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# Andronicus of Cyrrhus
**Andronicus of Cyrrhus** or **Andronicus Cyrrhestes** (Latin; *Ἀνδρόνικος Κυρρήστης*, *Andrónikos Kyrrhēstēs*; `{{fl.|{{c.|100}}{{nbsp}}BC}}`{=mediawiki}) was a Macedonian astronomer best known for designing the Tower of the Winds in Roman Athens.
## Life
Little is known about the life of Andronicus, although his father is recorded as Hermias. It is usually assumed that he came from the Cyrrhus in Macedonia rather than the one in Syria.
## Work
Andronicus is usually credited with the construction of the Tower of the Winds in the Roman forum at Athens around `{{nowrap|50 BC,}}`{=mediawiki} a considerable portion of which still exists. It is octagonal, with figures of the eight principal winds (Anemoi) carved on the appropriate side. Originally, a bronze figure of Triton was placed on the summit that was turned round by the wind so that the rod in his hand pointed to the correct wind direction, an idea replicated with subsequent wind vanes. The interior housed a large clepsydra and there were multiple sundials on the exterior, so that it functioned as a kind of early clocktower.
He also built a multifaced sundial for the Temple of Poseidon on the island of Tinos
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# Ammianus Marcellinus
**Ammianus Marcellinus**, occasionally anglicized as **Ammian** (Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born c. 330, died c. lk=no`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). Written in Latin and known as the *Res gestae*, his work chronicled the history of Rome from the accession of Emperor Nerva in 96 to the death of Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Only the sections covering the period 353 to 378 survive.
## Biography
Ammianus was born in the East Mediterranean, possibly in Syria or Phoenicia, around 330, into a noble family of Greek origin. Since he calls himself *Graecus* (`{{lit}}`{=mediawiki} Greek), he was most likely born in a Greek-speaking area of the empire. His native language was Greek, but he also knew Latin. The surviving books of his history cover the years 353 to 378.
Ammianus began his career as a military officer in the Praetorian Guard, where he gained firsthand experience in various military campaigns. He served as an officer in the army of the emperors Constantius II and Julian. He served in Gaul (Julian) and in the east (twice for Constantius, once under Julian). He professes to have been \"a former soldier and a Greek\" (*miles quondam et graecus*), and his enrollment among the elite *protectors domestic* (household guards) shows that he was of the middle class or higher birth. Consensus is that Ammianus probably came from a curial family, but it is also possible that he was the son of a *comes Orientis* of the same family name. He entered the army at an early age, when Constantius II was emperor of the East, and was sent to serve under Ursicinus, governor of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, and *magister militum*. Ammianus campaigned in the East twice under Ursicinus.
thumb\|upright=1.3\|The walls of Amida, built by Constantius II before the Siege of Amida of 359. Ammianus himself was present in the city until a day before its fall. He traveled with Ursicinus to Italy in an expedition against Silvanus, an officer who had proclaimed himself emperor in Gaul. Ursicinus ended the threat by having Silvanus assassinated, then stayed in the region to help install Julian as Caesar of Gaul, Spain, and Britain. Ammianus probably met Julian for the first time while serving on Ursicinus\' staff in Gaul.
In 359, Constantius sent Ursicinus back to the east to help in the defense against a Persian invasion led by King Shapur II himself. Ammianus returned with his commander to the East and again served Ursicinus as a staff officer. Ursicinus, although he was the more experienced commander, was placed under the command of Sabinianus, the *Magister Peditum* of the east. The two did not get along, resulting in a lack of cooperation between the Limitanei (border regiments) of Mesopotamia and Osrhoene under Ursicinus\' command and the *comitatus* (field army) of Sabinianus. While on a mission near Nisibis, Ammianus spotted a Persian patrol which was about to try and capture Ursicinus, and warned his commander in time. In an attempt to locate the Persian Royal Army, Ursicinus sent Ammianus to Jovinianus, the semi-independent governor of Corduene, and a friend of Ursicinus. Ammianus successfully located the Persian main body and reported his findings to Ursicinus.
After his mission in Corduene, Ammianus left the headquarters at Amida in the retinue of Ursinicus, who was on a mission to make sure the bridges across the Euphrates were demolished. They were attacked by the Persian vanguard, who had made a night march in an attempt to catch the Romans at Amida unprepared. After a protracted cavalry battle, the Romans were scattered; Ursicinus evaded capture and fled to Melitene, while Ammianus made a difficult journey back to Amida with a wounded comrade. The Persians besieged and eventually sacked Amida, and Ammianus barely escaped with his life.
When Ursicinus was dismissed from his military post by Constantius, Ammianus too seems to have retired from the military; however, reevaluation of his participation in Julian\'s Persian campaign has led modern scholarship to suggest that he continued his service but did not for some reason include the period in his history. He accompanied Julian, for whom he expresses enthusiastic admiration, in his campaigns against the Alamanni and the Sassanids. After Julian\'s death, Ammianus accompanied the retreat of the new emperor, Jovian, as far as Antioch. He was residing in Antioch in 372 when a certain Theodorus was thought to have been identified as the successor to the emperor Valens by divination. Speaking as an alleged eyewitness, Marcellinus recounts how Theodorus and several others were made to confess their deceit through the use of torture, and cruelly punished.
He eventually settled in Rome and began the *Res gestae*. The precise year of his death is unknown, but scholarly consensus places it somewhere between 392 and 400 at the latest.
Modern scholarship generally describes Ammianus as a pagan who was tolerant of Christianity. Marcellinus writes of Christianity as being a \"plain and simple\" religion that demands only what is just and mild, and when he condemns the actions of Christians, he does not do so based on their Christianity as such. His lifetime was marked by lengthy outbreaks of sectarian and dogmatic strife within the new state-backed faith, often with violent consequences (especially the Arian controversy) and these conflicts sometimes appeared unworthy to him, though it was territory where he could not risk going very far in criticism, due to the growing and volatile political connections between the church and imperial power.
Ammianus was not blind to the faults of Christians or of pagans and was especially critical of them; he commented that \"no wild beasts are so hostile to men as Christian sects, in general, are to one another\" and he condemns the emperor Julian for excessive attachment to (pagan) sacrifice, and for his edict effectively barring Christians from teaching posts.
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# Ammianus Marcellinus
## Work
While living in Rome in the 380s, Ammianus wrote a Latin history of the Roman empire from the accession of Nerva (96) to the death of Valens at the Battle of Adrianople (378), in effect writing a continuation of the history of Tacitus. At 22.16.12, he praises the Serapeum of Alexandria in Egypt as the glory of the empire, so his work was presumably completed before the destruction of that building in 391.
The *Res gestae* (*Rerum gestarum libri XXXI*) was originally composed of thirty-one books, but the first thirteen have been lost. The surviving eighteen books, covering the period from 353 to 378, constitute the foundation of modern understanding of the history of the fourth-century Roman Empire. They are lauded as a clear, comprehensive, and generally impartial account of events by a contemporary; like many ancient historians, however, Ammianus was in fact not impartial, although he expresses an intention to be so, and had strong moral and religious prejudices. Although criticized as lacking literary merit by his early biographers, he was in fact quite skilled in rhetoric, which significantly has brought the veracity of some of the *Res gestae* into question.
His work has suffered substantially from manuscript transmission. Aside from the loss of the first thirteen books, the remaining eighteen are in many places corrupt and lacunose. The sole surviving manuscript from which almost every other is derived is a ninth-century Carolingian text, Vatican lat. 1873 (*V*), produced in Fulda from an insular exemplar. The only independent textual source for Ammianus lies in Fragmenta Marbugensia (*M*), another ninth-century Frankish codex which was taken apart to provide covers for account-books during the fifteenth century. Only six leaves of *M* survive; however, before this manuscript was dismantled the Abbot of Hersfeld lent the manuscript to Sigismund Gelenius, who used it in preparing the text of the second Froben edition (*G*). The dates and relationship of V and M were long disputed until 1936 when R. P. Robinson demonstrated persuasively that V was copied from M. As L. D. Reynolds summarizes, \"M is thus a fragment of the archetype; symptoms of an insular pre-archetype are evident.\"
His handling from his earliest printers was little better. The *editio princeps* was printed in 1474 in Rome by Georg Sachsel and Bartholomaeus Golsch, which broke off at the end of Book 26. The next edition (Bologna, 1517) suffered from its editor\'s conjectures upon the poor text of the 1474 edition; the 1474 edition was pirated for the first Froben edition (Basle, 1518). It was not until 1533 that the last five books of Ammianus\' history were put into print by Silvanus Otmar and edited by Mariangelus Accursius. The first modern edition was produced by C.U. Clark (Berlin, 1910--1913). The first English translations were by Philemon Holland in 1609, and later by C.D. Yonge in 1862.
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# Ammianus Marcellinus
## Reception
Edward Gibbon judged Ammianus \"an accurate and faithful guide, who composed the history of his own times without indulging the prejudices and passions which usually affect the mind of a contemporary.\" But he also condemned Ammianus for lack of literary flair: \"The coarse and undistinguishing pencil of Ammianus has delineated his bloody figures with tedious and disgusting accuracy.\" Austrian historian Ernst Stein praised Ammianus as \"the greatest literary genius that the world produced between Tacitus and Dante\".
According to Kimberly Kagan, his accounts of battles emphasize the experience of the soldiers but at the cost of ignoring the bigger picture. As a result, it is difficult for the reader to understand why the battles he describes had the outcome they did.
Ammianus\' work contains a detailed description of the earthquake and tsunami of 365 in Alexandria, which devastated the metropolis and the shores of the eastern Mediterranean on 21 July 365. His report describes accurately the characteristic sequence of earthquake, retreat of the sea, and sudden incoming giant wave
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# Apollo 7
**Apollo 7** (October 11--22, 1968) was the first crewed flight in NASA\'s Apollo program, and saw the resumption of human spaceflight by the agency after the fire that had killed the three Apollo 1 astronauts during a launch rehearsal test on January 27, 1967. The Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 crew was commanded by Walter M. Schirra, with Command Module Pilot Donn F. Eisele and Lunar Module pilot R. Walter Cunningham (so designated even though Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 did not carry a Lunar Module).
The three astronauts were originally designated for the second crewed Apollo flight, and then as backups for Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}1. After the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}1 fire, crewed flights were suspended while the cause of the accident was investigated and improvements made to the spacecraft and safety procedures, and uncrewed test flights made. Determined to prevent a repetition of the fire, the crew spent long periods monitoring the construction of their Apollo command and service modules (CSM). Training continued over much of the `{{awrap|21-month}}`{=mediawiki} pause that followed the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}1 disaster.
Apollo 7 was launched on October 11, 1968, from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida, and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean eleven days later. Extensive testing of the CSM took place, and also the first live television broadcast from an American spacecraft. Despite tension between the crew and ground controllers, the mission was a complete technical success, giving NASA the confidence to send Apollo 8 into orbit around the Moon two months later. In part because of these tensions, none of the crew flew in space again, though Schirra had already announced he would retire from NASA after the flight. Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 fulfilled Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}1\'s mission of testing the CSM in low Earth orbit, and was a significant step towards NASA\'s goal of landing astronauts on the Moon.
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# Apollo 7
## Background and personnel {#background_and_personnel}
Schirra, one of the original \"Mercury Seven\" astronauts, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1945. He flew Mercury-Atlas 8 in 1962, the fifth crewed flight of Project Mercury and the third to reach orbit, and in 1965 was the command pilot for Gemini 6A. He was a 45-year-old captain in the Navy at the time of Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7. Eisele graduated from the Naval Academy in 1952 with a B.S. in aeronautics. He elected to be commissioned in the Air Force, and was a 38-year-old major at the time of Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7. Cunningham joined the U.S. Navy in 1951, began flight training the following year, and served in a Marine flight squadron from 1953 to 1956, and was a civilian, aged 36, serving in the Marine Corps reserves with a rank of major, at the time of Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7. He received degrees in physics from UCLA, a B.A. in 1960 and an M.A. in 1961. Both Eisele and Cunningham were selected as part of the third group of astronauts in 1963.
Eisele was originally slotted for a position on Gus Grissom\'s Apollo 1 crew along with Ed White, but days prior to the official announcement on March 25, 1966, Eisele sustained a shoulder injury that would require surgery. Instead, Roger Chaffee was given the position and Eisele was reassigned to Schirra\'s crew.
Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham were first named as an Apollo crew on September 29, 1966. They were to fly a second Earth orbital test of the Apollo Command Module (CM). Although delighted as a rookie to be assigned to a prime crew without having served as a backup, Cunningham was troubled by the fact that a second Earth orbital test flight, dubbed Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}2, seemed unnecessary if Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}1 was successful. He learned later that Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton, another of the Mercury Seven who had been grounded for medical reasons and supervised the astronauts, planned, with Schirra\'s support, to command the mission if he gained medical clearance. When this was not forthcoming, Schirra remained in command of the crew, and in November 1966, Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}2 was cancelled and Schirra\'s crew assigned as backup to Grissom\'s. Thomas P. Stafford---assigned at that point as the backup commander of the second orbital test---stated that the cancellation followed Schirra and his crew submitting a list of demands to NASA management (Schirra wanted the mission to include a lunar module and a CM capable of docking with it), and that the assignment as backups left Schirra complaining that Slayton and Chief Astronaut Alan Shepard had destroyed his career.
On January 27, 1967, Grissom\'s crew was conducting a launch-pad test for their planned February 21 mission, when a fire broke out in the cabin, killing all three men. A complete safety review of the Apollo program followed. Soon after the fire, Slayton asked Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham to fly the first mission after the pause. Apollo 7 would use the Block`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}II spacecraft designed for the lunar missions, as opposed to the Block I CSM used for Apollo 1, which was intended only to be used for the early Earth-orbit missions, as it lacked the capability of docking with a lunar module. The CM and astronauts\' spacesuits had been extensively redesigned, to reduce any chance of a repeat of the accident which killed the first crew. Schirra\'s crew would test the life support, propulsion, guidance and control systems during this \"open-ended\" mission (meaning it would be extended as it passed each test). The duration was limited to 11 days, reduced from the original 14-day limit for Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}1.
The backup crew consisted of Stafford as commander, John W. Young as command module pilot, and Eugene A. Cernan as lunar module pilot. They became the prime crew of Apollo 10. Ronald E. Evans, John L. \'Jack\' Swigert, and Edward G. Givens were assigned to the support crew for the mission. Givens died in a car accident on June 6, 1967, and William R. Pogue was assigned as his replacement. Evans was involved in hardware testing at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Swigert was the launch capsule communicator (CAPCOM) and worked on the mission\'s operational aspects. Pogue spent time modifying procedures. The support crew also filled in when the primary and backup crews were unavailable.
CAPCOMs, the person in Mission Control responsible for communicating with the spacecraft (then always an astronaut) were Evans, Pogue, Stafford, Swigert, Young and Cernan. Flight directors were Glynn Lunney, Gene Kranz and Gerry Griffin.
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# Apollo 7
## Preparation
According to Cunningham, Schirra originally had limited interest in making a third spaceflight, beginning to focus on his post-NASA career. Flying the first mission after the fire changed things: \"Wally Schirra was being pictured as the man chosen to rescue the manned space program. And that was a task worthy of Wally\'s interest.\" Eisele noted, \"coming on the heels of the fire, we knew the fate and future of the entire manned space program---not to mention our own skins---was riding on the success or failure of Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7.\"
Given the circumstances of the fire, the crew initially had little confidence in the staff at North American Aviation\'s plant at Downey, California, who built the Apollo command modules, and they were determined to follow their craft every step of the way through construction and testing. This interfered with training, but the simulators of the CM were not yet ready, and they knew it would be a long time until they launched. They spent long periods at Downey. Simulators were constructed at Houston\'s Manned Spacecraft Center and at KSC in Florida. Once these were available for use, the crew had difficulty finding enough time to do everything, even with the help of the backup and support crews; the crew often worked 12 or 14 hours per day. After the CM was completed and shipped to KSC, the focus of the crew\'s training shifted to Florida, though they went to Houston for planning and technical meetings. Rather than return to their Houston homes for the weekend, they often had to remain at KSC in order to participate in training or spacecraft testing. According to former astronaut Tom Jones in a 2018 article, Schirra, \"with indisputable evidence of the risks his crew would be taking, now had immense leverage with management at NASA and North American, and he used it. In conference rooms or on the spacecraft assembly line, Schirra got his way.\"
The Apollo 7 crew spent five hours in training for every hour they could expect to remain aboard if the mission went its full eleven days. In addition, they attended technical briefings and pilots\' meetings, and studied on their own. They undertook launch pad evacuation training, water egress training to exit the vehicle after splashdown, and learned to use firefighting equipment. They trained on the Apollo Guidance Computer at MIT. Each crew member spent 160 hours in CM simulations, in some of which Mission Control in Houston participated live. The \"plugs out\" test---the test that had killed the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}1 crew---was conducted with the prime crew in the spacecraft, but with the hatch open. One reason the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}1 crew had died was because it was impossible to open the inward-opening hatch before the fire raced through the cabin; this was changed for Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7.
Command modules similar to that used on Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 were subjected to tests in the run-up to the mission. A three-astronaut crew (Joseph P. Kerwin, Vance D. Brand and Joe H. Engle) was inside a CM that was placed in a vacuum chamber at the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston for eight days in June 1968 to test spacecraft systems. Another crew (James Lovell, Stuart Roosa and Charles M. Duke) spent 48 hours at sea aboard a CM lowered into the Gulf of Mexico from a naval vessel in April 1968, to test how systems would respond to seawater. Further tests were conducted the following month in a tank at Houston. Fires were set aboard a boilerplate CM using various atmospheric compositions and pressures. The results led to the decision to use 60 percent oxygen and 40 percent nitrogen within the CM at launch, which would be replaced with a lower pressure of pure oxygen within four hours, as providing adequate fire protection. Other boilerplate spacecraft were subjected to drops to test parachutes, and to simulate the likely damage if a CM came down on land. All results were satisfactory.
During the run-up to the mission, the Soviets sent uncrewed probes Zond 4 and Zond 5 (Zond 5 carried two tortoises) around the Moon, seeming to foreshadow a circumlunar crewed mission. NASA\'s Lunar Module (LM) was suffering delays, and Apollo Program Spacecraft Manager George Low proposed that if Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 was a success, that Apollo 8 go to lunar orbit without a LM. The acceptance of Low\'s proposal raised the stakes for Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7. According to Stafford, Schirra \"clearly felt the full weight of the program riding on a successful mission and as a result became more openly critical and more sarcastic.\"
Throughout the Mercury and Gemini programs, McDonnell Aircraft engineer Guenter Wendt led the spacecraft launch pad teams, with ultimate responsibility for condition of the spacecraft at launch. He earned the astronauts\' respect and admiration, including Schirra\'s. However, the spacecraft contractor had changed from McDonnell (Mercury and Gemini) to North American (Apollo), so Wendt was not the pad leader for Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}1. So adamant was Schirra in his desire to have Wendt back as pad leader for his Apollo flight, that he got his boss Slayton to persuade North American management to hire Wendt away from McDonnell, and Schirra personally lobbied North American\'s launch operations manager to change Wendt\'s shift from midnight to day so he could be pad leader for Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7. Wendt remained as pad leader for the entire Apollo program. When he departed the spacecraft area as the pad was evacuated prior to launch, after Cunningham said, \"I think Guenter\'s going\", Eisele responded \"Yes, I think Guenter went.\"
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# Apollo 7
## Hardware
### Spacecraft
The Apollo 7 spacecraft included Command and Service Module 101 (CSM-101), the first Block`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}II CSM to be flown. The Block`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}II craft had the capability of docking with a LM, though none was flown on Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7. The spacecraft also included the launch escape system and a spacecraft-lunar module adapter (SLA, numbered as SLA-5), though the latter included no LM and instead provided a mating structure between the SM and the S-IVB\'s Instrument Unit, with a structural stiffener substituted for the LM. The launch escape system was jettisoned after S-IVB ignition, while the SLA was left behind on the spent S-IVB when the CSM separated from it in orbit.
Following the Apollo 1 fire, the Block`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}II CSM was extensively redesigned---more than 1,800 changes were recommended, of which 1,300 were implemented for Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7. Prominent among these was the new aluminum and fiberglass outward-opening hatch, which the crew could open in seven seconds from within, and the pad crew in ten seconds from outside. Other changes included replacement of aluminum tubing in the high-pressure oxygen system with stainless steel, replacement of flammable materials with non-flammable (including changing plastic switches for metal ones) and, for crew protection in the event of a fire, an emergency oxygen system to shield them from toxic fumes, as well as firefighting equipment.
After the Gemini 3 craft was dubbed *Molly Brown* by Grissom, NASA forbade naming spacecraft. Despite this prohibition, Schirra wanted to name his ship \"Phoenix,\" but NASA refused him permission. The first CM to be given a call sign other than the mission designation would be that of Apollo 9, which carried a LM that would separate from it and then re-dock, necessitating distinct call signs for the two vehicles.
### Launch vehicle {#launch_vehicle}
Since it flew in low Earth orbit and did not include a LM, Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 was launched with the Saturn IB booster rather than the much larger and more powerful Saturn V. That Saturn IB was designated SA-205, and was the fifth Saturn IB to be flown---the earlier ones did not carry crews into space. It differed from its predecessors in that stronger propellant lines to the augmented spark igniter in the J-2 engines had been installed, so as to prevent a repetition of the early shutdown that had occurred on the uncrewed Apollo 6 flight; postflight analysis had shown that the propellant lines to the J-2 engines, also used in the Saturn V tested on Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}6, had leaked.
The Saturn IB was a two-stage rocket, with the second stage an S-IVB similar to the third stage of the Saturn V, the rocket used by all later Apollo missions. The Saturn IB was used after the close of the Apollo Program to bring crews in Apollo CSMs to Skylab, and for the Apollo--Soyuz Test Project.
Apollo 7 was the only crewed Apollo mission to launch from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station\'s Launch Complex 34. All subsequent Apollo and Skylab spacecraft flights (including Apollo--Soyuz) were launched from Launch Complex 39 at the nearby Kennedy Space Center. Launch Complex 34 was declared redundant and decommissioned in 1969, making Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 the last human spaceflight mission to launch from the Cape Air Force Station in the 20th century.
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# Apollo 7
## Mission highlights {#mission_highlights}
The main purposes of the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 flight were to show that the Block II CM would be habitable and reliable over the length of time required for a lunar mission, to show that the service propulsion system (SPS, the spacecraft\'s main engine) and the CM\'s guidance systems could perform a rendezvous in orbit, and later make a precision reentry and splashdown. In addition, there were a number of specific objectives, including evaluating the communications systems and the accuracy of onboard systems such as the propellant tank gauges. Many of the activities aimed at gathering these data were scheduled for early in the mission, so that if the mission was terminated prematurely, they would already have been completed, allowing for fixes to be made prior to the next Apollo flight.
### Launch and testing {#launch_and_testing}
Apollo 7, the first crewed American space flight in 22 months, launched from Launch Complex 34 at 11:02:45`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}am EDT (15:02:45`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}UTC) on Friday, October 11, 1968.
During the countdown, the wind was blowing in from the east. Launching under these weather conditions was in violation of safety rules, since in the event of a launch vehicle malfunction and abort, the CM might be blown back over land instead of making the usual water landing. Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 was equipped with the old Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}1-style crew couches, which provided less protection than later ones. Schirra later related that he felt the launch should have been scrubbed, but managers waived the rule and he yielded under pressure.
Liftoff proceeded flawlessly; the Saturn IB performed well on its first crewed launch and there were no significant anomalies during the boost phase. The astronauts described it as very smooth. The ascent made the 45-year-old Schirra the oldest person to that point to enter space, and, as it proved, the only astronaut to fly Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.
Within the first three hours of flight, the astronauts performed two actions which simulated what would be required on a lunar mission. First, they maneuvered the craft with the S-IVB still attached, as would be required for the burn that would take lunar missions to the Moon. Then, after separation from the S-IVB, Schirra turned the CSM around and approached a docking target painted on the S-IVB, simulating the docking maneuver with the lunar module on Moon-bound missions prior to extracting the combined craft. Cunningham reported that the hinged SLA panels on the S-IVB had not fully opened, which CAPCOM Tom Stafford likened to the \"angry alligator\" from his Gemini 9A flight. Partially open panels would have presented a collision hazard on flights with an LM, so on subsequent missions the SLA panels were jettisoned after the CSM had separated. After station keeping with the S-IVB for 20 minutes, Schirra let it drift away, putting 76 mi between the CSM and it in preparation for the following day\'s rendezvous attempt.
The astronauts also enjoyed a hot lunch, the first hot meal prepared on an American spacecraft. Schirra had brought instant coffee along over the opposition of NASA doctors, who argued it added nothing nutritionally. Five hours after launch, he reported having, and enjoying, his first plastic bag full of coffee.
The purpose of the rendezvous was to demonstrate the CSM\'s ability to match orbits with and rescue a LM after an aborted lunar landing attempt, or following liftoff from the lunar surface. This was to occur on the second day; but by the end of the first, Schirra had reported he had a cold, and, despite Slayton coming on the loop to argue in favor, declined Mission Control\'s request that the crew power up and test the onboard television camera prior to the rendezvous, citing the cold, that the crew had not eaten, and that there was already a very full schedule.
The rendezvous was complicated by the fact that the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 spacecraft lacked a rendezvous radar, something the Moon-bound missions would have. The SPS, the engine that would be needed to send later Apollo CSMs into and out of lunar orbit, had been fired only on a test stand. Although the astronauts were confident it would work, they were concerned it might fire in an unexpected manner, necessitating an early end to the mission. The burns would be computed from the ground but the final work in maneuvering up to the S-IVB would require Eisele to use the telescope and sextant to compute the final burns, with Schirra applying the ship\'s reaction control system (RCS) thrusters. Eisele was startled by the violent jolt caused by activating the SPS. The thrust caused Schirra to yell, \"Yabba dabba doo!\" in reference to *The Flintstones* cartoon. Schirra eased the craft close to the S-IVB, which was tumbling out of control, successfully completing the rendezvous.
The first television broadcast took place on October 14. It began with a view of a card reading \"From the Lovely Apollo Room high atop everything\", recalling tag lines used by band leaders on 1930s radio broadcasts. Cunningham served as camera operator with Eisele as emcee. During the seven-minute broadcast, the crew showed off the spacecraft and gave the audience views of the southern United States. Before the close, Schirra held another sign, \"Keep those cards and letters coming in folks\", another old-time radio tag line that had been used recently by Dean Martin. This was the first live television broadcast from an American spacecraft (Gordon Cooper had transmitted slow-scan television pictures from *Faith`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7* in 1963, but the pictures were of poor quality and were never broadcast). According to Jones, \"these apparently amiable astronauts delivered to NASA a solid public relations coup.\" Daily television broadcasts of about 10 minutes each followed, during which the crew held up more signs and educated their audience about spaceflight; after the return to Earth, they were awarded a special Emmy for the telecasts.
Later on October 14, the craft\'s onboard radar receiver was able to lock onto a ground-based transmitter, again showing a CSM in lunar orbit could keep contact with a LM returning from the Moon\'s surface. Throughout the remainder of the mission, the crew continued to run tests on the CSM, including of the propulsion, navigation, environmental, electrical and thermal control systems. All checked out well; according to authors Francis French and Colin Burgess, \"The redesigned Apollo spacecraft was better than anyone had dared to hope.\" Eisele found that navigation was not as easy as anticipated; he found it difficult to use Earth\'s horizon in sighting stars due to the fuzziness of the atmosphere, and water dumps made it difficult to discern which glistening points were stars and which ice particles. By the end of the mission, the SPS engine had been fired eight times without any problems.
One difficulty that was encountered was with the sleep schedule, which called for one crew member to remain awake at all times; Eisele was to remain awake while the others slept, and sleep during part of the time the others were awake. This did not work well, as it was hard for crew members to work without making a disturbance. Cunningham later remembered waking up to find Eisele dozing.
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# Apollo 7
## Mission highlights {#mission_highlights}
### Conflict and splashdown {#conflict_and_splashdown}
Schirra was angered by NASA managers allowing the launch to proceed despite the winds, saying \"The mission pushed us to the wall in terms of risk.\" Jones said, \"This prelaunch dispute was the prelude to a tug of war over command decisions for the rest of the mission.\" Lack of sleep and Schirra\'s cold probably contributed to the conflict between the astronauts and Mission Control that surfaced from time to time during the flight.
The testing of the television resulted in a disagreement between the crew and Houston. Schirra stated at the time, \"You\'ve added two burns to this flight schedule, and you\'ve added a urine water dump; and we have a new vehicle up here, and I can tell you at this point, TV will be delayed without any further discussion until after the rendezvous.\" Schirra later wrote, \"we\'d resist anything that interfered with our main mission objectives. On this particular Saturday morning a TV program clearly interfered.\" Eisele agreed in his memoirs, \"We were preoccupied with preparations for that critical exercise and didn\'t want to divert our attention with what seemed to be trivialities at the time.`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}\... Evidently the earth people felt differently; there was a real stink about the hotheaded, recalcitrant Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 crew who wouldn\'t take orders.\" French and Burgess wrote, \"When this point is considered objectively---that in a front-loaded mission the rendezvous, alignment, and engine tests should be done before television shows---it is hard to argue with him \[Schirra\].\" Although Slayton gave in to Schirra, the commander\'s attitude surprised flight controllers.
On Day 8, after being asked to follow a new procedure passed up from the ground that caused the computer to freeze, Eisele radioed, \"We didn\'t get the results that you were after. We didn\'t get a damn thing, in fact`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}\... you bet your ass`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}\... as far as we\'re concerned, somebody down there screwed up royally when he laid that one on us.\" Schirra later stated his belief that this was the one main occasion when Eisele upset Mission Control. The next day saw more conflict, with Schirra telling Mission Control after having to make repeated firings of the RCS system to keep the spacecraft stable during a test, \"I wish you would find out the idiot\'s name who thought up this test. I want to find out, and I want to talk to him personally when I get back down.\" Eisele joined in, \"While you are at it, find out who dreamed up \'P22 horizon test\'; that is a beauty also.\"
A further source of tension between Mission Control and the crew was that Schirra repeatedly expressed the view that the reentry should be conducted with their helmets off. He perceived a risk that their eardrums might burst due to the sinus pressure from their colds, and they wanted to be able to pinch their noses and blow to equalize the pressure as it increased during reentry. This would have been impossible wearing the helmets. Over several days, Schirra refused advice from the ground that the helmets should be worn, stating it was his prerogative as commander to decide this, though Slayton warned him he would have to answer for it after the flight. Schirra stated in 1994, \"In this case I had a cold, and I\'d had enough discussion with the ground, and I didn\'t have much more time to talk about whether we would put the helmet on or off. I said, essentially, I\'m on board, I\'m commanding. They could wear all the black armbands they wanted if I was lost or if I lost my hearing. But I had the responsibility for getting through the mission.\" No helmets were worn during the entry. Director of Flight Operations Christopher C. Kraft demanded an explanation for what he believed was Schirra\'s insubordination from the CAPCOM, Stafford. Kraft later said, \"Schirra was exercising his commander's right to have the last word, and that was that.\"
Apollo 7 splashed down without incident at 11:11:48 UTC on October 22, 1968, 200 nmi SSW of Bermuda and 7 nmi north of the recovery ship USS *Essex*. The mission\'s duration was 10`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}days, 20`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}hours, 9`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}minutes and 3`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}seconds.
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# Apollo 7
## Assessment and aftermath {#assessment_and_aftermath}
After the mission, NASA awarded Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham its Exceptional Service Medal in recognition of their success. On November 2, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson held a ceremony at the LBJ Ranch in Johnson City, Texas, to present the astronauts with the medals. He also presented NASA\'s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, to recently retired NASA administrator James E. Webb, for his \"outstanding leadership of America\'s space program\" since the beginning of Apollo. Johnson also invited the crew to the White House, and they went there in December 1968.
Despite the difficulties between the crew and Mission Control, the mission successfully met its objectives to verify the Apollo command and service module\'s flightworthiness, allowing Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}8\'s flight to the Moon to proceed just two months later. John T. McQuiston wrote in *The New York Times* after Eisele\'s death in 1987 that Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7\'s success brought renewed confidence to NASA\'s space program. According to Jones, \"Three weeks after the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 crew returned, NASA administrator Thomas Paine green-lighted Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}8 to launch in late December and orbit the Moon. Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 had delivered NASA from its trial by fire---it was the first small step down a path that would lead another crew, nine months later, to the Sea of Tranquility.\"
General Sam Phillips, the Apollo Program Manager, said at the time, \"Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 goes into my book as a perfect mission. We accomplished 101 percent of our objectives.\" Kraft wrote, \"Schirra and his crew did it all---or at least all of it that counted`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}\... \[T\]hey proved to everyone\'s satisfaction that the SPS engine was one of the most reliable we\'d ever sent into space. They operated the Command and Service Modules with true professionalism.\" Eisele wrote, \"We were insolent, high-handed, and Machiavellian at times. Call it paranoia, call it smart---it got the job done. We had a great flight.\" Kranz stated in 1998, \"we all look back now with a longer perspective. Schirra really wasn\'t on us as bad as it seemed at the time.`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}\... Bottom line was, even with a grumpy commander, we got the job done as a team.\"
None of the Apollo 7 crew members flew in space again. According to Jim Lovell, \"Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 was a very successful flight---they did an excellent job---but it was a very contentious flight. They all teed off the ground people quite considerably, and I think that kind of put a stop on future flights \[for them\].\" Schirra had announced, before the flight, his retirement from NASA and the Navy, effective July 1, 1969. The other two crew members had their spaceflight careers stunted by their involvement in Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7; by some accounts, Kraft told Slayton he was unwilling to work in future with any member of the crew. Cunningham heard the rumors that Kraft had said this and confronted him in early 1969; Kraft denied making the statement \"but his reaction wasn\'t exactly outraged innocence.\" Eisele\'s career may also have been affected by becoming the first active astronaut to divorce, followed by a quick remarriage, and an indifferent performance as backup CMP for Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}10. He resigned from the Astronaut Office in 1970 though he remained with NASA at the Langley Research Center in Virginia until 1972, when he was eligible for retirement. Cunningham was made the leader of the Astronaut Office\'s Skylab division. He related that he was informally offered command of the first Skylab crew, but when this instead went to Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad, with Cunningham offered the position of backup commander, he resigned as an astronaut in 1971.
Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham were the only crew, of all the Apollo, Skylab and Apollo--Soyuz missions, who had not been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal immediately following their missions (though Schirra had received the medal twice before, for his Mercury and Gemini missions). Therefore, NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin decided to belatedly award the medals to the crew in October 2008, \"\[f\]or exemplary performance in meeting all the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 mission objectives and more on the first crewed Apollo mission, paving the way for the first flight to the Moon on Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}8 and the first crewed lunar landing on Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}11.\" Only Cunningham was still alive at the time as Eisele had died in 1987 and Schirra in 2007. Eisele\'s widow accepted his medal, and Apollo 8 crew member Bill Anders accepted Schirra\'s. Other Apollo astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Alan Bean, were present at the award ceremony. Kraft, who had been in conflict with the crew during the mission, sent a conciliatory video message of congratulations, saying: \"We gave you a hard time once but you certainly survived that and have done extremely well since`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}\... I am frankly, very proud to call you a friend.\"
## Mission insignia {#mission_insignia}
The insignia for the flight shows a command and service module with its SPS engine firing, the trail from that fire encircling a globe and extending past the edges of the patch symbolizing the Earth-orbital nature of the mission. The Roman numeral`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}VII appears in the South Pacific Ocean and the crew\'s names appear on a wide black arc at the bottom. The patch was designed by Allen Stevens of Rockwell International.
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## Spacecraft location {#spacecraft_location}
In January 1969, the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 command module was displayed on the NASA float in the inauguration parade of President Richard M. Nixon. The Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 astronauts rode in an open car. After being transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1970, the spacecraft was loaned to the National Museum of Science and Technology, in Ottawa, Ontario. It was returned to the United States in 2004. Currently, the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 CM is on loan to the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas, Texas.
## Depiction in media {#depiction_in_media}
On November 6, 1968, comedian Bob Hope broadcast one of his variety television specials from NASA\'s Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston to honor the Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 crew. Barbara Eden, star of the popular comedy series *I Dream of Jeannie*, which featured fictional astronauts among its regular characters, appeared with Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham.
Schirra parlayed the head cold he contracted during Apollo`{{spaces}}`{=mediawiki}7 into a television advertising contract as a spokesman for Actifed, an over-the-counter version of the medicine he took in space.
The Apollo 7 mission is dramatized in the 1998 miniseries *From the Earth to the Moon* episode \"We Have Cleared the Tower\", with Mark Harmon as Schirra, John Mese as Eisele, Fredric Lehne as Cunningham and Nick Searcy as Slayton.
## Gallery
<File:Apollo> 7 photographed in flight by ALOTS (68-HC-641).jpg\|Apollo 7 in flight <File:Saturn> IB Second Stage with open LM adapter.jpg\|Distant view of the S-IVB stage <File:AS07-11-2000> (21355660044).jpg\|View of the Sinai Peninsula from Apollo 7 <File:Apollo> 7 Command Module Museum
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# Apuleius
**Apuleius** (`{{IPAc-en|ˌ|æ|p|j|ʊ|ˈ|l|iː|ə|s}}`{=mediawiki} `{{respell|APP|yuu|LEE|əs}}`{=mediawiki}), also called **Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis** (c. 124 -- after 170), was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was born in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day M\'Daourouch, Algeria. He studied Platonism in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions (and fortune) of a wealthy widow. He declaimed and then distributed his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near Oea (modern Tripoli, Libya). This is known as the *Apologia*.
His most famous work is his bawdy picaresque novel the *Metamorphoses*, otherwise known as *The Golden Ass*. It is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety. It relates the adventures of its protagonist, Lucius, who experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into a donkey. Lucius goes through various adventures before he is turned back into a human being by the goddess Isis.
## Life
Apuleius was born in Madauros, a *colonia* in Numidia on the North African coast bordering Gaetulia, and he described himself as \"half-Numidian half-Gaetulian.\" Madaurus was the same *colonia* where Augustine of Hippo later received part of his early education, and, though located well away from the Romanized coast, is today the site of some pristine Roman ruins. As to his first name, no *praenomen* is given in any ancient source; late-medieval manuscripts began the tradition of calling him *Lucius* from the name of the hero of his novel. Details regarding his life come mostly from his defense speech (*Apology*) and his work *Florida*, which consists of snippets taken from some of his best speeches.
His father was a municipal magistrate (*duumvir*) who bequeathed at his death the sum of nearly two million sesterces to his two sons. Apuleius studied with a master at Carthage (where he later settled) and later at Athens, where he studied Platonist philosophy among other subjects. He subsequently went to Rome to study Latin rhetoric and, most likely, to speak in the law courts for a time before returning to his native North Africa. He also travelled extensively in Asia Minor and Egypt, studying philosophy and religion, burning up his inheritance while doing so.
Apuleius was an initiate in several Greco-Roman mysteries, including the Dionysian Mysteries.`{{refn |group=note|As he proudly claims in his ''Apologia''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Winter |first=Thomas Nelson |year=2006 |url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=classicsfacpub |title=Apology as Prosecution: The Trial of Apuleius |journal=Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious Studies Department |issue=4}}</ref>}}`{=mediawiki} He was a priest of Asclepius and, according to Augustine, *sacerdos provinciae Africae* (i.e., priest of the province of Carthage).
Not long after his return home he set out upon a new journey to Alexandria. On his way there he was taken ill at the town of Oea (modern-day Tripoli) and was hospitably received into the house of Sicinius Pontianus, with whom he had been friends when he had studied in Athens. The mother of Pontianus, Pudentilla, was a very rich widow. With her son\'s consent -- indeed encouragement -- Apuleius agreed to marry her. Meanwhile, Pontianus himself married the daughter of one Herennius Rufinus; he, indignant that Pudentilla\'s wealth should pass out of the family, instigated his son-in-law, together with a younger brother, Sicinius Pudens, a mere boy, and their paternal uncle, Sicinius Aemilianus, to join him in impeaching Apuleius upon the charge that he had gained the affections of Pudentilla by charms and magic spells. The case was heard at Sabratha, near Tripoli, c. 158 AD, before Claudius Maximus, proconsul of Africa. The accusation itself seems to have been ridiculous, and the spirited and triumphant defence spoken by Apuleius is still extant. This is known as the *Apologia (A Discourse on Magic)*.
Apuleius accused an extravagant personal enemy of turning his house into a brothel and prostituting his wife.
Of his subsequent career, we know little. Judging from the many works of which he was author, he must have devoted himself diligently to literature. He occasionally gave speeches in public to great reception; he had the charge of exhibiting gladiatorial shows and wild beast events in the province, and statues were erected in his honour by the senate of Carthage and of other senates.
The date, place and circumstances of Apuleius\' death are not known. There is no record of his activities after 170, a fact which has led some people to believe that he must have died about then (say in 171), although other scholars feel that he may still have been alive in 180 or even 190.
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# Apuleius
## Works
### *The Golden Ass* {#the_golden_ass}
*The Golden Ass* (*Asinus Aureus*) or *Metamorphoses* is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety. It relates the adventures of one Lucius, who introduces himself as related to the famous philosophers Plutarch and Sextus of Chaeronea. Lucius experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into an ass. In this guise, he hears and sees many unusual things, until escaping from his predicament in a rather unexpected way. Within this frame story are found many digressions, the longest among them being the well-known tale of Cupid and Psyche. This story is a rare instance of a fairy tale preserved in an ancient literary text.
The *Metamorphoses* ends with the (once again human) hero, Lucius, eager to be initiated into the mystery cult of Isis; he abstains from forbidden foods, bathes, and purifies himself. He is introduced to the *Navigium Isidis*. Then the secrets of the cult\'s books are explained to him, and further secrets are revealed before he goes through the process of initiation, which involves a trial by the elements on a journey to the underworld. Lucius is then asked to seek initiation into the cult of Osiris in Rome, and eventually is initiated into the *pastophoroi* -- a group of priests that serves Isis and Osiris.
### *Apologia*
(*Apulei Platonici pro Se de Magia*) is the version of the defence presented in Sabratha, in 158--159, before the proconsul Claudius Maximus, by Apuleius accused of the crime of magic. Between the traditional exordium and peroratio, the argumentation is divided into three sections:
1. Refutation of the accusations levelled against his private life. He demonstrates that by marrying Pudentilla he had no interested motive and that he carries it away, intellectually and morally, on his opponents.
2. Attempt to prove that his so-called \"magical operations\" were in fact indispensable scientific experiments for an imitator of Aristotle and Hippocrates, or the religious acts of a Roman Platonist.
3. A recount of the events that have occurred in Oea since his arrival and pulverize the arguments against him.
The main interest of the *Apologia* is historical, as it offers substantial information about its author, magic and life in Africa in the second century.
### Other
His other works are:
- *Florida*. A compilation of twenty-three extracts from his various speeches and lectures.
- *De Platone et dogmate eius (On Plato and His Doctrine)*. An outline in two books of Plato\'s physics and ethics, preceded by a life of Plato
- *`{{visible anchor|De Deo Socratis}}`{=mediawiki} (On the God of Socrates)*. A work on the existence and nature of daemons, the intermediaries between gods and humans. This treatise was attacked by Augustine of Hippo in *The City of God* (Books VIII to X), while Lactantius reserved it for short-lived creatures. *De Deo Socratis* contains a passage comparing gods and kings which is the first recorded occurrence of the proverb \"**familiarity breeds contempt**\":`{{Blockquote|''parit enim conversatio contemptum, raritas conciliat admirationem''<br />(familiarity breeds contempt, rarity brings admiration)|sign=|source=}}`{=mediawiki}
- *On the Universe*. This Latin translation of Pseudo-Aristotle\'s work *De Mundo* is probably by Apuleius.
Apuleius wrote many other works which have not survived. He wrote works of poetry and fiction, as well as technical treatises on politics, dendrology, agriculture, medicine, natural history, astronomy, music, and arithmetic, and he translated Plato\'s *Phaedo*.
### Spurious
Extant works wrongly attributed to Apuleius include:
- *Peri Hermeneias* (*On Interpretation*). A brief Latin version of a guide to Aristotelian logic.
- *Asclepius*. A Latin paraphrase of a lost Greek dialogue (*The Perfect Discourse*) featuring Asclepius and Hermes Trismegistus.
- *Herbarium Apuleii Platonici* by Pseudo-Apuleius.
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# Apuleius
## Apuleian Sphere {#apuleian_sphere}
The Apuleian Sphere described in *Petosiris to Nechepso*, also known as \"Columcille\'s Circle\" or \"Petosiris\' Circle\", is a magical prognosticating device for predicting the survival of a patient
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# Alexander Selkirk
**Alexander Selkirk** (1676`{{spaced ndash}}`{=mediawiki}13 December 1721) was a Scottish privateer and Royal Navy officer who spent four years and four months as a castaway (1704--1709) after being marooned by his captain, initially at his request, on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean.
Selkirk was an unruly youth and joined buccaneering voyages to the South Pacific during the War of the Spanish Succession. One such expedition was on *Cinque Ports*, captained by Thomas Stradling, under the overall command of William Dampier. Stradling\'s ship stopped to resupply at the uninhabited Juan Fernández Islands, west of South America, and Selkirk judged correctly that the craft was unseaworthy and asked to be left there. Selkirk\'s suspicions were soon justified, as *Cinque Ports* foundered near Malpelo Island 400 km (250 mi) from the coast of what is now Colombia.
By the time he was eventually rescued by the privateer Woodes Rogers, who was accompanied by Dampier, Selkirk had become adept at hunting and making use of the resources that he found on the island. His story of survival was widely publicized after his return and became one of the reputed sources of inspiration for the fictional character Robinson Crusoe of the English writer Daniel Defoe.
## Early life and privateering {#early_life_and_privateering}
Alexander Selkirk was the son of a shoemaker and tanner in Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland, born in 1676. In his youth, he displayed a quarrelsome and unruly disposition. He was summoned before the Kirk Session in August 1693 for his \"indecent conduct in church\", but he \"did not appear, being gone to sea\". He was back at Largo in 1701 when he again came to the attention of church authorities for assaulting his brothers.
Early on, he was engaged in buccaneering. In 1703, he joined an expedition of English privateer and explorer William Dampier to the South Pacific Ocean, setting sail from Kinsale in Ireland on 11 September. They carried letters of marque from the Lord High Admiral authorizing their armed merchant ships to attack foreign enemies as the War of the Spanish Succession was then going on between England and Spain. Dampier was captain of *St George* and Selkirk served on *Cinque Ports*, *St George*{{\'}}s companion ship, as sailing master under Captain Thomas Stradling. By this time, Selkirk must have had considerable experience at sea.
In February 1704, following a stormy passage around Cape Horn, the privateers fought a long battle with a well-armed French vessel, *St Joseph*, only to have it escape to warn its Spanish allies of their arrival in the Pacific. A raid on the Panamanian gold mining town of Santa María failed when their landing party was ambushed. The easy capture of *Asunción*, a heavily laden merchantman, revived the men\'s hopes of plunder, and Selkirk was put in charge of the prize ship. Dampier took off some much-needed provisions of wine, brandy, sugar, and flour, then abruptly set the ship free, arguing that the gain was not worth the effort. In May 1704, Stradling decided to abandon Dampier and strike out on his own.
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# Alexander Selkirk
## Castaway
In September 1704, after parting ways with Dampier, Captain Stradling brought *Cinque Ports* to an island known to the Spanish as Más a Tierra located in the uninhabited Juan Fernández archipelago 670 km off the coast of Chile for a mid-expedition restocking of fresh water and supplies.
Selkirk had grave concerns about the seaworthiness of their vessel and wanted to make the necessary repairs before going any further. He declared that he would rather stay on Juan Fernández than continue in a dangerously leaky ship. Stradling took him up on the offer and landed Selkirk on the island with a musket, a hatchet, a knife, a cooking pot, a Bible, bedding and some clothes. Selkirk immediately regretted his rashness, but Stradling refused to let him back on board.
*Cinque Ports* later foundered off the coast of what is now Colombia. Stradling and \"six or seven of his Men\" survived the loss of their ship but were forced to surrender to the Spanish. They were taken to Lima where they endured a harsh imprisonment. Stradling attempted escape after stealing a canoe in Lima, but was recaptured and punished. The Spanish governor threatened to send all the survivors to the mines. The survivors ultimately returned to England after four years of imprisonment.
### Life on the island {#life_on_the_island}
At first, Selkirk remained along the shoreline of Más a Tierra. During this time, he ate spiny lobsters and scanned the ocean daily for rescue, suffering all the while from loneliness, misery, and remorse. Hordes of raucous sea lions, gathering on the beach for the mating season, eventually drove him to the island\'s interior. Once inland, his way of life took a turn for the better. More foods were available there: feral goats---introduced by earlier sailors---provided him with meat and milk, while wild turnips, the leaves of the indigenous cabbage tree and dried *Schinus* fruits (pink peppercorns) offered him variety and spice. Rats would attack him at night, but he was able to sleep soundly and in safety by domesticating and living near feral cats.
Selkirk proved resourceful in using materials that he found on the island: he forged a new knife out of barrel hoops left on the beach; built two huts out of pepper trees, one of which he used for cooking and the other for sleeping; and employed his musket to hunt goats and his knife to clean their carcasses. As his gunpowder dwindled, he had to chase prey on foot. During one such chase, he was badly injured when he tumbled from a cliff, lying helpless and unable to move for about a day. His prey had cushioned his fall, probably sparing him a broken back.
Childhood lessons learned from his father, a tanner, now served him well. For example, when his clothes wore out, he made new ones from hair-covered goatskins using a nail for sewing. As his shoes became unusable, he did not need to replace them, since his toughened, calloused feet made protection unnecessary. He sang psalms and read from the Bible, finding it a comfort in his situation and a prop for his English.
During his sojourn on the island, two vessels came to anchor. Unfortunately for Selkirk, both were Spanish. Being British and a privateer, he would have faced a grim fate if captured and therefore did his best to hide. Once, he was spotted and chased by a group of Spanish sailors from one of the ships. His pursuers urinated beneath the tree in which he was hiding but failed to notice him. The would-be captors then gave up and sailed away.
### Rescue
Selkirk\'s long-awaited deliverance came on 2 February 1709 by way of *Duke*, a privateering ship piloted by William Dampier, and its sailing companion *Duchess*. Thomas Dover led the landing party that met Selkirk. After four years and four months without human company, Selkirk was almost incoherent with joy. The *Duke*{{\'s}} captain and leader of the expedition was Woodes Rogers, who wryly referred to Selkirk as the governor of the island. The agile castaway caught two or three goats a day and helped restore the health of Rogers\' men, who had developed scurvy.
Captain Rogers was impressed by Selkirk\'s physical vigour, but also by the peace of mind that he had attained while living on the island, observing: \"One may see that solitude and retirement from the world is not such an insufferable state of life as most men imagine, especially when people are fairly called or thrown into it unavoidably, as this man was.\" He made Selkirk *Duke*{{\'}}s second mate, later giving him command of one of their prize ships, *Increase*, before it was ransomed by the Spanish.
Selkirk returned to privateering with a vengeance. At Guayaquil in present-day Ecuador, he led a boat crew up the Guayas River where several wealthy Spanish ladies had fled, and looted the gold and jewels they had hidden inside their clothing. His part in the hunt for treasure galleons along the coast of Mexico resulted in the capture of *Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación y Desengaño*, renamed *Bachelor*, on which he served as sailing master under Captain Dover to the Dutch East Indies. Selkirk completed the around-the-world voyage by the Cape of Good Hope as the sailing master of *Duke*, arriving at the Downs off the English coast on 1 October 1711. He had been away for eight years.
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# Alexander Selkirk
## Later life and influence {#later_life_and_influence}
thumb\|left\|upright=0.65\|alt=Engraving of Robinson Crusoe standing on the shore of an island, dressed in hair-covered goatskin clothing\|An illustration of Crusoe in goatskin clothing shows the influence of Selkirk Selkirk\'s experience as a castaway aroused a great deal of attention in Britain. His fellow crewman Edward Cooke mentioned Selkirk\'s ordeal in a book chronicling their privateering expedition, *A Voyage to the South Sea and Round the World* (1712). A more detailed recounting was published by the expedition\'s leader, Rogers, within months. The following year, prominent essayist Richard Steele wrote an article about him for *The Englishman* newspaper. Selkirk appeared set to enjoy a life of ease and celebrity, claiming his share of *Duke*{{\'s}} plundered wealth---about £800 (equivalent to £`{{Inflation|UK|800|1713|r=-4|fmt=c}}`{=mediawiki} today). However, legal disputes made the amount of any payment uncertain.
After a few months in London, he began to seem more like his former self again. However, he still missed his secluded and solitary moments, remarking, \"I am now worth eight hundred pounds, but shall never be as *happy* as when I was not worth a farthing.\" In September 1713, he was charged with assaulting a shipwright in Bristol and might have been kept in confinement for two years. He returned to Lower Largo, where he met Sophia Bruce, a young dairymaid. They eloped to London early and married on 4 March 1717. He was soon off to sea again, having enlisted in the Royal Navy. While on a visit to Plymouth in 1720, he married a widowed innkeeper named Frances Candis. He was serving as an officer on board `{{HMS|Weymouth|1693|6}}`{=mediawiki}, engaged in an anti-piracy patrol off the west coast of Africa. The ship arrived near the mouth of the River Gambia in March 1721 and lingered due to damage from bad weather. The locals took several crew hostage and ransomed them for \"gold and food.\" As the ship sailed down the coast of West Africa, men went into the forests to cut wood and began to contract yellow fever from the swarms of mosquitoes, and perhaps typhoid. Four died in June and, by September, \"so many men were dying a makeshift hospital was erected on shore\" near Cape Coast Castle. Selkirk became sick in November with the same symptoms as his crewmates. He died on 13 December 1721 along with shipmate William King, and both were buried at sea; three more died the following day.
When Daniel Defoe published *The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe* (1719), few readers could have missed the resemblance to Selkirk. An illustration on the first page of the novel shows \"a rather melancholy-looking man standing on the shore of an island, gazing inland\", in the words of the modern explorer Tim Severin. He is dressed in the familiar hirsute goatskins, his feet and shins bare. Yet Crusoe\'s island is located not in the mid-latitudes of the South Pacific but 4300 km away in the Caribbean, where the furry attire would hardly be comfortable in the tropical heat. This incongruity supports the popular belief that Selkirk was a model for the fictional character, but most literary scholars now accept that he was \"just one of many survival narratives that Defoe knew about\".
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# Alexander Selkirk
## In other literary works {#in_other_literary_works}
This is also a reference to William Cowper\'s poem. \| Poet Patrick Kavanagh likens his loneliness on the road to that of Selkirk, in his poem \"Inniskeen Road: July Evening\": \| In \"Etiquette\", one of W. S. Gilbert\'s *Bab Ballads*, Selkirk is used as a model for the English castaways: \| Joshua Slocum mentions Selkirk in the book *Sailing Alone Around the World* (1900). During his visit to the Juan Fernández Islands, Slocum runs across a marker commemorating Selkirk\'s stay.\| Diana Souhami draws on testimony from Selkirk and many others in her *Selkirk\'s Island* (2001), from a journey to rescue to arrival home and inspiration for the prolific Daniel Defoe. \| In Allan Cole and Chris Bunch\'s Sten science fiction series, Book Two, *The Wolf Worlds*, the Scottish character Alex bemoans their predicament after crash landing: {{\"\'}}A slack way for a mon,\' Alex mourned to himself. \'Ah, didnae ken Ah\'d ever been Alex Selkirk. {{\'\"}}}}
## In film {#in_film}
*Selkirk, the Real Robinson Crusoe* is a stop motion film by Walter Tournier based on Selkirk\'s life. It premièred simultaneously in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay on 2 February 2012, distributed by The Walt Disney Company. It was the first full-length animated feature to be produced in Uruguay.
## Commemoration
Selkirk has been memorialized in his Scottish birthplace. Lord Aberdeen delivered a speech on 11 December 1885, after which his wife, Lady Aberdeen, unveiled a bronze statue and plaque in memory of Selkirk outside a house on the site of his original home on the Main Street of Lower Largo. David Gillies of Cardy House, Lower Largo, a descendant of the Selkirks, donated the statue created by Thomas Stuart Burnett.
The Scotsman is also remembered in his former island home. In 1869 the crew of `{{HMS|Topaze|1858|6}}`{=mediawiki} placed a bronze tablet at a spot called Selkirk\'s Lookout on a mountain of Más a Tierra, Juan Fernández Islands, to mark his stay. On 1 January 1966 Chilean president Eduardo Frei Montalva renamed Más a Tierra Robinson Crusoe Island after Defoe\'s fictional character to attract tourists. The largest of the Juan Fernández Islands, known as Más Afuera, became Alejandro Selkirk Island, although Selkirk probably never saw that island since it is located 180 km to the west.
## Archaeological findings {#archaeological_findings}
An archaeological expedition to the Juan Fernández Islands in February 2005 found part of a nautical instrument that likely belonged to Selkirk. It was \"a fragment of copper alloy identified as being from a pair of navigational dividers\" dating from the early 18th (or late 17th) century. Selkirk is the only person known to have been on the island at that time who is likely to have had dividers and was even said by Rogers to have had such instruments in his possession. The artifact was discovered while excavating a site not far from Selkirk\'s Lookout where the famous castaway is believed to have lived. In 1825, during John Howell\'s research of Alexander Selkirk\'s biography, his \"*flip-can*\" was in the possession of his great-grand-nephew John Selkirk, and Alexander\'s musket was \"in the possession of Major Lumsden of Lathallan
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# Ægir
**Ægir** (anglicised as **Aegir**; Old Norse \'sea\'), **Hlér** (Old Norse \'sea\'), or **Gymir** (Old Norse less clearly \'sea, engulfer\'), is a jötunn and a personification of the sea in Norse mythology. In the Old Norse record, Ægir hosts the gods in his halls and is associated with brewing ale. Ægir is attested as married to a goddess, Rán, who also personifies the sea, and together the two produced daughters who personify waves, the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán, and Ægir\'s son is Snær, personified snow. Ægir may also be the father of the beautiful jötunn Gerðr, wife of the god Freyr, or these may be two separate figures who share the same name (see below and Gymir (father of Gerðr)).
One of Ægir\'s names, *Hlér*, is the namesake of the island Læsø (Old Norse *Hlésey* \'Hlér\'s island\') and perhaps also Lejre in Denmark. Scholars have long analyzed Ægir\'s role in the Old Norse corpus, and the concept of the figure has had some influence in modern popular culture.
## Names
The Old Norse name *Ægir* (\'sea\') may stem from a Proto-Germanic form *\*āg^w^i-jaz* (\'that of the river/water\'), itself a derivative of the stem *\*ahwō-* (\'river\'; cf. Gothic **aƕa** \'body of water, river\', Old English *ēa* \'stream\', Old High German *aha* \'river\'). Richard Cleasby and Guðbrandur Vigfússon saw his name as deriving from an ancient Indo-European root. Linguist Guus Kroonen argues that the Germanic stem *\*ahwō-* is probably of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin, as it may be cognate with Latin *aqua* (via a common form *\*h₂ekʷ-eh₂-*), and ultimately descend from the PIE root *\*h₂ep*- (\'water\'; cf. Sanskrit *áp-* \'water\', Tocharian *āp-* \'water, river\'). Linguist Michiel de Vaan notes that the connection between Proto-Germanic \**ahwō*- and Old Norse *Ægir* remains uncertain, and that \**ahwō-* and *aqua*, if cognates, may also be loanwords from a non-Indo-European language.
The name *Ægir* is identical to a noun for \'sea\' in skaldic poetry, itself a base word in many kennings. For instance, a ship is described as \"Ægir\'s horse\" and the waves as the \"daughters of Ægir\".
Poetic kennings in both *Hversu Noregr byggðist* (How Norway Was Settled) and *Skáldskaparmál* (The Language of Poetry) treat Ægir and the sea-jötunn Hlér, who lives on the Hlésey (\'Hlér island\', modern Læsø), as the same figure.
The meaning of the Old Norse name *Gymir* is unclear. Proposed translations include \'the earthly\' (from Old Norse *gumi*), \'the wintry one\' (from *gemla*), or \'the protector\', the \'engulfer\' (from *geyma*). (For more on this topic, see discussion below)
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# Ægir
## Attestations
Ægir is attested in a variety of Old Norse sources.
### *Sonatorrek*
Ægir and Rán receive mention in the poem *Sonatorrek* attributed to 10th century Icelandic skald Egill Skallagrímsson. In the poem, Egill laments the death of his son Böðvar, who drowned at sea during a storm. In one difficult stanza, the skald expresses the pain of losing his son by invoking the image of slaying the personified sea, personified as Ægir (Old Norse *ǫlsmið\[r\]* \'ale-smith\') and Rán (*Ægis man* \'Ægir\'s wife\'):
+----------------------+--------------------------------------+---+
| : Veiztu um ϸá sǫk | : You know, | |
| : sverði of rækak, | : if I took revenge with the sword | |
| : var ǫlsmið\[r\] | : for that offence, | |
| : allra tíma; | : Ægir would be dead; | |
| : hroða vágs brœðr | : if I could kill them, | |
| : ef vega mættak; | : I would fight Ægir and Rán. | |
| : fœra ek andvígr | | |
| : Ægis mani. | | |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------+---+
The skald later references Ægir by way of the kenning \'Hlér\'s fire\' (*Hlés viti*), meaning gold.
### *Poetic Edda* {#poetic_edda}
In the *Poetic Edda*, Ægir receives mention in the eddic poems *Grímnismál*, *Hymiskviða*, *Lokasenna*, and in the prose section of *Helgakviða Hundingsbana I*. In *Grímnismál*, the disguised god Odin references Ægir\'s status as a renowned host among the gods:
: \'Fleeting visions I have now revealed before the victory-gods\'s sons,
: now the wished-for protection will awaken;
: to the all the Æsir it will become known,
: on Ægir\'s benches,
: at Ægir\'s feast.\'
In *Hymiskviða*, Ægir plays a major role. In the poem, the gods have become thirsty after a successful hunt, and are keen to celebrate with drink. They \"shook the twigs and looked at the augury\" and \"found that at Ægir\'s was an ample choice of cauldrons\". Odin goes to Ægir, who he finds sitting in good cheer, and tells him he shall \"often prepare a feast for the Æsir\". Referring to Ægir as a jötunn, the poem describes how, now annoyed, Ægir hatches a plan: He asks Thor to fetch a particular cauldron, and that with it he could brew ale for them all. The gods are unable to find a cauldron of a size big enough to meet Ægir\'s request until the god Týr recommends one he knows of far away, setting the stage for the events of the rest of the poem.
According to the prose introduction to *Lokasenna*, \"Ægir, who is also called Gymir\", was hosting a feast \"with the great cauldron which has just been told about\", which many of the gods and elves attended. The prose introduction describes the feast as featuring gold that shimmers like fire light and ale that serves itself, and that \"it was a great place of peace\". In attendance also were Ægir\'s servers, Fimafeng and Eldir. The gods praise the excellence of their service and, hearing this, Loki murders Fimafeng, enraging the gods, who chase him out to the woods before returning to drink.
In the poem that follows the prose introduction (and in accompanying prose), Loki returns to the hall and greets Eldir: He says that before Eldir steps forward, he should first tell him what the gods are discussing in the hall. Eldir says that they\'re discussing weaponry and war, and having nothing good to say about Loki. Loki says that he will enter Ægir\'s halls and have a look at the feast, and with him bring quarrel and strife. Eldir notifies Loki that if he enters and causes trouble, he can expect them to return it to him. Loki enters the hall and the gods see him and become silent.
In *Helgakviða Hundingsbana I*, a great wave is referred to as \"Ægir\'s terrible daughter\".
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# Ægir
## Attestations
### *Prose Edda* {#prose_edda}
Ægir receives numerous mentions in the *Prose Edda* book *Skáldskaparmál*, where he sits at a banquet and asks the skaldic god Bragi many questions, and Bragi responds with narratives about the gods. The section begins as follows:
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---+
| : Anthony Faulkes translation (1987): | : Andy Orchard translation (1997): | : J. Lindow translation (2002): | |
| : There was a person whose name was Ægir or Hler. He lived on an island which is now called Hlesey. He was very skilled in magic. He set out to visit Asgard, and when the Æsir became aware of his movements, he was given a great welcome, though many things had deceptive appearances. | | : A man was named Ægir or Hlér; he lived on that island which is now called Hlér\'s Island. He had much magic knowledge. He made his way to Ásgard, but the æsir knew of his journey in advance. He was well received, but many things were done with illusions. | |
| | There was a figure called Ægir or Hlér; he lived on an island, which is now called Hléysey. He was very crafty in magic. He set off to visit Ásgard, and when the Æsir realized he was coming, he was given a splen did welcome, although many things were not as they seemed; | | |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---+
Beyond this section of *Skáldskaparmál*, Ægir receives several other mentions in kennings. Section 25 provides examples for \'sea\', including \'visitor of the gods\', \'husband of Rán\', \'father of Ægir\'s daughters\', \'land of Rán and Ægir\'s daughters\'. Kennings cited to skalds in this section include \'the storm-happy daughters of Ægir\' meaning \'waves\' (Svein) and a kenning in a fragment of a work by the 11th century Icelandic skald Hofgarða-Refr Gestsson, where Rán is referred to as \'Gymir\'s \... völva\': `{{blockquote|
<small>Anthony Faulkes translation</small>
:And as Ref said:
::Gymir's spray-cold spæ-wife often brings the twisted-rope-bear [ship] into Ægir's jaws [under the waves] where the wave breaks.<ref name="FAULKES-1995-91-140">{{harvnb|Faulkes|1995|p=91}}. This stanza appears quoted a second time later in ''Skáldskaparmál'', for which see {{harvnb|Faulkes|1995|p=140}}.</ref>
}}`{=mediawiki} The section\'s author comments that the stanza \"\[implies\] that they are all the same, Ægir and Hler and Gymir.
Chapter 33b of *Skáldskaparmál* discusses why skalds may refer to gold as \"Ægir\'s fire\". The section traces the kenning to a narrative surrounding Ægir, in which the jötunn employs \"glowing gold\" in the center of his hall to light it \"like fire\" (which the narrator compares to flaming swords in Valhalla). The section explains that \"Ran is the name of Ægir\'s wife, and the names of their nine daughters are as was written above \... Then the Æsir discovered that Ran had a net in which she caught everyone that went to sea \... so this is the story of the origin of gold being called fire or light or brightness of Ægir, Ran or Ægir\'s daughters, and from such kennings the practice has now developed of calling gold fire of the sea and of all terms for it, since Ægir and Ran\'s names are also terms for the sea, and hence gold is now called fire of lakes or rivers and of all river-names.\"
In chapter 61 provides yet more kennings. Among them the author notes that \"Ran, who, it is said, was Ægir\'s wife\" and that \"the daughters of Ægir and Ran are nine\". In chapter 75, Ægir occurs in a list of jötnar.
### Saga corpus {#saga_corpus}
In what appears to be a Norwegian genealogical tradition, Ægir is portrayed as one of the three elements among the sea, the fire and the wind. The beginning of the *Orkneyinga saga* (\'Saga of the Orkney Islanders\') and *Hversu Noregr byggdisk* (\'How Norway Was Settled\') tell that the jötunn king Fornjót had three sons: Hlér (\'sea\'), whom he called Ægir, a second named Logi (\'fire\'), and a third called Kári (\'wind\').
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# Ægir
## Scholarly reception and interpretation {#scholarly_reception_and_interpretation}
### Banquets
Carolyne Larrington says that Ægir\'s role in *Hymiskviða* \"may reflect Scandinavian royal practices in which the king enforces his authority on his subordinates by visiting their homes and demanding to be feasted\". According to Andy Orchard, Ægir\'s role in *Skáldskaparmál*, where he attends a banquet rather than hosting it, could be a deliberate inversion of the traditional motif of Ægir as host.
### Gymir
The name *Gymir* may indicate that Ægir was understood as the father of the beautiful jötunn Gerðr; they may also have been two different figures sharing the same name (see Gymir, father of Gerðr). Both the prose introduction to *Lokasenna* and *Skáldskaparmál* state that Ægir is also known as *Gymir*, the father of the jötunn Gerðr. Rudolf Simek argues that, if understood to be two different entities, this may stem from an erroneous interpretation of kennings in which different jötunn-names are used interchangeably.
### Hlér, Læsø, Lejre, and Snow {#hlér_læsø_lejre_and_snow}
As highlighted above in *Skáldskaparmál*, the name of the island Læsø in Denmark references Hlér (Old Norse *Hléysey* \'Hlér\'s Island\'). Simek speculates that Hlér may therefore have been seen as something of an ancestor of the island.
Some medieval Danish chronicles mention Hler and connect him with a figure named Snær (Old Norse \'snow\'). In the Latin-language *Chronicon Lethrense* (\"Chronicle of Lejre\"; the name *Lejre* may, like *Læsø*, derive from Hler) and Old Danish *Gesta Danorum på danskæ*, a giant named Lae (or Lee) who lived on the island of Leshø had a shepherd named Snyo (or Snio, from Old Norse *Snær* \'Snow\'). When Raka, the dog king of the Danes had died, Lae sent Snyo to win the kingship of Denmark from King Athisl of Sweden, which he did. King Snyo was cruel to his subjects, and only a man named Røth (or Roth) would stand up to him. Snyo sent Røth to Lae\'s island to ask Lae how King Snyo would die, but expecting that Røth would die in the attempt. Lae refused to answer Røth\'s request until Røth had said three truthful things. Røth said that he had never seen thicker walls on a house than on Lae\'s, that he had never seen a man with so many heads as Lae, and that if he got away from there, he would never long to be back. Lae therefore released Røth and prophesied that Snyo would die from being bitten to death by lice. In the *Chronicon Lethrense*, Røth only announces this in Snyo\'s court before lice erupt from Snyo\'s nostrils and ears to eat him to death; in the *Gesta Danorum på danskæ*, Lae gives Røth a pair of gloves for Snyo, who is eaten to death by lice when he pulls them on.
### Jötunn
Scholars have often discussed Ægir\'s role as host to the gods and his description as a jötunn. Anthony Faulkes observes that Ægir is \"often described by modern writers as god of the sea\" yet that he is nowhere described as a god in the *Prose Edda* and appears in a list of jötnar in *Skáldskaparmál*. According to John Lindow, since his wife Rán is listed among the Ásynjur (goddesses) in the same part of the *Prose Edda*, and since he had a close and friendly relationship with the Æsir (gods), Ægir\'s description as a jötunn appears questionable. Andy Orchard argues on the contrary that Ægir\'s inclusion among the Æsir is probably a late development since his daughters are described as jötnar and some sources mention him as the descendant of the jötunn Fornjót. According to Rudolf Simek, while attested as a jötunn, Ægir \"has characteristics\" of a sea god.
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# Ægir
## Modern influence {#modern_influence}
Ægir has been the subject of a variety of art pieces. These include Nils Blommér\'s painting *Näcken och Ägirs döttrar* (1850), Johan Peter Molin\'s (d. 1874) fountain relief *Ægir*, and Emil Doepler\'s *Ægir* (1901).
Ægir is referenced in a variety of others ways in modern popular culture. For example, Shoto Todoroki from the Japanese anime \"Boku no hero academia\" has a move titled \"Great Glacial Aegir\". He is also the namesake of a Norwegian corvette produced in 1967 (*Ægir*), a coastal defense ship in the Imperial German Navy, and of an exoplanet, Epsilon Eridani b
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# Hermann Kolbe
**Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe** (27 September 1818 -- 25 November 1884) was a German chemist and academic, and a major contributor to the birth of modern organic chemistry. He was a professor at Marburg and Leipzig. Kolbe was the first to apply the term synthesis in a chemical context, and contributed to the philosophical demise of vitalism through synthesis of the organic substance acetic acid from carbon disulfide, and also contributed to the development of structural theory. This was done via modifications to the idea of \"radicals\" and accurate prediction of the existence of secondary and tertiary alcohols, and to the emerging array of organic reactions through his Kolbe electrolysis of carboxylate salts, the Kolbe-Schmitt reaction in the preparation of aspirin and the Kolbe nitrile synthesis. After studies with Wöhler and Bunsen, Kolbe was involved with the early internationalization of chemistry through work in London (with Frankland). He was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and won the Royal Society of London\'s Davy Medal in the year of his death. Despite these accomplishments and his training important members of the next generation of chemists (including Zaitsev, Curtius, Beckmann, Graebe, Markovnikov, and others), Kolbe is best remembered for editing the *Journal für Praktische Chemie* for more than a decade, in which his vituperative essays on Kekulé\'s structure of benzene, van\'t Hoff\'s theory on the origin of chirality and Baeyer\'s reforms of nomenclature were personally critical and linguistically violent. Kolbe died of a heart attack in Leipzig at age 66, six years after the death of his wife, Charlotte.
## Life
Kolbe was born in Elliehausen, near Göttingen, Kingdom of Hanover (Germany) as the eldest son of a Protestant pastor. At the age of 13, he entered the Göttingen Gymnasium, residing at the home of one of the professors. He obtained the leaving certificate (the Abitur) six years later. He had become passionate about the study of chemistry, matriculating at the University of Göttingen in the spring of 1838 in order to study with the famous chemist Friedrich Wöhler.
In 1842, he became an assistant to Robert Bunsen at the Philipps-Universität Marburg. He took his doctoral degree in 1843 at the same university. A new opportunity arose in 1845, when he became assistant to Lyon Playfair at the new *Museum of Economic Geology* in London and a close friend of Edward Frankland. From 1847, he was engaged in editing the *Handwörterbuch der reinen und angewandten Chemie* (*Dictionary of Pure and Applied Chemistry*) edited by Justus von Liebig, Wöhler, and Johann Christian Poggendorff, and he also wrote an important textbook. In 1851, Kolbe succeeded Bunsen as professor of chemistry at Marburg and, in 1865, he was called to the Universität Leipzig. In 1864, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1874.
In 1853, he married Charlotte, the daughter of General-Major Wilhelm von Bardeleben. His wife died in 1876 after 23 years of happy marriage. They had four children.
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# Hermann Kolbe
## Work in chemical research {#work_in_chemical_research}
As late as the 1840s, and despite Friedrich Wöhler\'s synthesis of urea in 1828, some chemists still believed in the doctrine of vitalism, according to which a special life-force was necessary to create \"organic\" (i.e., in its original meaning, biologically derived) compounds. Kolbe promoted the idea that organic compounds could be derived from substances clearly sourced from outside this \"organic\" context, directly or indirectly, by substitution processes. (Hence, while by modern definitions, he was converting one organic molecule to another, by the parlance of his era, he was converting \"inorganic\"---*anorganisch*---substances into \"organic\" ones only thought accessible through vital processes.) He validated his theory by converting carbon disulfide (CS~2~) to acetic acid (`{{Chem2|CH3COOH}}`{=mediawiki}) in several steps (1843--45). Kolbe also introduced a modified idea of structural radicals, so contributing to the development of structural theory. A dramatic success came when his theoretical prediction of the existence of secondary and tertiary alcohols was confirmed by the synthesis of the first of these classes of organic molecules. Kolbe was the first person to use the word synthesis in its present-day meaning, and contributed a number of new chemical reactions.
In particular, Kolbe developed procedures for the electrolysis of the salts of fatty and other carboxylic acids (Kolbe electrolysis)`{{primary source inline|date=July 2014}}`{=mediawiki} and prepared salicylic acid, a building block of aspirin in a process called Kolbe synthesis or Kolbe-Schmitt reaction. His method for the synthesis of nitriles is called the Kolbe nitrile synthesis, and with Edward Frankland he found that nitriles can be hydrolyzed to the corresponding acids. In addition to his own bench research and scholarly and editorial work, Kolbe oversaw student research at Leipzig and especially at Marburg; students spending time under his tutelage included Peter Griess, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Zaitsev (known for Zaitsev\'s rule predicting the product composition of elimination reactions), Theodor Curtius (discoverer of diazo compounds, hydrazines, and the Curtius rearrangement), Ernst Otto Beckmann (discoverer of the Beckmann rearrangement), Carl Graebe (discoverer of alizarin), Oscar Loew, Constantin Fahlberg, Nikolai Menshutkin, Vladimir Markovnikov (first to describe carbocycles smaller and larger than cyclohexane, and known for Markovnikov\'s rule describing addition reactions to alkenes), Jacob Volhard, Ludwig Mond, Alexander Crum Brown (first to describe the double bond of ethylene), Maxwell Simpson, and Frederick Guthrie.
## Work as journal editor {#work_as_journal_editor}
Besides his work for periodicals he wrote numerous books Kolbe served for more than a decade as what, in modern terms, would be understood the senior editor of the *Journal für Praktische Chemie* (*Journal of practical chemistry*, from 1870 to 1884), Kolbe was sometimes so severely critical of the work of others, especially after about 1874, that some wondered whether he might have been suffering a mental illness. He was intolerant of what he regarded as loose speculation parading as theory, and sought through his writings to save his beloved science of chemistry from what he regarded as the scourge of modern structural theory.
His rejection of structural chemistry, especially the theories of the structure of benzene by August Kekulé, the theory of the asymmetric carbon atom by J.H. van\'t Hoff, and the reform of chemical nomenclature by Adolf von Baeyer, was expressed in his vituperative articles in the *Journal für Praktische Chemie*. Some translated quotes illustrate his manner of articulating the deep conflict between his interpretation of chemistry and that of the structural chemists:
> «*\...Baeyer is an excellent experimentor, but he is only an empiricist, lacking sense and capability, and his interpretations of his experiments show particular deficiency in his familiarity with the principles of true science\...»*
The violence of his language worked to limit his posthumous reputation
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# April 18
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# April 23
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# Allomorph
In linguistics, an **allomorph** is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or in other words, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning. The term *allomorph* describes the realization of phonological variations for a specific morpheme. The different allomorphs that a morpheme can become are governed by morphophonemic rules. These phonological rules determine what phonetic form, or specific pronunciation, a morpheme will take based on the phonological or morphological context in which it appears.
Allomorphy in English involves the variation of morphemes in their phonetic form based on specific linguistic contexts, a phenomenon governed by morphophonemic rules. For instance, the past tense morpheme \"-ed\" can manifest in different forms---\[-əd\], \[-t\], or \[-d\]---depending on the final sound of the verb stem. This variability is not random but follows predictable patterns, such as the insertion of a schwa \[ə\] or assimilation to the voicing of the preceding consonant. Similarly, English plural morphemes exhibit three allomorphs: \[-s\], \[-z\], and \[-əz\], with pronunciation determined by the final sound of the noun, whether it be a voiceless consonant, a voiced consonant, or a sibilant. In addition, negative prefixes like \"in-\" display allomorphy, changing from \[ɪn-\] to \[ɪŋ-\] or \[ɪm-\] depending on the following consonant\'s place of articulation. This systematic variation reflects the intricate relationship between phonology and morphology in language, with allomorph selection being guided by both phonological environment and morphological constraints (Pak, 2016; Stanton, 2022).
## In English {#in_english}
English has several morphemes that vary in sound but not in meaning, such as past tense morphemes, plural morphemes, and negative morphemes.
### Past tense allomorphs {#past_tense_allomorphs}
For example, an English past tense morpheme is *-ed*, which occurs in several allomorphs depending on its phonological environment by assimilating the voicing of the previous segment or the insertion of a schwa after an alveolar stop. A possible set of assimilations is:
- as `{{IPA|[-əd]}}`{=mediawiki} or `{{IPA|[-ɪd]}}`{=mediawiki} in verbs whose stem ends with the alveolar stops `{{IPA|[t]}}`{=mediawiki} or `{{IPA|[d]}}`{=mediawiki}, such as \'hunted\' `{{IPA|[hʌntɪd]}}`{=mediawiki} or \'banded\' `{{IPA|[bændɪd]}}`{=mediawiki}
- as `{{IPA|[-t]}}`{=mediawiki} in verbs whose stem ends with voiceless phonemes other than `{{IPA|[t]}}`{=mediawiki}, such as \'fished\' `{{IPA|[fɪʃt]}}`{=mediawiki}
- as `{{IPA|[-d]}}`{=mediawiki} in verbs whose stem ends with voiced phonemes other than `{{IPA|[d]}}`{=mediawiki}, such as \'buzzed\' `{{IPA|[bʌzd]}}`{=mediawiki}
The \"other than\" restrictions above are typical for allomorphy. If the allomorphy conditions are ordered from most restrictive (in this case, after an alveolar stop) to least restrictive, the first matching case usually has precedence. Thus, the above conditions could be rewritten as follows:
- as `{{IPA|[-əd]}}`{=mediawiki} or `{{IPA|[-ɪd]}}`{=mediawiki} when the stem ends with the alveolar stops `{{IPA|[t]}}`{=mediawiki} or `{{IPA|[d]}}`{=mediawiki}
- as `{{IPA|[-t]}}`{=mediawiki} when the stem ends with voiceless phonemes
- as `{{IPA|[-d]}}`{=mediawiki} elsewhere
The `{{IPA|[-t]}}`{=mediawiki} allomorph does not appear after stem-final `{{IPA|/t/}}`{=mediawiki} although the latter is voiceless, which is then explained by `{{IPA|[-əd]}}`{=mediawiki} appearing in that environment, together with the fact that the environments are ordered (that is, listed in order of priority). Likewise, the `{{IPA|[-d]}}`{=mediawiki} allomorph does not appear after stem-final `{{IPA|[d]}}`{=mediawiki} because the earlier clause for the `{{IPA|/-əd/}}`{=mediawiki} allomorph has priority. The `{{IPA|/-d/}}`{=mediawiki} allomorph does not appear after stem-final voiceless phoneme because the preceding clause for the `{{IPA|[-t]}}`{=mediawiki} comes first.
Irregular past tense forms, such as \"broke\" or \"was/were,\" can be seen as still more specific cases since they are confined to certain lexical items, such as the verb \"break,\" which take priority over the general cases listed above.
### Plural allomorphs {#plural_allomorphs}
The plural morpheme for regular nouns in English is typically realized by adding an *-s* or *-es* to the end of the noun. However, the plural morpheme actually has three different allomorphs: \[-s\], \[-z\], and \[-əz\]. The specific pronunciation that a plural morpheme takes on is determined by a set of morphological rules such as the following:
- assume that the basic form of the plural morpheme, /-z/, is \[-z\] (\"bags\" /bægz/)
- the morpheme /-z/ becomes \[-əz\] by inserting an \[ə\] before \[-z\] when a noun ends in a sibilant (\"buses\" /bʌsəz/)
- change the morpheme /-z/ to a voiceless \[-s\] when a noun ends in a voiceless sound (\"caps\" /kæps/)
### Negative allomorphs {#negative_allomorphs}
In English, the negative prefix *in-* has three allomorphs: \[ɪn-\], \[ɪŋ-\], and \[ɪm-\]. The phonetic form that the negative morpheme /ɪn-/ uses is determined by a set of morphological rules; for example:
- the negative morpheme /ɪn-/ becomes \[ɪn-\] when preceding an alveolar consonant (\"intolerant\"/ɪnˈtɔlərənt/)
- the morpheme /ɪn-/ becomes \[ɪŋ-\] before a velar consonant (\"incongruous\" /ɪŋˈkɔŋgruəs/)
- the morpheme /ɪn-/ becomes \[ɪm-\] before a bilabial consonant (\"improper\" /ɪmˈprɔpər/)
## In Sámi languages {#in_sámi_languages}
The Sámi languages have a trochaic pattern of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. The vowels and consonants that are allowed in an unstressed syllable differ from those that are allowed in a stressed syllable. Consequently, every suffix and inflectional ending has two forms, and the form that is used depends on the stress pattern of the word to which it is attached. For example, Northern Sámi has the causative verb suffix -*hit/-ahttit* in which *-*hit** is selected when it would be the third syllable (and the preceding verb has two syllables), and *-*ahttit** is selected when it would be the third and the fourth syllables (and the preceding verb has three syllables):
- **goar·ru\'\'\'t\'\'\'** has two syllables and so when suffixed, the result is **goa·ru\'\'\'·hit\'\'\'**.
- has three syllables and so when suffixed, the result is **na·nos·m\'\'\'ah·ttit\'\'\'**.
The same applies to inflectional patterns in the Sami languages as well, which are divided into even stems and odd stems.
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# Allomorph
## Stem allomorphy {#stem_allomorphy}
Allomorphy can also exist in stems or roots, as in Classical Sanskrit:
**Singular** **Plural**
-------------- -------------- ------------
Nominative
Genitive
Instrumental
Locative
: **Vāk** (voice)
There are three allomorphs of the stem, `{{IPA|/vaːk/}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPA|/vaːt͡ʃ/}}`{=mediawiki}, and `{{IPA|/vaːɡ/}}`{=mediawiki}, which are conditioned by the particular case-marking suffixes.
The form of the stem `{{IPA|/vaːk/}}`{=mediawiki}, found in the nominative singular and locative plural, is the etymological form of the morpheme. Pre-Indic palatalization of velars resulted in the variant form `{{IPA|/vaːt͡ʃ/}}`{=mediawiki}, which was initially phonologically conditioned. The conditioning can still be seen in the locative singular form, for which the `{{IPA|/t͡ʃ/}}`{=mediawiki} is followed by the high front vowel `{{IPA|/i/}}`{=mediawiki}.
However, the subsequent merging of `{{IPA|/e/}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{IPA|/o/}}`{=mediawiki} into `{{IPA|/a/}}`{=mediawiki} made the alternation unpredictable on phonetic grounds in the genitive case (both singular and plural) as well as the nominative plural and the instrumental singular. Thus, allomorphy was no longer directly relatable to phonological processes.
Phonological conditioning also accounts for the `{{IPA|/vaːɡ/}}`{=mediawiki} form in the instrumental plural, in which the `{{IPA|/ɡ/}}`{=mediawiki} assimilates in voicing to the following `{{IPA|/bʱ/}}`{=mediawiki}.
## History
The term was originally used to describe variations in chemical structure. It was first applied to language (in writing) in 1948, by Fatih Şat and Sibel Merve in Language XXIV
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# Allophone
`{{IPA notice}}`{=mediawiki} In phonology, an **allophone** (`{{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|l|ə|f|oʊ|n|audio=En-us-allophone.ogg}}`{=mediawiki}; from the Greek *ἄλλος*, `{{Transliteration|grc|állos}}`{=mediawiki}, \'other\' and *φωνή*, `{{Transliteration|grc|phōnē}}`{=mediawiki}, \'voice, sound\') is one of multiple possible spoken sounds`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}or *phones*`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plosive `{{IPAblink|t}}`{=mediawiki} (as in *stop* `{{IPA|[ˈstɒp]}}`{=mediawiki}) and the aspirated form `{{IPAblink|tʰ}}`{=mediawiki} (as in *top* `{{IPA|[ˈtʰɒp]}}`{=mediawiki}) are allophones for the phoneme `{{IPA|/t/}}`{=mediawiki}, while these two are considered to be different phonemes in some languages such as Central Thai. Similarly, in Spanish, `{{IPAblink|d}}`{=mediawiki} (as in *dolor* `{{IPA|es|doˈloɾ|}}`{=mediawiki}) and `{{IPAblink|ð}}`{=mediawiki} (as in *nada* `{{IPA|es|ˈnaða|}}`{=mediawiki}) are allophones for the phoneme `{{IPA|/d/}}`{=mediawiki}, while these two are considered to be different phonemes in English (as in the difference between *dare* and *there*).
The specific allophone selected in a given situation is often predictable from the phonetic context, with such allophones being called **positional variants**, but some allophones occur in free variation. Replacing a sound by another allophone of the same phoneme usually does not change the meaning of a word, but the result may sound non-native or even unintelligible.
Native speakers of a given language perceive one phoneme in the language as a single distinctive sound and are \"both unaware of and even shocked by\" the allophone variations that are used to pronounce single phonemes.
## History of concept {#history_of_concept}
The term \"allophone\" was coined by Benjamin Lee Whorf circa 1929. In doing so, he is thought to have placed a cornerstone in consolidating early phoneme theory. The term was popularized by George L. Trager and Bernard Bloch in a 1941 paper on English phonology and went on to become part of standard usage within the American structuralist tradition.
## Complementary and free-variant allophones {#complementary_and_free_variant_allophones}
Each time a speaker vocalizes a phoneme, they pronounce it differently from previous iterations. There is debate regarding how real and universal phonemes are (see phoneme for details). Only some of the variation is perceptible to listeners speakers.
There are two types of allophones: complementary allophones and free-variant allophones.
Complementary allophones are not interchangeable. If context requires a speaker to use a specific allophone for a given phoneme (that is, using a different allophone would confuse listeners), the possible allophones are said to be *complementary*. Each allophone from a complementary set is used in a specific phonetic context and may be involved in a phonological process.
Otherwise, allophones are *free-variant*; speakers choose an allophone by habit or preference.
## Allotone
An **allotone** is a tonic allophone, such as the neutral tone in Standard Mandarin.
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# Allophone
## Examples
### English
There are many allophonic processes in English: lack of plosion, nasal plosion, partial devoicing of sonorants, complete devoicing of sonorants, partial devoicing of obstruents, lengthening and shortening vowels, and retraction.
- Aspiration: In English, a voiceless plosive `{{IPA|/p, t, k/}}`{=mediawiki} is aspirated (has a strong explosion of breath) if it is at the beginning of the first or a stressed syllable in a word. For example, `{{IPA|[pʰ]}}`{=mediawiki} as in *pin* and `{{IPA|[p]}}`{=mediawiki} as in *spin* are allophones for the phoneme `{{IPA|/p/}}`{=mediawiki} because they cannot be used to distinguish words (in fact, they occur in complementary distribution). English-speakers treat them as the same sound, but they are different: the first is aspirated and the second is unaspirated (plain). Many languages treat the two phones differently.
- Nasal plosion: In English, a plosive (`{{IPA|/p, t, k, b, d, ɡ/}}`{=mediawiki}) has nasal plosion if it is followed by a nasal, whether within a word or across a word boundary.
- Partial devoicing of sonorants: In English, sonorants (`{{IPA|/j, w, l, r, m, n/}}`{=mediawiki}) are partially devoiced after a voiceless sound in the same syllable.
- Complete devoicing of sonorants: In English, a sonorant is completely devoiced after an aspirated plosive (`{{IPA|/p, t, k/}}`{=mediawiki}).
- Partial devoicing of obstruents: In English, a voiced obstruent is partially devoiced next to a pause or next to a voiceless sound within a word or across a word boundary.
- Retraction: In English, `{{IPA|/t, d, n, l/}}`{=mediawiki} are retracted before `{{IPA|/r/}}`{=mediawiki}.
Because the choice among allophones is seldom under conscious control, few people realize their existence. English-speakers may be unaware of differences between a number of (dialect-dependent) allophones of the phoneme `{{IPA|/t/}}`{=mediawiki}:
- post-aspirated `{{IPA|[tʰ]}}`{=mediawiki} as in *top*,
- unaspirated `{{IPA|[t]}}`{=mediawiki} as in *stop*.
- glottalized (or rather substituted by the glottal stop) `{{IPA|[ʔ]}}`{=mediawiki} as in *button*, but many speakers preserve at least an unreleased coronal stop `{{IPA|[ t̚]}}`{=mediawiki}.
In addition, the following allophones of /t/ are found in (at least) some dialects of American(ised) English;
- flapped `{{IPA|[ɾ]}}`{=mediawiki} as in American English *water*,
- nasal(ized) flapped `{{IPA|[ɾ̃]}}`{=mediawiki} as in American English *winter*.
- unreleased `{{IPA|[ t̚]}}`{=mediawiki} as in American English *cat*, but other dialects preserve the released `{{IPA|[t]}}`{=mediawiki}, or substitute the glottal stop `{{IPA|[ʔ]}}`{=mediawiki}.
However, speakers may become aware of the differences if`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}for example`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}they contrast the pronunciations of the following words:
- *Night rate*: unreleased `{{IPA|[ˈnʌɪt̚.ɹʷeɪt̚]}}`{=mediawiki} (without a word space between `{{IPA|[ . ]}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{IPA|[ɹ]}}`{=mediawiki})
- *Nitrate*: aspirated `{{IPA|[ˈnaɪ.tʰɹ̥eɪt̚]}}`{=mediawiki} or retracted `{{IPA|[ˈnaɪ.t̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷeɪt̚]}}`{=mediawiki}
A flame that is held in front of the lips while those words are spoken flickers more for the aspirated *nitrate* than for the unaspirated *night rate.* The difference can also be felt by holding the hand in front of the lips. For a Mandarin-speaker, for whom `{{IPA|/t/}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{IPA|/tʰ/}}`{=mediawiki} are separate phonemes, the English distinction is much more obvious than for an English-speaker, who has learned since childhood to ignore the distinction.
One may notice the (dialect-dependent) allophones of English `{{IPA|/l/}}`{=mediawiki} such as the (palatal) alveolar \"light\" `{{IPA|[l]}}`{=mediawiki} of *leaf* `{{IPA|[ˈliːf]}}`{=mediawiki} as opposed to the velar alveolar \"dark\" `{{IPA|[ɫ]}}`{=mediawiki} in *feel* `{{IPA|[ˈfiːɫ]}}`{=mediawiki} found in the U.S. and Southern England. The difference is much more obvious to a Turkish-speaker, for whom `{{IPA|/l/}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{IPA|/ɫ/}}`{=mediawiki} are separate phonemes, than to an English speaker, for whom they are allophones of a single phoneme.
These descriptions are more sequentially broken down in the next section.
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# Allophone
## Examples
### English
#### Rules for English consonant allophones {#rules_for_english_consonant_allophones}
Peter Ladefoged, a renowned phonetician, clearly explains the consonant allophones of English in a precise list of statements to illustrate the language behavior. Some of these rules apply to all the consonants of English; the first item on the list deals with consonant length, items 2 through 18 apply to only selected groups of consonants, and the last item deals with the quality of a consonant. These descriptive rules are as follows:
1. Consonants are longer when they come at the end of a phrase. This can be easily tested by recording a speaker saying a sound like \"bib\", then comparing the forward and backward playback of the recording. One will find that the backward playback does not sound like the forward playback because the production of what is expected to be the same sound is not identical.
2. Voiceless stops `{{IPA|/p, t, k/}}`{=mediawiki} are aspirated when they come at the beginning of a syllable, such as in words like \"pip, test, kick\" `{{IPA|[pʰɪp, tʰɛst, kʰɪk]}}`{=mediawiki}. We can compare this with voiceless stops that are not syllable initial like \"stop\" \[stɑp\]. The `{{IPA|/t/}}`{=mediawiki} voiceless stop follows the `{{IPA|/s/}}`{=mediawiki} (fricative) here.
3. Voiced obstruents, which include stops and fricatives, such as `{{IPA|/b, d, ɡ, v, ð, z, ʒ/}}`{=mediawiki}, that come at the end of an utterance like `{{IPA|/v/}}`{=mediawiki} in \"improve\" or before a voiceless sound like `{{IPA|/d/}}`{=mediawiki} in \"add two\") are only briefly voiced during the articulation.
4. Voiced stops and affricates `{{IPA|/b, d, ɡ, dʒ/}}`{=mediawiki} in fact occur as partially devoiced at the beginning of a syllable unless immediately preceded by a voiced sound, in which the voiced sound carries over.
5. Approximants (in English, these include `{{IPA|/w, r, j, l/}}`{=mediawiki}) are partially devoiced when they occur after syllable-initial `{{IPA|/p, t, k/}}`{=mediawiki} like in \"play, twin, cue\" `{{IPA|[pʰl̥eɪ, tʰw̥ɪn, kʰj̥u]}}`{=mediawiki}.
6. Voiceless stops `{{IPA|/p, t, k/}}`{=mediawiki} are not aspirated when following after a syllable initial fricative, such as in the words \"spew, stew, skew.\"
7. Voiceless stops and affricates `{{IPA|/p, t, k, tʃ/}}`{=mediawiki} are longer than their voiced counterparts `{{IPA|/b, d, ɡ, dʒ/}}`{=mediawiki} when situated at the end of a syllable. Try comparing \"cap\" to \"cab\" or \"back\" to \"bag\".
8. When a stop comes before another stop, the explosion of air only follows after the second stop, illustrated in words like \"apt\" `{{IPA|[æp̚t]}}`{=mediawiki} and \"rubbed\" `{{IPA|[rʌb̚d]}}`{=mediawiki}.
9. Many English accents produce a glottal stop in syllables that end with voiceless stops. Some examples include pronunciations of \"tip, pit, kick\" `{{IPA|[tʰɪʔp, pʰɪʔt, kʰɪʔk]}}`{=mediawiki}.
10. Some accents of English use a glottal stop in place of a `{{IPA|/t/}}`{=mediawiki} when it comes before an alveolar nasal in the same word (as opposed to in the next word), such as in the word \"beaten\" `{{IPA|[ˈbiːʔn̩]}}`{=mediawiki}.
11. Nasals become syllabic, or their own syllable, only when immediately following an obstruent (as opposed to just any consonant), such as in the words \"leaden, chasm\" `{{IPA|[ˈlɛdn̩, ˈkæzm̩]}}`{=mediawiki}. Take in comparison \"kiln, film\"; in most accents of English, the nasals are not syllabic.
12. The lateral `{{IPA|/l/}}`{=mediawiki}, however, is syllabic at the end of the word when immediately following any consonant, like in \"paddle, whistle\" `{{IPA|[ˈpʰædl̩, ˈwɪsl̩]}}`{=mediawiki}.
1. When considering `{{IPA|/r, l/}}`{=mediawiki} as liquids, `{{IPA|/r/}}`{=mediawiki} is included in this rule as well as present in the words \"sabre, razor, hammer, tailor\" `{{IPA|[ˈseɪbɹ̩, ˈreɪzɹ̩, ˈhæmɹ̩, ˈtʰeɪlɹ̩]}}`{=mediawiki}.
13. Alveolar stops become voiced taps when they occur between two vowels, as long as the second vowel is unstressed. Take for instance mainly American English pronunciations like \"fatty, data, daddy, many\" `{{IPA|[ˈfæɾi, ˈdeɪɾə, ˈdæɾi, ˈmɛɾ̃i]}}`{=mediawiki}.
1. When an alveolar nasal is followed by a stop, the `{{IPA|/t/}}`{=mediawiki} is lost and a nasal tap occurs, causing \"winter\" to sound just like \"winner\" or \"panting\" to sound just like \"panning\". In this case, both alveolar stops and alveolar nasal plus stop sequences become voiced taps after two vowels when the second vowel is unstressed. This can vary among speakers, where the rule does not apply to certain words or when speaking at a slower pace.
14. All alveolar consonants assimilate to dentals when occurring before a dental. Take the words \"eighth, tenth, wealth\". This also applies across word boundaries, for example \"at this\" `{{IPA|[ˈæt̪ ðɪs]}}`{=mediawiki}.
15. Alveolar stops are reduced or omitted when between two consonants. Some examples include \"most people\" (can be written either as `{{IPA|[ˈmoʊs ˈpʰipl̩]}}`{=mediawiki} or `{{IPA|[ˈmoʊst ˈpʰipl̩]}}`{=mediawiki} with the IPA, where the `{{IPA|[t]}}`{=mediawiki} is inaudible, and \"sand paper, grand master\", where the `{{IPA|[d]}}`{=mediawiki} is inaudible.
16. A consonant is shortened when it is before an identical consonant, such as in \"big game\" or \"top post\".
17. A homorganic voiceless stop may be inserted after a nasal before a voiceless fricative followed by an unstressed vowel in the same word. For example, a bilabial voiceless plosive `{{IPA|/p/}}`{=mediawiki} can be detected in the word \"something\" `{{IPA|[ˈsʌmpθɪŋ]}}`{=mediawiki} even though it is orthographically not indicated. This is known as epenthesis. However, the following vowel must be unstressed.
18. Velar stops `{{IPA|/k, ɡ/}}`{=mediawiki} become more front when the following vowel sound in the same syllable becomes more front. Compare for instance \"cap\" `{{IPA|[kʰæp]}}`{=mediawiki} vs. \"key\" `{{IPA|[kʲi]}}`{=mediawiki} and \"gap\" `{{IPA|[ɡæp]}}`{=mediawiki} vs. \"geese\" `{{IPA|[ɡʲiːs]}}`{=mediawiki}.
19. The lateral `{{IPA|/l/}}`{=mediawiki} is velarized at the end of a word when it comes after a vowel as well as before a consonant. Compare for example \"life\" `{{IPA|[laɪf]}}`{=mediawiki} vs. \"file\" `{{IPA|[faɪɫ]}}`{=mediawiki} or \"feeling\" `{{IPA|[fiːlɪŋ]}}`{=mediawiki} vs. \"feel\" `{{IPA|[fiːɫ]}}`{=mediawiki}.
### Other languages {#other_languages}
There are many examples for allophones in languages other than English. Typically, languages with a small phoneme inventory allow for quite a lot of allophonic variation: examples are Hawaiian and Pirahã. Here are some examples (the links of language names go to the specific article or subsection on the phenomenon):
- Consonant allophones
- Final devoicing, particularly final-obstruent devoicing: Arapaho, English, Nahuatl, Catalan and many others
- Voicing of initial consonant
- Anticipatory assimilation
- Aspiration changes: Algonquin
- Frication between vowels: Dahalo
- Lenition: Manx, Corsican
- Voicing of clicks: Dahalo
```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
- - Allophones for `{{IPA|/b/}}`{=mediawiki}: Arapaho, Xavante
- Allophones for `{{IPA|/d/}}`{=mediawiki}: Xavante
- Allophones for `{{IPA|/f/}}`{=mediawiki}: Bengali
- Allophones for `{{IPA|/j/}}`{=mediawiki}: Xavante
- Allophones for `{{IPA|/k/}}`{=mediawiki}: Manam
- Allophones for `{{IPA|/pʰ/}}`{=mediawiki}: Garhwali
- and `{{IPAblink|q}}`{=mediawiki} as allophones: a number of Arabic dialects
- and `{{IPA|[n]}}`{=mediawiki} as allophones: Some dialects of Hawaiian, and some of Mandarin (e.g. Southwestern and Lower Yangtze)
- Allophones for `{{IPA|/n/}}`{=mediawiki}
- : Finnish, Spanish and many more.
- wide range of variation in Japanese (as archiphoneme /N/)
- Allophones for `{{IPA|/r/}}`{=mediawiki}: Bengali, Xavante
- Allophones for `{{IPAslink|ɽ}}`{=mediawiki}: Bengali
- Allophones for `{{IPA|/s/}}`{=mediawiki}: Bengali, Taos
- and `{{IPAblink|k}}`{=mediawiki} as allophones: Hawaiian
- Allophones for `{{IPA|/w/}}`{=mediawiki}:
- and `{{IPA|[w]}}`{=mediawiki}: Hindustani, Hawaiian
- fricative `{{IPAblink|β}}`{=mediawiki} before unrounded vowels: O\'odham
- Allophones for `{{IPAslink|z}}`{=mediawiki}: Bengali
- Vowel allophones
- and `{{IPA|[o]}}`{=mediawiki} are allophones of `{{IPA|/i/}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{IPA|/u/}}`{=mediawiki} in closed final syllables in Malay`{{specify|reason=Malay has so many dialects|date=October 2024}}`{=mediawiki} and Portuguese, while `{{IPA|[ɪ]}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{IPA|[ʊ]}}`{=mediawiki} are allophones of `{{IPA|/i/}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{IPA|/u/}}`{=mediawiki} in Indonesian.
- as allophones for short `{{IPA|/u/}}`{=mediawiki}, and `{{IPA|[<nowiki/>[[Close central unrounded vowel|ɨ]], [[Near-close front unrounded vowel|ɪ]], e̞, [[Close-mid front unrounded vowel|e]]]}}`{=mediawiki} as allophones for short `{{IPA|/i/}}`{=mediawiki} in various Arabic dialects (long `{{IPA|/uː/}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPA|/oː/}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPA|/iː/}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPA|/eː/}}`{=mediawiki} are separate phonemes in most Arabic dialects).
- Polish
- Russian
- Allophones for `{{IPA|/i/}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPA|/a/}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{IPA|/u/}}`{=mediawiki}: Nuxálk
- Vowel/consonant allophones
- Vowels become glides in diphthongs: Manam
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Allophone
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# Allophone
## Representing a phoneme with an allophone {#representing_a_phoneme_with_an_allophone}
Since phonemes are abstractions of speech sounds, not the sounds themselves, they have no direct phonetic transcription. When they are realized without much allophonic variation, a simple broad transcription is used. However, when there are complementary allophones of a phoneme, the allophony becomes significant and things then become more complicated. Often, if only one of the allophones is simple to transcribe, in the sense of not requiring diacritics, that representation is chosen for the phoneme.
However, there may be several such allophones, or the linguist may prefer greater precision than that allows. In such cases, a common convention is to use the \"elsewhere condition\" to decide the allophone that stands for the phoneme. The \"elsewhere\" allophone is the one that remains once the conditions for the others are described by phonological rules.
For example, English has both oral and nasal allophones of its vowels. The pattern is that vowels are nasal only before a nasal consonant in the same syllable; elsewhere, they are oral. Therefore, by the \"elsewhere\" convention, the oral allophones are considered basic, and nasal vowels in English are considered to be allophones of oral phonemes.
In other cases, an allophone may be chosen to represent its phoneme because it is more common in the languages of the world than the other allophones, because it reflects the historical origin of the phoneme, or because it gives a more balanced look to a chart of the phonemic inventory.
An alternative, which is commonly used for archiphonemes, is to use a capital letter, such as /N/ for \[m\], \[n\], \[ŋ\].
In rare cases, a linguist may represent phonemes with abstract symbols, such as dingbats, to avoid privileging any particular allophone
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# Agathocles of Syracuse
**Agathocles** (*Ἀγαθοκλῆς*, *Agathoklḗs*; 361--289 BC) was a tyrant of Syracuse from 317 BC and king of much of Sicily from 304 BC until his death. Agathocles began his career as a military officer, and raised his profile as a supporter of the democratic faction in Syracuse against the oligarchic civic government. His opponents forced him into exile and he became a mercenary leader. He eventually made his way back to Syracuse and was elected as a general. A few years later he took control through a coup d\'état. In practice he was a tyrant, although a democratic constitution theoretically remained in force.
Agathocles had led a long, costly war against the Carthaginians, who ruled the western half of Sicily, between 311 and 306 BC. In a military campaign he led the invasion of Carthage\'s North African heartland in 310 BC. After initial successes he abandoned his army in Africa and returned to Sicily in 307 BC, where he made peace with the Carthaginians and restored the *status quo ante bellum*. He then assumed the royal title and managed to bring almost the entire Greek portion of Sicily, and part of Calabria, under his control. Agathocles came close to of bringing the entirety of Magna Graecia under his control but his attempt to establish a dynasty fell apart as a result of conflict within his family.
## Biography
Agathocles was a son of Carcinus, who came from Rhegium. Carcinus was expelled from his hometown, so he migrated to Thermae Himeraeae and married a local citizen woman. Thermae, which was located on the north coast of Sicily, belonged to the western part of the island, which was under Carthaginian control. The couple had two sons, Antander and Agathocles. In 343 BC, when Agathocles was around eighteen years old, the family re-settled in Syracuse. Carcinus had answered a call from the commander Timoleon, which had overthrown the tyrannical regime of Dionysius II. Timoleon sought new citizens for the city, which had been depopulated by the civil wars. Thus, Carcinus and Agathocles acquired Syracusan citizenship. According to the sources, Carcinus was a potter and Agathocles followed him in his profession. Modern historians generally argue that he must have been a wealthy man who owned a pottery workshop. In later times, Agathocles frequently advertised his lower class origins and used them as part of his self-presentation as a ruler, since performative modesty and presenting himself as a man of the people would be important parts of his persona.
Agathocles began his military career during Timoleon\'s rule. He initially served as a soldier and then as an officer. Later, after Timoleon\'s death in 337 BC, Agathocles participated in an expedition against Acragas and began a relationship with the general, Damas, who promoted him to chiliarch. After Damas\' death, Agathocles married his widow. This made him one of the richest men in Syracuse, which gave him a good platform to begin his political ascent.
After Timoleon\'s death, Syracuse descended into the traditional conflict between democrats and oligarchs. The oligarchs had the upper hand and ruled the city as a club, called \"the Six Hundred.\" Agathocles\' elder brother, Antander, was elected to a generalship, during this period, so he must have had good relationships with members of the ruling circle. Agathocles, on the other hand, spoke in the people\'s assembly and placed himself on the side of the opposition democrats, but he was unable to overcome their power. After a successful campaign to defend Croton in southern Italy from the Bruttii, he denied an award for bravery which he felt he had earnt. After this, he openly opposed the government and openly accused the leading oligarchs, Sosistratus and Heracleides, of seeking to become tyrants. These accusations were not successful and the two oligarchs solidified their power. Agathocles\' situation in Syracuse was then untenable and he declared that he was compelled to leave the city. This does not necessarily mean that he was formally exiled.
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# Agathocles of Syracuse
## Biography
### Double exile {#double_exile}
Agathocles went to southern Italy, where he led the life of a mercenary captain. At the same time, he built up an independent power base, as preparation for a return to Syracuse. His first military effort was a failure, however: he attempted to bring the major city of Croton in Calabria under his control by force, probably in alliance with the local democrats, but he was completely defeated and had to flee with his surviving followers to Tarentum. The Tarentines accepted him into their mercenary forces, but they distrusted him because of his ambition and plots, which led to his dismissal. After this, he gathered together democrats who had been expelled from their cities by local oligarchs. An opportunity appeared at Rhegium, the hometown of Agathocles\' father. There, the democrats were in power, but the city was attacked by forces led by the Syracusan oligarchs, who wanted to help the local oligarchs take power by force. Agathocles defeated this Syracusan expeditionary force, which destabilised Sosistratus and Heracleides\' position in Syracuse and as a result they were overthrown in a coup. The democrats returned to power and drove the leading oligarchs out of Syracuse. The exiled oligarchs allied themselves with the Carthaginians. These developments allowed Agathocles to return home around 322 BC.
Agathocles distinguished himself in the subsequent battles against the Carthaginians and oligarchs, but did not manage to acquire a leading position in the city. Instead, the Syracusans chose to request a commander from their mother city, Corinth, in accordance with a law established by Timoleon. The Corinthians sent one Acestorides, who organised an amnesty for the oligarchs, made peace with the Carthaginians, and exiled Agathocles. The radical democrats were forced out and a moderate oligarchy was established. Acestorides even attempted to have Agathocles assassinated. Agathocles established a private army, apparently funded from his own assets. He took advantage of the fact that the Syracusans were considered oppressive by other cities in Sicily and successfully presented himself as a supporter of these cities\' interests against the Syracusans. He managed to take over Leontini and even led an attack on Syracuse. The situation became so tenuous for the oligarchs in Syracuse that they reached out to the Carthaginians for help.
Agathocles outpaced the oligarchs. He negotiated with the Carthaginian commander in Sicily, Hamilcar, and convinced him to withdraw. Allegedly, they had concluded a personal agreement to support each other in establishing themselves as sole rulers of their respective cities. After the loss of Carthaginian support, Syracuse was isolated. The citizens, who did not really wish to fight for oligarchy, agreed to allow Agathocles to return home. He swore the Syracuse \"great oath\", promising that he would not establish a tyranny. After that, he was elected commander in chief of the Syracusan army in 319/318 BC.
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# Agathocles of Syracuse
## Biography
### Seizure of power {#seizure_of_power}
The position of Agathocles within the city of Syracuse was initially that of a regular military commander, with wide but limited powers. His title was General and Guardian of the Peace (*strategos kai phylax tes eirenes*). In Syracuse, the surviving oligarchs banded together as \"The Six Hundred\" and continued to oppose him. Agathocles took advantage of the conflicts between the Syracusans and the non-Greek Sicels and between the rich and poor within Syracuse to overcome these opponents. On the pretext of taking military action against external enemies, he was able to gather a powerful force, which was loyal only to him, without raising suspicion.
In 317/6 or 316/5 BC, Agathocles used this force to launch a coup. At a meeting that the leading members of the opposition party had been invited to, he accused around forty of the oligarchs there of planning an attack on him and had them arrested and executed on the spot. His trumpeters gave the sign for battle and a general slaughter took place in the city, in which the wealthy and their supporters were the main victims. Their houses were plundered. According to Diodorus Siculus\'s account, over 4,000 people were killed, purely because they belonged to the upper class. More than 6,000 people escaped from the city, even though the gates had been locked. They mostly fled to Agrigentum.
Finally, Agathocles called an assembly of the people, in which he presented himself as a saviour of democracy in the face of the oligarchs and announced that he would retire from his position and return to private life. His followers responded by calling on him to take over the leadership of the state. He responded that he was willing to be general once more, but only if he could hold the role without any colleagues, as General with unlimited power (*strategós autokrátor*). This was the title that the earlier ruler Dionysius I had used as the legal basis for his tyranny. The people elected him to this position and also entrusted him with a general \"management of the city\" (*epiméleia tes póleos*). After this he announced a cancellation of debts and redistribution of the land, two planks of the traditional populist programme.
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# Agathocles of Syracuse
## Biography
### Rulership
War with Carthage followed. In 311 BC Agathocles was defeated in the Battle of the Himera River and besieged in Syracuse. In 310 BC he made a desperate effort to break through the blockade and attack Carthage. He landed at Cape Bon in August 310 BC, and was able to defeat the Carthaginians for the first time, and establish a camp near Tunis. He then turned east and tried to take over coastal trading cities such as Neapolis and Hadrumetum, and on this occasion concluded an alliance with Ailymas, king of the Libyans according to Diodorus of Sicily, in an attempt to surround and isolate Carthage. After capturing Hadrumetum, Thapsus and other coastal towns, Agathocles turned his attention to central Tunisia. Before or during this campaign, he broke his alliance with Ailymas, whom he pursued and killed, but he kept his Numidian army, including war chariots they built.
In 309/8 BC, Agathocles began trying to sway Ophellas, ruler of Cyrenaica, as he was likely to prove a useful ally in Agathocles\' war against the Carthaginians. To gain his allegiance, he promised to cede to Ophellas whatever conquests their combined forces might make in Africa, reserving to himself only the possession of Sicily. Ophellas gathered a powerful army from the homeland of his wife Euthydike (a descendant of Miltiades), Athens, where many citizens felt disgruntled after having lost their voting rights. Despite the natural obstacles that presented themselves on his route, Ophellas succeeded in reaching the Carthaginian territories after a toilsome and perilous march of more than two months. He was received by Agathocles with every demonstration of friendship, and the two armies encamped near each other, but a few days later, Agathocles betrayed his new ally by attacking the camp of the Cyrenaeans and having Ophellas killed. The Cyrenean troops, left without a leader, went over to Agathocles. After several victories, he was finally completely defeated (307 BC) and fled secretly to Sicily. After concluding peace with Carthage in 306 BC, Agathocles styled himself king of Sicily in 304 BC, and established his rule over the Greek cities of the island more firmly than ever. A peace treaty with Carthage left him in control of Sicily east of the Halycus River. Even in his old age, he displayed the same restless energy and is said to have been contemplating a fresh attack on Carthage at the time of his death.
His last years were plagued by ill health and the attempted usurpation of his throne by his grandson Archagathus, whom Diodorus Siculus states had him poisoned; however Justinius and the majority of modern historians assert he died a natural death (presumably from cancer of the jaw). He was a born leader of mercenaries, and he did not shrink from cruelty for the purposes to royal power. Agathocles restored the Syracusan democracy on his deathbed and did not want his grandson to succeed him as king.
## Family
Agathocles was married three times. His first wife was the widow of his patron Damas, by whom he had two sons:
- Archagathus, who was murdered by the army in Africa in 307 BC after Agathocles abandoned it. He had one son, also called Archagathus, who was Agathocles\' main general and heir in the 290s BC, but became involved in a succession dispute with his younger uncle, also called Agathocles, and was assassinated immediately after his father\'s death in 289 BC.
- Heracleides, who was murdered with his brother in Africa in 307 BC.
Agathocles\' second wife was Alcia, with whom he had two children:
- Lanassa, second wife of King Pyrrhus of Epirus and mother of Alexander II of Epirus.
- Agathocles, who was murdered in a succession dispute shortly before his father\'s death.
Agathocles\' third wife was Theoxena, who was the second daughter of Berenice I and her first husband Philip and thus a stepdaughter of Ptolemy I Soter, king of Egypt. She escaped to Egypt with their two children following Agathocles\' death in 289 BC:
- Archagathus and Theoxena, who escaped to Egypt in 289 BC. Their descendants included Agathocleia and Agathocles of Egypt, who were Ptolemy IV\'s chief mistress and chief minister respectively, and dominated Egypt in the first years of Ptolemy V\'s reign.
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# Agathocles of Syracuse
## Legacy
Agathocles was cited as an example \"Of those who become princes through their crimes\" in chapter 8 of Niccolò Machiavelli\'s treatise on politics - *The Prince* (1513). He was described as behaving as a criminal at every stage of his career. Machiavelli claimed: `{{blockquote|Agathocles, the Sicilian, became King of Syracuse not only from a private but from a low and abject position. This man, the son of a potter, through all the changes in his fortunes, always led an infamous life. Nevertheless, he accompanied his infamies with so much ability of mind and body that, having devoted himself to the military profession, he rose through its ranks to be Praetor of Syracuse.<ref name="gutenberg">{{cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm#link2HCH0008|website=gutenberg.org|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Prince, by Nicolo Machiavelli | Chapter VIII |access-date=15 January 2022}}</ref>}}`{=mediawiki}
Machiavelli goes on to reason that Agathocles\' success, in contrast to other criminal tyrants, was due to his ability to commit his crimes quickly and ruthlessly, and states that cruelties are best used when they `{{blockquote|are applied at one blow and are necessary to one's security, and that are not persisted in afterwards unless they can be turned to the advantage of the subjects
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# Economy of Alberta
The **economy of Alberta** is the sum of all economic activity in Alberta, Canada\'s fourth largest province by population. Alberta\'s GDP in 2018 was CDN\$338.2 billion.
Although Alberta has a presence in many industries such as agriculture, forestry, education, tourism, finance, and manufacturing, the politics and culture of the province have been closely tied to the production of fossil energy since the 1940s. Alberta---with an estimated 1.4 billion cubic metres of unconventional oil resource in the bituminous oil sands---leads Canada as an oil producer.
In 2018, Alberta\'s energy sector contributed over \$71.5 billion to Canada\'s nominal gross domestic product. According to Statistics Canada, in May 2018, the oil and gas extraction industry reached its highest proportion of Canada\'s national GDP since 1985, exceeding 7% and \"surpass\[ing\] banking and insurance\" with extraction of non-conventional oil from the oilsands reaching an \"impressive\", all-time high in May 2018. With conventional oil extraction \"climbed up to the highs from 2007\", the demand for Canadian oil was strong in May.
From 1990 to 2003, Alberta\'s economy grew by 57% compared to 43% for all of Canada---the strongest economic growth of any region in Canada. In 2006 Alberta\'s per capita GDP was higher than all US states, and one of the highest figures in the world. In 2006, the deviation from the national average was the largest for any province in Canadian history. Alberta\'s per capita GDP in 2007 was by far the highest of any province in Canada at C\$74,825 (approx. US\$75,000). Alberta\'s per capita GDP in 2007 was 61% higher than the Canadian average of C\$46,441 and more than twice that of all the Maritime provinces. From 2004 to 2014 Alberta\'s \"exports of commodities rose 91%, reaching \$121 billion in 2014\" and 500,000 new jobs were created. In 2014, Alberta\'s real GDP by expenditure grew by 4.8%, the strongest growth rate among the provinces.\" In 2017, Alberta\'s real per capita GDP---the economic output per person---was \$71,092, compared to the Canadian average of \$47,417. In 2016, Alberta\'s A grade on its income per capita was based on the fact that it was almost \"identical\" to that of the \"top peer country\"---Ireland.
The energy industry provided 7.7% of all jobs in Alberta in 2013, and 140,300 jobs representing 6.1% of total employment of 2,286,900 in Alberta in 2017. The unemployment rate in Alberta peaked in November 2016 at 9.1%. Its lowest point in a ten-year period from July 2009 to July 2019, was in September 2013 at 4.3%. The unemployment rate in the spring of 2019 in Alberta was 6.7% with 21,000 jobs added in April. By July 2019, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate had increased to 7.0%.
By August 2019, the employment number in Alberta was 2,344,000, following the loss of 14,000 full-time jobs in July, which represented the \"largest decline\" in Canada according to Statistics Canada.
Beginning in June 2014, the record high volume of worldwide oil inventories in storage---referred to as a global oil glut---caused crude oil prices to collapse at near ten-year low prices. By 2016 West Texas Intermediate (WTI)---the benchmark light, sweet crude oil---reached its lowest price in ten years---US\$26.55. In 2012 the price of WTI had reached US\$125 and in 2014 the price was \$100. By February 2016 the price of Western Canadian Select WCS---the Alberta benchmark heavy crude oil---was US\$14.10---the cheapest oil in the world. Alberta boom years from 2010 to 2014 ended with a \"long and deep\" recession that began in 2014, driven by low commodity pricing ended in 2017. By 2019---five years later---Alberta was still in recovery. Overall, there were approximately 35,000 jobs lost in mining, oil and gas alone. Since 2014, sectors that offered high-wage employment of \$30 and above, saw about 100,000 jobs disappear---\"construction (down more than 45,000 jobs), mining, oil and gas (down nearly 35,000), and professional services (down 18,000),\" according to the economist, Trevor Tombe. There was a decrease in wages, in the number of jobs, and in the number of hours worked. The total loss of incomes from \"workers, business, and government\" amounted to about 20 percent or about CDN\$75 billion less per year. Since 2011, prices have increased in Alberta by 18%. However, a typical worker in Alberta still earns more than a typical worker in all the other provinces and territories.
By March 2016, Alberta lost over 100,000 jobs in the oil patch. In spite of the surplus with the low price of WCS in 2015---99% of Canada\'s oil exports went to the United States and in 2015 Canada was still their largest exporter of total petroleum---3,789 thousand bpd in September---3,401 thousand bpd in October up from 3,026 thousand bpd in September 2014. By April 2019, two of the major oil companies, still had thousands of workers---Suncor had about 12,500 employees and Canadian Natural Resources had about 10,000 full-time employees.
Alberta has the \"lowest taxes overall of any province or territory\" in Canada, due in part to having high resource tax revenues. However, overall tax revenues from oil royalties and other non-renewable sources has fallen steeply along with the drop in global oil prices. For example, in 2013, oil tax revenues brought in 9.58 billion, or 21% of the total Provincial budget, whereas in 2018 it had fallen to just 5.43 billion, or 11% of the Provincial budget.
In the spring of 2020, Alberta\'s economy suffered from the economic fallout of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Russia--Saudi Arabia oil price war.\"
\_\_TOC\_\_
## Data
Year Nominal GDP (in bil. CA-Dollar) GDP per capita (in CA-Dollar) Unemployment (in %)
------ --------------------------------- ------------------------------- ---------------------
2019 334.5 77,239 6.8%
2018 334.3 78,311 6.9%
2017 328 77,765 8.7%
2016 314.6 75,447 8.6%
2015 326.5 79,324 4.6%
2014 338.3 83,946 4.7%
2013 319.5 81,495 4.5%
2012 302.1 78,979 5.0%
2011 290.5 77,375 5.9%
2010 272.2 73,523 6.6%
2009 258.9 71,156 4.9%
2008 273.5 77,068 3.7%
2007 270 77,748 3.6%
2006 264.8 78,533 3.8%
2005 248.6 75,867 4.5%
2004 237.7 74,064 4.9%
2003 224.7 71,218 5.4%
2002 216.8 70,114 4.9%
2001 211.6 69,882 5.2%
2000 207.8 69,860 5.0%
1999 196 66,984 5.9%
1998 193.2 67,569 5.3%
1997 184.3 65,832 6.4%
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Economy of Alberta
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# Economy of Alberta
## Current overview {#current_overview}
According to ATB Financial\'s Vice President and Chief Economist---Todd Hirsch, who spoke during an April 2, 2020, webinar hosted by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, the COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta and its \"economic fallout will permanently reshape our economy.\" Hirsch said that he expects that the resulting contraction in Alberta\'s economy will be the \"worst\...Alberta has ever seen.\"
The global price of oil decreased dramatically because of the combination of COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Russia--Saudi Arabia oil price war. In March 2020, the United States benchmark crude oil EWest Texas Intermediate (WTI)---upon which Alberta\'s benchmark crude oil Western Canadian Select (WCS) price is based---dropped to an historical below of US\$20 a barrel. The price of WCS bitumen-blend crude was US\$3.82 per barrel by the end of March. In 2018, the low price of heavy oil negatively impacted Alberta\'s economic growth.
In November 2018, the price of Western Canadian Select (WCS), the benchmark for Canadian heavy crude, hit its record low of less than US\$14 a barrel, as a \"surge of production met limited pipeline space causing bottlenecks.\" Previously, from 2008 through 2018, WCS had sold at an average discount of US\$17 against West Texas Intermediate (WTI)---the U.S. crude oil benchmark, but by the fall of 2018, the differential between WCS and WTI reached a record of over US\$50 per barrel. In response, then Premier Rachel Notley made a December 2 announcement of a mandatory cut of 8.7% in Alberta\'s oil production. By December 12, after the announcement of the government\'s \"mandated oil output curtailment\", the price of WCS rose c. 70% to c. US\$41 a barrel with the WTI differential falling from US50 to c. US\$11., according to the *Financial Post*. The WCS price rose to US\$28.60 by January 2019, as the international price of oil had begun to recover from the December \"sharp downturn\" caused by the ongoing China--U.S. trade war In March 2019, the differential of WTI over WCS decreased to \$US9.94 as the price of WTI dropped to US\$58.15 a barrel, which is 7.5% lower than it was in March 2018, while the price of WCS increased to US\$48.21 a barrel which is 35.7% higher than in March 2018. According to TD Economics\' September 2019 report, the government\'s \"mandated oil output curtailment\", has resulted in a sustained rebound in WCS prices. However, investment and spending were low in the province. The loss of 14, 000 of the full-time jobs out of 2,344,000 in Alberta in July 2019, represented the \"largest decline\" in employment in Canada for that month, according to Statistics Canada.
In 1985, Alberta\'s energy industry accounted for 36.1% of the provinces \$66.8 billion GDP. In 2006, the mining, oil and gas extraction industry accounted for 29.1% of GDP; by 2012 it was 23.3%; in 2013, it was 24.6% of Alberta\'s \$331.9 billion GDP, and in 2016, the mining, oil and gas extraction industry accounted for about 27.9% of Alberta\'s GDP.
By comparison, \"In 2017, the federal, provincial and territorial governments spent some \$724 billion on programs and more than \$58 billion on interest payments on their public debt, which, combined, amounted to about 36 percent of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP). Their combined borrowing that year was \$27 billion, and their net financial debt at year-end stood at around \$1.2 trillion, about 54 percent of GDP.\"
In his July 2019 *CBC News* article, economist Trevor Tombe said that prior to the 2014 recession, Albertans had experienced boom years from 2010 to 2014, with workers earnings reaching exceptional highs. The recession, which \"ended over two years ago\" in 2017, was \"long and deep\". By 2019---five years later---the province was still in recovery. Overall, there were approximately 35,000 jobs lost in mining, oil and gas alone. By 2019, the slow recovery and low earnings growth have resulted in workers getting \"fewer hours, fewer jobs and, in some cases, lower wages\". Tombe said that from 2014 to 2016, Alberta earned CDN\$75 billion less per year with the \"total incomes of workers, business, and government combined \[falling\] by nearly 20 per cent\". Tombes said that relative to Alberta\'s \"growth path prior to the recession\" Alberta\'s economy is \"down \$100 billion per year\", compared to what was anticipated. Tombes said that the \"boom years that ended in 2014 were the outliers\" and the lower earnings in 2019 reflect a \"natural adjustment that\'s moving Alberta to a more normal and balanced labour market.\" While earnings are lower, because of inflation, prices have increased in Alberta by 18% since 2011. \"The \$1,183 per week a typical worker earns today goes about as far as \$1,000 did nearly a decade ago.\", according to Tombe. In spite of the typical worker in Alberta earns \$1,183 per week compared to Saskatchewan, where the typical worker earns \$1,070 per week. The weekly income a typical worker in all the other Canadian provinces and territories is less than that.
Since 2014, sectors that offered high-wage employment of \$30 and above, saw about 100,000 jobs disappear---\"construction (down more than 45,000 jobs), mining, oil and gas (down nearly 35,000), and professional services (down 18,000).\"
## Alberta\'s deficit {#albertas_deficit}
Alberta\'s net debt was \$27.5 billion by March 2019, which represents the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year (FY). By November 2018, Alberta\'s government expenditures were \$55 billion while the revenue was about \$48 billion, according to a report by the University of Calgary\'s School of Public Policy (SPP) economist, Trevor Tombe. Capital investment amounted to \$4.3 billion. The provincial government employs more than \"210,000 full-time equivalent workers across hundreds of departments, boards and other entities.\" Tombe, cited a \$8.3 billion deficit in his November report, prior to the release in February 2019 of the corrected deficit figures, which was \"\$1.9 billion less in 2018-19 than originally expected\", ---\$6.9-billion deficit instead of the original \$8.8-billion\".
Alberta\'s current deficit is \"unusual for the province\", says Tombe in 2018. During the financial crisis, Alberta\'s \"net asset position equivalent to 15 per cent of GDP\"−it \"owned more financial assets than it owed in debt.\"
In 2009 Alberta had \$31.7 billion in financial assets.
BC Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Ontario Quebec New Brunswick Nova Scotia Prince Edward Island Newfoundland
------- --------- -------------- ---------- --------- -------- --------------- ------------- ---------------------- -------------- --
15.5% 8.7% 15.4% 34.2% 37.6% 43% 40% 34.2 33% 47.3%
: Net government debt to GDP by province March 2019
| 1,063 |
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# Economy of Alberta
## Alberta\'s credit rating {#albertas_credit_rating}
On December 3, 2019, Moody\'s downgraded Alberta\'s credit rating from Aa2 stable from Aa1 negative and \"downgraded the long-term debt ratings of the Alberta Capital Finance Authority and the long-term issuer rating of ATB Financial to Aa2 from Aa1.\" The agency said that there is a \"structural weakness in the provincial economy that remains concentrated and dependent on non-renewable resources \... and remains pressured by a lack of sufficient pipeline capacity to transport oil efficiently with no near-term expectation of a significant rebound in oil-related investments\...Alberta\'s oil and gas sector is carbon-intensive and Alberta\'s greenhouse gas emissions are the highest among provinces. Alberta is also susceptible to natural disasters including wildfires and floods which could lead to significant mitigation costs by the province.\"
## Alberta\'s real per capita GDP {#albertas_real_per_capita_gdp}
In 2006 Alberta\'s per capita GDP was higher than all US states, and one of the highest figures in the world. In 2006, the deviation from the national average was the largest for any province in Canadian history. In 2007, Alberta\'s per capita GDP in 2007 was C\$74,825 (approx. US\$75,000)---by far the highest of any Canadian province---61% higher than the Canadian average of C\$46,441 and more than twice that of all the Maritime provinces. In 2017, Alberta\'s real per capita GDP---the economic output per person---was \$71,092, compared to the Canadian average of \$47,417. Alberta\'s A grade on its income per capita was based on the fact that it was almost \"identical\" to that of the \"top peer country\" in 2016, Ireland.
In 2017, Alberta\'s real per capita GDP---the economic output per person---was \$71,092 compared to the Canadian average output per person of \$47, 417 and Prince Edward Island at \$32,123 per person. Since at least 1997, Alberta\'s per capita GDP has been higher than that of any other province. In 2014, Alberta\'s reached its highest gap ever---\$30,069---between its real capita GDP and the Canadian average.
According to the Conference Board of Canada, in 2016 Alberta earned an \"A grade with income per capita almost identical to the top peer country, Ireland.\" In 2016 income per capita in Alberta was \$59,259.
1981 1988 1991 1997 2000 2003 2005 2007 2009 2010 2014 2016
-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------
42,441 45,995 45,393 53,748 57,106 57,646 61,163 62,518 57,321 59,254 66,031 59,249
: Alberta Income per capita
| 400 |
Economy of Alberta
| 2 |
1,841 |
# Economy of Alberta
## Alberta\'s GDP compared to other provinces {#albertas_gdp_compared_to_other_provinces}
A table listing annual \"[\"Gross domestic product (GDP) at basic prices, by industry, provinces and territories (x 1,000,000).\"](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3610040201) from 2014 through 2018 with value chained to 2012 dollars.
<table>
<thead>
<tr class="header">
<th scope="col"><p>Province<br />
or<br />
<em>Territory</em></p></th>
<th scope="col"><p>GDP<br />
(million<br />
CAD, 2014)</p></th>
<th scope="col"><p>GDP<br />
(million<br />
CAD, 2015)</p></th>
<th scope="col"><p>GDP<br />
(million<br />
CAD, 2016)</p></th>
<th scope="col"><p>GDP<br />
(million<br />
CAD, 2017)</p></th>
<th scope="col"><p>GDP<br />
(million<br />
CAD, 2018) |-|- align=right</p></th>
<th style="text-align: left;"></th>
<th><p>219,060.9</p></th>
<th><p>224,153.4</p></th>
<th><p>231,509.9</p></th>
<th><p>240,657.9</p></th>
<th><p>246,506.3</p></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>338,262.6</p></td>
<td><p>326,476.7</p></td>
<td><p>313,241.5</p></td>
<td><p>327,596.2</p></td>
<td><p>335,095.6</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>80,175.7</p></td>
<td><p>79,574.2</p></td>
<td><p>79,364.4</p></td>
<td><p>81,179.0</p></td>
<td><p>82,502.7</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>58,276.3</p></td>
<td><p>59,082.5</p></td>
<td><p>60,066.2</p></td>
<td><p>61,941.2</p></td>
<td><p>62,723.1</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>659,861.2</p></td>
<td><p>677,384.0</p></td>
<td><p>693,900.4</p></td>
<td><p>712,984.3</p></td>
<td><p>728,363.7</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>338,319.0</p></td>
<td><p>341,688.0</p></td>
<td><p>346,713.7</p></td>
<td><p>356,677.9</p></td>
<td><p>365,614.4</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>29,039.6</p></td>
<td><p>29,275.7</p></td>
<td><p>29,686.3</p></td>
<td><p>30,271.8</p></td>
<td><p>30,295.3</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>5,205.6</p></td>
<td><p>5,280.7</p></td>
<td><p>5,372.2</p></td>
<td><p>5,553.3</p></td>
<td><p>5,700.0</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>34,747.2</p></td>
<td><p>35,013.4</p></td>
<td><p>35,549.3</p></td>
<td><p>36,075.4</p></td>
<td><p>36,518.2</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>31,143.3</p></td>
<td><p>30,806.0</p></td>
<td><p>31,334.5</p></td>
<td><p>31,610.6</p></td>
<td><p>30,757.9</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>2,510.9</p></td>
<td><p>2,320.2</p></td>
<td><p>2,482.5</p></td>
<td><p>2,554.5</p></td>
<td><p>2,626.1</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>4,574.6</p></td>
<td><p>4,621.3</p></td>
<td><p>4,679.8</p></td>
<td><p>4,861.3</p></td>
<td><p>4,954.7</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td><p>2,363.6</p></td>
<td><p>2,353.0</p></td>
<td><p>2,434.3</p></td>
<td><p>2,685.3</p></td>
<td><p>2,955.0</p></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Source: Statistics Canada: GDP (totals),
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# Economy of Alberta
## Economic geography {#economic_geography}
`{{see also|Geography of Alberta|List of regions of Alberta}}`{=mediawiki}
Alberta has a small internal market, and it is relatively distant from major world markets, despite good transportation links to the rest of Canada and to the United States to the south. Alberta is located in the northwestern quadrant of North America, in a region of low population density called the Interior Plains. Alberta is landlocked, and separated by a series of mountain ranges from the nearest outlets to the Pacific Ocean, and by the Canadian Shield from ports on the Lakehead or Hudson Bay. From these ports to major populations centres and markets in Europe or Asia is several thousands of kilometers. The largest population clusters of North America (the Boston -- Washington, San Francisco - San Diego, Chicago -- Pittsburgh, and Quebec City -- Windsor Corridors) are all thousands of kilometers away from Alberta. Partly for this reason, Alberta has never developed a large presence in the industries that have traditionally started industrialization in other places (notably the original Industrial Revolution in Great Britain) but which require large labour forces, and large internal markets or easy transportation to export markets, namely textiles, metallurgy, or transportation-related manufacturing (automotives, ships, or train cars).
Agriculture has been a key industry since the 1870s. The climate is dry, temperate, and continental, with extreme variations between seasons. Productive soils are found in most of the southern half of the province (excluding the mountains), and in certain parts of the north. Agriculture on a large scale is practiced further north in Alberta than anywhere else in North America, extending into the Peace River country above the 55th parallel north. Generally, however, northern Alberta (and areas along the Alberta Rockies) is forested land and logging is more important than agriculture there. Agriculture is divided into primarily field crops in the east, livestock in the west, and a mixture in between and in the parkland belt in the near north.
Conventional oil and gas fields are found throughout the province on an axis running from the northwest to the southeast. Oil sands are found in the northeast, especially around Fort McMurray (the Athabasca Oil Sands).
Because of its (relatively) economically isolated location, Alberta relies heavily on transportation links with the rest of the world. Alberta\'s historical development has been largely influenced by the development of new transportation infrastructure, (see \"trends\" below). Alberta is now served by two major transcontinental railways (CN and CP), by three major highway connections to the Pacific (the Trans-Canada via Kicking Horse Pass, the Yellowhead via Yellowhead Pass and the Crowsnest via Crowsnest Pass), and one to the United States (Interstate 15), as well as two international airports (Calgary and Edmonton). Also, Alberta is connected to the TransCanada pipeline system (natural gas) to Eastern Canada, the Northern Border Pipeline (gas), Alliance Pipeline (gas) and Enbridge Pipeline System (oil) to the Eastern United States, the Gas Transmission Northwest and Northwest Pipeline (gas) to the Western United States, and the McNeill HVDC Back-to-back station (electric power) to Saskatchewan.
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# Economy of Alberta
## Economic geography {#economic_geography}
### Economic regions and cities {#economic_regions_and_cities}
Since the days of early agricultural settlement, the majority of Alberta\'s population has been concentrated in the parkland belt (mixed forest-grassland), a boomerang-shaped strip of land extending along the North Saskatchewan River from Lloydminster to Edmonton and then along the Rocky Mountain foothills south to Calgary. This area is slightly more humid and treed than the drier prairie (grassland) region called Palliser\'s Triangle to its south, and large areas of the south (the \"Special Areas\") were depopulated during the droughts of the 1920s and 30s. The chernozem (black soil) of the parkland region is more agriculturally productive than the red and grey soils to the south. Urban development has also been most advanced in the parkland belt. Edmonton and Red Deer are parkland cities, while Calgary is on the parkland-prairie fringe. Lethbridge and Medicine Hat are prairie cities. Grande Prairie lies in the Peace River Country a parkland region (with isolated patches of prairie, hence the name) in the northwest isolated from the rest of the parkland by the forested Swan Hills. Fort McMurray is the only urbanized population centre in the boreal forest which covers much of the northern half of the province.
#### Calgary and Edmonton {#calgary_and_edmonton}
The Calgary and Edmonton regions, by far the province\'s two largest metropolitan regions, account for the majority of the province\'s population. They are relatively close to each other by the standards of Western Canada and distant from other metropolitan regions such as Vancouver or Winnipeg. This has produced a history of political and economic rivalry and comparison but also economic integration that has created an urbanized corridor between the two cities.
The economic profile of the two regions is slightly different. Both cities are mature service economies built on a base of resource extraction in their hinterlands. However, Calgary is predominant in hosting the regional and national headquarters of oil and gas exploration and drilling companies. Edmonton skews much more towards governments, universities and hospitals as large employers, while Edmonton\'s suburban fringes (e.g. Fort Saskatchewan, Nisku, Strathcona County (Refinery Row), Leduc, Beaumont, Acheson) are home to most of the province\'s manufacturing (much of it related to oil and gas).
##### Calgary-Edmonton Corridor {#calgary_edmonton_corridor}
The Calgary-Edmonton Corridor is the most urbanized region in the province and one of the densest in Canada. Measured from north to south, the region covers a distance of roughly 400 km. In 2001, the population of the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor was 2.15 million (72% of Alberta\'s population). It is also one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. A 2003 study by TD Bank Financial Group found the corridor was the only Canadian urban centre to amass a U.S. level of wealth while maintaining a Canadian-style quality of life, offering universal health care benefits. The study found GDP per capita in the corridor was 10% above average U.S. metropolitan areas and 40% above other Canadian cities at that time.
##### Calgary--Edmonton rivalry {#calgaryedmonton_rivalry}
Seeing Calgary and Edmonton as part of a single economic region as the TD study did in 2003 was novel. The more traditional view had been to see the two cities as economic rivals. For example, in the 1980 both cities claimed to be the \"Oil Capital of Canada\".
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# Economy of Alberta
## Background
`{{See also|History of Alberta|History of the petroleum industry in Canada}}`{=mediawiki}
Alberta has always been an export-oriented economy. In line with Harold Innis\' \"Staples Thesis\", the economy has changed substantially as different export commodities have risen or fallen in importance. In sequence, the most important products have been: fur, wheat and beef, and oil and gas.
The development of transportation in Alberta has been crucial to its historical economic development. The North American fur trade relied on birch-bark canoes, York boats, and Red River carts on age-old Native trails and buffalo trails to move furs out of, and European trade goods into, the region. Immigration into the province was eased tremendously by the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway\'s transcontinental line across southern Alberta in 1880s. Commercial farming became viable in the area once the grain trade had developed technologies to handle the bulk export of grain, especially hopper cars and grain elevators. Oil and gas exports have been possible because of increasing pipeline technology.
Prior to the 1950s, Alberta was a primarily agricultural economy, based on the export of wheat, beef, and a few other agricultural products. The health of economy was closely bound up with the price of wheat.
In 1947 a major oil field was discovered near Edmonton. It was not the first petroleum find in Alberta, but it was large and spawned an industry that significantly altered the economy of the province (and coincided with growing American demand for energy). Since that time, Alberta\'s economic fortunes have largely tracked the price of oil, and increasingly natural gas prices. When oil prices spiked during the 1967 Oil Embargo, 1973 oil crisis, and 1979 energy crisis, Alberta\'s economy boomed. However, during the 1980s oil glut Alberta\'s economy suffered. Alberta boomed once again during the 2003-2008 oil price spike. In July 2008 the price of oil peaked and began to decline, and Alberta\'s economy soon followed suit, with unemployment doubling within a year. By 2009 with natural gas prices at a long-term low, Alberta\'s economy was in poor health compared to before, although still relatively better than many other comparable jurisdictions. By 2012 natural gas prices were at a ten-year low and the Canadian dollar was highly valued compared to the U.S. dollar, but then oil prices recovered until June 2014.
The spin-offs from petroleum allowed Alberta to develop many other industries. Oilpatch-related manufacturing is an obvious example, but financial services and government services have also benefited from oil money.
A comparison of the development of Alberta\'s less oil and gas-endowed neighbours, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, reveals the role petroleum has played. Alberta was the least-populous of the three Prairie Provinces in the early 20th century, but by 2009, Alberta\'s population was 3,632,483, approximately three times as much as either Saskatchewan (1,023,810) or Manitoba (1,213,815).
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# Economy of Alberta
## Employment
Alberta\'s economy is a highly developed one in which most people work in services such as healthcare, government, or retail. Primary industries are also of great importance, however.
By March 2016 the unemployment rate in Alberta rose to 7.9%--- its \"highest level since April 1995 and the first time the province's rate has surpassed the national average since December 1988.\" There were 21,200 fewer jobs than February 2015. The unemployment rate was expected to average 7.4% in 2016. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) claimed that Alberta lost 35,000 jobs in 2015--25,000 from the oil services sector and 10,000 from exploration and production. Full-time employment increased by 10,000 in February 2016 after falling 20,000 in both December 2015 and January 2016. The natural resources industry lost 7,400 jobs in February. \"Year-over-year (y/y), the goods sector lost 56,000 jobs, while the services sector gained 34,800.\" In 2015 Alberta\'s population increased by 3,900. While Alberta had a reprieve in job loss in February 2016---up 1,400 jobs after losing jobs in October, November, December 2015 and January 2016---Ontario lost 11,200 jobs, Saskatchewan lost 7,800 jobs and New Brunswick lost 5,700 jobs.
The unemployment rate in spring 2019 in Alberta was 6.7% with 21,000 jobs added in April; in Calgary it was 7.4%, in Edmonton it was 6.9%, in Northern Alberta it was 11.2%, and in Southern Alberta it was 7.8%. By July 2019, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate had increased to 7.0%, which represented an increase of 0.3% from the previous year. The unemployment rate in Alberta peaked in November 2016 at 9.1%. Its lowest point in a ten-year period from July 2009 to July 2019 was in September 2013 at 4.3%.
By August 2019, the employment number in Alberta was 2,344,000, following the loss of 14,000 full-time jobs in July, which represented that the \"largest decline\" in Canada according to Statistics Canada.
Employment by industry, Alberta -- seasonally adjusted (000s)
Industries August 2019 July 2019 August 2018
------------------------------------------------- ------------- ----------- -------------
All industries 2,344.3 2,343.7 2,340.2
Goods-producing sector 589.6 595.6 602.1
Agriculture 49.9 50.7 48.5
Forestry, fishing, mining, oil and gas 138.3 144.3 154.4
Utilities 24.5 24.1 23.7
Construction 241.9 242.1 246.5
Manufacturing 134.9 134.5 129.0
Services-Producing Sector 1,754.8 1,748.1 1,738.1
Trade 339.3 340.0 337.1
Transportation and Warehousing 139.4 140.0 138.3
Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Leasing 105.7 107.2 102.3
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services 187.2 185.4 181.5
Business, Building and Other Support Services 83.2 84.4 88.6
Educational Services 157.2 157.7 160.7
Health Care and Social Assistance 292.4 290.6 278.8
Information, Culture and Recreation 79.0 74.3 78.7
Accommodation and Food Services 140.4 136.7 146.6
Other Services 115.1 118.2 116.7
Public Administration 116.0 113.6 108.8
### Extraction industries {#extraction_industries}
According to the Government of Alberta, the \"mining and oil and gas extraction industry accounted for 6.1% of total employment in Alberta in 2017\". By April 2019, there were about 145,100 people working directly with the oil and gas industry. In 2013, there were 171,200 people employed in the mining and oil and gas extraction industry.
In 2007 there were 146,900 people working in the mining and oil and gas extraction industry.
- Oil and Gas Extraction industry = 69,900
- Support Activities for Mining & Oil & Gas Extraction (primarily oil and gas exploration and drilling) = 71,700
- Mining other than oil and gas (mainly coal and mineral mining & quarrying) = 5,100
### Largest employers of Alberta {#largest_employers_of_alberta}
According to *Alberta Venture* magazine\'s list of the 50 largest employers in the province, the largest employers are:
Rank (2012) Rank (2010) Rank (2007) Employer Industry 2019 Employees (Total) 2012 Employees (Total) 2010 Employees (Total) 2007 Employees (Total) Head office Description Notes
------------- ------------- ------------- ---------------------------- ----------------------------- ------------------------ ------------------------ ------------------------ ------------------------ ------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1 \* Alberta Health Services Healthcare 102,700 99,400 92,200 see note Edmonton Provincial public health authority Created in 2008 by merging nine separate provincial health authorities.
2 2 4\. Canada Safeway Limited Wholesale and Retail Trade 30,000 30,000 34,318 Calgary Food and drug retailer subsidiary of Sobeys Inc. since 2014, before that subsidiary of American chain
3 6 n/a Agrium Inc. Agri-business 15,200 (2016) 14,800 11,153 n/a Calgary Wholesale producer, distributor and retailer of agricultural products and services in North and South America n/a = not listed in 2007
4 7 8 University of Alberta Education 14,500 10,800 11,000 Edmonton Publicly funded accredited university
5 4 29 Canadian Pacific Railway Transportation 12,695 14,169 14,970 15,232 Calgary Railway and inter-modal transportation services
6 5 31 Suncor Energy Petroleum Resource Industry \~12,500 13,026 12,978 5,800 Calgary Petroleum extraction, refining, and retail Merged with Petro-Canada in 2009
7 9 35 Shaw Communications Communications 12,500 10,000 8,985 Calgary Provider of digital telecommunications services \[cable television / internet / telephony\] and community television production facilities
8 8 15 Flint Energy Services Ltd. Energy 11,211 10,280 6,169 Calgary Energy / Construction
9 11 n/a Stantec Inc. Professional Services 11,100 9,300 n/a Edmonton Architecture/Engineering/Construction n/a = not listed in 2007
10 12 9 Calgary Board of Education Public Education 14,000 9,106 9,278 10,972 Calgary Municipal K-12 Public Education School Board
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| 7 |
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# Economy of Alberta
## Sectors
### Oil and gas extraction industries {#oil_and_gas_extraction_industries}
`{{See also|Petroleum production in Canada|Natural gas in Canada}}`{=mediawiki}
In 2018, Alberta\'s energy sector contributed over \$71.5 billion to Canada\'s nominal gross domestic product. In 2006, it accounted for 29.1% of Alberta\'s GDP; by 2012 it was 23.3%; in 2013, it was 24.6%, and in 2016 it was 27.9%. According to Statistics Canada, in May 2018, the oil and gas extraction industry reached its highest proportion of Canada\'s national GDP since 1985, exceeding 7% and \"surpass\[ing\] banking and insurance\". with extraction of non-conventional oil from the oilsands reaching an \"impressive\", all-time high in May 2018. With conventional oil extraction \"climbed up to the highs from 2007\", the demand for Canadian oil was strong in May.
Alberta is the largest producer of conventional crude oil, synthetic crude, natural gas and gas products in the country. Alberta is the world\'s 2nd largest exporter of natural gas and the 4th largest producer. Two of the largest producers of petrochemicals in North America are located in central and north central Alberta. In both Red Deer and Edmonton, world class polyethylene and vinyl manufacturers produce products shipped all over the world, and Edmonton\'s oil refineries provide the raw materials for a large petrochemical industry to the east of Edmonton. Since the early 1940s, Alberta had supplied oil and gas to the rest of Canada and the United States. The Athabasca River region produces oil for internal and external use. The Athabasca Oil Sands contain the largest proven reserves of oil in the world outside Saudi Arabia.
The Athabasca Oil Sands (sometimes known as the Athabasca Tar sands) have estimated unconventional oil reserves approximately equal to the conventional oil reserves of the rest of the world, estimated to be 1.6 Toilbbl. With the development of new extraction methods such as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), which was developed in Alberta, bitumen and synthetic crude oil can be produced at costs close to those of conventional crude. Many companies employ both conventional strip mining and non-conventional in situ methods to extract the bitumen from the oil sands. With current technology and at current prices, about 315 Goilbbl of bitumen are recoverable. Fort McMurray, one of Canada\'s fastest growing cities, has grown enormously in recent years because of the large corporations which have taken on the task of oil production. As of late 2006 there were over \$100 billion in oil sands projects under construction or in the planning stages in northeastern Alberta.
Another factor determining the viability of oil extraction from the oil sands was the price of oil. The oil price increases since 2003 made it more than profitable to extract this oil, which in the past would give little profit or even a loss.
Alberta\'s economy was negatively impacted by the 2015-2016 oil glut with a record high volume of worldwide oil inventories in storage, with global crude oil collapsing at near ten-year low prices. The United States doubled its 2008 production levels mainly due to substantial improvements in shale \"fracking\" technology, OPEC members consistently exceeded their production ceiling, and China experienced a marked slowdown in economic growth and crude oil imports.
Mining and Oil and Gas Extraction Industry (2017)
Alberta Mining and Oil and Gas Extraction Industry
------------------- ----------- --------------------------------------------
Employment 2,286,900 140,300
Employment Share N/A 6.1%
Unemployment 194,700 8,800
Unemployment rate 7.8% 5.9%
- Data Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, CANSIM Table 282--0008, 2017 \"Employment share is obtained by dividing the number of employment in this industry by total employment in Alberta.\"
| 591 |
Economy of Alberta
| 8 |
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# Economy of Alberta
## Sectors
### Oil and gas extraction industries {#oil_and_gas_extraction_industries}
#### Natural gas {#natural_gas}
Natural gas has been found at several points, and in 1999, the production of natural gas liquids (ethane, propane, and butanes) totalled 172.8 Moilbbl, valued at \$2.27 billion. Alberta also provides 13% of all the natural gas used in the United States.
Notable gas reserves were discovered in the 1883 near Medicine Hat. The town of Medicine Hat began using gas for lighting the town, and supplying light and fuel for the people, and a number of industries using the gas for manufacturing.
One of North America\'s benchmarks is Alberta gas-trading price---the AECO \"C\" spot price.
In 2018, 69% of the marketable natural gas in Canada was produced in Alberta. Forty nine per cent of Alberta\'s natural gas production is consumed in Alberta. In Alberta, the average household uses 135 GJ of natural gas annually. Domestic demand for natural gas is divided across sectors, with the highest demand---83% coming from \"industrial, electrical generation, transportation and other sectors,\" and 17 percent going towards residential and commercial sectors. Of the provinces, Alberta is the largest consumer of natural gas at 3.9 billion cubic feet per day.
By August 2019, the *Financial Post* said that \"AECO daily and monthly natural gas prices\" were at the lowest they have been since 1992. Canada\'s largest natural gas producer, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., announced in early August that it had \"shut in gas production of 27,000 million cubic feet per day because of depressed prices. Previously natural gas pipeline drilled in the southern Alberta and shipped to markets in Eastern Canada. By 2019, the entire natural gas industry had was primarily operating in northwestern Alberta and northeastern B.C., which resulted in strained infrastructure. New systems will not be complete until 2021 or 2023. In September 25, 2017 Alberta\'s benchmark AECO natural gas prices fell into \"negative territory -- \"meaning producers have had to pay customers to take their gas\". It happened again in early October with the price per gigajoule dropping to -7 cents. TransCanada (now TC Energy Corp)---which \"owns and operates Alberta\'s \"largest natural gas gathering and transmission system, interrupted its pipeline service in the fall of 2017 to complete field maintenance on the Alberta system. In July 2018, RS Energy Group\'s energy analyst Samir Kayande, said that faced with a glut of natural gas across North America, the continental market price was \$3 per gigajoule. Alberta is \"awash\" with natural gas but faces pipeline bottlenecks. CEOs of nine Alberta natural gas producers requested the Kenney government to mandate production cuts to deal with the crisis. On June 30, the AECO price of gas dropped to 11 cents per gigajoule, because of maintenance issues with the pipeline giant TC Energy Corp.
In 2003 Alberta produced 4.97 Tcuft of marketable natural gas. That year, 62% of Alberta\'s natural gas was shipped to the United States, 24% was used within Alberta, and 14% was used in the rest of Canada. In 2006, Alberta consumed 1.45 Tcuft of natural gas. The rest was exported across Canada and to the United States. Royalties to Alberta from natural gas and its byproducts are larger than royalties from crude oil and bitumen. In 2006, there were 13,473 successful natural gas wells drilled in Alberta: 12,029 conventional gas wells and 1,444 coalbed methane wells. There may be up to 500 Tcuft of coalbed methane in Alberta, although it is unknown how much of this gas might be recoverable. Alberta has one of the most extensive natural gas systems in the world as part of its energy infrastructure, with 39000 km of energy related pipelines.
### Coal
`{{See also|Coal in Alberta}}`{=mediawiki} Coal has been mined in Alberta since the late 19th century. Over 1800 mines have operated in Alberta since then.
The coal industry was vital to the early development of several communities, especially those in the foothills and along deep river valleys where coal was close to the surface.
Alberta is still a major coal producer, every two weeks Alberta produces enough coal to fill the Sky Dome in Toronto.
Much of that coal is burned in Alberta for electricity generation. By 2008, Alberta used over 25 million tonnes of coal annually to generate electricity. However, Alberta is set to retire coal power by 2023, ahead of 2030 provincial deadline.
Alberta has vast coal resources and 70 per cent of Canada\'s coal reserves are located in Alberta. This amounts to 33.6 Gigatonnes.
Vast beds of coal are found extending for hundreds of miles, a short distance below the surface of the plains. The coal belongs to the Cretaceous beds, and while not so heavy as that of the Coal Measures in England is of excellent quality. In the valley of the Bow River, alongside the Canadian Pacific Railway, valuable beds of anthracite coal are still worked. The usual coal deposits of the area of bituminous or semi-bituminous coal. These are largely worked at Lethbridge in southern Alberta and Edmonton in the centre of the province. Many other parts of the province have pits for private use.
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# Economy of Alberta
## Sectors
### Electricity
, Alberta\'s generating capacity was 16,261 MW, and Alberta has about 26000 km of transmission lines.
Alberta has 1491 megawatts of wind power capacity.
Production of electricity in Alberta in 2016 by source:
Generation GWh Share by Fuel
------------- -------- ---------------
Coal 42,227 50.2%
Natural Gas 33,184 39.4%
Hydro 1,773 2.1%
Wind 4,408 5.2%
Biomass 2,201 2.6%
Others 338 0.4%
Total 84,132 100%
Alberta has added 9,000 MW of new supply since 1998.
Peak for power use in one day was set on July 9, 2015 -- 10,520 MW.
### Mineral mining {#mineral_mining}
Building stones mined in Alberta include Rundle stone, and Paskapoo sandstone.
Diamonds were first found in Alberta in 1958, and many stones have been found since, although to date no large-scale mines have been developed.
### Manufacturing
The Edmonton area, and in particular Nisku is a major centre for manufacturing oil and gas related equipment. As well Edmonton\'s Refinery Row is home to a petrochemical industry.
According to a 2016 Statistics Canada report Alberta\'s manufacturing sales year-over-year sales fell 13.2 per cent, with a loss of almost four per cent from December to January. Alberta\'s economy continued to shrink because of the collapse of the oil and gas sector. The petroleum and coal product manufacturing industry is now third--- behind food and chemicals.
### Biotechnology
Several companies and services in the biotech sector are clustered around the University of Alberta, for example ColdFX.
### Food processing {#food_processing}
Owing to the strength of agriculture, food processing was once a major part of the economies of Edmonton and Calgary, but this sector has increasingly moved to smaller centres such as Brooks, the home of XL Foods, responsible for one third of Canada\'s beef processing in 2011.
### Transportation
Edmonton is a major distribution centre for northern communities, hence the nickname \"Gateway to the North\". Edmonton is one of CN Rail\'s most important hubs. Since 1996, Canadian Pacific Railway has its headquarters in downtown Calgary.
WestJet, Canada\'s second largest air carrier, is headquartered in Calgary, by Calgary International Airport, which serves as the airline\'s primary hub. Prior to its dissolution, Canadian Airlines was headquartered in Calgary by the airport. Prior to its dissolution, Air Canada subsidiary Zip was headquartered in Calgary.
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# Economy of Alberta
## Sectors
### Agriculture and forestry {#agriculture_and_forestry}
#### Agriculture
`{{See also|Agriculture in Canada}}`{=mediawiki} In the past, cattle, horses, and sheep were reared in the southern prairie region on ranches or smaller holdings. Currently Alberta produces cattle valued at over \$3.3 billion, as well as other livestock in lesser quantities. In this region irrigation is widely used. Wheat, accounting for almost half of the \$2 billion agricultural economy, is supplemented by canola, barley, rye, sugar beets, and other mixed farming. In 2011, Alberta producers seeded an estimated total of 17900000000 acres to spring wheat, durum, barley, oats, mixed grains, triticale, canola and dry peas. Of the total seeded area, 94 per cent was harvested as grains and oilseeds and six per cent as greenfeed and silage. Saudi Arabia is a major export target especially for wheat and processed potato products. SA having decided to phase out their own forage and cereal production, Alberta expects this to be an opportunity to fill livestock feed demand in the kingdom.
Agriculture has a significant position in the province\'s economy. Over three million cattle are residents of the province at one time or another, and Albertan beef has a healthy worldwide market. Although beef could also be a major export to Saudi Arabia, as with wheat and potatoes above, market access is lacking at the moment. Nearly one half of all Canadian beef is produced in Alberta. Alberta is one of the prime producers of plains buffalo (bison) for the consumer market. Sheep for wool and lamb are also raised.
Wheat and canola are primary farm crops, with Alberta leading the provinces in spring wheat production, with other grains also prominent. Much of the farming is dryland farming, often with fallow seasons interspersed with cultivation. Continuous cropping (in which there is no fallow season) is gradually becoming a more common mode of production because of increased profits and a reduction of soil erosion. Across the province, the once common grain elevator is slowly being lost as rail lines are decreased and farmers now truck the grain to central points.
Clubroot (*Plasmodiophora brassicae*) is a costly disease of *Brassicaceae* here including canola. In several experiments by Peng *et al.*, out of fungicides, biofungicides, inoculation with beneficial microbes, cultivar resistance, and crop rotation, only genetic resistance combined with more than two years rotation worked `{{endash}}`{=mediawiki} *susceptible* cultivars rotated with other crops did not produce enough improvement.
Alberta is the leading beekeeping province of Canada, with some beekeepers wintering hives indoors in specially designed barns in southern Alberta, then migrating north during the summer into the Peace River valley where the season is short but the working days are long for honeybees to produce honey from clover and fireweed. Hybrid canola also requires bee pollination, and some beekeepers service this need.
#### Forestry
The vast northern forest reserves of softwood allow Alberta to produce large quantities of lumber, oriented strand board (OSB) and plywood, and several plants in northern Alberta supply North America and the Pacific Rim nations with bleached wood pulp and newsprint.
In 1999, lumber products from Alberta were valued at \$4.1 billion of which 72% were exported around the world. Since forests cover approximately 59% of the province\'s land area, the government allows about 23.3 e6m3 to be harvested annually from the forests on public lands.
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# Economy of Alberta
## Sectors
### Services
Despite the high profile of the extractive industries, Alberta has a mature economy and most people work in services. In 2014 there were 1,635.8 thousand people employed in the services-producing sector. Since then, the number has steadily increased to 1754.8 thousand jobs by August 2019, which is an increase of 16.7 thousand jobs from August 2018 This includes wholesale and retail trade; transportation and warehousing; finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing; professional, scientific and technical services; business, building and other support services; educational services; health care and social assistance; information, culture and recreation; accommodation and food services; other services (except public administration) and public administration.
#### Finance
The TSX Venture Exchange is headquartered in Calgary. The city has the second highest number of corporate head offices in Canada after Toronto, and the financial services industry in Calgary has developed to support them. All major banks including the Big Five maintain corporate offices in Calgary, along with smaller banks such as Equitable Group. Recently there has also been a number of fintech companies founded in Calgary such as the National Digital Asset Exchange and Neo Financial, founded by the Skip-the-Dishes team.
One of Canada\'s largest accounting firms, MNP LLP, is also headquartered in Calgary.
Edmonton hosts the headquarters of the only major Canadian banks west of Toronto: Canadian Western Bank, and ATB Financial, as well as the only province-wide credit union, Servus Credit Union.
#### Government
Despite Alberta\'s reputation as a \"small government\" province, many health care and education professionals are lured to Alberta from other provinces by the higher wages the Alberta government is able to offer because of oil revenues. In 2014 the median household income in Alberta was \$100,000 with the average weekly wage at \$1,163---23 per cent higher than the Canadian national average.
In their May 2018 report co-authored by C. D. Howe Institute\'s President and CEO, William B.P. Robson, evaluating \"the budgets, estimates and public accounts\" of 2017/18 fiscal year that were tabled by senior governments in the Canadian provinces and the federal government in terms of reporting financial information, appropriately, with transparency, and in a timely fashion, Alberta and New Brunswick ranked highest. The report also said that, prior to 2016, Alberta had scored poorly in comparison with other provinces, because of \"confusing array of \"operating,\" \"saving\" and \"capital\" accounts that were not Public Sector Accounting Standards (PSAS) consistent.\" but since 2016, Alberta has received A-plus grades. The report said that Alberta and New Brunswick in FY2017 provided \"straightforward reconciliations of results with budget intentions, their auditors record no reservations, and their budgets and public accounts are timely.\"
### Technology
Alberta has a burgeoning high tech sector, including prominent technology companies iStockPhoto, Shareworks, Benevity, and Attabotics in Calgary, and Bioware and AltaML in Edmonton. Growth in Calgary\'s technology sector, particularly at Benevity, fueled predictions of a modest economic recovery in February 2020
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# Natural history of Africa
The **natural history of Africa** encompasses some of the well known megafauna of that continent.
Natural history is the study and description of organisms and natural objects, especially their origins, evolution, and interrelationships.
## Flora
The vegetation of Africa follows very closely the distribution of heat and moisture. The northern and southern temperate zones have a flora distinct from that of the continent generally, which is tropical. In the countries bordering the Mediterranean, there are groves of orange and olive trees, evergreen oaks, cork trees and pines, intermixed with cypresses, myrtles, arbutus and fragrant tree-heaths.
South of the Atlas Mountains, the conditions alter. The zones of minimum rainfall have a very scanty flora, consisting of plants adapted to resist the great dryness. Characteristic of the Sahara is the date palm, which flourishes where other vegetation can scarcely maintain existence, while in the semidesert regions the acacia, from which gum arabic is obtained, is abundant.
The more humid regions have a richer vegetation; dense forest where the rainfall is greatest and variations of temperature least, conditions found chiefly on the tropical coasts, and in the west African equatorial basin with its extension towards the upper Nile; and savanna interspersed with trees on the greater part of the plateaus, passing as the desert regions are approached into a scrub vegetation consisting of thorny acacias, etc. Forests also occur on the humid slopes of mountain ranges up to a certain elevation. In the coast regions, the typical tree is the mangrove, which flourishes wherever the soil is of a swamp character.
The dense forests of West Africa contain, in addition to a great variety of hardwoods, two palms, *Elaeis guineensis* (oil palm) and *Raphia vinifera* (bamboo palm), not found, generally speaking, in the savanna regions. *Bombax* or silk cotton trees attain gigantic proportions in the forests, which are the home of the India rubber-producing plants and of many valuable kinds of timber trees, such as odum (*Chlorophora excelsa*), ebony, mahogany (*Khaya senegalensis*), *Oldfieldia* (*Oldfieldia africana*) and camwood (*Baphia nitida*). The climbing plants in the tropical forests are exceedingly luxuriant and the undergrowth or \"bush\" is extremely dense. In the savannas the most characteristic trees are the monkey-bread tree or baobab (*Adansonia digitata*), doum palm (*Hyphaene*) and euphorbias. The coffee plant grows wild in such widely separated places as Liberia and southern Ethiopia. The higher mountains have a special flora showing close agreement over wide intervals of space, as well as affinities with the mountain flora of the eastern Mediterranean, the Himalaya and Indo-China.
In the swamp regions of north-east Africa, papyrus and associated plants, including the soft-wooded ambach, flourished in immense quantities, and little else is found in the way of vegetation. South Africa is largely destitute of forest, save in the lower valleys and coast regions. Tropical flora disappears, and in the semi-desert plains the fleshy, leafless, contorted species of kapsias, mesembryanthemums, aloes and other succulent plants make their appearance. There are, too, valuable timber trees, such as the yellowwood (*Podocarpus elongatus*), stinkwood (*Ocotea*), sneezewood or Cape ebony (*Pteroxylon utile*) and ironwood. Extensive miniature woods of heaths are found in almost endless variety and covered throughout the greater part of the year with innumerable blossoms in which red is very prevalent. Of the grasses of Africa, alfa is very abundant in the plateaus of the Atlas range.
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# Natural history of Africa
## Fauna
The fauna again shows the effect of the characteristics of the vegetation. The open savannas are the home of large ungulates, especially antelopes, the giraffe (peculiar to Africa), zebra, buffalo, wild donkey and four species of rhinoceros; and of carnivores, such as the lion, leopard, hyena, etc. The okapi (a genus restricted to Africa) is found only in the dense forests of the Congo basin. Bears are confined to the Atlas region, wolves and foxes to North Africa. The elephant (though its range has become restricted through the attacks of hunters) is found both in the savannas and forest regions, the latter being otherwise poor in large game, though the special habitat of the chimpanzee and gorilla. Baboons and mandrills, with few exceptions, are peculiar to Africa. The single-humped camel, as a domestic animal, is especially characteristic of the northern deserts and steppes.
The rivers in the tropical zone abound with hippopotami and crocodiles, the former entirely confined to Africa. The vast herds of game, formerly so characteristic of many parts of Africa, have much diminished with the increase of intercourse with the interior. Game reserves have, however, been established in South Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Somaliland, etc., while measures for the protection of wild animals were laid down in an international convention signed in May 1900.
The ornithology of northern Africa presents a close resemblance to that of southern Europe, scarcely a species being found which does not also occur in the other countries bordering the Mediterranean. Among the birds most characteristic of Africa are the ostrich and the secretarybird. The ostrich is widely dispersed, but is found chiefly in the desert and steppe regions. The secretarybird is common in the south. The weaver birds and their allies, including the long-tailed whydahs, are abundant, as are, among game-birds, the francolin and guineafowl. Many of the smaller birds, such as the sunbirds, bee-eaters, the parrots and kingfishers, as well as the larger plantain-eaters, are noted for the brilliance of their feathers.
Of reptiles, the lizard and chameleon are common, and there are a number of venomous snakes, though these are not so numerous as in other tropical countries.
The scorpion is abundant. Of insects, Africa has many thousand different kinds; of these the locust is the proverbial scourge of the continent, and the ravages of the termites are almost incredible. The spread of malaria by means of mosquitoes is common. The tsetse fly, whose bite is fatal to all domestic animals, is common in many districts of South and East Africa. It is found nowhere outside Africa
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# Approval voting
**Approval voting** is a single-winner rated voting system where voters can approve of all the candidates as they like instead of choosing one. The method is designed to eliminate vote-splitting while keeping election administration simple and easy-to-count (requiring only a single score for each candidate). Approval voting has been used in both organizational and political elections`{{Which|date=March 2025}}`{=mediawiki} to improve representativeness and voter satisfaction.
Critics of approval voting have argued the simple ballot format is a disadvantage, as it forces a binary choice for each candidate (instead of the expressive grades of other rated voting rules).
## Effect on elections {#effect_on_elections}
Research by social choice theorists Steven Brams and Dudley R. Herschbach found that approval voting would increase voter participation, prevent minor-party candidates from being spoilers, and reduce negative campaigning. Brams\' research concluded that approval can be expected to elect majority-preferred candidates in practical election scenarios, avoiding the center squeeze common to ranked-choice voting and primary elections.
One study showed that approval would not have chosen the same two winners as plurality voting (Jacques Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen) in the first round of the 2002 French presidential election; it instead would have chosen Chirac and Lionel Jospin as the top two candidates to proceed to the runoff.
In the actual election, Le Pen lost by an overwhelming margin in the runoff, 82.2% to 17.8%, a sign that the true top two candidates had not been found. In the approval voting survey primary, Chirac took first place with 36.7%, compared to Jospin at 32.9%. Le Pen, in that study, received 25.1% and so would not have made the cut to the second round. In the real primary election, the top three were Chirac, 19.9%, Le Pen, 16.9%, and Jospin, 16.2%. A study of various evaluative voting methods (approval and score voting) during the 2012 French presidential election showed that \"unifying\" candidates tended to do better, and polarizing candidates did worse, as compared to under plurality voting.
### Operational impacts {#operational_impacts}
- **Simple to tally---**Approval ballots can be counted by some existing machines designed for plurality elections, as ballots are cast, so that final tallies are immediately available after the election, with relatively few if any upgrades to equipment.
- **Just one round---**Approval can remove the need for multiple rounds of voting, such as a primary or a run-off, simplifying the election process.
- **Avoids overvotes---**Approval voting does not have the notion of overvotes, where voting for one more than allowed will cancel the entire opportunity to vote. In plurality elections, overvotes have to be reviewed and resolved if possible while in approval voting, no time is wasted on this activity.
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# Approval voting
## Use
### Current electoral use {#current_electoral_use}
#### Latvia
The Latvian parliament uses a modified version of approval voting within open list proportional representation, in which voters can cast either positive (approval) votes, negative votes or neither for any number of candidates.
#### United States {#united_states}
Missouri
In November 2020, St. Louis, Missouri, passed Proposition D with 70% voting to authorize a variant of approval (unified primary) for municipal offices. In 2021, the first mayoral election with approval voting saw Tishaura Jones and Cara Spencer move on to the general with 57% and 46% support. Lewis Reed and Andrew Jones were eliminated with 39% and 14% support, resulting in an average of 1.6 candidates supported by each voter in the 4 person race.
North Dakota
In 2018, Fargo, North Dakota, passed a local ballot initiative adopting approval for the city\'s local elections, becoming the first United States city and jurisdiction to adopt approval. Previously in 2015, a Fargo city commissioner election had suffered from six-way vote-splitting, resulting in a candidate winning with an unconvincing 22% plurality of the vote.
The first election was held June 9, 2020, selecting two city commissioners, from seven candidates on the ballot. Both winners received over 50% approval, with an average 2.3 approvals per ballot, and 62% of voters supported the change to approval in a poll. A poll by opponents of approval was conducted to test whether voters had in fact voted strategically according to the Burr dilemma. They found that 30% of voters who bullet voted did so for strategic reasons, while 57% did so because it was their sincere opinion. Fargo\'s second approval election took place in June 2022, for mayor and city commission. The incumbent mayor was re-elected from a field of 7 candidates, with an estimated 65% approval, with voters expressing 1.6 approvals per ballot, and the two commissioners were elected from a field of 15 candidates, with 3.1 approvals per ballot.
In 2023, the North Dakota legislature passed a bill which intended to ban approval voting. The bill was vetoed by governor Doug Burgum, citing the importance of \"home rule\" and allowing citizens control over their local government. The legislature attempted to overrule the veto but failed. In April 2025, Governor Kelly Armstrong signed a bill banning ranked-choice voting and approval voting in the state, ending the practice in Fargo.
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# Approval voting
## Use
### Use by organizations {#use_by_organizations}
Approval has been used in privately administered nomination contests by the Independent Party of Oregon in 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2016. Oregon is a fusion voting state, and the party has cross-nominated legislators and statewide officeholders using this method; its 2016 presidential preference primary did not identify a potential nominee due to no candidate earning more than 32% support. The party switched to using STAR voting in 2020.
It is also used in internal elections by the American Solidarity Party; the Green Parties of Texas and Ohio; the Libertarian National Committee; the Libertarian parties of Texas, Colorado, Arizona, and New York; Alliance 90/The Greens in Germany; and the Czech and German Pirate Party .
Approval has been adopted by several societies: the Society for Social Choice and Welfare (1992), Mathematical Association of America (1986), the American Mathematical Society, the Institute of Management Sciences (1987) (now the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences), the American Statistical Association (1987), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1987).
Steven Brams\' analysis of the 5-candidate 1987 Mathematical Association of America presidential election shows that 79% of voters cast a ballot for one candidate, 16% for 2 candidates, 5% for 3, and 1% for 4, with the winner earning the approval of 1,267 (32%) of 3,924 voters. The IEEE board in 2002 rescinded its decision to use approval. IEEE Executive Director Daniel J. Senese stated that approval was abandoned because \"few of our members were using it and it was felt that it was no longer needed.\"
Approval voting was used for Dartmouth Alumni Association elections for seats on the College Board of Trustees, but after some controversy it was replaced with traditional runoff elections by an alumni vote of 82% to 18% in 2009. Dartmouth students started to use approval voting to elect their student body president in 2011. In the first election, the winner secured the support of 41% of voters against several write-in candidates. In 2012, Suril Kantaria won with the support of 32% of the voters. In 2013, 2014 and 2016, the winners also earned the support of under 40% of the voters. Results reported in *The Dartmouth* show that in the 2014 and 2016 elections, more than 80 percent of voters approved of only one candidate. Students replaced approval voting with plurality voting before the 2017 elections.
### Historical
300px\|thumb\|Rows of secret approval vote boxes from early 1900s Greece, where the voter drops a marble to the right or left of the box, through a tube, one for each candidate standing Robert J. Weber coined the term \"Approval Voting\" in 1971. It was more fully published in 1978 by political scientist Steven Brams and mathematician Peter Fishburn.
Historically, several voting methods that incorporate aspects of approval have been used:
- Approval was used for papal conclaves between 1294 and 1621, with an average of about forty cardinals engaging in repeated rounds of voting until one candidate was listed on at least two-thirds of ballots.
- In the 13th through 18th centuries, the Republic of Venice elected the Doge of Venice using a multi-stage process that featured random selection and voting that allowed approval of multiple candidates.
- According to Steven J. Brams, approval was used for unspecified elections in 19th century England.
- The Secretary-General of the United Nations is elected in a multi-round straw poll process where, in each round, members of the Security Council may approve or disapprove of candidates, or decide to express no opinion. Disapproval by permanent members of the Security Council is similar to a veto. A candidate with no vetoes, at least nine votes, and more votes than any other candidate is considered to be likely to be supported by the Security Council in its formal recommendation vote.
- Approval was used in Greek legislative elections from 1864 to 1923, after which it was replaced with party-list proportional representation.
- Sequential proportional approval voting was used in Swedish elections in the early 20th century, prior to being replaced by party-list proportional representation.
The idea of approval was adopted by X. Hu and Lloyd Shapley in 2003 in studying authority distribution in organizations.
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# Approval voting
## Strategic voting {#strategic_voting}
### Overview
Approval voting allows voters to select all the candidates whom they consider to be reasonable choices.
*Strategic approval* differs from ranked voting (aka preferential voting) methods where voters are generally forced to *reverse* the preference order of two options, which if done on a larger scale can cause an unpopular candidate to win. Strategic approval, with more than two options, involves the voter changing their approval threshold. The voter decides which options to give the *same* rating, even if they were to have a preference order between them. This leaves a tactical concern any voter has for approving their second-favorite candidate, in the case that there are three or more candidates. Approving their second-favorite means the voter harms their favorite candidate\'s chance to win. Not approving their second-favorite means the voter helps the candidate they least desire to beat their second-favorite and perhaps win.
Approval technically allows for but is strategically immune to push-over and burying.
Bullet voting occurs when a voter approves *only* candidate \"a\" instead of *both* \"a\" and \"b\" for the reason that voting for \"b\" can cause \"a\" to lose. The voter would be satisfied with either \"a\" or \"b\" but has a moderate preference for \"a\". Were \"b\" to win, this hypothetical voter would still be satisfied. If supporters of both \"a\" and \"b\" do this, it could cause candidate \"c\" to win. This creates the \"chicken dilemma\", as supporters of \"a\" and \"b\" are playing chicken as to which will stop strategic voting first, before both of these candidates lose.
Compromising occurs when a voter approves an *additional* candidate who is otherwise considered unacceptable to the voter to prevent an even worse alternative from winning.
### Sincere voting {#sincere_voting}
Approval experts describe sincere votes as those \"\... that directly reflect the true preferences of a voter, i.e., that do not report preferences \'falsely.{{\'\"}} They also give a specific definition of a sincere approval vote in terms of the voter\'s ordinal preferences as being any vote that, if it votes for one candidate, it also votes for any more preferred candidate. This definition allows a sincere vote to treat strictly preferred candidates the same, ensuring that every voter has at least one sincere vote. The definition also allows a sincere vote to treat equally preferred candidates differently. When there are two or more candidates, every voter has at least three sincere approval votes to choose from. Two of those sincere approval votes do not distinguish between any of the candidates: vote for none of the candidates and vote for all of the candidates. When there are three or more candidates, every voter has more than one sincere approval vote that distinguishes between the candidates.
#### Examples
Based on the definition above, if there are four candidates, A, B, C, and D, and a voter has a strict preference order, preferring A to B to C to D, then the following are the voter\'s possible sincere approval votes:
- vote for A, B, C, and D
- vote for A, B, and C
- vote for A and B
- vote for A
- vote for no candidates
If the voter instead equally prefers B and C, while A is still the most preferred candidate and D is the least preferred candidate, then all of the above votes are sincere and the following combination is also a sincere vote:
- vote for A and C
The decision between the above ballots is equivalent to deciding an arbitrary \"approval cutoff.\" All candidates preferred to the cutoff are approved, all candidates less preferred are not approved, and any candidates equal to the cutoff may be approved or not arbitrarily.
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# Approval voting
## Strategic voting {#strategic_voting}
### Sincere strategy with ordinal preferences {#sincere_strategy_with_ordinal_preferences}
A sincere voter with multiple options for voting sincerely still has to choose which sincere vote to use. Voting strategy is a way to make that choice, in which case strategic approval includes sincere voting, rather than being an alternative to it. This differs from other voting systems that typically have a unique sincere vote for a voter.
When there are three or more candidates, the winner of an approval election can change, depending on which sincere votes are used. In some cases, approval can sincerely elect any one of the candidates, including a Condorcet winner and a Condorcet loser, without the voter preferences changing. To the extent that electing a Condorcet winner and not electing a Condorcet loser is considered desirable outcomes for a voting system, approval can be considered vulnerable to sincere, strategic voting. In one sense, conditions where this can happen are robust and are not isolated cases. On the other hand, the variety of possible outcomes has also been portrayed as a virtue of approval, representing the flexibility and responsiveness of approval, not just to voter ordinal preferences, but cardinal utilities as well.
#### Dichotomous preferences {#dichotomous_preferences}
Approval avoids the issue of multiple sincere votes in special cases when voters have dichotomous preferences. For a voter with dichotomous preferences, approval is strategyproof. When all voters have dichotomous preferences and vote the sincere, strategy-proof vote, approval is guaranteed to elect a Condorcet winner. However, having dichotomous preferences when there are three or more candidates is not typical. It is an unlikely situation for all voters to have dichotomous preferences when there are more than a few voters.
Having dichotomous preferences means that a voter has bi-level preferences for the candidates. All of the candidates are divided into two groups such that the voter is indifferent between any two candidates in the same group and any candidate in the top-level group is preferred to any candidate in the bottom-level group. A voter that has strict preferences between three candidates---prefers A to B and B to C---does not have dichotomous preferences.
Being strategy-proof for a voter means that there is a unique way for the voter to vote that is a strategically best way to vote, regardless of how others vote. In approval, the strategy-proof vote, if it exists, is a sincere vote.
#### Approval threshold {#approval_threshold}
Another way to deal with multiple sincere votes is to augment the ordinal preference model with an approval or acceptance threshold. An approval threshold divides all of the candidates into two sets, those the voter approves of and those the voter does not approve of. A voter can approve of more than one candidate and still prefer one approved candidate to another approved candidate. Acceptance thresholds are similar. With such a threshold, a voter simply votes for every candidate that meets or exceeds the threshold.
With threshold voting, it is still possible to not elect the Condorcet winner and instead elect the Condorcet loser when they both exist. However, according to Steven Brams, this represents a strength rather than a weakness of approval. Without providing specifics, he argues that the pragmatic judgments of voters about which candidates are acceptable should take precedence over the Condorcet criterion and other social choice criteria.
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# Approval voting
## Strategic voting {#strategic_voting}
### Strategy with cardinal utilities {#strategy_with_cardinal_utilities}
Voting strategy under approval is guided by two competing features of approval. On the one hand, approval fails the later-no-harm criterion, so voting for a candidate can cause that candidate to win instead of a candidate more preferred by that voter. On the other hand, approval satisfies the monotonicity criterion, so not voting for a candidate can never help that candidate win, but can cause that candidate to lose to a less preferred candidate. Either way, the voter can risk getting a less preferred election winner. A voter can balance the risk-benefit trade-offs by considering the voter\'s cardinal utilities, particularly via the von Neumann--Morgenstern utility theorem, and the probabilities of how others vote.
A rational voter model described by Myerson and Weber specifies an approval strategy that votes for those candidates that have a positive prospective rating. This strategy is optimal in the sense that it maximizes the voter\'s expected utility, subject to the constraints of the model and provided the number of other voters is sufficiently large.
An optimal approval vote always votes for the most preferred candidate and not for the least preferred candidate, which is a dominant strategy. An optimal vote can require supporting one candidate and not voting for a more preferred candidate if there 4 candidates or more, e.g. the third and fourth choices are correlated to gain or lose decisive votes together; however, such situations are inherently unstable, suggesting such strategy should be rare.
Other strategies are also available and coincide with the optimal strategy in special situations. For example:
- Vote for the candidates that have above average utility. This strategy coincides with the optimal strategy if the voter thinks that all pairwise ties are equally likely.
- Vote for any candidate that is more preferred than the expected winner and also vote for the expected winner if the expected winner is more preferred than the expected runner-up. This strategy coincides with the optimal strategy if there are three or fewer candidates or if the pivot probability for a tie between the expected winner and expected runner-up is sufficiently large compared to the other pivot probabilities. This strategy, if used by all voters, implies at equilibrium the election of the Condorcet winner whenever it exists.
- Vote for the most preferred candidate only. This strategy coincides with the optimal strategy when the best candidate is either much better than all others (i.e. is the only one with a positive expected value).
- If all voters are rational and cast a strategically optimal vote based on a common knowledge of how all other voters vote except for small-probability, statistically independent errors, then the winner will be the Condorcet winner, if one exists.
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# Approval voting
## Strategic voting {#strategic_voting}
### Strategy examples {#strategy_examples}
In the example election described here, assume that the voters in each faction share the following von Neumann--Morgenstern utilities, fitted to the interval between 0 and 100. The utilities are consistent with the rankings given earlier and reflect a strong preference each faction has for choosing its city, compared to weaker preferences for other factors such as the distance to the other cities.
Fraction of voters (living close to) Candidates
-------------------------------------- ------------ -------------
Memphis Nashville Chattanooga
Memphis (42%) 100 15
Nashville (26%) 0 100
Chattanooga (15%) 0 15
Knoxville (17%) 0 15
: Voter utilities for each candidate city
Using these utilities, voters choose their optimal strategic votes based on what they think the various pivot probabilities are for pairwise ties. In each of the scenarios summarized below, all voters share a common set of pivot probabilities.
Strategy scenario Winner Runner-up Candidate vote totals
------------------------------- --------------- ------------- -----------------------
Memphis Nashville Chattanooga Knoxville
Zero-info Memphis Chattanooga 42
Memphis leading Chattanooga Three-way tie 42
Chattanooga leading Knoxville Chattanooga Nashville 42
Chattanooga leading Nashville Nashville Memphis 42
Nashville leading Memphis Nashville Memphis 42
: Approval Voting results for scenarios using optimal strategic voting
In the first scenario, voters all choose their votes based on the assumption that all pairwise ties are equally likely. As a result, they vote for any candidate with an above-average utility. Most voters vote for only their first choice. Only the Knoxville faction also votes for its second choice, Chattanooga. As a result, the winner is Memphis, the Condorcet loser, with Chattanooga coming in second place. In this scenario, the winner has minority approval (more voters disapproved than approved) and all the others had even less support, reflecting the position that no choice gave an above-average utility to a majority of voters.
In the second scenario, all of the voters expect that Memphis is the likely winner, that Chattanooga is the likely runner-up, and that the pivot probability for a Memphis-Chattanooga tie is much larger than the pivot probabilities of any other pair-wise ties. As a result, each voter votes for any candidate they prefer more than the leading candidate, and also vote for the leading candidate if they prefer that candidate more than the expected runner-up. Each remaining scenario follows a similar pattern of expectations and voting strategies.
In the second scenario, there is a three-way tie for first place. This happens because the expected winner, Memphis, was the Condorcet loser and was also ranked last by any voter that did not rank it first.
Only in the last scenario does the actual winner and runner-up match the expected winner and runner-up. As a result, this can be considered a stable strategic voting scenario. In the language of game theory, this is an \"equilibrium.\" In this scenario, the winner is also the Condorcet winner.
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# Approval voting
## Strategic voting {#strategic_voting}
### Dichotomous cutoff {#dichotomous_cutoff}
Modeling voters with a \'dichotomous cutoff\' assumes a voter has an immovable approval cutoff, while having meaningful cardinal preferences. This means that rather than voting for their top 3 candidates, or all candidates above the average approval, they instead vote for all candidates above a certain approval \'cutoff\' that they have decided. This cutoff does not change, regardless of which and how many candidates are running, so when all available alternatives are either above or below the cutoff, the voter votes for all or none of the candidates, despite preferring some over others. This could be imagined to reflect a case where many voters become disenfranchised and apathetic if they see no candidates they approve of. In a case such as this, many voters may have an internal cutoff, and would not simply vote for their top 3, or the above average candidates.
For example, in this scenario, voters are voting for candidates with approval above 50% (bold signifies that the voters voted for the candidate):
Proportion of electorate Approval of Candidate A Approval of Candidate B Approval of Candidate C Approval of Candidate D Average approval
-------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------
25% **90%** **60%** 40% 10% *50%*
35% 10% **90%** **60%** 40% *50%*
30% 40% 10% **90%** **60%** *50%*
10% **60%** 40% 10% **90%** *50%*
C wins with 65% of the voters\' approval, beating B with 60%, D with 40% and A with 35%
If voters\' threshold for receiving a vote is that the candidate has an above average approval, or they vote for their two most approved of candidates, this is not a dichotomous cutoff, as this can change if candidates drop out. On the other hand, if voters\' threshold for receiving a vote is fixed (say 50%), this is a dichotomous cutoff, and satisfies IIA as shown below:
Proportion of electorate Approval of Candidate A Approval of Candidate B Approval of Candidate C Approval of Candidate D Average approval
-------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------
25% -- **60%** **40%** 10% *37%*
35% -- **90%** 60% 40% *63%*
30% -- 10% **90%** **60%** *53%*
10% -- 40% 10% **90%** *47%*
: A drops out, candidates voting for above average approval
B now wins with 60%, beating C with 55% and D with 40%
Proportion of electorate Approval of Candidate A Approval of Candidate B Approval of Candidate C Approval of Candidate D Average approval
-------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------
25% -- **60%** 40% 10% *37%*
35% -- **90%** **60%** 40% *63%*
30% -- 10% **90%** **60%** *53%*
10% -- 40% 10% **90%** *47%*
: A drops out, candidates voting for approval \> 50%
With dichotomous cutoff, C still wins.
Proportion of electorate Approval of Candidate A Approval of Candidate B Approval of Candidate C Approval of Candidate D Average approval
-------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------
25% **90%** **60%** 40% -- *63%*
35% 10% **90%** **60%** -- *53%*
30% **40%** 10% **90%** -- *47%*
10% **60%** **40%** 10% -- *37%*
: D drops out, candidates voting for top 2 candidates
B now wins with 70%, beating C and A with 65%
Proportion of electorate Approval of Candidate A Approval of Candidate B Approval of Candidate C Approval of Candidate D Average approval
-------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------
25% **90%** **60%** 40% -- *63%*
35% 10% **90%** **60%** -- *53%*
30% 40% 10% **90%** -- *47%*
10% **60%** 40% 10% -- *37%*
: D drops out, candidates voting for approval \> 50%
With dichotomous cutoff, C still wins.
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# Approval voting
## Compliance with voting system criteria {#compliance_with_voting_system_criteria}
Most of the mathematical criteria by which voting systems are compared were formulated for voters with ordinal preferences. In this case, approval voting requires voters to make an additional decision of where to put their approval cutoff (see examples above). Depending on how this decision is made, approval satisfies different sets of criteria
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# Alarums and Excursions
***Alarums and Excursions**\'\' (***A&E**\'\') was an amateur press association (APA) started in June 1975 by Lee Gold; the final issue, #593, was published in April 2025. It was one of the first publications to focus solely on role-playing games.
## History
In 1964, Bruce Pelz of the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society (LASFS) began a weekly amateur press association named *APA-L*. In 1974, with the publication of *Dungeons & Dragons* by TSR, Inc., articles and comments about the new roleplaying game began to fill the pages of *APA-L*, a development to which Pelz objected. Lee Gold took note of this and started a new APA, *Alarums and Excursions* (the title taken from an Elizabethan drama stage direction that moved soldiers across a stage), to focus entirely on roleplaying games, attracting such material away from *APA-L*. The first issue appeared in June 1975.
In addition to removing roleplaying games discussion out of *APA-L*, the initial aim of the publication was to prevent roleplaying games from becoming so divergent that people from different cities could not participate in games together.
The June 2017 issue of *Alarums and Excursions* was number 500, with a color cover drawn by Lee Moyer and printed by Rob Heinsoo.
## Contents
Each issue is a collection of contributions from different authors, often featuring game design discussions, rules variants, write-ups of game sessions, reviews, and comments on others contributions.
Although game reports and social reactions are common parts of many *A&E* contributions, it has also, over the years, become a testing ground for new ideas on the development of the RPG as a genre and an art form. The idea that role-playing games *are* an art form took strong root in this zine, and left a lasting impression on many of the RPG professionals who contributed. The 1992 role-playing game *Over the Edge* was inspired by discussions in *A&E*.
Among the contributors over the years were: `{{div col|colwidth=12em}}`{=mediawiki}
- Terry K. Amthor
- Wilf K. Backhaus
- Scott Bennie
- Greg Costikyan
- Doc Cross
- John M. Ford
- E. Gary Gygax
- Andrew Gelman
- David A. Hargrave
- Rob Heinsoo
- John Eric Holmes
- Wes Ives
- Robin Laws
- Nicole Lindroos
- Samuel Edward Konkin III
- Stephen R. Marsh
- Phil McGregor
- Dave Nalle
- Mark Rein·Hagen
- Ken Rolston
- John T. Sapienza Jr.
- Lawrence M. Schoen
- Edward E. Simbalist
- Jonathan Tweet
- Erick Wujcik
- John Nephew
- Spike Y Jones
## Reception
In the February 1976 issue of *Strategic Review* (Issue 6), Gary Gygax complimented the new APA, calling it \"an excellent source of ideas, inspirations and fun.\" Although Gygax felt some of the contributors were \"woefully lacking in background\", and the quality of printing varied dramatically from issue to issue, he concluded, \"For all of its faults, it is far and away the best *D&D* \'zine, and well worth reading. See for yourself why it rates a Major Triumph.\"
In the June 1981 edition of *Dragon* (Issue #50), Dave Nalle reviewed *Alarums and Excursions* after its 63rd issue (November 1980), and although he found the writing style \"a bit stuffy\", with a \"tendency for the writers to pat each other on the back\", he still called it \"the top APA publication\... This is a very well run APA and features many of the leading thinkers in fantasy gaming
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# Amalric
**Amalric** or **Amalaric** (also Americ, Almerich, Emeric, Emerick and other variations) is a personal name derived from the tribal name *Amal* (referring to the Gothic Amali) and *ric* (Gothic *reiks*) meaning \"ruler, prince\".
Equivalents in different languages include:
- French: Amaury (surname/given name), Amalric (surname), Amaurich (surname), Maury (surname)
- German: Amalrich, Emmerich
- Italian: Amerigo, Arrigo
- Hungarian: Imre
- Latin: Amalricus, Americus, Almericus, Emericus
- Greek: Έμέρικοσ (Emérikos)
- Polish: Amalaryk, Amalryk, Emeryk
- Dutch: Emmerik, Amerik, Hamelink, Hamelryck
- Portuguese: Amáuri, Américo
- Spanish: Amauri, Américo
- Serbo-Croatian: Emerik/Емерик
- Arabic: عَمُورِي (ʻAmūrī)
## Given name {#given_name}
- Amalaric (502--531), King of the Visigoths from 526 to 531
- Malaric (fl. 585), King of the Suevi
- Amaury, Count of Valenciennes (fl.953-973)
- Amalric of Nesle (fl. 1151--1180), Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1158 to 1180
- Amalric I of Jerusalem (1136--1174), King of Jerusalem from 1162 to 1174
- Amalric II of Jerusalem (fl. 1155--1205), King of Jerusalem from 1197 to 1205
- Amalric of Bena (f. 1200--1204), French theologian
- Arnaud Amalric (fl. 1196--1225), seventeenth abbot of Citeaux
- Amaury de Montfort (disambiguation), several individuals including:
- Amaury de Montfort (died 1241) (1195--1241), crusader
- Amalric, Lord of Tyre (c. 1272 -- 1310), Governor of Cyprus from 1306 to 1310
- Amerigo Vespucci (1451--1512), Italian merchant, explorer, and navigator from the Republic of Florence, from whose name the term \"America\" is derived
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# Anthemius of Tralles
**Anthemius of Tralles** (*Ἀνθέμιος ὁ Τραλλιανός*, Medieval Greek: `{{IPA|el|anˈθemios o traliaˈnos|}}`{=mediawiki}, *Anthémios o Trallianós*; `{{c.|lk=no|474}}`{=mediawiki} -- 533 `{{abbr|x|sometime between}}`{=mediawiki} 558)`{{r|Boyer}}`{=mediawiki} was a Byzantine Greek from Tralles who worked as a geometer and architect in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. With Isidore of Miletus, he designed the Hagia Sophia for Justinian I. `{{anchor|History|Biography}}`{=mediawiki}
## Life
Anthemius was one of the five sons of Stephanus of Tralles, a physician. His brothers were Dioscorus, Alexander, Olympius, and Metrodorus. Dioscorus followed his father\'s profession in Tralles; Alexander did so in Rome and became one of the most celebrated medical men of his time; Olympius became a noted lawyer; and Metrodorus worked as a grammarian in Constantinople.
Anthemius was said to have annoyed his neighbor Zeno in two ways: first, by engineering a miniature earthquake by sending steam through leather tubes he had fixed among the joists and flooring of Zeno\'s parlor while he was entertaining friends and, second, by simulating thunder and lightning and flashing intolerable light into Zeno\'s eyes from a slightly hollowed mirror. In addition to his familiarity with steam, some dubious authorities credited Anthemius with a knowledge of gunpowder or other explosive compound.
## Mathematics
Anthemius was a capable mathematician. In the course of his treatise *On Burning Mirrors*, he intended to facilitate the construction of surfaces to reflect light to a single point, he described the string construction of the ellipse`{{r|Boyer}}`{=mediawiki} and assumed a property of ellipses not found in Apollonius of Perga\'s *Conics*: the equality of the angles subtended at a focus by two tangents drawn from a point. His work also includes the first practical use of the directrix: having given the focus and a double ordinate, he used the focus and directrix to obtain any number of points on a parabola. This work was later known to Arab mathematicians such as Alhazen.
Eutocius of Ascalon\'s commentary on Apollonius\'s *Conics* was dedicated to Anthemius.`{{r|Boyer}}`{=mediawiki}
## Architecture
As an architect, Anthemius is best known for his work designing the Hagia Sophia. He was commissioned with Isidore of Miletus by Justinian I shortly after the earlier church on the site burned down in 532 but died early on in the project. He is also said to have repaired the flood defenses at Daras
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# Absalon
**Absalon** (c. 1128`{{snd}}`{=mediawiki}21 March 1201) was a Danish statesman and prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the bishop of Roskilde from 1158 to 1192 and archbishop of Lund from 1178 until his death. He was the foremost politician and church father of Denmark in the second half of the 12th century, and was the closest advisor of King Valdemar I of Denmark. He was a key figure in the Danish policies of territorial expansion in the Baltic Sea, Europeanization in close relationship with the Holy See, and reform in the relation between the Church and the public. He combined the ideals of Gregorian Reform with loyal support of a strong monarchical power.
Absalon was born into the powerful *Hvide* clan, and owned great land possessions. He endowed several church institutions, most prominently his family\'s Sorø Abbey. He was granted lands by the crown, and built the first fortification of the city that evolved into modern-day Copenhagen. His titles were passed on to his nephews Anders Sunesen and Peder Sunesen. He died in 1201, and was interred at Sorø Abbey.
## Early life {#early_life}
Absalon was born around 1128 near Sorø, Zealand.`{{fact|date=January 2021}}`{=mediawiki} Due to his name being unusual in Denmark, it is speculated that he was baptized on the Danish \"Absalon\" name day, 30 October. He was the son of Asser Rig, a magnate of the *Hvide* clan from Fjenneslev on Zealand, and Inger Eriksdotter. He was also a kinsman of Archbishop Eskil of Lund. He grew up at the castle of his father, and was brought up alongside his older brother Esbern Snare and the young prince Valdemar, who later became King Valdemar I of Denmark. During the civil war following the death of Eric III of Denmark in 1146, Absalon travelled abroad to study theology in Paris, while Esbern fought for Valdemar\'s ascension to the throne. In Paris, he was influenced by the Gregorian Reform ideals of churchly independence from monarchical rule. He also befriended the canon William of Æbelholt at the Abbey of St Genevieve, whom he later made abbot of Eskilsø Abbey.
Absalon first appears in Saxo Grammaticus\'s contemporary chronicle *Gesta Danorum* at the end of the civil war, in the brokering of the peace agreement between Sweyn III and Valdemar at St. Alban\'s Priory in Odense. He was a guest at the subsequent Roskilde banquet given in 1157 by Sweyn for his rivals Canute V and Valdemar. Both Absalon and Valdemar narrowly escaped assassination by Sweyn on this occasion, and escaped to Jutland, whither Sweyn followed them. Absalon probably did not take part in the following battle of Grathe Heath in 1157, where Sweyn was defeated and slain. This led to Valdemar ascending to the Danish throne. On Good Friday 1158, bishop `{{interlanguage link|Asser of Roskilde|qid=Q12302360}}`{=mediawiki} died, and Absalon was eventually elected bishop of Roskilde on Zealand with the help of Valdemar, as the king\'s reward for *Hvide* family support.
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# Absalon
## Bishop and advisor {#bishop_and_advisor}
Absalon was a close counsellor of Valdemar, and chief promoter of the Danish crusades against the Wends. During the Danish civil war, Denmark had been open to coastal raids by the Wends. It was Absalon\'s intention to clear the Baltic Sea of the Wendish pirates who inhabited its southern littoral zone, which was later called Pomerania. The pirates had raided the Danish coasts during the civil war of Sweyn III, Canute V, and Valdemar, to the point where at the accession of Valdemar one-third of Denmark lay wasted and depopulated. Absalon formed a guardian fleet, built coastal defenses, and led several campaigns against the Wends. He even advocated forgiving the earlier enemies of Valdemar, which helped stabilize Denmark internally.
### Wendish campaigns {#wendish_campaigns}
The first expedition against the Wends conducted by Absalon in person, set out in 1160. These expeditions were successful, but brought no lasting victories. What started out as mere retribution, eventually evolved into full-fledged campaigns of expansion with religious motives. In 1164 began twenty years of crusades against the Wends, sometimes with the help of German duke Henry the Lion, sometimes in opposition to him.
In 1168 the chief Wendish fortress at Arkona in Rügen, containing the sanctuary of their god Svantevit, was conquered. The Wends agreed to accept Danish suzerainty and the Christian religion at the same time. From Arkona, Absalon proceeded by sea to Charenza, in the midst of Rügen, the political capital of the Wends and an all but impregnable stronghold. But the unexpected fall of Arkona had terrified the garrison, which surrendered unconditionally at the first appearance of the Danish ships. Absalon, with only Bishop Sweyn of Aarhus and twelve \"housecarls\", thereupon disembarked, passed between a double row of Wendish warriors, 6000 strong, along the narrow path winding among the morasses, to the gates of the fortress, and, proceeding to the temple of the seven-headed god Rugievit, caused the idol to be hewn down, dragged forth and burnt. The whole population of Garz was then baptized, and Absalon laid the foundations of twelve churches in the isle of Rügen. Rügen was then subjected to Absalon\'s Bishopric of Roskilde. The destruction of this chief sally-port of the Wendish pirates enabled Absalon to considerably reduce the Danish fleet. But he continued to keep a watchful eye over the Baltic, and in 1170 destroyed another pirate stronghold, farther eastward, at Dziwnów on the isle of Wolin. Absalon\'s last military exploit came in 1184, off Stralsund at Whitsun, when he soundly defeated a Pomeranian fleet that had attacked Denmark\'s vassal, Jaromar of Rügen.
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# Absalon
## Bishop and advisor {#bishop_and_advisor}
### Policies
Absalon\'s main political goal was to free Denmark from entanglements with the Holy Roman Empire. Absalon reformed the Danish church organisation to closer match Holy See praxis, and worked to keep Denmark a close ally of the Holy See. However, during the schism between Pope Alexander III and Antipope Victor IV, Absalon stayed loyal to Valdemar even as he joined the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in supporting Victor IV. This caused a split within the Danish church, as it possibly forced Eskil of Lund into exile around 1161, despite Abaslon\'s attempts to keep the Danish church united. It was contrary to Absalon\'s advice and warnings that Valdemar I rendered fealty to the emperor Frederick Barbarossa at Dole in 1162. When Valdemar returned to Denmark, he was convinced to strengthen the Danevirke fortifications at the German border, with the support of Absalon.
Absalon built churches and monasteries, supporting international religious orders like the Cistercians and Augustinians, founding schools and doing his utmost to promote civilization and enlightenment. In 1162, Absalon transformed the Sorø Abbey of his family from Benedictine to Cistercian, granting it lands from his personal holdings. In 1167, Absalon was granted the land around the city of Havn (English: \"Harbour\"), and built there a castle for coastal defense against the Wends. Havn quickly expanded into one of Scandinavia\'s most important centers of trade, and eventually evolved into modern-day Copenhagen. It was also Absalon who held the first Danish Synod at Lund in 1167. He was interested in history and culture, and commissioned Saxo Grammaticus to write *Gesta Danorum*, a comprehensive chronicle of the history of the Danes. In 1171, Absalon issued the \"Zealand church law\" (*Sjællandske Kirkelov*), which reduced the number of Canonical Law offenses for which the church could fine the public, while instituting the tithe payment system. Violation of the law was specified as subject to a secular legal process.
## Archbishop of Lund {#archbishop_of_lund}
Archbishop Eskil returned from exile in 1167. Eskil agreed on canonizing Valdemar\'s father Knud Lavard in 1170, with Absalon assisting him at the feast. When Eskil stepped down as Archbishop of Lund in 1177, he chose Absalon as his successor. Absalon initially resisted the new position, as he did not want to lose his power position on Zealand, but complied with Papal orders to do so in 1178. By a unique Papal dispensation, Absalon was allowed to simultaneously maintain his post as Bishop of Roskilde. As the Archbishop of Lund, Absalon utilized ombudsmen from Zealand, demanded unfree labour from the peasantry, and instituted tithes. He was a harsh and effective ruler, who cleared all Orthodox Christian liturgical remnants in favour of Papal standards. A rebellion in the Scanian peasantry forced him to flee to Zealand in 1180, but he returned and subdued the Scanians with the help of Valdemar.
Valdemar died in 1182 and was succeeded by his son, Canute VI, whom Absalon also served as counsellor. Under Canute VI, Absalon was the chief policymaker in Danish politics. Absalon kept his hostile attitude to the Holy Roman Empire. On the accession of Canute VI in 1182, an imperial ambassador arrived at Roskilde to get the new king to swear fealty to Frederick Barbarossa, but Absalon resolutely withstood him.
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# Absalon
## Death
When Absalon retired from military service in 1184 at the age of fifty-seven, he resigned the command of fleets and armies to younger men, like Duke Valdemar, the later king Valdemar II. He instead confined himself to the administration of the Danish empire. In 1192, Absalon made his nephew Peder Sunesen his successor as Bishop of Roskilde, while his other nephew Anders Sunesen was named the chancellor of Canute VI. Absalon died at Sorø Abbey on 21 March 1201, 73 years old, with his last will granting his personal holdings to the Abbey, apart from Fjenneslev which went to Esbern Snarre. He had already given Copenhagen to the Bishopric of Roskilde. Absalon was interred at Sorø Abbey, and was succeeded as Archbishop of Lund by Anders Sunesen.
## Legacy
Saxo Grammaticus\' *Gesta Danorum* was not finished until after the death of Absalon, but Absalon was one of the chief heroic figures of the chronicle, which was to be the main source of knowledge about early Danish history. Absalon left a legacy as the foremost politician and churchfather of Denmark in the 12th century. Absalon was equally great as churchman, statesman, and warrior. His policy of expansion was to give Denmark the dominion of the Baltic for three generations. That he enjoyed warfare there can be no doubt; yet he was not like the ordinary fighting bishops of the Middle Ages, whose sole indication of their religious role was to avoid the *shedding of blood* by using a mace in battle instead of a sword. Absalon never neglected his ecclesiastical duties.
In the 2000s, \"Absalon\" was adopted as the name for a class of Royal Danish Navy vessels, and the lead vessel of the class. HDMS Absalon (L16) and *Esbern Snare* (L17) were launched and commissioned by Denmark in 2004 and 2005
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# Adhemar of Le Puy
{{ Infobox Christian leader \| type = bishop \| name = Adhemar of Le Puy \| image = Adhémar de Monteil à Antioche.jpeg \| caption = A mitred Adhémar de Monteil carrying the Holy Lance in one of the battles of the First Crusade \| title = Bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay \| church = Catholic Church \| see = Diocese of Le Puy-en-Velay \| term = 1082--1098 \| predecessor = Stephan de Polignac \| successor = Pons de Tournon \| birth_date = 1055 \| birth_place = Valentinois, Kingdom of France \| death_date = 1 August 1098 (aged 43) \| death_place = Principality of Antioch }}
**Adhemar** (also known as **Adémar**, **Aimar**, or **Aelarz**) **de Monteil** (died 1 August 1098) was one of the principal figures of the First Crusade and was bishop of Puy-en-Velay from before 1087. He was the chosen representative of Pope Urban II for the expedition to the Holy Land. Remembered for his martial prowess, he led knights and men into battle and fought beside them, particularly at the Battle of Dorylaeum and Siege of Antioch. Adhemar is said to have carried the Holy Lance in the Crusaders' desperate breakout at Antioch on 28 June 1098, in which superior Islamic forces under the atabeg Kerbogha were routed, securing the city for the Crusaders. He died in 1098 due to illness.
## Life
Born around 1045 into the family of the Counts of Valentinois and elected Bishop of Le Puy around 1080, he was an advocate of the Gregorian Reform. Among his supporters were the future Pope Urban II and Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse and the richest, most powerful nobleman in France. He was also said to have gone on pilgrimage to Jerusalem around 1086. He was the brother of William Hugh of Monteil, who was also a Crusader in the First Crusade. Adhemar most likely met Pope Urban II, when he visited Puy in August 1095.
At the Council of Clermont in 1095, Adhemar showed great zeal for the crusade (there is evidence that Urban II had conferred with Adhemar before the council). Adhemar was named apostolic legate and appointed to lead the crusade by Pope Urban II on 27 November 1095. In part, Adhemar was selected to lead because he had already undertaken a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1086 and 1087. Following the announcement of the Crusade Adhemar spent the next year raising money and recruiting men. Departing on 15 August 1096, he accompanied Raymond of Toulouse and his army to the east. Whilst Raymond and the other leaders often quarrelled with each other over the leadership of the crusade, Adhemar was always recognized as the spiritual leader of the crusade and was widely respected by the majority of the Crusaders.
During the leg of the trip from Durazzo to Constantinople, in the Valley of Pelagonia, Adhemar was set upon by a group of Pecheneg mercenaries, when he had wandered too far from the majority of the Crusader forces. The Pechenegs beat and robbed Adhemar, but began to fight among themselves over his belongings; Adhemar was saved by Crusader forces who had noticed the disturbance. Once the army had reached Thessalonica, Adhemar decided to stay there for some time, due to sickness, whilst the Crusader forces moved onward. Adhemar eventually was able to rejoin the Crusaders.
Adhemar negotiated with Alexius I Comnenus at Constantinople, reestablished some discipline among the crusaders at Nicaea, fought a crucial role at the Battle of Dorylaeum and was largely responsible for sustaining morale during the siege of Antioch through various religious rites including fasting and special observances of holy days. One such time he did this, was after an earthquake during the siege of Antioch, he had the Crusaders fast for three days and had the priests and clergy perform mass and prayers. Adhemar also ordered the Crusaders to shave and wear a cross in an attempt to stop Crusaders from attacking one another by accident. After the capture of the city in June 1098 and the subsequent siege led by Kerbogha, Adhemar organized a procession through the streets and had the gates locked so that the Crusaders, many of whom had begun to panic, would be unable to leave the city. He was extremely skeptical of Peter Bartholomew\'s discovery in Antioch of the Holy Lance, especially because he knew such a relic already existed in Constantinople; however, he was willing to let the Crusader army believe it was real if it raised their morale. Adhemar was protected by a band of Crusaders led by Henry of Esch to preserve the (albeit suspect) relic. In June 1098 Adhemar fell prey to sickness and in the following months his condition would deteriorate.
When Kerbogha was defeated, Adhemar organized a council in an attempt to settle the leadership disputes, but died on 1 August 1098, probably of typhus. Adhemar was buried in Antioch within the Basilica of St Peter. The disputes among the higher nobles went unsolved and the march to Jerusalem was delayed for months. However, the lower-class soldiers continued to think of Adhemar as a leader. Following his death, Adhemar reportedly appeared in several visions of various Crusaders. One of the first was reported by Peter Bartholomew who stated that Adhemar appeared to him stating that, due to his skepticism of the Holy Lance, he had spent a few days in hell and was only rescued because a candle had been burned in his memory, he had given a gift to the Shrine where the Holy Lance was kept, and due to the prayers of Bohemond. At the siege of Jerusalem, Peter Desiderius claimed that to have received a vision from Adhemar himself. Peter also claimed that, in this vision, Adhemar had instructed him to have the Crusaders fast and lead a procession around the Walls of Jerusalem. This was done and Jerusalem was taken by the Crusaders in 1099. Later, Stephen of Valence also claimed to have had visions featuring Adhemar in which Adhemar spoke to Stephen of several relics. Adhemar told Stephen great reverence should be given to the cross Adhemar had taken with him on the crusade. He also told Stephen how the Holy Lance should be treated and told Stephen to give Stephen\'s ring to Count Raymond. He told Stephen that, through this ring, Count Raymond would be able to call upon the power of Mary
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# Alfonso Jordan
**Alfonso Jordan**, also spelled **Alfons Jordan** or **Alphonse Jourdain** (1103--1148), was the Count of Tripoli (1105--09), Count of Rouergue (1109--48) and Count of Toulouse, Margrave of Provence and Duke of Narbonne (1112--48).
## Life
Alfonso was the son of Raymond IV of Toulouse by his third wife, Elvira of Castile. He was born in the castle of Mont Pèlerin in Tripoli while his father was on the First Crusade. He was given the name \"Jourdain\" after being baptised in the Jordan River. Alfonso\'s father died when he was two years old and he remained under the guardianship of his cousin, William Jordan, Count of Cerdagne, until he was five. He was then taken to Europe, where his half-brother Bertrand had given him the county of Rouergue. Upon Bertrand\'s death in 1112, Alfonso succeeded to the county of Toulouse and marquisate of Provence.
In 1114, Duke William IX of Aquitaine, who claimed Toulouse by right of his wife Philippa, daughter of Count William IV, invaded the county and conquered it. Alfonso recovered a part in 1119, but he was not in full control until 1123. When at last successful, he was excommunicated by Pope Callixtus II for having damaged the abbey of Saint-Gilles and assaulting the monks.
Alfonso next had to fight for his rights in Provence against Count Raymond Berengar III of Barcelona. Not until September 1125 did their war end in \"peace and concord\" (*pax et concordia*). At this stage, Alfonso was master of the regions lying between the Pyrenees and the Alps, the Auvergne and the sea. His ascendancy was, according to one commentator, an unmixed good to the country, for during a period of fourteen years art and industry flourished.
In March 1126, Alfonso was at the court of King Alfonso VII of León when he acceded to the throne. According to the *Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris*, Alfonso and Suero Vermúdez took the city of León from opposition magnates and handed it over to Alfonso VII. Among those who may have accompanied Alfonso on one of his many extended stays in Spain was the troubadour Marcabru.
By 1132, Alfonso was embroiled in a succession war over the county of Melgueil against Count Berengar Raymond of Provence. This brief conflict was resolved with Alfonso\'s defeat and Berengar marrying Beatrice, heiress of Melgueil.
Alfonso seized the viscounty of Narbonne in 1134, and ruled it during the minority of Viscountess Ermengarde, only restoring it to her in 1143. In 1141 King Louis VII of France pressed the claim of his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, granddaughter of Philippa, even besieging Toulouse, but without result. That same year Alfonso Jordan was again in Spain, making a pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostela, when he proposed a peace between the king of León and García Ramírez of Navarre, which became the basis for subsequent negotiations.
In 1144, Alfonso again incurred the displeasure of the church by siding with the citizens of Montpellier against their lord. In 1145, Bernard of Clairvaux addressed a letter to him full of concern about a heretic named Henry in the diocese of Toulouse. Bernard even went there to preach against the heresy, an early expression of Catharism. A second time he was excommunicated; but in 1146 he took the cross (i.e., vowed to go on crusade) at a meeting in Vézelay called by Louis VII. In August 1147, he embarked for the near east on the Second Crusade. He lingered on the way in Italy and probably in Constantinople, where he may have met Emperor Manuel I.
Alfonso finally arrived at Acre in 1148. He died at Caesarea, which was followed by accusations of poisoning, levelled against either Eleanor of Aquitaine or Melisende of Jerusalem, who may have wanted to eliminate him as a rival to her brother-in-law Count Raymond II of Tripoli.
Alfonso and Faydiva d\'Uzès had:
1. Raymond, who succeeded him
2. Alfonso II
3.
4. Faydiva (died 1154), married to Count Humbert III of Savoy
5. Agnes (died 1187)
6. Laurentia, who married Count Bernard III of Comminges
He also had an illegitimate son, Bertrand
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# Ambroise
**Ambroise**, sometimes **Ambroise of Normandy**, (flourished c. 1190) was a Norman poet and chronicler of the Third Crusade, author of a work called **L\'Estoire de la guerre sainte**, which describes in rhyming Old French verse the adventures of *Richard Cœur de Lion\]\]* as a crusader.
## Life
The credit for detecting its value belongs to Gaston Paris, although his edition (1897) was partially anticipated by the editors of the **\[\[Monumenta Germaniae Historica\]\]**, who published some selections in the twenty-seventh volume of their Scriptores (1885). Ambroise followed Richard I as a noncombatant, and not improbably as a court-minstrel. He speaks as an eyewitness of the king\'s doings at Messina, in Cyprus, at the siege of Acre, and in the abortive campaign which followed the capture of that city.
## Commentary on his work {#commentary_on_his_work}
Ambroise is surprisingly accurate in his chronology; though he did not complete his work before 1195, it is evidently founded upon notes which he had taken in the course of his pilgrimage. He shows no greater political insight than we should expect from his position; but relates what he had seen and heard with a naïve vivacity which compels attention. He is by no means an impartial source: he is prejudiced against the Saracens, against the French, and against all the rivals or enemies of his master, including the *Polein* party which supported Conrad of Montferrat against Guy of Lusignan. He is rather to be treated as a biographer than as a historian of the Crusade in its broader aspects. Nonetheless, he is an interesting primary source for the events of the years 1190--1192 in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Books 2--6 of the *Itinerarium Regis Ricardi*, a Latin prose narrative of the same events apparently compiled by Richard, a canon of Holy Trinity, London, are closely related to Ambroise\'s poem. They were formerly sometimes regarded as the first-hand narrative on which Ambroise based his work, but that can no longer be maintained.
### History of the poem {#history_of_the_poem}
The poem is known to us only through one Vatican manuscript, and long escaped the notice of historians.
## Published edition {#published_edition}
- Ambroise, *L´Estoire de la guerre sainte*. Paris, 1897: <http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6517331f.r>
- Ambroise, *Itinerarium regis Ricardi*. London, 1920: <https://archive.org/details/itinerariumregis00richuoft>
- Ambroise, *The History of the Holy War*, translated by Marianne Ailes, Boydell Press, 2003
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# Alexius
**Alexius** is the Latinized form of the given name **Alexios** (*Αλέξιος*, polytonic *Ἀλέξιος*, \"defender\", cf. Alexander), especially common in the Byzantine Empire. The female form is **Alexia** (*Αλεξία*) and its variants such as Alessia (the masculine form of which is Alessio) in Italian.
The name belongs to the most ancient attested Greek names (a-re-ke-se-u in the Linear B tablets KN Df 1229 and MY Fu 718).
## Rulers
- Alexios I Komnenos (1048--1118), Byzantine emperor
- Alexios II Komnenos (1167--1183), Byzantine emperor
- Alexios III, Byzantine emperor
- Alexios IV, Byzantine emperor
- Alexios V Doukas, Byzantine emperor
- Alexios I of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond
- Alexios II of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond
- Alexios III of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond
- Alexios IV of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond
- Alexios V of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond
- Alexius Mikhailovich (1629--1676), Tsar of Russia
- Alexius Petrovich (1690--1718), Russian tsarevich
## Religious figures {#religious_figures}
- Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow (1354--1378)
- Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople (1025--1043)
- Alexius (c. 1425--1488), Russian archpriest who converted to Judaism
- Patriarch Alexius I of Moscow and All Russia (r. 1945--1970)
- Patriarch Alexius II of Moscow and All Russia (r
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# Africa Alphabet
The **Africa Alphabet** (also **International African Alphabet** or **IAI alphabet**) is a set of letters designed as the basis for Latin alphabets for the languages of Africa. It was initially developed in 1928 by the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures from a combination of the English alphabet and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Development was assisted by native speakers of African languages and led by Diedrich Hermann Westermann, who served as director of the organization from 1926 to 1939. The aim of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, later renamed the International African Institute (IAI), was to enable people to write for practical and scientific purposes in all African languages without the need of diacritics.
The Africa Alphabet influenced the development of orthographies of many African languages, serving \"as the basis for the transcription\" of about 60 by one count. Discussion of how to harmonize these with other systems led to several largely abortive proposals such as the African Reference Alphabet and the World Orthography.
## Overview
The Africa Alphabet was built from the consonant letters of the English alphabet and the vowel letters, and any additional consonants, of the IPA. Capital forms of IPA letters were invented as necessary. Thus J and Y are pronounced `{{IPAblink|d͡ʒ}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{IPAblink|j}}`{=mediawiki} as in English, while Ɔ, Ɛ and Ŋ are pronounced `{{IPAblink|ɔ}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPAblink|ɛ}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{IPAblink|ŋ}}`{=mediawiki} as in the IPA
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# Acquire
***Acquire*** is a board game published by 3M in 1964 that involves multi-player mergers and acquisitions. It was one of the most popular games in the 3M Bookshelf games series published in the 1960s, and the only one still published in the United States.
## Description
*Acquire* is a board game for 2--6 players in which players attempt to earn the most money by developing and merging hotel chains. When a chain in which a player owns stock is acquired by a larger chain, players earn money based on the size of the acquired chain. At the end of the game, all players liquidate their stock in order to determine which player has the most money. It is played with play money, stock certificates, and tiles representing hotels that are arranged on the board. The components of the game have varied over the years. In particular, the tiles have been made from wood, plastic, and cardboard in various editions of the game.
### Set up {#set_up}
Before play begins, the players must decide whether the numbers of players\' shares will be public or private information. Keeping this information private can greatly extend the game since players will be less certain of their status, and therefore less willing to end the game.
Each player receives play cash and a small random set of playing tiles and becomes the founder of a nascent hotel chain by drawing and placing a tile representing a hotel on the board. Tiles are ordered, and correspond to spaces on the board. Position of the starting tiles determines order of play.
### Gameplay
Play consists of placing a tile on the board and optionally buying stock. The placed tile may found a new hotel chain, grow an existing one or merge two or more chains. Chains are sets of edge-wise adjacent tiles. Founders receive a share of stock in new chains. A chain can become \"safe\", immune to acquisition, by attaining a specified size. Following placement of a tile, the player may then buy a limited number of shares of stock in existing chains. Shares have a market value determined by the size and stature of the hotel chain. At the end of his or her turn, the player receives a new tile to replace the one played.
When mergers occur, the smaller chain becomes defunct, and its tiles are then part of the acquiring chain. The two largest shareholders in the acquired chain receive cash bonuses; players may sell their shares in the defunct chain, trade them in for shares of the acquiring chain, or keep them. Mergers between 3 or more chains are handled in order from larger to smaller.
### Ending the game {#ending_the_game}
A player during their turn may declare the game at an end if the largest chain exceeds a specified size (about 40% of the board), or all chains on the board are too large to be acquired. When the game ends, shareholder bonuses are paid to the two largest shareholders of each chain, and players cash out their shares at market price (shares in any defunct chains are worthless). The player with the most money wins.
## Publication history {#publication_history}
When Sid Sackson was a child, he played a Milton Bradley gambling-themed board game titled *Lotto*. When he became a game designer, Sackson reworked the game into a wargame he called *Lotto War*. In 1962, Sackson and Alex Randolph were commissioned by 3M to start a new games division. When Sackson submitted *Lotto War* to 3M the following year, he retitled the game *Vacation*. 3M suggested changing the name to *Acquire*, and Sackson agreed. The game was test marketed in several U.S. cities in 1963, and production began in 1964 as a part of the 3M Bookshelf games series.
In 1976, the 3M game division was sold to Avalon Hill and *Acquire* became part of their bookcase game series. Four years later, Avalon Hill published the computer game *Computer Acquire* for the PET, Apple II, and TRS-80.
In 1998, Avalon Hill became part of Hasbro. The new owners reissued a slightly revised version of *Acquire* in 2000, in which the hotel chains were replaced by fictitious corporations, though the actual gameplay was unchanged. Hasbro soon thereafter discontinued it. In the mid-2000s, the game was transferred to a Hasbro subsidiary, Wizards of the Coast (WotC). In 2008, WotC celebrated \"*50 years of Avalon Hill Games\"* with the release of a new edition of *Acquire*, although the game was not yet 50 years old. In 2016, the game was transferred back to the Hasbro games division and republished in 2016 under the Avalon label, with hotels chains reinstated.
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# Acquire
## Reception
In *The Playboy Winner\'s Guide to Board Games*, game designer Jon Freeman compared *Cartel* (*A Gamut of Games*) and *Acquire*, noting that both were \"better games which focus on the joining of companies into conglomerates.\" Freeman thought *Acquire* had an edge over *Cartel* \"in the quality of its components \[\...\] *Acquire*{{\'}}s higher price is unquestionably reflected in its packaging and presentation \[and deserves\] a place in your game library.\"
*Games Magazine* included *Acquire* in their \"Top 100 Games\" in four consecutive years:
- In 1980 the editors praised it as a \"classic game of getting in on the ground floor\" and \"proof that you need money to make money\", noting that \"a delicate sense of timing is important, but greed and a lust for power also help.\"
- In 1981, the editors noted that it \"combines the flavors of Monopoly and the stock market\" and cautioned that \"Since the object is to acquire cash, careful timing of investments (and raids on competitors\' chains!) is critical to winning\".
- In 1982, the editors commented that \"Among family games, this is one of the most strategic.\"
- In 1983, the editors commented \"Adding to chains increases their value, but you must anticipate mergers, which occur when someone plays the right connecting tile at the right time.\"
In the December 1993 edition of *Dragon* (Issue 200), Allen Varney advised readers to ignore the hotel theme: \"Supposedly a game of hotel acquisitions and mergers, this is actually a superb abstract game of strategy and capital.\" Varney called the game \"An early masterpiece from \[Sid\] Sackson, game historian and one of the great designers of our time.\"
### Awards
The game was short-listed for the first Spiel des Jahres board game awards in 1979.
*GAMES* magazine inducted *Acquire* into their buyers\' guide Hall of Fame. The magazine\'s stated criteria for the Hall of Fame encompasses \"games that have met or exceeded the highest standards of quality and play value and have been continuously in production for at least 10 years; i.e., classics.\"
*Acquire* was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design\'s Hall of Fame, along with game designer Sid Sackson, in 2011. It is also one of the Mind Sports Olympiad games
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# Ambush
thumb\|right\|upright=1.3\|French royalist rebels preparing an ambush during the War in the Vendée (*The Ambush* by Évariste Carpentier, 1889) `{{wikt | ambush}}`{=mediawiki}
An **ambush** is a surprise attack carried out by people lying in wait in a concealed position. The concealed position itself or the concealed person(s) may also be called an \"`{{linktext|ambush}}`{=mediawiki}\". Ambushes as a basic fighting tactic of soldiers or of criminals have been used consistently throughout history, from ancient to modern warfare. The term \"ambush\" is also used in animal behavior studies, journalism, and marketing to describe methods of approach and strategy.
In the 20th century, a military ambush might involve thousands of soldiers on a large scale, such as at a choke point like a mountain pass. Conversely, it could involve a small irregular band or insurgent group attacking a regular armed-force patrol. Theoretically, a single well-armed, and concealed soldier could ambush other troops in a surprise attack.
In recent centuries, a military ambush can involve the exclusive or combined use of improvised explosive devices (IED). This allows attackers to hit enemy convoys or patrols while minimizing the risk of being exposed to return fire.
## History
The use of ambush tactics by early people dates as far back as two million years when anthropologists have recently suggested that ambush techniques were used to hunt large game.
One example from ancient times is the Battle of the Trebia River. Hannibal encamped within striking distance of the Romans with the Trebia River between them, and placed a strong force of cavalry and infantry in concealment, near the battle zone. He had noticed, says Polybius, a \"place between the two camps, flat indeed and treeless, but well adapted for an ambuscade, as it was traversed by a water-course with steep banks, densely overgrown with brambles and other thorny plants, and here he proposed to lay a stratagem to surprise the enemy\". When the Roman infantry became entangled in combat with his army, the hidden ambush force attacked the Roman infantry in the rear. The result was slaughter and defeat for the Romans. Nevertheless, the battle also displays the effects of good tactical discipline on the part of the ambushed force. Although most of the legions were lost, about 10,000 Romans cut their way through to safety, maintaining unit cohesion. This ability to maintain discipline and break out or maneuver away from a kill zone is a hallmark of good troops and training in any ambush situation.
Ambushes were widely used by the Lusitanians, in particular by their chieftain Viriathus. Their usual tactic, called *concursare*, involved repeatedly charging and retreating, forcing the enemy to eventually give them chase, to set up ambushes in difficult terrain where allied forces would be awaiting. In his first victory, he eluded the siege of Roman praetor Gaius Vetilius and attracted him to a narrow pass next to the Barbesuda river, where he destroyed his army and killed the praetor. Viriathus\'s ability to turn chases into ambushes would grant him victories over a number of Roman generals.
Another Lusitanian ambush was performed by Curius and Apuleius on Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus, who led a numerically superior army complete with war elephants and Numidian cavalry. The ambush allowed Curius and Apuleius to steal Servilianus\'s loot train. However, a tactic error in their retreat led to the Romans retaking the train and putting the Lusitanians to flight. Viriathus later defeated Servilianus with a surprise attack.`{{page needed|date=August 2019}}`{=mediawiki}
Germanic war chief Arminius sprung an ambush against the Romans at Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. This particular ambush was to affect the course of Western history. The Germanic forces demonstrated several principles needed for a successful ambush. They took cover in difficult forested terrain, allowing the warriors time and space to mass without detection. They had the element of surprise, and this was also aided by the defection of Arminius from Roman ranks prior to the battle. They sprang the attack when the Romans were most vulnerable; when they had left their fortified camp, and were on the march in a pounding rainstorm.
The Germans did not dawdle at the hour of decision but attacked quickly, using a massive series of short, rapid, vicious charges against the length of the whole Roman line, with charging units sometimes withdrawing to the forest to regroup while others took their place. The Germans also used blocking obstacles, erecting a trench and earthen wall to hinder Roman movement along the route of the killing zone. The result was a mass slaughter of the Romans and the destruction of three legions. The Germanic victory caused a limit on Roman expansion in the West. Ultimately, it established the Rhine as the boundary of the Roman Empire for the next four hundred years, until the decline of the Roman influence in the West. The Roman Empire made no further concerted attempts to conquer Germania beyond the Rhine.
There are many notable examples of ambushes during the Roman-Persian Wars. A year after their victory at Carrhae, the Parthians invaded Syria but were driven back after a Roman ambush near Antigonia. Roman Emperor Julian was mortally wounded in an ambush near Samarra in 363 during the retreat from his Persian campaign. A Byzantine invasion of Persian Armenia was repelled by a small force at Anglon who performed a meticulous ambush by using the rough terrain as a force multiplier and concealing in houses. Heraclius\' discovery of a planned ambush by Shahrbaraz in 622 was a decisive factor in his campaign.
### Arabia during Muhammad\'s era {#arabia_during_muhammads_era}
According to Muslim tradition, Islamic Prophet Muhammad used ambush tactics in his military campaigns. His first such use was during the Caravan raids. In the Kharrar caravan raid, Sa\'d ibn Abi Waqqas was ordered to lead a raid against the Quraysh. His group consisted of about twenty Muhajirs. This raid was about a month after the previous one. Sa\'d, with his soldiers, set up an ambush in the valley of Kharrar on the road to Mecca and waited to raid a Meccan caravan returning from Syria. However, the caravan had already passed and the Muslims returned to Medina without any loot.
Arab tribes during Muhammad\'s era also used ambush tactics. One example retold in Muslim tradition is said to have taken place during the First Raid on Banu Thalabah. The Banu Thalabah tribe were already aware of the impending attack; so they lay in wait for the Muslims. When Muhammad ibn Maslama arrived at the site, the Banu Thalabah with 100 men ambushed the Muslims while they were making preparation to sleep and, after a brief resistance, killed them all except for Muhammad ibn Maslama, who feigned death. A Muslim who happened to pass that way found him and assisted him to return to Medina. The raid was unsuccessful.
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# Ambush
## Procedure
In modern warfare, an ambush can be employed by ground troops up to platoon size against enemy targets, which may be other ground troops, or possibly vehicles. However, in some situations, especially when deep behind enemy lines, the actual attack will be carried out by a platoon. A company-sized unit will be deployed to support the attack group, setting up and maintaining a forward patrol harbour from which the attacking force will deploy, and to which they will retire after the attack.
### Planning
Ambushes are complex multiphase operations and are therefore usually planned in some detail. First, a suitable killing zone is identified. This is where the ambush will be laid, where enemy units are expected to pass, and gives reasonable cover for the deployment, execution, and extraction phases of the ambush patrol. A path along a wooded valley floor would be a typical example.
Ambush can be described geometrically as:
- **Linear**, when a number of firing units are equally distant from the linear kill zone. It can easily be controlled under all visibility conditions.
- **L-shaped**, when a short leg of firing units are placed to enfilade (fire the length of) the sides of the linear kill zone.
- **V-shaped**, when the firing units are distant from the kill zone where the enemy enters and the firing units lay down bands of intersecting and interlocking fire. This ambush is normally triggered only when the enemy is well into the kill zone. The intersecting bands of fire prevent any attempt of moving out of the kill zone.
### Viet Cong ambush techniques {#viet_cong_ambush_techniques}
#### Ambush criteria {#ambush_criteria}
The terrain for the ambush had to meet strict criteria:
- provide concealment to prevent detection from the ground or air
- enable ambush force to deploy, encircle and divide the enemy
- allow for heavy weapons emplacements to provide sustained fire
- enable the ambush force to set up observation posts for early detection of the enemy
- permit the secret movement of troops to the ambush position and the dispersal of troops during withdrawal
One important feature of the ambush was that the target units should \'pile up\' after being attacked, thus preventing them any easy means of withdrawal from the kill zone and hindering their use of heavy weapons and supporting fire. Terrain was usually selected which would facilitate this and slow down the enemy. Any terrain around the ambush site which was not favourable to the ambushing force, or which offered some protection to the target, was heavily mined and booby trapped or pre-registered for mortars.
#### Ambush units {#ambush_units}
The NVA/VC ambush formations consisted of:
- lead-blocking element
- main-assault element
- rear-blocking element
- observation posts
- command post
Other elements might also be included if the situation demanded, such as a sniper screen along a nearby avenue of approach to delay enemy reinforcements.
#### Command posts {#command_posts}
When deploying into an ambush site, the NVA first occupied several observation posts, placed to detect the enemy as early as possible and to report on the formation it was using, its strength and firepower, as well as to provide early warning to the unit commander. Usually, one main OP and numerous secondary OPs were established. Runners and radios were used to communicate between the OPs and the main command post. The OPs were located so that enemy movement into the ambush could be observed. They would remain in position throughout the ambush to report routes of reinforcement and withdrawal by the enemy, as well as his manoeuvre options. Frequently the OPs were reinforced to squad size and served as flank security. The command post was situated in a central location, frequently on terrain which afforded it a vantage point overlooking the ambush site.
#### Recon methods {#recon_methods}
Reconnaissance elements observing a potential ambush target on the move generally stayed 300--500 meters away. A \"leapfrogging\" recon technique can be used. Surveillance units were echeloned one behind the other. As the enemy drew close to the first, it fell back behind the last recon team, leaving an advance group in its place. This one in turn fell back as the enemy again closed the gap, and the cycle rotated. This method helped keep the enemy under continuous observation from a variety of vantage points, and allowed the recon groups to cover one another
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# Agarose gel electrophoresis
**Agarose gel electrophoresis** is a method of gel electrophoresis used in biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, and clinical chemistry to separate a mixed population of macromolecules such as DNA or proteins in a matrix of agarose, one of the two main components of agar. The proteins may be separated by charge and/or size (isoelectric focusing agarose electrophoresis is essentially size independent), and the DNA and RNA fragments by length. Biomolecules are separated by applying an electric field to move the charged molecules through an agarose matrix, and the biomolecules are separated by size in the agarose gel matrix.
Agarose gel is easy to cast, has relatively fewer charged groups, and is particularly suitable for separating DNA of size range most often encountered in laboratories, which accounts for the popularity of its use. The separated DNA may be viewed with stain, most commonly under UV light, and the DNA fragments can be extracted from the gel with relative ease. Most agarose gels used are between 0.7--2% dissolved in a suitable electrophoresis buffer.
## Properties of agarose gel {#properties_of_agarose_gel}
Agarose gel is a three-dimensional matrix formed of helical agarose molecules in supercoiled bundles that are aggregated into three-dimensional structures with channels and pores through which biomolecules can pass. The 3-D structure is held together with hydrogen bonds and can therefore be disrupted by heating back to a liquid state. The melting temperature is different from the gelling temperature, depending on the sources, agarose gel has a gelling temperature of 35 -- and a melting temperature of 85 --. Low-melting and low-gelling agaroses made through chemical modifications are also available.
Agarose gel has large pore size and good gel strength, making it suitable as an anticonvection medium for the electrophoresis of DNA and large protein molecules. The pore size of a 1% gel has been estimated from 100 nm to 200--500 nm, and its gel strength allows gels as dilute as 0.15% to form a slab for gel electrophoresis. Low-concentration gels (0.1--0.2%) however are fragile and therefore hard to handle. Agarose gel has lower resolving power than polyacrylamide gel for DNA but has a greater range of separation, and is therefore used for DNA fragments of usually 50--20,000 bp in size. The limit of resolution for standard agarose gel electrophoresis is around 750 kb, but resolution of over 6 Mb is possible with pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). It can also be used to separate large proteins, and it is the preferred matrix for the gel electrophoresis of particles with effective radii larger than 5--10 nm. A 0.9% agarose gel has pores large enough for the entry of bacteriophage T4.
The agarose polymer contains charged groups, in particular pyruvate and sulfate. These negatively charged groups create a flow of water in the opposite direction to the movement of DNA in a process called electroendosmosis (EEO), and can therefore retard the movement of DNA and cause blurring of bands. Higher concentration gels would have higher electroendosmotic flow. Low EEO agarose is therefore generally preferred for use in agarose gel electrophoresis of nucleic acids, but high EEO agarose may be used for other purposes. The lower sulfate content of low EEO agarose, particularly low-melting point (LMP) agarose, is also beneficial in cases where the DNA extracted from gel is to be used for further manipulation as the presence of contaminating sulfates may affect some subsequent procedures, such as ligation and PCR. Zero EEO agaroses however are undesirable for some applications as they may be made by adding positively charged groups and such groups can affect subsequent enzyme reactions. Electroendosmosis is a reason agarose is used in preference to agar as the agaropectin component in agar contains a significant amount of negatively charged sulfate and carboxyl groups. The removal of agaropectin in agarose substantially reduces the EEO, as well as reducing the non-specific adsorption of biomolecules to the gel matrix. However, for some applications such as the electrophoresis of serum proteins, a high EEO may be desirable, and agaropectin may be added in the gel used.
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# Agarose gel electrophoresis
## Migration of nucleic acids in agarose gel {#migration_of_nucleic_acids_in_agarose_gel}
### Factors affecting migration of nucleic acid in gel {#factors_affecting_migration_of_nucleic_acid_in_gel}
A number of factors can affect the migration of nucleic acids: the dimension of the gel pores (gel concentration), size of DNA being electrophoresed, the voltage used, the ionic strength of the buffer, and the concentration of intercalating dye such as ethidium bromide if used during electrophoresis.
Smaller molecules travel faster than larger molecules in gel, and double-stranded DNA moves at a rate that is inversely proportional to the logarithm of the number of base pairs. This relationship however breaks down with very large DNA fragments, and separation of very large DNA fragments requires the use of pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), which applies alternating current from different directions and the large DNA fragments are separated as they reorient themselves with the changing field.
For standard agarose gel electrophoresis, larger molecules are resolved better using a low concentration gel while smaller molecules separate better at high concentration gel. Higher concentration gels, however, require longer run times (sometimes days).
The movement of the DNA may be affected by the conformation of the DNA molecule, for example, supercoiled DNA usually moves faster than relaxed DNA because it is tightly coiled and hence more compact. In a normal plasmid DNA preparation, multiple forms of DNA may be present. Gel electrophoresis of the plasmids would normally show the negatively supercoiled form as the main band, while nicked DNA (open circular form) and the relaxed closed circular form appears as minor bands. The rate at which the various forms move however can change using different electrophoresis conditions, and the mobility of larger circular DNA may be more strongly affected than linear DNA by the pore size of the gel.
Ethidium bromide which intercalates into circular DNA can change the charge, length, as well as the superhelicity of the DNA molecule, therefore its presence in gel during electrophoresis can affect its movement. For example, the positive charge of ethidium bromide can reduce the DNA movement by 15%. Agarose gel electrophoresis can be used to resolve circular DNA with different supercoiling topology.
DNA damage due to increased cross-linking will also reduce electrophoretic DNA migration in a dose-dependent way.
The rate of migration of the DNA is proportional to the voltage applied, i.e. the higher the voltage, the faster the DNA moves. The resolution of large DNA fragments however is lower at high voltage. The mobility of DNA may also change in an unsteady field -- in a field that is periodically reversed, the mobility of DNA of a particular size may drop significantly at a particular cycling frequency. This phenomenon can result in band inversion in field inversion gel electrophoresis (FIGE), whereby larger DNA fragments move faster than smaller ones.
### Migration anomalies {#migration_anomalies}
- \"Smiley\" gels - this edge effect is caused when the voltage applied is too high for the gel concentration used.
- Overloading of DNA - overloading of DNA slows down the migration of DNA fragments.
- Contamination - presence of impurities, such as salts or proteins can affect the movement of the DNA.
### Mechanism of migration and separation {#mechanism_of_migration_and_separation}
The negative charge of its phosphate backbone moves the DNA towards the positively charged anode during electrophoresis. However, the migration of DNA molecules in solution, in the absence of a gel matrix, is independent of molecular weight during electrophoresis. The gel matrix is therefore responsible for the separation of DNA by size during electrophoresis, and a number of models exist to explain the mechanism of separation of biomolecules in gel matrix. A widely accepted one is the Ogston model which treats the polymer matrix as a sieve. A globular protein or a random coil DNA moves through the interconnected pores, and the movement of larger molecules is more likely to be impeded and slowed down by collisions with the gel matrix, and the molecules of different sizes can therefore be separated in this sieving process.
The Ogston model however breaks down for large molecules whereby the pores are significantly smaller than size of the molecule. For DNA molecules of size greater than 1 kb, a reptation model (or its variants) is most commonly used. This model assumes that the DNA can crawl in a \"snake-like\" fashion (hence \"reptation\") through the pores as an elongated molecule. A biased reptation model applies at higher electric field strength, whereby the leading end of the molecule become strongly biased in the forward direction and pulls the rest of the molecule along. Real-time fluorescence microscopy of stained molecules, however, showed more subtle dynamics during electrophoresis, with the DNA showing considerable elasticity as it alternately stretching in the direction of the applied field and then contracting into a ball, or becoming hooked into a U-shape when it gets caught on the polymer fibres.
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# Agarose gel electrophoresis
## General procedure {#general_procedure}
The details of an agarose gel electrophoresis experiment may vary depending on methods, but most follow a general procedure.
### Casting of gel {#casting_of_gel}
The gel is prepared by dissolving the agarose powder in an appropriate buffer, such as TAE or TBE, to be used in electrophoresis. The agarose is dispersed in the buffer before heating it to near-boiling point, but avoid boiling. The melted agarose is allowed to cool sufficiently before pouring the solution into a cast as the cast may warp or crack if the agarose solution is too hot. A comb is placed in the cast to create wells for loading sample, and the gel should be completely set before use.
The concentration of gel affects the resolution of DNA separation. The agarose gel is composed of microscopic pores through which the molecules travel, and there is an inverse relationship between the pore size of the agarose gel and the concentration -- pore size decreases as the density of agarose fibers increases. High gel concentration improves separation of smaller DNA molecules, while lowering gel concentration permits large DNA molecules to be separated. The process allows fragments ranging from 50 base pairs to several mega bases to be separated depending on the gel concentration used. The concentration is measured in weight of agarose over volume of buffer used (g/ml). For a standard agarose gel electrophoresis, a 0.8% gel gives good separation or resolution of large 5--10kb DNA fragments, while 2% gel gives good resolution for small 0.2--1kb fragments. 1% gels is often used for a standard electrophoresis. High percentage gels are often brittle and may not set evenly, while low percentage gels (0.1-0.2%) are fragile and not easy to handle. Low-melting-point (LMP) agarose gels are also more fragile than normal agarose gel. Low-melting point agarose may be used on its own or simultaneously with standard agarose for the separation and isolation of DNA. PFGE and FIGE are often done with high percentage agarose gels.
### Loading of samples {#loading_of_samples}
Once the gel has set, the comb is removed, leaving wells where DNA samples can be loaded. Loading buffer is mixed with the DNA sample before the mixture is loaded into the wells. The loading buffer contains a dense compound, which may be glycerol, sucrose, or Ficoll, that raises the density of the sample so that the DNA sample may sink to the bottom of the well. If the DNA sample contains residual ethanol after its preparation, it may float out of the well. The loading buffer also includes colored dyes such as xylene cyanol and bromophenol blue used to monitor the progress of the electrophoresis. The DNA samples are loaded using a pipette.
### Electrophoresis
Agarose gel electrophoresis is most commonly done horizontally in a subaquaeous mode whereby the slab gel is completely submerged in buffer during electrophoresis. It is also possible, but less common, to perform the electrophoresis vertically, as well as horizontally with the gel raised on agarose legs using an appropriate apparatus. The buffer used in the gel is the same as the running buffer in the electrophoresis tank, which is why electrophoresis in the subaquaeous mode is possible with agarose gel.
For optimal resolution of DNA greater than 2`{{Spaces}}`{=mediawiki}kb in size in standard gel electrophoresis, 5 to 8 V/cm is recommended (the distance in cm refers to the distance between electrodes, therefore this recommended voltage would be 5 to 8 multiplied by the distance between the electrodes in cm). Voltage may also be limited by the fact that it heats the gel and may cause the gel to melt if it is run at high voltage for a prolonged period, especially if the gel used is LMP agarose gel. Too high a voltage may also reduce resolution, as well as causing band streaking for large DNA molecules. Too low a voltage may lead to broadening of band for small DNA fragments due to dispersion and diffusion.
Since DNA is not visible in natural light, the progress of the electrophoresis is monitored using colored dyes. Xylene cyanol (light blue color) comigrates large DNA fragments, while Bromophenol blue (dark blue) comigrates with the smaller fragments. Less commonly used dyes include Cresol Red and Orange G which migrate ahead of bromophenol blue. A DNA marker is also run together for the estimation of the molecular weight of the DNA fragments. Note however that the size of a circular DNA like plasmids cannot be accurately gauged using standard markers unless it has been linearized by restriction digest, alternatively a supercoiled DNA marker may be used.
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# Agarose gel electrophoresis
## General procedure {#general_procedure}
### Staining and visualization {#staining_and_visualization}
DNA as well as RNA are normally visualized by staining with ethidium bromide, which intercalates into the major grooves of the DNA and fluoresces under UV light. The intercalation depends on the concentration of DNA and thus, a band with high intensity will indicate a higher amount of DNA compared to a band of less intensity. The ethidium bromide may be added to the agarose solution before it gels, or the DNA gel may be stained later after electrophoresis. Destaining of the gel is not necessary but may produce better images. Other methods of staining are available; examples are MIDORI Green, SYBR Green, GelRed, methylene blue, brilliant cresyl blue, Nile blue sulfate, and crystal violet. SYBR Green, GelRed and other similar commercial products are sold as safer alternatives to ethidium bromide as it has been shown to be mutagenic in Ames test, although the carcinogenicity of ethidium bromide has not actually been established. SYBR Green requires the use of a blue-light transilluminator. DNA stained with crystal violet can be viewed under natural light without the use of a UV transilluminator which is an advantage, however it may not produce a strong band.
When stained with ethidium bromide, the gel is viewed with an ultraviolet (UV) transilluminator. The UV light excites the electrons within the aromatic ring of ethidium bromide, and once they return to the ground state, light is released, making the DNA and ethidium bromide complex fluoresce. Standard transilluminators use wavelengths of 302/312-nm (UV-B), however exposure of DNA to UV radiation for as little as 45 seconds can produce damage to DNA and affect subsequent procedures, for example reducing the efficiency of transformation, *in vitro* transcription, and PCR. Exposure of DNA to UV radiation therefore should be limited. Using a higher wavelength of 365 nm (UV-A range) causes less damage to the DNA but also produces much weaker fluorescence with ethidium bromide. Where multiple wavelengths can be selected in the transilluminator, shorter wavelength can be used to capture images, while longer wavelength should be used if it is necessary to work on the gel for any extended period of time.
The transilluminator apparatus may also contain image capture devices, such as a digital or polaroid camera, that allow an image of the gel to be taken or printed.
For gel electrophoresis of protein, the bands may be visualised with Coomassie or silver stains.
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# Agarose gel electrophoresis
## General procedure {#general_procedure}
### Downstream procedures {#downstream_procedures}
The separated DNA bands are often used for further procedures, and a DNA band may be cut out of the gel as a slice, dissolved and purified. Contaminants however may affect some downstream procedures such as PCR, and low melting point agarose may be preferred in some cases as it contains fewer of the sulfates that can affect some enzymatic reactions. The gels may also be used for blotting techniques.
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# Agarose gel electrophoresis
## Buffers
In general, the ideal buffer should have good conductivity, produce less heat and have a long life. There are a number of buffers used for agarose electrophoresis; common ones for nucleic acids include tris/acetate/EDTA (TAE) and tris/borate/EDTA (TBE). The buffers used contain EDTA to inactivate many nucleases which require divalent cation for their function. The borate in TBE buffer can be problematic as borate can polymerize, and/or interact with cis diols such as those found in RNA. TAE has the lowest buffering capacity, but it provides the best resolution for larger DNA. This means a lower voltage and more time, but a better product.
Many other buffers have been proposed, e.g. lithium borate (LB), iso electric histidine, pK matched goods buffers, etc.; in most cases the purported rationale is lower current (less heat) and or matched ion mobilities, which leads to longer buffer life. Tris-phosphate buffer has high buffering capacity but cannot be used if DNA extracted is to be used in phosphate sensitive reaction. LB is relatively new and is ineffective in resolving fragments larger than 5 kbp; However, with its low conductivity, a much higher voltage could be used (up to 35 V/cm), which means a shorter analysis time for routine electrophoresis. As low as one base pair size difference could be resolved in 3% agarose gel with an extremely low conductivity medium (1 mM lithium borate).
Other buffering system may be used in specific applications, for example, barbituric acid-sodium barbiturate or tris-barbiturate buffers may be used for in agarose gel electrophoresis of proteins, for example in the detection of abnormal distribution of proteins.
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# Agarose gel electrophoresis
## Applications
- Estimation of the size of DNA molecules following digestion with restriction enzymes, e.g., in restriction mapping of cloned DNA.
- Estimation of the DNA concentration by comparing the intensity of the nucleic acid band with the corresponding band of the size marker.
- Analysis of products of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), e.g., in molecular genetic diagnosis or genetic fingerprinting
- Separation of DNA fragments for extraction and purification.
- Separation of restricted genomic DNA prior to Southern transfer, or of RNA prior to Northern transfer.
- Separation of proteins, for example, screening of protein abnormalities in clinical chemistry.
Agarose gels are easily cast and handled compared to other matrices and nucleic acids are not chemically altered during electrophoresis. Samples are also easily recovered. After the experiment is finished, the resulting gel can be stored in a plastic bag in a refrigerator.
Electrophoresis is performed in buffer solutions to reduce pH changes due to the electric field, which is important because the charge of DNA and RNA depends on pH, but running for too long can exhaust the buffering capacity of the solution. Further, different preparations of genetic material may not migrate consistently with each other, for morphological or other reasons
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# Ampicillin
\| width2 = 180 \| alt2 =
\| pronounce = \| tradename = Principen, others \| Drugs.com = `{{drugs.com|monograph|ampicillin}}`{=mediawiki} \| MedlinePlus = a685002 \| DailyMedID = Ampicillin \| pregnancy_AU = A \| pregnancy_AU_comment = \| pregnancy_category = \| routes_of_administration = By mouth, intravenous, intramuscular \| class = Aminopenicillins \| ATC_prefix = J01 \| ATC_suffix = CA01 \| ATC_supplemental = `{{ATC|S01|AA19}}`{=mediawiki} `{{ATCvet|J51|CA01}}`{=mediawiki} `{{ATC|J01|CR50}}`{=mediawiki} `{{ATC|J01|CA51}}`{=mediawiki}
\| legal_AU = S4 \| legal_AU_comment = \| legal_BR = \| legal_BR_comment = \| legal_CA = Rx-only \| legal_CA_comment = \| legal_DE = \| legal_DE_comment = \| legal_NZ = \| legal_NZ_comment = \| legal_UK = POM \| legal_UK_comment = \| legal_US = Rx-only \| legal_US_comment = \| legal_UN = \| legal_UN_comment = \| legal_status =
\| bioavailability = 62% ±17% (parenteral)\
\< 30--55% (oral) \| protein_bound = 15 to 25% \| metabolism = 12 to 50% \| metabolites = Penicilloic acid \| onset = \| elimination_half-life = Approx. 1 hour \| duration_of_action = \| excretion = 75 to 85% kidney
\| CAS_number_Ref = `{{cascite|correct|??}}`{=mediawiki} \| CAS_number = 69-53-4 \| CAS_supplemental = \| PubChem = 6249 \| IUPHAR_ligand = \| DrugBank_Ref = `{{drugbankcite|correct|drugbank}}`{=mediawiki} \| DrugBank = DB00415 \| ChemSpiderID_Ref = `{{chemspidercite|correct|chemspider}}`{=mediawiki} \| ChemSpiderID = 6013 \| UNII_Ref = `{{fdacite|correct|FDA}}`{=mediawiki} \| UNII = 7C782967RD \| KEGG_Ref = `{{keggcite|correct|kegg}}`{=mediawiki} \| KEGG = D00204 \| KEGG2_Ref = `{{keggcite|correct|kegg}}`{=mediawiki} \| KEGG2 = C06574 \| ChEBI_Ref = `{{ebicite|correct|EBI}}`{=mediawiki} \| ChEBI = 28971 \| ChEMBL_Ref = `{{ebicite|correct|EBI}}`{=mediawiki} \| ChEMBL = 174 \| NIAID_ChemDB = \| PDB_ligand = AIC \| synonyms = AM/AMP
\| IUPAC_name = (2*S*,5*R*,6*R*)-6-(\[(2*R*)-2-Amino-2-phenylacetyl\]amino)-3,3-dimethyl-7-oxo-4-thia-1-azabicyclo\[3.2.0\]heptane-2-carboxylic acid \| C = 16 \| H = 19 \| N = 3 \| O = 4 \| S = 1 \| SMILES = CC1(C(N2C(S1)C(C2=O)NC(=O)C(C3=CC=CC=C3)N)C(=O)O)C \| StdInChI_Ref = `{{stdinchicite|correct|chemspider}}`{=mediawiki} \| StdInChI = 1S/C16H19N3O4S/c1-16(2)11(15(22)23)19-13(21)10(14(19)24-16)18-12(20)9(17)8-6-4-3-5-7-8/h3-7,9-11,14H,17H2,1-2H3,(H,18,20)(H,22,23)/t9-,10-,11+,14-/m1/s1 \| StdInChI_comment = \| StdInChIKey_Ref = `{{stdinchicite|correct|chemspider}}`{=mediawiki} \| StdInChIKey = AVKUERGKIZMTKX-NJBDSQKTSA-N \| density = \| density_notes = \| melting_point = \| melting_high = \| melting_notes = \| boiling_point = \| boiling_notes = \| solubility = \| sol_units = \| specific_rotation = }}
**Ampicillin** is an antibiotic belonging to the aminopenicillin class of the penicillin family. The drug is used to prevent and treat several bacterial infections, such as respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, meningitis, salmonellosis, and endocarditis. It may also be used to prevent group B streptococcal infection in newborns. It is used by mouth, by injection into a muscle, or intravenously.
Common side effects include rash, nausea, and diarrhea. It should not be used in people who are allergic to penicillin. Serious side effects may include *Clostridioides difficile* colitis or anaphylaxis. While usable in those with kidney problems, the dose may need to be decreased. Its use during pregnancy and breastfeeding appears to be generally safe.
Ampicillin was discovered in 1958 and came into commercial use in 1961. It is on the World Health Organization\'s List of Essential Medicines. The World Health Organization classifies ampicillin as critically important for human medicine. It is available as a generic medication.
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# Ampicillin
## Medical uses {#medical_uses}
### Diseases
- Bacterial meningitis; an aminoglycoside can be added to increase efficacy against gram-negative meningitis bacteria
- Endocarditis by enterococcal strains (off-label use); often given with an aminoglycoside
- Gastrointestinal infections caused by contaminated water or food (for example, by *Salmonella*)
- Genito-urinary tract infections
- Healthcare-associated infections that are related to infections from using urinary catheters and that are unresponsive to other medications
- Otitis media (middle ear infection)
- Prophylaxis (i.e. to prevent infection) in those who previously had rheumatic heart disease or are undergoing dental procedures, vaginal hysterectomies, or C-sections. It is also used in pregnant woman who are carriers of group B streptococci to prevent early-onset neonatal infections.
- Respiratory infections, including bronchitis, pharyngitis
- Sinusitis
- Sepsis
- Whooping cough, to prevent and treat secondary infections
Ampicillin used to also be used to treat gonorrhea, but there are now too many strains resistant to penicillins.
### Bacteria
Ampicillin is used to treat infections by many gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. It was the first \"broad spectrum\" penicillin with activity against gram-positive bacteria, including *Streptococcus pneumoniae*, *Streptococcus pyogenes*, some isolates of *Staphylococcus aureus* (but not penicillin-resistant or methicillin-resistant strains), *Trueperella*, and some *Enterococcus*. It is one of the few antibiotics that works against multidrug resistant *Enterococcus faecalis* and *E. faecium*. Activity against gram-negative bacteria includes *Neisseria meningitidis*, some *Haemophilus influenzae*, and some of the Enterobacteriaceae (though most Enterobacteriaceae and *Pseudomonas* are resistant). Its spectrum of activity is enhanced by co-administration of sulbactam, a drug that inhibits beta lactamase, an enzyme produced by bacteria to inactivate ampicillin and related antibiotics. It is sometimes used in combination with other antibiotics that have different mechanisms of action, like vancomycin, linezolid, daptomycin, and tigecycline.
### Available forms {#available_forms}
Ampicillin can be administered by mouth, an intramuscular injection (shot) or by intravenous infusion. The oral form, available as capsules or oral suspensions, is not given as an initial treatment for severe infections, but rather as a follow-up to an IM or IV injection. For IV and IM injections, ampicillin is kept as a powder that must be reconstituted.
IV injections must be given slowly, as rapid IV injections can lead to convulsive seizures.
### Specific populations {#specific_populations}
Ampicillin is one of the most used drugs in pregnancy, and has been found to be generally harmless both by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. (which classified it as category B) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia (which classified it as category A). It is the drug of choice for treating *Listeria monocytogenes* in pregnant women, either alone or combined with an aminoglycoside. Pregnancy increases the clearance of ampicillin by up to 50%, and a higher dose is thus needed to reach therapeutic levels.
Ampicillin crosses the placenta and remains in the amniotic fluid at 50--100% of the concentration in maternal plasma; this can lead to high concentrations of ampicillin in the newborn.
While lactating mothers secrete some ampicillin into their breast milk, the amount is minimal.
In newborns, ampicillin has a longer half-life and lower plasma protein binding. The clearance by the kidneys is lower, as kidney function has not fully developed.
## Contraindications
Ampicillin is contraindicated in those with a hypersensitivity to penicillins, as they can cause fatal anaphylactic reactions. Hypersensitivity reactions can include frequent skin rashes and hives, exfoliative dermatitis, erythema multiforme, and a temporary decrease in both red and white blood cells.
Ampicillin is not recommended in people with concurrent mononucleosis, as over 40% of patients develop a skin rash.
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# Ampicillin
## Side effects {#side_effects}
Ampicillin is comparatively less toxic than other antibiotics, and side effects are more likely in those who are sensitive to penicillins and those with a history of asthma or allergies. In very rare cases, it causes severe side effects such as angioedema, anaphylaxis, and *C. difficile* infection (that can range from mild diarrhea to serious pseudomembranous colitis). Some develop black \"furry\" tongue. Serious adverse effects also include seizures and serum sickness. The most common side effects, experienced by about 10% of users are diarrhea and rash. Less common side effects can be nausea, vomiting, itching, and blood dyscrasias. The gastrointestinal effects, such as hairy tongue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and colitis, are more common with the oral form of penicillin. Other conditions may develop up several weeks after treatment.
### Overdose
Ampicillin overdose can cause behavioral changes, confusion, blackouts, and convulsions, as well as neuromuscular hypersensitivity, electrolyte imbalance, and kidney failure.
## Interactions
Ampicillin reacts with probenecid and methotrexate to decrease renal excretion. Large doses of ampicillin can increase the risk of bleeding with concurrent use of warfarin and other oral anticoagulants, possibly by inhibiting platelet aggregation. Ampicillin has been said to make oral contraceptives less effective, but this has been disputed. It can be made less effective by other antibiotic, such as chloramphenicol, erythromycin, cephalosporins, and tetracyclines. For example, tetracyclines inhibit protein synthesis in bacteria, reducing the target against which ampicillin acts. If given at the same time as aminoglycosides, it can bind to it and inactivate it. When administered separately, aminoglycosides and ampicillin can potentiate each other instead.
Ampicillin causes skin rashes more often when given with allopurinol.
Both the live cholera vaccine and live typhoid vaccine can be made ineffective if given with ampicillin. Ampicillin is normally used to treat cholera and typhoid fever, lowering the immunological response that the body has to mount.
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# Ampicillin
## Pharmacology
### Mechanism of action {#mechanism_of_action}
Ampicillin is in the penicillin group of beta-lactam antibiotics and is part of the aminopenicillin family. It is roughly equivalent to amoxicillin in terms of activity. Ampicillin is able to penetrate gram-positive and some gram-negative bacteria. It differs from penicillin G, or benzylpenicillin, only by the presence of an amino group. This amino group, present on both ampicillin and amoxicillin, helps these antibiotics pass through the pores of the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria, such as *Escherichia coli*, *Proteus mirabilis*, *Salmonella enterica*, and *Shigella*.
Ampicillin acts as an irreversible inhibitor of the enzyme transpeptidase, which is needed by bacteria to make the cell wall. It inhibits the third and final stage of bacterial cell wall synthesis in binary fission, which ultimately leads to cell lysis; therefore, ampicillin is usually bacteriolytic.
### Pharmacokinetics
Ampicillin is well-absorbed from the GI tract (though food reduces its absorption), and reaches peak concentrations in one to two hours. The bioavailability is around 62% for parenteral routes. Unlike other penicillins, which usually bind 60--90% to plasma proteins, ampicillin binds to only 15--20%.
Ampicillin is distributed through most tissues, though it is concentrated in the liver and kidneys. It can also be found in the cerebrospinal fluid when the meninges become inflamed (such as, for example, meningitis). Some ampicillin is metabolized by hydrolyzing the beta-lactam ring to penicilloic acid, though most of it is excreted unchanged. In the kidneys, it is filtered out mostly by tubular secretion; some also undergoes glomerular filtration, and the rest is excreted in the feces and bile.
Hetacillin and pivampicillin are ampicillin esters that have been developed to increase bioavailability.
## History
Ampicillin has been used extensively to treat bacterial infections since 1961. Until the introduction of ampicillin by the British company Beecham, penicillin therapies had only been effective against gram-positive organisms such as staphylococci and streptococci. Ampicillin (originally branded as \"Penbritin\") also demonstrated activity against gram-negative organisms such as *H. influenzae*, coliforms, and *Proteus* spp.
## Society and culture {#society_and_culture}
### Economics
Ampicillin is relatively inexpensive. In the United States, it is available as a generic medication.
## Veterinary use {#veterinary_use}
In veterinary medicine, ampicillin is used in cats, dogs, and farm animals to treat:
- Anal gland infections
- Cutaneous infections, such as abscesses, cellulitis, and pustular dermatitis
- *E. coli* and *Salmonella* infections in cattle, sheep, and goats (oral form). Ampicillin use for this purpose had declined as bacterial resistance has increased.
- Mastitis in sows
- Mixed aerobic--anaerobic infections, such as from cat bites
- Multidrug-resistant *Enterococcus faecalis* and *E. faecium*
- Prophylactic use in poultry against *Salmonella* and sepsis from *E. coli* or *Staphylococcus aureus*
- Respiratory tract infections, including tonsilitis, bovine respiratory disease, shipping fever, bronchopneumonia, and calf and bovine pneumonia
- Urinary tract infections in dogs
Horses are generally not treated with oral ampicillin, as they have low bioavailability of beta-lactams.
The half-life in animals is around that same of that in humans (just over an hour). Oral absorption is less than 50% in cats and dogs, and less than 4% in horses
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# Antigen
In immunology, an **antigen** (**Ag**) is a molecule, moiety, foreign particulate matter, or an allergen, such as pollen, that can bind to a specific antibody or T-cell receptor. The presence of antigens in the body may trigger an immune response.
Antigens can be proteins, peptides (amino acid chains), polysaccharides (chains of simple sugars), lipids, or nucleic acids. Antigens exist on normal cells, cancer cells, parasites, viruses, fungi, and bacteria.
Antigens are recognized by antigen receptors, including antibodies and T-cell receptors. Diverse antigen receptors are made by cells of the immune system so that each cell has a specificity for a single antigen. Upon exposure to an antigen, only the lymphocytes that recognize that antigen are activated and expanded, a process known as clonal selection. In most cases, antibodies are *antigen-specific*, meaning that an antibody can only react to and bind one specific antigen; in some instances, however, antibodies may cross-react to bind more than one antigen. The reaction between an antigen and an antibody is called the antigen-antibody reaction.
Antigen can originate either from within the body (\"self-protein\" or \"self antigens\") or from the external environment (\"non-self\"). The immune system identifies and attacks \"non-self\" external antigens. Antibodies usually do not react with self-antigens due to negative selection of T cells in the thymus and B cells in the bone marrow. The diseases in which antibodies react with self antigens and damage the body\'s own cells are called autoimmune diseases.
Vaccines are examples of antigens in an immunogenic form, which are intentionally administered to a recipient to induce the memory function of the adaptive immune system towards antigens of the pathogen invading that recipient. The vaccine for seasonal influenza is a common example.
## Etymology
Paul Ehrlich coined the term *antibody* (*Antikörper*) in his side-chain theory at the end of the 19th century. In 1899, Ladislas Deutsch (László Detre) named the hypothetical substances halfway between bacterial constituents and antibodies \"antigenic or immunogenic substances\" (*substances immunogènes ou antigènes*). He originally believed those substances to be precursors of antibodies, just as a zymogen is a precursor of an enzyme. But, by 1903, he understood that an antigen induces the production of immune bodies (antibodies) and wrote that the word *antigen* is a contraction of antisomatogen (*Immunkörperbildner*). The *Oxford English Dictionary* indicates that the logical construction should be \"anti(body)-gen\". The term originally referred to a substance that acts as an antibody generator.
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# Antigen
## Terminology
- Epitope -- the distinct surface features of an, its *antigenic determinant*.\
Antigenic molecules, normally \"large\" biological polymers, usually present surface features that can act as points of interaction for specific antibodies. Any such feature constitutes an epitope. Most antigens have the potential to be bound by multiple antibodies, each of which is specific to one of the antigen\'s epitopes. Using the \"lock and key\" metaphor, the antigen can be seen as a string of keys (epitopes) each of which matches a different lock (antibody). Different antibody idiotypes, each have distinctly formed complementarity-determining regions.
- Allergen -- A substance capable of causing an allergic reaction. The (detrimental) reaction may result after exposure via ingestion, inhalation, injection, or contact with skin.
- Superantigen -- A class of antigens that cause non-specific activation of T-cells, resulting in polyclonal T-cell activation and massive cytokine release.
- Tolerogen -- A substance that invokes a specific immune non-responsiveness due to its molecular form. If its molecular form is changed, a tolerogen can become an immunogen.
- Immunoglobulin-binding protein -- Proteins such as protein A, protein G, and protein L that are capable of binding to antibodies at positions outside of the antigen-binding site. While antigens are the \"target\" of antibodies, immunoglobulin-binding proteins \"attack\" antibodies.
- T-dependent antigen -- Antigens that require the assistance of T cells to induce the formation of specific antibodies.
- T-independent antigen -- Antigens that stimulate B cells directly.
- Immunodominant antigens -- Antigens that dominate (over all others from a pathogen) in their ability to produce an immune response. T cell responses typically are directed against a relatively few immunodominant epitopes, although in some cases (e.g., infection with the malaria pathogen *Plasmodium spp.*) it is dispersed over a relatively large number of parasite antigens.
Antigen-presenting cells present antigens in the form of peptides on histocompatibility molecules. The T cells selectively recognize the antigens; depending on the antigen and the type of the histocompatibility molecule, different types of T cells will be activated. For T-cell receptor (TCR) recognition, the peptide must be processed into small fragments inside the cell and presented by a major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The antigen cannot elicit the immune response without the help of an immunologic adjuvant. Similarly, the adjuvant component of vaccines plays an essential role in the activation of the innate immune system.
An immunogen is an antigen substance (or adduct) that is able to trigger a humoral (innate) or cell-mediated immune response. It first initiates an innate immune response, which then causes the activation of the adaptive immune response. An antigen binds the highly variable immunoreceptor products (B-cell receptor or T-cell receptor) once these have been generated. Immunogens are those antigens, termed immunogenic, capable of inducing an immune response.
At the molecular level, an antigen can be characterized by its ability to bind to an antibody\'s paratopes. Different antibodies have the potential to discriminate among specific epitopes present on the antigen surface. A hapten is a small molecule that can only induce an immune response when attached to a larger carrier molecule, such as a protein. Antigens can be proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, nucleic acids or other biomolecules. This includes parts (coats, capsules, cell walls, flagella, fimbriae, and toxins) of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms. Non-microbial non-self antigens can include pollen, egg white, and proteins from transplanted tissues and organs or on the surface of transfused blood cells.
## Antigenic specificity {#antigenic_specificity}
Antigenic specificity is the ability of the host cells to recognize an antigen specifically as a unique molecular entity and distinguish it from another with exquisite precision. Antigen specificity is due primarily to the side-chain conformations of the antigen. It is measurable and need not be linear or of a rate-limited step or equation. Both T cells and B cells are cellular components of adaptive immunity
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# Andreas Capellanus
**Andreas Capellanus** (*Capellanus* meaning \"chaplain\"), also known as **Andrew the Chaplain** (`{{fl.|{{circa}} 1185}}`{=mediawiki}), and occasionally by a French translation of his name, **André le Chapelain**, was the 12th-century author of a treatise commonly known as *De amore* (\"About Love\"), and often known in English, somewhat misleadingly, as *The Art of Courtly Love*, though its realistic, somewhat cynical tone suggests that it is in some measure an antidote to courtly love. Little is known of Andreas Capellanus\'s life, but he is presumed to have been a courtier of Marie de Champagne, and probably of French origin.
## His work {#his_work}
*De Amore* was written at the request of Marie de Champagne, daughter of King Louis VII of France and of Eleanor of Aquitaine. In it, the author informs a young pupil, Walter, of the pitfalls of love. A dismissive allusion in the text to the \"wealth of Hungary\" has suggested the hypothesis that it was written after 1184, at the time when Bela III of Hungary had sent to the French court a statement of his income and had proposed marriage to Marie\'s half-sister Marguerite of France, but before 1186, when his proposal was accepted.
*De Amore* is made up of three books. The first book covers the etymology and definition of love and is written in the manner of an academic lecture. The second book consists of sample dialogues between members of different social classes; it outlines how the romantic process between the classes should work. This second work is largely considered to be an inferior to the first. Book three is made of stories from actual courts of love presided over by noble women.
John Jay Parry, the editor of one modern edition of *De Amore*, quotes critic Robert Bossuat as describing *De Amore* as \"one of those capital works which reflect the thought of a great epoch, which explains the secret of a civilization\". It may be viewed as didactic, mocking, or merely descriptive; in any event it preserves the attitudes and practices that were the foundation of a long and significant tradition in Western literature.
The social system of \"courtly love\", as gradually elaborated by the Provençal troubadours from the mid twelfth century, soon spread. One of the circles in which this poetry and its ethic were cultivated was the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine (herself the granddaughter of an early troubadour poet, William IX of Aquitaine). *De Amore* codifies the social and love life of Eleanor\'s court at Poitiers between 1170 and 1174, though it was evidently written at least ten years later and, apparently, at Troyes. It deals with several specific themes that were the subject of poetical debate among late twelfth century troubadours and trobairitz.
The meaning of *De Amore* has been debated over the centuries. In the years immediately following its release many people took Andreas\' opinions concerning Courtly Love seriously. In more recent times, however, scholars have come to view the priest\'s work as satirical. Many scholars now agree that Andreas was commenting on the materialistic, superficial nature of medieval nobles. Andreas seems to have been warning young Walter, his protégé, about love in the Middle Ages
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# Apollo 12
**Apollo 12** (November 14--24, 1969) was the sixth crewed flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. It was launched on November 14, 1969, by NASA from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Commander Charles \"Pete\" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean completed just over one day and seven hours of lunar surface activity while Command Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon remained in lunar orbit.
Apollo 12 would have attempted the first lunar landing had Apollo 11 failed, but after the success of the earlier mission, Apollo 12 was postponed by two months, and other Apollo missions also put on a more relaxed schedule. More time was allotted for geologic training in preparation for Apollo 12 than for Apollo 11, Conrad and Bean making several geology field trips in preparation for their mission. Apollo 12\'s spacecraft and launch vehicle were almost identical to Apollo 11\'s. One addition was a set of hammocks, designed to provide Conrad and Bean with a more comfortable resting arrangement inside the Lunar Module during their stay on the Moon.
Shortly after being launched on a rainy day at Kennedy Space Center, Apollo 12 was twice struck by lightning, causing instrumentation problems but little damage. The crew found that switching to the auxiliary power supply resolved the data relay problem, which helped save the mission. The outward journey to the Moon otherwise saw few problems. On November 19, Conrad and Bean achieved a precise landing at their expected location within walking distance of the Surveyor 3 robotic probe, which had landed on April 20, 1967. In making a pinpoint landing, they showed that NASA could plan future missions in the expectation that astronauts could land close to sites of scientific interest. Conrad and Bean carried the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, a group of nuclear-powered scientific instruments, as well as the first color television camera taken by an Apollo mission to the lunar surface, but transmission was lost after Bean accidentally pointed the camera at the Sun and its sensor was burned out. On the second of two moonwalks, they visited Surveyor 3 and removed parts for return to Earth.
Lunar Module *Intrepid* lifted off from the Moon on November 20 and docked with the command module, which subsequently traveled back to Earth. The Apollo 12 mission ended on November 24 with a splashdown.
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# Apollo 12
## Crew and key Mission Control personnel {#crew_and_key_mission_control_personnel}
The commander of the all-Navy Apollo 12 crew was Charles \"Pete\" Conrad, who was 39 years old at the time of the mission. After receiving a bachelor\'s degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton University in 1953, he became a naval aviator, and completed United States Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River Naval Air Station. He was selected in the second group of astronauts in 1962, and flew on Gemini 5 in 1965, and as command pilot of Gemini 11 in 1966. Command Module Pilot Richard \"Dick\" Gordon, 40 years old at the time of Apollo 12, also became a naval aviator in 1953, following graduation from the University of Washington with a degree in chemistry, and completed test pilot school at Patuxent River. Selected as a Group 3 astronaut in 1963, he flew with Conrad on Gemini 11.
The original Lunar Module pilot assigned to work with Conrad was Clifton C. Williams Jr., who was killed in October 1967 when the T-38 he was flying crashed near Tallahassee. When forming his crew, Conrad had wanted Alan L. Bean, a former student of his at the test pilot school, but had been told by Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton that Bean was unavailable due to an assignment to the Apollo Applications Program. After Williams\'s death, Conrad asked for Bean again, and this time Slayton yielded. Bean, 37 years old when the mission flew, had graduated from the University of Texas in 1955 with a degree in aeronautical engineering. Also a naval aviator, he was selected alongside Gordon in 1963, and first flew in space on Apollo 12. The three Apollo 12 crew members had backed up Apollo 9 earlier in 1969.
The Apollo 12 backup crew was David R. Scott as commander, Alfred M. Worden as Command Module pilot, and James B. Irwin as Lunar Module pilot. They became the crew of Apollo 15. For Apollo, a third crew of astronauts, known as the support crew, was designated in addition to the prime and backup crews used on projects Mercury and Gemini. Slayton created the support crews because James McDivitt, who would command Apollo 9, believed that, with preparation going on in facilities across the US, meetings that needed a member of the flight crew would be missed. Support crew members were to assist as directed by the mission commander. Usually low in seniority, they assembled the mission\'s rules, flight plan, and checklists, and kept them updated; For Apollo 12, they were Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson and Paul J. Weitz. Flight directors were Gerry Griffin, first shift, Pete Frank, second shift, Clifford E. Charlesworth, third shift, and Milton Windler, fourth shift. Flight directors during Apollo had a one-sentence job description, \"The flight director may take any actions necessary for crew safety and mission success.\" Capsule communicators (CAPCOMs) were Scott, Worden, Irwin, Carr, Gibson, Weitz and Don Lind.
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# Apollo 12
## Preparation
### Site selection {#site_selection}
The landing site selection process for Apollo 12 was greatly informed by the site selection for Apollo 11. There were rigid standards for the possible Apollo 11 landing sites, in which scientific interest was not a major factor: they had to be close to the lunar equator and not on the periphery of the portion of the lunar surface visible from Earth; they had to be relatively flat and without major obstructions along the path the Lunar Module (LM) would fly to reach them, their suitability confirmed by photographs from Lunar Orbiter probes. Also desirable was the presence of another suitable site further west in case the mission was delayed, and the Sun would have risen too high in the sky at the original site for desired lighting conditions. The need for three days to recycle if a launch had to be scrubbed meant that only three of the five suitable sites found were designated as potential landing sites for Apollo 11, of which the Apollo 11 landing site in the Sea of Tranquility was the easternmost. Since Apollo 12 was to attempt the first lunar landing if Apollo 11 failed, both sets of astronauts trained for the same sites.
With the success of Apollo 11, it was initially contemplated that Apollo 12 would land at the site next further west from the Sea of Tranquility, in Sinus Medii. However, NASA planning coordinator Jack Sevier and engineers at the Manned Spaceflight Center at Houston argued for a landing close enough to the crater in which the Surveyor 3 probe had landed in 1967 to allow the astronauts to cut parts from it for return to Earth. The site was otherwise suitable and had scientific interest. Given that Apollo 11 had landed several miles off-target, though, some NASA administrators feared Apollo 12 would land far enough away that the astronauts could not reach the probe, and the agency would be embarrassed. Nevertheless, the ability to perform pinpoint landings was essential if Apollo\'s exploration program was to be carried out, and on July 25, 1969, Apollo Program Manager Samuel Phillips designated what became known as Surveyor crater as the landing site, despite the unanimous opposition of members of two site selection boards.
To locate Surveyor 3, NASA invited Ewen Whitaker, who together with Gerard Kuiper worked on multiple Moon atlases. Whitaker had found the Surveyor 1 landing site with better precision than NASA. By studying images from Surveyor 3 and comparing them with photographs of thousands of similar craters under the microscope, he identified two rocks near Surveyor 3, that led to the identification of the probe\'s location.
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# Apollo 12
## Preparation
### Training and preparation {#training_and_preparation}
The Apollo 12 astronauts spent five hours in mission-specific training for every hour they expected to spend in flight on the mission, a total exceeding 1,000 hours per crew member. Conrad and Bean received more mission-specific training than Apollo 11\'s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had. This was in addition to the 1,500 hours of training they received as backup crew members for Apollo 9. The Apollo 12 training included over 400 hours per crew member in simulators of the Command Module (CM) and of the LM. Some of the simulations were linked in real time to flight controllers in Mission Control. To practice landing on the Moon, Conrad flew the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV), training in which continued to be authorized even though Armstrong had been forced to bail out of a similar vehicle in 1968, just before it crashed.
Soon after being assigned as Apollo 12 crew commander, Conrad met with NASA geologists and told them that the training for lunar surface activities would be conducted much as Apollo 11\'s, but there was to be no publicity or involvement by the media. Conrad felt he had been abused by the press during Gemini, and the sole Apollo 11 geology field trip had turned into a near-fiasco, with a large media contingent present, some getting in the way---the astronauts had trouble hearing each other due to a hovering press helicopter. After the return of Apollo 11 in July 1969, more time was allotted for geology, but the astronauts\' focus was on getting time in the simulators without being preempted by the Apollo 11 crew. On the six Apollo 12 geology field trips, the astronauts would practice as if on the Moon, collecting samples and documenting them with photographs, while communicating with a CAPCOM and geologists who were out of sight in a nearby tent. Afterwards, the astronauts\' performance in choosing samples and taking photographs would be critiqued. To the frustration of the astronauts, the scientists kept changing the photo documentation procedures; after the fourth or fifth such change, Conrad required that there be no more. After the return of Apollo 11, the Apollo 12 crew was able to view the lunar samples, and be briefed on them by scientists.
As Apollo 11 was targeted for an ellipse-shaped landing zone, rather than at a specific point, there was no planning for geology traverses, the designated tasks to be done at sites of the crew\'s choosing. For Apollo 12, before the mission, some of NASA\'s geology team met with the crew and Conrad suggested they lay out possible routes for him and Bean. The result was four traverses, based on four potential landing points for the LM. This was the start of geology traverse planning that on later missions became a considerable effort involving several organizations.
The stages of the lunar module, LM--6, were delivered to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on March 24, 1969, and were mated to each other on April 28. Command module CM--108 and service module SM--108 were delivered to KSC on March 28, and were mated to each other on April 21. Following installation of gear and testing, the launch vehicle, with the spacecraft atop it, was rolled out to Launch Complex 39A on September 8, 1969. The training schedule was complete, as planned, by November 1, 1969; activities after that date were intended as refreshers. The crew members felt that the training, for the most part, was adequate preparation for the Moon mission.
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# Apollo 12
## Hardware
### Launch vehicle {#launch_vehicle}
There were no significant changes to the Saturn V launch vehicle used on Apollo 12, SA--507, from that used on Apollo 11. There were another 17 instrumentation measurements in the Apollo 12 launch vehicle, bringing the number to 1,365. The entire vehicle, including the spacecraft, weighed 6,487,742 lb at launch, an increase from Apollo 11\'s 6,477,875 lb. Of this figure, the spacecraft weighed 110,044 lb, up from 109,646 lb on Apollo 11.
#### Third stage trajectory {#third_stage_trajectory}
After LM separation, the third stage of the Saturn V, the S-IVB, was intended to fly into solar orbit. The S-IVB auxiliary propulsion system was fired, with the intent that the Moon\'s gravity would slingshot the stage into solar orbit. Due to an error, the S-IVB flew past the Moon at too high an altitude to achieve Earth escape velocity. It remained in a semi-stable Earth orbit until it finally escaped Earth orbit in 1971, but briefly returned to Earth orbit 31 years later. It was discovered by amateur astronomer Bill Yeung who gave it the temporary designation J002E3 before it was determined to be an artificial object. Again in solar orbit as of 2021, it may again be captured by Earth\'s gravity, but not at least until the 2040s. The S-IVBs used on later lunar missions were deliberately crashed into the Moon to create seismic events that would register on the seismometers left on the Moon and provide data about the Moon\'s structure.
### Spacecraft
The Apollo 12 spacecraft consisted of Command Module 108 and Service Module 108 (together Command and Service Modules 108, or CSM--108), Lunar Module 6 (LM--6), a Launch Escape System (LES), and Spacecraft-Lunar Module Adapter 15 (SLA--15). The LES contained three rocket motors to propel the CM to safety in the event of an abort shortly after launch, while the SLA housed the LM and provided a structural connection between the Saturn V and the LM. The SLA was identical to Apollo 11\'s, while the LES differed only in the installation of a more reliable motor igniter.
The CSM was given the call sign *Yankee Clipper*, while the LM had the call sign *Intrepid*. These sea-related names were selected by the all-Navy crew from several thousand proposed names submitted by employees of the prime contractors of the respective modules. George Glacken, a flight test engineer at North American Aviation, builder of the CSM, proposed *Yankee Clipper* as such ships had \"majestically sailed the high seas with pride and prestige for a new America\". *Intrepid* was from a suggestion by Robert Lambert, a planner at Grumman, builder of the LM, as evocative of \"this nation\'s resolute determination for continued exploration of space, stressing our astronauts\' fortitude and endurance of hardship\".
The differences between the CSM and LM of Apollo 11, and those of Apollo 12, were few and minor. A hydrogen separator was added to the CSM to stop the gas from entering the potable water tank---Apollo 11 had had one, though mounted on the water dispenser in the CM\'s cabin. Gaseous hydrogen in the water had given the Apollo 11 crew severe flatulence. Other changes included the strengthening of the recovery loop attached following splashdown, meaning that the swimmers recovering the CM would not have to attach an auxiliary loop. LM changes included a structural modification so that scientific experiment packages could be carried for deployment on the lunar surface. Two hammocks were added for greater comfort of the astronauts while resting on the Moon, and a color television camera substituted for the black and white one used on the lunar surface during Apollo 11.
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# Apollo 12
## Hardware
### ALSEP
The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) was a suite of scientific instruments designed to be emplaced on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts, and thereafter operate autonomously, sending data to Earth. Development of the ALSEP was part of NASA\'s response to some scientists who opposed the crewed lunar landing program (they felt that robotic craft could explore the Moon more cheaply) by demonstrating that some tasks, such as deployment of the ALSEP, required humans. In 1966, a contract to design and build the ALSEPs was awarded to the Bendix Corporation. Due to the limited time the Apollo 11 crew would have on the lunar surface, a smaller suite of experiments was flown, known as the Early Apollo Surface Experiment Package (EASEP). Apollo 12 was the first mission to carry an ALSEP; one would be flown on each of the subsequent lunar landing missions, though the components that were included would vary. Apollo 12\'s ALSEP was to be deployed at least 300 ft away from the LM to protect the instruments from the debris that would be generated when the ascent stage of the LM took off to return the astronauts to lunar orbit.
Apollo 12\'s ALSEP included a Lunar Surface Magnetometer (LSM), to measure the magnetic field at the Moon\'s surface, a Lunar Atmosphere Detector (LAD, also known as the Cold Cathode Gauge Experiment), intended to measure the density and temperature of the thin lunar atmosphere and how it varies, a Lunar Ionosphere Detector (LID, also known as the Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment, or SIDE), intended to study the charged particles in the lunar atmosphere, and the Solar Wind Spectrometer, to measure the strength and direction of the solar wind at the Moon\'s surface---the free-standing Solar Wind Composition Experiment, to measure what makes up the solar wind, would be deployed and then brought back to Earth by the astronauts. A Dust Detector was used to measure the accumulation of lunar dust on the equipment. Apollo 12\'s Passive Seismic Experiment (PSE), a seismometer, would measure moonquakes and other movements in the Moon\'s crust, and would be calibrated by the nearby planned impact of the ascent stage of Apollo 12\'s LM, an object of known mass and velocity hitting the Moon at a known location, and projected to be equivalent to the explosive force of one ton of TNT.
The ALSEP experiments left on the Moon by Apollo 12 were connected to a Central Station, which contained a transmitter, receiver, timer, data processor, and equipment for power distribution and control of the experiments. The equipment was powered by SNAP-27, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) developed by the Atomic Energy Commission. Containing plutonium, the RTG flown on Apollo 12 was the first use of atomic energy on a crewed NASA spacecraft---some NASA and military satellites had previously used similar systems. The plutonium core was brought from Earth in a cask attached to an LM landing leg, a container designed to survive re-entry in the event of an aborted mission, something NASA considered unlikely. The cask would survive re-entry on Apollo 13, sinking in the Tonga Trench of the Pacific Ocean, apparently without radioactive leakage.
The Apollo 12 ALSEP experiments were activated from Earth on November 19, 1969. The LAD returned only a small amount of useful data due to the failure of its power supply soon after activation. The LSM was deactivated on June 14, 1974, as was the other LSM deployed on the Moon, from Apollo 15. All powered ALSEP experiments that remained active were deactivated on September 30, 1977, principally because of budgetary constraints.
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# Apollo 12
## Mission highlights {#mission_highlights}
### Launch
With President Richard Nixon in attendance, the first time a current U.S. president had witnessed a crewed space launch, as well as Vice President Spiro Agnew, Apollo 12 launched as planned on November 14, 1969, from the Kennedy Space Center at 16:22:00 UTC (11:22 am EST, local time at the launch site). This was at the start of a launch window of three hours and four minutes to reach the Moon with optimal lighting conditions at the planned landing point. There were completely overcast rainy skies, and the vehicle encountered winds of 151.7 kn during ascent, the strongest of any Apollo mission. There was a NASA rule against launching into a cumulonimbus cloud; this had been waived and it was later determined that the launch vehicle never entered such a cloud. Had the mission been postponed, it could have been launched on November 16 with landing at a backup site where there would be no Surveyor, but since time pressure to achieve a lunar landing had been removed by Apollo 11\'s success, NASA might have waited until December for the next opportunity to go to the Surveyor crater.
Lightning struck the Saturn V 36.5 seconds after lift-off, triggered by the vehicle itself. The static discharge caused a voltage transient that knocked all three fuel cells offline, meaning the spacecraft was being powered entirely from its batteries, which could not supply enough current to meet demand. A second strike at 52 seconds knocked out the \"8-ball\" attitude indicator. The telemetry stream at Mission Control was garbled, but the Saturn V continued to fly normally; the strikes had not affected the Saturn V instrument unit guidance system, which functioned independently from the CSM. The astronauts unexpectedly had a board red with caution and warning lights, but could not tell exactly what was wrong.
The Electrical, Environmental and Consumables Manager (EECOM) in Mission Control, John Aaron, remembered the telemetry failure pattern from an earlier test when a power loss caused a malfunction in the CSM signal conditioning electronics (SCE), which converted raw signals from instrumentation to data that could be displayed on Mission Control\'s consoles, and knew how to fix it. Aaron made a call, \"Flight, EECOM. Try SCE to Aux\", to switch the SCE to a backup power supply. The switch was fairly obscure, and neither Flight Director Gerald Griffin, CAPCOM Gerald P. Carr, nor Conrad knew what it was; Bean, who as LMP was the spacecraft\'s engineer, knew where to find it and threw the switch, after which the telemetry came back online, revealing no significant malfunctions. Bean put the fuel cells back online, and the mission continued. Once in Earth parking orbit, the crew carefully checked out their spacecraft before re-igniting the S-IVB third stage for trans-lunar injection. The lightning strikes caused no serious permanent damage.
Initially, it was feared that the lightning strike could have damaged the explosive bolts that opened the Command Module\'s parachute compartment. The decision was made not to share this with the astronauts and to continue with the flight plan, since they would die if the parachutes failed to deploy, whether following an Earth-orbit abort or upon a return from the Moon, so nothing was to be gained by aborting. The parachutes deployed and functioned normally at the end of the mission.
### Outward journey {#outward_journey}
After systems checks in Earth orbit, performed with great care because of the lightning strikes, the trans-lunar injection burn, made with the S-IVB, took place at 02:47:22.80 into the mission, setting Apollo 12 on course for the Moon. An hour and twenty minutes later, the CSM separated from the S-IVB, after which Gordon performed the transposition, docking, and extraction maneuver to dock with the LM and separate the combined craft from the S-IVB, which was then sent on an attempt to reach solar orbit. The stage fired its engines to leave the vicinity of the spacecraft, a change from Apollo 11, where the SM\'s Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine was used to distance it from the S-IVB.
As there were concerns the LM might have been damaged by the lightning strikes, Conrad and Bean entered it on the first day of flight to check its status, earlier than planned. They found no issues. At 30:52.44.36, the only necessary midcourse correction during the translunar coast was made, placing the craft on a hybrid, non-free-return trajectory. Previous crewed missions to lunar orbit had taken a free-return trajectory, allowing an easy return to Earth if the craft\'s engines did not fire to enter lunar orbit. Apollo 12 was the first crewed spacecraft to take a hybrid free-return trajectory, that would require another burn to return to Earth, but one that could be executed by the LM\'s Descent Propulsion System (DPS) if the SPS failed. The use of a hybrid trajectory allowed more flexibility in mission planning. It for example allowed Apollo 12 to launch in daylight and reach the planned landing spot on schedule. Use of a hybrid trajectory meant that Apollo 12 took 8 hours longer to go from trans-lunar injection to lunar orbit.
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