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Surrender Dorothy

"Surrender Dorothy" is a famous special effect used in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, where the Wicked Witch of the West flies on her broomstick to write the two-word phrase across the sky. The phrase later attained local fame as graffiti in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

Appearance in the movie
The first appearance of the phrase is in the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz (it is not in the novel or any previous adaptations). In the scene, Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) has reached the Emerald City with her companions The Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), Tin Woodman (Jack Haley) and Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), whereupon they are treated to the hospitality and technological comforts of the fantastic city. As they leave the "Wash & Brush Up Co.", the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) appears in the sky riding her broomstick, skywriting the words "SURRENDER DOROTHY". The terrified townspeople of the Emerald City – and the four intrepid adventurers – respond by rushing to the chamber where the Wizard of Oz himself (Frank Morgan) resides, only to be turned away by a majordomo (also played by Frank Morgan) based loosely on the Soldier with the Green Whiskers.

The special effect was achieved by using a hypodermic needle, spreading black ink across the bottom of a glass tank filled with tinted water.

Originally, there was a full message written out by the Witch, seen only in the first 120-minute test screening. The full message read "SURRENDER DOROTHY OR DIE --W W W".

Washington area graffiti
The message reading "Surrender Dorothy" in the D.C. metropolitan area first appeared on the bridge carrying Linden Lane over the outer loop of I-495 (the "Capital Beltway") near the Washington D.C. Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kensington, Maryland, which is illuminated at night. The message was first placed in 1974 by students of Connelly School of the Holy Child by pressing newsprint into a chain-link fence. It's not clear when the message was first written in paint, but by the 1980s it was common to see on an adjacent railroad bridge. and has been removed and re-painted many times since.

On the railway bridge, the location of the phrase is visible on approach driving on I-495 from the east, but only after one passes under the first of three bridges. It is the second of three bridges over the Beltway approaching from the east, with Seminary Road before it, and Linden Lane after it. As one approaches the bridges, first only the temple is visible in the distance, then as one passes under the first bridge, the temple comes back into view just as the words "Surrender Dorothy" appear.

In summer 2007, a new piece of graffiti appeared on the rail bridge. The word "SURRENDER" was reduced in size to fit into a single section of the rail bridge, and the word "DOROTHY" was omitted from the graffiti. The previous message is no longer visible, but may still be detected at the top of the bridge, as the paint used to cover it does not exactly match the original paint on the bridge. The smaller "SURRENDER" graphic is located near the bottom of the bridge, over the far-left lane of traffic on the Outer Loop. On August 24, 2018, "SURRENDER DONALD" lettering (referring to US president Donald Trump) was spotted on the same bridge over the Washington Beltway. Evidently, the sign was made of easily removable letters that minimize property damage and was installed between 4 and 5 AM. Reportedly, Claude Taylor and his MadDog PAC claimed responsibility. On November 5, during the 2020 United States presidential election, "SURRENDER DONALD" appeared again – this time in paint.

7 Locks Brewery in Rockville, Maryland initially named a beer Surrender Dorothy, with a version of the graffito/LDS church image on the label. Turner Entertainment, owner of The Wizard of Oz, opposed the use of the name and image by the brewery, which changed the beer name to "Surrender" and the can label to include "Dorothy" being painted over.

Other cultural references
The phrase was also later featured in Martin Scorsese's 1985 film After Hours. In the film, Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) relates that her former husband would scream the phrase during sex.

title: Surrender Dorothy


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Amateur Hockey Association of Canada

The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) was an amateur men's ice hockey league founded on 8 December 1886, in existence until 1898. It was the second ice hockey league organized in Canada, after one in Kingston, Ontario started in 1883. It was organized to provide a longer season to determine the Canadian champion. Prior to its founding, the Canadian championship was determined in a tournament in Montreal. It is the first championship ice hockey league.

The 1893 champion of the league, Montreal Hockey Club was the first winner of the newly introduced Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup (later known as the Stanley Cup). Montreal was awarded the Cup as the champions of the AHAC since the AHAC was considered the top league of Canada.

Beginnings
A meeting was called, for those in favour of the formation of a Dominion hockey association, for the evening of 8 December 1886. Mr. J.G. Monk of the Victoria Hockey Club was asked to send a written invitation to the Ottawa Hockey Club and the Quebec Hockey Club, asking each to send a representative to the meeting. Only Ottawa had responded. The meeting was held at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal and attended by the following delegates with Mr. Jack Arnton acting as Chairman and Mr. J. G. Monk as Secretary:

With all strongly in favour of forming the new association, the name given was the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada and a constitution similar to the one governing lacrosse was adopted but modified to suit hockey. Afterwards, officers were elected for the upcoming inaugural season, who were:

 * President — Mr. Thomas D. Green
 * First Vice-president — Mr. J. Arnton
 * Second Vice-President — Mr. R. Laing
 * Secretary-treasurer — Mr. E. Stevenson
 * Council — Messrs. James Stewart, J. G. Monk, H. A. Budden, E. Sheppard, Percy Myles

They agreed that the season should run from 1 January 1887 until 15 March 1887.

The teams knew each other. They had competed at the Montreal Winter Carnival ice hockey tournaments from 1883–1885 and the 1886 Dominion Championship:

 * 1883 - Montreal Winter Carnival Hockey Tournament (winner McGill),
 * 1884 - Montreal Winter Carnival Hockey Tournament (winner Victorias),
 * 1885 - Montreal Winter Carnival Hockey Tournament (winner Montreal),
 * 1886 - Dominion Championship (winner Crystals)

Thomas D. Green of Ottawa had played on the 1883 McGill hockey team.

The game
In that age, ice hockey was a very different game compared to today: the AHAC rules stated that there were six skaters on each side. These were defined as:

 * left-wing
 * centre
 * right-wing
 * rover
 * point
 * cover-point

The left-wing, centre and right-wing were the forwards, like today. The rover would line up behind the centre, with the point and cover-point following, in an 'I' formation towards the goaltender. The face-offs were at a right angle to today's practice, the centre men facing inwards from the sides of the rink. The goaltenders used no special equipment.

There were no goal nets. The goals were two posts, with no crossbar. An umpire would judge the legality of each score. There were no boards along the sides of the ice, and there were no standard dimensions for a rink, although dimensions were instituted for the positioning of the goal out from the ends of the rink.

A match was two halves of thirty minutes (also to note that in the day, game meant goal by modern definition). Sudden-death overtime was also in place, and a match would continue until a goal was scored in the event of a tie after regulation.

Players in all positions would normally play the entire 60 minutes.

Official Rules of the AHAC
Source: Montreal Gazette
 * 1) The captains of contesting teams shall agree upon two umpires (one to be stationed at each goal) and a referee.
 * 2) All questions as to games shall be settled by the umpires and their decision shall be final.
 * 3) All disputes on the ice shall be settled by the referee, and his decision shall be final.
 * 4) The game shall be commenced and renewed by a bully in the centre of the rink. Goals, six feet wide and four feet high, which shall be changed after each game, unless otherwise agreed.
 * 5) When a player hits a puck, any one of the same side who at such moment of hitting is nearer the opponent's goal line is out of play and may not touch the puck himself, or in any way prevent any other player from doing so until the puck has been played. A player must always be on his own side of the puck.
 * 6) The puck may be stopped, but not carried or knocked on, by any part of the body. No player shall raise his stick above his shoulder. Charging from behind, tripping, collaring, kicking or shinning, shall not be allowed, and any player after having been twice warned by the referee, it shall become his duty to rule the player off for that match.
 * 7) When the puck gets off the ice behind the goals it shall be taken by the referee to five yards at right angles from the goal line and there faced. When the puck goes off the ice at the sides it shall be taken by the referee at five yards at right angles from the boundary line and there faced.
 * 8) The goalkeeper must not, during play, lie, kneel or sit upon the ice, but must maintain a standing position.
 * 9) Hockey sticks shall not be more than three inches wide at any point.
 * 10) Goal shall be scored when the puck shall have passed between the goalposts and below the top and passed from in front below an imaginary line across the top of posts.
 * 11) The puck must be made of vulcanized rubber, one inch thick all through, and three inches in diameter.
 * 12) A team shall be composed of seven players who shall be bona fide members of the club they represent. No player shall be allowed to play on more than one team during a season except in a case of a bona fide change of residence.
 * 13) Two half hours with an intermission of ten minutes between will be time allowed for matches. A match will be decided by the team winning the greatest number of games during that time. In case of a tie after playing the specified two half hours, play will continue until one side secures a game unless otherwise agreed upon between the captains before the match.
 * 14) No change of players must be made after a match has commenced except for reasons of accidents or injury during the game.
 * 15) Should any player be injured during a match and compelled to leave the field his side shall have the option of putting on a spare man from the reserve to equalize the teams; in the event of any dispute between the captains as to the injured player's fitness to continue the game the matter shall at once be decided by the referee.
 * 16) Should a game be temporarily stopped, by the infringement of any of the rules the puck shall be brought back and a bully take place.

Seasons format
The AHAC operated on two different systems in its lifetime: the challenge system, where a championship team would face a new challenger each week for the championship, and the series system, which corresponds to the regular season found in the NHL today. With the exception of 1888, the challenge system was exclusively used in the AHAC before the advent of the Stanley Cup, while the series system became the norm in 1893, the first year the Cup was contested.

The first championship team of the AHAC was the Montreal Crystals, having unofficially being declared the champions before the AHAC. The first title change occurred on January 14, 1887, when the Montreal Victorias defeated the champions 4–0. The Victorias would hold the title until the very last challenge game when the Crystals won 3–2 in their third successive challenge. Because of the Vics' long run as champions, it was decided to switch to the series system in 1888.

The series system was a success, although a tie atop the standings between the Vics and the Montreal Hockey Club (Montreal HC), and the subsequent scheduling of the tiebreaker game caused much trouble when the game was scheduled at a time when two Victorias players were injured, at the home venue of the Montreal HC. However, teams from outside Montreal incurred huge travelling expenses, which led the AHAC to revert to the challenge system.

First Stanley Cup
In 1893, the first year since 1888 where the AHAC played under a series system, the Montreal Hockey Club lost their first game against the Ottawa Hockey Club and proceeded to win their next seven en route to the championship. Lord Stanley announced that his challenge trophy (later known simply as the Stanley Cup) for the best amateur hockey team in Canada would be presented to the Montreal Hockey Club on May 15, 1893, as initial champion. At the time, the Montreal Hockey Club was in a dispute with its parent organization, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA). The hockey club was adamant about refusing the trophy, while the directors of the MAAA decided to accept the trophy, considering it came from the Governor General of Canada. Thus, the trophy was accepted by the MAAA, but with none of the hockey officials of the hockey club present.

After accepting the trophy, the hockey club remained adamant about returning the trophy that was presented to them. In the end, the MAAA investigated into why its hockey club wanted to refuse and return the trophy, even though such an action would damage the reputation of the MAAA. It was believed that the people who were in charge of running their team were, in fact, not representative of the team itself, and when the hockey club asked for a loan of $175 in start-up expenses for the 1894 season, it was flatly refused (the first time the MAAA refused anything to the hockey club). Inexplicably, the hockey club reversed its position, and the next few months saw a gradual schism between the MAAA and the club. Indeed, the inscriptions on the Cup when it was successfully defended in 1894 only stated "Montreal HC". The MAAA, at one point, considered the hockey club to have seceded from the organization that bore them. The issue would be finally resolved in later years, after various attempts at reconciliation.

Dissolution
At the annual meeting in December 1897, the Ottawa Capitals applied to join the AHAC but were turned down by the AHAC executive. The Capitals applied again at the annual meeting held in Montreal on December 10, 1898, leading to "a cataclysm in the hockey world." This time, the AHAC executive voted in favour of admitting the Capitals for league membership.

The Globe noted that the Capitals were "questionably amateur", referring to the paying of players. This led to the representatives of the Quebec Bulldogs, Montreal Victorias and Ottawa Hockey Club opting to withdraw from the association. The representative of the Montreal Hockey Club asked the group to reconsider but was declined, after which point Montreal HC also withdrew.

The withdrawing teams then met at the Windsor Hotel the same day. On December 14, the group met again and organized the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL), adding the Montreal Shamrocks for a complete conversion of the AHAC into the CAHL. The new league adopted the existing constitution of the AHAC, with the exception that new teams required unanimous approval of the CAHL executive in order to join the league.

Teams
† Stanley Cup winner

Under the challenge system, the league championship would change hands until the end of the playing season. Under the series system, the league championship was only determined at the end of the season by best overall record or playoff.

 * Source Information:

According to Arthur Farrell's book of 1899, "Hockey: Canada's Royal Winter Game", Montreal Crystals are recorded as champions in 1887, and the Montreal Hockey Club is recorded as the winner from 1888–1894.

According to Ultimate Hockey, the play between 1887 and 1892 occurred in the challenge format and the title of champion could change after every series. The final champion at the end of the season's worth of challenges would be considered 'Dominion of Canada' champion.

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

title: Amateur Hockey Association of Canada


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Online auction

An online auction (also electronic auction, e-auction, virtual auction, or eAuction) is an auction held over the internet and accessed by internet connected devices. Similar to in-person auctions, online auctions come in a variety of types, with different bidding and selling rules.

eCommerce sales for businesses have been steadily increasing for years, and with the migration of virtually all transactions to digital due to the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide sales through ecommerce channels such as websites and online marketplaces increased overall in 2020 and beyond.

There are two primary markets for online auctions: business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C). B2C is forecast to have over a 1% annual growth rate, achieving a nearly 22% share of total global retail sales by 2024. B2B ecommerce gross merchandise value showed a similarly steady rate through 2019, as to mirror its retail B2C counterpart.

The largest consumer-to-consumer online auction site is eBay, which researchers suggest is popular because it is a convenient, efficient, and effective method for buying and selling goods.

Despite the benefits of online auctions, the anonymity of the internet, the large market, and the ease of access makes online auction fraud easier than in traditional auctions. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) categorizes online auction fraud reports with online shopping categories.

History
Online auctions originated on web forums as early as 1979 on CompuServe and The Source, as well as through email and bulletin board systems. Auctioneers and sellers would post notices describing items for sale, minimum bids, and closing times. As the popularity of online auctions grew, websites dedicated to the practice began to appear in 1995 when two auction sites were founded. The first online auction site was Onsale.com, founded by Jerry Kaplan in May 1995. Onsale's business model had the company act as the seller.

In September 1995, eBay was founded by French-Iranian computer scientist Pierre Omidyar using a different approach to online auctions by facilitating person-to-person transactions. This was a popular choice with consumers, leading eBay to become the largest e-commerce site in the early 2000s.

Benefits of Online Auctions
A core benefit of an online auction is the removal of the physical limitations of a traditional auction that require attendees to be geographically located together, which greatly reduces audience reach.

Online auctions offer advantages to users that traditional auction formats do not offer such as the use of automated bids. Along with these benefits, online auctions have greatly increased the variety of goods and services that can be bought and sold in an auction format.

English auctions
English auctions are also known as open outcry or raise prices. In live settings, English auctions are announced by either an auctioneer or by the bidders, and winners pay what they finally bid to receive the object. English auctions are the most common third-party online auction format and are known for their simplicity. The format is popular due to its ease-of-use in an online environment (since computers are capable of tracking and awarding an auction to the highest bidder from many bids).

Reverse auction
Reverse auctions are used primarily to place multiple sales offers before potential customers. Multiple sellers compete to obtain a buyer's business, and prices typically decrease over time as new offers are made by sellers. They do not follow the typical auction format in that the buyer can see all the offers and may choose which they would prefer. Reverse auctions are used predominantly in a business context for procurement.

Bidding fee auction
A bidding fee auction (also known as a penny auction) requires customers to pay for bids, which they can increment an auction price one unit of currency at a time. The most notable bidding fee auction was Swoopo.

Critics compare this type of auction to gambling, as users can spend a considerable amount of money without receiving anything in return. The auction owner makes money in two ways: the purchasing of bids, and the actual amount made from the final cost of the item.

Fraud
The increasing popularity of using online auctions has led to an increase in fraudulent activity. This is usually performed on an auction website by creating a very attractive auction lot, such as a low starting bid level. Once a buyer wins a lot and pays for it, the fraudulent seller will either not proceed with the delivery, or send a less valuable version of the purchased item (replicated, used, refurbished, etc.). Protection to prevent such acts has become available, for example PayPal's buyer protection policy. As PayPal handles the transaction, it has the ability to hold funds until a complaint is resolved and the victim can be compensated.

Auction fraud makes up a large percentage of complaints received by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (around 63% in 2005 and 45% in 2006).

Shill bidding
Shill bidding is the most prominent type of online auction fraud where sellers themselves submit bids to increase the price of an item they have put up for sale, without intending to win. Shill bidding is also one of the most difficult types of fraud to detect, since it is usually conducted by the seller in collusion with one or more bidders in the auction. In 2011, a bidder on eBay became the first individual to be convicted of shill bidding on an auction. By taking part in the process, an individual is sometimes breaking the law, depending on the relevant jurisdiction, for example breaking the European Union fair trading rules which carries out a fine of up to £5,000 in the United Kingdom.

Shield bidding
Shield bidding is a technique whereby a buyer uses another account (called a "shield") to discourage other competitors from bidding by artificially increasing the price and then at the last moment withdrawing their bid to allow the actual buyer to win the auction with a lower price. Most online auction sites do not allow withdrawal of bids except in specified circumstances, making this technique impossible to carry out except on sites where such a rule is not implemented.

Spotting Shills and Shields
It is difficult to spot a dirty technique being used by an anonymous or pseudonymous person in online auctions, but it is certainly doable. It can be revealed by examining a seller’s auction history and looking for an account which has bid on every or almost every auction of that seller. If there is someone who meets those characteristics, it is most likely a shill using that account to increase the price.

A shield can be spotted similarly to a shill. By doing a search of a person's won auctions, it can be found out whether or not there is another account participating in the same auctions without ever winning anything. If there is, it is possible that the person is using a shield to help them become successful in auctions.

Sale of stolen goods
Online auction websites can be used by thieves or fences to sell stolen goods to unsuspecting buyers. According to police statistics, there were over 8000 crimes involving stolen goods, fraud, or deception reported on eBay in 2009. It has become common practice for organized criminals to steal in-demand items, often in bulk, then sell them online. It is thought to be a safer option than fencing stolen items due to the anonymity and worldwide market online auctions provide.

Government
Governments have identified and taken steps to ensure the safety of online auctions and protect the interests of their citizens, typically by setting up relevant departments to deal with it. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) takes responsibility for protecting consumers from unfair, fraudulent, and deceptive business practices. The FTC provides several resources for guidance on internet auction fraud and actively investigates fraud involving online auctions. According to the Internet Crime Report, online auction fraud ranks among the top complaints received by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) provides information and advice on online auction fraud through its Scamwatch website. The ACCC actively monitors fraud in the online auction market and takes steps to combat it.

Customers
Fraud victims have volunteered to set up online communities The original intention of these communities is to comfort people, share their experiences for education and provide reliable intermediary services for certain traders. Some victims have also resorted to controversial methods of retaliation. Their actions include publicly revealing the personal information of identified scammers or disrupting transactions by blindly bidding up prices and then refusing to pay. These methods may inadvertently cause harm to ordinary sellers who are mistakenly identified as fraudsters.

Platform
Online auction platforms have made significant efforts to prevent fraud and protect their users. Once fraudulent behavior is identified, the platform can freeze the account of the relevant seller. But this can only passively punish accounts of people who have committed fraudulent behavior. Based on the characteristics of the internet, these people only need to register new accounts.

One of the most effective measures is the use of secure payment systems. These platforms force sellers to get payment through trusted payment gateways, thus providing additional security by acting as a middleman between buyers and sellers and increasing the cost to the fraudster of committing a violation. The current mainstream online platforms act more as "intermediaries" and collect deposits from sellers who sell large-value products. With this approach the money is transferred to the seller's account after the ownership of the item is confirmed and transferred, ensuring the security of the transaction.

title: Online auction


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Einsiedeln Abbey

Einsiedeln Abbey (Kloster Einsiedeln) is a Catholic monastery administered by the Benedictine Order in the village of Einsiedeln, Switzerland.

The Abbey of Einsiedeln is one of the most important baroque monastic sites and the largest place of pilgrimage in Switzerland.

The Black Madonna of Einsiedeln in the Chapel of Grace attracts around 800,000 pilgrims and tourists every year. The community of Benedictine monks has around 40 members. The monastery is not under the jurisdiction of a diocese or a bishop because it is a territorial abbey.

The abbey operates a private high school along with a winery, sawmill, restaurant and other small businesses in order to support itself.

Origin of the monastery
The history of Einsiedeln Abbey starts with Meinrad of Einsiedeln. Born in around 800, he was educated at the abbey school on Reichenau Island in what is today Germany. Meinrad became a monk and was later ordained a priest. After gaining public attention for reportedly performing miracles, Meinrad established a hermitage in 828 in the Einsiedeln forest of Switzerland, searching for privacy. He was murdered by two robbers in January 861.

Over the next 80 years, other hermits occupied Meinrad's hermitage. In 934 Eberhard, previously Provost of Strassburg, built the Einsiedeln abbey and church on the hermitage site, becoming its first abbot. According to legend, the church was consecrated in 948 in person by Jesus Christ in honor of his mother Mary. It was the beginning of the pilgrimage to the Chapel of the Saviour, which turned in the Middle Ages to a Marian pilgrimage.

In 965 Gregory, the third Abbot of Einsiedeln, was named a prince of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Otto I. His successor abbots would hold that title until the dissolution of the empire in 1806.

High and late Middle Ages
In 1226, after another fire, the church was enlarged. The lower church was built above the Chapel of the Saviour, which was incorporated into the new compley. This effect, of a sanctuary within a sanctuary, has been maintained in later restorations of the Chapel of Our Lady.

In the 13th century, the pilgrimage to the monastic compley became more popular, better structured and organized. The figure of the enthroned Madonna holding the baby Christ on her left knee, which appears on an abbey seal from 1239, is considered Einsiedeln's oldest miraculous image.

Early modern times
During the early 16th century, the standards of discipline at Einsiedeln started to decline, but Ludovicus II, a monk of St. Gall who was Abbot of Einsiedeln from 1526 to 1544, restored a stricter observance. The abbey remained unaffected by the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland. Its leader, Huldrych Zwingli, had studied at the abbey for a period of time. Abbot Augustine I (1600–29) led the movement to create the Swiss Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict in 1602. Augustine established unrelaxed observance in the abbey and promoted a high standard of scholarship and learning amongst his monks.

The Einsiedeln abbey church was rebuilt by Abbot Maurus between 1704 and 1719 and the baroque ornamentation was completed in 1734. In 1798, the abbey was occupied by French revolution soldiers, losing its status as an independent principality. The clergy could return to the monastery in 1801. On February 19, 1803, the abbey was officially reinstalled by the Act of Mediation. However, the Chapel of Grace was only rebuilt in 1815-1817 with the remaining parts of the old structure in the neoclassical style.

19th and 20th century
Because of the political uncertainties inside and outside the country in the 1840s, the Einsiedeln leadership became afraid that the abbey would be suppressed or dissolved. They sent a group of monks to southern Indiana in the United States to minister to German immigrants and develop a possible place of refuge. The monks started a new foundation, now Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, Indiana.

There are a total of five monasteries in the USA that are linked to Einsiedeln by history:

 * Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, Indiana
 * Subiaco Abbey in Logan County, Arkansas
 * St. Joseph Abbey in Saint Benedict, Louisiana
 * Marmion Abbey in Aurora, Illinois
 * Prince of Peace Abbey in Oceanside, California

A highlight in the history of the monastery was the visit of Pope John Paul II in the summer of 1984, who solemnly consecrated the new high altar in the lower choir on June 15.

Marian veneration

In contrast to for example Lourdes, the pilgrimage in Einsiedeln does not go back to a Marian apparition, but to a monastic tradition.

The oldest surviving reference to the Einsiedeln pilgrimage dates back to the early 14th century. However, the pilgrimage itself is likely to be older. It was encouraged by the legend of the consecration of the angels, according to which the Einsiedeln Chapel of Grace was consecrated by Christ himself in 948. Originally, the Einsiedeln pilgrimage was therefore a pilgrimage to the church consecrated by Christ, which only gradually became a Marian pilgrimage with the rise of Marian devotion in the High Middle Ages. The miraculous consecration is commemorated every year on the Feast of the Consecration of the Angels on September 14.

The Middle Ages were the great age of pilgrimages. In addition to pilgrimages to Einsiedeln, many were also passing through on their way to Rome or Santiago de Compostela.

After the Reformation and especially in the Baroque period, Einsiedeln became more and more of a Marian pilgrimage site. After the great ecclesiastical crisis caused by the Reformation, the monastic community consolidated again and played a significant role in shaping Einsiedeln's pilgrimage culture.

Nowadays, the monastery is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world every year. The majority come from Switzerland and the surrounding countries, but pilgrims from Eastern and Central European countries are also well represented. In addition to the traditional religious pilgrims, there are also more and more visitors who come to the monastery and village for cultural reasons.

Community
The Einsiedeln monastic community currently consists of 40 monks (as of October 2023). The average age (as well as the median) is comparatively low at just under 60 years due to the continuous arrival of new members in recent years.

Einsiedeln is still a territorial abbey, meaning that it is located in a territory that is not part of any diocese which the abbot governs "as its proper pastor" (Canon 370, Codex Juris Canonici) with the same authority as a diocesan bishop.

The head of the community has been Abbot Urban Federer since December 2013. As Abbot of Einsiedeln, he is a full member of the Swiss Bishops' Conference.

Located in separate cantons, Einsiedeln Abbey and Fahr Convent, a community of Benedictine nuns, form a double monastery, both under the authority of the male Abbot of Einsiedeln.

Library
The monastery's library is rich in old books: it contains around 230,000 printed books, 1230 manuscripts and 1040 volumes of incunabula and early printed books. Between 500 and 800 books are added every year.

The library was founded in 934 and the monastery already had its own writing school in the mid-10th century; 64 manuscripts from this period are still preserved today. The scriptorium, established in 2022, is a reminder of this, where visitors can learn about the production of books in the Middle Ages and write with ink and quill themselves. The monastery was given its own printing press in 1664, where over a thousand titles were published by 1798. The library was last restored in 1998.

School
Einsiedeln Abbey School is a private and federally recognized Matura school in Einsiedeln with a history stretching back over 1,000 years. It is organized by the Benedictine monastery of Einsiedeln. Around 400 students attend the school, which is taught by around 50 teachers. Among them are also five priests.

The mission statement of the Abbey School is shaped by the Benedictine tradition. According to the current abbot of Einsiedeln Abbey, this is reflected in "the most holistic humanistic education possible, which essentially includes the artistic dimension". The abbey school is thus intended to offer an alternative to the existing range of schools.

List of abbots
Main article: List of abbots (DE)

title: Einsiedeln Abbey


text:
Greville Wynne

Greville Maynard Wynne (19 March 1919 – 28 February 1990) was a British engineer and businessman recruited by MI6 because of his frequent travel to Eastern Europe. He acted as a courier to transport top-secret information to London from the Soviet agent Oleg Penkovsky.

Wynne and Penkovsky were both arrested by the KGB in November 1962, when some of the information their endeavours produced was of assistance to the West during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They were convicted of espionage. Penkovsky was executed the following year and Wynne was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. He was detained at Lubyanka prison. Struggling with deteriorating health, he was released in 1964 in exchange for the Soviet spy Konon Molody.

Early life
Wynne was born in Wrockwardine Wood, Telford, Shropshire, England, only son (an elder brother had died at the age of one year in 1915; he had three elder sisters) of Ethelbert Wynne and Ada, née Pritchard. He was raised in Ystrad Mynach, South Wales, with a "modest background". His father was a foreman in an engineering workshop. He struggled with dyslexia and left school at 14 to work for an electrical contractor. He then worked at a telephone factory as an apprentice. Before the Second World War he studied engineering part-time at the University of Nottingham. After the war, he traded in electrical equipment, travelling often through Europe and India. Wynne married Sheila Beaton in 1946; the couple had a son, Andrew, born in 1952. His business extended into Eastern Bloc countries from 1955.

MI6 and later life
In November 1960, Wynne was recruited by MI6 and asked to make a sales trip to Moscow, where he made contact with Oleg Penkovsky, a high-ranking GRU officer. Penkovsky had made earlier offers to spy for the West. Wynne later became an intermediary and courier for Penkovsky, smuggling top-secret Soviet intelligence to London on return from his frequent trips to the USSR.

Wynne's and Penkovsky's espionage activities were discovered by the KGB. Both men were arrested in November 1962, around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Wynne and Penkovsky each pleaded guilty on 7 May 1963 and were sentenced four days later. Wynne was sentenced to eight years in prison. Penkovsky was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad, though Wynne believed he died by suicide in prison.

Wynne was held at the Lubyanka. In April 1964, amid British concerns for his deteriorating health, Wynne was released in exchange for the Soviet spy Konon Molody (also known as Gordon Lonsdale).

After his release, Wynne returned to his business career. He and his wife Sheila divorced and he became estranged from his son and only child, Andrew. In 1970, Wynne married Johanna Herma Van Buren. They separated a few years before his death but were still legally married when he died.

On 23 May 1966, he appeared as himself in an episode of the American television series To Tell the Truth, receiving two of four possible votes.

Wynne struggled with depression and alcoholism in the aftermath of imprisonment. He died of throat cancer at the Cromwell Hospital in London on 28 February 1990, aged 70.

Questions over pre-Penkovsky MI5 work
Later in life, Wynne wrote two books about his work for British intelligence: The Man from Moscow (1967) and The Man from Odessa (1981). In these books, Wynne claimed to have been recruited by MI5 as early as the Second World War, long before his work with Penkovsky. Historians question this account. The authors of The Spy Who Saved the World wrote that Wynne "had no previous intelligence experience or training." Others have made similar assessments, stating that Wynne was a civilian at the time of his recruitment by MI6 in 1960.

Portrayal in popular culture

 * Wynne was portrayed by David Calder in the 1985 BBC television serial Wynne and Penkovsky.
 * He was portrayed by Peter Lindford in the 2007 BBC Television docudrama Nuclear Secrets.
 * He was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2021 film The Courier.

title: Greville Wynne


text:
Jerry Mouse

Gerald Jinx "Jerry" Mouse is a fictional character and one of the two titular characters in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's series of Tom and Jerry theatrical animated short films and other animated media, usually acting as the protagonist opposite his rival Tom Cat. Created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Jerry is an anthropomorphic (but usually silent) brown house mouse, who first appeared as a mouse named Jinx in the 1940 MGM animated short Puss Gets the Boot. Hanna gave the mouse's original name as "Jinx", while Barbera claimed the mouse went unnamed in his first appearance.

Tom and Jerry cartoons
The name "Jerry" was chosen by Geraint Rowlands, who submitted "Tom and Jerry" as potential names for the duo after an important Loews Inc. distributor in Texas asked for follow-ups to Puss Gets the Boot. While the idea of a cat-and-mouse duo was considered shopworn by the 1940s, Hanna and Barbera decided to expand upon the standard expected cat and mouse relationship. Instead of being a "cowering victim" of Tom, he took delight in besting, and even torturing, his feline frenemy (even if Tom is just following orders or is even just minding his own business and is antagonized by Jerry). Hanna and Barbera considered Tom and Jerry "the best of enemies", whose rivalry hid an unspoken amount of mutual caring and respect for one another.

In later Tom and Jerry cartoons, Jerry acquired a young ward: a small grey mouse called "Tuffy" or "Nibbles" depending upon the cartoon, who was left on Jerry's doorstep as a foundling baby in the 1946 short The Milky Waif. Jerry and Tuffy were also featured together in a sub-series of Tom and Jerry cartoons set in 17th century France which featured the characters as musketeers. The first of these shorts, The Two Mouseketeers, won the 1951 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons.

Hanna and Barbera served as writer/directors of the Tom and Jerry cartoons until 1956, when they also became the producers. Fourteen Tom and Jerry cartoons between 1940 and 1954 were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, with seven of the shorts winning that award. MGM shut down its animation department in 1957, but new Tom and Jerry cartoons were produced by Gene Deitch and later Chuck Jones during the 1960s. Jerry would also appear in later Tom and Jerry productions made for television, a series of direct-to-video features, and Tom and Jerry: The Movie, a 1992 theatrical film. Later productions eschewed much of the violence the 1940s and 1950s shorts were known for, and in several of the television shows Jerry was given a red bowtie and a kinder disposition in Tom & Jerry Kids.

Tom and Jerry aren't always enemies; they have been known to team up on occasion. The first Tom and Jerry short/film that Jerry was in is Puss Gets the Boot, and the last is The Karate Guard, the 163rd Tom and Jerry film. Jerry has been on the Tom and Jerry film series from 1940 to the present.

Anchors Aweigh
On his own, Jerry Mouse appears in a fantasy sequence in the 1945 Gene Kelly MGM musical film Anchors Aweigh. Jerry appears as the young ruler of a kingdom where music is banned because he feels he lacks talent, and Kelly persuades the mouse into performing a song-and-dance number with him. Kelly and MGM had originally wanted Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse as Kelly's dance partner for the sequence, but Disney was unwilling to license the character.

Hanna and Barbera achieved the effect of Kelly dancing with Jerry by rotoscoping: live-action plates of Kelly dancing alone were shot first, and the action traced frame by frame so that Jerry's movements would match. The success of the animated segment of Anchors Aweigh, which was mentioned as "stealing the show" in contemporary trade reviews, led to two more live-action/animated projects for Hanna and Barbera and MGM: an underwater ballet sequence featuring both Tom and Jerry in the 1953 film Dangerous When Wet, with Esther Williams, and the "Sinbad the Sailor" sequence of Kelly's 1956 film Invitation to the Dance.

Tom & Jerry Kids
In 1990, this version of Jerry wears a red bowtie (just like what he used to have in the 1975 Tom and Jerry Show) and has a tuft of hair on his head. He often taunts Tom (as a kitten) any chance he gets. Sometimes, in a few episodes, he is friends with/allies of Tom.

Voice actors
Like Tom, Jerry is usually a silent character, but this is not a strict rule, and several people have voiced him in various capacities over the years:
 * Bill Hanna: Vocal effects in the Hanna-Barbera era (1940–1958) shorts and speaking in Part-Time Pal, Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers (archival recordings from classic shorts), The Tom and Jerry Show (2014, archival recordings from the pre-1958 shorts),  Tom & Jerry (2021, archival recordings as before) and Tom and Jerry Special Shorts (2021 series) (archival recordings as before)
 * Harry Lang: vocal effects and speaking in The Lonesome Mouse, whistling and sneezing in Mouse in Manhattan
 * Kent Rogers: Fraidy Cat and Puss n' Toots vocal effects
 * Sara Berner: speaking in The Zoot Cat, speaking and singing voice for Jerry in Anchors Aweigh,
 * Jerry Mann: The Million Dollar Cat vocal effects
 * Lillian Randolph (voice of Mammy Two Shoes): when Jerry and Tuffy disguise to fool Tom in the 1946 short: The Milky Waif
 * Frank Graham: speaking in Kitty Foiled
 * Georgia Stark: whistling in Kitty Foiled
 * Paul Frees: speaking in His Mouse Friday and Blue Cat Blues
 * Manuel Paris: speaking in Mucho Mouse
 * Allen Swift: vocal effects in the Gene Deitch era (1961–1962) shorts
 * Gene Deitch: vocal effects in the Gene Deitch era (1961–1962) shorts
 * Mel Blanc: vocal effects in the Chuck Jones era (1963–1967) shorts
 * Terence Monk: singing in The Cat Above and the Mouse Below
 * June Foray: vocal effects in the Chuck Jones era (1963–1967) shorts, Boomerang UK and Ireland bumper (archival recording from I'm Just Wild About Jerry)
 * Walker Edmiston: Mattel Tom and Jerry Talking Hand Puppet
 * Dale McKennon: singing in Cat and Dupli-cat
 * John Stephenson: The Tom and Jerry Show (1975)
 * Lou Scheimer: The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show
 * Frank W. Welker: Tom & Jerry Kids & Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring
 * Dana Hill: speaking, non-speaking and singing in Tom and Jerry: The Movie
 * Jeff Bergman: Cartoon Network Latin America bumper
 * Alan Marriott: Tom and Jerry in Fists of Furry and Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers
 * Marc Silk: Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers (as Monster Jerry)
 * Bill Kopp: Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars and Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry
 * Spike Brandt: The Karate Guard, Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale, Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes, Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz, Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse, Tom and Jerry's Giant Adventure, Tom and Jerry: The Lost Dragon, Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest, Tom and Jerry: Back to Oz, and Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
 * Samuel Vincent: Tom and Jerry Tales
 * Rich Danhakl: The Tom and Jerry Show (2014 TV series)
 * Rick Zieff: speaking in Spike's voice in The Tom and Jerry Show (2014 TV series) episode "Cat-astrophic Failure"
 * André Sogliuzzo: Tom & Jerry (2021 film)
 * Andrew Dickman: Tom and Jerry Special Shorts (2021 series)
 * Eric Bauza: MultiVersus
 * Aya Yonekura: Tom and Jerry Japanese shorts

Jerry has had a number of voice actors over the years. Ever since his debut in Puss Gets the Boot his vocal effects were provided by co-creator William Hanna during the Hanna-Barbera era. Harry E. Lang did Jerry's vocal effects and speaking voice in the shorts The Lonesome Mouse (1943) and Mouse in Manhattan (1945). Sara Berner voiced Jerry in the short The Zoot Cat (1944), as well as Anchors Aweigh (1945) in a dance sequence with him and Gene Kelly. A sequence in the short The Milky Waif (1946) features Jerry and Nibbles disguising themselves as a pair of black people, in which the former is voiced by Lillian Randolph (same voice as Mammy Two Shoes). Paul Frees did Jerry's speaking voice in the shorts His Mouse Friday (1951) and Blue Cat Blues (1956). Manuel Paris did Jerry's voice in the short Mucho Mouse (1957). When the MGM cartoon studio shut down in 1957 and Gene Deitch and European animation studio Rembrandt Studio took over, he and Allen Swift did Jerry's voice during the 1961–62 era. During the Chuck Jones era in 1963–1967, his voice was provided by Mel Blanc, June Foray, Chuck Jones, and Abe Levitow. Terence Monk did his voice in the short The Cat Above and the Mouse Below (1964) and Dale McKennon did Jerry's singing voice in Cat and Dupli-cat (1967). In The Tom and Jerry Show (1975), Jerry was voiced by John Stephenson. Lou Scheimer voiced him in The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (1980–1982). Frank Welker voiced him in Tom and Jerry Kids (1990–1993), and Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring (2002). Dana Hill voiced Jerry's voice in Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992).

Other voice actors include Jeff Bergman in a Cartoon Network Latin America bumper, Alan Marriott in Tom and Jerry in Fists of Furry (2000) and Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers (2002), Marc Silk in Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers (2002; as Monster Jerry), Spike Brandt in The Karate Guard (2005), Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale (2007), Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes (2010), Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz (2011), Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse (2012), Tom and Jerry's Giant Adventure (2013), Tom and Jerry: The Lost Dragon (2014), Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest (2015), Tom and Jerry Back to Oz (2016), and Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (2017), Sam Vincent in Tom and Jerry Tales (2006-2008). In The Tom and Jerry Show (2014 TV series), Jerry's vocal effects are provided by the show's sound designer Rich Danhakl and archival recordings of William Hanna from the original theatrical shorts. In Tom & Jerry (2021 film), his voice was provided by André Sogliuzzo and archived recordings of William Hanna.

On November 18, 2021, it was confirmed that Eric Bauza would be voicing the character on the 2022 fighting game, MultiVersus, which establishes Jerry's original given name "Jinx" to be his middle name. In Cartoon Network in Japan's Tom and Jerry shorts, Jerry was voiced by Aya Yonekura.

Popular culture
Tom and Jerry were planned to appear as a cameo in the deleted scene "Acme's Funeral" from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The Itchy & Scratchy Show from The Simpsons parodies Tom and Jerry, with its mouse character named Itchy.

Jerry has been variously credited as Gerald "Jerry" Mouse in the video game Multiversus, and Jerome A. Mouse in the credits to their 2020 feature film. Neither of these conflicting names is considered canon, according to leading animation historian Jerry Beck.

The stage name of Ukrainian singer Jerry Heil was derived from her use of the name "Jerry Mouse" on Russian social media service VK.

title: Jerry Mouse


text:
CRUX

CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to install and upgrade applications.

Although crux is the Latin word for "cross," the choice of the name "CRUX" itself has no meaning. Per Lidén chose it because it "sounded cool," and ends in "X" which puts it in line with various other Unix flavors such as IRIX, Ultrix, Mac OS X and IBM AIX.

Installation
CRUX does not include a GUI installation program. Instead, the user boots the kernel stored on either a CD or diskette; partitions the hard disk drive(s) to which the operating system will be installed (using a program such as fdisk or cfdisk); creates the appropriate file systems on the various partitions; mounts the CD or NFS share along with the partitions made previously for use by the package installation script; compiles a new kernel; and installs a bootloader, all via shell commands.

Package management
CRUX implements an infrastructure similar to that of BSD-based operating systems for package management. Packages consist of a Pkgfile (which is a shell script), any patches required to adjust the program to work, md5sum hashes used to verify the integrity of the downloaded files and a footprint file listing the files to be included in the packages. These files are downloaded from a CRUX software repository, compiled, and installed using the prt-get frontend to pkgutils. The software sources are downloaded from the websites of their respective upstream at the address specified in the Pkgfile.

Reviews
Simone Rota reviewed CRUX for OSNews: "Since to use CRUX you must compile your own kernel and modules, the hardware compatibility list is basically the same as the Linux kernel.(2.4.21 on the tested release). No third-party modules are available on the CD, in case of unsupported hardware the only option is to fetch the drivers from another machine. The bootable CD-Rom kernel is compiled with a relatively small set of options, that should be enough to boot the machine and proceed with installation."

title: CRUX


text:
Gene Brewer

Gene Brewer (born Eugene N. Brewer, July 4, 1937) is an American writer, the author of the K-PAX book series, about a man who claims to be a visiting extraterrestrial from a planet called K-PAX: K-PAX (1995), On a Beam of Light (2001), K-PAX III: The Worlds of Prot (2002), K-PAX IV (2007) and Prot's Report, a brief natural history of the Earth, which appears in K-PAX: The Trilogy, an omnibus edition of the first three K-PAX books. The first book in the series was made into a film in 2001; it stars Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges.

Biography
Brewer was born in Muncie, Indiana.

He was educated at DePauw University and University of Wisconsin–Madison, and he studied DNA replication and cell division, then became a novelist.

Brewer currently lives in New York City and Vermont with his wife.

title: Gene Brewer


text:
Tatung Einstein

The Tatung Einstein  is an eight-bit home/personal computer produced by Taiwanese corporation Tatung, designed in Bradford, England at Tatung's research laboratories and assembled in Bridgnorth and Telford, England. It was aimed primarily at small businesses.

History
The Tatung Einstein TC-01 was released in the United Kingdom in the summer of 1984, and 5,000 were exported to Taipei later that year. A Tatung monitor (monochrome or colour) and dot matrix printer were also available as options, plus external disc drives and an 80 column display card. It was also capable of running ZX Spectrum software with the "Speculator" addon.

More expensive than most of its rivals, the Einstein was popular with contemporary programmers as a development machine but was commercially unsuccessful.

A later revised version, called the Tatung Einstein 256 and released in 1985, suffered a similar fate.

Design
The machine was physically large, with an option for one or two built-in three-inch floppy disk drives manufactured by Hitachi. At the time, most home computers in the UK used ordinary tape recorders for storage. Another unusual feature of the Einstein was that on start-up the computer entered a simple machine code monitor, called MOS (Machine Operating System).

A variety of software could then be loaded from disk, including a CP/M-compatible operating system called Xtal DOS (pronounced 'Crystal DOS', created by Crystal Computers in Torquay), and a BASIC interpreter (Xtal BASIC). More than 400 software titles were released for the system, including about 120 games. Versions of popular software like DBase or WordStar were available.

Thanks to the reliability of the machine, and ample memory, the machine proved useful by many software houses to use for programming, and then porting the code to the machines they were made for, namely the Spectrum 48k, Amstrad CPC, and Commodore 64. Eventually, it was superseded by the PC and Atari ST as the development systems of choice.

The follow on machine, the Einstein 256, basically was the same as the original, with improved video (Yamaha V9938) and a more slimline black case.

Technical specifications
The machines were quite similar.

Tatung Einstein TC-01
The Tatung Einstein TC-01 specifications are similar the MSX standard.
 * CPU: Zilog Z80A @ 4 MHz
 * ROM: 8K to 32K
 * RAM: 64 KB system; 16 KB video
 * Video: Texas Instruments TMS9129, 16 colours, 32 sprite planes
 * Audio: AY-3-8910 (also reads the keyboard matrix)
 * Z84C30 CTC
 * Z84C20 PIO
 * Intel 8251 SIO
 * 1770 FDC 3 '' floppy disk controllers
 * Z80 'Tube' bus/interface
 * Analogue joystick ports

Tatung Einstein 256
The Tatung Einstein 256 was similar to the original with improved video (Yamaha V9938) and more RAM.
 * RAM: 64K user; 192K video
 * Video: Yamaha V9938, 512 colours

title: Tatung Einstein


text:
Hendrick Goltzius

Hendrick Goltzius, or Hendrik, (January or February 1558 – 1 January 1617) was a German-born Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, lauded for his sophisticated technique, technical mastership and "exuberance" of his compositions. According to A. Hyatt Mayor, Goltzius "was the last professional engraver who drew with the authority of a good painter and the last who invented many pictures for others to copy". In the middle of his life he also began to produce paintings.

Biography
Goltzius was born near Viersen in Bracht or Millebrecht, a village then in the Duchy of Julich, now in the municipality Brüggen in North Rhine-Westphalia. His family moved to Duisburg when he was 3 years old. After studying painting on glass for some years under his father, he learned engraving from the Dutch polymath Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert, who then lived in Cleves. In 1577 he moved with Coornhert to Haarlem in the Dutch Republic, where he remained based for the rest of his life. In the same town, he was also employed by Philip Galle to engrave a set of prints of the history of Lucretia.

Goltzius had a malformed right hand from a fire when he was a baby (his drawing of it is at right), which turned out to be especially well-suited to holding the burin; "by being forced to draw with the large muscles of his arm and shoulder, he mastered a commanding swing of the line".

In the 1580s, Goltzius with his friends van Mander and the painter Cornelis van Haarlem, founded an art academy in Haarlem in emulation of those in France and Bologna, where the human figure could be studied from life and artists could meet to discuss both practice and aesthetics.

At the age of 21, Goltzius married a widow eight or nine years his senior. Her money enabled him to establish an independent business at Haarlem, but the marriage itself was unhappy. Feeling that the unpleasant atmosphere at home had affected his health, he found it advisable in 1590 to make a tour through Germany to Italy, where he acquired an intense admiration for the works of Michelangelo. He returned to Haarlem in August 1591, considerably improved in health, and worked there until his death.

His portraits, though mostly miniatures, are masterpieces of their kind, both on account of their exquisite finish and as fine studies of individual characters. Of his larger heads, his life-size self-portrait is probably the most striking example.

Goltzius brought to an unprecedented level the use of the "swelling line", where the burin is manipulated to make lines thicker or thinner to create a tonal effect from a distance. He also was a pioneer of the "dot and lozenge" technique, where dots are placed in the middle of lozenge-shaped spaces created by cross-hatching to further refine tonal shading.

Hollstein credits 388 prints to him, with a further 574 by other printmakers after his designs.

In his command of the burin, Goltzius is said to rival Dürer. He made engravings of Bartholomeus Spranger's paintings, thus increasing the fame of the latter – and his own. Goltzius began painting at the age of forty-two; some of his paintings can be found in Vienna. He also executed a few chiaroscuro woodcuts. He was the stepfather of the engraver Jacob Matham. He died, aged 58, in Haarlem.

Public collections
Most major print rooms will have a group of Goltzius's many engravings.
 * Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
 * Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
 * Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
 * University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor
 * The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
 * Philadelphia Museum of Art
 * British Museum, London
 * Los Angeles County Museum of Art
 * Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

title: Hendrick Goltzius


text:
User:Espen/emba

EMBA IT management running assignment

This assignment is intended to teach you something about social software (slightly different from collaborative software) - and what better way than to participate in the largest social software project of them all? Wikipedia is an on-line encyclopedia, written collaboratively (that is, by the readers). It uses wiki technology, and everybody can update everything. Order is maintained by common goals and common behavioral norms.

Assignment: Be advised that this assignment takes time - especially getting used to the Wikipedia format and culture - so a good idea is to start early and work on it intermittently but consistently. For due dates on the final memo, see the course page and Blackboard.:

 * 1) Register yourself as a user, read some of the documentation about what Wikipedia is and how it is to be used. You will find links to this on the Main Page. Remember: Wikipedia is, if anything, a community with its own rules and norms, which you should know before you enter.
 * 2) While logged in, start editing and writing articles – anything you do will be tracked and the versions saved.  Write on whatever you want, but make sure that you follow the intention of the Wikipedia. Incidentally, make sure you are logged in - otherwise your edits will be anonymous, which may be good for the Wikipedia but not so good for you....
 * 3) Go to this page and add yourself to the list of students, making sure you use the correct format.  (The intent here is that I should be able to click on each student, and then see what articles the student has worked on.)
 * 4) Write me a memo (in Blackboard), marked with both your name and your Wikipedia user name.  For a total of less than 500 words, answer these questions:
 * 5) What, if anything, surprised you the most about the Wikipedia?
 * 6) What uses can you see for this technology in a corporate setting?  What does it take for it to be successful?
 * 7) For which kind of businesses and technologies can Wikis be a disruptive technology?

Good luck, and welcome to the ‘pedia!

Espen

title: User:Espen/emba


text:
Talk:Rayman

A section for the character Rayman
My draft for this character got rejected because of not having SIGCOV but i ask the advice about the draft then @S0091 suggest me to create a section in this article about the character but first I thought that rather be weird but the user ask me that i welcome to start a discussion at this article and also suggest me get notice at WikiProject Video games to join with others. NatwonTSG2 (talk) 00:07, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

 * Annetta Fish will not be voiced by Karen Gillan nor anybody else and there's no animated adaptation in production nor announced, somebody revert that clear vandalism, please. 151.34.37.12 (talk) 22:20, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

I made a mistake yesterday-
So, I had a mandela effect going on and thought Betilla was designed to be chubbier. No, she's just taller and more stereotypically curvaceous. Fixed that little mistake, please don't think I'm one of those people who think "hourglass figure and more-than-average weight = chubby"... WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 03:57, 28 July 2023 (UTC)

 * Annetta Fish will not be voiced by Karen Gillan nor anybody else and there's no animated adaptation in production nor announced, somebody revert that clear vandalism, please. 151.34.37.12 (talk) 21:50, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Rayman


text:
Abraham Bloemaert

Abraham Bloemaert (25 December 1566 – 27 January 1651) was a Dutch painter and printmaker who used etching and engraving. He initially worked in the style of the "Haarlem Mannerists", but by the beginning of the 17th-century altered his style in line with the new Baroque style that was then developing. He mostly painted history subjects and some landscapes. He was an important teacher, who trained most of the Utrecht Caravaggisti.

Life
Bloemaert was born in Gorinchem, Habsburg Netherlands, the son of the architect Cornelis Bloemaert I, who moved his family to Utrecht in 1575, where Abraham was first a pupil of Gerrit Splinter (pupil of Frans Floris) and of Joos de Beer. From the age of 15 or 16, he spent three years in Paris (1581–1583), studying for six weeks under a Jehan Bassot (possibly Jean Cousin the Younger) and then under a Maistre Herry. While in the School of Fontainebleau he received further training from his fellow countryman Hieronymus Francken. He returned to Utrecht in 1583, just before the French Wars of Religion began, which destroyed much of the work at the Chateau of Fontainebleau.

When his father was appointed city architect (Stads-bouwmeester) in Amsterdam in 1591 Bloemaert accompanied him there. On his father's death in 1593 he returned to Utrecht, where he set up a workshop and in 1594 became dean ("deken") of the "zadelaarsgilde". (As of 1367 painters were included in the saddlemakers' guild, with no Guild of St. Luke of their own.) However, in 1611, along with the two other leading Utrecht painters, Joachim Wtewael and Paulus Moreelse, he was one of the founders of the Utrecht Guild of Saint Luke (St Lucas-gilde), a new Utrecht painters' guild, and became its deken in 1618. Many of Bloemaert's paintings were commissioned by Utrecht's clandestine Catholic churches. He died in Utrecht.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, "[Bloemaert] excelled more as a colourist than as a draughtsman, was extremely productive, and painted and etched historical and allegorical pictures, landscapes, still-life, animal pictures and flower pieces". In the first decade of the 17th-century, Bloemaert began formulating his landscape paintings to include picturesque ruined cottages and other pastoral elements. In these works, religious or mythological figures play a subordinate role. Country life was to remain Bloemaert's favourite subject, which he depicted with increasing naturalism. He drew motifs such as peasant cottages, dovecotes and trees from life and then on his return to the studio worked them up into complex imaginary scenes.

Among his many pupils were his four sons, Hendrick, Frederick, Cornelis, and Adriaan (all of whom achieved considerable reputations as painters or engravers). The Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) also lists as his pupils: Jan Aerntsz de Hel, Abraham Jacobsz van Almeloveen, Cornelius de Beer, Nicolaes van Bercheyck, Jan van Bijlert, the two Boths, the two Honthorsts, Leonaert Bramer, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Hendrick ter Brugghen, Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, Willem van Drielenburg, Wybrand de Geest, Nicolaus Knüpfer, Hendrik Munnicks, Frederick Pithan, Cornelis van Poelenburch, Henrik Schook, Anthoni Ambrosius Schouten, Robert Jansz Splinter, Matthias Stom, Herman van Swanevelt, Dirck Voorst, Quintijnus de Waerdt, Jan Baptist Weenix, and Peter Petersz van Zanen.

Public collections
Bloemaert is represented in numerous art collections including: the Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen; Musée du Louvre, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy; Museum of Grenoble; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Royal Academy of Arts, London; University of Rochester, New York; Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina; Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands; Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Courtauld Institute of Art, London; Harvard University Art Museums, Massachusetts; Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany; and the Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey.

Rediscoveries

 * Lot and his daughters (120 x 220 cm), oil on canvas (rediscovered in 2006 by Prof. Alain Béjard & Dimitri Joannidès, Alicem institute, Luxemburg)

title: Abraham Bloemaert


text:
Sagittarius A*

Sagittarius A*, abbreviated Sgr A*, is the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. Viewed from Earth, it is located near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, about 5.6° south of the ecliptic, visually close to the Butterfly Cluster (M6) and Lambda Scorpii.

The object is a bright and very compact astronomical radio source. The name Sagittarius A* distinguishes the compact source from the larger (and much brighter) Sagittarius A (Sgr A) region in which it is embedded. Sgr A* was discovered in 1974 by Bruce Balick and Robert L. Brown, and the asterisk * was assigned in 1982 by Brown, who understood that the strongest radio emission from the center of the galaxy appeared to be due to a compact non-thermal radio object.

The observations of several stars orbiting Sagittarius A*, particularly star S2, have been used to determine the mass and upper limits on the radius of the object. Based on mass and increasingly precise radius limits, astronomers have concluded that Sagittarius A* must be the central supermassive black hole of the Milky Way galaxy. The current value of its mass is 4.297$8.54 kilogram$ million solar masses.

Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery that Sagittarius A* is a supermassive compact object, for which a black hole was the only plausible explanation at the time.

In May 2022, astronomers released the first image of the accretion disk around the horizon of Sagittarius A*, confirming it to be a black hole, using the Event Horizon Telescope, a world-wide network of radio observatories. This is the second confirmed image of a black hole, after Messier 87's supermassive black hole in 2019. The black hole itself is not seen, only nearby objects whose behavior is influenced by the black hole. The observed radio and infrared energy emanates from gas and dust heated to millions of degrees while falling into the black hole.

Observation and description

On May 12, 2022, the first image of Sagittarius A* was released by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. The image, which is based on radio interferometer data taken in 2017, confirms that the object contains a black hole. This is the second image of a black hole. This image took five years of calculations to process. The data were collected by eight radio observatories at six geographical sites. Radio images are produced from data by aperture synthesis, usually from night-long observations of stable sources. The radio emission from Sgr A* varies on the order of minutes, complicating the analysis.

Their result gives an overall angular size for the source of $4.297$. At a distance of 26,000 ly, this yields a diameter of 51.8 e6km. For comparison, Earth is 150 e6km from the Sun, and Mercury is 46 e6km from the Sun at perihelion. The proper motion of Sgr A* is approximately −2.70 mas per year for the right ascension and −5.6 mas per year for the declination. The telescope's measurement of these black holes tested Einstein's theory of relativity more rigorously than has previously been done, and the results match perfectly.

In 2019, measurements made with the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-Plus (HAWC+) mounted in the SOFIA aircraft revealed that magnetic fields cause the surrounding ring of gas and dust, temperatures of which range from -280 to 17500 F, to flow into an orbit around Sagittarius A*, keeping black hole emissions low.

Astronomers have been unable to observe Sgr A* in the optical spectrum because of the effect of 25 magnitudes of extinction (absorption and scattering) by dust and gas between the source and Earth.

History
In April 1933, Karl Jansky, considered one of the fathers of radio astronomy, discovered that a radio signal was coming from a location in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius, towards the center of the Milky Way. The radio source later became known as Sagittarius A. His observations did not extend quite as far south as we now know to be the Galactic Center. Observations by Jack Piddington and Harry Minnett using the CSIRO radio telescope at Potts Hill Reservoir, in Sydney discovered a discrete and bright "Sagittarius-Scorpius" radio source, which after further observation with the 80 ft CSIRO radio telescope at Dover Heights was identified in a letter to Nature as the probable Galactic Center.

Later observations showed that Sagittarius A actually consists of several overlapping sub-components; a bright and very compact component, Sgr A*, was discovered on February 13 and 15, 1974, by Balick and Robert L Brown using the baseline interferometer of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The name Sgr A* was coined by Brown in a 1982 paper because the radio source was "exciting", and excited states of atoms are denoted with asterisks.

Since the 1980s, it has been evident that the central component of Sgr A* is likely a black hole. In 1994, infrared and sub-millimetre spectroscopy studies by a Berkeley team involving Nobel Laureate Charles H. Townes and future Nobel Prize Winner Reinhard Genzel showed that the mass of Sgr A* was tightly concentrated and on the order of 3 million Suns.

On October 16, 2002, an international team led by Reinhard Genzel at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics reported the observation of the motion of the star S2 near Sagittarius A* throughout a period of ten years. According to the team's analysis, the data ruled out the possibility that Sgr A* contains a cluster of dark stellar objects or a mass of degenerate fermions, strengthening the evidence for a massive black hole. The observations of S2 used near-infrared (NIR) interferometry (in the Ks-band, i.e. 2.1 μm) because of reduced interstellar extinction in this band. SiO masers were used to align NIR images with radio observations, as they can be observed in both NIR and radio bands. The rapid motion of S2 (and other nearby stars) easily stood out against slower-moving stars along the line-of-sight so these could be subtracted from the images.

The VLBI radio observations of Sagittarius A* could also be aligned centrally with the NIR images, so the focus of S2's elliptical orbit was found to coincide with the position of Sagittarius A*. From examining the Keplerian orbit of S2, they determined the mass of Sagittarius A* to be $8,277$ solar masses, confined in a volume with a radius no more than 17 light-hours (120 AU). Later observations of the star S14 showed the mass of the object to be about 4.1 million solar masses within a volume with radius no larger than 6.25 light-hours (45 AU). S175 passed within a similar distance. For comparison, the Schwarzschild radius is 0.08 AU. They also determined the distance from Earth to the Galactic Center (the rotational center of the Milky Way), which is important in calibrating astronomical distance scales, as 8,000 ±. In November 2004, a team of astronomers reported the discovery of a potential intermediate-mass black hole, referred to as GCIRS 13E, orbiting 3 light-years from Sagittarius A*. This black hole of 1,300 solar masses is within a cluster of seven stars. This observation may add support to the idea that supermassive black holes grow by absorbing nearby smaller black holes and stars.

After monitoring stellar orbits around Sagittarius A* for 16 years, Gillessen et al. estimated the object's mass at $26,996$ solar masses. The result was announced in 2008 and published in The Astrophysical Journal in 2009. Reinhard Genzel, team leader of the research, said the study has delivered "what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that supermassive black holes do really exist. The stellar orbits in the Galactic Center show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt."

On January 5, 2015, NASA reported observing an X-ray flare 400 times brighter than usual, a record-breaker, from Sgr A*. The unusual event may have been caused by the breaking apart of an asteroid falling into the black hole or by the entanglement of magnetic field lines within gas flowing into Sgr A*, according to astronomers.

On 13 May 2019, astronomers using the Keck Observatory witnessed a sudden brightening of Sgr A*, which became 75 times brighter than usual, suggesting that the supermassive black hole may have encountered another object.

In June 2023, unexplained filaments of radio energy were found associated with Sagittarius A*.

Central black hole
In a paper published on October 31, 2018, the discovery of conclusive evidence that Sagittarius A* is a black hole was announced. Using the GRAVITY interferometer and the four telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to create a virtual telescope 130 m in diameter, astronomers detected clumps of gas moving at about 30% of the speed of light. Emission from highly energetic electrons very close to the black hole was visible as three prominent bright flares. These exactly match theoretical predictions for hot spots orbiting close to a black hole of four million solar masses. The flares are thought to originate from magnetic interactions in the very hot gas orbiting very close to Sagittarius A*.

In July 2018, it was reported that S2 orbiting Sgr A* had been recorded at 7,650 km/s, or 2.55% the speed of light, leading up to the pericenter approach, in May 2018, at about 120 AU (approximately 1,400 Schwarzschild radii) from Sgr A*. At that close distance to the black hole, Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) predicts that S2 would show a discernible gravitational redshift in addition to the usual velocity redshift; the gravitational redshift was detected, in agreement with the GR prediction within the 10 percent measurement precision.

Assuming that general relativity is still a valid description of gravity near the event horizon, the Sagittarius A* radio emissions are not centered on the black hole, but arise from a bright spot in the region around the black hole, close to the event horizon, possibly in the accretion disc, or a relativistic jet of material ejected from the disc. If the apparent position of Sagittarius A* were exactly centered on the black hole, it would be possible to see it magnified beyond its size, because of gravitational lensing of the black hole. According to general relativity, this would result in a ring-like structure, which has a diameter about 5.2 times the black hole's Schwarzschild radius (10 μas). For a black hole of around 4 million solar masses, this corresponds to a size of approximately 52 μas, which is consistent with the observed overall size of about 50 μas, the size (apparent diameter) of the black hole Sgr A* itself being 20 μas.

Recent lower resolution observations revealed that the radio source of Sagittarius A* is symmetrical. Simulations of alternative theories of gravity depict results that may be difficult to distinguish from GR. However, a 2018 paper predicts an image of Sagittarius A* that is in agreement with recent observations; in particular, it explains the small angular size and the symmetrical morphology of the source.

The mass of Sagittarius A* has been estimated in two different ways:

 * 1) Two groups—in Germany and the U.S.—monitored the orbits of individual stars very near to the black hole and used Kepler's laws to infer the enclosed mass. The German group found a mass of $$ solar masses, whereas the American group found $51.8 μas$ solar masses. Given that this mass is confined inside a 44-million-kilometre-diameter sphere, this yields a density ten times higher than previous estimates.
 * 2) More recently, measurement of the proper motions of a sample of several thousand stars within approximately one parsec from the black hole, combined with a statistical technique, has yielded both an estimate of the black hole's mass at $4.1 million$, plus a distributed mass in the central parsec amounting to $4.31 million$ . The latter is thought to be composed of stars and stellar remnants.

The comparatively small mass of this supermassive black hole, along with the low luminosity of the radio and infrared emission lines, imply that the Milky Way is not a Seyfert galaxy.

Ultimately, what is seen is not the black hole itself, but observations that are consistent only if there is a black hole present near Sgr A*. In the case of such a black hole, the observed radio and infrared energy emanates from gas and dust heated to millions of degrees while falling into the black hole. The black hole itself is thought to emit only Hawking radiation at a negligible temperature, on the order of 10−14 kelvin.

The European Space Agency's gamma-ray observatory INTEGRAL observed gamma rays interacting with the nearby giant molecular cloud Sagittarius B2, causing X-ray emission from the cloud. The total luminosity from this outburst ($L$≈1,5 erg/s) is estimated to be a million times stronger than the current output from Sgr A* and is comparable with a typical active galactic nucleus. In 2011 this conclusion was supported by Japanese astronomers observing the Milky Way's center with the Suzaku satellite.

In July 2019, astronomers reported finding a star, S5-HVS1, traveling 1755 km/s or 0.006 c. The star is in the Grus (or Crane) constellation in the southern sky, and about 29,000 light-years from Earth, and may have been propelled out of the Milky Way galaxy after interacting with Sagittarius A*.

Several values have been given for its spin parameter $$a_{*}=\frac{cJ}{GM^{2}}$$; some examples are Fragione & Loeb (2020) $$a_{*} < 0.1$$ , Belanger et al. (2006) $$a_{*}\sim 0.22 $$, Meyer et al. (2006) $$a_{*} > 0.4$$, Genzel et al. (2003) $$a_{*} \sim 0.52$$ and Daly et al. (2023) $$a_{*} \sim 0.9$$.

Orbiting stars

There are a number of stars in close orbit around Sagittarius A*, which are collectively known as "S stars". These stars are observed primarily in K band infrared wavelengths, as interstellar dust drastically limits visibility in visible wavelengths. This is a rapidly changing field—in 2011, the orbits of the most prominent stars then known were plotted in the diagram at left, showing a comparison between their orbits and various orbits in the solar system. Since then, S62 has been found to approach even more closely than those stars.

The high velocities and close approaches to the supermassive black hole makes these stars useful to establish limits on the physical dimensions of Sagittarius A*, as well as to observe general-relativity associated effects like periapse shift of their orbits. An active watch is maintained for the possibility of stars approaching the event horizon close enough to be disrupted, but none of these stars are expected to suffer that fate.

, S4714 is the current record holder of closest approach to Sagittarius A*, at about 12.6 AU, almost as close as Saturn gets to the Sun, traveling at about 8% of the speed of light. These figures given are approximate, the formal uncertainties being $4.31 million$ and $4.1 million$. Its orbital period is 12 years, but an extreme eccentricity of 0.985 gives it the close approach and high velocity.

An excerpt from a table of this cluster (see Sagittarius A* cluster), featuring the most prominent members. In the below table, id1 is the star's name in the Gillessen catalog and id2 in the catalog of the University of California, Los Angeles. a, e, i, Ω and ω are standard orbital elements, with a measured in arcseconds. Tp is the epoch of pericenter passage, P is the orbital period in years and Kmag is the infrared K-band apparent magnitude of the star. q and v are the pericenter distance in AU and pericenter speed in percent of the speed of light.

Discovery of G2 gas cloud on an accretion course
First noticed as something unusual in images of the center of the Milky Way in 2002, the gas cloud G2, which has a mass about three times that of Earth, was confirmed to be likely on a course taking it into the accretion zone of Sgr A* in a paper published in Nature in 2012. Predictions of its orbit suggested it would make its closest approach to the black hole (a perinigricon) in early 2014, when the cloud was at a distance of just over 3,000 times the radius of the event horizon (or ≈260 AU, 36 light-hours) from the black hole. G2 has been observed to be disrupting since 2009, and was predicted by some to be completely destroyed by the encounter, which could have led to a significant brightening of X-ray and other emission from the black hole. Other astronomers suggested the gas cloud could be hiding a dim star, or a binary star merger product, which would hold it together against the tidal forces of Sgr A*, allowing the ensemble to pass by without any effect. In addition to the tidal effects on the cloud itself, it was proposed in May 2013 that, prior to its perinigricon, G2 might experience multiple close encounters with members of the black-hole and neutron-star populations thought to orbit near the Galactic Center, offering some insight to the region surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

The average rate of accretion onto Sgr A* is unusually small for a black hole of its mass and is only detectable because it is so close to Earth. It was thought that the passage of G2 in 2013 might offer astronomers the chance to learn much more about how material accretes onto supermassive black holes. Several astronomical facilities observed this closest approach, with observations confirmed with Chandra, XMM, VLA, INTEGRAL, Swift, Fermi and requested at VLT and Keck.

Simulations of the passage were made before it happened by groups at ESO and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

As the cloud approached the black hole, Daryl Haggard said, "It's exciting to have something that feels more like an experiment", and hoped that the interaction would produce effects that would provide new information and insights.

Nothing was observed during and after the closest approach of the cloud to the black hole, which was described as a lack of "fireworks" and a "flop". Astronomers from the UCLA Galactic Center Group published observations obtained on March 19 and 20, 2014, concluding that G2 was still intact (in contrast to predictions for a simple gas cloud hypothesis) and that the cloud was likely to have a central star.

An analysis published on July 21, 2014, based on observations by the ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile, concluded alternatively that the cloud, rather than being isolated, might be a dense clump within a continuous but thinner stream of matter, and would act as a constant breeze on the disk of matter orbiting the black hole, rather than sudden gusts that would have caused high brightness as they hit, as originally expected. Supporting this hypothesis, G1, a cloud that passed near the black hole 13 years ago, had an orbit almost identical to G2, consistent with both clouds, and a gas tail thought to be trailing G2, all being denser clumps within a large single gas stream.

Andrea Ghez et al. suggested in 2014 that G2 is not a gas cloud but rather a pair of binary stars that had been orbiting the black hole in tandem and merged into an extremely large star.

title: Sagittarius A*


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Lake Quinsigamond

Lake Quinsigamond (also Long Pond) is a body of water situated between the city of Worcester and the town of Shrewsbury in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It is 4 mi long, between 50 and 85 ft deep, and has a surface area of approximately 772 acre. Lake Quinsigamond hosts 8 islands with the majority owned by private citizens. Two islands are connected to land via bridge. The largest island, Drake Island, is still state owned. Water from the lake empties into the Quinsigamond River in the Blackstone Valley.

Bridging the lake
The lake's long and narrow shape posed a challenge to settlers of the Worcester area in the 17th century since it was deeded by Peter Jethro and other Native Americans in 1665. Lacking modern bridging techniques, westward travelers had to ride around the lake's northern and southern tips. At the turn of the 19th century, Isaiah Thomas, a Worcester resident, developed plans for a direct link between Worcester and Boston (plans that eventually became Route 9). Construction of this road was under the authority of the Worcester Turnpike Corporation (until 1841; thereafter, the city of Worcester). Like the settlers 150 years earlier, Thomas and company faced the problem of Lake Quinsigamond. The first span across the lake was a floating log bridge, built in 1806. This first attempt was unstable, often swaying under the weight of horse-drawn wagons. The floating bridge was broken apart by waves in 1806, and was rebuilt in the year 1807 as an interim solution.

The second bridge was an early suspension bridge, and was completed in early 1817. Nine wooden piers, built into the lakebed at regular intervals, held aloft a gravel-covered plank bridge. Due to the unstable nature of the lakebed, the nine piers settled at different levels, causing gaps to appear in the road surface. The piers and the bridge split apart and fell into the water on September 19, 1817. The collapse of the suspension bridge was quickly followed with a second floating bridge, this one lasting until 1861.

The first stable bridge over Lake Quinsigamond (the fourth such attempt overall) was an earthen causeway, finished in 1863. Formed from a mixture of rock, gravel and dirt, the causeway was the first span to not sway under heavy loads. The causeway effectively split the lake in half, stifling the nascent lakeside steamboat industry. Contemporary public opinion likened the causeway to an 'eyesore' and an 'abomination'. Despite these problems, the span survived into the early 20th century, when it was replaced by the current bridge. In ca. 1900, the causeway was expanded to include trolley tracks, linking downtown Worcester to the lakeside attractions.

A modern, two-lane bridge made of stone, cement and steel replaced the old causeway on July 31, 1919. Renovations completed in 1973 expanded the bridge to a four-lane roadway. At the north end of the lake, a second bridge was built to support Interstate 290.

The new Kenneth F. Burns Memorial Bridge opened November 1, 2015 and carries Route 9 over Lake Quinsigamond. The crossing is a two barrel steel arch bridge that consists of two separate structures supporting eastbound and westbound traffic. Each structure is an 870-foot-long, five-span, open spandrel steel-tied deck arch, supported on two concrete abutments and four perched pile caps. The two structures both carry three traffic lanes, a bike lane, and a pedestrian walkway, with overlooks provided for scenic views of the lake.

Historical
Most of the lakeside development occurred around the southern shores, due to the construction of the causeway in 1863. The causeway split the lake in half for those traveling by water, namely, steamboat cruises and competitive rowers. Lincoln Park, a family amusement park, opened on the Worcester (western) side of the lake in 1867; steamboat cruises began twenty years earlier, launched from the site of the Park. Horace H. Bigelow, a local businessman, opened a competing amusement park called White City on the Shrewsbury side in 1905. Both parks became famous for unique rides: Lincoln for the 'Dummy Railroad,' a passenger train running between Union Station in Worcester and the Park; White City, for its artificial lake, Shoot-the-Chutes ride, and other water attractions.

By the 1940s, both parks began to suffer declines in attendance due to development elsewhere along the lake's shores. White City, once a park that featured '50,000 Electric Lights,' shut down on Labor Day, 1960. Lincoln Park closed in 1961, and the White City property was sold in November of that same year. Both parks lost buildings due to suspicious fires during their final years.

Current
The buyer of the White City property, Albert Shore, developed the land into a shopping center and movie theater complex shortly after the amusement park's closure. The retail complex still bears the White City name, though the movie theater, White City Cinemas, was shut down in recent years. An elder apartment complex now stands on the former site of Lincoln Park.

Quinsigamond State Park
Quinsigamond State Park is located on the Worcester side, to the north and south of Route 9.

Ramshorn Island
Ramshorn Island is owned by the city of Worcester, and is open to the public. Its walking paths cover the circumference of the 1.5 acre island, which is located toward the western bank of the lake just south of the renovated Kenneth F. Burns Memorial Bridge. The island is only accessible by boat.

Regattas on the lake
Competitive rowing teams first came to Lake Quinsigamond in 1857. Finding the lake ideal for such crew regattas, avid rowers established boating clubs on the lake's shores, the first being the Quinsigamond Boating Club. More boating clubs and races followed, and soon many colleges (both local and abroad) held regattas on the lake, such as the New England Rowing Championships, the ECAC National Invitational Championship, the Eastern Sprints, the Big East Championship and the Patriot League Championship. The NEIRA championship regatta has been held on the lake since the 1950s and now features over 40 schools in 8+, 4+ and 1X divisions. Beginning in 1895, local high schools held crew races on the lake. In 1952, the lake played host to the National Olympic rowing trials. The Quinsigamond Rowing Association hosted the US Rowing Masters National Championship in 2005, 2012 and 2016.

Mandaean ritual use
The Mandaean-American community of Worcester regularly performs masbuta (baptism) rituals in Lake Quinsigamond.

title: Lake Quinsigamond


text:
Charles Frazier

Charles Frazier (born November 4, 1950) is an American novelist. He won the 1997 National Book Award for Fiction for Cold Mountain.

Early life
Frazier was born in Asheville, North Carolina, grew up in Andrews and Franklin, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973. He earned an M.A. from Appalachian State University in the mid-1970s, and received his Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina in 1986. A 1985 published work by Frazier was a trail guide to the Andes and environs for the Sierra Club.

Frazier taught English, first at University of Colorado Boulder, then English at North Carolina State University. His wife convinced him to quit in order to work full-time on his novel. His friend and fellow North Carolina novelist, Kaye Gibbons, presented his unfinished novel to her literary agency, which led to the publication of Cold Mountain.

Career
Cold Mountain was his first novel, published in 1997 by Atlantic Monthly Press. It traces the journey of Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War. It follows his harrowing journey from deserting the army to finding his way back to the woman he left behind, Ada, who waits for him, dealing with all kinds of hardships herself. The power of Ada and Inman's love, and their dedication to reuniting, is the driving force of the novel, along with Frazier's incorporation of historical context. The work is rich in the culture and sensibilities of the North Carolina mountains, and is based on local history and stories handed down by Frazier's father about Frazier's great-great-uncle, William Pinkney "Pink" Inman (1839- 6 February 1865). Inman, who was from Haywood County, the area around Cold Mountain in western North Carolina, served in the Confederate Army, from which he deserted after being wounded twice, and is buried in the Bethel Community Cemetery, Bethel, Haywood County, North Carolina. "Pink" Inman served as a private in Company F of the 25th North Carolina Infantry, and his regiment did participate in the fighting in the Siege of Petersburg, including the Battle of the Crater.

Cold Mountain won the 1997 U.S. National Book Award and was adapted as a 2003 film of the same name by Anthony Minghella.

Frazier's second novel, Thirteen Moons, published in 2006, traces the story of one man across a century of change in America. Also set in western North Carolina, the novel traces one white man's involvement with the Cherokee Indians just before, during and after their removal to Oklahoma. It is a story of struggle and triumph against the emerging U.S. government's plan to remove native Cherokee people to Oklahoma. Based on the success of Cold Mountain, Frazier was offered an $8 million advance for Thirteen Moons.

Frazier's 2011 book, Nightwoods, takes place in the 20th century, although the setting is still the Appalachian Mountains.

Frazier's fourth novel, Varina, is based on the life of Varina Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States of America. It was published in 2018.

Frazier's fifth novel, The Trackers, follows a painter during the Great Depression who tracks down a woman with a valuable painting.

Works

 * Cold Mountain  (1997) ISBN 978-0802142849
 * Thirteen Moons (2006) ISBN 978-0812967586
 * Nightwoods (2011) ISBN 978-0812978803
 * Varina (2018) ISBN 978-0062405982
 * The Trackers (2023) ISBN 978-0062948083

title: Charles Frazier