast of Lake Baikal. The Olyokma flows north. The Amga makes a long curve southeast and parallel to the Lena and flows into the Aldan. The Aldan also curves roughly parallel to the Lena until it turns east and flows into the Lena north of Yakutsk. The Maya, a tributary of the Aldan, drains an area almost to the Sea of Okhotsk. The T-shaped Chona-Vilyuy system drains most of the area to the west.

The main tributaries of the Lena are, from source to mouth:

 * Tutura (right)
 * Ilga (left)
 * Kuta (left)
 * Tayura (right)
 * Kirenga (right)
 * Pilyuda (left)
 * Chechuy (right)
 * Ichera (left)
 * Chaya (right)
 * Chuya (right)
 * Vitim (right)
 * Peleduy (left)
 * Nyuya (left)
 * Derba (left)
 * Ura (left)
 * Bolshoy Patom (right)
 * Cherendey (left)
 * Biryuk (left)
 * Olyokma (right)
 * Chara
 * Markha (left)
 * Markhachan (left)
 * Tuolba (right)
 * Sinyaya (left)
 * Buotama (right)
 * Menda (right)
 * Myla (right)
 * Tamma (right)
 * Lyutenge (right)
 * Suola (right)
 * Aldan (right)
 * Batamay (right)
 * Belyanka (right)
 * Munni
 * Lyapiske (right)
 * Tympylykan (left)
 * Dyanyshka (right)
 * Tyugyuene (left)
 * Sitte (left)
 * Khanchaly (left)
 * Kenkeme (left)
 * Lungkha (left)
 * Namana (left)
 * Vilyuy (left)
 * Chona
 * Linde (left)
 * Undyulyung (right)
 * Nuora (left)
 * Begidyan (right)
 * Khoruongka (left)
 * Sobolokh-Mayan (right)
 * Kyuelenke (left)
 * Muna (left)
 * Menkere (right)
 * Motorchuna (left)
 * Molodo (left)
 * Syungyude
 * Natara (right)
 * Uel-Siktyakh (right)
 * Kuranakh-Siktyakh (right)
 * Byosyuke (right)
 * Tikyan (right)
 * Eyekit (left)
 * Bulkur (left)

History
It is commonly believed that the Lena derives its name from the original Even-Evenk name Elyu-Ene, which means "the Large River". According to folktales related a century later, in the years 1620–1623 a party of Russian fur hunters under the leadership of Demid Pyanda sailed up Nizhnyaya Tunguska, discovered the Lena, and either carried their boats there or built new ones. In 1623 Pyanda explored some 2400 km of the river from its upper reaches to the central Yakutia. In 1628 Vasily Bugor and 10 men reached the Lena, collected 'yasak' (tribute) from the 'natives' and then founded Kirinsk in 1632. In 1631 the voyevoda of Yeniseysk sent Pyotr Beketov and 20 men to construct a fortress at Yakutsk (founded in 1632). From Yakutsk other expeditions spread out to the south and east. The Lena delta was reached in 1633.

Two of the three groups of survivors of the ill-fated Jeannette expedition reached Lena Delta in September, 1881. The one led by engineer George W. Melville was rescued by native Tungus huntsmen. Of the group led by Captain George W. De Long, only two of the men survived; the others died of starvation.

Baron Eduard Von Toll, accompanied by Alexander von Bunge, led an expedition that explored the Lena delta and the islands of New Siberia on behalf of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences in 1885. In 1886 they investigated the New Siberian Islands and the Yana River and its tributaries. During one year and two days the expedition covered 25000 km, of which 4200 km were up rivers, carrying out geodesic surveys en route.

The Lena massacre was the name given to the 1912 shooting-down of striking goldminers and local citizens who protested at the working conditions in the mine near Bodaybo in northern Irkutsk. The incident was reported in the Duma (parliament) by Kerensky and is credited with stimulating revolutionary feeling in Russia.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov may have taken his alias, Lenin, from the river Lena, when he was exiled to the Central Siberian Plateau.

Delta

At the end of the Lena River there is a large delta that extends 100 km into the Laptev Sea and is about 400 km wide. The delta is frozen tundra for about seven months of the year, but in May the region is transformed into a lush wetland for a few months. Part of the area is protected as the Lena Delta Wildlife Reserve.

The Lena delta divides into a multitude of flat islands. The most important are (from west to east): Chychas Aryta, Petrushka, Sagastyr, Samakh Ary Diyete, Turkan Bel'keydere, Sasyllakh Ary, Kolkhoztakh Bel'keydere, Grigoriy Diyelyakh Bel'kee (Grigoriy Islands), Nerpa Uolun Aryta, Misha Bel'keydere, Atakhtay Bel'kedere, Arangastakh, Urdiuk Pastakh Bel'key, Agys Past' Aryta, Dallalakh Island, Otto Ary, Ullakhan Ary and Orto Ues Aryta.

Turukannakh-Kumaga is a long and narrow island off the Lena delta's western shore.

One of the Lena delta islands, Ostrov Amerika-Kuba-Aryta or Ostrov Kuba-Aryta, was named after the island of Cuba during Soviet times. It is on the northern edge of the delta.

Fish
As Lena is located at remote and undeveloped regions of the Russian Far East, its fish resource is very well preserved. Some of the species found in the river include: Siberian taimen, Siberian sturgeon, Upper Yenisei grayling.

title: Lena (river)


text:
Leighton Buzzard

Leighton Buzzard is a market town in Bedfordshire, England, in the southwest of the county and close to the Buckinghamshire border. It lies between Aylesbury, Tring, Luton/Dunstable and Milton Keynes, near the Chiltern Hills.

It is 36 mi northwest of Central London and linked to the capital by the Grand Union Canal and the West Coast Main Line. The built-up area extends on either side of the River Ouzel (here about 2 metres wide) to include its historically separate neighbour Linslade, and is administered by Leighton-Linslade Town Council.

Foundation and development
It is unclear when the town was initially founded, although some historians believe that there may have been settlement in the area from as early as 571. There are a number of theories concerning the derivation of the town's name: ‘Leighton’ came from Old English Lēah-tūn, meaning 'farm in a clearing in the woods', and one version of the addition of ‘Buzzard’ was that it was added by the Dean of Lincoln, in whose diocese the town lay in the 12th century, from Beau-desert. Another version is that having two communities called ‘Leighton’ and seeking some means of differentiating them the Dean added the name of his local Prebendary or representative to that of the town. At that time it was Theobald de Busar and so over the years the town became known as Leighton Buzzard. The other Leighton became Leighton Bromswold. In the Domesday Book of 1086, Leighton Buzzard and Linslade were both called Leestone. A further variation may be seen in a legal record of 1424, where "William Dagenale of Leytun Busherd, Beds" appears as a defendant. Leighton Buzzard developed into a thriving market town supported by good road, canal and, later, rail links to the agricultural hinterland and London. The town's market charter was granted in 1086 and is still active today. The town's high street is home to numerous historical buildings, more than 70 of which are listed. They include the notable Bank Building on the Market Square (now home to Barclays Bank), designed by the eminent architect Alfred Waterhouse, designer of London's Natural History Museum, London. They also include the Old Town Hall, later used as a fire station and now as a restaurant.

Rothschild family
The town has had a long association with the Rothschild family, since Lionel de Rothschild bought neighbouring farmlands to the west of the town in 1873. Over time the farm developed into the Ascott House estate located less than 2 mi from the town. In the late 19th century, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild used the now demolished Leighton House and its stabling, on the High Street, as a hunting box. The family still maintain links with the town through their ownership of Southcourt Stud in Southcote.

Non-conformism
The town has a strong history of dissenters and is home to one of the oldest Friends meeting houses in the region. Established in the 18th century, local Quakers continue to meet in the Meeting House on North Street.

Poor law union
After the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 Leighton Buzzard became the centre of a poor law union that consisted of 15 surrounding parishes with the union workhouse (still standing) being sited in Grovebury Road.

Leighton Buzzard Isolation Hospital
In 1847, additional land was obtained adjacent to the workhouse on which to build an isolation hospital. It had twenty beds over three wards, one each for patients with Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever and Typhoid. Jane Sarah Downer was appointed Nurse-Matron of the Isolation Hospital in 1899, and worked there until at least 1911. Downer had trained under Eva Luckes at The London Hospital between 1895 and 1897, and then worked on the Private Nursing Staff for one year, before her appointment as Matron in Leighton Buzzard.

World War II
During World War II, RAF Leighton Buzzard, a secret communications facility described as "the largest telephone exchange in the world", was located to the south of Stanbridge Road. Also the headquarters of No. 60 Group RAF, which controlled the air defence radar network across Britain, operated from Oxenden House (now demolished) off Plantation Road.

The Great Train Robbery
The Great Train Robbery took place in 1963 at Bridego Bridge just outside Leighton Buzzard. The robbers were held at the Old Police Station on Wing Road Linslade while waiting to be seen by the local magistrate after being captured a month after the robbery.

Leighton Buzzard station was the location for part of the film Robbery, which is based on the ‘Great Train Robbery’.

Telephone exchange
The UK's first and only TXE1 electronic telephone exchange went into service here in 1968. The large building, built on the site of the former Lake House, that housed this and later exchanges, can be found in Lake Street.

Expansion
The population of Leighton-Linslade was originally recorded in the 2001 census as 32,417. Part of Billington parish was transferred in 2003 to Leighton-Linslade, and the revised census result including this area was 32,753. At the 2011 census, the population of the Leighton-Linslade built-up area was recorded by the Office for National Statistics as 37,469, and was estimated to have reached 43,203 in 2020.

The town is expanding southwards, with the development of sites in southern Leighton Buzzard through the Southern Leighton Buzzard Development Brief. It is also expanding eastwards, with several developments forming the Eastern Leighton Linslade Urban Extension Scheme.

Places of interest
The town is home to the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway, a narrow gauge heritage railway, one of England's longest at just under 3 mi long and oldest narrow-gauge lines, with an extensive collection of locomotives and rolling stock.

The Grand Union Canal runs through the town, alongside the River Ouzel.

All Saints' Church, an Early English parish church dating from 1277. The church is the starting point for the annual Wilkes Walk, described as "a curious procession of the church choir, clergy, and churchwardens across town to the alms houses in North Street." The church was damaged by fire in the 1980s, but has since undergone restoration.

The town has a combined library and theatre (called the Library Theatre) where both live events and film screenings are regularly held.

Rushmere Country Park and Stockgrove Country Park are in nearby Heath and Reach. The National Trust-operated country home Ascott House is located 2 mi from the town in neighbouring Buckinghamshire.

Transport

Leighton Buzzard is close to the M1 motorway and A5 road, and is served by London Northwestern Railway services on the West Coast Main Line railway at Leighton Buzzard railway station (in Linslade). The railway operates non-stop commuting services to Euston railway station, with the fastest journey times at 30 minutes.

The majority of Leighton Buzzard's bus services are operated by Arriva Shires & Essex. Services F70 and F77 provide a direct bus rapid transit service to Milton Keynes and Luton via the Luton to Dunstable Busway, with an onward connection to Luton Airport Arriva also operate the X4 service through the town between Aylesbury and Milton Keynes, as well as several local town services. Z&S and Red Rose also operate bus services into Leighton Buzzard which serve local estates and surrounding villages.

Economy
Leighton Buzzard is now home to several UK head offices for national and international firms. Connells Group, the estate agents' chains, have their head offices in the town, as do the UK operations of Tupperware and Grundfos. FTSE 250 company Rightmove had their first ever office in the town, which at the time consisted of just 25 employees. Leighton Buzzard is also home to the Vinci SA Technology Centre, where technology for London's new Crossrail stations was tested. Since 2014, the town has had its own brewery.

The town has a sizeable sand quarrying industry, with good enough quality 'building' sand to export to Egypt. The town is, or has at one time been, the home to various other industries including B/E Aerospace (Aircraft Interiors), Polyformes, Lipton Tea which has now closed down, Gossard clothing, and Lancer Boss (forklifts, etc.).

Governance
Leighton Buzzard is in the civil parish of Leighton-Linslade, in the Central Bedfordshire district. Historically, Leighton Buzzard was a civil parish in its own right: in 1961, its parish had a population of 11,745. On 1 April 1965 the parish was merged with Linslade to form "Leighton Linslade".

Sport
Leighton Buzzard is represented by the sporting teams of Leighton Town F.C. who play football in the Spartan South Midlands Football League. Also at the Bell Close Site are Leighton Buzzard Tennis Club who have been a part of the town since the 1930s. Leighton Buzzard Hockey Club established in 1901, play field hockey and run 4 Men's and 4 Ladies teams of all ability. The Men's teams play in the South Hockey League and the Ladies teams play in the 5 Counties Hockey League. Leighton Buzzard Hockey Club also have junior sides; starting age of 5. Leighton Buzzard R.F.C. play rugby union in South West 1 East and the Ladies rugby team play in NC South East North 2.

Leighton Buzzard Golf Club was established in 1925 and there is also an active running club, Leighton Buzzard Athletics Club. Established in 2011 Leighton Buzzard Road Cycling Club is a cycling club for riders of all abilities. Their race team LBRCC-Solgar compete in local, as well as national, cycling events. Established in 2000, Leighton Linslade Croquet Club, a member of the Croquet Association, have three croquet lawns in Pages Park next to the pavilion.

A greyhound racing track was opened by the Leighton Buzzard Greyhound Racing Association. The track which was located on Bridge Meadows, a flood plain and wharfage between the Grand Union Canal and the River Ouze, south of Bridge Street and is believed to have opened during 1931. The racing was independent (not affiliated to the sports governing body the National Greyhound Racing Club) known as a flapping track, which was the nickname given to independent tracks. The date of closure is not known.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia.

Local radio stations are BBC Three Counties Radio on 103.8 FM, Heart East on 97.6 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Bucks, Beds and Herts (formerly Mix 96) on 96.2 FM.

The Leighton Buzzard Observer is the town's local newspaper.

Lower schools

 * Beaudesert Lower School – Apennine Way
 * Clipstone Brook Lower School – Brooklands Drive
 * Greenleas School – Derwent Road
 * Greenleas School, Sandhills – Kestrel Way
 * Dovery Down Lower School – Heath Road
 * Heathwood Lower School – Heath Road
 * Leedon Lower School – Highfield Road
 * Linslade Lower School – Leopold Road
 * Mary Bassett Lower School – Bassett Road
 * Pulford VA C of E Lower School – Pulford Road
 * The Rushmere Park Academy – East Street
 * St Leonard's (Heath & Reach) V A Lower School – Thrift Road
 * Southcott Lower School – Bideford Green

Middle schools

 * Brooklands Middle School – a school near the south east edge of the town.
 * Gilbert Inglefield Academy – next door to Vandyke Upper School.
 * Leighton Middle School – in the centre of the town, Mary Norton, who wrote 'The Borrowers' books, lived there in her childhood.
 * Linslade School (Middle) – Situated over the road from Cedars.

Upper schools

 * Cedars Upper School – Located on the west edge of town, in Linslade, adjoined to Tiddenfoot Leisure Centre. Cedars was once a grammar school.
 * Vandyke Upper School – Situated on the east edge of town, on Vandyke Road.

Other schools

 * Oak Bank School – located on Sandy Lane.

Further education

 * Central Bedfordshire College has a campus near the town centre of Leighton Buzzard.

Twin towns
Leighton Buzzard was twinned with Coulommiers in France in 1958. The twinning was renewed in 1982. It was also twinned with Titisee-Neustadt in Germany in 1991.

Notable people

 * William Sclater (1575–1626), an English clergyman and controversialist.
 * George Felt (1601–ca.1693), a founder of Charlestown, Massachusetts
 * Edward Backwell (ca.1618–1683), a goldsmith-banker and politician.
 * Samuel Claridge (1828–1919), early settler of the Muddy River Valley in Nevada and Thatcher, Arizona.
 * Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898), lived in Leighton House in the High Street before building and moving to Waddesdon Manor.
 * Christian Tindall CIE (1878–1951), officer in the Indian Civil Service and first-class cricketer.
 * Jim Kempster (1900–1945), an international speedway rider.
 * Mary Norton (1903–1992), children's writer, famous for The Borrowers series, was brought up in The Cedars on the High Street now Leighton Middle School. The building now hosts a blue plaque in commemoration.
 * Fred Hartley (1905–1980), Scottish pianist and composer of light music, died at his home, 3 Pulford Road in April 1980.
 * Philip O'Connor (1916–1998), writer and surrealist poet, was born in the town.
 * Sir Nicholas Cosmo Bonsor, 4th Baronet, DL (1942–2023), a Conservative politician.
 * Rusty Goffe (born 1948), actor, lives in the town.
 * The Barron Knights (formed 1959) a humorous pop rock group were formed in the town.
 * Louise Dearman (born 1979), who played Glinda in the West End production of Wicked, was brought up in Leighton Buzzard, attending Linslade Middle School and Cedars Upper School.
 * Kajagoogoo (founded 1978), a new wave band, were formed in the town.
 * Charlotte Dujardin CBE (born 1985), triple Olympic gold medallist was brought up in the town and attended Vandyke Upper School.
 * Martin O'Donnell (born 1986), internationally ranked professional snooker player lives in the town with his family.

Climate
Leighton Buzzard experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.

title: Leighton Buzzard


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Pickering

Pickering may refer to:

Antarctica

 * Pickering Nunataks, Alexander Island

Australia

 * Pickering, South Australia, the original name (1872–1940) of the town of Wool Bay
 * Pickering Brook, Western Australia, Australia

Canada

 * Pickering, Ontario
 * Pickering Village, Ontario

England

 * Pickering, North Yorkshire
 * Pickering Beck, North Yorkshire
 * Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire
 * Lake Pickering, a former lake

United States

 * Pickering, Missouri
 * Pickerington, Ohio
 * Pickering, Pennsylvania
 * Pickering Township, Bottineau County, North Dakota
 * Mount Pickering, California
 * Pickering Creek, Pennsylvania, a tributary of the Schuylkill River
 * Pickering Passage, Washington, a strait
 * Fort Pickering, Massachusetts, a 17th-century fort on the National Register of Historic Places
 * Fort Pickering (Memphis, Tennessee), a Confederate fort in the American Civil War

Outer space

 * Pickering (lunar crater)
 * Pickering (Martian crater)

People and fictional characters

 * Pickering (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
 * Pickering Phipps, three related people in England in the 18th to 20th centuries

Schools

 * Pickering College, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
 * Pickering High School (disambiguation), several schools in various countries

Sports

 * Pickering FC, a Canadian soccer team
 * Pickering Panthers, a Junior "A" ice hockey team from Pickering, Ontario, Canada
 * Pickering Town F.C., an English football team

Other uses

 * Pickering's Defense, a chess opening
 * USS Pickering (1798), an American schooner
 * Pickering House (disambiguation), several houses
 * Pickering Operations Complex, a skyscraper on Pickering Street in Singapore
 * Pickering Interfaces, a British test and measurement company
 * Pickering and Company, an American phonograph cartridge manufacturer, predecessor of Stanton Magnetics
 * Pickering baronets, two extinct titles, one in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia, the other in the Baronetage of England
 * Pickering Medal, a New Zealand honour for promoting commercial success

title: Pickering


text:
Demetrius the Cynic

Demetrius (Δημήτριος; fl. 1st century), a Cynic philosopher from Corinth, who lived in Rome during the reigns of Caligula, Nero and Vespasian (37–71 AD).

Biography
Demetrius was the intimate friend of Seneca, who wrote about him often, and who describes him as the perfect man: "Demetrius, who seems to have been placed by nature in our times that he might prove that we could neither corrupt him nor be corrected by him; a man of consummate wisdom, though he himself disclaimed it, constant to the principles which he professed, of an eloquence worthy to deal with the mightiest subjects, scorning mere prettinesses and verbal niceties, but expressing with infinite spirit, the ideas which inspired it. I doubt not that he was endowed by divine providence with so pure a life and such power of speech in order that our age might neither be without a model nor a reproach."

His contempt for worldly riches is shown by his reply to Caligula who, wishing to corrupt him, offered him two hundred thousand sesterces. Demetrius replied, "If he meant to tempt me, he ought to have tried to do so by offering his entire kingdom."

He was also a friend of Thrasea Paetus and was with him when Thrasea was condemned to death (66 AD). We hear of him again in the reign of Vespasian (c. 70 AD), when, curiously, he defended Publius Egnatius Celer against the charges brought against him by Musonius Rufus. He was exiled from Rome in 71 AD, by Vespasian, along with all other philosophers.

Demetrius is sometimes identified with the Demetrius of Sunium mentioned by Lucian. However, Demetrius was a very common name in the Roman world, and Demetrius of Sunium was probably, (but not certainly), a different, later Cynic.

Quotations of Demetrius

 * "An easy existence, untroubled by the attacks of Fortune is a Dead Sea"
 * "The talk of the ignorant is like the rumblings which issue from the belly."

title: Demetrius the Cynic


text:
Demetrius of Alopece

Demetrius of Alopece (Δημήτριος) was a Greek sculptor of the early part of the 4th century BC, who is said by ancient critics to have been notable for the lifelike realism of his statues. His portrait of Pellichus, a Corinthian general, "with fat paunch and bald head, wearing a cloak which leaves him half exposed, with some of the hairs of his head flowing in the wind, and prominent veins", was admired by Lucian. He was contrasted with Cresilas, an idealizing sculptor of the generation before. Since, however, the peculiarities mentioned by Lucian do not appear in Greek portraits before the 3rd century BC, and since the Greek art of the 4th century consistently idealizes the images concerned, there would seem to be a difficulty to explain.

The date of Demetrius given above is confirmed by inscriptions found on the Athenian Acropolis.

title: Demetrius of Alopece


text:
User:RowdyRhodes

Currently (Nov, 2003) I am the Site Manager at [|The Freelance Writing Organization - Int'l] [] which is "Home To One Of The World's Largest Free Writing Resource Links Databases".

I am also a freelance writer, somewhat of a poet at times, and primarily spend most of my time working on the internet.

A born and raised Torontonian, (that's Toronto, Canada) I am a big city "boy" with extensive background in business administration and operations, advertising, micro computers, web site design and development.

Free time is spent with my Yoko or at my local coffee shop hanging out with the "guys". Having lived in the same area all of my life, although I have travelled extensively throughout the world, allows me to have a real sense of local community and neighbourhood commraderie.

title: User:RowdyRhodes


text:
Tom Servo

Tom Servo is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). Tom is one of two wise-cracking, robotic main characters of the show, built by Joel Robinson to act as a companion and help stave off madness as he was forced to watch low-quality films (Tom and the other bots, Crow, Gypsy, and Cambot, are made from parts that would have otherwise allowed Joel to actually control the film). At least during the Comedy Central era, he was somewhat more mature than his theatre companion, Crow T. Robot. Tom, more often than the others, signals the need to exit the theater to perform host segments.

Overview
Tom Servo is a red puppet that has a gumball machine (Carousel Executive Snack Dispenser) for a head, a body composed of a toy "Money Lover Barrel" coin bank and a toy car engine block, and a bowl-shaped hovercraft skirt (a Halloween "Boo Bowl") instead of legs. His arm assembly (according to the 1998 MST3K Official Bot Builders Booklet Workbench Edition) is from a Mr Moonie doll. Mr Moonie (sometimes known as "Seymour Bunz" or "C More Bunz") was a gag doll popular during the time of filming, usually found suction cupped to people's car windows to moon other drivers. The doll would drop its pants and moon people when a rubber bladder was squeezed. The entire assembly, including the rubber bladder, were kept intact when installed into Tom's barrel body. The hands were apparently from a clown or hobo doll figure, but are now made from a mold. The springs were custom made by a local manufacturer, which were attached with glue to the wrists and arms. His arms would spring up and down whenever the clear balloon inside was gripped by Kevin, as shown in pictures from The Colossal Episode Guide or The Scrapbook tape. The Patrick Swayze Christmas segment shows Kevin in the puppet trench working Tom Servo with bladder in each hand. Although the other characters comment occasionally throughout the series that his arms are not functional, they actually do move up and down due to the Mr Moonie doll bladder inside Tom, and can be seen moving up and down in a fair few episodes as early as season 2. His shoulders are made from the front of an Eveready Floating Lantern. Because Servo's head is transparent, chromakeyed images appear projected through it, and thus a second puppet was built for use in the theater segments, entirely spray-painted black. This black Servo also appeared in a host segment in episode #609, "The Skydivers". Tom moves about by hovering. In seasons one through ten he is unable to hover much higher than the ground, however in season eleven (and briefly in the film version) he is capable of hovering at apparently any height and with great agility. In episode #413 "Manhunt in Space" it is revealed that Servo suffers from red-green colorblindness.

Servo's appearance has changed over time. In the pilot for MST3K, the robot who would become Servo was named "Beeper", who just spoke in beeps that only Crow could understand (similar to R2-D2 and C-3PO from the Star Wars films). He was an all-silver robot vaguely shaped like the ultimate Servo, with funnel-shaped shoulders, silver rubber tube arms, a plastic flowerpot for a hoverskirt, and a small fishbowl for a head. He was renamed 'Servo' after a vending machine called the Servotron. The character was absent in K01: Invaders from the Deep, but re-appeared again for the remainder of the KTMA series as the now-familiar Servo puppet with the gumball machine head in K02: Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars.

In Season 1 on the Comedy Channel, he was given a red color, longer black tube arms, squared white shoulders, a different hoverskirt, and the Carousel Snack Dispenser gumball machine head with a white beak. Around episode 105: The Corpse Vanishes, Servo's head was replaced with a slightly modified version of his "Carousel" head. The "neck" was slightly wider and the beak (now silver at this point) appeared smaller. This version of Servo's head would be used for the remainder of Season 1. For Season 2, the black tubing used for his arms was replaced by a pair of small silver springs and the more familiar Carousel Dispenser head design (KTMA/pre episode 105) returned with a silver beak. This physical form was pretty much the same throughout the remainder of the series, save for a brief flirtation (during episodes #205: Rocket Attack USA and #206: Ring of Terror) with a slim cylindrical gumball-machine head to try to reduce the screen area Servo's head obscured. It was introduced as a "haircut" that Joel gave Servo, but was quickly abandoned. By mid season 3 an extra cap from another Carousel Dispenser was added just below the "bubble" making Tom's head appear slightly taller and slimmer. Briefly in early season 4, Servo's white hands were changed to beige before returning to white after only a few episodes. During a host segment in the Sci-Fi era, he briefly acquired the body of a "beautiful butterfly." Servo's voice and personality also changed during the show's early years. While Josh Weinstein operated Servo during the KTMA season, Servo originally spoke with a sleazy, Bullwinkle-type voice in episode K02 (the earliest seen of the regular Servo puppet), then a rather slow squeaky voice from K03–K05, and was somewhat immobile during host segments but oddly very active in the theater. In episode K06, Weinstein switched to a lower voice that Servo repeatedly proclaimed as his new "MIGHTY VOICE!" When Weinstein left at the end of Season 1, Kevin Murphy took over Servo's operation and tried to match Weinstein's Servo voice and personality, but gradually developed a somewhat new Servo sound and character (though Murphy has a fairly deep voice himself). This was explained as tinkering by Joel. During Murphy's tenure, Servo took many opportunities to showcase his excellent singing. He also has an extensive underwear collection (as seen in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie), as well as a large number of duplicates of himself that he made in episode #420: The Human Duplicators (also seen in episode #612: The Starfighters, episode #910: The Touch of Satan, episode #913: Quest of the Delta Knights, episode #1003: Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, episode #1004: Future War, and episode #1013: Diabolik). Female Servo duplicates were featured in The Touch of Satan and Quest of the Delta Knights.

Whenever a member of the cast is required to dress in drag for a sketch, Servo usually does the honors. This is both because of the dichotomy of women's clothes amusingly contrasted with puppeteer Murphy's strong baritone voice and because, in Murphy's words, "Servo looks better in a dress than Crow." Also, Servo is the only robot (other than Cambot in seasons 5–10) whose entire body can be seen on the show, since Crow's legs are behind the desk and Gypsy's body is several yards long.

Servo normally has a condescending personality and at times can make literary and technical references that are above his companions' heads. He frequently attempts to seem physically imposing to others, once acquiring "lifts" for his hover skirt to increase his size (accused by Mike of suffering "short man's disease") and on another occasion showing off a small arsenal he had acquired while drifting through space. Almost invariably, however, any attempts at confronting danger or displaying his intellectual skill cause him such frustration that he ends up crying, often needing consolation from Joel or Mike. He also has demonstrated a tendency to take jokes and skits way over the top, having to be brought back down to earth by the others.

Furthermore, he's easily rattled by sarcastic remarks made from Crow, such as the time when he made fun of his infatuation with a boy's pet turtle Tibby in the episode 'Gamera'.

He does have a good understanding and intellect in spite of his sensitivity and frustration, and revealed in the episode "The Gunslinger" that he's able to teleport at will, even though he only demonstrates this on rare other occasions.

In Season 11 Tom received many upgrades, including the ability to fly or hover as seen many times. Also he seems to have working hands and arms now as he is shown being able to wield a baseball bat. The original Servo is apparently destroyed in Episode 1101 Reptilicus, but a clone identical to the original Servo in every way remains behind, taking his place. In Season 13, where the Satellite of Love set is green screen, Servo's head is permanently clouded to avoid chroma-key problems.

Other appearances

 * Tom Servo also appeared in the Cops-style Star Wars spoof Troops as a droid purloined by Jawas.
 * Servo, along with Crow, has a cameo appearance (appropriately in silhouette) in the Futurama episode "Raging Bender". Crow shushes Fry as he begins to riff a newsreel they were watching.
 * Servo makes an appearance in silhouette in the Homestar Runner cartoon "A Jorb Well Done", during a short scene in a theater.
 * The prototype web browser Servo is named after Tom Servo
 * In Gold Digger/Ninja High School Issue #1 "A Science Affair", Tom Servo can be seen in the background, marked as "Servo-tron".
 * In the Archie Comics series Sonic the Hedgehog, issue #52, Sonic is sent into a 1920s variation of Mobius. In searching for the handheld computer Nicole, Sonic does battle with a number of robots, three of them resembling Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo and Cambot.

title: Tom Servo


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Sae Isshiki

Sae Isshiki (一色 紗英) (born April 29, 1977) is a Japanese actress. She starred in a film Kura (storage) for which she garnered the Newcomer of the Year award of the Japanese Academy and a TV program, Futari (two).

title: Sae Isshiki


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Feri Tradition

The Feri Tradition is an American neo-pagan tradition related to Neopagan witchcraft. It was founded in the west coast of the United States between the 1950s and 1960s by Victor Henry Anderson and his wife, Cora Anderson. Practitioners have described it as an ecstatic tradition, rather than a fertility tradition. Strong emphasis is placed on sensual experience and awareness, including sexual mysticism, which is not limited to heterosexual expression.

History
Anderson met Cora Ann Cremeans in Bend, Oregon, in 1944; they married three days later, on 3 May, claiming that they had encountered each other many times before in the astral realm. Born in Nyota, Alabama, in January 1915, Cora had been exposed to folk magic practices from childhood; reputedly, her Irish grandfather was a "root doctor" who was known among locals as the "druid". The Andersons claimed that one of their first acts after their marriage was the erection of an altar. The following year, a son was born, and they named him Victor Elon, with the latter being the Hebrew word for oak; Cora stated that she had received the name in a dream. After the birth, a ritual was held to dedicate the infant to the Goddess. In 1948, the family moved to Niles, California, later that year purchasing a home in San Leandro. There, Anderson became a member of the Alameda Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and he subsequently remained so for forty years. Victor earned his living as a musician, playing the accordion at events, while Cora worked as a hospital cook. It has been claimed that Anderson could speak Hawaiian, Spanish, Creole, Greek, Italian, and Gothic.

In the mid-1950s Victor and Cora read Witchcraft Today, a 1954 book by English Wiccan Gerald Gardner, with Cora claiming that Victor corresponded with Gardner for a time. The Pagan studies scholar Chas S. Clifton has suggested that the Andersons used Gardner's work as a "style guide" for the development of their own tradition of modern Pagan Witchcraft. Similarly, Kelly stated that the Andersons' tradition "began to more and more resemble that of the Gardnerians" as the couple learned more about the latter, adopting elements from it. Anderson was in correspondence with the Italian-American Wiccan Leo Martello, who encouraged Anderson to found his own coven. Circa 1960, the Andersons founded a coven, naming it Mahealani, after the Hawaiian word for the full moon. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Andersons initiated a number of individuals into the coven. One of these was Gwydion Pendderwen, a friend of their son who shared their interest in the esoteric. Pendderwen contributed to the development of what came to be known as the Feri tradition, with some members of the lineage viewing him as one of its co-founders, along with Victor and Cora. Pendderwen noted that he had first met the family when, aged thirteen, he got into a fistfight with Victor Elon, although the two later became friends. Pendderwen was particularly influenced by Welsh mythology, and on a visit to Britain he spent time with the Alexandrian Wiccans Alex Sanders and Stewart Farrar, subsequently introducing various Alexandrian elements into Feri. In the early 1970s, the Andersons established a new coven with Pendderwen and his initiate, Alison Harlow. After Pendderwen married, his wife also joined this coven, although it disbanded in 1974.

Andersons' teaching
Over the next four decades, the Andersons would initiate between twenty-five and thirty people into their tradition. Anderson has been described as the "founding teacher" and the "seminal voice" of the Feri tradition. The original word that the Andersons used for their tradition was Vicia, which Cora was known to say was Italian. She added that "the name Fairy became accidentally attached to our tradition because Victor so often mentioned that word in speaking of nature spirits and Celtic magic.” Early initiates alternately spelled the name of the tradition as Fairy, Faery, or Faerie, although Anderson began using the spelling Feri during the 1990s to more easily differentiate it from other Wiccan traditions of the same or similar names; not all practitioners followed his example. Cora claimed that Feri was the word's original spelling, adding that it meant "the things of magic". Anderson also referred to it as the Pictish tradition. In their writing, the Andersons mixed terminology adopted from Huna, Gardnerian Wicca, and Vodou, believing that all reflected the same underlying magico-religious tapestry. It drew heavily upon the huna system developed by Max Freedom Long. According to one Feri initiate, Corvia Blackthorn:

"The Andersons' teaching method was very informal. There were no classes in an academic sense, only conversations and the occasional ritual, usually followed by a home-cooked meal. Discussions with Victor were non-linear and overflowing with information. Someone once aptly remarked that talking to Victor was like to trying to drink from a fire hose. Often the connecting threads and underlying patterns in the information didn't become apparent until later on. There was also a non-verbal component to Victor's teaching. He was a true shaman, and had the ability to shift the consciousness of his students on a level well below the surface of conversation."

According to Kelly:

"Studying with Victor presented some unusual problems. He demanded as much respect as any working-class grandfather might. One could ask for clarification, but to even hint that one disagreed with him, or worse yet, to contradict him, would result in an immediate and permanent order to leave. One was tempted to ask such forbidden questions because Victor lived in mythic time and was totally uninterested in other people's concepts of logic or consistency;... Another student told me that when Victor read a new book and believed it was true, then he considered it to have always been true and would rethink his history accordingly."

According to one initiate, Jim Schuette, Anderson was "a taskmaster. He took pride in testing his students." One of those initiated into the Andersons' Feri tradition was Starhawk, who incorporated ideas from the Feri tradition when creating Reclaiming. She also included aspects from it in her 1979 book, The Spiral Dance, including mention of the Iron and Pearl Pentagram and the three souls, all of which originated within Feri. Another prominent initiate was Gabriel Carillo (Caradoc ap Cador), who in the late 1970s developed a written body of Feri teachings, and began offering paid classes in the tradition in the 1980s, generating the Bloodrose lineage; doing so generated controversy among Feri initiates, with critics believing that it was morally wrong to charge for teaching.

title: Feri Tradition