text:
Michael Ballack

Michael Ballack (born 26 September 1976) is a German former professional footballer. He was selected by Pelé as one of FIFA's 100 Greatest Living Players, and as the UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year in 2002. He won the German Footballer of the Year award three times – in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Ballack was known for his passing range, powerful shot, physical strength and commanding presence in midfield.

Ballack began his career as a youth at enterprise sports community BSG Motor "Fritz Heckert" Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1983. He then joined the youth department of football club FC Karl-Marx-Stadt. Ballack made his debut for Germany's under-21 side on 26 March 1996. Although the team were relegated in his first season, his performances in the Regionalliga the following season led to a transfer to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 1997. He won the Bundesliga in his first season at the club, his first major honour. He became a first team regular in 1998–99 season and also earned his first senior national cap for Germany. He moved to Bayer Leverkusen for €4.1 million in 1999. The 2001–02 season saw him win a slew of runners-up medals: Bayer Leverkusen finished second in the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, UEFA Champions League and Germany lost to Brazil in the 2002 World Cup Final.

A €12.9 million move to Bayern Munich led to further honours: the team won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Ballack had become a prolific goalscorer from midfield, scoring 58 goals for Bayern between 2002 and 2006. He joined Premier League club Chelsea in mid-2006 and won English honours in his first season at the club. Injury ruled him out of much of 2007, but he returned the following season to help Chelsea reach their first ever Champions League final. He also went on to win the FA Cup again in 2009 and then once more as part of a league and cup double in 2010.

Internationally, Ballack has played in the UEFA European Football Championship in 2000, 2004 and 2008, and the FIFA World Cup in 2002 and 2006. Jürgen Klinsmann appointed him captain of the national team in 2004. Ballack scored consecutive game-winning goals in the quarter-final and semi-final to help his country to the 2002 World Cup final and led his team to the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup and the Euro 2008 final. He is among the top goal scorers in the history of the Germany national team.

Early life
Ballack was born on 26 September 1976 in Görlitz, a town in Bezirk Dresden, East Germany (now Saxony, Germany). He is the only child of Stephan Ballack, an engineer, and his wife Karin, a secretary. The family moved to Chemnitz (then called Karl-Marx-Stadt) when Ballack was very young and it was there that he started to play football. He first began playing football for sports community.

Chemnitzer FC
Ballack's parents sent him to train with sports community BSG Motor "Fritz Heckert" Karl-Marx-Stadt at the age of seven. Ballack was praised by coach Steffen Hänisch. Hänisch was particularly impressed by the well-developed technique for Ballack's age and his ability to shoot with both feet. Ballack was then allowed to attend the elite Children and Youth Sports School (KSJ) "Emil Wallner" in Karl-Marx-Stadt. He then joined the larger and more promoted football club FC Karl-Marx-Stadt (renamed Chemnitzer FC in 1990) in 1988. The father of Ballack had played second-division football himself in Germany.

In 1995, Ballack earned his first professional contract, thanks to his performances in the role of central midfielder. He was dubbed the "Little Kaiser", in reference to Franz Beckenbauer, who was nicknamed "Der Kaiser". His professional debut came on 4 August 1995, on the first day of the new 2. Bundesliga season. Chemnitz lost the game 2–1, against VfB Leipzig. At the end of the season, during which Ballack made 15 appearances, Chemnitz were relegated to the multi-tiered, regional third division. The following season, Ballack became a regular first-team player as Chemnitz missed out on an immediate return to the Bundesliga. He did not miss a game and scored ten goals for the "Sky Blues". It was not enough for Chemnitz to be promoted, but in the summer of 1997, coach Otto Rehhagel of just-promoted 1. FC Kaiserslautern signed Ballack at their return to top flight football.

1. FC Kaiserslautern
It was during the seventh match of the 1997–98 Bundesliga season, away to Karlsruhe, that Rehhagel decided to give Ballack his first Bundesliga appearance, substituting him onto the field for the final five minutes of the encounter. On 28 March 1998, Ballack made his first-team debut-start against Bayer Leverkusen.

Ballack made 16 appearances for his new team during the season as the club became the first-ever newly promoted team to lift the Bundesliga title. In the following season, Ballack became both a regular member of the team (he made 30 appearances, scoring 4 goals in the league) and one of the side's leading players. Kaiserslautern reached the quarter finals of the Champions League, but were eliminated by Bayern Munich.

On 1 July 1999, Ballack moved to Bayer Leverkusen at age 22 for a transfer fee of €4.1 million.

Bayer Leverkusen
It was at Bayer Leverkusen that Ballack made his breakthrough. Coaches Christoph Daum and Klaus Toppmöller granted him an attacking role in the midfield. Ballack was instrumental to the success of Leverkusen, scoring 27 goals in the league and nine in Europe over the course of his three seasons at the BayArena.

In 2000, Bayer Leverkusen needed only a draw against minnows SpVgg Unterhaching to win the Bundesliga title, but an own goal by Ballack helped send the team to a crushing 0–2 defeat, while Bayern Munich clinched the title with a 3–1 victory over Werder Bremen. The 2001–02 season was a disappointing one for Bayer Leverkusen. In the Bundesliga, the team surrendered a five-point lead at the top of the table over the last three games of the season to finish second behind Borussia Dortmund; lost the UEFA Champions League final 2–1 to Real Madrid; and lost the DFB-Pokal final 4–2 to Schalke 04. These three runner-up finishes were dubbed a "Treble Horror": Bayer Leverkusen was dubbed "Bayer Neverkusen" in English, while the German nickname became Vizekusen. Ballack and Leverkusen teammates Bernd Schneider, Carsten Ramelow and Oliver Neuville were also beaten finalists with Germany in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, although Ballack was suspended for the final itself. Ballack finished with 17 league goals and his performance over the season led to him being voted into the UEFA.com users' Team of 2002 as well as being named German Footballer of the Year.

Bayern Munich
In spite of Real Madrid's interest, Ballack decided to sign with Bayern Munich in a €6 million deal in 2002 after his impressive performances in the World Cup. In his first season with the club, Bayern won the Bundesliga with 75 points as well as the DFB-Pokal, with Ballack scoring twice and defeating former club 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the latter's final. In his second season, however, Bayern lost both their Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal crowns to Werder Bremen.

In his third season with the Bavarians, Ballack enjoyed success in the 2004–05 season as Bayern Munich completed another double. New coach Felix Magath stated he was the only automatic starter in their midfield. In four seasons at Bayern, Ballack won three Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal doubles, scoring 44 goals in 107 Bundesliga matches. Between 1998 and 2005, Ballack scored 61 goals in total in the domestic league.

Ballack's critics, however, noted his frequent "choking" in important Champions League matches. This resulted in open public criticism from club general manager Uli Hoeneß, communications director Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and club president Franz Beckenbauer, all former Bayern players. Beckenbauer later went as far as to accuse Ballack of "saving his strength" for prospective employers after Ballack turned in an average performance in the 2006 DFB-Pokal final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Chelsea
Ballack agreed to join English Premier League club Chelsea on a free transfer on 15 May 2006. During his last season with Bayern, there were rumours of interest from Manchester United, Real Madrid, Internazionale and Milan, but Ballack instead chose to go to Stamford Bridge. Shortly after arriving at Chelsea, Ballack stated that he hoped to end his career at Chelsea.

2006–07 season
Ballack's debut for Chelsea came on 31 July 2006, during a practice match at UCLA's intramural football pitch. Chelsea presented him to the media the following day where the club also gave him his favoured number 13 shirt, worn throughout his career. Upon doing so, William Gallas, who previously wore the number 13 shirt for Chelsea, was given the number 3 shirt. This move created animosity between Gallas and the club as Gallas felt that he was underappreciated. Ballack made his competitive debut in the 2006 FA Community Shield, but went off injured in the first half. On 27 August 2006, Ballack made his Premier League debut for Chelsea against Blackburn Rovers. On 12 September, he scored his first goal for the club on his Champions League debut against Werder Bremen.

He received the first straight red card of his career in Chelsea's 1–0 win over Liverpool on 17 September 2006, after being judged to have stamped on Mohamed Sissoko's leg. Ballack scored his first Premier League goal on 21 October 2006 against Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge with a header. His first FA Cup goal came in the 109th minute in the semi-final against Blackburn on 15 April 2007. This goal resulted in Chelsea progressing into the FA Cup final. He scored eight goals in all competitions for the club in the 2006–07 season, including a free-kick against Everton at Goodison Park, as well as a half-volley against Porto which sent Chelsea through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Throughout his first season at Chelsea, Ballack was criticised for his lethargic performances – for playing as though he had "a huge cigar in his mouth".

On 29 April 2007, Chelsea released a statement on their official website, informing fans that Ballack had undergone ankle surgery in Munich. As a result, Ballack did not play in the FA Cup final against Manchester United, which Chelsea won 1–0 through Didier Drogba's extra time goal. This was Ballack's second trophy this season, his first being the League Cup, the final of which he started.

2007–08 season
Despite persistent rumours in the summer 2007 transfer window, Ballack denied that he wanted to leave and no such move materialised. Chelsea left Ballack out of their Champions League squad for the 2007–08 group stage as they realised that his injury would prevent him from playing any useful part and preferred to select the fully fit Steve Sidwell. The German international had an ankle operation in the summer and Chelsea could not take the risk of him not regaining full fitness before the end of the group stage. Thus, Ballack could not play in the Champions League before the knockout stages began in February. The club was only able to select 23 out of a possible 25 players for their Champions League squad due to the new UEFA regulations on "association-trained players" and "club-trained players". Due to this regulation, Chelsea were also unable to select young player Scott Sinclair and could only pick 23 players as their only "club-trained player" was John Terry. For this reason, it was deemed unwise to gamble on Ballack being fit at some point.

Ballack made his return to the side in Chelsea's 2–0 League Cup win over Liverpool on 19 December 2007. Ballack tallied an assist late in the game to striker Andriy Shevchenko. On 26 December 2007, Ballack made his Premier League return in a thrilling game against Aston Villa which ended 4–4. He came on for Frank Lampard in the 26th minute after the latter had picked up a thigh injury. In first-half stoppage time, he won a penalty after being brought down in the box by Zat Knight, which Andriy Shevchenko converted. In the 88th minute, with the score tied at 3–3, Ballack stepped up to take a free-kick, which he buried into the bottom left corner of the goal, but the match ended in a 4–4 draw.

Ballack captained the Chelsea team in the absence of captain John Terry and vice-captain Frank Lampard in a 2–1 win over Newcastle United on 29 December 2007. Ballack then played his 50th game in a Chelsea shirt in a 2–1 win against Fulham in which he scored the winning goal for Chelsea. He also scored the only goal that won the match for Chelsea against Reading to extend the blues' winning streak to a record of nine. And, on 5 March 2007, he scored again, this time against Olympiacos in the Champions League round of 16 in a 3–0 win. He scored the winning goal in the 2–0 win in the second leg of the quarter-finals against Fenerbahçe, a victory that secured Chelsea a place in the semi-finals.

Ballack continued to score vital goals and, on 26 April 2008, he scored a header and a penalty to give Chelsea a 2–1 win over Manchester United. He was named Man of The Match for his performance. It brought the two teams level in the race for the Premier League title only two matchdays before the end of the season.

The season ended on a low note for Ballack as Chelsea finished runners-up in the League Cup, Premier League and Champions League. This completed another treble horror for Ballack and his club. On 29 June 2008, Germany, captained by Ballack, lost to Spain 1–0 in the final of UEFA Euro 2008. This became the second season in Ballack's career after 2002 that he was runner-up for four major trophies.

2008–09 season
The 2008–09 season started well for Ballack, as he set up Joe Cole to score the first goal in a 4–0 win over Portsmouth in the first game of the season. Ballack was injured shortly after missing the games against Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. Ballack's return from injury has been a lift for Chelsea as he set up Deco to score a scissor kick in a 2–0 win against Bolton Wanderers. Ballack's first goal of the '09 season came against Southend United in their FA Cup replay, a match which Chelsea went on to win 4–1. Ballack's first Premier League goal of the 2008–09 season came on 11 April 2009 in a match against Bolton, ending 4–3 for Chelsea. He came on as a second-half substitute as Chelsea won the 2009 FA Cup final. On 2 June 2009, Ballack signed a one-year contract extension with Chelsea.

2009–10 season
In Chelsea's second game of the season, away at Sunderland, Ballack scored his first goal of the 2009–10 campaign in their 3–1 win. Ballack also scored against Burnley in a 3–0 win. Ballack made his first Champions League appearance for the season against Porto. On 20 September 2009, he scored his third league goal, against Tottenham. On 17 January 2010, he scored his fourth league goal and third assist in a 7–2 win against Sunderland. In Chelsea's fifth round FA Cup tie against Cardiff City, Ballack scored the goal which put the Blues back in front; Chelsea ultimately won 4–1.

Ballack was sent off in Chelsea's 4–2 defeat against Manchester City on 27 February 2010. Chelsea went on to win the 2009–10 Premier League, Ballack's first league title in England. He also started as Chelsea were victorious against Portsmouth in the 2010 FA Cup final, however he would come off injured shortly before half-time after a tackle by Kevin-Prince Boateng. As a result of the injury, Ballack was not able to participate in the 2010 World Cup.

On 9 June 2010, it was announced that Ballack, along with teammates Joe Cole and Juliano Belletti, would leave Chelsea on a free transfer after his contract was not renewed. It was reported that while manager Carlo Ancelotti wanted to retain Ballack, club owner Roman Abramovich was only willing to offer a one-year deal due to Ballack's age. As of December 2012, Ballack had the lowest loss record of any player with more than 100 appearances in the Premier League, losing just 10 of his 105 appearances.

Return to Bayer Leverkusen
On 25 June 2010, Ballack signed a two-year contract with former club Bayer Leverkusen. On 19 August 2010, he scored the first goal for Leverkusen in a 3–0 win against Tavriya Simferopol in the UEFA Europa League qualifiers. On 6 October 2010, it was announced that Ballack would not play again in 2010 at the club or international level due to a shin injury sustained 11 September 2010 in a Bundesliga match against Hannover 96.

On 20 February 2011, Ballack made his return from injury, coming on as a substitute for Simon Rolfes against VfB Stuttgart; Leverkusen won the match 4–2. Ballack scored his second Europa League goal against Metalist Kharkiv, a match Leverkusen won 2–0 and the two-legged tie 6–0 on aggregate to progress to the round of 16. Ballack played the full 90 minutes against Schalke 04, assisting Eren Derdiyok's goal in an eventual 2–0 victory.

Retirement
Ballack announced his retirement on 2 October 2012. He had been in talks with Major League Soccer's Montreal Impact and A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers.

On 5 June 2013, Ballack played a farewell match at Leipzig's Red Bull Arena. The match was won by a World XI 4–3 against the "Friends of Ballack", with Ballack scoring his second hat-trick in his career. First he scored two goals with "Friends of Ballack" in the first half and scored his third goal and the winner in the second half for the World XI. Participants in the match included former teammates and friends Lothar Matthäus, Didier Drogba, Miroslav Klose, Andriy Shevchenko, Phillip Lahm, Hasan Salihamidžić, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Essien, André Schürrle, Ricardo Carvalho, Dietmar Hamann, Florent Malouda, Carsten Jancker, Torsten Frings, Jens Lehmann, Christian Wörns, Mehdi Mahdavikia and Per Mertesacker, as well as Formula 1 racing driver Michael Schumacher. The teams were coached by Ballack's former Chelsea coach José Mourinho and his former national team coach Rudi Völler.

International career
On 26 March 1996, Ballack debuted for the Germany national under-21 team against Denmark, shortly after signing for Chemnitzer FC. In all, he played 19 matches for this side, scoring four goals. Then, following his move to 1. FC Kaiserslautern, senior team head coach Berti Vogts called him up to the squad.

Ballack's first senior Germany appearance, however, did not come until 28 April 1999, when he came on as a substitute for Dietmar Hamann in a match against Scotland.

Ballack only played 63 minutes at UEFA Euro 2000. In the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he scored in matches against the United States and South Korea during the knockout rounds as Germany reached the final. However, he was booked for a tactical foul during the semi-final match against South Korea and was suspended for the final, which Germany went on to lose 2–0 to Brazil. He was included in the World Cup All Star Team. Ballack missing the final ultimately led to a lasting revision of the yellow card amnesty rule in order "to give the best players a chance to play in the final". Following Euro 2004, Jürgen Klinsmann replaced Rudi Völler at the helm of the national team and Ballack took over from Oliver Kahn as captain. He scored three goals — all penalties — in the 2005 Confederations Cup, in which Germany were eliminated by Brazil in the semifinals.

In the 2006 World Cup, he was unable to start in Germany's first game against Costa Rica due to a calf strain, but appeared in the following five matches. Germany were eliminated in the semi-finals, but they managed to clinch third place in a match against Portugal. He was named Man of the Match in the games against Ecuador and Argentina, and was included in FIFA's World Cup All Star Team for a second consecutive time. After the tournament, Klinsmann stood down as national team head coach and was succeeded by assistant Joachim Löw.

Ballack started and captained Germany in their first game of Euro 2008 against Poland. He proved to be an influential figure in the midfield as Germany came back from a shock defeat to Croatia to make it to the final, scoring a free kick against Austria to secure Germany a 1–0 win and a place in the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, he scored a header against Portugal to make the score 3–1 in their 3–2 win after an assist by Bastian Schweinsteiger's 60th minute free-kick, helping Germany to advance to the semi-finals. Germany went on to beat Turkey 3–2 in the semifinals. Prior to the final, Ballack sustained a calf injury but eventually overcame it in time. Germany, however, ended up losing 1–0 to Spain. Nevertheless, he was named in the Squad of the Tournament.

Ballack scored four goals in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, but missed the 2010 World Cup after suffering an ankle injury from a foul by Portsmouth's Kevin-Prince Boateng in the 2009–10 FA Cup final. Ballack did travel to South Africa to provide moral support for the national team but he departed after Philipp Lahm, who was appointed team captain due to Ballack's injury, commented after the quarter-finals that he would not relinquish the captaincy back to Ballack. Team manager Oliver Bierhoff criticized Lahm's comments and clarified the situation, saying, "Philipp Lahm is the World Cup captain and Michael Ballack is still the captain."

Germany played strongly in the tournament despite Ballack's absence, including a 4–1 win over England and a 4–0 win over Argentina en route to finishing third, thanks to emerging midfield talents such as Sami Khedira, Thomas Müller, and Mesut Özil. Former German captain Lothar Matthäus suggested that Ballack's absence had allowed these young players to blossom.

Since the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Ballack had not been called up for any international matches. It was reported that Germany coach Joachim Löw was waiting for Ballack to retire from international football after the 2010 World Cup, however Ballack refused to give up despite a rash of injuries suffered in 2010–11 with Bayer Leverkusen. On 16 June 2011, it was announced that Ballack would no longer be a part of the national team. The German Football Association (DFB) offered him two friendlies to reach 100 matches for Germany, which he refused, accusing Löw of disrespecting him ever since his injury dating back to March 2010 and calling the invitation to compete in another two games for Germany a "farce".

Ballack organized a farewell game by himself and invited Löw and Lahm. The teams on the pit were named Worldplayers vs. Ballack and Friends. Lahm played for 90 minutes. In attendance were Boris Becker, Michael Schumacher, Lothar Matthäus and Rudi Völler.

Style of play
Ballack is considered to be one of the best and most versatile midfielders of his generation; normally deployed in the centre in a box-to-box role, he played in several midfield positions during his career, including in the roles of offensive and holding midfielder, and was noted for his powerful shot with both feet. Due to his tall frame, he was also known for his ability in the air, which made him a goal threat on set pieces. He also excelled at making late runs into the penalty area.

On a technical level, he was a commanding, physically strong and aggressive player, with excellent passing range, who moved the ball efficiently, and who was capable of creating chances for his team. An elegant player on the ball, the technicality and intelligence of his game was extremely high. He started his football career as a sweeper, but when he moved to Leverkusen in 1999, then-coach Christoph Daum moved him to midfield. He adapted to playing in a deeper role on occasion during his spell at Chelsea. Ballack was also a strong tackler, which combined with his stamina, as well as his aerial, playmaking, and goalscoring abilities, made him a "complete midfielder," as he was once described by Ben Welch of FourFourTwo magazine in 2013.

Beyond his playing ability, Ballack also stood out for his leadership qualities throughout his career. In 2011, Ballack's international coach at the time, Joachim Löw, praised him, describing him as a player who "exudes authority and calm on the pitch". Despite his ability as a player, his later career was often limited by recurring injury struggles.

Personal life
Ballack's surname is of Sorbian origin. He was the only child of father Stephan, an engineer who played third-division football, and mother Karin, a secretary and swimmer.

On 14 July 2008, Ballack married his long-time girlfriend Simone Lambe. The couple had three children together: Louis (born 2001), Emilio (2002–2021), and Jordi (born 2005). The couple divorced in 2012. He dated Natacha Tannous from 2015 to 2019.

During Euro 2012, the 2014 World Cup, and Euro 2016, Ballack worked as a studio analyst for ESPN, often alongside Alexi Lalas.

His son, Emilio, died in a quad bike crash on 5 August 2021 at the age of 18.

International

 * Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ballack goal.

Honours
1. FC Kaiserslautern
 * Bundesliga: 1997–98

Bayer Leverkusen
 * DFB-Pokal runner-up: 2001–02
 * UEFA Champions League runner-up: 2001–02

Bayern Munich
 * Bundesliga: 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06
 * DFB-Pokal: 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06
 * DFB-Ligapokal: 2004

Chelsea
 * Premier League: 2009–10
 * FA Cup: 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10
 * Football League Cup: 2006–07; runner-up: 2007–08
 * FA Community Shield: 2009
 * UEFA Champions League runner-up: 2007–08

Germany
 * FIFA World Cup runner-up: 2002; third place: 2006
 * UEFA European Championship runner-up: 2008
 * FIFA Confederations Cup third place: 2005

Individual
 * UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year: 2002
 * UEFA Team of the Year: 2002
 * ESM Team of the Year: 2001–02
 * Footballer of the Year (Germany): 2002, 2003, 2005; runner-up 2008
 * kicker Bundesliga Team of the Season: 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06
 * kicker Man of the Year (Mann des Jahres): 2002
 * FIFA World Cup All-star team: 2002, 2006
 * FIFA XI: 2002
 * UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 2004, 2008
 * Bayer Leverkusen Squad of the Century
 * FIFA 100
 * FIFA Confederations Cup Silver Shoe Winner: 2005
 * Goal of the Year (Germany): 2008

title: Michael Ballack


text:
Peter Rice

Peter Rice (Peter Ronan Rice, 16 June 1935 – 25 October 1992) was an Irish structural engineer.

Born in Dublin, he grew up in 52 Castle Road, Dundalk in County Louth, and spent his childhood between the town of Dundalk, and the villages of Gyles' Quay and Inniskeen. He was educated at Queen's University of Belfast where he received his primary degree, and spent a year at Imperial College London. Rice acted as Structural Engineer on three of the most important architectural works of the 20th century: the Sydney Opera House (with Ove Arup), Pompidou Centre and the Lloyd's Building and was renowned for his innate ability to act as both engineer and designer.

He originally studied Aeronautical Engineering but switched to Civil Engineering. Taken on by Ove Arup & Partners, his first job was the roof of the Sydney Opera House. He married Sylvia Watson in 1960 and they had one son (who became an engineer) and three daughters.

Jonathan Glancey in his obituary said "Rice was, perhaps, the James Joyce of structural engineering. His poetic invention, his ability to turn accepted ideas on their head and his rigorous mathematical and philosophical logic made him one of the most sought-after engineers of our times".

Philosophy
He believed the best buildings result from the symbiotic relationship between the architect and the engineer where the engineer is the objective inventor and the architect the creative input. He found the Anglo Saxon understanding of the work of an engineer restrictive and preferred the French and Italian interpretation of the role.

Work
Among the notable buildings on whose design he worked are the Centre Pompidou, the Sydney Opera House, Lloyd's of London, the Louvre Pyramid, the Mound Stand at Lord's Cricket Ground, Kansai International Airport and Stansted Airport. Towards the end of his life he was largely responsible for the new façade of Lille Cathedral.

Sydney Opera House

In 1956, he joined Ove Arup & Partners. In 1957, he took leave to pursue post-graduate studies at Imperial College, rejoining Arup in 1958. After three years working on Jørn Utzon shells for the roof of the Sydney Opera House in London, where he is credited with having done the geometry for the challenging design, he moved to Sydney to be an assistant engineer to Ian MacKenzie. After one month MacKenzie fell ill and was hospitalised, leaving Rice in total charge at the age of 28. On-site his geometrical knowledge enabled him to write a computer program to locate the segments of the shells correctly. In total he spent seven years working on the project. Afterwards, he spent 18 months in the United States, in New York City and as visiting scholar at Cornell University.

Pompidou Centre (Beaubourg)
In 1971, he was part of the winning team competing in the French government's competition for the centre of Paris at Beaubourg, partnering Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. Edmund Happold was the senior Arup engineer for the competition. Rice became the engineer for the built project which was greatly modified from the initial design. Art and technology were intertwined in the design enabling him to experiment with materials. He brought the concepts of humanity, tactility and scale to the project His team developed the gerberette which enabled the counterbalancing of the weight of the building with light tubing, lightening the external appearance. He specified that these were to be made in cast steel.

After the Pompidou Centre, Rice set up his own company in 1977—"RFR"—along with Martin Francis and Ian Ritchie although he continued with Arup as a partner. In 1978 he was involved with Rogers again, this time on Lloyd's of London, completed in 1984. During this time his other projects encompassed the Fleetguard Factory at Quimper in France, and Stansted Airport in London.

1980s and 1990s
Although Rice was based in London, where he worked with Michael Hopkins on the tented Mound Stand at Lord's, much of his work was in Paris, including the great glass walls of the Cité des Sciences at La Villette and the tent-like canopy that softens the monumentality of the Grand Arche at La Défense. In 1985 I. M. Pei asked his help with projects at the Louvre in Paris, namely the shell structures for the glass roofs that Pei planned to cover inner courtyards.

By then he was in great demand continuing to work with architects such as Richard Rogers, I. M. Pei, Norman Foster, Ian Ritchie, Kenzo Tange, Paul Andreu, and Renzo Piano. The projects he worked on ranged from Toronto's unbuilt Opera House by Moshe Safdie to Kansai's International Airport, one of many projects with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

In addition to his huge output, he was known for his sympathetic attitude to design, his strategic approach, a cool head and managing to realise ambitious artistic designs in concrete reality. One of his marks as an engineer was the length of time he allowed to complete a project.

During his relatively short career, Rice's contribution to the built environment can be seen in the work of the recent Pritzker Prize winners, including Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, and Zaha Hadid.

Innovative techniques

 * During the Sydney Opera House project, was among the first to use advanced computer modeling.
 * One of the key advances in building the Sydney Opera House was the use of post-tensioned concrete to reinforce the components of the shells.
 * In his design for the Seville Expo '92, Rice used post-tensioned stone to construct the arcade.

Awards
Peter Rice was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (HonFRIBA) in 1988. In 1992, he was the second engineer to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects (the first was Ove Arup), and the second Irishman after Michael Scott. The award is conferred by the Sovereign annually for work that has "promoted, either directly or indirectly, the advancement of architecture."

Death
He was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1991 and died the following year aged 57. A sign has been put up outside his childhood home, 52 Castle Road, Dundalk, County Louth, saying "Birthplace of Peter Rice, Engineer, 1935–1992". The plaque was erected privately by the (then) Dundalk Town Architect, Paul Clancy.

Legacy
Peter Rice has been influential for the development of building technology; he thus contributed to extend architectural engineering as a professional field. Rice has intricately tied the disciplines of structural engineering and architectural technology. Among Rice's major achievements are his contribution to the development of structural glazing and the optimisation of tensile structures using steel, glass and wood. Through his mathematical insight, Rice had refined the engineering methods applied to slender, light-weight structures.

Rice's book, An Engineer Imagines, was posthumously published and came to be considered an important work in the history of building design. The Peter Rice Prize was established at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1994 in recognition of the ideals and principles represented by the late eminent engineer. The Peter Rice Silver Medal competition was established at Dundalk Institute of Technology (his home town) in 1996 under the patronage of Ove Arup and Engineers Ireland (Institution of Engineers of Ireland). This medal is awarded annually, to the best presentation by an engineering student of the institute on their practical project activity. In 2019, a documentary by Marcus Robinson, An Engineer Imagines, was screened by Channel 4 and in cinemas.

In 2012-2013, to celebrate Rice's 20 year anniversary, Arup organised the exhibition Traces of Peter Rice with a documentary.

In 2023 on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Opera House, the Irish postal service, An Post, issued a stamp to mark the contribution of Rice to its opening.

Projects

 * Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia; 1957
 * Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England; 1967
 * Amberly Road Children's Home, London, England; 1969
 * National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace, London, England; 1970
 * Arts Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry, England; 1970
 * Perspex spiral staircase, Andrew Grima jewellery shop, 80 Jermyn Street, London, England; 1970

 * Super Grimentz Ski Village, Valais, Switzerland; 1970
 * Conference Centre, Mecca, Saudi Arabia; 1971
 * Special structures advice to Frei Otto and others on pneumatic and cable structures including "The City in the Arctic"; 1971
 * Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg), Paris-4ième, France; 1971
 * Jumbo jet hangar, Johannesburg, South Africa; 1976
 * TGV Station Lille, France; 1994
 * Mobiles Zelt in London, England; 1992
 * TGV Station Roissy, France; 1991–94
 * Elektronikfabrik Thomson Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France; 1990
 * Transformation of the Louvre, glass pyramids, Paris-1er, France; 1988–93
 * Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie Paris-19ième, France; 1986
 * De Menil Collection Houston; 1981–86
 * IBM Traveling Pavillon; 1980–84
 * "Quartierslaboratorium" für Stadterneuerung Otranto, Italy; 1979
 * Residential complex in Corciano, Italy; 1978–82
 * Canopy "Le Nuage" at La Défense, Nanterre, France; 1986–89
 * Roof of the postal coach station in Chur, Switzerland; 1989–92
 * The Full Moon Theatre; Gourgoubès, France; 1991–92
 * 'Pabellón del Futuro; Seville, Spain; 1991–92
 * Japan Bridge (passerelle Kupka) at La Défense, Nanterre, France; 1990–93; project completed posthumously by collaborating engineers Kate Purver, Lionel Pennison and Pat Dallard and by collaborating architectural technologist Hugh Dutton
 * West facade of Lille cathedral, France; 1991–99; project completed posthumously

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

title: Peter Rice


text:
Talk:Video compression

Is this page useful?
The page seems redundant with (and inferior to) the video codec page. Cat5nap 05:42, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Video compression can be seen as the process of encoding. Video codecs are the tools for the process. Shawnc 04:15, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Video compression should have introductory material on methods of compression. Video codec is a different but neighboring subject. If there is redundant material then perhaps someone should make the articles more distinct.  This video compression article can be improved with more visual queues as in diagrams that explains the compression process.  Daniel.Cardenas 23:58, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Lossless Video Compression
The article says that lossless video compression is not used. Why?

 * Because lossless compression can't achieve nearly the compression ratio that lossy compression can, say 2:1 - 3:1 with lossless versus 100:1 - 200:1 with lossy. AlyM 23:57, 3 January 2005 (GMT)

 * Any lossless compression system will sometimes result in a file (or portions of) that is as large and/or has the same data rate as the uncompressed original. As a result, all hardware in a lossless system would have to be able to handle uncompressed video as well.  This kills off much of the benefit of compressing the data at all.  For example, digital videotape can't vary it's data rate easily so dealing with short bits of maximum-data-rate video would be more complicated then something that was fixed at that rate all the time. Algr 23:59, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

 * AlyM's explanation is a lot clearer and more accurate, I think; I'll add it to the article. Tempshill (talk) 06:07, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

I thought it worth mentioning for the sake of clarity that A) DVDs are not technically lossless compression, so I changed the wordings for that sentence and also added that B) not all videos on hard drives are lower quality than DVDs and HDVDs. I'm sure this wasn't what was intended to be said, but it read like this to me. I also added some mention of uncompressed video codecs, since they're very common in post-production work, although not too much since this seems to be intended to be largely an intro/non-technical kind of page.

-Evan (06/04/07)

Technical level
Anyone who is tech savvy already knows what video compression is, so this article should be written for a non-technical audience. (Or at least keep the detailed stuff to the end.) I've pulled a lot of buzzwords to reflect this, and replaced them with simple descriptions. Algr 08:47, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

That's not scientific...
"Without data compression, either the picture would look 30 times worse"

This sentence hardly fits any scientific criterion. Since there is no mathematical critetrion of 'how good the picture looks like', it makes no sence to use the number 30 here.

 * Retracting my previous comment as it was totally wrong, I missed the most recent item in the article history. The above issue has now been addressed. AlyM 20:14, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Merge Discussion
There's a merge tag suggesting a merge with the B pictures article. One page points the discussion of that merge suggestion here, while another directs the same discussion to take place on Talk:B pictures. The actual discussion has been taking place there, not here. Summarizing - Basically, no one (so far) is supporting the suggestion to merge the articles. -Mulligatawny 20:52, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Decompression?
Aside from the players/codecs/filters, are there any means of generating a non-compressed file from a compressed one? (Similar to the decompression of ordinary archive files to get to the original documents inside.) -- Jokes Free4Me 10:31, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Lossless vs Raw Video Files
Is a lossless compression equal to raw video? It seems to me that "lossless" compression is a term that contradicts itself. My understanding is that any form of compression is throwing out information. Is raw video itself really raw?- or does it undergo some form of compression when brought into the computer (via firewire for example). Also I have a question about the new HD cameras that compress files into MPG format on a REV PRO discs or flash cards. When the files are "uncompressed" for editing how is the information "reconstructed"? -Nick```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.29.128.130 (talk) 15:21, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Frameless compression?
All mentioned compression techniques use frames, but there's also frameless compression: FrameFree--87.162.47.66 (talk) 17:39, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Court admissible codecs
From Ten Steps to a Successful IP Surveillance Installation: Step 2 (section: Other considerations):
 * Some courts believe that evidentiary video should be based on individual frames, not related to each other or manipulated. This would eliminate MPEG because of the way the information is processed.

Just thought it should be documented somewhere. — Dispenser 23:31, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

 * MPEG standards do not actually require inter-picture prediction to be used, and some uses of MPEG standards do not use such encoding techniques. Whether that article should be considered a reliable source or not, and the exact circumstances of such a court decision may also be worth further discussion. I don't notice any specific court decisions cited in the article.  As one interesting case in particular, the pictures decoded using the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard have exactly-specified results with no decoder precision tolerance for implementation-specific approximations.  This may help provide some assurance that the decoded pictures are exactly what the encoder intended to be recorded (whether they use inter-picture prediction or not).  A nearby statement that you didn't quote from the article says "Proprietary compression also comes into consideration if the surveillance video will potentially be used in court. If so, using industry standard compression ensures that video evidence will be admissible."  Note that there is no formal industry standard specification for "Motion JPEG", and note also that there is no exact specification of the result that will be obtained by a JPEG decoder (since the standard allows for implementation-specific inverse-transform approximation errors). That is not to say that MPEG is great or that JPEG is not — just that the subject is not so clear cut. —Cat5nap (talk) 21:47, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:Video compression


text:
User:Titansolaris

The Anome is crazy, he deletes anything you post on mind control.

title: User:Titansolaris


text:
Computer poker player

A computer poker player is a computer program designed to play the game of poker (generally the Texas hold 'em version), against human opponents or other computer opponents. It is commonly referred to as pokerbot or just simply bot. As of 2019, computers can beat any human player in poker.

On the Internet
These bots or computer programs are used often in online poker situations as either legitimate opponents for humans players or a form of cheating. As of 2020, all use of Real-Time Assistance (RTA) or automated bots is considered cheating by all online poker sites, although the level of enforcement from site operators varies considerably.

Player bots
Use of player bots or computer assistance while playing online poker is prohibited by most, if not all, online sites. Actions taken for breaches are a permanent ban and confiscation of winnings. One kind of bot can interface with the poker client (in other words, play by itself as an auto player) without the help of its human operator. Real-Time Assistance (RTA) is another method of using computer programs. RTA is when a human player uses program called an “solver” such as PioSOLVER or PokerSnowie, running on a different computer, to make their decisions.

The issue of unfair advantage is twofold. For one, bots can play for many hours at a time without human weaknesses such as fatigue and can endure the natural variances of the game without being influenced by human emotion (or "tilt"). Secondly, since 2019, the computer program Pluribus (poker bot) is successful enough at reading bluffs, calculating odds, and adjusting to strategy that it consistently beats professional poker players at 6-player no-limit Hold’em.

House enforcement
While the terms and conditions of poker sites generally forbid the use of bots, the level of enforcement depends on the site operator. Some will seek out and ban bot users through the utilization of a variety of software tools. The poker client can be programmed to try to detect bots although this is controversial in its own right as it might be seen as tantamount to embedding spyware in the client software. Another method is to use CAPTCHAs at random intervals during play to catch automated bots, although isn’t effective against Real-Time Assistance.

House bots
“House bots” can pose a conflict of interest. By the strictest definition, a house bot is an automated player operated by the online poker room itself. These type of bots would be the equivalent of brick and mortar shills.

Both brick and mortar casino shills and online house bots are not supposed to have access to any information that is not also available to any other player in the hand. The problem is that in an online setting the house has no way to prove their bots are not receiving sensitive information from the card server. This is further exacerbated by the ease with which clandestine information sharing can be accomplished in a digital environment. It is essentially impossible even for the house to prove that they do not control some players.

Artificial Intelligence
Like in the games of chess, Go (game), and many other games, artificial intelligence systems beat even the best humans at poker. Poker is a game of imperfect information (because some cards in play are concealed) thus making it harder for anyone (including a computer) to deduce the final outcome of the hand. Because of this lack of information, the computer's programmers used to have to implement systems based on the Bayes theorem, Nash equilibrium, Monte Carlo simulation or neural networks, all of which are imperfect techniques. Pluribus, however, perfected poker by only looking ahead a few moves to determine what action to take, rather than attempting to evaluate all moves until the end of the game.

Older AIs like PokerSnowie and Claudico were created by allowing the computer to determine the best possible strategy by letting it play itself an enormous number of times. For years, this was the approach to poker AI, as opposed to attempting to make a computer that plays like a human. This resulted in odd bet sizing and a much different strategy than humans are used to seeing.

Methods were first developed to approximate perfect poker strategy from the game theory perspective in the heads-up (two player) game, and then for the multi-player game. Perfect strategy has multiple meanings in this context. From a game-theoretic optimal point of view, a perfect strategy is one that cannot expect to lose to any other player's strategy; however, optimal strategy can vary in the presence of sub-optimal players who have weaknesses that can be exploited. In this case, a perfect strategy is one that correctly or closely models those weaknesses and takes advantage of them to make a profit, such as those explained above.

AI broke through to superhuman performance in poker during the 2010s, with the following timeline. In 2015, computers solved heads-up limit hold'em via Cepheus. Around 2018, Libratus demonstrated superhuman ability in heads-up no-limit hold'em. In 2019, Pluribus (a newer version of Libratus) demonstrated superhuman ability at six-player no-limit hold'em, the most commonly played single variety of poker in the world. In 2021, Microsoft released the older poker-playing program, Libratus, commercially, which then beat four professional poker players in a 20-day long poker competition at Rivers Casino.

Neo Poker Laboratory
Neo Poker Lab was an established science team focused on the research of poker artificial intelligence. For several years it developed and applied state-of-the-art algorithms and procedures like regret minimization and gradient search equilibrium approximation, decision trees, recursive search methods as well as expert algorithms to solve a variety of problems related to the game of poker. Neo Poker Lab’s website, https://www.neopokerlab.com is no longer running.

The University of Auckland Game AI Group
Until 2017, a team from the University of Auckland consisted of a small number of scientists who employ case-based reasoning to create and enhance Texas Hold’em poker agents. The group applied different AI techniques to a number of games including participation in the commercial projects Small Worlds and Civilization (video game).

Computer Poker Research Group (University of Alberta, Canada)
Until 2019, a large amount of the research into computer poker players was being performed at the University of Alberta by the Computer Poker Research Group, led by Dr. Michael Bowling. The group developed the agents Poki, PsOpti, Hyperborean and Polaris. Poki has been licensed for the entertainment game STACKED featuring Canadian poker player Daniel Negreanu. PsOpti was available under the name "SparBot" in the poker training program "Poker Academy". The series of Hyperborean programs have competed in the Annual Computer Poker Competition, most recently taking three gold medals out of six events in the 2012 competition. The same line of research also produced Polaris, which played against human professionals in 2007 and 2008, and became the first computer poker program to win a meaningful poker competition.

In January 2015, an article in Science by Michael Bowling, Neil Burch, Michael Johanson, and Oskari Tammelin claimed that their poker bot Cepheus had "essentially weakly solved" the game of heads-up limit Texas hold 'em.

School of Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University
T. Sandholm and A. Gilpin from Carnegie Mellon University started poker AI research in 2004 beginning with unbeatable agent for 3-card game called Rhode-Island Hold 'em. Next step was GS1 which outperformed the best commercially available poker bots. In 2006, poker agents from this group started participating in annual computer competitions. "At some point we will have a program better than the best human players" – claimed Sandholm, whose bot, Claudico, faced off against four human opponents in 2015.

In 2017 the program's software, Libratus, faced off against four professional poker players. By the end of the experiment the four human players had lost a combined $1.8 million of simulated money to Libratus.

In 2019, Libratus was replaced by the final version called Pluribus (poker bot).

ICCM 2004 PokerBot competition
One of the earliest no-limit poker bot competitions was organized in 2004 by International Conference on Cognitive Modelling. The tournament hosted five bots from various universities from around the world. The winner was Ace Gruber, from University of Toronto.

ACM competitions
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) used to host competitions where the competitors submit a piece of software capable of playing poker on their specific platform. The event hosts conducted the contests by operating the software and reporting the results.

The 2005 World Series of Poker Robots
In the summer 2005, the online poker room Golden Palace hosted a promotional tournament in Las Vegas, at the old Binions, with a $100k giveaway prize. It was billed as the 2005 World Series of Poker Robots. The tournament was bots only with no entry fee. The bot developers were computer scientists from six nationalities who traveled at their own expense. The host platform was Poker Academy. The event also featured a demonstration heads-up event with Phil Laak.

University of Alberta's Man V Machine experiments
In the summer 2007, the University of Alberta hosted a highly specialized heads-up tournament between humans and their Polaris bot, at the AAAI conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The host platform was written by the University of Alberta. There was a $50k maximum giveaway purse with special rules to motivate the humans to play well. The humans paid no entry fee. The unique tournament featured four duplicate style sessions of 500 hands each. The humans won by a narrow margin.

In the summer of 2008, the University of Alberta and the poker coaching website Stoxpoker ran a second tournament during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The tournament had six duplicate sessions of 500 hands each, and the human players were Heads-Up Limit specialists. Polaris won the tournament with 3 wins, 2 losses and a draw. The results of the tournament, including the hand histories from the matches, are available on the competition website.

The 2015 Brains vs AI competition by Rivers Casino, CMU and Microsoft
From April–May 2015, Carnegie Mellon University Sandholm's bot, Claudico, faced off against four human opponents, in a series of no-limit Texas Hold'em matches. Finally, after playing 80,000 hands, humans were up by a combined total of $732,713. But even though humans technically won, scientists considered the win as statistically insignificant (rather, a statistical tie) when that $732,713 is compared to the total betting amount of $170,000,000 ($170 million). However, some have determined this claim to be disingenuous. Statistically insignificant here means that the programmers of Claudico can not say with 95% confidence (a 95% confidence interval) that humans are better than the computer program. However, it is a statistically significant win on a 90% confidence interval. This means that the human players are somewhere between a 10 to 1 and 20 to 1 favorite.

The way the tournament was structured was in two sets of two players each. In each of the two sets, the players got the opposite cards. Meaning if the computer has As9c (Ace of Spades & Nine of Clubs) and the human has Jh8d on one computer, the other of the two players in the set will have As9c up against the computer's Jh8d. However, even with the human players winning more than the computer—not all of the players were positive in their head-to-head match ups.

The totals for each of the players winnings were as follows:
 * Douglas Polk: +$213,671
 * Dong Kim: +$70,491
 * Bjorn Li: +$529,033
 * Jason Les: -$80,482

The Annual Computer Poker Competition
From 2006 to 2018, the Annual Computer Poker Competition ran a series of competitions for poker programs. Since 2010, three types of poker were played: Heads-Up Limit Texas Hold'em, Heads-Up No-Limit Texas Hold'em, and 3-player Limit Texas Hold'em. Within each event, two winners are named: the agent that wins the most matches (Bankroll Instant Run-off), and the agent that wins the most money (Total Bankroll). These winners are often not the same agent, as Bankroll Instant Run-off rewards robust players, and Total Bankroll rewards players that are good at exploiting the other agents' mistakes. The competition was motivated by scientific research, and there was an emphasis on ensuring that all of the results are statistically significant by running millions of hands of poker. The 2012 competition had the same formats with more than 70 million hands played to eliminate luck factor.

Some researchers developed web application where people could play and assess quality of the AI. So as of December 2012 the following top groups and individual researchers’ agents could be found:
 * Hyperborean (9 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze)
 * Bluffbot (1 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals)
 * Sartre (1 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals)
 * Neo Poker Bot (1 gold, 5 bronze medals)

Pluribus
The final poker contest was not public. When the Pluribus (poker bot) program consistently beat professionals at 6-hand no-limit Hold’em, the result was quietly announced on a Facebook post.

title: Computer poker player


text:
User:00timcheng

Name: Tim Cheng Gender: Male University: The University of Hong Kong Curriculum: Animal and Plant Biotechnology -Year one student Place of Birth: Hong Kong Horoscope: Virgo Address: Kwun Tong Interest: Photography, hike, swim, listen music, reading Favourite foods and drinks: noodles, fried rice and milk

title: User:00timcheng


text:
Population dynamics

Population dynamics is the type of mathematics used to model and study the size and age composition of populations as dynamical systems.

History
Population dynamics has traditionally been the dominant branch of mathematical biology, which has a history of more than 220 years, although over the last century the scope of mathematical biology has greatly expanded.

The beginning of population dynamics is widely regarded as the work of Malthus, formulated as the Malthusian growth model. According to Malthus, assuming that the conditions (the environment) remain constant (ceteris paribus), a population will grow (or decline) exponentially. This principle provided the basis for the subsequent predictive theories, such as the demographic studies such as the work of Benjamin Gompertz and Pierre François Verhulst in the early 19th century, who refined and adjusted the Malthusian demographic model.

A more general model formulation was proposed by F. J. Richards in 1959, further expanded by Simon Hopkins, in which the models of Gompertz, Verhulst and also Ludwig von Bertalanffy are covered as special cases of the general formulation. The Lotka–Volterra predator-prey equations are another famous example,    as well as the alternative Arditi–Ginzburg equations.

Logistic function
Simplified population models usually start with four key variables (four demographic processes) including death, birth, immigration, and emigration. Mathematical models used to calculate changes in population demographics and evolution hold the assumption of no external influence. Models can be more mathematically complex where "...several competing hypotheses are simultaneously confronted with the data." For example, in a closed system where immigration and emigration does not take place, the rate of change in the number of individuals in a population can be described as: $$\frac{dN}{dt} = B - D = bN - dN = (b - d)N = rN,$$ where $N$ is the total number of individuals in the specific experimental population being studied, $B$ is the number of births and D is the number of deaths per individual in a particular experiment or model. The algebraic symbols $b$, $d$ and $r$ stand for the rates of birth, death, and the rate of change per individual in the general population, the intrinsic rate of increase. This formula can be read as the rate of change in the population ($dN/dt$) is equal to births minus deaths ($B − D$).

Using these techniques, Malthus' population principle of growth was later transformed into a mathematical model known as the logistic equation: $$\frac{dN}{dt} = aN \left( 1 - \frac{N}{K} \right),$$ where $N$ is the biomass density, $a$ is the maximum per-capita rate of change, and $K$ is the carrying capacity of the population. The formula can be read as follows: the rate of change in the population ($dN/dt$) is equal to growth ($aN$) that is limited by carrying capacity $(1 − N/K)$. From these basic mathematical principles the discipline of population ecology expands into a field of investigation that queries the demographics of real populations and tests these results against the statistical models. The field of population ecology often uses data on life history and matrix algebra to develop projection matrices on fecundity and survivorship. This information is used for managing wildlife stocks and setting harvest quotas.

Intrinsic rate of increase
The rate at which a population increases in size if there are no density-dependent forces regulating the population is known as the intrinsic rate of increase. It is $$\frac{dN}{dt} = r N$$ where the derivative $$dN / dt $$ is the rate of increase of the population, $N$ is the population size, and $r$ is the intrinsic rate of increase. Thus r is the maximum theoretical rate of increase of a population per individual – that is, the maximum population growth rate. The concept is commonly used in insect population ecology or management to determine how environmental factors affect the rate at which pest populations increase. See also exponential population growth and logistic population growth.

Epidemiology
Population dynamics overlap with another active area of research in mathematical biology: mathematical epidemiology, the study of infectious disease affecting populations. Various models of viral spread have been proposed and analysed, and provide important results that may be applied to health policy decisions.

Geometric populations
The mathematical formula below is used to model geometric populations. Such populations grow in discrete reproductive periods between intervals of abstinence, as opposed to populations which grow without designated periods for reproduction. Say that the natural number $t$ is the index the generation ($1=t=0$ for the first generation, $1=t=1$ for the second generation, etc.). The letter $t$ is used because the index of a generation is time. Say $N_{t}$ denotes, at generation $t$, the number of individuals of the population that will reproduce, i.e. the population size at generation $t$. The population at the next generation, which is the population at time $t+1$ is: $$ N_{t+1} = N_t + B_t - D_t + I_t - E_t $$ where
 * $B_{t}$ is the number of births in the population between generations $t$ and $t + 1$,
 * $D_{t}$ is the number of deaths between generations $t$ and $t + 1$,
 * $I_{t}$ is the number of immigrants added to the population between generations $t$ and $t + 1$, and
 * $E_{t}$ is the number of emigrants moving out of the population between generations $t$ and $t + 1$.

For the sake of simplicity, we suppose there is no migration to or from the population, but the following method can be applied without this assumption. Mathematically, it means that for all $t$, $1=I_{t} = E_{t} = 0$. The previous equation becomes: $$N_{t+1} = N_t + B_t - D_t.$$

In general, the number of births and the number of deaths are approximately proportional to the population size. This remark motivates the following definitions. The previous equation can then be rewritten as: $$N_{t+1} = (1 + b_t - d_t)N_t.$$
 * The birth rate at time $t$ is defined by $b_{t} = B_{t} / N_{t}$.
 * The death rate at time $t$ is defined by $d_{t} = D_{t} / N_{t}$.

Then, we assume the birth and death rates do not depend on the time $t$ (which is equivalent to assume that the number of births and deaths are effectively proportional to the population size). This is the core assumption for geometric populations, because with it we are going to obtain a geometric sequence. Then we define the geometric rate of increase $1=R = b_{t} - d_{t}$ to be the birth rate minus the death rate. The geometric rate of increase do not depend on time $t$, because both the birth rate minus the death rate do not, with our assumption. We obtain: $$\begin{align} N_{t+1} &= \left(1 + R\right) N_t. \end{align}$$ This equation means that the sequence $(N_{t})$ is geometric with first term $N_{0}$ and common ratio $1 + R$, which we define to be $λ$. $λ$ is also called the finite rate of increase.

Therefore, by induction, we obtain the expression of the population size at time $t$: $$N_t = \lambda^t N_0$$ where $λ^{t}$ is the finite rate of increase raised to the power of the number of generations. This last expression is more convenient than the previous one, because it is explicit. For example, say one wants to calculate with a calculator $N_{10}$, the population at the tenth generation, knowing $N_{0}$ the initial population and $λ$ the finite rate of increase. With the last formula, the result is immediate by plugging $t = 10$, whether with the previous one it is necessary to know $N_{9}$, $N_{8}$, ..., $N_{2}$ until $N_{1}$.

We can identify three cases:
 * If $λ > 1$, i.e. if $R > 0$, i.e. (with the assumption that both birth and death rate do not depend on time $t$) if $b_{0} > d_{0}$, i.e. if the birth rate is strictly greater than the death rate, then the population size is increasing and tends to infinity. Of course, in real life, a population cannot grow indefinitely: at some point the population lacks resources and so the death rate increases, which invalidates our core assumption because the death rate now depends on time.
 * If $λ < 1$, i.e. if $R < 0$, i.e. (with the assumption that both birth and death rate do not depend on time $t$) if $b_{0} < d_{0}$, i.e. if the birth rate is strictly smaller than the death rate, then the population size is decreasing and tends to $0$.
 * If $λ = 1$, i.e. if $R = 0$, i.e. (with the assumption that both birth and death rate do not depend on time $t$) if $b_{0} = d_{0}$, i.e. if the birth rate is equal to the death rate, then the population size is constant, equal to the initial population $N_{0}$.

Doubling time
[[File:G. stearothermophilus has a shorter doubling time (td) than E. coli and N. meningitidis.png|400px|thumbnail|right|G. stearothermophilus has a shorter doubling time (td) than E. coli and N. meningitidis. Growth rates of 2 [[bacteria]]l species will differ by unexpected orders of magnitude if the doubling times of the 2 species differ by even as little as 10 minutes. In eukaryotes such as animals, fungi, plants, and protists, doubling times are much longer than in bacteria. This reduces the growth rates of eukaryotes in comparison to Bacteria. G. stearothermophilus, E. coli, and N. meningitidis have 20 minute, 30 minute, and 40 minute doubling times under optimal conditions respectively. If bacterial populations could grow indefinitely (which they do not) then the number of bacteria in each species would approach infinity (∞). However, the percentage of G. stearothermophilus bacteria out of all the bacteria would approach 100% whilst the percentage of E. coli and N. meningitidis combined out of all the bacteria would approach 0%. This graph is a simulation of this hypothetical scenario. In reality, bacterial populations do not grow indefinitely in size and the 3 species require different optimal conditions to bring their doubling times to minima.

''Disclaimer: Bacterial populations are logistic instead of geometric. Nevertheless, doubling times are applicable to both types of populations.'' ]]

The doubling time ($t_{d}$) of a population is the time required for the population to grow to twice its size. We can calculate the doubling time of a geometric population using the equation: $N_{t} = λ^{t} N_{0}$ by exploiting our knowledge of the fact that the population ($N$) is twice its size ($2N$) after the doubling time.

$$\begin{align} N_{t_d} &= \lambda^{t_d} N_0 \\ 2 N_0 &= \lambda^{t_d} N_0 \\ \lambda^{t_d} &= 2 \end{align}$$

The doubling time can be found by taking logarithms. For instance: $$t_d \log_2(\lambda) = \log_2(2) = 1 \implies t_d = \frac{1}{\log_2(\lambda)}$$ Or: $$t_d \ln(\lambda) = \ln(2) \implies t_d = \frac{\ln(2)}{\ln(\lambda)} = \frac{0.693...}{\ln(\lambda)}$$

Therefore: $$t_d = \frac{1}{\log_2(\lambda)} = \frac{0.693...}{\ln(\lambda)}$$

Half-life of geometric populations
The half-life of a population is the time taken for the population to decline to half its size. We can calculate the half-life of a geometric population using the equation: $N_{t} = λ^{t} N_{0}$ by exploiting our knowledge of the fact that the population ($N$) is half its size ($0.5N$) after a half-life.

$$N_{t_{1/2}} = \lambda^{t_{1/2}} N_0 \implies \frac{1}{2} N_0 = \lambda^{t_{1/2}} N_0 \implies \lambda^{t_{1/2}} = \frac{1}{2}$$ where $t_{1/2}$ is the half-life.

The half-life can be calculated by taking logarithms (see above). $$t_{1/2} = \frac{1}{\log_{0.5}(\lambda)} = - \frac{\ln(2)}{\ln(\lambda)}$$

Note that as the population is assumed to decline, $λ < 1$, so $ln(λ) < 0$.

Mathematical relationship between geometric and logistic populations
In geometric populations, $R$ and $λ$ represent growth constants (see 2 and 2.3). In logistic populations however, the intrinsic growth rate, also known as intrinsic rate of increase ($r$) is the relevant growth constant. Since generations of reproduction in a geometric population do not overlap (e.g. reproduce once a year) but do in an exponential population, geometric and exponential populations are usually considered to be mutually exclusive. However, both sets of constants share the mathematical relationship below.

The growth equation for exponential populations is $$N_t = N_0 e^{rt}$$ where $e$ is Euler's number, a universal constant often applicable in logistic equations, and $r$ is the intrinsic growth rate.

To find the relationship between a geometric population and a logistic population, we assume the $N_{t}$ is the same for both models, and we expand to the following equality: $$\begin{align} N_0 e^{rt} &= N_0 \lambda^t \\ e^{rt} &= \lambda^t \\ rt &= t \ln(\lambda) \end{align}$$ Giving us $$r = \ln(\lambda)$$ and $$\lambda = e^r.$$

Evolutionary game theory
Evolutionary game theory was first developed by Ronald Fisher in his 1930 article The Genetic Theory of Natural Selection. In 1973 John Maynard Smith formalised a central concept, the evolutionarily stable strategy.

Population dynamics have been used in several control theory applications. Evolutionary game theory can be used in different industrial or other contexts. Industrially, it is mostly used in multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems, although it can be adapted for use in single-input-single-output (SISO) systems. Some other examples of applications are military campaigns, water distribution, dispatch of distributed generators, lab experiments, transport problems, communication problems, among others.

Oscillatory
Population size in plants experiences significant oscillation due to the annual environmental oscillation. Plant dynamics experience a higher degree of this seasonality than do mammals, birds, or bivoltine insects. When combined with perturbations due to disease, this often results in chaotic oscillations.

In popular culture
The computer game SimCity, Sim Earth and the MMORPG Ultima Online, among others, tried to simulate some of these population dynamics.

title: Population dynamics


text:
Congressional Space Medal of Honor

The Congressional Space Medal of Honor was authorized by the United States Congress in 1969 to recognize "any astronaut who in the performance of his or her duties has distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the Nation and mankind". It's awarded by the President of the United States in Congress's name on recommendations from the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The award is a separate decoration from the Medal of Honor, which is a military award for extreme bravery and gallantry in combat.

While the Congressional Space Medal of Honor is a civilian award of the United States government, it is authorized as a non-military decoration for display on U.S. military uniforms because it is awarded by a federal agency. In such cases, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor is worn as a ribbon "immediately preceding the Prisoner of War Medal". DoD policy specifically prohibits wear of any non-military awards for valor or service, but the Congressional Space Medal of Honor only recognizes meritorious achievement, so it does not fall under this prohibition.

To be awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, an astronaut must perform feats of extraordinary accomplishment while participating in space flight under the authority of NASA. Typically, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor is awarded for scientific discoveries or actions of tremendous benefit to mankind. The decoration may also be awarded for extreme bravery during a space emergency or in preventing a major space disaster, or posthumously to those astronauts who die while performing a U.S. space mission. , all 17 astronauts killed on US missions had been awarded the medal.

President George W. Bush awarded the most CSMOH with 16; 14 of them posthumous for crews of the two destroyed space shuttle flights, Challenger and Columbia. President Joe Biden awarded the CSMOH to Crew Dragon Demo-2 members Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on January 31, 2023. The 16-year hiatus from April 2006 to January 2023 is the longest gap between awards.

Recipients
The medal has been awarded to 28 astronauts, of which 17 were made posthumously for those who died preparing for or during an American spaceflight. Of those 17, three died in the Apollo 1 fire, seven died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, and seven in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Four of the twelve moonwalkers received the medal (Armstrong, Conrad, Shepard, and Young), but only Neil Armstrong for his lunar mission. The New Nine class of U.S. astronauts (the second group of astronauts selected by NASA) has the most recipients of the medal, with seven. Second is NASA Astronaut Group 8 which received five awards, four for astronauts killed in the Challenger Disaster (Shannon Lucid is the only Group 8 astronaut to receive the award who was not killed in the Challenger Disaster).

Seven recipients are living, four over 80 years old. Frank Borman was the last remaining of the first six recipients of the CSMOH in 1978.

In the table below, an asterisk indicates a posthumous award.

title: Congressional Space Medal of Honor


text:
Stable

A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the American-style barn, for instance, is a large barn with a door at each end and individual stalls inside or free-standing stables with top and bottom-opening doors.The term "stable" is additionally utilised to denote a collection of animals under the care of a single owner, irrespective of their housing or whereabouts.

The exterior design of a stable can vary widely, based on climate, building materials, historical period and cultural styles of architecture. A wide range of building materials can be used, including masonry (bricks or stone), wood and steel. Stables also range widely in size, from a small building housing one or two animals to facilities at agricultural shows or race tracks that can house hundreds of animals.

History
The stable is typically historically the second-oldest building type on the farm. The world's oldest horse stables were discovered in the ancient city of Pi-Ramesses in Qantir, in Ancient Egypt, and were established by Ramesses II (c. 1304–1213 BC). These stables covered approximately 182,986 square feet, had floors sloped for drainage, and could contain about 480 horses. Free-standing stables began to be built from the 16th century. They were well built and placed near the house because these animals were highly valued and carefully maintained. They were once vital to the economy and an indicator of their owners' position in the community. Relatively few examples survive of complete interiors (i.e. with stalls, mangers and feed racks) from the mid-19th century or earlier.

Traditionally, stables in Great Britain had a hayloft on their first (i.e. upper) floor and a pitching door at the front. Doors and windows were symmetrically arranged. Their interiors were divided into stalls and usually included a large stall for a foaling mare or sick horse. The floors were cobbled (or, later, bricked) and featured drainage channels. An outside stone stairway constructed against the side of the building was common for reaching the upper level.

Horses
For horses, stables are often part of a larger complex which includes trainers, vets and farriers.

Other uses
The word stable is also used metonymically to refer to the collection of horses that the building contains (for example, the college's stable includes a wide variety of breeds) and even, by extension, metaphorically to refer to a group of people—often (but not exclusively) athletes—trained, coached, supervised or managed by the same person or organisation. For example, art galleries typically refer to the artists they represent as their stable of artists. Analogously, car enthusiast magazines sometimes speak of collectible cars in this way, referring to the cars in a collector's stable (most especially when the metaphor can play on the word association of pony cars).

Historically, the headquarters of a unit of cavalry, not simply their horses' accommodation, was known as a "stable".

title: Stable


text:
User:Spim~enwiki

Please see my pages at

http://www.kaapeli.fi/~smaatta/

spim,

also known as Sami Määttä

title: User:Spim~enwiki


text:
Lili Boulanger

Marie-Juliette Olga "Lili" Boulanger (21 August 1893 – 15 March 1918) was a French composer and the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition prize. Her older sister was the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger.

Early years
As a child prodigy born in Paris, Boulanger's talent was apparent at a very young age; at the age of two, she was already singing melodies by ear. Her parents, both of whom were musicians, encouraged their daughter's musical education. Her mother, Raissa Myshetskaya (Mischetzky) (1858–1935), was a Russian princess who married her Paris Conservatoire teacher, Ernest Boulanger (1815–1900), who won the Prix de Rome in 1835. Her father was 77 years old when she was born and she became very attached to him. Her grandfather Frédéric Boulanger had been a noted cellist and her grandmother Juliette a singer.

Boulanger accompanied her ten-year-old sister Nadia to classes at the Paris Conservatoire before she was five, shortly thereafter sitting in on classes on music theory and studying organ with Louis Vierne. She also sang and played piano, violin, cello and harp. Her teachers included Marcel Tournier and Alphonse Hasselmans for harp, Mme Hélène Chaumont for piano and Fernand Luquin for violin. However, Lili was not allowed to work on her musical studies due to her pneumonia from 6 years old until she was 16 years old. After waiting patiently, she studied harmony with Georges Caussade and composition with Paul Vidal at the Paris Conservatoire. Although she was studying under such talented composers and musicians at the conservatoire, she had one main supporter and devoted friend—her sister and best friend, Nadia.

Career: Prix de Rome and after
In 1912, Boulanger competed in the Prix de Rome but during her performance she collapsed from illness. She returned in 1913 at the age of 19 to win the composition prize for her cantata Faust et Hélène, becoming the first woman to win the prize. The text was written by Eugene Adenis based on Goethe's Faust. The cantata had many performances during her lifetime. Because of the prize, she gained a contract with the music publisher Ricordi.

Nadia Boulanger had given up entering the Prix de Rome after four unsuccessful attempts and focused her attention on her role as assistant in Henri Dallier's organ class at the Conservatoire, where Lili studied harmony, counterpoint and composition with Paul Vidal and Georges Caussade, under the Conservatoire's director Gabriel Fauré—the last of whom was impressed by her talents and frequently brought songs for her to read. Boulanger was greatly affected by the 1900 death of her father; many of her works touch on themes of grief and loss. Her work was noted for its colorful harmony and instrumentation and skillful text setting. Aspects of Fauré and Claude Debussy can be heard in her compositions, and Arthur Honegger was influenced by her innovative work.

According to Caroline Potter, “The two sisters were both influenced by Debussy, and it appears they had similar literary tastes to the elder composer. Both sisters set poems by Maurice Maeterlinck, who was the author of the play Pelléas and Mélisande and also of Princesse Maleine; in February 1916, Maeterlinck authorized Lili to set the latter play as an opera. Allegedly, Lili had almost completed the opera before her death, though only the short score of act 1, scene 2, two versions of the libretto, and a sketchbook have survived."

Illness and death
She suffered from chronic illness, beginning with a case of bronchial pneumonia at age two that weakened her immune system, leading to the intestinal tuberculosis that ended her life at the age of 24. Although she loved to travel and completed several works in Italy after winning the Prix de Rome, her failing health forced her to return home, where she and her sister organised efforts to support French soldiers during World War I. Her last years were a productive time musically as she labored to complete works. Her death left unfinished the opera La princesse Maleine on which she had spent most of her last years.

Boulanger died in Mézy-sur-Seine. In 1979, her sister Nadia Boulanger was buried in the same tomb. It also contains the remains of their parents.

Music
Boulanger grew up in a time of musical transition and her music fits easily into what was becoming defined as a post-Romantic style. Like Debussy, Boulanger associated herself more with Symbolism than Impressionism, with her music featuring the sense of obscurity and indirection more common in Symbolism. However, she also “explored the ‘Impressionists’ palette of nonfunctional seventh and ninth chords, parallel chords, and modal progressions”. While much of Boulanger’s music reflects the feelings of isolation and alienation that were starting to emerge during the twentieth century, it also reveals her own struggles with depression and loneliness caused by her long-term illness. She often chose texts that conveyed a strong sense of hopelessness and sadness, as seen in Demain fera un an: “Nothing more. I have nothing more, nothing to sustain me” and “I seem to feel a weeping within me, a heavy, silent sobbing, someone who is not there”.

Les sirènes
Les sirènes (1911) is written for solo soprano and three part choir. The topic, sirens, uses a text by Charles Grandmougin. This work was first premiered at one of her mother's exclusive musical gatherings. Auguste Mangeot, a critic from the Paris music journal Le Monde Musicale, reported that everyone liked the piece so well it had to be repeated. Boulanger used this piece as a preparation for the Prix de Rome competition, and from it one can see her firm grounding in the classical technique taught at the Conservatoire. She uses this technique as a starting point and employs many devices popular at that time to create a personal and clear statement.

The poetry of this selection deals with the mythological siren, a creature that sings to seduce sailors to steer closer; when they do, the sirens devour the men. Boulanger depicts this scene as vividly as she possibly can. She uses a pedal tone on F♯ combined with ascending C♯ octaves at the beginning to portray the mesmerizing effect of the sirens. She uses this effect for twenty-eight measures, in effect, lulling listeners into a trance-like sleep.

The work is dedicated to Madame Jane Engel Bathori. Bathori, a soprano, was known for her concert organisation, and supported many new artists and composers.

Psalms
Boulanger composed three psalm settings: Psalms 24, 129 and 130.

Psalm 24
She composed Psalm 24, entitled La terre appartient à l'Eternel ("The earth is the Lord's"), in 1916 while she was resident in Rome. The work is dedicated to Monsieur Jules Griset, who was the director of Choral Guillot de Saint-Brice. Durand published the work in 1924. The work is scored for choir (consisting of soprano, alto, tenor and bass), accompanied by organ and brass ensemble (consisting of 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 4 trombones, 1 tuba), timpani and 2 harps. Boulanger's score uses brass fanfares and homophonic choral passages: the contrast of sections contrast to the style of her 1912 Prix de Rome-winning cantata, Faust et Hélène, as heard in Yan Pascal Tortelier's recording.

Psalm 129
Psalm 129 was also composed in 1916 in Rome. This psalm is much longer than Psalm 24 and is composed for full orchestra. The premiere performance was held at the Salle Pleyel in 1921, conducted by Henri Busser.

Psalm 130
Du fond de l'abîme (Psalm 130: De Profundis / "Out of the depths"), composed for voice and orchestra, is dedicated to the memory of her father, as noted at the top of the score. The work, completed when Boulanger was aged only twenty-two, sounds mature and conveys a developed compositional style. Boulanger's psalms convey her Catholic faith. It has been suggested that the work was composed in reaction to World War I. The work is for a large orchestra including a sarrusophone.

Pie Jesu
Lili Boulanger finished this Pie Jesu (1918), scored for high voice, string quartet, harp and organ, towards the end of her life, but "the first of Lili Boulanger's sketches for the Pie Jesu are to be found in a composition book she used between 1909 and 1913." As noted by her sister, Nadia, she dictated the work to her. Scholars such as biographer Léonie Rosenstiel and Olivia Mattis speculate that Boulanger intended to write a complete Requiem Mass but did not live to complete it.

Vieille prière bouddhique
This work, "Old Buddhist Prayer", is written for tenor and chorus (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), accompanied by a large orchestra consisting of: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets (B♭), bass clarinet (B♭), 2 bassoons, sarrusophone + 4 horns (F), 3 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba + tympani, cymbals, bass drum + celesta + 2 harps, strings. Composed during 1914–1917, it was, as many of her works, not performed until after World War I, in 1921. This work is not based within Catholicism, as her psalms were. Rather, it sets the text of a Buddhist daily prayer. James Briscoe notes that this work shows similarities to Stravinsky but also anticipates the next generation of composers.

D'un soir triste
This symphonic poem was the last work Boulanger was able to compose by her own hand, without help in writing.

D'un matin de printemps
This instrumental work is one of the last pieces Lili Boulanger completed. Different arrangements were produced including a version for violin, for flute, and for piano, another for piano trio, and another for orchestra. Although she finished both these instrumental works, her sister Nadia reportedly edited the works to add dynamics and performance directions.

Legacy
In March 1939, Nadia Boulanger with the help of American friends created the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund. It has two objectives: to perpetuate Lili Boulanger's music and memory and to financially support talented musicians. The Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund does not accept applications for its annual competition but a list of candidates is produced by a group of nominators selected each year by the Board of Trustees. Each nominator can then propose a candidate for the prize. The Fund then awards the Prix Lili Boulanger to one of these candidates. The University of Massachusetts Boston curates the fund. Previous winners have included Alexei Haieff (1942), Noël Lee (1953), Wojciech Kilar (1960), Robert D. Levin (1966, 1971) and Andy Akiho (2015).

In April 1965, the Friends of Lili Boulanger Association was created in Paris. This organization became the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre (CNLB) in 2009.

Joy-Leilani Garbutt and Laura Colgate, two Washington, DC, musicians, started the Boulanger Initiative in 2018 to support music composed by women, in honor of Lili and Nadia Boulanger.

The asteroid 1181 Lilith was named in honour of Boulanger.

title: Lili Boulanger


text:
Li Qingzhao

Li Qingzhao (1084 – ca. 1155), art name Yi'an Jushi, was a Chinese poet and essayist of the Song dynasty. She is considered one of the greatest poets in Chinese history.

Early life
Li Qingzhao was born in 1084 in Jinan, Shandong province. She was born to a family of scholar-officials. Her father, Li Gefei, was an academic professor, a famous essayist, and a member of a poetry and literary circle led by Su Shi. Her mother was a renowned poet descended from prime minister Wang Kung-ch'en. The family had a large collection of books, and Li was able to receive comprehensive education in her childhood. Her poems showed her girlish innocence, sharp mind, and love of nature, such as "Happy Memories: Dreamland". Since she was a teen, she studied hard and had an in-depth understanding of literature. As a teenager, she started to develop a career as a poet by writing two poems in shih form to rhyme with a poem by a friend.

Marriage
Li's poetry was already well known within elite circles by 1101, when, aged eighteen, she married Zhao Mingcheng. They had numerous similarities and both loved poetry, literature, sculpture in bronze and stone, painting, and calligraphy. After her husband started his official career, he was often absent from home. They were not particularly wealthy but enjoyed collecting inscriptions and calligraphy. Since Li spent a quite happy time with her husband, her poetic style became calmer and more elegant. Li and her husband collected many books. They often wrote poems for each other as well as about bronze artifacts of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Her early poetry portrays her carefree days as a woman of high society, and is marked by its elegance.

Unfortunately, their marital bliss was only temporary because of the Jin-Song wars between the Song dynasty and the Jurchens. The Northern Song capital of Kaifeng fell in 1127. Fighting took place in Shandong and their house was burned. Citizens of Zhao country, including Li and Zhao, endured countless sufferings and fled south of the Yangtze River. The couple took many of their possessions when they fled to Nanjing, where they lived for a year. Zhao died of typhoid fever in 1129 on the route to an official post, and Li never recovered. She wandered aimlessly after her husband's death. It was then up to her to keep safe what was left of their collection. Li described her married life and the turmoil of her flight in an afterword to her husband's posthumously published work, Catalogue of Inscriptions on Metal and Stone.

Later life
Li subsequently settled in Hangzhou, where the Song government made its new capital after the war against the Jurchens. During this period, she continued writing poetry but her later work was full of nostalgic memories of her husband and her hometown. She also kept working on completing the Catalogue of Inscriptions on Metal and Stone. The book was mainly about the calligraphy on bronze and stones; it also mentions the documents Li and Zhao collected and viewed. According to some contemporary accounts, she was briefly married to a man named Zhang Ruzhou who treated her badly, and she divorced him within months. She survived the criticism of this marriage. It is widely believed that she died around the age of 71, but no records of this remain.

Unfortunately, many of her poems disappeared in the following turbulent years, which became an irreparable loss to Chinese literature. Only around a hundred of her poems are known to survive, mostly in the ci form and tracing her varying fortunes in life. A few poems in the shi form also survived, as did the afterword to Catalogue of Inscriptions on Metal and Stone and a study of ci poetry.

Poems
Li's life was full of twists and turns and her poems can be split into two main parts - the dividing line being when she moved to the south. During the early period, most of her poems were related to her feelings as a maiden. They were more like love poems. After her move to the south, they were closely linked with her hatred of the war against the Jurchens and her patriotism. She is credited with the first detailed critique of the metrics of Chinese poetry. She was regarded as a master of the "subtle and concise style" zh:婉約派.

One of Li's famous ci poems is "A Dream Song", written when she was living in Jinan and recalling the events of her hometown before her marriage. Therefore, she wrote it between the ages of 16 and 17 (the second year of Yuan Fu of Song Zhezong, 1099). This is also known as her first poem. Translator Jiaosheng Wang translates as:

Shandong Zhangqiu Memorial Hall
"Qingzhao Garden" is located at the bank of Baimai Spring in Mingshui, covering 18,000 square meters, including 1,270 square meters of buildings, 1,500 square meters of water, and 10,000 square meters of green space. It was officially opened on May 1, 1997, and is the most significant memorial to Li.

Shandong Qingzhou Memorial Hall
Qingzhou Li Qingzhao Memorial Hall is located at the Yangxi Lake outside the west gate of Qingzhou Ancient City. It covers an area of about 630 square meters. The building faces south; there are tunnels in the entrance to the north, road east built, shun river building, west of the four pine pavilion, are of Qing dynasty architecture. At the end of the corridor is a quadrillion built in 1993; on the door, there is a well-known poet Xiao Lao writing tablet "Li Qingzhao Memorial Hall".

Shandong Jinan Memorial Hall
Jinan Li Qingzhao Memorial Hall is located in Baotu Spring Park, in a courtyard on the north side of Liuxu Spring, with 360 square meters. In the Northern Song dynasty, this courtyard was the courtyard of the Zhang family in Jinan. In the Jin dynasty, it was changed to Linquan Running. In the late Qing dynasty, it was changed to the ancestral temple of Ding Baozhen. In the early Qing dynasty, the poet Tian Wen wrote a poem titled "Visiting Li Yian Old House at Liuxu Spring." People mistakenly thought that Li's former residence was near Liuxu Spring. Later, literati and poets all joined the club. Thus it was said that Li's old house was in Jinan. Moreover, Li was once respected as the lotus root god and was enshrined in the Lotus Shrine beside Daming Lake in Jinan. Since the Qing dynasty, Jinan people have been awarded Li "Lotus Godness" for sacrificing.

Zhejiang Jinhua Memorial Hall
Jinhua Li Qingzhao Memorial Hall is located in the southern corner of Jinhua City, Bayong Road. Ba Yong Lou was built by Shen Yue, governor of Dongyang, in the first year of Qilongchang in the Southern dynasty. In 1994, Ba Yong Lou Cultural Relics Conservation and Management Office changed the main hall of Ba Yong Lou into Li Qingzhao Memorial Hall.

Zhejiang Hangzhou Memorial Hall
Since Li Qingzhao once lived near Qingbo Gate of West Lake in Hangzhou, the relevant authorities built the Qingzhao Pavilion in the Stream of the Metasequoia forest in the Willow Waves And Orioles Park, which was opened in 2002.

Modern References
Two impact craters, Li Ch'ing-Chao on Mercury and Li Qingzhao on Venus, are named after her.

"A Dream Song" and "Sheng Sheng Man" have been set to music as part of the song cycle 'Chinese Memories' by composer Johan Famaey in 2011.

In 2017, the composer Karol Beffa wrote Fragments of China (Klarthe), setting four of her poems to music. River of Stars, a novel by Guy Gavriel Kay set in a fictionalized Song China, features a protagonist inspired by Li Qingzhao, as acknowledged by the author in the book.

title: Li Qingzhao