title: Endocytosis

text: At any one moment, about 25% of the plasma membrane of a fibroblast is made up of coated pits. As a coated pit has a life of about a minute before it buds into the cell, a fibroblast takes up its surface by this route about once every 16 minutes. Coated vesicles formed from the plasma membrane have a diameter of about 36 nm and a lifetime measured in a few seconds. Once the coat has been shed, the remaining vesicle fuses with endosomes and proceeds down the endocytic pathway. The actual budding-in process, whereby a pit is converted to a vesicle, is carried out by clathrin assisted by a set of cytoplasmic proteins, which includes dynamin and adaptors such as adaptin.


title: Endocytosis

text: Coated pits and vesicles were first seen in thin sections of tissue in the electron microscope by Matt Lions and Parker George. The importance of them for the clearance of LDL from blood was discovered by Richard G. Anderson, Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein in 1977. Coated vesicles were first purified by Barbara Pearse, who discovered the clathrin coat molecule in 1976.


title: Endocytosis

text: Caveolin proteins like caveolin-1 (CAV1), caveolin-2 (CAV2), and caveolin-3 (CAV3), play significant roles in the caveolar formation process. More specifically, CAV1 and CAV2 are responsible for caveolae formation in non-muscle cells while CAV3 functions in muscle cells. The process starts with CAV1 being synthesized in the ER where it forms detergent-resistant oligomers. Then, these oligomers travel through the Golgi complex before arriving at the cell surface to aid in caveolar formation. Caveolae formation is also reversible through disassembly under certain conditions such as increased plasma membrane tension. These certain conditions then depend on the type of tissues that are expressing the caveolar function. For example, not all tissues that have caveolar proteins have a caveolar structure ie. the blood-brain barrier.


title: Endocytosis

text: Though there are many morphological features conserved among caveolae, the functions of each CAV protein are diverse. One common feature among caveolins is their hydrophobic stretches of potential hairpin structures that are made of α-helices. The insertion of these hairpin-like α-helices forms a caveolae coat which leads to membrane curvature. In addition to insertion, caveolins are also capable of oligomerization which further plays a role in membrane curvature. Recent studies have also discovered that polymerase I, transcript release factor, and serum deprivation protein response also play a role in the assembly of caveolae. Besides caveolae assembly, researchers have also discovered that CAV1 proteins can also influence other endocytic pathways. When CAV1 binds to Cdc42, CAV1 inactivates it and regulates Cdc42 activity during membrane trafficking events.


title: Endocytosis

text: The process of cell uptake depends on the tilt and chirality of constituent molecules to induce membrane budding. Since such chiral and tilted lipid molecules are likely to be in a "raft" form, researchers suggest that caveolae formation also follows this mechanism since caveolae are also enriched in raft constituents. When caveolin proteins bind to the inner leaflet via cholesterol, the membrane starts to bend, leading to spontaneous curvature. This effect is due to the force distribution generated when the caveolin oligomer binds to the membrane. The force distribution then alters the tension of the membrane which leads to budding and eventually vesicle formation.


title: Riders Republic

text: Riders Republic is a sports video game developed by Ubisoft Annecy and published by Ubisoft. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Amazon Luna, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on October 28, 2021.


title: Riders Republic

text: The four main activities available in the game include mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, and wingsuit flying. Ubisoft described the game as a "massively multiplayer sports game", as up to 64 players can compete against each other in Mass Races competitions. The PS4 and Xbox One versions only support about 20 players. In addition, players can also play a 6v6 competitive multiplayer mode named "Tricks Battle Arena". In this mode, each team competes in an arena and needs to perform as many tricks as possible in order to score Trick points. The team with the highest score is the winner. The game is set in an open world which meshes seven distinct national parks in the Western United States, namely Bryce Canyon, Yosemite Valley, Sequoia Park, Zion, Canyonlands, Mammoth Mountain, and Grand Teton, into one enormous single map. The game features social hubs in which players can meet and interact with each other.


title: Riders Republic

text: The game features a career mode, in which players engage in six different disciplines (Bike Freestyle, Bike Racing, Snowboard/Ski Freestyle, Snowboard/Ski Racing, Wingsuit, Rocket Wingsuit). Each of them has its own progression path. Gradually, players would reach important milestones, such as being invited to join competitions like UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Red Bull Rampage, Red Bull Joyride and the X Games, and signing with real-world sports sponsors. The final objective is to participate in "Riders Ridge Invitational", described as "a never seen before multi-sport competition featuring all sports in one single event". In this event, players can switch between the sport activities at will. As players progress in the career mode, they will unlock new gears, outfits and cosmetic items.


title: Riders Republic

text: The game is currently being developed by Ubisoft Annecy using Ubisoft's proprietary game engine Ubisoft Anvil, from the team that created "Steep", also an extreme sports game, in 2016. Development of the game started in 2017, and the development team expanded to include members from other Ubisoft's studios in Montpellier, Belgrade, Pune, Berlin, Kyiv, and Odesa. The development team recreated the national parks using GPS data, and even though the seven national parks are distinct regions in real life, the team integrated the parks together in order to create one single open world for players to explore. The American national parks were chosen as the game's setting as they are often used to host competitions for extreme sports. The studio also sent a team to visit these parks to ensure that they are accurately represented in the game.


title: Riders Republic

text: Like "Steep", the game is not a simulation video game, as the team designed the gameplay to be as accessible as possible. The team worked with experts and athletes to ensure that each activity featured is authentic. For instance, different bike brands have stats that would "mimic real life behaviour". The gameplay was designed to be a social game which emphasizes "excitement and camaraderie of online community". This decision was made after "Steep" was offered as a free game for PlayStation Plus members in early 2019, which went on to attract more than 10 million new players.


title: Riders Republic

text: "Riders Republic" was announced on September 10, 2020 during the Ubisoft Forward digital event. The game was set to be released on February 25, 2021, but it was delayed by Ubisoft in January 2021. The game was then set to be released on September 2, 2021, but was delayed to October 28. Players who pre-ordered the game would receive the Bunny Pack, which adds additional cosmetic items into the game. The game would be supported extensively with post-launch downloadable content. It was released for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One and Xbox Series X on October 28, 2021.


title: Riders Republic

text: "Riders Republic" received "generally favourable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Game Informer awarded the game a 6.75, outlining that "Even though I liked the racing in "Riders Republic", overall, I can't say I enjoyed my time with it. It's a missed opportunity of a game, focusing on all the wrong things, making for an experience worth skipping."


title: Riders Republic

text: Other reviewers were much more positive in nature, such as GamesRadar, saying it "prioritizes fun, freedom, and community".


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), also known as manual metal arc welding (MMA or MMAW), flux shielded arc welding or informally as stick welding, is a manual arc welding process that uses a consumable electrode covered with a flux to lay the weld.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: An electric current, in the form of either alternating current or direct current from a welding power supply, is used to form an electric arc between the electrode and the metals to be joined. The workpiece and the electrode melts forming a pool of molten metal (weld pool) that cools to form a joint. As the weld is laid, the flux coating of the electrode disintegrates, giving off vapors that serve as a shielding gas and providing a layer of slag, both of which protect the weld area from atmospheric contamination.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Because of the versatility of the process and the simplicity of its equipment and operation, shielded metal arc welding is one of the world's first and most popular welding processes. It dominates other welding processes in the maintenance and repair industry, and though flux-cored arc welding is growing in popularity, SMAW continues to be used extensively in the construction of heavy steel structures and in industrial fabrication. The process is used primarily to weld iron and steels (including stainless steel) but aluminium, nickel and copper alloys can also be welded with this method.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: After the discovery of the short pulsed electric arc in 1800 by Humphry Davy and of the continuous electric arc in 1802 by Vasily Petrov, there was little development in electrical welding until Auguste de Méritens developed a carbon arc torch that was patented in 1881.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: In 1885, Nikolay Benardos and Stanisław Olszewski developed carbon arc welding, obtaining American patents from 1887 showing a rudimentary electrode holder. In 1888, the consumable metal electrode was invented by Nikolay Slavyanov. Later in 1890, C. L. Coffin received for his arc welding method that utilized a metal electrode. The process, like SMAW, deposited melted electrode metal into the weld as filler.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Around 1900, Arthur Percy Strohmenger and Oscar Kjellberg released the first coated electrodes. Strohmenger used clay and lime coating to stabilize the arc, while Kjellberg dipped iron wire into mixtures of carbonates and silicates to coat the electrode. In 1912, Strohmenger released a heavily coated electrode, but high cost and complex production methods prevented these early electrodes from gaining popularity. In 1927, the development of an extrusion process reduced the cost of coating electrodes while allowing manufacturers to produce more complex coating mixtures designed for specific applications. In the 1950s, manufacturers introduced iron powder into the flux coating, making it possible to increase the welding speed.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: In 1945 Karl Kristian Masden described an automated variation of SMAW, now known as gravity welding. It briefly gained popularity in the 1960s after receiving publicity for its use in Japanese shipyards though today its applications are limited. Another little used variation of the process, known as firecracker welding, was developed around the same time by George Hafergut in Austria. In 1964 laser welding was developed in Bell Laboratory with the intention of using this technology as a communication tool. Due to the large force of energy coupled with the small area of focus, this laser became a powerful heat source for cutting and tooling.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: To strike the electric arc, the electrode is brought into contact with the workpiece by a very light touch of the electrode to the base metal. The electrode is then pulled back slightly. This initiates the arc and thus the melting of the workpiece and the consumable electrode, and causes droplets of the electrode to be passed from the electrode to the weld pool. Striking an arc, which varies widely based upon electrode and workpiece composition, can be the hardest skill for beginners. The orientation of the electrode to workpiece is where most stumble; if the electrode is held at a perpendicular angle to the workpiece, the tip will likely stick to the metal, which will fuse the electrode to the workpiece, causing it to heat up very rapidly. The tip of the electrode needs to be at a lower angle to the workpiece, which allows the weld pool to flow out of the arc. As the electrode melts, the flux covering disintegrates, giving off shielding gases that protect the weld area from oxygen and other atmospheric gases. In addition, the flux provides molten slag which covers the filler as it travels from electrode to the weld pool. Once part of the weld pool, the slag floats to the surface and protects the weld from contamination as it solidifies. Once hardened, it must be chipped away to reveal the finished weld. As welding progresses and the electrode melts, the welder must periodically stop welding to remove the remaining electrode stub and insert a new electrode into the electrode holder. This activity, combined with chipping away the slag, reduces the amount of time that the welder can spend laying the weld, making SMAW one of the least efficient welding processes. In general, the operator factor, or the percentage of operator's time spent laying weld, is approximately 25%.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: The actual welding technique utilized depends on the electrode, the composition of the workpiece, and the position of the joint being welded. The choice of electrode and welding position also determine the welding speed. Flat welds require the least operator skill, and can be done with electrodes that melt quickly but solidify slowly. This permits higher welding speeds.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Sloped, vertical or upside-down welding requires more operator skill, and often necessitates the use of an electrode that solidifies quickly to prevent the molten metal from flowing out of the weld pool. However, this generally means that the electrode melts less quickly, thus increasing the time required to lay the weld.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: The most common quality problems associated with SMAW include weld spatter, porosity, poor fusion, shallow penetration, and cracking.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Weld spatter, while not affecting the integrity of the weld, damages its appearance and increases cleaning costs. Secondary finishing services are often required due to the aesthetic appearance caused by the occurrence of molten splatter. It can be caused by excessively high current, a long arc, or arc blow, a condition associated with direct current characterized by the electric arc being deflected away from the weld pool by magnetic forces. Arc blow can also cause porosity in the weld, as can joint contamination, high welding speed, and a long welding arc, especially when low-hydrogen electrodes are used.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Defects to weld strength make welds prone to cracking. Porosity of the weld bead can cause serious weakening and is often detectable only via advanced nondestructive testing methods. Porosity occurs when the gases produced by the weld flux insufficiently shield the molten weld metal. An overexposed weld bead absorbs nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen from the atmosphere; these gases form tiny voids in the weld bead and are released while the weld cools. Poor fusion also affects the strength of the weld and is often easily visible. This is caused by low current, contaminated joint surfaces, or the use of an improper electrode. Shallow welds are weaker and can be mitigated by decreasing welding speed, increasing the current, or using a smaller electrode.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Other factors in cracking propensity include high content of carbon, alloy, or sulfur in the base material, especially if low-hydrogen electrodes and preheating are not employed. Furthermore, workpieces should not be excessively constrained, as this introduces residual stresses into the workpieces (and specifically into the weld) as they expand and contract due to heating and cooling. As the weld cools and contracts, this residual stress can cause cracking in the weld.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: SMAW welding, like other welding methods, can be a dangerous and unhealthy practice if proper precautions are not taken. The process uses an open electric arc, which presents a risk of burns which are prevented by personal protective equipment in the form of heavy leather gloves and long sleeve jackets. Additionally, the brightness of the weld area can lead to a condition called arc eye or flash burn, in which ultraviolet light causes inflammation of the cornea and can burn the retinas of the eyes. Welding helmets with dark face plates are worn to prevent this exposure, and in recent years, new helmet models have been produced that feature a face plate that self-darkens upon exposure to high amounts of UV light. To protect bystanders, especially in industrial environments, translucent welding curtains often surround the welding area. These curtains, made of a polyvinyl chloride plastic film, shield nearby workers from exposure to the UV light from the electric arc, but should not be used to replace the filter glass used in helmets.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: In addition, the vaporizing metal and flux materials expose welders to dangerous gases and particulate matter. The smoke produced contains particles of various types of oxides. The size of the particles in question tends to influence the toxicity of the fumes, with smaller particles presenting a greater danger. Additionally, gases like carbon dioxide and ozone can form, which can prove dangerous if ventilation is inadequate. Some of the latest welding masks are fitted with an electric powered fan to help disperse harmful fumes.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Shielded metal arc welding is one of the world's most popular welding processes, accounting for over half of all welding in some countries. Because of its versatility and simplicity, it is particularly dominant in the maintenance and repair industry, and is heavily used in the construction of steel structures and in industrial fabrication. In recent years its use has declined as flux-cored arc welding has expanded in the construction industry and gas metal arc welding has become more popular in industrial environments. However, because of the low equipment cost and wide applicability, the process will likely remain popular, especially among amateurs and small businesses where specialized welding processes are uneconomical and unnecessary.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: SMAW is often used to weld carbon steel, low and high alloy steel, stainless steel, cast iron, and ductile iron. While less popular for non-ferrous materials, it can be used on nickel and copper and their alloys and, in rare cases, on aluminium. The thickness of the material being welded is bounded on the low end primarily by the skill of the welder, but rarely does it drop below . No upper bound exists: with proper joint preparation and use of multiple passes, materials of virtually unlimited thicknesses can be joined. Furthermore, depending on the electrode used and the skill of the welder, SMAW can be used in any position.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Shielded metal arc welding equipment typically consists of a constant current welding power supply and an electrode, with an electrode holder, a ground clamp, and welding cables (also known as welding leads) connecting the two.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: The power supply used in SMAW has constant current output, ensuring that the current (and thus the heat) remains relatively constant, even if the arc distance and voltage change. This is important because most applications of SMAW are manual, requiring that an operator hold the torch. Maintaining a suitably steady arc distance is difficult if a constant voltage power source is used instead, since it can cause dramatic heat variations and make welding more difficult. However, because the current is not maintained absolutely constant, skilled welders performing complicated welds can vary the arc length to cause minor fluctuations in the current.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: The preferred polarity of the SMAW system depends primarily upon the electrode being used and the desired properties of the weld. Direct current with a negatively charged electrode (DCEN) causes heat to build up on the electrode, increasing the electrode melting rate and decreasing the depth of the weld. Reversing the polarity so that the electrode is positively charged (DCEP) and the workpiece is negatively charged increases the weld penetration. With alternating current the polarity changes over 100 times per second, creating an even heat distribution and providing a balance between electrode melting rate and penetration.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Typically, the equipment used for SMAW consists of a step-down transformer and for direct current models a rectifier, which converts alternating current into direct current. Because the power normally supplied to the welding machine is high-voltage alternating current, the welding transformer is used to reduce the voltage and increase the current. As a result, instead of 220 V at 50 A, for example, the power supplied by the transformer is around 17–45 V at currents up to 600 A. A number of different types of transformers can be used to produce this effect, including multiple coil and inverter machines, with each using a different method to manipulate the welding current. The multiple coil type adjusts the current by either varying the number of turns in the coil (in tap-type transformers) or by varying the distance between the primary and secondary coils (in movable coil or movable core transformers). Inverters, which are smaller and thus more portable, use electronic components to change the current characteristics.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Electrical generators and alternators are frequently used as portable welding power supplies, but because of lower efficiency and greater costs, they are less frequently used in industry. Maintenance also tends to be more difficult, because of the complexities of using a combustion engine as a power source. However, in one sense they are simpler: the use of a separate rectifier is unnecessary because they can provide either AC or DC. However, the engine driven units are most practical in field work where the welding often must be done out of doors and in locations where transformer type welders are not usable because there is no power source available to be transformed.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: In some units the alternator is essentially the same as that used in portable generating sets used to supply mains power, modified to produce a higher current at a lower voltage but still at the 50 or 60 Hz grid frequency. In higher-quality units an alternator with more poles is used and supplies current at a higher frequency, such as 400 Hz. The smaller amount of time the high-frequency waveform spends near zero makes it much easier to strike and maintain a stable arc than with the cheaper grid-frequency sets or grid-frequency mains-powered units.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: The choice of electrode for SMAW depends on a number of factors, including the weld material, welding position and the desired weld properties. The electrode is coated in a metal mixture called flux, which gives off gases as it decomposes to prevent weld contamination, introduces deoxidizers to purify the weld, causes weld-protecting slag to form, improves the arc stability, and provides alloying elements to improve the weld quality. Electrodes can be divided into three groups—those designed to melt quickly are called "fast-fill" electrodes, those designed to solidify quickly are called "fast-freeze" electrodes, and intermediate electrodes go by the name "fill-freeze" or "fast-follow" electrodes. Fast-fill electrodes are designed to melt quickly so that the welding speed can be maximized, while fast-freeze electrodes supply filler metal that solidifies quickly, making welding in a variety of positions possible by preventing the weld pool from shifting significantly before solidifying.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: The composition of the electrode core is generally similar and sometimes identical to that of the base material. But even though a number of feasible options exist, a slight difference in alloy composition can strongly impact the properties of the resulting weld. This is especially true of alloy steels such as HSLA steels. Likewise, electrodes of compositions similar to those of the base materials are often used for welding nonferrous materials like aluminium and copper. However, sometimes it is desirable to use electrodes with core materials significantly different from the base material. For example, stainless steel electrodes are sometimes used to weld two pieces of carbon steel, and are often utilized to weld stainless steel workpieces with carbon steel workpieces.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Electrode coatings can consist of a number of different compounds, including rutile, calcium fluoride, cellulose, and iron powder. Rutile electrodes, coated with 25%–45% TiO, are characterized by ease of use and good appearance of the resulting weld. However, they create welds with high hydrogen content, encouraging embrittlement and cracking. Electrodes containing calcium fluoride (CaF), sometimes known as basic or low-hydrogen electrodes, are hygroscopic and must be stored in dry conditions. They produce strong welds, but with a coarse and convex-shaped joint surface. Electrodes coated with cellulose, especially when combined with rutile, provide deep weld penetration, but because of their high moisture content, special procedures must be used to prevent excessive risk of cracking. Finally, iron powder is a common coating additive that increases the rate at which the electrode fills the weld joint, up to twice as fast.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: To identify different electrodes, the American Welding Society established a system that assigns electrodes with a four- or five-digit number. Covered electrodes made of mild or low alloy steel carry the prefix "E", followed by their number. The first two or three digits of the number specify the tensile strength of the weld metal, in thousand pounds per square inch (ksi). The penultimate digit generally identifies the welding positions permissible with the electrode, typically using the values 1 (normally fast-freeze electrodes, implying all position welding) and 2 (normally fast-fill electrodes, implying horizontal welding only). The welding current and type of electrode covering are specified by the last two digits together. When applicable, a suffix is used to denote the alloying element being contributed by the electrode.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Common electrodes include the E6010, a fast-freeze, all-position electrode with a minimum tensile strength of which is operated using DCEP, and provides deep weld penetration with a forceful arc capable of burning through light rust or oxides on the workpiece. E6011 is similar except its flux coating allows it to be used with alternating current in addition to DCEP. E7024 is a fast-fill electrode, used primarily to make flat or horizontal fillet welds using AC, DCEN, or DCEP. Examples of fill-freeze electrodes are the E6012, E6013, and E7014, all of which provide a compromise between fast welding speeds and all-position welding.


title: Shielded metal arc welding

text: Though SMAW is almost exclusively a manual arc welding process, one notable process variation exists, known as gravity welding or gravity arc welding. It serves as an automated version of the traditional shielded metal arc welding process, employing an electrode holder attached to an inclined bar along the length of the weld. Once started, the process continues until the electrode is spent, allowing the operator to manage multiple gravity welding systems. The electrodes employed (often E6027 or E7024) are coated heavily in flux, and are typically in length and about thick. As in manual SMAW, a constant current welding power supply is used, with either negative polarity direct current or alternating current. Due to a rise in the use of semiautomatic welding processes such as flux-cored arc welding, the popularity of gravity welding has fallen as its economic advantage over such methods is often minimal. Other SMAW-related methods that are even less frequently used include firecracker welding, an automatic method for making butt and fillet welds, and massive electrode welding, a process for welding large components or structures that can deposit up to of weld metal per hour.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Robert Norton Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", was an American physicist and entrepreneur who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968. He is also credited with the realization of the first monolithic integrated circuit or microchip, which fueled the personal computer revolution and gave Silicon Valley its name.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce was born on December 12, 1927, in Burlington, Iowa the third of four sons of the Rev. Ralph Brewster Noyce. His father graduated from Doane College, Oberlin College, and the Chicago Theological Seminary and was also nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship.


title: Robert Noyce

text: His mother, Harriet May Norton, was the daughter of the Rev. Milton J. Norton, a Congregational clergyman, and Louise Hill. She was a graduate of Oberlin College and prior to her marriage, she had dreams of becoming a missionary. Journalist Tom Wolfe described her as "an intelligent woman with a commanding will".


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce had three siblings: Donald Sterling Noyce, Gaylord Brewster Noyce and Ralph Harold Noyce. His brother Donald would go on to become a respected professor and associate dean of undergraduate affairs in the UC Berkeley College of Chemistry; Robert later created the Donald Sterling Noyce Prize to reward excellence in undergraduate teaching at Berkeley. His brother Gaylord would go on to become a respected professor of practical theology and dean of students at Yale Divinity School; in 1961, while a young professor, he was arrested for being one of the Freedom Riders of the civil rights movement.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce's earliest childhood memory involved beating his father at ping pong and feeling shocked when his mother reacted to the news of his victory with a distracted "Wasn't that nice of Daddy to let you win?" Even at the age of five, Noyce felt offended by the notion of intentionally losing. "That's not the game", he sulked to his mother. "If you're going to play, play to win!"


title: Robert Noyce

text: When Noyce was twelve years old in the summer of 1940, he and his brother built a boy-sized aircraft, which they used to fly from the roof of the Grinnell College stables. Later he built a radio from scratch and motorized his sled by welding a propeller and a motor from an old washing machine to the back of it. His parents were both religious but Noyce became an agnostic and irreligious in later life.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce grew up in Grinnell, Iowa. While in high school, he exhibited a talent for mathematics and science and took the Grinnell College freshman physics course in his senior year. He graduated from Grinnell High School in 1945 and entered Grinnell College in the fall of that year. He was the star diver on the 1947 Midwest Conference Championship swim team. While at Grinnell College, Noyce sang, played the oboe and acted. In Noyce's junior year, he got in trouble for stealing a 25-pound pig from the Grinnell mayor's farm and roasting it at a school luau. The mayor wrote to his parents stating that “In the agricultural state of Iowa, stealing a domestic animal is a felony which carries a minimum penalty of a year in prison and a fine of one dollar.” Noyce faced expulsion from school but Grant Gale, Noyce's physics professor and president of the college, did not want to lose a student with Noyce's potential. They compromised with the mayor so that Grinnell would compensate him for the pig, and suspend Noyce for one semester. He returned in February 1949. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in physics and mathematics in 1949. He also received a signal honor from his classmates: the Brown Derby Prize, which recognized "the senior man who earned the best grades with the least amount of work".


title: Robert Noyce

text: While Noyce was an undergraduate, he was fascinated by the field of physics and took a course in the subject that was taught by professor Grant Gale. Gale obtained two of the very first transistors ever produced by Bell Labs and showed them off to his class. Noyce was hooked. Gale suggested that he apply to the doctoral program in physics at MIT, which he did.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce had a mind so quick that his graduate school friends called him "Rapid Robert". He received his doctorate in physics from MIT in 1953.


title: Robert Noyce

text: After graduating from MIT in 1953, Noyce took a job as a research engineer at the Philco Corporation in Philadelphia. He left in 1956 to join William Shockley, a co-inventor of the transistor and eventual Nobel Prize winner, at the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, California.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce left a year later with the "traitorous eight" upon having issues with Shockley's management style, and co-founded the influential Fairchild Semiconductor corporation. According to Sherman Fairchild, Noyce's impassioned presentation of his vision was the reason Fairchild had agreed to create the semiconductor division for the traitorous eight.


title: Robert Noyce

text: After Jack Kilby invented the first hybrid integrated circuit (hybrid IC) in 1958, Noyce in 1959 independently invented a new type of integrated circuit, the monolithic integrated circuit (monolithic IC). It was more practical than Kilby's implementation. Noyce's design was made of silicon, whereas Kilby's chip was made of germanium. Noyce's invention was the first monolithic integrated circuit chip. Unlike Kilby's IC which had external wire connections and could not be mass-produced, Noyce's monolithic IC chip put all components on a chip of silicon and connected them with copper lines. The basis for Noyce's monolithic IC was the planar process, developed in early 1959 by Jean Hoerni.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel in 1968 when they left Fairchild Semiconductor. Arthur Rock, the chairman of Intel's board and a major investor in the company, said that for Intel to succeed, the company needed Noyce, Moore and Andrew Grove. And it needed them in that order. Noyce: the visionary, born to inspire; Moore: the virtuoso of technology; and Grove: the technologist turned management scientist. The relaxed culture that Noyce brought to Intel was a carry-over from his style at Fairchild Semiconductor. He treated employees as family, rewarding and encouraging teamwork. Noyce's management style could be called "roll up your sleeves". He shunned fancy corporate cars, reserved parking spaces, private jets, offices, and furnishings in favor of a less-structured, relaxed working environment in which everyone contributed and no one received lavish benefits. By declining the usual executive perks he stood as a model for future generations of Intel CEOs.


title: Robert Noyce

text: In 1953, Noyce married Elizabeth Bottomley, who was a 1951 graduate of Tufts University. While living in Los Altos, California they had four children: William B., Pendred, Priscilla, and Margaret. Elizabeth loved New England, so the family acquired a 50-acre coastal summer home in Bremen, Maine. Elizabeth and the children would summer there. Robert would visit during the summer, but he continued working at Intel during the summer. They divorced in 1974.


title: Robert Noyce

text: On November 27, 1974, Noyce married Ann Schmeltz Bowers. Bowers, a graduate of Cornell University, also received an honorary Ph.D. from Santa Clara University, where she was a trustee for nearly 20 years. She was the first Director of Personnel for Intel Corporation and the first Vice President of Human Resources for Apple Inc. She currently serves as chair of the Board and the founding trustee of the Noyce Foundation.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce kept active his entire life. He enjoyed reading Hemingway, and he flew his own airplane and also participated in hang-gliding and scuba diving. Noyce believed that microelectronics would continue to advance in complexity and sophistication well beyond its current state; this led to the question of what use society would make of the technology. In his last interview, Noyce was asked what he would do if he were "emperor" of the United States. He said that he would, among other things, "…make sure we are preparing our next generation to flourish in a high-tech age. And that means education of the lowest and the poorest, as well as at the graduate school level."


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce suffered a heart attack at age 62 at home on June 3, 1990, and later died at the Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas.


title: Robert Noyce

text: In July 1959, he filed for "Semiconductor Device and Lead Structure", a type of integrated circuit. This independent effort was recorded only a few months after the key findings of inventor Jack Kilby. For his co-invention of the integrated circuit and its world-transforming impact, three presidents of the United States honored him.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce was a holder of many honors and awards. President Ronald Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Technology in 1987. Two years later, he was inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame sponsored by Junior Achievement, during a black tie ceremony keynoted by President George H. W. Bush. In 1990 Noycealong with, among others, Jack Kilby and transistor inventor John Bardeenreceived a "Lifetime Achievement Medal" during the bicentennial celebration of the Patent Act.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Noyce received the Franklin Institute's Stuart Ballantine Medal in 1966. He was awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1978 "for his contributions to the silicon integrated circuit, a cornerstone of modern electronics." In 1979, he was awarded the National Medal of Science. He also received Faraday Medal in 1979. Noyce was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1980. The National Academy of Engineering awarded him its 1989 Charles Stark Draper Prize.


title: Robert Noyce

text: On December 12, 2011, Noyce was honored with a Google Doodle celebrating the 84th anniversary of his birth.


title: Robert Noyce

text: In 2000, Kilby received the Nobel Prize in Physics; in his acceptance ("Nobel Lecture"), he mentions a small number of people whose work contributed to the success of integrated circuits, mentioning Noyce three times.


title: Robert Noyce

text: The Noyce Foundation was founded in 1990 by his family. The foundation was dedicated to improving public education in mathematics and science in grades K-12. The foundation announced that it would end operations in 2015.


title: Robert Noyce

text: In 1990, Congress established the Robert Noyce National Math and Science Teachers Corps Act which authorizes awards up to 5,000 scholarships annually to assist individuals in obtaining a teaching degree. These awards are granted to institutions of higher education who administer the projects after successful proposal submissions through the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program ("Noyce"). Pre-service teachers are recruited by their college/university and must be STEM majors. Scholarship recipients to agree to teach science or mathematics in a high-need school districts for at least two years for each fiscal year the recipient received such a scholarship. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) works with the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program to identify and disseminate information about effective practices and strategies for attracting, selecting, and preparing new K-12 STEM teachers and retaining them in the STEM teacher workforce.


title: Robert Noyce

text: Note: In 1960 Clevite Corporation acquired Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, a subsidiary of Beckman Instruments, for whom Noyce worked.


title: Paa (film)

text: Paa () is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film directed by R. Balki, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Vidya Balan. The film is inspired by the 1996 Hollywood film Jack as per some reports and is based on the relationship of a boy with a rare genetic condition known as progeria and his parents. Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, in real life, are father and son respectively, but in "Paa", they played opposite roles. The film was released worldwide on 4 December 2009. Veteran composer Ilaiyaraaja scored the music. The film was critically acclaimed in India and fared well at the box office. Despite a warm reception from Indian film critics, the film received mixed reviews from overseas film critics, according to the websites "Metacritic" and "Rotten Tomatoes".


title: Paa (film)

text: Amitabh Bachchan received his third National Film Award for Best Actor at the 57th National Film Awards for his performance and his fifth Filmfare Award for Best Actor and Vidya Balan got her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress.


title: Paa (film)

text: Auro (Amitabh Bachchan) is an intelligent and witty 12-year-old boy with an extremely rare genetic disorder called progeria. Mentally he is twelve and very normal, but physically he looks five times older. In spite of his condition, Auro is a very happy boy. He lives with his mother Vidya (Vidya Balan), who is a Gynaecologist. Amol Arte (Abhishek Bachchan) is a young, flamboyant politician. He is out to prove to the world that "politics" is not a bad word. He is a man with a mission. Auro is Amol's son; however, Vidya conceals this from him. Amol meets Auro when he visits Auro's school as a chief guest. He comes on the occasion of a competition on the "visionary of India". Amol decides Auro as the winner, impressed by the white globe he made. But being seen with such a prominent politician Auro is found by the media. The next day the media tries to enter his school. Auro, annoyed at this, sends him an e-mail, which says "I hate you". Amol reads it and obtains a restraining order from the High Court stating that nobody can disturb him without permission. Auro, relieved, tells him of his desire to visit the president's house. But due to Amol's political issues, he fails to show up on the appointed day. Auro, however, loses confidence in him but later agrees to go to Delhi with him although he now knows that Amol is his father. Though Amol does not know that Auro is his son, he takes him to Delhi to see the president's house. Auro says that he still needs to forgive Amol for his first mistake (not accepting him), but he doesn't tell him what it is. When on his 13th birthday he is in hospital he tells his father that he, Auro, is his father's mistake. Auro tries to get his mother and father back together, but Vidya resists, still hurt by the fact that Amol wanted her to have an abortion when they first found out she was pregnant. Amol realizes his mistake though, and proposes to Vidya, as he is still in love with her. He stays by Auro's side when he finds out that Auro is his son. Auro's health begins to deteriorate as he reaches his 13th birthday, his physical defects catching up. However, he is finally able to reunite his mother and father once again as Vidya gives in to her feelings for Amol and her motherly love for Auro. They perform the first wedding rites in the hospital in front of their dying son, implying that they will do the rest later. Auro, succumbing to his disease, says his last words "Maa" to Vidya and "Paa" to Amol before dying with a satisfied smile. The movie ends in the rain with Vidya mourning Auro's death as Amol comforts her as she remembers Auro dancing.


title: Paa (film)

text: The film had Amitabh Bachchan playing the role of a child who is suffering from Progeria, a genetic disorder which leads to quick acceleration of ageing process in children. Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh's real-life son, played the role of his father.


title: Paa (film)

text: Vidya Balan was the only choice for the mother's role. Arundathi Nag, the wife of late Kannada actor-director Shankar Nag was asked to play the role of Vidya's mother (Bachchan's maternal grandmother).


title: Paa (film)

text: Most of the parts were shot in Lucknow and some parts of the film were shot in UK and Malaysia. A small portion of the filming was done at Cambridge. The clock of Corpus Christi College and courtyard of St. John's College have been shown in a song sequence. The film was also shot in Taiping, Malaysia. The King Edward VII school was actually one of the typical Malaysian schools.


title: Paa (film)

text: One of the notable things in the movie was Amitabh's prosthetic make up. It was done by Hollywood's Christien Tinsley (famous for his work in "The Passion of the Christ", "Catwoman" and other films) and Dominie Till of "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy fame.


title: Paa (film)

text: There was a plan to make a sequel named "Maa", but Balki stopped it. In the words of Balki, "My main aim was not to make a film on progeria. My main motive behind making "Paa" was to reverse the roles of Amitabh and Abhishek. I decided to do something like this because once I was with both of them and I saw Abhishek behaving in a very matured manner and Amitabh, behaving as a kid. It was then that this idea struck me."


title: Paa (film)

text: "Paa" was Abhishek Bachchan's first venture into producing films for his family company AB Corp. Ltd. Abhishek not only was one of the lead actors in "Paa", but was the main hands-on producer in charge of the film's budget, marketing, and the entire production of the film. It took hours for Amitabh Bachchan to put on his makeup and to take it off.


title: Paa (film)

text: The soundtrack (songs and the background score) was scored by veteran composer Ilaiyaraaja.The lyrics were penned by Swanand Kirkire. "Halke Se Bole" is based on the Tamil song "Putham Pudhu Kaalai" from his 1980 film "Alaigal Oivathillai". "Gumm Summ Gumm" is based on the Malayalam song "Thumbi Vaa" which Ilaiyaraaja had composed for the 1982 Malayalam film "Olangal". The song "Mere Paa" is based on his Tamil song "Kaatru Vizhi", from Balu Mahendra's film "Adhu Oru Kana Kaalam". The song has an eclectic mix of Irish and Tamil Folk music, both seamlessly fused to create a soothing melody that appears as a leitmotif, in the film's theme music.


title: Polycephaly

text: Polycephaly is the condition of having more than one head. The term is derived from the Greek stems "poly" (Greek: "πολύ") meaning "many" and "kephalē" (Greek: "κεφαλή") meaning "head". A polycephalic organism may be thought of as one being with a supernumerary body part, or as two or more beings with a shared body.


title: Polycephaly

text: Two-headed animals (called bicephalic or dicephalic) and three-headed (tricephalic) animals are the only type of multi-headed creatures seen in the real world, and form by the same process as conjoined twins from monozygotic twin embryos.


title: Polycephaly

text: In humans, there are two forms of twinning that can lead to two heads being supported by a single torso. In dicephalus parapagus dipus, the two heads are side by side. In craniopagus parasiticus, the two heads are joined directly to each other, but only one head has a functional torso. Survival to adulthood is rare, but does occur in some forms of dicephalus parapagus dipus.


title: Polycephaly

text: There are many occurrences of multi-headed animals in mythology. In heraldry and vexillology, the double-headed eagle is a common symbol, though no such animal is known to have ever existed.


title: Polycephaly

text: In humans, as in other animals, partial twinning can result in formation of two heads supported by a single torso. Two ways this can happen are dicephalus parapagus, where there are two heads side by side, and craniopagus parasiticus, where the heads are joined directly.


title: Polycephaly

text: In dicephalus parapagus dipus, the two heads are side by side, on a torso with two legs, with varying levels of twinning of organs and structures within the torso. The shared body may have four arms altogether, or three arms, or two arms only. There are Greek-based medical terms for the variations, e.g. dibrachius means two-armed, tribrachius means three-armed. Both heads may contain a fully formed brain, or one may be anencephalic.


title: Polycephaly

text: If carried to term, dicephalus parapagus twins are usually stillborn, or die soon after birth. Survival to adulthood does however occasionally occur in cases where the twins are born with three to four arms. Chances of survival are improved if two complete hearts are present. Separation surgery is contraindicated, except in cases where one of the twins is clearly dying.


title: Polycephaly

text: Giacomo and Giovanni Battista Tocci (born between 1875 and 1877), were dicephalus parapagus dipus twins who survived to adulthood. Each had his own pair of arms. They learned to speak several languages, but never learned to walk. Abigail and Brittany Hensel, born in 1990, are another instance of dicephalus parapagus dipus twins who grew up. They were born with two functional arms, plus a vestigial third arm, which was surgically removed. Each twin has her own complete head, heart and spine, and controls one arm and one leg. They developed good motor skills, and completed courses at school and university.


title: Polycephaly

text: Craniopagus parasiticus is an extremely rare condition in which the two heads are joined directly together, and one twin (known as the autosite) has a functioning torso, while the other (known as the parasite) has only a vestigial torso. The parasite is supported by blood supplied from the autosite head. This threatens the life of the autosite by placing an additional burden on the autosite's vital organs. Operations to separate the two heads have been performed in the hope of saving the autosite.


title: Polycephaly

text: Polycephalic animals often make local news headlines when found. The most commonly observed two-headed animals are turtles and snakes. Other species with known two-headed occurrences include cattle, sheep, pigs, cats, dogs, and fish. In 1894, a two-headed partridge was reported in Boston, Massachusetts. It was notable as a dicephalic animal for surviving into adulthood with two perfect heads. Scientists have published in modern journals about dissecting such animals since at least the 1930s. A 1929 paper studied the anatomy of a two-headed kitten.


title: Polycephaly

text: Polycephalic animals, due to their rarity, are a subject of novelty. "We", a two-headed albino rat snake born in captivity in 2000 with both female and male genitalia, was scheduled to be auctioned on eBay with an expected price tag of $150,000 (£87,000), though their policy of not trading in live animals prevented the sale. On October 31, 2006, the World Aquarium announced that "We" was adopted by Nutra Pharma Corporation, a biotechnology company developing treatments using modified cobra venom and cobratoxin. "We" died of natural causes at age eight in June 2007, not long after being acquired by Nutra Pharma.


title: Polycephaly

text: Two-headed farm animals sometimes travel with animal side shows to county fairs. Most notably, The Venice Beach Freakshow supposedly houses the largest collection of two-headed specimens in the world, including over 20 two-headed animals that are alive. Many museums of natural history contain preserved two-headed animals. The Museum of Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! museum in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, have collections of preserved two-headed animals. A very well preserved 2-headed lamb is on display in Llanidloes museum in Wales. A live two-headed turtle named Janus can be seen at the Natural History Museum in Geneva, Switzerland.


title: Polycephaly

text: In cases where multiple heads are fully developed and non-parasitic, they share control of the organs and limbs, though the specific structure of the connections varies. Animals often move in a disoriented and dizzy fashion, with the brains "arguing" with each other; some animals simply zig-zag without getting anywhere. Snake heads may attack and even attempt to swallow each other. Thus, polycephalic animals survive poorly in the wild compared to normal monocephalic animals.


title: Polycephaly

text: Most two-headed snakes only live for a few months, though some have been reported to live a full life and even reproduced, with the offspring born normal. A two-headed black rat snake with separate throats and stomachs survived for 20 years. A two-headed albino rat snake named "We" survived in captivity for 8 years. There is some speculation that the inbreeding of snakes in captivity increases the chances of a two-headed birth.


title: Polycephaly

text: It is difficult to draw the line between what is considered "one animal with two heads" or "two animals that share a body".


title: Polycephaly

text: Abigail and Brittany Hensel, born in 1990, were given two distinct names at birth. They identify as two people, and are recognised as two people legally and socially. On the other hand, Syafitri, born 2006 in Indonesia, were given one name by their parents because they only had one heart. In early Germany, conjoined twins that could not be separated were legally considered one person. Millie and Christine McKoy were often referred to in the singular, including by themselves, with the name "Millie-Christine", as well as plural.


title: Polycephaly

text: In Peter Mogila’s 17-century "Catechism", the following instructions are given for baptism of polycephalic infants: should there be distinct heads and distinct chests, this means there are separate people each of whom must be baptised normally; if the heads and chests are not completely distinct from each other, however, one person must be baptised normally but baptism of the other(s) should be preluded by the formula "if not already baptised".


title: Polycephaly

text: With other animals, polycephaly is usually described as "one animal with two heads". One of the heads, especially in three-headed animals, may be poorly developed and malformed, and not "participate" much.


title: Polycephaly

text: Where twinning of the head itself is only partial, it can result in the condition known as diprosopus—one head with two faces.


title: Polycephaly

text: The February 22, 2007, issue of the journal "Biology Letters" detailed the discovery of a 122 million-year-old fossil of a two-headed "Hyphalosaurus lingyuanensis", marking the earliest known occurrence of axial bifurcation.


title: Polycephaly

text: Craniopagus parasiticus is a condition in which a parasitic twin head with an undeveloped or underdeveloped body is attached to the head of a developed twin. Recorded cases include:


title: Polycephaly

text: There have been numerous reports of two-faced cats; most die soon after birth. Reports of two-headed kittens are common, relative to other animals, because of their status as household pets.


title: Polycephaly

text: A full body taxidermy of a two-headed calf is on display at the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History on the Southern Utah University campus in Cedar City, Utah. "The Dancing Calves" were born by natural delivery with considerable assistance from S. T. Nelson of Cedar City, Utah on Mother's Day, May 8, 1949, to a crossbred cow owned by Willard Lund of Paragonah, Utah. The "Father Bull" is unknown but must have been an outstanding Hereford. The double calf was alive and healthy but died during birth. This calf, or calves, joined from the beginning of the neck as far as the belly, with two complete, almost perfect body frames, had but one system of vital organs. Each of the two normal heads had a food channel to one stomach and a breathing channel, or windpipe, to the one set of lungs. The two briskets, or breasts, shared on each side by these calves, contained the one set of lungs on one side and the one heart on the other side. Branching off from the one stomach and digestive system were two channels of elimination. The calf weighed approximately at birth. The over-all measurements as it stands mounted are: high, from tail to tail, and from side to side including the front legs. The "Mother Cow" lived and was sold as a "fat cow" in July 1949. This calf was stuffed by C. J. Sanders, taxidermist, 2631 South State Street, Salt Lake City 5, Utah, who stated that it is the most unusual monstrosity he has ever worked with. Dr. A. C. Johnson, of Cedar City, Utah, stated that this was the best specimen of monstrosity in animal life that he has ever seen or heard of in his 47 years of practice as a veterinarian. "The Dancing Calves" were owned by West and Gail Seegmiller who displayed them for many years at their Desert Pearl Cafe (no longer in existence), in Cedar City, Utah. Dr. A. C. Johnson, Dr. T. Donald Bell, William H. Lund, Dr. R. G. Williams, Dr. J. S. Prestwich, Dr. A. L. Graff, S. T. Nelson, and James Hoyle, Jr. all signed as witnesses that they saw the calf in the flesh soon after birth and knew it to be authentic. The calves and original document were donated to the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History on the Southern Utah University campus in Cedar City, Utah, where they are now on display.


title: Polycephaly

text: In 2006, the UK Royal Society announced that it had discovered a two-headed fossil of "Hyphalosaurus", the first recorded time that such a reptile has been found fossilized.


title: Polycephaly

text: Greek mythology contains a number of multi-headed creatures. Typhon, a vast grisly monster with many snake heads, is often described as having several offspring with Echidna, a creature with the lower body of a serpent but the upper body of a beautiful woman. Their offspring, by one source or another, account for many of the major monsters of Greek mythos, including:


title: Polycephaly

text: Zahhak, an evil figure in Iranian mythology - also evident in ancient Iranian folklore as Aži Dahāka (Azh dahak) - is the most significant and long-lasting of the "aži"s of the Avesta, the earliest religious texts of Zoroastrianism. He is described as a monster with three mouths, six eyes, and three heads (presumably meaning three heads with one mouth and two eyes each), cunning, strong and demonic. But in other respects Aži Dahāka has human qualities, and is never a mere animal.


title: Polycephaly

text: Though usually depicted with one head, some deities like Ganesha (in Heramba form) and Shiva (Sadashiva) have aspects where they are depicted with multiple heads; five in this case. The Vishvarupa form of Vishnu is described as having infinite heads.


title: Polycephaly

text: Besides deities, demons (asura and rakshasa) may be depicted with multiple heads. The demon-king Ravana Ravana is depicted and described as having ten heads, although sometimes he is shown with only nine heads because he has sacrificed a head to convince Shiva. Trishira his son is depicted with three heads.


title: Polycephaly

text: Animal races in Hindu mythology like Nāgas (serpents) may have multiple heads. The Naga Shesha is depicted with five or seven hoods, but said to have infinite hoods. Uchchaihshravas is a celestial seven-headed horse. The divine white elephant Airavata is depicted with multiple heads, trunks and tusks.


title: Polycephaly

text: The Talmud (Brachot 61a) says that originally Adam was created as a single body with two faces (which were then separated into two bodies - male (Adam) & female (Eve)).


title: Polycephaly

text: The Talmud (Menachot 37a) records an incident in which Phlimo asked Judah the Prince, which head a two headed person should put on Tefillin. Judah was initially dismissive, but then another man came in saying that his wife had just given birth to a two headed baby, and asked a (different) halachic question.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: The Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica, Car: "") is a bird found on small islands and in coastal regions from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, east through the Malay Archipelago, to the Solomons and Palau. It is the only living member of the genus "Caloenas" alongside the extinct spotted green pigeon, and is the closest living relative of the extinct dodo and Rodrigues solitaire.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: In 1738, the English naturalist Eleazar Albin included a description and two illustrations of the Nicobar pigeon in his "A Natural History of Birds". When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his "Systema Naturae" for the tenth edition, he placed the Nicobar pigeon with all the other pigeons in the genus "Columba". Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name "Columba nicobarica" and cited Albin's work. The species is now placed in the genus "Caloenas" erected by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840 with the Nicobar pigeon as the type species.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: Based on cladistic analysis of mtDNA cytochrome "b" and 12S rRNA sequences, the Nicobar pigeon is sometimes called the closest living relative of the extinct didines (Raphinae), which include the famous dodo ("Raphus cucullatus"). However, the study's results showed this as one weak possibility from a limited sample of taxa. In any case, nDNA β-fibrinogen intron 7 sequence data agrees with the idea of the Raphinae as a subfamily of pigeons (and not an independent family, as was previously believed due to their bizarre apomorphies) that was part of a diverse Indopacific radiation, to which the Nicobar pigeon also belongs.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: The following cladogram, from Shapiro and colleagues (2002), shows the Nicobar pigeon's closest relationships within Columbidae, a clade consisting of generally ground-dwelling island endemics.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: A similar cladogram was published in 2007, differing only in the inverted placement of "Goura" and "Didunculus", as well as in the inclusion of the pheasant pigeon and the thick-billed ground pigeon at the base of the clade.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: "C. nicobarica" is a quite singular columbiform (though less autapomorphic than the flightless Raphinae), as are for example the tooth-billed pigeon ("Didunculus strigirostris") and the crowned pigeons ("Goura"), which are typically considered distinct subfamilies. Hence, the Nicobar pigeon may well constitute another now-monotypic subfamily. And while any of the semi-terrestrial pigeons of Southeast Asia and the Wallacea cannot be excluded as possible closest living relative of the Raphinae, the Nicobar pigeon makes a more plausible candidate than for example the group of imperial-pigeons and fruit-doves, which seems to be part of the same radiation.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: Whether it is possible to clarify such deep-time phylogenies without a comprehensive study of all major lineages of living Columbidae remains to be seen. The primitive molecular clock used to infer the date the ancestors of the Nicobar pigeon and the didines diverged has since turned out to be both unreliable and miscalibrated. But what little evidence is available still suggests that the Nicobar pigeon is distinct from all other living lifeforms since the Paleogene – most likely some time between 56-34 million years ago during the Eocene, which makes up the bulk of the Paleogene period.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: From subfossil bones found on New Caledonia and Tonga, an extinct species of "Caloenas", the Kanaka pigeon ("C. canacorum") was described. It was about one-quarter larger than the Nicobar pigeon. Considering that it must have been a good source of food, it was most likely hunted to extinction by the first human settlers of its home islands. It probably was extinct by 500 BC. The Spotted green pigeon ("C. maculata") is a more recently extinct species from an unknown Pacific locality; it probably disappeared in the 19th century and most likely succumbed to introduced European rats. It is placed in "Caloenas" as the least awkward possibility; its true affinities are presently indeterminate and it is perhaps more likely to represent a distinct genus of the Indopacific radiation of Columbidae.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: It is a large pigeon, measuring in length. The head is grey, like the upper neck plumage, which turns into green and copper hackles. The tail is very short and pure white. The rest of its plumage is metallic green. The cere of the dark bill forms a small blackish knob; the strong legs and feet are dull red. The irises are dark.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: Females are slightly smaller than males; they have a smaller bill knob, shorter hackles and browner underparts. Immature birds have a black tail and lack almost all iridescence. There is hardly any variation across the birds' wide range. Even the Palau subspecies "C. n. pelewensis" has merely shorter neck hackles, but is otherwise almost identical.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: On the Nicobar Islands (which are referred to in its common and scientific names), the most significant colony of Nicobar pigeons in modern times was found on Batti Malv, a remote wildlife sanctuary between Car Nicobar and Teressa. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused massive damage on the Nicobar Islands, and to what extent Batti Malv was affected is still not clear. But while everything on some islets in the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve was destroyed, Batti Malv lighthouse – a skeletal tower a dozen metres high, standing a few metres ASL at the highest point of the low-lying island – was little-damaged and put back in operation by the survey ship INS "Sandhayak" less than one month after the disaster. An April 2007 survey by the Indian Coast Guard vessel ICGS "Vikram" found the lighthouse tower "totally covered" in vines, indicating rampant regeneration of vegetation – but perhaps also that damage to the island's forest was severe, as a cover of creeping plants is typical of early succession stages, while a photo of the lighthouse taken before the tsunami shows rather mature forest.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: A Nicobar pigeon was found by the Bardi Jawi Indigenous rangers on the Dampier Peninsula in the western Kimberley, Australia in May 2017. As part of biosecurity measures, it was reported to quarantine services and was removed by Australian Department of Agriculture officials.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: The Nicobar pigeon's breeding range encompasses the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India, the Mergui Archipelago of Myanmar, offshore islands of south-western Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, southern Cambodia and Vietnam, and many of the small islands between Sumatra, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. On Palau, the only distinct subspecies "C. n. pelewensis" is found.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: The Nicobar pigeon roams in flocks from island to island, usually sleeping on offshore islets where no predators occur and spends the day in areas with better food availability, not shying away from areas inhabited by humans. Its food consists of seeds, fruit and buds, and it is attracted to areas where grain is available. A gizzard stone helps to grind up hard food items. Its flight is quick, with regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings, as is characteristic of pigeons in general. Unlike other pigeons, groups tend to fly in columns or single file, not in a loose flock. The white tail is prominent in flight when seen from behind and may serve as a sort of "taillight", keeping flocks together when crossing the sea at dawn or dusk. The young birds' lack of a white tail is a signal of their immaturity clearly visible to conspecifics – to an adult Nicobar pigeon, it is obvious at a glance which flockmembers are neither potential mates, nor potential competitors for mates, nor old enough to safely guide a flock from one island to another.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: This species nests in dense forest on offshore islets, often in large colonies. It builds a loose stick nest in a tree. It lays one elliptical faintly blue-tinged white egg.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: In 2017, several individual "Caloenas nicobarica" were sighted in the Kimberley region of Western Australia with a juvenile captured at Ardyaloon (One Arm Point), near Broome - the first time the bird has been sighted on the Australian mainland.


title: Nicobar pigeon

text: Nicobar pigeons are hunted in considerable numbers for food, and also for their gizzard stone which is used in jewellery. The species is also trapped for the local pet market, but as it is on CITES Appendix I, commercial international trade is prohibited. Internationally, captive breeding is able to supply the birds demanded by zoos, where this attractive and unusual bird is often seen. Direct exploitation of the species, even including the illegal trade, might be sustainable on its own; however, its available nesting habitat is decreasing. The offshore islets which it requires are often logged for plantations, destroyed by construction activity, or polluted by nearby industry or harbours. Also, increased travel introduces predators to more and more of the breeding sites, and colonies of the Nicobar pigeon may be driven to desert such locations or be destroyed outright. Though the bird is widely distributed and in some locations very common --even on small Palau it is still reasonably plentiful, with an estimated 1,000 adult birds remaining—its long-term future is increasingly jeopardized. For these reasons, the IUCN considers "C. nicobarica" a near threatened species.


title: Fusional language

text: Fusional languages or inflected languages are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features.


title: Fusional language

text: For example, the Spanish verb "comer" ("to eat") has the first-person singular preterite tense form "comí" ("I ate"); the single suffix "-í" represents "both" the features of first-person singular agreement and preterite tense, instead of having a separate affix for each feature.


title: Fusional language

text: Another illustration of fusionality is the Latin word ("good"). The ending denotes masculine gender, nominative case, and singular number. Changing any one of these features requires replacing the suffix with a different one. In the form , the ending denotes masculine accusative singular, neuter accusative singular, or neuter nominative singular.


title: Fusional language

text: Examples of fusional Indo-European languages include: all Balto-Slavic languages (including Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian); Sanskrit, Pashto, modern Indo-Aryan languages (such as Hindustani, Kashmiri, and Punjabi); Greek (classical and modern), Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian; Irish, German, Faroese, Icelandic, and Albanian.


title: Fusional language

text: Another notable group of fusional languages is the Semitic languages group; however, Modern Hebrew is much more analytic than Classical Hebrew "both with nouns and with verbs".


title: Fusional language

text: Colloquial varieties of Arabic are more analytic than modern standard Arabic, having lost all noun declensions, and in many cases also featuring simplified conjugation.


title: Fusional language

text: A limited degree of fusion is also found in many Uralic languages, like Hungarian, Estonian, Finnish, and the Sami languages, such as Skolt Sami, as these languages are primarily agglutinative.


title: Fusional language

text: Unusual for a natively North American language, Navajo is sometimes described as fusional due to its complex and inseparable verb morphology.


title: Fusional language

text: The Fuegian language Selk'nam has fusional elements. For example, both evidentiality and gender agreement are coded with a single suffix on the verb:


title: Fusional language

text: Fusional languages generally tend to lose their inflection over the centuriessome languages much more quickly than others.


title: Fusional language

text: While Proto-Indo-European was fusional, some of its descendants have shifted to a more analytic structure, such as Modern English, Danish and Afrikaans, or agglutinative, such as Persian and Armenian.


title: Fusional language

text: Other descendants remain fusional, including Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Lithuanian, Latvian, Slavic languages, as well as Latin and the Romance languages and certain Germanic languages.


title: Fusional language

text: For example, while most Uralic languages are predominantly agglutinative, Estonian is markedly evolving in the direction of a fusional language. On the other hand, Finnish, its close relative, exhibits fewer fusional traits, thereby keeping closer to the mainstream Uralic type. However, Sámi languages, also part of the Uralic family, have gained more fusionality than Finnish and Estonian, not just involving consonant gradation but also vowel apophony.


title: Fusional language

text: One feature of many fusional languages is their systems of declensions. Here nouns and adjectives have a suffix attached to them to specify grammatical case (their uses in the clause), number, and grammatical gender; pronouns may alter their forms entirely to encode this information.


title: Fusional language

text: Within a fusional language, there are usually more than one declension; Latin and Greek have five, and Slavic languages have anywhere between three and seven. German has multiple based on whatever vowel or consonant the word ends with and can often be unpredictable.


title: Fusional language

text: However, many descendants of fusional languages tend to lose their case marking. In most Romance and Germanic languages, including modern English (with the notable exceptions of German and Icelandic), encoding for case is merely vestigial; this is because it no longer encompasses nouns and adjectives, but only pronouns.


title: Fusional language

text: Compare the Italian "egli" (masculine singular nominative), "gli" (masculine singular dative, or indirect object), "lo" (masculine singular accusative) and "lui" (also masculine singular accusative, but emphatic and indirect case to be used with prepositions), corresponding to the single vestigial pair "he, him" in English.


title: Fusional language

text: Conjugation is the alteration of the form of a verb to encode information about some or all of grammatical mood, voice, tense, aspect, person, grammatical gender, and number. In a fusional language, two or more of these pieces of information may be conveyed in a single morpheme, typically a suffix.


title: Fusional language

text: For example, in French, the verbal suffix depends on the mood, tense, and aspect of the verb, as well as on the person and number (but not the gender) of its subject. This gives rise to typically forty-five different single-word forms of the verb, each conveying some or all of the following:


title: Fusional language

text: To change any one of these pieces of information without changing the others requires using a different suffix, the key characteristic of fusionality.


title: Fusional language

text: English has two examples of conjugational fusion. The verbal suffix "-s" indicates a combination of present tense with both third person and singularity of the associated subject, and the verbal suffix "-ed", used in a verb with no auxiliary verb, conveys both non-progressive aspect and past tense.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: The Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) left thousands of pages of writings and drawings, but rarely made any references to his personal life. The resulting uncertainty, combined with mythologized anecdotes from his lifetime, has resulted in much speculation and interest in Leonardo's personal life. Particularly, his personal relationships, philosophy, religion, vegetarianism, left-handedness and appearance.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo has long been regarded as the archetypal Renaissance man, described by the Renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari as having qualities that "transcended nature" and being "marvellously endowed with beauty, grace and talent in abundance". Interest in and curiosity about Leonardo has continued unabated for five hundred years. Modern descriptions and analysis of Leonardo's character, personal desires and intimate behaviour have been based upon various sources: records concerning him, his biographies, his own written journals, his paintings, his drawings, his associates, and commentaries that were made concerning him by contemporaries.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo was born to unmarried parents on 15 April 1452, "at the third hour of the night" in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in the lower valley of the Arno River in the territory of the Republic of Florence. He was the out-of-wedlock son of the wealthy Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine legal notary, and an orphaned girl, Caterina di Meo Lippi. His full birth name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, (son) of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci". The inclusion of the title "ser" indicated that Leonardo's father was a gentleman.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo spent his first five years in the hamlet of Anchiano in the home of his mother, then from 1457 lived in the household of his father, grandparents and uncle, Francesco, in the small town of Vinci. His father had married a sixteen-year-old girl named Albiera; Ser Piero married four times and produced children by his two later marriages. Leonardo's seven brothers were later to argue with him over the distribution of his father's estate.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: At the age of about fourteen Leonardo was apprenticed by his father to the artist Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo was eventually to become a paid employee of Verrocchio's studio. During his time there, Leonardo met many of the most important artists to work in Florence in the late fifteenth century including Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Pietro Perugino. Leonardo helped Verrocchio paint "The Baptism of Christ", completed around 1475. According to Vasari, Verrocchio, on seeing the beauty of the angel that his young pupil had painted, never painted again.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Florence was at this time a Republic, but the city was increasingly under the influence of a single powerful family, the Medici, led by Lorenzo de' Medici, who came to be known as "Lorenzo the Magnificent". In 1481 Leonardo commenced an important commission, the painting of a large altarpiece for the church of San Donato in Scopeto. The work was never completed. Leonardo left Florence and travelled to Milan carrying a gift from Lorenzo to the regent ruler, Ludovico Sforza. He was employed by Ludovico from 1481 to 1499, during which time his most important works were the "Virgin of the Rocks", the "Last Supper" and a huge model of a horse for an equestrian monument which was never completed. Other important events during this time were the arrival in his studio of the boy Salaì in 1490, and in 1491 the marriage of Ludovico Sforza to Beatrice d'Este, for which he organized the celebrations. When Milan was invaded by the French in 1499, Leonardo left and spent some time in Venice, and possibly Rome and Naples before returning to Florence.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: In Florence, Leonardo lived at premises of the Servite Community, and at that time drew the large cartoon for the "Madonna and Child and St Anne", which attracted a lot of popular attention. He is also reported to have had a job to do for King Louis XII of France. From 1506 Leonardo was once again based mostly in Milan. In 1507 Francesco Melzi joined his household as an apprentice, and remained with him until his death. In 1513 Leonardo left Milan for Rome and was employed by the Medici family. In 1516 he went to France as court painter to King Francis I. The king gave the chateau of Clos Lucé as his home and regarded him with great esteem. It is said that the king held Leonardo's head as he died. Leonardo is buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert adjacent to the Château d'Amboise in France.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo da Vinci was described by his early biographers as a man with great personal appeal, kindness, and generosity. He was generally well loved by his contemporaries. According to Vasari, "Leonardo's disposition was so lovable that he commanded everyone's affection". He was "a sparkling conversationalist" who charmed Ludovico Sforza with his wit. Vasari sums him up by saying:


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: ... his magnificent presence brought comfort to the most troubled soul; he was so persuasive that he could bend other people to his will. ... He was so generous that he fed all his friends, rich or poor... Through his birth Florence received a very great gift, and through his death it sustained an incalculable loss.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: In the normal course of events many men and women are born with various remarkable qualities and talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind... Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty who displayed infinite grace in everything he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied were solved with ease.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: While painting "The Last Supper", Leonardo wrote, "Wine is good, but water is preferable at table. ... Small rooms or dwellings set the mind in the right path, large ones cause it to go astray. ... If you want money in abundance, you will end by not enjoying it." He also wrote, "He who wishes to become rich in a day is hanged in a year."


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Some of Leonardo's philosophies can be found in a series of fables he wrote for the court of Ludovico Sforza. These were presented as jests (labelled 'prophecies') in which he told a riddle and made his audience guess the title. Prevalent themes include the dangers of an inflated sense of self-worth, often as described in opposition to the benefits that one can gain through awareness, humility and endeavour. Leonardo also had a distinctive sense of humour, showing newfound friends a lizard he had decorated in scales, a horn and beard made from quicksilver to surprise them, and describing a practical joke in his "Treatise on Painting":


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: If you want to make a fire which will set a hall in a blaze without injury, do this: first perfume the hall with a dense smoke of incense or some other odoriferous substance: it is a good trick to play. ... then go into the room suddenly with a lighted torch and at once it will be in a blaze.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Little is known about Leonardo's intimate relationships from his own writing. Some evidence of Leonardo's personal relationships emerges both from historic records and from the writings of his many biographers.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo maintained long-lasting relationships with two pupils who were apprenticed to him as children. These were Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, who entered his household in 1490 at the age of 10, and Count Francesco Melzi, the son of a Milanese aristocrat who was apprenticed to Leonardo by his father in 1506, at the age of 14, remaining with him until his death.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Gian Giacomo was nicknamed "Salaì" or "il Salaino" meaning "the little devil". Vasari describes him as "a graceful and beautiful youth with fine curly hair". The "Little Devil" lived up to his nickname: a year after his entering the household Leonardo made a list of the boy’s misdemeanours, calling him "a thief, a liar, stubborn, and a glutton". But despite Salaì's thievery and general delinquency—he made off with money and valuables on at least five occasions, spent a fortune on apparel, including twenty-four pairs of shoes, and eventually died in a duel—he remained Leonardo's servant and assistant for thirty years. At Leonardo's death he was bequeathed the "Mona Lisa" (although it could possibly have been a second work with the same name), a valuable piece even then, valued in Salaì's estate at the equivalent of £200,000.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Melzi accompanied Leonardo in his final days in France. On Leonardo's death he wrote a letter to inform Leonardo's brothers, describing him as "like an excellent father to me" and goes on to say: "Everyone is grieved at the loss of such a man that Nature no longer has it in her power to produce."


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Melzi subsequently played an important role as the guardian of Leonardo's notebooks, preparing them for publication in the form directed by the master. He was not to see this project fully realized, but gathered the "Codex Urbinas".


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Little is self-revealed about Leonardo's sexuality, as, although he left hundreds of pages of writing, very little of it is personal in nature. He left no letters, poetry or diary that indicate any romantic interest. He never married and it cannot be stated with certainty that he had a sexually intimate relationship with any person, male or female. One of the few references that Leonardo made to sexuality in his notebooks states: "The act of procreation and anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if there were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions." This statement has been the subject of various extrapolations and interpretations in attempts to gain a picture of his sexuality. He also wrote "Intellectual passion drives out sensuality. ... Whoso curbs not lustful desires puts himself on a level with the beasts."


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: The only historical document concerning Leonardo's sexual life is an accusation of sodomy made in 1476, while he was still at the workshop of Verrocchio. Florentine court records show that on 9April 1476, an anonymous denunciation was left in the "tamburo" (letter box) in the Palazzo della Signoria (town hall) accusing a young goldsmith and male prostitute, Jacopo Saltarelli (sometimes referred to as an artist's model) of being "party to many wretched affairs and consents to please those persons who request such wickedness of him". The denunciation accused four people of sodomizing Saltarelli: Leonardo da Vinci, a tailor named Baccino, Bartolomeo di Pasquino, and Leonardo Tornabuoni, a member of the aristocratic Tornabuoni family. Saltarelli's name was known to the authorities because another man had been convicted of sodomy with him earlier the same year. Charges against the five were dismissed on the condition that no further accusations appear in the "tamburo". The same accusation did in fact appear on 7 June, but charges were again dismissed. The charges were dismissed because the accusations did not meet the legal requirement for prosecution: all accusations of sodomy had to be signed, but this one was not. (Such accusations could be made secretly, but not anonymously.) There is speculation that since the family of one of the accused, Leonardo Tornabuoni, was associated with Lorenzo de' Medici, the family exerted its influence to secure the dismissal. Sodomy was theoretically an extremely serious offense, carrying the death penalty, but its very seriousness made it equally difficult to prove. It was also an offence for which punishment was very seldom handed down in contemporary Florence, where homosexuality was sufficiently widespread and tolerated to make the word "Florenzer" (Florentine) slang for homosexual in Germany.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: A comedic illustration made in 1495 for a poem by Gaspare Visconti may depict Leonardo as a court lawyer with allusions to his alleged homosexual proclivities. Michael White points out that willingness to discuss aspects of Leonardo's sexual identity has varied according to contemporary attitudes. His near-contemporary biographer Vasari makes no reference to Leonardo's sexuality whatsoever. In the 20th century, biographers made explicit references to a probability that Leonardo was homosexual, though others concluded that for much of his life he was celibate.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Elizabeth Abbott, in her "History of Celibacy", contends that, although Leonardo was probably homosexual, the trauma of the sodomy case converted him to celibacy for the rest of his life. A similar view of a homosexually inclined but chaste Leonardo appears in a famous 1910 paper by Sigmund Freud, "Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood", which analysed a memory Leonardo described of having been attacked as a baby by a bird of prey that opened his mouth and "stuck me with the tail inside my lips again and again". Freud claimed the symbolism was clearly phallic, but argued that Leonardo's homosexuality was latent, and that he did not act on his desires. However, Freud's premise was based on an erroneous translation of the bird as a vulture, leading him in the direction of Egyptian mythology, when it was actually a kite in Leonardo's story.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Other authors contend that Leonardo was actively homosexual. Serge Bramly states that "the fact that Leonardo warns against lustfulness certainly need not mean that he himself was chaste". David M. Friedman argues that Leonardo's notebooks show a preoccupation with men and with sexuality uninterrupted by the trial and agrees with art historian Kenneth Clark that Leonardo never became sexless.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Michael White, in "Leonardo: The First Scientist", says it is likely that the trial simply made Leonardo cautious and defensive about his personal relationships and sexuality, but did not dissuade him from intimate relationships with men: "there is little doubt that Leonardo remained a practising homosexual".


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo's late painting of "Saint John the Baptist" is often cited as support of the case that Leonardo was homosexual. There is also an erotic drawing of Salaì known as "The Incarnate Angel", accepted as being by the hand of Leonardo, which was one of a number of such drawings once among those contained in the British Royal Collection, but later dispersed. The particular drawing, showing an angel with an erect phallus, was rediscovered in a German collection in 1991. It appears to be a humorous take on Leonardo's "St. John the Baptist". The painting of John the Baptist was copied by several of Leonardo's followers, including Salaì. The drawing may also be by one of Leonardo's pupils, perhaps Salaì himself, as it appears to have been drawn by the right, rather than the left hand, and bears strong resemblance to Salaì's copy of the painting. Salaì in particular was suspected of being Leonardo's young partner, as he followed him in France in 1517. Even though the boy left soon after, Leonardo in his testament left him half of his garden in Milan.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo da Vinci had a number of powerful patrons, including the King of France. He had, over the years, a large number of followers and pupils.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Vasari says of the child Leonardo "He would have been very proficient in his early lessons, if he had not been so volatile and flexible; for he was always setting himself to learn a multitude of things, most of which were shortly abandoned. When he began the study of arithmetic, he made, within a few months, such remarkable progress that he could baffle his master with the questions and problems that he raised... All the time, through all his other enterprises, Leonardo never ceased drawing..."


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo's father, Ser Piero, realising that his son's talents were extraordinary, took some of his drawings to show his friend, Andrea del Verrocchio, who ran one of the largest artists' workshops in Florence. Leonardo was accepted for apprenticeship and "soon proved himself a first class geometrician". Vasari says that during his youth Leonardo made a number of clay heads of smiling women and children from which casts were still being made and sold by the workshop some 80 years later. Among his earliest significant known paintings are the "Annunciation" in the Uffizi, the angel that he painted as a collaboration with Verrocchio in "The Baptism of Christ", and a small predella of the "Annunciation" to go beneath an altarpiece by Lorenzo di Credi. The little predella picture is probably the earliest.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: The diversity of Leonardo's interests, remarked on by Vasari as apparent in his early childhood, was to express itself in his journals which record his scientific observations of nature, his meticulous dissection of corpses to understand anatomy, his experiments with machines for flying, for generating power from water and for besieging cities, his studies of geometry and his architectural plans, as well as personal memos and creative writing including fables.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: There is not much firsthand information about Leonardo's religious inclination, but most historians have deemed him as Catholic. Leonardo referred to God as a kind of supreme being. Leonardo could be described as a spiritual metaphysician, who was interested in Greek philosophy such as that of Plato and Aristotle. He describes friars as the "fathers of the people who know all secrets by inspiration" and calls books such as the Bible "supreme truth", while also jesting that "Many who hold the faith of the Son only build temples in the name of the Mother."


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo argues against the myth of a universal flood (as in the story of Noah), doubting that so much water could have evaporated away from the Earth. In an early example of ichnology, he explains that the fossils of marine shells would have been scattered in such a deluge, and not gathered in groups, which were in fact left at various times on mountains in Lombardy.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo discredited pagan mythology as well, saying that gods the size of planets would appear as mere specks of light in the universe. He also calls these personifications "mortal ... putrid and corrupt in their sepulchers".


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: It appears from Vasari's description that Leonardo first learned to play the lyre as a child and that he was very talented at improvisation. In about 1479 he created a lyre in the shape of a horse's head, which was made "mostly of silver", and of "sonorous and resonant" tone. Lorenzo de' Medici saw this lyre and wishing to better his relationship with Ludovico Sforza, the usurping Duke of Milan, he sent Leonardo to present this lyre to the Duke as a gift. Leonardo's musical performances so far surpassed those of Ludovico's court musicians that the Duke was delighted. It is also probable that Leonardo played keyboard instruments such as the virginal. One of his inventions - which was constructed after Da Vinci lived, based on his drawings and descriptions found in his notebooks of 1488–1489, and in the Codex Atlanticus, is the viola organista. This is a keyboard instrument in which strings come into contact with rotating rosin covered wheels when keys are depressed.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo always loved nature. One of the reasons was because of his childhood environment. Near his childhood house were mountains, trees, and rivers. There were also many animals. This environment gave him the perfect chance to study the surrounding area; it also may have encouraged him to have interest in painting. Later in life he recalls his exploration of an ominous cavern in the mountains as formative.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo's love of animals has been documented both in contemporary accounts as recorded in early biographies, and in his notebooks. Remarkably for the period, he even questioned the morality of eating animals when it was not necessary for health. Statements from his notebook and a comment by a contemporary have led to the widely held view that he was vegetarian. Additionally, he categorized humans as being in the same set of species as apes and monkeys, just as he did with other animals in their respective genus. He also dissected dead animals for the purpose of comparative anatomy.


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Edward MacCurdy (one of the two translators and compilers of Leonardo's notebooks into English) wrote:


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: Leonardo wrote the following in his notebooks, which were not deciphered and made available for reading until the 19th century:


title: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

text: One might question Leonardo's concern for human life, given his weapon designs. Nothing came of his designs for offensive weapons. It is possible his mention of his capabilities of creating weapons helped him in his quest to find powerful patrons, or perhaps he was fond of drawing them as he was of gargoyles. He did work on fortifications, however. In his own words: