title: Astrological age

text: Anno Mundi 6000 (approximately AD 500) was thus equated with the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world. Since this date had already passed in the time of Dionysius, he therefore searched for a new end of the world at a later date. He was heavily influenced by ancient cosmology, in particular the doctrine of the Great Year that places a strong emphasis on planetary conjunctions. This doctrine says that when all the planets were in conjunction that this cosmic event would mark the end of the world. Dionysius accurately calculated that this conjunction would occur in May AD 2000. Dionysius then applied another astronomical timing mechanism based on precession of the equinoxes. Though incorrect, some oriental astronomers at the time believed that the precessional cycle was 24,000 years which included twelve astrological ages of 2,000 years each. Dionysius believed that if the planetary alignment marked the end of an age (i.e. the Pisces age), then the birth of Jesus Christ marked the beginning of the Age of Pisces 2,000 years earlier. He therefore deducted 2,000 years from the May 2000 conjunction to produce AD 1 for the incarnation of Christ.


title: Astrological age

text: The renowned Persian Jewish astronomer and astrologer Masha'Allah (c.740 – 815 CE) employed precession of the equinoxes for calculating the period "Era of the Flood" dated as 3360 BCE or 259 years before the Indian Kali Yuga, believed to have commenced in 3101 BCE.


title: Astrological age

text: The 15th century Italian Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola published a massive attack on astrological predictions, but he did not object to all of astrology and he commented on the position of the vernal point in his day. Pico was aware of the effects of precession of the equinoxes and knew that the first point of Aries no longer existed in the constellation of Aries. Pico not only knew that the vernal point had shifted back into Pisces, he stated that in his time, the vernal point (zero degrees tropical Aries) was located at 2 degrees (sidereal) Pisces. This suggests that by whatever method of calculation he was employing, Pico expected the vernal point to shift into (sidereal) Aquarius age 144 years later as a one degree shift takes 72 years.


title: Astrological age

text: Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726–27 ) determined the cause of precession and established the rate of precession at 1 degree per 72 years, very close to the best value measured today, thus demonstrating the magnitude of the error in the earlier value of 1 degree per century.


title: Astrological age

text: The Earth, in addition to its diurnal (daily) rotation upon its axis and annual rotation around the Sun, incurs a precessional motion involving a slow periodic shift of the axis itself: approximately one degree every 72 years. This motion, which is caused mostly by the Moon's gravity, gives rise to the precession of the equinoxes in which the Sun's position on the ecliptic at the time of the vernal equinox, measured against the background of fixed stars, gradually changes with time.


title: Astrological age

text: In graphical terms, the Earth behaves like a spinning top, and tops tend to wobble as they spin. The spin of the Earth is its daily (diurnal) rotation. The spinning Earth slowly wobbles over a period slightly less than 26,000 years. From our perspective on Earth, the stars are ever so slightly 'moving' from west to east at the rate of one degree approximately every 72 years. One degree is about twice the diameter of the Sun or Moon as viewed from Earth. The easiest way to notice this slow movement of the stars is at any fixed time each year. The most common fixed time is at the vernal equinox around 21 March each year.


title: Astrological age

text: In astrology, an astrological age has usually been defined by the constellation or superimposed sidereal zodiac in which the Sun actually appears at the vernal equinox. This is the method that Hipparchus appears to have applied around 127 BC when he calculated precession. Since each sign of the zodiac is composed of 30 degrees, each astrological age might be thought to last about 72 (years) × 30 (degrees) = about 2160 years.


title: Astrological age

text: This means the Sun crosses the equator at the vernal equinox moving backwards against the fixed stars from one year to the next at the rate of one degree in seventy-two years, one constellation (on average) in about 2160 years, and the whole twelve signs in about 25,920 years, sometimes called a Platonic Year. However the length of the ages are decreasing with time as the rate of precession is increasing. Therefore, no two ages are of equal length.


title: Astrological age

text: Approximately every 26,000 years the zodiacal constellations, the associated sidereal zodiac, and the tropical zodiac used by western astrologers basically align. Technically this is when the tropical and sidereal "first point in Aries" (Aries 0°) coincided. This alignment is often called the fiducial point and, if the fiducial point could be found, fairly exact timeframes of all the astrological ages could be accurately determined if the method used to determine the astrological ages is based on the equal-sized 30 degrees per age and do not correspond to the exact constellation configuration in the sky.


title: Astrological age

text: However this fiducial point is difficult to determine because while there is no ambiguity about the tropical zodiac used by western astrologers, the same cannot be said of the sidereal zodiac used by Vedic astrologers. Vedic astrologers do not have unanimity on the exact location in space of their sidereal zodiac. This is because the sidereal zodiac is superimposed upon the irregular zodiacal constellation, and there are no unambiguous boundaries of the zodiacal constellations.


title: Astrological age

text: Modern day astronomers have defined boundaries, but this is a recent development by astronomers who are divorced from astrology, and cannot be assumed to be correct from the astrological perspective. While most astronomers and some astrologers agree that the fiducial point occurred in or around the 3rd to 5th centuries AD, there is no consensus on any exact date or tight timeframe within these three centuries. A number of dates are proposed by various astronomers and even wider timeframes by astrologers. (For an alternative approach to calibrating precession, see Alternative approach to calibrating precession in New, alternative, and fringe theories section below).


title: Astrological age

text: As an example of a mystic contemporary approach to precession, in Max Heindel's astrology writings, it is described, that last time the starting-point of the sidereal zodiac agreed with the tropical zodiac occurred in AD 498. A year after these points were in exact agreement, the Sun crossed the equator about fifty seconds of space into the constellation Pisces. The year following it was one minute and forty seconds into Pisces, and so it has been creeping backwards ever since, until at the present time the Sun crosses the equator in about nine degrees in the constellation Pisces. Based on this approach, it will thus be about 600 years before it actually crosses the celestial equator in the constellation Aquarius. However this is only one of many approaches and so this must remain speculation at this point of time.


title: Astrological age

text: The following table of astrological ages was compiled by Neil Mann, and are based off typical durations cited for each era, as well as developments in human history based cited as being influenced by the vernal equinox sign thereof. He notes that the supposed influences of the zodiac signs on human history are biased and rely on widely varying dates, as well as selective cherry picking of evidence.


title: Astrological age

text: In 1928, at the Conference of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Leiden, the Netherlands, the edges of the 88 official constellations became defined in astronomical terms. The edge established between Pisces and Aquarius locates the beginning of the Aquarian Age around the year 2600.


title: Astrological age

text: The Austrian astronomer, Professor Hermann Haupt, examined the question of when the Age of Aquarius begins in an article published in 1992 by the Austrian Academy of Science: with the German title ("The Start of the Aquarian Age, an Astronomical Question?"). Based on the boundaries accepted by IAU in 1928, Haupt's article investigates the start of the Age of Aquarius by calculating the entry of the spring equinox point over the parallel cycle (d = - 4°) between the constellations Pisces and Aquarius and reaches, using the usual formula of precession (Gliese, 1982), the year 2595. However Haupt concludes:


title: Astrological age

text: There is an expectation that the Aquarian Age will usher in a period of group consciousness. Marcia Moore and Mark Douglas write that the lighting up of the earth artificially by electricity is a sign of the Age of Aquarius.


title: Astrological age

text: Many research astrologers believe that the astrological ages can be divided into smaller sections along the lines of 'wheels within wheels'. The most common method is to divide each astrological ages into twelve sub-periods. There are two common ways of undertaking this process and two ways of applying these sub-periods. Furthermore, some astrologers divide the ages in different ways. For example, Lcdr David Williams employs a decanate sub-division whereby each age is divided into three equal sections.


title: Astrological age

text: The most popular method of sub-dividing astrological ages is to divide each age equally into twelve sub-periods with the first sub-period Aries, followed by Taurus, Gemini, and so on, until the last sub-division, Pisces. Charles Carter was an early advocate of this approach. Technically this approach is based on the twelfth harmonic of the zodiacal signs.


title: Astrological age

text: The alternative approach is to apply a method commonly used in Vedic astrology but with long antecedents also in western astrology. This method also divides each astrological age into twelve sub-periods but the first sub-period for each sign is the same as the sign itself, then with the following sub-periods in natural order. For example, the twelve dwadasamsa of Aquarius are Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and so on, until the last dwadasamsa – Capricorn. Technically this approach is based on attributes of both the twelfth and thirteenth harmonics of the zodiacal signs and can be considered to be halfway between the 12th and 13th harmonics.


title: Astrological age

text: Due to the lack of consensus of almost all aspects of the astrological ages, except for the astrological ages relationship to precession of the equinoxes and the retrograde order of the astrological ages, there are alternative, esoteric, innovative, fringe and newly expressed ideas about the astrological ages which have not established credibility in the wider astrological community or amongst archaeoastronomers.


title: Astrological age

text: Terry MacKinnell has developed an alternative approach to calibrating precession of the equinoxes to determine the Astrological Age. His major point of departure from the traditional modern approach is how he applies the vernal equinox to the zodiacal constellations. Instead of referring to the position of the Sun at the vernal equinox (a 'modern' mathematical technique developed by the Greeks in the late 1st millennium BC), he refers to the heliacal rising constellation on the day of the vernal equinox. This approach is based on the ancient approach to astronomical observations (the same ancient period that also saw the invention of the zodiacal constellations) prior to the development of mathematical astronomy by the ancient Greeks in the 1st millennium BC. All ancient astronomical observations were based on visual techniques.


title: Astrological age

text: Of all the key techniques used in ancient times, the most common in Babylon (most likely the source of astrology) and most other ancient cultures were based on phenomena that occurred close to the eastern or western horizons. MacKinnell opines that it is incongruent to use a modern mathematical approach to the much older constellations that were first described well before these mathematical approaches were invented.


title: Astrological age

text: The heliacal rising constellation at the vernal equinox is based on the last zodiacal constellation rising above the Eastern Horizon just before dawn and before the light of the approaching Sun obliterates the stars on the eastern horizon. Currently at the vernal equinox the constellation of Aquarius has been the heliacal rising constellation for some centuries. The stars disappear about one hour before dawn depending upon magnitude, latitude, and date. This one hour represents approximately 15 degrees difference compared to the contemporary method based on the position of the Sun amongst the zodiacal constellations.


title: Astrological age

text: Each age is composed of 30 degrees, therefore, 15 degrees represents about half an age or about 1080 years. Based on the heliacal rising method, the Age of Aquarius arrived about 1,080 years earlier than the modern system. John H Rogers in part one of his paper "Origins of the ancient constellations" also states that using the ancient heliacal rising method compared to the (modern) solar method produces a result that is approximately 1,000 in advance.


title: Astrological age

text: Using this approach, the astrological ages arrive about half an age earlier compared to the common contemporary approach to calibrating precession based on modern mathematical techniques. Thus, MacKinnell has the Aquarian Age arriving in the 15th century while most astrologers have the Age of Aquarius arriving in the 27th century, almost 700 years in the future.


title: Astrological age

text: In popular culture, the expression "Age of Aquarius" usually refers to the heyday of the hippie and New Age movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The successful 1967 Broadway musical "Hair", with its opening song "Aquarius" and the memorable line "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius", brought the Aquarian Age concept to the attention of a huge worldwide audience. The 1969 Woodstock festival was advertised as "An Aquarian Exposition in White Lake, New York," while "The Aquarian" is a New Jersey alternative newspaper founded in 1969. Several members of the band Ya Ho Wha 13 adopted "Aquarian" as a surname. In Australia, the Aquarius Festival took place in 1971 and 1973.


title: Astrological age

text: This New Age phenomenon is seen by some astrologers to be marked by the conjunction of the planet Uranus, ruler of the sign Aquarius, and the coming age, with Pluto, ruler of the masses, bringing radical change, in the 1960s. However, as the song relates, it is only considered by astrologers as the "dawning" or "cusp" of the Age, with the full strength of the Age not occurring until some time in the future.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: The IWI X95 (formerly known as the Micro-Tavor, MTAR or MTAR-21) is an Israeli bullpup assault rifle designed and produced by Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) as part of the Tavor rifle family, along with the TAR-21 and the Tavor 7. IWI US offers the rifle in semi-automatic only configuration as the 'Tavor X95'.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: The X95 can be easily distinguished from the TAR-21 (as well as from the CTAR-21, STAR-21, and GTAR-21) by the location of its charging handle. The X95's charging handle is closer to the pistol grip, whilst the TAR-21's charging handle is closer to its muzzle. The X95 also features a redesigned buttstock and a magazine release near the pistol grip.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: With the use of a relatively simple conversion kit, the X95 can be converted from a 5.56mm assault rifle to a 9mm submachine gun. A suppressor can also be attached, as part of the 9mm conversion kit, or as part of a replacement handguard which integrates the muzzle brake, suppressor, and handguard. The X95 also has its own underslung grenade launcher, the X95 GL 40. A discontinued production model of the X95, the X95-GL had the capability to mount an M203 grenade launcher on an extended notched barrel.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: When configured in 9mm, the X95 uses a blowback system to cycle through the ammunition, whilst using the same body as the gas-operated rifle system. It uses Colt 9mm SMG magazines. A suppressor can be mounted that allows for the use of both supersonic and subsonic loads. The barrel is of the same length as of the rifle configuration, but has a 1:10 in rifling twist to stabilise the heavy 9mm round.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: As of Spring 2020, all new 5.56×45mm NATO production X95's were upgraded with the .300 AAC Blackout recoil mechanism.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: Compared to the long M4 carbine (with its stock extended) with a barrel, the X95 is , , or long, with either a , , or a barrel, respectively.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: There are three different handguards currently available for the X95: the first being rounded so it can mount the suppressor inside of the handguard, and is currently only available for military issue; the second is a rectangular one with integrated rails at the 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions, and has removable rail covers; and the third is an elongated version of the second, made for IWI US Tavor X95s. The rounded handguard originally had separate picatinny rails on the receiver and handguard, but IWI has produced a full-length flattop rail and an underside rail for it; the other two handguards have integrated flattop rails.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: The X95 comes with the option of changing out the pistol grip with either the standard Tavor Talon trigger guard, a traditional trigger guard, or any compatible third-party accessory.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: The X95 is chambered in either 5.56×45mm NATO or .300 AAC Blackout. The .300 BLK configuration features a gas regulator for both supersonic and subsonic loads.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: The X95-R is chambered in 5.45×39mm and can easily be rechambered to the three other calibres that IWI offers.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: All Tavor X95s sold on the U.S. civilian market are semi-automatic only and come with an elongated handguard and a thicker buttpad to comply with the firearm laws of the U.S.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: Note: IWI US retails the Tavor X95s in a variety of colours, including Black (B), Flat Dark Earth (FD), and OD Green (G); the letter "B" in the rifles designations can be switched with any of the other colour letters.


title: IWI Tavor X95

text: All Tavor X95s sold on the Canadian civilian market are semi-automatic only and come with a barrel to meet Canadian firearms law as non-restricted weapons. This gives the Canadian Tavor X95 an overall length of . In 2021, Israeli surplus Tavor X95s began to be sold on the Canadian market.


title: Mark Fiennes

text: Mark Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (11 November 1933 – 30 December 2004) was an English photographer and illustrator. Fiennes was perhaps best known for his architectural studies.


title: Mark Fiennes

text: Mark Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born at Dalton, Northumberland, the eldest of five children of industrialist Maurice Fiennes, who was later knighted for his services to the export of British heavy engineering products, and his wife Sylvia Joan (née Finlay). Mark Fiennes's third cousin is Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet.


title: Mark Fiennes

text: Fiennes was educated at Eton College for several years before he fell ill with glomerulonephritis. In hope of improving his health, his parents sent him to Australia, New Zealand and the United States where Fiennes studied agriculture. With his health restored, he returned to England and became a farming tenant on the estate of the Earl of Stradbroke near Blythburgh, Suffolk, where he met and married novelist Jennifer Lash in 1962 at Lothingland. Her passion for art served as an impetus for Fiennes, who took up photography at the age of 40.


title: Mark Fiennes

text: Fiennes' work featured some of the world's most renowned museums as well as Britain's most celebrated estates. In 1985, he received a commission from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. to produce images for their exhibit "Treasure Houses of Britain". After this, his photography recorded the restoration of Windsor Castle for the Royal Collections.


title: Mark Fiennes

text: He was commissioned to illustrate books for a number of British and American publishers, including HarperCollins, Random House, Thames & Hudson and Yale University Press. Between 1983 and 1995, he regularly contributed to "Country Life" magazine.


title: Mark Fiennes

text: He and Jennifer "Jini" Fiennes (1938–1993) were the parents of actors Ralph Fiennes and Joseph Fiennes, filmmakers Martha Fiennes and Sophie Fiennes, composer Magnus Fiennes and conservationist Jacob ("Jake") Fiennes. They also had a foster son, Michael Emery, an archaeologist. Jini Fiennes died from breast cancer in 1993, aged 55. His grandson is actor Hero Fiennes Tiffin.


title: Mark Fiennes

text: In 1996, Fiennes married Caroline Evans and lived with her in Clare, Suffolk until his death in 2004, aged 71, from undisclosed causes.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: Socialism with Chinese characteristics () is a set of political theories and policies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that are seen by their proponents as representing Marxism–Leninism adapted to Chinese circumstances and specific time periods, consisting of Deng Xiaoping Theory, Three Represents (Jiang Zemin), Scientific Outlook on Development (Hu Jintao), and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. In this view, Xi Jinping Thought is considered to represent Marxist–Leninist policies suited for China's present condition while Deng Xiaoping Theory was considered relevant for the period when it was formulated.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: The term entered common usage during the era of Deng Xiaoping and was largely associated with Deng's overall program of adopting elements of market economics as a means to foster growth using foreign direct investment and to increase productivity (especially in the countryside where 80% of China's population lived) while the CCP retained both its formal commitment to achieve communism and its monopoly on political power. In the party's official narrative, socialism with Chinese characteristics is Marxism–Leninism adapted to Chinese conditions and a product of scientific socialism. The theory stipulated that China was in the primary stage of socialism due to its relatively low level of material wealth and needed to engage in economic growth before it pursued a more egalitarian form of socialism, which in turn would lead to a communist society described in Marxist orthodoxy.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: The concept of a primary stage of socialism was conceived before China introduced economic reforms. In the early 1950s, economists Yu Guangyuan, Xue Muqiao and Sun Yefang raised the question of socialist transformation in which China's economy of low productive force was in a transitional period, a position which Mao Zedong endorsed briefly until 1957. When discussing the necessity of commodity relations at the 1st Zhengzhou Conference (2–10 November 1958), for example, Mao—the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Partysaid that China was in the "initial stage of socialism". However, Mao never elaborated on the idea and his successors were left to do this.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: On 5 May 1978, the article "Putting into Effect the Socialist Principle of Distribution According to Work" () elaborated on the idea that China was still at the first stage of reaching pure communism and that it had not become a truly socialist society. The article was written by members in the State Council's Political Research Office led by economist Yu Guangyuan on the orders of Deng Xiaoping so as to "criticize and repudiate" the beliefs of the communist left. After reading it, Deng himself authored a brief memo saying that it was "well-written, and shows that the nature of distribution by labor is not capitalist, but socialist [...] [and] to implement this principle, many things are to be done, and many institutions to be revived. In all, this is to give incentives for us to do better". The term reappeared at the 6th plenum of the 11th Central Committee on 27 June 1981 in the document "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of our Party since the Founding of the PRC". Hu Yaobang, the CCP General Secretary, used the term in his report to the 12th National Congress on 1 September 1982. It was not until the "Resolution Concerning the Guiding Principle in Building Socialist Spiritual Civilization" at the 6th plenum of the 12th Central Committee that the term was used in the defense of the economic reforms which were being introduced.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: At the 13th National Congress, acting General Secretary Zhao Ziyang on behalf of the 12th Central Committee delivered the report "Advance Along the Road of Socialism with Chinese characteristics". He wrote that China was a socialist society, but that socialism in China was in its primary stage, a Chinese peculiarity which was due to the undeveloped state of the country's productive forces. During this phase of development, Zhao recommended introducing a planned commodity economy on the basis of public ownership. The main failure of the communist right according to Zhao was that they failed to acknowledge that China could reach socialism by bypassing capitalism. The main failure of the communist left was that they held the "utopian position" that China could bypass the primary stage of socialism in which the productive forces are to be modernized.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: On 5 October 1987, Yu Guangyuan, a major author of the concept, published an article entitled "Economy in the Initial Stage of Socialism" and speculated that this historical stage will last for two decades and perhaps much longer. This represents, says Ian Wilson, "a severe blight on the expectations raised during the early 70s, when the old eight-grade wage scale was being compressed to only three levels and a more even distributive system was assumed to be an important national goal". On 25 October, Zhao further expounded on the concept of the primary stage of socialism and said that the party line was to follow "One Center, Two Basic Points"—the central focus of the Chinese state was economic development, but that this should occur simultaneously through centralized political control (i.e. the Four Cardinal Principles) and upholding the policy of reform and opening up.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: General Secretary Jiang Zemin further elaborated on the concept ten years later, first during a speech to the Central Party School on 29 May 1997 and again in his report to the 15th National Congress on 12 September. According to Jiang, the 3rd plenum of the 11th Central Committee correctly analyzed and formulated a scientifically correct program for the problems facing China and socialism. In Jiang's words, the primary stage of socialism was an "undeveloped stage". The fundamental task of socialism is to develop the productive forces, therefore the main aim during the primary stage should be the further development of the national productive forces. The primary contradiction in Chinese society during the primary stage of socialism is "the growing material and cultural needs of the people and the backwardness of production". This contradiction will remain until China has completed the process of primary stage of socialism—and because of it—economic development should remain the party's main focus during this stage.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: Jiang elaborated on three points to develop the primary stage of socialism. The first—to develop a socialist economy with Chinese characteristics—meant developing the economy by emancipating and modernizing the forces of production while developing a market economy. The second—building socialist politics with Chinese characteristics—meant "managing state affairs according to the law", developing socialist democracy under the party and making the "people the masters of the country". The third point—building socialist culture with Chinese characteristics—meant turning Marxism into the guide to train the people so as to give them "high ideals, moral integrity, a good education, and a strong sense of discipline, and developing a national scientific, and popular socialist culture geared to the needs of modernization, of the world, and of the future".


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: When asked how long the primary stage of socialism would last, Zhao replied "[i]t will be at least 100 years [...] [before] socialist modernization will have been in the main accomplished". The state constitution states that "China will be in the primary stage of socialism for a long time to come". As with Zhao, Jiang believed that it would take at least 100 years to reach a more advanced stage.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: Deng Xiaoping, the architect of the Chinese economic reforms, did not believe that the market economy was synonymous with capitalism or that planning was synonymous with socialism. During his southern tour, he said that "planning and market forces are not the essential difference between socialism and capitalism. A planned economy is not the definition of socialism, because there is planning under capitalism; the market economy happens under socialism, too. Planning and market forces are both ways of controlling economic activity".


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: In the 1980s, it became evident to Chinese economists that the Marxist theory of the law of value—understood as the expression of the labor theory of value—could not serve as the basis of China's pricing system. They concluded that Marx never intended his theory of law of value to work "as an expression of 'concretized labor time'". Marx's notion of "prices of production" was meaningless to the Soviet-styled planned economies since price formations were according to Marx established by markets. Soviet planners had used the law of value as a basis to rationalize prices in the planned economy. According to Soviet sources, prices were "planned with an eye to the [...] basic requirements of the law of value". However, the primary fault with the Soviet interpretation was that they tried to calibrate prices without a competitive market since according to Marx competitive markets allowed for an equilibrium of profit rates which led to an increase in the prices of production. The rejection of the Soviet interpretation of the law of value led to the acceptance of the idea that China was still in the primary stage of socialism. The basic argument was that conditions envisaged by Marx for reaching the socialist stage of development did not yet exist in China.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: Mao said that the imposition of "progressive relations of production" would revolutionize production. His successor's rejection of this view according to A. James Gregor has thwarted the ideological continuity of Maoism—officially Mao Zedong Thought. Classical Marxism had argued that a socialist revolution would only take place in advanced capitalist societies and its success would signal the transition from a capitalist commodity-based economy to a "product economy" in which goods would be distributed for people's need and not for profit. If because of a lack of a coherent explanation in the chance of failure this revolution did not occur, the revolutionaries would be forced to take over the responsibilities of the bourgeoisie. Chinese communists are thus looking for a new Marxist theory of development. Party theorist Luo Rongqu recognized that the founders of Marxism had never "formulated any systematic theory on the development of the non-Western world" and said that the CCP should "establish their own synthesized theoretical framework to study the problem of modern development". According to A. James Gregor, the implication of this stance is that "Chinese Marxism is currently in a state of profound theoretical discontinuity".


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: The Chinese government's understanding of private ownership is claimed to be rooted in classical Marxism. According to party theorists, since China adopted state ownership when it was a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country, it is claimed to be in the primary stage of socialism. Because of this, certain policies and system characteristicssuch as commodity production for the market, the existence of a private sector and the reliance of the profit motive in enterprise management—were changed. These changes were allowed as long as they improved productivity and modernized the means of production, thus furthering the development of socialism.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: The CCP still considers private ownership to be non-socialist. However, according to party theorists, the existence and growth of private ownership does not necessarily undermine socialism or promote capitalism in China. They argue that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels never proposed the immediate abolishment of private ownership. According to Engels' book "Principles of Communism", the proletariat can only abolish private ownership when the necessary conditions have been met. In the phase before the abolishment of private ownership, Engels proposed progressive taxation, high inheritance taxes and compulsory bond purchases to restrict private property, while using the competitive powers of state-owned enterprises to expand the public sector. Marx and Engels proposed similar measures in "The Communist Manifesto" with regard to advanced countries, but since China was economically undeveloped, party theorists called for flexibility regarding the party's handling of private property. According to party theorist Liu Shuiyuan, the New Economic Policy program initiated by Soviet authorities in the aftermath of the war communism program is a good example of flexibility by socialist authorities.


title: Socialism with Chinese characteristics

text: Party theorist Li Xuai said that private ownership inevitably involved capitalist exploitation. However, Li regards private property and exploitation as necessary in the primary stage of socialism, claiming that capitalism in its primary stage uses remnants of the old society to build itself. Sun Liancheng and Lin Huiyong said that Marx and Engels—in their interpretation of "The Communist Manifesto"—criticized private ownership when it was owned solely by the bourgeoisie, but not individual ownership in which everyone owns the means of production, hence this cannot be exploited by others. Individual ownership is considered consistent with socialism, since Marx wrote that a post-capitalist society would entail the rebuilding of "associated social individual ownership".


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young", commonly known by the title "Wear Sunscreen", is an essay written as a hypothetical commencement speech by columnist Mary Schmich, originally published in June 1997 in the "Chicago Tribune". The essay, giving various pieces of advice on how to live a happier life and avoid common frustrations, spread massively via viral email, is often erroneously described as a commencement speech given by author Kurt Vonnegut at MIT.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: The essay became the basis for a successful spoken word song released in 1997 by Baz Luhrmann, "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)", also known as "The Sunscreen Song". The song reached number one in Ireland and the United Kingdom and inspired numerous parodies.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: Mary Schmich's column "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" was published in the "Chicago Tribune" on June 1, 1997. In the column's introduction Schmich presents the essay as the commencement speech she would give if she were asked to give one.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: In the speech she insistently recommends the wearing of sunscreen, and dispenses other advice and warnings which are intended to help people live a happier life and avoid common frustrations. She later explained that the inspiration came from seeing a young woman sunbathing, and hoping that she was wearing sunscreen, unlike what Schmich herself did at that age.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: The essay soon became the subject of an urban legend which claimed it was an MIT commencement speech given by author Kurt Vonnegut. In reality, MIT's commencement speaker in 1997 was Kofi Annan and Vonnegut had never been a commencement speaker there. Despite a follow-up article by Schmich on August 3, 1997, the story became so widespread that Vonnegut's lawyer began receiving requests to reprint the speech. Vonnegut commented that he would have been proud had the words been his.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: Schmich published a short gift book adaptation of the essay, "Wear Sunscreen: A Primer for Real Life", in 1998. A tenth anniversary edition was published in 2008.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: The essay was used in its entirety by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann on his 1998 album "Something for Everybody", as "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)". Also known as "The Sunscreen Song", it samples Luhrmann's remixed version of the song "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" by Rozalla, and opens with the words, "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Class of '99" (instead of "'97", as in the original column). The song features a spoken-word track set over a mellow backing track. The "Wear Sunscreen" speech is narrated by Australian voice actor Lee Perry. The backing is the choral version of "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)", a 1991 song by Rozalla, used in Luhrmann's film "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet". The chorus, also from "Everybody's Free", is sung by Quindon Tarver. Additionally, the song was played on the end credits of the 1999 John Swanbeck's film "The Big Kahuna".


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" was released as a single in some territories in 1997, with the speech (including its opening words, "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Class of '97") completely intact. This version appeared in the Triple J Hottest 100 of that year at number 16 in the countdown, and was released on the subsequent CD in early 1998. A limited-edition CD single was issued in the United States on February 9, 1999, but only in the Pacific Northwest region. In the United Kingdom, the song was released on May 31, 1999.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: Luhrmann explained that Anton Monsted, Josh Abrahams, and he were working on the remix when Monsted received an email with the supposed Vonnegut speech. They decided to use it but were doubtful of getting through to Vonnegut for permission before their deadline, which was only one or two days away. While searching the Internet for contact information they came upon the "Sunscreen" authorship controversy and discovered that Schmich was the actual author. They emailed her and, with her permission, recorded the song the next day.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: The song was a top-10 hit across Europe, but largely obscure in the US until Aaron Scofield, a producer in Phoenix, edited the original 12-inch version into a segment of a syndicated radio show called "Modern Mix". This show played on many stations in the United States. In Portland, Oregon—where "Modern Mix" played on KNRK—listeners began requesting the track. KNRK program director Mark Hamilton edited the song for time and began playing it regularly. He distributed the song to other program directors that he networked with and the song exploded in the US.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: There are four versions of the song: the original 7:09 minute mix from the album "Baz Luhrmann Presents: Something for Everybody"; a 1999 single release which features a 5:05 minute edit that lacks both choruses; "Geographic's Factor 15+ Mix" that runs for 4:42 minutes; and a "2007 Mix" of the original 7:09 minute version released on the 10th Anniversary Edition of the "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet" soundtrack on which the opening words are changed to "Ladies and gentlemen of the class of 2007".


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: The song also appeared in Germany and was soon followed by a German version with the title "Sonnencreme". The German translation is narrated by the German actor Dieter Brandecker. A Brazilian version, entitled "Filtro Solar", is narrated in Portuguese by journalist and TV presenter Pedro Bial and was released in the last 2003 edition of the program "Fantástico", on Rede Globo. This version became a radio success in 2004. A Russian adaptation of the song, recorded live by Silver Rain Radio, was performed by Alex Dubas and Yolka.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: An Israeli adaptation of the song, named "Matters One Should Know" (דברים שכדאי לדעת), was recorded and released for the Israeli Children's channel in 2004 by Avri Gilad, Rinat Gabay and MC Shiri.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: "Daily Record" wrote, "Luhrmann's single is the biggest spoken-word hit since JJ Barrie topped the charts with No Charge in 1976. The lyrics began life as a newspaper article." James Oldham from "NME" commented, "Unless you have been holidaying on Jupiter for the last two months, this remarkable and potentially nauseating record will have burrowed its way into your deep subconscious by now." He added, "Luhrmann's postmodern masterpiece is half pisstake, half soul-soothing brain massage and all genius; a DIY pop landmark for the end of the self-help decade. Buy this record. Twenty years from now, in ways you can't even begin to imagine today, you will be glad you did."


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: The song reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay in the United States; by the time it was released as a commercial single in the country, radio airplay had declined significantly, and only managed to peak at number 45 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. In Canada the song peaked at number 11 on the "RPM" Top Singles chart and topped the "RPM" Adult Contemporary chart. It also reached number one in the United Kingdom and Ireland, partly due to a media campaign by Radio One DJ Chris Moyles. On August 10, 2008, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 72.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: There are two videos for the song: one which uses the 1999 5:05 minute single edit of the song (the version in which Quindon Tarver is not featured), directed and animated by Bill Barminski; and another using the 7:09 minute edit made by the Brazilian advertising agency DM9DDB.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: The Baz Luhrmann song version inspired numerous parodies. In December 1997, John Safran released a song entitled "Not the Sunscreen Song" which peaked at number 20 in Australia.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: American comedian Chris Rock enjoyed great success with his spoken word song "No Sex (In the Champagne Room)" which was in turn parodied on "Mad TV" as "Ain't No Blacks on the TV Screen" in the style of Rock's stand-up. The song was also parodied in an episode of "Disney's House of Mouse" performed by Jiminy Cricket. The comedy group Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie also made a parody entitled "The Sunscreen Marketing Board". Jegsy Dodd and the Original Sinners' version, "Grumpy Old Men", was voted favourite track of 2005 by BBC Radio 1 listeners in their annual Festive 50 poll.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: Another parody by comedian Simmi Areff was played on South African radio station East Coast Radio at the conclusion of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.


title: Wear Sunscreen

text: Another parody was created in 1999 by London Capital Radio Breakfast Show host Chris Tarrant, who created a version called "wear slippers" which consisted of him reading an alternative version of the sunscreen lyrics and demonstrated his disdain for Baz Luhrmann's version.


title: D. Imman

text: Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran (born 24 January 1983), better known as D. Imman, is an Indian film composer and singer, predominantly working in Tamil cinema. Also worked in Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi film industry. His first film as music director was "Thamizhan" in 2002. Since then he has composed music for more than 100 films. He is the fifth Tamil music composer to win the National Film Award for Best Music Direction. He has also won the Filmfare Awards South and he has received 4 Filmfare Awards South nominations. He has also won 1 Tamil Nadu State Film Award, 2 Vijay Awards, 1 Edison Award, 1 Ananda Vikadan Cinema Award and 1 Zee Tamil Award. D. Imman is appointed as the Ambassador for Tamil Chair in University Of Toronto, Canada (2019).


title: D. Imman

text: Imman began work on music for films aged 15, apprenticing under music composers Mahesh Mahadevan and Adithyan by playing the keyboard. During this period, his work was noticed by television serial producer Kutty Padmini, who gave him the opportunity to work on the theme song and background music for the drama "Krishnadasi", which began running in 2000. He subsequently began to get further work in the television circuit, garnering opportunities to score music for "Kolangal", "Police Diary" and "Mandhira Vaasal". Kutty Padmini then gave him the chance to score music and compose songs for his first feature film, "Kaadhale Swasam", a romantic film featuring Karthik and Meena. Producer Venkateswaran, was impressed with Imman's work in the album, and gave him the opportunity to compose the music for "Thamizhan" (2002). The album won positive reviews, with the composer also featuring the voices of the lead actors Vijay and Priyanka Chopra for a particular song.


title: D. Imman

text: The success of individual songs such as "Azhagiya Asura" from "Whistle" (2003) made him popular. His next album was for Sundar C's masala film starring Arjun, "Giri" (2004), with the song "Dai Kaiyaa Vechukittu" being well received with the town and rural audiences.


title: D. Imman

text: The positive reviews that his work in Prabhu Solomon's "Mynaa" (2010) received, coupled with the film's box office success prompted bigger offers for Imman. He has subsequently collaborated with Prabhu Solomon for the rest of his trilogy of romantic films, earning acclaim for his work in "Kumki" (2012) and "Kayal" (2014). Similarly he has struck a similar successful combination with director Suseenthiran, winning positive reviews for his work on "Pandianadu" (2013) and "Jeeva" (2014). He teamed up with Actor Vijay again for Jilla(2014). Imman is the composer of Ajithkumar, Nayanthara starrer blockbuster Viswasam (2019). He also worked as a music composer for several films with Actor Sivakarthikeyan (Manam Kothi Paravai, Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam, Rajinimurugan, Seemaraj, and Namma Veettu Pillai). Also he worked as a music composer for Annaatthe collaborating with Rajinikanth for the first time.


title: D. Imman

text: D.Imman has received several awards and recognitions for his work in the South Indian film musical world. He has been awarded the Kalaimamani award by the Government of Indian state Tamil Nadu in 2021.


title: Omar Benson Miller

text: Omar Benson Miller (born October 7, 1978) is an American actor. He is known for his work as Walter Simmons on "" (2009–2012), as Charles Greane on "Ballers" (2015–2019), as the voice of Raphael on "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (2018-2020) and and on the CBS comedy series "The Unicorn" (2019–2021).


title: Omar Benson Miller

text: Miller's biggest role was in the 2008 movie "Miracle at St. Anna". He also has played minor roles in various television shows and movies, including "Sex, Love & Secrets", "", "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'", "8 Mile", "", "Transformers", and "Shall We Dance". He was a "" regular. Starting on October 5, 2009, he appeared on the crime drama as Walter Simmons, a Louisiana native and art theft specialist.


title: After the Gold Rush

text: After the Gold Rush is the third studio album by the Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released in September 1970 on Reprise Records, catalogue number RS 6383. It is one of four high-profile albums (all charting within the top fifteen) released by each of the members of folk rock collective Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping 1970 album "Déjà Vu", along with "Stephen Stills" (Stephen Stills, November 1970), "If I Could Only Remember My Name" (David Crosby, February 1971) and "Songs for Beginners" (Graham Nash, May 1971). The album consists mainly of country folk music, along with the rocking "Southern Man", inspired by the unproduced Dean Stockwell-Herb Bermann screenplay "After the Gold Rush".


title: After the Gold Rush

text: "After the Gold Rush" peaked at number eight on the "Billboard" Top Pop Albums chart; the two singles taken from the album, "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and "When You Dance I Can Really Love", made it to number 33 and number 93 respectively on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Despite a mixed initial reaction, the album has since appeared on a number of greatest albums of all time lists.


title: After the Gold Rush

text: Initial sessions were conducted with backing band Crazy Horse at Sunset Sound Studios in August 1969, shortly before Young embarked on a tour of the US with Crosby Stills Nash & Young that would include their now-famous appearance at Woodstock. Although progress was hampered by the deteriorating health of rhythm guitarist Danny Whitten, the sessions yielded two released tracks, "I Believe In You" and "Oh, Lonesome Me".


title: After the Gold Rush

text: Except for the track "Birds", recorded on June 30, 1970, at Sound City Studios, the remainder of the album was recorded at various sessions in a makeshift basement studio ("Redwood Studios") in Young's Topanga Canyon home during March and April 1970 with CSNY bassist Greg Reeves, Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina and burgeoning eighteen-year-old musical prodigy Nils Lofgren of the Washington, D.C.-based band Grin on piano. The incorporation of Lofgren was a characteristically idiosyncratic decision by Young, as Lofgren had not played keyboards on a regular basis prior to the sessions. Along with Jack Nitzsche, Lofgren would join an augmented Crazy Horse sans Young before enjoying success with his own group as well as solo cult success and membership in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Biographer Jimmy McDonough has asserted that Young was intentionally trying to combine Crazy Horse and CSNY on this release, with members of the former band appearing alongside Stephen Stills (who contributed backing vocals to "Only Love Can Break Your Heart") and Reeves. The cover art is a solarized image of Young passing an old woman at the New York University School of Law campus in the Greenwich Village district of New York City. The picture was taken by photographer Joel Bernstein and was reportedly out of focus. It was because of this he decided to mask the blurred face by solarizing the image. The photo is cropped; the original image included Young's friend and CSNY bandmate Graham Nash.


title: After the Gold Rush

text: Songs on the album were inspired by the Dean Stockwell-Herb Bermann screenplay for the unmade film "After the Gold Rush". Young had read the screenplay and asked Stockwell if he could produce the soundtrack. Tracks that Young recalls as being written specifically for the film are "After the Gold Rush" and "Cripple Creek Ferry". The script has since been lost, though it has been described as "sort of an end-of-the-world movie." Stockwell said of it, "I was gonna write a movie that was personal, a Jungian self-discovery of the gnosis ... it involved the Kabala , it involved a lot of arcane stuff." Graham Nash has claimed that "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" was written for him in the aftermath of his breakup with Joni Mitchell.


title: After the Gold Rush

text: According to the "Neil Young Archives", "After the Gold Rush" was released on September 19, 1970. One month later, on October 24, the lead single "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. An outtake version of "Birds" recorded at the initial Sunset Sound sessions has now been added to the album on the Neil Young Archives website, as have two versions of the song "Wonderin'".


title: After the Gold Rush

text: Critics were not immediately impressed; the 1970 review in "Rolling Stone" magazine by Langdon Winner was negative, with Winner feeling that, "none of the songs here rise above the uniformly dull surface." "Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau was more enthusiastic, saying: "While David Crosby yowls about assassinations, Young divulges darker agonies without even bothering to make them explicit. Here the gaunt pain of "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" fills out a little—the voice softer, the jangling guitar muted behind a piano. Young's melodies—every one of them—are impossible to dismiss. He can write 'poetic' lyrics without falling flat on his metaphor even when the subject is ecology or crumbling empire. And despite his acoustic tenor, he rocks plenty. A real rarity: pleasant and hard at the same time."


title: After the Gold Rush

text: Critical reaction has improved with time; by 1975, "Rolling Stone" was referring to the album as a "masterpiece", and "Gold Rush" is now considered a classic album in Young's recording career.


title: After the Gold Rush

text: "After the Gold Rush" has appeared on a number of greatest albums lists. In 1998 "Q" magazine readers voted "After the Gold Rush" the 89th greatest album of all time. It was ranked 92nd in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2003, "Rolling Stone" named the album the 71st greatest album of all time, 74th in a 2012 revised list, and 90th in the 2020 list. "Pitchfork" listed it 99th on their 2004 list of the "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s". In 2006, "Time" magazine listed it as one of the "All-Time 100 Albums". It was ranked third in Bob Mersereau's 2007 book "The Top 100 Canadian Albums". Its follow-up album, "Harvest", was named the greatest Canadian album of all time in that book. In 2005, "Chart" magazine readers placed it fifth on a poll of the best Canadian albums. In 2002, "Blender" magazine named it the 86th greatest "American" album. "New Musical Express" named it the 80th greatest album of all time in 2003. The album was also included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". It was voted number 62 in Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums" 3rd edition (2000).


title: After the Gold Rush

text: "After the Gold Rush" was originally released on vinyl by Reprise on September 19, 1970. It was subsequently reissued on CD in 1986.


title: After the Gold Rush

text: A remastered version was released on HDCD-encoded CD and digital download on July 14, 2009 as part of the Neil Young Archives Original Release Series. The remastered CD exists both as a standalone album and as Disc 3 of a 4-CD box set "Official Release Series Discs 1-4", released in the US in 2009 and Europe in 2012.


title: After the Gold Rush

text: To mark its 50th anniversary, a CD version of the album was re-released by Reprise on December 11, 2020 as "After The Gold Rush 50th Anniversary Edition", the original cover having been enhanced with a 50 below its title. A vinyl box set is scheduled to become available on March 19, 2021. The re-release includes two different versions of the song "Wonderin'" - on the CD as two extra tracks and in the vinyl box set as a 45rpm single in a picture sleeve. Side A, originally included on the "Topanga 3" disc in "The Archives Vol. 1: 1963-1972", was recorded in Topanga, California, in March 1970; Side B is a previously unreleased version recorded at Sunset Sound in Hollywood in August 1969.


title: After the Gold Rush

text: Digital high-resolution files of the album are also available via the Neil Young Archives website, including a longer 3:36 outtake of "Birds" recorded at the same Sunset Sound sessions as "Wonderin'".


title: After the Gold Rush

text: All tracks are written by Neil Young, except where noted. Track timings are from the original 1970 vinyl release, catalogue number RS 6383.


title: Jamie Iannone

text: Jamie Iannone is an American businessman, and the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of eBay, since April 27, 2020.


title: Jamie Iannone

text: Iannone earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Princeton University, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.


title: Jamie Iannone

text: Iannone worked for Epinions and Booz Allen Hamilton, before joining eBay, where he worked for eight years, rising to a vice president role. He was then executive vice president of digital products at Barnes & Noble.


title: Jamie Iannone

text: In 2014, Iannone joined Sam's Club, and was CEO of SamsClub.com and executive vice president of membership and technology, rising to chief operating officer (COO) for U.S. e-commerce for the parent company, Walmart.


title: Jamie Iannone

text: In April 2020, it was announced that Iannone would succeed Devin Wenig as CEO of eBay (and Scott Schenkel who had been interim CEO), on April 27, 2020.


title: Musique concrète

text: Musique concrète (; ) is a type of music composition that utilizes recorded sounds as raw material. Sounds are often modified through the application of audio signal processing and tape music techniques, and may be assembled into a form of montage. It can feature sounds derived from recordings of musical instruments, the human voice, and the natural environment as well as those created using computer-based digital signal processing. Compositions in this idiom are not restricted to the normal musical rules of melody, harmony, rhythm, metre, and so on. The technique exploits acousmatic sound, such that sound identities can often be intentionally obscured or appear unconnected to their source cause.


title: Musique concrète

text: The theoretical basis of "musique concrète" as a compositional practice was developed by French composer Pierre Schaeffer beginning in the early 1940s. It was largely an attempt to differentiate between music based on the abstract medium of notation and that created using so-called sound objects ("l'objet sonore"). By the early 1950s musique concrète was contrasted with "pure" "elektronische Musik" (based solely on the use of electronically produced sounds rather than recorded sounds) but the distinction has since been blurred such that the term "electronic music" covers both meanings. Schaeffer's work resulted in the establishment of France's Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète (GRMC), which attracted important figures including Pierre Henry, Luc Ferrari, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varèse, and Iannis Xenakis. From the late 1960s onward, and particularly in France, the term acousmatic music ("musique acousmatique") was used in reference to fixed media compositions that utilized both musique concrète based techniques and live sound spatialisation. "Musique concrète" influenced many popular musicians, including the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Frank Zappa.


title: Musique concrète

text: In 1928 music critic André Cœuroy wrote in his book "Panorama of Contemporary Music" that "perhaps the time is not far off when a composer will be able to represent through recording, music specifically composed for the gramophone. In the same period the American composer Henry Cowell, in referring to the projects of Nikolai Lopatnikoff, believed that "there was a wide field open for the composition of music for phonographic discs." This sentiment was echoed further in 1930 by Igor Stravinsky, when he stated in the revue "Kultur und Schallplatte" that "there will be a greater interest in creating music in a way that will be peculiar to the gramophone record." The following year, 1931, Boris de Schloezer also expressed the opinion that one could write for the gramophone or for the wireless just as one can for the piano or the violin. Shortly after, German art theorist Rudolf Arnheim discussed the effects of microphonic recording in an essay entitled "Radio", published in 1936. In it the idea of a creative role for the recording medium was introduced and Arnheim stated that: "The rediscovery of the musicality of sound in noise and in language, and the reunification of music, noise and language in order to obtain a unity of material: that is one of the chief artistic tasks of radio".


title: Musique concrète

text: In 1942, French composer and theoretician Pierre Schaeffer began his exploration of radiophony when he joined Jacques Copeau and his pupils in the foundation of the Studio d'Essai de la Radiodiffusion nationale. The studio originally functioned as a center for the Resistance movement in French radio, which in August 1944 was responsible for the first broadcasts in liberated Paris. It was here that Schaeffer began to experiment with creative radiophonic techniques using the sound technologies of the time. In 1948 Schaeffer began to keep a set of journals describing his attempt to create a "symphony of noises". These journals were published in 1952 as "A la recherche d'une musique concrète", and according to Brian Kane, author of "Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice", Schaeffer was driven by: "a compositional desire to construct music from concrete objects – no matter how unsatisfactory the initial results – and a theoretical desire to find a vocabulary, solfège, or method upon which to ground such music.


title: Musique concrète

text: The development of Schaeffer's practice was informed by encounters with voice actors, and microphone usage and radiophonic art played an important part in inspiring and consolidating Schaeffer's conception of sound-based composition. Another important influence on Schaeffer's practice was cinema, and the techniques of recording and montage, which were originally associated with cinematographic practice, came to "serve as the substrate of musique concrète." Marc Battier notes that, prior to Schaeffer, Jean Epstein drew attention to the manner in which sound recording revealed what was hidden in the act of basic acoustic listening. Epstein's reference to this "phenomenon of an epiphanic being", which appears through the transduction of sound, proved influential on Schaeffer's concept of reduced listening. Schaeffer would explicitly cite Jean Epstein with reference to his use of extra-musical sound material. Epstein had already imagined that "through the transposition of natural sounds, it becomes possible to create chords and dissonances, melodies and symphonies of noise, which are a new and specifically cinematographic music".


title: Musique concrète

text: Perhaps earlier than Schaeffer conducting his preliminary experiments into sound manipulation (assuming these were later than 1944, and not as early as the foundation of the Studio d'Essai in 1942) was the activity of Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh. As a student in Cairo in the early to mid-1940s he began experimenting with tape music using a cumbersome wire recorder. He recorded the sounds of an ancient "zaar" ceremony and at the Middle East Radio studios processed the material using reverberation, echo, voltage controls, and re-recording. The resulting tape-based composition, entitled "The Expression of Zaar", was presented in 1944 at an art gallery event in Cairo. El-Dabh has described his initial activities as an attempt to unlock "the inner sound" of the recordings. While his early compositional work was not widely known outside of Egypt at the time, El-Dabh would eventually gain recognition for his influential work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in the late 1950s.


title: Musique concrète

text: Following Schaeffer's work with Studio d'Essai at Radiodiffusion Nationale during the early 1940s he was credited with originating the theory and practice of "musique concrète." The Studio d'Essai was renamed Club d'Essai de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française in 1946 and in the same year Schaeffer discussed, in writing, the question surrounding the transformation of time perceived through recording. The essay evidenced knowledge of sound manipulation techniques he would further exploit compositionally. In 1948 Schaeffer formally initiated "research in to noises" at the Club d'Essai and on 5 October 1948 the results of his initial experimentation were premiered at a concert given in Paris. Five works for phonograph – known collectively as "Cinq études de bruits" (Five Studies of Noises) including "Étude violette" ("Study in Purple") and "Étude aux chemins de fer" (Study with Railroads) – were presented.


title: Musique concrète

text: By 1949 Schaeffer's compositional work was known publicly as "musique concrète". Schaeffer stated: "when I proposed the term 'musique concrète,' I intended … to point out an opposition with the way musical work usually goes. Instead of notating musical ideas on paper with the symbols of solfege and entrusting their realization to well-known instruments, the question was to collect concrete sounds, wherever they came from, and to abstract the musical values they were potentially containing". According to Pierre Henry, "musique concrète was not a study of timbre, it is focused on envelopes, forms. It must be presented by means of non-traditional characteristics, you see … one might say that the origin of this music is also found in the interest in 'plastifying' music, of rendering it plastic like sculpture…musique concrète, in my opinion … led to a manner of composing, indeed, a new mental framework of composing". Schaeffer had developed an aesthetic that was centred upon the use of sound as a primary compositional resource. The aesthetic also emphasised the importance of play ("jeu") in the practice of sound based composition. Schaeffer's use of the word "jeu", from the verb "jouer", carries the same double meaning as the English verb "to play": 'to enjoy oneself by interacting with one's surroundings', as well as 'to operate a musical instrument'.


title: Musique concrète

text: By 1951 the work of Schaeffer, composer-percussionist Pierre Henry, and sound engineer Jacques Poullin had received official recognition and the Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète, Club d 'Essai de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was established at RTF in Paris, the ancestor of the ORTF. At RTF the GRMC established the first purpose-built electroacoustic music studio. It quickly attracted many who either were or were later to become notable composers, including Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Jean Barraqué, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varèse, Iannis Xenakis, Michel Philippot, and Arthur Honegger. Compositional "output from 1951 to 1953 comprised "Étude I" (1951) and "Étude II" (1951) by Boulez, "Timbres-durées" (1952) by Messiaen, "Étude aux mille collants" (1952) by Stockhausen, "Le microphone bien tempéré" (1952) and "La voile d'Orphée" (1953) by Henry, "Étude I" (1953) by Philippot, "Étude" (1953) by Barraqué, the mixed pieces "Toute la lyre" (1951) and "Orphée 53" (1953) by Schaeffer/Henry, and the film music "Masquerage" (1952) by Schaeffer and "Astrologie" (1953) by Henry. In 1954 Varèse and Honegger visited to work on the tape parts of "Déserts" and "La rivière endormie"".


title: Musique concrète

text: In the early and mid 1950s Schaeffer's commitments to RTF included official missions that often required extended absences from the studios. This led him to invest Philippe Arthuys with responsibility for the GRMC in his absence, with Pierre Henry operating as Director of Works. Pierre Henry's composing talent developed greatly during this period at the GRMC and he worked with experimental filmmakers such as Max de Haas, Jean Grémillon, Enrico Fulchignoni, and Jean Rouch and with choreographers including Dick Sanders and Maurice Béjart. Schaeffer returned to run the group at the end of 1957, and immediately stated his disapproval of the direction the GRMC had taken. A proposal was then made to "renew completely the spirit, the methods and the personnel of the Group, with a view to undertake research and to offer a much needed welcome to young composers."


title: Musique concrète

text: Following the emergence of differences within the GRMC Pierre Henry, Philippe Arthuys, and several of their colleagues, resigned in April 1958. Schaeffer created a new collective, called Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and set about recruiting new members including Luc Ferrari, Beatriz Ferreyra, François-Bernard Mâche, Iannis Xenakis, Bernard Parmegiani, and Mireille Chamass-Kyrou. Later arrivals included Ivo Malec, Philippe Carson, Romuald Vandelle, Edgardo Canton and François Bayle.


title: Musique concrète

text: GRM was one of several theoretical and experimental groups working under the umbrella of the Schaeffer-led Service de la Recherche at ORTF (1960–1974). Together with the GRM, three other groups existed: the Groupe de Recherches Image GRI, the Groupe de Recherches Technologiques GRT and the Groupe de Recherches which became the Groupe d'Etudes Critiques. Communication was the one theme that unified the various groups, all of which were devoted to production and creation. In terms of the question "who says what to whom?" Schaeffer added "how?", thereby creating a platform for research into audiovisual communication and mass media, audible phenomena and music in general (including non-Western musics). At the GRM the theoretical teaching remained based on practice and could be summed up in the catch phrase "do and listen".


title: Musique concrète

text: Schaeffer kept up a practice established with the GRMC of delegating the functions (though not the title) of Group Director to colleagues. Since 1961 GRM has had six Group Directors: Michel Philippot (1960–1961), Luc Ferrari (1962–1963), Bernard Baschet and François Vercken (1964–1966). From the beginning of 1966, François Bayle took over the direction for the duration of thirty-one years, to 1997. He was then replaced by Daniel Teruggi.


title: Musique concrète

text: The group continued to refine Schaeffer's ideas and strengthened the concept of "musique acousmatique". Schaeffer had borrowed the term acousmatic from Pythagoras and defined it as: ""Acousmatic, adjective: referring to a sound that one hears without seeing the causes behind it"". In 1966 Schaeffer published the book "Traité des objets musicaux" (Treatise on Musical Objects) which represented the culmination of some 20 years of research in the field of "musique concrète". In conjunction with this publication, a set of sound recordings was produced, entitled "Le solfège de l'objet sonore" (Music Theory of the Acoustic Object), to provide examples of concepts dealt with in the treatise.


title: Musique concrète

text: The development of musique concrète was facilitated by the emergence of new music technology in post-war Europe. Access to microphones, phonographs, and later magnetic tape recorders (created in 1939 and acquired by the Schaeffer's Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (Research Group on Concrete Music) in 1952), facilitated by an association with the French national broadcasting organization, at that time the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française, gave Schaeffer and his colleagues an opportunity to experiment with recording technology and tape manipulation.


title: Musique concrète

text: In 1948, a typical radio studio consisted of a series of shellac record players, a shellac record recorder, a mixing desk with rotating potentiometers, mechanical reverberation, filters, and microphones. This technology made a number of limited operations available to a composer:


title: Musique concrète

text: The application of the above technologies in the creation of musique concrète led to the development of a number of sound manipulation techniques including:


title: Musique concrète

text: The first tape recorders started arriving at ORTF in 1949; however, their functioning was much less reliable than the shellac players, to the point that the "Symphonie pour un homme seul", which was composed in 1950–1951, was mainly composed with records, even if the tape recorder was available. In 1950, when the machines finally functioned correctly, the techniques of musique concrète were expanded. A range of new sound manipulation practices were explored using improved media manipulation methods and operations such as speed variation. A completely new possibility of organising sounds appears with tape editing, which permits tape to be spliced and arranged with an extraordinary new precision. The "axe-cut junctions" were replaced with micrometric junctions and a whole new technique of production, less dependency on performance skills, could be developed. Tape editing brought a new technique called "micro-editing", in which very tiny fragments of sound, representing milliseconds of time, were edited together, thus creating completely new sounds or structures.


title: Musique concrète

text: During the GRMC period from 1951 to 1958, Schaeffer and Poullin developed a number of novel sound creation tools. These included a three-track tape recorder; a machine with ten playback heads to replay tape loops in echo (the morphophone); a keyboard-controlled machine to replay tape loops at twenty-four preset speeds (the keyboard, chromatic, or Tolana phonogène); a slide-controlled machine to replay tape loops at a continuously variable range of speeds (the handle, continuous, or Sareg phonogène); and a device to distribute an encoded track across four loudspeakers, including one hanging from the centre of the ceiling (the potentiomètre d'espace).


title: Musique concrète

text: Speed variation was a powerful tool for sound design applications. It had been identified that transformations brought about by varying playback speed lead to modification in the character of the sound material:


title: Musique concrète

text: The phonogène was a machine capable of modifying sound structure significantly and it provided composers with a means to adapt sound to meet specific compositional contexts. The initial phonogènes were manufactured in 1953 by two subcontractors: the chromatic phonogène by a company called Tolana, and the sliding version by the SAREG Company. A third version was developed later at ORTF. An outline of the unique capabilities of the various phonogènes can be seen here:


title: Musique concrète

text: This original tape recorder was one of the first machines permitting the simultaneous listening of several synchronised sources. Until 1958 musique concrète, radio and the studio machines were monophonic. The three-head tape recorder superposed three magnetic tapes that were dragged by a common motor, each tape having an independent spool. The objective was to keep the three tapes synchronised from a common starting point. Works could then be conceived polyphonically, and thus each head conveyed a part of the information and was listened to through a dedicated loudspeaker. It was an ancestor of the multi-track player (four then eight tracks) that appeared in the 1960s. "Timbres Durées" by Olivier Messiaen with the technical assistance of Pierre Henry was the first work composed for this tape recorder in 1952. A rapid rhythmic polyphony was distributed over the three channels.


title: Musique concrète

text: This machine was conceived to build complex forms through repetition, and accumulation of events through delays, filtering and feedback. It consisted of a large rotating disk, 50 cm in diameter, on which was stuck a tape with its magnetic side facing outward. A series of twelve movable magnetic heads (one each recording head and erasing head, and ten playback heads) were positioned around the disk, in contact with the tape. A sound up to four seconds long could be recorded on the looped tape and the ten playback heads would then read the information with different delays, according to their (adjustable) positions around the disk. A separate amplifier and band-pass filter for each head could modify the spectrum of the sound, and additional feedback loops could transmit the information to the recording head. The resulting repetitions of a sound occurred at different time intervals, and could be filtered or modified through feedback. This system was also easily capable of producing artificial reverberation or continuous sounds.


title: Musique concrète

text: At the premiere of Pierre Schaeffer's "Symphonie pour un homme seul" in 1951, a system that was designed for the spatial control of sound was tested. It was called a "relief desk" ("pupitre de relief", but also referred to as "pupitre d'espace" or "potentiomètre d'espace") and was intended to control the dynamic level of music played from several shellac players. This created a stereophonic effect by controlling the positioning of a monophonic sound source. One of five tracks, provided by a purpose-built tape machine, was controlled by the performer and the other four tracks each supplied a single loudspeaker. This provided a mixture of live and preset sound positions. The placement of loudspeakers in the performance space included two loudspeakers at the front right and left of the audience, one placed at the rear, and in the centre of the space a loudspeaker was placed in a high position above the audience. The sounds could therefore be moved around the audience, rather than just across the front stage. On stage, the control system allowed a performer to position a sound either to the left or right, above or behind the audience, simply by moving a small, hand held transmitter coil towards or away from four somewhat larger receiver coils arranged around the performer in a manner reflecting the loudspeaker positions. A contemporary eyewitness described the "potentiomètre d'espace" in normal use:


title: Musique concrète

text: One found one's self sitting in a small studio which was equipped with four loudspeakers—two in front of one—right and left; one behind one and a fourth suspended above. In the front center were four large loops and an "executant" moving a small magnetic unit through the air. The four loops controlled the four speakers, and while all four were giving off sounds all the time, the distance of the unit from the loops determined the volume of sound sent out from each.<br>The music thus came to one at varying intensity from various parts of the room, and this "spatial projection" gave new sense to the rather abstract sequence of sound originally recorded. The central concept underlying this method was the notion that music should be controlled during public presentation in order to create a performance situation; an attitude that has stayed with acousmatic music to the present day.


title: Musique concrète

text: After the longstanding rivalry with the electronic music of the Cologne studio had subsided, in 1970 the GRM finally created an electronic studio using tools developed by the physicist Enrico Chiarucci, called the Studio 54, which featured the "Coupigny modular synthesiser" and a Moog synthesiser. The Coupigny synthesiser, named for its designer François Coupigny, director of the Group for Technical Research, and the Studio 54 mixing desk had a major influence on the evolution of GRM and from the point of their introduction on they brought a new quality to the music. The mixing desk and synthesiser were combined in one unit and were created specifically for the creation of musique concrète.


title: Musique concrète

text: The design of the desk was influenced by trade union rules at French National Radio that required technicians and production staff to have clearly defined duties. The solitary practice of musique concrète composition did not suit a system that involved three operators: one in charge of the machines, a second controlling the mixing desk, and third to provide guidance to the others. Because of this the synthesiser and desk were combined and organised in a manner that allowed it to be used easily by a composer. Independently of the mixing tracks (24 in total), it had a coupled connection patch that permitted the organisation of the machines within the studio. It also had a number of remote controls for operating tape recorders. The system was easily adaptable to any context, particularly that of interfacing with external equipment.


title: Musique concrète

text: Before the late 1960s the musique concrète produced at GRM had largely been based on the recording and manipulation of sounds, but synthesised sounds had featured in a number of works prior to the introduction of the Coupigny. Pierre Henry had used oscillators to produce sounds as early as 1955. But a synthesiser with envelope control was something Pierre Schaeffer was against, since it favoured the preconception of music and therefore deviated from Schaeffer's principal of "making through listening". Because of Schaeffer's concerns the Coupigny synthesiser was conceived as a sound-event generator with parameters controlled globally, without a means to define values as precisely as some other synthesisers of the day.


title: Musique concrète

text: The development of the machine was constrained by several factors. It needed to be modular and the modules had to be easily interconnected (so that the synthesiser would have more modules than slots and it would have an easy-to-use patch). It also needed to include all the major functions of a modular synthesiser including oscillators, noise-generators, filters, ring-modulators, but an intermodulation facility was viewed as the primary requirement; to enable complex synthesis processes such as frequency modulation, amplitude modulation, and modulation via an external source. No keyboard was attached to the synthesiser and instead a specific and somewhat complex envelope generator was used to shape sound. This synthesiser was well-adapted to the production of continuous and complex sounds using intermodulation techniques such as cross-synthesis and frequency modulation but was less effective in generating precisely defined frequencies and triggering specific sounds.


title: Musique concrète

text: The Coupigny synthesiser also served as the model for a smaller, portable unit, which has been used down to the present day.


title: Musique concrète

text: In 1966 composer and technician François Bayle was placed in charge of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales and in 1975, GRM was integrated with the new Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA – Audiovisual National Institute) with Bayle as its head. In taking the lead on work that began in the early 1950s, with Jacques Poullin's potentiomètre d'espace, a system designed to move monophonic sound sources across four speakers, Bayle and the engineer Jean-Claude Lallemand created an orchestra of loudspeakers ("un orchestre de haut-parleurs") known as the Acousmonium in 1974. An inaugural concert took place on 14 February 1974 at the Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris with a presentation of Bayle's "Expérience acoustique".


title: Musique concrète

text: The Acousmonium is a specialised sound reinforcement system consisting of between 50 and 100 loudspeakers, depending on the character of the concert, of varying shape and size. The system was designed specifically for the concert presentation of musique-concrète-based works but with the added enhancement of sound spatialisation. Loudspeakers are placed both on stage and at positions throughout the performance space and a mixing console is used to manipulate the placement of acousmatic material across the speaker array, using a performative technique known as "sound diffusion". Bayle has commented that the purpose of the Acousmonium is to "substitute a momentary classical disposition of sound making, which diffuses the sound from the circumference towards the centre of the hall, by a group of sound projectors which form an 'orchestration' of the acoustic image".


title: Arch of Titus

text: The Arch of Titus (; ) is a 1st-century AD honorific arch, located on the Via Sacra, Rome, just to the south-east of the Roman Forum. It was constructed in 81 AD by the Emperor Domitian shortly after the death of his older brother Titus to commemorate Titus's official deification or "consecratio" and the victory of Titus together with their father, Vespasian, over the Jewish rebellion in Judaea. The arch contains panels depicting the triumphal procession celebrated in 71 AD after the Roman victory culminating in the fall of Jerusalem, and provides one of the few contemporary depictions of artifacts of Herod's Temple. It became a symbol of the Jewish diaspora, and the menorah depicted on the arch served as the model for the menorah used as the emblem of the state of Israel.


title: Arch of Titus

text: The arch has provided the general model for many triumphal arches erected since the 16th century. It is the inspiration for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France.


title: Arch of Titus

text: Based on the style of sculptural details, Domitian's favored architect Rabirius, sometimes credited with the Colosseum, may have executed the arch. Without contemporary documentation, however, attributions of Roman buildings on basis of style are considered shaky. The brother and successor of Titus built the arch, despite being described as hateful towards Titus by Cassius Dio.


title: Arch of Titus

text: The medieval Latin travel guide "Mirabilia Urbis Romae" noted the monument, writing: "the arch of the Seven Lamps of Titus and Vespasian; [where Moses' candlestick is having seven branches, with the Ark, at the foot of the Cartulary Tower"].


title: Arch of Titus

text: During the Middle Ages, the Frangipani family added a second story to the vault, converting it into a fortified tower; beam holes from the construction remain in the panels. Pope Paul IV (papacy 1555–1559) made it the place of a yearly oath of submission.


title: Arch of Titus

text: In 1716, Adriaan Reland published his "De spoliis templi Hierosolymitani in arcu Titiano Romae conspicuis", in English: "The spoils of the temple of Jerusalem visible on the Arch of Titan at Rome".


title: Arch of Titus

text: It was one of the first buildings sustaining a modern restoration, starting with Raffaele Stern in 1817 and continued by Valadier under Pius VII in 1821, with new capitals and with travertine masonry, distinguishable from the original marble. The restoration was a model for the country side of Porta Pia.


title: Arch of Titus

text: At an unknown date, a local ban on Jews walking under the arch was placed on the monument by Rome's Chief Rabbinate; this was rescinded on the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, and at a Hanukkah event in 1997 the change was made public. The arch was never mentioned in Rabbinic literature.


title: Arch of Titus

text: The arch is large with both fluted and unfluted columns, the latter being a result of 19th-century restoration.


title: Arch of Titus

text: The spandrels on the upper left and right of the arch contain personifications of victory as winged women. Between the spandrels is the keystone, on which there stands a female on the east side and a male on the west side.


title: Arch of Titus

text: The soffit of the axial archway is deeply coffered with a relief of the apotheosis of Titus at the center. The sculptural program also includes two panel reliefs lining the passageway within the arch. Both commemorate the joint triumph celebrated by Titus and his father Vespasian in the summer of 71.


title: Arch of Titus

text: The south inner panel depicts the spoils taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. The golden candelabrum or Menorah is the main focus and is carved in deep relief. Other sacred objects being carried in the triumphal procession are the Gold Trumpets, the fire pans for removing the ashes from the altar, and the Table of Shewbread.


title: Arch of Titus

text: These spoils were likely originally colored gold, with the background in blue. In 2012 the Arch of Titus Digital Restoration Project discovered remains of yellow ochre paint on the menorah relief.


title: Arch of Titus

text: The north inner panel depicts Titus as "triumphator" attended by various "genii" and lictors, who carry fasces. A helmeted Amazonian, Valour, leads the quadriga or four horsed chariot, which carries Titus. Winged Victory crowns him with a laurel wreath. The juxtaposition is significant in that it is one of the first examples of divinities and humans being present in one scene together. This contrasts with the panels of the Ara Pacis, where humans and divinities are separated.


title: Arch of Titus

text: The sculpture of the outer faces of the two great piers was lost when the Arch of Titus was incorporated in medieval defensive walls. The attic of the arch was originally crowned by more statuary, perhaps of a gilded chariot. The main inscription used to be ornamented by letters made of perhaps silver, gold or some other metal.


title: Arch of Titus

text: The original inscription is attached to the east side of the Arch. It is written in Roman square capitals and reads:


title: Arch of Titus

text: The Senate and the Roman people (dedicate this) to the deified Titus Vespasian Augustus, son of the deified Vespasian."


title: Arch of Titus

text: The opposite side of the Arch of Titus received new inscriptions after it was restored during the pontificate of Pope Pius VII by Giuseppe Valadier in 1821. The restoration was intentionally made in travertine to differentiate between the original and the restored portions.


title: Arch of Titus

text: (Insigne religionis atque artis, monumentum, vetustate fatiscens: Pius Septimus, Pontifex Maximus, novis operibus priscum exemplar imitantibus fulciri servarique iussit. Anno sacri principatus eius XXIV), which means


title: Kryptos

text: Kryptos is a sculpture by the American artist Jim Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia. Since its dedication on November 3, 1990, there has been much speculation about the meaning of the four encrypted messages it bears. Of these four messages, the first three have been solved, while the fourth message remains one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world. The sculpture continues to be of interest to cryptanalysts, both amateur and professional, who are attempting to decipher the fourth passage. The artist has so far given four clues to this passage.


title: Kryptos

text: The main part of the sculpture is located in the northwest corner of the New Headquarters Building courtyard, outside of the Agency's cafeteria. The sculpture comprises four large copper plates with other elements consisting of water, wood, plants, red and green granite, white quartz, and petrified wood. The most prominent feature is a large vertical S-shaped copper screen resembling a scroll or a piece of paper emerging from a computer printer, half of which consists of encrypted text. The characters are all found within the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, along with question marks, and are cut out of the copper plates. The main sculpture contains four separate enigmatic messages, three of which have been deciphered.


title: Kryptos

text: In addition to the main part of the sculpture, Jim Sanborn also placed other pieces of art at the CIA grounds, such as several large granite slabs with sandwiched copper sheets outside the entrance to the New Headquarters Building. Several morse code messages are found on these copper sheets, and one of the stone slabs has an engraving of a compass rose pointing to a lodestone. Other elements of Sanborn's installation include a landscaped garden area, a fish pond with opposing wooden benches, a reflecting pool, and other pieces of stone including a triangle-shaped black stone slab.


title: Kryptos

text: The name "Kryptos" comes from the ancient Greek word for "hidden", and the theme of the sculpture is "Intelligence Gathering".


title: Kryptos

text: The ciphertext on the left-hand side of the sculpture (as seen from the courtyard) of the main sculpture contains 869 characters in total: 865 letters and 4 question marks.


title: Kryptos

text: In April 2006, however, Sanborn released information stating that a letter was omitted from this side of "Kryptos" "for aesthetic reasons, to keep the sculpture visually balanced".


title: Kryptos

text: There are also three misspelled words in the plaintext of the deciphered first three passages, which Sanborn has said was intentional, and three letters (YAR) near the beginning of the bottom half of the left side are the only characters on the sculpture in superscript.


title: Kryptos

text: The right-hand side of the sculpture comprises a keyed Vigenère encryption tableau, consisting of 867 letters.


title: Kryptos

text: One of the lines of the Vigenère tableau has an extra character (L). Bauer, Link, and Molle suggest that this may be a reference to the Hill cipher as an encryption method for the fourth passage of the sculpture. However, Sanborn omitted the extra letter from small Kryptos models that he sold.


title: Kryptos

text: Sanborn worked with a retiring CIA employee named Ed Scheidt, Chairman of the CIA Office of Communications, to come up with the cryptographic systems used on the sculpture.


title: Kryptos

text: Sanborn has revealed that the sculpture contains a riddle within a riddle, which will be solvable only after the four encrypted passages have been deciphered.


title: Kryptos

text: He has given conflicting information about the sculpture's answer, saying at one time that he gave the complete solution to the then-CIA director William Webster during the dedication ceremony; but later, he also said that he had not given Webster the entire solution. He did, however, confirm that a passage of the plaintext of the second message reads "Who knows the exact location? Only WW."


title: Kryptos

text: Sanborn also confirmed that should he die before the entire sculpture becomes deciphered, there will be someone able to confirm the solution. In 2020, Sanborn stated that he planned to put the secret to the solution up for auction once he dies.


title: Kryptos

text: The first person to announce publicly that he had solved the first three passages was Jim Gillogly, a computer scientist from southern California, who deciphered these passages using a computer, and revealed his solutions in 1999.


title: Kryptos

text: After Gillogly's announcement, the CIA revealed that their analyst David Stein had solved the same passages in 1998 using pencil and paper techniques, although at the time of his solution the information was only disseminated within the intelligence community. No public announcement was made until July 1999, although in November 1998 it was revealed that "a CIA analyst working on his own time [had] solved the lion's share of it".


title: Kryptos

text: The NSA claimed that some of their employees had solved the same three passages but would not reveal names or dates until March 2000, when it was learned that an NSA team led by Ken Miller, along with Dennis McDaniels and two other unnamed individuals, had solved passages 1–3 in late 1992. In 2013, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Elonka Dunin, the NSA released documents that show these attempts to solve the "Kryptos" puzzle in 1992, following a challenge by Bill Studeman, then Deputy Director of the CIA. The documents show that by June 1993, a small group of NSA cryptanalysts had succeeded in solving the first three passages of the sculpture.


title: Kryptos

text: The above attempts to solve "Kryptos" all had found that passage 2 ended with WESTIDBYROWS. However, in 2005, Dr Nicole Friedrich, a logician from Vancouver, Canada, determined that another possible plaintext was: WESTPLAYERTWO. Dr. Friedrich solved the ending to section K2 from a clue that became apparent after she had determined a running cipher of K4 that resulted in an incomplete but partially legible K4 plaintext, involving text such as XPIST, REALIZE, AYD EQ HR, and others, but the find that instigated her discovery of K2 plaintext was the clue WESTX.


title: Kryptos

text: On April 19, 2006, Sanborn contacted an online community dedicated to the "Kryptos" puzzle to inform them that what was once the accepted solution to passage 2 was incorrect. Sanborn said that he made an error in the sculpture by omitting an S in the ciphertext (an X in the plaintext), and he confirmed that the last passage of the plaintext was WESTXLAYERTWO, and not WESTIDBYROWS.


title: Kryptos

text: IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE HOWS THAT POSSIBLE ? THEY USED THE EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD X THE INFORMATION WAS GATHERED AND TRANSMITTED UNDERGRUUND TO AN UNKNOWN LOCATION X DOES LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT THIS ? THEY SHOULD ITS BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE X WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION ? ONLY WW THIS WAS HIS LAST MESSAGE X THIRTY EIGHT DEGREES FIFTY SEVEN MINUTES SIX POINT FIVE SECONDS NORTH SEVENTY SEVEN DEGREES EIGHT MINUTES FORTY FOUR SECONDS WEST X LAYER TWO


title: Kryptos

text: The coordinates mentioned in the plaintext, , have been interpreted using a modern Geodetic datum as indicating a point that is approximately 174 feet (53 meters) southeast of the sculpture.


title: Kryptos

text: SLOWLY DESPARATLY SLOWLY THE REMAINS OF PASSAGE DEBRIS THAT ENCUMBERED THE LOWER PART OF THE DOORWAY WAS REMOVED WITH TREMBLING HANDS I MADE A TINY BREACH IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER AND THEN WIDENING THE HOLE A LITTLE I INSERTED THE CANDLE AND PEERED IN THE HOT AIR ESCAPING FROM THE CHAMBER CAUSED THE FLAME TO FLICKER BUT PRESENTLY DETAILS OF THE ROOM WITHIN EMERGED FROM THE MIST X CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING Q ?


title: Kryptos

text: This is a paraphrased quotation from Howard Carter's account of the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun on November 26, 1922, as described in his 1923 book "The Tomb of Tutankhamun". The question with which it ends is asked by Lord Carnarvon, to which Carter (in the book) famously replied "wonderful things". In the November 26, 1922, field notes, however, his reply was, "Yes, it is wonderful".


title: Kryptos

text: When commenting in 2006 about his error in passage 2, Sanborn said that the answers to the first three passages contain clues to the fourth passage. In November 2010, Sanborn released a clue, publicly stating that "NYPVTT", the 64th–69th letters in passage four, become "BERLIN" after decryption.