Politics of Germany are based on a federal parliamentary democratic republic. The government is elected by the people in elections where everyone has an equal vote. The constitution is called the Grundgesetz. As well as setting out the rights of the people, it describes the jobs of the President, the Cabinet, the Bundestag, Bundesrat and the Courts.

The President is the head of state. The Federal Chancellor is the head of government, and of the majority group in the legislature (law making body) which is called the Bundestag. Executive power is exercised by the government. The power to make federal law is given to the government and the two parts of parliament, the Bundestag and Bundesrat. The ministers of the government are members of the parliament, and need parliamentary support to stay in power.

From 1949 to 1990, the main political parties were the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with its "sister party", the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). After the reunification of Germany the Green Party and Alliance '90(Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) became more important and was in government between 1999 and 2005. Other important political parties after reunification have been the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) which was based on East Germany's Socialist Unity Party of Germany. It joined with The Left Party (Die Linkspartei or Die Linke) of western Germany. In 2007 Die Linke and WASG joined together under the leadership of Oskar Lafontaine

As Germany is a federal country, a lot of the work of government is done by the 16 states (Länder). Power is shared between the national (or federal) government and state governments. The national government cannot abolish the state governments.

Rights and the constitution

The political system is set out in the 1949 constitution, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), which stayed in effect after 1990's German reunification.

The constitution puts freedom and human rights first. It also splits powers both between the federal and state levels and between the legislative (law-making), executive (government), and judicial (courts) branches. The 1949 Grundgesetz was written to correct the problems with the Weimar Republic's constitution. The Weimar Republic collapsed in 1933 and was replaced by the dictatorship of the Third Reich.

The Federal Courts
The courts of Germany are independent of the government and the lawmakers. Senior judges are appointed by the Bundestag for a fixed term.

Federal executive branch
The Bundeskanzler (Federal Chancellor) heads the Bundesregierung (Federal Cabinet) and thus the executive branch of the federal government. He or she is chosen by and must report to the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. Germany, like the United Kingdom, can thus be said to have a parliamentary system.

Konstruktives Misstrauensvotum
The Chancellor cannot be removed from office during a 4-year term unless the Bundestag has agreed on a successor. This Constructive Vote of No Confidence () is meant to stop what happened in the Weimar Republic. There the government did not have a lot of support in the parliament. The small parties often joined together to vote against the government, but could never stay together and choose a new government.

Except in the periods 1969-72 and 1976-82, when the social democratic party of Chancellor Brandt and Schmidt came in second in the elections, the Chancellor has always been the candidate of the largest party. Usually the largest party is helped by one or smaller more parties to get a majority in the parliament. Between 1969-72 and 1976-82 the smaller parties decided not to help the largest party, but the second biggest party instead.

The Chancellor appoints a Vice-Chancellor (Vizekanzler), who is a member of his cabinet, usually the Foreign Minister. When there is a coalition government (which has, so far, always been the case, except for the period of 1957 to 1961), the Vice-Chancellor usually belongs to the smaller party of the coalition.

The Federal Cabinet
The Chancellor is responsible for policy guidelines. This means he, or she, sets the broad ideas of what the government will do. To help carry out these ideas the Chancellor can change the make-up of the federal ministries whenever they want. For example, in the middle of January 2001, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture was renamed to Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture. This was to help fight the "Mad Cow Disease" BSE problem. At the same time some of the jobs (competencies) of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economy, and the Ministry of Health were moved to the new Ministry of Consumer Protection.

Reporting to the cabinet is the Civil service of Germany.

The Federal President
The duties of the Bundespräsident (Federal President) are mostly representative and ceremonial; The power of the executive is exercised by the Chancellor.

The President is elected every 5 years on May 23 by the Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung). The Bundesversammlung only meets to elect the President. Its members are the entire Bundestag and an equal number of state delegates selected especially for this purpose in proportion to election results for the state parliaments.
In February 2017, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the SPD was elected. The reason that the President is not directly elected by the people is to stop him from claiming to be more powerful than the government and the constitution, which happened in the Weimar Republic.

|President
|Frank-Walter Steinmeier
| --- 1)
|19 March 2017
|-
|Chancellor
|Olaf Scholz
|SPD
|8 December 2021
|-
|Other government parties
|
|Green, FDP
|
|}

1) Although Mr. Steinmeier has been a member of the SPD, the German Basic Law requests in Article 55 that the Federal President does not hold another office, practice a profession or hold membership of any corporation. Federal President has let his party membership rest dormant and does not belong to a political party during his term of office.

Federal parliament

Germany has a bicameral legislature, which means that the parliament has two houses. The Bundestag (Federal Diet) has at least 598 members, elected for a four-year term. Half of the members (299) are elected in single-seat constituencies according to first-past-the-post. The other 299 members are chosen from statewide party lists.

The total percentage of constituency members and regional list members a party has should equal the percentage of votes that a party gets. This is called proportional representation.

Because Voters vote once for a constituency representative, and a second time for a party Germany is said to have mixed-member proportional representation.

Sometimes a party already has more constituency seats in a land (state) than it should have to keep the percentage of votes and seats equal. The party does not lose seats. Instead, it gets no land seats. This means that the Bundestag sometimes has more than 598 members. In the current parliament, there are 16 overhang seats, giving a total of 614.

A party must get 5% of the national vote or win at least three constituency seats to be represented in the Bundestag. This rule is often called the "five percent hurdle", was made to stop lots of small parties from being in the Bundestag. Small parties were blamed for the problems of the Weimar Republic's Reichstag.

The first Bundestag elections were held in the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") on August 14, 1949. Following reunification, elections for the first all-German Bundestag were held on December 2, 1990. The last election was held on September 24, 2017, the 19th Bundestag met on October 24, 2017.

The Bundesrat (Federal Council) is the representation of the state governments at the federal level. The Bundesrat has 69 members who are delegates of the 16 Bundesländer. Usually, the 16 Ministers President are members, but they do not have to be. The Länder each has from three to six votes in the Bundesrat, depending on the population. Bundesrat members must vote as their state government tell them.

Powers of the legislature
The legislature has powers of exclusive jurisdiction (it can make laws by itself) and concurrent jurisdiction with the Länder (the länder can also make laws). What laws and what type of laws are set out in the Basic Law.

The Bundestag does most lawmaking.

The Bundesrat must concur (agree) to laws about money shared by the federal and state governments and those making more work for the states. Often this means that the Bundesrat often needs to agree to a law because federal laws are often carried out by state or local agencies.

Since the political make-up of the Bundesrat is often different from that of the Bundestag, the Bundesrat is often the place for opposition parties to put their point of view, rather than for the states to look after their interests, as the constitution intended.

To limit, members of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat form a Vermittlungsauschuss which is a joint committee to try to reach an agreement when the two chambers can not agree on a certain piece of legislation.

Political parties and elections
For other political parties see List of political parties in Germany.

Bundestag
The following parties are represented in the German Bundestag since the federal elections of 2017:

 CDU/CSU: 246
 SPD: 152
 AfD: 89
 FDP: 80
 Linke: 69
Greens: 67

Total 709 seats.

The Pirate Party Germany and the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) got no seats.

Bundesrat
The Federal Council is composed by representatives of the State governments.

->See also: Bundesrat - States.

Judicial branch
Germany has had a court system that was free of government control for longer than it has had democracy.

This means that the courts have traditionally been strong, and almost all state actions are subject to judicial review (being looked at by the court).

Organization
There is the "ordinary" courts system that handles civil and criminal cases

This has four levels
 Amtsgericht - local courts
 Landesgericht - state courts
 Oberlandesgericht - state appeals courts
 Bundesgerichtshof - the federal supreme criminal and civil court

There is also a system of specialist courts, that deals with certain areas of the law. These generally have a state court and state appeals court before coming to the federal supreme court for that area of law. The other federal supreme courts are
 Bundesfinanzhof - tax affairs
 Bundesarbeitsgericht - Labour law
 Bundessozialgericht - Social security law
 Bundesverwaltungsgericht - Administrative law. This includes government regulations not covered by one of the other three specialist courts.

Unlike the United States, all courts are state courts, except for the top-level supreme courts.

Bundesverfassungsgericht
Germany also has another supreme court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht Federal Constitutional Court. The Grundgesetz says that every person may complain to the Federal Constitutional Court when his or her constitutional rights, especially human rights, have been violated by the government or one of its agencies and after he or she has gone through the ordinary court system.

The Bundesverfassungsgericht hears complaints about laws passed by the legislative branch, court decisions, or acts of the administration.

Usually, only a small percentage of these constitutional complaints, called (Verfassungsbeschwerden) are successful. Even so, the Court has often angered both the government and the lawmakers. The judges even say that they do not care about the reactions of the government, the Bundestag, or public opinion or about the cost of one of the court's decisions. All that matters is the constitution.

The Bundesverfassungsgericht is very high popular with ordinary people because it protects them from government wrongdoing.

Only the Constitutional Court can handle some types of cases, including arguments between government bodies about their constitutional powers.

Only the Constitutional Court has the power to ban political parties for being unconstitutional. However so far the Constitutional court has only used this power twice, outlawing the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) and the SRP (Socialist Reich Party, a successor to the NSDAP) because both parties ideas went against the constitution.

Recent political issues

"Red-Green" vs. Conservative-led coalitions

In the 1998 election the SPD said they wanted to reduce high unemployment rates and said new people were needed in government after 16 years of Helmut Kohl's government.

Gerhard Schröder said he was a centrist "Third Way" candidate like Britain's Tony Blair and America's Bill Clinton.

The CDU/CSU said people should look at how well off they were because of Kohl's government, and that the CDU/CSU had experience in foreign policy.

But the Kohl government was hurt at the polls by slower growth in the east in the previous two years, which meant the gap between east and west widened as the west got richer and the east did not.

The final seat count was enough to allow a "red-green" coalition of the SPD with Alliance '90/The Greens (Bündnis '90/Die Grünen), bringing the Greens into a national government for the first time.

The first months of the new government had policy disputes between the moderate and traditional left wings of the SPD, and some voters got fed up. The first state election after the federal election was held in Hesse in February 1999. The CDU increased its vote by 3.5%. The CDU became the largest party and replaced an SPD/Green coalition with a CDU/FDP coalition. The result was seen in part as a referendum on the federal government's ideas for a new citizenship law, which would have made it easier for long-time foreign residents to become German citizens, and also to keep their original citizenship as well.

In March 1999, SPD chairman and Minister of Finance Oskar Lafontaine, who represented a more traditional social democratic position, resigned from all offices after losing a party-internal power struggle against Schröder.

In state elections in 2000 and 2001, the respective SPD- or CDU-led coalition governments were re-elected into power.

The next election for the Bundestag was September 22, 2002. Gerhard Schröder led the coalition of SPD and Greens to an 11-seat victory over the CDU/CSU headed by Edmund Stoiber (CSU). Two factors are generally cited that enabled Schröder to win the elections despite poor approval ratings a few months before: good handling of the 2002 European floods and firm opposition to the USA's 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The coalition treaty for the second red-green coalition was signed on October 16, 2002. There were a lot of new ministers.

Conservative comeback
In February 2003, elections took place in the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony, was won by the conservatives. In Hesse, the CDU minister president Roland Koch was re-elected, with his party CDU gaining enough seats to govern without the former coalition partner FDP.

In Lower Saxony, the former SPD minister president Sigmar Gabriel lost the elections, leading to a CDU/FDP-government headed by new minister president Christian Wulff (CDU).
The protest against the Iraq war changed this situation a bit, favoring SPD and Greens.

The latest election in the state of Bavaria led to a landslide victory of the conservatives, gaining not just the majority (as usual), but two thirds of parliamentary seats.

In April 2003, chancellor Schröder announced massive labor market reforms, called Agenda 2010. This included a shakeup of the system of German job offices (Arbeitsamt), cuts in unemployment benefits and subsidies for unemployed persons who start their own businesses. These changes are commonly known by the name of the chairman of the commission which conceived them as Hartz I - Hartz IV. Although these reforms have sparked massive protests they are now credited with being in part responsible for the economic upswing and the fall of unemployment figures in Germany in the years 2006/7.

The European elections on June 13, 2004, brought a staggering defeat for the Social Democrats, who polled only slightly more than 21%, the lowest election result for the SPD in a nationwide election since the Second World War. Liberals, Greens, conservatives, and the far left were the winners of the European election in Germany, because voters were disillusioned by high unemployment and cuts in social security, while the governing SPD party seems to be concerned with quarrels between its members and gave no clear direction. Many observers believe that this election marked the beginning of the end of the Schröder government.

Rise of the Right
In September 2004, elections were held in the states of Saarland, Brandenburg and Saxony. In the Saarland, the governing CDU was able to remain in power and gained one additional seat in the parliament and the SPD lost seven seats, while the Liberals and Greens re-entered the state parliament. The far-right National Democratic Party, which had never got more than 1 or 2% of the vote, received about 4%, although it failed to earn a seat in the state parliament (a party must obtain at least 5% of the vote to achieve state parliamentary representation).

Two weeks later, elections were held in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony: once again, overall, the ruling parties lost votes and although they remained in power, the right to far-right parties made the big leaps. In Brandenburg, the Deutsche Volksunion (DVU) re-entered the state parliament after winning 6.1% of the vote. In Saxony, the NPD entered a non-competition agreement with the DVU and obtained 9.2% of the vote, thus winning seats in the state parliament. Due to their losses at the ballots, the ruling CDU of Saxony was forced to form a coalition with the SPD. The rise of the right to far-right worries the ruling political parties.

German federal election 2005
On May 22, 2005, as predicted the SPD was defeated in its former heartland, North Rhine-Westphalia. Half an hour after the election results, the SPD chairman Franz Müntefering announced that the chancellor would clear the way for premature federal elections by deliberately losing a vote of confidence.

This took everyone by surprise, especially because the SPD was below 25% in polls at the time. On the following Monday, the CDU announced Angela Merkel as a conservative candidate for chancellorship.

Whereas in May and June 2005 victory of the conservatives seemed highly likely, with some polls giving them an absolute majority, this changed shortly before the election on September 18, 2005, especially after the conservatives introduced Paul Kirchhof as potential minister of the treasury, and after a TV duel between Merkel and Schröder where many considered Schröder to have performed better.

New for the 2005 election was the alliance between the newly formed Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG) and the PDS, planning to join into a common party (see Left Party.PDS). With the former SPD chairman Oskar Lafontaine for the WASG and Gregor Gysi for the PDS as prominent figures, this alliance soon found interest in the media and in the population. Polls in July saw them as high as 12%.

After success in the state election for Saxony, the alliance between the far right parties National Democratic Party and Deutsche Volksunion (DVU), which planned to leapfrog the "five-percent hurdle" on a common party ticket was another media issue.

The election results of September 18, 2005, were surprising. They were very different from the polls of the previous weeks. The conservatives lost votes compared to 2002, reaching only 35%, and failed to get a majority for a "black-yellow" government of CDU/CSU and liberal FDP. The FDP polled 10% of the votes, one of their best results ever. But the red-green coalition also failed to get a majority, with the SPD losing votes, but polling 34% and the greens staying at 8%. The left party alliance reached 8.7% and entered the German Parliament, whereas the NPD only got 1.6%.

The most likely outcome of coalition talks was a so-called "grand coalition" between the conservatives (CDU/CSU) and the social democrats (SPD), with the three smaller parties (liberals, greens, and the left) in the opposition. Other possible coalitions include a "traffic light coalition" between SPD, FDP, and Greens and a "Jamaica coalition" between CDU/CSU, FDP, and Greens. Coalitions involving the Left Party were ruled out by all parties (including the Left Party itself), although the combination of one of the major parties and any two small parties would mathematically have a majority. Of these combinations, only a red-red-green coalition is politically even imaginable. Both Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel announced that they had won the election and should become the next chancellor.

On October 10, talks were held between Franz Müntefering, the SPD chairman, Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel, and Edmund Stoiber, the CSU chairman. In the afternoon it was announced that the CDU/CSU and SPD would begin formal coalition negotiations with the aim of a Grand Coalition with Angela Merkel as the next German chancellor.

Angela Merkel is the first woman, the first East German and the first scientist to be chancellor as well as the youngest German chancellor ever. On November 22, 2005, Angela Merkel was sworn in by president Horst Köhler for the office of Bundeskanzlerin.

References

Related pages
 Political culture of Germany
 German emergency legislature
 German federal election, 2017
 List of political parties in Germany

Other websites
 Official Site of the Bundesregierung
 Official source of election results
 Official source from the German Embassy in Washington, DC

Government of Germany

Politics of Germany


Edward, the Black Prince (Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, 15 June 1330 – Westminster Palace, 8 June 1376) was the eldest son of King Edward III of England.

Edward was born at Woodstock Palace, near Oxford. He was made Prince of Wales in 1343, and followed his father into battle against France. He became a famous soldier, helping win the Battle of Crécy and commanding the Battle of Poitiers.  He was a founding member of the Order of the Garter.  In 1361, he married his cousin, Joan of Kent. They had two sons, Edward and Richard. The older son, Edward, died when he was only six.

Edward of Woodstock has become known in history as "the Black Prince", but no one is quite sure of the reason for the nickname. He died at the age of 45, and was buried at the Canterbury Cathedral. As his father was still living, he never became king himself. He asked his father to give the title Prince of Wales to his son Richard, who later became King Richard II of England. .

1330 births
1376 deaths
House of Plantagenet
People from Oxfordshire
Princes and Princesses of Wales

Edward, the Black Prince


Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural history around the Mediterranean. It includes the civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, known as the Greco-Roman world.

Classical antiquity is the period in which Greek and Roman literature (such as Aeschylus, Ovid, and others) flourished. By convention, the period starts with the works of Homer, (8th–7th century BC), and ends with the arrival of Christianity and the decline of the Roman Empire (5th–6th century AD).

Archaic period (8th to 6th centuries BC)

The earliest period of classical antiquity took place before the re-appearance of historical sources after the Bronze Age collapse. The earliest Greek alphabetic inscriptions are in the first half of the 8th century. Homer is usually assumed to have lived in the 8th or 7th century, and his lifetime is often taken as marking the beginning of classical antiquity. The traditional date for the first Ancient Olympic Games, in 776 BC, was also around this time.  In Roman legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC.  The earliest settlement at the Roman Forum seems to have taken place around this time.

Phoenicians

The Phoenicians originally expanded from Levantine ports, by the 8th century dominating trade in the Mediterranean. Carthage was founded in 814 BC, and the Carthaginians by 700 BC had firmly established strongholds in Sicily, Italy and Sardinia, which brought about conflicts of interest with Etruria.

Greece
The Archaic period followed the Greek Dark Ages, and saw the rise of democracy, philosophy, theatre, poetry, as well as the revitalisation of the written language (which had been lost during the Dark Ages).

Pottery styles of the later part of the Archaic age are the black-figure pottery, started in Corinth during the 7th century BC. Its successor was the red-figure style, developed by the Andokides in about 530 BC.

Classical Greece (5th to 4th centuries BC)

The classical period of Ancient Greece was from the fall of the Athenian tyranny in 510 BC to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. During this period came the long struggle between Sparta and Athens, and the wars between the Greeks and the Persians. The rise of Macedon in the 4th century overturned all other political systems, at least for a while.

Hellenistic period (330 to 146 BC)
The Hellenistic period began with Alexander, when Greek became the lingua franca far beyond Greece itself, and Hellenistic culture came in contact with the cultures of Persia, Central Asia, India and Egypt.
The Hellenistic period ended with the rise of the Roman Republic to a super-regional power in the 2nd century BC and the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC.

Roman Republic (5th to 1st centuries BC)
The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed.

The republican period of Ancient Rome began with the overthrow of the Monarchy at about 509 BC and lasted over 450 years until its subversion, through a series of civil wars and the Imperial period.

Roman Empire (1st century BC to 5th century AD)

Determining the precise end of the Republic is a matter of dispute.  Roman citizens of the time did not recognize that the Republic had ceased to exist.

It could be said that Rome was already of imperial character. It had no emperor when it conquered Gaul, Illyria, Greece Hispania, and the Roman province of Asia.

Late Antiquity (4th to 6th centuries AD)

During Late Antiquity Christianity rose under Constantine I, and finally became the Roman imperial cult in 393. Successive invasions of Germanic tribes meant the end of the Western Empire in the 5th century, but the Eastern Empire persisted throughout the Middle Ages as the Byzantine Empire.

Revivalism

Respect for the ancients of Greece and Rome affected politics, philosophy, sculpture, literature, theater, education, architecture and even sexuality.

In politics, the presence of a Roman Emperor was felt to be desirable long after the empire fell.  This tendency reached its peak when Charlemagne was crowned "Roman Emperor" in the year 800, an act which led to the formation of the Holy Roman Empire.  The notion that an emperor is a monarch who outranks a mere king dates from this period.  In this political ideal, there would always be a Roman Empire, a state whose jurisdiction extended to the entire civilized western world.

Subtopics
Ancient history
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Classics
Dacia
Roman Dacia
Roman Britain
Hispania
Ancient Macedonia
Gaul
Carthage

Related pages
 Kofun period (Japan, 250 CE – 538 CE)
 Asuka period (Japan, 538 CE – 710 CE)

Notes

References
 Grinin L.E. 2008. Early states in the classical world: statehood and ancient democracy. In Grinin L.E. et al. (eds) Hierarchy and power in the history of civilizations: ancient and medieval cultures. Moscow: URSS.

Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome

Classical antiquity


The Olmecs were a group of people who lived about 3000 years ago in what is today south-central Mexico. The Olmec were the first civilization in the ancient area known as Mesoamerica. Because they were the first civilization, many later Mesoamerican civilizations used and repeated Olmec features and characteristics.

The Olmec people discovered and made use of many natural resources in the area, including rubber and corn. Dozens of mysterious stone heads were discovered in the Olmec territory as well; archaeologists are still not sure what their purposes were.

Overview
The Olmecs lived from 1200 BC to about 400 BC. They had two important cities, first San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan and then La Venta. The Olmecs were able to thrive due to the fertile land around the Coatzacoalcos river basin. The reason for the fall of the Olmec empire is unknown. They developed many different cultures.

Art
The Olmecs created a range of artwork such as altars, jade masks and stone carvings.

Colossal heads
The Olmec colossal heads are the most recognized symbol of the Olmec civilization. The height and weights of the heads vary, but the largest head is about twice the height of an average human male. They include seventeen heads found in the southern Mexican cities of La Venta, San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Tres Zapotes, and Rancho la Cobata. Each head shows a unique facial expression and wears a helmet bearing distinctive decorations.  No two are alike. The origins and meaning of the heads are mysterious, and they are the subject of much speculation among scholars and archaeologists.

Scholars have tried to explain how the Olmecs might have made and moved such big objects. The heads were sculpted out of a hard, dense rock called basalt. Archaeologists think the Olmecs found most of the basalt in the Tuxtlas Mountain range. According to this theory, the basalt heads were sculpted roughly in the mountains and then either floated or dragged by thousands of people from the construction site to the Olmec cities.

Perhaps the most notable features of the sculptures – and a clue as to their meaning – are the helmets worn by all the Olmec heads. These helmets, and the rubber balls found near the sculptures, may be evidence that the Mesoamerican ball game originated with the Olmec civilization.  The Mesoamerican ball game was a team sport with profound religious and cultural significance for the indigenous people of Mexico and Central America. The Olmec heads were once thought to have represented Mesoamerican ball players who were sacrificed after losing a match.  The current theory, however, is that the heads honor Olmec rulers.

References
 http://www.crystalinks.com/olmec.html

History of North America
Native Americans

Olmec


Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) are large metropolitan areas of the United States as defined by the Office of Management and Budget. These areas are urban areas with a lot of people. An earlier version of the MSA was the "Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area" (SMSA). MSAs are used for official purposes.

MSAs are made up of counties and for some county equivalents. In New England, because of the greater importance of towns over counties, similar areas are based on town units. These are called New England City and Town Areas (NECTAs).

MSAs are created around a central urban area —an areawhere there are a lot of people. The counties with the urbanized area are known as the central counties of the MSA. Other nearby counties (known as outlying counties) can be a part of the MSA if these counties have strong social and economic connections to the central counties. Some areas within these outlying counties may actually be rural areas.

The population estimates for some metro areas are not always agreed upon. In some cases, different sources give numbers of people which differ by millions. The definitions used for the last U.S. Census differed from those for previous censuses. This makes it hard to compare official information from different dates. MSA boundaries do not stretch into Canada or Mexico. This can affect the number of people in several cities. For example, Detroit, Buffalo, El Paso and San Diego are often much larger than their MSA figures.

As of June 2003, there is now an additional classification, "Metropolitan Division." The term metropolitan division is used for a county or group of counties that are a distinct employment area within a metropolitan statistical area that has at least 2.5 million people. A metropolitan division is a part of a larger metropolitan statistical area but it is often a distinct social, economic, and cultural area within the larger region.

Top 25
The following is a list of the 25 most populated metropolitan statistical areas and metropolitan divisions in the United States, according to the July 1, 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimates:

For all U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas, see the Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas.
For a list including combined metropolitan areas, see the Table of United States primary census statistical areas.

Notes

Cities in the United States

United States metropolitan area


Linguistics is the study of language. People who study language are called linguists.

There are five main parts of linguistics: the study of sounds (phonology), the study of parts of words, like "un-" and "-ing" (morphology), the study of word order and how sentences are made (syntax), the study of the meaning of words (semantics), and the study of the unspoken meaning of speech that is separate from the literal meaning of what is said (for example, saying "I'm cold" to get someone to turn off the fan (pragmatics).

There are many ways to use linguistics every day. Some linguists are theoretical linguists and study the theory and ideas behind language, such as historical linguistics (the study of the history of language, and how it has changed), or the study of how different groups of people may use language differently (sociolinguistics). Some linguists are applied linguists and use linguistics to do things. For example, forensic linguistics is used in crime investigations, and computational linguistics is used to help make computers understand languages, as in speech recognition.

Specialties
Linguistics, in its broader context, includes evolutionary linguistics, which considers the origins of language; historical linguistics, which explores language change; sociolinguistics, which looks at the relation between linguistic variation and social structures; psycholinguistics, which explores the representation and function of language in the mind; neurolinguistics, which looks at language processing in the brain; language acquisition, how children or adults acquire language; and discourse analysis, which involves the structure of texts and conversations.

Although linguistics is the scientific study of language, a number of other intellectual disciplines are relevant to language and intersect with it. Semiotics, for example, is the general study of signs and symbols both within language and without. Literary theorists study the use of language in literature. Linguistics additionally draws on and informs work from such diverse fields as acoustics, anthropology, biology, computer science, human anatomy, informatics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and speech-language pathology. Discourse analysis is the study of entire conversations or texts.

Many linguists compare languages to find similar properties. That makes it possible to find things shared by all the languages of the world and also learn the languages that are related in a language family. Linguists who study how languages are structured and how they work are said to study theoretical linguistics.

Another part of linguistics is involved in understanding how languages are used in society or in the world. Sociolinguistics studies how language is used in society, and historical linguistics studies how languages change over time and how languages were in the past. One part of historical linguistics is etymology, the study of the history of words.

The part of linguistics that aims to find out how language works in the mind is known as psycholinguistics.

History

The study of language began in India with Pāṇini, the 5th century BC grammarian who wrote about the 3,959 rules of Sanskrit grammar, which described the different kinds of vowels and consonants of Sanskrit as well as its verb and noun classes. In the Middle East, Sibawayh (سیبویه) wrote a book about Arabic in 760 AD, Al-kitab fi al-nahw (الكتاب في النحو, The Book on Grammar) and was the first known author to talk about the difference between sounds and phonemes.

Linguistics started in the West as early as it did in the East, but Western linguistics at that time was more like philosophy and less the study of language. Plato was the first western philosopher to write about semantics in his Cratylus in which he argues that words represent concepts that are eternal and exist in the world of ideas. The word etymology is first used to talk about the history behind a word's meaning.

For many centuries most linguistic work was "philology".

References

Linguistics


A secret is information or facts that only one person or group knows about. There are many reasons for not telling or sharing the truth with others.

Some secrets are good. These are ones that should be kept secret. An example of a good secret is respect for a citizen's privacy.  But some secrets are bad, if keeping facts hidden causes harm. An example of a bad secret is child abuse. Some things might be kept secret only for a short time, such as a surprise party. Other things may need to be kept secret forever. Sometimes things might be kept secret from someone because it is believed that it would upset them to know.

Some things need to be kept secret for security reasons. If a person has a bank account they must keep their password secret. No one else should know it. Espionage is snooping for someone else's secrets. Criminals like to keep their crimes secret.

In a business, some information is kept secret. This is also called "confidential". Conversations at meetings are sometimes confidential. People who were at the meeting cannot go telling everyone else what was discussed. Usually, managers will make this a rule for an employee. Trade secrets are protected by law.

Another type of secret is Cryptography. These are codes that unlock other secrets. So, secrets are being used to protect secrets.

Related pages
 Classified information
 Information security
 Security

Other websites

Human communication

Secrecy


Continental drift is a historical, scientific theory. The theory was first proposed by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. It was fully developed by the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1915.

The theory said that parts of the Earth's crust move slowly on top of a liquid mantle of higher density. The theory has now been included in the wider theory of plate tectonics.

Evidence
The theory was supported by finding the same minerals and fossils in western Europe and eastern North America.  There are also similar fossils on the western coast of Africa and the eastern South America. The shapes of these continents nearly fit together. The theory was plausible (believable), but there was no known mechanism to drive these great movements. This problem was later solved by plate tectonics.

The pattern of volcanic activity, mountain building (orogeny) and earthquakes is explained by continental drift. The existence of identical rocks widely apart supports the theory.

Examples (there are hundreds):
Fossils of the fern Glossopteris are found in rocks from Australia, South America, Antarctica, India, Africa and Madagascar. These were all together in the supercontinent Gondwana, after the global continent Pangaea broke up.
Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, and mountains south of Rio de Janeiro are made of identical rocks. This corresponds to the fit of Africa with South America in Pangaea.
The Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, and Fingal's Cave on Staffa, Inner Hebrides, Scotland is the same rock formation.

Mechanism
The basic machine driving continental movement is heat moving from the Earth's mantle through the crust and out of the planet. The effect of this it to cause convection, and plate movement.

Two events in particular are of huge importance:
The production of new crust at places such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The removal of crust by subduction (moving under) at the points where plates collide.

Footnote

Plate tectonics

Continental drift


The nucleus is the center of an atom.  It is made up of nucleons called protons and neutrons and is surrounded by the electron cloud.  The size (diameter) of the nucleus is between 1.6 fm (10−15 m) (for a proton in light-weight hydrogen) to about 15 fm (for the heaviest atoms, such as uranium).  These sizes are much smaller than the size of the atom itself by a factor of about 23,000 (uranium) to about 145,000 (hydrogen).  Although it is only a very small part of the atom, the nucleus has most of the mass.  Almost all of the mass in an atom is made up from the protons and neutrons in the nucleus. Only a small amount of mass is from the orbiting electrons.

Neutrons have no electric charge and protons are positively charged. Because the nucleus is only made up of protons and neutrons it is positively charged. Things that have the same charge repel each other: this repulsion is part of what is called electromagnetic force. Unless there was something else holding the nucleus together it could not exist because the protons would push away from each other. The nucleus is actually held together by another force known as the strong nuclear force.

The word nucleus is from 1704, meaning "kernel of a nut". In 1844, Michael Faraday used nucleus to describe the "central point of an atom". The modern atomic meaning was proposed by Ernest Rutherford in 1912. The use of the word nucleus in atomic theory, however, did not happen immediately. In 1916, for example, Gilbert N. Lewis wrote in his famous article The Atom and the Molecule that "the atom is composed of the kernel and an outer atom or shell".

Composition
The nucleus of an atom is made up of protons and neutrons (two types of baryons) joined by the nuclear force. These baryons are further made up of sub-atomic fundamental particles known as quarks joined by the strong interaction. The nucleus is more or less a spheroid and may be somewhat prolate (long) or oblate (flat) or otherwise not entirely round.

If the nucleus can be considered to have a radius of the order of 5 fm (= 10 × 10-15 m), this means its cross-section is of the order of 10-28 m2, and its volume is about 10-42 m3.

Isotopes and nuclides

The isotope of an atom is based on the number of neutrons in the nucleus.  Different isotopes of the same element have very similar chemical properties.  Different isotopes in a sample of a chemical can be separated by using a centrifuge or by using a mass spectrometer.  The first method is used in producing enriched uranium from regular uranium, and the second is used in carbon dating.

The number of protons and neutrons together determine the nuclide (type of nucleus).  Protons and neutrons have nearly equal masses, and their combined number, the mass number, is about equal to the atomic mass of an atom. The combined mass of the electrons is very small when compared to the mass of the nucleus; protons and neutrons weigh about 2000 times more than electrons.

History
The discovery of the electron by J. J. Thomson was the first sign that the atom had internal structure. At the turn of the 20th century the accepted model of the atom was J. J. Thomson's "plum pudding" model in which the atom was a large positively charged ball with small negatively charged electrons embedded inside of it. By the turn of the century physicists had also discovered three types of radiation coming from atoms, which they named alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. Experiments in 1911 by Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn, and by James Chadwick in 1914 discovered that the beta decay spectrum was continuous rather than discrete. That is, electrons were ejected from the atom with a range of energies, rather than the discrete amounts of energies that were observed in gamma and alpha decays. This was a problem for nuclear physics at the time, because it indicated that energy was not conserved in these decays. The problem would later lead to the discovery of the neutrino (see below).

In 1906 Ernest Rutherford published "Radiation of the α Particle from Radium in passing through Matter".  Geiger expanded on this work in a communication to the Royal Society with experiments he and Rutherford had done passing α particles through air, aluminum foil and gold foil.  More work was published in 1909 by Geiger and Marsden and further greatly expanded work was published in 1910 by Geiger, In 1911-2 Rutherford went before the Royal Society to explain the experiments and propound the new theory of the atomic nucleus as we now understand it.

Around the same time that this was happening (1909) Ernest Rutherford performed a remarkable experiment in which Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden under his supervision fired alpha particles (helium nuclei) at a thin film of gold foil. The plum pudding model predicted that the alpha particles should come out of the foil with their trajectories being at most slightly bent. He was shocked to discover that a few particles were scattered through large angles, even completely backwards in some cases. The discovery, beginning with Rutherford's analysis of the data in 1911, eventually led to the Rutherford model of the atom, in which the atom has a very small, very dense nucleus consisting of heavy positively charged particles with embedded electrons in order to balance out the charge. As an example, in this model nitrogen-14 consisted of a nucleus with 14 protons and 7 electrons, and the nucleus was surrounded by 7 more orbiting electrons.

The Rutherford model worked quite well until studies of nuclear spin were carried out by Franco Rasetti at the California Institute of Technology in 1929. By 1925 it was known that protons and electrons had a spin of 1/2, and in the Rutherford model of nitrogen-14 the 14 protons and six of the electrons should have paired up to cancel each other's spin, and the final electron should have left the nucleus with a spin of 1/2. Rasetti discovered, however, that nitrogen-14 has a spin of one.

In 1930 Wolfgang Pauli was unable to attend a meeting in Tübingen, and instead sent a famous letter with the classic introduction "Dear Radioactive Ladies and Gentlemen". In his letter Pauli suggested that perhaps there was a third particle in the nucleus which he named the "neutron". He suggested that it was very light (lighter than an electron), had no charge, and that it did not readily interact with matter (which is why it had not yet been detected). This desperate way out solved both the problem of energy conservation and the spin of nitrogen-14, the first because Pauli's "neutron" was carrying away the extra energy and the second because an extra "neutron" paired off with the electron in the nitrogen-14 nucleus giving it spin one. Pauli's "neutron" was renamed the neutrino (Italian for little neutral one) by Enrico Fermi in 1931, and after about thirty years it was finally demonstrated that a neutrino really is emitted during beta decay.

In 1932 Chadwick realized that radiation that had been observed by Walther Bothe, Herbert L. Becker, Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie was actually due to a massive particle that he called the neutron. In the same year Dmitri Ivanenko suggested that neutrons were in fact spin 1/2 particles and that the nucleus contained neutrons and that there were no electrons in it, and Francis Perrin suggested that neutrinos were not nuclear particles but were created during beta decay. To cap the year off, Fermi submitted a theory of the neutrino to Nature (which the editors rejected for being "too remote from reality"). Fermi continued working on his theory and published a paper in 1934 which placed the neutrino on solid theoretical footing. In the same year Hideki Yukawa proposed the first significant theory of the strong force to explain how the nucleus holds together.

With Fermi and Yukawa's papers the modern model of the atom was complete. The center of the atom contains a tight ball of neutrons and protons, which is held together by the strong nuclear force. Unstable nuclei may undergo alpha decay, in which they emit an energetic helium nucleus, or beta decay, in which they eject an electron (or positron). After one of these decays the resultant nucleus may be left in an excited state, and in this case it decays to its ground state by emitting high energy photons (gamma decay).

The study of the strong and weak nuclear forces led physicists to collide nuclei and electrons at ever higher energies. This research became the science of particle physics, the most important of which is the standard model of particle physics which unifies the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces.

Modern nuclear physics

A nucleus can contain hundreds of nucleons  which means that with some approximation it can be treated as a classical system, rather than a quantum-mechanical one. In the resulting liquid-drop model, the nucleus has an energy which arises partly from surface tension and partly from electrical repulsion of the protons. The liquid-drop model is able to reproduce many features of nuclei, including the general trend of binding energy with respect to mass number, as well as the phenomenon of nuclear fission.

Superimposed on this classical picture, however, are quantum-mechanical effects, which can be described using the nuclear shell model, developed in large part by Maria Goeppert-Mayer. Nuclei with certain numbers of neutrons and protons (the magic numbers 2, 8, 20, 50, 82, 126, ...) are particularly stable, because their shells are filled.

Much of current research in nuclear physics relates to the study of nuclei under extreme conditions such as high spin and excitation energy. Nuclei may also have extreme shapes (similar to that of American footballs) or extreme neutron-to-proton ratios. Experimenters can create such nuclei using artificially induced fusion or nucleon transfer reactions, employing ion beams from an accelerator.
Beams with even higher energies can be used to create nuclei at very high temperatures, and there are signs that these experiments have produced a phase transition from normal nuclear matter to a new state, the quark-gluon plasma, in which the quarks mingle with one another, rather than being segregated in triplets as they are in neutrons and protons.

Topics in nuclear physics

Nuclear decay

If a nucleus has too few or too many neutrons it may be unstable, and will decay after some period of time. For example, nitrogen-16 atoms (7 protons, 9 neutrons) beta decay to oxygen-16 atoms (8 protons, 8 neutrons) within a few seconds of being created.  In this decay a neutron in the nitrogen nucleus is turned into a proton and an electron by the weak nuclear force.  The element of the atom changes because while it previously had seven protons (which makes it nitrogen) it now has eight (which makes it oxygen).  Many elements have multiple isotopes which are stable for weeks, years, or even billions of years.

Nuclear fusion

When two light nuclei come into very close contact with each other it is possible for the strong force to fuse the two together.  It takes a great deal of energy to push the nuclei close enough together for the strong force to have an effect, so the process of nuclear fusion can only take place at very high temperatures or high densities.  Once the nuclei are close enough together the strong force overcomes their electromagnetic repulsion and squishes them into a new nucleus.  A very large amount of energy is released when light nuclei fuse together because the binding energy per nucleon increases with mass number up until nickel-62.  Stars like our sun are powered by the fusion of four protons into a helium nucleus, two positrons, and two neutrinos.  The uncontrolled fusion of hydrogen into helium is known as thermonuclear runaway. Research to find an economically viable method of using energy from a controlled fusion reaction is currently being undertaken by various research establishments (see JET and ITER).

Nuclear fission

For nuclei heavier than nickel-62 the binding energy per nucleon decreases with the mass number. It is therefore possible for energy to be released if a heavy nucleus breaks apart into two lighter ones. This splitting of atoms is known as nuclear fission.

The process of alpha decay may be thought of as a special type of spontaneous nuclear fission. This process produces a highly asymmetrical fission because the four particles which make up the alpha particle are especially tightly bound to each other, making production of this nucleus in fission particularly likely.

For certain of the heaviest nuclei which produce neutrons on fission, and which also easily absorb neutrons to initiate fission, a self-igniting type of neutron-initiated fission can be obtained, in a so-called chain reaction. [Chain reactions were known in chemistry before physics, and in fact many familiar processes like fires and chemical explosions are chemical chain reactions]. The fission or "nuclear" chain-reaction, using fission-produced neutrons, is the source of energy for nuclear power plants and fission type nuclear bombs such as the two that the United States used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Heavy nuclei such as uranium and thorium may undergo spontaneous fission, but they are much more likely to undergo decay by alpha decay.

For a neutron-initiated chain-reaction to occur, there must be a critical mass of the element present in a certain space under certain conditions (these conditions slow and conserve neutrons for the reactions). There is one known example of a natural nuclear fission reactor, which was active in two regions of Oklo, Gabon, Africa, over 1.5 billion years ago. Measurements of natural neutrino emission have demonstrated that around half of the heat emanating from the earth's core results from radioactive decay. However, it is not known if any of this results from fission chain-reactions.

Production of heavy elements

As the Universe cooled after the big bang  it eventually became possible for particles as we know them to exist.  The most common particles created in the big bang which are still easily observable to us today were protons (hydrogen) and electrons (in equal numbers).  Some heavier elements were created as the protons collided with each other, but most of the heavy elements we see today were created inside of stars during a series of fusion stages, such as the proton-proton chain, the CNO cycle and the triple-alpha process.
Progressively heavier elements are made during the evolution of a star.

Since the binding energy per nucleon peaks around iron, energy is only released in fusion processes occurring below this point. Since the creation of heavier nuclei by fusion costs energy, nature resorts to the process of neutron capture.  Neutrons (due to their lack of charge) are readily absorbed by a nucleus.  The heavy elements are created by either a slow neutron capture process (the so-called s process) or by the rapid, or r process.   The s process occurs in thermally pulsing stars (called AGB, or asymptotic giant branch stars) and takes hundreds to thousands of years to reach the heaviest elements of lead and bismuth.  The r process is thought to occur in supernova explosions because the conditions of high temperature, high neutron flux and ejected matter are present.  These stellar conditions make the successive neutron captures very fast, involving very neutron-rich species which then beta-decay to heavier elements, especially at the so-called waiting points that correspond to more stable nuclides with closed neutron shells (magic numbers).  The r process duration is typically in the range of a few seconds.

Related pages
 Radioactivity
 Nuclear fusion
 Nuclear fission
 Nuclear medicine
 Nuclear physics
 Atomic number
 Atomic mass
 Isotope
 Liquid drop model

References

Other websites
 The Nucleus - a chapter from an online textbook
 - Study of the NUCLEAR STRUCTURE by R. Kolessin

Nuclear physics
Matter

Atomic nucleus


Le Mont-Saint-Michel (; ) is an island and commune in Normandy, France. It is in the Manche department. It is located about one kilometre () from the country's northwestern coast. It is at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. It is  in size and it has a population of 44 (2009). People that live there are called the Montois.

The island has had strategic fortifications since ancient times. The name Mont-Saint-Michel comes from the monastery built there in the eighth century AD. The way in which the town is built is an example of how feudal society worked. At the top there is God, the abbey and monastery. Below this, there are the great halls, then stores and houses. At the bottom, outside the walls, there are the houses of fishermen and farmers.

Mont-Saint-Michel is one of France's most famous landmarks. The island and its bay are part of the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Every year, more than 3 million people visit it.

Geography

Formation
In prehistoric times, the Mont was on dry land. It is now a rocky tidal island. Sea levels became higher and erosion changed the landscape of the coast. Several layers of granite or granulite came to the surface in the bay. These layers of rock resisted the damage by the ocean better than the other rocks around them. These included Lillemer, the Mont-Dol, Tombelaine (a small island just to the north), and Mont Tombe, which later became Mont-Saint-Michel. The mount has a circumference of about 960 metres (3,150 ft). It is 92 metres (301 ft) above sea level at its highest point.

Tides
The difference between the high and low water marks is about . Medieval pilgrims who crossed the flat land sometimes called the mount "St. Michael in peril of the sea". Today, it can still be dangerous for visitors who do not use the causeway. It can be a risk to walk across the sands from the opposite coast. This is because of quicksand.

Polderisation and occasional flooding have created salt marsh meadows. They are ideal for sheep. The meat has a good flavour because of the sheep's diet. The pré salé (salt meadow, in French) is home to agneaux de pré-salé (salt meadow lamb). This is made into a local specialty (a famous type of food). The local lamb is sometimes on the menus of restaurants in the area.

Tidal island

Before 2013, Mont-Saint-Michel was linked to the mainland with a tidal causeway. It was a path covered at high tide and shown at low tide. This connection changed over the centuries. The coastal flats (the sand) have been polderised to make pastureland. This means Mont-Saint-Michel became closer to the coast. The Couesnon River was canalised. This helped make the flow of water similar every time the tide rises or falls. However, it developed a silting-up of the bay. In 1879, the tidal causeway was changed into a raised, dry causeway. This stopped the tide from cleaning the silt around the mount.

On 16 June 2006, the French prime minister and regional authorities announced a €164 million project (Projet Mont-Saint-Michel). The wanted to build a hydraulic dam using the waters of the river Couesnon and of tides. This would help remove all of the silt deposited by the rising tides. It would make Mont-Saint-Michel an island again.

The construction of the dam began in 2009. It was completed in 2013. The project was also to remove the causeway and its visitor car-park. The new car-park is on the mainland. It is about two kilometres () from the island. Visitors can use small shuttle buses to cross the causeway. The bridge is also open to pedestrians and vehicles without a motor.

Architect Dietmar Feichtinger designed the bridge. It opened to the public on 22 July 2014. The bridge lets the waters go freely around the island. It makes the dam more efficient. The project cost €209 million, €45 million more than planned. President François Hollande officially opened the bridge.

Sometimes, weather conditions make the tide very high. This is called a "supertide". For example, the sea completely covered the new bridge on 21 March 2015. It was the highest sea level for at least 18 years. Many people travelled to Mont-Saint-Michel to take photos.

History
Mont-Saint-Michel was an Armorican stronghold of Gallo-Roman culture in the sixth and seventh centuries. In the seventh century, the Franks took the mount. From about the fifth to the eighth century, Mont-Saint-Michel was part of a region called Neustria. At the start of the ninth century, it was an important place in the marches of Neustria.

Before the eighth century, the island was called Mont Tombe (). The Catholic Church built the first religious building in the eighth century, and the mount became Mont-Saint-Michel. According to legend, the Archangel Michael appeared in 708 to St. Aubert, the bishop of Avranches. The angel told him to build a church on the mount. Aubert didn't listen to the angel until Michael burned a hole in the bishop's skull with his finger.

The king of the Franks could not defend his kingdom against the attacks of the Vikings. The king agreed to give the Cotentin peninsula and the Avranchin, including Mont-Saint-Michel, to the Bretons in the 867 Treaty of Compiègne. For a short time, the mount belonged to the Bretons. In effect, these lands and Mont-Saint-Michel never belonged to the duchy of Brittany. They remained separate bishoprics from the newly created Breton archbishopric of Dol. When Rollo named Franco as archbishop of Rouen, the diocese of Rouen took the lands and the mount. They became part of Normandy once again, but not officially.

The mount became strategically important again in 933 when William "Long Sword" (the Duke of Normandy) annexed the Cotentin Peninsula from the weakened Dukes of Brittany. This made the mount part of Normandy officially. This is shown in the Bayeux Tapestry, which commemorates (helps remember) the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The tapestry shows Harold, Earl of Wessex helping two Norman knights from the quicksand around Mont-Saint-Michel during a battle with Conan II, Duke of Brittany. Norman dukes paid for the development of the abbey in the following centuries. It became a good example of Norman architecture.

In 1067, the monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel gave its support to Duke William of Normandy in his claim to the throne of England. William gave houses and grounds on the English side of the Channel as a reward. These included a small island off the southwestern coast of Cornwall. It became a Norman priory named St Michael's Mount of Penzance. It looks similar to Mont-Saint-Michel.

During the Hundred Years' War, the English made many attacks on the island. They were not able to take it due to the abbey's very good fortifications. The English first attacked the mount in 1423, and then again in 1433. Thomas Scalles was the leader of the English army. Scalles left two wrought iron bombards when he stopped his attack. They are still there today. They are known as les Michelettes. The resistance at Mont-Saint-Michel gave hope to the French, especially Joan of Arc.

When Louis XI of France founded the Order of Saint Michael in 1469, he wanted the church of Mont-Saint-Michel to become the chapel for the Order. However, it was far from Paris so this was not possible.

The wealth and influence of the abbey helped other foundations, for example St Michael's Mount in Cornwall. However, it started to become less popular as a centre of pilgrimage due to the Reformation. At the time of the French Revolution, there were almost no monks living there. The republicans closed the abbey. It became a prison. At first, this was to hold clerical enemies of the French republic. Later, there were also important political prisoners at the mount. In 1836, famous figures, such as Victor Hugo, started a campaign to restore the mount. The prison closed in 1863, and the mount became a historic monument in 1874. Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay became UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1979. The factors for listing included cultural, historical, and architectural importance, as well as man-made and natural beauty.

Abbey design

In the 11th century, Richard II of Normandy chose an Italian architect called William de Volpiano to build the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel. Volpiano had already built the Abbey of Fécamp, in Normandy. He designed the Romanesque church of the abbey. He chose to place the transept crossing at the top of the mount. He also built a lot of crypts and chapels below the ground. These are to support building above, because it is very heavy. Today, Mont-Saint-Michel has a church of Romanesque style.

Robert de Thorigny was a great supporter of Henry II of England. Henry was also Duke of Normandy at this time. Thorigny made the structure of the buildings stronger. He also built the main façade of the church in the 12th century. In 1204, the Breton Guy de Thouars, a friend of the King of France, attacked the mount with an army. He set fire to the village and killed lots of people. However, he had to retreat (leave) under the powerful walls of the abbey. The fire extended to the buildings, and the roofs burnt. Philip Augustus, Thorigny's friend, was unhappy about the cruel actions and the destruction. He offered Abbot Jourdain some money to build a new Gothic-style architectural set. The abbot added the refectory (dining room) and cloister.

Charles VI added big fortifications to the abbey-mount. He also added building towers and courtyards, and he made the ramparts stronger.

Development

Administration

The islet is part of the French commune of Mont-Saint-Michel. It is in the department of Manche, in Normandy. As of 2009, 44 people live there. The nearest large town, with a train station, is Pontorson. Mont-Saint-Michel is part of the Organization of World Heritage Cities.

Mont-Saint-Michel is also the subject of a traditional rivalry between Normans and Bretons. Bretons say that the Couesnon River marks the limit between Normandy and Brittany. It is only because the river has changed its course over the centuries that the mount is on the Norman side. This legend amuses the area's inhabitants. They state that the border is not located on the Couesnon river. They say it is on the mainland,  to the west, at the foot of the solid mass of Saint-Brelade.

Population

Up to 20,000 people a day visit the city in July and August. Among the 43 inhabitants (2006), 5 were monks and 7 nuns.

Twin towns – Sister cities
 Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima, Japan. Itsukushima Shrine is also an island-temple and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mont-Saint-Michel has historical links with St Michael's Mount in Cornwall, UK. Edward the Confessor gave it to the Benedictines of Mont-Saint-Michel in the 11th century.

Historical monument
61 buildings of Mont-Saint-Michel are on the list of historical monuments. They were added from 1928 to today.

In popular culture

 French composer Claude Debussy went to the island. He was maybe inspired by the legend of the mythical city of Ys and Mont-Saint-Michel's cathedral for his piano prelude La Cathedrale Engloutie.
 1950 : The Elusive Pimpernel by Powell and Pressburger.
 1991 : Mindwalk
 2003 : Mont-Saint-Michel was the inspiration for the design of Minas Tirith in the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
 Renaissance Mont-Saint-Michel is a playable multiplayer map in the video game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010), and Assassin's Creed: Revelations (2011) by Ubisoft Montreal.
 2013 : Mont-Saint-Michel was the end of the stage 11 of the Tour de France. The stage was a time trial.

Related pages
 St Michael's Mount
 Saint Michael (Roman Catholic)

References

Other websites

 Mont-Saint-Michel Celebrates 1,300 yrs of History
 Official Mont-Saint Michel Tourist site (English version)
 A visit to Mont St. Michel
 Virtual recreation of Mont St. Michel in Second Life
 Pano at 360° of Mont St Michel
 INSEE population figures

Tidal islands
Islands of France
World Heritage Sites in France
Communes in Manche

Mont-Saint-Michel


Binocular vision is vision in which both eyes are used together. It can mean having two eyes instead of one, but more often it means having a visual field which is put together by the brain with input from both eyes. This is the standard equipment for vertebrates and many other types of animals.

Humans have a maximum horizontal field of view of about 200 degrees with two eyes. About 120 degrees make up the binocular field of view (seen by both eyes), and two side fields of about 40 degrees seen by only one eye.

Our system of vision uses parallax to give precise depth information, called stereopsis. Such binocular vision is usually accompanied by singleness of vision or binocular fusion, in which a single image is seen even though each eye has its own image of an object.

Stereopsis is the impression of depth we get when we look at a scene with both eyes. Binocular viewing of a scene creates two slightly different images of the scene in the two eyes due to the eyes' different positions on the head. These differences give information that the brain uses to calculate depth in the visual scene. The term 'stereopsis' is often used as short hand for 'binocular vision', 'binocular depth perception' or 'stereoscopic depth perception', though strictly speaking, the impression of depth associated with stereopsis can also be got under other conditions, such as when an observer views a scene with only one eye while moving. Observer motion creates differences in the single retinal image over time similar to binocular disparity; this is referred to as motion parallax.

Field of view and eye movements
Some animals, usually but not always prey animals, have their two eyes positioned on opposite sides of their heads to give the widest possible field of view. Examples include rabbits, buffaloes, and antelopes. In such animals, the eyes often move independently to increase the field of view. Even without moving their eyes, some birds have a 360-degree field of view.

Other animals, usually but not always predatory animals, have their two eyes positioned on the front of their heads, thereby allowing for binocular vision and reducing their field of view in favor of stereopsis. Examples include humans, eagles, wolves, and snakes.

Some predator animals, particularly large ones such as sperm whales and killer whales, have their two eyes positioned on opposite sides of their heads. Other animals that are not necessarily predators, such as fruit bats and a number of primates also have forward facing eyes. These are usually animals that need fine depth discrimination/perception; for instance, binocular vision improves the ability to pick a chosen fruit or to find and grasp a particular branch.

In animals with forward-facing eyes, the eyes usually move together. Some animals use both strategies. A starling, for example, has laterally placed eyes to cover a wide field of view, but can also move them together to point to the front so their fields overlap giving stereopsis. A remarkable example is the chameleon, whose eyes appear to be mounted on turrets, each moving independently of the other, up or down, left or right. Nevertheless, the chameleon can bring both of its eyes to bear on a single object when it is hunting.

References

Vision
Physiology

Binocular vision


Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (born Königsberg 24 January 1776; died Berlin 25 June 1822) was a German writer, composer, music critic, painter, caricaturist and lawyer. He liked the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart so much that he changed his third name from Wilhelm to Amadeus. He is always known as E. T. A. Hoffmann. He was a man of many talents, but his greatest importance is as a Romantic writer. He wrote fantasy and horror stories which had a very large influence on German literature in the 19th century. His stories had a lot of influence in music. He is the hero of Jacques Offenbach's famous opera The Tales of Hoffmann. His fantasies were used in other musical works such as Delibes's ballet Coppélia and in operas by Busoni and Hindemith.

Life

Early years

Hoffmann studied law at the University of Königsberg from where he graduated when he was only 16 years old. He finished his studies in Glogau and Berlin. His first job was in Posen. He married in 1802, but in the same year he had to leave his job because he had made fun of some people in his caricature drawings. He soon went to Warsaw where he worked as a lawyer as well as meeting famous writers. He composed music, including a symphony, a harp quintet and music for plays. Because of the political situation after the French invasion in 1806 he lost his job. He tried to get a job in Berlin but without success. In 1808 he went to Bamberg where he spent five years. His job there was as a conductor and theatre designer. He fell in love with a young girl called Julia Marc and composed sacred music and operas. He wrote musical criticism as well as stories for the newspaper Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung. These include the famous short stories Ritter Gluck, Don Juan and the series called Kreisleriana (Johannes Kreislers, des Kapellmeisters musikalische Leiden, i.e. The musical suffering of the Director of Music Johannes Kreisler).

Later career

In 1813 he left Bamberg and spent some time in Dresden, Leipzig and, from 1814 onwards, Berlin. He was an excellent lawyer and was able to work very sensibly as a court official while, at the same time, spending some time devoted to art. He often met with literary friends to discuss literature and wrote more stories including Die Lebensansichten des Katers Murr (Tom-cat Murr's views on life). His health started to become poor. He suffered from creeping paralysis. Once again he got into trouble because of his satire, but before his punishment could be sorted out he fell in and died.

His stories
Hoffmann wrote various kinds of stories. Some of them are about fate, e.g. Elixiere des Teufels which is about a Capuchin monk who is tempted by the drink offered by the devil. Some of them are fairy tales, e.g. Der goldene Topf (The golden pan) and Nussknacker und Mausekönig (Nutcracker and Mouse King). Very often in these stories the supernatural meets everyday reality. Some of his stories are autobiographical because they fantasies about himself. In particular, the story about Kreisler became very popular and was used by musicians, e.g. Robert Schumann in his piano pieces called Kreisleriana.

Hoffmann is one of the great writers of German prose. He brought his imaginary world to life with his Romantic characters.

1776 births
1822 deaths
German painters
German writers
Music critics
People from former German territories
People from Kaliningrad

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann


A cave is a natural underground hollow space. They can have narrow passageways (corridors) and chambers (caverns). They are usually formed when underground acidic (sour) water wears away softer stones, such as limestone. Only the hard rock, such as granite, is left. Caves can also be formed during natural catastrophes, such as earthquakes, or by ice and glaciers.

Caves can have formations in them such as stalagmites and stalactites. These are made over thousands of years by water dripping and leaving mineral deposits.

Many creatures live in the entrance areas of caves, for example snakes, mice, spiders & porcupines. Only a few animals are found deep in caves. Bats often live in caves. Another common creature found in caves is cave crickets.

In the past, people lived in caves. People used to live in many European caves in the Stone Age. Caves still provide shelter for trekkers. Some caves have beautiful paintings on the walls.

People who explore caves are called cavers or speleologists. (The study of caves is called speleology.) They go into caves for fun, exercise and to see the different formations. This can be a dangerous sport because caves sometimes have deep holes. Cavers also have to climb and crawl through the passages. Cavers usually go into caves with four or more people. Each person has 2 or 3 light sources. One light is attached to each helmet. People go into caves to try and explore more about the world.

Cave


Bankruptcy is a legal process which happens when a person or an organization does not have enough money to pay all of its debts.  Legally they are insolvent.

Where it is a person who cannot pay their debts, the person's creditors may ask the court to appoint a trustee in bankruptcy.   This is a professional accountant who is appointed by the court, to take control of the bankrupt person's assets.  Some assets are protected by law, but the trustee in bankruptcy will sell off all of the other assets and use the money to pay as much of that person's debts as possible.  After the process is complete the person is discharged from bankruptcy, and the person is free from any further liability to pay those claims, but normally that person will be limited in their ability to borrow money again because their credit rating will be damaged.

Where it is an organisation which cannot pay its debts, the creditors may ask the court to appoint a liquidator.  The liquidator does a very similar job to the trustee in bankruptcy except that there are no assets which are protected so the liquidator can sell everything.  Once all of the assets of the organisation have been sold, the organisation is then dissolved and no longer exists.  Organisations do not get discharged from bankruptcy in the same way that a living person does.

Insolvency or bankruptcy
People often confuse the terms bankruptcy and insolvency, and sometimes they use one word when they really mean the other.  Insolvency usually just means that a someone does not have enough money to pay their debts or (sometimes) that the total amount of their debts is worth more than the total amount of their assets.  Bankruptcy is a formal legal process in front of the courts.  Although the two terms are connected, just because a person is insolvent does not necessarily mean that they will go into bankruptcy.

Alternatives to bankruptcy
Many countries have alternatives to bankruptcy to try and allow people and businesses to try and avoid the bankruptcy process.

In various countries, individual people can try and reach individual voluntary arrangements (or IVAs) with their creditors.  This means that the creditors agree to take less money to discharge their debts.  There are similar processes for companies and other organisations, and they go by various different names in different countries, but in many countries they are called schemes of arrangement.

Bankruptcy protection
In many countries a company or business can ask the courts for bankruptcy protection to try and protect the business so that the creditors cannot destroy all of the physical capital and goodwill by breaking it apart and moving it away. The aim of this is to provide more time for the business to reorganise itself and to work out a new deal between the owners and the people with whom the business owes money.  In many countries this is called going into administration.

However, not all countries have bankruptcy protection laws for businesses.

Debt slavery
Often a creditor threatens a debtor with debt slavery in many parts of the world. In some cases the debtor does not know that they have a right to go bankrupt. This is a human rights problem in some countries. Also, some creditors continue to harass a debtor even though bankruptcy laws say they should not, hoping that the debtor will pay them money that they do not deserve.

United States
Bankruptcy in the United States falls mostly under federal law, Title 11 of the United States Code (Bankruptcy Code). The types of bankruptcy available in the United States are named after the primary divisions, or "chapters", of that law. The person or business that files a bankruptcy case is known as the debtor.

When a bankruptcy case is filed, a trustee is chosen by the court. The trustee has authority over the property of the bankrupt person or business and may use some of the debtor's assets to pay the creditors. After a bankruptcy is filed, creditors are notified that they are to stop trying to collect money directly from the debtor and are to make claims for payment to the bankruptcy court.

Chapter 7
The most common form of bankruptcy is the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, which can be filed by businesses or individuals. It is also called liquidation bankruptcy because some of a debtor's property may be sold (liquidated) to satisfy creditors.  When a business is in debt which it cannot pay, it may ask or be forced to file bankruptcy in court under Chapter 7.  This usually makes a company stop doing business.  Employees often lose their jobs when company files for chapter 7.

Chapter 11
Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a complicated type of bankruptcy that reorganizes the debtor's finances, usually reducing the amount of debt owed and changing debt repayment terms. A Chapter 11 bankruptcy case allows a business to keep running while it finds ways to reduce and arrange payment of its debts.

Almost all Chapter 11 bankruptcies are filed by businesses. Ordinary people do not usually file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, because a Chapter 13 bankruptcy will almost always be cheaper and easier for them.

Chapter 13
Chapter 13 is the most popular form of bankruptcy in the United States for ordinary people. In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy some of your debts may be forgiven (discharged), but you will have to pay back a portion of your debt. The debt repayment plan is supervised by the bankruptcy court and usually lasts for three to five years. Businesses cannot file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Other bankruptcy chapters

Less common forms of bankruptcy may be filed under Chapter 9 and Chapter 12 of the bankruptcy code.

 Chapter 9 bankruptcy allows municipalities, smaller units of government such as cities and towns, to restructure their debts.
 Chapter 12 bankruptcy is a special type of bankruptcy for family farms and fishermen. It combines elements of Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy to allow smaller farms and fishing businesses to stay open while they restructure their debts.

References

Finance
Business law

Bankruptcy


A hallucination is seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling or feeling things that do not really exist. Usually, people have to be awake and conscious to have hallucinations. That way, a person who sees or hears something that is not really there has a hallucination. Hallucinations are different from dreams. When people dream, they are not awake. Hallucinations are also different from illusions. Illusions are based on real perceptions, which are distorted or interpreted in a wrong way.

Certain drugs can cause hallucinations. Some illegal drugs are taken because they cause hallucinations. Certain mental illnesses can also cause hallucinations. In some cases, withdrawal of a drug can also cause hallucinations. This has especially been reported by people trying to stop taking sleeping pills, or by alcoholics.

People who have hallucinations are not necessarily ill, lack of sleep can also cause hallucinations. Hallucinations just before going to sleep or just after waking up are considered normal.

Types of hallucinations
Hallucinations can affect all of a person's senses. People with the mental illness of schizophrenia may hear sounds or voices that are not really there. People with certain mental illnesses may also have hallucinations in which they see a person or thing which is not really there. People are less likely to have hallucinations in which they smell or touch something that is not really there. Certain forms of epilepsy can cause hallucinations. Finally, hallucinations can be the result of certain substances taken or of certain physical constellations. Most of the time, these substances are taken to get the hallucinations. Sometimes, (severe) lack of sleep, or high fever can lead to hallucinations brought on by such viruses as the common cold.

How people are affected by hallucinations

Many studies have shown hallucinatory experiences take place across the world. Several studies, one of them done as early as 1894, have reported that approximately 10% of the population experience hallucinations. A recent survey of over 13,000 people reported a much higher figure. According to the study, almost 39% of the people reported hallucinatory experiences. 27% of the people reported daytime hallucinations, mostly outside the context of illness or drug use. From this survey, hallucinations affecting smell or taste seem the most common in the general population.

Causes of hallucinations

Illnesses

Diseases or illnesses
Some diseases such as brain disorders or infections may cause a person to have hallucinations. As well, an alcoholic (person who is addicted to alcohol) who stops drinking alcohol suddenly may experience a type of hallucinations called delirium tremens (or "DT's"). Some people have hallucinations if they do not sleep  for a number of days, or if they do not eat for a number of days.

Chemicals or drugs
Some people have hallucinations because they purposefully or accidentally put chemicals or drugs into their bodies.

Illegal drugs
Some people use illegal drugs that cause vivid hallucinations, such as LSD ("acid") and PCP ("angel dust"). Many kinds of drugs - even legal ones - will cause hallucinations, if very large doses are taken, and it is seen as a side effect.

Legal drugs
Some legal drugs that dentists, doctors, or surgeons use cause hallucinations. The dentists, doctors, and surgeons use drugs called anaesthetics to make people not feel pain, or to make people become unconscious. But the drugs also have some other additional effects, which are called side effects, such as nausea (feeling sick) and hallucinations.

Many dentists use an anaesthetic called nitrous oxide ("laughing gas"). Inhaling large quantities of nitrous oxide can cause people to have hallucinations. Doctors and surgeons use many types of anaesthetic gases so that patients who are being operated become unconscious. When a person inhales anaesthetic gases, they may have hallucinations for several minutes, until they become unconscious.

Accidental poisoning
Some adults accidentally swallow a poisonous chemical because it is in a bottle that has the wrong label. In some cases, children swallow a poisonous chemical because they think that it is a food product or a drink. Some dangerous, poisonous chemicals which can make people very sick or even kill them also cause hallucinations.

Lack of sleep
Some people have hallucinations when they have not slept for a long time; other people have something resembling a hallucination before falling asleep. This is usually called hypnagogia. Most of the time, the people experiencing this kind of hallucination are aware of the fact that they are not real.

References

Psychology
Perception

Hallucination


Vodka is a Russian alcoholic drink that is usually about 40% alcohol. It is clear (but can be flavoured), though it is sometimes mixed with other liquids before people drink it. It was first popular in the Slavic countries of Eastern Europe and former republics of the Soviet Union.

Things that are made into vodka

Vodka can be made from different things:
 Molasses (which comes from the production of sugar) are used to produce the cheapest vodka. Because of the ingredient, this kind usually tastes sweeter than vodka made from grain. Soy beans, grapes or sugar beets may also be used, but are less common.
 Potatoes have been used for centuries to make vodka.
 Grain is used to produce the highest grade vodka - like potatoes, vodka is also traditionally made from grain.

The process to make vodka is:

 The raw material is crushed and dissolved in water. This is called mashing
 The mash is heated to 60 °C. All starch will break up into sugars.
 Yeast is added and the mash vessel is closed airtight with airlock. The yeast will ferment the sugar into alcohol.
 The fermented mash is then distilled. It can be made either in simple pot still or sophisticated industrial patent still.
 If the still used is a pot still, the distillation is usually repeated at least twice to remove any foul-tasting or poisonous impurities away. If the still used is a patent still, the result is spirit; very high contents alcohol unsuitable for drinking. Pure water is added to lower the alcohol contents to desired. This is called dilution.

Unlike cognac or whisky, vodka is not usually matured in barrels, but bottled immediately. Some Scandinavian vodkas called akvavit (Latin aqua vitae, "water of life") are matured in oak barrels before they are bottled. When the vodka is bottled, it is ready for drinking.

History

Most people think the name vodka comes from the Slavic word for water in its diminutive form, "little water". The earliest mention of Vodka in Poland is in 1405. The Russians are known to have first used the word in June 8, 1751. It is not known if it was the Russians or the Poles who made the first drinks that could be classified as vodka, as sources provide various views on this topic (though it's important to remember that the first mention of the word "vodka" in Cyrillic refers to a medicinal drink bought by the merchants of Kievan Rus from Poland). It is also worth noting that vodka was first used as medicine. When it became a popular drink, it was first known in Polish as gorzałka - from the Old Polish word gorzeć, meaning burn. At first, gorzałka was a people's drink, but in the Slavic countries it soon became common among the nobility as well. it is worth noting that the common Ukrainian word for vodka is horilka which bears an extremely close resemblance to the Polish gorzalka. Both words roots have the same meaning (hority - to burn; gorzeć, also to burn)

Different kinds of vodka

There are two basic kinds of Vodka: clear vodka and flavored vodka. Some types of vodka have plants or herbs added to the unflavored vodka to make it taste better. Contrary to popular belief, flavoured vodka is not new - it has been a part of Polish drinking tradition for centuries. It is only relatively recently in history that clear and flavoured vodkas have found their way to Western countries such as the UK or US.

How vodka is consumed
Vodka is either drunk pure, or cocktails are made with it. The simplest form of cocktail is to mix it with orange or lemon juice. Usually, vodka is drunk during a longer meal. Usually salty or sour things (not sweets) are served. In Poland and Russia (as well as some of their neighbours, such as Ukraine or Lithuania), vodka is drunk from glasses that can hold about 100 grams (0,1 litres) of vodka. The glass is usually emptied in one draught, while holding the breath. Directly afterwards something small is eaten. In most Eastern European countries it is consumed with pickled cucumbers. Before drinking, a toast is given.

Cultural
Vodka is a key element of Slavic tradition in some countries of Eastern Europe (especially Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia). It has also spread to become a part of national culture in Baltic countries like Lithuania and Nordic countries like Sweden. It's traditional in Russia and other Slavic countries (as well as some Roma communities in Eastern Europe) to put a glass of vodka with a slice of bread (usually black bread) on top on graves or near photos of the deceased in their memory. This is similar to what people in Western countries do with flowers.

References

Alcoholic spirits

Vodka