title: Capote (film)

text: To gain access to Smith and Hickock while they were on Death Row, Capote is shown bribing the warden. This incident is based on a quote from Clarke's biography but appears to be incorrect. According to fact checkers, Warden Sherman Crouse initially denied Capote access due to prison regulations which restricted contact with prisoners to immediate family and legal counsel. Capote then retained the firm of Saffels & Hope, who approached the governor of the state and worked out a deal.


title: Capote (film)

text: No non-fiction sources (including Clarke's) assert that Capote attempted to secure legal representation for Smith and Hickock as is shown in the film. The initial appeal was handled by public defenders and subsequent appeals by the Kansas Legal Aid Society after they were contacted by Hickock. This is mentioned in Capote's book and there is no evidence he ever offered to help find a lawyer.


title: Capote (film)

text: Capote mainly corresponded with Hickock and Smith through letters, visiting them in person less than half a dozen times. Extended stays at the prison are fictionalized, although some confrontations are based on real letters.


title: Capote (film)

text: "Capote" was released on VHS (as a public screener only) and DVD on March 14, 2006. It got American Blu-ray releases on February 17, 2009, October 8, 2012, and January 6, 2015.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, also known as GEB, is a 1979 book by Douglas Hofstadter.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: By exploring common themes in the lives and works of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, the book expounds concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence. Through short stories, illustrations, and analysis, the book discusses how systems can acquire meaningful context despite being made of "meaningless" elements. It also discusses self-reference and formal rules, isomorphism, what it means to communicate, how knowledge can be represented and stored, the methods and limitations of symbolic representation, and even the fundamental notion of "meaning" itself.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: In response to confusion over the book's theme, Hofstadter emphasized that "Gödel, Escher, Bach" is not about the relationships of mathematics, art, and music—but rather about how cognition emerges from hidden neurological mechanisms. One point in the book presents an analogy about how individual neurons in the brain coordinate to create a unified sense of a coherent mind by comparing it to the social organization displayed in a colony of ants.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: "Gödel, Escher, Bach" won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and the National Book Award for Science Hardcover.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: "Gödel, Escher, Bach" takes the form of interweaving narratives. The main chapters alternate with dialogues between imaginary characters, usually Achilles and the tortoise, first used by Zeno of Elea and later by Lewis Carroll in "What the Tortoise Said to Achilles". These origins are related in the first two dialogues, and later ones introduce new characters such as the Crab. These narratives frequently dip into self-reference and metafiction.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: Word play also features prominently in the work. Puns are occasionally used to connect ideas, such as "the Magnificrab, Indeed" with Bach's "Magnificat in D"; "SHRDLU, Toy of Man's Designing" with Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"; and "Typographical Number Theory", or "TNT", which inevitably reacts explosively when it attempts to make statements about itself. One dialogue contains a story about a genie (from the Arabic "Djinn") and various "tonics" (of both the liquid and musical varieties), which is titled "Djinn and Tonic".


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: One dialogue in the book is written in the form of a crab canon, in which every line before the midpoint corresponds to an identical line past the midpoint. The conversation still makes sense due to uses of common phrases that can be used as either greetings or farewells ("Good day") and the positioning of lines that double as an answer to a question in the next line. Another is a sloth canon, where one character repeats the lines of another, but slower and negated.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: The book contains many instances of recursion and self-reference, where objects and ideas speak about or refer back to themselves. One is Quining, a term Hofstadter invented in homage to Willard Van Orman Quine, referring to programs that produce their own source code. Another is the presence of a fictional author in the index, Egbert B. Gebstadter, a man with initials E, G, and B and a surname that partially matches Hofstadter. A phonograph dubbed "Record Player X" destroys itself by playing a record titled "I Cannot Be Played on Record Player X" (an analogy to Gödel's incompleteness theorems), an examination of canon form in music, and a discussion of Escher's lithograph of two hands drawing each other. To describe such self-referencing objects, Hofstadter coins the term "strange loop"—a concept he examines in more depth in his follow-up book "I Am a Strange Loop". To escape many of the logical contradictions brought about by these self-referencing objects, Hofstadter discusses Zen koans. He attempts to show readers how to perceive reality outside their own experience and embrace such paradoxical questions by rejecting the premise—a strategy also called "unasking".


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: Elements of computer science such as call stacks are also discussed in "Gödel, Escher, Bach", as one dialogue describes the adventures of Achilles and the Tortoise as they make use of "pushing potion" and "popping tonic" involving entering and leaving different layers of reality. The dialogue mentioned in the previous sentence also has a genie with a lamp containing another genie with another lamp and so on. Subsequent sections discuss the basic tenets of logic, self-referring statements, ("typeless") systems, and even programming. Hofstadter further creates BlooP and FlooP, two simple programming languages, to illustrate his point.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: The book is filled with puzzles, including Hofstadter's MU puzzle, which contrasts reasoning within a defined logical system with reasoning about that system. Another example can be found in the chapter titled "Contracrostipunctus", which combines the words "acrostic" and "contrapunctus" (counterpoint). In this dialogue between Achilles and the Tortoise, the author hints that there is a contrapunctal acrostic in the chapter that refers both to the author (Hofstadter) and Bach. This can be spelled out by taking the first word of each paragraph, to reveal "Hofstadter's Contracrostipunctus Acrostically Backwards Spells J. S. Bach". The second acrostic is found by taking the first letters of the words of the first, and reading them backwards to get "J S Bach", as the acrostic sentence self-referentially states.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: Martin Gardner's July 1979 column in "Scientific American" stated, "Every few decades, an unknown author brings out a book of such depth, clarity, range, wit, beauty and originality that it is recognized at once as a major literary event."


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: For Summer 2007, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created an online course for high school students built around the book.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: In its February 19, 2010 investigative summary on the 2001 anthrax attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation suggested that Bruce Edwards Ivins was inspired by the book to hide secret codes based upon nucleotide sequences in the anthrax-laced letters he allegedly sent in September and October 2001, using bold letters, as suggested on page 404 of the book. It was also suggested that he attempted to hide the book from investigators by throwing it in the trash.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: In 2019, British mathematician Marcus du Sautoy curated a series of events at London's Barbican Centre to celebrate the book's fortieth anniversary.


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: Hofstadter claims the idea of translating his book "never crossed [his] mind" when he was writing it—but when his publisher brought it up, he was "very excited about seeing [the] book in other languages, especially… French." He knew, however, that "there were a million issues to consider" when translating, since the book relies not only on word-play, but on "structural puns" as well—writing where the form and content of the work mirror each other (such as the "Crab canon" dialogue, which reads almost exactly the same forwards as backwards).


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: Hofstadter gives an example of translation trouble in the paragraph "Mr. Tortoise, Meet Madame Tortue", saying translators "instantly ran headlong into the conflict between the feminine gender of the French noun "tortue" and the masculinity of my character, the Tortoise." Hofstadter agreed to the translators' suggestions of naming the French character "Madame Tortue", and the Italian version "Signorina Tartaruga". Because of other troubles translators might have retaining meaning, Hofstadter "painstakingly went through every sentence of "Gödel, Escher, Bach", annotating a copy for translators into any language that might be targeted."


title: Gödel, Escher, Bach

text: Translation also gave Hofstadter a way to add new meaning and puns. For instance, in Chinese, the subtitle is not a translation of "an Eternal Golden Braid", but a seemingly unrelated phrase "Jí Yì Bì" (集异璧, literally "collection of exotic jades"), which is homophonic to "GEB" in Chinese. Some material regarding this interplay is in Hofstadter's later book, "Le Ton beau de Marot", which is mainly about translation.


title: Korean conflict

text: The Korean conflict is an ongoing conflict based on the division of Korea between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and South Korea (Republic of Korea), both of which claim to be the sole legitimate government of all of Korea. During the Cold War, North Korea was backed by the Soviet Union, China, and other allies, while South Korea was backed by the United States and its Western allies.


title: Korean conflict

text: The division of Korea by the United States and the Soviet Union occurred in 1945. Both superpowers created a government in their own image. Tensions erupted into the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953. When the war ended, both countries were devastated but the division remained. North and South Korea continued a military standoff, with periodic clashes. The conflict survived the end of the Cold War and continues to this day.


title: Korean conflict

text: The US maintains a military presence in the South to assist South Korea in accordance with the ROK–US Mutual Defense Treaty. In 1997, US President Bill Clinton described the division of Korea as the "Cold War's last divide". In 2002, US President George W. Bush described North Korea as a member of an "axis of evil". Facing increasing isolation, North Korea developed missile and nuclear capabilities.


title: Korean conflict

text: Following heightened tension throughout 2017, 2018 saw North and South Korea, and the US, holding a series of summits which promised peace and nuclear disarmament. This led to the Panmunjom Declaration on 27 April 2018, when the North and the South agreed to work together to denuclearize the peninsula, improve inter-Korean relations, end the conflict and move towards the peaceful reunification.


title: Korean conflict

text: Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan on 22 August 1910 and ruled by it until 2 September 1945. During the Japanese occupation of Korea, nationalist and radical groups emerged, mostly in exile, to struggle for independence. Divergent in their outlooks and approaches, these groups failed to unite into a single national movement. Based in China, the Korean Provisional Government failed to obtain widespread recognition. The many leaders advocating for Korean independence included the conservative and US-educated Syngman Rhee, who lobbied the US government, and the Communist Kim Il-sung, who fought a guerrilla war against the Japanese from neighboring Manchuria to the north of Korea.


title: Korean conflict

text: Following the end of the occupation, many high-ranking Koreans were accused of collaborating with Japanese imperialism. An intense and bloody struggle between various figures and political groups aspiring to lead Korea ensued.


title: Korean conflict

text: On 9 August 1945, as agreed by the Allies at the Yalta Conference, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and advanced into Korea. The US government requested that the Soviet advance stop at the 38th parallel. The US forces were to occupy the area south of the 38th parallel, including the capital, Seoul. This division of Korea into two zones of occupation was incorporated into General Order No. 1 which was given to Japanese forces after the surrender of Japan on 15 August. On 24 August, the Red Army entered Pyongyang and established a military government over Korea north of the parallel. American forces landed in the south on 8 September and established the US Army Military Government in Korea.


title: Korean conflict

text: The Allies had originally envisaged a joint trusteeship which would steer Korea towards independence, but most Korean nationalists wanted independence immediately. Meanwhile, the wartime co-operation between the Soviet Union and the US deteriorated as the Cold War took hold. Both occupying powers began promoting into positions of authority Koreans aligned with their side of politics and marginalizing their opponents. Many of these emerging political leaders were returning exiles with little popular support. In North Korea, the Soviet Union supported Korean communists. Kim Il-sung, who from 1941 had served in the Soviet Army, became the major political figure. Society was centralized and collectivized, following the Soviet model. Politics in the South were more tumultuous, but the strongly anti-communist Syngman Rhee, who had been educated in the US, was positioned as the most prominent politician.


title: Korean conflict

text: In South Korea, a general election was held on 10 May 1948. The Republic of Korea (or ROK) was established with Syngman Rhee as president, and formally replaced the US military occupation on 15 August. In North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) was declared on 9 September, with Kim Il-sung, as prime minister. Soviet occupation forces left the DPRK on 10 December 1948. US forces left the ROK the following year, though the US Korean Military Advisory Group remained to train the Republic of Korea Army. The new regimes even adopted different names for Korea: the North choosing "Choson", and the South "Hanguk".


title: Korean conflict

text: Both opposing governments considered themselves to be the government of the whole of Korean Peninsula (as they do to this day), and both saw the division as temporary. Kim Il-sung lobbied Stalin and Mao for support in a war of reunification, while Syngman Rhee repeatedly expressed his desire to conquer the North. In 1948, North Korea, which had almost all of the generators, turned off the electricity supply to the South. In the lead-up to the outbreak of civil war, there were frequent clashes along the 38th parallel, especially at Kaesong and Ongjin, initiated by both sides.


title: Korean conflict

text: Throughout this period there were uprisings in the South, such as the Jeju Uprising and the Yeosu–Suncheon Rebellion, that were brutally suppressed. In all, over one hundred thousand people died in fighting across Korea before the Korean War began.


title: Korean conflict

text: By 1950, North Korea had clear military superiority over the South. The Soviet occupiers had armed it with surplus weaponry and provided training. Many troops returning to North Korea were battle-hardened from their participation in the Chinese Civil War, which had just ended. Kim Il-sung expected a quick victory, predicting that there would be pro-communist uprisings in the South and that the US would not intervene. Rather than perceiving the conflict as a civil war, however, the West saw it in Cold War terms as communist aggression, related to recent events in China and Eastern Europe.


title: Korean conflict

text: North Korea invaded the South on 25 June 1950, and swiftly overran most of the country. In September 1950 United Nations force, led by the US, intervened to defend the South, and following the Incheon Landing and breakout from the Pusan Perimeter, rapidly advanced into North Korea. As the UN force neared the border with China, Chinese forces intervened on behalf of North Korea, shifting the balance of the war again. Fighting ended on 27 July 1953, with an armistice that approximately restored the original boundaries between North and South Korea.


title: Korean conflict

text: Korea was devastated. Around three million civilians and soldiers had been killed. Seoul was in ruins, having changed hands four times. Several million North Korean refugees fled to the South. Almost every substantial building in North Korea had been destroyed. As a result, North Koreans developed a deep-seated antagonism towards the US.


title: Korean conflict

text: Negotiations for an armistice began on 10 July 1951, as the war continued. The main issues were the establishment of a new demarcation line and the exchange of prisoners. After Stalin died, the Soviet Union brokered concessions which led to an agreement on 27 July 1953.


title: Korean conflict

text: President Syngman Rhee opposed the armistice because it left Korea divided. As negotiations drew to a close, he attempted to sabotage the arrangements for the release of prisoners, and led mass rallies against the armistice. He refused to sign the agreement, but reluctantly agreed to abide by it.


title: Korean conflict

text: The armistice inaugurated an official ceasefire but did not lead to a peace treaty for two Koreas. It established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a buffer zone between the two sides, that intersected the 38th parallel but did not follow it. Despite its name, the border was, and continues to be, one of the most militarized in the world.


title: Korean conflict

text: North Korea announced that it would no longer abide by the armistice at least six times, in the years 1994, 1996, 2003, 2006, 2009, and 2013.


title: Korean conflict

text: After the war, the Chinese forces left, but US forces remained in the South. Sporadic conflict continued. The North's occupation of the South left behind a guerrilla movement that persisted in the Cholla provinces. On 1 October 1953, the United States and South Korea signed a defense treaty. In 1958, the United States stationed nuclear weapons in South Korea. In 1961, North Korea signed mutual defense treaties with the USSR and China. In the Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty China pledged to immediately render military and other assistance by all means to North Korea against any outside attack. During this period, North Korea was described by former CIA director Robert Gates to be the "toughest intelligence target in the world". Alongside the military confrontation, there was a propaganda war, including balloon propaganda campaigns.


title: Korean conflict

text: The opposing regimes aligned themselves with opposing sides in the Cold War. Both sides received recognition as the legitimate government of Korea from the opposing blocs. South Korea became a strongly anti-Communist military dictatorship. North Korea presented itself as a champion of orthodox Communism, distinct from the Soviet Union and China. The regime developed the doctrine of Juche or self-reliance, which included extreme military mobilization. In response to the threat of nuclear war, it constructed extensive facilities underground and in the mountains. The Pyongyang Metro opened in the 1970s, with the capacity to double as bomb shelter. Until the early 1970s, North Korea was economically the equal of the South.


title: Korean conflict

text: South Korea was heavily involved in the Vietnam War. Hundreds of North Korean fighter pilots went to Vietnam, shooting down 26 US aircraft. Teams of North Korean psychological warfare specialists targeted South Korean troops, and Vietnamese guerrillas were trained in the North.


title: Korean conflict

text: Tensions between North and South escalated in the late 1960s with a series of low-level armed clashes known as the Korean DMZ Conflict. In 1966, Kim declared "liberation of the south" to be a "national duty". In 1968, North Korean commandos launched the Blue House raid, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the South Korean President Park Chung-hee. Shortly after, the American spy ship USS "Pueblo" was captured by the North Korean navy. The Americans saw the crisis in terms of the global confrontation with Communism, but, rather than orchestrating the incident, the Soviet government was concerned by it. The crisis was initiated by Kim, inspired by Communist successes in the Vietnam War.


title: Korean conflict

text: In 1967, Korean-born composer Isang Yun was kidnapped in West Germany by South Korean agents and imprisoned in South Korea on the charge of spying for the North. He was released after an international outcry.


title: Korean conflict

text: In 1969, North Korea shot down a US EC-121 spy plane over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 crew on board, which constituted the largest single loss of US aircrew during the Cold War. In 1969, Korean Air Lines YS-11 was hijacked and flown to North Korea. Similarly, in 1970, the hijackers of Japan Airlines Flight 351 were given asylum in North Korea. In response to the Blue House raid, the South Korean government set up a special unit to assassinate Kim Il-sung, but the mission was aborted in 1972.


title: Korean conflict

text: In 1974 a North Korean sympathizer attempted to assassinate President Park and killed his wife, Yuk Young-soo. In 1976, the Panmunjeom Axe incident led to the death of two US Army officers in the DMZ and threatened to trigger a wider war. In the 1970s, North Korea kidnapped a number of Japanese citizens.


title: Korean conflict

text: In 1976, in now-declassified minutes, US Deputy Secretary of Defense William Clements told Henry Kissinger that there had been 200 raids or incursions into North Korea from the South, though not by the US military. According to South Korean politicians who have campaigned for compensation for the survivors, more than 7,700 secret agents infiltrated North Korea from 1953 to 1972, of which about 5,300 are believed not to have returned. Details of only a few of these incursions have become public, including raids by South Korean forces in 1967 that had sabotaged about 50 North Korean facilities. Other missions included targeting advisers from China and the Soviet Union in order to undermine relations between North Korea and its allies.


title: Korean conflict

text: The East German leader, Erich Honecker, who visited in 1977, was one of Kim Il-sung's closest foreign friends. In 1986, East Germany and North Korea signed an agreement on military co-operation. Kim was also close to maverick Communist leaders, Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, and Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania.


title: Korean conflict

text: Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi met with Kim Il Sung and was a close ally of the DPRK. North Korea began to play a part in the global radical movement, forging ties with such diverse groups as the Black Panther Party of the US, the Workers Party of Ireland, and the African National Congress. As it increasingly emphasized its independence, North Korea began to promote the doctrine of "Juche" ("self-reliance") as an alternative to orthodox Marxism-Leninism and as a model for developing countries to follow.


title: Korean conflict

text: When North-South dialogue started in 1972, North Korea began to receive diplomatic recognition from countries outside the Communist bloc. Within four years, North Korea was recognized by 93 countries, on par with South Korea's recognition by 96 countries. North Korea gained entry into the World Health Organization and, as a result, sent its first permanent observer missions to the United Nations (UN). In 1975, it joined the Non-Aligned Movement.


title: Korean conflict

text: During the 1970s, both North and South began building up their military capacity. It was discovered that North Korea had dug tunnels under the DMZ which could accommodate thousands of troops. Alarmed at the prospect of US disengagement, South Korea began a secret nuclear weapons program which was strongly opposed by Washington.


title: Korean conflict

text: In 1977, US President Jimmy Carter proposed the withdrawal of troops from South Korea. There was a widespread backlash in America and in South Korea, and critics argued that this would allow the North to capture Seoul. Carter postponed the move, and his successor Ronald Reagan reversed the policy, increasing troop numbers to forty-three thousand. After Reagan supplied the South with F-16 fighters, and after Kim Il-sung visited Moscow in 1984, the USSR recommenced military aid and co-operation with the North.


title: Korean conflict

text: Unrest in South Korea came to a head with the Gwangju Uprising in 1980. The dictatorship equated dissent with North Korean subversion. On the other hand, some young protesters viewed the US as complicit in political repression and identified with the North's nationalist propaganda.


title: Korean conflict

text: In 1983 North Korea carried out the Rangoon bombing, a failed assassination attempt against South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan while he was visiting Burma. The bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 in 1987, in the lead up to the Seoul Olympics, led to the US government placing North Korea on its list of terrorist countries. North Korea launched a boycott of the Games, supported by Cuba, Ethiopia, Albania and the Seychelles.


title: Korean conflict

text: In 1986, former South Korean foreign minister Choe Deok-sin defected to North Korea, becoming a leader of the Chondoist Chongu Party.


title: Korean conflict

text: In the 1980s, the South Korean government built a tall flagpole in the village of Daeseong-dong in the DMZ. In response, North Korea built a tall flagpole in the nearby village of Kijŏng-dong.


title: Korean conflict

text: As the Cold War ended, North Korea lost the support of the Soviet Union and plunged into an economic crisis. With the death of leader Kim Il-sung in 1994, there were expectations that the North Korean government could collapse and the peninsula would be reunified.


title: Korean conflict

text: In 1994, US President Bill Clinton considered bombing the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, but he later dismissed this option when he was advised that if war broke out, it could cost 52,000 US and 490,000 South Korean military casualties in the first three months, as well as a large number of civilian casualties. Instead, in 1994, the US and North Korea signed an Agreed Framework which aimed to freeze North Korea's nuclear program. In 1998, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung initiated the Sunshine Policy which aimed to foster better relations with the North. However, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, US President George W. Bush denounced the policy, and in 2002 branded North Korea a member of an "Axis of Evil". Six-party talks involving North and South Korea, the United States, Russia, Japan, and China commenced in 2003 but failed to achieve a resolution. In 2006, North Korea announced it had successfully conducted its first nuclear test. The Sunshine Policy was formally abandoned by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak after his election in 2007.


title: Korean conflict

text: At the start of the twenty first century, it was estimated that the concentration of firepower in the area between Pyongyang and Seoul was greater than that in central Europe during the Cold War. The North's Korean People's Army was numerically twice the size of South Korea's military and had the capacity to devastate Seoul with artillery and missile bombardment. South Korea's military, however, was assessed as being technically superior in many ways. US forces remained in South Korea and carried out annual military exercises with South Korean forces, including Key Resolve, Foal Eagle, and Ulchi-Freedom Guardian. These were routinely denounced by North Korea as acts of aggression. Between 1997 and 2016, the North Korea government accused other governments of declaring war against it 200 times. Analysts have described the US garrison as a tripwire ensuring American military involvement, but some have queried whether sufficient reinforcements would be forthcoming.


title: Korean conflict

text: During this period, two North Korean submarines were captured after being stranded on the South Korean coast, one near Gangneung in 1996 and one near Sokcho in 1998. In December 1998, the South Korean navy sank a North Korean semi-submersible in the Battle of Yeosu. In 2001, the Japanese Coast Guard sank a North Korean spy ship in the Battle of Amami-Ōshima.


title: Korean conflict

text: Conflict intensified near the disputed maritime boundary known as the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea. In 1999 and 2002, there were clashes between the navies of North and South Korea, known as the First and Second battle of Yeonpyeong. On 26 March 2010, a South Korean naval vessel, the ROKS Cheonan, sank, near Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea and a North Korean torpedo was blamed. On 23 November 2010, in response to a joint military exercise, North Korea fired artillery at South Korea's Greater Yeonpyeong island in the Yellow Sea, and South Korea returned fire.


title: Korean conflict

text: In 2013, amidst tensions about its missile program, North Korea forced the temporary shutdown of the jointly operated Kaesong Industrial Region. The zone was shut again in 2016. A South Korean parliamentarian was convicted of plotting a campaign of sabotage to support the North in 2013 and jailed for 12 years. In 2014, according to the "New York Times", US President Barack Obama ordered the intensification of cyber and electronic warfare to disrupt North Korea's missile testing, but this account has been disputed by analysts from the Nautilus Institute.


title: Korean conflict

text: In 2016, in the face of protests, South Korea decided to deploy the US THAAD anti-missile system. After North Korea's fifth nuclear test in September 2016, it was reported that South Korea had developed a plan to raze Pyongyang if there were signs of an impending nuclear attack from the North. A North Korean numbers station started broadcasting again, after a break of 16 years, apparently sending coded messages to agents in the South. As South Korea was convulsed by scandal, North Korea enthusiastically supported the removal of President Park Geun-hye, intensifying leaflet drops. In turn, Park's supporters accused the opposition Liberty Korea Party of basing its logo on Pyongyang's Juche Tower.


title: Korean conflict

text: In March 2017, it was reported that the South Korean government had increased the rewards to North Korean defectors who brought classified information or military equipment with them. It was also reported that in 2016 North Korea hackers had stolen classified South Korean military data, including a plan for the killing of Kim Jong-un. According to cybersecurity experts, North Korea maintained an army of hackers trained to disrupt enemy computer networks and steal both money and sensitive data. In the previous decade, it was blamed for numerous cyber-attacks and other hacking attacks in South Korea and elsewhere, including the hack of Sony Pictures supposedly in retaliation for the release of the 2013 film "The Interview", which depicts the assassination of Kim Jong-un.


title: Korean conflict

text: 2017 saw a period of heightened tension between the US and North Korea. Early in the year, the incoming US President Donald Trump abandoned the policy of "strategic patience" associated with the preceding Obama administration. Later in the year, Moon Jae-in was elected President of South Korea with a promise to return to the Sunshine Policy. On 4 July 2017, North Korea successfully conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), named Hwasong-14. It conducted another test on 28 July. On 5 August 2017, the UN imposed further sanctions which were met with defiance from the North Korean government.


title: Korean conflict

text: Following the sanctions, Trump warned that North Korean nuclear threats "will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which the world has never seen before". In response, North Korea announced that it was considering a missile test in which the missiles would land near the US territory of Guam. On 29 August, North Korea fired another missile. Days later with tensions still high, North Korea conducted their sixth nuclear test on 3 September. The test was met with international condemnation and resulted in further economic sanctions being taken against North Korea. On 28 November, North Korea launched a further missile, which, according to analysts, would be capable of reaching anywhere in the United States. The test resulted in the United Nations placing further sanctions on the country.


title: Korean conflict

text: In January 2018, the Vancouver Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Security and Stability on Korean Peninsula was co-hosted by Canada and the USA regarding ways to increase the effectiveness of the sanctions on North Korea. The co-chairs (Canadian Foreign Minister Freeland and US Secretary of State Tillerson) issued a summary that emphasized the urgency of persuading North Korea to denuclearize and emphasizing the need for sanctions to create conditions for a diplomatic solution.


title: Korean conflict

text: When Kim Jong-un proposed participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea in his New Year's address, the Seoul–Pyongyang hotline was reopened after almost two years. In February, North Korea sent an unprecedented high-level delegation to the Games, headed by Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong-un, and President Kim Yong-nam, which passed on an invitation to President Moon to visit the North. Kim Jong-un and Moon met at the Joint Security Area on 27 April, where they announced that their governments would work toward a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and formalize peace between North and South Korea. On 12 June, Kim met with Donald Trump at a summit in Singapore and signed a declaration, affirming the same commitment. Trump announced that he would halt military exercises with South Korea and foreshadowed withdrawing American troops entirely.


title: Korean conflict

text: In September 2018, at a summit with Moon in Pyongyang, Kim agreed to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons facilities if the United States took reciprocal action. The two governments also announced that they would establish buffer zones on their borders to prevent clashes. On 1 November, buffer zones were established across the DMZ to help ensure the end of hostility on land, sea and air. The buffer zones stretched from the north of Deokjeok Island to the south of Cho Island in the West Sea and the north of Sokcho city and south of Tongchon County in the East (Yellow) Sea. In addition, no fly zones were established along the DMZ.


title: Korean conflict

text: In February 2019 in Hanoi, a second summit between Kim and Trump broke down without an agreement. On June 30, 2019, President Trump met with Kim Jong-un along with Moon Jae-in at the DMZ, making him the first sitting US president to enter North Korea. Talks in Stockholm began on 5 October 2019 between US and North Korean negotiating teams, but broke down after one day. In June 2020, North Korea demolished the inter-Korean joint liaison office in Kaesong.


title: Korean conflict

text: In February 2021, South Korea continued to omit North Korea's "enemy" status from the South Korean military's White Paper. In late 2021, President Moon, nearing the end of his five-year term, convened a forum, "Declaration of the End of the War: The Limitations and Prospects" continuing to seek a diplomatic breakthrough; but this was opposed by some speakers, including representatives of the People Power Party.


title: Korean conflict

text: On 9 September 2022, North Korea passed a law to declare itself a nuclear weapons state. In November 2022, a US-South Korean air force exercise called Vigilant Storm was countered by missile tests and an air force exercise by North Korea.


title: Water purification

text: Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids, and gases from water. The goal is to produce water that is fit for specific purposes. Most water is purified and disinfected for human consumption (drinking water), but water purification may also be carried out for a variety of other purposes, including medical, pharmacological, chemical, and industrial applications. The history of water purification includes a wide variety of methods. The methods used include physical processes such as filtration, sedimentation, and distillation; biological processes such as slow sand filters or biologically active carbon; chemical processes such as flocculation and chlorination; and the use of electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light.


title: Water purification

text: Water purification can reduce the concentration of particulate matter including suspended particles, parasites, bacteria, algae, viruses, and fungi as well as reduce the concentration of a range of dissolved and particulate matter.


title: Water purification

text: The standards for drinking water quality are typically set by governments or by international standards. These standards usually include minimum and maximum concentrations of contaminants, depending on the intended use of the water.


title: Water purification

text: cannot determine if water meets their quality standards. Simple procedures such as boiling or the use of a household activated carbon filter are not sufficient for treating all possible contaminants that may be present in water from an unknown source. Even natural spring water – considered safe for all practical purposes in the 19th century – must now be tested before determining what kind of treatment, if any, is needed. Chemical and microbiological analysis, while expensive, are the only way to obtain the information necessary for deciding on the appropriate method of purification.


title: Water purification

text: According to a 2007 World Health Organization (WHO) report, 1.1 billion people lack access to an improved drinking water supply; 88% of the 4 billion annual cases of diarrheal disease are attributed to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene, while 1.8 million people die from diarrhoeal disease each year. The WHO estimates that 94% of these diarrhoeal disease cases are preventable through modifications to the environment, including access to safe water. Simple techniques for treating water at home, such as chlorination, filters, and solar disinfection, and for storing it in safe containers could save a huge number of lives each year. Reducing deaths from waterborne diseases is a major public health goal in developing countries.


title: Water purification

text: The goals of the treatment are to remove unwanted constituents in the water and to make it safe to drink or fit for a specific purpose in industry or medical applications. Widely varied techniques are available to remove contaminants like fine solids, micro-organisms and some dissolved inorganic and organic materials, or environmental persistent pharmaceutical pollutants. The choice of method will depend on the quality of the water being treated, the cost of the treatment process and the quality standards expected of the processed water.


title: Water purification

text: The processes below are the ones commonly used in water purification plants. Some or most may not be used depending on the scale of the plant and quality of the raw (source) water.


title: Water purification

text: Pure water has a pH close to 7 (neither alkaline nor acidic). Sea water can have pH values that range from 7.5 to 8.4 (moderately alkaline). Fresh water can have widely ranging pH values depending on the geology of the drainage basin or aquifer and the influence of contaminant inputs (acid rain). If the water is acidic (lower than 7), lime, soda ash, or sodium hydroxide can be added to raise the pH during water purification processes. Lime addition increases the calcium ion concentration, thus raising the water hardness. For highly acidic waters, forced draft degasifiers can be an effective way to raise the pH, by stripping dissolved carbon dioxide from the water. Making the water alkaline helps coagulation and flocculation processes work effectively and also helps to minimise the risk of lead being dissolved from lead pipes and from lead solder in pipe fittings. Sufficient alkalinity also reduces the corrosiveness of water to iron pipes. Acid (carbonic acid, hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid) may be added to alkaline waters in some circumstances to lower the pH. Alkaline water (above pH 7.0) does not necessarily mean that lead or copper from the plumbing system will not be dissolved into the water. The ability of water to precipitate calcium carbonate to protect metal surfaces and reduce the likelihood of toxic metals being dissolved in water is a function of pH, mineral content, temperature, alkalinity and calcium concentration.


title: Water purification

text: One of the first steps in most conventional water purification processes is the addition of chemicals to assist in the removal of particles suspended in water. Particles can be inorganic such as clay and silt or organic such as algae, bacteria, viruses, protozoa and natural organic matter. Inorganic and organic particles contribute to the turbidity and color of water.


title: Water purification

text: The addition of inorganic coagulants such as aluminium sulfate (or alum) or iron (III) salts such as iron(III) chloride cause several simultaneous chemical and physical interactions on and among the particles. Within seconds, negative charges on the particles are neutralised by inorganic coagulants. Also within seconds, metal hydroxide precipitates of the iron and aluminium ions begin to form. These precipitates combine into larger particles under natural processes such as Brownian motion and through induced mixing which is sometimes referred to as flocculation. Amorphous metal hydroxides are known as "floc". Large, amorphous aluminium and iron (III) hydroxides adsorb and enmesh particles in suspension and facilitate the removal of particles by subsequent processes of sedimentation and filtration.


title: Water purification

text: Aluminum hydroxides are formed within a fairly narrow pH range, typically: 5.5 to about 7.7. Iron (III) hydroxides can form over a larger pH range including pH levels lower than are effective for alum, typically: 5.0 to 8.5.


title: Water purification

text: In the literature, there is much debate and confusion over the usage of the terms coagulation and flocculation: Where does coagulation end and flocculation begin? In water purification plants, there is usually a high energy, rapid mix unit process (detention time in seconds) whereby the coagulant chemicals are added followed by flocculation basins (detention times range from 15 to 45 minutes) where low energy inputs turn large paddles or other gentle mixing devices to enhance the formation of floc. In fact, coagulation and flocculation processes are ongoing once the metal salt coagulants are added.


title: Water purification

text: Organic polymers were developed in the 1960s as aids to coagulants and, in some cases, as replacements for the inorganic metal salt coagulants. Synthetic organic polymers are high molecular weight compounds that carry negative, positive or neutral charges. When organic polymers are added to water with particulates, the high molecular weight compounds adsorb onto particle surfaces and through interparticle bridging coalesce with other particles to form floc. PolyDADMAC is a popular cationic (positively charged) organic polymer used in water purification plants.


title: Water purification

text: Waters exiting the flocculation basin may enter the sedimentation basin, also called a clarifier or settling basin. It is a large tank with low water velocities, allowing floc to settle to the bottom. The sedimentation basin is best located close to the flocculation basin so the transit between the two processes does not permit settlement or floc break up. Sedimentation basins may be rectangular, where water flows from end to end, or circular where flow is from the centre outward. Sedimentation basin outflow is typically over a weir so only a thin top layer of water—that furthest from the sludge—exits.


title: Water purification

text: In 1904, Allen Hazen showed that the efficiency of a sedimentation process was a function of the particle settling velocity, the flow through the tank and the surface area of tank. Sedimentation tanks are typically designed within a range of overflow rates of 0.5 to 1.0 gallons per minute per square foot (or 1250 to 2500 litres per square meter per hour). In general, sedimentation basin efficiency is not a function of detention time or depth of the basin. Although, basin depth must be sufficient so that water currents do not disturb the sludge and settled particle interactions are promoted. As particle concentrations in the settled water increase near the sludge surface on the bottom of the tank, settling velocities can increase due to collisions and agglomeration of particles. Typical detention times for sedimentation vary from 1.5 to 4 hours and basin depths vary from 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 meters).


title: Water purification

text: Inclined flat plates or tubes can be added to traditional sedimentation basins to improve particle removal performance. Inclined plates and tubes drastically increase the surface area available for particles to be removed in concert with Hazen's original theory. The amount of ground surface area occupied by a sedimentation basin with inclined plates or tubes can be far smaller than a conventional sedimentation basin.


title: Water purification

text: As particles settle to the bottom of a sedimentation basin, a layer of sludge is formed on the floor of the tank which must be removed and treated. The amount of sludge generated is significant, often 3 to 5 per cent of the total volume of water to be treated. The cost of treating and disposing of the sludge can impact the operating cost of a water treatment plant. The sedimentation basin may be equipped with mechanical cleaning devices that continually clean its bottom, or the basin can be periodically taken out of service and cleaned manually.


title: Water purification

text: A subcategory of sedimentation is the removal of particulates by entrapment in a layer of suspended floc as the water is forced upward. The major advantage of floc blanket clarifiers is that they occupy a smaller footprint than conventional sedimentation. The disadvantages are that particle removal efficiency can be highly variable depending on changes in influent water quality and influent water flow rate.


title: Water purification

text: When particles to be removed do not settle out of solution easily, dissolved air flotation (DAF) is often used. After coagulation and flocculation processes, water flows to DAF tanks where air diffusers on the tank bottom create fine bubbles that attach to the floc resulting in a floating mass of concentrated floc. The floating floc blanket is removed from the surface and clarified water is withdrawn from the bottom of the DAF tank.


title: Water purification

text: Water supplies that are particularly vulnerable to unicellular algae blooms and supplies with low turbidity and high colour often employ DAF.


title: Water purification

text: After separating most floc, the water is filtered as the final step to remove remaining suspended particles and unsettled floc.


title: Water purification

text: The most common type of filter is a rapid sand filter. Water moves vertically through sand which often has a layer of activated carbon or anthracite coal above the sand. The top layer removes organic compounds, which contribute to taste and odour. The space between sand particles is larger than the smallest suspended particles, so simple filtration is not enough. Most particles pass through surface layers but are trapped in pore spaces or adhere to sand particles. Effective filtration extends into the depth of the filter. This property of the filter is key to its operation: if the top layer of sand were to block all the particles, the filter would quickly clog.


title: Water purification

text: To clean the filter, water is passed quickly upward through the filter, opposite the normal direction (called "backflushing" or "backwashing") to remove embedded or unwanted particles. Prior to this step, compressed air may be blown up through the bottom of the filter to break up the compacted filter media to aid the backwashing process; this is known as "air scouring". This contaminated water can be disposed of, along with the sludge from the sedimentation basin, or it can be recycled by mixing with the raw water entering the plant although this is often considered poor practice since it re-introduces an elevated concentration of bacteria into the raw water.


title: Water purification

text: Some water treatment plants employ pressure filters. These work on the same principle as rapid gravity filters, differing in that the filter medium is enclosed in a steel vessel and the water is forced through it under pressure.


title: Water purification

text: Slow sand filters may be used where there is sufficient land and space, as the water flows very slowly through the filters. These filters rely on biological treatment processes for their action rather than physical filtration. They are carefully constructed using graded layers of sand, with the coarsest sand, along with some gravel, at the bottom and the finest sand at the top. Drains at the base convey treated water away for disinfection. Filtration depends on the development of a thin biological layer, called the zoogleal layer or Schmutzdecke, on the surface of the filter. An effective slow sand filter may remain in service for many weeks or even months, if the pretreatment is well designed, and produces water with a very low available nutrient level which physical methods of treatment rarely achieve. Very low nutrient levels allow water to be safely sent through distribution systems with very low disinfectant levels, thereby reducing consumer irritation over offensive levels of chlorine and chlorine by-products. Slow sand filters are not backwashed; they are maintained by having the top layer of sand scraped off when the flow is eventually obstructed by biological growth.


title: Water purification

text: In bank filtration, natural sediments in a riverbank are used to provide the first stage of contaminant filtration. While typically not clean enough to be used directly for drinking water, the water gained from the associated extraction wells is much less problematic than river water taken directly from the river.


title: Water purification

text: Membrane filters are widely used for filtering both drinking water and sewage. For drinking water, membrane filters can remove virtually all particles larger than 0.2 μm—including "giardia" and "cryptosporidium." Membrane filters are an effective form of tertiary treatment when it is desired to reuse the water for industry, for limited domestic purposes, or before discharging the water into a river that is used by towns further downstream. They are widely used in industry, particularly for beverage preparation (including bottled water). However no filtration can remove substances that are actually dissolved in the water such as phosphates, nitrates and heavy metal ions.


title: Water purification

text: Ultrafiltration membranes use polymer membranes with chemically formed microscopic pores that can be used to filter out dissolved substances avoiding the use of coagulants. The type of membrane media determines how much pressure is needed to drive the water through and what sizes of micro-organisms can be filtered out.


title: Water purification

text: Ion exchange: Ion-exchange systems use ion-exchange resin- or zeolite-packed columns to replace unwanted ions. The most common case is water softening consisting of removal of Ca and Mg ions replacing them with benign (soap friendly) Na or K ions. Ion-exchange resins are also used to remove toxic ions such as nitrite, lead, mercury, arsenic and many others.


title: Water purification

text: Precipitative softening: Water rich in hardness (calcium and magnesium ions) is treated with lime (calcium oxide) and/or soda-ash (sodium carbonate) to precipitate calcium carbonate out of solution utilising the common-ion effect.


title: Water purification

text: Electrodeionization: Water is passed between a positive electrode and a negative electrode. Ion-exchange membranes allow only positive ions to migrate from the treated water toward the negative electrode and only negative ions toward the positive electrode. High purity deionised water is produced continuously, similar to ion-exchange treatment. Complete removal of ions from water is possible if the right conditions are met. The water is normally pre-treated with a reverse osmosis unit to remove non-ionic organic contaminants, and with gas transfer membranes to remove carbon dioxide. A water recovery of 99% is possible if the concentrate stream is fed to the RO inlet.


title: Water purification

text: Disinfection is accomplished both by filtering out harmful micro-organisms and by adding disinfectant chemicals. Water is disinfected to kill any pathogens which pass through the filters and to provide a residual dose of disinfectant to kill or inactivate potentially harmful micro-organisms in the storage and distribution systems. Possible pathogens include viruses, bacteria, including "Salmonella", "Cholera", "Campylobacter" and "Shigella", and protozoa, including "Giardia lamblia" and other "cryptosporidia". After the introduction of any chemical disinfecting agent, the water is usually held in temporary storage – often called a contact tank or clear well – to allow the disinfecting action to complete.


title: Water purification

text: The most common disinfection method involves some form of chlorine or its compounds such as chloramine or chlorine dioxide. Chlorine is a strong oxidant that rapidly kills many harmful micro-organisms. Because chlorine is a toxic gas, there is a danger of a release associated with its use. This problem is avoided by the use of sodium hypochlorite, which is a relatively inexpensive solution used in household bleach that releases free chlorine when dissolved in water. Chlorine solutions can be generated on site by electrolyzing common salt solutions. A solid form, calcium hypochlorite, releases chlorine on contact with water. Handling the solid, however, requires more routine human contact through opening bags and pouring than the use of gas cylinders or bleach, which are more easily automated. The generation of liquid sodium hypochlorite is inexpensive and also safer than the use of gas or solid chlorine. Chlorine levels up to 4 milligrams per litre (4 parts per million) are considered safe in drinking water.


title: Water purification

text: All forms of chlorine are widely used, despite their respective drawbacks. One drawback is that chlorine from any source reacts with natural organic compounds in the water to form potentially harmful chemical by-products. These by-products, trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs), are both carcinogenic in large quantities and are regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate in the UK. The formation of THMs and haloacetic acids may be minimised by the effective removal of as many organics from the water as possible prior to chlorine addition. Although chlorine is effective in killing bacteria, it has limited effectiveness against pathogenic protozoa that form cysts in water such as "Giardia lamblia" and "Cryptosporidium".


title: Water purification

text: Chlorine dioxide is a faster-acting disinfectant than elemental chlorine. It is relatively rarely used because in some circumstances it may create excessive amounts of chlorite, which is a by-product regulated to low allowable levels in the United States. Chlorine dioxide can be supplied as an aqueous solution and added to water to avoid gas handling problems; chlorine dioxide gas accumulations may spontaneously detonate.


title: Water purification

text: The use of chloramine is becoming more common as a disinfectant. Although chloramine is not as strong an oxidant, it provides a longer-lasting residual than free chlorine because of its lower redox potential compared to free chlorine. It also does not readily form THMs or haloacetic acids (disinfection byproducts).


title: Water purification

text: It is possible to convert chlorine to chloramine by adding ammonia to the water after adding chlorine. The chlorine and ammonia react to form chloramine. Water distribution systems disinfected with chloramines may experience nitrification, as ammonia is a nutrient for bacterial growth, with nitrates being generated as a by-product.


title: Water purification

text: Ozone is an unstable molecule which readily gives up one atom of oxygen providing a powerful oxidising agent which is toxic to most waterborne organisms. It is a very strong, broad spectrum disinfectant that is widely used in Europe and in a few municipalities in the United States and Canada. Ozone disinfection, or ozonation, is an effective method to inactivate harmful protozoa that form cysts. It also works well against almost all other pathogens. Ozone is made by passing oxygen through ultraviolet light or a "cold" electrical discharge. To use ozone as a disinfectant, it must be created on-site and added to the water by bubble contact. Some of the advantages of ozone include the production of fewer dangerous by-products and the absence of taste and odour problems (in comparison to chlorination). No residual ozone is left in the water. In the absence of a residual disinfectant in the water, chlorine or chloramine may be added throughout a distribution system to remove any potential pathogens in the distribution piping.


title: Water purification

text: Ozone has been used in drinking water plants since 1906 where the first industrial ozonation plant was built in Nice, France. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted ozone as being safe; and it is applied as an anti-microbiological agent for the treatment, storage, and processing of foods. However, although fewer by-products are formed by ozonation, it has been discovered that ozone reacts with bromide ions in water to produce concentrations of the suspected carcinogen bromate. Bromide can be found in fresh water supplies in sufficient concentrations to produce (after ozonation) more than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of bromatethe maximum contaminant level established by the USEPA. Ozone disinfection is also energy intensive.


title: Water purification

text: Ultraviolet light (UV) is very effective at inactivating cysts, in low turbidity water. UV light's disinfection effectiveness decreases as turbidity increases, a result of the absorption, scattering, and shadowing caused by the suspended solids. The main disadvantage to the use of UV radiation is that, like ozone treatment, it leaves no residual disinfectant in the water; therefore, it is sometimes necessary to add a residual disinfectant after the primary disinfection process. This is often done through the addition of chloramines, discussed above as a primary disinfectant. When used in this manner, chloramines provide an effective residual disinfectant with very few of the negative effects of chlorination.


title: Water purification

text: Over 2 million people in 28 developing countries use Solar Disinfection for daily drinking water treatment.


title: Water purification

text: Like UV, ionizing radiation (X-rays, gamma rays, and electron beams) has been used to sterilise water.


title: Water purification

text: Bromine and iodine can also be used as disinfectants. However, chlorine in water is over three times more effective as a disinfectant against "Escherichia coli" than an equivalent concentration of bromine, and over six times more effective than an equivalent concentration of iodine. Iodine is commonly used for portable water purification, and bromine is common as a swimming pool disinfectant.


title: Water purification

text: Portable water purification devices and methods are available for disinfection and treatment in emergencies or in remote locations. Disinfection is the primary goal, since aesthetic considerations such as taste, odour, appearance, and trace chemical contamination do not affect the short-term safety of drinking water.


title: Water purification

text: Other popular methods for purifying water, especially for local private supplies are listed below. In some countries some of these methods are used for large scale municipal supplies. Particularly important are distillation (desalination of seawater) and reverse osmosis.


title: Water purification

text: Bringing water to its boiling point (about 100 °C or 212 F at sea level), is the oldest and most effective way since it eliminates most microbes causing intestinal disease, but it cannot remove chemical toxins or impurities. For human health, complete sterilisation of water is not required, since heat resistant microbes do not affect intestines. The traditional advice of boiling water for ten minutes is mainly for additional safety, since microbes start expiring at temperatures greater than . Though the boiling point decreases with increasing altitude, it is not enough to affect disinfection. In areas where the water is "hard" (that is, containing significant dissolved calcium salts), boiling decomposes the bicarbonate ions, resulting in partial precipitation as calcium carbonate. This is the "fur" that builds up on kettle elements, etc., in hard water areas. With the exception of calcium, boiling does not remove solutes of higher boiling point than water and in fact increases their concentration (due to some water being lost as vapour). Boiling does not leave a residual disinfectant in the water. Therefore, water that is boiled and then stored for any length of time may acquire new pathogens.


title: Water purification

text: Granular activated carbon is a form of activated carbon with a high surface area. It adsorbs many compounds including many toxic compounds. Water passing through activated carbon is commonly used in municipal regions with organic contamination, taste or odors. Many household water filters and fish tanks use activated carbon filters to purify water. Household filters for drinking water sometimes contain silver as metallic silver nanoparticle. If water is held in the carbon block for longer periods, microorganisms can grow inside which results in fouling and contamination. Silver nanoparticles are excellent anti-bacterial material and can decompose toxic halo-organic compounds such as pesticides into non-toxic organic products. Filtered water must be used soon after it is filtered, as the low amount of remaining microbes may proliferate over time. In general, these home filters remove over 90% of the chlorine in a glass of treated water. These filters must be periodically replaced otherwise the bacterial content of the water may actually increase due to the growth of bacteria within the filter unit.


title: Water purification

text: Distillation involves boiling water to produce water vapour. The vapour contacts a cool surface where it condenses as a liquid. Because the solutes are not normally vaporised, they remain in the boiling solution. Even distillation does not completely purify water, because of contaminants with similar boiling points and droplets of unvapourised liquid carried with the steam. However, 99.9% pure water can be obtained by distillation.


title: Water purification

text: Direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) passes heated seawater along the surface of a hydrophobic polymer membrane. Evaporated water passes from the hot side through pores in the membrane forming a stream of cold pure water on the other side. The difference in vapour pressure between the hot and cold side helps to push water molecules through.


title: Water purification

text: Reverse osmosis involves mechanical pressure applied to force water through a semi-permeable membrane. Contaminants are left on the other side of the membrane. Reverse osmosis is theoretically the most thorough method of large scale water purification available, although perfect semi-permeable membranes are difficult to create. Unless membranes are well-maintained, algae and other life forms can colonise the membranes.


title: Water purification

text: Carbon dioxide or other low molecular weight gas can be mixed with contaminated water at high pressure and low temperature to exothermically form gas hydrate crystals. Hydrate may be separated by centrifuge or sedimentation. Water can be released from the hydrate crystals by heating.


title: Water purification

text: "In situ" chemical oxidation (ISCO) is an advanced oxidation process. It is used for soil and/or groundwater remediation to reduce the concentrations of targeted contaminants. ISCO is accomplished by injecting or otherwise introducing oxidizers into the contaminated medium (soil or groundwater) to destroy contaminants. It can be used to remediate a variety of organic compounds, including some that are resistant to natural degradation


title: Water purification

text: Bioremediation uses microorganisms to remove waste products from a contaminated area. Since 1991 bioremediation has been a suggested tactic to remove impurities such as alkanes, perchlorates, and metals. Bioremediation has seen success because perchlorates are highly soluble, making them difficult to remove. Example applications of "Dechloromonas agitata" strain CKB include field studies conducted in Maryland and the US Southwest.


title: Water purification

text: Hydrogen peroxide () is a common disinfectant that can purify water. It is typically produced at chemical plants and transported to the contaminated water. An alternative approach employs a gold-palladium catalyst to synthesize from ambient hydrogen and oxygen atoms at the use site. The latter was reported to be faster and 10 times more potent at killing "Escherichia coli" than commercial , and over 10 times more effective than chlorine The catalytic reaction also produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) that bind and degrade other compounds.


title: Water purification

text: In April 2007, the water supply of Spencer, Massachusetts in the United States of America, became contaminated with excess sodium hydroxide (lye) when its treatment equipment malfunctioned.


title: Water purification

text: Many municipalities have moved from free chlorine to chloramine as a disinfection agent. However, chloramine appears to be a corrosive agent in some water systems. Chloramine can dissolve the "protective" film inside older service lines, leading to the leaching of lead into residential spigots. This can result in harmful exposure, including elevated blood lead levels. Lead is a known neurotoxin.


title: Water purification

text: Distillation removes all minerals from water, and the membrane methods of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration remove most to all minerals. This results in demineralised water which is not considered ideal drinking water. The World Health Organization has investigated the health effects of demineralised water since 1980. Experiments in humans found that demineralised water increased diuresis and the elimination of electrolytes, with decreased blood serum potassium concentration. Magnesium, calcium, and other minerals in water can help to protect against nutritional deficiency. Demineralized water may also increase the risk from toxic metals because it more readily leaches materials from piping like lead and cadmium, which is prevented by dissolved minerals such as calcium and magnesium. Low-mineral water has been implicated in specific cases of lead poisoning in infants, when lead from pipes leached at especially high rates into the water. Recommendations for magnesium have been put at a minimum of 10 mg/L with 20–30 mg/L optimum; for calcium a 20 mg/L minimum and a 40–80 mg/L optimum, and a total water hardness (adding magnesium and calcium) of 2 to 4 mmol/L. At water hardness above 5 mmol/L, higher incidence of gallstones, kidney stones, urinary stones, arthrosis, and arthropathies have been observed. Additionally, desalination processes can increase the risk of bacterial contamination.


title: Water purification

text: Manufacturers of home water distillers claim the opposite—that minerals in water are the cause of many diseases, and that most beneficial minerals come from food, not water.


title: Water purification

text: The first experiments into water filtration were made in the 17th century. Sir Francis Bacon attempted to desalinate sea water by passing the flow through a sand filter. Although his experiment did not succeed, it marked the beginning of a new interest in the field. The fathers of microscopy, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and Robert Hooke, used the newly invented microscope to observe for the first time small material particles that lay suspended in the water, laying the groundwork for the future understanding of waterborne pathogens.


title: Water purification

text: The first documented use of sand filters to purify the water supply dates to 1804, when the owner of a bleachery in Paisley, Scotland, John Gibb, installed an experimental filter, selling his unwanted surplus to the public. This method was refined in the following two decades by engineers working for private water companies, and it culminated in the first treated public water supply in the world, installed by engineer James Simpson for the Chelsea Waterworks Company in London in 1829. This installation provided filtered water for every resident of the area, and the network design was widely copied throughout the United Kingdom in the ensuing decades.


title: Water purification

text: The practice of water treatment soon became mainstream and common, and the virtues of the system were made starkly apparent after the investigations of the physician John Snow during the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak. Snow was sceptical of the then-dominant miasma theory that stated that diseases were caused by noxious "bad airs". Although the germ theory of disease had not yet been developed, Snow's observations led him to discount the prevailing theory. His 1855 essay "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera" conclusively demonstrated the role of the water supply in spreading the cholera epidemic in Soho, with the use of a dot distribution map and statistical proof to illustrate the connection between the quality of the water source and cholera cases. His data convinced the local council to disable the water pump, which promptly ended the outbreak.


title: Water purification

text: The Metropolis Water Act introduced the regulation of the water supply companies in London, including minimum standards of water quality for the first time. The Act "made provision for securing the supply to the Metropolis of pure and wholesome water", and required that all water be "effectually filtered" from 31 December 1855. This was followed up with legislation for the mandatory inspection of water quality, including comprehensive chemical analyses, in 1858. This legislation set a worldwide precedent for similar state public health interventions across Europe. The Metropolitan Commission of Sewers was formed at the same time, water filtration was adopted throughout the country, and new water intakes on the Thames were established above Teddington Lock. Automatic pressure filters, where the water is forced under pressure through the filtration system, were innovated in 1899 in England.


title: Water purification

text: John Snow was the first to successfully use chlorine to disinfect the water supply in Soho that had helped spread the cholera outbreak. William Soper also used chlorinated lime to treat the sewage produced by typhoid patients in 1879.


title: Water purification

text: In a paper published in 1894, Moritz Traube formally proposed the addition of chloride of lime (calcium hypochlorite) to water to render it "germ-free." Two other investigators confirmed Traube's findings and published their papers in 1895. Early attempts at implementing water chlorination at a water treatment plant were made in 1893 in Hamburg, Germany and in 1897 the city of Maidstone, England was the first to have its entire water supply treated with chlorine.


title: Water purification

text: Permanent water chlorination began in 1905, when a faulty slow sand filter and a contaminated water supply led to a serious typhoid fever epidemic in Lincoln, England. Dr. Alexander Cruickshank Houston used chlorination of the water to stem the epidemic. His installation fed a concentrated solution of chloride of lime to the water being treated. The chlorination of the water supply helped stop the epidemic and as a precaution, the chlorination was continued until 1911 when a new water supply was instituted.


title: Water purification

text: The first continuous use of chlorine in the United States for disinfection took place in 1908 at Boonton Reservoir (on the Rockaway River), which served as the supply for Jersey City, New Jersey. Chlorination was achieved by controlled additions of dilute solutions of chloride of lime (calcium hypochlorite) at doses of 0.2 to 0.35 ppm. The treatment process was conceived by Dr. John L. Leal and the chlorination plant was designed by George Warren Fuller. Over the next few years, chlorine disinfection using chloride of lime were rapidly installed in drinking water systems around the world.


title: Water purification

text: The technique of purification of drinking water by use of compressed liquefied chlorine gas was developed by a British officer in the Indian Medical Service, Vincent B. Nesfield, in 1903. According to his own account:


title: Water purification

text: U.S. Army Major Carl Rogers Darnall, Professor of Chemistry at the Army Medical School, gave the first practical demonstration of this in 1910. Shortly thereafter, Major William J. L. Lyster of the Army Medical Department used a solution of calcium hypochlorite in a linen bag to treat water. For many decades, Lyster's method remained the standard for U.S. ground forces in the field and in camps, implemented in the form of the familiar Lyster Bag (also spelled Lister Bag). The bag was made of canvas and could hold 36 gallons of water. It was porous and held up by ropes, purifying water with the help of calcium hypochlorite solution. Each bag had a faucet attached, which was used to flush water for testing, as well as dispensing for use. This became the basis for present day systems of municipal water "purification".


title: First Triumvirate

text: The First Triumvirate was an informal political alliance among three prominent politicians in the late Roman Republic: Gaius Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus. The constitution of the Roman republic had many veto points. In order to bypass constitutional obstacles and force through the political goals of the three men, they forged in secret an alliance where they promised to use their respective influence to support each other. The "triumvirate" was not a formal magistracy, nor did it achieve a lasting domination over state affairs.


title: First Triumvirate

text: It was formed between the three men due to their mutual need to overcome opposition in the senate against their proposals in the previous years. Initially secret, it emerged publicly during Caesar's first consulship in 59 BC to push through legislation for the three allies. Caesar secured passage of an agrarian law which helped resettle Pompey's veterans, a law ratifying Pompey's settlements after the Third Mithridatic War, and legislation on provincial administration and tax collection. Caesar also was placed in a long-term governorship in Gaul. The early success of the alliance, however, triggered substantial political backlash. Political alliances at Rome reorganised to counterbalance the three men in the coming years.


title: First Triumvirate

text: By 55 BC, the alliance was fraying. The three men, however, came together in mutual interest to renew their pact. By force and with political disruption aided by their allies, they delayed consular elections into 55 BC and intimidated the "comitia" into electing Pompey and Crassus again as consuls. Caesar's command in Gaul was then renewed for another five years; plum provincial commands placed Pompey in Spain and Crassus in Syria. Amid even stronger backlash at Rome against the use of naked force and chaos to achieve political ends, Crassus was killed during his ill-fated invasion of Parthia in 53 BC.


title: First Triumvirate

text: Caesar and Pompey, the two remaining allies, maintained friendly relations for a few years. They remained allies even after Pompey's assumption of a sole consulship in 52 BC and the death of Julia (Caesar's daughter and Pompey's wife). Pompey, however, moved to form alliances to counterbalance Caesar's influence after Crassus' death. These drew him slowly into a policy of confrontation with Caesar. Deteriorating trust through 50 BC, along with the influence of Catonian anti-Caesarian hardliners on Pompey, eventually pushed Caesar into open rebellion in January 49 BC.


title: First Triumvirate

text: The term "First Triumvirate", while well-known, is a misleading one which is regularly avoided by modern scholars of the late republic. Boards of a certain number of men such as decemviri were a feature of Roman administration, but this alliance was not counted among them. The term appears nowhere in any ancient source, refers to no official position, and is "completely and obviously erroneous". In the ancient world, the triple alliance was referred to with varying terms: Cicero, contemporaneously, wrote of "three men" ("tris homines") exercising a "regnum"; a satire by Marcus Terentius Varro called it a "three-headed monster"; later historians such as Suetonius and Livy referred to the three as a "societas" or "conspiratio"; the allies themselves "would presumably have referred to it simply as "amicitia"".


title: First Triumvirate

text: The usage of the term "triumvirate" to describe this political alliance was unattested to during the Renaissance. First attested in 1681, the term emerged into widespread use only during the 18th century; for some time, knowledge that the term was a modern coinage was unknown, "revealed" only in 1807. By the 19th century, usage was somewhat regular – mostly in English and French sources, though not in German ones, – usually prefaced with clarifications that the term did not refer to any official position.


title: First Triumvirate

text: More recently, scholars have started to avoid the term in publications altogether. Harriet Flower in "Roman Republics" writes that "First Triumvirate" is "misleading in equating the position of the 50s with the official triumvirate of Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian", preferring "alliance" and "Big Three". Recent books by Andrew Lintott and Richard Billows also have avoided invocation of "First Triumvirate". Others add more reasons to avoid its use, for example, Robert Morstein-Marx in the recent book "Julius Caesar and the Roman People", "it is almost impossible to use the phrase 'First Triumvirate' without adopting some version of the view that it was a kind of conspiracy against the republic... Nomenclature matters... I eschew the traditional 'First Triumvirate' altogether". Classicists writing for more general audience also have shied away from use of the term "First Triumvirate". Mary Beard, for example, uses "Gang of Three" in her 2015 book "SPQR". Yet others, such as Adrian Goldsworthy, have not, staying with the traditional nomenclature while explaining that the term is inaccurate.


title: First Triumvirate

text: The fourth edition of the "Oxford Classical Dictionary", for example, similarly says "the coalition formed between Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus in 60 BCE was wholly unofficial and never described at the time as a triumvirate... 'First' and 'Second Triumvirate' are modern and misleading terms".


title: First Triumvirate

text: The alliance between Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar emerged due to their failure to pass various core portions of their programmes in the gridlocked state of Roman politics in the years before 60 BC. All three had wanted something from the senate but were stymied.


title: First Triumvirate

text: Pompey, having recently returned from the Third Mithridatic War wanted ratification of his settlements in Asia. He also sought lands for his veterans to retire on. After Pompey's return from the Sertorian War from Hispania in 71 BC, he had been able secure a similar bill distributing land to his veterans; he also had sent subordinates back to Rome to stand for the tribunate in attempts to bring the relevant legislation forward (an attempt in 63 BC was opposed by then-consul Cicero in "De lege agraria"). Further attempts in 62 BC had led to his allied tribune fleeing from the city. While he was successful in getting one of his men, Marcus Pupius Piso Frugi Calpurnianus, elected consul for 61 BC, an intervening religious scandal had made it impossible for him to push forward the appropriate land resettlement legislation. Through massive bribes, Pompey also secured the election of more of his men to offices in 60 BC (Lucius Afranius as consul; Lucius Flavius as one of the plebeian tribunes), but they too were stymied. Cato the Younger and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, motivated in part by their dislike of Pompey's having previously and irregularly displaced their ally Lucullus from a previous command against Mithridates, Pompey's recent divorce of Celer's half-sister in a failed attempt to form a marriage alliance with Cato, and also by their fear of Pompey's power, led an obstructive coalition. Lucullus returned from his semi-retirement to demand an in-depth review of every aspect of Pompey's eastern arrangements; "this would take a tremendous amount of time and would prevent passage of the bill for the foreseeable future". Without capable allies in the magistracies – both Piso and Afranius were ineffective – Pompey was forced to look elsewhere for allies.


title: First Triumvirate

text: Crassus was one of the richest men in Rome, having made his fortune by profiting from the Sullan proscriptions. He was a patron for Rome's equestrian businessmen. With Pompey, he had served as consul in 70 BC. Those public contractors had massively over-bid on tax contracts for the province of Asia (parts of modern western Turkey) because they failed to account for the devastation of the Third Mithridatic War. His clients demanded a reduction in the taxes they were contractually obliged to deliver to the treasury, a goal also stymied by Cato and Celer in December 61 BC. While senators such as Cicero personally believed "it was ridiculous for [the tax farmers] to seek to have their contracts renegotiated or cancelled simply because they had overestimated their potential profits", the senate had been on the verge of approving the legislation before Celer's intervention. Crassus, a personal enemy of Pompey, also opposed Pompey's settlements and land bills in 60 BC, successfully mobilising his support among the lower-ranked senators to defeat Pompey's proposals. His opposition to Pompey may have been in attempt to win over the senators blocking his own goals, but this was evidently unsuccessful. Passing renegotiation of these tax contracts was vital for Crassus: "his reputation and influence depended on his ability to act as a champion for the powerful equestrian order".


title: First Triumvirate

text: Caesar in 60 BC was a recently returning governor of Spain. At this point, he was the least powerful of the three, although he had, in an upset, won election as pontifex maximus in 63 BC. An energetic politician who had "espoused Pompeian causes for nearly a decade", he was also indebted to Crassus, who was a guarantor of Caesar's debts. Upon his early return from Hispania Ulterior in June 60 BC, he was forced to choose between entering the city to declare candidacy for the consulship, which would dissolve his military command and make him ineligible for a triumph, or staying outside of the city in an attempt to work a triumph from the senate. While the senate had regularly given permission for candidacies "in absentia", Cato filibustered Caesar's request; Caesar, shockingly, gave up his eligibility for Rome's highest military honour to declare his candidacy. Caesar was the known favourite for the consulship; to hobble him, Cato and his allies took two actions. They sought to assign the then-yet-to-be-elected consuls of 59 BC to "the woodlands and paths of Italy" and sought the election of an uncooperative consular colleague. In both respects, they were successful, the consuls of 59 would receive a command with no opportunities for glory or profit – incompatible with Caesar's need to repay his huge debts – and Cato secured election of his son-in-law and a personal enemy of Caesar's, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, as Caesar's co-consul. Caesar won his election handily, but for him to turn it into anything useful for his career, he too would need allies.


title: First Triumvirate

text: Scholars have debated the specific date at which the alliance was formed. Plutarch, Livy, and Appian placed the formation of the alliance before Caesar's election; Vellius, Suetonius and Cassius Dio instead put its formation after his election.


title: First Triumvirate

text: During the elections to the consulship, Caesar certainly received support from both Pompey and Crassus, though "each for his own reasons... Crassus cultivated promising adherents[;] Pompey needed a strong figure in the consulship". Against the later literary sources, however, a contemporaneous letter to Cicero, where Caesar asked to form a political alliance, also implies Caesar had not yet reconciled Pompey and Crassus by December of 60, months after his election in the summer. Erich Gruen, in "Last Generation of the Roman Republic", believes this letter, combined with the fact that Pompey and Crassus would have alienated each-other with any overt support for Caesar's candidacy, places the alliance's formation decisively after Caesar's consular election. Some historians believe Caesar, in his letter to Cicero, may have been coy ("it may also be that Caesar was not yet showing Cicero all of his cards") but it did show that Caesar "was not specifically looking at building a triumvirate, but rather was looking to build as strong a coalition as possible". This evidence – especially disclosure that a pact was sought – places the formation of the alliance some time between July 60 and January 59 BC.


title: First Triumvirate

text: The purpose of the alliance was to secure something that none of the three men could secure alone. If Pompey and Caesar aligned alone, they would not likely be able to overcome opposition to Pompey's proposals in the senate. Pompey and Crassus were personal rivals who could only align through an intermediary. Caesar was that intermediary. Crassus' motives are less clear. He must have wanted more than simply renegotiation of tax contracts. Crassus' additionally would be one of the administrators for the Pompeian land grants and, in doing so, "the preeminence which Crassus could not quite attain on his own [came] within his grasp". Caesar needed the alliance as well: he would fully become his own man, "escap[ing] the subordinate stature of Pompey's other "amici"", defeat the political opposition, and win a profitable command.


title: First Triumvirate

text: It was well known prior to Caesar's assumption of the consulship with the new year that he would propose a "lex agraria". With powerful and secret political allies, Caesar started his consulship of 59 BC relatively traditionally. After ordering that minutes of the senate's debates be published, he published a draft proposal for a "lex Julia agraria" and set it on the senate's agenda. He took a conciliatory approach, respecting the normal order of the senate and also writing a bill that rectified all the criticisms to Rullus' land bill in 63 BC (Cicero opposed that bill in "De lege agraria"): Caesar would preserve public lands in Campania, repopulate desolate areas of Italy, move citizens from Rome onto the land (reducing the chance of riots), distribute credit for the bill among twenty commissioners (of which Caesar was not to be one), purchase property for redistribution only from willing sellers based on censorial assessments, pay for the entire project from monies won by Pompey, and extend the land grants to Pompey's veterans in return for their service.


title: First Triumvirate

text: Caesar had the bill read out line-by-line and promised to make any changes needed to receive the assent of the senate. Little reasoned opposition emerged. In general, that an agrarian bill was desirable and "well justified... could not reasonably be denied... many senators must have felt that it was not high time to make good on the promise made long ago to the long-suffering veterans". Some ancient sources describe Caesar's conciliatory tone as a cynical plot to roll over the senators; Caesar's goal may have been to provide the senators an opportunity to "adopt symbolic leadership and demonstrate its solicitude for the interests... of the people... [giving] the body a chance to co-opt the cause of agrarian legislation in its own favour".


title: First Triumvirate

text: Whether a cynical ploy or not, the senate voiced little opposition until the speaking order eventually wound its way to Cato; Cato immediately started a filibuster, arguing instead that the people would be too gracious to Caesar for bringing the bill and that the current situation was fine. The extent to which Caesar's prestige during his first consulship was a topic of debate is unclear; the later sources may here be injecting their knowledge of Caesar's later victories into the narrative. Caesar, seeking to break the filibuster, therefore threatened to have Cato sent to the "carcer", Rome's small jail, which elicited mass indignation from the senators. In doing so, Cato succeeded in provoking Caesar into giving credence to Cato's claims that Caesar was a would-be tyrant. Recognising the mistake, Caesar quickly had Cato released. After facing these hurdles in the senate, Caesar moved to bring the agrarian law before the people on his own authority, without senatorial consent.


title: First Triumvirate

text: Moving to the forum, Caesar summoned a "contio" (a meeting wherein a magistrate would address the people) where he requested Bibulus explain his opposition. When Bibulus failed to articulate any meaningful objections, beyond that "he would not permit any innovation", Caesar pled with him before the people, leading Bibulus to exclaim in frustration that "you will not have this law this year, not even should you all want it!", a violation of the norm of popular sovereignty. Seeking to avoid a tribunician veto, Caesar exposed his alliance, summoning Pompey and Crassus. Pompey, when asked what he would do if opponents should use violence to disrupt the bill's passage, said "he would provide a shield if anyone dared to raise a sword in opposition". Bibulus responded by mobilising three tribunes to veto the bill (alternatively, he may have wanted to declare bad omens to prevent voting, or both). During the attempt, he was assaulted by a mob, which threw him from the rostra and broke his "fasces", symbolically rejecting Bibulus' consular authority. The law was then passed; the next day, Bibulus called a meeting of the senate seeking to annul the law on grounds that it was passed contrary to the auspices and with violence; annulment on such grounds was extremely rare and the senate, regardless, refused. Caesar "provocatively demanded from the senate an oath of obedience to the law and got it" after some pushing and resistance from Cato and some of his allies.


title: First Triumvirate

text: Some time after passage of the agrarian bill, Bibulus withdrew from public business to his home to declare unfavourable omens on all future voting days; the specific time in the year he did so, however, is not known. Caesar moved two further bills, first, for ratification of a one-third write-down of the tax bills owed by the "publicani" for Crassus, and second, for ratification of Pompey's eastern settlement. Both bills were passed with little or no debate in the senate. Lucullus, attempting to oppose Pompey's eastern settlement, was "forced into public humiliation on his knees before Caesar" when the consul threatened prosecution. When Cicero, defending his former co-consul Gaius Antonius Hybrida, made an off-hand remark complaining about the political situation, his "deadly enemy P. Clodius [had] his long-obstructed 'transition' to the plebs rushed through by Caesar... in good time to stand for the tribunate".


title: First Triumvirate

text: Caesar then moved to lift the exemption of Campania from his agrarian bill some time in May; its passage may have proved the last straw for Bibulus, who then withdrew to his house. Pompey, shortly thereafter, also wed Caesar's daughter Julia to seal their alliance. An ally of Caesar's, Publius Vatinius (then-plebeian tribune), also secured the passage of a law granting to Caesar the provinces of Illyricum and Cisalpine Gaul for five years. Doing so replaced Caesar's assigned province of the woods and paths of Italy with Gaul; this was in response to growing tensions between the republic and the recent victors of a power struggle in Gaul, which had destabilised the geopolitical situation in the region. After the death of the governor of Transalpine Gaul – one of Cato's allies – the senate was persuaded also to assign to Caesar that province as well. Both bills were met with little resistance, likely due to Cato and his allies' boycotting of public business.


title: First Triumvirate

text: By the summer, however, popular opinion had started to turn against Caesar's methods. Pompey also was distancing himself from Caesar. This was in part due to the success to Cato and Bibulus' campaign: Bibulus' choice to confine himself to his home "presented the image of the city dominated by one man's sole power, unchecked by a colleague". Pompey and Caesar attempted public protests against Bibulus' edicts and seclusion, respectively, to little response from the people. By then, the popular fervour of the agrarian bills had died down and the public likely desired a return to normal politics.


title: First Triumvirate

text: The ancient sources claimed that for most of the year, the senate was not called and that the people and senators were intimidated and cowed into passing whatever the three allies put before them. These claims are incompatible with the attested events of that year. For example, in that year, Caesar's ally Vatinius was defeated in an election to the augurate and later elections for the magistracies returned Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Memmius, both opponents of Pompey and Caesar, as praetors. He was also able to secure election of two allies – one was Caesar's soon-to-be father-in-law (Lucius Calpurnius Piso) and the other was Pompey's supporter Aulus Gabinius – to the consulship. Also passed during Caesar's consulship was the "lex Julia de repetundis", which was a wide-ranging reform on corruption in the provinces and before the republic's permanent courts.


title: First Triumvirate

text: During the Caesar's consulship, the success of Cato and Bibulus' tactics at discrediting Caesar and Pompey made the two greatly unpopular during and after the summer: "[Caesar and Pompey's] public appearances were received coldly or with open antagonism... Bibulus, far from being a pitiable figure, had never enjoyed such wide repute". Cato and Bibulus, for their part, mobilised a large propaganda campaign seeking to brand Caesar a tyrant, with "dire warnings of the impending overthrow of the republican government" that discredited the alliance and forced senators to re-evaluate their tacit support. Crassus revelled in Pompey's discomfitures before the people; this unpopularity frayed at the alliance between the three men, which was meant only to secure for them aims which they could not achieve by themselves.


title: First Triumvirate

text: Upon the conclusion of Caesar's consulship, he left after a few months for his provincial assignment to Gaul. His legislative activity, however, came under immediate attack from Domitius and Memmius, who had been elected as praetors during Caesar's electoral "comitia" the last year, claiming that Caesar had passed the legislation against the auspices. These efforts were utterly unsuccessful – the pro-triumviral consuls allowed debate on the topic for three days – and the senate rejected the claims. In later years, Caesar's laws were accepted writ large (perhaps with the exception of Bibulus), disregarding any technical religious objections: "If Cicero and Cato both went along with the laws of Vatinius and Caesar, we can fairly assume the rest of the senators did so as well... For Bibulus, it was something of a personal campaign to seek to undermine... Caesar's legislation... but his protests in 59 and later hardly 'kept [it] technically invalid'".