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Fish locomotion

Fish locomotion is the various types of animal locomotion used by fish, principally by swimming. This is achieved in different groups of fish by a variety of mechanisms of propulsion, most often by wave-like lateral flexions of the fish's body and tail in the water, and in various specialised fish by motions of the fins. The major forms of locomotion in fish are: More specialized fish include movement by pectoral fins with a mainly stiff body, opposed sculling with dorsal and anal fins, as in the sunfish; and movement by propagating a wave along the long fins with a motionless body, as in the knifefish or featherbacks.
 * Anguilliform, in which a wave passes evenly along a long slender body;
 * Sub-carangiform, in which the wave increases quickly in amplitude towards the tail;
 * Carangiform, in which the wave is concentrated near the tail, which oscillates rapidly;
 * Thunniform, rapid swimming with a large powerful crescent-shaped tail; and
 * Ostraciiform, with almost no oscillation except of the tail fin.

In addition, some fish can variously "walk" (i.e., crawl over land using the pectoral and pelvic fins), burrow in mud, leap out of the water and even glide temporarily through the air.

Mechanism

Fish swim by exerting force against the surrounding water. There are exceptions, but this is normally achieved by the fish contracting muscles on either side of its body in order to generate waves of flexion that travel the length of the body from nose to tail, generally getting larger as they go along. The vector forces exerted on the water by such motion cancel out laterally, but generate a net force backwards which in turn pushes the fish forward through the water. Most fishes generate thrust using lateral movements of their body and caudal fin, but many other species move mainly using their median and paired fins. The latter group swim slowly, but can turn rapidly, as is needed when living in coral reefs for example. But they can not swim as fast as fish using their bodies and caudal fins.

Consider the tilapia shown in the diagram. Like most fish, the tilapia has a streamlined body shape reducing water resistance to movement and enabling the tilapia to cut easily through water. Its head is inflexible, which helps it maintain forward thrust. Its scales overlap and point backwards, allowing water to pass over the fish without unnecessary obstruction. Water friction is further reduced by mucus which tilapia secrete over their body.

The backbone is flexible, allowing muscles to contract and relax rhythmically and bring about undulating movement. A swim bladder provides buoyancy which helps the fish adjust its vertical position in the water column. A lateral line system allows it to detect vibrations and pressure changes in water, helping the fish to respond appropriately to external events.

Well developed fins are used for maintaining balance, braking and changing direction. The pectoral fins act as pivots around which the fish can turn rapidly and steer itself. The paired pectoral and pelvic fins control pitching, while the unpaired dorsal and anal fins reduce yawing and rolling. The caudal fin provides raw power for propelling the fish forward.

Body/caudal fin propulsion
There are five groups that differ in the fraction of their body that is displaced laterally:

Anguilliform

In the anguilliform group, containing some long, slender fish such as eels, there is little increase in the amplitude of the flexion wave as it passes along the body.

Subcarangiform
The subcarangiform group has a more marked increase in wave amplitude along the body with the vast majority of the work being done by the rear half of the fish. In general, the fish body is stiffer, making for higher speed but reduced maneuverability. Trout use sub-carangiform locomotion.

Carangiform
The carangiform group, named for the Carangidae, are stiffer and faster-moving than the previous groups. The vast majority of movement is concentrated in the very rear of the body and tail. Carangiform swimmers generally have rapidly oscillating tails.

Thunniform

The thunniform group contains high-speed long-distance swimmers, and is characteristic of tunas and is also found in several lamnid sharks. Here, virtually all the sideways movement is in the tail and the region connecting the main body to the tail (the peduncle). The tail itself tends to be large and crescent shaped.

Ostraciiform
The ostraciiform group have no appreciable body wave when they employ caudal locomotion. Only the tail fin itself oscillates (often very rapidly) to create thrust. This group includes Ostraciidae.

Median/paired fin propulsion
Not all fish fit comfortably in the above groups. Ocean sunfish, for example, have a completely different system, the tetraodontiform mode, and many small fish use their pectoral fins for swimming as well as for steering and dynamic lift. Fish in the order Gymnotiformes possess electric organs along the length of their bodies and swim by undulating an elongated anal fin while keeping the body still, presumably so as not to disturb the electric field that they generate.

Many fish swim using combined behavior of their two pectoral fins or both their anal and dorsal fins. Different types of Median paired fin propulsion can be achieved by preferentially using one fin pair over the other, and include rajiform, diodontiform, amiiform, gymnotiform and balistiform modes.

Rajiform
Rajiform locomotion is characteristic of rays and skates, when thrust is produced by vertical undulations along large, well developed pectoral fins.

Diodontiform

Diodontiform locomotion propels the fish propagating undulations along large pectoral fins, as seen in the porcupinefish (Diodontidae).

Amiiform
Amiiform locomotion consists of undulations of a long dorsal fin while the body axis is held straight and stable, as seen in the bowfin.

Gymnotiform

Gymnotiform locomotion consists of undulations of a long anal fin, essentially upside down amiiform, seen in the South American knifefish Gymnotiformes.

Balistiform
In balistiform locomotion, both anal and dorsal fins undulate. It is characteristic of the family Balistidae (triggerfishes). It may also be seen in the Zeidae.

Oscillatory
Oscillation is viewed as pectoral-fin-based swimming and is best known as mobuliform locomotion. The motion can be described as the production of less than half a wave on the fin, similar to a bird wing flapping. Pelagic stingrays, such as the manta, cownose, eagle and bat rays use oscillatory locomotion.

Tetraodontiform
In tetraodontiform locomotion, the dorsal and anal fins are flapped as a unit, either in phase or exactly opposing one another, as seen in the Tetraodontiformes (boxfishes and pufferfishes). The ocean sunfish displays an extreme example of this mode.

Labriform
In labriform locomotion, seen in the wrasses (Labriformes), oscillatory movements of pectoral fins are either drag based or lift based. Propulsion is generated either as a reaction to drag produced by dragging the fins through the water in a rowing motion, or via lift mechanisms.

Dynamic lift

Bone and muscle tissues of fish are denser than water. To maintain depth, bony fish increase buoyancy by means of a gas bladder. Alternatively, some fish store oils or lipids for this same purpose. Fish without these features use dynamic lift instead. It is done using their pectoral fins in a manner similar to the use of wings by airplanes and birds. As these fish swim, their pectoral fins are positioned to create lift which allows the fish to maintain a certain depth. The two major drawbacks of this method are that these fish must stay moving to stay afloat and that they are incapable of swimming backwards or hovering.

Hydrodynamics
Similarly to the aerodynamics of flight, powered swimming requires animals to overcome drag by producing thrust. Unlike flying, however, swimming animals often do not need to supply much vertical force because the effect of buoyancy can counter the downward pull of gravity, allowing these animals to float without much effort. While there is great diversity in fish locomotion, swimming behavior can be classified into two distinct "modes" based on the body structures involved in thrust production, Median-Paired Fin (MPF) and Body-Caudal Fin (BCF). Within each of these classifications, there are numerous specifications along a spectrum of behaviours from purely undulatory to entirely oscillatory. In undulatory swimming modes, thrust is produced by wave-like movements of the propulsive structure (usually a fin or the whole body). Oscillatory modes, on the other hand, are characterized by thrust produced by swiveling of the propulsive structure on an attachment point without any wave-like motion.

Body-caudal fin

Most fish swim by generating undulatory waves that propagate down the body through the caudal fin. This form of undulatory locomotion is termed body-caudal fin (BCF) swimming on the basis of the body structures used; it includes anguilliform, sub-carangiform, carangiform, and thunniform locomotory modes, as well as the oscillatory ostraciiform mode.

Adaptation
Similar to adaptation in avian flight, swimming behaviors in fish can be thought of as a balance of stability and maneuverability. Because body-caudal fin swimming relies on more caudal body structures that can direct powerful thrust only rearwards, this form of locomotion is particularly effective for accelerating quickly and cruising continuously. body-caudal fin swimming is, therefore, inherently stable and is often seen in fish with large migration patterns that must maximize efficiency over long periods. Propulsive forces in median-paired fin swimming, on the other hand, are generated by multiple fins located on either side of the body that can be coordinated to execute elaborate turns. As a result, median-paired fin swimming is well adapted for high maneuverability and is often seen in smaller fish that require elaborate escape patterns.

The habitats occupied by fishes are often related to their swimming capabilities. On coral reefs, the faster-swimming fish species typically live in wave-swept habitats subject to fast water flow speeds, while the slower fishes live in sheltered habitats with low levels of water movement.

Fish do not rely exclusively on one locomotor mode, but are rather locomotor generalists, choosing among and combining behaviors from many available behavioral techniques. Predominantly body-caudal fin swimmers often incorporate movement of their pectoral, anal, and dorsal fins as an additional stabilizing mechanism at slower speeds, but hold them close to their body at high speeds to improve streamlining and reducing drag. Zebrafish have even been observed to alter their locomotor behavior in response to changing hydrodynamic influences throughout growth and maturation.

Flight
The transition of predominantly swimming locomotion directly to flight has evolved in a single family of marine fish, the Exocoetidae. Flying fish are not true fliers in the sense that they do not execute powered flight. Instead, these species glide directly over the surface of the ocean water without ever flapping their "wings." Flying fish have evolved abnormally large pectoral fins that act as airfoils and provide lift when the fish launches itself out of the water. Additional forward thrust and steering forces are created by dipping the hypocaudal (i.e. bottom) lobe of their caudal fin into the water and vibrating it very quickly, in contrast to diving birds in which these forces are produced by the same locomotor module used for propulsion. Of the 64 extant species of flying fish, only two distinct body plans exist, each of which optimizes two different behaviors.

Tradeoffs
While most fish have caudal fins with evenly sized lobes (i.e. homocaudal), flying fish have an enlarged ventral lobe (i.e. hypocaudal) which facilitates dipping only a portion of the tail back onto the water for additional thrust production and steering.

Because flying fish are primarily aquatic animals, their body density must be close to that of water for buoyancy stability. This primary requirement for swimming, however, means that flying fish are heavier (have a larger mass) than other habitual fliers, resulting in higher wing loading and lift to drag ratios for flying fish compared to a comparably sized bird. Differences in wing area, wing span, wing loading, and aspect ratio have been used to classify flying fish into two distinct classifications based on these different aerodynamic designs.

Biplane body plan
In the biplane or Cypselurus body plan, both the pectoral and pelvic fins are enlarged to provide lift during flight. These fish also tend to have "flatter" bodies which increase the total lift-producing area, thus allowing them to "hang" in the air better than more streamlined shapes. As a result of this high lift production, these fish are excellent gliders and are well adapted for maximizing flight distance and duration.

Comparatively, Cypselurus flying fish have lower wing loading and smaller aspect ratios (i.e. broader wings) than their Exocoetus monoplane counterparts, which contributes to their ability to fly for longer distances than fish with this alternative body plan. Flying fish with the biplane design take advantage of their high lift production abilities when launching from the water by utilizing a "taxiing glide" in which the hypocaudal lobe remains in the water to generate thrust even after the trunk clears the water's surface and the wings are opened with a small angle of attack for lift generation.

Monoplane body plan
In the Exocoetus or monoplane body plan, only the pectoral fins are enlarged to provide lift. Fish with this body plan tend to have a more streamlined body, higher aspect ratios (long, narrow wings), and higher wing loading than fish with the biplane body plan, making these fish well adapted for higher flying speeds. Flying fish with a monoplane body plan demonstrate different launching behaviors from their biplane counterparts. Instead of extending their duration of thrust production, monoplane fish launch from the water at high speeds at a large angle of attack (sometimes up to 45 degrees). In this way, monoplane fish are taking advantage of their adaptation for high flight speed, while fish with biplane designs exploit their lift production abilities during takeoff.

Walking

A "walking fish" is a fish that is able to travel over land for extended periods of time. Some other cases of nonstandard fish locomotion include fish "walking" along the sea floor, such as the handfish or frogfish.

Most commonly, walking fish are amphibious fish. Able to spend longer times out of water, these fish may use a number of means of locomotion, including springing, snake-like lateral undulation, and tripod-like walking. The mudskippers are probably the best land-adapted of contemporary fish and are able to spend days moving about out of water and can even climb mangroves, although to only modest heights. The Climbing gourami is often specifically referred to as a "walking fish", although it does not actually "walk", but rather moves in a jerky way by supporting itself on the extended edges of its gill plates and pushing itself by its fins and tail. Some reports indicate that it can also climb trees.

There are a number of fish that are less adept at actual walking, such as the walking catfish. Despite being known for "walking on land", this fish usually wriggles and may use its pectoral fins to aid in its movement. Walking Catfish have a respiratory system that allows them to live out of water for several days. Some are invasive species. A notorious case in the United States is the Northern snakehead. Polypterids have rudimentary lungs and can also move about on land, though rather clumsily. The Mangrove rivulus can survive for months out of water and can move to places like hollow logs.

There are some species of fish that can "walk" along the sea floor but not on land; one such animal is the flying gurnard (it does not actually fly, and should not be confused with flying fish). The batfishes of the family Ogcocephalidae (not to be confused with batfish of Ephippidae) are also capable of walking along the sea floor. Bathypterois grallator, also known as a "tripodfish", stands on its three fins on the bottom of the ocean and hunts for food. The African lungfish (P. annectens) can use its fins to "walk" along the bottom of its tank in a manner similar to the way amphibians and land vertebrates use their limbs on land.

Burrowing
Many fishes, particularly eel-shaped fishes such as true eels, moray eels, and spiny eels, are capable of burrowing through sand or mud. Ophichthids, the snake eels, are capable of burrowing either forwards or backwards.

Swimming

Fish larvae, like many adult fishes, swim by undulating their body. The swimming speed varies proportionally with the size of the animals, in that smaller animals tend to swim at lower speeds than larger animals. The swimming mechanism is controlled by the flow regime of the larvae. Reynolds number (Re) is defined as the ratio of inertial force to viscous force. Smaller organisms are affected more by viscous forces, like friction, and swim at a smaller Reynolds number. Larger organisms use a larger proportion of inertial forces, like pressure, to swim, at a higher Reynolds number.

The larvae of ray finned fishes, the Actinopterygii, swim at a quite large range of Reynolds number (Re ≈10 to 900). This puts them in an intermediate flow regime where both inertial and viscous forces play an important role. As the size of the larvae increases, the use of pressure forces to swim at higher Reynolds number increases.

Undulatory swimmers generally shed at least two types of wake: Carangiform swimmers shed connected vortex loops and Anguilliform swimmers shed individual vortex rings. These vortex rings depend upon the shape and arrangement of the trailing edge from which the vortices are shed. These patterns depend upon the swimming speed, ratio of swimming speed to body wave speed and the shape of body wave.

A spontaneous bout of swimming has three phases. The first phase is the start or acceleration phase: In this phase the larva tends to rotate its body to make a 'C' shape which is termed the preparatory stroke. It then pushes in the opposite direction to straighten its body, which is called a propulsive stroke, or a power stroke, which powers the larva to move forward. The second phase is cyclic swimming. In this phase, the larva swims with an approximately constant speed. The last phase is deceleration. In this phase, the swimming speed of the larva gradually slows down to a complete stop. In the preparatory stroke, due to the bending of the body, the larva creates 4 vortices around its body, and 2 of those are shed in the propulsive stroke. Similar phenomena can be seen in the deceleration phase. However, in the vortices of the deceleration phase, a large area of elevated vorticity can be seen compared to the starting phase.

The swimming abilities of larval fishes are important for survival. This is particularly true for the larval fishes with higher metabolic rate and smaller size which makes them more susceptible to predators. The swimming ability of a reef fish larva helps it to settle at a suitable reef and for locating its home as it is often isolated from its home reef in search of food. Hence the swimming speed of reef fish larvae are quite high (≈12 cm/s - 100 cm/s) compared to other larvae. The swimming speeds of larvae from the same families at the two locations are relatively similar. However, the variation among individuals is quite large. At the species level, length is significantly related to swimming ability. However, at the family level, only 16% of variation in swimming ability can be explained by length. There is also a negative correlation between the fineness ratio (length of body to maximum width) and the swimming ability of reef fish larvae. This suggests a minimization of overall drag and maximization of volume. Reef fish larvae differ significantly in their critical swimming speed abilities among taxa which leads to high variability in sustainable swimming speed. This again leads to sustainable variability in their ability to alter dispersal patterns, overall dispersal distances and control their temporal and spatial patterns of settlement.

Hydrodynamics
Small undulatory swimmers such as fish larvae experience both inertial and viscous forces, the relative importance of which is indicated by Reynolds number (Re). Reynolds number is proportional to body size and swimming speed. The swimming performance of a larva increases between 2–5 days post fertilization. Compared with adults, larval fish experience relatively high viscous force. To enhance thrust to an equal level with the adults, it increases its tail beat frequency and thus amplitude. In zebrafish, tail beat frequency increases over larval age to 95 Hz in 3 days post fertilization from 80 Hz in 2 days post fertilization. This higher frequency leads to higher swimming speed, thus reducing predation and increasing prey catching ability when they start feeding at around 5 days post fertilization. The vortex shedding mechanics changes with the flow regime in an inverse non-linear way. Strouhal number is a design parameter for the vortex shedding mechanism. It can be defined as a ratio of the product of tail beat frequency with amplitude with the mean swimming speed. Reynolds number (Re) is the main deciding criteria of a flow regime. It has been observed over different type of larval experiments that, slow larvae swims at higher Strouhal number but lower Reynolds number. However, the faster larvae swims distinctively at opposite conditions, that is, at lower Strouhal number but higher Reynolds number. Strouhal number is constant over similar speed ranged adult fishes. Strouhal number does not only depend on the small size of the swimmers, but also dependent to the flow regime. As in fishes which swim in viscous or high-friction flow regime, would create high body drag which will lead to higher Strouhal number. Whereas, in high viscous regime, the adults swim at lower stride length which leads to lower tail beat frequency and lower amplitude. This leads to higher thrust for same displacement or higher propulsive force, which unanimously reduces the Reynolds number.

Larval fishes start feeding at 5–7 days post fertilization. And they experience extreme mortality rate (≈99%) in the few days after feeding starts. The reason for this 'Critical Period' (Hjort-1914) is mainly hydrodynamic constraints. Larval fish fail to eat even if there are enough prey encounters. One of the primary determinants of feeding success is the size of larval body. The smaller larvae function in a lower Reynolds number (Re) regime. As the age increases, the size of the larvae increases, which leads to higher swimming speed and increased Reynolds number. It has been observed through many experiments that the Reynolds number of successful strikes (Re~200) is much higher than the Reynolds number of failed strikes (Re~20). Numerical analysis of suction feeding at a low Reynolds number concluded that around 40% energy invested in mouth opening is lost to frictional forces rather than contributing to accelerating the fluid towards mouth. Ontogenetic improvement in the sensory system, coordination and experiences are non-significant relationship while determining feeding success of larvae A successful strike positively depends upon the peak flow speed or the speed of larvae at the time of strike. The peak flow speed is also dependent on the gape speed or the speed of opening the buccal cavity to capture food. As the larva ages, its body size increase and its gape speed also increase, which cumulatively increase the successful strike outcomes.

The ability of a larval prey to survive an encounter with predator totally depends on its ability to sense and evade the strike. Adult fishes exhibit rapid suction feeding strikes as compared to larval fishes. Sensitivity of larval fish to velocity and flow fields provides the larvae a critical defense against predation. Though many prey use their visual system to detect and evade predators when there is light, it is hard for the prey to detect predators at night, which leads to a delayed response to the attack. There is a mechano-sensory system in fishes to identify the different flow generated by different motion surrounding the water and between the bodies called as lateral line system. After detecting a predator, a larva evades its strike by 'fast start' or 'C' response. A swimming fish disturbs a volume of water ahead of its body with a flow velocity that increases with the proximity to the body. This particular phenomenon is sometimes called a bow wave. The timing of the 'C' start response affects escape probability inversely. Escape probability increases with the distance from the predator at the time of strike. In general, prey successfully evade a predator strike from an intermediate distance (3–6 mm) from the predator.

Behavior
Objective quantification is complicated in higher vertebrates by the complex and diverse locomotor repertoire and neural system. However, the relative simplicity of a juvenile brain and simple nervous system of fishes with fundamental neuronal pathways allows zebrafish larvae to be an apt model to study the interconnection between locomotor repertoire and neuronal system of a vertebrate. Behavior represents the unique interface between intrinsic and extrinsic forces that determine an organism's health and survival. Larval zebrafish perform many locomotor behavior such as escape response, prey tracking, optomotor response etc. These behaviors can be categorized with respect to body position as ‘C’-starts, ‘J’-turns, slow scoots, routine turns etc. Fish larvae respond to abrupt changes in illumination with distinct locomotor behavior. The larvae show high locomotor activity during periods of bright light compared to dark. This behavior can direct towards the idea of searching food in light whereas the larvae do not feed in dark. Also light exposure directly manipulates the locomotor activities of larvae throughout circadian period of light and dark with higher locomotor activity in light condition than in dark condition which is very similar as seen in mammals. Following the onset of darkness, larvae shows hyperactive scoot motion prior to a gradual drop off. This behavior could possibly be linked to find a shelter before nightfall. Also larvae can treat this sudden nightfall as under debris and the hyperactivity can be explained as the larvae navigation back to illuminated areas. Prolonged dark period can reduce the light-dark responsiveness of larvae. Following light extinction, larvae execute large angle turns towards the vanished light source, which explains the navigational response of a larva. Acute ethanol exposure reduce visual sensitivity of larvae causing a latency to respond in light and dark period change.

title: Fish locomotion


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Fischer–Tropsch process

The Fischer–Tropsch process (FT) is a collection of chemical reactions that converts a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, known as syngas, into liquid hydrocarbons. These reactions occur in the presence of metal catalysts, typically at temperatures of 150 - 300 C and pressures of one to several tens of atmospheres. The Fischer–Tropsch process is an important reaction in both coal liquefaction and gas to liquids technology for producing liquid hydrocarbons.

In the usual implementation, carbon monoxide and hydrogen, the feedstocks for FT, are produced from coal, natural gas, or biomass in a process known as gasification. The process then converts these gases into synthetic lubrication oil and synthetic fuel. This process has received intermittent attention as a source of low-sulfur diesel fuel and to address the supply or cost of petroleum-derived hydrocarbons. Fischer–Tropsch process is discussed as a step of producing carbon-neutral liquid hydrocarbon fuels from CO2 and hydrogen.

The process was first developed by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, in 1925.

Reaction mechanism
The Fischer–Tropsch process involves a series of chemical reactions that produce a variety of hydrocarbons, ideally having the formula (CnH2n+2). The more useful reactions produce alkanes as follows:

 * (2n + 1) H2 + n CO → CnH2n+2 + n H2O

where n is typically 10–20. The formation of methane (n = 1) is unwanted. Most of the alkanes produced tend to be straight-chain, suitable as diesel fuel. In addition to alkane formation, competing reactions give small amounts of alkenes, as well as alcohols and other oxygenated hydrocarbons.

The reaction is a highly exothermic reaction due to a standard reaction enthalpy (ΔH) of −165 kJ/mol CO combined.

Fischer–Tropsch intermediates and elemental reactions
Converting a mixture of H2 and CO into aliphatic products is a multi-step reaction with several intermediate compounds. The growth of the hydrocarbon chain may be visualized as involving a repeated sequence in which hydrogen atoms are added to carbon and oxygen, the C–O bond is split and a new C–C bond is formed. For one –CH2– group produced by CO + 2 H2 → (CH2) + H2O, several reactions are necessary:
 * Associative adsorption of CO
 * Splitting of the C–O bond
 * Dissociative adsorption of 2 H2
 * Transfer of 2 H to the oxygen to yield H2O
 * Desorption of H2O
 * Transfer of 2 H to the carbon to yield CH2

The conversion of CO to alkanes involves hydrogenation of CO, the hydrogenolysis (cleavage with H2) of C–O bonds, and the formation of C–C bonds. Such reactions are assumed to proceed via initial formation of surface-bound metal carbonyls. The CO ligand is speculated to undergo dissociation, possibly into oxide and carbide ligands. Other potential intermediates are various C1 fragments including formyl (CHO), hydroxycarbene (HCOH), hydroxymethyl (CH2OH), methyl (CH3), methylene (CH2), methylidyne (CH), and hydroxymethylidyne (COH). Furthermore, and critical to the production of liquid fuels, are reactions that form C–C bonds, such as migratory insertion. Many related stoichiometric reactions have been simulated on discrete metal clusters, but homogeneous Fischer–Tropsch catalysts are of no commercial importance.

Addition of isotopically labelled alcohol to the feed stream results in incorporation of alcohols into product. This observation establishes the facility of C–O bond scission. Using 14C-labelled ethylene and propene over cobalt catalysts results in incorporation of these olefins into the growing chain. Chain growth reaction thus appears to involve both 'olefin insertion' as well as 'CO-insertion'.

Feedstocks: gasification
Fischer–Tropsch plants associated with biomass or coal or related solid feedstocks (sources of carbon) must first convert the solid fuel into gases. These gases include CO, H2, and alkanes. This conversion is called gasification. Synthesis gas ("syngas") is obtained from biomass/coal gasification is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The H2:CO ratio is adjusted using the water-gas shift reaction. Coal-based FT plants produce varying amounts of CO2, depending upon the energy source of the gasification process. However, most coal-based plants rely on the feed coal to supply all the energy requirements of the process.

Feedstocks: GTL
Carbon monoxide for FT catalysis is derived from hydrocarbons. In gas to liquids (GTL) technology, the hydrocarbons are low molecular weight materials that often would be discarded or flared. Stranded gas provides relatively cheap gas. For GTL to be commercially viable, gas must remain relatively cheaper than oil.

Several reactions are required to obtain the gaseous reactants required for FT catalysis. First, reactant gases entering a reactor must be desulfurized. Otherwise, sulfur-containing impurities deactivate ("poison") the catalysts required for FT reactions.

Several reactions are employed to adjust the H2:CO ratio. Most important is the water-gas shift reaction, which provides a source of hydrogen at the expense of carbon monoxide:

For FT plants that use methane as the feedstock, another important reaction is dry reforming, which converts the methane into CO and H2:

Process conditions
Generally, the Fischer–Tropsch process is operated in the temperature range of 150 - 300 C. Higher temperatures lead to faster reactions and higher conversion rates but also tend to favor methane production. For this reason, the temperature is usually maintained at the low to middle part of the range. Increasing the pressure leads to higher conversion rates and also favors the formation of long-chained alkanes, both of which are desirable. Typical pressures range from one to several tens of atmospheres. Even higher pressures would be favorable, but the benefits may not justify the additional costs of high-pressure equipment, and higher pressures can lead to catalyst deactivation via coke formation.

A variety of synthesis-gas compositions can be used. For cobalt-based catalysts the optimal H2:CO ratio is around 1.8–2.1. Iron-based catalysts can tolerate lower ratios, due to the intrinsic water-gas shift reaction activity of the iron catalyst. This reactivity can be important for synthesis gas derived from coal or biomass, which tend to have relatively low H2:CO ratios (< 1).

Design of the Fischer–Tropsch process reactor
Efficient removal of heat from the reactor is the basic need of FT reactors since these reactions are characterized by high exothermicity. Four types of reactors are discussed:

Multi tubular fixed-bed reactor

 * This type of reactor contains several tubes with small diameters. These tubes contain catalysts and are surrounded by cooling water which removes the heat of the reaction. A fixed-bed reactor is suitable for operation at low temperatures and has an upper-temperature limit of 257 °C (530 K). Excess temperature leads to carbon deposition and hence blockage of the reactor. Since large amounts of the products formed are in liquid state, this type of reactor can also be referred to as a trickle flow reactor system.

Entrained flow reactor

 * This type of reactor contains two banks of heat exchangers which remove heat; the remainder of which is removed by the products and recycled in the system. The formation of heavy waxes should be avoided, since they condense on the catalyst and form agglomerations. This leads to fluidization. Hence, risers are operated over 297 °C (570 K).

Slurry reactors

 * Heat removal is done by internal cooling coils. The synthesis gas is bubbled through the waxy products and finely-divided catalyst which is suspended in the liquid medium. This also provides agitation of the contents of the reactor. The catalyst particle size reduces diffusional heat and mass transfer limitations. A lower temperature in the reactor leads to a more viscous product and a higher temperature (> 297 °C, 570 K) gives an undesirable product spectrum. Also, separation of the product from the catalyst is a problem.

Fluid-bed and circulating catalyst (riser) reactors

 * These are used for high-temperature FT synthesis (nearly 340 °C) to produce low-molecular-weight unsaturated hydrocarbons on alkalized fused iron catalysts. The fluid-bed technology (as adapted from the catalytic cracking of heavy petroleum distillates) was introduced by Hydrocarbon Research in 1946–50 and named the 'Hydrocol' process. A large scale Fischer–Tropsch Hydrocol plant (350,000 tons per annum) operated during 1951–57 in Brownsville, Texas. Due to technical problems, and impractical economics due to increasing petroleum availability, this development was discontinued. Fluid-bed FT synthesis has been reinvestigated by Sasol. One reactor with a capacity of 500,000 tons per annum is in operation. The process has been used for C2 and C7 alkene production. A high-temperature process with a circulating iron catalyst ('circulating fluid bed', 'riser reactor', 'entrained catalyst process') was introduced by the Kellogg Company and a respective plant built at Sasol in 1956. It was improved by Sasol for successful operation. At Secunda, South Africa, Sasol operated 16 advanced reactors of this type with a capacity of approximately 330,000 tons per annum each. The circulating catalyst process can be replaced by fluid-bed technology. Early experiments with cobalt catalyst particles suspended in oil have been performed by Fischer. The bubble column reactor with a powdered iron slurry catalyst and a CO-rich syngas was particularly developed to pilot plant scale by Kölbel at the Rheinpreuben Company in 1953. Since 1990, low-temperature FT slurry processes are under investigation for the use of iron and cobalt catalysts, particularly for the production of a hydrocarbon wax, or to be hydrocracked and isomerized to produce diesel fuel, by Exxon and Sasol. Slurry-phase (bubble column) low-temperature FT synthesis is efficient. This technology is also under development by the Statoil Company (Norway) for use on a vessel to convert associated gas at offshore oil fields into a hydrocarbon liquid.

Product distribution
In general the product distribution of hydrocarbons formed during the Fischer–Tropsch process follows an Anderson–Schulz–Flory distribution, which can be expressed as:

 * $W_{n}⁄n$ = (1 − α)2αn−1

where Wn is the weight fraction of hydrocarbons containing n carbon atoms, and α is the chain growth probability or the probability that a molecule will continue reacting to form a longer chain. In general, α is largely determined by the catalyst and the specific process conditions.

Examination of the above equation reveals that methane will always be the largest single product so long as α is less than 0.5; however, by increasing α close to one, the total amount of methane formed can be minimized compared to the sum of all of the various long-chained products. Increasing α increases the formation of long-chained hydrocarbons. The very long-chained hydrocarbons are waxes, which are solid at room temperature. Therefore, for production of liquid transportation fuels it may be necessary to crack some of the FT products. In order to avoid this, some researchers have proposed using zeolites or other catalyst substrates with fixed sized pores that can restrict the formation of hydrocarbons longer than some characteristic size (usually n < 10). This way they can drive the reaction so as to minimize methane formation without producing many long-chained hydrocarbons. Such efforts have had only limited success.

Catalysts
Four metals are active as catalysts for the Fischer–Tropsch process: iron, cobalt, nickel, and ruthenium. Since FT process typically transforms inexpensive precursors into complex mixtures that require further refining, FT catalysts are based on inexpensive metals, especially iron and cobalt. Nickel generates too much methane, so it is not used.

Typically, such heterogeneous catalysts are obtained through precipitation from iron nitrate solutions. Such solutions can be used to deposit the metal salt onto the catalyst support (see below). Such treated materials transform into active catalysts by heating under CO, H2 or with the feedstock to be treated, i.e., the catalysts are generated in situ. Owing to the multistep nature of the FT process, analysis of the catalytically active species is challenging. Furthermore, as is known for iron catalysts, a number of phases may coexist and may participate in diverse steps in the reaction. Such phases include various oxides and carbides as well as polymorphs of the metals. Control of these constituents may be relevant to product distributions. Aside from iron and cobalt, nickel and ruthenium are active for converting the CO/H2 mixture to hydrocarbons. Although expensive, ruthenium is the most active of the Fischer–Tropsch catalysts in the sense that It works at the lowest reaction temperatures and produces higher molecular weight hydrocarbons. Ruthenium catalysts consist of the metal, without any promoters, thus providing relatively simple system suitable for mechanistic analysis. Its high price preclude industrial applications. Cobalt catalysts are more active for FT synthesis when the feedstock is natural gas. Natural gas has a high hydrogen to carbon ratio, so the water-gas shift is not needed for cobalt catalysts. Cobalt-based catalysts are more sensitive than their iron counterparts.

Illustrative of real world catalyst selection, high-temperature Fischer–Tropsch (HTFT), which operates at 330–350 °C, uses an iron-based catalyst. This process was used extensively by Sasol in their coal-to-liquid plants (CTL). Low-temperature Fischer–Tropsch (LTFT) uses an iron- or cobalt-based catalyst. This process is best known for being used in the first integrated GTL-plant operated and built by Shell in Bintulu, Malaysia.

Promoters and supports
In addition to the active metal (usually Fe or Co), two other components comprise the catalyst: promoters and the catalyst support. Promoters are additives that enhance the behavior of the catalyst. For F-T catalysts, typical promoters including potassium and copper, which are usually added as salts. The choice of promoters depends on the primary metal, iron vs cobalt. Iron catalysts need alkali promotion to attain high activity and stability (e.g. 0.5 wt% K2O). Potassium-doped α-Fe2O3 are synthesized under variable calcination temperatures (400–800 °C). Addition of Cu for reduction promotion, addition of, for structural promotion and maybe some manganese can be applied for selectivity control (e.g. high olefinicity). The choice of promoters depends on the primary metal, i.e., iron vs cobalt. While group 1 alkali metals (e.g., potassium), help iron catalysts, they poison cobalt catalysts.

Catalysts are supported on high-surface-area binders/supports such as silica, alumina, or zeolites.

History
The F-T process attracted attention as a means of Nazi Germany to produce liquid hydrocarbons. The original process was developed by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, working at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut for Chemistry in 1926. They filed a number of patents, e.g.,, applied 1926, published 1930. It was commercialized by Brabag in Germany in 1936. Being petroleum-poor but coal-rich, Germany used the process during World War II to produce ersatz (replacement) fuels. FT production accounted for an estimated 9% of German war production of fuels and 25% of the automobile fuel. Many refinements and adjustments have been made to the process since Fischer and Tropsch's time.

The United States Bureau of Mines, in a program initiated by the Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act, employed seven Operation Paperclip synthetic fuel scientists in a Fischer–Tropsch plant in Louisiana, Missouri in 1946.

In Britain, Alfred August Aicher obtained several patents for improvements to the process in the 1930s and 1940s. Aicher's company was named Synthetic Oils Ltd (not related to a company of the same name in Canada).

Around the 1930s and 1940s, Arthur Imhausen developed and implemented an industrial process for producing edible fats from these synthetic oils through oxidation. The products were fractionally distilled and the edible fats were obtained from the - fraction which were reacted with glycerol such as that synthesized from propylene. "Coal butter" margarine made from synthetic oils was found to be nutritious and of agreeable taste, and it was incorporated into diets contributing as much as 700 calories per day. The process required at least 60 kg of coal per kg of synthetic butter.

Ras Laffan, Qatar
The LTFT facility Pearl GTL at Ras Laffan, Qatar, is the second largest FT plant in the world after Sasol's Secunda plant in South Africa. It uses cobalt catalysts at 230 °C, converting natural gas to petroleum liquids at a rate of 140000 oilbbl/d, with additional production of 120000 oilbbl of oil equivalent in natural gas liquids and ethane.

Another plant in Ras Laffan, called Oryx GTL, has been commissioned in 2007 with a capacity of 34000 oilbbl/day. The plant utilizes the Sasol slurry phase distillate process, which uses a cobalt catalyst. Oryx GTL is a joint venture between QatarEnergy and Sasol.

Sasol

The world's largest scale implementation of Fischer–Tropsch technology is a series of plants operated by Sasol in South Africa, a country with large coal reserves, but little oil. With a capacity of 165000 Bpd at its Secunda plant. The first commercial plant opened in 1952. Sasol uses coal and natural gas as feedstocks and produces a variety of synthetic petroleum products, including most of the country's diesel fuel.

PetroSA
PetroSA, another South African company, operates a refinery with a 36,000 barrels a day plant that completed semi-commercial demonstration in 2011, paving the way to begin commercial preparation. The technology can be used to convert natural gas, biomass or coal into synthetic fuels.

Shell middle distillate synthesis
One of the largest implementations of Fischer–Tropsch technology is in Bintulu, Malaysia. This Shell facility converts natural gas into low-sulfur Diesel fuels and food-grade wax. The scale is 12000 oilbbl/d.

Velocys
Construction is underway for Velocys' commercial reference plant incorporating its microchannel Fischer–Tropsch technology; ENVIA Energy's Oklahoma City GTL project being built adjacent to Waste Management's East Oak landfill site. The project is being financed by a joint venture between Waste Management, NRG Energy, Ventech and Velocys. The feedstock for this plant will be a combination of landfill gas and pipeline natural gas.

SGCE
Starting as a biomass technology licensor In Summer of 2012 SGC Energia (SGCE) successfully commissioned a pilot multi tubular Fischer–Tropsch process unit and associated product upgrading units at the Pasadena, Tx Technology Center. The technology center focused on the development and operations of their XTLH solution which optimized processing of low value carbon waste streams into advanced fuels and wax products. This unit also serves as an operations training environment for the 1100 BPD Juniper GTL facility constructed in Westlake, LA.

UPM (Finland)
In October 2006, Finnish paper and pulp manufacturer UPM announced its plans to produce biodiesel by the Fischer–Tropsch process alongside the manufacturing processes at its European paper and pulp plants, using waste biomass resulting from paper and pulp manufacturing processes as source material.

Rentech
A demonstration-scale Fischer–Tropsch plant was built and operated by Rentech, Inc., in partnership with ClearFuels, a company specializing in biomass gasification. Located in Commerce City, Colorado, the facility produces about 10 oilbbl/d of fuels from natural gas. Commercial-scale facilities were planned for Rialto, California; Natchez, Mississippi; Port St. Joe, Florida; and White River, Ontario. Rentech closed down their pilot plant in 2013, and abandoned work on their FT process as well as the proposed commercial facilities.

INFRA GTL Technology
In 2010, INFRA built a compact Pilot Plant for conversion of natural gas into synthetic oil. The plant modeled the full cycle of the GTL chemical process including the intake of pipeline gas, sulfur removal, steam methane reforming, syngas conditioning, and Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. In 2013 the first pilot plant was acquired by VNIIGAZ Gazprom LLC. In 2014 INFRA commissioned and operated on a continuous basis a new, larger scale full cycle Pilot Plant. It represents the second generation of INFRA's testing facility and is differentiated by a high degree of automation and extensive data gathering system. In 2015, INFRA built its own catalyst factory in Troitsk (Moscow, Russia). The catalyst factory has a capacity of over 15 tons per year, and produces the unique proprietary Fischer–Tropsch catalysts developed by the company's R&D division. In 2016, INFRA designed and built a modular, transportable GTL (gas-to-liquid) M100 plant for processing natural and associated gas into synthetic crude oil in Wharton (Texas, USA). The M100 plant is operating as a technology demonstration unit, R&D platform for catalyst refinement, and economic model to scale the Infra GTL process into larger and more efficient plants.

Other
In the United States and India, some coal-producing states have invested in Fischer–Tropsch plants. In Pennsylvania, Waste Management and Processors, Inc. was funded by the state to implement FT technology licensed from Shell and Sasol to convert so-called waste coal (leftovers from the mining process) into low-sulfur diesel fuel.

Research developments
Choren Industries has built a plant in Germany that converts biomass to syngas and fuels using the Shell FT process structure. The company went bankrupt in 2011 due to impracticalities in the process.

Biomass gasification (BG) and Fischer–Tropsch (FT) synthesis can in principle be combined to produce renewable transportation fuels (biofuels).

In partnership with Sunfire, Audi produces E-diesel in small scale with two steps, the second one being FT.

U.S. Air Force certification
Syntroleum, a publicly traded United States company, has produced over 400,000 USgal of diesel and jet fuel from the Fischer–Tropsch process using natural gas and coal at its demonstration plant near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Syntroleum is working to commercialize its licensed Fischer–Tropsch technology via coal-to-liquid plants in the United States, China, and Germany, as well as gas-to-liquid plants internationally. Using natural gas as a feedstock, the ultra-clean, low sulfur fuel has been tested extensively by the United States Department of Energy and the United States Department of Transportation. Syntroleum has worked to develop a synthetic jet fuel blend that will help the Air Force to reduce its dependence on imported petroleum. The Air Force, which is the United States military's largest user of fuel, began exploring alternative fuel sources in 1999. On December 15, 2006, a B-52 took off from Edwards Air Force Base, California for the first time powered solely by a 50–50 blend of JP-8 and Syntroleum's FT fuel. The seven-hour flight test was considered a success. The goal of the flight test program is to qualify the fuel blend for fleet use on the service's B-52s, and then flight test and qualification on other aircraft. The test program concluded in 2007. This program is part of the Department of Defense Assured Fuel Initiative, an effort to develop secure domestic sources for the military energy needs. The Pentagon hopes to reduce its use of crude oil from foreign producers and obtain about half of its aviation fuel from alternative sources by 2016.

Carbon dioxide reuse
Carbon dioxide is not a typical feedstock for FT catalysis. Hydrogen and carbon dioxide react over a cobalt-based catalyst, producing methane. With iron-based catalysts unsaturated short-chain hydrocarbons are also produced. Upon introduction to the catalyst's support, ceria functions as a reverse water-gas shift catalyst, further increasing the yield of the reaction. The short-chain hydrocarbons were upgraded to liquid fuels over solid acid catalysts, such as zeolites.

Process efficiency
Using conventional FT technology the process ranges in carbon efficiency from 25 to 50 percent and a thermal efficiency of about 50% for CTL facilities idealised at 60% with GTL facilities at about 60% efficiency idealised to 80% efficiency.

Fischer–Tropsch in nature
A Fischer–Tropsch-type process has also been suggested to have produced a few of the building blocks of DNA and RNA within asteroids. Similarly, the hypothetical abiogenic petroleum formation requires some naturally occurring FT-like processes.

Biological Fischer-Tropsch-type chemistry can be carried out by the enzyme nitrogenase at ambient conditions.

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

title: Fischer–Tropsch process


text:
Music in the Tuva Republic

Tuva is a part of Russia, inhabited by a Turkic people. Tuvans are known abroad for khoomei (xöömej), a kind of overtone singing.

Traditionally, Tuvan music was only a solo effort. The musician's intention was usually to emphasise timbre and harmonics over rhythm. Performances were often in places with good natural acoustics, such as caves, cliffs, and rivers, with the performer taking long pauses to allow nature the chance to converse back. Modern Tuvan music usually involves ensembles of musicians playing multiple instruments, and tends to be more pulsatile than traditional forms.

Traditional songs
Tuvans' belief in spirits is apparent in their musical practices. Praise songs and chants, called algysh, and the rhythmically chanted poetic couplets that precede breaths of throat-singing, address cher eezi, or local-spirit masters with words. Throat singing is instead made to imitate sounds produced by the places or beings in which the spirit-masters dwell. Singers establish contact with the spirit-master by reproducing the sounds made and enter into conversation, whose aim is supplication, an expression of gratitude, or an appeal for protection. The same imitative or mimetic interaction with the natural sound world may also be mediated through the use of traditional musical instruments. Calm, mimetic singing in reproduction of the sounds of a certain place is believed to be the best possible offering to spirit-masters.

This region is also famous for its indigenous shaman population. Shamans commonly created music in order to call upon spirits, conjure ancestors, discover birthplaces, connect with natural surroundings, and to attract spirits for hunters. Shepherds would also play music to herd animals and imitate galloping horses. Each song had a certain meaning according to where the musician was and whether or not the situation was work or relaxation.

Many traditional Tuvan songs share the same structure. They may consist of several verses, each four lines long, with each line having only eight syllables. It is not uncommon for all the lines of a verse to begin with a word starting with the same letter or a similar-sounding letter.

Traditional instruments

 * Amyrga (horn used for hunting Maral)
 * Byzaanchy (4-string spike fiddle)
 * Chadagan (similar to a zither)
 * Chanzy (3-string plucked lute)
 * Bichii chanzy (small chanzy tuned one octave higher)
 * Doshpuluur (3-string plucked lute)
 * Dungur (flat drum used by shamans)
 * Ediski (birch wood vibrated with the mouth to imitate birds)
 * Igil (2-string bowed horsehead fiddle with skin-covered soundbox)
 * Khomus (jaw harp)
 * Shoor (end blown flute used by shamans to attract spirits)
 * Yat-kha (long zither similar to Korean gayageum)
 * Xapchyk (rattle made of a dried bull's scrotum filled with the knuckle bones from sheep)
 * Kengirge (large frame drum) and shyngyrash (bells that sit atop the kengirge)

Modern music
In parallel with traditional music, modern genres of music developed in Tuva since the 1970s. These were mainly pop and rock music, as well as fusions of these genres with khoomei. The most popular Tuvan musical group is Huun-Huur-Tu.

Notable Tuvan rock and fusion performers include: Saidash Mongush; Yat-Kha; Alexander Sarzhat-Ool (guitar), who spent 22 years in jail before starting the music career, and was self-taught; Alexander Chavynchak (guitar), who performed free jazz and blues, as well as khoomei; and Vladimir Oidupaa (bayan and khoomei).

Uniformed marching bands are active in the republic, particularly the Brass Band of the Government of Tuva. Created on 24 March 2008 from a student band under the Kyzyl Art College (originally founded in 1960), the average age of band members is 24 years old. It is the only civilian mounted band in Russia, reviving the traditions of its predecessor – the Horse Brass Band of the Tuva People's Revolutionary Army, which was active in the TPRA from 1929 to 1944. The first performance of the band was on horseback during a Victory Day Parade in 2008 in Kyzyl. It also performed the following October for a program dedicated to the 65th anniversary of Tuva joining Russia. The band participates in many international and inter-regional festivals, including the Spasskaya Tower Military Music Festival and Tattoo and the Capital City Day celebrations in Kazakhstan, and is a three time winner of the Grand Prix of the International Festival of Live Music and Faith "Ustuu-Khuree".

title: Music in the Tuva Republic


text:
Phranc

Phranc (born Susan Gottlieb; August 28, 1957), is an American singer-songwriter whose career began playing in several bands in the late 1970s Los Angeles punk rock scene. Her musical style later shifted during the 1980s as a solo artist, into a self-proclaimed "All-American Jewish lesbian folksinger."

Biography
Phranc was born Susan Gottlieb in Santa Monica, California, and grew up in Mar Vista, Los Angeles. She began her performing career in the late 1970s and early 1980s punk scene in Los Angeles. She had a bleached blonde crewcut and wore male attire, creating an androgynous persona for her first band, Nervous Gender, which formed in 1978. The writer V/D wrote of her for the punk fanzine Slash, "On stage, Phranc looks like a 14-year-old runaway from a boys' reform school." The band was influential in the development of what later came to be known as 'electropunk'. In 1980 she left Nervous Gender to join the punk band Catholic Discipline, in which Craig Lee (Bags) and Claude Bessy, journalist for Slash punk fanzine, were the lead singers. Phranc appears with Catholic Discipline in the 1980 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization. She was also in Castration Squad, a feminist, all-female punk band which also featured Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave, Elissa Bello of The Go-Go's, Alice Bag of the Bags, Tracy Lea of Redd Kross, and Shannon Wilhelm.

In the 1980s, Phranc pursued a solo career. She performs in Paul Morrissey's film Madame Wang's (1981) as Phranque. She began playing an acoustic guitar and released Folksinger on Rhino Records in 1985. She opened for music acts such as The Smiths, Hüsker Dü, Violent Femmes, and Billy Bragg. She styled herself the "All-American Jewish Lesbian Folksinger" and with a wry sense of humour released the LP I Enjoy Being a Girl in 1989 on Island Records, appearing on the cover with her trademark 'flat top' hair style. Describing a live performance, Adam Block wrote "Phranc's unnerving androgyny (expressed with easy confidence) and her fervent opinions (couched in sly, laconic wit) make her a fascinating performer." Her third full-length recording, released in 1991, was Positively Phranc.

Phranc was an important influence on the Queercore movement, being acknowledged as such by Team Dresch in their song for her, "Uncle Phranc." In the 1990s many queercore bands and musicians involved in queercore music began collaborating with her. She appeared as a guest on the Team Dresch LP/CD Captain My Captain and, as well, members of Team Dresch, Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill, Patty Schemel of Hole and others have played with Phranc on her EP Goofyfoot and other songs. Phranc performs and is interviewed in the queercore documentary She's Real, Worse Than Queer by Lucy Thane, and she has appeared frequently at queercore events such as Olympia's Homo-a-go-go festival. In the 1990s Phranc performed "Hot August Phranc", performing as Neil Diamond. On her full-length CD of 1998, Milkman, she is joined by Steve MacDonald of Redd Kross, who plays bass. Her most recent releases, including Milkman, appear on her own independent record label, Phancy Records.

The 2001 documentary film, Lifetime Guarantee, directed by Lisa Udelson, chronicled Phranc's side job as a Tupperware demonstrator and manager. The documentary showed that despite Phranc's high sales and high-profile, her enthusiastic and sincere approach to the job, and her engaging manner and popularity among the sales force, Phranc was disappointed to find that the Tupperware corporation itself did not celebrate or even acknowledge her genuine achievements in sales and marketing for the company. Phranc was still selling Tupperware in 2008, but as of 2013 her online store was closed.

She still performs occasionally, but spends more time working on creative visual art projects, including her Cardboard Cobbler sculptures. In December 2007 she had a solo art show at Cue Art Foundation in New York City curated by Ann Magnuson; The New York Times review compared her work to Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol. Phranc had her first major West Coast solo show, at Craig Krull Gallery, June 18 to July 23, 2011, an exhibition made of beach themed cardboard and craft paper works. She continues to work in her Santa Monica studio and is represented by Krull.

Phranc was absent from her blog and Facebook from late 2011 to Spring 2014. Phranc announced in April 2014 that she had been prevented from participating in online activities due to an injury.

In 2023 Phranc's retrospective The Butch Closet was held at Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica. It was a multi-disciplinary show that included new and old work as well as ephemera, home movies, merchandise and artfacts from her music and visual art career spanning over 40 years. It included pieces like drawings of food, vacuums, and toothpaste that Phranc did while working at the Women's Building in the 1970s, as well as current work like a reproduction of her Slash magazine t-shirt and her 1960s Lambchop Halloween costume.

Personal life
Phranc lives in Santa Monica, California with her partner and children.

Discography
{| width="100%"
 * valign="top" width="40%" |

Albums

 * Folksinger (1985), Rhino
 * I Enjoy Being a Girl LP (1989), Island
 * Positively Phranc LP (1991), Island
 * Goofyfoot 10" EP (1995), Kill Rock Stars
 * Milkman LP (1998), Phancy
 * valign="top" |

Singles

 * "Amazon" (1985), Stiff
 * "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" (1986), Stiff
 * "Bulldagger Swagger" b/w "Hillary's Eyebrows" 7" single (1994), Kill Rock Stars

Compilations

 * "My Favorite Women Newscasters" on The Best of the Radio Tokyo Tapes (Chameleon 8608, 1987)
 * Some Songs (1997)
 * Hang Ten Double CD on American Pop Project, Phranc with Satan's Pilgrims
 * "Dumb Hairdresser" on Milkshake – A CD to Benefit the Harvey Milk Institute (1998), timmi-kat ReCoRDS
 * "Tupperware Lady" on Kat Vox: A CD to Celebrate 20 Years of timmi-kat ReCoRDS (2011), timmi-kat ReCoRDS
 * }

Solo exhibitions

 * 2023 The Butch Closet, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
 * 2018 Swagger, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
 * 2018 The Great Outdoors, Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, ID
 * 2018 Toys, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
 * 2014 It Happened in Sun Valley, Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, ID,
 * 2014 Winter, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2013
 * 2011 	Phranc & Co. Out West General Store, Museum of the American West, Autry National Center, Los Angeles, CA
 * 2011 	Phranc of California, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
 * 2007 	Phranc, CUE Art Foundation, New York City
 * 2006 	Cardboard Cupcake, 12 Birthday celebration, 18 Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA
 * 2006 	Phranc of California, Eastside Studios, Los Angeles, CA
 * 2006 	Paper Play, W/ Alison Bechdel, Pine Street Art Works – Burlington, VT
 * 2005 	Carnalville, cardboard sign installation w/ TEADA, 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA
 * 2004 	The Cardboard Cobbler "Valentines" 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, CA
 * 1994 	Storefront Installation "Phranc-O-Mat", Creative Time, 42nd Street Arts Project, New York, NY
 * 1992 	Brief Encounter, Three dimensional pop art show, Highways, Santa Monica, CA

Group exhibitions

 * 2014 	Incognito 10, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
 * 2014 	Filtered: What Does Love Look Like?, Friesen Gallery Fine Art, Ketchum, ID
 * 2013 	Compass-Navigating the Journey to Self-Identity, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA
 * 2013 	This Side of the 405, Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA
 * 2013 	#three, The Archer School for Girls, Los Angeles, CA
 * 2010 	The Man I Wish I Was, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
 * 2009 	Support, Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York, NY
 * 2008 	This Side Up: The Art of Cardboard, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
 * 2008 	Grandmasters, Honoring Sheila DeBretteville, The Art Directors Club, New York, NY
 * 2008 	Pink and Bent, Leslie/Lohman Gallery, New York, NY
 * 2007 	Welcome Home, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
 * 1999 	Forming: The early days of PUNK, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
 * 1994 	Group Show, White Columns, New York
 * 1978 	Books, Posters, Postcards, w/Cindy Marsh, The Woman's Building, Los Angeles, CA

title: Phranc


text:
Lists of Macedonians

There are several lists of Macedonians, people who live or lived in the region of Macedonia:
 * List of Macedonians (ethnic group)
 * List of Macedonians (Greek)
 * List of Macedonian Bulgarians
 * List of Macedonian Turks
 * List of ancient Macedonians
 * List of Macedonian Americans

title: Lists of Macedonians


text:
List of Maid Marian and Her Merry Men episodes

The following is a list of the episodes of the BBC television series Maid Marian and her Merry Men.

Series 1 (1989)
Series One is the most faithful to the original legends being parodied and probably the series with the fewest anachronisms. Originally transmitted from 16 November to 21 December 1989, with How The Band Got Together repeated on 20 April 2001.

Series 2 (1990)
Series Two, despite the appearance of Guy of Gisborne (who is almost the opposite of the character of the same name from the legends) begins to veer away from them and instead move towards a more creative style. Originally transmitted from 15 November to 20 December 1990, and repeated from 27 April to 1 June 2001.

Series 3 (1993)
By the third series, the surrealism and anachronisms were well-entrenched and the plots had very little to do with the historical setting. More overt parodies and references can be seen here, including the song in Episode 3 "Call The Dentist" (a direct parody of the Ghostbusters theme), "Chop Suey" in Episode 5 (a slow parody of Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto") and almost all of Episode 5. The supposed conflict between King John and the Sheriff on the one side and the Merry Men on the other is often downplayed in favour of a general comedic situation. Originally transmitted from 7 January to 11 February 1993, and repeated from 8 June to 13 July 2001.

Christmas Special (1993)
Originally transmitted as one 50 minute episode on 24 December 1993, and repeated as two 25 minute episodes on 20 July and 27 July 2001. This episode can be found as an extra on the series 3 DVD release.

Series 4 (1994)
This, the final series of the programme, is in many ways the most bizarre. On the one hand, the comedy became more sophisticated: the roleplaying references in Episode 1, the parodies of English seaside culture in Episode 3 and the Beatles references in Episode 4 are jokes aimed over the heads of a juvenile audience. The appearance of "Clem Costner" is a reference to the Robin Hood films – and the fact that the Costner character is Robin's antithesis is perhaps unsurprising – while the inversion of the entire culture in the final episode demonstrates that nothing is sacred. On the other hand, the comedy also became more juvenile, and there was more slapstick and pie gags than in the other three series combined. Originally transmitted from 5 January to 16 February 1994, with five of the seven episodes repeated (The Wise Woman of Worksop and Voyage to the Bottom of the Forest were not included) from 3 to 31 August 2001.


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The haven

The haven
Someone tagged this as a speedy, but I don't think it qualifies as one. That said, I don't think this looks encyclopedia worthy. There's dozens of such places where I live. I'll vote delete. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 09:52, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * It's a store. delete. iMeowbot 10:51, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, nn, innocently written, not a speedy. Wyss 11:36, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. nn. P Ingerson 13:31, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: Local Android's Dungeon, not notable. Geogre 13:42, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, not a speedy --fvw *  19:55, 2004 Dec 16 (UTC)
 * Delete. A place where teens hang out...unencyclopedic, non-notable, whatever you want to call it. [[User:Livajo|Ливай | ☺]] 00:50, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)


text:
Abbie G. Rogers

Abigail Gifford Rogers (January 20, 1841 – May 21, 1894) was the first wife of Henry Huttleston Rogers (1840–1909), an American business magnate.

As children, Abbie and Henry grew up and went to school together in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, a small coastal fishing town with a whaling heritage. They were married in 1862, and started their family life together in a one-room shack in the newly discovered western Pennsylvania oil fields. Although he and Abbie lived frugally for many years, by 1875, Henry Rogers had risen in the petroleum industry to become one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust. He invested heavily in various industries, including copper, steel, mining, and railways. The Virginian Railway is widely considered his final life's achievement. Rogers amassed a great fortune, estimated at over $100 million, and became one of the wealthiest men in the United States.

Abbie and Henry Rogers were generous, providing many public works for their hometown of Fairhaven, including the Town Hall which Abbie donated in 1894 shortly before her death. Rogers also financially assisted such notables as Mark Twain, Helen Keller, and Booker T. Washington.

Abbie and Henry Rogers had six children, four of whom survived to adulthood. She died suddenly on May 21, 1894, following an operation in New York City. After her death, Henry Rogers is said to have immersed himself even more in his work during the 15 years he outlived her. When he died in 1909, he was interred with her at Riverside Cemetery in Fairhaven.

Childhood in Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Abigail Palmer Gifford was the younger daughter of Captain Peleg W. Gifford and his wife, Amelia L. Hammond. Abbie's father had been a whaling ship captain and participated in the "Great Stone Fleet" of scuttled ships that blockaded Charleston Harbor during the American Civil War. It is said that Captain Gifford loved to discuss his career as a very successful ship-master. The Giffords' home, built in 1835, was located at 36 Green Street in Fairhaven, (now numbered 115 Green Street).

As Abbie grew up, one of her schoolmates and neighbors in the small coastal town was young Henry Huttleston Rogers, nicknamed "Hen", her future husband. Both Abbie and Henry were descendants of colonists who had arrived at the Plymouth Colony on the Mayflower in 1620.

There, in 1862, Abbie Palmer Gifford married young Henry Rogers, her childhood sweetheart. She returned with him to the oil fields where they lived in a one-room shack along Oil Creek, where her young husband and Ellis worked the Wamsutta Oil Refinery.

After 1874, the Rogers family continued to live in New York City, but vacationed at Fairhaven, where a large mansion was erected for them.

Family and children
Abbie was the mother of five children, four girls and a boy. Another little son had died at birth. Their eldest daughter, Anne Engle Rogers, was born in 1865 in Pennsylvania.

The family moved to New York in 1866. Daughter Cara Leland Rogers was born in Fairhaven in 1867, Millicent was born in 1873, followed by Mary (who became known as Mai) in 1875.

Their son, Henry Huttleston Rogers Jr., was born in 1879, and came to be known as Harry. In adulthood, after the death of his father, he became known as Colonel Henry Huddleston Rogers, apparently returning to an earlier spelling of his middle name. The title of Colonel was apparently honorific, not uncommon in those times.

Local historians recall that the children of Henry Huttleston Rogers and Abbie Gifford Rogers were far more than vacationers in Fairhaven. Their roots were deep in the community. They spent time with grandparents and family friends, and became knowledgeable about the traditions of the old whaling town.

Anne Engle Rogers Benjamin
Anne married William Evarts Benjamin, a prominent Boston publisher and collector. They had 2 children, Beatrice Benjamin Cartwright and Henry Rogers Benjamin.

Cara Leland Rogers Broughton, Lady Fairhaven
In 1890, Cara Leland Rogers married Bradford Ferris Duff of New York. Their marriage was to end a year later, in 1891, when her new husband, aged twenty-four, died of a lung ailment at the Rogers' Fairhaven residence, making Cara a widow at twenty-three.

In the 1890s, Cara's father had begun to consider a sewer and water project for the Fairhaven community. After much consultation with experts, he had chosen to adopt a sewerage plan developed in England known as the "Shone Sewer System". To manage the project, a young English engineer, Urban Hanlon Broughton, was sent to town by the Shone executives to explain procedure and direct the actual work.

During his stay, Cara Duff had become acquainted with the young Englishman. By 1895, the sewer work was well on the way to completion, and Cara Rogers Duff and Urban Broughton had decided to be married. Cara became Mrs. Urban Broughton in late 1895. Departing on Christmas Day, they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on a honeymoon trip to Europe.

The Broughtons' first child, a son, was born in Fairhaven in 1896, and was named Urban Huttleston Broughton. A second son was born in 1900, and was called Henry Rogers Broughton.

Although Urban Broughton was by birth an English subject, he spent more than twenty-five years in America, many of them in Chicago, Illinois. Urban Broughton became president of Utah Consolidated Mining Co. in 1901, and was chosen a director and a manager of the United Metals Selling Co., the selling agency for Amalgamated Copper. He was also a director of the Atlas Tack Co. in Fairhaven, the Santa Rica Mining Co., and the Butte Coalition Mining Co. in Montana.

After the sudden death of his father-in-law (Henry H. Rogers Sr.) in 1909, Urban Broughton became president of The Virginian Railway Company.

In 1912, Urban, Cara, and their two sons, Huttleston Broughton, and Henry Broughton, moved to England. They took up residence in Mayfair, London. Urban became a member of Parliament (MP). He found pleasure in this new career, becoming a close personal friend of Prime Minister Bonar Law. Cara devoted herself to family matters and other domestic duties. Their young sons soon became thoroughly-oriented British subjects.

During World War I, both Urban and Cara were very active in the war effort. Urban served the English government in many ways. He published a strong brochure designed to appeal to the good will of America entitled "The British Empire at War".

Cara offered all her efforts to the good of her adopted country as well, sponsoring many types of war work. She was deeply interested in the well-being of Bethnal Green Military Hospital. She gave hospitable parties for wounded soldiers at the family home in Broadoaks, Byfleet.

During the 1920s, the Broughtons visited Fairhaven several times. In 1926, Cara purchased the revolutionary war site of Fort Phoenix and donated it to the city of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Today, it is a park.

Urban Broughton died in 1929, at the age of 72. Earlier in the same year, his name had been pending for elevation to the peerage by King George V. On May 2, 1929, the King proclaimed "... Cara Leland Broughton, widow of Urban Hanlon Broughton, may henceforth enjoy the same style and title as if her husband...had survived and received the title and dignity of Baron Fairhaven".

The eldest son, Huttleston, was elevated to his father's barony, and became the first Baron Fairhaven, and Cara, the first Lady Fairhaven.

Millicent Gifford Rogers
Millicent "Millie" Gifford Rogers was born in 1873. It is recorded that the child loved to draw sketches and read. She is to have once said on a visit to Fairhaven "I wish we had a good library!" However, in 1890 she died of heart failure at age 17.

The grieving Rogers family sought an appropriate means of memorializing her short life. Because she had been an avid reader, especially of poetry, the Rogers decided that they would build and donate to the town of Fairhaven a library named for her and given in the names of her sisters and brother.

In the same year she had died, land was acquired and plan were begun to erect in Fairhaven a unique and lavish tribute to the arts, the splendid yet functional Millicent Library. The cornerstone was laid in September, 1891 at a quiet morning ceremony with only the family and their clergyman, Rev. J.M. Leighton, in attendance. After prayer, Millie's little brother, Harry, set the cornerstone. Within its confines were a sketch of Millicent, a tracing of the Rogers' ancestry, and a copy of the Fairhaven Star carrying a picture of the proposed building.

The Millicent Library describes the memorial window to the little girl who wished for a good library in Fairhaven as follows:

"In the Library, just to the left of the main entrance, is a stunning stained-glass window made by Clayton and Bell of London. In the central panel is the figure of Erato, the Muse of Poetry, and her features bear a striking resemblance to those of the girl to whose memory the library was erected."

Mary Huttleston Rogers Coe
Mary Huttleston Rogers, known as "Mai", was the youngest daughter, born in 1875 in Fairhaven. Mai was educated at private seminary schools, spoke fluent French, played the piano, and was interested in art and decoration.

After an earlier marriage which was unsuccessful (her father and family friend Mark Twain labeled her first husband a "scalawag"), on June 4, 1900, she married William Robertson Coe, a 30-year-old insurance company manager. Coe had met her during a transatlantic crossing. Between 1900 and 1910, the couple had four children: William Rogers Coe (1901–1971), Robert Douglas Coe (1902–1985), Henry Huttleston Rogers Coe (1907–1966), and Natalie Mai Coe Vitetti (1910–1987).

By 1910, Coe had become president of insurance broker Johnson & Higgins, and he was involved in insuring the hull of the RMS Titanic which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. Coe rose to become Chairman of the Board of Johnson and Higgins by 1916, a position he held until 1943.

Coe was on the Board of Directors of The Virginian Railway Company from 1910 until his death in 1955, and headed the company for a brief period during World War II. He was also a director of Loup Creek Colliery and the Wyoming Land Company.

Mai and her husband had a large estate, Planting Fields, built on the Gold Coast of Long Island, New York. They named the manor house "Coe Hall". Mai and her husband shared a love of horticulture. Following an extended illness, Mai died in 1924, and was interred nearby. In 1949, their estate was donated by Coe to become Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park.

Henry Huttleston Rogers Jr.
Henry Huttleston Rogers Jr. was born in 1879. He came to be known as Harry. He was the youngest of the Rogers children.

Harry became a favorite of Rogers family friend Mark Twain, who in 1897 dedicated his new book Following The Equator with the following quipping preface:

This Book Is Affectionately Inscribed To My Young Friend,

- HARRY ROGERS -

With recognition of what he is and apprehension of what he may become, unless he form himself a little more closely upon the model of - The Author

As a young adult, Harry often joined his father and family friends on trips aboard their luxury steam yacht Kanawha, built in 1899.

Harry married his first wife, Mary Benjamin. He and his wife traveled to Virginia with his father and Twain on the Kanawha in September, 1907 when the latter spoke at Robert Fulton Day at the Jamestown Exposition. After their 1929 divorce he married 2, Marguerite von Braun Savell Miles (married 1929-33) and 3, Pauline Van der Voort Dresser (married 1933).

Harry journeyed again with his father and Twain to Norfolk, Virginia, in April, 1909 for the dedication ceremonies and dinner to celebrate the completion of the Virginian Railway, which turned out to be his father's final life achievement. After his father's death the following month, Harry took over his father's seat on the Board of Directors of the new railroad, with his brother-in-law, Urban Broughton, serving as the railroad's President.

He assembled a valuable collection of model sailing ships, which were donated the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, after his death in 1935.

Harry and Mary Rogers had a son, Harry III, and a daughter, Millicent Rogers, a prominent socialite during the 1930s and 1940s whose vast collection of turquoise jewelry and Native American artifacts are housed in the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, New Mexico.

1894: A new Town Hall and tragedy
In 1894, Fairhaven received the gift of a new Town Hall from the Rogers Family. Abbie dedicated it to the memory of her mother. The following text about Abbie Rogers is from the Millicent Library, Fairhaven Massachusetts.

"Mother of six children, Mrs. Rogers is represented as having been of a quiet and retiring disposition, completely devoid of the ostentation often associated with great wealth. Contemporary photographs attest to a shy and gentle charm of feature, and she is known to have cherished a deep affection for Fairhaven and a nostalgia for the simple ways of her childhood.

"She was, therefore, delighted to become the donor of Fairhaven's beautiful new 'Town House,' and on February 22nd and 23d, 1894, she attended dedication exercises and received graciously at the splendid Dedication Ball, in the first gala functions marking the opening of the new building.

"It was not given those attending these happy festivities to know that - but three months later - in May, 1894, this gentle woman was to die in New York City after an operation performed to save her life."

Death
Abbie Palmer Gifford Rogers died unexpectedly on May 21, 1894, age 53 in New York City. She had been undergoing an operation to remove a tumor. Her widower, Henry Rogers Sr., eventually remarried, but had no children with his second wife. Outliving her two days short of 15 years, after his death on May 19, 1909, he was interred beside her in Fairhaven's Riverside Cemetery.

Legacy
The Town Hall in Fairhaven survives, as do many other gifts of the Rogers' family to Fairhaven, where she and her husband grew up. The home of Captain Peleg Gifford (Abbie's childhood home), a two-story gable-end frame house built in the Greek Revival style at 36 Green Street, has been preserved. It and many other historic buildings in Fairhaven are opened periodically for special public tours.

The bronze plaque on the Fairhaven Town Hall, reads:

 * This Building was presented to the Town of Fairhaven February 22, 1894, three months prior to the death of the donor Abbie Palmer Gifford Rogers. The people of Fairhaven in expressing their appreciation and gratitude for the gift would also record the sorrow they feel as a community through the loss of one whose life was full of good works. May this structure in its strength and beauty ever stand as commemorative of her character and thoughtful kindness.

External links and further reading

 * Elbert Hubbard, 1909, Little Journeys to the Homes
 * Tarbell, Ida M. The History of Standard Oil
 * The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates - A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present. Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther (contributor). Seacaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, 1996.
 * Millicent Library, Fairhaven MA, Henry Rogers homepage
 * Ohio History
 * Some Memories of Cara Leland Rogers Broughton the first Lady Fairhaven material researched and integrated by Mabel Hoyle Knipe Fairhaven, Massachusetts, March, 1984
 * The Story of Fairhaven compiled by Thomas Tripp in 1929
 * Planting Fields website, Mai Rogers Coe and family history
 * Fairhaven Massachusetts Public Schools
 * Napoleon Series Henry H. Rogers webpage
 * Olean Town history
 * Oil History website
 * Venango County Pennsylvania Oil History
 * Henry Rogers and Fairhaven website

title: Abbie G. Rogers


text:
Humanistic (album)

Humanistic is the debut album by Abandoned Pools. It was released in September 2001 through Extasy International. Though two songs were co-written by Pete Pagonis, the album is considered a solo work of Tommy Walter's in which he used new material, as well as several songs he'd worked on beforehand in both Tely and Metromax, to compose, record, and release.

The album features a contrast of dark, gloomy, and sometimes aggressive songs such as "The Remedy" and "Blood" and more serene, upbeat tracks like "Start Over" and "Sunny Day." Elements of industrial rock are evident in various ways; keyboard is used in light melody of the dark-lyric-themed "Ruin Your Life" as well as the raging chorus of "Fluorescein," and ambiguous, non-sung vocal recordings are featured in various tracks. Synth effects are also utilized in various songs. Four tracks include backing vocals by Angie Hart of Frente!. Hart's harmony style alongside Walter's somewhat androgynous voice creates a unique vocal chemistry. This album was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge and Matt Silva, and was mastered by Gavin Lurssen.

Touring and promotion
While Humanistic was released in September 2001, the majority of promotion took place from early to mid-2002; indeed, the album and its singles did not begin to chart until March 2002 and commonly peaked around May. Leah Randi and Bryan Head filled out the ranks of bassist and drummer for the album's tour support. They had several successful tours, going across the country and headlining with acts such as Garbage and Lenny Kravitz.

A music video was produced for the lead single, "Mercy Kiss," and saw substantial airplay on MTV2. "The Remedy" and "Monster" were second and third video/single releases; however, the latter consisted of tour footage and was released long after the others via MTV's website. "Start Over" was also included on the National Lampoon's Van Wilder soundtrack in March 2002.

The group performed "The Remedy" on the June 5, 2002 edition of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the June 26 edition of The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. A large number of songs off Humanistic were also featured on the MTV animated series Clone High which debuted in November that year, with "Start Over" being the finale song of the show. However, after the series was dropped by MTV in February 2003, Abandoned Pools stopped touring (largely due to the dissolution of their label, Extasy Records).

Reception
The album received overall high praise upon release. Jason Thompson of PopMatters compared Humanistic to Billy Corgan's solo work and noted it as much more successful. He went on to proclaim, "Humanistic is a fantastic album that could be considered a masterpiece of electro-pop... Walter has a gift for creating dense pop confections that manage to float like a feather even with all of their heaviness." Often referring to the 31-year-old as a "kid," Thom Jurek of AllMusic described Walter as a "harder-rock version of Tommy Gnosis: vulnerable, lost, and wanting desperately to put it all into terms that are rock & roll enough to make him stand out from the crowd."

Track listing
All songs are written by Tommy Walter, except where noted.

Musicians

 * Tommy Walter – vocals, instrumentation
 * Josh Freese – drums
 * Tim Dow – additional drums (track 1)
 * Sean Slade – organ (track 2), clavinet (track 4), bass clarinet (track 7), piano (track 9), additional guitar (track 11)
 * Angie Hart – backing vocals (tracks 3, 6, 7, 9)
 * Paul Q. Kolderie – additional guitar (tracks 7, 9)

Technical

 * Tommy Walter – production, programming
 * Sean Slade – production
 * Paul Q. Kolderie – production
 * David Young – additional production
 * Yoshiki – executive production
 * Chris Lord-Alge – mixing
 * Matt Silva – mixing assistance
 * Gavin Lurssen – mastering
 * Justin Smith – engineering (tracks 1–4, 6–9)

Chart positions

 * Album

 * Singles

title: Humanistic (album)