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Bryce Dallas Howard

Bryce Dallas Howard (born March 2, 1981) is an American actress and director. Howard is the first daughter of filmmaker Ron Howard and writer Cheryl Howard. She attended the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, left in 2002 to take roles on Broadway but graduated in 2020. While portraying Rosalind in a 2003 production of As You Like It, Howard caught the attention of director M. Night Shyamalan, who cast her as a blind girl in the thriller The Village (2004). She later secured the starring role of a naiad in Shyamalan's fantasy film Lady in the Water (2006).

Howard's performance in Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It (2006) earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination and she subsequently appeared as Gwen Stacy in Sam Raimi's superhero film Spider-Man 3 (2007). She went on to appear as Kate Connor in the action film Terminator Salvation (2009) and as Victoria in the fantasy film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010). These along with her roles as a "fair-weather" girlfriend in the comedy-drama 50/50 (2011) and as a racist socialite in the period-drama The Help (2011) brought her increased recognition.

Howard emerged a star with her role as Claire Dearing in the top-grossing Jurassic World trilogy (2015–2022). She also portrayed a forest ranger in the adventure film Pete's Dragon (2016); Sheila Dwight, Elton John's mother, in the biopic Rocketman (2019); and voiced Yaddle in an episode of Tales of the Jedi (2022).

Howard directed the documentary Dads (2019), and episodes of the Disney+ space western series The Mandalorian (2019–present) and The Book of Boba Fett (2022). Her love of storytelling has led her to create Nine Muses Entertainment and the Nine Muses Lab as part of the faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is married to actor Seth Gabel, with whom she has two children.

Early life and education
Bryce Dallas Howard was born March 2, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, to writer Cheryl Howard (née Alley) and actor-director Ron Howard. She has two younger sisters; twins Jocelyn and Paige, and a younger brother named Reed. Through her father, Bryce is a granddaughter of actors Rance Howard and Jean Speegle Howard, as well as a niece of actor Clint Howard. Her godfather is actor Henry Winkler, who co-starred with her father in the 1970s–1980s American comedy television series Happy Days.

Howard was raised in Westchester County, New York, and on a farm in Greenwich, Connecticut. Howard and her siblings were raised away from the world of show business; their parents did not allow them access to television, and instead encouraged outdoor activities and hobbies. At the age of seven, she was permitted to be an extra in her father's films. In a 2017 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, she said she and her siblings were babysat by family friend Tom Cruise on several occasions.

Howard began training as an actor at Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts camp in upstate New York, alongside Natalie Portman. She attended Greenwich Country Day School until 1996, and graduated from Byram Hills High School in 1999, after which she studied for three years at New York University's (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts, taking classes at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, the Experimental Theatre Wing, and the International Theatre Workshop in Amsterdam. During her schooling, Howard took part in the concept recording of the Broadway-bound musical A Tale of Two Cities. She took a leave of absence from NYU to pursue roles without completing her degree. Almost 20 years later, she returned to NYU and completed her degree in 2020.

Howard is also an alumna of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's School in Chicago, and of The Actors Center in New York City. During her time in New York, Howard was also a member of Theater Mitu, a company that was in residence at New York Theatre Workshop, which is known for its exploration of theatrical forms.

2002–2006: Early roles and film success
For several years, Howard appeared in New York City theatrical productions; her repertoire included House & Garden–a 2002 Alan Ayckbourn production held at the Manhattan Theatre Club– and Tartuffe, a theatrical comedy staged at the American Airlines Theatre. In 2003, Howard performed as Rosalind in the William Shakespeare comedy As You Like It at The Public Theater, where she caught the attention of film director M. Night Shyamalan, who two weeks later and without an audition, cast her in his fantasy thriller The Village (2004). Howard portrayed the female lead Ivy, the chief's blind daughter, opposite Ivy's love interest Joaquin Phoenix. The film was a commercial success but met mixed reviews. Her performance was lauded by critics and Howard was nominated for several awards. Lars von Trier then cast Howard to replace Nicole Kidman in Manderlay (2005), the sequel to Dogville (2003); she reprised Kidman's role as Grace Mulligan, an idealistic woman who stays at a plantation in rural Alabama and later attempts to assist a revolt against slave owners. The film garnered mixed reviews.

Howard reunited with Shyamalan for Lady in the Water (2006), a fantasy drama in which she plays Story, a naiad-like being from a bedtime story, opposite Paul Giamatti, a Philadelphia building superintendent who discovers Story in a pool. The film under-performed at the box office, failed to recoup its budget, and was largely panned by critics. Howard again portrayed Rosalind in Kenneth Branagh's 2006 film adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It, which was released theatrically in Europe before premiering on HBO in the United States. The film was negatively received by British media but American press coverage was positive. Howard was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film at the 65th Golden Globe Awards for her role. That year, she wrote and directed a short film called Orchids as part of Glamour magazine's "Reel Moments" series, which was funded by Cartier and FilmAid International.

2007–2014: Rise to prominence and critical acclaim

In 2007, Howard starred in her first blockbuster film, portraying Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man 3. Howard described herself as a "huge fan" of the franchise and did extensive research to prepare for the role, including reading comic books and dyeing her hair blonde for the part. Howard performed many of her own stunts while filming, unaware she was a few months into a pregnancy. The film was the highest-grossing installment of the trilogy and received a mixed reception. Howard then starred in Terminator Salvation (2009); she replaced Claire Danes in the role of Kate Connor. Howard described her role as "an emotional sounding board" for other characters. The film was a financial success but was not critically well received. The Guardian described Howard's role as "winsomely" while The New York Times wrote she "upholds the maternal side of the original Sarah Connor legacy".

Howard starred as a reluctant debutante opposite Chris Evans in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2009), an independent film that is based on a 1957 screenplay by Tennessee Williams and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised Howard's "eye-catching performance", describing her as a "must-see", while Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called her performance "affecting" but not "electrifying, because the material doesn't have it". She joined the Twilight series' third installment The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, replacing Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria Sutherland, a revenge-seeking vampire. Howard was a fan of the book series and expressed admiration for her character. The film was a box office hit and drew mixed reviews, though Howard's performance received critical acclaim; Honeycutt lauded her as "the epitome of sensual, feline cunning".

Howard appeared in Clint Eastwood's Hereafter (2010) as a love interest of Matt Damon's character. Empire referred to her character as "twinkly", and stated Howard's and Damon's "fine work" uplift the film. Hereafter was a commercial hit but critics gave it a mixed reception. In January 2011, Howard became the first celebrity ambassador for designer Kate Spade. She appeared in Tate Taylor's 2011 film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help, in which she played Hilly Holbrook, a racist socialite who leads a Junior League chapter in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. The film was a critical and commercial success. The Miami Herald described her role as a "broadly comic villain" while The New York Times praised Howard for being "energetic in a thankless role". Howard was nominated for numerous accolades, including an MTV Movie Award and a NAACP Image Award, winning a Critics' Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award alongside the rest of the cast.

Howard, alongside her father, produced Gus Van Sant's Restless (2011), a dark coming-of-age movie about a teenage boy and girl who are engrossed with death. Howard offered considerable input on the film's screenwriting and directorial choices. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to mixed reviews. She portrayed Joseph Gordon-Levitt's on-and-off girlfriend in the cancer dramedy 50/50 (2011). The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. The New York Times stated Howard "makes a real character" out of the "shrewish" role while Los Angeles Times wrote she was "rapidly becoming today's preeminent Queen of Mean". Howard directed the short film When You Find Me, a social film that was developed in collaboration with Canon under the premise of gathering inspiration through images selected from a photography contest. 96,362 entries were accepted while only eight were selected for use in the film.

2015–present: mainstream recognition and professional expansion
In 2015, Howard starred opposite Chris Pratt, in the science-fiction action film Jurassic World, the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise. She portrayed Claire Dearing, the ambitious, accomplished operations manager at the titular theme park who undergoes development during the film. Howard performed extensive ankle exercises to complete the scenes in which her character runs in high heels through almost 3 ft of mud, which she described as "one of the hardest things [she's] ever had to do". Jurassic World was a commercial and critical success, with Howard's performance and on-screen chemistry with Pratt receiving praise. Rolling Stone described her portrayal as "dynamo" and "nobody's patsy" while the Associated Press wrote; "it is Howard who makes the biggest impact ... her transformation is the most convincing one in a film full of dubious evolutions". The Los Angeles Times and The Atlantic considered Dearing and her use of heels "sexist", while Bustle and Inquisitr labeled Howard's character as a "feminist hero". Howard disagreed with the former view, citing the character's detachment from reality and extensive familiarity with heels in everyday life.

In 2016, Howard starred in the fantasy adventure Pete's Dragon, a remake of the 1977 film of the same name. Pete's Dragon was released to critical and commercial success. The same year, Howard appeared in the crime drama Gold (2016) as Kay, the protagonist's girlfriend. Gold opened to a limited release with mixed reviews. The Hollywood Reporter dubbed her portrayal a "sturdy, salt-of-the-earth" type who "makes [a substantial] impression". That same year, she also appeared in "Nosedive", an episode of the Netflix anthology series Black Mirror. Howard gained 30 pounds for the role because body shaming is a "huge part of the subtext of the story". She chose a laugh for Lacie, her character, that she meant to connote artificiality, anxiety, and dejection. Both Howard and the episode received critical praise; The Guardian lauded her portrayal as "brilliantly played" and The Atlantic wrote "Howard's performance is terrific–she conveys Lacie's inner frustration while grinning cheerfully through it". Howard received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her performance.

Howard reprised her role as Claire in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), in which her character appears as a dinosaur-rights activist; the film was a commercial hit, although it received mixed critical reception. For accuracy, Howard trained with a veterinary surgeon who had experience with African wildlife. Variety stated Howard "projects a luminous concern for God's ancient revived creatures" while Empire praised both Pratt and Howard for "develop[ing] their characters beyond the archetypes they inhabited".

In 2019, Howard voiced the character Bella in A Dog's Way Home, which opened to critical and commercial success. Howard appeared as Elton John's mother Sheila Dwight in the musical biopic Rocketman (2019), which was directed by Dexter Fletcher. Howard described her character as humorous and sharp-witted, and as someone who struggled with her mental health. Howard worked extensively with make-up artists to design the character's look as she aged, and used Elizabeth Taylor as inspiration for her portrayal. Rocketman was a box-office hit, garnered critical acclaim, and received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. The Chicago Sun-Times praised Howard for her "finely nuanced work" and CinemaBlend called her performance a "wicked portrayal ... that really ties a film together".

Howard made her feature-film-directing debut with the documentary Dads, which premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was named second runner-up for the People's Choice Award for Documentaries. Dads received critical acclaim; Variety wrote; "Howard favors observation over lecture, anecdotes over numbers, showing instead of telling what equally split primary-caregiving looks like in contemporary households" and The Guardian said the film "mixes the platitudinous with the genuinely moving".

She directed two episodes premiering in 2019 and 2020 of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. Howard referred to the larger Star Wars universe as an asset to storytelling, and sought to maintain character depth and appeal to viewers. Howard's direction received positive responses; Den of Geek said she "[made] the episode pop" and "knows what makes Star Wars tick". In January 2022, an episode of The Book of Boba Fett premiered on Disney+ that Howard directed.

Howard reprised her role as Claire once more in Jurassic World Dominion (2022). In 2024, she starred in the action film Argylle, directed by Matthew Vaughn. She has been cast in the Amazon Prime series Deep Cover.

Personal life
During her senior year of high school, Howard learned of existentialism. She said: "I was like, 'This is it! This is my religion.' I had never felt a connection to any sort of spirituality before that. It was very basic–you're responsible for the choices that you make–but it was mind-blowing at the time."

Howard met actor Seth Gabel at New York University; they dated for five years before marrying on June 17, 2006. Howard and Gabel had planned to start a family together in their thirties but a week after their wedding, Howard learned she was pregnant with their first child. Howard gave birth to their son in 2007. Howard has talked about experiencing postpartum depression 18 months after her son's birth, and credited her recovery to the help of a physician and a therapist. The couple had a second child, a daughter, in 2012. The family lives in upstate New York.

Howard is a teetotaler.

title: Bryce Dallas Howard


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Edward Macnaghten, Baron Macnaghten

Edward Macnaghten, Baron Macnaghten, (3 February 1830 – 17 February 1913) was an Anglo-Irish law lord, barrister, rower, and Conservative-Unionist politician.

Early life and rowing
Macnaghten was born in Bloomsbury, London, the second son of Sir Edmund Workman-Macnaghten, Bt., but grew up mainly at Roe Park, Limavady. He attended school in Sunderland and university at Trinity College Dublin and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1852. At Cambridge, he was secretary of the Pitt Club.

Macnaghten was a rower at Cambridge. In 1851, he was runner up to E. G. Peacock in the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta, but avenged this the following year with a win. Macnaghten rowed bow for Cambridge in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in 1852 which was won by Oxford. Also in 1852, he turned the tables on Peacock to win the Diamond Challenge Sculls from him at Henley.

Legal and political career
After being called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1857, Macnaghten built up a successful practice and became Queen's Counsel in 1880. That same year he was elected to the House of Commons as Conservative Member of Parliament for County Antrim, and then for North Antrim when the county was divided in 1885. In 1912 he signed the Ulster Covenant.

Having declined the offers of a judgeship from Gladstone in 1883 and the Home Secretaryship from the Conservatives in 1886, he was on 25 January 1887 appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary with a life peerage as Baron Macnaghten, of Runkerry in the County of Antrim. No practising barrister who had been Queen's Counsel for less than seven years had ever before been promoted to the House of Lords.

He was a member of the British tribunal to arbitrate the Chile-Argentina boundary dispute and helped to draft the final settlement in 1902. For his service to this project he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) by King Edward VII on 18 December 1902.

Judgments

 * British South Africa Co v Companhia de Moçambique [1893] AC 602 - the House of Lords overturned a Court of Appeal decision and by so doing established the Mozambique rule, a common law rule in private international law that renders actions relating to title in foreign land, the right to possession of foreign land, and trespass to foreign land non-justiciable in common law jurisdictions.

Decorations
Lord Macnaghten was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1902 and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1911 coronation honours of George V. He also succeeded his elder brother, Francis, as fourth Baronet in the latter year.

Legacy
Lord Macnaghten's most famous contribution to English law was the determination of categories of charitable trusts (in the case of Commissioners for Special Purposes of Income Tax v Pemsel). He also sat in the landmark decision of Salomon v A Salomon & Co Ltd. In the case of Montgomery v Thompson (Eng.), AC 225 (1891), he held that a brewery opened in the town of Stone in Staffordshire could not use the name "Stone Ale", as this would infringe the rights of an existing seller of a product named "Stone Ale". He famously remarked, "Thirsty folk want beer, not explanations."

He is famous for the elegance of his prose. An example is given in the case of Gluckstein v Barnes [1900] AC 240, where he refused to order that fraudulent company promoters should be entitled to contribution from other participants of the fraud. He said, "In these two matters Mr. Gluckstein has been in my opinion extremely fortunate. But he complains that he may have a difficulty in recovering from his co-directors their share of the spoil, and he asks that the official liquidator may proceed against his associates before calling upon him to make good the whole amount with which he has been charged. My Lords, there may be occasions in which that would be a proper course to take. But I cannot think that this is a case in which any indulgence ought to be shewn to Mr. Gluckstein. He may or may not be able to recover a contribution from those who joined with him in defrauding the company. He can bring an action at law if he likes. If he hesitates to take that course or takes it and fails, then his only remedy lies in an appeal to that sense of honour which is popularly supposed to exist among robbers of a humbler type."

He also gave an eloquent description of a floating charge in Illingworth v Houldsworth [1904] AC 335, where he said, "A specific charge, I think, is one that without more fastens on ascertained and definite property or property capable of being ascertained and defined; a floating charge, on the other hand, is ambulatory and shifting in its nature, hovering over and so to speak floating with the property which it is intended to affect until some event occurs or some act is done which causes it to settle and fasten on the subject of the charge within its reach and grasp."

Personal life
He married, in 1858, Frances Arabella (d. 1903), the only child of Sir Samuel Martin, a baron of the exchequer; they had five sons and six daughters. His daughters remained living at Runkerry until c. 1950.

Their children were:
 * Sir Edward Charles Macnaghten, 5th Baronet (9 October 1859 – 31 December 1914), married firstly in 1888 the Hon. Gwen Elca Violett Abbot (d.1891), daughter of Charles Abbott, 3rd Baron Tenterden with whom he had one son, Hugh Macnaghten, who died young. He married secondly in 1894 Edith Minnie Powell, and they had two sons (the future 6th and 7th Baronets, who were both killed in WWI), and one daughter.
 * Hon. Frances Helen Macnaghten (1860 – 12 March 1950). Unmarried.
 * Hon. Beatrice Mary Macnaghten (1862 – 12 March 1950). Unmarried.
 * Sir Francis Alexander Macnaghten, 8th Baronet (18 May 1863 – 1 November 1951), who married 1905 Beatrice Ritchie, daughter of Sir William Johnstone Ritchie, 2nd Chief Justice of Canada. They had no issue.
 * Hon. Florence Mary Macnaghten (1864 – 26 January 1941). Unmarried.
 * Sir Frederic Fergus Macnaghten, 9th Baronet (16 May 1867 – 18 November 1955), who married 1915 Ada Webster. No issue.
 * Hon. Edith Arabella Mary Macnaghten (12 December 1865 – 16 January 1866)
 * Rt. Hon. Sir Malcolm Martin Macnaghten (12 January 1869 – 24 January 1955), who married in 1899 Antonia Mary Booth, daughter of Charles Booth. They had four children, including the 10th and further baronets.
 * Hon. Octavia Mary Macnaghten (1870 – 8 August 1946). Unmarried.
 * Hon. Anne Julia Mary Macnaghten (1872 – 7 March 1949). Unmarried.
 * Hon. Ethel Mary Macnaghten (1876 – 18 May 1951). Unmarried. A member of the Trade Board for Ireland.
 * Capt. Hon. Maurice Patrick Macnaghten (2 March 1874 – 5 May 1914), who married 1912 Sybil Torbock Graham, daughter of Col. Henry Graham of the 16th Lancers. Had no issue.

He died of pneumonia in 1913 at his home 198 Queen's Gate, Kensington, London, and was buried at Bushmills.

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

title: Edward Macnaghten, Baron Macnaghten


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Katamachi Line

The Katamachi Line (片町線), officially nicknamed the Gakkentoshi Line (学研都市線), is a commuter rail line and service in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area of Japan, owned and operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The line connects Kizu Station in Kyoto Prefecture and Kyōbashi Station in Osaka.

The common name "Gakkentoshi Line", literally "Research City Line", comes from the Kansai Science City, which is located along the line around the border of Osaka and Nara prefectures.

Basic data

 * Operators, distances: 55.4 km
 * West Japan Railway Company (Category-1, Services and tracks)
 * Japan Freight Railway Company (Category-2, Services)
 * Track:
 * Double-track line:
 * From Matsuiyamate to Kyōbashi
 * Single-track line:
 * From Kizu to Matsuiyamate
 * Railway signalling:
 * From JR Miyamaki to Kyōbashi: Automatic
 * From Kizu to JR Miyamaki: Special Automatic (Track Circuit Detection)
 * CTC centers:Ōsaka Operation Control Center
 * CTC system:JR Takarazuka JR Tozai Gakkentoshisen traffic control system

History
The line was originally built and operated by the Naniwa Railway (浪速鉄道) between Katamachi and Shijōnawate in 1895. Two years later, the Kansai Railway bought the line in order to have its own trunk line to Osaka from Nagoya, combined with constructing the section between Shijōnawate and Kizu. Katamachi Station was unable to be expanded, thus Amijima terminus was constructed. However Kansai Railway bought the Osaka Railway line from Nara via Ōji to Minatomachi (present JR Namba) in downtown Osaka, and shifted its main line to the ex-Naniwa Railway line. Thereafter, the Katamachi Line became a branch of the railway network of Osaka.

The Shigino to Hanaten section was duplicated in 1927, with the Katamachi to Shigino section double-tracked in 1955, the Hanaten to Shijonawate section in 1969, extended to Nagao in 1979, to Matsuiyamate in 1989, and the balance of the section to Kyobashi double-tracked between 2007 and 2009.

The section between Katamachi and Shijōnawate became the first Japan Governmental Railways electrified line in Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area in 1932, with electrification extended to Nagao in 1950. After privatization of the then Japanese National Railways (JNR), the line became part of the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) system, and the Kizu to Nagao section was electrified in 1989.

In 1997, the JR Tōzai Line was opened and connected to Katamachi Line at Kyōbashi, and Katamachi Station was closed (with Ōsakajō-kitazume Station becoming the replacement station). Most trains began operating through to the Fukuchiyama Line (JR Takarazuka Line).

Converted from a freight branch to a passenger route, the Osaka Higashi Line began service in 2008. Trains from Nara via Kansai Main (Yamatoji) Line began operation to Amagasaki Station. However, these through trains to Amagasaki have now ceased operation since March 2019, with the Osaka Higashi Line extension.

Station numbering was introduced to the line in March 2018 with stops being assigned station numbers between JR-H18 and JR-H41.

Military use
Three military/weapons-related facilities used during the early 20th century were serviced by spurs located between Fujisaka and Tsuda Stations (Kin-ya Ammunition Dump, where two explosions occurred in 1909 and 1939), between Kawachi-Iwafune and Hoshida Stations (Uji Weapon Kori Factory), and the Osaka Army Arsenal warehouse between Hanaten and Shigino Stations.

Route and operation
The line is connected via the JR Tōzai Line in downtown Osaka, at Amagasaki, to the Tōkaidō Main Line (JR Kobe Line) and Fukuchiyama Line (JR Takarazuka Line). This link enables trains operated from Nara to the west, as Kobe, Himeji, and Sanda.

Rapid services of several types of stops, with no surcharge, are also provided. Abbreviations are tentative for this article.

Some trains terminate at Matsuiyamate due to the single track to Kizu.
 * Local (普通)
 * Operated all day, most trains between Matsuiyamate and Nishi-Akashi on Sanyō Main (JR Kobe) Line. Some in busy hours to Fukuchiyama Line (JR Takarazuka Line), some terminate at Kyōbashi.

 * Regional Rapid (区間快速)
 * Operated in early morning, late night, and busy hours only. Some from/to Nara, most from/to Dōshishamae or Kyōtanabe. Through to Nishiakashi or Shin-Sanda.

 * Rapid (快速)
 * Mostly through to Shin-Sanda or Sasayamaguchi on Fukuchiyama (JR Takarazuka) Line. One per 15 minutes per direction.

Past services

 * Direct Rapid (直通快速)
 * Through trains from Osaka Higashi Line, operated only between Hanaten and Kyōbashi in this line. Four trains to Amagasaki from Nara in the morning, 4 vice versa in the evening. This service has ceased operation on the Katamachi Line starting from 16 March 2019, with the opening of the Shin-Osaka Extension of the Osaka Higashi Line.

Rolling stock

 * 207 series (from 1991)
 * 321 series (from 2005)

All trains are based at Aboshi Depot.

Former

 * 40 series
 * 51 series
 * 72 series
 * 101 series
 * 103 series
 * 223-6000 series (until March 2011)
 * KiHa 10 series
 * KiHa 20 series
 * KiHa 35 series
 * KiHa 40 series
 * KiHa 45 series
 * KiHa 58 series
 * KiHa 41000

title: Katamachi Line


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Fra Diamante

Fra Diamante (c. 1430 – c. 1498) was an Italian Renaissance painter.

Biography
Born at Prato, he was a Carmelite friar, a member of the Florentine community of that order, and was the friend and assistant of Filippo Lippi. The Carmelite convent of Prato which he adorned with many works in fresco has been suppressed, and the buildings have been altered to a degree involving the destruction of the paintings. He was the principal assistant of Lippi in the large frescoes at the east end of the cathedral of Prato. He also collaborated in the Funeral of St. Jerome panel in the same church.

Amid the work he was recalled to Florence by his conventual superior, and a minute of proceedings of the commune of Prato is still extant, in which it is determined to petition the metropolitan of Florence to obtain his return to Prato, a proof that his share in the work was so important that his recall involved the suspension of it. Subsequently, he assisted Filippo in the execution of the frescoes in the cathedral of Spoleto, which Fra Diamante completed in 1470 after his master died in 1469.

Lippi left a son ten years old (the future artist Filippino Lippi) to the care of Diamante, who, having received 200 ducats from the commune of Spoleto, as the balance due for the work done in the cathedral, returned with the child to Florence, and, as art biographer Giorgio Vasari says, bought land for himself with the money, giving but a small portion to the child. The accusation of wrongdoing, however, would depend upon the share of the work executed by Fra Diamante, and the terms of his agreement with Lippi. Fra Diamante must have been nearly seventy when he completed the frescoes at Spoleto, but the exact year of his death is not known.

authors: The less mind, the more like-minded ones around

title: Fra Diamante


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Category talk:Sexual slang

An idea
different languages have clinical words, affectionate slang, and vulgar slang associated with genitalia, excretion, and sexual roles and practices.

Some guy just removed some non-english slang terms, but I think alot can be learned from sexual slang and it's use to characterize people -- as in "Major-league asshole".

What is an equivalent expression in Dutch or Hindi, e.g.? 24.75.67.173 15:27, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

pearl necklace
shouldn't that be here? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Oedipussex (talk • contribs) 01:01, 13 December 2006 (UTC).

title: Category talk:Sexual slang


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Heliamphora

The genus Heliamphora ( or ; Greek: helos "marsh" and amphoreus "amphora") contains 24 species of pitcher plants endemic to South America. The species are collectively known as sun pitchers, based on the mistaken notion that the heli of Heliamphora is from the Greek helios, meaning "sun". The name instead derives from the Greek helos, meaning "marsh", so a more accurate translation of their scientific name would be marsh pitcher plants. Species in the genus Heliamphora are carnivorous plants that consist of a modified leaf form that is fused into a tubular shape. They have evolved mechanisms to attract, trap, and kill insects; and control the amount of water in the pitcher. At least one species (H. tatei) produces its own proteolytic enzymes that allows it to digest its prey without the help of symbiotic bacteria.

Morphology
All Heliamphora species are herbaceous perennial plants that grow from a subterranean rhizome. Heliamphora species form stemless rosettes and leaf height ranges from a few centimeters  (H. minor, H. pulchella) up to more than 50 cm (H. ionasi, H. tatei). Heliamphora possess tubular traps formed by rolled leaves with fused edges. Marsh pitcher plants are unusual among pitcher plants in that they lack lids (opercula), instead having a small "nectar spoon" on the upper posterior portion of the leaf. This spoon-like structure secretes a nectar-like substance, which serves as a lure for insects and small animals. Each pitcher also exhibits a small drainage hole (W, E2a, E2b, and E3 Clades) or slit (E1 Clade) in its side that allows excess rainwater to drain away, similar to the overflow on a sink. It was inferred that the drainage structure first evolved as drainage hole in ancestral Heliamphora populations and further modified into drainage slit in the ancestors of E1 clade. This allows the marsh pitcher plants to maintain a constant maximum level of rainwater within the pitcher. The pitchers' inner surface is covered with downward-pointing hairs to force insects into the pitchers' lower parts. The morphological diversification of Heliamphora pitchers is both convergent and divergent, likely as a result of adaptive radiation in the geographically complex Guiana highland.

Carnivory
Though often counted among the various carnivorous plants, with the exception of Heliamphora tatei, the vast majority of plants in the genus Heliamphora do not produce their own digestive enzymes (i.e. proteases, ribonucleases, phosphatases, etc.), relying instead on the enzymes of symbiotic bacteria to break down their prey. They do, however, attract prey through special visual and chemical signals and trap and kill the prey through a typical pitfall trap. Field studies of H. nutans, H. heterodoxa, H. minor, and H. ionasi have determined that none of these species produce their own proteolytic enzymes. H. tatei is one of the few species observed to produce both digestive enzymes and wax scales, which also aid in prey capture. The pattern of carnivory among Heliamphora species, combined with habitat data, indicates that carnivory in this genus evolved in nutrient-poor locations as a means to improve absorption of available nutrients. Most Heliamphora typically capture ants, while H. tatei can capture and absorb nutrients from more flying insects. The carnivorous habit among these species is lost in low light conditions, which suggests that certain nutrient concentrations (specifically nitrogen and phosphorus) are only limiting during periods of fast growth under normal light conditions, thus rendering most of the carnivorous adaptations inefficient and not energy cost effective.

Distribution
All Heliamphora species are endemic to the tepuis of the Guiana Highlands and their surrounding uplands. Most are found in Venezuela, with a few extending into western Guyana and northern Brazil. Many of the tepuis have not yet been explored for Heliamphora, and the large number of species described in recent years suggests that many more species may be awaiting discovery.

Botanical history
The first species of the genus to be described was H. nutans, which George Bentham named in 1840 based on a specimen collected by Robert Hermann Schomburgk. This remained the only known species until Henry Allan Gleason described H. tatei and H. tyleri in 1931, also adding H. minor in 1939. Between 1978 and 1984, Julian Alfred Steyermark and Bassett Maguire revised the genus (to which Steyermark had added H. heterodoxa in 1951) and described two more species, H. ionasi and H. neblinae, as well as many infraspecific taxa. Various exploratory expeditions as well as review of existing herbarium specimens has yielded many new species in recent years, mainly through the work of a group of German horticulturalists and botanists (Thomas Carow, Peter Harbarth, Joachim Nerz and Andreas Wistuba).

Care in cultivation
Heliamphora are regarded by carnivorous plant enthusiasts and experts as one of the more difficult plants to maintain in cultivation. The genus requires cool (the "highland" species) to warm (the "lowland" species) temperatures with a constant and very high humidity. An amateur botanist in New York City has shown that cultivation of the genus can be achieved with an inexpensive setup consisting of a large plastic crate, a fan, egg cartons, and water bottles filled with ice. The highland species, which originate from high on the humid tepui mountaintops, include H. nutans, H. ionasi, and H. tatei. The lowland Heliamphora, such as H. ciliata and H. heterodoxa have migrated to the warmer grasslands at the foot of the tepuis.

Shredded, long-fibered, or live sphagnum moss is preferred as a soil substrate, often with added horticultural lava rock, perlite, and pumice. The substrate must always be kept moist and extremely well drained. Misting Heliamphora with purified water is often beneficial to maintain high humidity levels.

Propagation through division only has a limited rate of success, as many plants that are divided go into shock and eventually die. Germination of Heliamphora seed is achieved by scattering it on milled sphagnum moss and keeping in bright light and humid conditions. Seed germination begins after many weeks.

Classification
The genus Heliamphora contains the most species in the Sarraceniaceae family and is joined by the cobra lily (Darlingtonia californica) and the North American pitcher plants (Sarracenia spp.) in that taxon.

Species
Twenty-four species of Heliamphora are currently recognized. Unless otherwise stated, all information and taxonomic determinations in the table below are sourced from the 2011 work Sarraceniaceae of South America authored by Stewart McPherson, Andreas Wistuba, Andreas Fleischmann, and Joachim Nerz. Authorities are presented in the form of a standard author citation, using abbreviations specified by the IPNI. Years given denote the year of the species's formal publication under the current name, not the earlier basionym date of publication if one exists.

Incompletely diagnosed taxa
A further two incompletely diagnosed taxa are known that may represent distinct species in their own right.

Varieties
Two varieties are currently recognised in the genus: H. minor var. pilosa and H. minor var. minor. Additionally, an undescribed variant of H. pulchella, with traps lacking long retentive hairs is known from Amurí Tepui.

Cultivars
There are currently four registered Heliamphora cultivars including Heliamphora 'Cyclops' (A. Smith), Heliamphora 'Patasola' (B. Tincher & J. Lei), Heliamphora 'Red Mambo' (F. Boulianne), and Heliamphora 'Scylla' (I. Bogdanow).

Natural hybrids
At least eleven natural hybrids have been recorded:

 * H. arenicola × H. ionasi
 * H. ceracea × H. hispida
 * H. chimantensis × H. pulchella
 * H. elongata × H. ionasi
 * H. exappendiculata × H. huberi
 * H. exappendiculata × H. pulchella
 * H. glabra × H. nutans
 * H. huberi × H. pulchella
 * H. neblinae × H. parva
 * H. purpurascens × H. sarracenioides
 * H. sp. 'Akopán Tepui' × H. pulchella

Additionally, putative complex hybrids occur on the Neblina Massif among populations of H. ceracea, H. hispida, H. neblinae, and H. parva. Putative crosses between H. macdonaldae and H. tatei have also been recorded in the southern part of Cerro Duida.

Phylogeny and Diversification
Closely related species tend to be geographically closely distributed. Major Heliamphora clades probably emerged through both geographical separation and dispersal in the Guiana Highlands during Miocene with more recent diversification driven by vertical displacement during the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial thermal oscillations.

title: Heliamphora


text:
User:Omnifarious

This user page is a stub, though I will include a useful link to my home page and my Google+ profile.

title: User:Omnifarious


text:
Carlo Crivelli

Carlo Crivelli (c. 1430 – c. 1495) was an Italian Renaissance painter of conservative Late Gothic decorative sensibility, who spent his early years in the Veneto, where he absorbed influences from the Vivarini, Squarcione, and Mantegna. He left the Veneto by 1458 and spent most of the remainder of his career in the March of Ancona, where he developed a distinctive personal style that contrasts with that of his Venetian contemporary Giovanni Bellini.

Early life
Crivelli was born around 1430–35 in Venice to a family of painters and received his artistic formation there and in Padua. The details of Crivelli's career are still sparse: He is said to have studied under Jacobello del Fiore, who was painting as late as 1436; at that time Crivelli was probably only a boy. He also studied at the school of Vivarini in Venice, then left Venice for Padua, where he is believed to have worked in the workshop of Francesco Squarcione and then, after being sentenced in 1457 to a six-month prison term for an affair with a married woman, left in 1459 for Zadar in Dalmatia (now part of Croatia, but then a Venetian territory).

Career
He was master of his own shop when sent to prison for adultery in 1457. The dates he signed on the pictures that survive extend from 1468 on an altarpiece in the church of San Silvestro at Massa Fermana near Fermo to 1493 on The Dead Christ between St John, the Virgin and Mary Magdalene in Milan's Brera Gallery.

Though the artist advertised his Venetian origins with his signature, often some variation on Carolus Crivellus Venetos ('Carlo Crivelli of Venice'), Crivelli seems to have worked chiefly in the March of Ancona, and especially in and near Ascoli Piceno. Only two pictures can be found today in Venice, both in the church of San Sebastiano.

He painted in tempera only, despite the increasing popularity of oil painting during his lifetime, and on panels, though some of his paintings have been transferred to canvas. His predilection for decoratively punched gilded backgrounds is one of the marks of this conservative taste, in part imposed by his patrons. Of his early polyptychs, only one, the altarpiece from Ascoli Piceno, dated 1473, survives in its entirety in its original frame, and still in its original location (the city's Cathedral). All the others have been disassembled and their panels and predella scenes are divided among several museums.

An amorphous band of contemporaries, imitators and followers, termed Crivelleschi, reflect to varying degrees aspects of his style.

Work
Unlike the naturalistic trends arising in Florence during his lifetime, Crivelli's style continues to represent the courtly International Gothic sensibility. His urban settings are jewel-like and full of elaborate allegorical detail. He favored verdant landscape backgrounds, and his works can be identified by his characteristic use of fruits and flowers as decorative motifs, often depicted in pendant festoons, which are also a hallmark of the Paduan studio of Francesco Squarcione, where Crivelli may have worked.

His paintings have a linear quality identified with his Umbrian contemporaries. Crivelli is a painter of marked individuality. Unlike Giovanni Bellini, his contemporary, his works are not "soft", but clear and definite in contour with marked attention to detail. His use of trompe-l'œil, often compared with that found in the works of Northern Renaissance painters like Rogier van der Weyden, includes raised objects, such as jewels and armor modeled in gesso on the panel.

Commissioned by the Franciscans and Dominicans of Ascoli, Crivelli's work is exclusively religious in nature. His paintings consist largely of Madonna and Child images, Pietà, and the altarpieces known as polyptychs that were increasingly unfashionable. Often filled with images of suffering, such as gaping wounds in Christ's hands and side and the mouths of mourners twisted in agony, Crivelli's work fulfills the spiritual needs of his patrons. These ultra-realistic, sometimes disturbing qualities have often led critics to label Crivelli's paintings "grotesque", much like his fellow Northern Italian painter, Cosimo Tura. His work attracted numerous prestigious commissions and must have appealed to the taste of his patrons.

Carlo Crivelli died in the Marche (probably Ascoli Piceno) around 1495. Vittorio Crivelli, with whom he occasionally collaborated, was his younger brother. Pietro Alemanno, a painter who immigrated to the March of Ancona from Germany/Austria, was his pupil and collaborator. Donato Crivelli, who was also a pupil of Jacobello and was working in 1459, may be of the same family as Carlo.

Reputation
His work fell out of favor following his death and Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, which is notably Florentine in its outlook, does not mention him. He had something of a revival, especially in the UK, during the time of the pre-Raphaelite painters, several of whom, including Edward Burne-Jones, admired his work. His reputation faded with that movement, but recent writings on his work and a rehanging of his work in the National Gallery, London, have brought him renewed attention.

Susan Sontag in Notes on "Camp" (1992) wrote: "Camp is the paintings of Carlo Crivelli, with their real jewels and trompe-l'œil insects and cracks in the masonry."

Works
Another of his principal pictures is in San Francesco di Matelica.
 * 1472 Altarpiece, now divided up between a number of galleries in the United States and Europe
 * Adoration of the Shepherds, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg
 * The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius, 1486, National Gallery, London. Possibly his most famous painting.
 * An Apostle, c. 1471–73, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 * Ascoli Piceno Altarpiece (or Saint Emidius Altarpiece), 1472–73, Cathedral of Saint Emidius, Ascoli Piceno. The only altarpiece entirely surviving, with its original XVth century carved wooden frame.
 * Beato Ferretti, 1489, National Gallery, London
 * Dead Christ, Vatican Gallery
 * Enthroned Madonna, St. Jerome and St. Sebastian, 1490
 * The Immaculate Conception, 1492
 * Lamentation over the Dead Christ, 1485, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
 * Madonna and Child, 1480, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 * Madonna and Child, 1460, Verona
 * ''Madonna and Child, 1480–1486, Ancona
 * Madonna and Child, Church of San Giacomo Maggiore in Massignano
 * Madonna and Child Enthroned, 1472, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 * Madonna and Child with Saints, 1490
 * Madonna and Saints, 1491, Berlin
 * Madonna of the Candle, Brera of Milan
 * Madonna of Poggio Bretta, c. 1472, 71x50 cm, Ascoli Piceno, Diocesan Museum of Ascoli Piceno
 * Madonna with child and saints, Monte San Martino in Marche
 * Mary Magdalene, 1480, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
 * Pietà, 1476, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 * Saint Dominic, 1472, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 * Saint Francis with the Blood of Christ, 1480–1486
 * Saint George Slaying the Dragon, 1470
 * Saint James Major, part of an altarpiece, 1472, Brooklyn Museum
 * Saint Stephen from the Demidoff Altarpiece, 1476, National Gallery, London
 * San Giacomo, 1472
 * St Thomas Aquinas, 1476, National Gallery, London
 * Virgin and Child with Saints Francis and Sebastian, 1491
 * Virgin Annunciate, 1482, Frankfurt

title: Carlo Crivelli


text:
Talk:Reporters Without Borders

RfC: "RWB" or "RSF" initialisms in article body
Should the body of the article use RWB or RSF as an initialism for Reporters without Borders? Their logo uses the french initialism, and their English abbreviation is RWB. The article currently uses both arbitrarily.  dud  hhr  Contribs 06:42, 6 July 2021 (UTC)
 * You don't need a full-blown thirty-day formal WP:RFC for this. I see no evidence that there has been any dispute (such as the acronym being changed back-and-forth by two or more editors), nor any indication that the suggestions given at WP:RFCBEFORE have been tried, let alone exhausted.
 * Start off by being bold then if somebody reverts you, discuss it (perhaps as a continuation of this section). Only go for RfC when all else fails. -- Red rose64 🌹 (talk) 19:48, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

Criticism
I'll be bold and remove the Criticism section. It has been poorly sourced for a long time, used to consist also in content from deprecated sources, and I doubt that it current weight is appropriate. At its current state, it essentially amounts to an attack section. The removal can be contested, but if so the issues must be addressed because of these reasons. --NoonIcarus (talk) 14:09, 27 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I see the criticisms as valid and correct. It would be grievous to remove them. 118.211.76.187 (talk) 20:13, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Please see Criticism, separate sections are not very encyclopaedic. CMD (talk) 21:11, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Reporters Without Borders


text:
Lo Spagna

Lo Spagna (died c. 1529), "the Spaniard" in Italian, was a painter of the High Renaissance, active in central Italy. His name was Giovanni di Pietro, but he was known as Lo Spagna because he was born in Spain. After Raphael, he was a main pupil and follower of the Umbrian painter Perugino, whose style his paintings developed. He should not be confused with Pietro di Giovanni D'Ambrogio of Siena.

Lo Spagna is known for a number of major works completed in the region, including the Birth of the Virgin from Spineta in Todi, the Adoration of the Magi of Ferentillo and the Nativity of St Anthony in Perugia. Lo Spagna married Santina Martorelli from one of Spoleto's leading families and here he was nominated Capitano delle Arti dei Pittori e degli Orefici in 1517. He died in 1528, possibly of the plague.

Giovanni di Pietro completed the decoration of the apse and two chapels of the church of San Giacomo in Spoleto. The records indicate that some thirty inhabitants of the parish contributed payment for the work, which was completed in 1526. The apse vault is frescoed with the Coronation of the Virgin and St James, while after Lo Spagna's death, the chapel frescoes were completed by pupils, Dono Doni and Cecco di Bernardino of Assisi. The Madonna and Child in Glory with St Sebastian and St Rocco on the far wall of the church of Campello sul Clitunno was completed by one of his pupils from a preparatory drawing by Lo Spagna. The apse of the church of San Giovanni Battista in the small village of Eggi contains a fresco completed by a hand from Lo Spagna’s studio working from a drawing by the artist. For the church of San Martino, Lo Spagna completed the large altar-piece of Coronation of the Virgin, (1522), which today hangs in the Museo Civico of Trevi. The church of Madonna delle Lacrime was Lo Spagna to complete the fresco decorations in the chapel dedicated to St Francis (1518). Around 1520 Lo Spagna decorated the first altar to the right of the church of Sant’Agostino in Visso with frescoes, now found in the Collegiata di Santa Maria. Lo Spagna painted a fresco cycle for the parish church of San Michele Arcangelo in Gavelli, a hamlet in the township of Sant'Anatolia di Narco near Perugia.

The famous Sposalizio, or Marriage of Joseph and Mary, in the museum at Caen, formerly attributed to Perugino, is now credited to Lo Spagna. The Capitoline Museums in Rome now possess a very beautiful series of life-sized fresco figures by him, representing Apollo and the Nine Muses.

Lo Spagna had various pupils and followers, among them Bernardino Campilius.

title: Lo Spagna


text:
Talk:Doge of Genoa

Untitled
A full list of Genoese doges will be highly appreciated.

Thanks!

I have gathered the list from WWW... A pretty long one. :P Will have to ask webmasters for permission. For the time being, I'm adding them to the external links.

Regards.

Contents box too low
A big portion of the article happens before the contents box. It is usually customary to only have a few sentences before the box to describe what the article is about, isn't it? Maybe the box should be moved up. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.13.39.98 (talk) 06:18, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

1500?
Why is the period in which the year 1500 falls under missing? --I'm Working for Him 15:50, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

 * There was no doge according to: it:Dogi_della_Repubblica_di_Genova. -- User:Docu

External links modified
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title: Talk:Doge of Genoa


text:
Osaka Higashi Line

The Osaka Higashi Line (おおさか東線) (Literally: Osaka East Line) is a railway line in Osaka, Japan, operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR-West). The line connects Ōsaka Station in northern Osaka with Kyūhōji Station in Yao, forming an arc around the northern and eastern suburbs of the city. Before being named on August 23, 2007, the line was constructed with the tentative name "Osaka Outer Loop Line (大阪外環状線)".

The line is constructed and owned by the Osaka Soto-Kanjo Railway Co., Ltd. (大阪外環状鉄道株式会社) as a Category-3 railway business under the Railway Business Act of Japan. JR-West and JR Freight operate trains as Category-2 railway business. The Kita-Umeda extension opened on March 18, 2023, replacing the above-ground Umeda Freight Line.

History
Conceived in the 1950s during Japan's explosive postwar economic growth, it was planned as a grand "outer loop" of the city, using existing freight lines to link Amagasaki with Shin-Osaka, Suita, Awaji, Hanaten, Kami, Uriwari and Sugimotochō, with a newly constructed segment into Osaka's (then primarily industrial) Nankō Port Town. However, with JNR's financial situation deteriorating catastrophically (culminating in its privatization) and continuing issues surrounding land acquisition and squatting by local residents on railway property, the plan was cut back to Shin-Osaka and Kami, terminating at Kyūhōji in the south. (The Hanwa Freight Line, which would have carried the southern segment from Kami to Sugimotochō, was officially abandoned by JR Freight in 2009.) The line connects Shin-Osaka Station in northern Osaka with Kyūhōji Station in Yao, forming an arc around the northern and eastern suburbs of the city.

The southern part opened on 15 March 2008. But because of problems with the illegal occupation of a site, construction of the northern part was delayed. Construction of the northern segment started in 2011 and the section between Shin-Osaka and Hanaten has opened on 16 March 2019.

Incorporated into the second phase of the Osaka Higashi Line project is the construction of underground platforms at Osaka Station (known as Umekita). The project provides the basis for the future Naniwasuji Line while also providing a small shortcut on current services on the Haruka and Kuroshio limited express trains.

In February 2023, track switching work took place between the 11th and 13th of that month. The underground platforms began operation later in the year on 18 March.

Stations
Local trains stop at all stations. For limited express Mahoroba, please see their respective article.
 * ● : Direct Rapid service stops here
 * : Direct Rapid service does not stop here

 * Notes:

Passenger

 * 221 series (used for Local services from 12 March 2022 and Direct Rapid services from 18 March 2023)

Former

 * 103 series (until 2018)
 * 201 series (until 11 March 2022)
 * 207 series (used for Direct Rapid Services from 12 March 2011 until 17 March 2023)
 * 223-6000 series (used for Direct Rapid Services from 15 March 2008 until 11 March 2011)
 * 321 series (Used for Direct Rapid Services until 17 March 2023)

The 103 and 201 series trains are based at Nara Depot, the 207 series trains are based at Aboshi Depot, while the 223-6000 series trains were based at Miyahara Depot.

Freight
Locomotives seen hauling freight trains include the DD51, DE10, EF66, EF81 and EF210.

title: Osaka Higashi Line


text:
Fremontodendron

Fremontodendron, with the common names fremontia and flannelbush or flannel bush, is a genus of three known species of shrubs native to the Southwestern United States and northwest Mexico.

Taxonomy
They are within the botanical family Malvaceae. Formerly they were treated within the Sterculiaceae, tribe Fremontodendreae, together with the genus Chiranthodendron. The genus Fremontodendron was named in dedication to John C. Frémont, who first collected it during an 1846 expedition to Alta California.

Description
The leaves have a leathery and fuzzy texture reminiscent of flannel (hence the name), and the yellow to orange flowers are large and showy. The leaves and young shoots can cause skin and eye irritation.

Species
There are three species:
 * Fremontodendron californicum — Californian flannelbush
 * Fremontodendron decumbens (R. Lloyd) — Pine Hill flannelbush
 * A decumbent and low spreading form, 3 ft in height and 6 ft in width, has yellow-orange flowers, and is endemic to the Sierra Nevada foothills, nearly all of the individuals of this subspecies are found in the Pine Hill Ecological Reserve in El Dorado County.  In nature it only grows in metal-rich gabbro soil, a red weathered soil of volcanic origin. It requires fire for seed germination, but with the nature reserve is near human settlements fire ecology is suppressed. It is a federally listed endangered species.

 * Fremontodendron mexicanum — Mexican flannelbush
 * Endemic to the central Peninsular Ranges, known from about ten occurrences in northern Baja California state and adjacent southern San Diego County, California. However, it has most recently been confirmed to exist in only two of those locales currently.

There are a number of populations of uncertain taxonomy status. They include:
 * Fremontodendron californicum ssp. napensis — Napa fremontia
 * The current Jepson manual does not recognize this subspecies, using Fremontodendron californicum, but the form is different enough that it is horticulturally recognized by this name. It is typically smaller and more open in form than the species, with much smaller leaves and flowers. It grows 6 - 15 ft in height and 4 - 12 ft in width.

Cultivation
Fremontodendrons are cultivated as ornamental plants. They are valued for their bright yellow flowers, produced over a long period on a rapidly growing shrub or small tree. They are tolerant of pruning for size or shaping. They are adapted to dry, poor soils in a summer-dry, warm, sunny climate. They may succumb to root rot in heavy clay soils and/or summer irrigation.

The three species and varied hybrids/cultivars are used in native plant, water-conserving, and wildlife gardens in California. They are also planted in gardens in England.

Hybrids
There are several named hybrids of Fremontodendron californicum and Fremontodendron mexicanum in the horticultural trade, they include:
 * Fremontodendron 'California Glory' — lemon-yellow flowers with a reddish tinge, grows 20 ft in height by 20 ft in width. It is the winner of the Award of Garden Merit from the California Horticultural Society in 1965, and received a First Class Certificate from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1967.
 * Fremontodendron 'Ken Taylor' — golden flowers with a darker orange outside petals in the spring and summer, and grows to only 5 ft in height by 8 - 10 ft in width.
 * Fremontodendron 'Dara's Gold' — golden flowers over a long period from late winter through early summer, grows 3 ft in height by 6 - 8 ft in width. A hybrid between Fremontodendron decumbens and Fremontodendron mexicanum.

title: Fremontodendron


text:
Triphyophyllum

Triphyophyllum is a monotypic plant genus, containing the single species Triphyophyllum peltatum of the family Dioncophyllaceae. It is native to tropical western Africa, in Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia, growing in tropical forests.

It is a liana, with a three-stage lifecycle, each with a different shaped leaf, as indicated by its Greek name. In the first stage, T. peltatum forms a rosette of simple lanceolate leaves with undulate margins. At times when there is insufficient phosphorus in the soil it develops long, slender, glandular leaves, resembling those of the related Drosophyllum, which capture insects; one to three of these leaves in each rosette. In the plant's adult liana form it has short non-carnivorous leaves bearing a pair of "grappling hooks" at their tips on a long twining stem which can become 165 ft in length and 4 in thick. T. peltatum is the largest of all confirmed carnivorous plants in the world, but its carnivorous nature did not become known until 1979, some 51 years after the plant's discovery. Its seeds are about 3 in in diameter, bright red in color, disc-shaped, with a peltate stalk emerging from the fruit. Most of the seed's development occurs outside the fruit. The fruit and seed develop from an orange flower with five incurved petals. As the seed dries out, its wide umbrella shape enables it to be transported on the wind.

Triphyophylum peltatum is difficult to cultivate; it is cultivated in four botanical gardens: Abidjan, Bonn, Cambridge University and Würzburg, and is exceedingly rare in private collections.

Uses
Triphyophyllum peltatum is traditionally used in folk medicine. It produces many pharmaceutically active secondary metabolites, some of which have been found to have strong antiplasmodial activity. Some metabolites were found to have antitumoral and anti-multiple myeloma activity.

title: Triphyophyllum


text:
The Gambler (1974 film)

The Gambler is a 1974 American crime drama film written by James Toback and directed by Karel Reisz. It stars James Caan, Paul Sorvino, and Lauren Hutton. Caan's performance was widely lauded and was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Plot
Axel Freed is an English professor in New York City with a gambling addiction that begins to spiral out of control. In the classroom, Freed inspires his college students with his interpretations of Fyodor Dostoevsky's work. In his personal life, Axel has the affection of the beautiful Billie and the admiration of his family, including his mother, Naomi, who is a doctor, and his grandfather, a wealthy businessman.

Axel's gambling has left him with a huge debt. His bookie, a mafioso known as Hips, likes the professor personally but threatens grave consequences if he does not pay it soon. When Billie, having been informed by Axel that he owes $44,000, questions the wisdom of her associating with him, Axel confidently tells her she loves his life's dangers, including "the possibility of blood".

After obtaining the $44,000 from his disapproving mother, Axel goes with Billie to Las Vegas and gambles it into a small fortune, only to lose back his last $50,000 on a last-second, incredibly-lucky shot in a Lakers game.

Having subsequently won $12,000 on a fixed Lakers-game gift from another gambler and paid it to the bookmaker, Axel is abducted by associates of the latter. The boss asks Axel if he has family who might help him pay. Axel mentions his grandfather and mother. The boss says he’d asked the grandfather who said no.

Acting on an offer from the mob, Axel lures one of his students, a star on the college's basketball team, to shave points in his next game, so the mob can bet big on the game to cover Axel's debt. The student accepts Axel's offer of $5,000 for the illicit play. Having set that up, Axel visits his grandfather, who, near the end of their conversation, asks if Axel needs his help. Saying he’s taken care of it, Axel leaves.

Watching the game from the stands with three of the mob's bookmakers, Axel is saved by the bribed player's final-minutes' point-shaving, which enables the team to win by only 6 and thus not cover an 8-point spread. Nixing a night of post-game celebration with Hips, Axel wanders off into a neighboring black ghetto, as Hips warns him the place is a "jungle."

At a ghetto bar, Axel meets a prostitute, and they go to an upstairs room of a hotel. Threatened by her pimp after refusing to pay her when she refuses to take off all her clothes, Axel eggs the pimp to cut him with his switchblade. The pimp, thinking Axel crazy, backs off, and Axel repeatedly punches him, knocks him to the floor, and kicks him over and over. Frantic, the prostitute picks up the fallen blade and slashes Axel across the face.

Bleeding from his facial wound, Axel staggers down the stairs, looks at himself in a mirror, and smiles enigmatically at his slashed cheek.

Cast

 * James Caan as Axel Freed
 * Paul Sorvino as Hips
 * Lauren Hutton as Billie
 * Morris Carnovsky as A.R. Lowenthal
 * Jacqueline Brookes as Naomi Freed
 * Burt Young as Carmine
 * Carmine Caridi as Jimmy
 * Vic Tayback as One
 * Steven Keats as Howie
 * London Lee as Monkey
 * M. Emmet Walsh as Las Vegas Gambler
 * James Woods as Bank Officer
 * Carl W. Crudup as Spencer
 * Allan Rich as Bernie
 * Stuart Margolin as Cowboy
 * Ric Mancini as Sal
 * Beatrice Winde as Hospital Receptionist
 * Antonio Fargas as Pimp
 * Richard Foronjy as Donny
 * Frank Sivero as Donny's Driver
 * Frank Adonis as Man in Park with Donny
 * Philip Sterling as Sidney
 * Patricia Fay as Bank Teller

Production
The film was the first produced screenplay by James Toback. Toback had worked as an English lecturer at the City College of New York and had a gambling problem. He originally wrote The Gambler as a semi-autobiographical novel but halfway through started envisioning it as a film and turned it into a screenplay.

Toback completed it in 1972 and showed it to his friend Lucy Saroyan, who introduced Toback to Robert De Niro. Toback became enthused about the possibility of De Niro playing the lead. He showed the script to his literary agent who gave it to Mike Medavoy who attached director Karel Reisz. Reisz did not want to use De Niro and cast James Caan instead.

"Caan became a great Axel Freed, although obviously different from the character De Niro would have created", wrote Toback later. It was filmed at a time when leading actor James Caan was battling his own addiction to cocaine. Caan says the film is one of his favorites. "It's not easy to make people care about a guy who steals from his mother to pay gambling debts."

Some see the film as a loose adaptation of the short 1866 novel The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Reception
Roger Ebert awarded his top grade of four stars and wrote that the film "begins as a portrait of Axel Freed's personality, develops into the story of his world, and then pays off as a thriller. We become so absolutely contained by Axel's problems and dangers that they seem like our own." Vincent Canby of The New York Times was less impressed, writing, "The movie follows Axel's downward path with such care that you keep thinking there must be some illuminating purpose, but there isn't ... Mr. Reisz and Mr. Toback reportedly worked a couple of years putting the screenplay into this shape, which is lifeless." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and said that director Karel Reisz "is most successful in presenting Axel as a true sickie and his adversaries as genuinely ruthless. The latter is no mean feat, inasmuch as ruthless movie mobsters are a dime-a-dozen in these post-'Godfather' days ... We know that the film is a success, because it doesn't really matter whether Axel is a winner or a loser as the film ends. 'The Gambler' is a personality study, and like 'California Split,' its story does not hang on its ending." Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called The Gambler "way ahead as the better of two current films about the gambling compulsion. Director Karel Reisz has one of his most compelling and effective films. Title star James Caan is excellent and the featured players are superb." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times declared it "a cool, hard, perfectly cut gem of a movie, as brilliant and mysteriously deep as a fine diamond. At its center is an hypnotically absorbing performance, at once charming and dismaying, by James Caan, who must certainly have an Academy Award nomination for it." Pauline Kael of The New Yorker stated, "At 'The Gambler,' we're trapped at a maniacal lecture on gambling as existential expression. And, as almost always happens when a movie is predictable and everything is analyzed and labelled, the actions and the explanations aren't convincing. Gambling is too easy a metaphor for life; as metaphor, it belongs to the world of hardboiled fiction." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post agreed, calling it "a well-made movie invalidated at every turn by a script with big, literary pretensions but little if any dramatic credibility." Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that his problem with the film "is not so much a surfeit of psychological analysis—the script offers hints, not explicit causes explaining Axel's condition—as too little to account for his behaviour naturalistically, and too much to permit any sustained acceptance of the character on an allegorical or mythical level ... there is nothing in Axel that suggests hidden depths; indeed, despite Caan's consistent professionalism, the actor seems to be as disinterested in his character as Axel seems to be in himself."

After Caan's death, Filmink described the film as "peak ‘70s Caan with the star at his swaggering charming curly haired best."

The film holds a score of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 11 reviews.

Remake
In August 2011, Paramount Pictures announced a remake of the 1974 film The Gambler with the original producers, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff. Intended as a new directorial project for Martin Scorsese, it was reported that Leonardo DiCaprio was attached as the star and William Monahan would write the screenplay.

In a 2011 interview, Toback gave the story of the original film's autobiographical background and development, and criticized the announcement of the remake.

Scorsese left the project and filmmaker Todd Phillips was in talks to take over as of August 2012.

In September 2013, Mark Wahlberg and director Rupert Wyatt expressed interest in remaking the film. The film was released on December 25, 2014.

title: The Gambler (1974 film)


text:
August Wöhler

August Wöhler (22 June 1819 – 21 March 1914) was a German railway engineer, best remembered for his systematic investigations of metal fatigue.

Life
Born in the town of Soltau, Hanover, the son of local teacher Georg Heinrich Wöhler, he showed early mathematical ability and won a scholarship to study at the Higher Vocational College of Hannover from 1835, under the direction of Karl Karmarsch.

In 1840, he was recruited to the Borsig works in Berlin where he worked on the manufacture of rail tracks. In 1843, after a brief stay in Hannover, he started to receive instruction in locomotive driving in Belgium, returning as an engineer on the Hanover-Brunswick line of the Royal Hanoverian State Railways. By 1847, Wöhler was chief superintendent of rolling stock on the Lower Silesian-Marcher railway in Frankfurt (Oder).

The railroad was nationalised by the Prussian state railways in 1852 and Wöhler's growing reputation led to his appointment by the Prussian Ministry of Commerce to investigate the causes of fracture in railroad axles, work that was to occupy Wöhler over the next two decades. The recognition of his keen administration and technical leadership resulted in his appointment as director of the newly formed Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine in 1874, based at the board's headquarters in Straßburg, a post he held until his retirement in 1889.

Fatigue studies
Wöhler started his axle investigations by research into the theory of elasticity and was led, in 1855, to a method for predicting the deflection of lattice beams that anticipated the work of Émile Clapeyron. He also introduced the practice of supporting one end of a bridge on roller bearings to allow for thermal expansion.

His work on fatigue marks the first systematic investigation of S-N curves, also known as Wöhler curves, to characterise the fatigue behaviour of materials. Such curves can be used to minimise the problem of fatigue by lowering the stress at critical points in a component. Wöhler showed clearly that fatigue occurs by crack growth from surface defects until the product can no longer support the applied load. The history of a fracture can be understood from a study of the fracture surface. He developed apparatus for repeated loading of railway axles, mainly because many accidents were caused by sudden fatigue fracture. The presentation of his work at the Paris Exposition in 1867 brought it to a wide international audience.

Wöhler was an advocate of state standardisation, testing and certification of iron and steel.

He died in Hannover in 1914.

title: August Wöhler


text:
Domenico Beccafumi

Domenico di Pace Beccafumi (1486 – May 18, 1551) was an Italian Renaissance-Mannerist painter active predominantly in Siena. He is considered one of the last undiluted representatives of the Sienese school of painting.

Biography
Domenico was born in Montaperti, near Siena, the son of Giacomo di Pace, a peasant who worked on the estate of Lorenzo Beccafumi. Seeing his talent for drawing, Lorenzo adopted him, and commended him to learn painting from Mechero, a lesser Sienese artist. In 1509 he travelled to Rome, where he learned from the artists who had just done their first work in the Vatican, but soon returned to Siena. However, while the Roman forays of two Sienese artists of roughly his generation (Il Sodoma and Peruzzi) had imbued them with elements of the Umbrian-Florentine Classical style, Beccafumi's style remains, in striking ways, provincial. In Siena, he painted religious pieces for churches and mythological decorations for private patrons, only mildly influenced by the gestured Mannerist trends dominating the neighbouring Florentine school. There are medieval eccentricities, sometimes phantasmagoric, superfluous emotional detail and a misty non-linear, often jagged quality to his drawings, with primal tonality to his colouration that separates him from the classic Roman masters.

Pavement of Duomo di Siena
In addition to painting, he also directed the celebrated pavement of the cathedral of Siena from 1517 to 1544, a task that took over a century and a half. The pavement shows vast designs in commesso work—white marble, that is, engraved with the outlines of the subject in black, and having borders inlaid with rich patterns in many colours. From the year Beccafumi was engaged in continuing this pavement, he made very ingenious improvements in the technical processes employed and laid down scenes from the stories of Ahab and Elijah, of Melchisedec, of Abraham and of Moses. He made a triumphal arch and an immense mechanical horse for the procession of the emperor Charles V on his entry into Siena.

Critical assessment and legacy
Compared to the equilibrated, geometric, and self-assured Florentine style, the Sienese style of painting edges into a more irrational and emotionally unbalanced world. Buildings are often transected, and perspectives are awkward. The setting is often hallucinogenic; the colours are discordant. For example, in the Nativity (Church of San Martino) hovering angels form an architectural hoop, and figures enter from the shadows of a ruined arch. In his Annunciation, the Virgin resides in a world neither in day nor dusk, she and the Angel Gabriel shine while the house is in shadows. In Christ in Limbo (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena), an atypically represented topic, Christ sways in contrapposto as he enters a netherworld of ruins and souls. S. J. Freedberg compares his vibrant eccentric figures to those of the Florentine mannerist contemporary Rosso Fiorentino, yet more "optical and fluid". While all the elements of the expected religious scenes are here, it is like a play in which all the actors have taken atypical costumes, and forgotten some of their lines.

In Medieval Italy, Siena had been an artistic, economic, and political rival of Florence; but wars and natural disasters caused a decline by the 15th century. Stylistically, Beccafumi is among the last in a line of Sienese artists, a medieval believer of miracles awaking in Renaissance reality.

Partial anthology of works

 * The Miraculous Communion of St Catherine of Siena (1513) – J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
 * Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata (1513) – J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
 * Trinity Triptych (1513) – Oil on wood, 152 x 228 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
 * Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (c. 1514–1515) – Uffizi, Florence
 * Marriage of St Catherine (1514–1515) – Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
 * Bellanti Madonna (c. 1515) – Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
 * St. Paul (1515) – Oil on wood, 190 x 150 cm, Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana, Siena
 * Marcia (1519), National Gallery, London
 * Stigmatization of St. Catherine of Siena (1515) – Oil on wood, 208 x 156 cm, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
 * The Betrothal of the Virgin (1518) – Fresco, 295 x 304 cm, Oratory of San Bernardino, Siena
 * Tanaquil (1519) – Oil on wood, 92 x 53 cm, National Gallery, London
 * Self Portrait (1520)
 * The Story of Papirius (1520–1530) – National Gallery, London
 * St. Lucy (1521) – Oil on wood, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
 * Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine (1521) – Hermitage, St. Petersburg
 * Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (c.1521–1522) – Galleria Palatina, Florence
 * Frescoes – Palazzo Bindi-Segardi, Siena
 * Frescoes of scenes from Roman history Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (1529–1535)
 * The Holy Family with Young Saint John (1523–1524) – Oil on panel, diameter 86 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
 * Fall of the Rebel Angels (c. 1524) – Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
 * Fall of the Rebel Angels (c. 1528) – Oil on wood, 347 x 225 cm, San Niccolò al Carmine, Siena
 * Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (1528) – Palazzo Chigi-Saracini, Siena
 * Vision of St. Catherine of Sienna (1528) – Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa
 * The Baptism of Christ (1528) – Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa
 * The Nativity – Allentown Art Museum, Allentown
 * Venus and Cupid with Vulcan (1528) – New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans
 * Holy Family with St. John (c. 1530) – Oil on panel, diameter 84 cm, Uffizi, Florence
 * Holy Family with Saint Anne – Private collection
 * Flight of Clelia and the Roman Virgins – Uffizi, Florence
 * Punishment of Dathan – Pisa Cathedral
 * Drawing for Christ in Limbo (Stolen)
 * Christ in Limbo (1535) – Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
 * Moses and the Golden Calf (1536–1537) – Oil on wood, 197 x 139 cm, Pisa Cathedral
 * Saint Bernard of Siena Preaching (1537) – Musée du Louvre, Paris
 * Saint Anthony and the Miracle of the Mule (1537) – Musée du Louvre, Paris
 * Saint Francis receives the stigmata (1537) – Musée du Louvre, Paris
 * Coronation of the Virgin (1539) – Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
 * Birth of the Virgin (1543) – Oil on wood, 233 x 145 cm, Accademia, Siena
 * Sarteano Annunciation (c.1546) – Oil on canvas, San Martino in Foro, Sarteano
 * Coronation of the Virgin (1540s) – Santo Spirito, Siena
 * Madonna with infant and St. John (1540) – Oil on panel, 90 x 65 cm, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome
 * Holy Family with Angels – National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
 * Holy Family and St. John – Alte Pinakothek, Munich
 * Statues of Angels (1548–1550) – Presbytery of Siena Cathedral
 * Judith with the Head of Holofernes – The Wallace Collection, London.
 * Drawing of Abraham
 * St. Peter – Woodcut, Cleveland Museum of Art
 * Angels drawing (1524–25) – San Francisco

title: Domenico Beccafumi


text:
Infinite in All Directions

Infinite In All Directions (1988) is a book on a wide range of subjects, including history, philosophy, research, technology, the origin of life and eschatology, by theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson. The book is based on the author's Gifford Lectures delivered in Aberdeen in 1985. Infinite in All Directions can roughly be summarized as a treatise on the universe and humanity's role and its responsibilities.

"The lectures were given in two series, and this book is accordingly divided into two parts. Part 1 is about life as a scientific phenomenon, about our efforts to understand the nature of life and its place in the universe. Part 2 is about ethics and politics, about the local problems introduced by our species into the existence of life on this planet." "Freeman Dyson is Professor of Physics at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. That is a title, not a recommendation. What recommends him is his ability to communicate, not merely the interest of science and its application to human activities of every kind, but the sheer delight he takes in the universe. He loves diversity. Frequently throughout the book a passage will reveal his pleasure at being alive and seeing and thinking. He has much of Richard Feynman’s enthusiasm for the strangeness of people and things."

title: Infinite in All Directions


text:
Liu Xin (scholar)

Liu Xin (c. 46 BCE – 23 CE), courtesy name Zijun, was a Chinese astronomer, classicist, librarian, mathematician, and politician during the Western Han and Xin dynasties. He later changed his name to Liu Xiu due to the naming taboo of Emperor Ai of Han. He was the son of Imperial librarian Liu Xiang and an associate of other eminent thinkers such as the philosopher Huan Tan. Liu was a prominent supporter of the Old Text classics.

Early life
Liu Xin was the son of Confucian scholar Liu Xiang (77–6 BCE). Liu was a distant relative of Liu Bang, the founder of the Han dynasty, and was thus a member of the ruling dynastic clan (the Liu family). Liu Xin's paternal grandfather ranked as a hou (侯, roughly 'marquess'). As a young man, Liu helped his father in cataloguing the contents of the imperial library, and his friendship with the well-connected minister Wang Mang brought him power and rewards, rising under Emperor Ai of Han to the rank of Palace Attendant and Chief Commandant of Imperial Equipages (侍中奉車都尉).

Librarian
As a curator of the imperial library he was the first to establish a library classification system and the first book notation system. At this time the library catalog was written on scrolls of fine silk and stored in silk bags. Liu Xin's Qilüe (七略; "Seven Surveys") has not survived, but it formed the basis for the later bibliographic treatise Yiwenzhi (藝文志; "Treatise on Arts and Letters") in the Book of Han, which acted as a model for later imperial bibliographies.

As the imperial librarian, Liu Xin both catalogued and annotated or edited ancient texts. These projects of his produced what became definitive texts of a number of orthodox canons of Chinese philosophy and history.

Liu Xin played an important role in the transmission of the Zuozhuan. A scholar of the Old Texts school, he was attracted to the Zuozhuan earlier graphical forms, whose inaccessibility deterred the compound exegesis found in the rival Chunqiu commentarial traditions. In editing the Zuozhuan with the assistance of Yin Xian (尹咸), Liu rearranged the material into chronological order to map more neatly onto the Chunqiu chronicle as the Gongyang and Guliang commentaries did. He aimed to have an imperial academician assigned to the work, a crucial bureaucratic step towards canonization in the official orthodoxy.

Liu's advocacy for the Zuozhuan was controversial in his own day, partly due to its lineage and prior reputation, and partly due to his own approach towards the situation. This scholarly dispute is sometimes taken as evidence for a larger dispute about classic texts written using variant scripts.

Old Text proponent
During Liu Xin's career, there may have been some debate about certain texts called guwen (古文, "Ancient Script Texts"). One set of manuscripts discovered by Kong Anguo in the Western Han was consistently labeled as guwen owing to the graphical forms it preserved, a script which had diverged during the Eastern Zhou from the more conservative script of the state of Qin which became the official and only standard following their unification in 221 BCE. As a consequence of the variant graphical forms, parts of the text were already difficult to decipher for Han scholars.

It is not clear to what extent the content of guwen works differed from the transmitted versions of the same titles, nor what criteria allowed for labeling a document guwen. It may have been the case that even a handful of words would suffice to impart this characteristic upon the text that contained them.

Liu Xin was attracted to guwen texts, and his position in the imperial library meant he was well placed to ensure that these versions would officially be considered the authoritative ones.

Integrity of transmitted literature
From the 19th through early 20th centuries, antiquarians and historians, beginning with Kang Youwei, accused Liu of excessive editing, to the point of falsifying historical texts. These criticisms were systematically analysed by the Doubting Antiquity School of historians. According to their theory, first articulated by Qian Mu in 1930, Liu edited ancient texts for political purposes, particularly the Rites of Zhou, the Zuozhuan, and the Mao commentary to the Shijing. This accusation of forgery had legitimate precedent: in the late 17th century Yan Ruoqu demonstrated that the transmitted Classic of History was mostly a forgery dating to the 4th century. This text had been based on the Ancient Script version, and only the parts that were present in the separately transmitted New Script version could be considered authentically early.

Liu Xin was a political ally of the powerful and divisive minister Wang Mang, who would go on to usurp the Han dynasty around the turn of the millennium for a brief period known as the Xin dynasty. As the imperial librarian, Liu had the power to establish the definitive redactions of ancient texts and expunge variant versions. According to his accusers, the librarian falsified accounts of ancient historical events, and inserted into the legendary lineage of ancient rulers figures or relationships that were either invented, or borrowed from separate legends. In this way, he created a narrative of ancient rulers and successive dynasties which satisfied the "five phases" theory, wherein each ruler and/or dynasty represented one of the five traditional Chinese elements, between which the Mandate of Heaven rotated. An account thus falsified would satisfactorily explain the rule of the Han and Xin dynasties in terms of the phases they were said to represent, and according to the forgery theory, Liu Xin's edited account conveniently showed a series of successions between various claimed ancestors of the Han and Xin houses.

The possibility of Liu Xin's forgeries became a crucial question for the Doubting Antiquity School in their search for a rationalist past for China. They drew evidence from discrepancies between the texts edited by Liu and earlier or contemporaneous texts. For example, figures or events appearing in Liu's edited versions did not appear in earlier or contemporaneous texts. The forgery theory has been largely discredited.

Calculation of pi ($\pi$)
For centuries before the usurpation of Wang Mang ( 9–23), the Chinese had used the value of 3 for their calculation of pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Some time between the years 1 and 5, Liu Xin was the first Chinese researcher to give a geometrical figure which implies the improved approximation π ≈ 3.1547, although the exact method he used to reach this figure is unknown. The original jialiang hu standard Liu Xin designed and used in his measurements is still extant. Sinologist Joseph Needham inspected it in Beijing, describing it as follows:

"The standardised chia liang hu (has) a square with each side 1 chhih (foot) long, and outside it a circle. The distance from each corner of the square to the circle (thiao phang) is 9 li 5 hao. The area of the circle (mu) is 162 (square) tshun (inches), the depth 1 chhih (foot), and the volume (of the whole) 1620 (cubic) tshun (inches)."

Later early Chinese mathematicians such as Zhang Heng (78–139) and Liu Hui (fl. 3rd century) would improve Liu's calculation for pi, and were improved upon in turn by Zu Chongzhi (429–500).

Standards and measures
As Emperor of Xin, Wang Mang attempted to return to the lost ways of the ancient sage-kings, a golden age of order and peace. Assisting him in some of the practicalities of this ambition was Liu Xin. Upon ascending the throne, Wang Mang named Liu Xin his Guoshi (國師, "Professor Laureate"), a newly created office which was one of the Four Viziers (四輔, named after a legend about a constellation), the most powerful and exalted ministers in the empire. As part of the rebranding schema implemented across the government, Liu Xin gained the noble title "Eminence of New Excellence" (嘉新公). He assisted in standardising the measures of liquid volume and the harmonic frequencies of musical instruments. The jialiang hu used to calculate pi was designed as the standard for the five measures of liquid volume stipulated by statute, and was constructed with a separate compartment for each of them.

In the course of his scientific work, Liu wrote a treatise which survives in the Book of Han: Lüli zhi (律曆志, "Treatise on Standards and Calendrics"). This text records detailed information about Han dynasty mathematics, measures of length and volume, harmonics, weights and balances, and the calendar via wuxing theory.

Astronomy and natural philosophy
As a classicist, Liu Xin was able to support the legitimation of his patron Wang Mang as a restorer of an ancient mode of governance, and as a proponent and theorist of the "generative cycle" of the popular "five phases" theory, Liu advised the new emperor on ritual matters to better accord with these fundamental essences. Liu additionally developed a new more accurate model of astronomy, the Triple Concordance calendar (三統歷; San tong li), for predicting the motion of heavenly bodies. In the second half of the 20th century, a crater on Mars was named in his honor.

Death
Although Liu Xin was originally a loyal partisan of Wang Mang, after Wang's troops suffered defeat on July 7, 23 at the Battle of Kunyang, Liu Xin plotted with others to overthrow Wang Mang. The plot was discovered, and all the conspirators committed suicide or were executed.

title: Liu Xin (scholar)