title: Rack (torture)

text: The rack was first used in antiquity and it is unclear exactly from which civilization it originated, though some of the earliest examples are from Greece. The Greeks may have first used the rack as a means of torturing slaves and non-citizens, and later in special cases, as in 356 BC, when it was applied to gain a confession from Herostratus, who was later executed for burning down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Arrian's "Anabasis of Alexander" states that Alexander the Great had the pages who conspired to assassinate him, along with their mentor, his court historian Callisthenes, tortured on the rack in 328 BC.


title: Rack (torture)

text: According to Tacitus, the rack was used in a vain attempt to extract the names of the conspirators to assassinate Emperor Nero in the Pisonian conspiracy from the freedwoman Epicharis in 65 A.D. The next day, after refusing to talk, she was dragged back to the rack on a chair (all of her limbs were dislocated, so she could not stand), but strangled herself on a loop of cord on the back of the chair on the way. The rack, in Roman sources, was referred to with the name "equuleus"; the word "fidicula", more commonly the name of a small lyre or stringed instrument, was used to describe a similar torture device, although its exact design has been lost.


title: Rack (torture)

text: The rack was also used on early Christians, such as St. Vincent (304 A.D.), and mentioned by the Church Fathers Tertullian and St. Jerome (420 A.D.).


title: Rack (torture)

text: Its first appearance in England is said to have been due to John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, the constable of the Tower in 1447, and was thus popularly known as "the Duke of Exeter's daughter".


title: Rack (torture)

text: The Protestant martyr Anne Askew, Daughter of Sir William Askew, Knight of Lincolnshire, was tortured on the rack before her execution in 1546 (age 25). She was well known for studying the Bible and memorizing verses; she remained apparently true to her beliefs even up to her execution. So damaged by the torture on the rack she had to be carried on a chair to her burning at the stake. The accusations against her were from: (1) the Bishop's Chancellor, who claimed that women were not allowed to speak the Scriptures, and (2) the Bishop of Winchester, because she would not profess that the sacraments were the literal flesh, blood and bone of Christ; this despite the fact that the English Reformation had already begun a decade earlier.


title: Rack (torture)

text: The Catholic martyr Nicholas Owen, a noted builder of priest holes, died under torture on the rack in the Tower of London in 1606. Guy Fawkes is also thought to have been put to the rack, since a royal warrant authorising his torture survives. The warrant states that "lesser tortures" should be applied to him at first, but if he remained recalcitrant he could be racked.


title: Rack (torture)

text: In 1628 the question of its legality was raised in connection with a proposal in the Privy Council to rack John Felton, the assassin of George Villiers, the 1st Duke of Buckingham. The judges resisted this, unanimously declaring its use to be contrary to the laws of England. The previous year Charles I had authorised the Irish Courts to rack a Catholic priest; this seems to have been the last time the rack was used in Ireland.


title: Rack (torture)

text: In 1679 Miles Prance, a silversmith who was being questioned about the murder of the respected magistrate Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, was threatened with the rack.


title: Rack (torture)

text: In Russia up to the 18th century the rack ("дыба", dyba) was a gallows-like device for suspending the victims (strappado). The suspended victims were whipped with a knout and sometimes burned with torches.


title: Rack (torture)

text: The term rack is also used, occasionally, for a number of simpler constructions that merely facilitate corporal punishment, after which it may be named specifically, e.g., "caning rack", as in a given jurisdiction it was often the custom to administer any given punishment in a specific position, for which the device (with or without fitting shackling and/or padding) would be chosen or specially made.


title: Rack (torture)

text: Several devices similar in principle to the rack have been used through the ages. One of these was the Wooden Horse, a device used to torture prisoners during the Roman Empire by stretching them on top of a tall wooden frame until the shoulders were dislocated followed by a violent drop into a hanging position and beating. In another variant used primarily in ancient times, the victim's feet were affixed to the ground and his/her hands were chained to a wheel. When the wheel was turned, the person was stretched in a manner similar to the rack. The "Austrian ladder" was basically a more vertically oriented rack. As part of the torture, victims would usually be burned under the arms with candles.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Androphilia and gynephilia are terms used in behavioral science to describe sexual orientation, as an alternative to a gender binary homosexual and heterosexual conceptualization. Androphilia describes sexual attraction to men or masculinity; gynephilia describes the sexual attraction to women or femininity. Ambiphilia describes the combination of both androphilia and gynephilia in a given individual, or bisexuality.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: The terms are used for identifying a person's objects of attraction without attributing a sex assignment or gender identity to the person. It may be used when describing intersex and transgender people, especially those who are nonbinary.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Magnus Hirschfeld, an early-20th century German sexologist and physician, divided homosexual men into four groups: paedophiles, who are most attracted to prepubescent youth, ephebophiles, who are most attracted to youths from puberty up to the early twenties; androphiles, who are most attracted to persons between the early twenties and fifty; and gerontophiles, who are most attracted to older men, up to senile old age. According to Karen Franklin, Hirschfeld considered ephebophilia "common and nonpathological, with ephebophiles and androphiles each making up about 45% of the homosexual population."


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: In biology, "androphilic" is sometimes used as a synonym for "anthropophilic", describing parasites who have a host preference for humans versus non-human animals.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: A version of the term appeared in Ancient Greek. In "Idyll" 8, line 60, Theocritus uses () as a euphemistic adjective to describe Zeus's lust for women.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Sigmund Freud used the term "gynecophilic" to describe his case study Dora. He also used the term in correspondence.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Following Hirschfeld, "androphilia" and "gynephilia" are sometimes used in taxonomies which specify sexual interests based on age ranges, which John Money called chronophilia. In such schemes, sexual attraction to adults is called teleiophilia or adultophilia. In this context, "androphilia" and "gynephilia" are gendered variants meaning "attraction to adult males" and "attraction to adult females," respectively. Psychologist Dennis Howitt writes:


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Definition is primarily an issue of theory, not merely classification, since classification implies a theory, no matter how rudimentary. Freund "et al." (1984) used Latinesque words to classify sexual attraction along the dimensions of sex and age:


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: The 9-item Gynephilia Scale was created to measure erotic interest in physically mature females, and the 13-item Androphilia Scale was created to measure erotic interest in physically mature males. The scales were developed by Kurt Freund and Betty Steiner in 1982. They were later modified by Ray Blanchard in 1985, as the Modified Androphilia–Gynephilia Index (MAGI).


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Magnus Hirschfeld distinguished between gynephilic, bisexual, androphilic, asexual, and narcissistic or automonosexual gender-variant persons. Since then, some psychologists have proposed using "homosexual transsexual" and "heterosexual transsexual" or "non-homosexual transsexual." Psychobiologist James D. Weinrich has described this split among psychologists: "The mf transsexuals who are attracted to men (whom some call 'homosexual' and others call 'androphilic') are in the lower left-hand corner of the XY table, in order to line them up with the ordinary homosexual (androphilic) men in the lower right. Finally, there are the mf transsexuals who are attracted to women (whom some call heterosexual and others call gynephilic or lesbian)."


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: The use of "homosexual transsexual" and related terms have been applied to transgender people since the middle of the 20th century, though concerns about the terms have been voiced since then. Harry Benjamin said in 1966:


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: ...it seems evident that the question "Is the transsexual homosexual?" must be answered "yes" and " no." "Yes," if his anatomy is considered; "no" if his psyche is given preference.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: What would be the situation after corrective surgery has been performed and the sex anatomy now resembles that of a woman? Is the "new woman" still a homosexual man? "Yes," if pedantry and technicalities prevail. "No" if reason and common sense are applied and if the respective patient is treated as an individual and not as a rubber stamp.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Many sources, including some supporters of the typology, criticize this choice of wording as confusing and degrading. Biologist Bruce Bagemihl writes "..the point of reference for "heterosexual" or "homosexual" orientation in this nomenclature is solely the individual's genetic sex prior to reassignment (see for example, Blanchard et al. 1987, Coleman and Bockting, 1988, Blanchard, 1989). These labels thereby ignore the individual's personal sense of gender identity taking precedence over biological sex, rather than the other way around." Bagemihl goes on to take issue with the way this terminology makes it easy to claim transsexuals are really homosexual males seeking to escape from stigma. Leavitt and Berger stated in 1990 that "The homosexual transsexual label is both confusing and controversial among males seeking sex reassignment.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Use of "androphilia" and "gynephilia" was proposed and popularized by psychologist Ron Langevin in the 1980s. Psychologist Stephen T. Wegener writes, "Langevin makes several concrete suggestions regarding the language used to describe sexual anomalies. For example, he proposes the terms "gynephilic" and "androphilic" to indicate the type of partner preferred regardless of an individual's gender identity or dress. Those who are writing and researching in this area would do well to adopt his clear and concise vocabulary."


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Psychiatrist Anil Aggrawal explains why the terms are useful in a glossary: Androphilia – The romantic and/or sexual attraction to adult males. The term, along with gynephilia, is needed to overcome immense difficulties in characterizing the sexual orientation of transmen and transwomen. For instance, it is difficult to decide whether a transman erotically attracted to males is a heterosexual female or a homosexual male; or a transwoman erotically attracted to females is a heterosexual male or a lesbian female. Any attempt to classify them may not only cause confusion but arouse offense among the affected subjects. In such cases, while defining sexual attraction, it is best to focus on the object of their attraction rather than on the sex or gender of the subject.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Sexologist Milton Diamond, who prefers the term "gynecophilia", writes, "The terms heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual are better used as adjectives, not nouns, and are better applied to behaviors, not people." Diamond has encouraged using the terms androphilic, gynecophilic, and ambiphilic to describe the sexual-erotic partners one prefers (andro = male, gyneco = female, ambi = both, philic = to love). Such terms eliminate the need to specify the subject and focus instead on the desired partner. This usage is particularly advantageous when discussing the partners of transsexual or intersexed individuals. These newer terms also do not carry the social weight of the former ones."


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Psychologist Rachel Ann Heath writes, "The terms homosexual and heterosexual are awkward, especially when the former is used with, or instead of, gay and lesbian. Alternatively, I use gynephilic and androphilic to refer to sexual preference for women and men, respectively. Gynephilic and androphilic derive from the Greek meaning love of a woman and love of a man respectively. So a gynephilic man is a man who likes women, that is, a heterosexual man, whereas an androphilic man is a man who likes men, that is, a gay man. For completeness, a lesbian is a gynephilic woman, a woman who likes other women. Gynephilic transsexed woman refers to a woman of transsexual background whose sexual preference is for women. Unless homosexual and heterosexual are more readily understood terms in a given context, this more precise terminology will be used throughout the book. Since homosexual, gay, and lesbian are often associated with bigotry and exclusion in many societies, the emphasis on sexual affiliation is both appropriate and socially just." Author Helen Boyd agrees, writing, "It would be much more accurate to define sexual orientation as either "androphilic" (loving men) and "gynephilic" (loving women) instead." Sociomedical scientist Rebecca Jordan-Young challenges researchers like Simon LeVay, J. Michael Bailey, and Martin Lalumiere, who she says "have completely failed to appreciate the implications of alternative ways of framing sexual orientation."


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Some researchers advocate use of the terminology to avoid bias inherent in Western conceptualizations of human sexuality. Writing about the Samoan fa'afafine demographic, sociologist Johanna Schmidt writes:


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Kris Poasa, Ray Blanchard and Kenneth Zucker (2004) also present an argument that suggests that fa'afafine fall under the rubric of 'transgenderal homosexuality', applying the same birth order equation to fa'afafine's families as have been used with 'homosexual transsexuals'. While no explicit causal relationship is offered, Poasa, Blanchard, and Zucker's use of the term 'homosexual transsexual' to refer to male-to-female transsexuals who are sexually oriented towards men draws an apparent link between sexual orientation and gender identity. This link is reinforced by mention of the fact that similar birth order equations have been found for 'homosexual men'. The possibility of sexual orientation towards (masculine) men emerging from (rather than causing) feminine gendered identities is not considered.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Schmidt argues that in cultures where a third gender is recognized, a term like "homosexual transsexual" does not align with cultural categories.


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: She cites the work of Paul Vasey and Nancy Bartlett: "Vasey and Bartlett reveal the cultural specificity of concepts such as homosexuality, they continue to use the more 'scientific' (and thus presumably more 'objective') terminology of androphilia and gynephilia (sexual attraction to men or masculinity and women or femininity respectively) to understand the sexuality of fa'afafine and other Samoans." Researcher Sam Winter has presented a similar argument:


title: Androphilia and gynephilia

text: Terms such as 'homosexual' and heterosexual (and 'gay,' 'lesbian,' 'bisexual,' etc.) are Western conceptions. Many Asians are unfamiliar with them, there being no easy translation into their native languages or sexological worldviews. However, I take the opportunity to put on record that I consider an androphilic transwoman (ie one sexually attracted to men) to be heterosexual because of her attraction to a member of another gender and a gynephilic transwoman (ie one attracted to women) as homosexual because she has a same-gender preference. My usage is contrary to much Western literature (particularly medical) which persists in referring to androphilic transwomen and gynephilic transman as homosexual (indeed as homosexual transsexual males and females, respectively).


title: Bang (beverage)

text: Bang is an American brand of energy drinks. It is made by Vital Pharmaceuticals, a corporation located in Florida. As of 2020, Bang is the third highest selling energy drink in the United States, behind Monster and Red Bull. The brand is known for its bold public image; along with sponsoring numerous influencers on social media such as TikTok and Instagram, the brand's CEO Jack Owoc has also accumulated social media attention through the beverage's popularity.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: Bang's parent company, Vital Pharmaceuticals, was founded in 1993 by Jack Owoc. It manufactures and distributes sports supplements and performance beverages under the brand name VPX. Other products distributed by the company include Redline, Noo Fuzion, and Meltdown.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: In 2012, the company introduced Bang, marketed as a low sugar carbonated energy drink. Bang Energy's stated mission is to make high-quality nutritional supplements backed by scientific research.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: In 2017, Bang Energy announced a caffeine-free variant of the beverage, using beta-alanine in place of caffeine.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: In 2019, the company opened a manufacturing and distribution facility in Phoenix, Arizona, which operates alongside their facility in Pembroke Pines, Florida.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: In April 2020, PepsiCo entered an exclusive distribution agreement with VPX to distribute Bang in the United States. On November 17, 2020, the company gave PepsiCo a notice of termination; an emergency arbitrator ruled in December 2020 that Pepsi remained the exclusive distributor of Bang drinks until 2023. Bang transitioned from exclusive PepsiCo distribution in June 2022.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: In August 2022, it was reported that Keurig Dr Pepper was in talks to purchase VPX; these talks fell apart shortly after the reports surfaced.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: On October 10, 2022, Bang's parent company, Vital Pharmaceuticals, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: The Bang energy drink lineup includes over 40 flavors. Alongside its mainline energy drink, the company also produces several other products marketed under the Bang brand and logo. These include:


title: Bang (beverage)

text: Vital Pharmaceuticals was sued by competing energy drink manufacturer Monster Beverage, who alleged that Vital engaged in consumer deception and anti-competitive business practices. Vital countersued, alleging that Monster infringed their copyright by use of similar trade dress.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: In a separate lawsuit, Monster Beverage and Orange Bang sued Vital Pharmaceuticals for trademark infringement. Orange Bang previously sued Vital Pharmaceuticals in 2009, and the two companies settled the next year, with restrictions placed on Vital Pharmaceuticals' use of the Bang trademark, limited to "creatine-based" drinks and products sold exclusively at fitness venues such as gyms. The introduction of the "Bang Energy RTD" drink infringed on this settlement, as it contained 'Super Creatine'. The suit found that 'Super Creatine' was not actually creatine, and did not raise the body's creatine levels. The trademark case was ruled in favor of Monster and Orange Bang by an arbitrator, with Vital Pharmaceuticals owing $175 million in damages. Monster later won a false-advertising case regarding Bang's 'Super Creatine' supplement, and was awarded $293 million.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: The company was sued by Sony Music in October 2021, claiming that Bang Energy's social media platforms were infringing their copyright by using their music without licensing it.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: In August 2022, the estate of musician Prince won a lawsuit against Bang Energy for their usage of the "Purple Rain" trademark.


title: Bang (beverage)

text: Vital Pharmaceuticals engaged in legal action with PepsiCo for alleged misconduct and foul play. After terminating their exclusive distribution agreement with PepsiCo, Bang alleged that PepsiCo was misrepresenting itself as the exclusive distributor of their products, and threatened lawsuits against suppliers and distributors who did not purchase Bang products directly from them. An emergency arbitrator ruled in December 2020 that Pepsi remains the exclusive distributor of Bang. Bang and PepsiCo mutually transitioned from their exclusive distribution agreement in June 2022, with CEO Jack Owoc claiming that "all disputes with PepsiCo have been fully settled and resolved".


title: Bang (beverage)

text: The brand's CEO is a supporter of former president Donald Trump, and has donated $250,000 to America First Action, a super PAC endorsed by Trump. Bang has received controversy for its attendance at Turning Point USA conferences, including a stunt in which the brand's marketers fired cash out of a 'money cannon' towards the audience. The company also drew criticism for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ordering employees to attend a mandatory in-person meeting, a 'dance party' promoting their Redline Noo-Fusion product, without proper social distancing or security protocols.


title: Immanence

text: The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheistic, pantheistic, pandeistic, or panentheistic faiths to suggest that the spiritual world permeates the . It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which the divine is seen to be outside the material world.


title: Immanence

text: Major faiths commonly devote significant philosophical efforts to explaining the relationship between immanence and transcendence but do so in different ways, such as:


title: Immanence

text: Another meaning of immanence is the quality of being contained within, or remaining within the boundaries of a person, of the world, or of the mind. This meaning is more common within Christian and other monotheist theology, in which the one God is considered to transcend his creation.


title: Immanence

text: Pythagoreanism says that the "nous" is an intelligent principle of the world acting with a specific intention. This is the divine reason regarded in Neoplatonism as the first emanation of the divine. From the "nous" emerges the world soul, which gives rise to the manifest realm. Neoplatonic gnosticism goes on to say the Godhead is the Father, Mother, and Son (Zeus). In the mind of Zeus, the "ideas" are distinctly articulated and become the Logos by which he creates the world. These ideas become active in the Mind ("nous") of Zeus. With him is the Power and from him is the "nous". This theology further explains that Zeus is called Demiurge ("Dêmiourgos", Creator), Maker ("Poiêtês"), and Craftsman ("Technitês"). The nous of the demiurge proceeds outward into manifestation, becoming living ideas. They give rise to a lineage of mortal human souls. The components of the soul are 1) the higher soul, seat of the intuitive mind ("divine nous"); 2) the rational soul ("logistikon") (seat of discursive reason / "dianoia"); 3) the nonrational soul ("alogia"), responsible for the senses, appetites, and motion. Zeus thinks the articulated ideas ("logos"). The "idea of ideas" ("eidos - eidôn"), provides a model of the Paradigm of the Universe, which the Demiurge contemplates in his articulation of the "ideas" and his creation of the world according to the Logos.


title: Immanence

text: Tantric Buddhism and Dzogchen posit a non-dual basis for both experience and reality that could be considered an exposition of a philosophy of immanence that has a history on the subcontinent of India from early CE to the present. A paradoxical non-dual awareness or "rigpa" (Tibetan — "vidya" in Sanskrit) — is said to be the 'self-perfected state' of all beings. Scholarly works differentiate these traditions from monism. The non-dual is said to be not immanent and not transcendent, not neither, nor both. One classical exposition is the Madhyamaka refutation of extremes that the philosopher-adept Nagarjuna propounded.


title: Immanence

text: Exponents of this non-dual tradition emphasize the importance of a direct experience of non-duality through both meditative practice and philosophical investigation. In one version, one maintains awareness as thoughts arise and dissolve within the 'field' of mind; one does not accept or reject them, rather one lets the mind wander as it will until a subtle sense of immanence dawns. "Vipassana", or insight, is the integration of one's 'presence of awareness' with that which arises in the mind. Non-duality or "rigpa" is said to be the recognition that both the quiet, calm, abiding state as found in "samatha" and the movement or arising of phenomena as found in "vipassana" are not separate.


title: Immanence

text: According to Christian theology, the transcendent God, who cannot be approached or seen in essence or being, becomes immanent primarily in the God-man Jesus the Christ, who is the incarnate Second Person of the Trinity. In Byzantine Rite theology the immanence of God is expressed as the hypostases or energies of God, who in his essence is incomprehensible and transcendent. In Catholic theology, Christ and the Holy Spirit immanently reveal themselves; God the Father only reveals himself immanently vicariously through the Son and Spirit, and the divine nature, the Godhead is wholly transcendent and unable to be comprehended.


title: Immanence

text: The immanence of the triune God is celebrated in the Catholic Church, traditional Protestant Churches, and Eastern Churches during the liturgical feast of the Theophany of God, known in Western Christianity as the Epiphany.


title: Immanence

text: Pope Pius X wrote at length about philosophical-theological controversies over immanence in his encyclical "Pascendi dominici gregis".


title: Immanence

text: According to Latter Day Saint theology, all of material creation is filled with immanence, known as the light of Christ. It is also responsible for the intuitive conscience born into man. The Light of Christ is the source of intellectual and spiritual enlightenment, and is the means by which God is in and through all things. LDS scriptures identify the divine Light with the mind of God, the source of all truth and conveyor of the characteristics of the divine nature through God's goodness. The experienced brilliance of God reflects the “fullness” of this spirit within God's being. Similarly, mankind can incorporate this spiritual light or divine mind and thus become one with God. This immanent spirit of light bridges the scientific and spiritual conceptualizations of the universe.


title: Immanence

text: Traditional Jewish religious thought can be divided into "Nigleh" ("Revealed") and "Nistar" ("Hidden") dimensions. Hebrew Scripture is, in the Kabbalistic tradition, explained using the four level exegesis method of "Pardes". In this system, the first three approaches, Simple, Hinted and Homiletical interpretations, characterise the revealed aspects. The fourth approach, the Secret meaning, characterises a hidden aspect. Among the classic texts of Jewish tradition, some Jewish Bible commentators, the "Midrash", the "Talmud", and mainstream Jewish philosophy use revealed approaches. Other Bible commentators, the Kabbalah, and Hasidic philosophy, use hidden approaches. Both dimensions are seen by adherents as united and complementary. In this way, ideas in Jewish thought are given a variety of ascending meanings. Explanations of a concept in "Nigleh" are given inherent, inner, mystical contexts from "Nistar".


title: Immanence

text: Descriptions of divine immanence can be seen in "Nigleh", from the Bible to Rabbinic Judaism. In Genesis, God makes a personal covenant with the forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Daily Jewish prayers refer to this inherited closeness and personal relationship with the divine, for their descendants, as "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob". To Moses, God reveals his Tetragrammaton name, that more fully captures divine descriptions of transcendence. Each of the Biblical names for God describe different divine manifestations. The most important prayer in Judaism, that forms part of the Scriptural narrative to Moses, says "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One." This declaration combines different divine names, and themes of immanence and transcendence. Perhaps the most personal example of a Jewish prayer that combines both themes is the invocation repeatedly voiced during the time in the Jewish calendar devoted to "Teshuva" (Return, often inaccurately translated as Repentance), "Avinu Malkeinu" ("Our Father, Our King"). Much of the later Hebrew Biblical narrative recounts the reciprocal relationship and national drama of the unfolding of themes of immanence and transcendence. Kabbalistic, or Hasidic Jewish thought and philosophy describe and articulate these interconnected aspects of the divine-human relationship.


title: Immanence

text: Jewish mysticism gives explanations of greater depth and spirituality to the interconnected aspects of God's immanence and transcendence. The main expression of mysticism, the Kabbalah, began to be taught in 12th-Century Europe, and reached a new systemisation in 16th-Century Israel. The Kabbalah gives the full, subtle, traditional system of Jewish metaphysics. In the Medieval Kabbalah, new doctrines described the 10 "Sephirot" (divine emanations) through which the Infinite, unknowable divine essence reveals, emanates, and continuously creates existence. The Kabbalists identified the final, feminine "Sefirah" with the earlier, traditional Jewish concept of the "Shekhinah" (immanent divine presence). This gave great spirituality to earlier ideas in Jewish thought, such as the theological explanations of suffering (theodicy). In this example, the Kabbalists described the "Shekhinah" accompanying the children of Israel in their exile, being exiled alongside them, and yearning for Her redemption. Such a concept derives from the Kabbalistic theology that the physical World, and also the Upper spiritual Worlds, are continuously recreated from nothing by the "Shefa" (flow) of divine will, which emanates through the "Sefirot". As a result, within all creations are divine sparks of vitality that sustain them. Medieval "Kabbalah" describes two forms of divine emanation, a "light that fills all worlds", representing this immanent divine creative power, and a "light that surrounds all worlds", representing transcendent expressions of Divinity.


title: Immanence

text: The new doctrines of Isaac Luria in the 16th Century completed the Kabbalistic system of explanation. Lurianic Kabbalah describes the process of "Tzimtzum" (צמצום meaning "Contraction" or "Constriction") in the Kabbalistic theory of creation, where God "contracted" his infinite essence in order to allow for a "conceptual space" in which a finite, independent world could exist. This has received different later interpretations in Jewish mysticism, from the literal to the metaphorical. In this process, creation unfolds within the divine reality. Luria offered a daring cosmic theology that explained the reasons for the "Tzimtzum", the primordial catastrophe of "Shevirat Hakelim" (the "Breaking of the Vessels" of the "Sefirot" in the first existence), and the messianic "Tikkun" ("Fixing") of this by every individual through their sanctification of physicality. The concept of "Tzimtzum" contains a built-in paradox, as it requires that God be simultaneously transcendent and immanent:


title: Immanence

text: Giordano Bruno, Baruch Spinoza and possibly Hegel espoused philosophies of immanence versus philosophies of transcendence such as Thomism or Aristotelian tradition. Kant's "transcendental" critique can be contrasted to Hegel's "immanent dialectics."


title: Immanence

text: Gilles Deleuze qualified Spinoza as the "prince of philosophers" for his theory of immanence, which Spinoza resumed by ""Deus sive Natura"" ("God or Nature"). Such a theory considers that there is no transcendent principle or external cause to the world, and that the process of life production is contained in life itself. When compounded with Idealism, the immanence theory qualifies itself away from "the world" to there being no external cause to one's mind.


title: Immanence

text: Thomas Carlyle's idea of "Natural Supernaturalism" posited the immanence of the divine in nature, history and man. Clement Charles Julian Webb explained that "Carlyle had done more than any other nineteenth-century writer to undermine belief in the transcendence of God and the origin of the material world in an act of creation in time, and to put in its place an 'essentially immanentist' theology, drawn largely from the writings of the German Idealists." Carlyle's "Natural Supernaturalism" was highly influential on American Transcendentalism and British Idealism.


title: Immanence

text: Giovanni Gentile's actual idealism, sometimes called "philosophy of immanence" and the metaphysics of the "I", "affirms the organic synthesis of dialectical opposites that are immanent within actual or present awareness". His so-called method of immanence "attempted to avoid: (1) the postulate of an independently existing world or a Kantian "Ding-an-sich" (thing-in-itself), and (2) the tendency of neo-Hegelian philosophy to lose the particular self in an Absolute that amounts to a kind of mystical reality without distinctions."


title: Immanence

text: Political theorist Carl Schmitt used the term in his book "Politische Theologie" (1922), meaning a power within some thought, which makes it obvious for the people to accept it, without needing to claim being justified. The immanence of some political system or a part of it comes from the reigning contemporary definer of "Weltanschauung", namely religion (or any similar system of beliefs, such as rationalistic or relativistic world-view). The Nazis took advantage of this theory creating, or resurrecting, basically religious mythology of race, its heroes, and its destiny to motivate people and to make their reign unquestionable, which it became.


title: Immanence

text: The French 20th-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze used the term immanence to refer to his "empiricist philosophy", which was obliged to create action and results rather than establish transcendents. His final text was titled "Pure Immanence: Essays on a Life" and spoke of a plane of immanence.


title: Immanence

text: Furthermore, the Russian Formalist film theorists perceived immanence as a specific method of discussing the limits of ability for a technological object. Specifically, this is the scope of potential uses of an object outside of the limits prescribed by culture or convention, and is instead simply the empirical spectrum of function for a technological artifact.


title: Smart meter

text: A smart meter is an electronic device that records information such as consumption of electric energy, voltage levels, current, and power factor. Smart meters communicate the information to the consumer for greater clarity of consumption behavior, and electricity suppliers for system monitoring and customer billing. Smart meters typically record energy near real-time, and report regularly, short intervals throughout the day. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the central system. Such an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) differs from automatic meter reading (AMR) in that it enables two-way communication between the meter and the supplier. Communications from the meter to the network may be wireless, or via fixed wired connections such as power line carrier (PLC). Wireless communication options in common use include cellular communications, Wi-Fi (readily available), wireless ad hoc networks over Wi-Fi, wireless mesh networks, low power long-range wireless (LoRa), Wize (high radio penetration rate, open, using the frequency 169 MHz) ZigBee (low power, low data rate wireless), and Wi-SUN (Smart Utility Networks).


title: Smart meter

text: The term "Smart Meter" often refers to an electricity meter, but it also may mean a device measuring natural gas, water or district heating consumption.


title: Smart meter

text: Similar meters, usually referred to as interval or time-of-use meters, have existed for years, but "Smart Meters" usually involve real-time or near real-time sensors, power outage notification, and power quality monitoring. These additional features are more than simple automated meter reading (AMR). They are similar in many respects to Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meters. Interval and time-of-use meters historically have been installed to measure commercial and industrial customers, but may not have automatic reading.


title: Smart meter

text: Research by the UK consumer group, showed that as many as one in three confuse smart meters with energy monitors, also known as in-home display monitors.


title: Smart meter

text: The installed base of smart meters in Europe at the end of 2008 was about 39 million units, according to analyst firm Berg Insight. Globally, Pike Research found that smart meter shipments were 17.4 million units for the first quarter of 2011. Visiongain determined that the value of the global smart meter market would reach US$7 billion in 2012.


title: Smart meter

text: By the end of 2018, the U.S. had over 86 million smart meters installed. In 2017, there were 665 million smart meters installed globally. Revenue generation is expected to grow from $12.8 billion in 2017 to $20 billion by 2022.


title: Smart meter

text: In 1972, Theodore Paraskevakos, while working with Boeing in Huntsville, Alabama, developed a sensor monitoring system that used digital transmission for security, fire, and medical alarm systems as well as meter reading capabilities. This technology was a spin-off from the automatic telephone line identification system, now known as Caller ID.


title: Smart meter

text: In 1974, Paraskevakos was awarded a U.S. patent for this technology. In 1977, he launched Metretek, Inc., which developed and produced the first smart meters. Since this system was developed pre-Internet, Metretek utilized the IBM series 1 mini-computer. For this approach, Paraskevakos and Metretek were awarded multiple patents.


title: Smart meter

text: Since the inception of electricity deregulation and market-driven pricing throughout the world, utilities have been looking for a means to match consumption with generation. Non-smart electrical and gas meters only measure total consumption, providing no information of when the energy was consumed. Smart meters provide a way of measuring electricity consumption in near real-time. This allows utility companies to charge different prices for consumption according to the time of day and the season. It also facilitates more accurate cash-flow models for utilities. Since smart meters can be read remotely, labor costs are reduced for utilities.


title: Smart meter

text: Smart metering offers potential benefits to customers. These include, a) an end to estimated bills, which are a major source of complaints for many customers b) a tool to help consumers better manage their energy purchases—smart meters with a display outside their homes could provide up-to-date information on gas and electricity consumption and in doing so help people to manage their energy use and reduce their energy bills. With regards to consumption reduction, this is critical for understanding the benefits of smart meters because the relatively small percentage benefits in terms of savings are multiplied by millions of users. Smart meters for water consumption can also provide detailed and timely information about customer water use and early notification of possible water leaks in their premises. Electricity pricing usually peaks at certain predictable times of the day and the season. In particular, if generation is constrained, prices can rise if power from other jurisdictions or more costly generation is brought online. Proponents assert that billing customers at a higher rate for peak times encourages consumers to adjust their consumption habits to be more responsive to market prices and assert further, that regulatory and market design agencies hope these "price signals" could delay the construction of additional generation or at least the purchase of energy from higher-priced sources, thereby controlling the steady and rapid increase of electricity prices.


title: Smart meter

text: An academic study based on existing trials showed that homeowners' electricity consumption on average is reduced by approximately 3-5% when provided with real-time feedback.


title: Smart meter

text: Another advantage of smart meters that benefits both customers and the utility is the monitoring capability they provide for the whole electrical system. As part of an AMI, utilities can use the real-time data from smart meters measurements related to current, voltage, and power factor to detect system disruptions more quickly, allowing immediate corrective action to minimize customer impact such as blackouts. Smart meters also help utilities understand the power grid needs with more granularity than legacy meters. This greater understanding facilitates system planning to meet customer energy needs while reducing the likelihood of additional infrastructure investments, which eliminates unnecessary spending or energy cost increases.


title: Smart meter

text: Though the task of meeting national electricity demand with accurate supply is becoming ever more challenging as intermittent renewable generation sources make up a greater proportion of the energy mix, the real-time data provided by smart meters allow grid operators to integrate renewable energy onto the grid in order to balance the networks. As a result, smart meters are considered an essential technology to the decarbonisation of the energy system.


title: Smart meter

text: Communication is a critical technological requirement for smart meters. Each meter must be able to reliably and securely communicate the information collected to a central location. Considering the varying environments and places where meters are found, that problem can be daunting. Among the solutions proposed are: the use of cell and pager networks, satellite, licensed radio, combination licensed and unlicensed radio, and power line communication. Not only the medium used for communication purposes, but also the type of network used, is critical. As such, one would find: fixed wireless, wireless mesh network and wireless ad hoc networks, or a combination of the two. There are several other potential network configurations possible, including the use of Wi-Fi and other internet related networks. To date no one solution seems to be optimal for all applications. Rural utilities have very different communication problems from urban utilities or utilities located in difficult locations such as mountainous regions or areas ill-served by wireless and internet companies.


title: Smart meter

text: In addition to communication with the head-end network, smart meters may need to be part of a home area network, which can include an in-premises display and a hub to interface one or more meters with the head end. Technologies for this network vary from country to country, but include power line communication, wireless ad hoc network, and ZigBee.


title: Smart meter

text: ANSI C12.18 is an ANSI Standard that describes a protocol used for two-way communications with a meter, mostly used in North American markets. The C12.18 Standard is written specifically for meter communications via an ANSI Type 2 Optical Port, and specifies lower-level protocol details. ANSI C12.19 specifies the data tables that are used. ANSI C12.21 is an extension of C12.18 written for modem instead of optical communications, so it is better suited to automatic meter reading. ANSI C12.22 is the communication protocol for remote communications.


title: Smart meter

text: IEC 61107 is a communication protocol for smart meters published by the IEC that is widely used for utility meters in the European Union. It is superseded by IEC 62056, but remains in wide use because it is simple and well-accepted. It sends ASCII data using a serial port. The physical media are either modulated light, sent with an LED and received with a photodiode, or a pair of wires, usually modulated by EIA-485. The protocol is half-duplex. IEC 61107 is related to, and sometimes wrongly confused with, the FLAG protocol. Ferranti and Landis+Gyr were early proponents of an interface standard that eventually became a sub-set of IEC1107.


title: Smart meter

text: The Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) is a family of specifications published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) used in conjunction with the ISO/IEC 14908 control networking standard for smart metering and smart grid applications. Millions of smart meters based on OSGP are deployed worldwide. On July 15, 2015, the OSGP Alliance announced the release of a new security protocol (OSGP-AES-128-PSK) and its availability from OSGP vendors. This deprecated the original OSGP-RC4-PSK security protocol which had been identified to be vulnerable.


title: Smart meter

text: There is a growing trend toward the use of TCP/IP technology as a common communication platform for Smart Meter applications, so that utilities can deploy multiple communication systems, while using IP technology as a common management platform. A universal metering interface would allow for development and mass production of smart meters and smart grid devices prior to the communication standards being set, and then for the relevant communication modules to be easily added or switched when they are. This would lower the risk of investing in the wrong standard as well as permit a single product to be used globally even if regional communication standards vary.


title: Smart meter

text: Some smart meters may use a test IR LED to transmit non-encrypted usage data that bypasses meter security by transmitting lower level data in real-time.


title: Smart meter

text: In the UK, smart meters variants are classified as Smart Meter Equipment Technical Specifications (SMETS), with first generation smart meters commonly known as SMETS1 and second generation smart meters known as SMETS2.


title: Smart meter

text: In August 2020, smart meter installer SMS plc was the first company to fit the new three-phase SMETS2 meter – developed by Aclara Technologies – on behalf of UK energy supplier, Good Energy.


title: Smart meter

text: The other critical technology for smart meter systems is the information technology at the utility that integrates the Smart Meter networks with utility applications, such as billing and CIS. This includes the Meter Data Management system.


title: Smart meter

text: It also is essential for smart grid implementations that power line communication (PLC) technologies used within the home over a Home Area Network (HAN), are standardized and compatible. The HAN allows HVAC systems and other household appliances to communicate with the smart meter, and from there to the utility. Currently there are several broadband or narrowband standards in place, or being developed, that are not yet compatible. To address this issue, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) established the PAP15 group, which studies and recommends coexistence mechanisms with a focus on the harmonization of PLC Standards for the HAN. The objective of the group is to ensure that all PLC technologies selected for the HAN coexist as a minimum. The two leading broadband PLC technologies selected are the HomePlug AV / IEEE 1901 and ITU-T G.hn technologies. Technical working groups within these organizations are working to develop appropriate coexistence mechanisms. The HomePlug Powerline Alliance has developed a new standard for smart grid HAN communications called the HomePlug Green PHY specification. It is interoperable and coexistent with the widely deployed HomePlug AV technology and with the latest IEEE 1901 global Standard and is based on Broadband OFDM technology. ITU-T commissioned in 2010 a new project called G.hnem, to address the home networking aspects of energy management, built upon existing Low Frequency Narrowband OFDM technologies.


title: Smart meter

text: The Google.org's PowerMeter, until its demise in 2011, was able to use a smart meter for tracking electricity usage, as can eMeter' Energy Engage as in, for example, the PowerCentsDC(TM) demand response program.


title: Smart meter

text: Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) refers to systems that measure, collect, and analyze energy usage, and communicate with metering devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters, either on request or on a schedule. These systems include hardware, software, communications, consumer energy displays and controllers, customer associated systems, meter data management software, and supplier business systems.


title: Smart meter

text: Government agencies and utilities are turning toward advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems as part of larger "smart grid" initiatives. AMI extends automatic meter reading (AMR) technology by providing two-way meter communications, allowing commands to be sent toward the home for multiple purposes, including time-based pricing information, demand-response actions, or remote service disconnects. Wireless technologies are critical elements of the neighborhood network, aggregating a mesh configuration of up to thousands of meters for back haul to the utility’s IT headquarters.


title: Smart meter

text: The network between the measurement devices and business systems allows the collection and distribution of information to customers, suppliers, utility companies, and service providers. This enables these businesses to participate in demand response services. Consumers can use the information provided by the system to change their normal consumption patterns to take advantage of lower prices. Pricing can be used to curb the growth of peak demand consumption. AMI differs from traditional automatic meter reading (AMR) in that it enables two-way communications with the meter. Systems only capable of meter readings do not qualify as AMI systems.


title: Smart meter

text: Some groups have expressed concerns regarding the cost, health, fire risk, security and privacy effects of smart meters and the remote controllable "kill switch" that is included with most of them. Many of these concerns regard wireless-only smart meters with no home energy monitoring or control or safety features. Metering-only solutions, while popular with utilities because they fit existing business models and have cheap up-front capital costs, often result in such "backlash". Often the entire smart grid and smart building concept is discredited in part by confusion about the difference between home control and home area network technology and AMI. The (now former) attorney general of Connecticut has stated that he does not believe smart meters provide any financial benefit to consumers, however, the cost of the installation of the new system is absorbed by those customers.


title: Smart meter

text: Smart meters expose the power grid to cyberattacks that could lead to power outages, both by cutting off people's electricity and by overloading the grid. However many cyber security experts state that smart meters of UK and Germany have a relatively high cybersecurity and that any such attack there would thus require extraordinarily high efforts or financial resources. The EU Cyber security Act took effect in June 2019, which includes Directive on Security Network and Information Systems establishing notification and security requirements for operators of essential services.


title: Smart meter

text: Through the Smartgrid Cybersecurity Committee, the U.S. Department of Energy published cybersecurity guidelines for grid operators in 2010 and updated them in 2014.  The guidelines “...present an analytical framework that organizations can use to develop effective cybersecurity strategies...”


title: Smart meter

text: Implementing security protocols that protect these devices from malicious attacks has been problematic, due to their limited computational resources and long operational life.


title: Smart meter

text: The current version of IEC 62056 includes the possibility to encrypt, authenticate, or sign the meter data.


title: Smart meter

text: One proposed smart meter data verification method involves analyzing the network traffic in real-time to detect anomalies using an Intrusion Detection System (IDS). By identifying exploits as they are being leveraged by attackers, an IDS mitigates the suppliers' risks of energy theft by consumers and denial-of-service attacks by hackers. Energy utilities must choose between a centralized IDS, embedded IDS, or dedicated IDS depending on the individual needs of the utility. Researchers have found that for a typical advanced metering infrastructure, the centralized IDS architecture is superior in terms of cost efficiency and security gains.


title: Smart meter

text: In the United Kingdom, the Data Communication Company, which transports the commands from the supplier to the smart meter, performs an additional anomaly check on commands issued (and signed) by the energy supplier.


title: Smart meter

text: As Smart Meter devices are Intelligent Measurement Devices which periodically record the measured values and send the data encrypted to the Service Provider, therefore in Switzerland these devices need to be evaluated by an evaluation Laboratory, and need to be certified by METAS from 01.01.2020 according to Prüfmethodologie (Test Methodology for Execution of Data Security Evaluation of Swiss Smart Metering Components).


title: Smart meter

text: According to a report published by Brian Krebs, in 2009 a Puerto Rico electricity supplier asked the FBI to investigate large-scale thefts of electricity related to its smart meters. The FBI found that former employees of the power company and the company that made the meters were being paid by consumers to reprogram the devices to show incorrect results, as well as teaching people how to do it themselves.


title: Smart meter

text: Most health concerns about the meters arise from the pulsed radiofrequency (RF) radiation emitted by wireless smart meters.


title: Smart meter

text: Members of the California State Assembly asked the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) to study the issue of potential health impacts from smart meters, in particular whether current FCC standards are protective of public health. The CCST report in April 2011 found no health impacts, based both on lack of scientific evidence of harmful effects from radio frequency (RF) waves and that the RF exposure of people in their homes to smart meters is likely to be minuscule compared to RF exposure to cell phones and microwave ovens. Daniel Hirsch, retired director of the Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at UC Santa Cruz, criticized the CCST report on the grounds that it did not consider studies that suggest the potential for non-thermal health effects such as latent cancers from RF exposure. Hirsch also stated that the CCST report failed to correct errors in its comparison to cell phones and microwave ovens and that, when these errors are corrected, smart meters "may produce cumulative whole-body exposures far higher than that of cell phones or microwave ovens."


title: Smart meter

text: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted recommended Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for all RF transmitters (including smart meters) operating at frequencies of 300 kHz to 100 GHz. These limits, based on field strength and power density, are below the levels of RF radiation that are hazardous to human health.


title: Smart meter

text: Other studies substantiate the finding of the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST). In 2011, the Electric Power Research Institute performed a study to gauge human exposure to smart meters as compared to the FCC PEL. The report found that most smart meters only transmit RF signals 1% of the time or less. At this rate, and at a distance of 1 foot from the meter, RF exposure would be at a rate of 0.14% of the FCC PEL.


title: Smart meter

text: Issues surrounding smart meters causing fires have also been reported, particularly involving the manufacturer's Sensus. In 2012. PECO Energy Company replaced the Sensus meters it had deployed in the Philadelphia region after reports that a number of the units had overheated and caused fires. In July 2014, SaskPower, the province-run utility company of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, halted its roll-out of Sensus meters after similar, isolated incidents were discovered. Shortly afterward, Portland General Electric announced that it would replace 70,000 smart meters that had been deployed in the state of Oregon after similar reports. The company noted that it had been aware of the issues since at least 2013, and they were limited to specific models it had installed between 2010 and 2012. On July 30, 2014, after a total of eight recent fire incidents involving the meters, SaskPower was ordered by the Government of Saskatchewan to immediately end its smart meter program, and remove the 105,000 smart meters it had installed.


title: Smart meter

text: One technical reason for privacy concerns is that these meters send detailed information about how much electricity is being used each time. More frequent reports provide more detailed information. Infrequent reports may be of little benefit for the provider, as it doesn't allow as good demand management in the response of changing needs for electricity. On the other hand, widespread reports would allow the utility company to infer behavioral patterns for the occupants of a house, such as when the members of the household are probably asleep or absent. Furthermore, the fine-grained information collected by smart meters raises growing concerns of privacy invasion due to personal behavior exposure (private activity, daily routine, etc.). Current trends are to increase the frequency of reports. A solution that benefits both provider and user privacy would be to adapt the interval dynamically. Another solution involves energy storage installed at the household used to reshape the energy consumption profile. In British Columbia the electric utility is government-owned and as such must comply with privacy laws that prevent the sale of data collected by smart meters; many parts of the world are serviced by private companies that are able to sell their data. In Australia debt collectors can make use of the data to know when people are at home. Used as evidence in a court case in Austin, Texas, police agencies secretly collected smart meter power usage data from thousands of residences to determine which used more power than "typical" to identify marijuana growing operations.


title: Smart meter

text: Smart meter power data usage patterns can reveal much more than how much power is being used. Research has demonstrated that smart meters sampling power levels at two-second intervals can reliably identify when different electrical devices are in use.


title: Smart meter

text: Ross Anderson has written about privacy concerns. He writes "It is not necessary for my meter to tell the power company, let alone the government, how much I used in every half-hour period last month"; that meters can provide "targeting information for burglars"; that detailed energy usage history can help energy companies to sell users exploitative contracts; and that there may be "a temptation for policymakers to use smart metering data to target any needed power cuts."


title: Smart meter

text: Reviews of smart meter programs, moratoriums, delays, and "opt-out" programs are some responses to the concerns of customers and government officials. In response to residents who did not want a smart meter, in June 2012 a utility in Hawaii changed its smart meter program to "opt out". The utility said that once the smart grid installation project is nearing completion, KIUC may convert the deferral policy to an opt-out policy or program and may charge a fee to those members to cover the costs of servicing the traditional meters. Any fee would require approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission.


title: Smart meter

text: After receiving numerous complaints about health, hacking, and privacy concerns with the wireless digital devices, the Public Utility Commission of the US state of Maine voted to allow customers to opt-out of the meter change at the cost of $12 a month. In Connecticut, another US state to consider smart metering, regulators declined a request by the state's largest utility, Connecticut Light & Power, to install 1.2 million of the devices, arguing that the potential savings in electric bills do not justify the cost. CL&P already offers its customers time-based rates. The state's Attorney General George Jepsen was quoted as saying the proposal would cause customers to spend upwards of $500 million on meters and get few benefits in return, a claim that Connecticut Light & Power disputed.


title: Smart meter

text: There are questions about whether electricity is or should be primarily a "when you need it" service where the inconvenience/cost-benefit ratio of time-shifting of loads is poor. In the Chicago area, Commonwealth Edison ran a test installing smart meters on 8,000 randomly selected households together with variable rates and rebates to encourage cutting back during peak usage. In "Crain's Chicago Business" article "Smart grid test underwhelms. In the pilot, few power down to save money.", it was reported that fewer than 9% exhibited any amount of peak usage reduction and that the overall amount of reduction was "statistically insignificant". This was from a report by the Electric Power Research Institute, a utility industry think tank who conducted the study and prepared the report. Susan Satter, senior assistant Illinois attorney general for public utilities said "It's devastating to their plan...The report shows zero statistically different result compared to business as usual."


title: Smart meter

text: By 2016, the 7 million smart meters in Texas had not persuaded many people to check their energy data as the process was too complicated.


title: Smart meter

text: A report from a parliamentary group in the UK suggests people who have smart meters installed are expected to save an average of £11 annually on their energy bills, much less than originally hoped. The 2016 cost-benefit analysis was updated in 2019 and estimated a similar average saving.


title: Smart meter

text: The Australian Victorian Auditor-General found in 2015 that 'Victoria's electricity consumers will have paid an estimated $2.239 billion for metering services, including the rollout and connection of smart meters. In contrast, while a few benefits have accrued to consumers, benefits realisation is behind schedule and most benefits are yet to be realised'


title: Smart meter

text: Smart meters can allow real-time pricing, and in theory this could help smooth power consumption as consumers adjust their demand in response to price changes. However, modelling by researchers at the University of Bremen suggests that in certain circumstances, "power demand fluctuations are not dampened but amplified instead."


title: Smart meter

text: In 2013, "Take Back Your Power", an independent Canadian documentary directed by Josh del Sol was released describing "dirty electricity" and the aforementioned issues with smart meters. The film explores the various contexts of the health, legal, and economic concerns. It features narration from the mayor of Peterborough, Ontario, Daryl Bennett, as well as American researcher De-Kun Li, journalist Blake Levitt, and Dr. Sam Milham. It won a Leo Award for best feature-length documentary and the Annual Humanitarian Award from Indie Fest the following year.


title: Smart meter

text: In a 2011 submission to the Public Accounts Committee, Anderson wrote that Ofgem was "making all the classic mistakes which have been known for years to lead to public-sector IT project failures" and that the "most critical part of the project—how smart meters will talk to domestic appliances to facilitate demand response—is essentially ignored."


title: Smart meter

text: Citizens Advice said in August 2018 that 80% of people with smart meters were happy with them. Still, it had 3,000 calls in 2017 about problems. These related to first-generation smart meters losing their functionality, aggressive sales practices, and still having to send smart meter readings.


title: Smart meter

text: Ross Anderson of the Foundation for Information Policy Research has criticised the UK's program on the grounds that it is unlikely to lower energy consumption, is rushed and expensive, and does not promote metering competition. Anderson writes, "the proposed architecture ensures continued dominance of metering by energy industry incumbents whose financial interests are in selling more energy rather than less," and urged ministers "to kill the project and instead promote competition in domestic energy metering, as the Germans do – and as the UK already has in industrial metering. Every consumer should have the right to appoint the meter operator of their choice."


title: Smart meter

text: The high number of SMETS1 meters installed has been criticized by Peter Earl, head of energy at the price comparison website comparethemarket.com. He said, "The Government expected there would only be a small number of the first-generation of smart meters before Smets II came in, but the reality is there are now at least five million and perhaps as many as 10 million Smets I meters."


title: Smart meter

text: UK smart meters in southern England and the Midlands use the mobile phone network to communicate, so they do not work correctly when phone coverage is weak. A solution has been proposed, but was not operational as of March 2017.


title: Smart meter

text: In March 2018 the National Audit Office (NAO), which watches over public spending, opened an investigation into the smart meter program, which had cost £11bn by then, paid for by electricity users through higher bills. The National Audit Office published the findings of its investigation in a report titled "Rolling out smart meters" published in November 2018. The report, amongst other findings, indicated that the number of smart meters installed in the UK would fall materially short of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) original ambitions of all UK consumers having a smart meter installed by 2020. In September 2019, smart meter rollout in the UK was delayed for four years.


title: Smart meter

text: Ross Anderson and Alex Henney wrote that "Ed Miliband cooked the books" to make a case for smart meters appear economically viable. They say that the first three cost-benefit analyses of residential smart meters found that it would cost more than it would save, but "ministers kept on trying until they got a positive result... To achieve 'profitability' the previous government stretched the assumptions shamelessly".


title: Smart meter

text: An economist at Ofgem with oversight of the roll-out of the smart meter program who raised concerns with his manager was threatened with imprisonment under a law intended to protect national security. The Employment Appeal Tribunal found that the law was in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: "Natsume's Book of Friends" has been adapted as a series of drama CDs, as well as an anime television series produced by Brain's Base (seasons 1–4) and Shuka (seasons 5–6), which was broadcast on TV Tokyo for 6 seasons in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2017. The manga is licensed for English-language release in North America by Viz Media, which released the first volume in January 2010.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: The first four seasons of the anime have been licensed by NIS America for a North American release in 2012. A fifth season began airing on October 4, 2016. A sixth season began airing on April 11, 2017.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: "Natsume's Book of Friends the Movie: Ephemeral Bond" was released in theaters on September 29, 2018.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: For as long as he can remember, Takashi Natsume has had the ability to see spirits, inheriting the power from his grandmother Reiko Natsume. This ability resulted in his having a lonely childhood because children his age considered him strange. He had also been passed from one relative to another. Upon her death, Reiko bequeathed to her grandson her Book of Friends, a book containing the names of spirits she had bullied into servitude.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: both good and malicious – haunt Takashi constantly because of it. Takashi spends his time dissolving the contracts that Reiko created and releasing the various spirits that come to him for help. Malicious spirits on the other hand try to kill him to obtain possession of the book, which is where Madara (called Nyanko-sensei by Natsume) comes in. Madara serves as Natsume's bodyguard and spiritual advisor of sorts, even though ostensibly he is motivated by his own desire to possess the Book of Friends. He later begins to become more attached to Takashi, with the latter forming a similar bond with Madara.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: Midorikawa created "Natsume's Book of Friends" as an episodic serial for a manga magazine published every two months, so that each chapter was a story that could be read on its own. As the result of earlier writing a ghost story that an editor made her revise to include more romance than she initially wanted, Midorikawa specifically created "Natsume's Book of Friends" as a supernatural story with less romance, containing supernatural elements that stir readers' imaginations the way stories about yōkai and local gods stirred hers growing up in a rural area. For the basic story, she wanted to write about a boy and his non-human teacher, and include the incongruous element of the boy's grandmother in a school uniform.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: This was the first series Midorikawa wrote in which the protagonist was also the central character. Midorikawa claimed that as a character Natsume is almost as bad as herself at expressing his thoughts, which caused her to use more interior monologue than she was comfortable with for a male character.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: "Natsume's Book of Friends" is written and illustrated by Yuki Midorikawa and published in Japan by Hakusensha. It began serialization in 2005 in the bimonthly "shōjo" (aimed at teenage girls) manga magazine "LaLa DX"; in 2008, serialization switched to the monthly sister magazine "LaLa". The untitled chapters have been collected in twenty-eight "tankōbon" volumes.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: The series is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media, with the first volume published in January 2010. It is also licensed in French by Delcourt, in South Korea by Haksan, in Taiwan by Tong Li, in Thailand by Bongkoch Publishing, in Germany by Egmont Manga & Anime, in Italy by Panini Comics, in Indonesia by Elex Media Komputindo, in Vietnam by Tre Publishing House, in Russia by XL Media and in Poland by Studio JG.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: In addition, a fan book was published on January 5, 2009 () and a notebook reproduction of "Natsume's Book of Friends" was published on July 3, 2009 ().


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: "Natsume's Book of Friends" has been adapted as a series of three drama CDs, which were distributed as extras with issues of "LaLa".


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: "Natsume's Book of Friends" has been adapted as an anime television series produced by Brain's Base, directed by Takahiro Omori. It was broadcast on the TV Tokyo network. Seasons 1 & 2 were released on five DVDs each.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: The series is streamed online by Crunchyroll; episodes of the second season were available online on the day of broadcast.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: NIS America has licensed the series for retail release in North America. NIS America later released the series from Volume 1 through Volume 3 alongside "Natsume's Book of Friends" seasons 1 and 2 on February 4, 2014.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: An OVA titled was released on February 5, 2014, with the staff and cast of the previous anime seasons returning. The BD/DVD consisted of two discs, the second containing a clip of the "Sound Theatre x Natsume Yuujinchou ~ Tsudoi Ongeki no Shou~" musical event which was held the previous year on September 28, 2013. A new theatrical anime titled "Natsume's Book of Friends: The Waking Rock and the Strange Visitor" premiered on January 16, 2021. The film is composed of two stories, "Ishi Okoshi" and "Ayashiki Raihōsha". The main staff and cast members from the previous film are returning to reprise their roles with the addition of Hisako Kanemoto as a guest-star.


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: Separate soundtrack albums for the two seasons were released in Japan by Sony Music on September 24, 2008 and March 18, 2009, respectively. The series opening and closing theme songs were also released by Sony Music. As singles, "Issei no Sei" reached a peak rank of 48th on the Oricon singles chart, "Natsu Yūzora" reached 27th, and "Ano Hi Time Machine" reached 38th. "Aishiteru" was not released as a single, but instead included on an album called Uta no Hibi by Kourin (Also known as Callin').


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: Since the fifth volume of the series, the individual volumes have made the best-seller list for manga in Japan. Volume 5 was ranked at number 8 on the charts for the week of March 4–10, 2008; Volume 6 was number 5 for the week of July 8–14, 2008; Volume 13 has done the best so far of the volumes, staying on the chart for three consecutive weeks (number 2 for the week of January 2–8, 2012, number 4 for the week of January 9–15, 2012, then falling to number 19 the following week).


title: Natsume's Book of Friends

text: The anime has been popular not just in Japan, but also in the United States, Canada, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Both the anime and the manga have been noted for their optimistic themes and presentation.


title: Etching

text: Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types of material. As a method of printmaking, it is, along with engraving, the most important technique for old master prints, and remains in wide use today. In a number of modern variants such as microfabrication etching and photochemical milling it is a crucial technique in much modern technology, including circuit boards.


title: Etching

text: In traditional pure etching, a metal plate (usually of copper, zinc or steel) is covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The artist then scratches off the ground with a pointed etching needle where the artist wants a line to appear in the finished piece, exposing the bare metal. The échoppe, a tool with a slanted oval section, is also used for "swelling" lines. The plate is then dipped in a bath of acid, known as the "mordant" (French for "biting") or "etchant", or has acid washed over it. The acid "bites" into the metal (it undergoes a redox reaction) to a depth depending on time and acid strength, leaving behind the drawing (as carved into the wax) on the metal plate. The remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate. For first and renewed uses the plate is inked in any chosen non-corrosive ink all over and the surface ink drained and wiped clean, leaving ink in the etched forms.


title: Etching

text: The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper (often moistened to soften it). The paper picks up the ink from the etched lines, making a print. The process can be repeated many times; typically several hundred impressions (copies) could be printed before the plate shows much sign of wear. The work on the plate can be added to or repaired by re-waxing and further etching; such an etching (plate) may have been used in more than one state.


title: Etching

text: Etching has often been combined with other intaglio techniques such as engraving (e.g., Rembrandt) or aquatint (e.g., Francisco Goya).


title: Etching

text: Etching was already used in antiquity for decorative purposes. Etched carnelian beads are a type of ancient decorative beads made from carnelian with an etched design in white, which were probably manufactured by the Indus Valley civilization during the 3rd millennium BCE. They were made according to a technique of alkaline etching developed by the Harappans, and vast quantities of these beads were found in the archaeological sites of the Indus Valley civilization. They are considered as an important marker of ancient trade between the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia and even Ancient Egypt, as these precious and unique manufactured items circulated in great numbers between these geographical areas during the 3rd millennium BCE, and have been found in numerous tomb deposits. Sumerian kings, such as Shulgi circa 2000 BCE, also created etched carnelian beads for dedication purposes.


title: Etching

text: Etching by goldsmiths and other metal-workers in order to decorate metal items such as guns, armour, cups and plates has been known in Europe since the Middle Ages at least, and may go back to antiquity. The elaborate decoration of armour, in Germany at least, was an art probably imported from Italy around the end of the 15th century—little earlier than the birth of etching as a printmaking technique. Printmakers from the German-speaking lands and Central Europe perfected the art and transmitted their skills over the Alps and across Europe.


title: Etching

text: The process as applied to printmaking is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer (c. 1470–1536) of Augsburg, Germany. Hopfer was a craftsman who decorated armour in this way, and applied the method to printmaking, using iron plates (many of which still exist). Apart from his prints, there are two proven examples of his work on armour: a shield from 1536 now in the Real Armeria of Madrid and a sword in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum of Nuremberg. An Augsburg horse armour in the German Historical Museum, Berlin, dating to between 1512 and 1515, is decorated with motifs from Hopfer's etchings and woodcuts, but this is no evidence that Hopfer himself worked on it, as his decorative prints were largely produced as patterns for other craftsmen in various media. The oldest dated etching is by Albrecht Dürer in 1515, although he returned to engraving after six etchings instead of developing the craft.


title: Etching

text: The switch to copper plates was probably made in Italy, and thereafter etching soon came to challenge engraving as the most popular medium for artists in printmaking. Its great advantage was that, unlike engraving where the difficult technique for using the burin requires special skill in metalworking, the basic technique for creating the image on the plate in etching is relatively easy to learn for an artist trained in drawing. On the other hand, the handling of the ground and acid need skill and experience, and are not without health and safety risks, as well as the risk of a ruined plate.


title: Etching

text: Jacques Callot (1592–1635) from Nancy in Lorraine (now part of France) made important technical advances in etching technique.


title: Etching

text: Callot also appears to have been responsible for an improved, harder, recipe for the etching ground, using lute-makers' varnish rather than a wax-based formula. This enabled lines to be more deeply bitten, prolonging the life of the plate in printing, and also greatly reducing the risk of "foul-biting", where acid gets through the ground to the plate where it is not intended to, producing spots or blotches on the image. Previously the risk of foul-biting had always been at the back of an etcher's mind, preventing too much time on a single plate that risked being ruined in the biting process. Now etchers could do the highly detailed work that was previously the monopoly of engravers, and Callot made full use of the new possibilities.


title: Etching

text: Callot also made more extensive and sophisticated use of multiple "stoppings-out" than previous etchers had done. This is the technique of letting the acid bite lightly over the whole plate, then stopping-out those parts of the work which the artist wishes to keep light in tone by covering them with ground before bathing the plate in acid again. He achieved unprecedented subtlety in effects of distance and light and shade by careful control of this process. Most of his prints were relatively small—up to about six inches or 15 cm on their longest dimension, but packed with detail.


title: Etching

text: One of his followers, the Parisian Abraham Bosse, spread Callot's innovations all over Europe with the first published manual of etching, which was translated into Italian, Dutch, German and English.


title: Etching

text: The 17th century was the great age of etching, with Rembrandt, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione and many other masters. In the 18th century, Piranesi, Tiepolo and Daniel Chodowiecki were the best of a smaller number of fine etchers. In the 19th and early 20th century, the Etching revival produced a host of lesser artists, but no really major figures. Etching is still widely practiced today.


title: Etching

text: Soft-ground etching uses a special softer ground. The artist places a piece of paper (or cloth etc. in modern uses) over the ground and draws on it. The print resembles a drawing. Soft ground can also be used to capture the texture or pattern of fabrics or furs pressed into the soft surface.


title: Etching

text: Other materials that are not manufactured specifically for etching can be used as grounds or resists. Examples including printing ink, paint, spray paint, oil pastels, candle or bees wax, tacky vinyl or stickers, and permanent markers.


title: Etching

text: There are some new non-toxic grounds on the market that work differently than typical hard or soft grounds.


title: Etching

text: Relief etching was invented by William Blake in about 1788, and he has been almost the only artist to use it in its original form. However, from 1880 to 1950 a photo-mechanical ("line-block") variant was the dominant form of commercial printing for images. A similar process to etching, but printed as a relief print, so it is the "white" background areas which are exposed to the acid, and the areas to print "black" which are covered with ground. Blake's exact technique remains controversial. He used the technique to print texts and images together, writing the text and drawing lines with an acid-resistant medium.


title: Etching

text: Carborundum etching (sometimes called carbograph printing) was invented in the mid-20th century by American artists who worked for the WPA. In this technique, a metal plate is first covered with silicon carbide grit and run through an etching press; then a design is drawn on the roughened plate using an acid-resistant medium. After immersion in an acid bath, the resulting plate is printed as a relief print. The roughened surface of the relief permits considerable tonal range, and it is possible to attain a high relief that results in strongly embossed prints.


title: Etching

text: A waxy acid-resist, known as a ground, is applied to a metal plate, most often copper or zinc but steel plate is another medium with different qualities. There are two common types of ground: hard ground and soft ground.


title: Etching

text: Hard ground can be applied in two ways. Solid hard ground comes in a hard waxy block. To apply hard ground of this variety, the plate to be etched is placed upon a hot-plate (set at 70 °C, 158 °F), a kind of metal worktop that is heated up. The plate heats up and the ground is applied by hand, melting onto the plate as it is applied. The ground is spread over the plate as evenly as possible using a roller. Once applied the etching plate is removed from the hot-plate and allowed to cool which hardens the ground.


title: Etching

text: After the ground has hardened the artist "smokes" the plate, classically with 3 beeswax tapers, applying the flame to the plate to darken the ground and make it easier to see what parts of the plate are exposed. Smoking not only darkens the plate but adds a small amount of wax. Afterwards the artist uses a sharp tool to scratch into the ground, exposing the metal.


title: Etching

text: The second way to apply hard ground is by liquid hard ground. This comes in a can and is applied with a brush upon the plate to be etched. Exposed to air the hard ground will harden. Some printmakers use


title: Etching

text: oil/tar based asphaltum or bitumen as hard ground, although often bitumen is used to protect steel plates from rust and copper plates from aging.


title: Etching

text: Soft ground also comes in liquid form and is allowed to dry but it does not dry hard like hard ground and is impressionable. After the soft ground has dried the printmaker may apply materials such as leaves, objects, hand prints and so on which will penetrate the soft ground and expose the plate underneath.


title: Etching

text: The ground can also be applied in a fine mist, using powdered rosin or spraypaint. This process is called aquatint, and allows for the creation of tones, shadows, and solid areas of color.


title: Etching

text: The design is then drawn (in reverse) with an etching-needle or échoppe. An "echoppe" point can be made from an ordinary tempered steel etching needle, by grinding the point back on a carborundum stone, at a 45–60 degree angle. The "echoppe" works on the same principle that makes a fountain pen's line more attractive than a ballpoint's: The slight swelling variation caused by the natural movement of the hand "warms up" the line, and although hardly noticeable in any individual line, has a very attractive overall effect on the finished plate. It can be drawn with in the same way as an ordinary needle.


title: Etching

text: The plate is then completely submerged in a solution that eats away at the exposed metal. ferric chloride may be used for etching copper or zinc plates, whereas nitric acid may be used for etching zinc or steel plates. Typical solutions are 1 part FeCl to 1 part water and 1 part nitric to 3 parts water. The strength of the acid determines the speed of the etching process.


title: Etching

text: During the etching process the printmaker uses a bird feather or similar item to wave away bubbles and detritus produced by the dissolving process, from the surface of the plate, or the plate may be periodically lifted from the acid bath. If a bubble is allowed to remain on the plate then it will stop the acid biting into the plate where the bubble touches it. Zinc produces more bubbles much more rapidly than copper and steel and some artists use this to produce interesting round bubble-like circles within their prints for a Milky Way effect.


title: Etching

text: The detritus is powdery dissolved metal that fills the etched grooves and can also block the acid from biting evenly into the exposed plate surfaces. Another way to remove detritus from a plate is to place the plate to be etched face down within the acid upon plasticine balls or marbles, although the drawback of this technique is the exposure to bubbles and the inability to remove them readily.


title: Etching

text: For aquatinting a printmaker will often use a test strip of metal about a centimetre to three centimetres wide. The strip will be dipped into the acid for a specific number of minutes or seconds. The metal strip will then be removed and the acid washed off with water. Part of the strip will be covered in ground and then the strip is redipped into the acid and the process repeated. The ground will then be removed from the strip and the strip inked up and printed. This will show the printmaker the different degrees or depths of the etch, and therefore the strength of the ink color, based upon how long the plate is left in the acid.


title: Etching

text: The plate is removed from the acid and washed over with water to remove the acid. The ground is removed with a solvent such as turpentine. Turpentine is often removed from the plate using methylated spirits since turpentine is greasy and can affect the application of ink and the printing of the plate.


title: Etching

text: Spit-biting is a process whereby the printmaker will apply acid to a plate with a brush in certain areas of the plate. The plate may be aquatinted for this purpose or exposed directly to the acid. The process is known as "spit"-biting due to the use of saliva once used as a medium to dilute the acid, although gum arabic or water are now commonly used.


title: Etching

text: A piece of matte board, a plastic "card", or a wad of cloth is often used to push the ink into the incised lines. The surface is wiped clean with a piece of stiff fabric known as "tarlatan" and then wiped with newsprint paper; some printmakers prefer to use the blade part of their hand or palm at the base of their thumb. The wiping leaves ink in the incisions. You may also use a folded piece of organza silk to do the final wipe. If copper or zinc plates are used, then the plate surface is left very clean and therefore white in the print. If steel plate is used, then the plate's natural tooth gives the print a grey background similar to the effects of aquatinting. As a result, steel plates do not need aquatinting as gradual exposure of the plate via successive dips into acid will produce the same result.


title: Etching

text: Growing concerns about the health effects of acids and solvents led to the development of less toxic etching methods in the late 20th century. An early innovation was the use of floor wax as a hard ground for coating the plate. Others, such as printmakers Mark Zaffron and Keith Howard, developed systems using acrylic polymers as a ground and ferric chloride for etching. The polymers are removed with sodium carbonate (washing soda) solution, rather than solvents. When used for etching, ferric chloride does not produce a corrosive gas, as acids do, thus eliminating another danger of traditional etching.


title: Etching

text: The traditional aquatint, which uses either powdered rosin or enamel spray paint, is replaced with an airbrush application of the acrylic polymer hard ground. Again, no solvents are needed beyond the soda ash solution, though a ventilation hood is needed due to acrylic particulates from the air brush spray.


title: Etching

text: The traditional soft ground, requiring solvents for removal from the plate, is replaced with water-based relief printing ink. The ink receives impressions like traditional soft ground, resists the ferric chloride etchant, yet can be cleaned up with warm water and either soda ash solution or ammonia.


title: Etching

text: Anodic etching has been used in industrial processes for over a century. The etching power is a source of direct current. The item to be etched (anode) is connected to its positive pole. A receiver plate (cathode) is connected to its negative pole. Both, spaced slightly apart, are immersed in a suitable aqueous solution of a suitable electrolyte. The current pushes the metal out from the anode into solution and deposits it as metal on the cathode. Shortly before 1990, two groups working independently developed different ways of applying it to creating intaglio printing plates.


title: Etching

text: In the patented Electroetch system, invented by Marion and Omri Behr, in contrast to certain nontoxic etching methods, an etched plate can be reworked as often as the artist desires The system uses voltages below 2 volts which exposes the uneven metal crystals in the etched areas resulting in superior ink retention and printed image appearance of quality equivalent to traditional acid methods. With polarity reversed the low voltage provides a simpler method of making mezzotint plates as well as the "steel facing" copper plates.


title: Etching

text: Some of the earliest printmaking workshops experimenting with, developing and promoting nontoxic techniques include Grafisk Eksperimentarium, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Edinburgh Printmakers, in Scotland, and New Grounds Print Workshop, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.


title: Etching

text: Light sensitive polymer plates allow for photorealistic etchings. A photo-sensitive coating is applied to the plate by either the plate supplier or the artist. Light is projected onto the plate as a negative image to expose it. Photopolymer plates are either washed in hot water or under other chemicals according to the plate manufacturers' instructions. Areas of the photo-etch image may be stopped-out before etching to exclude them from the final image on the plate, or removed or lightened by scraping and burnishing once the plate has been etched. Once the photo-etching process is complete, the plate can be worked further as a normal intaglio plate, using drypoint, further etching, engraving, etc. The final result is an intaglio plate which is printed like any other.


title: Etching

text: Copper is a traditional metal, and is still preferred, for etching, as it bites evenly, holds texture well, and does not distort the color of the ink when wiped. Zinc is cheaper than copper, so preferable for beginners, but it does not bite as cleanly as copper does, and it alters some colors of ink. Steel is growing in popularity as an etching substrate. Increases in the prices of copper and zinc have steered steel to an acceptable alternative. The line quality of steel is less fine than copper, but finer than zinc. Steel has a natural and rich aquatint.


title: Etching

text: The type of metal used for the plate impacts the number of prints the plate will produce. The firm pressure of the printing press slowly rubs out the finer details of the image with every pass-through. With relatively soft copper, for example, the etching details will begin to wear very quickly, some copper plates show extreme wear after only ten prints. Steel, on the other hand, is incredibly durable. This wearing out of the image over time is one of the reasons etched prints created early in a numbered series tend to be valued more highly. An artist thus takes the total number of prints he or she wishes to produce into account whenever choosing the metal.


title: Etching

text: Etching is also used in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards and semiconductor devices, and in the preparation of metallic specimens for microscopic observation.


title: Etching

text: Prior to 1100 AD, the New World Hohokam culture independently utilized the technique of acid etching in marine shell designs. The shells were daubed in pitch and then bathed in acid probably made from fermented cactus juice.


title: Etching

text: Most typically, the surface of the plate is covered in a hard, waxy 'ground' that resists acid. The printmaker then scratches through the ground with a sharp point, exposing lines of metal which the mordant acid attacks.


title: Etching

text: Aquatint is a variation giving only tone rather than lines when printed. Particulate resin is evenly distributed on all or parts of the plate, then heated to form a screen ground of uniform, but less than perfect, density. After etching, any exposed surface will result in a roughened (i.e., darkened) surface. Areas that are to be light in the final print are protected by varnishing between acid baths. Successive turns of varnishing and placing the plate in acid create areas of tone difficult or impossible to achieve by drawing through a wax ground.


title: Etching

text: Designs in a syrupy solution of sugar or Camp Coffee are painted onto the metal surface prior to it being coated in a liquid etching ground or 'stop out' varnish. When the plate is placed in hot water the sugar dissolves, leaving the image. The plate can then be etched.


title: Etching

text: A mixture of nitric acid and Gum Arabic (or, almost never, saliva) which can be dripped, spattered or painted onto a metal surface giving interesting results. A mixture of nitric acid and rosin may also be used.


title: Etching

text: Printing the plate is done by covering the surface with printing ink, then rubbing the ink off the surface with "tarlatan" cloth or newsprint, leaving ink in the roughened areas and lines. Damp paper is placed on the plate, and both are run through a printing press; the pressure forces the paper into contact with the ink, transferring the image ("c.f.", chine-collé). Unfortunately, the pressure subtly degrades the image in the plate, smoothing the roughened areas and closing the lines; a copper plate is good for, at most, a few hundred printings of a strongly etched imaged before the degradation is considered too great by the artist. At that point, the artist can manually restore the plate by re-etching it, essentially putting ground back on and retracing their lines; alternatively, plates can be electro-plated before printing with a harder metal to preserve the surface. Zinc is also used, because as a softer metal, etching times are shorter; however, that softness also leads to faster degradation of the image in the press.