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Pearl River Community College

Pearl River Community College is a public community college in Poplarville, Mississippi. It was founded as Pearl River County Agricultural High School in 1909 and became the first junior college in Mississippi in 1921.

Residents of Hancock, Forrest, Jefferson Davis, Lamar, Marion, and Pearl River counties are in the college's service area.

History
Pearl River County Agricultural High School (PRCAHS) was the result of the Mississippi Agricultural High School Law of 1908, making it the nation's first state-funded system of agricultural high schools. The law was found to be in violation of the separate but equal clause in the state's constitution by the state's Supreme Court late in 1909 when no equal opportunity was offered for the state's African-American children. The overturned law caused all but three of the twenty original agricultural high schools in the state to close, since state funding was no longer available. Pearl River County citizens came to the school's rescue, however, when private citizens secured a loan from a local bank to fund the school until the Mississippi Legislature could pass a new law which made opportunity for both races.

Classes began on September 8, 1909 under the direction of Professor T.M. Kelly. The entire boarding high school was located in one three-story building erected on 20 acre of land on the edge of the county's seat, Poplarville. Classrooms and the cafeteria was located on the building's first floor, while the girls' dormitory occupied the second floor and the boys' dormitory occupied the third floor.

PRCAHS, under the supervision of James Andrew Huff, added freshman college classes to the curriculum to the school in 1921-22, making Pearl River College the first 2-year public institution in Mississippi. Pearl River College continued to lead the way by the addition of sophomore classes in 1925-26.

Pearl River College has since expanded to include four locations, the main campus in Poplarville, the Forrest County Center and Lowery Woodall Advanced Technology Center in Hattiesburg, MS, and the Hancock Center in Waveland, MS.

In August 2005, PRCC's Poplarville campus suffered an estimated $40–50 million in damage at the hand of Hurricane Katrina. This included severe structural damage to the auditorium wing of Moody Hall, the state's oldest instructional building on a junior college campus, and M. R. White Coliseum, the college's sports arena. Both the auditorium wing of Moody Hall and the entire sports arena were razed for student safety. A new M. R. White Coliseum was built on the same site, and the Ethel Holden Brownstone Center for the Arts was built to replace Moody Hall Auditorium. Most of the roofs on campus had to be replaced due to the storm, and many buildings had to undergo extensive mold remediation. The Hancock Center, on the Gulf Coast, was completely gutted by the massive tidal surge. The main campus was shut down for three weeks due to damages and the Hancock Center was shut down for four weeks.

Residential facilities
The school has the following residential facilities:

For men: Hancock Hall, Huff Hall, Lamar Hall, Marion Hall, and Pearl River Hall.

For women: Forrest Hall, Holden Hall, and Moody Hall.

Athletics
Pearl River's athletic teams are called the Wildcats, and the football team won four straight Mississippi Association of Community & Junior Colleges (MACJC) championships (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) since head coach Tim Hatten took over the program in 2002. Pearl River also won the 2004 National Championship of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) with the help of three NJCAA All-Americans, including wide receiver Larry Brackins, who was selected 155th overall by the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2005 NFL Draft; quarterback Jimmy Oliver, and offensive lineman Matt Lott. PRCC played for the 2006 NJCAA title in the Pilgrim's Pride Bowl Classic in Mt. Pleasant, Tex., but lost to Blinn College (Tex.) 19-6.

Brackins was a member of the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League, and the practice squad for the NFL New York Jets. While former Wildcat receiver Donavan Morgan plays with the AFL's Chicago Rush franchise after brief NFL stints with the New York Jets, Houston Texans, and Buffalo Bills. Larry Kendrick, Brackins' 2003 Wildcat teammate, signed on with the Ole Miss Rebels following the one-year stint at Pearl River and was an NJCAA All-American as a wide receiver and a defensive back, as well as being named the NJCAA's Male Athlete of the Year in 2003. Kendrick currently plays in the Arena 2 league.

PRCC's 2006 state title marked its 19th in school history, which is a record for Mississippi community colleges. Oliver guided the Wildcats to their 2004 and 2005 titles and earned NJCAA "Offensive Player of the Year" honors both seasons, including All-American accolades. Oliver played two seasons with Jackson State University, guiding the Tigers to the 2007 SWAC championship.

Pearl River won four MACJC state championships during the 2003-2004 school year in football, men's basketball, women's soccer, and baseball. PRCC also won the 2005 MACJC women's soccer championship.

Three former Wildcat players are currently in the NFL, including San Diego Charger wide receiver Demetrius Byrd (who also won the 2008 BCS National Championship with the LSU Tigers after playing for PRCC), Washington Redskin defensive linemen Cornelius Griffin, and Oakland Raider defensive back Hiram Eugene. Former PRCC basketball standout James Singleton played two seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and currently plays for the Washington Wizards.

Notable alumni

 * Jeramey Anderson, member of the Mississippi House of Representatives for the 110th District
 * Larry Brackins
 * Jimmy Buffett, American singer-songwriter
 * Demetrius Byrd, former NFL wide receiver
 * William Leon Clark, was Deputy Chief of Chaplains of the United States Air Force
 * J. P. Compretta, lawyer and former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives
 * Cornelius Griffin, professional basketball player
 * Rhyne Hughes, professional baseball player for the Winnipeg Goldeyes
 * Donovan Morgan, professional football player
 * James Singleton, professional basketball player

title: Pearl River Community College


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Atomic Energy Act of 1946

The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (McMahon Act) determined how the United States would control and manage the nuclear technology it had jointly developed with its World War II allies, the United Kingdom and Canada. Most significantly, the Act ruled that nuclear weapon development and nuclear power management would be under civilian, rather than military control, and established the United States Atomic Energy Commission for this purpose.

It was sponsored by Senator Brien McMahon, a Democrat from Connecticut, who chaired the United States Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy, and whose hearings in late 1945 and early 1946 led to the fine tuning and passing of the Act. The Senate passed the Act unanimously through voice vote, and it passed the House of Representatives 265–79. Signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on August 1, 1946, it went into effect on January 1, 1947, and the Atomic Energy Commission assumed responsibility for nuclear energy from the wartime Manhattan Project.

The Act was subsequently amended to promote private development of nuclear energy under the Eisenhower administration's Atoms for Peace program in 1954. In restricting the access to nuclear information to other countries, it created a rift between the United States and its allies, particularly Britain and Canada, which had participated in the Manhattan Project. This resulted in cumbersome command and control arrangements, and in Britain developing its own nuclear weapons. The Act was amended in 1958 to allow the United States to share information with its close allies.

Origins
Nuclear weapons were developed during World War II by the wartime Manhattan Project. Key scientists working on the project anticipated that their development would have wide-ranging implications. However the project director, Major General Leslie R. Groves Jr., was reluctant to spend project funds on activities beyond those required to win the war. Nonetheless, Arthur Compton of the Metallurgical Project in Chicago commissioned a report on post-war nuclear energy, and the Military Policy Committee, the Manhattan Project's governing body, commissioned a similar study by Richard Tolman. Both reports called for a comprehensive, government-supported nuclear energy program, with military, scientific, and industrial aspects.

In July 1944, Vannevar Bush, James B. Conant and Irvin Stewart produced a proposal for domestic legislation to control nuclear energy. Conant submitted this to the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson in September 1944, and then to the Interim Committee, a body created by President Harry S. Truman in May 1945 to supervise, regulate and control nuclear energy until such a time as Congress created a permanent body to do so. In June 1945, the Interim Committee asked George L. Harrison, an assistant to Stimson and a member of the committee, to prepare legislation.

May–Johnson Bill
Harrison brought in two experienced Harvard Law School-educated War Department lawyers, Brigadier General Kenneth Royall and William L. Marbury Jr., to take up the job of drafting the legislation. The legislation was based on Bush and Conant's proposal, and the organization that it proposed was based on the existing structure of the Manhattan Project. Their draft bill would have created a nine-person commission consisting of five civilian and four military members. It granted the commission broad powers to acquire property, operate facilities, conduct research, regulate all forms of nuclear energy, and administer its own security, administrative and audit regimes.

Royall and Marbury envisaged nuclear energy being controlled by experts, with a minimum of political interference. The commissioners would be appointed for indefinite terms, and the President's power to remove them would be limited. They would be supported by four advisory boards, for military applications, industrial uses, research and medicine, the membership of which would be restricted to those with technical qualifications. Day-to-day running of the organization would be in the hands of an administrator and his deputy. The Royall–Marbury Bill was reviewed by the Interim Committee at its July 19 meeting and revised in line with their suggestions. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding the Manhattan Project, Royall and Marbury were able to consult with the Attorney General, the Judge Advocate General and the Office of Scientific Research and Development. The draft was sent to the President in August for circulation among, and comment from, affected government agencies. Only the State Department had objections, on the basis that it was still involved in trying to hammer out an international agreement on nuclear energy.

On October 3, 1945, the bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Andrew J. May from Kentucky, the chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee, and in the Senate by Senator Edwin C. Johnson from Colorado, the ranking member of the Senate Military Affairs Committee. The bill was known as the May-Johnson Bill for its sponsors. May immediately had the bill referred to the Military Affairs Committee, which held hearings on October 9. Bush, Conant and Groves all testified before the committee. But in the Senate Military Affairs Committee, the bill was held up by Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg.

There was a storm of criticism from scientists, particularly those at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago. Leó Szilárd and Harold Urey were particularly notable critics. The bill created a powerful administrator and deputy administrator, and specifically stated that they might be members of the armed forces. It was feared that they would dominate the part-time commissioners. The fact that the bill emphasized that the administrator had to keep the deputy fully informed further aroused suspicion that the administrator would be an Army officer and the deputy a Navy officer. The secrecy provisions also frightened many scientists; it contained severe penalties of up to ten years imprisonment and $10,000 in fines for security breaches. The Chicago Sun headline accused the War Department of attempting to railroad the legislation through Congress.

Legislators found themselves in an unusual and uncomfortable situation. Nuclear weapons were terrifying, and the nature of nuclear energy was not widely understood. Because it was so new, there were no policies or precedents to guide legislators, and traditional party alignments were absent. The scientists who had developed the new technology had never been vocal before, but suddenly were now. The victorious conclusion of World War II gave the armed forces enormous prestige, but there still remained the long-standing American distrust of standing armies, and the tradition of civilian control of the military.

McMahon Bill
On December 20, 1945, Senator Brien McMahon introduced an alternative bill on atomic energy, drafted by the Senate Military Affairs Committee, which quickly became known as the McMahon Bill. This was initially a very liberal bill regarding the control of scientific research, and was broadly supported by scientists. McMahon framed the controversy as a question of military versus civilian control of atomic energy, although the May-Johnson Bill also provided for civilian control. The McMahon Bill attempted to address the controversial aspects of the May-Johnson Bill. The number of commissioners was reduced to five, and they would serve full-time. No exemption was provided for serving military officers. An amendment specified that they have staggered terms of five years.

While the bill was being debated, the news broke on February 16, 1946, of the defection of Igor Gouzenko in Canada, and the subsequent arrest of 22 people. The members of Congress debating the bill feared that "atomic secrets" were being systematically stolen by Soviet atomic spies. McMahon convened an executive session at which Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes and Groves were called to appear. Groves revealed that the British physicist Alan Nunn May had passed information about the Manhattan Project to Soviet agents.

The more conservative elements in Congress now moved to toughen the act. Section 10, which was formerly titled "Dissemination of Information", now became "Control of Information". This new section contained the novel doctrine later described as "born secret" or "classified at birth". All information concerning the design, development and manufacture of nuclear weapons was "restricted data", and regardless of how it was derived or obtained, was considered classified unless it was specifically declassified. This restriction on free speech, covering an entire subject matter, is still enforced. The "wall of secrecy" set up by the Act meant that atomic energy research and development had to be conducted under the supervision of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas, who sponsored the McMahon Bill in the House, vigorously defended the dissemination provisions of Section 10 against counterarguments. She dismissed objections that it would "give away the secret of the bomb", asserting that America's advantage in nuclear weapons could only be temporary, whereas the bill could perpetuate its lead in scientific research. An important addition, known as the Vandenberg Amendment, created a Military Liaison Committee to advise the commission on defense matters. Section 2 of the Act also created a General Advisory Committee, and a new Joint Committee on Atomic Energy to oversee the new organization.

The Senate passed the Act unanimously through voice vote on June 1, 1946. Considerable political maneuvering was required before it was passed by the House 265–79 on July 20. A compromise bill was then agreed to by both houses on July 26. Truman signed the compromise bill into law as the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 on August 1, 1946. When it went into effect at midnight on January 1, 1947, the newly created Atomic Energy Commission assumed responsibility for nuclear energy from the wartime Manhattan Project.

Private production of nuclear energy
An important omission from the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 was any mention of non-governmental use of nuclear energy, since military applications overshadowed all others at the time. The restrictions of the act related to secrecy, the control of fissile materials, the ownership of patents and the operation of production facilities placed a number of legal roadblocks in the way of private nuclear power stations.

This was at odds with the Eisenhower administration's Atoms for Peace program, and resulted in pressure on federal officials to develop a civilian nuclear power industry that could help justify the government's considerable expenditures on the nuclear weapons program. In 1953, the Atomic Energy Commission presented a set of draft amendments to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy for consideration. After some debate, this resulted in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 proved insufficient in its objective of encouraging privately built and run nuclear reactors. A series of accidents with research reactors, including partial core meltdowns, made private companies cautious, and reluctant to become involved with nuclear energy without protection from liability. This led to the Price–Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act of 1957, which capped private liability for nuclear accidents, while providing for adequate compensations for accident victims.

International relations
Implementing the McMahon Act created a substantial rift between United States and Britain. The new control of "restricted data" prevented the United States' allies from receiving any information, despite the fact that the British and Canadian governments, before contributing technology and manpower to the Manhattan Project, had made agreements with the United States about the post-war sharing of nuclear technology. Those agreements had been formalized in the 1943 Quebec Agreement. In the case of the United Kingdom, these were developed further in the 1944 Hyde Park Agreement, which was signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt.

The Hyde Park Agreement was lost in Roosevelt's papers after his death, and until the American copy of the document was found American officials were puzzled when the British mentioned it. The Quebec Agreement was an executive agreement that only applied to the Roosevelt administration, and the Senate had not seen the document. McMahon told Churchill in 1952 that "If we had seen this Agreement, there would have been no McMahon Act." The McMahon Act fueled resentment from British scientists and Churchill and led to Britain developing its own nuclear weapons.

Lewis Strauss, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, proposed in January 1958 that the President should be able to share nuclear information with allies that were making "substantial and material contributions to the national defense and security". In addition to its own nuclear weapons, Britain had hosted American Strategic Air Command nuclear bombers since 1948. Congress amended the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 in June 1958, and America and Britain again began sharing nuclear research under the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement.

The stipulations contained in the Act caused significant controversy during debates over NATO's military command structure. Both Striking Fleet Atlantic and the United States Sixth Fleet have never been allowed to be placed anywhere but directly under American commanding officers—the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic and Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe—because the dominant legal interpretation of the McMahon Act has been that nuclear striking forces cannot be controlled by non-US commanders. This was the reason for the formation of Striking Fleet Atlantic as an independent entity, instead of being operationally subordinated to the UK Admiral serving as Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Atlantic, in October–November 1952. This was also the reason why the Sixth Fleet, in its NATO guise as Naval Striking and Support Force, South, was placed under American control rather than Allied Forces Mediterranean when the European commands were agreed at the same time.

Case law
A 2012 court decision concerning a state law attempting to shut down the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant affirmed that the Act gives the federal government exclusive authority over safety at nuclear power plants. This allowed Vermont Yankee to continue operating until it was voluntarily shut down by the owner for economic reasons in 2014.

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

title: Atomic Energy Act of 1946


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The Book of Daniel (novel)

The Book of Daniel (1971) is a semi-historical novel by E. L. Doctorow, loosely based on the lives, trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Doctorow tells the story of Paul and Rochelle Isaacson (stand-ins for the Rosenbergs) through the persons of their older son, Daniel, and his sister, Susan, who are college students deeply involved in 1960s politics.

Synopsis
Writing his doctoral thesis ('The Book of Daniel'), a political genealogy of the American Old Left, Daniel Isaacson confronts his own personal relationship to that historical narrative by investigating the background to his parents' conviction and execution by the State, with some assistance from his adoptive parents (the Lewins). The dénouement is the revisiting, in flashback, of the death of his parents, Rochelle and Paul Isaacson, and, in due course, the death from nervous disorder (and attempted suicide) of his sister Susan. The novel closes as the library in which Daniel is working is closed by student protests. Doctorow closes his novel with a parody of lines from Chapter 12 of the Biblical Book of Daniel. This moment culminates a merger of the text's two primary levels of narrative concern: Daniel's self-conscious inability to find and tell his own truthful personal history, which mirrors the anxiety of the radical 1960s New Left to emerge from the failure of the Communist Party to achieve its revolutionary potential in the 1950s.

The book is written in four parts, and in each Daniel is the principal narrator; the narrative moves fluidly and rapidly between 1967 ('the present') and flashback (to the late 40s/early 50s), and between first and third person:
 * 1. Memorial Day – Opens, in 1967, with Daniel, his young wife, Phyllis and baby Paul, walking to the sanatorium to see Susan; closes with the dropping of atom bomb in Japan
 * 2. Halloween – closes with the lawyer, Ascher, telling Daniel and Susan of the forthcoming start of the Isaacsons' trial
 * 3. Starfish – closes with Daniel's bruising involvement in an anti-draft march, while his sister (the starfish of the title) is lying dying from complications following her suicide attempt.
 * Daniel says to Phyllis through broken teeth '...It looks worse than it is. There was nothing to it. It is a lot easier to be a revolutionary nowadays than it used to be.'
 * 4 Christmas – recalls the closing moments of the trial, including the key evidence from their co-accused, Selig Mindish; Daniel's later search for, and discovery of Mindish, now senile, in Disneyland; and the funerals of Daniel's parents and his sister Susan.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The book was adapted as a film, Daniel (1983), directed by Sidney Lumet. Lumet somewhat changes the emphasis of the novel, to concentrate more on the 1940s left-wing politics of the parents. This was an era of which Lumet had close personal experience – the film is generally less well-regarded than the book.

Allusions/references to history, geography and current science

 * Neither the book nor the film makes direct reference to the Rosenberg events (though Lumet did claim that the execution scene was 'as it happened').
 * The introduction of Susan as the younger child (rather than the second son of the Rosenbergs), and her lingering death, appears to be an attempt to distance the novel from being considered biographical.
 * Other key differences include – Rochelle is a college graduate, Paul is not; this is the reverse of the Rosenbergs. Mindish appears to be a fusion of two historical figures, Morton Sobell and David Greenglass.
 * A key scene (in part 1), is the family's attendance at the Paul Robeson concert at Peekskill (1949); in the novel Paul leaves the bus to argue with the right-wing protesters and is violently set upon by them.
 * Another key scene has Daniel taking part in the 1967 anti-Vietnam war march on the Pentagon.

title: The Book of Daniel (novel)


text:
John Harold Clapham

Sir John Harold Clapham, CBE, FBA (13 September 1873 – 29 March 1946) was a British economic historian.

He was educated at The Leys School in Cambridge and King's College, Cambridge. From 1889 to 1902 he was a lecturer in History and Economics at Leeds University and was Professor of Economics there from 1902 to 1908. He was the first Professor of Economic History at Cambridge University from 1928 to 1938, and Vice-Provost of King's College, Cambridge from 1933 until 1943 when he received a knighthood.

Between 1926 and 1938 he published, in three volumes, An Economic History of Modern Britain. He is also recognised for his study of the Industrial Revolution in England, and for describing cooperatives in the initiation of the revolution. He is also remembered for his 1944 The Bank of England, A History.

Welsh economic historian Sir John Habakkuk was one of his students. One of Clapham's more notable quotations is: "Economic advance is not the same thing as human progress".

Clapham's son was the printer and industrialist Sir Michael Clapham.

title: John Harold Clapham


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Shikharji

Shikharji, also known as Sammet or Sammed Shikharji, is one of the Holiest pilgrimage sites for Jains, in Giridih district, Jharkhand. It is located on Parasnath hill, the highest mountain in the state of Jharkhand. It is the most important Jain Tirtha (pilgrimage site), for it is the place where twenty of the twenty-four Jain tirthankaras (supreme preachers of Dharma) along with many other monks attained Moksha. It is one of the five principal pilgrimage destinations along with Girnar, Pawapuri, Champapuri, Dilwara, Palitana and Ashtapad Kailash.

Etymology
Shikharji means the "venerable peak". The site is also called Sammed Śikhar "peak of concentration" because it is a place where twenty of twenty-four Tirthankaras attained Moksha through meditation. The word "Parasnath" is derived from Lord Parshvanatha, the twenty-third Jain Tirthankara, who was one of those who attained Moksha at the site in 772 BCE.

Geography
Shikarji is located in an inland part of rural east India. It lies on NH-2, the Delhi-Kolkata highway in a section called the Grand Trunk road Shikharji rises to 4480 ft making it the highest mountain in Jharkhand state.

Jain tradition

Shikharji is the place where twenty of the twenty-four Jain tirthankaras including Parshvanatha along with many other monks attained Moksha. This pilgrimage site is considered the most important Jain Tirtha by both Digambara and Śvētāmbara. Shikharji along with Ashtapad, Girnar, Dilwara Temples of Mount Abu and Shatrunjaya are known as Śvētāmbara Pancha Tirth (five principal pilgrimage shrine).

History

Archaeological evidences indicate the presence of Jains going back to at least 1500 BCE. The earliest literary reference to Shikharji as a tirth (place of pilgrimage) is found in the Jñātṛdhārmakātha, one of the twelve core texts of Jainism compiled in 6th century BCE by chief disciple of Mahavira. Shikharji is also mentioned in the Pārśvanāthacarita, a twelfth-century biography of Pārśva. A 13th century CE palm-leaf manuscript of Kalpa Sūtra and Kalakacaryakatha has an image of a scene of Parshavanatha's nirvana at Shikharji.

Modern history records show that Shikharji Hill is regarded as the place of worship of the Jain community. Vastupala, prime minister during the reign of king Vīradhavala and Vīsaladeva of Vaghela dynasty, constructed a Jain temple housing 20 idols of Tirthankaras. The temple also housed images of his ancestors and Samavasarana. During the regime of Mughal's rule in India, Emperor Akbar in the year 1583 had passed an firman (official order) granting the management of Shikharji Hill to the Jain community to prevent the slaughter of animals in the vicinity. Seth Hiranand Mukim, personal jeweller of Mughal Emperor Jahangir, lead a party from Agra to Shikharji for Jain pilgrimage. In 2019, the Government of Delhi included Sammed Shikharji under Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra Yojana.

Approach

The pilgrimage of Shikharji starts with a Palganj on Giridih road. Palganj has a small shrine dedicated to Parshvanatha. Then, offerings are made to temples at Madhuban on the base of Parasnath hill. Madhuban has many dharamshalas and bhojnalayas for pilgrims.

The section from Gandharva Nala stream to the summit is the most sacred to Jains. The pilgrimage is made on foot or by a litter or doli carried by a doliwallah along a concrete paved track. A trek of 16.777 miles is covered while performing Parikrama of Shikharji. However, the complete parikrama of Madhuban to Shikharji and back is 57 km.

Temples

Shikharji is considered as the most important pilgrimage centre by both the Digambara and Śvētāmbara sects of Jainism and the jurisdiction of the main temples is shared by both sects.

The current structure of temples at Shikharji was re-built by Jagat Seth in 1768 CE. However, the idol itself is very old. The Sanskrit inscription at the foot of the image is dated 1678 CE. One of the shrines dates back to the 14th century. Several Śvētāmbara temples were constructed in 20th century. Pilgrims offer rice, sandal, dhupa, flower, fruits and diya.

At the base of Shikharji is a temple to Bhomiyaji (Taleti). On the walls of the Jain temple at the village of Madhuban, there is a mural painting depicting all the temples on Parasnath Hill. Śvētāmbara Bhaktamara temple, established by Acharya Ramchandrasuri, is the first temple to house a Bhaktamara Stotra yantra.

A large Digambara Jain temple depicting Nandishwar Dweep is at the base of the hill. The Nichli temple, built by a Calcutta merchant in 18th century, is noteworthy for its architecture. The temple features arched gateways and carvings of Tirthankaras on the temple wall.

Tonks

There are 31 tonks each enshrines footprints, in black or white marble, of each Tirthankara. Since, these temple does not have images these tonks are worshipped by both Digambara and Śvētāmbara.

The hilltop where Parshvanatha attained moksha is called 'suvarṇabhadra kūța' and is considered the most sacred hilltop on Shikharji. The Parshvanatha tonk is constructed at this summit. The chatra distinguishes Parshvanatha footprint from footprints of other 23 Tirthankaras which does not have chatra and are indistinguishable. The temple consists of two floors. The top floor has a tonk with no footprints of Parshvanatha, and lower floor enshrines a saffron coloured replica of the face of Parasnath built into a wall. Devotees make offerings of uncooked rice and sweets here.
 * Parshvanatha tonk

The tonks along the track are as follows:

 * 1) Gautam Ganadhara Swami
 * 2) Kunthunatha
 * 3) Rishabha
 * 4) Chandraprabha
 * 5) Naminatha
 * 6) Aranatha
 * 7) Māllīnātha
 * 8) Shreyanasanatha
 * 9) Pushpadanta
 * 10) Padmaprabha
 * 11) Munisuvratnath
 * 12) Chandraprabha
 * 13) Rishabha
 * 14) Anantanatha
 * 15) Shitalanatha
 * 16) Sambhavanatha
 * 17) Vasupujya
 * 18) Abhinandananatha
 * 19) Ganadhara
 * 20) Jal Mandir
 * 21) Dharmanatha
 * 22) Mahavira
 * 23) Varishen
 * 24) Sumatinatha
 * 25) Shantinatha
 * 26) Mahavira
 * 27) Suparshvanatha
 * 28) Vimalanatha
 * 29) Ajitanatha
 * 30) Neminatha
 * 31) Parshvanatha

Fair
Sammed Shikhar festival is annual fair organised here that draws a huge number of devotees.

Replicas

The representation of Sammeta-Shikharji is a popular theme in Jain shrines.

On 13 August 2012, the world's first to-scale complete replication of Shikharji was opened in Siddhachalam in New Jersey over 120 acres of hilly terrain called Shikharji at Siddhachalam, it has become an important place of pilgrimage for the Jain diaspora. There is a small scale replica of Shikharji at Dādābadī, Mehrauli. Ranakpur Jain temple has a depiction of Shikharji. Shitalnath temple in Patan, Gujarat has a wooden plaque with carving of Shikharji.

Transport
The nearest railway station is Parasnath Station which is situated in Isri Bazar, Dumri, Jharkhand. It is around 25 km from Madhuban, at the base of Shikharji. Parasnath station is situated on Grand Chord, which is part of Howrah-Gaya-Delhi line and Howrah-Allahabad-Mumbai line. Many long-distance trains halt at Parasnath Station. Daily connectivities to Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Ajmer, Kolkata, Patna, Allahabad, Kanpur, Jammutawi, Amritsar, Kalka etc. are available. Even 12301-12302 Howrah Rajdhani Express via Gaya Junction has a halt on Parasnath station which run 6 days a week.

By Airway;

The Nearest airport is Deoghar Airport in Deoghar Dist, known as Baidyanath dham which is famous for Hindu pilgrimage sites, part of 12 jyotirling for Lord Shiva. The airport is 107 km away from Shikharji and a 3-hour drive.

Another airport is Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport, Durgapur (RDP) West Bengal and a 4-hour drive from the airport. Durgapur has direct flights from Kolkata and Delhi

Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi (IXR), Jharkhand is also around 180 km (Approximately 4.5 hours), and the drive to Shikhar Ji is quite smooth. Direct flights are available from Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar,Chennai, Delhi, Deoghar,Goa–Mopa,Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore,Mumbai, Patna and Pune.

Shikharji movement
Save Shikharji was a protest movement by Jain sects against the state's alleged development plans for Shikharji. Jains opposed the plans of the state government to improve the infrastructure on the site of the hill in order to boost tourism as alleged attempts to commercialize the Shikharji hill. The movement demanded that Shikharji Hill be declared officially a place of worship by the Government of Jharkhand. On 26 October 2018, the Government of Jharkhand issued an official memorandum declaring the Shikharji hill as a 'place of worship'.

In December 2022, Jains carried out massive protests and a one-day nationwide strike against the rule by the Government of Jharkhand to tag Shikharji as a place of tourism. Jharkhand government's decision to declare 'sacred' Shri Sammed Shikharji a tourist place and incidents of allegedly desecrating the sacred Shetrunjaya Hills in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district have triggered anger among lakhs of people belonging to the Jain community. A 72-year-old Jain monk who was on a fast against the Jharkhand government's decision died Tuesday in Jaipur, according to a community leader. Police said after participating in a peace march in Jaipur against the decision, Sugyeysagar Maharaj sat on the fast at Sanghiji temple in Sanganer area of the city.

In January 2023, the Central government halted all tourism development activities on Parasnath Hills.

title: Shikharji


text:
Aspen Mountain

Aspen Mountain may refer to:

 * Aspen Mountain (Colorado), a mountain in Colorado
 * Aspen Mountain (ski area), a ski resort on the mountain
 * Aspen Mountain (Wyoming), a mountain in Wyoming

title: Aspen Mountain


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Asian witchcraft

Asian witchcraft encompasses various types of witchcraft practices across Asia. In ancient times, magic played a significant role in societies such as ancient Egypt and Babylonia, as evidenced by historical records. In the Middle East, references to magic can be found in the Torah and the Quran, where witchcraft is condemned due to its association with belief in magic, as it is within other Abrahamic religions.

In South Asia, there is continued witch-hunting and abuse of women accused of witchcraft in countries like India and Nepal. These deeply entrenched superstitions have perpetuated acts of violence and marginalization against those accused of witchcraft, underlining the urgent need for legal reforms and human rights protections to counter these alarming trends.

East Asia has diverse witchcraft traditions. In Chinese culture, the practice of Gong Tau involves black magic for purposes such as revenge and personal gain. Japanese folklore features witch figures who employ foxes as familiars. Korean history includes instances of individuals being condemned for using spells. The Philippines has its own tradition of witches, distinct from Western portrayals, with their practices often countered by indigenous shamans.

West Asia
Witchcraft in West Asia has a complex history influenced by cultural, spiritual, and societal factors. Ancient practices were evident in societies like Egypt and Babylonia, as seen in the Code of Hammurabi. Within Abrahamic religions, attitudes varied: Judaism had a mixed view of magic, Christianity condemned it, and Islam encompassed a range of perspectives. This evolving landscape reflects the interplay between cultural beliefs and societal norms, shaping the enduring presence of witchcraft in the region's history.

Ancient Near East
The belief in magic and its practice seem to have been widespread in the past. Both in ancient Egypt and in Babylonia it played a conspicuous part, as existing records plainly show. It will be sufficient to quote a short section from the Code of Hammurabi (about 2000 BC). "If a man has put a spell upon another man and it is not justified, he upon whom the spell is laid shall go to the holy river; into the holy river shall he plunge. If the holy river overcome him and he is drowned, the man who put the spell upon him shall take possession of his house. If the holy river declares him innocent and he remains unharmed the man who laid the spell shall be put to death. He that plunged into the river shall take possession of the house of him who laid the spell upon him.''"

Abrahamic religions
Witchcraft's historical evolution in the Middle East reveals a multi-phase journey influenced by culture, spirituality, and societal norms. Ancient witchcraft in the Near East intertwined mysticism with nature through rituals and incantations aligned with local beliefs. In ancient Judaism, magic had a complex relationship, with some forms accepted due to mysticism while others were considered heretical. The medieval Middle East experienced shifting perceptions of witchcraft under Islamic and Christian influences, sometimes revered for healing and other times condemned as heresy.

Jewish attitudes toward witchcraft were rooted in its association with idolatry and necromancy, and some rabbis even practiced certain forms of magic themselves. References to witchcraft in the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, highlighted strong condemnations rooted in the "abomination" of magical belief. Christianity similarly condemned witchcraft, considering it an abomination and even citing specific verses to justify witch-hunting during the early modern period.

Islamic perspectives on magic encompass a wide range of practices, with belief in black magic and the evil eye coexisting alongside strict prohibitions against its practice. The Quran acknowledges the existence of magic and seeks protection from its harm. Islam's stance is against the practice of magic, considering it forbidden, and emphasizes divine miracles rather than magic or witchcraft. The historical continuity of witchcraft in the Middle East underlines the complex interaction between spiritual beliefs and societal norms across different cultures and epochs.

South Asia
In certain parts of India and Nepal, belief in the supernatural has led to instances of witch-hunting and abuse against women accused of witchcraft. Lynchings and murders of suspected witches, known as "dayan" in India, have been reported, with at least 2100 such murders between 2000 and 2012. In Nepal, accusations of witchcraft result in severe abuse, beatings, and forced consumption of human excreta. Women marked as witches often endure mental and physical torture, leading to ostracization, emotional trauma, and even death. Outdated customs and superstitious beliefs perpetuate this cycle, limiting accused women's access to education and opportunities. The legal systems in both countries have not adequately addressed these issues, leaving the victims without proper protection or justice against these atrocities.

India
In 19-century India, Christian missionaries, especially Jesuit missions, defined the term "witchcraft" as any involvement in non-Christian spiritual activities. David Mosse observed that:

"Parishioners discovered attending pagan dramas, [...] or engaging in Hindu practices or 'witchcraft' of other kinds were publicly humilated, having to wear a crown of thorns during Mass, or to go around the church on their knees; [...] When misfortune struck, priests were ready to explain this as retribution for engagement in the 'abominable villainy and deceit' of witchcraft—broadly taken as any non-Christian meditation."

Belief in the supernatural is strong in certain parts of India, and lynchings for witchcraft are reported in the press from time to time. According to the Indian National Crime Records Bureau, at least 2100 suspected witches (known as dayan) were murdered between 2000 and 2012. It is believed that an average of over 150 women per year are killed accused of being witches, concentrated across central India. Murder is commonly carried out by means of being burned, hacked or bludgeoned to death, often preceded by ritual humiliation, such as being stripped naked, smeared with filth and forced to eat excrement. For those accused of witchcraft who are not murdered, nearly all suffer permanent ostracism or banishment and their families face social stigma.

Himalayas
The influence of Buddhism on shamanism and witchcraft in the Himalayas has been profound, leading to complex interactions and adaptations. As Buddhism spread through the region, it often absorbed and integrated elements of local shamanistic and witchcraft practices. Many aspects of indigenous spiritual beliefs were harmonized with Buddhist teachings, resulting in syncretic practices that combined elements of both traditions. Shamanic practices, which often involved spirit communication and healing rituals, evolved to coexist with Buddhist concepts of compassion and karma. While some shamanic and witchcraft practices persisted, they were often reinterpreted within the framework of Buddhist ethics and cosmology, altering their form and intent. Thus, Buddhism played a transformative role, shaping the syncretic spiritual landscape of the Himalayas, where traditional practices, influenced by Buddhist philosophy, continue to be practiced alongside formal Buddhist teachings.

Nepal
In Nepal, women are often accused of witchcraft and thus suffer abuse at the hands of people from their own communities. Nepali people view witchcraft as harmful to society and it still exists in most of the country. However, it is most prevalent in the Terai and hilly rural regions and women here are more vulnerable to abuse. Women of all ages and social statuses can be targeted and once a woman has been deemed a witch, she is treated horribly by society. The witches are called ‘Boksi’ in Nepali language and it’s believed that they learn witchcraft from their mothers.

Punishment can range from receiving severe beatings with sticks or other blunt object to being forced to consume human excreta, a common practice in the plains area of Nepal. Women who are accused of witchcraft may be marked with soot on their faces or garlands of shoes around their necks. These traumatized women are forced to endure mental and physical torture that can lead to ostracization, emotional disturbance and even death.

In Terhathum, there is a rock called ‘boksimara’ which translates to “witch killer stone”. It is said that 200 years ago, accused women were taken to boksimara to be hanged from its precipice. To this day, these types of outdated customs and traditions continue to be prevalent among various castes and tribes. Laxmi Maya Nepali, a victim and inhabitant of Shrijung Village Development committee from Terhathum expresses her pain of being accused of being a witch:

"I had to stay alone in an old house, it was difficult to move around for me, people used to call me witch; even my own relatives did not let me stay at home  accusing me of being a witch. One of my relatives gave birth to a dead baby and they accused me as their baby was dead because of my witchcraft powers. Even my son was badly beaten by his own nephew."

The atrocities that these women face can also prevent them from equal access to education. Without the tools to succeed academically, the accused women are not able to change their societal status. The traditional ways and superstitious beliefs of Nepali culture trap accused women in a vicious cycle. This continues as they are denied opportunities to educate themselves and they are forced to suffer, oftentimes in poverty, for the rest of their lives.

The legal system has done nothing to address the horrors that Nepali women suffer to this day if they are accused of witchcraft. The state has not formulated any concrete law regarding the “crime of witchcraft”. The Nepali legal system also does not have provisions to punish individuals who have been involved in witch-hunts. If an individual has a complaint filed against them and they are found guilty, they are only imprisoned for a short period of time and may walk away with a fine. Section 10 of Muluki Ain or the National Civil Code states that if a person makes an accusation of witchcraft, they shall be jailed for three months to two years or fined five thousand to twenty-five thousand Nepalese Rupees or both. This is the only punishment for those who would commit atrocities against innocent women.

Philippines
In the Philippines, as in many of these cultures, witches are viewed as those opposed to the sacred. In contrast, anthropologists writing about the healers in Indigenous Philippine folk religions either use the traditional terminology of these cultures, or broad anthropological terms like shaman.

Philippine witches are the users of black magic and related practices from the Philippines. They include a variety of different kinds of people with differing occupations and cultural connotations which depend on the ethnic group they are associated with. They are completely different from the Western notion of what a witch is, as each ethnic group has their own definition and practices attributed to witches. The curses and other magics of witches are often blocked, countered, cured, or lifted by Philippine shamans associated with the Indigenous Philippine folk religions.

During the 1580s in Manila, Philippines, the Spanish wife of the ex-governor (Guido de Labezaris) of the Philippines, Inés Álvarez de Gibraleón and their daughter Ana de Monterrey were put on trial for being accused of witchcraft and black magic. It resulted in two trials, however, due to there being no personal investigations, the ecclesiastical investigation was the result of hearsay. There is a record of this trial in the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City. However, the civil trial involving Ana de Monterrey and her husband Captain Juan de Morón disappeared.

Unlike Western notions of witches, majority of indigenous or traditional Filipino witches are not entirely evil by nature. Rather, locals can also consult them to initiate a form of criminal punishment through black magic for cases where families feel that an injustice to the victim was not properly taken cared of by prosecutors, leading to the freedom of the accused. There is a widespread belief that black magic does not work on people who are innocent. In these cases, "wrongdoers" may include thieves, adulterous spouses, or land grabbers, among others. As this type of sorcery is seen as a kind of "justice", especially for people who can not (or failed to) legally prosecute a wrongdoer, it has continued to be in usage for the benefit of the victims of wrongdoers.

Vietnam
Witchcraft in Vietnam is a diverse and culturally rich practice deeply intertwined with the country's traditional beliefs and indigenous spirituality. Practiced by individuals known as "thầy bói", "thầy pháp", "thầy phù thủy" (male) or "bà đồng" (female), Vietnamese witchcraft encompasses rituals, divination, healing, and protection. These practices are rooted in animistic beliefs that emphasize connections with spirits and deities to influence various aspects of life. Rituals often involve offerings, divination techniques, and spirit possession by "bà đồng" practitioners who act as vessels for spirits, conveying messages from the spirit world to the living.

East Asia
During the Western Han Dynasty in China, Emperor Wu aimed to bolster his authority and promote Confucianism, leading to the suppression of shamanistic practices such as the Wuism tradition. In 91 BCE, he issued an edict banning these practices in favor of Confucianism, striving to unify cultural practices and centralize power. Despite the suppression, local variations of these practices endured in certain regions.

Japanese folklore prominently features the figure of the fox witch, known for enlisting foxes for magical purposes. These witches strike deals with fox familiars, utilizing their shape-shifting, illusion, and possession abilities. In Korea, the history of shamanism (musok) has been marked by suppression under Christianity. While stigmatized, shamanism has experienced growing acceptance in South Korea, even though some critics still label mudang (shamanic practitioners) as manipulative and disruptive.

China
During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (141 BCE to 87 BCE) in the Western Han Dynasty of China, there were instances where the imperial court took measures to suppress certain religious or spiritual practices, including those associated with shamanism. Emperor Wu was known for his strong support of Confucianism, which was the dominant ideology of the Han Dynasty, and he promoted policies that aimed to consolidate central authority and unify the cultural and social landscape of the empire.

One notable event related to the suppression of shamanism occurred in 91 BCE, when Emperor Wu issued an edict that banned a range of "heterodox" practices, including shamanistic rituals and divination, in favor of Confucianism. The primary target of these measures was the Wuism or Wu (巫) tradition, which involved the worship of spirits and the use of shamanic practices to communicate with them. Wuism was considered by the Confucian elite to be superstitious witchcraft and at odds with Confucian principles.

Emperor Wu's suppression of shamanism was part of a larger effort to centralize power, promote Confucian ethics, and standardize cultural practices. While the ban on shamanistic practices did impact certain communities and religious groups, these measures were not universally applied across the vast territory of the empire. Local variations and practices persisted in some regions despite imperial edicts.

The historical record from that time is limited, and our understanding of these events can be influenced by the perspectives of the Confucian scholars and officials who documented them. As a result, there might be some variations in the interpretation of the exact nature and extent of the expulsion of shamans and other religious practitioners during Emperor Wu's reign.

In modern times, Gong Tau in Hokkien, Teochew in Cantonese or Jiang Tou in Mandarin is the term used when someone is suspected of having been attacked by black magic and is believed to be a fusion of poison skills which originated in Yunnan, China and witchcraft seen in South East Asia. It is used to either seek revenge, resolve relationship issues or even to assist with money problems.

Japan
In Japanese folklore the witch can commonly be separated into two categories: those who employ snakes as familiars, and those who employ foxes. The fox witch is, by far, the most commonly seen witch figure in Japan. Differing regional beliefs set those who use foxes into two separate types: the kitsune-mochi, and the tsukimono-suji. The first of these, the kitsune-mochi, is a solitary figure who gains his fox familiar by bribing it with its favourite foods. The kitsune-mochi then strikes up a deal with the fox, typically promising food and daily care in return for the fox's magical services. The fox of Japanese folklore is a powerful trickster in and of itself, imbued with powers of shape changing, possession, and illusion. These creatures can be either nefarious; disguising themselves as women in order to trap men, or they can be benign forces as in the story of "The Grateful Foxes". However, once a fox enters the employ of a man it almost exclusively becomes a force of evil to be feared. By far, the most commonly reported cases of fox witchcraft in modern Japan are enacted by tsukimono-suji families, or "hereditary witches".

A fox under the employ of a human can provide him with many services. The fox can turn invisible and be set out to find secrets and it still retains its many powers of illusion which its master will often put to use in order to trick his enemies. The most feared power the kitsune-tsukai possesses is his ability to command his fox to possess other humans.

Magical girl genre may be the most commonly known to feature witchcraft, but it appears liberally in any works of fiction where such supernatural power can exist, despite the fact that such magic resembles more of western witchcraft than an oriental counterpart. Evil witch antagonists, borne out of the European concept of witch, are popular; however, their powers rarely stem from worshipping devils.
 * In modern media

Magical girl animation is typically referred to as mahō shōjo and majokko anime in Japan and the target audience is intended for female prepubescent viewers at first, later this genre of anime gradually shifted to target audience male anime fans. The protagonists of these anime are normal schoolgirls who suddenly happen across a mystical item that transforms them into super-beings who have magical abilities. Despite the repetitive story lines that are supposed to be aimed at children, the magical girl genre brings attention to the surrounding gender roles and identities. Some argue that the magical girl genre is empowering for young audiences as the characters become superheroes who take down the bad guys. However, other theories accuse the magical girl anime of depicting an abundance of eroticism and violence.

Toei Studio produced the first heroine anime which was also the first magical girl anime, Sally the Witch. The settings and character elements were heavily borrowed from many live-action television programs which included the American comedy, Bewitched. While the concept of witches waned in the United States, the symbolism of magic and witchcraft translated well into Japanese culture.

Korea
Korean shamanism or Mu-ism is a religion from Korea. It is also called  in Korean. Scholars of religion have classified it as a folk religion. There is no central authority in control of the religion and much diversity exists among practitioners. Female practitioners are sometimes referred to as "witches".

has been suppressed throughout Korean history under a succession of dominant ideologies including Confucianism, Japanese colonialism, and Christianity. Attempting to influence others through spells in Joseon was widely censured by the royal court. On discovering that Consort Hwi-bin Kim had used witchcraft on the crown prince, Sejong the Great (1397–1450) described her as a "sorcerer" or "evil monster" (: "sorcery; witchcraft") and had her thrown out of the palace.

In 1890, Horace G. Underwood, an American Presbyterian missionary, defined the Korean translation of the English word "witch" as "" in his English-Korean Dictionary. French Catholic missionaries also equated ceremonies with Western witchcraft, in the same way that Christian missionaries rejected magic in other mission fields. Confucian yangban elites also considered to be witchcraft, and many Korean intellectuals eager for modernisation came to regard it as a superstitious practice that should be eradicated; they increasingly referred to it with the term  ("superstition"). These ideas were endorsed in The Independent, Korea's first vernacular newspaper published between 1896 and 1899. Many of these intellectuals were Christian, thus regarding the spirits as evil demons. In 1896, police launched a crackdown by arresting, destroying shrines, and burning paraphernalia.

At the start of the 21st century, the remained widely stigmatized in South Korean society, facing widespread prejudice. In 2021, Sarfati observed that while the religion was "still stigmatized," it was experiencing "growing acceptance" in South Korea. The religion's critics often regard as swindlers, people who manipulate the gullible. Critics regularly focus their critique on the large sums of money that the charge, and maintain that the expenses required for its rituals are wasteful. Critics have also accused of disrupting the civil order with their rituals.

Kendall noted that there was a "generally adversarial relationship" between and Protestants in South Korea, the latter regarding  as "Devil worship". Mainline Protestant theologians have sometimes blamed for predisposing Koreans to Pentecostalism and the idea that prayer can generate financial reward. Christians have sometimes harassed at their places of work or during their ceremonies, which some  regard as religious discrimination.

title: Asian witchcraft


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Bert Sommer

Bert Sommer (February 7, 1949 – July 23, 1990) was an American folk singer and songwriter. He appeared in the musical Hair and at the Woodstock Festival, and released several albums as a singer-songwriter.

Early life
Sommer was born in New York City and grew up in Queens and Hartsdale, New York. He was a self-taught musician (piano and guitar), who began writing songs in his teens. He attended Woodlands High School as well as Quintano's School for Young Professionals in Manhattan.

1960s
He became friendly with other young musicians and songwriters in the area, including Peter Sabatino, Leslie West, Tom Feher, and Michael Brown, and wrote several songs for West (then known as Weinstein)'s band, the Vagrants, including their single "Beside the Sea", co-written with producer Felix Pappalardi and his wife Gail Collins.

In 1967, Sommer was hired to join a "new" version of the Baroque pop band The Left Banke. They had been inactive shortly after the release of their song "Walk Away Renée", and their manager put together a band to tour as the band to profit off of the single. Sommer also co-wrote the Left Banke single "And Suddenly" with member Michael Brown. He also sang lead on "Ivy Ivy", written by Tom Feher. The group (which included Michael McKean on bass) soon fell apart, following legal threats by Martin's lawyers. In the same baroque vein as the Left Banke, Sommer wrote "Brink of Death", recorded by the band Childe Harold with an arrangement by Wendy Carlos.

Next, Sommer was recruited as a member of "the Tribe" for the musical Hair, and then promoted to the role of Woof. His "frizzed-out Afro" hair and eyes were featured on the Los Angeles Playbill for Hair in 1969.

Woodstock festival
Sommer had been signed by Capitol Records, and in June 1969 released his first album, The Road to Travel, produced by Artie Kornfeld, as were his next two albums. Kornfeld's involvement with the Woodstock Festival led to Sommer being invited to perform there. He was the third act to perform on the opening Friday, August 15, 1969. He sang ten songs, including "Jennifer", a song inspired by his fellow Hair performer, Jennifer Warnes, and Simon & Garfunkel's "America", after which he received the festival's first standing ovation. Sommer played with Ira Stone (guitar, Hammond organ, harmonica) and Charles Bilello (bass). According to some accounts, because he was signed to a rival record label, none of his audio performance was made publicly available until 2009. However, his performance singing "Jennifer" was captured in D.A. Pennebaker's documentary Woodstock Diary (1994). In 2019, the entire Bert Sommer set became part of the Woodstock 50th anniversary 38-CD set, restored by Andy Zax.

1970s
Sommer's second album, Inside Bert Sommer, was released in May 1970 on the Eleuthera label, a subsidiary of Buddah Records, and featured the single "We're All Playing in the Same Band", which he wrote at, for, and about the Woodstock festival, about his experience there. The song reached number 48 on the Hot 100 in September 1970. Sommer continued to perform in and around New York, often opening the bill for major acts such as Ike and Tina Turner and the Byrds. A third album, Bert Sommer, was released on Buddah in 1971, but, like Sommer's other albums, was commercially unsuccessful. Sommer spent some time in a rehabilitation facility in the early 1970s, then formed a trio in Brockport, New York. Sommer, Landis & Roberts, with Gary Roberts (also known as Johnny Rabb) and Rob Landis played local clubs and cafes in the college town for a couple years.

While Sommer continued to write songs, he received another offer. After being encouraged to audition by music producer Artie Ripp, he appeared as "Flatbush" of Kaptain Kool and the Kongs on The Krofft Supershow in 1976, but did not reprise the role in the second season. In 1977, his fourth album, also titled Bert Sommer, produced in Los Angeles by Ron Dante, was released by Capitol Records. Again, the album was unsuccessful, and he was dropped by the label. The follow-up album that never happened, to have been produced by Trevor Lawrence, contained songs such as "You", featured in the films The Patriot (1986) and Stella (1990).

Sommer returned to Albany in August 1983 and almost immediately began to perform in local venues with Johnny Rabb, and Carla and Kevin McKrell, in The Fabulous Newports. He also teamed up with Eddie Angel and Johnny Rabb in The Poor Boys. His last performance was again with Rabb, at an outdoor concert in Troy, New York on June 11, 1990.

Death
Sommer died in Troy, New York on July 23, 1990, after a long battle with a respiratory illness.

Discography

 * The Road To Travel (Capitol, 1968)
 * Inside Bert Sommer (Eleuthera, 1970)
 * Bert Sommer (Buddah, 1971)
 * Bert Sommer (Capitol, 1977)

title: Bert Sommer


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Package tour

A package tour, package vacation, or package holiday comprises transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided such as a rental car, activities or outings during the holiday. Transport can be via automobile, buses, charter airline, and may also include travel between areas as part of the holiday. Package holidays are a form of product bundling.

Package holidays are organised by a tour operator and sold to a consumer by a travel agent. Some travel agents are employees of tour operators, others are independent.

Organised tours
The first organised tours dated back to Thomas Cook who, on 5 July 1841, chartered a train to take a group of temperance campaigners from Leicester to a rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away. By 1872 he was undertaking worldwide tours, albeit with small groups. His company, Thomas Cook & Son (commonly called Thomas Cook or simply "Cook's"), grew to become one of the largest and most well known travel agents before being nationalised in 1948.

With the gradual decline of visits to British seaside resorts after the Second World War, Thomas Cook & Son began promoting foreign holidays (particularly Italy, Spain and Switzerland) in the early 1950s. Information films were shown at town halls throughout Britain. However they made a costly decision by not going into the new form of cheap holidays which combined the transport and accommodation arrangements into a single 'package'. The company went further into decline and were only rescued by a consortium buy-out on 26 May 1972.

Group tours
Vladimir Raitz, the co-founder of the Horizon Holiday Group, pioneered the first mass package holidays abroad with charter flights between Gatwick airport and Corsica in 1950, and organised the first package holiday to Palma in 1952, Lourdes in 1953, and the Costa Brava and Sardinia in 1954. In addition, the amendments made in Montreal to the Convention on International Civil Aviation on 14 June 1954 was very liberal to Spain, allowing impetus for mass tourism using charter planes.

By the late 1950s and 1960s, these cheap package holidays — which combined flight, transfers, and accommodation — provided the first chance for most people in the United Kingdom to have affordable travel abroad. One of the first charter airlines was Euravia, which commenced flights from Manchester Airport in 1961 and Luton Airport in 1962. Despite opening up mass tourism to Crete and the Algarve in 1970, the package tour industry declined during the 1970s. On 15 August 1974, the industry was shaken by the collapse of the second-largest tour operator, Court Line, which operated under the brand names of Horizon and Clarksons. Nearly 50,000 tourists were stranded overseas and a further 100,000 people faced the loss of booking deposits.

In 2005 a growing number of consumers were avoiding package holidays and were instead travelling with budget airlines and booking their own accommodation. In the UK, the downturn in the package holiday market led to the consolidation of the tour operator market, which is now dominated by a few large tour operators. The major operators were Thomson Holidays and First Choice part of TUI AG and Thomas Cook AG. Thomas Cook Group ceased operations in 2019 due to bankruptcy. As of 2023, Jet2holidays is the UK's largest tour operator, with TUI UK following in second place. Under these umbrella brands are different holiday operators catering to different markets, such as Club 18-30, traveleze Jet2CityBreaks and Jet2Villas.

The trend for package holiday bookings saw a comeback in 2009, as customers sought greater financial security in the wake of a number of holiday and flight companies going bust, and as the hidden costs of 'no-frills' flights increased. Coupled with the search for late holidays as holidaymakers left booking to the last moment, this led to a rise in consumers booking package holidays.

Dynamic packaging
Dynamic packaging is a method that is becoming increasingly used in package holiday booking procedures that enables consumers to build their own package of flights, accommodation, and rental car instead of a pre-defined packages.

Dynamic Packaging allows guests to create their own vacation, similar to a private or custom tour. This method allows guests to use a company's itinerary or create their own to allow for more flexible options while using an agency's services.

title: Package tour


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Fundão, Portugal

Fundão is a city and a municipality in the Castelo Branco District in Portugal. Fundão proper is an old city with 8,369 inhabitants in 2001, situated at the point where the slope of the Gardunha range meets the Cova da Beira plains, 500 metres above sea level. The municipality population in 2021 was 26,509. The area size is 700.20 km2. The city of Covilhã is about 20 kilometers to the north by road. The municipality of Fundão is subdivided into 23 civil parishes known as freguesias in Portuguese.

History
During the Iron Age, from about 1000 B.C. until its destruction by the Romans, there was a Celtic Lusitanian Castro or fortified village in nearby São Brás Mount. The remains of a villa or agricultural manor house, workers houses and other associated buildings from the time of the Roman Empire have been found in the underground of the centre of the current city. This villa was rebuilt as a fortified medieval mansion during the High Middle Ages.

The history of Fundão is intimately related to that of its originally Jewish, then New Christian or Marrano, population.

Although the place was already mentioned in documents from 1307 referring 32 houses, the bulk of the population only settled after the 1492 Expulsion of the Jews from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, mainly Spanish Jews (sephardic). Close to the border, and already home to significant Jewish minorities the Cova da Beira region, the region received many refugees. They settled in the community of Fundão, which their numbers swelled to that of a city. The influx of Jewish artisans and merchants quickly transformed it into an important commercial and industrial center. With the establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition shortly thereafter, many Jews and New Christians were arrested, tortured, executed or had their possessions expropriated. The commercial dynamism of the city was affected.

The place was proclaimed a city in 1580 by its notables, after support for their attempt was declared by Dom António, Prior do Crato, to preserve Portuguese independence against the ambitions of King Philip II of Spain (Philip I of Portugal). The Municipal Council and autonomy were granted in 1747.

During the Enlightenment of the late 18th century, under the rule of Marquis of Pombal, the Prime-Minister of Portugal, legal restraints on the New Christians were abolished and rights equiparated to those of the Old Christians. Pombal tried to recreate the industrial preëminence of Fundão by founding the Royal Factories (today known as the City Hall). These efforts allowed a measure of revival to the wool industries of the city, and cloth was again exported to northern Europe. The city decayed again after its sack during the defeated Napoleonic French invasions of Portugal, and the subsequent Civil War between supporters of the Liberal Constitutionalist D. Pedro and his brother Conservative Absolutist D. Miguel, who were competing for the throne.

The film festival IMAGO – Young Film and Video Festival was organized in Fundão from 1999 to 2009.

Climate
Fundão has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa) with cool, rainy winters and hot, dry summers.

Parishes
Administratively, the municipality is divided into 23 civil parishes (freguesias):

 * Alcaide
 * Alcaria
 * Alcongosta
 * Alpedrinha
 * Barroca
 * Bogas de Cima
 * Capinha
 * Castelejo
 * Castelo Novo
 * Enxames
 * Fatela
 * Fundão, Valverde, Donas, Aldeia de Joanes e Aldeia Nova do Cabo
 * Janeiro de Cima e Bogas de Baixo
 * Lavacolhos
 * Orca
 * Pêro Viseu
 * Póvoa de Atalaia e Atalaia do Campo
 * Silvares
 * Soalheira
 * Souto da Casa
 * Telhado
 * Três Povos
 * Vale de Prazeres e Mata da Rainha

Economy
The town is an important local center of industry and services. Around it lies some of the most fertile land in the region, in a large valley (Cova da Beira) between the Gardunha and Estrela ranges, where the Zêzere River starts its way towards the Tagus. The most significant productions are cherries, peaches, olive oil, wine, wood pulp and vegetables.

Some of the most important wolframite mines in the world (a mineral source for the element tungsten) are explored within its municipal limits. Other important mines extract lead and tin. The Panasqueira is the generic name for a set of mining operations between Cabeço do Pião in Fundão Municipality and the village of Panasqueira in the neighboring municipality of Covilhã, which operated in a technically integrated manner and continue practically since its discovery. High quality mineral water is also bottled from several sources in the municipality of Fundão.

The Cavleiro tree is a common trade item from this region. It is used in everyday products such as wooden dolls, shoes and bedposts.

Notable people

 * Jorge da Costa (1406 in Alpedrinha – 1508) a cardinal, often called the Cardinal of Alpedrinha
 * Antonio Fernandez Carvajal (ca.1590 – 1659) a Portuguese-Jewish merchant, the first endenizened English Jew.
 * José da Cunha Taborda (1766–1836) a Portuguese painter and architect.
 * João Franco (1855 in Alcaide – 1929) a politician, minister and 47th Prime Minister of Portugal, 1906-1908
 * Eugénio de Andrade (1923 in Póvoa de Atalaia – 2005) a Portuguese poet.
 * Celeste Rodrigues (1923–2018) a Portuguese fadista, a fado singer.
 * Pedro Carvalho (born 1985) a Portuguese actor, grew up in Fundão.

title: Fundão, Portugal


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Template talk:User el

This is the dual-language version, storing it here for now --Jpbrenna 21:06, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

title: Template talk:User el


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Richard Fleeshman

Richard Jonathan Fleeshman (born 8 June 1989) is an English actor and singer. His career began at age 12 playing Craig Harris on the ITV soap opera Coronation Street from 2002 to 2006. He went on to become an established West End and Broadway performer, starring in shows such as Legally Blonde (2010) and Ghost (2011–2012). He appeared in the recurring role of Ken on Netflix's The Sandman in 2022, and has played Lt. James Brice on Syfy's The Ark since 2023. His debut solo album, Neon, was released in 2007.

Early and personal life
Fleeshman was born on 8 June 1989 in Manchester. He is the son of former Brookside and Coronation Street actress Sue Jenkins and actor/director David Fleeshman. He attended Cheadle Hulme School in Cheshire and Wilmslow High School sixth form. He has two sisters, Emily Fleeshman and Rosie Fleeshman who are also actresses. His father was born in Glasgow, Scotland,

In 2019, Fleeshman announced via his Instagram account that he is now a vegetarian and had been meat-free for over two years at that point, having "never felt better ethically or physically".

Acting career
Fleeshman began his professional career in the film called An Angel for May. Starting at age 12, and continuing from 2002 to 2006, he played the role of Craig Harris in Coronation Street. He was the only member of his on-screen family to escape the axe in 2005, leaving the programme at the age of 16. His final episode was broadcast on 16 October 2006. Fleeshman later filmed an episode of Blue Murder in 2007 in which he played the character Ben Holroyd, starring alongside Jill Halfpenny. The episode, called "Crisis Management", was broadcast in December 2007 on ITV. He played the role of Gillen in the ITV comedy drama Monday Monday, which aired on 10 August 2009.

On 16 June 2010, Fleeshman joined the company of Legally Blonde in London, taking over from Duncan James in the role of Warner. In 2009, he played the role of a musically talented autistic boy named Kyle Caddick in a six-part BBC drama series All the Small Things allowing him to act as well as sing. Within the series he performed many songs, both solo and as part of a choir, and also sang the song that runs over the end credits. He co-wrote the song with Sir Elton John and the show's creator Debbie Horsfield. His father, actor David Fleeshman, played the role of Gilbert in the same series. All the Small Things was screened in Australia under the title of Heart and Soul.

Fleeshman starred in the West End production of Ghost: The Musical, based on the film Ghost, written by Bruce Joel Rubin, with music and lyrics by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard). He played the lead role of Sam Wheat (played by Patrick Swayze in the film) alongside Caissie Levy as Molly and Sharon D. Clarke as Oda Mae Brown. The show premiered at the Opera House, Manchester on 28 March 2011 and moved to the Piccadilly Theatre on 22 June 2011. When Fleeshman was offered the role in its Broadway transfer, he left the show in the West End with co star Caissie Levy on 12 January 2012 to star in the Broadway production. It began previews on 15 March 2012 at the Lunt Fontanne Theater and officially opened on 23 April 2012. Richard was invited to perform at the 2012 Tony Awards. Fleeshman and Levy remained in the Broadway Production until its final performance on 18 August 2012.

In 2013, Fleeshman starred as Bobby Strong in the UK premiere of the hit satirical musical, Urinetown, directed by Jamie Lloyd, at the St James Theatre. He then went on to film Call the Midwife for the BBC which was broadcast early February 2015. His next musical project was playing the role of George Bevan, in A Damsel in Distress, a musical adaption of the novel A Damsel in Distress, at the Chichester Festival Theatre beginning on 30 May 2015.

In 2017, Fleeshman played Francis Drake in two episodes of the CW series Reign.

In 2018, Fleeshman took on the role of Gideon Fletcher in Sting's musical The Last Ship. He received rave reviews for his performance.

In 2018, Fleeshman took on the role of Air-Steward 'Andy' in the West-End gender swapped revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company, directed by Marianne Elliot. For this role, he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical. In 2022, Richard guest starred in CHIVALRY for Channel 4 and played the role of KEN in The Sandman. ( Netflix) In 2023, he had a leading role in the TV series The Ark on Syfy. Richard is playing Walter in the Uk premiere Marjorie Prime at The Menier Theatre in London.

Music career
Fleeshman is a singer and songwriter. He plays the piano and guitar. At age 13 in 2003, he became the youngest celebrity contestant to win Stars in Their Eyes. He was also the winner of Soapstar Superstar in 2006, earning £200,000 for his chosen charity, The Kirsty Appeal.

Fleeshman signed a major record deal with Universal in 2007. His debut album was released that same year.

Richard supported Elton John on his Summer stadium tour in 2008. Later that year, he supported him again during his Red Piano concert residency in Las Vegas.

title: Richard Fleeshman


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Talk:ArchiLab

Closed deletion listing
This article was listed for deletion on 11 April, 2005. The discussion was closed with the result of no consensus. This article will not be deleted. You can view the discussion, which is no longer live: Votes_for_deletion/ARCHILAB. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 21:07, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:ArchiLab


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Duchy of Massa and Carrara

The Duchy of Massa and Principality of Carrara (Ducato di Massa e Principato di Carrara) was a small state that controlled the towns of Massa and Carrara from 1473 until 1836.

History
Although the city of Massa had already known its maximum medieval splendor in the 11th century with the Marquisate of Massa and Corsica ruled by the Obertenghi family, the original nucleus of the state was officially born on 22 February 1473 with the purchase of the Lordship of Carrara by the Lordship of Massa in the time headed by the Marquis Jacopo Malaspina, who obtained it from Count Antoniotto Fileremo of Genoa, progenitor of the Fregoso line. The noble title of the Malaspina family therefore became that of Marquises of Massa and lords of Carrara.

From the purchase of the Carrara territory onwards, the seat of Jacopo Malaspina, one of the sons of Antonio Alberico I Malaspina, member of the branch of the family located in Fosdinovo, was located in the city of Carrara, but due to the frequent clashes with the French invaders who occurred often, he and his successors moved to Massa.

Within two generations the Malaspina family died out in male descent and Ricciarda, Iacopo's eldest surviving granddaughter, married in 1520 with Lorenzo Cybo, a member of an influential family of Genoese aristocrats. Pope Innocent VIII (Lorenzo's grandfather) belonged to it and they were related to the Medici (Pope Leo X, Lorenzo's uncle, had himself arranged the Malaspina marriage, together with Lorenzo's elder brother, Cardinal Innocenzo Cybo). From the marriage the new Cybo-Malaspina family originated, which was to rule the states of Massa and Carrara until 1829. The marriage, however, was rather stormy: the two spouses disputed for a long time the governance of the marquisate and in 1529 Ricciarda managed to obtain from emperor Charles V the investiture of the marquisate, in derogation of the Salic law, for herself, for her male descendants in order of primogeniture or, in their absence, also for females.

The son of Ricciarda and Lorenzo, Alberico I Cybo-Malaspina succeeded his mother as Marquis of Massa and Carrara in 1553. Under his 70-year rule the fiefdom experienced a very favorable period of development, thanks also to the advantageous economic situation in the marble market, which was in great demand by the Renaissance courts of the time. Alberico I, aware that his statelet was surrounded by more powerful and influential neighbors, continued his mother's policy of alignment with the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V of Habsburg, who officially confirmed his investiture of the fiefdom in 1554. Thanks to its cultural and economic successes, the city of Carrara obtained the rank of marquisate in 1558. In 1568 Massa was elevated to principality by the Emperor Maximilian II. In 1664, during the rule of Alberico II, Leopold I of Habsburg raised the Principality of Massa to the rank of duchy and the Marquisate of Carrara to a principality.

In 1741 Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, the last scion of the family, married Ercole III d'Este, the only male heir of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio. Their only surviving child, Maria Beatrice d'Este, was thus the last descendant of both families, but, as a woman, she was not entitled to succeed under Salic law and was only permitted to take over the Duchy of Massa and Carrara thanks to the exemption wrested almost three centuries earlier by her indomitable and often reviled ancestor, Ricciarda Malaspina.

In 1796 the Este were deprived of their possessions by the troops of Napoleon. The latter incorporated the territory into the Cispadane Republic, which later became the Cisalpine Republic. During this period the region was briefly disputed against Napoleon by the Austrians of the anti-French coalition (1799) and experienced a rapid succession of different administrative systems, more or less provisional. As a last administrative change, in 1806, the French emperor assigned the Duchy of Massa and Carrara to the Principality of Lucca and Piombino, governed by his older sister Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi. During the Napoleonic domination Maria Beatrice d'Este (who had succeeded her mother in 1790) was forced to take refuge in Vienna with the family of her husband, Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este, uncle of Emperor Francis II, and pretender to the ducal throne of Modena and Reggio. With the fall of the Napoleonic regime, the Congress of Vienna again assigned to Maria Beatrice the ancestral duchy of which she had been dispossessed. The imperial fiefs in Lunigiana (starting with the Marquisate of Fosdinovo), which were not re-established, were also bestowed upon her, but she handed them over almost immediately to her son and heir Francis IV, Duke of Modena.

In 1829, on the death of Maria Beatrice, the Duchy of Massa and the Principality of Carrara were annexed to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, led by her son Francis IV of Austria-Este. In 1860, with the deposition, the previous year, of Francis V, the Duchy of Modena and Reggio (also including the territories of Massa and Carrara) was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia, of which it constituted the Province of Massa-Carrara.

Marquis, Princes, then Dukes of Massa and Carrara

 * Giacomo I Malaspina (1445–1481) Marquis of Massa and Lord of Carrara since 1473
 * Alberico II Malaspina (1481–1519)
 * Ricciarda Cybo-Malaspina (1519–1546 and 1547–1553)
 * Giulio I Cybo-Malaspina (1546–1547)
 * Alberico I Cybo-Malaspina (1554–1623) Marquis of Massa and Carrara from 1558, then Prince of Massa and Marquis of Carrara from 1568
 * Carlo I Cybo-Malaspina (1623–1662)
 * Alberico II Cybo-Malaspina (1662–1690) Duke of Massa and Prince of Carrara from 1664
 * Carlo II Cybo-Malaspina (1690–1710)
 * Alberico III Cybo-Malaspina (1710–1715)
 * Alderamo Cybo-Malaspina (1715–1731)
 * Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina (1731–1790)
 * Maria Beatrice (1790–1796) Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara
 * Annexation by the Cispadane Republic, Cisalpine Republic, Italian Republic, Kingdom of Italy and Principality of Lucca and Piombino following the invasion of Napoleon (1796–1806)
 * Maria Beatrice (1815–1829) Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara
 * Francis IV, Duke of Modena (1829–1846): in 1836 the duchy became a simple province of the Este States
 * Francis V, Duke of Modena (1846–1859)

Policy and economy
The merge of the Malaspina family with the Cybo family brought the territory to a rather lavish court life. In the conduct of foreign policy the Cybo-Malaspina maintained a role as an intermediary between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Republic of Genoa.

Alberico I brought large urban restructurations in the cities of Carrara and Massa, mainly for prestige reasons. Both cities were equipped with new city walls - with representative functions, rather than military, since the policy of the territory was not expansionist - and new ducal palaces. In Carrara was established the Office of Marble (1564), to regulate the marble mining industry.

The city of Massa, in particular, saw much of its plan redesigned (new roads, plazas, intersections, pavings) in order to make it worthy of an Italian country's capital.

The War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714) was the beginning of the period of deep economic crisis for the duchy. The Empire punished with heavy fines the Cybo-Malspina, who had given hospitality to French troops on its territory. Already Alberich III, but especially Alderamo, found themselves forced to sell many city goods. Alderamo arrived to force people to buy food at a premium, and also because of the luxurious and extravagant lifestyle of the nobleman, the economics of the Duchy was brought to its knees. The financial situation recovered only by dynastic union between the families of the Malaspina and the Este, achieved with the marriage of Maria Teresa and Ercole d'Este in 1741.

From that date, the Duchy of Massa and Carrara gradually lost its political autonomy, going to gravitate more and more closely into the city of Modena sphere of influence. Under the domination of the Este, the Duchy of Massa Carrara rose to occupy a strategic position, in that it provided a sea outlet to the hinterland domains and promised an easier trade route. Already under Maria Teresa road links between the Duchy of Modena and Reggio to Massa & Carrara were significantly improved. These road reform attempts include the construction of the Via Vandelli, starting as early as 1738.

In 1751, was made a first attempt for the excavation of a dock and the construction of a port in the city of Carrara. The port would have been functional to the trade and military activities of the Este, would have housed in a safe place the small fleet of the Duchy of Modena and, finally, would have been essential to free the marble exports from dependence of other nearby ports. The coast, however, had a tendency to silt up and after a few years the construction work had to be suspended.

In 1807 Napoleon's engineers built the important mail road to the Foce, to link the cities of Massa and Carrara through the inland hills. During the Napoleonic rule were also initiated other public works such as the bonification of the plains, the plantation of coastal pine trees to combat malaria and arrangement of river banks. These works were continued by Maria Beatrice and successors in subsequent decades. In 1821 the Este Land Registry was established, with the task of regulating and listing the properties of the inhabitants of the duchy.

The years following the annexation to the Duchy of Modena were particularly complex, both for the insurrectional riots that characterized the historical period, and for the economic crisis, which have long gripped the region. The rulers tried several times to exit the stagnation in promoting the construction of infrastructure to increase the volume of trade, but the lack of money often proves an insurmountable obstacle.

A second attempt to build the port of Carrara was entrusted by Duke Francis IV to the engineer Aschenden in 1830, but the project was never made for lack of funds. A dock loader, which came to be the first authentic port core of Carrara was built successfully only in 1851, thanks to the English engineer and tycoon William Walton. In 1846 the Count Francesco del Medico proposed to the Duke Francis V the construction of the Marble Railway of Carrara, to link the marble quarries to the sea and thereby facilitating the transport of blocks to the areas for sorting, loading, and shipping. This project was also suspended for lack of funds. The Marble Railway was finally built after the Italian unification (1871–1890).

In the last years of the duchy, an increasing number of clashes was seen between the liberals and the ducal government, especially in Carrara. The territory was chosen by Count Camillo Benso di Cavour and Napoleon III to organize popular anti-Austrian riots and give France an opportunity to intervene on the side of Piedmont in Italy, giving way to the Second Italian War of Independence.

title: Duchy of Massa and Carrara


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Aspen Mountain (Colorado)

Aspen Mountain is a mountain summit in the Elk Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 11212 ft peak is located in White River National Forest, 2.2 km south-southeast (bearing 162°) of downtown Aspen in Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The north face of the mountain is the location of the Aspen Mountain ski area, one of four adjacent ski areas operated collectively as Aspen/Snowmass.

Mountain
Aspen Mountain is not particularly high, relative to other mountains in Colorado, but nonetheless looms over the town of Aspen because of the proximity of the town, which was founded as a silver mining camp in 1879 during the Colorado Silver Boom. The mountain flank was the site of intense mining activity in the late 1880s and early 1890s, with many remains of mining activity below and on the surface of the mountain. In the middle 20th century it became the site of recreational downhill skiing. In 1946, the newly formed Aspen Skiing Company, founded by Walter Paepcke, built the first chairlift to the top of the mountain and opened the ski area that bears the name of the mountain. Nowadays, people use a modern gondola, which holds six people, to get to the top of the mountain.

Aspen Mountain is alternatively called Ajax by the locals.

title: Aspen Mountain (Colorado)


text: User talk:68.10.156.70

title: User talk:68.10.156.70