title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage published "On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures" (1832), on the organisation of industrial production. It was an influential early work of operational research. John Rennie the Younger in addressing the Institution of Civil Engineers on manufacturing in 1846 mentioned mostly surveys in encyclopaedias, and Babbage's book was first an article in the "Encyclopædia Metropolitana", the form in which Rennie noted it, in the company of related works by John Farey Jr., Peter Barlow and Andrew Ure. From "An essay on the general principles which regulate the application of machinery to manufactures and the mechanical arts" (1827), which became the "Encyclopædia Metropolitana" article of 1829, Babbage developed the schematic classification of machines that, combined with discussion of factories, made up the first part of the book. The second part considered the "domestic and political economy" of manufactures.


title: Charles Babbage

text: The book sold well, and quickly went to a fourth edition (1836). Babbage represented his work as largely a result of actual observations in factories, British and abroad. It was not, in its first edition, intended to address deeper questions of political economy; the second (late 1832) did, with three further chapters including one on piece rate. The book also contained ideas on rational design in factories, and profit sharing.


title: Charles Babbage

text: In "Economy of Machinery" was described what is now called the "Babbage principle". It pointed out commercial advantages available with more careful division of labour. As Babbage himself noted, it had already appeared in the work of Melchiorre Gioia in 1815. The term was introduced in 1974 by Harry Braverman. Related formulations are the "principle of multiples" of Philip Sargant Florence, and the "balance of processes".


title: Charles Babbage

text: What Babbage remarked is that skilled workers typically spend parts of their time performing tasks that are below their skill level. If the labour process can be divided among several workers, labour costs may be cut by assigning only high-skill tasks to high-cost workers, restricting other tasks to lower-paid workers. He also pointed out that training or apprenticeship can be taken as fixed costs; but that returns to scale are available by his approach of standardisation of tasks, therefore again favouring the factory system. His view of human capital was restricted to minimising the time period for recovery of training costs.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Another aspect of the work was its detailed breakdown of the cost structure of book publishing. Babbage took the unpopular line, from the publishers' perspective, of exposing the trade's profitability. He went as far as to name the organisers of the trade's restrictive practices. Twenty years later he attended a meeting hosted by John Chapman to campaign against the Booksellers Association, still a cartel.


title: Charles Babbage

text: It has been written that "what Arthur Young was to agriculture, Charles Babbage was to the factory visit and machinery". Babbage's theories are said to have influenced the layout of the 1851 Great Exhibition, and his views had a strong effect on his contemporary George Julius Poulett Scrope. Karl Marx argued that the source of the productivity of the factory system was exactly the combination of the division of labour with machinery, building on Adam Smith, Babbage and Ure. Where Marx picked up on Babbage and disagreed with Smith was on the motivation for division of labour by the manufacturer: as Babbage did, he wrote that it was for the sake of profitability, rather than productivity, and identified an impact on the concept of a trade.


title: Charles Babbage

text: John Ruskin went further, to oppose completely what manufacturing in Babbage's sense stood for. Babbage also affected the economic thinking of John Stuart Mill. George Holyoake saw Babbage's detailed discussion of profit sharing as substantive, in the tradition of Robert Owen and Charles Fourier, if requiring the attentions of a benevolent captain of industry, and ignored at the time.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Works by Babbage and Ure were published in French translation in 1830; "On the Economy of Machinery" was translated in 1833 into French by Édouard Biot, and into German the same year by Gottfried Friedenberg. The French engineer and writer on industrial organisation Léon Lalanne was influenced by Babbage, but also by the economist Claude Lucien Bergery, in reducing the issues to "technology". William Jevons connected Babbage's "economy of labour" with his own labour experiments of 1870. The Babbage principle is an inherent assumption in Frederick Winslow Taylor's scientific management.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Mary Everest Boole claimed that there was profound influence – via her uncle George Everest – of Indian thought in general and Indian logic, in particular, on Babbage and on her husband George Boole, as well as on Augustus De Morgan:


title: Charles Babbage

text: Think what must have been the effect of the intense Hinduizing of three such men as Babbage, De Morgan, and George Boole on the mathematical atmosphere of 1830–65. What share had it in generating the Vector Analysis and the mathematics by which investigations in physical science are now conducted?


title: Charles Babbage

text: In 1837, responding to the series of eight "Bridgewater Treatises", Babbage published his "Ninth Bridgewater Treatise", under the title "On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation". In this work Babbage weighed in on the side of uniformitarianism in a current debate. He preferred the conception of creation in which a God-given natural law dominated, removing the need for continuous "contrivance".


title: Charles Babbage

text: The book is a work of natural theology, and incorporates extracts from related correspondence of Herschel with Charles Lyell. Babbage put forward the thesis that God had the omnipotence and foresight to create as a divine legislator. In this book, Babbage dealt with relating interpretations between science and religion; on the one hand, he insisted that "there exists no fatal collision between the words of Scripture and the facts of nature;" on the one hand, he wrote the Book of Genesis was not meant to be read literally in relation to scientific terms. Against those who said these were in conflict, he wrote "that the contradiction they have imagined can have no real existence, and that whilst the testimony of Moses remains unimpeached, we may also be permitted to confide in the testimony of our senses."


title: Charles Babbage

text: The "Ninth Bridgewater Treatise" was quoted extensively in "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation". The parallel with Babbage's computing machines is made explicit, as allowing plausibility to the theory that transmutation of species could be pre-programmed.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Jonar Ganeri, author of "Indian Logic", believes Babbage may have been influenced by Indian thought; one possible route would be through Henry Thomas Colebrooke. Mary Everest Boole argues that Babbage was introduced to Indian thought in the 1820s by her uncle George Everest:


title: Charles Babbage

text: Some time about 1825, [Everest] came to England for two or three years, and made a fast and lifelong friendship with Herschel and with Babbage, who was then quite young. I would ask any fair-minded mathematician to read Babbage's Ninth Bridgewater Treatise and compare it with the works of his contemporaries in England; and then ask himself whence came the peculiar conception of the nature of miracle which underlies Babbage's ideas of Singular Points on Curves (Chap, viii) – from European Theology or Hindu Metaphysic? Oh! how the English clergy of that day hated Babbage's book!


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage was raised in the Protestant form of the Christian faith, his family having inculcated in him an orthodox form of worship. He explained:


title: Charles Babbage

text: Rejecting the Athanasian Creed as a "direct contradiction in terms", in his youth he looked to Samuel Clarke's works on religion, of which "Being and Attributes of God" (1704) exerted a particularly strong influence on him. Later in life, Babbage concluded that "the true value of the Christian religion rested, not on speculative [theology] … but … upon those doctrines of kindness and benevolence which that religion claims and enforces, not merely in favour of man himself but of every creature susceptible of pain or of happiness."


title: Charles Babbage

text: In his autobiography (1864), Babbage wrote a whole chapter on the topic of religion, where he identified three sources of divine knowledge:


title: Charles Babbage

text: He stated, on the basis of the design argument, that studying the works of nature had been the more appealing evidence, and the one which led him to actively profess the existence of God. Advocating for natural theology, he wrote:


title: Charles Babbage

text: Like Samuel Vince, Babbage also wrote a defence of the belief in divine miracles. Against objections previously posed by David Hume, Babbage advocated for the belief of divine agency, stating "we must not measure the credibility or incredibility of an event by the narrow sphere of our own experience, nor forget that there is a Divine energy which overrides what we familiarly call the laws of nature." He alluded to the limits of human experience, expressing: "all that we see in a miracle is an effect which is new to our observation, and whose cause is concealed. The cause may be beyond the sphere of our observation, and would be thus beyond the familiar sphere of nature; but this does not make the event a violation of any law of nature. The limits of man's observation lie within very narrow boundaries, and it would be arrogance to suppose that the reach of man's power is to form the limits of the natural world."


title: Charles Babbage

text: The British Association was consciously modelled on the Deutsche Naturforscher-Versammlung, founded in 1822. It rejected romantic science as well as metaphysics, and started to entrench the divisions of science from literature, and professionals from amateurs. Belonging as he did to the "Wattite" faction in the BAAS, represented in particular by James Watt the younger, Babbage identified closely with industrialists. He wanted to go faster in the same directions, and had little time for the more gentlemanly component of its membership. Indeed, he subscribed to a version of conjectural history that placed industrial society as the culmination of human development (and shared this view with Herschel). A clash with Roderick Murchison led in 1838 to his withdrawal from further involvement. At the end of the same year he sent in his resignation as Lucasian professor, walking away also from the Cambridge struggle with Whewell. His interests became more focussed, on computation and metrology, and on international contacts.


title: Charles Babbage

text: A project announced by Babbage was to tabulate all physical constants (referred to as "constants of nature", a phrase in itself a neologism), and then to compile an encyclopaedic work of numerical information. He was a pioneer in the field of "absolute measurement". His ideas followed on from those of Johann Christian Poggendorff, and were mentioned to Brewster in 1832. There were to be 19 categories of constants, and Ian Hacking sees these as reflecting in part Babbage's "eccentric enthusiasms". Babbage's paper "On Tables of the Constants of Nature and Art" was reprinted by the Smithsonian Institution in 1856, with an added note that the physical tables of Arnold Henry Guyot "will form a part of the important work proposed in this article".


title: Charles Babbage

text: Exact measurement was also key to the development of machine tools. Here again Babbage is considered a pioneer, with Henry Maudslay, William Sellers, and Joseph Whitworth.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Through the Royal Society Babbage acquired the friendship of the engineer Marc Brunel. It was through Brunel that Babbage knew of Joseph Clement, and so came to encounter the artisans whom he observed in his work on manufactures. Babbage provided an introduction for Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1830, for a contact with the proposed Bristol & Birmingham Railway. He carried out studies, around 1838, to show the superiority of the broad gauge for railways, used by Brunel's Great Western Railway.


title: Charles Babbage

text: In 1838, Babbage invented the pilot (also called a cow-catcher), the metal frame attached to the front of locomotives that clears the tracks of obstacles; he also constructed a dynamometer car. His eldest son, Benjamin Herschel Babbage, worked as an engineer for Brunel on the railways before emigrating to Australia in the 1850s.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage also invented an ophthalmoscope, which he gave to Thomas Wharton Jones for testing. Jones, however, ignored it. The device only came into use after being independently invented by Hermann von Helmholtz.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage achieved notable results in cryptography, though this was still not known a century after his death. Letter frequency was category 18 of Babbage's tabulation project. Joseph Henry later defended interest in it, in the absence of the facts, as relevant to the management of movable type.


title: Charles Babbage

text: As early as 1845, Babbage had solved a cipher that had been posed as a challenge by his nephew Henry Hollier, and in the process, he made a discovery about ciphers that were based on Vigenère tables. Specifically, he realised that enciphering plain text with a keyword rendered the cipher text subject to modular arithmetic. During the Crimean War of the 1850s, Babbage broke Vigenère's autokey cipher as well as the much weaker cipher that is called Vigenère cipher today. His discovery was kept a military secret, and was not published. Credit for the result was instead given to Friedrich Kasiski, a Prussian infantry officer, who made the same discovery some years later. However, in 1854, Babbage published the solution of a Vigenère cipher, which had been published previously in the "Journal of the Society of Arts". In 1855, Babbage also published a short letter, "Cypher Writing", in the same journal. Nevertheless, his priority was not established until 1985.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage involved himself in well-publicised but unpopular campaigns against public nuisances. He once counted all the broken panes of glass of a factory, publishing in 1857 a "Table of the Relative Frequency of the Causes of Breakage of Plate Glass Windows": Of 464 broken panes, 14 were caused by "drunken men, women or boys".


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage's distaste for commoners (the Mob) included writing "Observations of Street Nuisances" in 1864, as well as tallying up 165 "nuisances" over a period of 80 days. He especially hated street music, and in particular the music of organ grinders, against whom he railed in various venues. The following quotation is typical:


title: Charles Babbage

text: In the 1860s, Babbage also took up the anti-hoop-rolling campaign. He blamed hoop-rolling boys for driving their iron hoops under horses' legs, with the result that the rider is thrown and very often the horse breaks a leg. Babbage achieved a certain notoriety in this matter, being denounced in debate in Commons in 1864 for "commencing a crusade against the popular game of tip-cat and the trundling of hoops."


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage's machines were among the first mechanical computers. That they were not actually completed was largely because of funding problems and clashes of personality, most notably with George Biddell Airy, the Astronomer Royal.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage directed the building of some steam-powered machines that achieved some modest success, suggesting that calculations could be mechanised. For more than ten years he received government funding for his project, which amounted to £17,000, but eventually the Treasury lost confidence in him.


title: Charles Babbage

text: While Babbage's machines were mechanical and unwieldy, their basic architecture was similar to a modern computer. The data and program memory were separated, operation was instruction-based, the control unit could make conditional jumps, and the machine had a separate I/O unit.


title: Charles Babbage

text: In Babbage's time, printed mathematical tables were calculated by human computers; in other words, by hand. They were central to navigation, science and engineering, as well as mathematics. Mistakes were known to occur in transcription as well as calculation.


title: Charles Babbage

text: At Cambridge, Babbage saw the fallibility of this process, and the opportunity of adding mechanisation into its management. His own account of his path towards mechanical computation references a particular occasion:


title: Charles Babbage

text: There was another period, seven years later, when his interest was aroused by the issues around computation of mathematical tables. The French official initiative by Gaspard de Prony, and its problems of implementation, were familiar to him. After the Napoleonic Wars came to a close, scientific contacts were renewed on the level of personal contact: in 1819 Charles Blagden was in Paris looking into the printing of the stalled de Prony project, and lobbying for the support of the Royal Society. In works of the 1820s and 1830s, Babbage referred in detail to de Prony's project.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage began in 1822 with what he called the difference engine, made to compute values of polynomial functions. It was created to calculate a series of values automatically. By using the method of finite differences, it was possible to avoid the need for multiplication and division.


title: Charles Babbage

text: For a prototype difference engine, Babbage brought in Joseph Clement to implement the design, in 1823. Clement worked to high standards, but his machine tools were particularly elaborate. Under the standard terms of business of the time, he could charge for their construction, and would also own them. He and Babbage fell out over costs around 1831.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Some parts of the prototype survive in the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. This prototype evolved into the "first difference engine". It remained unfinished and the finished portion is located at the Science Museum in London. This first difference engine would have been composed of around 25,000 parts, weighed , and would have been tall. Although Babbage received ample funding for the project, it was never completed. He later (1847–1849) produced detailed drawings for an improved version,"Difference Engine No. 2", but did not receive funding from the British government. His design was finally constructed in 1989–1991, using his plans and 19th-century manufacturing tolerances. It performed its first calculation at the Science Museum, London, returning results to 31 digits.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Nine years later, in 2000, the Science Museum completed the printer Babbage had designed for the difference engine.


title: Charles Babbage

text: The Science Museum has constructed two Difference Engines according to Babbage's plans for the Difference Engine No 2. One is owned by the museum. The other, owned by the technology multimillionaire Nathan Myhrvold, went on exhibition at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California on 10 May 2008. The two models that have been constructed are not replicas.


title: Charles Babbage

text: After the attempt at making the first difference engine fell through, Babbage worked to design a more complex machine called the Analytical Engine. He hired C. G. Jarvis, who had previously worked for Clement as a draughtsman. The Analytical Engine marks the transition from mechanised arithmetic to fully-fledged general purpose computation. It is largely on it that Babbage's standing as computer pioneer rests.


title: Charles Babbage

text: The major innovation was that the Analytical Engine was to be programmed using punched cards: the Engine was intended to use loops of Jacquard's punched cards to control a mechanical calculator, which could use as input the results of preceding computations. The machine was also intended to employ several features subsequently used in modern computers, including sequential control, branching and looping. It would have been the first mechanical device to be, in principle, Turing-complete. The Engine was not a single physical machine, but rather a succession of designs that Babbage tinkered with until his death in 1871.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Ada Lovelace, who corresponded with Babbage during his development of the Analytical Engine, is credited with developing an algorithm that would enable the Engine to calculate a sequence of Bernoulli numbers. Despite documentary evidence in Lovelace's own handwriting, some scholars dispute to what extent the ideas were Lovelace's own. For this achievement, she is often described as the first computer programmer; though no programming language had yet been invented.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Lovelace also translated and wrote literature supporting the project. Describing the engine's programming by punch cards, she wrote: "We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves."


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage visited Turin in 1840 at the invitation of Giovanni Plana, who had developed in 1831 an analog computing machine that served as a perpetual calendar. Here in 1840 in Turin, Babbage gave the only public explanation and lectures about the Analytical Engine. In 1842 Charles Wheatstone approached Lovelace to translate a paper of Luigi Menabrea, who had taken notes of Babbage's Turin talks; and Babbage asked her to add something of her own. Fortunato Prandi who acted as interpreter in Turin was an Italian exile and follower of Giuseppe Mazzini.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Per Georg Scheutz wrote about the difference engine in 1830, and experimented in automated computation. After 1834 and Lardner's "Edinburgh Review" article he set up a project of his own, doubting whether Babbage's initial plan could be carried out. This he pushed through with his son, Edvard Scheutz. Another Swedish engine was that of Martin Wiberg (1860).


title: Charles Babbage

text: In 2011, researchers in Britain proposed a multimillion-pound project, "Plan 28", to construct Babbage's Analytical Engine. Since Babbage's plans were continually being refined and were never completed, they intended to engage the public in the project and crowd-source the analysis of what should be built. It would have the equivalent of 675 bytes of memory, and run at a clock speed of about 7 Hz. They hoped to complete it by the 150th anniversary of Babbage's death, in 2021.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Advances in MEMS and nanotechnology have led to recent high-tech experiments in mechanical computation. The benefits suggested include operation in high radiation or high temperature environments. These modern versions of mechanical computation were highlighted in "The Economist" in its special "end of the millennium" black cover issue in an article entitled "Babbage's Last Laugh".


title: Charles Babbage

text: Due to his association with the town Babbage was chosen in 2007 to appear on the 5 Totnes pound note. An image of Babbage features in the British cultural icons section of the newly designed British passport in 2015.


title: Charles Babbage

text: On 25 July 1814, Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore, sister of British parliamentarian William Wolryche-Whitmore, at St. Michael's Church in Teignmouth, Devon. The couple lived at Dudmaston Hall, Shropshire (where Babbage engineered the central heating system), before moving to 5 Devonshire Street, London in 1815.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Charles and Georgiana had eight children, but only four – Benjamin Herschel, Georgiana Whitmore, Dugald Bromhead and Henry Prevost – survived childhood. Charles' wife Georgiana died in Worcester on 1 September 1827, the same year as his father, their second son (also named Charles) and their newborn son Alexander.


title: Charles Babbage

text: His youngest surviving son, Henry Prevost Babbage (1824–1918), went on to create six small demonstration pieces for Difference Engine No. 1 based on his father's designs, one of which was sent to Harvard University where it was later discovered by Howard H. Aiken, pioneer of the Harvard Mark I. Henry Prevost's 1910 Analytical Engine Mill, previously on display at Dudmaston Hall, is now on display at the Science Museum.


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage lived and worked for over 40 years at 1 Dorset Street, Marylebone, where he died, at the age of 79, on 18 October 1871; he was buried in London's Kensal Green Cemetery. According to Horsley, Babbage died "of renal inadequacy, secondary to cystitis." He had declined both a knighthood and baronetcy. He also argued against hereditary peerages, favouring life peerages instead.


title: Charles Babbage

text: In 1983, the autopsy report for Charles Babbage was discovered and later published by his great-great-grandson. A copy of the original is also available. Half of Babbage's brain is preserved at the Hunterian Museum in the Royal College of Surgeons in London. The other half of Babbage's brain is on display in the Science Museum, London.


title: Charles Babbage

text: There is a black plaque commemorating the 40 years Babbage spent at 1 Dorset Street, London. Locations, institutions and other things named after Babbage include:


title: Charles Babbage

text: Babbage frequently appears in steampunk works; he has been called an iconic figure of the genre. Other works in which Babbage appears include:


title: Brittany Furlan

text: Brittany Jayne Furlan is an American Internet personality, actress and comedian based in Los Angeles. She was the most followed female video star on Vine until November 2015. She was the 5th most followed viner with 9.9 million followers by the time vine ended and the second most followed woman.


title: Brittany Furlan

text: Furlan was born on September 5, 1986, in Perkasie, Pennsylvania to Italian-American parents. She previously tried to break into television before becoming a star on Vine, and signed with content network Endemol.


title: Brittany Furlan

text: Furlan was embroiled in a controversy during the 2014 Daytime Emmys Red Carpet show when she told actor Ryan Paevey, "We're going to get you away from us before we rape you."


title: Brittany Furlan

text: On February 14, 2018, they announced their engagement on Instagram. They were married a year later on February 14, 2019.


title: Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum

text: Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (; born 14 November 1982) has been Crown Prince of Dubai since 2008. He previously served as Deputy Ruler of Dubai from 2006 to 2008. He is popularly known as Fazza (), the name under which he publishes his poetry, which means "the one who helps" in Arabic. As an equestrian, Maktoum is a multiple world champion at the World Equestrian Games.


title: Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum

text: Hamdan bin Mohammed is the son of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum, the senior wife of Mohammed. He is the second son of their 12 children and the fourth of his father's children (He is the third son of his father). Hamdan's elder full brother was Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed.


title: Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum

text: Hamdan bin Mohammed was educated in Dubai at the Rashid School For Boys and then at the Dubai School of Government. He continued his studies in the United Kingdom, where he graduated from Sandhurst in 2001; he later attended the London School of Economics. In his interview with "Vision" he described how Sandhurst taught him the importance of self-discipline, commitment, virtue, responsibility, endurance, understanding, teamwork, friendship and the benefits of hard work.


title: Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum

text: Hamdan bin Mohammed was appointed as the Chairman of the Dubai executive council in September 2006. On 1 February 2008, he was appointed Crown Prince of Dubai, while his brother Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed Al Maktoum acceded to Deputy Ruler of Dubai. As the new hereditary prince, Maktoum appointed new key personnel and financial advisors such as economist John Calverly and hedge fund personality James T. Naeem, while Maktoum himself became head of HN Capital LLP. He is the head of the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for young entrepreneurs; he sits on the Dubai sports council and the Dubai autism centre.


title: Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum

text: He was part of the Dubai World Expo 2020 delegation when the emirate was awarded the rights to host the event. He went to the top floor of the Burj Khalifa to wave the UAE flag a few days after the World Expo 2020 win. He is the founder of the Hamdan International Photography Award, which was launched in 2011.


title: Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum

text: In June 2022, Sheikh Hamdan launched the "Dubai Global" initiative, which was meant to establish 50 commercial representative offices for Dubai in five continents across the world. The initiative was to support Dubai-based firms and to strengthen the city's position as a business hub.


title: Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum

text: The Crown Prince's Instagram account has more than 15 million followers, as of November 2022. He posts pictures that showcase his hobbies, which include animals, poetry, sports, photography and adventures.


title: Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum

text: Hamdan Al Maktoum is a licensed equestrian, sky diver and scuba diver. He dives in Fujairah. He is known for his romantic and patriotic poems in Arabic. He publishes his poems under the pen name of "Fazza" (فزاع). He rides for Godolphin Stables and has attended the Royal Ascot.


title: Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum

text: Sheikh Hamdan won a gold medal at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2014 in Normandy (FRA), team gold in 2012 and a bronze medal in 2010. He led a team of five UAE riders at Championships in Samorín on 17 September 2016.


title: Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum

text: On 15 May 2019, Hamdan married Sheikha Shaikha bint Saeed bin Thani Al Maktoum. On the same day, his brothers, Maktoum and Ahmad, also got married. On 6 June 2019, he and his brothers celebrated the royal weddings together at the Dubai World Trade Centre. On 21 May 2021, it was announced that Sheikh Hamdan had welcomed twins, a son named Rashid and a daughter named Shaikha.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was an Alaska Airlines flight of a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 plane that crashed into the Pacific Ocean on January 31, 2000, roughly north of Anacapa Island, California, following a catastrophic loss of pitch control, killing all 88 on board: two pilots, three cabin crew members, and 83 passengers. The flight was a scheduled international passenger flight from Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Washington, United States, with an intermediate stop at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: The subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that inadequate maintenance led to excessive wear and eventual failure of a critical flight control system during flight. The probable cause was stated to be "a loss of airplane pitch control resulting from the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assembly's trapezoidal nut threads. The thread failure was caused by excessive wear resulting from Alaska Airlines' insufficient lubrication of the jackscrew assembly." For their heroic efforts to save the plane, the pilots were posthumously awarded and commemorated. The accident served as an inspiration for the fictionalized crash landing depicted in the 2012 movie "Flight" starring Denzel Washington.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: The aircraft involved in the accident was a McDonnell-Douglas MD-83, serial number 53077, and registered as N963AS. The aircraft was the 1995th DC-9/MD80 family airframe built, was manufactured and delivered new to Alaska Airlines in 1992, and had logged 26,584 flight hours and 14,315 cycles before the crash.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: The pilots of Flight 261 were both highly experienced aviators. Captain Theodore (Ted) Thompson, 53, had accrued 17,750 flight hours, and had more than 4,000 hours experience flying MD-80s. First Officer William (Bill) Tansky, 57, had accumulated 8,140 total flight hours, including about 8,060 hours as first officer in the MD-80. Thompson had flown for Alaska Airlines for 18 years and Tansky for 15; neither pilot had been involved in an accident or incident prior to the crash. Both pilots had previous military experience — Thompson in the U.S. Air Force and Tansky in the U.S. Navy. Three Seattle-based flight attendants were also on board, completing the five-person crew.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: The three flight attendants and 47 of the passengers on board the plane were bound for Seattle. Of the passengers, 32 were traveling to San Francisco; 3 were bound for Eugene, Oregon; and 3 passengers were headed for Fairbanks, Alaska. Of the passengers, one was Mexican and one was British, with all others being American citizens.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: At least 35 occupants of Flight 261 were connected in some manner with Alaska Airlines or its sister carrier Horizon Air, including 12 actual employees, leading many of the airline's personnel to mourn for those lost in the crash. Alaska Airlines stated that on less busy flights, employees commonly filled seats that would otherwise have been left empty. Bouquets of flowers started arriving at the company's headquarters in SeaTac, Washington the day after the crash.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Alaska Airlines Flight 261 departed from Puerto Vallarta's Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport at 13:37 PST (21:37 UTC), and climbed to its intended cruising altitude of flight level 310 (). The plane was scheduled to land at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Sometime before 15:49 (23:49 UTC), the flight crew contacted the airline's dispatch and maintenance-control facilities in SeaTac, Washington, on a company radio frequency shared with operations and maintenance facilities at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), to discuss a jammed horizontal stabilizer and a possible diversion to LAX. The jammed stabilizer prevented the operation of the trim system, which would normally make slight adjustments to the flight control surfaces to keep the plane stable in flight. At their cruising altitude and speed, the position of the jammed stabilizer required the pilots to pull on their yokes with about of force to keep level. Neither the flight crew nor company maintenance could determine the cause of the jam. Repeated attempts to overcome the jam with the primary and alternate trim systems were unsuccessful.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: During this time, the flight crew had several discussions with the company dispatcher about whether to divert to LAX or continue on as planned to SFO. Ultimately, the pilots chose to divert. Later, the NTSB found that while "the flight crew's decision to divert the flight to Los Angeles... was prudent and appropriate", "Alaska Airlines dispatch personnel appear to have attempted to influence the flight crew to continue to San Francisco... instead of diverting to Los Angeles". Cockpit voice recorder (CVR) transcripts indicate that the dispatcher was concerned about the effect on the schedule ("flow"), should the flight divert.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: At 16:09 (00:09 UTC), the flight crew successfully used the primary trim system to unjam the stuck horizontal stabilizer. Upon being freed, however, it quickly moved to an extreme "nose-down" position, forcing the aircraft into an almost vertical nosedive. The plane dropped from about to between in around 80 seconds. Both pilots struggled together to regain control of the aircraft, and only by pulling with 130 to 140 lb (580 to 620 N) on the controls did the flight crew stop the descent of the aircraft and stabilize the MD-83 at roughly .


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Alaska 261 informed air traffic control (ATC) of their control problems. After the flight crew stated their intention to land at LAX, ATC asked whether they wanted to proceed to a lower altitude in preparation for the approach. The captain replied: "I need to get down to about ten, change my configuration, make sure I can control the jet and I'd like to do that out here over the bay if I may." Later, during the public hearings into the accident, the request by the pilot not to overfly populated areas was mentioned. During this time, the flight crew considered, and rejected, any further attempts to correct the runaway trim. They descended to a lower altitude and started to configure the aircraft for landing at LAX.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Beginning at 16:19 (00:19 UTC), the CVR recorded the sounds of at least four distinct "thumps", followed 17 seconds later by an "extremely loud noise", as the overstrained jackscrew assembly failed completely and the jackscrew separated from the acme nut holding it in place. As a result, the horizontal stabilizer failed at and the aircraft rapidly pitched over into a dive while rolling to the left. The crippled plane had been given a block altitude, and several aircraft in the vicinity had been alerted by ATC to maintain visual contact with the stricken jet. These aircraft immediately contacted the controller. One pilot radioed, "That plane has just started to do a big huge plunge." Another reported, "Yes sir, ah, I concur. He is, uh, definitely in a nose down, uh, position, descending quite rapidly." ATC then tried to contact the plane. The crew of a SkyWest airliner reported, "He's, uh, definitely out of control." Although the CVR captured the co-pilot saying "mayday", no radio communications were received from the flight crew during the final event.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: The CVR transcript reveals the pilots' constant attempts for the duration of the dive to regain control of the aircraft. After the jackscrew failed, the plane pitched down -70 degrees and was rolling over to the left. Performing an upset recovery maneuver, the captain commanded to "push and roll, push and roll," managing to increase the pitch to -28 degrees, he stated, "ok, we are inverted...and now we gotta get it." Over the next minute, completely inverted and still diving at a -9 degree pitch, the crew struggled to roll the plane, with the captain calling to "push push push...push the blue side up," "ok now lets kick rudder...left rudder left rudder", to which the copilot responded, "I can't reach it". The captain then replied "ok right rudder...right rudder," followed 18 seconds later by "gotta get it over again...at least upside down we're flying."


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Despite the attempt to fly the plane inverted, which almost entirely arrested its descent, the aircraft had lost too much altitude in the dive and was far beyond recovery. A few seconds before 16:22 (00:22 UTC), Flight 261 hit the Pacific Ocean at high speed, about offshore, between the coastal city of Port Hueneme, California, and Anacapa Island. At this time, pilots from aircraft flying in the vicinity reported in, with one pilot saying, "and he's just hit the water." Another reported, "Ah, yes sir, he, ah, he, ah, hit the water. He's, ah, down." The aircraft was destroyed by the impact forces, and all occupants on board were killed by blunt-force impact trauma.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Using side-scan sonar, remotely operated vehicles, and a commercial fishing trawler, workers recovered about 85% of the fuselage (including the tail section) and a majority of the wing components. In addition, both engines, as well as the flight data recorder (FDR) and CVR were retrieved. All wreckage recovered from the crash site was unloaded at the Seabees' Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme, California, for examination and documentation by NTSB investigators. Both the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew (also referred to as "acme screw") and the corresponding acme nut, through which the jackscrew turns, were found. The jackscrew was constructed from case-hardened steel and is long and in diameter. The acme nut was constructed from a softer copper alloy containing aluminum, nickel, and bronze. As the jackscrew rotates, it moves up or down through the (fixed) acme nut, and this linear motion moves the horizontal stabilizer for the trim system. Upon subsequent examination, the jackscrew was found to have metallic filaments wrapped around it, which were later determined to be the remains of the acme-nut thread.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: The later analysis estimated that 90% of the thread in the acme nut had already worn away previously and that it had finally stripped out during the flight while en route to San Francisco. Once the thread had failed, the horizontal stabilizer assembly was subjected to aerodynamic forces that it was not designed to withstand, leading to the complete failure of the overstressed stabilizer assembly. Based on the time since the last inspection of the jackscrew assembly, the NTSB determined that the acme-nut thread had deteriorated at per 1000 flight hours, much faster than the expected wear of per 1000 flight‑hours. Over the course of the investigation, the NTSB considered a number of potential reasons for the substantial amount of deterioration of the nut thread on the jackscrew assembly, including the substitution by Alaska Airlines (with the approval of the aircraft manufacturer McDonnell Douglas) of Aeroshell 33 grease instead of the previously approved lubricant, Mobilgrease 28. It was found that the use of Aeroshell 33 was not a factor in this accident. Insufficient lubrication of the components was also considered as a reason for the wear. Examination of the jackscrew and acme nut revealed that no effective lubrication was present on these components at the time of the accident. Ultimately, the lack of lubrication of the acme-nut thread and the resultant excessive wear were determined to be the direct causes of the accident. Both of these circumstances resulted from Alaska Airlines' attempts to cut costs.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Due to the extreme impact forces, only a few bodies were found intact, and none were visually identifiable. All passengers were identified using fingerprints, dental records, tattoos, personal items, and anthropological examination.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: The investigation then proceeded to examine why scheduled maintenance had failed to adequately lubricate the jackscrew assembly. In interviews with the Alaska Airlines mechanic at SFO, who last performed the lubrication, the task was shown to take about one hour, whereas the aircraft manufacturer estimated the task should take four hours. This and other evidence suggested to the NTSB that "the SFO mechanic who was responsible for lubricating the jackscrew assembly in September 1999 did not adequately perform the task". Laboratory tests indicated that the excessive wear of the jackscrew assembly could not have accumulated in just the four-month period between the September 1999 maintenance and the accident flight. Therefore, the NTSB concluded that "more than just the last lubrication was missed or inadequately performed".


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: A periodic maintenance inspection called an "end-play check" was used to monitor wear on the jackscrew assembly. The NTSB examined why the last end-play check on the accident aircraft in September 1997 did not uncover excessive wear. The investigation found that Alaska Airlines had fabricated tools to be used in the end-play check that did not meet the manufacturer's requirements. Testing revealed that the nonstandard tools ("restraining fixtures") used by Alaska Airlines could result in inaccurate measurements and that if accurate measurements had been obtained at the time of the last inspection, these measurements possibly would have indicated the excessive wear and the need to replace the affected components.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Between 1985 and 1996, Alaska Airlines progressively increased the period between both jackscrew lubrication and end-play checks, with the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Since each lubrication or end-play check subsequently not conducted had represented an opportunity to adequately lubricate the jackscrew or detect excessive wear, the NTSB examined the justification of these extensions. In the case of extended lubrication intervals, the investigation could not determine what information, if any, was presented by Alaska Airlines to the FAA prior to 1996. Testimony from an FAA inspector regarding an extension granted in 1996 was that Alaska Airlines submitted documentation from McDonnell Douglas as justification for their extension.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: End-play checks were conducted during a periodic comprehensive airframe overhaul process called a "C‑check". Testimony from the director of reliability and maintenance programs of Alaska Airlines was that a data-analysis package based on the maintenance history of five sample aircraft was submitted to the FAA to justify the extended period between C-checks. Individual maintenance tasks (such as the end-play check) were not separately considered in this extension. The NTSB found, "Alaska Airlines' end play check interval extension should have been, but was not, supported by adequate technical data to demonstrate that the extension would not present a potential hazard".


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: A special inspection conducted by the NTSB in April 2000 of Alaska Airlines uncovered widespread significant deficiencies that "the FAA should have uncovered earlier". The investigation concluded, "FAA surveillance of Alaska Airlines had been deficient for at least several years". The NTSB noted that in July 2001, an FAA panel determined that Alaska Airlines had corrected the previously identified deficiencies. However, several factors led the board to question "the depth and effectiveness of Alaska Airlines corrective actions" and "the overall adequacy of Alaska Airlines' maintenance program".


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Systemic problems were identified by the investigation into the FAA's oversight of maintenance programs, including inadequate staffing, its approval process of maintenance interval extensions, and the aircraft certification requirements.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: The jackscrew assembly was designed with two independent threads, each of which was strong enough to withstand the forces placed on it. Maintenance procedures such as lubrication and end-play checks were to catch any excessive wear before it progressed to a point of failure of the system. The aircraft designers assumed that at least one set of threads would always be present to carry the loads placed on it; therefore, the effects of catastrophic failure of this system were not considered, and no "fail-safe" provisions were needed.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: For this design component to be approved ("certified") by the FAA without any fail-safe provision, a failure had to be considered "extremely improbable". This was defined as "having a probability on the order of 1 or less each flight hour". The accident showed that certain wear mechanisms could affect both sets of threads and that the wear might not be detected. The NTSB determined that the design of "the horizontal stabilizer jackscrew assembly did not account for the loss of the acme nut threads as a catastrophic single-point failure mode".


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: In 2001, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recognized the risk to its hardware (such as the Space Shuttle) attendant upon the use of similar jackscrews. An engineering fix developed by engineers of NASA and United Space Alliance promises to make progressive failures easy to see and thus complete failures of a jackscrew less likely.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: In 1998, an Alaska Airlines mechanic named John Liotine, who worked in the Alaska Airlines maintenance center in Oakland, California, told the FAA that supervisors were approving records of maintenance that they were not allowed to approve or that indicated work had been completed when, in fact, it had not. Liotine began working with federal investigators by secretly audio recording his supervisors. On December 22, 1998, federal authorities raided an Alaska Airlines property and seized maintenance records. In August 1999, Alaska Airlines put Liotine on paid leave, and in 2000, Liotine filed a libel suit against the airline. The crash of AS261 became a part of the federal investigation against Alaska Airlines, because, in 1997, Liotine had recommended that the jackscrew and gimbal nut of the accident aircraft be replaced, but had been overruled by another supervisor. In December 2001, federal prosecutors stated that they were not going to file criminal charges against Alaska Airlines. Around that time, Alaska Airlines agreed to settle the libel suit by paying about $500,000; as part of the settlement, Liotine resigned.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: During the course of the investigation, and later in its final report, the NTSB issued 24 safety recommendations, covering maintenance, regulatory oversight, and aircraft design issues. More than half of these were directly related to jackscrew lubrication and end-play measurement. Also included was a recommendation that pilots were to be instructed that in the event of a flight control system malfunction, they should not attempt corrective procedures beyond those specified in the checklist procedures, and in particular, in the event of a horizontal stabilizer trim control system malfunction, the primary and alternate trim motors should not be activated, and if unable to correct the problem through the checklists, they should land at the nearest suitable airport.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: In NTSB board member John J. Goglia's statement for the final report, with which the other three board members concurred, he wrote:


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: After the crash, Alaska Airlines management said that it hoped to handle the aftermath in a manner similar to that conducted by Swissair after the Swissair Flight 111 accident. They wished to avoid the mistakes made by Trans World Airlines in the aftermath of the TWA Flight 800 accident, in other words, TWA's failure to provide timely information and compassion to the families of the victims.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: The victims' families approved the construction of a memorial sundial, designed by Santa Barbara artist James "Bud" Bottoms, which was placed at Port Hueneme on the California coast. The names of each of the victims are engraved on individual bronze plates mounted on the perimeter of the dial. The sundial casts a shadow on a memorial plaque at 16:22 each January 31.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Captain Thompson and First Officer Tansky were both posthumously awarded the Air Line Pilots Association Gold Medal for Heroism, in recognition of their actions during the emergency. This is the only time the award has ever been given posthumously. The Ted Thompson/Bill Tansky Scholarship Fund was named in memory of the two pilots.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Both McDonnell Douglas and Alaska Airlines eventually accepted liability for the crash, and all but one of the lawsuits brought by surviving family members were settled out of court before going to trial. Candy Hatcher of the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" wrote: "Many lost faith in Alaska Airlines, a homegrown company that had taken pride in its safety record and billed itself as a family airline."


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Steve Miletich of "The Seattle Times" wrote that the western portion of Washington "had never before experienced such a loss from a plane crash". Many residents of Seattle had been deeply affected by the disaster. As part of a memorial vigil in 2000, a column of light was beamed from the top of the Space Needle. Students and faculty at the John Hay Elementary School in Queen Anne, Seattle, held a memorial for four Hay students who were killed in the crash. In April 2001, John Hay Elementary dedicated the "John Hay Pathway Garden" as a permanent memorial to the students and their families who were killed on Flight 261. The City of Seattle public park Soundview Terrace was renovated in honor of the four Pearson and six Clemetson family members who were killed on board Flight 261 from the same Seattle neighborhood of Queen Anne. The park's playground was named "Rachel's Playground", in memory of six-year-old Rachel Pearson, who was on board the MD-83 and who was often seen playing at the park.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: Two victims were falsely named in paternity suits as the fathers of children in Guatemala in an attempt to gain insurance and settlement money. Subsequent DNA testing proved these claims to be false.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: The crash has appeared in various advance fee fraud ("419") email scams, in which a scammer uses the name of someone who died in the crash to lure unsuspecting victims into sending money to the scammer by claiming the crash victim left huge amounts of unclaimed funds in a foreign bank account. The names of Morris Thompson and Ronald and Joyce Lake were used in schemes unrelated to them.


title: Alaska Airlines Flight 261

text: As of May 2022, Flight 261 no longer exists, and Alaska Airlines no longer operates the Puerto Vallarta–San Francisco–Seattle/Tacoma route. Alaska Airlines now flies from Puerto Vallarta–Seattle/Tacoma nonstop with Flight 127 and Puerto Vallarta—San Francisco nonstop with Flight 1273. The airline retired the last of its MD-80s in 2008 and now uses Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s for these routes.


title: Herodotus

text: Herodotus ( ; ; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria (Italy). He is known for having written the "Histories" – a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars. Herodotus was the first writer to perform systematic investigation of historical events. He is referred to as "The Father of History", a title conferred on him by the ancient Roman orator Cicero.


title: Herodotus

text: The "Histories" primarily cover the lives of prominent kings and famous battles such as Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale. His work deviates from the main topics to provide a cultural, ethnographical, geographical, and historiographical background that forms an essential part of the narrative and provides readers with a wellspring of additional information.


title: Herodotus

text: Herodotus has been criticized for his inclusion of "legends and fanciful accounts" in his work. The contemporaneous historian Thucydides accused him of making up stories for entertainment. However, Herodotus explained that he reported what he "saw and [what was] told to him". A sizable portion of the "Histories" has since been confirmed by modern historians and archaeologists.


title: Herodotus

text: Modern scholars generally turn to Herodotus' own writing for reliable information about his life, supplemented with ancient yet much later sources, such as the Byzantine "Suda", an 11th-century encyclopedia which possibly took its information from traditional accounts. Still, the challenge is great:


title: Herodotus

text: It is generally accepted that Herodotus was born at Halicarnassus in Anatolia around 485 BC. The "Suda" describes his family as influential, and that he was the son of Lyxes and Dryo, and the brother of Theodorus, and that he was also related to Panyassis – an epic poet of the time.


title: Herodotus

text: Halicarnassus was within the Persian Empire at that time, making Herodotus a Persian subject, and it may be that the young Herodotus heard local eyewitness accounts of events within the empire and of Persian preparations for the invasion of Greece, including the movements of the local fleet under the command of Artemisia I of Caria.


title: Herodotus

text: Inscriptions recently discovered at Halicarnassus indicate that Artemesia's grandson Lygdamis negotiated with a local assembly to settle disputes over seized property, which is consistent with a tyrant under pressure. His name is not mentioned later in the tribute list of the Athenian Delian League, indicating that there might well have been a successful uprising against him sometime before 454 BC.


title: Herodotus

text: Herodotus wrote his "Histories" in the Ionian dialect, in spite of being born in a Dorian settlement. According to the "Suda", Herodotus learned the Ionian dialect as a boy living on the island of Samos, to which he had fled with his family from the oppressions of Lygdamis, tyrant of Halicarnassus and grandson of Artemisia. Panyassis, the epic poet related to Herodotus, is reported to have taken part in a failed uprising.


title: Herodotus

text: The "Suda" also informs us that Herodotus later returned home to lead the revolt that eventually overthrew the tyrant. Due to recent discoveries of inscriptions at Halicarnassus dated to about Herodotus' time, we now know that the Ionic dialect was used in Halicarnassus in some official documents, so there is no need to assume (like the "Suda") that he must have learned the dialect elsewhere. The "Suda" is the only source placing Herodotus as the heroic liberator of his birthplace, casting doubt upon the veracity of that romantic account.


title: Herodotus

text: As Herodotus himself reveals, Halicarnassus, though a Dorian city, had ended its close relations with its Dorian neighbours after an unseemly quarrel (I, 144), and it had helped pioneer Greek trade with Egypt (II, 178). It was, therefore, an outward-looking, international-minded port within the Persian Empire, and the historian's family could well have had contacts in other countries under Persian rule, facilitating his travels and his researches.


title: Herodotus

text: Herodotus' eyewitness accounts indicate that he traveled in Egypt in association with Athenians, probably sometime after 454 BC or possibly earlier, after an Athenian fleet had assisted the uprising against Persian rule in 460–454 BC. He probably traveled to Tyre next and then down the Euphrates to Babylon. For some reason, possibly associated with local politics, he subsequently found himself unpopular in Halicarnassus, and sometime around 447 BC, migrated to Periclean Athens – a city whose people and democratic institutions he openly admired (V, 78). Athens was also the place where he came to know the local topography (VI, 137; VIII, 52–55), as well as leading citizens such as the Alcmaeonids, a clan whose history is featured frequently in his writing.


title: Herodotus

text: According to Eusebius and Plutarch, Herodotus was granted a financial reward by the Athenian assembly in recognition of his work. Plutarch, using Diyllus as a source, says this was 10 talents.


title: Herodotus

text: In 443 BC or shortly afterwards, he migrated to Thurii, in modern Calabria, as part of an Athenian-sponsored colony. Aristotle refers to a version of the "Histories" written by "Herodotus of Thurium", and some passages in the "Histories" have been interpreted as proof that he wrote about southern Italy from personal experience there (IV, 15,99; VI, 127). Intimate knowledge of some events in the first years of the Peloponnesian War (VI, 91; VII, 133, 233; IX, 73) indicate that he might have returned to Athens, in which case it is possible that he died there during an outbreak of the plague. Possibly he died in Macedonia instead, after obtaining the patronage of the court there; or else he died back in Thurii. There is nothing in the "Histories" that can be dated to later than 430 BC with any certainty, and it is generally assumed that he died not long afterwards, possibly before his sixtieth year.


title: Herodotus

text: Herodotus would have made his researches known to the larger world through oral recitations to a public crowd. John Marincola writes in his introduction to the Penguin edition of the "Histories" that there are certain identifiable pieces in the early books of Herodotus' work which could be labeled as "performance pieces". These portions of the research seem independent and "almost detachable", so that they might have been set aside by the author for the purposes of an oral performance. The intellectual matrix of the 5th century, Marincola suggests, comprised many oral performances in which philosophers would dramatically recite such detachable pieces of their work. The idea was to criticize previous arguments on a topic and emphatically and enthusiastically insert their own in order to win over the audience.


title: Herodotus

text: It was conventional in Herodotus' day for authors to "publish" their works by reciting them at popular festivals. According to Lucian, Herodotus took his finished work straight from Anatolia to the Olympic Games and read the entire "Histories" to the assembled spectators in one sitting, receiving rapturous applause at the end of it. According to a very different account by an ancient grammarian, Herodotus refused to begin reading his work at the festival of Olympia until some clouds offered him a bit of shade – by which time the assembly had dispersed. (Hence the proverbial expression "Herodotus and his shade" to describe someone who misses an opportunity through delay.) Herodotus' recitation at Olympia was a favourite theme among ancient writers, and there is another interesting variation on the story to be found in the "Suda": that of Photius


title: Herodotus

text: in which a young Thucydides happened to be in the assembly with his father, and burst into tears during the recital. Herodotus observed prophetically to the boy's father, "Your son's soul yearns for knowledge."


title: Herodotus

text: Eventually, Thucydides and Herodotus became close enough for both to be interred in Thucydides' tomb in Athens. Such at least was the opinion of Marcellinus in his "Life of Thucydides". According to the "Suda", he was buried in Macedonian Pella and in the agora in Thurium.


title: Herodotus

text: His record of the achievements of others was an achievement in itself, though the extent of it has been debated. Herodotus' place in history and his significance may be understood according to the traditions within which he worked. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact. However, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a literary critic of Augustan Rome, listed seven predecessors of Herodotus, describing their works as simple, unadorned accounts of their own and other cities and people, Greek or foreign, including popular legends, sometimes melodramatic and naïve, often charming – all traits that can be found in the work of Herodotus himself.


title: Herodotus

text: Modern historians regard the chronology as uncertain, but according to the ancient account, these predecessors included Dionysius of Miletus, Charon of Lampsacus, Hellanicus of Lesbos, Xanthus of Lydia and, the best attested of them all, Hecataeus of Miletus. Of these, only fragments of Hecataeus' works survived, and the authenticity of these is debatable, but they provide a glimpse into the kind of tradition within which Herodotus wrote his own "Histories".


title: Herodotus

text: It is on account of the many strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics have branded him "The Father of Lies". Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement. In fact, one modern scholar has wondered if Herodotus left his home in Greek Anatolia, migrating westwards to Athens and beyond, because his own countrymen had ridiculed his work, a circumstance possibly hinted at in an epitaph said to have been dedicated to Herodotus at one of his three supposed resting places, Thuria:


title: Herodotus

text: Yet it was in Athens where his most formidable contemporary critics could be found. In 425 BC, which is about the time that Herodotus is thought by many scholars to have died, the Athenian comic dramatist Aristophanes created "The Acharnians", in which he blames the Peloponnesian War on the abduction of some prostitutes – a mocking reference to Herodotus, who reported the Persians' account of their wars with Greece, beginning with the rapes of the mythical heroines Io, Europa, Medea, and Helen.


title: Herodotus

text: Similarly, the Athenian historian Thucydides dismissed Herodotus as a ""logos"-writer" (story-teller). Thucydides, who had been trained in rhetoric, became the model for subsequent prose-writers as an author who seeks to appear firmly in control of his material, whereas with his frequent digressions Herodotus appeared to minimize (or possibly disguise) his authorial control. Moreover, Thucydides developed a historical topic more in keeping with the Greek world-view: focused on the context of the "polis" or city-state. The interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such as Herodotus himself, for whom life within a foreign civilization was a recent memory.


title: Herodotus

text: Several English translations of Herodotus' "Histories" are readily available in multiple editions. The most readily available are those translated by:


title: Itaewon Class

text: Itaewon Class () is a 2020 South Korean television series starring Park Seo-joon, Kim Da-mi, Yoo Jae-myung, and Kwon Nara. Based on the webtoon of the same name, it is the first series to be produced by the film distribution company Showbox. It aired on JTBC in Korea from January 31 to March 21, 2020, and is streaming worldwide on Netflix. The series won Best Drama Series at the 25th Asian Television Awards.


title: Itaewon Class

text: Due to an accident which killed his father, Park Sae-ro-yi (Park Seo-joon) attempted to kill Jang Geun-won (Ahn Bo-hyun), the son of Jangga Group's founder, Jang Dae-hee (Yoo Jae-myung). He was jailed and the woman he loved, Oh Soo-ah (Kwon Na-ra), was offered a university scholarship by Jang Dae-hee and later became the Strategic Planning Head of Jangga Group.


title: Itaewon Class

text: After his release from prison, Park Sae-ro-yi opens Danbam in Itaewon. He wants to be successful and seeks revenge towards Jangga Group. However, he is not too smart at managing his business. He then meets Jo Yi-seo (Kim Da-mi).


title: Itaewon Class

text: The first script reading took place in August 2019 at JTBC Building in Sangam-dong, Seoul, South Korea.


title: Itaewon Class

text: The drama serves as a reunion between Park Seo-Joon and Yoo Jae-myung who previously worked together in the KBS2 drama .


title: Itaewon Class

text: The drama's soundtrack is compiled in a four-part album released on March 20, 2020. CDs 1 and 2 contain the drama's theme songs and their instrumental versions, while CDs 3 and 4 contain the drama's musical score. The following lists are the track listings for the online streaming version of the album.


title: Itaewon Class

text: "Itaewon Class"' final episode recorded a 16.548% nationwide audience share, making it the third-highest viewership rating in JTBC and the tenth highest rated drama in Korean cable television history. The drama was also praised for its realistic portrayal of subjects such as prejudice and discrimination against foreigners, ex-convicts and the LGBT people, as well as the portrayal of misbehaviours by chaebols.


title: Itaewon Class

text: "Time Magazine" included "Itaewon Class" on its list of "The 10 Best Korean Dramas to Watch on Netflix" and "Forbes" included the series on its list of "The 13 Best Korean Dramas Of 2020". "The Guardian" also mentioned the drama in an article recommending Korean dramas to watch after finishing "Squid Game". Google Trends revealed that the series was the first most searched drama/entertainment program of 2020 and the fourth most searched domestic term of 2020 in South Korea.


title: Britt Robertson

text: Brittany Leanna Robertson (born April 18, 1990) is an American actress. She is known for her lead role in "The First Time" (2012), and has appeared in the films "Tomorrowland" (2015), "The Space Between Us" (2017), "A Dog's Purpose" (2017), and "I Still Believe" (2020).


title: Britt Robertson

text: She appeared as Marnie Cooper in the opening scene of Wes Craven's "Scream 4" (2011). Robertson is also known for her starring roles in television series such as "Life Unexpected" (2010–2011), "The Secret Circle" (2011–2012), "Under the Dome" (2013–2014), "Girlboss" (2017), "For the People" (2018–2019), and "" (2022).


title: Britt Robertson

text: Robertson was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Beverly (née Hayes) and Ryan Robertson, a restaurant owner. Robertson grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. She is the oldest of seven children; her mother and stepfather have three children (two girls, one boy), and her father and stepmother also have three children (one girl, two boys).


title: Britt Robertson

text: When she was 14 years old, Robertson moved from North Carolina to Los Angeles to audition for TV pilots. Her grandmother Shuler Robertson came with her. Robertson said that they would knit together during down-time on set. She has been living on her own since her grandmother returned to North Carolina when Robertson was sixteen. They remain close.


title: Britt Robertson

text: Robertson first appeared before an audience when performing various roles on stage at the Greenville Little Theater in her hometown. At age 12, she began making extended trips to Los Angeles to audition for roles in television series' and landed a role in a television pilot for a series which was never picked up by a network. She made her screen debut as the younger version of the title character in an episode of "Sheena" in 2000. She made a guest appearance on "Power Rangers Time Force" the following year and received a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries, or Special – Leading Young Actress for her role in "The Ghost Club" (2003).


title: Britt Robertson

text: Robertson was selected to play Michelle Seaver in the "" in 2004. A role in "Keeping Up with the Steins" followed in 2006. She played Cara Burns in the 2007 film "Dan in Real Life". Robertson appeared in "" in the episode "Go to Hell", and had a role as a recurring character in the CBS television series "Swingtown".


title: Britt Robertson

text: In 2008, she played the protagonist in a Lifetime original film, "The Tenth Circle", based on Jodi Picoult's novel of the same name, followed by other television roles.


title: Britt Robertson

text: In 2009, she appeared in "Mother and Child". In the same year, she played a small role as DJ in "The Alyson Stoner Project". She also made a guest appearance on "" in the episode "Babes" as Tina Bernardi, a Catholic teen who gets pregnant in a pact. In late autumn 2010, she starred as Allie Pennington in the Disney Channel original film "Avalon High".


title: Britt Robertson

text: Robertson played the lead role of Lux Cassidy in the television drama series "Life Unexpected" (2010–2011), which was cancelled in its second season despite positive reviews. In 2011, she appeared in "Scream 4". She also had a leading role in the supernatural teen drama television series "The Secret Circle" (2011–2012), but after its first season, it was also cancelled. That same year, she starred in the film "The First Time".


title: Britt Robertson

text: In 2013, she joined the main cast of the science fiction mystery television series "Under the Dome" in the role of Angie, which she played until 2014. She had subsequent roles in the films "Delivery Man" (2013) and "Ask Me Anything" (2014), for which she won the Best Actress award at the Nashville Film Festival. In 2014, Robertson won the Boston Film Festival Award for Best Supporting Actress for "White Rabbit". In 2015, she starred in "The Longest Ride", and also played the starring role in the film "Tomorrowland", for which she was nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Sci-Fi/Fantasy.


title: Britt Robertson

text: Robertson received wider recognition in 2015 after landing the roles of Sophia Danko in "The Longest Ride"; she received a nomination for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Drama. In 2016, she starred in the films "Mr. Church" and "Mother's Day", and in 2017, she starred in the science fiction romance film "The Space Between Us" and in the comedy-drama film "A Dog's Purpose". That same year, she headlined the Netflix comedy television series "Girlboss", portraying a fictionalized version of self-made millionaire Sophia Amoruso. She starred in the ABC legal drama "For the People" for its entire two-season run.


title: Britt Robertson

text: In April 2019, Robertson was cast in the role of Melissa Henning, the real-life wife of Christian rock musician Jeremy Camp, in Lionsgate's faith-based biographical romance film "I Still Believe". The film was released in March 2020. In January 2021, Robertson was added to the cast of the ABC drama "Big Sky" as recurring character Cheyenne Kleinsasser. On July 30, 2021, Robertson was cast in the upcoming independent film "The Re-Education of Molly Singer" as the title character.


title: Britt Robertson

text: She dated Dylan O'Brien from 2011–2017. On May 25, 2022, Robertson announced her engagement to Paul Floyd.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות "Ḥăsīdus", ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contemporary Western Ukraine during the 18th century, and spread rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most affiliates reside in Israel and the United States.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: Israel Ben Eliezer, the "Baal Shem Tov", is regarded as its founding father, and his disciples developed and disseminated it. Present-day Hasidism is a sub-group within Haredi Judaism and is noted for its religious conservatism and social seclusion. Its members adhere closely both to Orthodox Jewish practice – with the movement's own unique emphases – and the traditions of Eastern European Jews. Many of the latter, including various special styles of dress and the use of the Yiddish language, are nowadays associated almost exclusively with Hasidism.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: Hasidic thought draws heavily on Lurianic Kabbalah, and, to an extent, is a popularization of it. Teachings emphasize God's immanence in the universe, the need to cleave and be one with Him at all times, the devotional aspect of religious practice, and the spiritual dimension of corporeality and mundane acts. "Hasidim", the adherents of Hasidism, are organized in independent sects known as "courts" or dynasties, each headed by its own hereditary leader, a Rebbe. Reverence and submission to the Rebbe are key tenets, as he is considered a spiritual authority with whom the follower must bond to gain closeness to God. The various "courts" share basic convictions, but operate apart and possess unique traits and customs. Affiliation is often retained in families for generations, and being Hasidic is as much a sociological factor – entailing birth into a specific community and allegiance to a dynasty of Rebbes – as it is a purely religious one. There are several "courts" with many thousands of member households each, and hundreds of smaller ones. , there were over 130,000 Hasidic households worldwide, about 5% of the global Jewish population.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: The terms "hasid" and "hasidut", meaning "pietist" and "piety", have a long history in Judaism. The Talmud and other old sources refer to the "Pietists of Old" ("Hasidim haRishonim") who would contemplate an entire hour in preparation for prayer. The phrase denoted extremely devoted individuals who not only observed the Law to its letter, but performed good deeds even beyond it. Adam himself is honored with the title, in tractate Eruvin 18b by Rabbi Meir: "Adam was a great "hasid", having fasted for 130 years." The first to adopt the epithet collectively were apparently the "hasidim" in Second Temple period Judea, known as Hasideans after the Greek rendering of their name, who perhaps served as the model for those mentioned in the Talmud. The title continued to be applied as an honorific for the exceptionally devout. In 12th-century Rhineland, or "Ashkenaz" in Jewish parlance, another prominent school of ascetics named themselves "hasidim"; to distinguish them from the rest, later research employed the term Ashkenazi Hasidim. In the 16th century, when Kabbalah spread, the title also became associated with it. Jacob ben Hayyim Zemah wrote in his glossa on Isaac Luria's version of the Shulchan Aruch that, "One who wishes to tap the hidden wisdom, must conduct himself in the manner of the Pious."


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: The movement founded by Israel Ben Eliezer in the 18th century adopted the term "hasidim" in the original connotation. But when the sect grew and developed specific attributes, from the 1770s, the names gradually acquired a new meaning. Its common adherents, belonging to groups each headed by a spiritual leader, were henceforth known as Hasidim. The transformation was slow: The movement was at first referred to as "New Hasidism" by outsiders (as recalled in the autobiography of Salomon Maimon), to separate it from the old one, and its enemies derisively mocked its members as "Mithasdim", "[those who] pretend [to be] "hasidim"". Yet, eventually, the young sect gained such a mass following that the old connotation was sidelined. In popular discourse, at least, "Hasid" came to denote someone who follows a religious teacher from the movement. It also entered Modern Hebrew as such, meaning "adherent" or "disciple". One was not merely a "Hasid" anymore, observed historian David Assaf, but a Hasid of someone or some dynasty in particular. This linguistic transformation paralleled that of the word "tzaddik", "righteous", which the Hasidic leaders adopted for themselves – though they are known colloquially as Rebbes or by the honorific "Admor". Originally denoting an observant, moral person, in Hasidic literature, "tzaddik" became synonymous with the often hereditary master heading a sect of followers.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: The lengthy history of Hasidism, the numerous schools of thought therein, and particularly its use of the traditional medium of homiletic literature and sermons – comprising numerous references to earlier sources in the Torah, Talmud and exegesis as a means to grounding oneself in tradition – as the almost sole channel to convey its ideas, all made the isolation of a common doctrine highly challenging to researchers. As noted by Joseph Dan, "Every attempt to present such a body of ideas has failed". Even motifs presented by scholars in the past as unique Hasidic contributions were later revealed to have been common among both their predecessors and opponents, all the more so regarding many other traits that are widely extant – these play, Dan added, "a prominent role in modern non-Hasidic and anti-Hasidic writings as well". The difficulty of separating the movement's philosophy from that of its main inspiration, Lurianic Kabbalah, and determining what was novel and what merely a recapitulation, also baffled historians. Some, like Louis Jacobs, regarded the early masters as innovators who introduced "much that was new if only by emphasis"; others, primarily Mendel Piekarz, argued to the contrary that but a little was not found in much earlier tracts, and the movement's originality lay in the manner it popularized these teachings to become the ideology of a well-organized sect.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: Among the traits particularly associated with Hasidism in common understanding which are in fact widespread, is the importance of joy and happiness at worship and religious life – though the sect undoubtedly stressed this aspect and still possesses a clear populist bent. Another example is the value placed on the simple, ordinary Jew in supposed contradiction with the favouring of elitist scholars beforehand; such ideas are common in ethical works far preceding Hasidism. The movement did for a few decades challenge the rabbinic establishment, which relied on the authority of Torah acumen, but affirmed the centrality of study very soon. Concurrently, the image of its Opponents as dreary intellectuals who lacked spiritual fervour and opposed mysticism is likewise unfounded. Neither did Hasidism, often portrayed as promoting healthy sensuality, unanimously reject the asceticism and self-mortification associated primarily with its rivals. Joseph Dan ascribed all these perceptions to so-called "Neo-Hasidic" writers and thinkers, like Martin Buber. In their attempt to build new models of spirituality for modern Jews, they propagated a romantic, sentimental image of the movement. The "Neo-Hasidic" interpretation influenced even scholarly discourse to a great degree, but had a tenuous connection with reality.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: A further complication is the divide between what researchers term "early Hasidism", which ended roughly in the 1810s, and established Hasidism since then onwards. While the former was a highly dynamic religious revival movement, the latter phase is characterized by consolidation into sects with hereditary leadership. The mystical teachings formulated during the first era were by no means repudiated, and many Hasidic masters remained consummate spiritualists and original thinkers; as noted by Benjamin Brown, Buber's once commonly accepted view that the routinization constituted "decadence" was refuted by later studies, demonstrating that the movement remained very much innovative. Yet many aspects of early Hasidism were indeed de-emphasized in favour of more conventional religious expressions, and its radical concepts were largely neutralized. Some Rebbes adopted a relatively rationalist bent, sidelining their explicit mystical, theurgical roles, and many others functioned almost solely as political leaders of large communities. As to their Hasidim, affiliation was less a matter of admiring a charismatic leader as in the early days, but rather birth into a family belonging to a specific "court".


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: The most fundamental theme underlying all Hasidic theory is the immanence of God in the universe, often expressed in a phrase from Tikunei haZohar, (Aramaic: "no site is devoid of Him"). This panentheistic concept was derived from Lurianic discourse, but greatly expanded in the Hasidic one. In the beginning, in order to create the world, God contracted ("Tzimtzum") His omnipresence, the "Ein Sof", leaving a Vacant Void (), bereft from obvious presence and therefore able to entertain free will, contradictions and other phenomena seemingly separate from God Himself. These would have been impossible within His original, perfect existence. Yet, the very reality of the world which was created in the Void is entirely dependent on its divine origin. Matter would have been null and void without the true, spiritual essence it possesses. Just the same, the infinite "Ein Sof" cannot manifest in the Vacant Void, and must limit itself in the guise of measurable corporeality that may be perceived.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: Thus, there is a dualism between the true aspect of everything and the physical side, false but ineluctable, with each evolving into the other: as God must compress and disguise Himself, so must humans and matter in general ascend and reunite with the Omnipresence. Rachel Elior quoted Shneur Zalman of Liadi, in his commentary "Torah Or" on Genesis 28:21, who wrote that ""this is the purpose of Creation, from Infinity to Finitude, so it may be reversed from the state of Finite to that of Infinity"". Kabbalah stressed the importance of this dialectic, but mainly (though not exclusively) evoked it in cosmic terms, referring for example to the manner in which God progressively diminished Himself into the world through the various dimensions, or "Sephirot". Hasidism applied it also to the most mundane details of human existence. All Hasidic schools devoted a prominent place in their teaching, with differing accentuation, to the interchanging nature of "Ein", both infinite and imperceptible, becoming "Yesh", "Existent" – and vice versa. They used the concept as a prism to gauge the world, and the needs of the spirit in particular. Elior noted: ""Reality lost its static nature and permanent value, now measured by a new standard, seeking to expose the Godly, boundless essence, manifest in its tangible, circumscribed opposite.""


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: One major derivative of this philosophy is the notion of "devekut", "communion". As God was everywhere, connection with Him had to be pursued ceaselessly as well, in all times, places and occasions. Such an experience was in the reach of every person, who only had to negate his inferior impulses and grasp the truth of divine immanence, enabling him to unite with it and attain the state of perfect, selfless bliss. Hasidic masters, well versed in the teachings concerning communion, are supposed not only to gain it themselves, but to guide their flock to it. "Devekut" was not a strictly defined experience; many varieties were described, from the utmost ecstasy of the learned leaders to the common man's more humble yet no less significant emotion during prayer.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: Closely linked with the former is "Bitul ha-Yesh", "Negation of the Existent", or of the "Corporeal". Hasidism teaches that while a superficial observance of the universe by the "eyes of the flesh" ("Einei ha-Basar") purportedly reflects the reality of all things profane and worldly, a true devotee must transcend this illusory façade and realize that there is nothing but God. It is not only a matter of perception, but very practical, for it entails also abandoning material concerns and cleaving only to the true, spiritual ones, oblivious to the surrounding false distractions of life. The practitioner's success in detaching from his sense of person, and conceive himself as "Ein" (in the double meaning of 'naught' and 'infinite'), is regarded as the highest state of elation in Hasidism. The true divine essence of man – the soul – may then ascend and return to the upper realm, where it does not possess an existence independent from God. This ideal is termed "Hitpashtut ha-Gashmi'yut", "the expansion (or removal) of corporeality". It is the dialectic opposite of God's contraction into the world.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: To be enlightened and capable of "Bitul ha-Yesh", pursuing the pure spiritual aims and defying the primitive impulses of the body, one must overcome his inferior "Bestial Soul", connected with the Eyes of the Flesh. He may be able to tap into his "Divine Soul" ("Nefesh Elohit"), which craves communion, by employing constant contemplation, "Hitbonenot", on the hidden Godly dimension of all that exists. Then he could understand his surroundings with the "Eyes of the Intellect". The ideal adherent was intended to develop equanimity, or "Hishtavut" in Hasidic parlance, toward all matters worldly, not ignoring them, but understanding their superficiality.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: Hasidic masters exhorted their followers to "negate themselves", paying as little heed as they could for worldly concerns, and thus, to clear the way for this transformation. The struggle and doubt of being torn between the belief in God's immanence and the very real sensual experience of the indifferent world is a key theme in the movement's literature. Many tracts have been devoted to the subject, acknowledging that the "callous and rude" flesh hinders one from holding fast to the ideal, and these shortcomings are extremely hard to overcome even in the purely intellectual level, a fortiori in actual life.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: Another implication of this dualism is the notion of "Worship through Corporeality", "Avodah be-Gashmi'yut". As the "Ein Sof" metamorphosed into substance, so may it in turn be raised back to its higher state; likewise, since the machinations in the higher "Sephirot" exert their influence on this world, even the most simple action may, if performed correctly and with understanding, achieve the reverse effect. According to Lurianic doctrine, the netherworld was suffused with divine sparks, concealed within "husks", "Qliphoth". The glints had to be recovered and elevated to their proper place in the cosmos. "Materiality itself could be embraced and consecrated", noted Glenn Dynner, and Hasidism taught that by common acts like dancing or eating, performed with intention, the sparks could be extricated and set free. "Avodah be-Gashmi'yut" had a clear, if not implicit, antinomian edge, possibly equating sacred rituals mandated by Judaism with everyday activities, granting them the same status in the believer's eyes and having him content to commit the latter at the expense of the former. While at some occasions the movement did appear to step at that direction – for example, in its early days, prayer and preparation for it consumed so much time that adherents were blamed of neglecting sufficient Torah study – Hasidic masters proved highly conservative. Unlike in other, more radical sects influenced by kabbalistic ideas, like the Sabbateans, Worship through Corporeality was largely limited to the elite and carefully restrained. The common adherents were taught they may engage it only mildly, through small deeds like earning money to support their leaders.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: The complementary opposite of corporeal worship, or the elation of the finite into infinite, is the concept of "Hamshacha", "drawing down" or "absorbing", and specifically, "Hamschat ha-Shefa", "absorption of effluence". During spiritual ascension, one could siphon the power animating the higher dimensions down into the material world, where it would manifest as benevolent influence of all kinds. These included spiritual enlightenment, zest in worship and other high-minded aims, but also the more prosaic health and healing, deliverance from various troubles and simple economic prosperity. Thus, a very tangible and alluring motivation to become followers emerged. Both corporeal worship and absorption allowed the masses to access, with common actions, a religious experience once deemed esoteric.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: Yet another reflection of the "Ein"-"Yesh" dialectic is pronounced in the transformation of evil to goodness and the relations between these two poles and other contradicting elements – including various traits and emotions of the human psyche, like pride and humility, purity and profanity, et cetera. Hasidic thinkers argued that in order to redeem the sparks hidden, one had to associate not merely with the corporeal, but with sin and evil. One example is the elevation of impure thoughts during prayer, transforming them to noble ones rather than repressing them, advocated mainly in the early days of the sect; or "breaking" one's own character by directly confronting profane inclinations. This aspect, once more, had sharp antinomian implications and was used by the Sabbateans to justify excessive sinning. It was mostly toned down in late Hasidism, and even before that, leaders were careful to stress that it was not exercised in the physical sense, but in the contemplative, spiritual one. This kabbalistic notion, too, was not unique to the movement and appeared frequently among other Jewish groups.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: While its mystical and ethical teachings are not easily sharply distinguished from those of other Jewish currents, the defining doctrine of Hasidism is that of the saintly leader, serving both as an ideal inspiration and an institutional figure around whom followers are organized. In the movement's sacral literature, this person is referred to as the "Tzaddiq", the Righteous One – often also known by the general honorific "Admor" (acronym of Hebrew for "our master, teacher and Rabbi"), granted to rabbis in general, or colloquially as Rebbe. The idea that, in every generation, there are righteous persons through whom the divine effluence is drawn to the material world is rooted in the kabbalistic thought, which also claims that one of them is supreme, the reincarnation of Moses. Hasidism elaborated the notion of the "Tzaddiq" into the basis of its entire system – so much that the very term gained an independent meaning within it, apart from the original which denoted God-fearing, highly observant people.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: When the sect began to attract following and expanded from a small circle of learned disciples to a mass movement, it became evident that its complex philosophy could be imparted only partially to the new rank and file. As even intellectuals struggled with the sublime dialectics of infinity and corporeality, there was little hope to have the common folk truly internalize these, not as mere abstractions to pay lip service to. Ideologues exhorted them to have faith, but the true answer, which marked their rise as a distinct sect, was the concept of the "Tzaddiq". A Hasidic master was to serve as a living embodiment of the recondite teachings. He was able to transcend matter, gain spiritual communion, Worship through Corporeality and fulfill all the theoretical ideals. As the vast majority of his flock could not do so themselves, they were to cleave to him instead, acquiring at least some semblance of those vicariously. His commanding and often – especially in the early generations – charismatic presence was to reassure the faithful and demonstrate the truth in Hasidic philosophy by countering doubts and despair. But more than spiritual welfare was concerned: Since it was believed he could ascend to the higher realms, the leader was able to harvest effluence and bring it down upon his adherents, providing them with very material benefits. "The crystallization of that theurgical phase", noted Glenn Dynner, "marked Hasidism's evolution into a full-fledged social movement."


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: In Hasidic discourse, the willingness of the leader to sacrifice the ecstasy and fulfillment of unity in God was deemed a heavy sacrifice undertaken for the benefit of the congregation. His followers were to sustain and especially to obey him, as he possessed superior knowledge and insight gained through communion. The "descent of the Righteous" ("Yeridat ha-Tzaddiq") into the matters of the world was depicted as identical with the need to save the sinners and redeem the sparks concealed in the most lowly places. Such a link between his functions as communal leader and spiritual guide legitimized the political power he wielded. It also prevented a retreat of Hasidic masters into hermitism and passivity, as many mystics before them did. Their worldly authority was perceived as part of their long-term mission to elevate the corporeal world back into divine infinity. To a certain extent, the Saint even fulfilled for his congregation, and for it alone, a limited Messianic capacity in his lifetime. After the Sabbatean debacle, this moderate approach provided a safe outlet for the eschatological urges. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov's works often reference the "True Tzaddikim", implying that he did not view himself as the "only" true Tzaddiq. The Rebbes were subject to intense hagiography, even subtly compared with Biblical figures by employing prefiguration. It was argued that since followers could not "negate themselves" sufficiently to transcend matter, they should instead "negate themselves" in submission to the Saint ("hitbatlut la-Tzaddiq"), thus bonding with him and enabling themselves to access what he achieved in terms of spirituality. The Righteous served as a mystical bridge, drawing down effluence and elevating the prayers and petitions of his admirers.


title: Hasidic Judaism

text: The Saintly forged a well-defined relationship with the masses: they provided the latter with inspiration, were consulted in all matters, and were expected to intercede on behalf of their adherents with God and ensure they gained financial prosperity, health and male offspring. The pattern still characterizes Hasidic sects, though prolonged routinization in many turned the Rebbes into de facto political leaders of strong, institutionalized communities. The role of a Saint was obtained by charisma, erudition and appeal in the early days of Hasidism. But by the dawn of the 19th century, the Righteous began to claim legitimacy by descent to the masters of the past, arguing that since they linked matter with infinity, their abilities had to be associated with their own corporeal body. Therefore, it was accepted "there can be no "Tzaddiq" but the son of a "Tzaddiq"". Virtually all modern sects maintain this hereditary principle. For example, the Rebbes' families maintain endogamy and marry almost solely with scions of other dynasties.