title: Cockatoo

text: The vocalisations of cockatoos are loud and harsh. They serve a number of functions, including allowing individuals to recognize one another, alerting others of predators, indicating individual moods, maintaining the cohesion of a flock and as warnings when defending nests. The use of calls and number of specific calls varies by species; the Carnaby's black cockatoo has as many as 15 types of call, whereas others, such as Major Mitchell's cockatoo, have fewer. Some, like the gang-gang cockatoo, are comparatively quiet but do have softer growling calls when feeding. In addition to vocalisations, palm cockatoos communicate over large distances by drumming on a dead branch with a stick. Cockatoo species also make a characteristic hissing sound when threatened.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos have a much more restricted range than the true parrots, occurring naturally only in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and some Pacific regions. Eleven of the 21 species exist in the wild only in Australia, while seven species occur only in the islands of the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. No cockatoo species are found in Borneo, despite their presence on nearby Palawan and Sulawesi or many Pacific islands, although fossil remains have been recorded from New Caledonia.


title: Cockatoo

text: Three species occur in both New Guinea and Australia. Some species have widespread distributions, with the galah, for example, occurring over most of Australia, whereas other species have tiny distributions, confined to a small part of the continent, such as the Baudin's black cockatoo of Western Australia or to a small island group, such as the Tanimbar corella, which is restricted to the Tanimbar Islands of Indonesia. Some cockatoos have been introduced accidentally to areas outside their natural range such as New Zealand, Singapore, and Palau, while two Australian corella species have been introduced to parts of the continent where they are not native.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos occupy a wide range of habitats from forests in subalpine regions to mangroves. However, no species is found in all types of habitat. The most widespread species, such as the galah and cockatiel, are open-country specialists that feed on grass seeds. They are often highly mobile fast flyers and are nomadic. Flocks of birds move across large areas of the inland, locating and feeding on seed and other food sources. Drought may force flocks from more arid areas to move further into farming areas. Other cockatoo species, such as the glossy black cockatoo, inhabit woodlands, rainforests, shrublands and even alpine forests. The red-vented cockatoo inhabits mangroves and its absence from northern Luzon may be related to the lack of mangrove forests there. Forest-dwelling cockatoos are generally sedentary, as the food supply is more stable and predictable. Several species have adapted well to human modified habitats and are found in agricultural areas and even busy cities.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos are diurnal and require daylight to find their food. They are not early risers, instead waiting until the sun has warmed their roosting sites before feeding. All species are generally highly social and roost, forage and travel in colourful and noisy flocks. These vary in size depending on availability of food; in times of plenty, flocks are small and number a hundred birds or less, while in droughts or other times of adversity, they may swell up to contain thousands or even tens of thousands of birds; one record from the Kimberley noted a flock of 32,000 little corellas. Species that inhabit open country form larger flocks than those of forested areas.


title: Cockatoo

text: Some species require roosting sites that are located near drinking sites; other species travel great distances between the roosting and feeding sites. Cockatoos have several characteristic methods of bathing; they may hang upside down or fly about in the rain or flutter in wet leaves in the canopy. Cockatoos have a preferred "footedness" analogous to human handedness. Most species are left-footed with 87–100% of individuals using their left feet to eat, but a few species favor their right foot.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos are monogamous breeders, with pair bonds that can last many years. Many birds pair up in flocks before they reach sexual maturity and delay breeding for a year at least. Females breed for the first time anywhere from three to seven years of age and males are often older. Sexual maturity is delayed so birds can develop the skills for raising and parenting young, which is prolonged compared with other birds; the young of some species remain with their parents for up to a year. Cockatoos may also display site fidelity, returning to the same nesting sites in consecutive years. Courtship is generally simple, particularly for established pairs, with the black cockatoos alone engaging in courtship feeding. Established pairs do engage in preening each other, but all forms of courtship drop off after incubation begins, possibly due to the strength of the pair-bond.


title: Cockatoo

text: Like most parrots, the cockatoos are cavity nesters, nesting in holes in trees, which they are unable to excavate themselves. These hollows are formed from decay or destruction of wood by branches breaking off, fungi or insects such as termites or even woodpeckers where their ranges overlap. In many places these holes are scarce and the source of competition, both with other members of the same species and with other species and types of animal. In general, cockatoos choose hollows only a little larger than themselves, hence different-sized species nest in holes of corresponding (and different) sizes. If given the opportunity, cockatoos prefer nesting over above the ground and close to water and food.


title: Cockatoo

text: The nesting hollows are lined with sticks, wood chips and branches with leaves. The eggs of cockatoos are oval and initially white, as their location makes camouflage unnecessary. However, they do become discoloured over the course of incubation. They range in size from in the palm and red-tailed black cockatoos, to in the cockatiel. Clutch size varies within the family, with the palm cockatoo and some other larger cockatoos laying only a single egg and the smaller species laying anywhere between two and eight eggs. Food supply also plays a role in clutch size. Some species can lay a second clutch if the first fails. Around 20% of eggs laid are infertile. The cockatoos' incubation and brooding responsibilities may either be undertaken by the female alone in the case of the black cockatoos or shared amongst the sexes as happens in the other species. In the case of the black cockatoos, the female is provisioned by the male several times a day. The young of all species are born covered in yellowish down, bar the palm cockatoo, whose young are born naked. Cockatoo incubation times are dependent on species size, with the smaller cockatiels having a period of around 20 days and the larger Carnaby's black cockatoo incubating its eggs for up to 29 days.


title: Cockatoo

text: The nestling period also varies by species size, with larger species having longer nestling periods. It is also affected by season and environmental factors and by competition with siblings in species with clutch sizes greater than one. Much of what is known about the nestling period of some species is dependent on aviary studies – aviary cockatiels can fledge after 5 weeks and the large palm cockatoos after 11 weeks. During this period, the young become covered in juvenile plumage while remaining in the hollow. Wings and tail feathers are slow to grow initially but more rapid as the primary feathers appear. Nestlings quickly reach about 80–90% of adult weight about two-thirds of the time through this period, plateauing before they leave the hollow; they fledge at this weight with wing and tail feathers still to grow a little before reaching adult dimensions. Growth rate of the young, as well as numbers fledged, are adversely impacted by reduced food supply and poor weather conditions.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos are versatile feeders and consume a range of mainly vegetable food items. Seeds form a large part of the diet of all species; these are opened with their large and powerful bills. The galahs, corellas and some of the black cockatoos feed primarily on the ground; others feed mostly in trees. The ground-feeding species tend to forage in flocks, which form tight, squabbling groups where seeds are concentrated and dispersed lines where food is more sparsely distributed; they also prefer open areas where visibility is good. The western and long-billed corellas have elongated bills to excavate tubers and roots and the Major Mitchell's cockatoo walks in a circle around the doublegree ("Emex australis") to twist out and remove the underground parts.


title: Cockatoo

text: Many species forage for food in the canopy of trees, taking advantage of serotiny (the storage of a large supply of seed in cones or gumnuts by plant genera such as "Eucalyptus", "Banksia" and "Hakea"), a natural feature of the Australian landscape in dryer regions. These woody fruiting bodies are inaccessible to many species and harvested in the main by parrots, cockatoos and rodents in more tropical regions. The larger cones can be opened by the large bills of cockatoos but are too strong for smaller animals. Many nuts and fruits lie on the end of small branches which are unable to support the weight of the foraging cockatoo, which instead bends the branch towards itself and holds it with its foot.


title: Cockatoo

text: While some cockatoos are generalists taking a wide range of foods, others are specialists. The glossy black cockatoo specialises in the cones of trees of the genus "Allocasuarina", preferring a single species, "A. verticillata". It holds the cones in its foot and shreds them with its powerful bill before removing the seeds with its tongue. Some species take large numbers of insects, particularly when breeding; in fact the bulk of the yellow-tailed black cockatoo's diet is made up of insects. The large bill is used in order to extract grubs and larvae from rotting wood. The amount of time cockatoos have to spend foraging varies with the season. During times of plenty they may need to feed for only a few hours in the day, in the morning and evening, then spend the rest of the day roosting or preening in trees, but during the winter most of the day may be spent foraging. The birds have increased nutritional requirements during the breeding season, so they spend more time foraging for food during this time. Cockatoos have large crops, which allow them to store and digest food for some time after retiring to a tree.


title: Cockatoo

text: The peregrine falcon and little eagle have been reported taking galahs and the wedge-tailed eagle has been observed killing a sulphur-crested cockatoo. Eggs and nestlings are vulnerable to many hazards. Various species of monitor lizard ("Varanus") are able to climb trees and enter hollows. Other predators recorded include the spotted wood owl on Rasa Island in the Philippines; the amethystine python, black butcherbird and rodents including the giant white-tailed rat in Cape York; and brushtail possum on Kangaroo Island. Furthermore, galahs and little corellas competing for nesting space with the glossy black cockatoo on Kangaroo Island have been recorded killing nestlings of the latter species there. Severe storms may also flood hollows drowning the young and termite or borer activity may lead to the internal collapse of nests.


title: Cockatoo

text: Like other parrots, cockatoos can be afflicted by psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD). The viral infection causes feather loss and beak malformation and reduces the bird's overall immunity. Particularly prevalent in sulphur-crested cockatoos, little corellas and galahs, it has been recorded in 14 species of cockatoo to date. Although unlikely to significantly impact on large, healthy populations of birds in the wild, PBFD may pose a high risk to smaller stressed populations.


title: Cockatoo

text: A white cockatoo and a sulphur-crested cockatoo were found to be infected with the protozoon "Haemoproteus" and another sulphur-crested cockatoo had the malaria parasite "Plasmodium" on analysis of faecal samples at Almuñecar ornithological garden in Granada in Spain. Like amazon parrots and macaws, cockatoos frequently develop cloacal papillomas. The relationship with malignancy is unknown, as is the cause, although a parrot papilloma virus has been isolated from a grey parrot with the condition.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos have been shown to learn new skills through social interaction. In New South Wales, researchers and citizen scientists were able to track the spread of lid-flipping skills as cockatoos learned from each other to open garbage bins. Bin-opening spread more quickly to neighbouring suburbs than suburbs further away. In addition, birds in different areas developed their own variants for accomplishing the complex task.


title: Cockatoo

text: Human activities have had positive effects on some species of cockatoo and negative effects on others. Many species of open country have benefited greatly from anthropogenic changes to the landscape, with the great increase in reliable seed food sources, available water and have also adapted well to a diet including foreign foodstuffs. This benefit appears to be restricted to Australian species, as cockatoos favouring open country outside Australia have not become more abundant. Predominantly forest-dwelling species have suffered greatly from habitat destruction; in the main, they appear to have a more specialised diet and have not been able to incorporate exotic food into their diet. A notable exception is the yellow-tailed black cockatoo in eastern Australia.


title: Cockatoo

text: Several species of cockatoo can be serious agricultural pests. They are sometimes controlled by shooting, poisoning or capture followed by gassing. Non-lethal damage mitigation methods used include scaring, habitat manipulation and the provision of decoy food dumps or sacrifice crops to distract them from the main crop. They can be a nuisance in urban areas due to destruction of property. They maintain their bills in the wild by chewing on wood, but in suburbia, they may chew outdoor furniture, door and window frames; soft decorative timbers such as western red cedar are readily demolished. Birds may also target external wiring and fixtures such as solar water heaters, television antennae and satellite dishes. A business in central Melbourne suffered as sulphur-crested cockatoos repeatedly stripped the silicone sealant from the plate glass windows. Galahs and red-tailed black cockatoos have stripped electrical cabling in rural areas and tarpaulin is targeted elsewhere. Outside Australia, the Tanimbar corella is a pest on Yamdena Island where it raids maize crops.


title: Cockatoo

text: In 1995 the Government of the state of Victoria published a report on problems caused by long-billed corellas, sulphur-crested cockatoos and galahs, three species which, along with the little corella, have large and growing populations, having benefited from anthropogenic changes to the landscape. Subsequent to the findings and publication of the report, these three species were declared unprotected by a Governor in Council Order under certain conditions and are allowed to be killed where serious damage is being caused by them to trees, vineyards, orchards, recreational reserves and commercial crops. Damage covered by the report included not only that to cereal crops, fruit and nut orchards and some kinds of vegetable crops but also to houses and communications equipment. The little corella is a declared pest of agriculture in Western Australia, where it is an aviculturally introduced species. The birds damage sorghum, maize, sunflower, chickpeas and other crops. They also defoliate amenity trees in parks and gardens, dig for edible roots and corms on sports grounds and race tracks, as well as chew wiring and household fittings. In South Australia, where flocks can number several thousand birds and the species is listed as unprotected, they are accused of defoliating red gums and other native or ornamental trees used for roosting, damaging tarpaulins on grain bunkers, wiring and flashing on buildings, taking grain from newly seeded paddocks and creating a noise nuisance.


title: Cockatoo

text: Several rare species and subspecies, too, have been recorded as causing problems. The Carnaby's black cockatoo, a threatened Western Australian endemic, has been considered a pest in pine plantations where the birds chew off the leading shoots of growing pine trees, resulting in bent trunks and reduced timber value. They are also known to damage nut and fruit crops, and have learnt to exploit canola crops. The Baudin's black cockatoo, also endemic to the south-west of Western Australia, can be a pest in apple and pear orchards where it destroys the fruit to extract the seeds. Muir's corella, the nominate subspecies of the western corella, is also a declared pest of agriculture in Western Australia, as well as being nationally vulnerable and listed under state legislation as being "rare or likely to become extinct".


title: Cockatoo

text: According to the IUCN and BirdLife International, seven species of cockatoo are considered to be vulnerable or worse and one is considered to be near-threatened. Of these, two species—the red-vented cockatoo and the yellow-crested cockatoo—are considered to be critically endangered.


title: Cockatoo

text: The principal threats to cockatoos are habitat loss and the wildlife trade. All cockatoos are dependent on trees for nesting and are vulnerable to their loss; in addition many species have specialised habitat requirements or live on small islands and have naturally small ranges, making them vulnerable to the loss of these habitats. Cockatoos are popular as pets and the capture and trade has threatened some species; between 1983 and 1990, 66,654 recorded salmon-crested cockatoos were exported from Indonesia, a figure that does not include the number of birds caught for the domestic trade or that were exported illegally. The capture of many species has subsequently been banned but the trade continues illegally. Birds are put in crates or bamboo tubing and conveyed on boats out of Indonesia and the Philippines. Not only are the rare species smuggled out of Indonesia but also common and rare cockatoos alike are smuggled out of Australia; birds are sedated, covered in nylon stockings and packed into PVC tubing which is then placed in unaccompanied luggage on international flights. Mortality is significant (30%) and eggs, more easily hidden on the bodies of smugglers on flights, are increasingly smuggled instead. Trafficking is thought to be run by organised gangs, who also trade Australian species for overseas species such as macaws coming the other way.


title: Cockatoo

text: All species of cockatoo except the cockatiel are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which restricts import and export of wild-caught parrots to special licensed purposes. Five cockatoo species (including all subspecies)—the Tanimbar corella ("Cacatua goffiniana"), red-vented cockatoo ("Cacatua haematuropygia"), Moluccan cockatoo ("Cacatua moluccensis"), yellow-crested cockatoo ("Cacatua sulphurea") and palm cockatoo ("Probosciger aterrimus")—are protected on the CITES Appendix I list. With the exception of the cockatiel, all remaining cockatoo species are protected on the CITES Appendix II list.


title: Cockatoo

text: Kept for their appearance, their intelligence and engaging personalities, cockatoos can nonetheless be problematic pets or companion parrots. Generally, they are not good at mimicking human speech, although the little corella is a renowned talker. As social animals, wild cockatoos have been known to learn human speech from ex-captive birds that have integrated into a flock. Their care is best provided by those experienced in keeping parrots. Cockatoos are social animals and their social needs are difficult to cater for, and they can suffer if kept in a cage on their own for long periods of time.


title: Cockatoo

text: The cockatiel is by far the cockatoo species most frequently kept in captivity. Among U.S. bird keepers that participated in a survey by APPMA in 2003/04, 39% had cockatiels, as opposed to only 3% that had (other) cockatoo species. The white cockatoos are more often encountered in aviculture than the black cockatoos. Black cockatoos are rarely seen in European zoos due to export restrictions on Australian wildlife but birds seized by governments have been loaned.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos are often very affectionate with their owner and at times other people but can demand a great deal of attention. It has been suggested that cockatoos' need for physical attention from humans may stem from suboptimal rearing techniques – young birds being removed from parental care for hand-rearing too early in the belief that this will produce a more suitable pet, leading the bird to seek out physical contact from humans as a parent substitute. Furthermore, their intense curiosity means they must be given a steady supply of objects to tinker with, chew, dismantle and destroy. Parrots in captivity may suffer from boredom, which can lead to stereotypic behaviour patterns, such as feather-plucking. Feather plucking is likely to stem from psychological rather than physical causes. Other major drawbacks include their painful bites, and their piercing screeches. The salmon-crested and white cockatoo species are particular offenders. All cockatoos have a fine powder on their feathers, which may induce allergies in certain people. In general, the smaller cockatoo species such as Goffin's and quieter Galah's cockatoos are much easier to keep as pets. The cockatiel is one of the most popular and easiest parrots to keep as a pet, and many colour mutations are available in aviculture.


title: Cockatoo

text: Larger cockatoos can live 30 to 70 years depending on the species, or occasionally longer, and cockatiels can live for about 20 years. As pets they require a long-term commitment from their owners. Their longevity is considered a positive trait as it reduces instances of the loss of a pet. The oldest cockatoo in captivity was a Major Mitchell's cockatoo named Cookie, residing at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, which lived to be 83 years old (1933–2016). A salmon-crested cockatoo named King Tut who resided at San Diego Zoo was nearly 69 when he died in 1990 and a palm cockatoo reached 56 in London Zoo in 2000. However, anecdotal reports describe birds of much greater ages. Cocky Bennett of Tom Ugly's Point in Sydney was a celebrated sulphur-crested cockatoo who was reported to have reached an age of 100 years or more. He had lost his feathers and was naked for much of his life. A palm cockatoo was reported to have reached 80 or 90 years of age in an Australian zoo, and a little corella that was removed from a nest in central Australia in 1904 was reported still alive in the late 1970s. In February 2010, a white cockatoo named Arthur was claimed to be 90 years old; he had lived with a family for generations in Dalaguete, Cebu, before being taken to Cebu City Zoo.


title: Cockatoo

text: Trained cockatoos are sometimes seen in bird shows in zoos. They are generally less motivated by food than other birds; some may more respond to petting or praise than food. Cockatoos can often be taught to wear a parrot harness, enabling their owners to take them outdoors. Cockatoos have been used in animal-assisted therapy, generally in nursing homes.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos often have pronounced responses to musical sounds and numerous videos exist showing the birds dancing to popular music. Research conducted in 2008 with an Eleonora cockatoo named Snowball had indicated that this particular individual is indeed capable of beat induction—perceiving human-created music and synchronizing his body movements to the beat.


title: Cockatoo

text: The earliest European depiction of a cockatoo is in the falconry book "De arte venandi cum avibus", written by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. The next European depiction of a cockatoo, previously thought to be the earliest, is present in the 1496 painting by Andrea Mantegna titled Madonna della Vittoria. Later examples were painted by Hungarian artist Jakob Bogdani (1660–1724), who resided in Amsterdam from 1683 and then England, and appeared with numerous other birds in the bird pieces of the Dutch painter Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636–1695). A cockatoo is the unlucky subject in "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump" by English artist Joseph Wright of Derby, its fate unclear in the painting. Cockatoos were among the many Australian plants and animals which featured in decorative motifs in Federation architecture of the early 20th century. A visit to a Camden Town pet shop in 1958 inspired English painter William Roberts to paint "The Cockatoos", in the collection of the Tate Gallery. American artist and sculptor Joseph Cornell was known for placing cutout paper cockatoos in his works.


title: Cockatoo

text: The government of the Australian Capital Territory adopted the gang-gang cockatoo as its official faunal emblem on 27 February 1997. The short-lived budget airline Impulse Airlines featured a sulphur-crested cockatoo on its corporate livery (and aeroplanes). The palm cockatoo, which has a unique beak and face colouration, is used as a symbol by the World Parrot Trust.


title: Cockatoo

text: Two 1970s police dramas featured protagonists with pet cockatoos. In the 1973 film "Serpico", Al Pacino's character had a pet white cockatoo and the television show "Baretta" saw Robert Blake's character with Fred the Triton cockatoo. The popularity of the latter show saw a corresponding rise in popularity of cockatoos as pets in the late 1970s. Cockatoos have been used frequently in advertising; a cockatoo appeared in a 'cheeky' (and later toned-down) 2008 advertising campaign for Cockatoo Ridge Wineries.


title: Cockatoo

text: A team of scientists from Oxford University, the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute conducted tests on ten untrained Tanimbar corellas ("Cacatua goffini"), and found that they were able to solve complex mechanical puzzles.


title: Yang Mi

text: Yang Mi (, born 12 September 1986) is a Chinese actress and singer. She made her acting debut in historical television series "Tang Ming Huang", and later received recognition for her leading roles in various television series such as "Wang Zhaojun" (2007), "Chinese Paladin 3" (2009), "Palace" 1(2011), "Beijing Love Story" (2012), "Swords of Legends" (2014), "The Interpreter" (2016), "Eternal Love" (2017) and "Legend of Fuyao" (2018); as well as films "Mysterious Island" (2011), "Tiny Times" (2013–2015), and "The Witness" (2015). In 2017, she won the Best Actress award at the WorldFest Houston International Festival for her performance in "Reset" (2017).


title: Yang Mi

text: Yang Mi was born in Xuanwu District, Beijing to a police officer and a housewife. She was given the name "" (exponentiation) because her parents both have the same surname Yang. She graduated from the now-defunct Beijing Xuanwu Experimental Primary School. Yang is also a graduate of Beijing Film Academy's Performance Institute.


title: Yang Mi

text: In 1990, at the age of four, Yang made her acting debut in the historical television series "Tang Ming Huang" directed by Chen Jialin, playing the role of young Princess Xianning. She also had a minor role as Beggar So's daughter in "King of Beggars" (1992), which starred Stephen Chow as the titular character. Two years later, she starred in the television series "Hou Wa", where her acting left a deep impression on the producer.


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2001, Yang resumed her career in entertainment business by working as an advertisement model. In 2002, Yang signed a contract with Li Shaohong's agency, Rosat Entertainment.


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2003, Yang received her first script and made her official acting debut in "The Story of a Noble Family".


title: Yang Mi

text: In the late 2000s, Yang started to gain increased attention and popularity with her roles as Nie Xiaoqian in legendary drama "Strange Tales of Liaozhai" (2005), and Guo Xiang in wuxia drama "The Return of the Condor Heroes" (2006), In 2007, Yang played the titular role of Wang Zhaojun in the eypnomous television series, which was broadcast on CCTV. She received positive reviews for her performance, and was nominated for the Best Actress award at the China TV Golden Eagle Award.


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2009, Yang starred in the fantasy action drama "Chinese Paladin 3", playing two different characters; Tang Xuejian and Xiyao. The series was a major hit in China and Yang experienced a rise in popularity.


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2010, Yang starred in Li Shaohong's "adaptation" of the classic novel "The Dream of Red Mansions", and received positive reviews for her portrayal of Qingwen. The same year, she starred in big-budget historical series "Beauty's Rival in Palace", winning acclaim for her role as a cold assassin.


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2011, Yang achieved widespread fame with her role as the time-traveling protagonist in the hit historical romance drama, "Palace" (2011). She was voted the Most Popular Actress at the 17th Shanghai Television Festival. The theme song of the drama sung by Yang, titled "In Support of the Love", was also a hit and won Best Theme Song (OST) at the 6th Huading Awards. The same year, she starred in horror film "Mysterious Island", which raked in more than 70 million yuan at the box office and became the most successful horror film in China.


title: Yang Mi

text: Mei Ah Entertainment announced that it will be producing four tailored-made films ("Wu Dang", "Chinese Princess Turandot", "Windseeker", and "Butterfly Cemetery") for Yang with a total investment of 300 million yuan for the four films due to the box office success of "Mysterious Island". However, the films failed to live up to the success of "Mysterious Island", and Yang was named Most Disappointing Actress at the Golden Broom Awards for her performance in "Wu Dang".


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2012, Yang starred in "Beijing Love Story", a modern romance drama directed by Chen Sicheng; where she played a prideful gold digger. The series was a hit, and Yang won the Most Popular Actress award at the 9th China Golden Eagle TV Arts Festival. The same year she co-starred in "", a sequel to Gordon Chan's 2008 hit fantasy film "Painted Skin".


title: Yang Mi

text: Yang was then announced to play the leading protagonist Lin Xiao in the "Tiny Times" film series, based on Guo Jingming's best-selling novel of the same name. The first two installments of the film were released in 2013, with the subsequent installments released in 2014 and 2015. Despite receiving negative reviews, "Tiny Times" was an overwhelming success at the box office. Also in 2013, Yang took on the role of a television producer for the first time with web series "V Love".


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2014, Yang starred in the comedy film "The Breakup Guru" directed by Deng Chao. The film grossed 180 million yuan in its opening week and ended up as one of the highest-grossing films in China that year. She then starred in fantasy action drama "Swords of Legends" as the female lead Feng Qingxue.


title: Yang Mi

text: The drama was a commercial success, topping television ratings and becoming the most watched Chinese drama online at that time.


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2015, Yang starred in romance films "You Are My Sunshine" with Huang Xiaoming and "Fall in Love Like a Star" with Li Yifeng. She also challenged the role of a blind girl in "The Witness", adapted from the South Korean thriller "Blind".


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2016, Yang starred in the modern drama "The Interpreter", which premiered on Hunan TV. The series was a huge success, and became the highest-rated drama of 2016. She also featured in fantasy animated film "", directed by "Tiny Times" director Guo Jingming.


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2017, Yang starred in "Eternal Love", adapted from the xianxia novel "Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms" by TangQi GongZi. The fantasy-romance drama was a massive hit both locally and internationally and Yang received acclaim for her acting performance in the drama. She then starred in science fiction thriller "Reset" produced by Jackie Chan, which led to her win for Best Actress at the 50th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. Yang next starred in wuxia film "" alongside Chang Chen as a painter. She ranked third on "Forbes" China Celebrity 100 list for the year, her highest ranking yet.


title: Yang Mi

text: In 2018, Yang starred in "Negotiator", a modern workplace drama which deals with the profession of negotiators. Yang then headlined the fantasy adventure drama "Legend of Fuyao". Yang returned to the big screen with "Baby" directed by Liu Jie, a film which tells the story of a woman who was abandoned by her parents due to severe birth defects, and her battle as an adult to try and save a baby in the same situation. She received positive reviews for her portrayal of a brittle, harried working-class woman prematurely aged by ill health and poverty. The same year, she was cast in the fantasy suspense film Assassin in Red directed by Lu Yang; where she would play the role of an antagonist.


title: Yang Mi

text: Yang was cast in the cyber-security drama "Storm Eye" as a police officer; and medical drama "Thank You Doctor" as a surgeon.


title: Yang Mi

text: Since 2014, Yang Mi has established her own agency, Jay Walk Studio in collaboration with H&R Century Pictures.


title: Yang Mi

text: In early 2012, Yang Mi revealed her relationship with an Hong Kong actor-singer Hawick Lau through her Weibo. In November 2013, she announced their engagement. Yang Mi and Hawick Lau were married in Bali, Indonesia on 8 January 2014.


title: Yang Mi

text: On 1 June 2014, she gave birth to their daughter Noemie Lau at the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, Hong Kong.


title: Yang Mi

text: On 22 December 2018, Yang Mi and Hawick Lau announced their divorce in a joint-statement released by Chinese entertainment and media company Jiaxing Media.


title: Yang Mi

text: On 25 March 2021, Yang Mi cut ties with Adidas, after several companies including the brand announced its decision to not use cotton sourced from the Xinjiang region due to concerns of Uyghur forced labour. This action was echoed by most other Chinese celebrities.


title: Yang Mi

text: As of June 2021, Yang Mi has more than 110 million followers on Weibo, making her one of the most widely followed celebrities on the Chinese microblogging platform.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Robert Hooke FRS (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope that he built himself, the other scientist being Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in 1676. An impoverished scientific inquirer in young adulthood, he found wealth and esteem by performing over half of the architectural surveys after London's great fire of 1666. Hooke was also a member of the Royal Society and since 1662 was its curator of experiments. Hooke was also Professor of Geometry at Gresham College.


title: Robert Hooke

text: As an assistant to physical scientist Robert Boyle, Hooke built the vacuum pumps used in Boyle's experiments on gas law, and himself conducted experiments. In 1673, Hooke built the earliest Gregorian telescope, and then he observed the rotations of the planets Mars and Jupiter. Hooke's 1665 book "Micrographia", in which he coined the term "cell", spurred microscopic investigations. Investigating in optics, specifically light refraction, he inferred a wave theory of light. And his is the first recorded hypothesis of heat expanding matter, air's composition by small particles at larger distances, and heat as energy.


title: Robert Hooke

text: In physics, he approximated experimental confirmation that gravity heeds an inverse square law, and first hypothesised such a relation in planetary motion, too, a principle furthered and formalised by Isaac Newton in Newton's law of universal gravitation. Priority over this insight contributed to the rivalry between Hooke and Newton, who thus antagonized Hooke's legacy. In geology and paleontology, Hooke originated the theory of a terraqueous globe, disputed the literally Biblical view of the Earth's age, hypothesised the extinction of species, and argued that fossils atop hills and mountains had become elevated by geological processes. Thus observing microscopic fossils, Hooke presaged the theory of biological evolution. Hooke's pioneering work in land surveying and in mapmaking aided development of the first modern plan-form map, although his grid-system plan for London was rejected in favour of rebuilding along existing routes. Even so, Hooke was key in devising for London a set of planning controls that remain influential. In recent times, he has been called "England's Leonardo".


title: Robert Hooke

text: Much of what is known of Hooke's early life comes from an autobiography that he commenced in 1696 but never completed. Richard Waller mentions it in his introduction to "The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, M.D. S.R.S.", printed in 1705. The work of Waller, along with John Ward's "Lives of the Gresham Professors" (with a list of his major works) and John Aubrey's "Brief Lives", form the major near-contemporaneous biographical accounts of Hooke.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Robert Hooke was born in 1635 in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight to Cecily Gyles and John Hooke, an Anglican priest, the curate of Freshwater's Church of All Saints. Father John Hooke's two brothers, Robert's paternal uncles, were also ministers. A royalist, John Hooke likely was among a group that went to pay respects to Charles I as he escaped to the Isle of Wight. Expected to join the church, Robert, too, would become a staunch monarchist. Robert was the youngest, by seven years, of four siblings, two boys and two girls. Their father led a local school as well, yet at least partly homeschooled Robert, frail in health. The young Robert Hooke was fascinated by observation, mechanical works, and drawing. He dismantled a brass clock and built a wooden replica that reportedly worked "well enough". He made his own drawing materials from coal, chalk, and ruddle (iron ore).


title: Robert Hooke

text: On his father's death in 1648, Robert inherited 40 pounds. He took this to London with the aim of beginning an apprenticeship, and studied briefly with Samuel Cowper and Peter Lely, but was persuaded instead to enter Westminster School by its headmaster Dr. Richard Busby. Hooke quickly mastered Latin and Greek, mastered Euclid's "Elements", learned to play the organ, and began his lifelong study of mechanics.


title: Robert Hooke

text: In 1653, Hooke (who had also undertaken a course of twenty lessons on the organ) secured a chorister's place at Christ Church, Oxford. He was employed as a "chemical assistant" to Dr Thomas Willis, for whom Hooke developed a great admiration. There he met the natural philosopher Robert Boyle, and gained employment as his assistant from about 1655 to 1662, constructing, operating, and demonstrating Boyle's "machina Boyleana" or air pump. In 1659, Hooke described some elements of a method of heavier-than-air flight to Wilkins, but concluded that human muscles were insufficient to the task. In 1662, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke himself characterised his Oxford days as the foundation of his lifelong passion for science, and the friends he made there were of paramount importance to him throughout his career, particularly Christopher Wren. Wadham was then under the guidance of John Wilkins, who had a profound impact on Hooke and those around him. There was a sense of urgency in preserving the scientific work which they perceived as being threatened by The Protectorate. Wilkins' "philosophical meetings" in his study were clearly important, though few records survive except for the experiments Boyle conducted in 1658 and published in 1660. This group went on to form the nucleus of the Royal Society. Hooke developed an air pump for Boyle's experiments based on the pump of Ralph Greatorex, which was considered, in Hooke's words, "too gross to perform any great matter." It is known that Hooke had a particularly keen eye, and was an adept mathematician, neither of which applied to Boyle. It has been suggested that Hooke probably made the observations and may well have developed the mathematics of Boyle's law. Regardless, it is clear that Hooke was a valued assistant to Boyle and the two retained a mutual high regard.


title: Robert Hooke

text: A chance surviving copy of Willis's pioneering , a gift from the author, was chosen by Hooke from Wilkins' library on his death as a memento at John Tillotson's invitation. This book is now in the Wellcome Library. The book and its inscription in Hooke's hand are a testament to the lasting influence of Wilkins and his circle on the young Hooke.


title: Robert Hooke

text: The Royal Society was founded in 1660, and in April 1661 the society debated a short tract on the rising of water in slender glass pipes, in which Hooke reported that the height water rose was related to the bore of the pipe (due to what is now termed capillary action). His explanation of this phenomenon was subsequently published in "Micrography Observ." issue 6, in which he also explored the nature of "the fluidity of gravity". On 5 November 1661, Sir Robert Moray proposed that a Curator be appointed to furnish the society with Experiments, and this was unanimously passed with Hooke being named. His appointment was made on 12 November, with thanks recorded to Dr. Boyle for releasing him to the Society's employment.


title: Robert Hooke

text: In 1664, Sir John Cutler settled an annual gratuity of fifty pounds on the Society for the founding of a "Mechanick Lecture", and the Fellows appointed Hooke to this task. On 27 June 1664 he was confirmed to the office, and on 11 January 1665 was named "Curator by Office" for life with an additional salary of £30 to Cutler's annuity.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke's role at the Royal Society was to demonstrate experiments from his own methods or at the suggestion of members. Among his earliest demonstrations were discussions of the nature of air, the implosion of glass bubbles which had been sealed with comprehensive hot air, and demonstrating that the "Pabulum vitae" and "flammae" were one and the same. He also demonstrated that a dog could be kept alive with its thorax opened, provided air was pumped in and out of its lungs, and noting the difference between venous and arterial blood. There were also experiments on the subject of gravity, the falling of objects, the weighing of bodies and measuring of barometric pressure at different heights, and pendulums up to .


title: Robert Hooke

text: Instruments were devised to measure a second of arc in the movement of the sun or other stars, to measure the strength of gunpowder, and in particular an engine to cut teeth for watches, much finer than could be managed by hand, an invention which was, by Hooke's death, in constant use.


title: Robert Hooke

text: In 1663 and 1664, Hooke made his microscopic observations, subsequently collated in "Micrographia" in 1665.


title: Robert Hooke

text: On 20 March 1664, Hooke succeeded Arthur Dacres as Gresham Professor of Geometry. Hooke received the degree of "Doctor of Physic" in December 1691.


title: Robert Hooke

text: There is a widely reported but seemingly incorrect story that Dr Hooke corresponded with Thomas Newcomen in connection with Newcomen's invention of the steam engine. This story was discussed by Rhys Jenkins, a past President of the Newcomen Society, in 1936. Jenkins traced the origin of the story to an article "Steam Engines" by Dr. John Robison (1739–1805) in the third edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica”, which says "There are to be found among Hooke's papers, in the possession of the Royal Society, some notes of observations, for the use of Newcomen, his countryman, on Papin's boasted method of transmitting to a great distance the action of an mill by means of pipes", and that Hooke had dissuaded Newcomen from erecting a machine on this principle. Jenkins points out a number of errors in Robison's article, and questions whether the correspondent might in fact have been Newton, whom Hooke is known to have corresponded with, the name being misread as Newcomen. A search by Mr. H W Dickinson of Hooke's papers held by the Royal Society, which had been bound together in the middle of the 18th century, i.e. before Robison's time, and carefully preserved since, revealed no trace of any correspondence between Hooke and Newcomen. Jenkins concluded "... this story must be omitted from the history of the steam engine, at any rate until documentary evidence is forthcoming."


title: Robert Hooke

text: In the intervening years since 1936 no such evidence has been found, but the story persists. For instance, in a book published in 2011 it is said that "in a letter dated 1703 Hooke did suggest that Newcomen use condensing steam to drive the piston."


title: Robert Hooke

text: Reputedly, Hooke was a staunch friend and ally. In his early training at Wadham College, he was among ardent royalists, particularly Christopher Wren. Yet allegedly, Hooke was also proud, and often annoyed by intellectual competitors. Hooke contended that Oldenburg had leaked details of Hooke's watch escapement. Otherwise, Hooke guarded his own ideas and used ciphers.


title: Robert Hooke

text: On the other hand, as the Royal Society's curator of experiments, Hooke was tasked to demonstrate many ideas sent in to the Society. Some evidence suggests that Hooke subsequently assumed credit for some of these ideas. Yet in this period of immense scientific progress, numerous ideas were developed in multiple places roughly simultaneously. Immensely busy, Hook let many of his own ideas remain undeveloped, although others he patented.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Perhaps more significantly, Hooke and Isaac Newton disputed over credit for certain breakthroughs in physical science, including gravitation, astronomy, and optics. After Hooke's death, Newton questioned his legacy. And as the Royal Society's president, Newton allegedly destroyed or failed to preserve the only known portrait of Hooke. In the 20th century, researchers Robert Gunther and Margaret revived Hooke's legacy, establishing Hooke among the most influential scientists of his time.


title: Robert Hooke

text: None of this should distract from Hooke's inventiveness, his remarkable experimental facility, and his capacity for hard work. His ideas about gravitation, and his claim of priority for the inverse square law, are outlined below. He was granted a large number of patents for inventions and refinements in the fields of elasticity, optics, and barometry. The Royal Society's Hooke papers, rediscovered in 2006, (after disappearing when Newton took over) may open up a modern reassessment.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Much has been written about the unpleasant side of Hooke's personality, starting with comments by his first biographer, Richard Waller, that Hooke was "in person, but despicable" and "melancholy, mistrustful, and jealous." Waller's comments influenced other writers for well over two centuries, so that a picture of Hooke as a disgruntled, selfish, anti-social curmudgeon dominates many older books and articles. For example, Arthur Berry said that Hooke "claimed credit for most of the scientific discoveries of the time." Sullivan wrote that Hooke was "positively unscrupulous" and possessing an "uneasy apprehensive vanity" in dealings with Newton. Manuel used the phrase "cantankerous, envious, vengeful" in his description. More described Hooke having both a "cynical temperament" and a "caustic tongue." Andrade was more sympathetic, but still used the adjectives "difficult", "suspicious", and "irritable" in describing Hooke.


title: Robert Hooke

text: The publication of Hooke's diary in 1935 revealed previously unknown details about his social and familial relationships. Biographer Margaret argued that "the picture which is usually painted of Hooke as a morose... recluse is completely false." Hooke interacted with noted craftsmen such as Thomas Tompion, the clockmaker, and Christopher Cocks (Cox), an instrument maker. He often met Christopher Wren, with whom he shared many interests, and had a lasting friendship with John Aubrey. Hooke's diaries also make frequent reference to meetings at coffeehouses and taverns, and to dinners with Robert Boyle. He took tea on many occasions with his lab assistant, Harry Hunt. Although Hooke largely lived alone, apart from the servants who ran his home, his niece Grace Hooke and cousin Tom Giles lived with him for some years as children.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke never married. His diary records that he sexually abused his niece Grace, who was in his custody between the ages of 10 and 17, during her teens. Hooke also had sexual relations with several maids and housekeepers, and records that one of these housekeepers gave birth to a girl, but he does not note the child's paternity.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Under the strain of an enormous workload, Hooke suffered from headaches, dizziness and bouts of insomnia. Approaching these in the same scientific spirit that he brought to his work, he experimented with self-medication, diligently recording symptoms, substances and effects in his diary. He regularly used sal ammoniac, purges and opiates, which appear to have had an increasing impact on his physical and mental health over time.


title: Robert Hooke

text: On 3 March 1703 Hooke died in London, having been blind and bedridden during the last year of his life. A chest containing £8,000 in money and gold was found in his room at Gresham College. Although he had talked of leaving a generous bequest to the Royal Society, which would have given his name to a library, laboratory and lectures, no will was found and the money passed to a cousin, Elizabeth Stephens. Hooke was buried at St Helen's Bishopsgate, but the precise location of his grave is unknown.


title: Robert Hooke

text: In 1660, Hooke discovered the law of elasticity which bears his name and which describes the linear variation of tension with extension in an elastic spring. He first described this discovery in the anagram "ceiiinosssttuv", whose solution he published in 1678 as "Ut tensio, sic vis" meaning "As the extension, so the force." Hooke's work on elasticity culminated, for practical purposes, in his development of the balance spring or hairspring, which for the first time enabled a portable timepiece – a watch – to keep time with reasonable accuracy. A bitter dispute between Hooke and Christiaan Huygens on the priority of this invention was to continue for centuries after the death of both; but a note dated 23 June 1670 in the Hooke Folio (see "External links" below), describing a demonstration of a balance-controlled watch before the Royal Society, has been held to favour Hooke's claim.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke first announced his law of elasticity as an anagram. This was a method sometimes used by scientists, such as Hooke, Huygens, Galileo, and others, to establish priority for a discovery without revealing details.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke became Curator of Experiments in 1662 to the newly founded Royal Society, and took responsibility for experiments performed at its weekly meetings. This was a position he held for over 40 years. While this position kept him in the thick of science in Britain and beyond, it also led to some heated arguments with other scientists, such as Huygens (see above) and particularly with Isaac Newton and the Royal Society's Henry Oldenburg. In 1664 Hooke also was appointed Professor of Geometry at Gresham College in London and Cutlerian Lecturer in Mechanics.


title: Robert Hooke

text: On 8 July 1680, Hooke observed the nodal patterns associated with the modes of vibration of glass plates. He ran a bow along the edge of a glass plate covered with flour, and saw the nodal patterns emerge. In acoustics, in 1681 he showed the Royal Society that musical tones could be generated from spinning brass cogs cut with teeth in particular proportions.


title: Robert Hooke

text: While many of his contemporaries believed in the aether as a medium for transmitting attraction or repulsion between separated celestial bodies, Hooke argued for an attracting principle of gravitation in "Micrographia" (1665). Hooke's 1666 Royal Society lecture on gravity added two further principles: that all bodies move in straight lines until deflected by some force and that the attractive force is stronger for closer bodies. Dugald Stewart quoted Hooke's own words on his system of the world. "I will explain," says Hooke, in a communication to the Royal Society in 1666, "a system of the world very different from any yet received. It is founded on the following positions. 1. That all the heavenly bodies have not only a gravitation of their parts to their own proper centre, but that they also mutually attract each other within their spheres of action. 2. That all bodies having a simple motion, will continue to move in a straight line, unless continually deflected from it by some extraneous force, causing them to describe a circle, an ellipse, or some other curve. 3. That this attraction is so much the greater as the bodies are nearer. As to the proportion in which those forces diminish by an increase of distance, I own I have not discovered it..."


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke's 1670 Gresham lecture explained that gravitation applied to "all celestial bodies" and added the principles that the gravitating power decreases with distance and that in the absence of any such power bodies move in straight lines.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke published his ideas about the "System of the World" again in somewhat developed form in 1674, as an addition to "An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth from Observations". Hooke clearly postulated mutual attractions between the Sun and planets, in a way that increased with nearness to the attracting body.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke's statements up to 1674 made no mention, however, that an inverse square law applies or might apply to these attractions. Hooke's gravitation was also not yet universal, though it approached universality more closely than previous hypotheses. Hooke also did not provide accompanying evidence or mathematical demonstration. On these two aspects, Hooke stated in 1674: "Now what these several degrees [of gravitational attraction] are I have not yet experimentally verified" (indicating that he did not yet know what law the gravitation might follow); and as to his whole proposal: "This I only hint at present", "having my self many other things in hand which I would first compleat, and therefore cannot so well attend it" (i.e. "prosecuting this Inquiry").


title: Robert Hooke

text: In November 1679, Hooke initiated a remarkable exchange of letters with Newton (of which the full text is now published). Hooke's ostensible purpose was to tell Newton that Hooke had been appointed to manage the Royal Society's correspondence. Hooke therefore wanted to hear from members about their researches, or their views about the researches of others; and as if to whet Newton's interest, he asked what Newton thought about various matters, giving a whole list, mentioning "compounding the celestial motions of the planetts of a direct motion by the tangent and an attractive motion towards the central body", and "my hypothesis of the lawes or causes of springinesse", and then a new hypothesis from Paris about planetary motions (which Hooke described at length), and then efforts to carry out or improve national surveys, the difference of latitude between London and Cambridge, and other items. Newton's reply offered "a fansy of my own" about a terrestrial experiment (not a proposal about celestial motions) which might detect the Earth's motion, by the use of a body first suspended in air and then dropped to let it fall. The main point was to indicate how Newton thought the falling body could experimentally reveal the Earth's motion by its direction of deviation from the vertical, but he went on hypothetically to consider how its motion could continue if the solid Earth had not been in the way (on a spiral path to the centre). Hooke disagreed with Newton's idea of how the body would continue to move. A short further correspondence developed, and towards the end of it Hooke, writing on 6 January 1679|80 to Newton, communicated his "supposition ... that the Attraction always is in a duplicate proportion to the Distance from the Center Reciprocall, and Consequently that the Velocity will be in a subduplicate proportion to the Attraction and Consequently as Kepler Supposes Reciprocall to the Distance." (Hooke's inference about the velocity was actually incorrect)


title: Robert Hooke

text: In 1686, when the first book of Newton's "Principia" was presented to the Royal Society, Hooke claimed that he had given Newton the "notion" of "the rule of the decrease of Gravity, being reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the Center". At the same time (according to Edmond Halley's contemporary report) Hooke agreed that "the Demonstration of the Curves generated therby" was wholly Newton's.


title: Robert Hooke

text: A recent assessment about the early history of the inverse square law is that "by the late 1660s," the assumption of an "inverse proportion between gravity and the square of distance was rather common and had been advanced by a number of different people for different reasons". Newton himself had shown in the 1660s that for planetary motion under a circular assumption, force in the radial direction had an inverse-square relation with distance from the center. Newton, faced in May 1686 with Hooke's claim on the inverse square law, denied that Hooke was to be credited as author of the idea, giving reasons including the citation of prior work by others before Hooke. Newton also firmly claimed that even if it had happened that he had first heard of the inverse square proportion from Hooke, which it had not, he would still have some rights to it in view of his mathematical developments and demonstrations, which enabled observations to be relied on as evidence of its accuracy, while Hooke, without mathematical demonstrations and evidence in favour of the supposition, could only guess (according to Newton) that it was approximately valid "at great distances from the center".


title: Robert Hooke

text: On the other hand, Newton did accept and acknowledge, in all editions of the "Principia", that Hooke (but not exclusively Hooke) had separately appreciated the inverse square law in the solar system. Newton acknowledged Wren, Hooke and Halley in this connection in the Scholium to Proposition 4 in Book 1. Newton also acknowledged to Halley that his correspondence with Hooke in 1679–80 had reawakened his dormant interest in astronomical matters, but that did not mean, according to Newton, that Hooke had told Newton anything new or original: "yet am I not beholden to him for any light into that business but only for the diversion he gave me from my other studies to think on these things & for his dogmaticalness in writing as if he had found the motion in the Ellipsis, which inclined me to try it."


title: Robert Hooke

text: One of the contrasts between the two men was that Newton was primarily a pioneer in mathematical analysis and its applications as well as optical experimentation, while Hooke was a creative experimenter of such great range, that it is not surprising to find that he left some of his ideas, such as those about gravitation, undeveloped. This in turn makes it understandable how in 1759, decades after the deaths of both Newton and Hooke, Alexis Clairaut, mathematical astronomer eminent in his own right in the field of gravitational studies, made his assessment after reviewing what Hooke had published on gravitation. "One must not think that this idea ... of Hooke diminishes Newton's glory", Clairaut wrote; "The example of Hooke" serves "to show what a distance there is between a truth that is glimpsed and a truth that is demonstrated".


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke made tremendously important contributions to the science of timekeeping, being intimately involved in the advances of his time; the introduction of the pendulum as a better regulator for clocks, the balance spring to improve the timekeeping of watches, and the proposal that a precise timekeeper could be used to find the longitude at sea.


title: Robert Hooke

text: In 1655, according to his autobiographical notes, Hooke began to acquaint himself with astronomy, through the good offices of John Ward. Hooke applied himself to the improvement of the pendulum and in 1657 or 1658, he began to improve on pendulum mechanisms, studying the work of Giovanni Riccioli, and going on to study both gravitation and the mechanics of timekeeping.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Henry Sully, writing in Paris in 1717, described the anchor escapement as "an admirable invention of which Dr. Hooke, formerly professor of geometry in Gresham College at London, was the inventor." William Derham also attributes it to Hooke.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke recorded that he conceived of a way to determine longitude (then a critical problem for navigation), and with the help of Boyle and others he attempted to patent it. In the process, Hooke demonstrated a pocket-watch of his own devising, fitted with a coil spring attached to the arbour of the balance. Hooke's ultimate failure to secure sufficiently lucrative terms for the exploitation of this idea resulted in its being shelved, and evidently caused him to become more jealous of his inventions.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke developed the balance spring independently of and at least 5 years before Christiaan Huygens, who published his own work in "Journal de Scavans" in February 1675.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke's 1665 book "Micrographia", describing observations with microscopes and telescopes, as well as original work in biology, contains the earliest of an observed microorganism, a microfungus "Mucor". Hooke coined the term "cell", suggesting plant structure's resemblance to honeycomb cells. The hand-crafted, leather and gold-tooled microscope he used to make the observations for "Micrographia", originally constructed by Christopher White in London, is on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland.


title: Robert Hooke

text: "Micrographia" also contains Hooke's, or perhaps Boyle and Hooke's, ideas on combustion. Hooke's experiments led him to conclude that combustion involves a substance that is mixed with air, a statement with which modern scientists would agree, but that was not understood widely, if at all, in the seventeenth century. Hooke went on to conclude that respiration also involves a specific component of the air. Partington even goes so far as to claim that if "Hooke had continued his experiments on combustion it is probable that he would have discovered oxygen".


title: Robert Hooke

text: One of the observations in "Micrographia" was of fossil wood, the microscopic structure of which he compared to ordinary wood. This led him to conclude that fossilised objects like petrified wood and fossil shells, such as Ammonites, were the remains of living things that had been soaked in petrifying water laden with minerals. Hooke believed that such fossils provided reliable clues to the past history of life on Earth, and, despite the objections of contemporary naturalists like John Ray who found the concept of extinction theologically unacceptable, that in some cases they might represent species that had become extinct through some geological disaster.


title: Robert Hooke

text: 'The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke M.D.,'... appeared in 1705, containing 'A Discourse of Earthquakes'... His treatise... is the most philosophical production of that age, in regard to the causes of former changes in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature. 'However trivial a thing,' he says, 'a rotten shell may appear to some, yet these monuments of nature are more certain tokens of antiquity than coins or medals, since the best of those may be counterfeited or made by art and design, as may also books, manuscripts, and inscriptions, as all the learned are now sufficiently satisfied has often been actually practised,' &c.; 'and though it must be granted that it is very difficult to read them and to raise a chronology out of them, and to state the intervals of the time wherein such or such catastrophes and mutations have happened, yet it is not impossible.


title: Robert Hooke

text: One of the more-challenging problems tackled by Hooke was the measurement of the distance to a star (other than the Sun). The star chosen was Gamma Draconis and the method to be used was parallax determination. After several months of observing, in 1669, Hooke believed that the desired result had been achieved. It is now known that Hooke's equipment was far too imprecise to allow the measurement to succeed. Gamma Draconis was the same star James Bradley used in 1725 in discovering the aberration of light.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke's activities in astronomy extended beyond the study of stellar distance. His "Micrographia" contains illustrations of the Pleiades star cluster as well as of lunar craters. He performed experiments to study how such craters might have formed. Hooke also was an early observer of the rings of Saturn, and discovered one of the first observed double-star systems, Gamma Arietis, in 1664.


title: Robert Hooke

text: A lesser-known contribution, however one of the first of its kind, was Hooke's scientific model of human memory. Hooke in a 1682 lecture to the Royal Society proposed a mechanistic model of human memory, which would bear little resemblance to the mainly philosophical models before it. This model addressed the components of encoding, memory capacity, repetition, retrieval, and forgetting – some with surprising modern accuracy. This work, overlooked for nearly 200 years, shared a variety of similarities with Richard Semon's work of 1919/1923, both assuming memories were physical and located in the brain. The model's more interesting points are that it (1) allows for attention and other top-down influences on encoding; (2) it uses resonance to implement parallel, cue-dependent retrieval; (3) it explains memory for recency; (4) it offers a single-system account of repetition and priming, and (5) the power law of forgetting can be derived from the model's assumption in a straightforward way. This lecture would be published posthumously in 1705 as the memory model was unusually placed in a series of works on the nature of light. It has been speculated that this work saw little review as the printing was done in small batches in a post-Newtonian age of science and was most likely deemed out of date by the time it was published. Further interfering with its success was contemporary memory psychologists' rejection of immaterial souls, which Hooke invoked to some degree in regards to the processes of attention, encoding and retrieval.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke was Surveyor to the City of London and chief assistant to Christopher Wren, in which capacity he helped Wren rebuild London after the Great Fire in 1666, and also worked on the design of London's Monument to the fire, the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Montagu House in Bloomsbury, and the Bethlem Royal Hospital (which became known as 'Bedlam'). Other buildings designed by Hooke include The Royal College of Physicians (1679), Ragley Hall in Warwickshire, Ramsbury Manor in Wiltshire and the parish church of St Mary Magdalene at Willen in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Hooke's collaboration with Christopher Wren also included St Paul's Cathedral, whose dome uses a method of construction conceived by Hooke. Hooke also participated in the design of the Pepys Library, which held the manuscripts of Samuel Pepys' diaries, the most frequently cited eyewitness account of the Great Fire of London.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Hooke and Wren both being keen astronomers, the Monument was designed to serve a scientific function as a telescope for observing transits, though Hooke's characteristically precise measurements after completion showed that the movement of the column in the wind made it unusable for this purpose. The legacy of this can be observed in the construction of the spiral staircase, which has no central column, and in the observation chamber which remains in place below ground level.


title: Robert Hooke

text: In the reconstruction after the Great Fire, Hooke proposed redesigning London's streets on a grid pattern with wide boulevards and arteries, a pattern subsequently used in Haussmann's renovation of Paris, in Liverpool, and in many American cities. This proposal was thwarted by arguments over property rights, as property owners were surreptitiously shifting their boundaries. Hooke was in demand to settle many of these disputes, due to his competence as a surveyor and his tact as an arbitrator.


title: Robert Hooke

text: No authenticated portrait of Robert Hooke exists. This situation has sometimes been attributed to the heated conflicts between Hooke and Newton, although Hooke's biographer Allan Chapman rejects as a myth the claims that Newton or his acolytes deliberately destroyed Hooke's portrait. German antiquarian and scholar Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach visited the Royal Society in 1710 and his account of his visit specifically mentions him being shown the portraits of 'Boyle and Hoock' (which were said to be good likenesses), but while Boyle's portrait survives, Hooke's has evidently been lost. In Hooke's time, the Royal Society met at Gresham College, but within a few months of Hooke's death Newton became the Society's president and plans were laid for a new meeting place. When the move to new quarters finally was made a few years later, in 1710, Hooke's Royal Society portrait went missing, and has yet to be found.


title: Robert Hooke

text: Two contemporary written descriptions of Hooke's appearance have survived. The first was recorded by his close friend John Aubrey, who described Hooke in middle age and at the height of his creative powers:


title: Robert Hooke

text: "Time" magazine published a portrait, supposedly of Hooke, on 3 July 1939. However, when the source was traced by Ashley Montagu, it was found to lack a verifiable connection to Hooke. Moreover, Montagu found that two contemporary written descriptions of Hooke's appearance agreed with one another, but that neither matched the "Time"'s portrait.


title: Robert Hooke

text: In 2003, historian Lisa Jardine claimed that a recently discovered portrait was of Hooke, but this claim was disproved by William B. Jensen of the University of Cincinnati. The portrait identified by Jardine depicts the Flemish scholar Jan Baptist van Helmont.


title: Robert Hooke

text: In 2003, amateur history painter Rita Greer embarked on a self-funded project to memorialise Hooke. Her project aimed to produce credible images of him, both painted and drawn, that she believes fit the descriptions of him by his contemporaries John Aubrey and Richard Waller. Greer's images of Hooke, his life and work have been used for TV programmes in UK and US, in books, magazines and for PR.


title: Robert Hooke

text: In 2019, Dr. Larry Griffing, an associate professor at Texas A&M University, conjectured that a contemporary portrait by famed painter Mary Beale of an unknown sitter and referred to as "Portrait of a Mathematician" was actually Hooke, noting that the physical features of the sitter in the portrait match his. The figure points to a drawing of elliptical motion which appears to match an unpublished manuscript created by Hooke. The painting also includes an orrery depicting the same principle. Griffing believes that buildings included in the image are of Lowther Castle, now in Cumbria, and pointedly its Church of St Michael. The church was renovated under one of Hooke's architectural commissions, which Beale would have gained familiarity with when commissioned by the Lowther family. Griffing theorizes that the painting would once have been owned by the Royal Society, but was purposefully abandoned when Newton as its president moved the Society's official residence in 1710.


title: Walden

text: Walden (; first published in 1854 as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance.


title: Walden

text: "Walden" details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.


title: Walden

text: Thoreau makes precise scientific observations of nature as well as metaphorical and poetic uses of natural phenomena. He identifies many plants and animals by both their popular and scientific names, records in detail the color and clarity of different bodies of water, precisely dates and describes the freezing and thawing of the pond, and recounts his experiments to measure the depth and shape of the bottom of the supposedly "bottomless" Walden Pond.


title: Walden

text: There has been much speculation as to why Thoreau went to live at the pond in the first place. E. B. White stated on this note, "Henry went forth to battle when he took to the woods, and "Walden" is the report of a man torn by two powerful and opposing drives—the desire to enjoy the world and the urge to set the world straight", while Leo Marx noted that Thoreau's stay at Walden Pond was an experiment based on his teacher Emerson's "method and of nature" and that it was a "report of an experiment in transcendental pastoralism".


title: Walden

text: Likewise, others have assumed Thoreau's intention during his time at Walden Pond was "to conduct an experiment: Could he survive, possibly even thrive, by stripping away all superfluous luxuries, living a plain, simple life in radically reduced conditions?" He thought of it as an experiment in "home economics". Although Thoreau went to Walden to escape what he considered "over-civilization", and in search of the "raw" and "savage delight" of the wilderness, he also spent considerable amounts of his time reading and writing.


title: Walden

text: Thoreau used his time at Walden Pond (July 4, 1845 – September 6, 1847) to write his first book, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" (1849). The experience later inspired "Walden", in which Thoreau compresses the time into a single calendar year and uses passages of four seasons to symbolize human development.


title: Walden

text: By immersing himself in nature, Thoreau hoped to gain a more objective understanding of society through personal introspection. Simple living and self-sufficiency were Thoreau's other goals, and the whole project was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy, a central theme of the American Romantic Period.


title: Walden

text: Part memoir and part spiritual quest, "Walden" opens with the announcement that Thoreau spent two years at Walden Pond living a simple life without support of any kind. Readers are reminded that at the time of publication, Thoreau is back to living among the civilized again. The book is separated into specific chapters, each of which focuses on specific themes:


title: Walden

text: Economy: In this first and longest chapter, Thoreau outlines his project: a two-year, two-month, and two-day stay at a cozy, "tightly shingled and plastered", English-style 10' × 15' cottage in the woods near Walden Pond. He does this, he says, to illustrate the spiritual benefits of a simplified lifestyle. He easily supplies the four necessities of life (food, shelter, clothing, and fuel) with the help of family and friends, particularly his mother, his best friend, and Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson. The latter provided Thoreau with a work exchange: he could build a small house and plant a garden if he cleared some land on the woodlot and did other chores while there. Thoreau meticulously records his expenditures and earnings, demonstrating his understanding of "economy", as he builds his house and buys and grows food.


title: Walden

text: The house's cost is and fewer still, if any, the separate cost of the various materials which compose them:—


title: Walden

text: Where I Lived, and What I Lived For: Thoreau recollects thoughts of places he stayed at before selecting Walden Pond, and quotes Roman philosopher Cato's advice "consider buying a farm very carefully before signing the papers". His possibilities included a nearby Hollowell farm (where the "wife" unexpectedly decided she wanted to keep the farm). Thoreau takes to the woods dreaming of an existence free of obligations and full of leisure. He announces that he resides far from social relationships that mail represents (post office) and the majority of the chapter focuses on his thoughts while constructing and living in his new home at Walden.


title: Walden

text: Reading: Thoreau discusses the benefits of classical literature, preferably in the original Greek or Latin, and bemoans the lack of sophistication in Concord evident in the popularity of unsophisticated literature. He also loved to read books by world travelers. He yearns for a time when each New England village supports "wise men" to educate and thereby ennoble the population.


title: Walden

text: Sounds: Thoreau encourages the reader to be "forever on the alert" and "looking always at what is to be seen". Although truth can be found in literature, it can equally be found in nature. In addition to self-development, developing one's perceptiveness can alleviate boredom. Rather than "look abroad for amusement, to society and the theatre", Thoreau's own life, including supposedly dull pastimes like housework, becomes a source of amusement that "never ceases to be novel". Likewise, he obtains pleasure in the sounds that ring around his cabin: church bells ringing, carriages rattling and rumbling, cows lowing, whip-poor-wills singing, owls hooting, frogs croaking, and cockerels crowing. "All sound heard at the greatest possible distance," he contends "produces one and the same effect".


title: Walden

text: Solitude: Thoreau reflects on the feeling of solitude. He explains how loneliness can occur even amid companions if one's heart is not open to them. Thoreau meditates on the pleasures of escaping society and the petty things that society entails (gossip, fights, etc.). He also reflects on his new companion, an old settler who arrives nearby and an old woman with great memory ("memory runs back farther than mythology"). Thoreau repeatedly reflects on the benefits of nature and of his deep communion with it and states that the only "medicine he needs is a draught of morning air".


title: Walden

text: Visitors: Thoreau talks about how he enjoys companionship (despite his love for solitude) and always leaves three chairs ready for visitors. The entire chapter focuses on the coming and going of visitors, and how he has more comers in Walden than he did in the city. He receives visits from those living or working nearby and gives special attention to a French Canadian born woodsman named Alec Thérien. Unlike Thoreau, Thérien cannot read or write and is described as leading an "animal life". He compares Thérien to Walden Pond itself. Thoreau then reflects on the women and children who seem to enjoy the pond more than men, and how men are limited because their lives are taken up.


title: Walden

text: The Bean-Field: Reflection on Thoreau's planting and his enjoyment of this new job/hobby. He touches upon the joys of his environment, the sights and sounds of nature, but also on the military sounds nearby. The rest of the chapter focuses on his earnings and his cultivation of crops (including how he spends just under fifteen dollars on this).


title: Walden

text: The Village: The chapter focuses on Thoreau's reflections on the journeys he takes several times a week to Concord, where he gathers the latest gossip and meets with townsmen. On one of his journeys into Concord, Thoreau is detained and jailed for his refusal to pay a poll tax to the "state that buys and sells men, women, and children, like cattle at the door of its senate-house".


title: Walden

text: The Ponds: In autumn, Thoreau discusses the countryside and writes down his observations about the geography of Walden Pond and its neighbors: Flint's Pond (or Sandy Pond), White Pond, and Goose Pond. Although Flint's is the largest, Thoreau's favorites are Walden and White ponds, which he describes as lovelier than diamonds.


title: Walden

text: Baker Farm: While on an afternoon ramble in the woods, Thoreau gets caught in a rainstorm and takes shelter in the dirty, dismal hut of John Field, a penniless but hard-working Irish farmhand, and his wife and children. Thoreau urges Field to live a simple but independent and fulfilling life in the woods, thereby freeing himself of employers and creditors. But the Irishman will not give up his aspirations of luxury and the quest for the American dream.


title: Walden

text: Higher Laws: Thoreau discusses whether hunting wild animals and eating meat is necessary. He concludes that the primitive, carnal sensuality of humans drives them to kill and eat animals, and that a person who transcends this propensity is superior to those who cannot. (Thoreau eats fish and occasionally salt pork and woodchuck.) In addition to vegetarianism, he lauds chastity, work, and teetotalism. He also recognizes that Native Americans need to hunt and kill moose for survival in "The Maine Woods", and eats moose on a trip to Maine while he was living at Walden. Here is a list of the laws that he mentions:


title: Walden

text: Brute Neighbors: This chapter is a simplified version of one of Thoreau's conversations with William Ellery Channing, who sometimes accompanied Thoreau on fishing trips when Channing had come up from Concord. The conversation is about a hermit (himself) and a poet (Channing) and how the poet is absorbed in the clouds while the hermit is occupied with the more practical task of getting fish for dinner and how in the end, the poet regrets his failure to catch fish. The chapter also mentions Thoreau's interaction with a mouse that he lives with, the scene in which an ant battles a smaller ant, and his frequent encounters with cats.


title: Walden

text: House-Warming: After picking November berries in the woods, Thoreau adds a chimney, and finally plasters the walls of his sturdy house to stave off the cold of the oncoming winter. He also lays in a good supply of firewood, and expresses affection for wood and fire.


title: Walden

text: Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors: Thoreau tells the stories of people who formerly lived in the vicinity of Walden Pond. Then, he talks about a few of the visitors he receives during the winter: a farmer, a woodchopper, and his best friend, the poet Ellery Channing.


title: Walden

text: Winter Animals: Thoreau amuses himself by watching wildlife during the winter. He relates his observations of owls, hares, red squirrels, mice, and various birds as they hunt, sing, and eat the scraps and corn he put out for them. He also describes a fox hunt that passes by.


title: Walden

text: The Pond in Winter: Thoreau describes Walden Pond as it appears during the winter. He says he has sounded its depths and located an underground outlet. Then, he recounts how 100 laborers came to cut great blocks of ice from the pond to be shipped to the Carolinas.


title: Walden

text: Spring: As spring arrives, Walden and the other ponds melt with powerful thundering and rumbling. Thoreau enjoys watching the thaw, and grows ecstatic as he witnesses the green rebirth of nature. He watches the geese winging their way north, and a hawk playing by itself in the sky. As nature is reborn, the narrator implies, so is he.


title: Walden

text: Conclusion: In the final chapter, Thoreau criticizes conformity: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away", By doing so, men may find happiness and self-fulfillment.


title: Walden

text: "Walden" emphasizes the importance of solitude, contemplation, and closeness to nature in transcending the "desperate" existence that, he argues, is the lot of most people. The book is not a traditional autobiography, but combines autobiography with a social critique of contemporary Western culture's consumerist and materialist attitudes and its distance from and destruction of nature. Thoreau's proximity to Concord society and his admiration for classical literature suggest that the book is not simply a criticism of society, but also an attempt to engage creatively with the better aspects of contemporary culture. There are signs of ambiguity, or an attempt to see an alternative side of something common. Some of the major themes that are present within the text are:


title: Walden

text: "Walden" has been the subject of many scholarly articles. Book reviewers, critics, scholars, and many more have published literature on Thoreau's "Walden".


title: Walden

text: Thoreau carefully recounts his time in the woods through his writing in "Walden". Critics have thoroughly analyzed the different writing styles that Thoreau uses. Critic Nicholas Bagnall writes that Thoreau's observations of nature are "lyrical" and "exact". Another critic, Henry Golemba, asserts that the writing style of "Walden" is very natural. Thoreau employs many styles of writing where his words are both intricate and simple at the same time. His word choice conveys a certain mood. For instance, when Thoreau describes the silence of nature, the reader may feel that serene moment as well. Thoreau continues to connect back to nature throughout the book because he wants to depict what he experienced and what he saw.


title: Walden

text: Many scholars have compared Thoreau to fellow transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. Although Thoreau was 14 years younger than Emerson, much of his writing was influenced by him. Critic John Brooks Moore examined the relationship between Thoreau and Emerson and the effects it had on their respective works. Moore claims that Thoreau did not simply mimic Emerson's work, but he was actually the more dominant one in the relationship. Thoreau has learned from Emerson and some "Emersonism" can be found in his works, but Thoreau's work is distinct from Emerson's. Many critics have also seen the influence of Thomas Carlyle (a great influence on Emerson), particularly in Thoreau's use of an extended clothing metaphor, which Carlyle had used in "Sartor Resartus" (1831).


title: Walden

text: Scholars have recognized "Walden" use of biblical allusions. Such allusions are useful tools to convince readers because the Bible is seen as a principal book of truth. According to scholar Judith Saunders, the signature biblical allusion identified in the book is, "Walden was dead and is alive again." This is almost verbatim from Luke 15.11-32. Thoreau is personifying Walden Pond to further the story relevant to the Bible. He compares the process of death and rebirth of the pond to self-transformation in humans.


title: Walden

text: "Walden" enjoyed some success upon its release, but still took five years to sell 2,000 copies, and then went out of print until Thoreau's death in 1862. Despite its slow beginnings, later critics have praised it as an American classic that explores natural simplicity, harmony, and beauty. The American poet Robert Frost wrote of Thoreau, "In one book ... he surpasses everything we have had in America".


title: Walden

text: It is often assumed that critics initially ignored "Walden", and that those who reviewed the book were evenly split or slightly more negative than positive in their assessment of it. But, researchers have shown that "Walden" actually was "more favorably and widely received by Thoreau's contemporaries than hitherto suspected". Of the 66 initial reviews that have been found so far, 46 "were strongly favorable". Some reviews were rather superficial, merely recommending the book or predicting its success with the public; others were more lengthy, detailed, and nuanced with both positive and negative comments. Positive comments included praise for Thoreau's independence, practicality, wisdom, "manly simplicity", and fearlessness. Less than three weeks after the book's publication, Thoreau's mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson proclaimed, "All American kind are delighted with "Walden" as far as they have dared to say."


title: Walden

text: On the other hand, the terms "quaint" or "eccentric" appeared in over half of the book's initial reviews. Other terms critical of Thoreau included selfish, strange, impractical, privileged (or "manor born"), and misanthropic. One review compared and contrasted Thoreau's form of living to communism, probably not in the sense of Marxism, but instead of communal living or religious communism. While valuing freedom from possessions, Thoreau was not communal in the sense of practicing sharing or of embracing community. So, communism "is better than our hermit's method of getting rid of encumbrance".


title: Walden

text: In contrast to Thoreau's "manly simplicity", nearly twenty years after Thoreau's death Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson judged Thoreau's endorsement of living alone in natural simplicity, apart from modern society, to be a mark of effeminacy, calling it "womanish solicitude; for there is something unmanly, something almost dastardly" about the lifestyle. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier criticized what he perceived as the message in "Walden" that man should lower himself to the level of a woodchuck and walk on four legs. He said: "Thoreau's "Walden" is a capital reading, but very wicked and heathenish ... After all, for me, I prefer walking on two legs". Author Edward Abbey criticized Thoreau's ideas and experiences at Walden in detail throughout his response to "Walden" called "Down the River with Thoreau", written in 1980.


title: Walden

text: Today, despite these criticisms, "Walden" stands as one of America's most celebrated works of literature. John Updike wrote of "Walden", "A century and a half after its publication, "Walden" has become such a totem of the back-to-nature, preservationist, anti-business, civil-disobedience mindset, and Thoreau so vivid a protester, so perfect a crank and hermit saint, that the book risks being as revered and unread as the Bible." The American psychologist B. F. Skinner wrote that he carried a copy of "Walden" with him in his youth, and eventually wrote "Walden Two" in 1945, a fictional utopia about 1,000 members who live together in a Thoreau-inspired community.


title: Walden

text: Kathryn Schulz has accused Thoreau of hypocrisy, misanthropy and being sanctimonious based on his writings in "Walden", although this criticism has been perceived as highly selective.


title: Walden

text: The National Endowment for the Arts in 2012 bestowed Tracy Fullerton, game designer and professor at the University of Southern California's Game Innovation Lab with a $40,000 grant to create, based on the book, a first person, open world video game called "Walden, a game", in which players "inhabit an open, three-dimensional game world which will simulate the geography and environment of Walden Woods". The game production was also supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and was part of the Sundance New Frontier Story Lab in 2014. The game was released to critical acclaim on July 4, 2017, celebrating both the day that Thoreau went down to the pond to begin his experiment and the 200th anniversary of Thoreau's birth. It was nominated for the Off-Broadway Award for Best Indie Game at the New York Game Awards 2018.


title: Walden

text: Digital Thoreau, a collaboration among the State University of New York at Geneseo, the Thoreau Society, and the Walden Woods Project, has developed a fluid text edition of "Walden" across the different versions of the work to help readers trace the evolution of Thoreau's classic work across seven stages of revision from 1846 to 1854. Within any chapter of "Walden", readers can compare up to seven manuscript versions with each other, with the Princeton University Press edition, and consult critical notes drawn from Thoreau scholars, including Ronald Clapper's dissertation "The Development of Walden: A Genetic Text" (1967) and Walter Harding's "Walden: An Annotated Edition" (1995). Ultimately, the project will provide a space for readers to discuss Thoreau in the margins of his texts.


title: Crank (film)

text: Crank is a 2006 American action film written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (in their directorial debuts) and starring Jason Statham, Amy Smart and Jose Pablo Cantillo. The plot centers on a British hitman based in Los Angeles named Chev Chelios who is poisoned by the mafia and must keep his adrenaline flowing constantly in order to keep himself alive. He does so by various methods including taking drugs, publicly fornicating with his girlfriend, and getting into fights, while he tries to track down the man who poisoned him. The title of the film comes from a slang word for methamphetamine.


title: Crank (film)

text: Los Angeles-based English hitman Chev Chelios works for a crime syndicate led by Don "Carlito" Carlos. Chelios is contracted by Carlito to kill mafia boss Don Kim as members of the Triads have been encroaching on Carlito's business. Chelios goes to Don Kim and apparently murders him.


title: Crank (film)

text: In the confusion, ambitious small-time criminal Ricky Verona uses the opportunity to conspire with Carlito against Chelios: Verona will kill Chelios so the Triads do not retaliate, and then take Chelios's place as Carlito's new hired gun. The morning after Don Kim's death, while Chelios sleeps in his apartment, Verona, his brother Alex, and several henchmen break in and inject Chelios with a Chinese synthetic drug which inhibits the flow of adrenaline, slowing the heart and eventually killing the victim. Chelios wakes to find a recording left by Verona showing what he has done. Furious, Chelios smashes his TV and heads out.


title: Crank (film)

text: Chelios phones Mafia surgeon Doc Miles, who informs Chelios that to survive he must keep his adrenaline pumping through constant excitement and danger, and he is unsure if the antidote exists. Chelios keeps his adrenaline up through risky and dangerous acts, which include picking fights with other gangsters, reckless driving and motorcycling, taking illegal drugs and synthetic epinephrine, fighting with the police, and having public sex with his girlfriend Eve.


title: Crank (film)

text: Chelios visits Carlito at his penthouse and asks him to help find an antidote, as well as to find and kill Verona and his crew. Carlito says there is no antidote and only confirms that Carlito and Verona are working together. Carlito tells Chelios how he will use his death as a scapegoat against the Chinese. An angered Chelios leaves Carlito's penthouse to find Verona. Through Chelios' street contact, a transvestite named Kaylo, he finds Alex at a restaurant and unsuccessfully interrogates him about his brother's whereabouts before killing him. Chelios phones Verona through Alex's phone and tells him of his brother's death, prompting Verona to send thugs after Eve as a revenge. Chelios rushes to pick up Eve before Verona's thugs get to her. Chelios reveals his true profession to her and that he was planning to retire to spend more time with her.


title: Crank (film)

text: Kaylo, who has been kidnapped by Carlito's men, is forced to call Chelios and tell him that Verona is at a Triad warehouse. Chelios goes there, finding Kaylo's corpse and the henchmen. They reveal that Carlito ordered them to kill Chelios. Eve, who has followed Chelios, unexpectedly arrives, but then escapes with Chelios after a shootout with Carlito's henchmen. Chelios and Eve go to Doc Miles's place, where Miles explains that he cannot cure Chelios. Knowing that he will die soon, Chelios decides to take his revenge on Verona and arranges a meeting with him at a downtown hotel.


title: Crank (film)

text: Chelios goes to the rooftop of the hotel and meets with Verona, Carlito, and his henchmen. Carlito takes out a syringe, filled with the same poison used by Verona. As he is about to kill Chelios by injecting the second dose into him, Don Kim, revealed to be alive as Chelios spared him after all, arrives with his Triads to assist Chelios and a shootout follows. During the battle, several of Don Kim's and all of Carlito's men are killed. Carlito tries to escape with his private helicopter, but Chelios manages to catch up to him and holds him at gunpoint. Before Chelios can kill Carlito, Verona sneaks behind and injects Chelios with the syringe, after which Chelios collapses. Carlito himself is betrayed by Verona, who shoots him dead and tries to escape with his helicopter.


title: Crank (film)

text: Chelios manages to stand up, boards the helicopter, and engages in a fight with Verona. After some struggle, Chelios manages to pull Verona out of the helicopter and while mid-air, Chelios proceeds to snap Verona's neck, killing him. While falling, Chelios calls Eve on his cell phone to apologize for not coming back. Chelios hits a car, bounces off it and lands right in front of the camera. In the last shot, it is implied that his adrenaline is indeed still flowing fast; his nostrils flare, he blinks, and two heartbeats are heard.


title: Crank (film)

text: Rather than being shot on 35mm film like most films at the time, the filmmakers of "Crank" opted to shoot on digital videotape, using Canon XL2 and Sony CineAlta HDC-F950 cameras.