Pinocchio is the second animated Disney movie, made by Walt Disney Productions and first released to movie theaters by RKO Radio Pictures on February 7, 1940. Based on the story Pinocchio: Tale of a Puppet by Carlo Collodi, it was made in response to the huge success of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs.

The American-Italian movie tells the story of Pinocchio, a wooden puppet made by a man named Geppetto and brought to life by the Blue fairy, after Geppetto wishes he could have a son. She tells him he can become a real boy if he proves himself "brave, truthful, and unselfish." Pinocchio must try to be good so he can become a real boy, with the help of his friend, Jiminy Cricket. Thus begins the adventures of the puppet into a real boy, which involve many encounters with a series of unpleasant characters.

The movie was adapted by Aurelius Battaglia, William Cottrell, Otto Englander, Erdman Penner, Joseph Sabo, Ted Sears, and Webb Smith from Collodi's book. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, and the film's sequences were directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, and Bill Roberts.

It features the song, "When You Wish Upon A Star", which has been used at the start of most Disney movies since 1985.

The story
A man called Gepetto makes a wood puppet called Pinocchio. He wishes that Pinocchio was a real boy, and the Blue Fairy makes Gepetto's wish come true. But to become a real boy instead of a live puppet, Pinocchio has to prove that he's good. The Blue Fairy assigns a cricket named Jiminy Cricket to guide him and keep him out of trouble.  This is a hard job, and Pinocchio does a lot of things wrong.

On his first day of school, two crooks, a fox named Honest John and his mute sidekick named Gideon, trick Pinocchio to join Stromboli's puppet show instead. Pinocchio is popular in the show, but Stromboli is cruel to him and locks him in a bird cage. The Blue Fairy asks Pinocchio how this happened, but Pinocchio lies, and his nose grows longer.  With the help of the Blue Fairy and Jiminy, Pinocchio escapes from the cage.

The crooks trick Pinocchio again, and tell him to go to Pleasure Island. He meets Lampwick, a bad boy who convinces him to gamble, smoke, drink, vandalize and other bad things.  The island is magical, and the boys who act like "jackasses" (donkeys) turn into donkeys.  These donkeys are sold to work in the local salt mines.

Lampwick becomes a donkey, but Pinocchio only changes part way, with donkey ears and a donkey tail.  He escapes from Pleasure Island and returns to Geppetto's house. But Geppetto is not there.  He has gone to sea, to search for Pinocchio.

Pinocchio and Jiminy go looking for Geppetto, but they are eaten by the huge whale Monstro.  Monstro has also swallowed Geppetto.  Pinocchio builds a fire to make Monstro sneeze, and this frees them all.  But they are lost in the ocean and Geppetto is drowning.  He tells Pinocchio to swim to shore and save himself, but Pinocchio grabs Geppetto and carries him to shore.  Geppetto survives, but Pinocchio appears to be dead.

Geppetto and Jiminy are sad and return home with Pinocchio's body. The Blue Fairy decides that Pinocchio has proved that he is good enough, and brings him back to life... and also turns him into a real boy. Everyone is happy and they celebrate. The movie ends with Jiminy Cricket getting a badge of soild gold and a chorus sings a reprise of the song "When You Wish Upon A Star".

Production
The original plan for the movie was very different from what they made.  Many characters and events from the original book were used in early versions. Producer Walt Disney was unhappy with this version and had them change a lot of the story and characters.

At first, Pinocchio was going to look like a real wooden puppet, with a long pointed nose, a pointed hat, and bare wood hands.  He was going to act more grown-up and do bad things on purpose, instead of being tricked into doing bad things.  But Walt Disney did not think that people would like this character, so they changed his appearance and the way he acted.  They made him look more like a real boy, with a small nose, a child's hat, and regular hands with gloves. The only parts of him that still looked like a puppet were his arms and legs.

Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards) became a more important character.  He was not included in the first version of the story.  When they added him, he looked more like a real cricket, but Walt wanted more people to like him, so Ward Kimball changed him into "a little man with no ears. That was the only thing about him that was like an insect."

Characters
 Jiminy Cricket, voiced by Cliff Edwards, is a cricket who acts as Pinocchio's "conscience" and tells parts of the story. He is the main protagonist.
 Pinocchio, voiced by Dickie Jones, is a wooden puppet made by Geppetto and turned into a living puppet by the Blue Fairy. He is  the deurtagonist.
 Geppetto, voiced by Christian Rub, is a toymaker who creates Pinocchio and wishes for him to become a real boy.
 Figaro and Cleo are Geppetto's black and white housecat and goldfish.
 J. Worthington "Honest John" Foulfellow, voiced by Walter Catlett, is a sly anthropomorphic fox who tricks Pinocchio twice in the movie. Foulfellow is the major antagonist.
 Gideon is Honest John's dumb, mute, anthropomorphic cat sidekick. He was originally to be voiced by Mel Blanc, but they deleted his dialogue in favor of a mute performance. However, Gideon's hiccups were provided by Blanc. Gideon is the minor antagonist.
 Stromboli, voiced by Charles Judels, is a large, sinister, bearded puppet maker who forces Pinocchio to perform onstage in order to make money. He is the primary antagonist. He speaks Italian with an Italian accent.
 The Blue Fairy, voiced by Evelyn Venable, is the beautiful fairy who brings Pinocchio to life and turns him into a real boy at the end.
 The Coachman, voiced by Charles Judels. A corrupt coachman who owns and operates Pleasure Island. He is the secondary antagonist. He speaks Cockney with a Cockney accent.
 Lampwick, voiced by Frankie Darro, is a naughty boy Pinocchio meets on his way to Pleasure Island. He turns into a donkey while the boys are hanging out. He speaks Brooklyn with a Brooklyn accent.
 Monstro is the whale that swallows Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo during their search for Pinocchio. Monstro is the final antagonist.

Crew
 Supervising Directors: Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske
 Sequence Directors: Bill Roberts, Norman Ferguson, Jack Kinney, Wilfred Jackson, T. Hee
 Supervising Animators: Fred Moore, Franklin Thomas, Milton Kahl, Vladimir Tytla, Ward Kimball, Arthur Babbitt, Eric Larson, Woolie Reitherman
 Story Adaptation: Ted Sears, Otto Englander, Webb Smith, William Cottrell, Joseph Sabo, Erdman Penner, Aurelius Battaglia
 Character Designers: Joe Grant, Albert Hurter, John P. Miller, Campbell Grant, Martin Provensen, John Walbridge
 Original Songs by Ned Washington and Leigh Harline
 Score Composed and Conducted by Paul J. Smith
 Art Directors: Charles Philippi, Hugh Hennessy, Kenneth Anderson, Dick Kelsey, Kendall O'Connor, Terrell Stapp, Thor Putnam, John Hubley, McLaren Stewart, Al Zinnen
 Backgrounds: Claude Coats, Merle Cox, Ed Starr, Ray Huffine
 Animators: Jack Campbell, Oliver M. Johnston, Berny Wolf, Don Towsley, Don Lusk, John Lounsbery, Norman Tate, John Bradbury, Lynn Karp, Charles Nichols, Art Palmer, Joshua Meador, Don Tobin, Robert Martsch, George Rowley, John McManus, Don Patterson, Preston Blair, Les Clark, Marvin Woodward, Hugh Fraser, John Elliotte

Release
With the re-release of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs in 1944 came the tradition of re-releasing Disney movies every seven to ten years. Pinocchio has been theatrically re-released in 1945, 1954, 1962, 1971, 1978, 1984, and 1992. The 1992 re-issue was digitally restored by cleaning and removing scratches from the original one scene at a time, getrting rid of blurry sound, and making the color lighter. The movie also received four video releases (and two DVD releases), being a big-seller in 1985 (this print was re-mastered and re-issued in 1986). Then the more complex digital restoration that was done for the 1992 re-issue was released on VHS, followed by the final VHS release (which was also the movie's first release on Disney DVD as well as the first in the Walt Disney Gold Classics Collection VHS/DVD line) in 1999. The second Disney DVD release (a 60th anniversary) premiered the following year in 2000. The third DVD release and first Blu-ray Disc release (the second Blu-ray in the Walt Disney Platinum Editions series) were released on March 10, 2009 (March 11, 2009 in Australia), and like the 2008 Sleeping Beauty release, the Blu-ray package featured two discs, and a bonus DVD of the movie also included.

Home video release history
 July 16, 1985 (VHS, Betamax and Laserdisc, Classics edition)
 July 16, 1986 (VHS, Betamax and Laserdisc, Hendring UK)
 October 14, 1986 (VHS and Betamax, remastered Classics edition)
 November 3, 1986 (VHS, A.M.T. Video Gems/Screen Legends UK)
 March 26, 1993 (VHS and Laserdisc, restored Classics edition)
 1995 (VHS, restored Disney Video UK)
 April 16, 1995 (VHS, Spanish-dubbed Clásicos edition)
 October 26, 1999 (60th Anniversary Edition, as well as a Limited Issue DVD)
 March 7, 2000 (VHS and DVD, Walt Disney Golden Classic Collection)
 March 10, 2009 (70th Anniversary Platinum Edition DVD and Blu-ray)
 February 9, 2016 (Diamond Edition DVD and Blu-ray)

Reception
Pinocchio was not successful at the box office when first released, and Disney only earned $1.9 million against a $2.6 million budget. The movie made some success at the American box office, but was not able to profit, due to its poor performance in Europe.  The timing of the move's release was a reason, with World War II cutting off European markets.  Although the United States had not yet gotten into the war, people's interests may have not have meant much among Americans in seeing fantasy stories as they were in the days of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs.  It also lacked the romance element that had proven popular in Snow White.

Nevertheless, there were positive reactions to the movie as well. Archer Winsten, who had criticized Snow White, said that "The faults (mistakes) that were in Snow White no longer exist. In writing of Pinocchio, you are limited only by your own power of expressing enthusiasm". Also, despite the poor timing of the release, the movie did do well both critically and at the box office in the United States. Jiminy Cricket's song, "When You Wish Upon a Star," became a major success and still is today, and is the fanfare for The Walt Disney Company. Pinocchio also won the Academy Award for Best Song and the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. In 1994, Pinocchio was added to the United States National FilmRegistry as being very important in culture,  history, or aesthetic. In 2001 Terry Gilliam picked it as one of the ten best animated movies of all time and in 2005 Time.com named it one of the 100 best movies of the last 80 years. Many movie historians consider this to be the movie that is the closest to technical perfection of all the Disney animated features.
Pinocchio earned $84,254,167 at the box office.

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten movies in ten "classic" American movie genres. After polling over 1,500 people from the creative community, Pinocchio was acknowledged as the second best movie in the animation genre, after Snow White.

Songs
The songs in Pinocchio were composed by Leigh Harline, Ned Washington and Oliver Wallace, who had no screen credit as the film conductor while Paul J. Smith composed the incidental music score.
 "When You Wish upon a Star" - Jiminy Cricket; Chorus
 "Little Wooden Head" - Geppetto
 "Give a Little Whistle" - Jiminy Cricket; Pinocchio
 "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me)" - J. Worthington Foulfellow
 "I've Got No Strings" - Pinocchio
 "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (reprise)" - J. Worthington Foulfellow
 "When You Wish upon a Star (reprise)" - Jiminy Cricket; Chorus

On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, this includes When You Wish upon a Star on the blue disc, Give a Little Whistle on the purple disc, and I've Got No Strings on the orange disc.
And on Disney's Greatest Hits, this also includes When You Wish upon a Star on another blue disc, I've Got No Strings on the green disc, and Give a Little Whistle on the red disc.

Songs written for movie but not used
 "I'm a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow" - Jiminy Cricket (this song eventually showed up in Fun and Fancy Free)
 "As I Was Saying To the Duchess" - J. Worthington Foulfellow (this line is spoken briefly by Foulfellow in the movie, however)
 "Three Cheers For Anything" - Lampwick; Pinocchio; Alexander; Other Boys
 "Monstro the Whale" - Chorus
 "Honest John" (this song appears as a bonus feature on the 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition DVD)

Theme park references
 Pinocchio's Daring Journey is a popular ride at Disneyland Park (Anaheim), Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Park (Paris).

Ice show
Disney on ice starring Pinocchio, toured nationally & internationally from 1987 - 1992. A Shorter version of the story is also presented in the current Disney on ice production "100 Years of Magic"

Directing animators
 Fred Moore (Lampwick)
 Frank Thomas (Pinocchio on strings and at the puppet show)
 Ollie Johnston (Pinocchio)
 Milt Kahl (Pinocchio)
 Bill Tytla (Stromboli)
 Ward Kimball (Jiminy Cricket)
 Art Babbitt (Geppetto)
 Wolfgang Reitherman (Monstro)
 Eric Larson (Figaro)
 John Lounsbery (J. Worthington Foulfellow and Gideon)

Sequence directors
 Bill Roberts (Monstro)
 Norman Ferguson (Foulfellow and Gideon)
 Jack Kinney (Lampwick)
 Wilfred Jackson (Stromboli)
 T. Hee (Geppetto and Figaro)

References

Other websites
 Official Site

1940 musical movies
Disney animated movies
American family movies
1940s American musical movies
United States National Film Registry movies
Movies based on books
Movies composed by Oliver Wallace
Movies that won the Best Original Song Academy Award

Pinocchio (1940 movie)


A patent gives an inventor the right to stop other people making or using their invention.  If someone makes or uses that invention without being allowed to, the inventor can sue that person in court to make them stop.  The inventor can sell the patent to another person or company.

A patent lasts for up to 20 years, depending on the country.  After that, anyone can copy the invention.

Each country has its own patents.  China gives Chinese patents.  India gives Indian patents.  The United States gives United States patents.  An inventor can get a patent in any country the inventor wants.  An inventor can get patents in many different countries for the same invention.  Each patent in each country costs money to get.

The rules for patents are similar in most countries.

Getting a patent
To get a patent, the inventor must ask the government by describing the invention in writing.  This is called a patent application.  The inventor can write the patent application, but it is usually written by a person trained to write patent applications.  This person is called a patent agent or, if the person is a lawyer, a patent attorney.

The government does not usually just give the inventor a patent. Instead, the government tries to confirm whether the idea is actually new. This is called patent examination.  The government will try to find books, stories, or other patents that show that the idea was not new. The inventor, or his or her patent attorney, then tries to show how the inventor's idea is actually new and is different from anything that the government finds.

If the government finds that the inventor's idea is new, it will give the inventor a patent. The government will also send the inventor a copy of his or her patent application with a special seal. This copy is the patent.

The inventor must also pay the government a tax to get a patent.  Usually, an inventor pays money to ask for the patent, and the inventor pays money when they get a patent.  In some countries, the owner of a patent must also pay money to keep the patent. Some can be cheap and some can be expensive.

Using a patent
The owner of a patent can stop other people from using their invention.  If someone other than the patent owner uses the patent, this is called infringing a patent.  If the owner knows that someone is infringing his or her patent, the patent owner can ask a court to stop them.  If the court agrees that the other person was using the patent, the court can make that person pay a fine to the patent owner.

The patent owner can give other people permission to use their patent.  This is called a patent license.  A person who wants to use another person's patent will usually pay money to the patent owner.

What can be patented
Patents most often cover products or processes that contain 'new' functional or technical ideas. They are concerned with how things work, how they are made, or what they are made of. Patents cover many different things such as electronics, medicines, agriculture and transport – anything in fact, from a small detail in an electric switch to an entire power station.

Usually, to get a patent there are three rules that the idea needs to follow:
It must be new, so that nobody else has made the same thing or something similar in the past
It must involve an inventive step: this means it is not something that anyone could have easily made
It must have an application to the real world: it must be useful.

Marking
Often a product is marked with a text saying 'patent pending' or 'pat. pending', which means that a patent has been asked for (part of) the product. Then people are warned that they should not copy the invention.

Parts of a patent
Patents are usually very long.  They include a number of smaller parts.  A patent usually includes a section that briefly describes the idea called the abstract.  It also may include a section that describes other people's inventions and how the inventor's idea is different called the "background of the invention."

The patent also includes a long description of the idea itself called a "detailed description."  In this section, the inventor tries to describe every detail of his or her invention.

The patent also has a number of pictures called the "figures." The figures are usually drawn by people called draftsman that are trained to draw in a special way.  The pictures are labeled with numbers to show different parts of the invention.

At the end of most patents is a section called the claims. These are usually numbered. They include a short statement that lists all of the things needed for the invention.  A court will use the claims to decide if another person is "infringing" the patent.

Related pages
Intellectual property

Intellectual property law
Technology

Patent


An organism is an individual living thing. It is easy to recognize a living thing, but not so easy to define it. Animals and plants are organisms, obviously. Organisms are a biotic, or living, part of the environment. Rocks and sunshine are parts of the non-living environment.

Organisms usually have six basic needs to continue their metabolism. They need air, water, nutrient (food), energy, a place to live, and homeostatsis (being able to maintain itself). However, not all living things need all these at the same time. Some organisms do not need access to air at all.

The characteristics of living things are if they have cells, take and use energy, grow and develop, share similar chemicals, sense and resond to change (stimulus), and if they reproduce.

A little thought is needed about viruses. There is no agreement as to whether they should be regarded as living. They are made of protein and nucleic acid, and they evolve, which is a really important fact. However, they exist in two quite different phases. One phase is dormant, not active. The other is inside a living cell of some other organism. Then the virus is very active reproducing itself. Consider the parallel with a computer program. When in use it is active; when it is not, it is completely inactive. It is still a program all the same.

Another example from biology is the spore, which is a distribution phase of a bacteria, fungus or some plants. They are not active until they get to the right situation. They have all the working parts to build a complete organism, but for the moment it is switched off.

Some organisms are made up of millions of cells. They are multicellular organisms. Many can be seen without using a microscope.

Most organisms are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. You need a microscope to see them. They are called microorganisms. Organisms can be made up of just one cell. They are called unicellular organisms or single celled organisms. Examples include bacteria, and protozoa such as the Amoeba and Paramecium.

Origin
The Tree of Life project works on the relationships between living things. Identifying a LUCA (last universal common ancestor) is one of its main aims. The LUCA is estimated to have lived some 3.8 billion years ago (sometime in the Palaeoarchaean era).

 A universal common ancestor is at least 102860 times more probable than having multiple ancestors.
 A model with a single common ancestor but allowing for some gene swapping among species was... 103489 times more probable than the best multi-ancestor model...

The idea came from Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, "Therefore... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form..."

Related pages

 Earliest known life forms
 Origin of life
 Morphology (biology)

References

Other websites

 About the Tree of Life Web Project
 Maddison D.R. et al 2007. The Tree of Life Web Project. Pages 19-40 in: Zhang Z.-Q. & Shear W.A., eds. Linnaeus Tercentenary: progress in invertebrate taxonomy. Zootaxa 1668:1-766. Open Access PDF

An organism is an individual living thing. It is easy to recognize a living thing, but not so easy to define it. Animals and plants are organisms, obviously. Organisms are a biotic, or living, part of the environment. Rocks and sunshine are parts of the non-living environment.

Organisms usually have six basic needs to continue their metabolism. They need air, water, nutrient (food), energy, a place to live, and homeostatsis (being able to maintain itself). However, not all living things need all these at the same time. Some organisms do not need access to air at all.

The characteristics of living things are if they have cells, take and use energy, grow and develop, share similar chemicals, sense and resond to change (stimulus), and if they reproduce.

A little thought is needed about viruses. There is no agreement as to whether they should be regarded as living. They are made of protein and nucleic acid, and they evolve, which is a really important fact. However, they exist in two quite different phases. One phase is dormant, not active. The other is inside a living cell of some other organism. Then the virus is very active reproducing itself. Consider the parallel with a computer program. When in use it is active; when it is not, it is completely inactive. It is still a program all the same.

Another example from biology is the spore, which is a distribution phase of a bacteria, fungus or some plants. They are not active until they get to the right situation. They have all the working parts to build a complete organism, but for the moment it is switched off.

Some organisms are made up of millions of cells. They are multicellular organisms. Many can be seen without using a microscope.

Most organisms are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. You need a microscope to see them. They are called microorganisms. Organisms can be made up of just one cell. They are called unicellular organisms or single celled organisms. Examples include bacteria, and protozoa such as the Amoeba and Paramecium.

Origin
The Tree of Life project works on the relationships between living things. Identifying a LUCA (last universal common ancestor) is one of its main aims. The LUCA is estimated to have lived some 3.8 billion years ago (sometime in the Palaeoarchaean era).

 A universal common ancestor is at least 102860 times more probable than having multiple ancestors.
 A model with a single common ancestor but allowing for some gene swapping among species was... 103489 times more probable than the best multi-ancestor model...

The idea came from Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, "Therefore... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form..."

Related pages

 Earliest known life forms
 Origin of life
 Morphology (biology)

References

Other websites

 About the Tree of Life Web Project
 Maddison D.R. et al 2007. The Tree of Life Web Project. Pages 19-40 in: Zhang Z.-Q. & Shear W.A., eds. Linnaeus Tercentenary: progress in invertebrate taxonomy. Zootaxa 1668:1-766. Open Access PDF

An organism is an individual living thing. It is easy to recognize a living thing, but not so easy to define it. Animals and plants are organisms, obviously. Organisms are a biotic, or living, part of the environment. Rocks and sunshine are parts of the non-living environment.

Organisms usually have six basic needs to continue their metabolism. They need air, water, nutrient (food), energy, a place to live, and homeostatsis (being able to maintain itself). However, not all living things need all these at the same time. Some organisms do not need access to air at all.

The characteristics of living things are if they have cells, take and use energy, grow and develop, share similar chemicals, sense and resond to change (stimulus), and if they reproduce.

A little thought is needed about viruses. There is no agreement as to whether they should be regarded as living. They are made of protein and nucleic acid, and they evolve, which is a really important fact. However, they exist in two quite different phases. One phase is dormant, not active. The other is inside a living cell of some other organism. Then the virus is very active reproducing itself. Consider the parallel with a computer program. When in use it is active; when it is not, it is completely inactive. It is still a program all the same.

Another example from biology is the spore, which is a distribution phase of a bacteria, fungus or some plants. They are not active until they get to the right situation. They have all the working parts to build a complete organism, but for the moment it is switched off.

Some organisms are made up of millions of cells. They are multicellular organisms. Many can be seen without using a microscope.

Most organisms are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. You need a microscope to see them. They are called microorganisms. Organisms can be made up of just one cell. They are called unicellular organisms or single celled organisms. Examples include bacteria, and protozoa such as the Amoeba and Paramecium.

Origin
The Tree of Life project works on the relationships between living things. Identifying a LUCA (last universal common ancestor) is one of its main aims. The LUCA is estimated to have lived some 3.8 billion years ago (sometime in the Palaeoarchaean era).

 A universal common ancestor is at least 102860 times more probable than having multiple ancestors.
 A model with a single common ancestor but allowing for some gene swapping among species was... 103489 times more probable than the best multi-ancestor model...

The idea came from Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, "Therefore... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form..."

Related pages

 Earliest known life forms
 Origin of life
 Morphology (biology)

References

Other websites

 About the Tree of Life Web Project
 Maddison D.R. et al 2007. The Tree of Life Web Project. Pages 19-40 in: Zhang Z.-Q. & Shear W.A., eds. Linnaeus Tercentenary: progress in invertebrate taxonomy. Zootaxa 1668:1-766. Open Access PDF

An organism is an individual living thing. It is easy to recognize a living thing, but not so easy to define it. Animals and plants are organisms, obviously. Organisms are a biotic, or living, part of the environment. Rocks and sunshine are parts of the non-living environment.

Organisms usually have six basic needs to continue their metabolism. They need air, water, nutrient (food), energy, a place to live, and homeostatsis (being able to maintain itself). However, not all living things need all these at the same time. Some organisms do not need access to air at all.

The characteristics of living things are if they have cells, take and use energy, grow and develop, share similar chemicals, sense and resond to change (stimulus), and if they reproduce.

A little thought is needed about viruses. There is no agreement as to whether they should be regarded as living. They are made of protein and nucleic acid, and they evolve, which is a really important fact. However, they exist in two quite different phases. One phase is dormant, not active. The other is inside a living cell of some other organism. Then the virus is very active reproducing itself. Consider the parallel with a computer program. When in use it is active; when it is not, it is completely inactive. It is still a program all the same.

Another example from biology is the spore, which is a distribution phase of a bacteria, fungus or some plants. They are not active until they get to the right situation. They have all the working parts to build a complete organism, but for the moment it is switched off.

Some organisms are made up of millions of cells. They are multicellular organisms. Many can be seen without using a microscope.

Most organisms are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. You need a microscope to see them. They are called microorganisms. Organisms can be made up of just one cell. They are called unicellular organisms or single celled organisms. Examples include bacteria, and protozoa such as the Amoeba and Paramecium.

Origin
The Tree of Life project works on the relationships between living things. Identifying a LUCA (last universal common ancestor) is one of its main aims. The LUCA is estimated to have lived some 3.8 billion years ago (sometime in the Palaeoarchaean era).

 A universal common ancestor is at least 102860 times more probable than having multiple ancestors.
 A model with a single common ancestor but allowing for some gene swapping among species was... 103489 times more probable than the best multi-ancestor model...

The idea came from Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, "Therefore... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form..."

Related pages

 Earliest known life forms
 Origin of life
 Morphology (biology)

References

Other websites

 About the Tree of Life Web Project
 Maddison D.R. et al 2007. The Tree of Life Web Project. Pages 19-40 in: Zhang Z.-Q. & Shear W.A., eds. Linnaeus Tercentenary: progress in invertebrate taxonomy. Zootaxa 1668:1-766. Open Access PDF

An organism is an individual living thing. It is easy to recognize a living thing, but not so easy to define it. Animals and plants are organisms, obviously. Organisms are a biotic, or living, part of the environment. Rocks and sunshine are parts of the non-living environment.

Organisms usually have six basic needs to continue their metabolism. They need air, water, nutrient (food), energy, a place to live, and homeostatsis (being able to maintain itself). However, not all living things need all these at the same time. Some organisms do not need access to air at all.

The characteristics of living things are if they have cells, take and use energy, grow and develop, share similar chemicals, sense and resond to change (stimulus), and if they reproduce.

A little thought is needed about viruses. There is no agreement as to whether they should be regarded as living. They are made of protein and nucleic acid, and they evolve, which is a really important fact. However, they exist in two quite different phases. One phase is dormant, not active. The other is inside a living cell of some other organism. Then the virus is very active reproducing itself. Consider the parallel with a computer program. When in use it is active; when it is not, it is completely inactive. It is still a program all the same.

Another example from biology is the spore, which is a distribution phase of a bacteria, fungus or some plants. They are not active until they get to the right situation. They have all the working parts to build a complete organism, but for the moment it is switched off.

Some organisms are made up of millions of cells. They are multicellular organisms. Many can be seen without using a microscope.

Most organisms are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. You need a microscope to see them. They are called microorganisms. Organisms can be made up of just one cell. They are called unicellular organisms or single celled organisms. Examples include bacteria, and protozoa such as the Amoeba and Paramecium.

Origin
The Tree of Life project works on the relationships between living things. Identifying a LUCA (last universal common ancestor) is one of its main aims. The LUCA is estimated to have lived some 3.8 billion years ago (sometime in the Palaeoarchaean era).

 A universal common ancestor is at least 102860 times more probable than having multiple ancestors.
 A model with a single common ancestor but allowing for some gene swapping among species was... 103489 times more probable than the best multi-ancestor model...

The idea came from Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, "Therefore... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form..."

Related pages

 Earliest known life forms
 Origin of life
 Morphology (biology)

References

Other websites

 About the Tree of Life Web Project
 Maddison D.R. et al 2007. The Tree of Life Web Project. Pages 19-40 in: Zhang Z.-Q. & Shear W.A., eds. Linnaeus Tercentenary: progress in invertebrate taxonomy. Zootaxa 1668:1-766. Open Access PDF

An organism is an individual living thing. It is easy to recognize a living thing, but not so easy to define it. Animals and plants are organisms, obviously. Organisms are a biotic, or living, part of the environment. Rocks and sunshine are parts of the non-living environment.

Organisms usually have six basic needs to continue their metabolism. They need air, water, nutrient (food), energy, a place to live, and homeostatsis (being able to maintain itself). However, not all living things need all these at the same time. Some organisms do not need access to air at all.

The characteristics of living things are if they have cells, take and use energy, grow and develop, share similar chemicals, sense and resond to change (stimulus), and if they reproduce.

A little thought is needed about viruses. There is no agreement as to whether they should be regarded as living. They are made of protein and nucleic acid, and they evolve, which is a really important fact. However, they exist in two quite different phases. One phase is dormant, not active. The other is inside a living cell of some other organism. Then the virus is very active reproducing itself. Consider the parallel with a computer program. When in use it is active; when it is not, it is completely inactive. It is still a program all the same.

Another example from biology is the spore, which is a distribution phase of a bacteria, fungus or some plants. They are not active until they get to the right situation. They have all the working parts to build a complete organism, but for the moment it is switched off.

Some organisms are made up of millions of cells. They are multicellular organisms. Many can be seen without using a microscope.

Most organisms are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. You need a microscope to see them. They are called microorganisms. Organisms can be made up of just one cell. They are called unicellular organisms or single celled organisms. Examples include bacteria, and protozoa such as the Amoeba and Paramecium.

Origin
The Tree of Life project works on the relationships between living things. Identifying a LUCA (last universal common ancestor) is one of its main aims. The LUCA is estimated to have lived some 3.8 billion years ago (sometime in the Palaeoarchaean era).

 A universal common ancestor is at least 102860 times more probable than having multiple ancestors.
 A model with a single common ancestor but allowing for some gene swapping among species was... 103489 times more probable than the best multi-ancestor model...

The idea came from Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, "Therefore... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form..."

Related pages

 Earliest known life forms
 Origin of life
 Morphology (biology)

References

Other websites

 About the Tree of Life Web Project
 Maddison D.R. et al 2007. The Tree of Life Web Project. Pages 19-40 in: Zhang Z.-Q. & Shear W.A., eds. Linnaeus Tercentenary: progress in invertebrate taxonomy. Zootaxa 1668:1-766. Open Access PDF

An organism is an individual living thing. It is easy to recognize a living thing, but not so easy to define it. Animals and plants are organisms, obviously. Organisms are a biotic, or living, part of the environment. Rocks and sunshine are parts of the non-living environment.

Organisms usually have six basic needs to continue their metabolism. They need air, water, nutrient (food), energy, a place to live, and homeostatsis (being able to maintain itself). However, not all living things need all these at the same time. Some organisms do not need access to air at all.

The characteristics of living things are if they have cells, take and use energy, grow and develop, share similar chemicals, sense and resond to change (stimulus), and if they reproduce.

A little thought is needed about viruses. There is no agreement as to whether they should be regarded as living. They are made of protein and nucleic acid, and they evolve, which is a really important fact. However, they exist in two quite different phases. One phase is dormant, not active. The other is inside a living cell of some other organism. Then the virus is very active reproducing itself. Consider the parallel with a computer program. When in use it is active; when it is not, it is completely inactive. It is still a program all the same.

Another example from biology is the spore, which is a distribution phase of a bacteria, fungus or some plants. They are not active until they get to the right situation. They have all the working parts to build a complete organism, but for the moment it is switched off.

Some organisms are made up of millions of cells. They are multicellular organisms. Many can be seen without using a microscope.

Most organisms are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. You need a microscope to see them. They are called microorganisms. Organisms can be made up of just one cell. They are called unicellular organisms or single celled organisms. Examples include bacteria, and protozoa such as the Amoeba and Paramecium.

Origin
The Tree of Life project works on the relationships between living things. Identifying a LUCA (last universal common ancestor) is one of its main aims. The LUCA is estimated to have lived some 3.8 billion years ago (sometime in the Palaeoarchaean era).

A universal common ancestor is at least 102860 times more probable than having multiple ancestors.
A model with a single common ancestor but allowing for some gene swapping among species was... 103489 times more probable than the best multi-ancestor model...
The idea came from Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, "Therefore... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form..."

Related pages
 Earliest known life forms
 Origin of life
 Morphology (biology)

References

Other websites

About the Tree of Life Web Project
Maddison D.R. et al 2007. The Tree of Life Web Project. Pages 19-40 in: Zhang Z.-Q. & Shear W.A., eds. Linnaeus Tercentenary: progress in invertebrate taxonomy. Zootaxa 1668:1-766. Open Access PDF

Biology
Organisms

Organism


Platonic realism is the theory of reality developed by Plato, and explained in his theory of forms. Platonic realism states that the visible world of particular things is a shifting exhibition, like shadows cast on a wall by the activities of their corresponding universal Ideas or Forms. Whereas the visible world of particulars is unreal, the Forms occupy the unobservable yet true reality and are real.

Platonism is a similar, yet sometimes modified, view of reality.

Origin

Among the natural philosophers in ancient Greece, the problem of universals was the mystery of where particular things derive their traits that we perceive as universals—for instance red or apple or good or woman or truth.

Plato explained that the particular things of the visible world are imperfect, transient copies of the universal Ideas that are the perfect, lasting Forms. Existing exist outside space and time, the Forms are the universals and act as templates from which particulars manifest.

In his Metaphysics, Aristotle, a student of Plato, explained that Socrates and his own student Plato held it significant that the world is in flux, much as Heraclitus had commented, "You cannot step into the same river twice", a theme of the Eleatics, a group of pre-socratic philosophers.

Influence

Plato's quest
Plato considered that only the mind could access the timeless reality of truths, the realm of the Forms casting the visible world. Plato's metaphorical allegory of the cave—whereby humans only know reality as shadows of the real things they see interacting on a wall—suggests the practical consequences of Platonic realism as to natural philosophy in its endeavor to explain the natural world and as to values (theories of which often comprises ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy) in human society.

Plato had led the focused application of geometry, developed by Euclid, to explain the natural world. Yet by his view of nature, Plato regarded astronomy as similar to seeking a theoretical proof in geometry—abstract and not the real world—whereupon the mind's insights derived from a quest to hold other truths through the mind's probing of ethics and aesthetics would yield discovery of truths within the realm of Forms, outside space and time.

Aristotle's answer

Aristotle, a student of Plato, answered the problem of universals differently. Aristotle explained that universals are concepts corresponding to traits borne and shared by the particular things themselves. Aristotle did not regard all reality as visible, as he recognized existence of souls, yet regarded souls as unobserved parts of the visible world, real in itself. Aristotelianism largely shaped the course of Western thought.

Aristotle developed a more or less full description and explanation of the natural world and developed logic—syllogistic logic—to derive conclusions of the relations among things. Aristotle's grounding in the visible world was a metaphysical approach that suggested what evolved by some 2000 years later into empirical science.

Platonism

Some mathematicians and physicists are Platonists, for instance Max Tegmark and Roger Penrose. Yet today's Platonists usually view entities within the visible world as real, and simply regard universal abstractions like numbers, sets, propositions, and geometry as corresponding to real and timeless entities that also exist, though pure Platonists regard only the Forms or their realm as real.

By way of string theory and the holographic principle, some physicists conjecture that Plato's allegory of the cave approximates the natural world's structure. Tegmark, who regards only the mathematical structure of the universe as real, has been called a radical Platonist.

Notes

Philosophical movements and positions
Reality

Platonic realism


A reward is getting something good for doing a given task.  It needs someone who has the power to give the good thing. It is the opposite of punishment.

Ideas like risk and reward, reward and punishment are based on the idea that people do things, or avoid doing things, to get rewards. In psychology there is another idea that this is not true. This other idea says that training (conditioning) and emotions (affective factors) are much more important than the rewards or punishments given by others.

In trying to catch criminals and other bad people, the government often offers money to people. This money is given to people who may capture the criminal, or give information that helps the police catch them. For example, after the Eureka Stockade rebellion in Ballarat, Victoria in 1854, the government offered a big reward of 400 pounds for the capture of the people who had started it.

In 2001, the US government offered a big reward of 2.5 million dollars for help in capturing the person who had sent anthrax in letters to a newspaper journalist and 2 senators. Anthrax is a disease which can kill people.

Related pages
 Carrot and Stick

References

Basic English 850 words

Reward


S.C. Corinthians Paulista is a football club which plays in Brazil.

History
Football (soccer) had already established itself as the popular new sport in Brazil and when the dry season came and the fields dried out they were soon filled with lovers of the new game. São Paulo's sporting elite had formed several clubs,Germânia, Paulistano and Campos Elíseos among them, but access to the game was still largely restricted to the city's well off.

First members

So a group of working class fans - painter and decorators Joaquim Ambrósio, Antônio Pereira and César Nunes; cobbler Rafael Perrone; driver Anselmo Correia; foundry worker; Alexandre Magnani: cook Salvador Lopomo; labourer João da Silva and tailor Antônio Nunes - decided to start their own team. Bataglia decided to get involved he was named the club's first president.

Name
The new club needed a name. Joaquim Ambrósio suggested they call themselves after the Corinthians Casuals Football Club, the famous English team that was then on tour in Brazil. The press and fans in Brazil who were following the tour shortened the English club's name to Corinthian's Team and so the founders did away with the aopstrophe and the club won its elegant name Corinthians.

Nickames
Corinthians is also known as Big Team, Coringão, The Musketeer and Champion of the Champions.

Colours
Finally, the club picked colours. The club's first strip was beige with black trim and had the distinctive letters "C" and "P" for Corinthians Paulista. However, when the strips were washed, the black bled into the beige. The directors could not afford to keep buying new strips every time the colours ran so they decided to change their colours. They swapped the beige for white. In present-day, the colours of Corinthians are Black and White.

Stadium
The name of Corinthians´s stadium is Arena Corinthians, also known as Itaquerão and with a capacity crowd of 68,000.

1st match
The team from Varzea Paulista. Playing away from home in their first match, Corinthians were expected to lose heavily but they showed they were not there just to make up the numbers and they battled hard before narrowly going down by a goal to nil.

Second match and first win
The defeat turned out to be a one-off. Four days later, Corinthians proved they would be a name to be reckoned with and beat Estrela Polar 2-0. The honour of scoring the club's first goal went to striker Luís Fabi, who wrote himself into the history books by grabbing the opener. They followed the match with an unbeaten streak that lasted two years.

The "big league"
They then won 1-0 away at Minas Gerais and then beat São Paulo do Bexiga 4-0 at home. They had secured their place in the big league.

Things got even better the following year and in 1914 a dynasty took hold. In just their second Paulista Championship, Corinthians destroyed the competition and won all 10 games, scoring 39 times in the process. Neco ended the tournament's top goalscorer with 12 goals.

Threepeats
Corinthians picked up yet another Paulista Championship in 1922 but this victory had something special about it. The winner took the title not only of Paulista Champions but also of Centenary Champions, a title they would hold for at least the next 100 years.

By this time, winning the Paulista was becoming routine. The team won the league three years in a row in 1922, 1923 and 1924 under the command of Neco, the club's first great idol, and would do so again in 1928, 1929 and 1930.

Rivalry
The great and only rival of Corinthians is Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras. This is the most derbie and traditional rivalry in Brazilian football. The fans of Corinthians called Palmeiras as a pig and the fans of palmeiras called Corinthians as a skunk.

Problems
However, and between 1931 and 1934 a series of bad results left the team trailing. Corinthians lost to all their big rivals of the time and failed to make an impression in the league, never finishing higher than fourth.

Solutions
The turnaround came in 1937, and for the rest of the decade there was only one team in the state. Corinthians won the Paulista Championship in 1937, 1938 and 1939 to become the first team ever to win three back-to-back titles three times. Even today, no other team has managed to equal such a feat. The man who led the way was centre-forward Teleco. One of the club's greatest ever goalscorers, he topped the scoring charts in 1937 and 1939. The former year he scored almost half the club's goals, while in the latter he got an amazing 60 percent.

100th Goal
The 100-goal attack made history not only for the club but also for the league. In 1951, a front line made up of Carbone, Cláudio, Luizinho, Baltazar and Mário scored 103 goals in 30 games in the Paulista Championship, an average of 3.43 per game. The title was theirs, as was the trophy for top goalscorer, which went to Carbone, who got 30 of the team's goals.

Awards
In the years that followed, more titles were added to the growing trophy room at Parque São Jorge. In 1952, the Timão won the Paulista Championship for the second successive year, with Baltazar finishing top scorer. In 1953, they took the Rio-São Paulo title and the Little World Cup - the club's first international title - and in 1954 they walked off with another Rio-São Paulo as well as the Paulista do IV centenário de São Paulo. In 1956 and 1957, they won the Invencible Trophy, the cup given to the team that went the longest number of games undefeated.

The Corinthians Invasion
In 1976, Corinthians almost won their first Brazilian League title and the club's fans played a starring role in one of the most memorable moments in footballing history. Corinthians were drawn against Fluminense in the semi-finals of the league play offs at the Maracanã. More than 70,000 Corinthians fans made the six-hour trip up the motorway to Rio de Janeiro in a massive convoy that was christened the "Corinthians Invasion."

10.13.1977
Corinthians won the first game but lost the second and so needed to win a third and deciding match to take the title. It was quite a struggle, with the match goalless until the 81st minute. Then, a Zé Maria free kick was directed onto the bar by Vaguinho. Wladimir headed the rebound back towards goal where Oscar was on hand to knock it off the line. The ball fell to Basílio in the area and he hammered it into the net and gave Corinthians the goal they so desperately wanted. The 1977 Paulista Championship was theirs.

The Democracy team
The Timão was always one of the most important clubs in Brazil. But the Corinthians Democracy movement was unique in world football. Through organisation, team spirit and democracy, they did something no other team has managed before or since. When players as politically and socially conscientious as Sócrates, Wladimir, Casagrande and Zenon get together then there are bound to be changes in the dressing room. Those four stars were the driving force behind the greatest ideological movement in the history of Brazilian football: Corinthians Democracy. And this in the middle of the country's military dictatorship. Corinthians Democracy did something that seemed impossible. Through football, the most popular sport in the country, they got people talking about all sorts of important and relevant questions concerning society, democracy and the end of military rule. In addition to that not inconsiderable feat, they showed that it was possible to create a society in which everyone's opinions are heard and respected and where democracy, through the imposition of the wishes of the majority, could prevail. They won the Paulista Championship in 1982 and 1983, beating city rivals São Paulo both times. In 1982, they battled back after losing the first game 3-2 to take the next two matches 1-0 and 3-1 and lift the trophy. The next year they won again, thanks to a series of brilliant performances from Sócrates. The good doctor scored all the team's goals in the semi-finals against Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (1-1 and 1-0) as well as in the final against São Paulo Futebol Clube (1-0 and 1-1). His four goals brought the team their 19th Paulista Championship.

Glorious Decade
The 1990s was to prove a glorious decade for Corinthians, who captured three Brazilian Championships (in 1990 beating São Paulo Futebol Clube, in 1998 beating Cruzeiro and in 1999 led the championship since the beginning at the finished and beating Atlético Mineiro at the final game), three State Championships (in 1995 beating Palmeiras, in 1997 beating São Paulo and 1999 beating Palmeiras again) and a Brazilian Cup (in 1995 beating Grêmio) in quick succession.

FIFA Club World Championship
In 2000, Corinthians, who captured FIFA Club World Championship victory against Vasco da Gama(win 4-3 on penalties) at the Maracanã Stadium. This match had attendance of 73,000 peoples. This is the most important title of Corinthians. Corinthians played the final game with Dida, Índio, Fábio Luciano, Adílson & Kléber; Vampeta (Gilmar), Rincón, Marcelinho Carioca & Ricardinho (Edu); Edílson (Fernando Baiano) & Luizão.
Coach: Oswaldo de Oliveira

New Era
The final months of 2004 marked a new era for the Timão and for Brazilian football. The partnership between MSI and Corinthians revolutionised the game and brought internationalists like Carlos Tévez, Javier Mascherano, Roger, Carlos Alberto and Gustavo Nery to the club. The future was bright for the club and fans could not help but feel optimistic they would enjoy many more triumphs in the coming years.

And so it proved, with success coming quicker than they could have hoped for. Led by Argentine star Carlos Tévez, the Timão had a sensational league campaign in 2005 and won their fourth Brazilian League Title in 2005.

More signings
More new signings were made in 2006 with Ricardinho, Rafael Moura and goalkeeper Silvio Luiz coming to the club in a bid to strengthen a squad that would be competing for another Brazilian League title and the Copa Libertadores.

Honours
 2 FIFA Club World Championship: 2000, 2012.
 1 Trophy Ramón de Carranza: 1996.
 1 Trophy International Charles Müller: 1955.
 1 Little World Cup: 1953.
 6 Brazilian Championships: 1990, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2011, 2015.
 1 Brazilian Championship B: 2008
 3 Brazilian Cups: 1995, 2002, 2009.
 5 Rio-São Paulo Tournaments: 1950, 1953, 1954, 1966, 2002.
 27 São Paulo State Championships: 1914, 1916, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2013.
 1 Libertadores Cup: 2012.

Players
As July 24, 2012.

First team squad

Legendary players
Neco (1913-30), Teleco (1933-44), Servílio (1938-48), Domingos da Guia (1944-48), Cláudio (1945-57), Baltazar (1947-58), Luizinho (1949-62 & 1964-67), Gilmar (1951-61), Rivelino (1965-74), Sócrates (1978-84), Daniel González (1982), Dunga (1984-85), Neto (1989-93), Carlos Gamarra (1998-99), Dida (1999-2001), Marcelinho Carioca (1993-97, 1998-2001), Edílson (1997-2000), Luizão (1999-2002), Carlos Tévez (2005-06), Ronaldo (2009), Roberto Carlos (2010), Emerson Sheik (2011-2012).

References

Other websites
 Official Home Page  (in Portuguese)
 FIFA Home Page
 About Corinthians vs. Palmeiras

Football clubs in São Paulo (state)
1910 establishments in South America
1910s establishments in Brazil

Sport Club Corinthians Paulista


A wavelength is the length of the shortest repeating part of a "sine wave". All waves can be formed by adding up sine waves. That is, every wave is a total of sine waves, which may be identified by Fourier analysis. It is also known as the distance between a crest and another crest of a wave (highest point above equilibrium) or the distance between a trough and another trough of a wave (lowest point below the equilibrium of a wave).

Examples of waves
Waves are everywhere.  Examples of waves include:
 sound
 electromagnetic spectrum including
 radio wave
 light
 water waves such as ocean surface waves
 earthquake waves

"Length" of a sine wave
The sine wave has a pattern that repeats. The length of this repeating piece of the sine wave is called the wavelength. The wavelength can be found by measuring the length or distance between one peak of a sine wave and the next peak. The wavelength can be found in many other ways too.  As the frequency of a wave increases, the wavelength decreases Thus, the frequency and wavelength are in inverse proportionality.

There are other properties of waves and sine waves, such as their frequency, amplitude, phase, and speed.

A symbol used for wavelength most often is the Greek letter lambda (λ).

Wave physics
Mechanical vibrations

Wavelength


Musicology means the study of music by a scholar. A scholar is an academic person, often a professor or lecturer at a university.  Someone who studies musicology is a Musicologist.

Musicologists study all kinds of music. They study the history of music and learn about all the composers and how they developed their ideas and learned from one another. They can do this by studying music scores, or by looking for historical documents which tell us about musicians from the past. Musicologists may also study the philosophy of music (thinking about what music means).

They write articles in musical journals or books on music. This can help us to know and understand more about the music we play or listen to.

Related pages
Acoustics
Music school
Music theory

References

Humanities

Musicology


Operation Overlord was the 1944 campaign for the invasion of continental Europe in World War II. It was fought by the Allied forces against German forces. The most critical part was the Normandy landings, which were to get the Allied armies onto the mainland of Europe. That might have failed, and heavy casualties were expected, even if it succeeded.

The Battle of Normandy raged until German forces retreated across the Seine on 30 August 1944, which marked the close of Operation Overlord.

The main Allied forces came from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Nine other nations also sent units: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Poland.

Preparations were large and complex. Operation Overlord was the largest and deadliest amphibious assault in the history of warfare. Almost three million troops crossed the English Channel from England to Normandy, in German-occupied France.

Plans for D-Day

Allied troops made many practice landings to understand how to land correctly.

Maps of the beaches of Normandy were created. The planners knew that heavy tanks and transport could not travel on the beaches, which had soft peat underneath them. Detailed maps of the area were required. If peat had to be travelled on, the plan was to lay down matting.

On 7 April and 15 May, Bernard Montgomery presented his plan for the invasion. He planned a 90-day battle, ending when all the forces reached the Seine.

The goal for the first 40 days was to capture Caen and Cherbourg, the latter for its important deep-water port. Then, Brittany and its Atlantic ports would be captured. Railways and roads in northern France would be bombed to block reinforcements for the defenders. Next, the Allies would go 125 miles (190 km) to the southwest of Paris. The Allies would then control the land between the Loire River in the south and Seine River in the northeast.

Meanwhile, the Allies made great efforts to make the Germans think that the invasion would happen elsewhere.

Technology
The Allies developed new technology for Overlord. The "mulberry", a mobile concrete harbor, allowed the Allies to supply their soldiers on the beach without capturing one of the heavily defended Channel ports. Major-General Percy Hobart, a military engineer, designed modified Sherman and Churchill tanks.

Deception

In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies worked at military deception. German coastal defences were stretched thinly in 1944. Once Normandy had been chosen as the site of the invasion, it was decided to attempt to trick the Germans into thinking it was a fake invasion and that the true invasion was to be elsewhere. That was called Operation Bodyguard. In the weeks leading up to the invasion, the Allies tried to make the Germans think that the main invasion would take place at the Pas de Calais and in Norway. The deception was an industry in itself since it included dummy messages, dummy tanks in places near Dover and the southern coast of England, using double agents to spread false information, dummy radio messages, and so on.

The deception was highly successful. It led Hitler to delay sending reinforcements from the Pas de Calais region for nearly seven weeks (the original plan had specified 14 days). In his memoirs, General Omar Bradley called Bodyguard the "single biggest hoax of the war".

Rehearsals and security
Allied forces rehearsed their roles for D-Day months before the invasion. On 28 April 1944, in south Devon on the British coast, 946 American soldiers and sailors were killed when German torpedo boats attacked one of these landing exercises, Exercise Tiger.

The security of D-Day was supported by stopping unplanned news from getting out of Britain. Travel to and from the Republic of Ireland was banned and movements near the coasts was not allowed. The German embassies and consulates in neutral countries were given false information.

All the same, there were several leaks before or on D-Day. An embassy spy in Istanbul gave the Germans documents containing references to Overlord, but these documents lacked detail. Another leak was General Charles de Gaulle's radio message after D-Day. He stated that this invasion was the real invasion. This had the potential to ruin the Allied tricks. Eisenhower referred to the landings as the initial invasion. The Germans did not believe de Gaulle and waited too long to move in extra troops against the Allies.

Allied invasion plan

The British did an airborne assault on the River Orne. The British goal was to capture the Orne River bridges to prevent German armor from using them and to prevent retreating Germans from blowing them up. This way, they could be used by Allied armor and vehicles.

The British sea attack units would attack through Sword and Gold Beaches. The United States had an airborne division and land units, which were to take Omaha Beach, the Pointe du Hoc and Utah Beach. The Canadians would work with British units to attack Sword Beach. The British and Canadians had separate beaches, Gold Beach and Juno Beach, respectively.

The Invasion Fleet was made upfrom eight navies made up of warships and submarines, split into the Western Naval Task Force (Rear-Admiral Alan G Kirk) and the Eastern Naval Task Force (Rear-Admiral Sir Philip Vian). The fleet was led by Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay.

Codenames
The Allies assigned codenames to the various operations involved in the invasion. Overlord was the name for the landing on the Continent (that is, western Europe). Getting a secure hold on the area was codenamed Neptune. It began on D-Day (6 June 1944) and ended on 30 June 1944. By this time, the Allies had control in Normandy. Operation Overlord also began on D-Day, and continued until Allied forces crossed the river Seine on 19 August 1944.

German preparations and defenses

Atlantic Wall

Through most of 1942 and 1943, the Germans thought successful Allied invasion in the west would not happen. Preparations were limited to building fortifications at the major ports. The number of military forces in Nazi Germany reached its peak during 1944 with 59 divisions in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was in charge of the wall. He improved the defences of the entire coastline. Steel obstacles were put on beaches, concrete bunkers and pillboxes constructed, and low-lying areas were flooded. Pointed stakes were set up on likely landing grounds to make it hard for the Allies to do airborne landings. The Germans fortified the foreshore area as part of their Atlantic Wall defences (including tank turrets and barbed wire).

These projects were not finished, especially in the Normandy sector. Allied bombing of the French railway system made it hard to move materials, and the Germans were convinced by the Allied tricks that the landings would take place in the Pas de Calais.

The sector which was attacked was guarded by four divisions, of which the 352nd and 91st were of high quality. The other defending troops included Germans who were not fit for active duty on the Eastern Front, conscripted Poles and former Soviet prisoners-of-war who had agreed to fight for the Germans. These units had German leaders.

Mobile reserves
Rommel's defensive measures were made difficult by arguments over how to use armoured forces. Von Geyr and Rommel disagreed over the how to use Panzer divisions.

Rommel thought armoured formations be close to the coast, to attack while the invaders were weak. Von Geyr said they should instead be put around Paris and used in a big group when the Germans knew which beach was being invaded. Hitler made a compromise solution.

Rommel was given only three tank divisions, one of which was close enough to the Normandy beaches to fight on the first day. The other mechanized divisions were put under the control of the German Armed Forces HQ (OKW) and were placed across France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Weather forecast
The opportunity for launching an invasion was limited to only a few days in each month, because a full moon was needed. This would provide light for the aircraft pilots and create a spring tide. Eisenhower had picked 5 June as the date for the assault. However, on 4 June, conditions were unsuitable for a landing. High winds and heavy seas made it impossible to launch landing craft. Low clouds would prevent aircraft finding their targets.

Meteorologists predicted an improvement in the weather for 6 June. At a meeting on 5 June, Eisenhower and his senior commanders discussed the situation. Eisenhower decided to launch the invasion that night. Had Eisenhower delayed the invasion, the only option was to go two weeks later. This would have been during stormy weather.

Invasion

Inland airborne landings
To make it hard for the Germans to launch attacks during the sea attack phase, airborne operations were used to capture bridges and road crossings. The airborne landings behind the beaches were also designed to help the soldiers landing on beaches by destroying German coastal defense artillery.

Beaches

On Sword Beach, the regular British infantry came ashore with few casualties. They had advanced about  by the end of the day but did not get as far as Montgomery had wanted. Caen was still held by Germans by the end of D-Day and remained so until Operation Charnwood, on 9 July.

The Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach had a difficult battle. Both German concrete fortifications and a sea wall twice as high as at Omaha Beach made Juno very difficult to attack. Juno was the most-heavily defended beach on D-Day after Omaha. The Canadians were off the beach within hours and advancing inland. They were the only units to reach their D-Day goals, but most units fell back a few kilometres to make stronger defensive positions.

At Gold Beach, there were many dead and wounded because the Germans had strongly fortified a village on the beach. The 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division advanced almost to Bayeux by the end of the day. When commando units captured the Port-en-Bessin, the Allies could use their underwater PLUTO pipeline to bring in fuel.

The Americans who landed on Omaha Beach faced the veteran German 352nd Infantry Division, one of the best trained groups on the beaches. Furthermore, Omaha was the most heavily fortified beach. Commanders considered abandoning the beach, but small units of infantry got past the coastal defences. By the end of the day, two areas had been captured. Control over the beach expanded over the following days and the D-Day goals were accomplished by the third day.

At Pointe du Hoc, the 2nd Ranger battalion had to climb the  cliffs. While they climbed, the enemy shot at them and dropped grenades. They used ropes and ladders to climb up and to destroy the guns.

The beach fortifications were important targets since a single artillery observer could have directed fire on the American beaches. The Rangers captured the fortifications. They then had to fight for two days to hold the location and lost more than 60 percent of their men.

The number of dead and wounded on Utah Beach, the westernmost landing zone, were the lightest of any beach. Only 197 out of the 23,000 troops that landed were killed or wounded. The 4th Infantry Division troops, who landed on the beach, moved inland by early afternoon and linked up with the 101st Airborne Division.

Once the beaches had been controlled, the Mulberry Harbours were set up around 9 June. One was constructed at Arromanches by British forces and the other at Omaha Beach by American forces. Severe storms on 19 June caused problems with the landing of supplies and destroyed the Omaha harbour. The Arromanches harbour supplied around 9,000 tons daily until the end of August 1944, when the port of Cherbourg had been captured by the Allies.

The German 21st Panzer division attacked between Sword and Juno beaches and nearly reached the Channel. Allied anti-tank gunners made them pull back before the end of 6 June.

The Allied invasion plans had called for the capture of Carentan, St. Lô, Caen and Bayeux on the first day. The plan was to link all the beaches except Utah and Sword (the last of which linked with paratroopers) and a front line  from the beaches. None of the goals had been achieved. The number of dead and wounded had not been as heavy as some had feared (around 10,000, compared to the 20,000 that Churchill had estimated), and the bridges had survived the German attacks.

Cherbourg
In the western part of the invasion area, US troops were to occupy the Cotentin Peninsula, especially Cherbourg, to provide the Allies with a deep-water harbour. The land behind Utah and Omaha was banks and hedgerows and so tanks, gunfire and vision could not get through. That made the place an ideal defensive position.

The US infantry made slow progress and had many dead and wounded as it moved towards Cherbourg. The airborne troops were used to help with the advance. The far side of the peninsula was reached on 18 June. Hitler told German forces not to retreat to the strong Atlantic Wall fortifications in Cherbourg. The Cherbourg commander, Lieutenant-General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, surrendered on 26 June. Before surrendering, he had most of the facilities destroyed and so made the harbour inoperable until mid-August. By then, the combat front had moved so far east that the harbour was less helpful.

Caen

While the Americans headed for Cherbourg, a unit of troops led by the British moved towards Caen. Montgomery made many attrition warfare attacks. The first was Operation Perch, which moved south from Bayeux to Villers-Bocage, where the armour could capture Caen. The attack was halted at the Battle of Villers-Bocage. Caen was bombed and then occupied north of the River Orne in Operation Charnwood from 7 to 9 July. An attack in the Caen area followed with all three British armoured divisions, codenamed Operation Goodwood, from 18 to 21 July. The attack captured the high ground south of Caen. The rest of the city was captured by Canadian forces during Operation Atlantic. A further operation, Operation Spring, from 25 to 28 July, by the Canadians secured limited land south of the city but with many dead and wounded.

Breakout from beachhead

Montgomery's plan included keeping the Germans in the eastern part of the invasion area and protecting Cobra's position. By the end of Goodwood, the Germans had used the last of their reserve divisions. There were six-and-a-half Panzer divisions against the Britishs and the Canadians, compared to the one-and-a-half facing the Americans.

Operation Cobra was launched on 25 July by the US First Army. It was successful, and the VIII Corps entered Coutances at the western end of the Cotentin Peninsula on 28 July, after it had broken through the German lines.

On 1 August, the VIII Corps became part of Lieutenant General George S. Patton's Third Army. On 4 August, Montgomery changed the invasion plan by sending a corps to occupy Brittany and push the German troops around the ports while the rest of the Third Army continued east. Because of the large number of German forces south of Caen, Montgomery moved the British west and launched Operation Bluecoat from 30 July to 7 August to add to the attacks from the Americans. That pushed the German forces to the west and allowed the launch of Operation Totalize south from Caen on 7 August.

Falaise pocket
By early August, more German reserves became available. The German forces were being encircled, and the German High Command wanted those reserves to help with a retreat to the Seine. Hitler demanded an attack at Mortain on 7 August. The attack was pushed back by the Allies, who again had advance warning from the Ultra codebreakers. The original Allied plan was to encircle the Germans as far as the Loire valley. Bradley realized that many of the German forces in Normandy werecoukd no longer move. He got Montgomery's approval by telephone on 8 August to encircle German forces. The task was left to Patton, who moved nearly unopposed through Normandy. The Germans were left in near Chambois. Strong German defenses and the sending of American troops for an attack by Patton towards the Seine at Mantes prevented the Germans from being trapped until 21 August, when 50,000 German troops.

Whether that could have been done earlier and more prisoners taken has been debated.

The liberation of Paris followed shortly afterwards. The French Resistance in Paris rose attacked the Germans on 19 August. The French 2nd Armoured Division, under General Philippe Leclerc, along with the US 4th Infantry Division, accepted the surrender of the German forces there and liberated Paris on 25 August.

Withdrawal to Seine
Operations continued in the British and Canadian sector until the end of the month. On 25 August, the 2nd US Armored Division fought its way into Elbeuf and made contact with British and Canadian armoured divisions there. The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division advanced into the Forêt de la Londe on the morning of 27 August. The area was strongly held and the 4th and the 6th Canadian Brigades had large numbers of dead and wounded over three days as the Germans defended their position. The Germans pulled back on the 29th and withdrew over the Seine on the 30th.

On the 30th, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division crossed the Seine near Elbeuf and entered Rouen to a happy welcome.

Landings
 Sword Beach was the easternmost beach on D-Day and was attacked by the British 3rd Infantry Division, supported by units of the 79th Armoured Division. It was successful.
 Juno Beach was the next beach to the west and was attacked by the Canadian 3rd Division. It was also successful.
 Gold Beach was the "middle" beach, lying between Sword, Juno, Omaha, and Utah Beaches. It was attacked by the British 50th (Northumbrian) Division.
 Omaha Beach was the second-westernmost beach. It was attacked by the American 1st Division. The bombardment before the assault was successful on every beach except Omaha and so German bunkers and artillery still remained. The battle was hard, but eventually, the Americans won after almost 2,500 of them had died there.
 Omaha Beach on D-Day 6.6.1944
 Utah Beach was the westernmost beach. It was attacked by the American 4th Division. It was mostly successful.

Success

The campaign in Normandy is considered by historians to end at midnight on 24 July 1944 (the start of Operation Cobra on the American front), 25 August 1944 (the liberation of Paris), or 30 August 1944, the date the last German unit retreated across the River Seine.

The original Overlord plan was for a 90-day campaign in Normandy with the ultimate goal of reaching the Seine, a goal that was met early. American forces were fighting in Brittany as anticipated by General Montgomery during the latter weeks of the campaign. Historians consider the Normandy campaign to have ended with the massive breakout of Operation Cobra.

The official American history describes the fighting beginning on 25 July as the "Northern France" campaign, and includes the fighting to close the Falaise Gap, which the British/Canadians/Poles consider to be part of the Battle of Normandy. Volume I of the "Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War," by C.P. Stacey, published in 1955, as well as the Canadian Army's official "Historical Summary of the Second World War," published in 1948, define the Battle of Normandy as lasting from 6 June 1944 to 1 September 1944. The definition of the Battle of Normandy is also evident in another publication by the Army's Historical Section, Canada's Battle in Normandy.

There were reports of Eisenhower requesting Montgomery's replacement in July. The lack of forward progress was caused by the rough land. However, as at the Second Battle of El Alamein, Montgomery kept to his original attrition warfare strategy and reached the objectives within his original 90-day target.

Victory in Normandy was followed by a pursuit to the French border in short order. Germany was forced once again to reinforce the Western Front with manpower and resources from the Soviet and the Italian fronts.

By September, Allied forces of seven field armies, two of which came through southern France in Operation Dragoon, were approaching the German frontier. The Allied battle plan was good by drawing on the strengths of both Britain and America. German leadership was often faulty, despite good fighting by German units.

In a larger context, the Normandy landings helped the Soviets on the Eastern Front, where most of the German forces fought. They shortened of the conflict there.

Allied logistics, intelligence, morale, and air power
Victory in Normandy stemmed from several factors. The Allies had more weapons and equipment. They also had new inventions like the PLUTO pipelines and Mulberry harbours, which helped the flow of troops, equipment, fuel and ammunition. Movement of cargo over the open beaches went better than expected, even after the destruction of the American Mulberry in the Channel storm in mid-June.

By the end of July 1944, one million American, British, Canadian, French, and Polish troops; hundreds of thousands of vehicles; and a lot of supplies were ashore in Normandy. Artillery ammunition and other items were plentiful. That was impressive since they held no port until Cherbourg fell.

By the time of the Normany breakout, the Allies also had superiority in numbers of troops (approximately 3.5:1) and armored vehicles (approximately 4:1), which helped overcome that the natural advantages the rough land gave to the German defenders.

Allied intelligence and counterintelligence efforts were successful. Operation Fortitude before the invasion kept German attention focused on the Pas-de-Calais. High-quality German forces were kept in that area, away from Normandy, until July. Prior to the invasion, few German reconnaissance flights took place over Britain, and those that did saw only the fake camps. Ultra decoding of German Enigma (machine) communications had been helpful as well, which exposed German plans and showed that the Allies' trick was still believed.

German leadership
Lack of an organized strategy hurt the German defence. Leadership was split between Field Marshals von Rundstedt and Rommel. Von Rundstedt wanted to keep the powerful units in reserve for a powerful counterattack once the Allied landing had started. Rommel wanted to stop the Allies at the beach and tried to locate units so that they could attack quickly.

Rommel's plan was good, but his reserve strategy was not good because units could not move during the day because of Allied air strikes. In the end, the mix of two strategies was a disaster. The beach defences were overcome, and the counterattacks were not strong enough.

German commanders at all levels failed to react to the attack quickly. Communication problems added to the problems caused by Allied air and naval firepower. Local commanders did not lead an aggressive defence on the beach. The German High Command focused on the Calais area, and von Rundstedt was not permitted to use the armored reserve.

When it was finally released late in the day, success was more difficult. Although the 21st Panzer Division had attacked earlier, it faced strong opposition, which had been allowed to build at the beaches. Overall, the Allied material superiority continued to grow, but the Germans slowed the Allies advance for nearly two months and were aided by the rough land.

Although there were several disputes among the Allied commanders, their plans were decided by the main commanders. By contrast, the senior German leaders always had interference by Hitler, who did not know local conditions.

Field Marshals von Rundstedt and Rommel repeatedly asked Hitler for more freedom to change plans but were refused. Von Rundstedt was removed from his command on 29 June after he had told Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, the Chief of Staff at OKW (German Armed Forces Headquarters), to make peace. Rommel was severely injured by Allied aircraft on 16 July.

Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, who took over the posts that had been held by both von Rundstedt and Rommel, was linked with some of the military plotters against Hitler and would not argue with Hitler for fear of arrest. As a result, the German armies in Normandy were pushed by Hitler to counterattack rather than retreat after the American breakthrough. Kluge was relieved of command on 15 August and killed himself. The more independent Field Marshal Walter Model then took command.

Notes

References

Other websites
 WW2DB: Normandy Campaign

Operation
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Battles involving Australia
Battles involving Canada
Battles involving France
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Battles involving the United Kingdom
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Operation Overlord


The Marx Brothers were a popular team of sibling comedians who appeared in vaudeville, stage plays, movie, and television.

The brothers were Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo.

Early life
Born in New York City, the Marx Brothers were the sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany. Their mother, Minnie Schönberg, was from Dornum in East Frisia, and their father Simon Marrix (whose name was changed to Sam Marx, and who was nicknamed "Frenchy") was a native of Alsace, now part of France, and worked as a tailor. The family lived in the then-poor Yorkville section of New York City's Upper East Side, between the Irish, German and Italian Quarters.

Careers
The Marx Brothers began as a musical group, during the days of vaudeville theater. They would make jokes, play funny characters, and pretend to get into fights when they performed. In time their  got them more applause (and work) than their music, and they became a comedy group. Music stayed in their act, with the brothers performing in character, but their focus was on getting laughs. Makeup and costumes gave their characters their look. When the brothers were out of costume, they could blend into the audience.

Gummo did not appear in any of the movies. In the movies, each brother played a role that was mostly the same in every movie. Groucho was a "wise guy" who had big bushy eyebrows, glasses, and a moustache who smoked a cigar; Chico spoke with an Italian accent and played the piano; Harpo never spoke and played the harp. Zeppo usually played the straight man. He left the group in 1933, and they worked with other actors. Margaret Dumont played the leading lady role in many of their shows. She did not appear to know when a joke was made about her, and this made her role funnier.

The brothers had some good years and some bad years. Groucho lost a lot of money in 1929, when the stock market collapsed. (Years later, he visited the New York Stock Exchange, and drew so much attention that trading stopped for several minutes. Groucho joked that he came "to get his money's worth" in stopping business.) Chico had a problem with gambling, and lost more money than he won at it. Harpo and his wife could not have children of their own, so they adopted enough to have a large family. (When Adolf Hitler took control of Germany in the 1930s, and stories came back about his mistreatment of Jewish people, Harpo legally changed his name from Adolph to Arthur, even though he was better known as Harpo.)

Groucho kept working after his brothers retired. He hosted a television quiz show called You Bet Your Life, which was more liked for Groucho's way of hosting than for the game itself. He made a few movie and television appearances late in his life. He also appeared at Carnegie Hall, telling stories about his life and career, and singing songs from every part of his career. A recording of his Carnegie Hall show became a .

Filmography
Films with the Four Marx Brothers:
 Humor Risk (1921), previewed once and never released; thought to be lost
 The Cocoanuts (1929), released by Paramount Pictures
 Animal Crackers (1930), released by Paramount
 The House That Shadows Built (1931), released by Paramount (short subject)
 Monkey Business (1931), released by Paramount
 Horse Feathers (1932), released by Paramount
 Duck Soup (1933), released by Paramount

Films with the three Marx Brothers (post-Zeppo):
 A Night at the Opera (1935), released by MGM
 A Day at the Races (1937), released by MGM
 Room Service (1938), released by RKO Radio Pictures
 At the Circus (1939), released by MGM
 Go West (1940), released by MGM
 The Big Store (1941), released by MGM
 A Night in Casablanca (1946), released by United Artists
 Love Happy (1949), released by United Artists
 The Story of Mankind (1957), released by Warner Brothers

Solo endeavors:
 Groucho:
 Copacabana (1947), released by United Artists
 Double Dynamite (1951), released by RKO
 A Girl in Every Port (1952), released by RKO
 Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), released by 20th Century Fox (uncredited)
 The Mikado (1960), made for television
 Skidoo (1968), released by Paramount.
 Harpo:
 Too Many Kisses (1925), released by Paramount
 Stage Door Canteen (1943), released by United Artists (cameo)
 Chico:
 Papa Romani (1950), television pilot
 Zeppo:
 A Kiss in the Dark (1925), released by Paramount (cameo)

References

American movie actors
Comedians from New York City
Actors from New York City
Vaudeville performers
American Jews

Marx Brothers


United States of America ka national anthem iska naam hai 'The Star Spangled Banner' :

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight

O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,

'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a Country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand

Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!

Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
U

USA National Anthem


A concept is an idea that is applied to all objects in a group. It is the way people see and understand something. The name used to identify a concept (the concept's label) is a "term". For example, the word "Dog" is the term to identify the concept of what a dog is. Everything that a person knows about a dog is the concept of the term dog.

Different terms can be used to identify the same concept. Car and Automobile are synonyms for the same concept. Different languages have different terms for the same concept. This is what makes translation possible. The terms may be different in each language, but the concept is the same. The concept of jumping is the same to a person from England and a person from Italy, but one person uses the term "Jump" to mean the concept and the other person uses "Salto".

Related pages
Abstraction

Language
Philosophy

Concept


Modern art refers to artistic works produced from the 1860s to about the 1970s. It refers to the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era.p102 The period coincides with the invention of mechanical means of recording images: photography and film.

The term modern art is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation.p419  Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. A tendency toward abstraction is characteristic of much modern art, including minimalism . More recent artistic production is often called Contemporary art or Postmodern art.

History
Modern art begins with the heritage of painters like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec all of whom were essential for the development of modern art. At the beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other young artists including the pre-cubist Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck revolutionized the Paris art world with 'wild', multi-colored, expressive, landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism.

Henri Matisse's two versions of The Dance marked a key point in his career and in the development of modern painting. It reflected Matisse's fascination with primitive art: the intense warm color of the figures against the cool blue-green background and the rhythmical succession of the dancing nudes convey the feelings of emotional liberation and hedonism.

Pablo Picasso made his first cubist paintings based on Cézanne's idea that all depiction of nature can be reduced to three solids: cube, sphere and cone. With the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon 1907, Picasso dramatically created a new and radical picture depicting a raw and primitive brothel scene with five prostitutes, violently painted women, reminiscent of African tribal masks and his own new Cubist inventions.

Analytic cubism was jointly developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, exemplified by Violin and Candlestick, Paris, from about 1908 through 1912. Analytic cubism, the first clear manifestation of cubism, was followed by Synthetic cubism, practised by Braque, Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp and several other artists into the 1920s. Synthetic cubism is characterized by the introduction of different textures, surfaces, collage elements, papier collé and a large variety of merged subject matter.

The notion of modern art is closely related to Modernism.
"One way of understanding the relation of the terms 'modern,' 'modernity,' and 'modernism' is that... modernist art is scarcely thinkable outside the context of the modernized society of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Social modernity is the home of modernist art, even where that art rebels against it".p13

Modern art was introduced to the United States in 1913 and through European artists who moved to the U.S. during World War I. It was only after World War II, however, that the U.S. became the focal point of new artistic movements. The 1950s and 1960s saw the emergence of Abstract Expressionism, one of the most important of the later modernist art movements.

Auction prices
Modern art and Impressionism dominate the world art markets. Of the 20 top art prices, only one is a work of classical art. The world's highest price for a work of art is Jackson Pollock's No. 5, 1948 privately sold by Sotheby's for (price adjusted) $151.2 million dollars. The modern paintings overtook the old masters in 1987.

References

Related pages
Art Nouveau
Avant-garde
Modernism

Art movements

Modern art