text:
Logotherapy

Logotherapy was developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl and is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life. Frankl describes it as "the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy" along with Freud's psychoanalysis and Alfred Adler's individual psychology.

Logotherapy is based on an existential analysis focusing on Kierkegaard's will to meaning as opposed to Adler's Nietzschean doctrine of will to power or Freud's will to pleasure. Rather than power or pleasure, logotherapy is founded upon the belief that striving to find meaning in life is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force in humans. A short introduction to this system is given in Frankl's most famous book, Man's Search for Meaning (1946), in which he outlines how his theories helped him to survive his Holocaust experience and how that experience further developed and reinforced his theories. Presently, there are a number of logotherapy institutes around the world.

Basic principles
The notion of logotherapy was created with the Greek word logos ("meaning"). Frankl's concept is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find meaning in life. The following list of tenets represents basic principles of logotherapy:
 * Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.
 * Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
 * We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the stance we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering.

The human spirit is referred to in several of the assumptions of logotherapy, but the use of the term spirit is not "spiritual" or "religious." In Frankl's view, the spirit is the will of the human being. The emphasis, therefore, is on the search for meaning, which is not necessarily the search for God or any other supernatural being. Frankl also noted the barriers to humanity's quest for meaning in life. He warns against "...affluence, hedonism, [and] materialism..." in the search for meaning.

Purpose in life and meaning in life constructs appeared in Frankl's logotherapy writings with relation to existential vacuum and will to meaning, as well as others who have theorized about and defined positive psychological functioning. Frankl observed that it may be psychologically damaging when a person's search for meaning is blocked. Positive life purpose and meaning were associated with strong religious beliefs, membership in groups, dedication to a cause, life values, and clear goals. Adult development and maturity theories include the purpose in life concept. Maturity emphasizes a clear comprehension of life's purpose, directedness, and intentionality which contributes to the feeling that life is meaningful.

Frankl's ideas were operationalized by Crumbaugh and Maholick's Purpose in Life (PIL) test, which measures an individual's meaning and purpose in life. With the test, investigators found that meaning in life mediated the relationships between religiosity and well-being; uncontrollable stress and substance use; depression and self-derogation. Crumbaugh found that the Seeking of Noetic Goals Test (SONG) is a complementary measure of the PIL. While the PIL measures the presence of meaning, the SONG measures orientation towards meaning. A low score in the PIL but a high score in the SONG, would predict a better outcome in the application of Logotherapy.

Discovering meaning
According to Frankl, "We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering" and that "everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances". On the meaning of suffering, Frankl gives the following example:

"'Once, an elderly general practitioner consulted me because of his severe depression. He could not overcome the loss of his wife who had died two years before and whom he had loved above all else. Now how could I help him? What should I tell him? I refrained from telling him anything, but instead confronted him with a question, 'What would have happened, Doctor, if you had died first, and your wife would have had to survive without you?:' 'Oh,' he said, 'for her this would have been terrible; how she would have suffered!' Whereupon I replied, 'You see, Doctor, such a suffering has been spared her, and it is you who have spared her this suffering; but now, you have to pay for it by surviving and mourning her.' He said no word but shook my hand and calmly left the office."

Frankl emphasized that realizing the value of suffering is meaningful only when the first two creative possibilities are not available (for example, in a concentration camp) and only when such suffering is inevitable – he was not proposing that people suffer unnecessarily.

Philosophical basis of logotherapy
Frankl described the meta-clinical implications of logotherapy in his book The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy. He believed that there is no psychotherapy apart from the theory of the individual. As an existential psychologist, he inherently disagreed with the "machine model" or "rat model", as it undermines the human quality of humans. As a neurologist and psychiatrist, Frankl developed a unique view of determinism to coexist with the three basic pillars of logotherapy (the freedom of will). Though Frankl admitted that a person can never be free from every condition, such as, biological, sociological, or psychological determinants; based on his experience during his life in the Nazi concentration camps, he believed that a person is "capable of resisting and braving even the worst conditions". In doing such, a person can detach from situations and themselves, choose an attitude about themselves, and determine their own determinants, thus shaping their own character and becoming responsible for themselves.

Overcoming anxiety
By recognizing the purpose of our circumstances, one can master anxiety. Anecdotes about this use of logotherapy are given by New York Times writer Tim Sanders, who explained how he uses its concept to relieve the stress of fellow airline travelers by asking them the purpose of their journey. When he does this, no matter how miserable they are, their whole demeanor changes, and they remain happy throughout the flight. Overall, Frankl believed that the anxious individual does not understand that their anxiety is the result of dealing with a sense of "unfulfilled responsibility" and ultimately a lack of meaning.

Treatment of neurosis
Frankl cites two neurotic pathogens: hyper-intention, a forced intention toward some end which makes that end unattainable; and hyper-reflection, an excessive attention to oneself which stifles attempts to avoid the neurosis to which one thinks oneself predisposed. Frankl identified anticipatory anxiety, a fear of a given outcome which makes that outcome more likely. To relieve the anticipatory anxiety and treat the resulting neuroses, logotherapy offers paradoxical intention, wherein the patient intends to do the opposite of their hyper-intended goal.

A person, then, who fears (i.e. experiences anticipatory anxiety over) not getting a good night's sleep may try too hard (that is, hyper-intend) to fall asleep, and this would hinder their ability to do so. A logotherapist would recommend, then, that the person go to bed and intentionally try not to fall asleep. This would relieve the anticipatory anxiety which kept the person awake in the first place, thus allowing them to fall asleep in an acceptable amount of time.

Depression
Viktor Frankl believed depression occurred at the psychological, physiological, and spiritual levels. At the psychological level, he believed that feelings of inadequacy stem from undertaking tasks beyond our abilities. At the physiological level, he recognized a "vital low", which he defined as a "diminishment of physical energy". Finally, Frankl believed that at the spiritual level, the depressed individual faces tension between who they actually are in relation to what they should be. Frankl refers to this as the gaping abyss. Finally Frankl suggests that if goals seem unreachable, an individual loses a sense of future and thus meaning, resulting in depression. Thus logotherapy aims "to change the patient's attitude toward their disease as well as toward their life as a task".

In order to overcome depressed feelings and thoughts, Frankl challenges individuals who suffer from depression to find meaning in their suffering. Frankl frequently cites Nietzsche's words, "If we have our own why in life, we shall get along with almost any how". Suffering and all the negative emotions that come with it are a normal part of the human experience and should even be expected. Edith Weisskopf-Joelson, a psychologist and follower of logotherapy, argues that "our current mental-hygiene philosophy stresses the idea that people ought to be happy, that unhappiness is a symptom of maladjustment. Such a value system might be responsible for the fact that the burden of unavoidable unhappiness is increased by unhappiness about being unhappy".

Obsessive–compulsive disorder
Frankl believed that those with obsessive–compulsive disorder lack the sense of completion that most other individuals possess. Instead of fighting the tendencies to repeat thoughts or actions, or focusing on changing the individual symptoms of the disease, the therapist should focus on "transform[ing] the neurotic's attitude toward their neurosis". Therefore, it is important to recognize that the patient is "not responsible for his obsessional ideas", but that "he is certainly responsible for his attitude toward these ideas". Frankl suggested that it is important for the patient to recognize their inclinations toward perfection as fate, and therefore, must learn to accept some degrees of uncertainty. Ultimately, following the premise of logotherapy, the patient must eventually ignore their obsessional thoughts and find meaning in their life despite such thoughts.

Schizophrenia
Though logotherapy was not intended to deal with severe disorders, Frankl believed that logotherapy could benefit even those with schizophrenia. He recognized the roots of schizophrenia in physiological dysfunction. In this dysfunction, the person with schizophrenia "experiences himself as an object" rather than as a subject. Frankl suggested that a person with schizophrenia could be helped by logotherapy by first being taught to ignore voices and to end persistent self-observation. Then, during this same period, the person with schizophrenia must be led toward meaningful activity, as "even for the schizophrenic there remains that residue of freedom toward fate and toward the disease which man always possesses, no matter how ill he may be, in all situations and at every moment of life, to the very last".

Terminally ill patients
In 1977, Terry Zuehlke and John Watkins conducted a study analyzing the effectiveness of logotherapy in treating terminally ill patients. The study's design used 20 male Veterans Administration volunteers who were randomly assigned to one of two possible treatments – (1) group that received eight 45-minute sessions over a 2-week period and (2) group used as control that received delayed treatment. Each group was tested on five scales – the MMPI K Scale, MMPI L Scale, Death Anxiety Scale, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, and the Purpose of Life Test. The results showed an overall significant difference between the control and treatment groups. While the univariate analyses showed that there were significant group differences in 3/5 of the dependent measures. These results confirm the idea that terminally ill patients can benefit from logotherapy in coping with death.

Forms of treatment
Ecce Homo is a method used in logotherapy. It requires of the therapist to note the innate strengths that people have and how they have dealt with adversity and suffering in life; to ask the patient to consider how, despite everything a person may have gone through, they made the best of their suffering. The method is called "Ecce Homo", which is Latin for "Behold the Man", because the method involves beholding how other people have made the best of their adversity.

Authoritarianism
In 1961 Rollo May argued that logotherapy is, in essence, authoritarian. He suggested that Frankl's therapy presents a plain solution to all of life's problems, an assertion that would seem to undermine the complexity of human life itself. May contended that if a patient could not find their own meaning, Frankl would provide a goal for his patient. In effect, this would negate the patient's personal responsibility, thus "diminish[ing] the patient as a person". Frankl explicitly replied to May's arguments through a written dialogue, sparked by Rabbi Reuven Bulka's article "Is Logotherapy Authoritarian?". Frankl responded that he combined the prescription of medication, if necessary, with logotherapy, to deal with the person's psychological and emotional reaction to the illness, and highlighted areas of freedom and responsibility, where the person is free to search and to find meaning.

Religiousness
Critical views of the life and word of logotherapy's founder and his work assume that Frankl's religious background and experience of suffering guided his conception of meaning within the boundaries of the person and therefore that logotherapy is founded on Viktor Frankl's worldview. Some researchers argue that logotherapy is not a "scientific" psychotherapeutic school in the traditional sense but a philosophy of life, a system of values, or a secular religion that is not fully coherent and based on questionable metaphysical premises.

Frankl openly spoke and wrote on religion and psychiatry, throughout his life, and specifically in his last book, Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning (1997). He asserted that every person has a spiritual unconscious, independently of religious views or beliefs, yet Frankl's conception of the spiritual unconscious does not necessarily entail religiosity. In Frankl's words: "It is true, Logotherapy, deals with the Logos; it deals with Meaning. Specifically, I see Logotherapy in helping others to see meaning in life. But we cannot "give" meaning to the life of others. And if this is true of meaning per se, how much does it hold for Ultimate Meaning?" The American Psychiatric Association awarded Viktor Frankl the 1985 Oskar Pfister Award (for important contributions to religion and psychiatry).

Recent developments
Since the 1990s, the number of institutes providing education and training in logotherapy continues to increase worldwide.VFI / Institutes worldwide (E) Numerous logotherapeutic concepts have been integrated and applied in different fields, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and burnout prevention. The logotherapeutic concepts of noogenic neurosis and existential crisis were added to the ICD 11 under the name demoralisation crisis, i.e. a construct that features hopelessness, meaninglessness, and existential distress as first described by Frankl in the 1950s. Logotherapy has also been associated with psychosomatic and physiological health benefits. Besides Logotherapy, other meaning-centered psychotherapeutic approaches such as positive psychology and meaning therapy have emerged. Paul Wong's meaning therapy attempts to translate logotherapy into psychological mechanisms, integrating cognitive behavioral therapy, positive psychotherapy and the positive psychology research on meaning. Logotherapy is also being applied in the field of oncology and palliative care (William Breitbart). These recent developments introduce Viktor Frankl's logotherapy to a new generation and extend its impact to new areas of research.

Locations
A number of logotherapeutic institutes have opened up in various countries around the world and include:

Africa

 * Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy South Africa

Asia

 * The Viktor Frankl Center for Logotherapy in Israel
 * Japan Logotherapist Association

Australia

 * Viktor Frankl Institute Australia

Europe

 * Viktor Frankl Zentrum Wien
 * Viktor Frankl Institute of Ireland
 * Logotherapy Institute of Finland
 * Logotherapy Institute of Serbia
 * Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy - Prague, Czech Republic

North America

 * Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy - Stamford, Texas
 * Arizona Institute of Logotherapy
 * Canadian Institute of Logotherapy - Ottawa, Canada
 * Sociedad Mexicana de Análisis Existencial y Logoterapia

South America

 * Fundacion Argentina de Logoterapia - Buenos Aires
 * Associação Brasileira de Logoterapia e Análise Existencial Frankliana (SOBRAL)

Online

 * Viktor Frankl Institute - Vienna, Austria
 * Viktor Frankl Institute of America

title: Logotherapy


text:
Manuport

A manuport is a natural object that has been deliberately taken from its original environment and relocated without further modification. Typically moved by human hand, some manuports are the result of other hominins. Common manuports include stones, seashells and fossils, which has led archaeologists and anthropologists to conclude they must have been chosen for their beauty. This recognition of an object’s aesthetic character suggests that certain manuports represent some of the earliest examples of art.

Etymology
The earliest attestation of the word manuport is from English in 1966. The term is derived from the Latin words manus, meaning ‘hand’, and portare, meaning ‘carry’.

Makapansgat cobble
The Makapansgat cobble was first discovered in the 1920s during excavations at an archaeological site in the Makapan Valley, South Africa. Although noted for its striking resemblance to a human face and its likely association with australopithecines, the cobble drew little attention at the time. (Only several years prior had the first description of Australopithecus been published and, as such, the cobble received no further study ). As the field of evolutionary biology developed through the 20th century, aided by the discovery of further hominin species, it led to a renewed interest in the Makapansgat cobble.

Sedimentary analysis of the cave where the Makapansgat cobble was discovered, including the unearthing of a nearby Australopithecus africanus skeleton, dates the manuport to 2,000,000-3,000,000 BP. Jasperite, the principal mineral found in the cobble, is not found elsewhere in the cave, and the nearest deposit of jasperite is reportedly 32 km away. Robert G. Bednarik argues that the cobble must have, sometime around 2.95 million years ago, been picked up and “carried for a considerable distance” by an early hominin. The Makapansgat cobble is the oldest known manuport and is possibly the earliest example of symbolic thinking.

The Makapansgat cobble’s distinct ‘face’, with its pair of ‘eyes’ and a ‘mouth’, has led some researchers to conclude that the profile must have, at least partially, been carved by hand. However, current research suggests that the cobble’s ‘features’ are entirely the result of natural forces. During the Pliocene, the jasperite deposit that would become the Makapansgat cobble experienced serious geological stress that produced fractures, which were then later filled with silica. Typical forces of erosion then later wore the silica away, leaving the cobble’s ‘face’ mostly formed by the end of the Pliocene epoch.

Erfoud cuttlefish
The Erfoud manuport was discovered in 1984 by Lutz Fiedler during an archaeological excavation near the town of Erfoud, Morocco. The manuport was found alongside other stone tools estimated to have been deposited 200,000-300,000 BP during the Lower Palaeolithic. Measuring approximately 68mm long, 35mm wide and 33mm thick, the Erfoud manuport is noteworthy for resembling a “perfectly naturalistic and life-size, non-erect human penis”.

The manuport is composed from a fragment of a cuttlefish fossil (Orthoceras sp.) that was silicified during the Devonian or Carboniferous period. The fossil had to have been carried a substantial distance to its eventual site, as cuttlefish fossils are not found in this part of Eastern Morocco and they are known to be found commonly elsewhere. Microscopic analysis of the object’s surface has found no trace of human modification but does show signs of minor wear.

Barrow Island chert
In 2014, a chert manuport was discovered embedded in an ancient reef on Barrow Island, Western Australia. The island has no natural chert deposits and so the stone must have been carried from mainland Australia. Chert is a traditional toolstone and other chert artifacts found on Barrow Island have been modified to be used as a blade. The closest sources of chert are several kilometers away by boat in the Pilbara and Carnarvon Basin. The stone is believed to have been transported during the last Ice Age when the coastlines of Barrow Island and Australia would have been much closer and more easily traversable. The manuport notably displays no signs of fracture, despite being carried for the intended later use as a tool. This implies that the chert stone must have been lost at some point during transport.

The manuport was found lodged in calcrete, a kind of sedimentary rock typical of sand dunes and reefs that have dried out. The exposed portion of the chert measures 40mm wide by 35mm high. Chemical analysis has determined the calcrete’s age to be 41,000 years old, indicating the earliest possible date that the manuport was deposited. This supports other archeological discoveries on the island suggesting humans occupied Barrow Island as early as 53,000 years ago. Collectively these artifacts present one of the oldest examples of maritime resource exploitation outside of Africa.

Australian archeologists have noted that calcrete is an ideal medium for preservation and the finding of the Barrow Island manuport is a strong indication further artifacts are likely to be located along Western Australia’s limestone shelf.

Orange County galena
Sometime around 2006, a galena manuport was discovered in a cave in the San Joaquin Hills, California. Galena, or lead sulfide, has long been used as a mineral pigment by the local indigenous communities of what is now Southern California. The mineral has a naturally metallic sheen and can appear as lead-colored or dark silver when applied as paint. The cave the manuport was discovered in contains prehistoric rock art, for which galena was commonly used. The only nearby source of galena is between 26–32 km away and archeologists believe that the manuport was brought to the site through trade sometime during prehistory.

Ambiguous manuports
It is not uncommon for ‘alien’ lithics to be found alongside other artifacts during archaeological excavations. Discerning whether certain stones are, indeed, manuports is difficult. There is no set criteria for determining a manuport and this designation is often provided at the researcher’s discretion.

Spirit Eye Cave pebbles
In a 2019 excavation in West Texas, archeologists uncovered 799 possible manuports from inside Spirit Eye Cave. Hundreds of unmodified, polished pebbles were uncovered, organized alongside other ‘cultural material’ that indicates human presence during prehistory. Sedimentary analysis indicates that these pebbles were deposited possibly 4,200 years BP. Researchers have suggested that this collection represents a portable form of ‘pebble art’, although their meaning is difficult to conclusively discern.

The pebbles demonstrate a striking uniformity. The leading theory proposed by archeologists is that these stones are gastroliths. Whether they were deposited after birds had died in situ or later collected by humans is still up for debate, though cultural significance of the stones should not be ruled out. Given the technological prominence of stones in prehistory, there is a myriad of possible ‘cultural meanings’ these gastroliths represent. One explanation offered is that these stones, given their smaller size, could have made for effective projectiles. Another explanation suggests that, like other contemporary prehistoric cultures, the Spirit Eye Cave manuports may have been spiritually ‘eaten’ (or placed in the mouth) as part of a lithophagic ritual.

Manuport size and hominids
Manuports can reveal to archeologists what some of the cultural practices of early hominids were. A collection of 176 manuports found in Olduvai, Tanzania are believed to have been deposited sometime around 1.8mya. Measuring the collection reveals two clear groups of manuports in a ‘deliberate selection and hoarding by a hominid species’. One group demonstrates an average weight of approximately 400g, and the other with an average weight of 220g. A manuport, like a footprint, may indicate the locomotion and mass of the hominid who threw it. It is possible that the collection of manuports found in Olduvai represent selection for sexual dimorphism: 400g is an ideal mass to be thrown by a male, and 220g is an ideal mass for a female. Alternatively, these two groups represent two separate group of hominids, the larger presumably being homo erectus.

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

title: Manuport


text:
Second Sight (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

"Second Sight" is the 29th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It is the ninth episode of the second season.

Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures on Deep Space Nine, a space station located near a stable wormhole between the Alpha and Gamma quadrants of the Milky Way Galaxy, near the planet Bajor. In this episode, station commander Benjamin Sisko develops feelings for a woman visiting the station, but there is more to her than he first thinks.

Plot
While stargazing on the station's Promenade level at night, Sisko meets a woman named Fenna. After a brief conversation, Sisko finds she has left him without a word. Later, when the two meet again, Sisko takes Fenna on a tour of the station, and they rapidly fall in love. It is the first spark of romance he has felt since the death of his wife Jennifer four years earlier. However, Fenna is evasive when Sisko asks her about her life. Fearing that she may be in trouble, Sisko asks security chief Odo to check on her, but Odo can find no record of anyone meeting her description on the station.

Meanwhile, the renowned but egomaniacal terraformer Gideon Seyetik is visiting Deep Space Nine en route to his next project. The project, which he considers his magnum opus, is to re-ignite a dying star so that planets orbiting it can support life; the plan is to send an unmanned vessel carrying the necessary fuel on a collision course with the star.

Seyetik invites the senior staff of Deep Space Nine for dinner on board the Prometheus, the ship escorting him on his mission. He introduces his wife, Nidell, who looks exactly like Fenna. After dinner, Sisko privately converses with Nidell; however, she acts as if she has never met him before. Later that evening, Fenna appears at Sisko's quarters; she claims to know nothing about Nidell. As she is kissing Sisko, she suddenly vanishes into a beam of energy.

Sisko and science officer Dax accompany Seyetik aboard the Prometheus to observe the terraforming mission. When Fenna appears again, Dax determines that Fenna is nothing more than pure energy. Meanwhile, Nidell is unconscious and dying. Seyetik explains that Fenna is a telepathic projection of Nidell's subconscious, who appears during times of emotional stress. She is no longer happy in her marriage, but since her people mate for life she cannot leave her husband. Her projected dreams of freedom have created Fenna, but are also killing her.

While Sisko and Fenna are discussing the nature of her existence, Dax calls Sisko to the command bridge: Seyetik has boarded the vessel carrying the fuel and is piloting it directly toward the star. Sisko tries to deter him, but Seyetik is determined to set his wife free. With a final shout of "Let there be light!", he detonates the fuel and reignites the star, killing himself in the blast. Later, Nidell leaves to return to her homeworld, with no memory of Fenna's romance with Sisko.

Reception
In 2019, ScreenRant ranked this episode one of the ten worst episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. They note that Seyetik's "arrogance made him a frustrating character and his final sacrifice less meaningful".

Releases
It was released on LaserDisc in Japan on June 6, 1997 as part of the half season collection 2nd Season Vol. 1, which had 7 doubled sided 12" discs. The discs had English and Japanese audio tracks.

On November 11, 1997, "Second Sight" and "Sanctuary" were released on double sided LaserDisc in the United States.

On April 1, 2003 Season 2 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was released on DVD video discs, with 26 episodes on seven discs.

This episode was released in 2017 on DVD with the complete series box set, which had 176 episodes on 48 discs.


text:
Belmont, Harrow

Belmont is a residential area of the London Borough of Harrow, located between Stanmore, Kenton, Wealdstone and Queensbury.

Etymology
The area is named after the mound constructed in the early 18th century by Henry James Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon and first Duke of Chandos. He had a summer house built atop the mound for the wonderful view. The mound, or mount, is now the Stanmore Golf Course.

Locale
Belmont is a suburban residential district and was formerly served by Belmont station, on a railway single-line branch running from Harrow & Wealdstone station to Stanmore Village railway station. The line was known locally as The Rattler, a term first coined by Pete Knobbler. The site of the station is now a car park. What may remain of the platform and track lies beneath tons of earth and rubble used to bring the car park up to street level. The Belmont Trail is a nature trail between Wealdstone and Stanmore running along much of the original track route. The circle was originally made for a tram line that would go across London. Its 4 exits were made due to this.

Belmont Circle provides the main focus of the area, being a large, circular parade of that intersects Kenton Lane. Many of the outlets are now food-related, with a few bars and a club completing the lineup. What was formerly the Belmont (and later The Spanish Arch) pub is now 'The Cardamom Lounge', a bar/restaurant serving authentic Indian food. Just off the Circle, Belmont Community Hall hosts local activities, events and a regular jumble sale.

Demography
In the 2011 census, the largest ethnic group in Belmont ward was Indian (34%), followed by White British (30%). Religion wise, 34% of residents adhered to Christianity, 30% to Hinduism, 11% to Islam, 8% to Judaism, 4% to Jainism, and 6% were not religious.

Transport
There are no train stations in Belmont today but both Harrow & Wealdstone and Canons Park tube station are accessible nearby. Bus routes 186, H18 and H19 serve the area.

title: Belmont, Harrow


text:
Sectarian violence

A painting in Chehel Sotoun1.jpg and Twelver Shias at the Battle of Chaldiran (Ottoman and Safavid

wars)]] Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is a form of communal violence which is inspired by sectarianism, that is, discrimination, hatred or prejudice between different sects of a particular mode of an ideology or different sects of a religion within a nation/community. Religious segregation often plays a role in sectarian violence.

Concept
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: "Traditionally, sectarian violence implies a symmetrical confrontation between two or more non-state actors representing different population groups."

Sectarian violence differs from the concept of race riot. It may involve the dynamics of social polarization, the balkanization of a geographic area along the lines of self-identifying groups, and protracted social conflict.

Some of the possible enabling environments for sectarian violence include power struggles, political climate, social climate, cultural climate, and economic landscape.
 * Economic conflict: capitalist versus Collectivist anarchism
 * Political conflict: communist versus nationalist
 * Interreligious conflict: Christians and/or Catholics versus Jews Muslim versus Christian Muslim versus Buddhist
 * Christian conflict: Catholic versus Protestant
 * Islamic conflict: Shia versus Sunni

In Japan
In the Japanese Middle Ages, different Buddhist sects had warrior monks and private armies that frequently clashed. See Buddhism and violence.

Catholic-Eastern Orthodox
Although the First Crusade was initially launched in response to an appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos for help in repelling the invading Seljuq Turks from Anatolia, one of the lasting legacies of the Crusades was to "further separate the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity from each other."

European wars of religion
Following the onset of the Protestant Reformation, a series of wars were waged in Europe starting circa 1524 and continuing intermittently until 1648. Although sometimes unconnected, all of these wars were strongly influenced by the religious change of the period, and the conflict and rivalry that it produced. According to Miroslav Volf, the European wars of religion were a major factor behind the "emergence of secularizing modernity".

In the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre followers of the Roman Catholic Church killed up to 30,000 Huguenots (French Protestants) in mob violence. The massacres were carried out on the national day celebrating Bartholomew the Apostle. Pope Gregory XIII sent the leader of the massacres a Golden Rose, and said that the massacres "gave him more pleasure than fifty Battles of Lepanto, and he commissioned Giorgio Vasari to paint frescoes of it in the Vatican". The killings have been called "the worst of the century's religious massacres", and led to the start of the fourth war of the French Wars of Religion.

Northern Ireland
Since the 16th century there has been sectarian conflict of varying intensity between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. This religious sectarianism is connected to a degree with nationalism. Northern Ireland has seen inter-communal conflict for more than four centuries and there are records of religious ministers or clerics, the agents for absentee landlords, aspiring politicians, and members of the landed gentry stirring up and capitalizing on sectarian hatred and violence back as far as the late 18th century.

William E.H. Lecky, an Irish historian, wrote in 1892 that, "If the characteristic mark of a healthy Christianity be to unite its members by a bond of fraternity and love, then there is no country where Christianity has more completely failed than Ireland".

Steve Bruce, a sociologist, wrote;"The Northern Ireland conflict is a religious conflict. Economic and social considerations are also crucial, but it was the fact that the competing populations in Ireland adhered and still adhere to competing religious traditions which has given the conflict its enduring and intractable quality. Reviewers agreed 'Of course the Northern Ireland conflict is at heart religious'."

John Hickey wrote;"Politics in the North is not politics exploiting religion. That is far too simple an explanation: it is one which trips readily off the tongue of commentators who are used to a cultural style in which the politically pragmatic is the normal way of conducting affairs and all other considerations are put to its use. In the case of Northern Ireland the relationship is much more complex. It is more a question of religion inspiring politics than of politics making use of religion. It is a situation more akin to the first half of seventeenth century England than to the last quarter of twentieth‑century Britain."

The period from 1969 to 1998 is known as "The Troubles", a period of frequent violence and tense relations between Northern Ireland's communities. About one in eight females and one in five males in Northern Ireland identified themselves as belonging to no religion. However, people of no religion and are still generally attributed a Catholic or Protestant identity based on their ancestry and upbringing, both by the community in general and the state. Government advice recommends that in situations where an individual chooses not to identify as a member of the Catholic or Protestant community, individuals responsible for Equal Opportunities monitoring should determine communal affiliation on the basis of information such as name, address, schools attended or hobbies. People of no religion are less likely to support the main, constitution-oriented main political parties, or more likely to support a more neutral political party such as the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.

About two-thirds of people with no religion tend to think of themselves as neither unionist or nationalist, although a much higher percentage of those with no religion tend to think of themselves as unionist than nationalist.

For people who describe themselves as Protestant or Roman Catholic, a small majority of them appear to favour one of the two main political parties on either side: the Democratic Unionist Party or the Ulster Unionist Party for Protestants; and Sinn Féin or the Social Democratic and Labour Party for Roman Catholics. In each case, the percentage in the Northern Irish Life & Times Survey in 2015 was 57%. Roman Catholics are more likely to reject the label British (59%) than Protestants are to reject the label Irish (48%).

Protestants are more likely to consider the British identity as the 'best' single way to describe themselves, at 67%, with Roman Catholics close behind at 63% who consider the best single way to describe themselves as Irish. There is an equal level of support for the more neutral Northern Irish identity, with 25% of people from each religion likely to choose that label as the best description. Over a third of people with no religion prefer to be described as Northern Irish.

There are organizations dedicated to the reduction of sectarianism in Northern Ireland. The Corrymeela Community (in Ballycastle, County Antrim), operates a retreat centre on the northern coast of Northern Ireland to bring Catholics and Protestants together to discuss their differences and similarities. The Ulster Project works with teenagers from Northern Ireland and the United States to provide safe, non-denominational environments to discuss sectarianism in Northern Ireland. These organizations are attempting to bridge the gap of historical prejudice between the two religious communities.

Although state schools in Northern Ireland are non-denominational, most Catholic parents still send their children to specifically Catholic schools or Irish-language medium schools, thus ensuring that state school students are almost wholly Protestant. There are some integrated schools and the Society of Friends (Quakers) have long been an advocate of co-education in terms of religion, operating the Friends' School in Lisburn (first established in 1774).

Yugoslav wars
Howard Goeringer criticizes both the "Catholic Pope and the Orthodox Patriarch" for failing to condemn the "deliberate massacre of men, women and children in the name of 'ethnic cleansing' as incompatible with Jesus' life and teaching."

Rwandan genocide
The majority of Rwandans, and Tutsis in particular, are Catholic, so shared religion did not prevent genocide. Miroslav Volf cites a Roman Catholic bishop from Rwanda as saying, "The best cathechists, those who filled our churches on Sundays, were the first to go with machetes in their hands". Ian Linden asserts that "there is absolutely no doubt that significant numbers of prominent Christians were involved in sometimes slaughtering their own church leaders." According to Volf, "what is particularly disturbing about the complicity of the church is that Rwanda is without doubt one of Africa’s most evangelized nations. Eight out of ten of its people claimed to be Christians."

When the Roman Catholic missionaries came to Rwanda in the late 1880s, they contributed to the "Hamitic" theory of race origins, which taught that the Tutsi were a superior race. The Church has been considered to have played a significant role in fomenting racial divisions between Hutu and Tutsi, in part because they found more willing converts among the majority Hutu. The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) report on the genocide states,

"In the colonial era, under German and then Belgian rule, Roman Catholic missionaries, inspired by the overtly racist theories of 19th century Europe, concocted a destructive ideology of ethnic cleavage and racial ranking that attributed superior qualities to the country's Tutsi minority, since the missionaries ran the colonial-era schools, these pernicious values were systematically transmitted to several generations of Rwandans..."

The Roman Catholic Church argues that those who took part in the genocide did so without the sanction of the Church. Although the genocide was ethnically motivated and religious factors were not prominent, Human Rights Watch reported that a number of religious authorities in Rwanda, particularly Roman Catholic, failed to condemn the genocide publicly at the time.

Some Christian leaders have been convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for their roles in the genocide. These include Rwandan Roman Catholic priests and nuns as well as a Seventh-day Adventist Church pastor.

Scotland
Scotland suffers from a spill-over of sectarianism, largely owing to the Troubles in neighbouring Northern Ireland as many people, particularly in the West of Scotland, have links to Northern Ireland by genealogy or immigration.

Scotland's two largest and best supported football clubs—Glasgow Rangers, which, for many generations, has largely been identified with Protestants and unionism, and Glasgow Celtic, which, since its founding in the late 19th century, has been identified with Roman Catholics and Irish nationalism or republicanism—both subscribe, with varying degrees of success, to government initiatives and charities like the Nil by Mouth campaign are working in this area.

Celtic previously sent letters to every season ticket holder reminding supporters that no form of sectarianism is welcome at Celtic Park. Rangers' anti-sectarian policy is called Follow With Pride.

Among Muslims
Sectarian violence between the two major sects of Islam, Shia and Sunni, has occurred arising out of differences over the succession to Muhammad. Abu Bakr, a companion of Muhammad, was nominated by Umar and elected as the first Sunni Rightly Guided Caliph. However another group felt that Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, had been designated by Muhammad and is considered by Shia as the first Imam.

According to Sunnis, Abu Bakr was followed by Umar as caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, then by Uthman ibn Affan and finally by Ali. Ali's right to rule was challenged by Muawiyah bin Abu Sufian, governor of Syria.

In Iraq
In February 2006, a full-scale civil war erupted in Iraq, when violence between the two Muslim rival sects erupted. It has left tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people dead and dozens of mosques and homes destroyed.

In Pakistan
In Pakistan sectarianism exhibited its first organized nature in early 1980 when two rival organizations were established: Tehrik-e-Jafaria (TFJ) (Organization of the Jafri (Shia) Law) represented Shia communities, and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) (Guardian of the Companions of the Prophet) representing Sunnis. The first major incident of this sectarian violence was killing of the Arif Hussain Hussaini, founding leader of TFJ in 1986.

In retaliation Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, founder of the (SSP) was murdered. Since then internecine bloody vendetta has ensued. The focus of this violence has been Kurram, Hangu, Dera Ismail Khan, Bahawalpur, Jhang, Quetta,Gigit- Baltistan and Karachi.

The transformation of the sectarian conflict to a violent civil war in Pakistan coincided with the establishment of the Islamic republic in Iran and promotion of the Sunni religion and its incorporation in the state institutions by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, regime in Pakistan.

The Iranian Revolution was led by Shia clerics, and it influenced Shia communities all over the world. In Pakistan Tehrik-e-Jafaria was established with the demands of enforcing the Sharia Law. This demand was viewed as detrimental by the Sunni religious leaders. In response SSP was established by the Sunni extremist clerics. Many of these clerics had a background in the sectarian strife against the Ahmadis (a heterodox sect considered non-Muslim by majority of the Muslims)

In Somalia
Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a is a Somali paramilitary group consisting of Sufis and moderates opposed to the radical Islamist group Al-Shabaab. They are fighting in order to prevent Wahhabism from being imposed on Somalia and to protect the country's Sunni-Sufi traditions and generally moderate religious views.

In Syria
The Syrian civil war gradually shifted towards a more sectarian nature. Pro-Assad militant groups are largely Shia, while anti-Assad militant groups are Sunni.

In Yemen
In Yemen, there have been many clashes between Sunnis and Shia Houthis. According to The Washington Post, "In today’s Middle East, activated sectarianism affects the political cost of alliances, making them easier between co-religionists. That helps explain why Sunni-majority states are lining up against Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah over Yemen."

Among Sikhs
In 1978, Khalsa Sikhs consisting of Damdami Taksal, Akhand Kirtani Jatha and Akali-Nihangs led by Fauja Singh and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale clashed with members of the Sant Nirankari Mission, a heretical Sikh sect in Amritsar, Punjab after the Sant Nirankari Guru, Gurbachan Singh committed blasphemy by calling himself the reincarnation of Guru Nanak, made blasphemous statements on Guru Gobind Singh, Guru Granth Sahib, and created sacrilegious versions of Sikh rituals. The clashes ended with 3 Sant Nirankaris and 13 Khalsa Sikhs dead.

Piara Singh Bhaniara started his own heretical Sikh sect and dera with about 600,000 followers in the 1980s resulting in him being ex-communicated by the Akal Takht. In the summer of 2000, a local gurudwara disallowed one of Bhaniara's followers from carrying the Sikh religious holy book Guru Granth Sahib. This prompted Bhaniara's followers to write their own holy book (granth), resulting in the creation of the Bhavsagar Samudra Amrit Vani Granth. Orthodox Sikhs alleged that Bhavsagar Granth copied several portions from the Guru Granth Sahib, and that Bhaniara insultingly imitated the Sikh Guru Gobind Singh in several photos in the book. In September 2001, during a religious ceremony organized by Bhaniara's followers, a newly-formed organization called Khalsa Action Force attacked the function, seized the Bhavsagar Granth and burned it. This was followed by several instances of Guru Granth Sahib being burnt in the rural gurudwaras of Punjab. The Punjab Police arrested and presented before media some young men, who stated that they had burned Guru Granth Sahib at the insistence of Bhaniara. The arrests sparked off violence against Bhaniara's followers. In October 2001, Bhaniara was arrested under the National Security Act, and charged with several crimes. His followers were put in jail, where they were attacked with acid and knives by Sikhs. Some of Bhaniara's deras were converted into SGPC-administered gurudwaras. No action was taken against the Sikhs who attacked Bhaniara's followers. In 2001, the Parkash Singh Badal-led Government of Punjab banned Bhavsagar Granth and confiscated all its copies, arresting those who were found in possession of these copies. The print copy was probably destroyed by the Punjab Police. In 2003, a Sikh man named Gopal Singh attempted to stab Bhaniara, when he was in Ambala to appear in the court in connection with his alleged involvement with the burning of the copies of Guru Granth Sahib. A member of Babbar Khalsa, Gurdeep Singh Rana was arrested for trying to assassinate Bhaniara using a bomb in January 2005.

Examples

 * Caste-related violence in India
 * La Violencia in Colombia
 * Communalism (South Asia)
 * Cypriot intercommunal violence
 * Religious violence in India
 * Caste-related violence in India
 * 2005 French riots
 * 2005 Cronulla riots
 * 2006 Brussels riots
 * 2009 Boko Haram Uprising
 * 2009 Gojra riots
 * Rohingya conflict

title: Sectarian violence


text:
Talk:Localhost

Localhost As IP Mask
I created an app which masks your IPv4/IPv6 and MAC addresses as their respective localhost. The app is called Binquasin. The way it works is the configuration file only changes the way your device displays your OS's System information. And the executable binary file executes the app. It is available as both a PWA and Native App. How I know it works is the permissions the Android version of Binquasin is set to (however this Wiki software doesn't seem to allow screenshot uploads and I am trying to keep this Talk entry brief).

If the web address is not permitted here, feel free to delete this entire paragraph: https://binquasin.neocities.org/

I want to see this topic discussed on the article or at least discuss whether it can be added.

Thank you for your time.

Joseph D. Smith 04:02, 10 March 2023 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kyjds (talk • contribs)

title: Talk:Localhost


text:
START II

START II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was a bilateral treaty between the United States and Russia on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It was signed by US President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin on 3 January 1993, banning the use of multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Hence, it is often cited as the De-MIRV-ing Agreement.

It was ratified by the US Senate on 26 January 1996 with a vote of 87–4. Russia ratified START II on 14 April 2000, making it conditional on preserving the ABM Treaty. When the US withdrew from the ABM Treaty on 13 June 2002, Russia withdrew from START II one day later. Thus, START II never entered into effect.

Instead, SORT came into effect, which reduced the strategic warheads count per country to 1,700–2,200.

Impact of MIRV
ICBMs using MIRVs are considered destabilizing because they put a premium on a first strike. These missiles can carry from two warheads to as many as 50 in some Soviet super-heavy missile designs. They can also carry a large number of decoys. Significant numbers of highly accurate warheads and decoys could annihilate an entire nation in a first strike, including a substantial amount of an opponent's missile silos and air force bomber fleet.

Hypothetically, if each side had 100 missiles, with five warheads each, and each side had a 95% chance of neutralizing its opponent's missiles in their silos by firing two warheads at each silo, the side that strikes first can reduce the enemy ICBM force from 100 missiles to about five by firing 40 missiles with 200 warheads and keeping the remaining 60 missiles in reserve. Thus, the destruction capability is greatly multiplied by MIRVs since the number of enemy silos does not significantly increase.

Both Soviet R-36M and US LGM-118 Peacekeeper missiles could carry up to 10 MIRVs though the latter are no longer operational.

Negotiations
The historic agreement started on 17 June 1992 with the signing of a joint understanding by both presidents. The official signing of the treaty by the presidents took place on 3 January 1993. It was ratified by the US Senate on 26 January 1996 with a vote of 87–4. However, Russian ratification was stalled in the State Duma for many years. It was postponed many times to protest American military actions in Iraq and in Kosovo and to oppose the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe. The treaty became less relevant as the years passed, and both sides started to lose interest in it.

On 14 April 2000, the Russian Duma finally ratified the treaty with some conditions. Specifically, these conditions were that the US would continue to uphold the ABM Treaty, and that the US Senate would ratify a September 1997 addendum to START II that included agreed statements on the demarcation of strategic and tactical missile defenses. The US Senate never ratified the addendum, as a faction of Republicans led by Jesse Helms opposed any limits on American anti-ballistic missile systems. As a result, START II never entered into force.

Replaced by SORT
However, in 2001, US President George W. Bush set a plan in motion to reduce the country's missile forces from 6,000 to between 1,700 and 2,200.

Thus, the START II treaty was officially bypassed by the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), which was agreed to by Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin at their summit meeting in November 2001 and signed at Moscow Summit on 24 May 2002. Both sides agreed to reduce operationally-deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,700 from 2,200 by 2012.

On 13 June 2002, the US withdrew from the ABM Treaty, and the following day, Russia announced that it would no longer consider itself to be bound by START II provisions. Both countries continued to pursue their objectives. Russia still retains 54 MIRV-capable RS-20/R-36M (SS-18 Satan) with 10 warheads each, 40 MIRV-capable RS-18/UR-100N (SS-19 Stiletto) with 6 warheads each and 24 MIRV-capable RS-24 Yars with 3 warheads each. The US developed the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system to protect itself from small-scale ICBM attacks.

In October 2002, the US began its unilateral withdrawal of MIRV (including complete deactivation of Peacekeeper missiles) and completed it by 19 September 2005. The Minuteman III is, as of 2011, the only American land-based operational ICBM. It can potentially carry only three RVs.

title: START II


text:
QNX4FS

QNX4FS is an extent-based file system used by the QNX4 and QNX6 operating systems.

As the file system uses soft updates, it remains consistent even after a power failure, without using journaling. Instead, the writes are carefully ordered and flushed to disk at appropriate intervals so that the on-disk structure always remains consistent, no matter if the operation is interrupted. However, unflushed changes to the file system are nevertheless lost, as the disk cache is typically stored in volatile memory. This design has a considerable performance gain over journaling, by just bypassing that step.

Another notable property of this file system is that its actual metadata, like inode information and disk bitmaps, are accessible in the same way as any other file on the file system (as /.inodes and /.bitmap, respectively). This is consistent with QNX's (in fact, Plan 9 from Bell Labs's, or historically Unix's) philosophy that "everything is a file".

title: QNX4FS


text:
Hooded seal

The hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) is a large phocid found only in the central and western North Atlantic, ranging from Svalbard in the east to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the west. The seals are typically silver-grey or white in color, with black spots that vary in size covering most of the body. Hooded seal pups are known as "blue-backs" because their coats are blue-grey on the back with whitish bellies. This coat is shed after 14 months of age when the pups molt. It is the only species in the genus Cystophora.

Naming
The generic name Cystophora means "bladder-bearer" in Greek, from the species' unusual sexual ornament – a peculiar inflatable bladder septum on the head of the adult male. This bladder hangs between the eyes and down over the upper lip in the deflated state. In addition, the hooded seal can inflate a large balloon-like sac from one of its nostrils. This is done by shutting one nostril valve and inflating a membrane, which then protrudes from the other nostril.

Size
Adult males are 2.6 meters long on average, can grow to 3.5 m, and weigh 300 - 410 kg. Sexual dimorphism is obvious from birth and females are much smaller: 2.03 meters long and weighing 145 - 300 kg. The color is silvery; the body is scattered with dark, irregular marks. The head is darker than the rest of the body, and without marks.

Distribution and habitat
Hooded seals live primarily on drifting pack ice and in deep water in the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic. Although some drift away to warmer regions during the year, their best survival rate is in colder climates. They can be found on four distinct areas with pack ice: near Jan Mayen Island (northeast of Iceland); off Labrador and northeastern Newfoundland; the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and the Davis Strait (off midwestern Greenland). Males appear to be localized around areas of complex seabed, such as Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, and the Flemish cap, while females concentrate their habitat efforts primarily on shelf areas, such as the Labrador Shelf. Hooded seals are known to be a highly migratory species that often wander long distances, as far west as Alaska and as far south as the Canary Islands and Guadeloupe. Prior to the mid 1990s, hooded seal sightings in Maine and the east Atlantic were rare, but began increasing in the mid 1990s. From January 1997 to December 1999, a total of 84 recorded sightings of hooded seals occurred in the Gulf of Maine, one in France and one in Portugal. From 1996 to 2006, five strandings and sightings were noted near the Spanish coasts in the Mediterranean Sea. There is no scientific explanation for the increase in sightings and range of the hooded seal.

Diet
The diet of the hooded seal is composed primarily of various amphipods (crustaceans), euphausiids (krill), and fish, including Atlantic argentine, capelin, Greenland halibut, cod, herring, and redfish. They also are known to eat squid, sea stars, and mussels. Relative to the other species, hooded seals consume 3 times the proportion of redfish; percentages of capelin were similar in relation to closely related species. Capelin is considered a more common choice of sustenance during the winter season. Their diet is considered to be rich in lipids and fatty acids.

Behavior
Hooded seals tend to feed in relatively deep waters ranging from 100 - 600 m, and dive from 5 to 25 minute durations. However, some dives can go deeper than 1016 m and as long, or longer, than 52 minutes. Diving is rather continuous, with approximately 90% of their time spent submerged during the day and night, although dives during the day are generally deeper and longer. Dives during the winter are also deeper and longer than those in the summer. It is known that the hooded seal is generally a solitary species, except during breeding and molting seasons. During these two periods, they tend to fast as well. The seals mass annually near the Denmark strait around July, at the time of their molting periods, to mate. Hooded seals are a relatively unsocial species compared to other seals, and they are typically more aggressive and territorial. They demonstrate aggression by inflating the "hood" (which is explained in the "Nasal Cavity" section below). They frequently migrate and remain alone for most of the year, except during mating season.

Nasal cavity
The hooded seal is known for its uniquely elastic nasal cavity located at the top of its head, also known as the hood. Only males possess this nasal sac, which they begin to develop around the age of four. The hood begins to inflate as the seal makes its initial breath prior to going underwater. It then begins to repetitively deflate and inflate as the seal is swimming. The purpose of this happening is for acoustic signaling, meaning that it occurs when the seal feels threatened and attempts to ward off hostile species when competing for resources such as food and shelter. It also serves to communicate their health and superior status to both other males and females they are attempting to attract. In sexually mature males, a pinkish balloon-like nasal membrane comes out of the left nostril to further aid it in attracting a mate. This membrane, when shaken, is able to produce various sounds and calls depending on whether the seal is underwater or on land. Most of these acoustic signals are used in acoustic situation (about 79%), while about 12% of the signals are used for sexual purposes.

Breeding and life cycle
There are four major breeding areas for the hooded seal: the Gulf of St. Lawrence; the "Front" east of Newfoundland; Davis Strait (between Greenland and northern Canada); and the West Ice near Jan Mayen. Male hooded seals are known to have several mates in a single mating season, following the hypothesis that they are polygynous. While some males will defend and mate with just one female for long periods of time, others will be more mobile and tend to mate with multiple females for shorter periods of time, generating maximum offspring within the population. Most males reach sexual maturity by 5 years of age.

Throughout all areas, the hooded seals whelp in late March and early April and molt from June to August. The four recognized herds are generally sorted into two distinct populations: a Northeast (NE) Atlantic population and a Northwest (NW) Atlantic population. It is estimated that 90% of the total NW population give birth on the "Front". The NE herd whelping (giving birth) around Jan Mayen generally disperse into the sea after they breed in March. From April through June, after the breeding season, this species travels long distances to feed and then eventually gather together once again. Although some individuals return to the same area of ice in July to undergo moulting, the majority of the herd molt further North. After molting, the species disperses widely again to feed in the late summer and autumn before returning to the breeding areas again in late winter.

Offspring
Pups are about 1 m long at birth and weigh about 24 kg. They are born on the ice from mid-March to early April with a well-developed blubber layer and having shed their pre-natal coat. They are born with a slate blue-grey coat (giving them the name "blueback"), with a pale cream color on the belly, which they will molt after about 14 months. Nursing of the pup lasts for an average of only 4 days, the shortest lactation period of any mammal, during which the pup doubles in size, gaining around 7 kg/day. This is possible because the milk that they drink has a fat content of 60%. The female pup will mature between ages 3 and 6, whereas the male pup will mature between ages 5 and 7.

Early development
Researchers find that due to a pup's differing needs in regards to sustaining work and foraging while under water compared to adults, the skeletal and cardiac muscles develop differently. Studies show that cardiac blood flow provides sufficient oxygen to sustain lipolytic pathways during dives, remedying their hypoxic challenge. Cardiac tissue is more developed than skeletal muscles at birth and during the weaning period, although neither tissue is fully developed by the end of the weaning period. Pups are born with fully developed hemoglobin stores (found in blood), but their myoglobin levels (found in skeletal tissue) are only 25–30% of adult levels. These observations demonstrate that pup muscles are less able to sustain either aerobic or anaerobic ATP production during dives than adults. This is due to the large stores of oxygen, either bound to hemoglobin or myoglobin, which the seals rely on to dive for extended periods of time. This could be a potential explanation for pups’ short weaning period as diving is essential to their living and survival.

Hooded seals shed their lanugo fur in the womb and are born with a thin non lanugo fur coat, which is a less efficient thermoregulating fur coat compared to some to other seal species (e.g., leopard seals). Studies have shown that newborn hooded seals undergo a stage after birth where the thickness of their blubber grows rapidly, which maximizes their ability to thermoregulate and compensate for their thin fur coat. This process of fur removal in the womb and alternatively using blubber may be advantageous because water cannot penetrate blubber like it does with fur, therefore blubber can insulate the seals in both water and air fairly uniformly.

Lifespan
The hooded seal can live to about age 30 to 35.

Threats and conservation practices
Prior to the 1940s, adult hooded seals were primarily hunted for their leather and oil deposits. More recently, the main threats are hunting, including subsistence hunting, and bycatch. Seal strandings are not considered a large threat to hooded seal populations but are highly researched. Seal pups are hunted for their blue and black pelts and many mothers are killed in the process, attempting to protect their young. Hunting primarily occurs in areas of Greenland, Canada, Russia, and Norway. Overall, northwest Atlantic hooded seal populations are stable or increasing whereas the northeast Atlantic populations have declined by 85–90% within the last 60 years.

It was believed by the scientific community that sonar was leading to mass stranding of hooded seals. After multiple sonar tests on captive seals, ranging from 1 to 7 kHz, it became evident that it had little effect on the subjects. The first test on each subject yielded differing results, ranging from reduced diving activity and rapid exploratory swimming. A difference was only noted for all subjects on their initial exposure.

Conservation practices, brought about by international cooperation and the formation of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) led to hooded seal population increases. It is now required to hold a license to hunt hooded seals in international waters and each license is set a quota. Total allowable catch of hooded seals are set at 10,000 annually.

The hooded seal is protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

title: Hooded seal


text:
Burgdorf, Switzerland

Burgdorf (Berthoud; High Alemannic: Bùùrdlef) is the largest city in the Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It was the capital of the district of the same name until 2010, when it became part of the new Emmental district.

Name
Burgdorf it is called in the German language, Berthoud in French which is not a literal translation of Burgdorf. Berthoud is in memory of Berchthold V. Duke of Zähringen who added a plaque to the city entrance for his victory against the Burgundese. As a Latinized form of Burgdorf, Castrovilla is known, but a Villa Berchtoldi or similar has not been found to date.

History
Scattered archeological finds indicate that the area around Burgdorf was inhabited during the Neolithic era, the Late Bronze Age and the Hallstatt.

During the High Middle Ages the land that would become Burgdorf was owned by the Kingdom of Burgundy and then after 1080 by the Dukes of Zähringen. Either the kings or the dukes built a castle on the left bank of the Emme river. Burgdorf is first mentioned in 1236 as in oppido Burchtorff, while Burgdorf Castle is mentioned in 1080 as castellum Bertoldi ducis. The Zähringen dukes built a city (upper-west city section) around the castle in the last quarter of the 12th century. After the extinction of Zähringen line, Burgdorf passed to the Counts of Kyburg. They expanded the city in 1278 with the upper-east section and between 1278 and 1300 absorbed the Holzbrunnen settlement which became the lower town. By 1300 the city had expanded to fill the town walls. Starting in 1323 there was a ban on construction within the walls, which marked the border of the city until 1800. Under the Kyburg or Neu-Kyburg Counts, Burgdorf Castle was the capital of the county, and the Counts were the mayors of Burgdorf town. In the 14th century, the Neu-Kyburgs became increasingly indebted. On 11 November 1382, Count Rudolf II of Neu-Kyburg, launched a raid against the city of Solothurn to try and force the city to forgive his debts. For the city of Bern, this attack on an allied city represented an excellent opportunity for the city to break its ties with the Neu-Kyburgs. In March 1383 the Bernese-Solothurn army marched on Burgdorf. This army was supported with troops from the Forest Cantons, Lucerne, Zürich, Neuchâtel and Savoy and were armed with catapults and primitive guns. Because Count Rudolf II had died before the war began, Burgdorf was defended by Rudolf's uncle, Berchtold I. Under Berchtold, Burgdorf withstood a 45-day siege. An attempt to negotiate a cease-fire on 21 April 1383, between Bern and the citizens of Burgdorf against the Neu-Kyburgs was also unsuccessful. Beset by enormous burdens of war and civil unrest at home, the Bernese Council sought Confederation mediation to end the war. On 5 April 1384, the Neu-Kyburgs agreed to sell the towns and castles of Burgdorf and Thun to Bern for 37,800 guilders.

As part of the peace treaty, Bern acknowledged the rights and privileges that the Kyburgs had granted to Burgdorf. Burgdorf enjoyed a unique amount of autonomy compared to the other cities in the Bernese city-state. The town had its own mayor, council and high and low courts. Starting in 1394 the town began to buy courts, land and forests from the impoverished nobility. It began to acquire the surrounding villages and towns as well. In 1394 Rütschelen came under Burgdorf's authority. This was followed in 1395 by Grasswil, 1400 by Wil (now part of Rütschelen), 1402 by Inkwil (until 1720), 1423 by Niederösch, 1429 by Bettenhausen, 1429 and 1509/10 Thörigen, 1431 by Gutenburg and Lotzwil, 1435 by Kleindietwil and at the start of the 16th century Oberösch. The city created the bailiwicks of Grasswil (Grasswil, Ösch, Heimiswil) and Lotzwil (Thörigen, Lotzwil) under the administration of an alderman.

The city government consisted of a small council (12 members) and a large council (32 members) Starting in 1384 the Schultheiss was chosen by Bern. The small council was proposed by Burgdorf and approved by Bern, while the large council was appointed by the small council. By the 15th century, Burgdorf had about 900 residents which made it larger than most of the surrounding towns. The main industry remained agriculture until about 1798. Trade remained mostly regional and the products of the local industry (tannery, wool and linen weaving) only sold in the nearby region. Until the late 15th century, the town had a few guilds which remained without political or social power. They were mostly responsible for a few city obligations including supervising the fire and security watches. There were five guild houses in the upper city (blacksmiths-carpenters, butchers-shoemakers, bakers, weavers and tailors), one in the lower town (tanners). Each guild consisted of several trades, for example the blacksmiths-carpenters, allowed craftsmen working in 22 different jobs involving iron, stone and wood processing to join.

The economic growth in the 15th century enabled the city to build municipal buildings and maintain the fortifications and public areas. The city hall, church and market were all built or expanded during this time. However, starting in the 1460s and 1470s the economy began to stagnate. The guilds gradually became more powerful and began to choke the economy. In the 16th century, the economies of the surrounding villages began to grow unfettered by guild rules. The guild controlled markets of Burgdorf attempted to compete with these small markets by banning the import of goods from the surrounding countryside. These bans (in 1619 and again in 1666–74) only served to undermined Burgdorf's position as a regional market and service center. Burgdorf remained hostile to new businesses and in some cases drove them to settle in neighboring towns.

With the construction of the road on Kirchberg (1756–64) Burgdorf was no longer on any regional trade routes. The devastating fires (1706 upper town and in 1715 in the lower town) forced the city council to rebuild much of the city. Overall, the population stagnated and after 1655 it became increasing hard to gain citizenship in Burgdorf. The percentage of non-citizen residents who could become citizens was less than 40% in 1764. As the number of artisans had declined, there were fewer and fewer families for that could serve on the town councils. At times, the large council only had 27 members instead of 32, due to a lack of candidates. During the Swiss peasant war of 1653 the city remained loyal to Bern. While they feared an attack by the peasant armies, Burgdorf was bypassed. The invasion of the French in 1798 and the forced reforms of the Helvetic Republic demolished much of the traditional, conservative power structure and privilege in Burgdorf.

Geography

Burgdorf has an area,, of 15.56 km2. Of this area, 3.78 km2 or 24.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.33 km2 or 40.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 5.03 km2 or 32.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.41 km2 or 2.6% is either rivers or lakes and 0.05 km2 or 0.3% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 6.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 15.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.5%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.2%. 39.8% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 16.6% is used for growing crops and 7.1% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Sable and Argent all within a Border Or.

Demographics
Burgdorf has a population of. , 12.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 5.2%. Migration accounted for 6.6%, while births and deaths accounted for -1.1%.

Most of the population speaks Swiss-German (13,088 or 88.9%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (402 or 2.7%) and Albanian is the third (219 or 1.5%). There are 116 people who speak French and 8 people who speak Romansh.

, the population was 48.3% male and 51.7% female. The population was made up of 6,335 Swiss men (41.2% of the population) and 1,083 (7.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 7,051 Swiss women (45.9%) and 905 (5.9%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 4,260 or about 29.0% were born in Burgdorf and lived there in 2000. There were 5,462 or 37.1% who were born in the same canton, while 2,176 or 14.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 2,352 or 16.0% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.2%.

, there were 5,932 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 6,856 married individuals, 1,067 widows or widowers and 859 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 6,637 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.1 persons per household. There were 2,567 households that consist of only one person and 353 households with five or more people. , a total of 6,507 apartments (91.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 371 apartments (5.2%) were seasonally occupied and 199 apartments (2.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 1.85%.

Historic Population
The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance
The entire old city, the former Grosse Apotheke and Diesbacher House, the former Mädchenschule (Girls' School), the former Niederspital (Hospital), the Gehöft Grafenscheuren, the Grosshaus (Large House) at Hohengasse 4 / Kronenplatz 4, the House zum Ochsen at Hohengasse 35, the Villa Schnell, the Kantonales Technikum (College), the Leinenweberei (Linen Spinning Plant) Schmid with Villa, the Museum Franz Gertsch, the Swiss Reformed City Church, the Sammlung Historisches Armeematerial Collection of Historical Military Equipment, which is shared between Thun, Burgdorf and Dübendorf in Zurich), Castle, the Quarantine House and Chapel and the Villa Roth are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance The entire town of Burgdorf is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Points of interest

 * The old town center, with alleyways, squares and many historical buildings
 * Late Gothic church 1471/1490
 * Burgdorf Castle
 * The "Badi" (which means public swimming pool)
 * Museum Franz Gertsch
 * Kornhaus (cornhouse)
 * Burgdorf Flüeh (4 huge rocks) and the river Emme
 * Burgdorf Schützematte, a big field, meeting point of peoples

Twin towns
Burgdorf is twinned with the towns of

Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SPS which received 24.95% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (23.02%), the FDP (16.48%) and the Green Party (15.53%). In the federal election, a total of 5,046 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.8%.

Economy
, Burgdorf had an unemployment rate of 4%. , there were 40 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 4,027 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 137 businesses in this sector. 7,538 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 691 businesses in this sector.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 9,754. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 31, of which 24 were in agriculture and 7 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3,784 of which 3,168 or (83.7%) were in manufacturing and 567 (15.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 5,939. In the tertiary sector; 1,558 or 26.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 431 or 7.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 255 or 4.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 127 or 2.1% were in the information industry, 273 or 4.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 392 or 6.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 406 or 6.8% were in education and 1,566 or 26.4% were in health care.

, there were 7,353 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,254 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.3 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 22.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 37.9% used a private car.

Burgdorf has several engine works and some departments of the Bern University of Applied Sciences (e.g. Architecture and Civil Engineering). Burgdorf has a growing economy, several small companies called KMU (small and middle companies) are located and have their headquarters in Burgdorf, such as Ypsomed (former Disetronic), Aebi, Typon, Iverslee and Seewer.

Burgdorf is also known for its local beer. In 1871 Burgdorf had one of the most modern breweries is Switzerland. However, these local, small breweries closed during the 20th Century. In 1999, a brewery was opened, which brewed a local Burgdorf beer. This beer has won a number of awards at Beerdays in Solothurn.

Religion
From the, 1,993 or 13.5% were Roman Catholic, while 9,275 or 63.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 211 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.43% of the population), there were 14 individuals (or about 0.10% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 1,337 individuals (or about 9.09% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 individuals (or about 0.02% of the population) who were Jewish, and 865 (or about 5.88% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 39 individuals who were Buddhist, 224 individuals who were Hindu and 13 individuals who belonged to another church. 986 (or about 6.70% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 413 individuals (or about 2.81% of the population) did not answer the question.

Weather
Burgdorf has an average of 127.1 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives 1041 mm of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time Burgdorf receives an average of 121 mm of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 10.9 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 13, but with only 108 mm of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is February with an average of 67 mm of precipitation over 10 days.

Education
In Burgdorf about 5,950 or (40.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,918 or (13.0%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 1,918 who completed tertiary schooling, 65.9% were Swiss men, 25.1% were Swiss women, 5.0% were non-Swiss men and 4.0% were non-Swiss women.

The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.

During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 1,767 students attending classes in Burgdorf. There were 14 kindergarten classes with a total of 247 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 13.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 23.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 49 primary classes and 924 students. Of the primary students, 12.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 23.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 30 lower secondary classes with a total of 548 students. There were 9.9% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 21.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language.

, there were 1,152 students in Burgdorf who came from another municipality, while 239 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Burgdorf is home to 2 libraries. These libraries are the Stadtbibliothek Burgdorf and the BFH Technik und Informatik TI und Architektur, Holz und Bau AHB Burgdorf. There was a combined total of 69,376 books or other media in the libraries, and in the same year a total of 266,590 items were loaned out.

Transportation
The municipality has four railway stations: Burgdorf, Burgdorf Steinhof, Burgdorf Buchmatt, and Oberburg. The first of these is a major railway junction, served by three different lines; the other three are located north and south of it on the Solothurn–Langnau line. Between them there is regular service to Zürich Hauptbahnhof, Olten, Bern, Thun, Langnau i.E., Solothurn, and Sumiswald-Grünen.

Notable people

 * early times
 * Jean Maritz (1680 in Burgdorf – 1743), a Swiss inventor, invented the vertical drilling machine
 * Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733 in Burgdorf – 1794), a landscape artist, worked in oils and watercolours
 * Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827) used to live and teach in Burgdorf Castle.

 * 19th C
 * Johann August Sutter (1803–1880), Californian pioneer, left Burgdorf for America in 1834
 * Karl Eduard Aeschlimann (1808 in Burgdorf – 1893), an architect, court architect of the Russian royal family
 * Max Schneckenburger (1819 – 1849 in Burgdorf), a poet, lived and died in Burgdorf
 * John Augustus Sutter Jr. (1826 in Burgdorf – 1897), founder and planner of Sacramento, California
 * Emil Theodor Kocher (1841–1917), a Swiss physician and medical researcher, received the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, grew up im Burgdorf
 * Ferdinand Schiess VC, (1856 in Burgdorf – 1884), Swiss Victoria Cross recipient at Rorke's Drift

 * 20th C
 * Franz Schnyder (1910 in Burgdorf – 1993), a Swiss film director and screenwriter
 * Hermann Haller (1914 in Burgdorf – 2002), a Swiss composer
 * Lisa della Casa (1919 in Burgdorf – 2012), a Swiss soprano
 * Fritz Hofmann (1924 – 2005 in Burgdorf), a Swiss politician
 * John Mbiti (born 1931 in Kenya), an African theologian and philosopher, is parish minister in Burgdorf
 * Willy Michel, (born 1947 in Burgdorf), co-founder of Museum Franz Gertsch
 * Annemarie Buchmann-Gerber (1947 in Burgdorf – 2015), a Canadian artist, worked with textiles and fiber materials
 * Res Ingold (born 1954 in Burgdorf), a contemporary Swiss artist
 * Christine Brand (born 1973 in Burgdorf), a Swiss writer and journalist
 * Christa Markwalder (born 1975 in Burgdorf), a Swiss politician, former President of the National Council
 * Sport
 * Martin Gerber (born 1974 in Burgdorf), a Swiss former professional ice hockey goaltender
 * Nuri Seferi (born 1976), a professional boxer, brought up and lives in Burgdorf
 * Simone Niggli-Luder (born 1978), a Swiss Orienteering World Champion, brought up in Burgdorf
 * Martina Moser (born 1986 in Burgdorf), a Swiss footballer, played 126 games for Swiss national team
 * Alain Berger (born 1990 in Burgdorf), a Swiss professional ice hockey forward

Special events

 * Solätte – #1 event in Burgdorf, old tradition child event (last Monday of June)
 * Gymfest – big party organized by a group of students of Gymnasium Burgdorf (January)
 * Pogoschütz – an openair concert on the Schützenmatte (September)
 * Cinete – an openair movie theater, every year during summer
 * Kalter Märt – the largest fair in Burgdorf; every year 10,000 people come to shop in the old city of Burgdorf (cold winter time)
 * Burgdorfer Stadtlauf – Burgdorf running race through the city of Burgdorf

title: Burgdorf, Switzerland