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Robert Cantwell

Robert Emmett Cantwell (January 31, 1908 – December 8, 1978), known as Robert Cantwell, was a novelist and critic. His first novel, Laugh and Lie Down (1931) is an early example, twenty years before Jack Kerouac, of the American classic genre the "road novel", and also an important example of the "Depression novel" period genre. His most notable work, The Land of Plenty, focuses on a lumber mill in a thinly disguised version of his hometown in Washington state.

Background
Robert Emmet Cantwell was born on January 31, 1908, in Little Falls (now Vader), Washington. His parents were Charles James Cantwell, an engineer, and Nina Adelia Hanson. He had an older sibling James Leroy and younger siblings Frances Dorothy and Charles Harry. He attended the University of Washington (1924−1925) and then spent the next four years working at Harbor Plywood Co., (1925−1929) in Hoquiam, Washington.

In 1919, the massacre during a strike in nearby Centralia, Washington, deeply disturbed him and left a lasting impression that appeared in his major writings.

Career
In 1929, after selling a short story "Hanging by My Thumbs" to The New American Caravan, he moved (with help from childhood friend Calvin Fixx) to New York City, landed a book contract with Farrar and Rinehart, and began work on his first novel, Laugh and Lie Down (1931). From 1930 to 1935 (and during the Great Depression), he wrote a second novel, The Land of Plenty (1934). He published a number of short stories in The Miscellany, American Caravan, Pagany, and The New Republic. In December 1933, he accepted work already passed over by Whittaker Chambers, namely to co-write a biography of Boston's E. A. Filene, in collaboration with Lincoln Steffens. The same month, Steffens suffered a heart-attack and died in 1936; Cantwell handed the manuscript to Filene in 1937.

Throughout the 1930s, Cantwell began to meet New York writers and editors such as Edmund Wilson, Malcolm Cowley, John Chamberlain, Erskine Caldwell, Matthew Josephson, and Harry Hansen. Over time, his circle expanded to include James T. Farrell, Meyer Schapiro, John Dos Passos, Newton Arvin, Kenneth Burke, Granville Hicks, Kenneth Fearing, Fred Dupee, Elof Holmlund, and Whittaker Chambers.

In the 1930s, "After he settled in New York, Cantwell was always short of money and therefore generally in a rush to finish a piece and get paid... All the more remarkable, then, that his short stories are of such a generally high aesthetic quality."

Meantime, to support himself while writing, Cantwell took on regular-paying jobs. From November 1932 until its close in 1935, he worked as literary editor of New Outlook magazine. He also wrote for the New Masses under pen name "Robert Simmons." At some point between 1933 and 1936, he worked as assistant literary editor at The New Republic under Malcolm Cowley, who was literary editor, according to Mary McCarthy in her 1992 posthumous Intellectual Memoirs: New York, 1936–1938; McCarthy also remembers him in the mid-1930s as "a Communist, a real member."

Time magazine
On April 23, 1935 and through 1936, Cantwell joined the editorial staff of Time as book reviewer. In 1937, he joined Time's sister magazine, Fortune. In 1938, he returned to Time as associate editor (1938−1945). In 1939, he helped his friend Chambers get his old job as book reviewer. In 1940, William Saroyan lists Cantwell among "associate editors" at Time in Saroyan's play, Love's Old Sweet Song.

In 1941, Cantwell suffered a nervous breakdown. He took off work and received treatment at the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum. He spent three years researching and writing the biography, Nathaniel Hawthorne: The American Years (1948).

From 1949 to 1954 he worked as the literary editor of Newsweek.

Sports Illustrated magazine
In 1954, he took up freelancing again until 1956 when he began an association with Sports Illustrated.

He worked for the magazine from 1956 until his death in 1978. He worked on a number of articles, three of which became books: Alexander Wilson: Naturalist and Pioneer (1961), The Real McCoy (1971), and The Hidden Northwest (1972). Subjects of his articles include chess, ornithology, sports in the movies and literary figures in sports.

Personal life and death
Cantwell married Mary Elizabeth Chambers, known as Betsy, a teacher, on February 2, 1931: she (no relation to Whittaker Chambers) was a cousin of Lyle Saxon, whom Fixx had been serving as secretary. They had three children: Joan McNiece (Mrs. George Stolz, Jr.), Betsy Ann (Mrs. Walter Pusey III), and Mary Elizabeth Emmett (Mrs. Lars-Erik Nelson).

He later married Allison Joy, a noted portrait painter, and, briefly, Eva Stolz Gilleran shortly before his death in 1978.

Cantwell was rumored to have been the inspiration for many of the scenes in the Eric Hodgins novel Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. While working together at Fortune, Cantwell had encouraged Hogkins to purchase a property not far from his own house in Sherman, Connecticut, and Cantwell's two daughters at the time had the same names as the two daughters in the novel: Betsy and Joan.

During the Hiss Case, the FBI often lurked around Cantwell's home in Sherman and questioned neighbors.

Cantwell dismissed his radical affiliations of youth obliquely in later life, saying "I had no interest in politics" and no (public) political aspirations. Nevertheless, his circle in the 1930s was a strong Leftist one that included Schapiro (Marxist), Cowley (Communist Party fellow traveller), Holmlund and Calvin Fixx (Communist Party members), and Chambers (Soviet spy). Further, his correspondence shows a strong interest, for example, in the CPUSA ticket for 1932 elections, which included William Z. Foster for president and James W. Ford for vice president. He also joined the League of Professional Writers for Foster and Ford. (Cantwell noted that he voted for Roosevelt so he would not "throw away" his vote.) Also in the fall of 1932, he traveled to Washington, DC, with Cowley to cover the National Hunger March for The New Republic. Biographer Per Seyersted concluded, "That Cantwell did not use correct Marxist terminology would seem to indicate that he was no CP member, that however to the left he was and in sympathy with the Party's aims, he was an independent person doing his own thinking." This reflected his background in West Coast populist-progressive-anarchist political culture, something quite different from New York City European-oriented doctrinaire Marxism—the Grange, the Progressive Party, the Wobblies, rather than the regimen of Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist party discipline. The Centralia strikers were Wobblies.

He died in 1978, aged 70, in St. Luke's hospital in New York City, after suffering a heart attack two weeks earlier.

In his obituary, Sports Illustrated wrote: Bob Cantwell was with us during the last 22 years of his life, in which he wrote dozens of memorable articles, among them a portrayal of Cecil Smith, the Texas cowboy who became perhaps the greatest polo player the world has ever seen. When Cantwell wrote of Banjo Paterson, the virtually unknown author of Waltzing Matilda, he made sure that a colorful footnote to history was not going to be lost, at least not to SI readers. As he once said, "History is a natural resource, just as much as fossil fuel. It's what is there. We should not ignore it."

Bob Cantwell was a unique intellectual resource and a friend. We shall miss him. Cantwell's correspondence includes: James T. Farrell, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, Van Wyck Brooks, Erskine Caldwell, Malcolm Cowley, Henry Luce, Clare Boothe Luce, Marianne Moore, T. S. Matthews, and Edmund Wilson.

Other members of his family are of note: his great-grandfather was Michael Troutman Simmons, known for establishing the first permanent settlement in what is now Tacoma, Washington, and his nephew, Colin Cantwell, is known for, among other things, designing the Death Star in Star Wars.

Literature
Ernest Hemingway considered Cantwell "his best bet" in American fiction.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of Cantwell's first short story, "Hanging by My Thumbs": "Mark it well, for my guess is that he's learned a better lesson from Proust than Thornton Wilder did and has a destiny of no mean star."

T. S. Matthews wrote, "Before I met him, I knew that he was reported to be the best book reviewer in New York; after only three book reviews, everybody admitted it."

Time magazine
Cantwell, his close colleagues, and many staff members as of the 1930s helped elevate Time–"interstitial intellectuals," as historian Robert Vanderlan has called them. Colleague John Hersey described them as follows: Time was in an interesting phase; an editor named Tom Matthews had gathered a brilliant group of writers, including James Agee, Robert Fitzgerald, Whittaker Chambers, Robert Cantwell, Louis Kronenberger, and Calvin Fixx... They were dazzling. Time's style was still very hokey—“backward ran sentences till reeled the mind”—but I could tell, even as a neophyte, who had written each of the pieces in the magazine, because each of these writers had such a distinctive voice.

Hiss Case
In October 1931, Cantwell attended a dinner party in honor of his first novel, Laugh and Lie Down, where he met Whittaker Chambers, friend Mike Intrator, and Intrator's wife Grace Lumpkin. At the time, Chambers had become an editor at the New Masses magazine; he and Cantwell became "very close friends." Soon after meeting, Cantwell joined the John Reed Club.

When Chambers went into the Soviet underground in mid-1932, Cantwell knew; he declined to let Chambers use his home as a letter drop. In April 1934, Cantwell met Chambers' underground comrade, John Loomis Sherman, whom he knew as "Phillips." For the rest of his life, Cantwell would remain unclear about just how much he knew about or was involved in Chambers' underground activities. In May 1934, when Chambers started working with the Ware Group (according to Cantwell's papers), Cantwell accompanied him; about this time, Chambers let Cantwell know that he was using the alias "Lloyd Cantwell" in Baltimore. Biographer Seyersted notes that in his 1952 memoir Witness, Chambers may have changed dates for his first meetings in Washington for the Ware Group to June and later in order to protect Cantwell.

Cantwell helped get Whittaker Chambers a job at Time magazine, as Chambers recounted in his memoirs: The morning mail brought a letter from my friend, Robert Cantwell, the author of Laugh and Lie Down, and later, the biographer of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Cantwell was then one of the editors of Time magazine... But his letter... urged me to go to New York at once. As sometimes happens at Time, several jobs were suddenly open. Cantwell thought that I might get one of them... Cantwell thought I should try for a book reviewer's job. I wrote several trial reviews. A few days later, Time hired me. Chambers had used the alias "Lloyd Cantwell" during his time in the Soviet underground, including the formation of the American Feature Writers Syndicate with comrade John Loomis Sherman (using the alias Charles Francis Chase) and literary agent Maxim Lieber. During the Hiss Case, Cantwell's name came up, and he found himself under FBI surveillance. When Chambers published his memoirs, Cantwell wrote a negative review.

Cantwell's mental breakdown in 1941 plus Chambers' use of his surname in the 1930s may well have led the Hiss defense team to conflate the two Cantwells and thus question Chambers' own sanity. ("Is he a man of sanity?" Hiss publicly questioned as early as August 25, 1948. )

In later years, Cantwell would express skepticism that Chambers even was in the underground; at others, he would express great fear of Soviet retribution (for Chambers' defection–and Cantwell's role in it?).

Works
Original works:
 * "Hanging by My Thumbs" in The New American Caravan (1931)
 * Laugh and Lie Down (1931)
 * Land of Plenty (1934, 1971)
 * "The Hills around Centralia" in Proletarian Literature in the United States: An Anthology (1935)
 * Nathaniel Hawthorne: The American Years (1948, 1971)
 * Famous American Men of Letters, illustrated by Gerald McCann (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1956)
 * Alexander Wilson: Naturalist and Pioneer: A Biography, decorated by Robert Ball (1961)
 * Real McCoy: The Life and Times of Norman Selby (1971)
 * Hidden Northwest (1972)

Editorial works:
 * The Humorous Side of Erskine Caldwell anthology edited and introduced by Robert Cantwell (1951)
 * White Rose of Memphis by William C. Falkner, introduced by Robert Cantwell (1953)
 * Charterhouse of Parma, by Marie-Henri Beyle (Stendhal, translated by Lady Mary Loyd, revised by Robert Cantwell, preface by Honoré de Balzac, illustrated by Rafaello Busoni (1955)
 * Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, introduced by Robert Cantwell (1956)
 * Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy, introduced by Robert Cantwell, engraved by Agnes Miller Parker (1958)
 * The History of Pendennis by William Makepeace Thackeray, introduced by Robert Cantwell (1961)

Unfinished works:
 * Biography of E. A. Filene with Lincoln Steffens (1934)
 * Autobiography of James B. McNamara, convicted labor dynamiter
 * Small Boston, projected novel from the early 1970s
 * The FBI, privacy, and Cantwell's involvement with politics and Whittaker Chambers
 * Four Novelists on William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, James T. Farrell and Erskine Caldwell

Articles:

Before joining TIME, Cantwell wrote (mostly book reviews) for The New Republic, The Nation, and The Outlook:
 * "Lawrence's Last Novel" (Review), The New Republic (December 24, 1930)
 * "Selma Lagerlof" (Review), The New Republic (February 25, 1931)
 * "Sympathetic to Revolt" (Review), The New Republic (March 25, 1931)
 * "California" (Review), The Nation (April 15, 1931)
 * "Faulkner's Thirteen Stories" (Review), The New Republic (October 21, 1931)
 * "Conflict Between Sisters" (Review), The Saturday Review (November 7, 1931)
 * "The Week's Reading" (Review), The Outlook (November 25, 1931)
 * "Portrait of America" (Review), The Saturday Review (December 19, 1931)
 * "The Wreck of the Gravy Train", The New Republic (January 6, 1932)
 * "Second Person Singular" (Review), The Nation (March 9, 1932)
 * "Order and Disorder" (Review), The Saturday Review (March 12, 1932)
 * "The End of Tradition" (Review), The New Republic (March 30, 1932)
 * "Polishing Our Bicycles" (Review), The New Republic (April 6, 1932)
 * "Bronx Cheers" (Review), The New Republic (May 25, 1932)
 * "Class-Conscious Fiction" (Review), The Nation (May 25, 1932)
 * "This Side of Paradise" (Review), The New Republic (July 6, 1932)
 * "American Exile" (Review), The Nation (July 20, 1932)
 * "Men of the Sea" (Review), The Nation (August 10, 1932)
 * "The Importance of Henry James" (Review), The Nation (August 17, 1932)
 * "Mr. Eliot's Sunday Afternoon" (Review), The New Republic (September 14, 1932)
 * "Distinguished Tedium" (Review), The Nation (September 21, 1932)
 * "As I Like It" (Review), Scribners (October 1932)
 * "Mr. Waugh's Humor" (Review), The Nation (October 12, 1932)
 * "Effective Propaganda" (Review), The Nation (October 19, 1932)
 * "The Man of Order" (Review), The New Republic (October 26, 1932)
 * "The Man of Order" (Review), The New Republic (October 26, 1932)
 * "Outlook's Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (November 1932)
 * "As I Like It" (Review), Scribners (November 1932)
 * "Big Novelist" (Review), The New Republic (November 2, 1932)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (December 1932)
 * "Children's Books" (Review), Scribners (December 1932)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (January 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (February 1933)
 * "Some Recent Novels" (4 Reviews), The New Republic (February 8, 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (March 1933)
 * "Four Novelists of Tomorrow" (4 Reviews), The New Republic (March 8, 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (April 1933)
 * "Four Novels - Not Without Propaganda" (4 Reviews), The New Republic (April 12, 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (May 1933)
 * "Seventy-five Short Stories" (3 Reviews), The New Republic (May 31, 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (June 1933)
 * "Dramatists' Raw Material" (2 Reviews), The New Republic (June 28, 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (July 1933)
 * "The Social Novelist" (Review), The New Republic (July 5, 1933)
 * "The Rover Boys in Wall Street" (Review), The New Republic (July 12, 1933)
 * "Books and Reviews" (5 Reviews), The Outlook (August 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (August 1933)
 * "Love Among the Maggots" (Review), The New Republic (August 9, 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (September 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choices of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (October 1933)
 * "The Search for a Hero" (Review), The New Republic (October 4, 1933)
 * "Can You Hear Their Voices?" (3 Reviews), The New Republic (October 18, 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (November 1933)
 * "Outstanding Books of the Year," The Outlook (December 1933)
 * "Exiles" (2 Reviews), The New Republic (December 13, 1933)
 * "Books in Review," The New Republic (December 27, 1933)
 * "Outlook Book Choice" (Review), The Outlook (January 1934)
 * "Books in Review," The New Republic (January 24, 1934)
 * "Books in Review," The New Republic (February 14, 1934)
 * "Books and Reviews" (4 Reviews), The Outlook (March 1934)
 * "Outlook Book Choice" (Review), The Outlook (March 1934)
 * "Books in Review," The New Republic (March 14, 1934)
 * "Outlook Book Choice" (Review), "The Outlook" (April 1934)
 * "Books and Reviews" (4 Reviews), The Outlook (May 1934)
 * "Outlook Book Choice" (Review), The Outlook (May 1934)
 * "Outlook Book Choice" (Review), The Outlook (June 1934)
 * Outlook Book Choice" (Review), The Outlook (July 1934)
 * "Books in Review: The Little Magazines," The New Republic (July 25, 1934)
 * "San Francisco: Act One," The New Republic (July 25, 1934)
 * "Outlook Book Choices," The Outlook (August 1934)
 * "War on the West Coast" (with Evelyn Seeley), The New Republic (August 1, 1934)
 * "Books and Reviews (3 Reviews), The Outlook (September 1934)
 * "Outlook Book Choice of the Month" (Review), The Outlook (September 1934)
 * "Outlook Book Choice" (8 Reviews), The Outlook (October 1934)
 * "Strikebreakers" (Review), The Saturday Review (October 20, 1934)
 * "Outlook Book Choice" (Review), The Outlook (November 1934)
 * "Books and Reviews" (2 Reviews), The Outlook (December 1934)
 * "Outlook Book Choice" (Review), The Outlook (December 1934)
 * "The Return of Henry James," The New Republic (December 12, 1934)
 * "Outstanding Books of the Year," The Outlook (January 1935)
 * "The Mystery of Popular Reading," The Outlook (April 1935)
 * "Bound Nowhere" (Review), The New Republic (April 10, 1935)
 * "Better News from California," The New Republic (May 22, 1935)
 * "Both Monologues" (2 Reviews), The New Republic )June 26, 1935)
 * "What the Working Class Reads," The New Republic (1935)
 * "The Communists and the CIO," The New Republic (1938)

Cantwell wrote articles for TIME and Fortune magazines from 1935 to 1941.

Cantwell wrote articles mostly for Sports Illustrated from 1956 to 1978.

External sources

 * Robert Cantwell papers at the University of Oregon

title: Robert Cantwell


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Self number

In number theory, a self number or Devlali number in a given number base $$b$$ is a natural number that cannot be written as the sum of any other natural number $$n$$ and the individual digits of $$n$$. 20 is a self number (in base 10), because no such combination can be found (all $$n < 15$$ give a result less than 20; all other $$n$$ give a result greater than 20). 21 is not, because it can be written as 15 + 1 + 5 using n = 15. These numbers were first described in 1949 by the Indian mathematician D. R. Kaprekar.

Definition and properties
Let $$n$$ be a natural number. We define the $$b$$-self function for base $$b > 1$$ $$F_b : \mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{N}$$ to be the following:
 * $$F_{b}(n) = n + \sum_{i=0}^{k - 1} d_i. $$

where $$k = \lfloor \log_{b}{n} \rfloor + 1$$ is the number of digits in the number in base $$b$$, and
 * $$d_i = \frac{n \bmod{b^{i+1}} - n \bmod b^i}{b^i}$$

is the value of each digit of the number. A natural number $$n$$ is a $$b$$-self number if the preimage of $$n$$ for $$F_b$$ is the empty set.

In general, for even bases, all odd numbers below the base number are self numbers, since any number below such an odd number would have to also be a 1-digit number which when added to its digit would result in an even number. For odd bases, all odd numbers are self numbers.

The set of self numbers in a given base $$b$$ is infinite and has a positive asymptotic density: when $$b$$ is odd, this density is 1/2.

Self numbers in specific bases
For base 2 self numbers, see. (written in base 10)

The first few base 10 self numbers are:
 * 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 20, 31, 42, 53, 64, 75, 86, 97, 108, 110, 121, 132, 143, 154, 165, 176, 187, 198, 209, 211, 222, 233, 244, 255, 266, 277, 288, 299, 310, 312, 323, 334, 345, 356, 367, 378, 389, 400, 411, 413, 424, 435, 446, 457, 468, 479, 490, ...

Self primes
A self prime is a self number that is prime.

The first few self primes in base 10 are
 * 3, 5, 7, 31, 53, 97, 211, 233, 277, 367, 389, 457, 479, 547, 569, 613, 659, 727, 839, 883, 929, 1021, 1087, 1109, 1223, 1289, 1447, 1559, 1627, 1693, 1783, 1873, ...

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

title: Self number


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Frances the Mute

Frances the Mute is the second studio album by American progressive rock band The Mars Volta released in February 2005 on Gold Standard Laboratories and Universal. Produced by guitarist and songwriter Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, the album incorporates dub, ambient, Latin and jazz influences, and is the first to feature bassist Juan Alderete and percussionist Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez. The album also includes contributions from future saxophonist Adrián Terrazas-González, who joined the band during its subsequent tour.

Frances the Mute album made multiple "Best of" lists at the end of 2005. In the Q & Mojo magazine Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came #18 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums" and was also named as one of Classic Rock magazine's 10 essential progressive rock albums of the decade.

Background
Jeremy Ward, audio artist for The Mars Volta until his death, had previously worked as a repo man. One day, Ward discovered a diary in the backseat of a car he was repossessing, and began to note the similarities between his life and that of the author—most notably, that they had both been adopted. The diary told of the author's search for his biological parents, with the way being pointed by a collection of people, their names being the basis for each named track of Frances the Mute.

Writing and recording process
Some of the material which would end up on Frances the Mute, including "The Widow" and "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore", pre-dated De-Loused in the Comatorium, having been originally demoed by Omar Rodríguez-López in the early days of The Mars Volta. While touring in support of De-Loused, the band would incorporate more and more extended improvisational sections into some of their songs, often trying out new ideas. Parts of "Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus" ("Facilis Descenus Averni" and "Con Safo") were first performed live in the middle of "Drunkship of Lanterns" (as heard on Live EP) and "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" respectively, while parts of "Cassandra Gemini" originated from improvisations during "Cicatriz ESP" (as heard on Scabdates). The album was initially to be titled Sarcophagus.

Rodríguez-López arranged and produced the recording sessions himself. Unlike De-Loused in the Comatorium, which was recorded in producer Rick Rubin's mansion, the new album was mostly recorded in what Rodríguez-López described as "a shithole… Basically a warehouse with one little air conditioner on its last legs, awful wiring and a console you couldn’t rely on". Rather than bring his ideas to the band as a whole and working them out at group rehearsals, he met individually with each player to practice each part one-on-one. "We'll sit there and play it forever and slow—real slow—to understand what's happening. It's easy to play something fast and loud, but to play it soft and slow takes a certain amount of discipline. Then once we understand the part, everyone's free to elaborate—their personalities come out and it's not my part anymore; they get into and give it that swing that I can't give it." Rodríguez-López took the additional step of recording the band member separately before layering the various tracks to create each song. Drummer Jon Theodore was the first to record his parts, and he spent time arranging and mapping out the songs with Omar and in the process figuring out what the rhythmic structures would be stated on the recording process. "This is the first time I've ever been so methodical about recording. Normally I would go into the situation with as good an idea as I could, whether that was from performing the songs on tour or having a general road map. But this was the first instance where I considered every single hit all the way through, every figure up to and including every change. There were no question marks. So when I was tracking with the metronome it was just a question of right or wrong." An exception of such recording method was the middle section of "Cassandra Gemini", edited from a lengthy jam session.

Tracking this way had a mixed reception in the band; Theodore and bassist Juan Alderete responded well to the individualistic approach while keyboard player Isaiah "Ikey" Owens didn't like it at all. However, as Rodríguez-López stated, "People filling in ideas can become tedious and counterproductive. You find yourself working backwards. When you're in the studio 'what ifs' are your biggest enemy, so my general rule is, if it's something you can't live with—if a sentence begins with 'I can't' or 'I will not'—then we examine it. But if it's 'maybe we should' or 'I think that' then it's like, hey man, full steam ahead. Not that there isn't a lot of refinement to what we do—obviously there is— but I consider it a balance of raw energy and refinement."

Frances the Mute featured the largest array of guest musicians on any Mars Volta album to date. Flea, who played bass on De-Loused in the Comatorium, this time contributed trumpet to "The Widow" and "Miranda...". "L'Via L'Viaquez" featured guitar solos from John Frusciante as well as piano solos by Omar's childhood hero, salsa pianist Larry Harlow. Rodríguez-López described the session with Harlow in Puerto Rico as "a childhood dream come true". "Cassandra Gemini" featured flute and saxophone contributions from Mexican woodwind player Adrián Terrazas-González, who would join the band full time for the subsequent tour. All the tracks also included full string and horn sections, arranged by David Campbell with the help of Rodríguez-López. According to Cedric Bixler-Zavala, while recording a section in "Cassandra Gemini" one of the orchestra members played so hard that he broke his antique bow: "And you could see his ‘classical’ side come out – like, ‘I broke this playing a fuckin’ rock song??’ He was pissed off. But I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, man, that’s on the record! You’ve got to realise things like that are cool.’”

In 2012, Juan Alderete noted that Frances the Mute is the studio album he is most proud of.

Sound and lyrics
Frances the Mute is comparable to The Mars Volta's 2003 release De-Loused in the Comatorium, with its cryptic lyrics and highly layered instrumentals, although the progressive rock influence is stronger on Frances the Mute than it was on De-Loused in the Comatorium. "The Widow" is notably the only short, pop-structured song on the album, although the last half of it features a lengthy, non-radio-friendly outro of manipulated tape loops of organs and electronic noise; for the single release, this part was edited out. Ambient noise plays a larger role on Frances the Mute than it does on De-Loused in the Comatorium: "Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus" ends with the recording of children's voices and passing cars (made by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez in front of the house where he used to live with Bixler-Zavala and Ward ), while the first movement of "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore" ("Vade Mecum") features 4 minutes of coquí frogs (credited as "The Coquí of Puerto Rico" on the album sleeve) singing while a thick soundscape is slowly built from guitars, synthesizers and Bixler-Zavala's voice.

According to Rodriguez-Lopez, "Miranda..." was influenced by the music from western movies: "I'm a big fan of spaghetti-western and I think it shows on "Miranda". Our Morricone-influence has always been there, but on "Miranda" we let it all out. The last song ["Non-Zero Possibility"] on the last At the Drive-In album, the best thing we ever did by the way, had touches of spaghetti-western."

The fifth and final song of the album, "Cassandra Gemini", clocking at 32 minutes and 32 seconds is to date the longest studio song released by The Mars Volta. Rodriguez-Lopez said of the song: "Ever since I was a teenager, and had various listening experiences with the likes of King Crimson, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis's Bitches Brew, I've always wanted to do something like "Cassandra". Something deformed and out of control. Something enormous and violent, a whole album fitted into one composition. Something ruthless that no one can remain careless to."

Regarding the album's lyrical content, vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala stated:

A lot of it was [written] on the spot. Omar — because he collects TVs — would set up his wall of TVs again. We used to live together and he would set them up all the time — kind of like in the David Bowie movie, The Man Who Fell to Earth, he had a stack of TVs like that. So he would do that while I would record vocals, and that would be the main inspiration. So it was everything from The Magnificent Seven and any Akira Kurosawa stuff. And I wouldn't have [lyrics] written right away; I would just do takes of gibberish and then later try to fix them to make them into words. Sometimes he wanted to just keep the gibberish takes which he liked a lot better because it was the first reaction to the music. It's just really [about] being in a state of being willing to give up to the producer your scratch tracks, as opposed to really working on it and refining it.

Release history
In December 2004, a full copy of Frances the Mute was leaked to the Internet from the vinyl version. The rip was of poor quality. Encoded as a 96 kbit/s MP3, other versions were reencoded to 192 kbit/s WMA from the source mp3, resulting in even worse audio quality. Gold Standard Laboratories issued a statement decrying the Internet release for its subpar sound quality, and suggesting that fans should respect the band's request not to share the leaked music.

Frances the Mute was released on February 11, 2005 in Japan and February 21, 2005 in Europe; the US release followed on midnight, March 1, 2005. The Japanese version included a bonus DVD with three videos from the band's live performance at the Electric Ballroom, London in 2003 as well as an audio of non-album track "Frances the Mute". Gold Standard Laboratories issued two vinyl versions of the album, a standard 3-LP set on black vinyl, and a limited-edition 4-LP set printed on glow-in-the-dark vinyl and packaged in a red plastic case; the fourth disc was a bonus 12" featuring "Frances the Mute" and a live acoustic version of "The Widow", recorded at The Wiltern, Los Angeles on May 6, 2004. A CD single featuring the same two tracks was given free with the purchase of the album at Best Buy stores in the US.

Frances the Mute sold over 100,000 copies within the first week of release, and debuted at number four on the Billboard Album Charts. As of February 2007 according to Nielsen SoundScan, 488,000 copies were sold in the United States. The album was the band's career best at No. 4 until their fourth album The Bedlam in Goliath came out almost 3 years later on the Billboard 200 at No. 3. The album was certified gold by the RIAA in the US for shipments of 500,000 albums on October 5, 2009.

In 2008, the edited version of "L'Via L'Viaquez" was featured on the video game Guitar Hero: World Tour.

Reception
The album so far has a score of 75 out of 100 from Metacritic based on "generally favorable reviews". The Aquarian Weekly gave it an A and called it "a very heavyweight fight for a listener to get through". Punknews.org gave it all five stars and said, "Leave the hating to the real playa hatas, like Buc Nasty and Silky Johnson, because Frances The Mute will blow your mind. So give up your qualms about how pretentious this is, and how overindulgent, because given the chance, you're in for a hell of a ride." Drowned in Sound gave it a perfect score of ten and called it "a compulsory purchase." Spin gave it an A− and said it "explores an explosive groove Comatorium only implied." Kludge gave it a score of ten out of ten and called it a "multi-layered album that can be enjoyed through multiple artistic perspectives" which "works beautifully". Playlouder gave it four-and-a-half stars out of five and said, "Miraculously the lyrics never sound like the pompous shite they undoubtedly are. They fit the music and make the whole picture even more laughably and absurdly brilliant." In 2005, the album was ranked number 440 in Rock Hard magazine's book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.

Blender gave it four stars out of five and called it "a visceral, powerful muso's record, a nerve-jangling explosion in a drum clinic." Paste also gave it four stars out of five and said it "bursts at the jewel-case hinges with Comatorium's trademarks: musical inventiveness and wildly emotive vocals." NME gave it a score of seven out of ten and said, "Within this impressive, ambitious, often stupid whole, are moments of melting human beauty." Billboard gave it a positive review and said the album "unfolds upon multiple listens, sometimes threatening to collapse under its own pretensions (meandering musical passages, sound effects), but ultimately, it is an ambitious and rewarding album." The A.V. Club also gave it a positive review and said, "On the whole, the record sounds more like the blueprint for a stunning live show than like a viable document of a top-flight hard rock band."

Other reviews are average, mixed or negative: Uncut gave it a score of three stars out of five and said it "smells like another concept album, is far too long and so pretentious as to be farcial. Amazingly, it's also mighty entertaining." The Guardian also gave it a score of three stars out of five and said of The Mars Volta: "You have to give them credit for ambition, though, because you're not going to find this particular witches' brew anywhere else." The New York Times gave it an average review and said, "The music combines the kitchen-sink inclusiveness of psychedelia with the swerves and jolts of the hip-hop era, to approach the ravenous eclecticism of Latin alternative rock." Yahoo! Music UK gave it five stars out of ten and called it "An incredibly accomplished record, a true testament to the band's imagination, intellectual curiosity and outrageous musical talent.... Unfortunately, 'Frances The Mute' is also awful." Under the Radar also gave it a score of five stars out of ten and said, "Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala are fantastically talented musicians and arrangers. But until they rein in their astronomical pretension, they'll always look more important than they truly are."

Track listing
The album was initially slated to have six songs, however the title track "Frances the Mute" (which was going to be the first song) was left out due to time constraints. The lyrics for the title track still appeared on the inside of the CD jewel case tray, while the song itself was released on "The Widow" single. The ending of "Frances the Mute" reprises the album's bookend, "Sarcophagi" filtered through radio static.

The finalized track listing had five tracks and was intended to be released as such on all formats. Because of disputes with Universal Records, "Cassandra Gemini" (listed as "Cassandra Geminni" on most versions of the album) was arbitrarily split into eight tracks on the CD version, taking up tracks 5 through 12, since the band would otherwise only be paid an EP's wages for a 5 track album. The splits also were not done according to the song's actual five movements (except the final one, "Sarcophagi"). On digital streaming platforms such as Spotify the eight "Cassandra Gemini" tracks appear with incorrect names which also do not match the movements (some of the track names are erroneously taken from the movements of the previous song "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore").

Original track listing
All lyrics written by Cedric Bixler-Zavala, all music composed by Omar Rodríguez-López.

Japanese bonus DVD
"Frances the Mute" is presented as audio only; the rest is video.

Best Buy exclusive
The Best Buy version of the album included a download card for one bonus track:

A second Best Buy promotion included a free separate CD of the song "Frances The Mute" itself along with the live acoustic "The Widow".

Vinyl pressing
On vinyl, "Cassandra Gemini" was split between two sides, in the middle of "Faminepulse". Each side of vinyl (save the final one) ends with a locked groove, repeating either a sound effect or a bar of music endlessly until the needle is lifted. The end of the first side and the start of the third side also contain the bookends of "L'Via L'Viaquez"; these small portions are indexed separately from both "The Widow" and "Miranda". This was more than likely done to allow the loops ending each side to function properly.

The Mars Volta

 * Omar Rodríguez-López – guitars, synthesizers, field recordings, production
 * Cedric Bixler-Zavala – vocals
 * Jon Theodore – drums
 * Isaiah "Ikey" Owens – keyboards
 * Juan Alderete de la Peña – bass (Credited as "John Peter Alderete" on the 2021 vinyl version)
 * Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez – percussion, keyboards

Additional musicians

 * Lenny Castro – additional percussion (all tracks)
 * Flea – trumpet on "The Widow" and "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore"
 * John Frusciante – first two guitar solos on "L'Via L'Viaquez"
 * Larry Harlow – piano on "L' Via L' Viaquez", treated clavinet on "Cassandra Gemini"
 * Adrián Terrazas-González – tenor sax, flute on "Cassandra Gemini"
 * Salvador (Chava) Hernandez – trumpet
 * Wayne Bergeron – trumpet
 * Randy Jones – tuba
 * Roger Manning – piano
 * Nicholas Lane – trombone
 * William Reichenbach – bass trombone
 * David Campbell – string, brass, piano, and percussion arrangements
 * Larry Corbett – cello
 * Suzie Katayama – cello
 * Violins:
 * Fernano Moreno
 * Erick Hernandez
 * Diego Casillas
 * Ernesto Molina
 * Joel Derouin
 * Roberto Cani
 * Mario De Leon
 * Peter Kent
 * Josefina Vergara
 * "The Coquí of Puerto Rico"

title: Frances the Mute


text:
Gait (human)

A gait is a manner of limb movements made during locomotion. Human gaits are the various ways in which humans can move, either naturally or as a result of specialized training. Human gait is defined as bipedal forward propulsion of the center of gravity of the human body, in which there are sinuous movements of different segments of the body with little energy spent. Various gaits are characterized by differences in limb movement patterns, overall velocity, forces, kinetic and potential energy cycles, and changes in contact with the ground.

Classification
Human gaits are classified in various ways. Each gait can be generally categorized as either natural (one that humans use instinctively) or trained (a non-instinctive gait learned via training). Examples of the latter include hand walking and specialized gaits used in martial arts. Gaits can also be categorized according to whether the person remains in continuous contact with the ground.

Foot strike
One variable in gait is foot strike – which part of the foot connects with the ground first.

 * forefoot strike – toe-heel: ball of foot lands first
 * mid-foot strike – heel and ball land simultaneously
 * heel strike – heel-toe: heel of foot lands, then plantar flexes to ball

Sprinting typically features a forefoot strike, but the heel does not usually contact the ground.

Some researchers classify foot strike by the initial center of pressure; this is mostly applicable to shod running (running while wearing shoes). In this classification:

 * a forefoot strike has the initial center of pressure in the front one-third of shoe length;
 * a mid-foot strike is in the middle third;
 * a rear-foot strike (heel strike) is in the rear third.

Foot strike varies between types of strides. It changes significantly and notably between walking and running, and between wearing shoes (shod) and not wearing shoes (barefoot).

Typically, barefoot walking features heel or mid-foot strikes, while barefoot running features mid-foot or forefoot strikes. Barefoot running rarely features heel strikes because the impact can be painful, the human heel pad not absorbing much of the force of impact. By contrast, 75% of runners wearing modern running shoes use heel strikes; running shoes are characterized by a padded sole, stiff soles and arch support, and slope down from a more-padded heel to a less-padded forefoot.

The cause of this change in gait in shoe running is unknown, but Lieberman noted that there is correlation between the foot-landing style and exposure to shoes. In some individuals the gait pattern is largely unchanged (the leg and foot positions are identical in barefoot and shoes), but the wedge shape of the padding moves the point of impact back from the forefoot to the mid-foot. In other cases it is believed that the padding of the heel softens the impact. This results in runners modifying their gait to move the point of contact further back in the foot.

A 2012 study involving Harvard University runners found that those who "habitually rear-foot strike had approximately twice the rate of repetitive stress injuries than individuals who habitually forefoot strike." This was the first study to investigate the link between foot strike and injury rates. However, earlier studies have shown that smaller collision forces were generated when running forefoot strike compared to rear-foot strike. This may protect the ankle joints and lower limbs from some of the impact-related injuries experienced by rear-foot strikers.

In a 2017 article called "Foot Strike Pattern in Children During Shod-Unshod Running", over 700 children aged 6 to 16 were observed using multiple video recording devices in order to study their foot strike patterns and neutral support. Rear foot strike was most common, in both shod and unshod running, and in both boys and girls. There was a significant reduction in rear foot strike from shod to unshod: boys shod - 83.95% RFS, boys unshod - 62.65% RFS; girls shod - 87.85% RFS, girls unshod - 62.70% RFS.

As-of 2021 there was a very low level of evidence to suggest a relationship between foot strike pattern and runner injury. Studies used retrospective designs, low sample size and potentially inaccurate self-reporting.

Control of gait by the nervous system
The central nervous system regulates gait in a highly ordered fashion through a combination of voluntary and automatic processes. The basic locomotor pattern is an automatic process that results from rhythmic reciprocal bursts of flexor and extensor activity. This rhythmic firing is the result of Central Pattern Generators (CPGs), which operate regardless of whether a motion is voluntary or not. CPGs do not require sensory input to be sustained. However, studies have identified that gait patterns in deafferented or immobilized animals are more simplistic than in neurologically intact animals. (Deafferentation and immobilization are experimental preparations of animals to study neural control. Deafferentation involves transecting the dorsal roots of the spinal cord that innervate the animal's limbs, which impedes transmission of sensory information while keeping motor innervation of muscles intact. In contrast, immobilization involves injecting an acetylcholine inhibitor, which impedes the transmission of motor signals while sensory input is unaffected.)

The complexity of gait arises from the need to adapt to expected and unexpected changes in the environment (e.g., changes in walking surface or obstacles). Visual, vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile sensory information provides important feedback related to gait and permits the adjustment of a person's posture or foot placement depending on situational requirements. When approaching an obstacle, visual information about the size and location of the object is used to adapt the stepping pattern. These adjustments involve change in the trajectory of leg movement and the associated postural adjustments required to maintain their balance. Vestibular information provides information about position and movement of the head as the person moves through their environment. Proprioceptors in the joints and muscles provide information about joint position and changes in muscle length. Skin receptors, referred to as exteroceptors, provide additional tactile information about stimuli that a limb encounters.

Gait in humans is difficult to study due to ethical concerns. Therefore, the majority of what is known about gait regulation in humans is ascertained from studies involving other animals or is demonstrated in humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging during the mental imagery of gait. These studies have provided the field with several important discoveries.

Locomotor centers
There are three specific centers within the brain that regulate gait:

 * Mesencephalic Locomotor Region (MLR)- Within the midbrain, the MLR receives input from the premotor cortex, the limbic system, cerebellum, hypothalamus, and other parts of the brainstem. These neurons connect to other neurons within the mesencephalic reticular formation which then descend to the via the ventrolateral funiculus to the spinal locomotor networks. Studies where the MLR of decerebrate cats have been stimulated either electrically or chemically have shown that increased intensity of stimulation has led to increased speed of stepping. Deep brain stimulation of the MLR in individuals with Parkinson's has also led to improvements in gait and posture.
 * Sub thalamic Locomotor Region (SLR)- The SLR is part of hypothalamus. It activates the spinal locomotor networks both directly and indirectly via the MLR.
 * Cerebellar Locomotor Region (CLR)- Similar to the SLR, the CLR activates the reticulo-spinal locomotor pathway via direct and indirect projections.

These centers are coordinated with the posture control systems within the cerebral hemispheres and the cerebellum. With each behavioral movement, the sensory systems responsible for posture control respond. These signals act on the cerebral cortex, the cerebellum, and the brainstem. Many of these pathways are currently under investigation, but some aspects of this control are fairly well understood.

Regulation by the cerebral cortex
Sensory input from multiple areas of the cerebral cortex, such as the visual cortex, vestibular cortex, and the primary sensory cortex, is required for skilled locomotor tasks. This information is integrated and transmitted to the supplementary motor area (SMA) and premotor area of the cerebral cortex where motor programs are created for intentional limb movement and anticipatory postural adjustments. For example, the motor cortex uses visual information to increase the precision of stepping movements. When approaching an obstacle, an individual will make adjustments to their stepping pattern based on visual input regarding the size and location of the obstacle. The primary motor cortex is responsible for the voluntary control for the contralateral leg while the SMA is linked to postural control.

Regulation by the cerebellum
The cerebellum plays a major role in motor coordination, regulating voluntary and involuntary processes. Regulation of gait by the cerebellum is referred to as “error/correction,” because the cerebellum responds to abnormalities in posture in order to coordinate proper movement. The cerebellum is thought to receive sensory information (e.g. visual, vestibular) about actual stepping patterns as they occur and compare them to the intended stepping pattern. When there is a discrepancy between these two signals, the cerebellum determines the appropriate correction and relays this information to the brainstem and motor cortex. Cerebellar output to the brainstem is thought to be specifically related to postural muscle tone while output to the motor cortex is related to cognitive and motor programming processes. The cerebellum sends signals to the cerebral cortex and the brain stem in response to sensory signals received from the spinal cord. Efferent signals from these regions go to the spinal cord where motor neurons are activated to regulate gait. This information is used to regulate balance during stepping and integrates information about limb movement in space, as well as head position and movement.

Regulation by the spinal cord
Spinal reflexes not only generate the rhythm of locomotion through CPGs but also ensure postural stability during gait. There are multiple pathways within the spinal cord which play a role in regulating gait, including the role of reciprocal inhibition and stretch reflexes to produce alternating stepping patterns. A stretch reflex occurs when a muscle is stretched and then contracts protectively while opposing muscle groups relax. An example of this during gait occurs when the weight-bearing leg nears the end of the stance phase. At this point the hip extends and the hip flexors are elongated. Muscle spindles within the hip flexors detect this stretch and trigger muscle contraction of the hip flexors required for the initiation of the swing phase of gait. However, Golgi tendon organs in the extensor muscles also send signals related to the amount of weight being supported through the stance leg to ensure that limb flexion does not occur until the leg is adequately unweighted and the majority of weight has been transferred to the opposite leg. Information from the spinal cord is transmitted for higher-order processing to supraspinal structures via spinothalamic, spinoreticular, and spinocerebellar tracts.

Natural gaits
The so-called natural gaits, in increasing order of speed, are the walk, jog, skip, run, and sprint. While other intermediate-speed gaits may occur naturally to some people, these five basic gaits occur naturally across almost all cultures. All natural gaits are designed to propel a person forward but can also be adapted for lateral movement. As natural gaits all have the same purpose; they are mostly distinguished by when the leg muscles are used during the gait cycle.

Walk
Walking involves having at least one foot in contact with the ground at all times. There is also a period of time within the gait cycle where both feet are simultaneously in contact with the ground. When a foot is lifted off the ground, that limb is in the "swing phase" of gait. When a foot is in contact with the ground, that limb is in the "stance phase" of gait. A mature walking pattern is characterized by the gait cycle being approximately 60% stance phase, 40% swing phase. Initiation of gait is a voluntary process that involves a preparatory postural adjustment where the center of mass is moved forward and laterally prior to unweighting one leg. The center of mass is only within a person's base of support when both feet are in contact with the ground (known as double limb stance). When only one foot is in contact with the ground (single limb stance), the center of mass is in front of that foot and moving towards the leg that is in the swing phase.

Skip
Skipping is a gait children display when they are about four to five years old. While a jog is similar to a horse's trot, the skip is closer to the bipedal equivalent of a horse's canter. In order to investigate the gait strategies likely to be favored at low gravity, a study by Ackermann and Van Den Bogert ran a series of predictive, computational simulations of gait using a physiological model of the musculoskeletal system, without assuming any particular type of gait. They used a computationally efficient optimization strategy, allowing for multiple simulations. Their results reveal skipping as more efficient and less fatiguing than walking or running and suggest the existence of a walk-skip rather than a walk-run transition at low gravity.

Gait patterns in children
Time and distance parameters of gait patterns are dependent on a child's age. Different age leads to different step speed and timing. Arm swinging slows when the speed of walking is increased. The height of a child plays a significant role in stride distance and speed. The taller the child is the longer the stride will be and the further the step will be. Gait patterns are velocity and age dependent. For example, as age increases so does velocity. Meanwhile, as age increases, the cadence (rate at which someone walks that is measured in steps per minute) of the gait pattern decreases. Physical attributes such as height, weight, and even head circumference can also play a role in gait patterns in children. Environmental and emotional status also play a role in with speed, velocity, and gait patterns that a child uses. Besides, children of different genders will have different rates of gait development. Significant developmental changes in gait parameters such as stride time, swing time, and cadence occur in a child's gait two months after the onset of independent walking, possibly due to an increase in postural control at this point of development.

By the age of three, most children have mastered the basic principles of walking, consistent with that of adults. Age is not the only deciding factor in gait development. Gender differences have been seen in young children as early as three years old. Girls tend to have a more stable gait than boys between the ages of 3–6 years old. Another difference includes the plantar contact area. Girls showed a smaller contact area in plantar loading patterns than boys in children with healthy feet.

Sex differences
There are sex differences in human gait patterns: females tend to walk with smaller step width and more pelvic movement. Gait analysis generally takes biological sex into consideration. Sex differences in human gait can be explored using a demonstration created by the BioMotion Laboratory at York University in Toronto.

Efficiency and evolutionary implications
Even though plantigrade locomotion usually distributes more weight toward the end of the limb than digitigrade locomotion, which increases energy expenditure in most systems, studies have shown that humans are economical walkers, but not economical runners, which is said to be consistent with evolutionary specialization for both economical walking and endurance running.

For the same distance, walking with a natural heel-first gait burns roughly 70% less energy than running. Differences of this magnitude are unusual in mammals. Kathyrn Knight of the Journal of Experimental Biology summarizes the findings of one study: "Landing heel first also allows us to transfer more energy from one step to the next to improve our efficiency, while placing the foot flat on the ground reduces the forces around the ankle (generated by the ground pushing against us), which our muscles have to counteract." According to David Carrier of the University of Utah, who helped perform the study, "Given the great distances hunter-gatherers travel, it is not surprising that humans are economical walkers."

Key determinants of gait
A normal gait pattern depends on a range of biomechanical features, controlled by the nervous system for increased energy conservation and balance. These biomechanical features of normal gait have been defined as key determinants of gait. It is therefore necessary for the refined neurological control and integration of these gait features for accuracy and precision with less energy expenditure. As a result, any abnormality of the neuro-musculo-skeletal system may lead to abnormality in gait and increased energy expenditure.

The six kinematics or determinants of gait, described below, were introduced by Saunders et al. in 1953, and have been widely embraced with various refinements. Recent studies have suggested that the first three determinants might contribute less to reducing the vertical displacement of the center of mass (COM).

These determinants of gait are known to ensure economical locomotion, by the reduction in vertical center of mass (COM) excursion leading to reduction in metabolic energy. It is therefore suggested that the precise control of these determinants of gait leads to increased energy conservation. These kinematic features of gait are integrated or coordinated in order to ensure a circular arc trajectory of the COM, as theory proposed as the 'compass gait (straight knee)'. The theory underlying the determinants run contrary to that of the 'inverted pendulum' theory with a static stance leg acting as a pendulum that prescribes an arc.   The six determinants of gaits and their effects on COM displacement and energy conservation are described below in chronological order:
 * 1) Pelvic rotation: This kinematic feature of gait operates under the theory of compass gait model. In this model, the pelvis rotates side to side during normal gait. In effect, it aids in the progression of the contralateral side through reduced hip flexion and extension. Its effect on the reduction of metabolic energy and the increased energy conservation is through the reduction of vertical COM displacement. This notion of reduction of metabolic cost may be disputed by a study done by Gard and Childress (1997), who stated that there may be minimal effect of pelvic rotation on vertical COM displacement. Furthermore, other studies have found pelvic rotation to have little effect on the smoothing of COM trajectory. Pelvic rotation has been shown to account for about 12% reduction in the total COM vertical displacement.
 * 2) Pelvic tilt/Obliquity: Normal gait results in tilting of the swing phase side, in relation to the control by the stance side hip abductors. As a consequence, there is the neutralization of raising of COM during the transition from hip flexion to extension. Its effect on the reduction of metabolic energy and the increased energy conservation is via the reduction of vertical COM trajectory or peak form compass gait model. Pelvic obliquity's effects on reduction of vertical displacement of COM has been examined and been shown to only reduce vertical displacement of COM by at most, only 2–4 mm.
 * 3) Knee flexion at stance phase: The knee usually supports the body weight in flexed position during walking. The knee is usually fully extended at heel strike and then begins to flex (average magnitude of 15 degrees) when foot is completely flat on the ground. The effects of the stance-phase knee flexion is to lower the apex of vertical trajectory of the COM via shortening of the leg resulting in some energy conservation. But recent studies testing this third determinant of gait have reported varied results. It was found out that stance-phase knee flexion did not contribute to the reduction in vertical trajectory of COM. Furthermore, Gard and Childress (1997) indicated that maximum COM is reached at mid-stance when knee is slightly flexed, depicting minor reduction of the maximum height of the COM by a few millimeters.
 * 4) Foot and ankle motions: Saunders et al. showed relationship between angular displacement and motions of foot, ankle and knee. This results in two intersecting arcs of rotation at the foot during stance phase at heel contact and heel rise. At heel contact the COM reaches its lowest point of downward displacement when the foot is dorsiflexed, and the knee joint fully extended in order for the extremity to be at its maximum length. The ankle rockers at heel strike and mid-stance leads to decrease COM displacement through the shortening of the leg. Studies by Kerrigan et al. (2001) and Gard & Childress (1997) have showed the major role played by heel rise in reducing the COM vertical displacement.
 * 5) Knee motion: The motion of the knee is related to those of the ankle and foot motions and results in the reduction of COM vertical displacement. Therefore, an immobile knee or ankle could lead to increases in COM displacement and energy cost.
 * 6) Lateral pelvic displacement: In this key gait feature, the displacement of the COM is realized by the lateral shift of the pelvis or by relative adduction of the hip. Correction of disproportionate lateral displacement of the pelvis is mediated by the effect of tibiofemoral angle, and relative adduction of the hip, which results in reduction in vertical COM displacement. It is clear that these kinematic features play a critical role in ensuring efficiency in normal gait. But there may be the need for further extensive testing or validation of each of the key determinants of gait.

Abnormal gaits
Abnormal gait is a result of one or more of these tracts being disturbed. This can happen developmentally or as the result of neurodegeneration. The most prominent example of gait irregularities due to developmental problems comes from studies of children on the autism spectrum. They have decreased muscle coordination, thus resulting in abnormalities in gait. Some of this is associated with decreased muscle tone, also known as hypotonia, which is also common in ASD. The most prominent example of abnormal gait as a result of neurodegeneration is Parkinson's.

Although these are the best understood examples of abnormal gait, there are other phenomena that are described in the medical field.

 * Antalgic gait: limping caused by pain that appears or worsens when bearing weight on one limb, due to injury, disease, or other painful conditions
 * Charlie Chaplin gait: occurs in tibial torsion.
 * Circumduction gait: occurs in hemiplegia
 * Waddling gait: occurs in bilateral congenital hip dislocation
 * High stepping gait: occurs in foot drop
 * Scissor gait: occurs in cerebral palsy
 * Stiff hip gait: occurs in ankylosis of the hip
 * Trendelenburg gait: occurs in unstable hip due to congenital dislocation of hip, gluteus medius muscle weakness

Abnormal gait can also be a result of a stroke. However, by using treadmill therapy to activate the cerebellum, abnormalities in gait can be improved.

Literary references
The author of the Deuterocanonical Book of Sirach observes that "a man's attire, and excessive laughter, and gait, shew what he is". Bibilical writer J. J. Collins suggests that this verse quotes a traditional maxim.

title: Gait (human)


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Talk:Gait (human)

Untitled
9/1/21 Would people mind if I made a crack at updating this page significantly? It is all over the place and somewhat unreadable. For example this article starts off with 'foot strike' during sprinting and running, then transitions into control of gait, and only then finally actually classifies the main human gaits (e.g. walking, running). I can't imagine that is what people actually want when looking at this page. I think it would be much better by just outlining the main actual information for these common, normal gaits. It seems like it should start with natural gaits and then get more involved from there rather than starting with some of the more random sub-ideas. It also seems like it should be broken up into several smaller pages, such as 'neuro control of gait', which is almost enough for its own page as written. Source- Have masters in biomechanics studying gait, now a medical doctor working in gait rehabilitation. Richgellis (talk) 19:39, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

So, um. If moonwalking gets its own paragraph, don't okuri-ashi and ayumi-ashi deserve at least a mention? Respectively, they are: Ayumi-ashi resembles a normal walk, but the toes slide on the ground instead of leaving it, and the body is pushed forward with the back foot. Okuri-ashi, in addition to those, maintains one foot in front of the other, so that one always pushes the body and the other always stabilizes it. They are taught in various schools of Japanese swordsmanship, and possibly other martial arts as well. -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.207.18.53 (talk) 11:48, 3 March 2010 (UTC) I copyied the discussion page directly over, considering it was entirely about my addenda. I also blanked out the discussion page for gait. --

Just some elaborations on my addenda:
 * Hop is a single-beat gait, where both legs take-off and land together. It's only practical use it to prevent potential differences when around downed high-voltage wires, although run proprely should provide the same safety. Hop also applies to when only a single foot is used. This gait is useful if one of the legs can no longer be used for locomotion.
 * Skip is a 3-beat gait where the beat of one foot is repeated (L,L,R, or R,R,L.) It is typically considered an expression of giddiness, but it can be used in the place of run when one limb is injured but can still be used.
 * I think of it as more like a 6-beat gait, where each foot is repeated in a "swing" rhythm (L,-,L,R,-,R). My daughter uses this to some effect since it enables her to match my stride when we're moving swiftly. --Phil | Talk 10:21, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)
 * Hobble is a 2-beat gait where one foot travels significantly less than the other. This is typically used instead of a walk to favour a non-injured limb.
 * Crawl is a 4-beat gait of the hands and knees, similar to a horse's walk.
 * Bear Crawl is similar to crawl except that it uses the hands and feet instead of hands and knees.
 * Side-Step is a 2-beat gait where one foot travels to the side and then has the other foot is brought to meet it.
 * Leopard Crawl uses the elbows or forearms instead of hands and is a 2-beat gait that minimizes silouette. Where crawl keeps the body an arm's length from the ground, leopard crawl has the body near and often touching the ground.
 * Tiger Crawl uses hands and both the knees and feet (depending upon the situation.) It is similar to a horse's trot.
 * Knee Walk is a 2-beat gait that starts with one foot and the other knee on the ground. The kneeling foot is brought forward and the standing foot rotates down to a kneel. This is used to keep the centre-of-mass as close to the ground as possible, (by force or volition,) while still being able to fight and move.
 * March, Carry, Ghost Walk, Speed Walk, Flow and Backpedal are considered part of the walk gait, although they all use different geometries for locomotion.
 * Jog and Sprint are considered part of the run gait, although, like the previous, both offer different geometries.
 * Crawl refers to any gait that uses 4-limbs instead of the usual 2, and it is also a specific type of gait.
 * Hand walking, while it can be considered a sepperate gaits uses the movements of the other bipedals gaits, (Hand Walking, Hand Running, Hand Side-Step, etc.)

Lots of info
It looks like you have enough here to create a whole new article on the topic of human gaits. I recommend that they be put into an article dedicated to the specific topic (such as gait (human), perhaps) and out of this disambiguation page (or its discussion page). Discussion pages furthermore probably shouldn't be references for live content. KeithTyler 05:29, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)

This page needs cleanup
It needs copy-editing and wikifying. I have done some of this, but there are proably still errors. Also, no sources have been quoted. All of this information needs to be verifyable.

Respecfully dispute teh uselessness of Bear Walk.
I have frequently seen elderly people in physiotherapy and rehabilitation asked to walk the Bear Walk. I would surmise, without any medical expertise whatsoever, that this is to improve balance, and particularly control of the point of contact the supporting foot has on the terrain. (Analogously, perhaps, to the reason why Sumo wrestlers do an exaggerated Bear Walk in place. Although that may be pure ceremony; I suppose.) -- Cimon avaro; on a pogostick. 01:59, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Order in terms of speed?
How are all these paces movement rates in rationship to each other? I know that these 8 are in order from slowest to fastest: tiptoe, crawl, hop, walk, skip, jog, dash, run. For those of you that don't know tiptoe is when move on your top of your toes by a toe length at a time while dash is moving along by sliding your feet and using your upper body weight to gain extra speed.

206.251.4.254 invinible

Dutch skipping video
That's got to be a joke, right? I'm pretty sure the "traffic cop" is just one of the two skipping guys wearing a windbreaker, sunglasses and a cop hat. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.76.226.135 (talk) 05:31, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah. It seems to be 100% a joke. The accents are ridiculous, and most of the audio is related only vaguely to the video. -Nathan M. Holden

Goose-step?
Where is the mention of goose-stepping? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.75.47.88 (talk) 19:01, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

And what about skootching?
Much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE the phrase "the fancy skun", it seems to exist only on this page and the various pages that have swiped its text. Somebody please prove me wrong and supply a credible example of someone skunning. I got burned bad on that whole "shpants/shankles" thing. Asat (talk) 09:40, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Quick!
I couldn't help but notice the animation on this page is nominated for deletion. It is the walking robot! Go and  for the image and deletion notice and contest the deletion.

Mod MMG (User Page) Reply on my talkpage. Do NOT click this link 22:04, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Mod MMG (User Page) Reply on my talkpage. Do NOT click this link 09:00, 10 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The discussion has been closed and the result was KEEP. The file is now safe again.

Mod MMG (User Page) Reply on my talkpage. Do NOT click this link 22:18, 10 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Some other admin decided to change the outcome, the file has now been deleted and a new picture placed on the page.

mincing, swaggering etc
mincing, swaggering etc are missing as listed in one of desmond morrises books.--Penbat (talk) 13:22, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Edit by user:Mokele
I totally disagree. Desmond Morris, in one of his books (Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behaviour if i remember rightly), gives an excellent list of about 15 common walking gait styles (including marching, swaggering and mincing) that apply to the average person rather than uncommon eccentric types of walking listed here such as moonwalking or knee-walking. I think there is a better case for chucking out some of the excentric gaits listed here and concentrating on Morris's gait styles which are more typical of an average person. And you can hardly say that swaggering in the sense of walking is not notable where here it is given as the first meaning of the word "swagger". http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swagger --Penbat (talk) 15:59, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

 * "Presidential swaggering" is swaggering adopted by some US presidents.. You can't be serious. --Fama Clamosa (talk) 17:15, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

 * It's complete horseshit. Fama, thanks for deleting that lot, I should have purged the article a long time ago. Mokele (talk) 03:27, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Human locomotion
Much of the stuff in here is to do with human locomotion such as side stepping. We already have animal locomotion. We should have a "human locomotion" article so much of the crap here can be moved there so this article just covers gaits.--Penbat (talk) 20:33, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

 * Is that to add more unreferenced crap or just to add more void sub-sections? --Fama Clamosa (talk) 21:51, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Change of terms
Move to change the "strike" patterns to "landing" patterns. Better fits the running... we land, if we strike - will not be doing it for long time as it hurts.

Gender differences
Reference 10 is highly questionable - the study only involved 16 subjects in one specific geographic location; I think we all know people are WAY to varied and complex to draw general conclusions from such a thing. Also, the evaluation by the experts seems really really fuzzy and not scientific (i.e., not repeatable). Furthermore, there were only two people that gave this subjective evaluation of the 16 subjects. I don't think the journalist of the article should even have reported on this, as it doesn't really tell us anything conclusively at all, but possibly suggests further research.

I think it should be removed as a reference from this article. This is one of the main things that gives Wikipedia the negative side of its reputation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eboomer (talk • contribs) 00:09, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

Walk
Is there really a description of how a human should go about walking? I mean, really? Not complaining about the content, it is clearly relevant, but isn't it a bit redundant, most people learn how to walk well before they can read these instructions.

m8e39 11:51, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

Understanding walking gait or any locomotion/movement task is important for determining deviations. The intent of studying walking is not to tell people how to walk, but rather understand the complex multijoint coordination strategy that is walking. Deviations from what is typically seen can suggest risks for injury, improve performance, and even inform technological advances for robotics. It can be important for individuals who need to re-learn how to walk after a traumatic injury and even elderly individuals who struggle to balance while walking. There are so many applications that could not be done without this basic understanding of human walking gait.

129.120.103.205 (talk) 17:58, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

RM notice
The discussion at Talk:Gait (dog) may affect this article's title. — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  13:09, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Abnormal gait patterns
Could someone please expand on the abnormal gait patterns? Specifically, it would be nice to explain what each gait pattern looks like. It's a great start to have a description of the situations each gait pattern is most commonly found in, but actually giving a description of what each looks like would be helpful. NJ (talk) 00:37, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

Merge proposal
Proposing a merge to Key determinants of gait to here on the grounds that it is all about human gait (rather than gait in general) and might add something to the mechanics. It's also a long-standing orphan. Klbrain (talk) 18:02, 18 April 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅ Klbrain (talk) 20:25, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Gait (human)


text:
Chrysler Imperial Parade Phaeton

Three Chrysler Imperial Parade Phaetons were produced in 1952 by Chrysler as ceremonial vehicles. They were styled by Virgil Exner and were in many ways a preview of the new "100 Million Dollar" styling that would debut in 1955 on the newly separate Imperial marque and on other full-size Chrysler Corporation Cars.

Details
The cars were based on stretched (to 147.5 in) 1952 Imperial Crown Limousine chassis and carried completely custom bodywork with the exception of the 1951 Imperial grille, bumpers and front and rear trim. Almost uniquely for a postwar car, they were dual-cowl phaetons, with separate front and rear passenger compartments, each with its own windshield. There were no side windows, and a lightweight Dacron convertible top covered only the rear compartment during inclement weather, and was manually retracted beneath the rear-hinged deck lid when not in use. The rear doors were suicide doors and had no exterior handles. In 1940, Chrysler built six limited production cars with the same approach to uniqueness called the Chrysler Newport Phaeton also using an Imperial chassis.

Under the custom bodywork, the mechanicals were standard top-of-the-line Chrysler for the period, with a 331 cubic inch (5.42 L) FirePower V8 engine, torque converter transmission, and power steering.

Three cars were built. One was for New York City, the second for Los Angeles, and the third was intended to be a gift to the White House, but the gift was refused as against the then rules for receiving gifts. Instead, the third car was nominally based in Detroit and was used around the country. The cars continued to be owned and serviced by the Chrysler Corporation.

After three years of service, the cars were brought back to the factory in 1955 to be updated to 1956 Imperial appearance, in which form they continue to exist to the present day. The front and rear, including grilles, bumpers and trim, were replaced. Internally, the engines were updated with 4-barrel carburetors, and fully automatic Powerflite transmissions were installed. The cars were all repainted. After the rebuild, the cars were donated to the respective cities.

A revival was introduced by Chrysler as a concept car, called the Chrysler Phaeton in 1997.

New York car
The New York car was originally painted in black with a grey interior. In the 1955 rebuild, it was repainted off-white with a red interior. It must have been repainted in black again before the August 11, 1969 parade with the Apollo 11 astronauts as evidenced in the photo. The car remains in the possession of the City of New York, and was rebuilt in the early 1980s. At this time, it was repainted in black again, but retained the red interior.

The Phaeton is still occasionally used for official functions, parades and ceremonies. It has carried many dignitaries, celebrities, and notables over the years.

Los Angeles car
The Los Angeles car was painted cream with a rose interior, and was first used in the 1953 Tournament of Roses Parade. It was subsequently used up and down the West Coast. In its 1955 rebuild, it was repainted metallic silver-blue with an off-white interior. It can be seen in that form in the 1959 film of the Broadway musical Li'l Abner, transporting the "General Bullmoose" character. It was later restored and repainted white, retaining its off-white interior. The interior was more recently replaced in red leather. It is still in the possession of the City of Los Angeles and takes part in official parades and celebrations. Its use in other Hollywood films includes 1953’s How to Marry a Millionaire transporting Lauren Bacall, Victor Mature's limousine in 1959’s The Big Circus, the 1960 Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella, and 1962’s Sweet Bird of Youth. A more recent appearance was in the 1987 Charles Bronson film Assassination.

Detroit car
The Detroit car was originally painted in a metallic green with a natural pigskin interior, and was used in events around the country. It was repainted in desert sand with a red interior in its 1955 rebuild. This Phaeton was sold and ended up in private hands, becoming part of Paul Stern's collection for some time before being sold to the Imperial Palace collection in Las Vegas, Nevada where it was displayed for many years. In 2001, with the mass of the Imperial Palace collection being broken up, it was sold to Robert Petersen and is now on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The car is currently in white with a red interior.

title: Chrysler Imperial Parade Phaeton


text:
Diarmait Mac Murchada

Diarmait Mac Murchada (Modern Irish: Diarmaid Mac Murchadha; anglicised as Dermot MacMurrough or Dermot MacMurphy) (c. 1110 – c. 1 May 1171), was King of Leinster in Ireland from 1127 to 1171. In 1167, he was deposed by the High King of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair. To recover his kingdom, Mac Murchada solicited help from King Henry II of England. His issue unresolved, he gained the military support of the Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (otherwise known as "Strongbow"), thus initiating the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.

In exchange for his aid, Mac Murchada promised Strongbow the hand in marriage of his daughter Aoife and the right to succeed to the Kingship of Leinster. Henry II then mounted a larger second invasion in 1171 to ensure his control over Strongbow, resulting in the Norman Lordship of Ireland. Mac Murchada was later known as Diarmait na nGall (Irish for "Diarmait of the Foreigners"). He was seen in Irish history as the king that invited the first-ever wave of Anglo-Norman settlers, who were planted by the Norman conquest. The invasion had a great deal of impact on Irish Christianity, increasing the de facto ability of the Holy See to regulate Christianity in Ireland.

Early life and family
Diarmait was born around 1110, a son of Donnchadh mac Murchada, King of Leinster and Dublin. His father's paternal grandmother, Derbforgaill, was a daughter of Donnchad, King of Munster and thus a granddaughter of Brian Boru. In 1115 his father attacked Domnall Gerrlámhach, King of Dublin, but died in the ensuing battle. The citizens of Dublin buried him with the carcass of a dog, considered to be a huge insult.

He had two wives (as allowed under the Brehon laws), the first of whom, Sadhbh Ní Faeláin, was mother of a daughter named Órlaith who married Domnall Mór, King of Munster. His second wife, Mór ingen Muirchertaig, was mother of Aoife / Eva of Leinster and his youngest son Conchobar Mac Murchada. He also had two other sons, Domhnall Caomhánach mac Murchada and Énna Cennselach mac Murchada (blinded 1169). Diarmait is buried in the Cathedral graveyard of Ferns village.

King of Leinster
After the death of his older brother, Énna Mac Murchada, Diarmait unexpectedly became King of Leinster. This was opposed by the then High King of Ireland, Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair (Turlough O'Conor) who feared (rightly) that Mac Murchada would become a rival. Toirdelbach sent one of his allied kings, Tigernán Ua Ruairc (Tiernan O'Rourke) to conquer Leinster and oust the young Mac Murchada. Ua Ruairc went on a brutal campaign slaughtering the livestock of Leinster and thereby trying to starve the province's residents. Mac Murchada was ousted from his throne, but was able to regain it with the help of the Leinster clans in 1132. Afterwards followed two decades of uneasy peace between Ua Conchobair and Diarmait. In 1152 he even assisted the High King to raid the land of Ua Ruairc who had by then become a renegade.

Mac Murchada also is said to have abducted Ua Ruairc's wife Derbforgaill (English: Dervorgilla) along with all her furniture and goods, with the aid of Derbforgaill's brother, a future pretender to the kingship of Meath. Other sources say that Derbforgaill was not an unwilling prisoner and that she remained in Ferns with Mac Murchada in comfort for a number of years. Her advanced age indicates that she may have been a refugee or a hostage; in any case, she was under his protection. Whatever the reality, the "abduction" was given as a further reason or excuse for enmity between the two kings.

Church builder
As king of Leinster, in the years 1140–70 Diarmait commissioned the Irish Romanesque buildings of:
 * Baltinglass Abbey
 * St Saviour's Priory
 * Ferns Abbey
 * Killeshin Church

He sponsored convents (nunneries) at Dublin (St Mary's, 1146), and around 1151 two more at Aghade, County Carlow and at Kilculliheen near Waterford city. The abbey of St. Mary Del Hogge in Dublin was named after the Hoggen Green or Haugr meaning gravesite in old Norse. This site later became 'College Green' after the Reformation and the establishment of Trinity College. It's said that in the late 1600s that Viking graves were still to be seen at Hoggen Green.

He also sponsored the successful career of churchman St Lawrence O'Toole (Lorcán Ua Tuathail). He married O'Toole's half-sister Mor in 1153 and presided at the synod of Clane in 1161 when O'Toole was installed as archbishop of Dublin.

Exile and return
In 1166, Ireland's High King and Mac Murchada's main ally Muirchertach Ua Lochlainn had fallen, and a large coalition led by Tigernán Ua Ruairc (Mac Murchada's arch enemy) marched on Leinster. The new High King Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair deposed Mac Murchada from the throne of Leinster. Mac Murchada fled to Wales and from there to England and France seeking the support of Henry II of England in the recruitment of soldiers to reclaim his kingship. Henry authorised Diarmait to seek help from the soldiers and mercenaries in his kingdom. Those who agreed to help included Richard de Clare and half-brothers Robert FitzStephen and Maurice FitzGerald. Robert was accompanied by his half-nephew Robert de Barry. Strongbow was offered Diarmait's daughter Aoife in marriage and promised the kingship of Leinster on Diarmait's death. Robert and Maurice were promised lands in Wexford and elsewhere for their services.

On returning to Wales, Robert FitzStephen helped him organise a mercenary army of English and Welsh soldiers. Landing at Bannow Bay, they laid siege to Wexford which fell in May 1169. After a period of inactivity, they went on to raid the Kingdom of Ossory. They then launched raids in the territories of the Uí Tuathail, the Uí Broin, and Uí Conchobhair Failghe. Mac Murchada gambled that King Ruaidrí would not hurt the Leinster hostages which he had, which included Mac Murchada's son, Conchobar Mac Murchada. Although he had been distracted by disturbances elsewhere in the kingdom, King Ruaidrí could no longer ignore this powerful force.

He marched his forces into Leinster and, with the mediation of the Church, the commanders of the two armies began negotiations at Ferns, Diarmait's political base. An agreement was reached, whereby Diarmait was allowed to remain King of Leinster with Diarmait for his part recognising Ua Conchobair as High King. Some historians maintain that the treaty with Ua Conchobair included a secret agreement whereby Diarmait undertook to bring in no more foreign mercenaries and to send away Robert FitzStephen and his men as soon as Leinster was subdued. It's possible that Mac Murchada's hand may have been forced by the arrival at Wexford in May 1170 of Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Llanstephan and his force of 10 knights, thirty men-at-arms and a hundred archers and foot soldiers. Mac Murchada and FitzGerald marched on the Ostman Norse–Gaelic city of Dublin which surrendered. Within a short time, all Leinster was again in Mac Murchada's control. Emboldened by these victories, he sent Robert FitzStephen to the assistance of his son-in-law, Domnall Mór Ua Briain, the King of Thomond.

In the opinion of some historians, Mac Murchada's plans may have been limited to the recovery of his throne; only later when the superiority of the mercenary arms had overawed the Gaelic nobility of Ireland did he consider tilting at the high kingship itself. According to the contemporary, Gerald of Wales, he was advised by Robert FitzStephen and Maurice FitzGerald to write to Strongbow requesting assistance. Strongbow sent an advance party under Raymond le Gros, arriving himself in 1170 at the Ostman Norse–Gaelic settlement of Waterford. Following the fall of Waterford, the promised marriage of Aoife and Strongbow took place. As a result, Richard FitzGilbert, count of Strigoil, became lord of Leinster. The marriage was imagined and painted in the Romantic style in 1854 by Daniel Maclise.

Mac Murchada was devastated after the death of his youngest son, Conchobar, retreated to Ferns and died a few months later.

Later reputation
The scholar Áed Ua Crimthainn was probably Diarmait's court historian. In his Book of Leinster, Áed seems to be the first to set out the concept of the rí Érenn co fressabra, the "king of Ireland with opposition", later more widely adopted. This described Diarmait's ambitions and the achievements of his great-grandfather Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó.

In Irish history books written after 1800, Diarmait Mac Murchada was often seen as a traitor, but his intention was not to aid an English invasion of Ireland, but rather to use Henry's assistance to become the High King of Ireland himself. The imperialism of the English, and later British, empire must not be placed anachronistically on the events of 1166. The adventurers who answered Diarmait's call for help were reacting to the opportunity for land and wealth. Henry II did not wish to invade Ireland, he was forced to react to earl Richard's aggrandisement. The counts of Strigoil had been supporters of King Stephen, and Henry II did not forget easily.

Gerald of Wales, a Cambro-English cleric who visited Ireland in 1185 and whose uncles and cousins were prominent soldiers in the army of Strongbow, repeated their opinions of Mac Murchada:

Dermot was a man tall of stature and stout of frame; a soldier whose heart was in the fray, and held valiant among his own nation. From often shouting his battle-cry his voice had become hoarse. A man who liked better to be feared by all than loved by any. One who would oppress his greater vassals, while he raised to high station men of lowly birth. A tyrant to his own subjects, he was hated by strangers; his hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him.

Death and descendants
After Strongbow's successful invasion, Henry II mounted a second and larger invasion in 1171 to ensure his control over his subjects, which succeeded. He then accepted the submission of the Irish kings in Dublin in November 1171. He also ensured that his moral claim to Ireland, granted by the supposed 1155 papal bull Laudabiliter, was reconfirmed in 1172 by Pope Alexander III, and also by a synod of all the Irish bishops at the Synod of Cashel. He added "Lord of Ireland" to his many other titles. Before he could consolidate his new Lordship he had to go to France to deal with his sons' rebellion in 1173.

Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair was soon ousted, first as King of Ireland and eventually as King of Connacht. The Lordship directly controlled a small territory in Ireland surrounding the cities of Dublin and Waterford, while the rest of Ireland was divided between English lords and court curiales. The 1175 Treaty of Windsor, brokered by St Lawrence O'Toole with Henry II, formalised the submission of the Gaelic clans that remained in local control, like the Uí Conchobair who retained Connacht and the Uí Néill who retained most of Ulster.

Diarmait's male-line descendants included Art Óg mac Murchadha Caomhánach (d. 1417), who revived the kingship of Leinster, and Cahir mac Art Kavanagh (died 1554) who continued to rule parts of Leinster independently of the English until the Tudor conquest of Ireland in the 16th century. The last proclaimed King of Leinster, Domhnall Spáinneach Mac Murchadha Caomhánach, died in 1632. Later senior descendants who retained the position among the Irish upper-classes included Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagh (1831–1889) and his son, Walter MacMurrough Kavanagh 1856–1922). Dermot McMorrough Kavanagh (d. 1958) was recognised as Chief of the Name of Clann Caomhánach (Kavanagh) in his lifetime.

Diarmait died about 1 May 1171 and was buried in Ferns Cathedral, where his grave can be seen in the outside graveyard.

Theatrical representations
In the play The Dreaming of the Bones by W. B. Yeats, the ghosts of Dermot and Derbforgaill rescue an Irish rebel during the Easter Week rebellion, and reveal that they are bound until an Irishman can forgive them for bringing the Normans to Ireland.

Sources for genealogy

 * Byrne, Francis J. (1973) Irish Kings and High-Kings. London: Batsford (Rev. ed. Dublin: Four Courts, 1999) "Uí Cheinnselaig Kings of Laigin", p. 290
 * O'Byrne, Emmett (2003) War, Politics and the Irish of Leinster Dublin: Four Courts; "The MacMurrough-Kavanagh kings of Leinster; Outline Genealogies I, Ia, Ib", pages 247–249.
 * O'Hart, John (1892) Irish Pedigrees; 5th ed. 2 vols. Dublin: James Duffy, pp. 157, 555. (1st ed.: 1878; several later eds.)

title: Diarmait Mac Murchada


text: User talk:166.122.10.199

title: User talk:166.122.10.199


text:
Linoleic acid

Linoleic acid (LA) is an organic compound with the formula HOOC(CH2)7CH\dCHCH2CH\dCH(CH2)4CH3. Both alkene groups (\sCH\dCH\s) are cis. It is a fatty acid sometimes denoted 18:2 (n-6) or 18:2 cis-9,12. A linoleate is a salt or ester of this acid.

Linoleic acid is a polyunsaturated, omega-6 fatty acid. It is a colorless liquid that is virtually insoluble in water but soluble in many organic solvents. It typically occurs in nature as a triglyceride (ester of glycerin) rather than as a free fatty acid. It is one of two essential fatty acids for humans, who must obtain it through their diet, and the most essential, because the body uses it as a base to make the others.

The word "linoleic" derives, reflecting the fact that it was first isolated from linseed oil.

History
In 1844, F. Sacc, working at the laboratory of Justus von Liebig, isolated linoleic acid from linseed oil. In 1886, K. Peters determined the existence of two double bonds. Its essential role in human diet was discovered by G. O. Burr and others in 1930. Its chemical structure was determined by T.P. Hilditch and others in 1939, and it was synthesized by R. A. Raphael and F. Sondheimer in 1950.

In physiology
The consumption of linoleic acid is vital to proper health, as it is an essential fatty acid.

Metabolism and eicosanoids
Linoleic acid (LA: ; 18:2, ω-6) is a precursor to arachidonic acid (AA: ; 20:4, ω-6) with elongation and unsaturation. AA is the precursor to some prostaglandins, leukotrienes (LTA, LTB, LTC), thromboxane (TXA) and the N-acylethanolamine (NAE) arachidonoylethanolamine (AEA: ; 20:4, ω-6), and other endocannabinoids and eicosanoids.

The metabolism of LA to AA begins with the conversion of LA into gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), effected by Δ6-desaturase. GLA is converted to dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA), the immediate precursor to AA.

LA is also converted by various lipoxygenases, cyclooxygenases, cytochrome P450 enzymes (the CYP monooxygenases), and non-enzymatic autoxidation mechanisms to mono-hydroxyl products viz., 13-Hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid, and 9-Hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid; these two hydroxy metabolites are enzymatically oxidized to their keto metabolites, 13-oxo-octadecadienoic acid and 9-oxo-octadecdienoic acid. Certain cytochrome P450 enzymes, the CYP epoxygenases, catalyze oxidation of LA to epoxide products viz., its 12,13-epoxide, vernolic acid, and its 9,10-epoxide, coronaric acid. These linoleic acid products are implicated in human physiology and pathology.

Hydroperoxides derived from the metabolism of anandamide (AEA: ; 20:4,n-6), or its linoleoyl analogues, are by a lipoxygenase action found to be competitive inhibitors of brain and immune cell FAAH, the enzyme that breaks down AEA and other endocannabinoids, and the compound linoleoyl-ethanol-amide (18:2,n-6), an N-acylethanolamine, - the ethanolamide of linoleic acid (LA: ; 18:2, n-6) and its metabolized incorporated ethanolamine (MEA: ), is the first natural inhibitor of FAAH, discovered.

Uses and reactions
Linoleic acid is a component of quick-drying oils, which are useful in oil paints and varnishes. These applications exploit the lability of the doubly allylic C\sH groups (\sCH\dCH\sCH2\sCH\dCH\s) toward oxygen in air (autoxidation). Addition of oxygen leads to crosslinking and formation of a stable film.

Reduction of the carboxylic acid group of linoleic acid yields linoleyl alcohol.

Linoleic acid is a surfactant with a critical micelle concentration of 1.5 x 10−4 M @ pH 7.5.

Linoleic acid has become increasingly popular in the beauty products industry because of its beneficial properties on the skin. Research points to linoleic acid's anti-inflammatory, acne reductive, skin-lightening and moisture retentive properties when applied topically on the skin.

Linoleic acid is also used in some bar of soap products.

Dietary sources
It is abundant in safflower, and corn oil, and comprises over half their composition by weight. It is present in medium quantities in soybean oils, sesame, and almonds.

Other occurrences
Cockroaches release oleic and linoleic acid upon death, which discourages other roaches from entering the area. This is similar to the mechanism found in ants and bees, which release oleic acid upon death.

Health effects
Consumption of linoleic acid has been associated with lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and premature death. There is high-quality evidence that increased intake of linoleic acid decreases total blood cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein.

The American Heart Association advises people to replace saturated fat with linoleic acid to reduce CVD risk.

title: Linoleic acid


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Steven Sills

See history.