title: Winterreise

text: The cycle consists of a monodrama from the point of view of the wandering protagonist, in which concrete plot is somewhat ambiguous. After his beloved falls for another, the grief-stricken young man steals away from town at night and follows the river and steep ways to a charcoal burner's hut, where he rests before moving on. He comes across a village, passes a crossroads, and arrives at a cemetery. Here being denied even the death on which he has become fixated, he defiantly renounces faith before reaching a point of resignation. Finally he encounters a derelict street musician, the only instance in the cycle in which another character is present. The mysterious and ominous nature of the musician, along with the question posed in the last lines, leave the fate of the wanderer open to interpretation.


title: Winterreise

text: The two Schubert cycles (primarily for male voice), of which "Winterreise" is the more mature, are absolute fundamentals of the German "Lied", and have strongly influenced not only the style but also the vocal method and technique in German classical music as a whole. The resources of intellect and interpretative power required to deliver them, in the chamber or concert hall, challenge the greatest singers.


title: Winterreise

text: Besides re-ordering Müller's songs, Schubert made a few changes to the words: verse 4 of "Erstarrung" in Müller's version read [Schubert's text bracketed]: "Mein Herz ist wie erfroren [erstorben]" ("frozen" instead of "dead"); "Irrlicht" verse 2 read "...unsre Freuden, unsre Wehen [Leiden]" ("pains" instead of "sorrows") and "Der Wegweiser" verse 3 read "Weiser stehen auf den Strassen [Wegen]" ("roads" instead of "paths"). These have all been restored in Mandyczewski's edition (the widely available Dover score) and are offered as alternative readings in Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's revision of Max Friedlaender's edition for Peters. A few of the songs differ in the autograph and a copy with Schubert's corrections. "Wasserflut" was transposed by Schubert from F minor to E minor without alteration; "Rast" moved from D minor to C minor and "Einsamkeit" from D minor to B minor, both with changes to the vocal line; "Mut" was transposed from A minor to G minor; "Der Leiermann" was transposed from B minor to A minor. The most recent scholarly edition of "Winterreise" is the one included as part of the Bärenreiter "New Schubert Edition", edited by Walther Dürr, volume 3, which offers the songs in versions for high, medium and low voices. In this edition the key relationships are preserved: only one transposition is applied to the whole cycle.


title: Winterreise

text: Schubert's "Winterreise" has had a marked influence on several key works, including Gustav Mahler's "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" and Benjamin Britten's "Night-piece". In 1991, Maury Yeston composed both the original music and text of "December Songs", a song cycle influenced by "Winterreise", on commission from Carnegie Hall for its Centennial celebration. In 1994 Polish poet Stanisław Barańczak published his poems, entitled "Podróż zimowa", which – apart from one translation of a work by Müller – were inspired by Schubert's music.


title: Winterreise

text: 2020 Deutschlandfunk presents a new production of the Winterreise by & Daemgen. In the program Atelier neuer Musik it says: "Hardly any other recording of the Winterreise cycle deals with Müller's texts and Schubert's music in such a radically different way than the reading of the composers and interpreters Oliver Augst and Marcel Daemgen. The focus of the arrangements is not the brilliantly polished beautiful sound of centuries-old traditional musical tradition, but rather its strict breakthrough in order to gain a new, undisguised access to the topicality of old texts and the core of the music."


title: Winterreise

text: Some videotaped performances are also available, including mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig with Charles Spencer (1994, Art Haus Musik), several by Fischer-Dieskau, one by Hermann Prey with pianist Helmut Deutsch, and a version by Thomas Quasthoff and pianist Daniel Barenboim filmed at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2005. Francisco Araiza tenor and Jean Lemaire (2014 Arthaus) coupled with Schumann's "Dichterliebe"; studio recording.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: The Keeper (aka Trautmann) is a British-German biographical film directed by Marcus H. Rosenmüller and starring German actor David Kross as the footballer Bert Trautmann. Although the subject of the film was an athlete, the film has been described as "not primarily a sports film" but instead a drama.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: The film premiered at the 2018 Zurich Film Festival, and was released in Germany under the title "Trautmann" on 14 March 2019. It was released in the UK and Ireland on 5 April 2019.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: In 1945, German paratrooper Bert Trautmann (David Kross) is captured while fighting in the forests near Kleve. Transferred to a British POW camp in Lancashire, he and his comrades are kept under strict conditions and made to work to repair the damage their country has caused to the surrounding area. Jack Friar (John Henshaw), a local tradesman and manager of non-league side St Helens Town, spots Trautmann keeping goal against other POWs during a trip to deliver treats to the camp commander and bribes the commander into allowing Trautmann to be allowed out of the camp, whereupon he recruits him to play as goalkeeper for his relegation-threatened side.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: Although the war has recently ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany, the other players are angered to be asked to play alongside a man who is from a country they were until recently at war with, but with little other option they agree to take to the field. A string of strong performances see the players slowly come to accept Bert's place in the team. As a condition of his continuing appearances, Friar agrees to let Bert help work in his shop, leading Friar's daughter Margaret (Freya Mavor) to soften her initially-hostile stance, and the pair begin an unlikely romance.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: As St Helens Town come to their crunch relegation-deciding match at the end of the season, it is announced that the war's end has led to an offer for the German POWs to be repatriated. Although Trautmann is free to return to his home in Bremen, he instead chooses to stay to support his side. After the match, Manchester City manager Jock Thomson (Gary Lewis), who has come on a scouting mission, approaches Bert and offers him a place in his City team to replace the retiring Frank Swift. At their end-of-season party, his teammates present him with a hamper to take home to his family, but Bert's growing connection with Margaret leads him instead to stay, and in due course they are married.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: In 1949, Bert travels to Manchester to sign for City. The press conference for his arrival rapidly turns hostile as the Manchester press – representing a city with a large Jewish population – demand Bert answer questions on his military background. Protesting crowds form outside Maine Road, and the City supporters barrage him with booing, but Thomson and his City side refuse to join them, instead stating "there's no war in this dressing room".


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: At an acrimonious meeting with season ticketholders, Thomson and the City board struggle to contain the fury of the city's residents, but a passionate plea by Margaret strikes home with the influential Rabbi Altmann (Butz Ulrich Buse), who writes an open letter to the city published in a local paper asking them to examine all men individually without national bias. Following Altmann's letter, and with continuing fine performances on the field, the mood shifts and soon Trautmann is even being welcomed by players of other teams around the country.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: By 1956 Bert and Margaret are living an idyllic existence with their young son John, while Manchester City's strong run has led them to the FA Cup Final. As City take a strong 3–1 lead, Bert is again winning plaudits for his masterful goalkeeping, when a dangerous collision with Birmingham City player Peter Murphy shatters a vertebra in his neck and almost costs him his life. With 20 minutes of the game left to go, and clearly in a bad state, Trautmann refuses to leave the field and continues to make several brave saves, stopping Birmingham City from scoring any further goals and thus winning City the cup.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: His joy leads to tragedy, however, as during his recuperation his son is hit by a car and killed. Their heartbreak causes Margaret to grow more distant from Bert, while he himself becomes convinced that his loss is a karmic consequence of his inaction when witnessing war atrocities in Ukraine, and the film leaves them still working through the resulting difficulties in their marriage. As the film ends with footage of Trautmann's continuing City career, overlaid text reveals that Trautmann would continue to play for Manchester City until 1964, would be named the first foreign recipient of the English Player of the Year title, and would in time be recognised by both the British and German governments for his work in promoting Anglo-German relations.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: Before Trautmann's death in 2013, Rosenmüller and Marciniak spent several days interviewing him about details for inclusion in the film.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: The film premiered at the Zurich Film Festival on 1 October 2018, and was released in Germany under the title "Trautmann" on 14 March 2019. It was released in the UK on 5 April 2019.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: "The Keeper" grossed a worldwide total of $2.1 million, against a production budget of about $13.4 million.


title: The Keeper (2018 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds approval rating based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: ""The Keeper" strays into easy sentimentality, but this fact-based drama's warm spirit makes its indulgences easy to forgive." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Neonicotinoids (sometimes shortened to neonics ) are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine, developed by scientists at Shell and Bayer in the 1980s.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: The neonicotinoid family includes acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, nithiazine, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam. Imidacloprid has been the most widely used insecticide in the world from 1999 through . Compared to organophosphate and carbamate insecticides, neonicotinoids are less toxic to birds and mammals.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Neonicotinoid use has been studied in relation to adverse ecological effects, including honey-bee colony collapse disorder (CCD), and declining populations of insect-eating birds. In 2013, the European Union and some neighbouring countries restricted the use of certain neonicotinoids. In 2018 the EU banned the three main neonicotinoids (clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam) for all outdoor uses, but in 2020, France re-allowed the use of neonicotinoids on sugar beet crops. Several US states have restricted neonicotinoids out of concern for pollinators and bees.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: The precursor to nithiazine was first synthesized by Henry Feuer, a chemist at Purdue University, in 1970.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Shell researchers found in screening that this precursor showed insecticide potential and refined it to develop nithiazine.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In 1984 nithiazine's mode of action was found to be as a postsynaptic acetylcholine receptor agonist, the same as nicotine. Nithiazine does not act as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, in contrast to the organophosphate and carbamate insecticides. While nithiazine has the desired specificity (i.e. low mammalian toxicity), it is not photostable—that is, it breaks down in sunlight, and thus is not commercially viable.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: During the late 1990s, imidacloprid became widely used. Beginning in the early 2000s, two other neonicotinoids, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, entered the market. , virtually all US corn was treated with one of these two insecticides. , about a third of US soybean acreage was planted with neonicotinoid-treated seeds, usually imidacloprid or thiamethoxam.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Neonicotinoids have been registered in more than 120 countries. With a global turnover of €1.5 billion in 2008, they represented 24% of the global insecticide market. The market grew from €155 million in 1990 to €957 million in 2008. Neonicotinoids made up 80% of all seed treatment sales in 2008.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Imidacloprid is effective against sucking insects, some chewing insects, soil insects and fleas on domestic animals. It is systemic with particular efficacy against sucking insects and has a long residual activity. Imidacloprid can be added to the water used to irrigate plants. Controlled release formulations of imidacloprid take 2–10 days to release 50% of imidacloprid in water.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In agriculture, usefulness of neonicotinoid seed treatments for pest prevention depends upon the timing of planting and pest arrival. For soybeans, neonicotinoid seed treatments typically are not effective against the soybean aphid, because the compounds break down 35–42 days after planting, and soybean aphids typically are not present or at damaging population levels before this time. Neonicotinoid seed treatments can protect yield in individual cases such as late-planted fields or in areas with large infestations much earlier in the growing season.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Overall yield gains are not expected from neonicotinoid seed treatments for soybean insect pests in the United States, and foliar insecticides are recommended instead when insects do reach damaging levels.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Health Canada estimated that neonicotinoids provide benefits equivalent to over 3% of the national farm gate value of corn and 1.5% to 2.1% of the national farm gate value of soybean in 2013 .


title: Neonicotinoid

text: The US EPA operates a 15-year registration review cycle for all pesticides. The EPA granted a conditional registration to clothianidin in 2003. The EPA issues conditional registrations when a pesticide meets the standard for registration, but there are outstanding data requirements. Thiamethoxam is approved for use as an antimicrobial pesticide wood preservative and as a pesticide; it was first approved in 1999. Imidacloprid was registered in 1994.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: As all neonicotinoids were registered after 1984, they were not subject to reregistration, but because of environmental concerns, especially concerning bees, the EPA opened dockets to evaluate them. The registration review docket for imidacloprid opened in December 2008, and the docket for nithiazine opened in March 2009. To best take advantage of new research as it becomes available, the EPA moved ahead the docket openings for the remaining neonicotinoids on the registration review schedule (acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam) to FY 2012. The EPA said that it expected to complete the review for the neonicotinoids in 2018.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In March 2012, the Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network, Beyond Pesticides and a group of beekeepers filed an Emergency Petition with the EPA asking the agency to suspend the use of clothianidin. The agency denied the petition. In March 2013, the US EPA was sued by the same group, with the Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Health joining, which accused the agency of performing inadequate toxicity evaluations and allowing insecticide registration based on inadequate studies. The case, "Ellis et al v. Bradbury et al", was stayed as of October 2013.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: On 12 July 2013, Rep. John Conyers, on behalf of himself and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, introduced the "Save American Pollinators Act" in the House of Representatives. The Act called for suspension of the use of four neonicotinoids, including the three recently suspended by the European Union, until their review is complete, and for a joint Interior Department and EPA study of bee populations and the possible reasons for their decline. The bill was assigned to a congressional committee on 16 July 2013 and did not leave committee.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: The US EPA has taken a variety of actions to regulate neonicotinoids in response to concerns about pollinators. In 2014, under the Obama administration, a blanket ban was issued against the use of neonicotinoids on National Wildlife Refuges in response to concerns about off-target effects of the pesticide, and a lawsuit from environmental groups. In 2018, the Trump administration reversed this decision, stating that decisions on neonicotinoid usage on farms in wildlife refuges will be made on a case by case basis. In May 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency revoked approval for a dozen pesticides containing clothianidin and thiamethoxam as part of a legal settlement.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In 2008, Germany revoked the registration of clothianidin for use on seed corn after an incident that resulted in the death of millions of nearby honey bees. An investigation revealed that it was caused by a combination of factors:


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In Germany, clothianidin use was also restricted in 2008 for a short period on rapeseed. After it was shown that rapeseed treatment did not have the same problems as maize, its use was reinstated under the condition that the pesticide be fixed to the rapeseed grains by an additional sticker, so that abrasion dusts would not be released into the air.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In 2009, the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety decided to continue to suspend authorization for clothianidin use on corn. It had not yet been fully clarified to what extent and in what manner bees come into contact with the active substances in clothianidin, thiamethoxam and imidacloprid when used on corn. The question of whether liquid emitted by plants via guttation, which bees ingest, posed an additional risk was unanswered.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Neonicotinoid seed treatment is banned in Italy, but foliar use is allowed. This action was taken based on preliminary monitoring studies showing that bee losses were correlated with the application of seeds treated with these compounds; Italy based its decision on the known acute toxicity of these compounds to pollinators.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In France, sunflower and corn seed treatment with imidacloprid are suspended; imidacloprid seed treatment for sugar beets and cereals are allowed, as is foliar use.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In 2012, the European Commission asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to study the safety of three neonicotinoids, in response to growing concerns about the impact of neonicotinoids on honey bees. The study was published in January 2013, stating that neonicotinoids pose an unacceptably high risk to bees, and that the industry-sponsored science upon which regulatory agencies' claims of safety have relied may be flawed and contain data gaps not previously considered. Their review concluded, "A high acute risk to honey bees was identified from exposure via dust drift for the seed treatment uses in maize, oilseed rape and cereals. A high acute risk was also identified from exposure via residues in nectar and/or pollen." EFSA reached the following conclusions:


title: Neonicotinoid

text: EFSA's scientists identified a number of data gaps and were unable to finalize risk assessments for some uses authorized in the EU. EFSA also highlighted that risk to other pollinators should be further considered. The UK Parliament asked manufacturer Bayer Cropscience to explain discrepancies in the evidence they submitted.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In response to the study, the European Commission recommended a restriction of their use across the European Union. On 29 April 2013, 15 of the 27 EU member states voted to restrict the use of three neonicotinoids for two years starting 1 December 2013. Eight states voted against the ban, while four abstained. The law restricted the use of imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam for seed treatment, soil application (granules) and foliar treatment in crops attractive to bees. Temporary suspensions had previously been enacted in France, Germany, and Italy. In Switzerland, where neonicotinoids were never used in alpine areas, neonics were banned because of accidental poisonings of bee populations and the relatively low safety margin for other beneficial insects.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Environmentalists called the move "a significant victory for common sense and our beleaguered bee populations" and said it is "crystal clear that there is overwhelming scientific, political and public support for a ban." The UK, which voted against the bill, disagreed: "Having a healthy bee population is a top priority for us, but we did not support the proposal for a ban because our scientific evidence doesn't support it." Bayer Cropscience, which makes two of the three banned products, remarked "Bayer remains convinced neonicotinoids are safe for bees, when used responsibly and properly … clear scientific evidence has taken a back-seat in the decision-making process." Reaction in the scientific community was mixed. Biochemist Lin Field said the decision was based on "political lobbying" and could lead to the overlooking of other factors involved in colony collapse disorder. Zoologist Lynn Dicks of Cambridge University disagreed, saying "This is a victory for the precautionary principle, which is supposed to underlie environmental regulation." Simon Potts, Professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at Reading University, called the ban "excellent news for pollinators", and said, "The weight of evidence from researchers clearly points to the need to have a phased ban of neonicotinoids."


title: Neonicotinoid

text: The decision came up for review in 2016. In March 2017, "The Guardian" printed an article which claimed that they had obtained information that indicated that the European commission wanted a complete ban and cited "high acute risks to bees". A vote on the ban was expected in 2017 but delayed until early 2018 to assess the scientific findings.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: On 27 April 2018, member states of the European Union agreed upon a total ban on neonicotinoid insecticide use, except within closed greenhouses, to be imposed from the end of 2018. The ban applies to the three main neonicotinoid active compounds: clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Use of the three compounds had been partially restricted in 2013. The vote on the proposed ban followed a February 2018 report from the European Food Safety Authority which concluded that neonicotinoids posed a high risk to both domestic and wild bees. Voting on the issue had previously been postponed on multiple occasions. The ban had strong public support, but faced criticism from the agrochemical industry, and from certain farmers' groups.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In January 2013, the Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture e. V. (HFFA), a non-profit think tank, published a report on the value of neonicotinoids in the EU. At their website HFFA lists as their partners/supporters: BASF SE, the world's largest chemical company; Bayer CropScience, makers of products for crop protection and nonagricultural pest control; E.ON, an electric utility service provider; KWS Seed, a seed producer; and the food company Nestlé.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: The study was supported by COPA-COGECA, the European Seed Association and the European Crop Protection Association, and financed by neonicotinoid manufacturers Bayer CropScience and Syngenta. The report looked at the short- and medium-term impacts of a complete ban of all neonicotinoids on agricultural and total value added (VA) and employment, global prices, land use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the first year, agricultural and total VA would decline by €2.8 and €3.8 billion, respectively. The greatest losses would be in wheat, maize and rapeseed in the UK, Germany, Romania and France. 22,000 jobs would be lost, primarily in Romania and Poland, and agricultural incomes would decrease by 4.7%. In the medium-term (5-year ban), losses would amount to €17 billion in VA, and 27,000 jobs. The greatest income losses would affect the UK, while most jobs losses would occur in Romania. Following a ban, the lowered production would induce more imports of agricultural commodities into the EU. Agricultural production outside the EU would expand by 3.3 million hectares, leading to additional emissions of 600 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: When the report was released, Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, which has been working to ban neonicotinoids in the UK, commented that since the report was funded by Bayer Crop Sciences and Syngenta, "it was probably unlikely to conclude that neonicotinoids should be banned". The spokesperson further stated: "On the one hand, the chemical companies say we risk the additional costs to farmers amounting to £630 million. On the other, the possible cost of losing pollinating insects is thought to be worth three times as much (£1.8 billion*) to UK farmers."


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Use of pesticides in Canada is a matter of federal jurisdiction. In 2016, Health Canada proposed phasing out imidacloprid over the next three to five years. The government has voiced concerns regarding the impact of neonics on bees, invertebrate waterspecies, and birds.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In Ontario, nearly all corn seeds and a majority of soybeans get treated with neonicotinoids. In the summer of 2015, the province passed a law to reduce the presence of neonicotinoids. Ontario's regulations were written to reduce the percent of seeds and beans covered with neonicotinoids to 20 percent within two years.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: On 10 December 2015, Montreal banned all neonicotinoids – without exception – on all properties within the city limits, including the Botanical Garden, all agricultural areas and all golf courses. Agricultural businesses opposed Montreal's ban.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In July 2016, British Columbia's largest city, Vancouver, banned the use of neonics within Vancouver city limits, where it was primarily being used to kill off chafer beetles living under home lawns.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Neonicotinoids, like nicotine, bind to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) of a cell and trigger a response by that cell. In mammals, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are located in cells of both the central nervous system and peripheral nervous systems. In insects these receptors are limited to the central nervous system.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: While low to moderate activation of these receptors causes nervous stimulation, high levels overstimulate and block the receptors,


title: Neonicotinoid

text: causing paralysis and death. Acetylcholinesterase breaks down acetylcholine to terminate signals from these receptors. However, acetylcholinesterase cannot break down neonicotinoids and their binding is irreversible.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Mammals and insects have different composition of the receptor subunits and the structures of the receptors. Because most neonicotinoids bind much more strongly to insect neuron receptors than to mammal neuron receptors, these insecticides are more toxic to insects than mammals.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: The low mammalian toxicity of imidacloprid has been explained by its inability to cross the blood–brain barrier because of the presence of a charged nitrogen atom at physiological pH. The uncharged molecule can penetrate the insect blood–brain barrier.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Other neonicotinoids have a negatively charged nitro or cyano group, which interacts with a unique, positively charged amino acid residue present on insect, but not mammalian nAChRs.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: However, the breakdown product desnitro-imidacloprid, which is formed in a mammal's body during metabolism as well as in environmental breakdown of imidacloprid, has a charged nitrogen and shows high affinity to mammalian nAChRs. Desnitro-imidacloprid is quite toxic to mice.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Toxic action may result from the active ingredient itself or from its residue. is a common degradation product of multiple neonicotinoids.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Most neonicotinoids are water-soluble and break down slowly in the environment, so they can be taken up by the plant and provide protection from insects as the plant grows.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Independent studies show that the photodegradation half-life time of most neonicotinoids is around 34 days when exposed to sunlight. However, it might take up to 1,386 days (3.8 years) for these compounds to degrade in the absence of sunlight and micro-organism activity. Some researchers are concerned that neonicotinoids applied agriculturally might accumulate in aquifers.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: A dramatic rise in the number of annual beehive losses noticed around 2006 spurred interest in factors potentially affecting bee health. Many biological factors influence colony collapse disorder, including varroa mite infestation and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV). Despite much speculation on the role of neonicotinoids, many collapsing colonies show no trace of them.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Research has suggested potential toxicity to honey bees and other beneficial insects even with low levels of exposure. In lab studies, neonicotinoids were shown to increase mortality rates and may induce multiple sublethal effects in exposed bees, including the ability to fly and forage. Neonicotinoids may also be responsible for detrimental effects on the bumblebee, another important pollinator. In general, however, despite the fact that many laboratory studies have shown the potential for neonicotinoid toxicity, the majority of field studies have found only limited or no effects on honey bees.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In April 2015 EASAC conducted a study of the potential effects on organisms providing a range of ecosystem services like pollination and natural pest control which are critical to sustainable agriculture. The resulting report concludes "there is an increasing body of evidence that the widespread prophylactic use of neonicotinoids has severe negative effects on non-target organisms that provide ecosystem services including pollination and natural pest control."


title: Neonicotinoid

text: A 2015 systematic review (Lundin et al., 2015) of the scientific literature on neonicotinoids and bees concluded that despite considerable research efforts, there are still significant knowledge gaps concerning the impacts of neonicotinoids on bees.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: A review article (Carreck & Ratnieks, 2015) concluded that while laboratory based studies have demonstrated adverse sub-lethal effects of neonicotinoid insecticides on honey bees and bumble bees, these same effects have not been observed in field studies, which is likely due to an overestimation of three key dosage factors (concentration, duration and choice) in many laboratory based studies.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In 2017, researchers demonstrated the combined effects of nutritional stress and low doses of common, widely used neonicotinoid pesticides (clothianidin, thiamethoxam) found in nectar and pollen. Their results provided the first demonstration that neonicotinoids and nutrition levels can synergistically interact and cause significant harm to animal survival, showing the complexity of neonicotinoid effects. In addition, the combined exposure reduced bee food consumption and hemolymph (bee blood) sugar levels. Declines in managed and wild bee populations have been attributed, in part, to the combination of direct and indirect effects of neonicotinoids that render them vulnerable to pathogens.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: A 2017 survey covering every continent with honeybees found neonicotinoids in three-fourths of honey samples, albeit in every case at levels considered safe for human consumption.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Neonicotinoids may have adverse effects on bird population. Neonicotinoid dust intended for plants and seed coatings can spread throughout the air and seep into the water, which unintentionally affects non-target wildlife.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Globally, 60% of neonicotinoids are used as seed coatings. Some seed-eating bird species can be poisoned by neonicotinoid-coated seeds. There have been reports of developmental abnormalities and reduced eggshell thickness, fertilization success, and embryo size with direct exposure to pesticides including neonicotinoids. Some studies suggest burying neonicotinoid seeds used for agriculture below the surface of the soil will prevent birds from eating them.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Neonicotinoids can have non-direct impacts on birds by disrupting the food chain. The main goal of neonicotinoids is to target pests. However, this negatively affects insectivorous bird populations that rely on these insects for food.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: Neonicotinoids can also leach into soil, accumulating in bodies of water that normally incubate insects. A 2014 observational study conducted in the Netherlands correlated declines in some bird populations with environmental imidacloprid residues, although it stopped short of concluding that the association was casual.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: In March 2013, the American Bird Conservancy published a commentary on 200 studies on neonicotinoids calling for a ban on neonicotinoid use as seed treatments because of their toxicity to birds, aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: A 2013 Dutch study found that water containing allowable concentrations of imidacloprid had 50% fewer invertebrate species compared with uncontaminated water. A later study found the analysis was confounded with other co-occurring insecticides and did not show imidacloprid directly affected invertebrate diversity.


title: Neonicotinoid

text: A 2014 review took a broader look at the ecological impact of neonicotinoids and fipronil, finding negative effects on invertebrates, but not microbes or fish. Although not yet conclusive, there is increasing evidence that neonicotinoids can have negative effects on pollinating insects other than bees, including monarch butterflies.


title: Manjari Makijany

text: Manjari Makijany is an Indian writer, director and producer who works on American and Hindi films. She is best known for her award-winning short films, "The Last Marble" (2012) and "The Corner Table (2014)".


title: Manjari Makijany

text: Makijany was one of eight women chosen to participate in the AFI Conservatory's Directing Workshop for Women in 2016. She is the second Indian to participate in the program since its inception in 1974. As part of the AFI DWW she directed, "I See You (2016)", a dramatic thriller about a suicide bomber who has a change of heart on the New York City Subway. She is also one of 25 Women selected to participant in the inaugural Fox Filmmakers Lab in 2017. Manjari was one of eight filmmakers selected to participate in the inaugural Universal Pictures Directors Intensive in 2017.


title: Manjari Makijany

text: Makijany completed UCLA's Professional Screenwriters Program, where she developed her feature screenplay, City of Gold. The script was nominated for the Nate Wilson's Joie De Vivre Award in 2015.


title: Manjari Makijany

text: Makijany worked as an Assistant Director on Indian films "Wake Up Sid" and "Saat Khoon Maaf". She also worked on Disney's live action-animation "", "Gandhi of the Month" and the Indian schedules of "" and "The Dark Knight Rises".


title: Manjari Makijany

text: Makijany's foray into writing and directing began with a 7-minute silent film, "The Last Marble" (2012) that premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival and received much critical appreciation winning International awards for "Best Film" at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. The film was included as the ‘Best of Fest’ at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and screened in over 30 International festivals.


title: Manjari Makijany

text: "The Corner Table "(2014) was her second film and featured Tom Alter. The 24-minute short film was nominated for "Best Film" at the New York Indian Film Festival (2014). The film was a part of the Cannes Short Film Corner and an "Official Selection" of the Emerging Filmmakers Showcase at the American Pavilion - Cannes Film Festival. Manjari was the only Indian woman filmmaker chosen as part of this showcase.


title: Manjari Makijany

text: In 2019, Makijany began filming "Skater Girl" (2021), a narrative feature film written by Vinati Makijany and Manjari Makijany which follows the story of a teenage tribal girl in Rajasthan, India who discovers skateboarding after a thirty-something British-Indian woman introduces skateboarding to a village. "Skater Girl" is Makijany's directorial debut feature and was filmed on location in Khempur, Udaipur, Rajasthan in 2019. The film introduces newcomer Rachel Sanchita Gupta, and stars Amrit Maghera, Jonathan Readwin, Swati Das, Ankit Rao, and Waheeda Rehman. As part of the film, the producers built Rajasthan's first and, at the time India's largest, skatepark. Spanning over 15,000 sq ft, it remains a public skatepark facility for children and visiting skaters.


title: Manjari Makijany

text: Her next release in 2021 was Disney Channel original film "Spin", a film about an Indian American teen who learns she has a passion for creating DJ mixes.


title: Jorunna parva

text: Jorunna parva, commonly known as the sea bunny, is a species of dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusc in the family Discodorididae. The species was first described by Kikutaro Baba. Its resemblance to a rabbit facilitated a surge in popularity on Twitter throughout Japan in 2015.


title: Jorunna parva

text: The species is about 1 cm. long on average. Its black-and-white rhinophores somewhat resemble a rabbit's ears. Its external gills are located near its rear. Its body is covered in papillae, fleshy protuberances used for sensory functions, giving it the appearance of a furry animal. There are multiple colorations of "Jorunna parva", including yellow, white, and green, though the latter is rarely photographed. All of these variants have black papillae interspersed among papillae of their main color. There is controversy over whether or not the different colorations are divergent species.


title: Jorunna parva

text: Like most other members of its genus, "Jorunna parva"’s diet consists of sponges in the family Chalinidae. These sponges contain toxins that can be used for cancer treatments.


title: Jorunna parva

text: "Jorunna parva" are hermaphrodites, meaning they produce both sperm and egg cells. They cannot fertilize the eggs themselves.


title: Jorunna parva

text: This species was described from Kii Province, Japan. "Jorunna parva" has subsequently been reported from the Philippines, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles and Réunion but there are some doubts as to whether it is really a species complex. The "Jorunna parva" are concentrated in areas where there is an abundance of food and where resources are easily acquired. They often cling to submerged vegetation and spend majority of the time at the bottom of tropical waters.


title: Jean-Michel Cousteau

text: Jean-Michel Cousteau (born 6 May 1938) is a French oceanographic explorer, environmentalist, educator and film producer. The first son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, he is the father of Fabien Cousteau and Céline Cousteau.


title: Jean-Michel Cousteau

text: Cousteau is the son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Simone Melchior, who were business partners. Cousteau first dived with an aqua-lung in 1945 when he was seven years old. Although he went to school to study architecture, he joined his father's Cousteau Society, serving for twenty years as executive vice president before striking out on his own in 1993 to produce environmental films. Cousteau and his father disagreed on the management and policies of the Society.


title: Jean-Michel Cousteau

text: After Cousteau opened a resort on a Fiji island utilizing the family name, Jacques-Yves Cousteau filed a lawsuit against him in 1996. In June 1996, a court signed an injunction requiring him to add, with equal prominence in placement, his first name to the hotel. Jean-Michel then founded the Ocean Futures Society in 1999, a marine conservation and education organization. In 2003, Francesca Sorrenti and Marisha Shibuya of the SKe GROUP project, in partnership with Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society, collaborated to produce "Water Culture", a Trolley Books publication featuring a wide variety of photographer's water-related imagery and interviews with prominent world personalities on the problems facing our water supply. Cousteau is also Chairman of Green Cross France. Cousteau advocates for a world free of nuclear weapons, and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.


title: Jean-Michel Cousteau

text: Cousteau is working on a documentary highlighting the epic and disastrous 2010 Gulf Oil Spill in which 11 workers were killed during an explosion of deepwater rig off the coast of Louisiana, United States.


title: Jean-Michel Cousteau

text: Jean-Michel Cousteau is the President of Green Cross France & Territoires, a NGO proposing keys for actions towards a better environment for an unburdened future.


title: Jean-Michel Cousteau

text: He appeared on a documentary-type special feature, "Case of the Sponge "Bob"", on the DVD version of "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" (2004) in which he and Stephen Hillenburg talk about all of the real-life counterparts to the sea creatures seen in the cartoon series and movie. He did a similar feature for the DVD of the Disney/Pixar movie "Finding Nemo": "Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau". In Disney's DVD release of "Finding Nemo", Cousteau makes an appearance interacting with the characters from the film, Marlin, Nemo and Dory, and touting the need for better pollution control, showing videos of polluted coral reefs.


title: Jean-Michel Cousteau

text: Jean-Michel Cousteau made a new documentary series "Ocean Adventures" released in 2006. Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society, KQED and PBS are continuing production on the "Ocean Adventures" series for 2007 and 2008. In October 2006, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and an expedition team that includes his son Fabien and daughter Céline, began filming along the Amazon River. Twenty years ago scientists predicted devastation and irreversible environmental damage here, and 25 years ago Jean-Michel Cousteau and his legendary father traveled with their teams the entire length of the Amazon to document, learn, and see for themselves.


title: Jean-Michel Cousteau

text: In 2006, Cousteau's documentary "Voyage to Kure" inspired then U.S. President George W. Bush to protect the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, making it—with its of ocean waters, islands, and atolls—one of the largest Marine Protected Areas in the world.


title: Parov Stelar

text: Marcus Füreder (born 27 November 1974), better known by his stage name Parov Stelar, is an Austrian musician, composer, producer, DJ and designer. His musical style is based on a combination of jazz, house, electro, hip hop, and pop.


title: Parov Stelar

text: Marcus Füreder first appeared as a DJ at nightclubs during the mid-late 1990s. He became involved in producing and publishing in 2000. Having released his first maxi singles on Bushido using his real name and his stage name Plasma, Füreder founded the record label "Etage Noir Recordings" in 2003. A year later, under the stage name Parov Stelar, the EP "Kiss Kiss" was released, followed by the LP "Rough Cuts". Parov Stelar has worked with Lana Del Rey, Bryan Ferry, and Lady Gaga.


title: Parov Stelar

text: Cleo Panther was the lead singer for Parov Stelar from 2011 to 2019. She was replaced with Elena Karafizi, who "brings a versatile musical background" from her hometown of Chisinau, Moldova. Soul singer Anduze co-inhabits the lead singer position alongside Elena. He officially joined the band in 2018, but has been working with Parov Stelar since 2012 as a writer and featured artist. In the summer of 2021 Parov Stelar gave the first insight into his work as a visual artist in his hometown of Linz. The Francisco Carolinum Museum presented 25 large-format paintings such as "HELLO Mom" - a homage to his mother Margit Füreder, who is also active as an artist - "I'll be OK soon" as well as "Toxic Lover" in which he receives and artistically processes autobiographical events and fears.


title: Parov Stelar

text: Parov Stelar won ten Amadeus Austrian Music Awards: Electronic/Dance (2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021), Album of the Year for "The Princess" (2013), and Best Live Act (2013 and 2014). The track "Booty Swing" charted positions in the electronic US and Canadian iTunes charts. "All Night" reached double platinum status for 100,000 tracks sold in Italy in May 2017. In May 2018, the song "The Sun" featuring Graham Candy and in April 2020, the release "Voodoo Sonic Part 2" reached the No.1 chart position in the US iTunes Electronic Charts.


title: Parov Stelar

text: He was married to Barbara Lichtenauer (better known by her stage name Lilja Bloom), with whom he co-founded the design label Stelarbloom. Stelar and Bloom divorced in early 2020.


title: Jack Herer

text: Jack Herer (; June 18, 1939 – April 15, 2010), sometimes called the "Emperor of Hemp", was an American cannabis rights activist and the author of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", a book—in 2020 in its fourteenth edition after having been continuously in print for 35 years—frequently cited in efforts to decriminalize and legalize cannabis and to expand the use of hemp for industrial use. Herer also founded and served as the director of the organization Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP).


title: Jack Herer

text: The Jack Herer Cup created by R. Foreman is held in Amsterdam, Colombia, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City and Thailand each year to honor the Worldwide Cannabis Legalization Movement that Jack Herer helped start.


title: Jack Herer

text: An early glass pipe entrepreneur, opening his first head shop in 1973, Herer was a pro-cannabis and hemp activist. There is a documentary made about his life, "Emperor of Hemp", which aired on PBS stations throughout the U.S. and was translated into French and Spanish.


title: Jack Herer

text: As an activist he advocated for the decriminalization of the cannabis plant and argued that it could be used as a renewable source of fuel, medicine, food, fiber and paper/pulp and that it can be grown in virtually any part of the world for medicinal as well as economic purposes. He further asserted that the U.S. government has been deliberately hiding the proof of this from its own citizens.


title: Jack Herer

text: A former Goldwater Republican, Herer ran for United States President twice, in 1988 (1,949 votes) and 1992 (3,875 votes) as the Grassroots Party candidate.


title: Jack Herer

text: A sativa-dominant hybrid strain of cannabis has been named after Jack Herer in honor of his work. The Jack Herer strain was originally created by Sensi Seeds. Today almost all seed banks carry their own take on this famous cannabis favorite. This strain has won several awards, including the 7th "High Times" Cannabis Cup. Jack Herer was also inducted into the Counterculture Hall of Fame at the 16th Cannabis Cup in recognition of his first book.


title: Jack Herer

text: In July 2000, Herer suffered a minor heart attack and a major stroke while attending the BioFach trade show, resulting in difficulties speaking and moving the right side of his body. Herer mostly recovered, and claimed in May 2004 that treatment with the "Amanita muscaria", a psychoactive mushroom, was the "secret".


title: Jack Herer

text: On September 12, 2009, Herer suffered another heart attack while backstage at the Hempstalk Festival in Portland, Oregon.


title: Jack Herer

text: He was discharged to another facility on October 13, 2009. Paul Stanford of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation said "He is waking up and gazing appropriately when someone is talking... but he is not really communicating in any way." On April 15, 2010, he died in Eugene, Oregon from complications related to the September 2009 heart attack. He was 70 years old at the time of his death. Herer was buried at the Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.


title: Jack Herer

text: European experts on hemp, like Dr. Hayo M.G. van der Werf, author of the doctoral thesis "Crop physiology of fibre hemp" (1994), and Dr. Ivan Bocsa criticized Herer for making unrealistic claims regarding the potential of hemp, compare L.H.Dewey (1943).


title: 2022 Asia Cup Qualification

text: The 2022 Asia Cup Qualifier was a men's cricket tournament which took place in Oman in August 2022 to determine qualification for the 2022 Asia Cup (which was originally scheduled to be played in 2020). The 2020 editions of the ACC Western and Eastern Region T20 tournaments were held in February and March 2020 by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), with thirteen teams competing in total (eight in the Western event and five in the Eastern event) with the aim of progressing to the qualifier. These were scheduled to be followed by the Asia Cup Qualifier tournament in Malaysia, which was due to be played in August 2020. However, in July 2020, the Asia Cup was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the postponement of the Qualifier. In May 2021, the Asian Cricket Council confirmed that there would be no Asia Cup in 2021, with that edition of the tournament deferred until 2023. It was later announced that there would be a T20I Asia Cup in 2022, to be hosted by the United Arab Emirates.


title: 2022 Asia Cup Qualification

text: The Western Region qualifier was held by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Oman in February 2020 and the Eastern region qualifier was held in Thailand from 29 February to 6 March 2020. UAE and Kuwait advanced to the main Asia Cup Qualifier after reaching the final of the Western Region event and they were joined by Singapore and Hong Kong who finished in the top two positions in the Eastern event. These four teams contested the Asia Cup Qualifier to determine the sixth team to take part in the 2022 Asia Cup (joining the five Asian Full Members of the International Cricket Council).


title: 2022 Asia Cup Qualification

text: China were originally scheduled to take part in the Eastern Region Group, but they withdrew in February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bhutan and Myanmar, who were also included in the original schedule, later withdrew their participation. On 23 February 2020, Iran played their first ever T20I match, when they faced the United Arab Emirates in Group B of the Western Region qualifier.


title: 2022 Asia Cup Qualification

text: The 2020 ACC Western Region T20 tournament was held from 23 to 27 February 2020 in Muscat, Oman, and acted as a first qualifying stage for the 2020 Asia Cup. Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE all announced their squads for the tournament. Following the conclusion of the group stage matches of the Western Region, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE had all progressed to the semi-finals.


title: 2022 Asia Cup Qualification

text: An incredible six-wicket win for Bahrain over Qatar in the final group match saw them climb to the top of Group A, with both sides progressing to the semi-finals at the expense of favourites Oman by virtue of slightly better net run rates. Kuwait and the UAE won their respective semi-final matches to advance to the final of the Western Region group and to the Asia Cup Qualifier. United Arab Emirates went on to win the final by 102 runs.


title: 2022 Asia Cup Qualification

text: The 2020 ACC Eastern Region T20 tournament took place from 29 February to 6 March 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand, and acted as a first qualifying stage for the 2020 Asia Cup. It was the first official men's T20I tournament to be played in Thailand. China were initially due to play in the Eastern Region tournament, but were forced to withdraw due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bhutan and Myanmar were also included in the original schedule, but later withdrew. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal and Singapore all announced their squads for the tournament, with Aizaz Khan, Ahmad Faiz, Gyanendra Malla and Amjad Mahboob as their respective captains.


title: 2022 Asia Cup Qualification

text: The opening day of the tournament saw the hosts beaten by Singapore, followed by a surprise defeat for the much-fancied Nepal against Malaysia, who came into the event on the back of a 5–0 series whitewash against Hong Kong. Nepal were beaten again on day two, this time by Hong Kong, and Thailand also suffered a second defeat with Malaysia taking a second victory. Singapore thrashed the in-form Malaysians by 128 runs on day three thanks to an unbeaten 92 from just 32 balls for Tim David, and they were joined by Hong Kong on a record of two wins from two matches after their comfortable victory over Thailand. After the penultimate round of matches, Nepal were eliminated despite Sandeep Lamichhane bowling a world record 22 dot ball deliveries in their victory over Thailand, due to Singapore's 16-run win over Hong Kong. The result also secured Singapore's qualification, and meant that the game between Hong Kong and Malaysia on the final day would determine the remaining place in the Asia Cup Qualifier. Singapore won the tournament unbeaten with seven points, after their last fixture against Nepal was abandoned due to rain. Hong Kong's victory over Malaysia in the last match of the tournament secured their qualification. Singapore's Tim David was named player of the tournament, while compatriot Sidhant Singh and Hong Kong's Aftab Hussain won the batting and bowling awards, respectively.


title: 2022 Asia Cup Qualification

text: The four-team Asia Cup Qualifier was originally scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur in August 2020. The qualifier was held in Oman in August 2022, immediately before the Asia Cup.


title: 2022 Asia Cup Qualification

text: Kuwait and the UAE reached the final of the Western Region group, and as a result, also advanced to the Asia Cup Qualifier. Singapore and Hong Kong finished as the top two teams in the Eastern Region group, joining Kuwait and the UAE in the Asia Cup Qualifier. However, in July 2020, the Asia Cup was postponed to June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Asia Cup was again postponed to August and September 2022, with the qualifier started on 20 August 2022. Originally scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka, both the Qualifier and the Asia Cup were moved to Oman and the UAE respectively due to the economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: Ekambareswarar Temple (Ekambaranathar Temple) is a Hindu temple dedicated to the deity Shiva, located in the town of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu, India. It is significant to the Hindu sect of Saivism as one of the temples associated with the five elements, the "Pancha Bhoota Stalas", and specifically the element of earth, or Prithvi. Shiva is worshiped as Ekambareswarar or Ekambaranathar, and is represented by the "lingam", with his idol referred to as "Prithvi lingam". His consort Parvati is depicted as Elavarkuzhali. The presiding deity is revered in the 7th century Tamil Saiva canonical work, the "Tevaram", written by Tamil saint poets known as the nayanars and classified as "Paadal Petra Sthalam". The temple also houses Nilathingal Thundam Perumal temple, a Divyadesam, the 108 temples revered in the Vaishnava canon Nalayira Divya Prabhandam.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: The temple complex covers 25 acres, and is one of the largest in India. It houses four gateway towers known as "gopurams". The tallest is the southern tower, with 11 stories and a height of , making it one of the tallest temple towers in India. The temple has numerous shrines, with those of Ekambareswarar and Nilathingal Thundam Perumal being the most prominent. The temple complex houses many halls; the most notable is the thousand-pillared hall built during the Vijayanagar period.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: The temple has six daily rituals at various times from a.m. to 10 p.m., and twelve yearly festivals on its calendar. Panguni Uthiram festival celebrated for thirteen days during the Tamil month of "Panguni" (March - April) is the most prominent festival of the temple and the town.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: The present masonry structure was built during the Chola dynasty in the 9th century, while later expansions are attributed to Vijayanagar rulers. The temple is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu. The temple is the largest and one of the most prominent tourist attractions in the city.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: Legend has it that once Parvati, the consort of Shiva, wanted to expiate herself from sin by doing penance under the temple's ancient Mango tree near Vegavathi river. In order to test her devotion Shiva sent fire on her. Goddess Parvati prayed to her brother, Vishnu, for help. In order to save her, he took the Moon from Shiva's head and showed the rays which then cooled down the tree as well as Parvati. Shiva again sent the river Ganga (Ganges) to disrupt Parvati's penance. Parvati Request to Ganga and convinced her that both of them were sisters and so should not harm her. Subsequently, Ganga did not disturb her penance and Parvati made a Shiva Linga out of sand to get united with Shiva. The God here came to be known as Ekambareswarar or "Lord of Mango Tree".


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: According to another legend, it is believed that Parvati worshipped Shiva in the form of a "Prithivi Lingam" (or a Lingam improvised out of sand), under a mango tree. Legend has it that the neighboring "Vegavati" river overflowed and threatened to engulf the Shiva Lingam and that Parvati or Kamakshi embraced the Lingam. Shiva touched by the gesture materialized in person and married her. In this context he is referred to as "Tazhuva kuzhainthaar" ("He who melted in Her embrace") in Tamil.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: Tirukuripputhonda Nayanar, one of the 63 saivite saints, called "nayanars" was a washerman near the temple and he washed the clothes of all the Saivities. He was divinely tricked by God Shiva appearing as an aged "brahmin" and asked him to wash before dawn. At the same time Shiva made a cloudly evening. On observing the approach of the evening, the washerman banged his head in a stone in disappointment. God appeared in his true form and graced his devotee.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: This vast temple is one of the most ancient in India having been in existence since at least 600 CE. Second-century-CE Tamil poetry speaks of "Kama kottam", and the "Kumara kottam" (currently the Kamakashi Amman temple and the Subramanya temple). The temple finds mention in the classical Tamil Sangam literature dated 300 BCE like "Manimegalai" and "Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai". Initially temple was built by Pallavas. The Vedantist Kachiyapper served as a priest at the temple. The existing structure then, was pulled down and rebuilt by the later Chola Kings. Adi Sankara, the 10th-century saint got Kanchipuram remodelled along with expansion of this temple along with Kamakshi Amman temple and Varadaraja Perumal Temple with the help of local rulers.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: There are inscriptions dated 1532 CE (record 544 of 1919) indicating the gift of number of villages made by Achutaraya. Vira Narasingaraya Saluva Nayaka who was directed by Achutaraya broke the royal order by giving more lands to Ekambaranathar temple than the Varadaraja Swamy temple against the instruction of an equal gift to either of the temples. Achutaraya on hearing this equally distributed the lands to both the temples. The eleven-storied southern gopuram, built by Krishnadevaraya (1509-29), is tall and is one of the tallest gopurams in the country.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: The Vijayanagar kings, during the 15th century, also made lot of contributions to the temple and later developed by Vallal Pachiyappa Mudaliar used to go regularly from Chennai to Kanchipuram to worship in this temple, he spent significant money he amazed during British rule on the temple renovation, Pachiyappa Mudaliar seated at horse back can be seen in the temple pillar. At the later stage a similar temple with same name Ekambareswarar was constructed in Chennai by Pachiappa Mudaliar in order to avoid travelling time to Kanchipuram. The Archaeological Survey of India report of 1905–06 indicates widespread renovation activities carried out in the temple by Nattukottai Chettiars. In modern times, the temple is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: The temple covers an area of over . Reaching a height of , the temple's Raja "gopuram" (the entrance tower to the temple) is one of the tallest in South India. The bottom half of the gateway tower has the shrines of Vinayaka and Murugan on either sides. From the entrance, there are two halls namely Vahana Mandapam (vehicle hall) and Sarabesa Mandapam (also called Navaratri hall). The "Aayiram Kaal Mandapam", or the "hallway with a thousand pillars", which was built by the Vijayanagar Kings, is found on precinct after the gateway tower.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: There is said to have been an underground holy river. The fourth courtyard contains a small Ganesha temple and a pond. The third courtyard contains lot of smaller shrines. The flag staff of the temple is axial to the sanctum and diagonally located to the main entrance and the temple tank on either directions. There is a shrine called Thirukachi Mayanam and Kalayana Mandapa, named after Pachayappa Mudaliar, both of which are located close to the flag staff. Thirukachi Mayanam, Valeesam, Rishabesam and Satyanadeesam are located in four corners of the temple. The hall of the flagstaff has pillars sculpted with intricate figures indicating various legends and avatars of Shiva.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: The sanctum sanctorum contains the lingam along with the image of Shiva. There are granite image of the 63 Nayanmars around the first precinct. The temple's inner most precinct are decorated with an array of Shivalingam, one of which is a Sahasra Lingam with 1,008 Siva lingams sculpted on it. There is no separate shrine for Parvati within the complex as with all other Shiva temples in Kanchipuram. A local belief is that Kamakshi Amman Temple is the consort for Ekambaranathar. Behind the image of Lingam in the sanctum, there is a depiction of Shiva Parvathi in a plaque with Shiva depicted as Tazhuva kuzhainthaar and Parvathi as Elavar Kuzhali.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: There is a small shrine for Vishnu named Nilathingal Thundam Perumal temple inside the temple complex. Vishnu is prayed as Vamana Murthy and the shrine is hailed by the Alvar saints as one of the 108 Divya Desams. There is a separate shrine for Nataraja on the second precinct. The "sthala-virutcham" or temple tree is believed to be a 3,500-year-old mango tree whose branches are said to yield four different types of mangoes from its four branches.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: Pancha Bhoota Stalam refers to the five Shiva temples, each representing the manifestation of the five prime elements of nature - land, water, air, sky, fire. "Pancha" indicates five, "Bhoota" means elements and "Stala" means place. All these temples are located in South India with four of these temples at Tamil Nadu and one at Andhra Pradesh. The five elements are believed to be enshrined in the five "lingams" and each of the "lingams" representing Shiva in the temple have five different names based on the elements they represent. In the temple, Shiva is said to have manifested himself in the form of Prithvi Lingam. The other four manifestations are Appu Lingam (representing water) at Jambukeswarar Temple, Thiruvanaikaval, Akaya Lingam (representing sky) at Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram, Agni Lingam (representing fire) at Annamalaiyar Temple and Vayu Lingam (representing air) at Srikalahasti Temple. Kanchipuram is famous for hand-woven silk sarees - a design by name Ekambaranathar obtain its name from the designs of these shrines.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: Tirugnana Sambandar, a 7th-century Tamil "Saivite" poet, venerated Ekambareswarar in ten verses in "Tevaram", compiled as the "First Tirumurai". Appar and Sundarar, contemporaries of Sambandar, also venerated Ekambareswarar in 10 verses in "Tevaram", compiled as the "Fifth Tirumurai" and "Ninth Tirumurai" respectively. As the temple is revered in "Tevaram", it is classified as "Paadal Petra Sthalam", one of the 276 temples that find mention in the Saiva canon. Manickavasagar, a 9th-century Tamil saint and poet, revered Ekambareswarar in his writing. Thus the temple is revered by all four Saiva Kuravars. The presiding deity is also revered in the verses of famous folk singer Kanchi Kotayappa Nayak, one of the trinities of Carnatic music Muthuswami Dikshitar and Pattinathar.


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: The temple priest perform the "pooja" (rituals) during festivals and on a daily basis. Like other Shiva temples of Tamil Nadu, the priests belong to the Shaivaite community, a Brahmin sub-caste. The temple rituals are performed six times a day; Ushathkalam at 5:30 a.m., Kalasanthi at 8:00 a.m., Ucchikalam at 10:00 a.m., Sayarakshai at 6:00 p.m., Irandamkalam at 8:00 p.m. and Ardha Jamam at 10:00 p.m. Each ritual comprises four steps: "abhishekam" (sacred bath), "alankaram" (decoration), "naivedyam" (food offering) and "deepa aradhanai" (waving of lamps) for the pedestal of Ekambareswarar. Since it is a Lingam made of sand mound, all the ablution is done only to the pedestal. The worship is held amidst music with "nagaswaram" (pipe instrument) and "tavil" (percussion instrument), religious instructions in the Vedas read by priests and prostration by worshippers in front of the temple mast. There are weekly rituals like ' and ', fortnightly rituals like "pradosham" and monthly festivals like "amavasai" (new moon day), "kiruthigai" or on krittika nakshatram, "pournami" (full moon day) and "chaturthi".


title: Ekambareswarar Temple (Kanchipuram)

text: The temple celebrates dozens of festivals throughout the year. The most important of these is the Panguni (or Phalguni in devanagari) Brahmotsavam that lasts ten days during the Tamil month of "Panguni", between March and April, concluding with the celebration of Kalyanotsavam. The festival is the most popular of all the temple festivals in Kanchipuram. There are various processions during the ten days with the festive images of presiding deities of the temple carried in various mounts around the streets of the temple. During the fifth day, Ekambareswarar is carried silver mount Nandi during the morning and Ravaneswara Vahanam during the evening. The 63 Nayanmars are taken in procession the sixth day morning, while Ekambareswarar is carried on Silver car festival in the evening. Silver Mavadi seva is performed on the ninth day. On the concluding day, Kalyanotsavam (marriage festival) is held when the marriage of Ekambareswarar is enacted. During the day, many unmarried people get married irrespective of their caste along with the deity. The event is witnessed by thousands of people every year.


title: Projective geometry

text: In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, projective space, and a selective set of basic geometric concepts. The basic intuitions are that projective space has more points than Euclidean space, for a given dimension, and that geometric transformations are permitted that transform the extra points (called "points at infinity") to Euclidean points, and vice-versa.


title: Projective geometry

text: Properties meaningful for projective geometry are respected by this new idea of transformation, which is more radical in its effects than can be expressed by a transformation matrix and translations (the affine transformations). The first issue for geometers is what kind of geometry is adequate for a novel situation. It is not possible to refer to angles in projective geometry as it is in Euclidean geometry, because angle is an example of a concept not invariant with respect to projective transformations, as is seen in perspective drawing. One source for projective geometry was indeed the theory of perspective. Another difference from elementary geometry is the way in which parallel lines can be said to meet in a point at infinity, once the concept is translated into projective geometry's terms. Again this notion has an intuitive basis, such as railway tracks meeting at the horizon in a perspective drawing. See projective plane for the basics of projective geometry in two dimensions.


title: Projective geometry

text: While the ideas were available earlier, projective geometry was mainly a development of the 19th century. This included the theory of complex projective space, the coordinates used (homogeneous coordinates) being complex numbers. Several major types of more abstract mathematics (including invariant theory, the Italian school of algebraic geometry, and Felix Klein's Erlangen programme resulting in the study of the classical groups) were motivated by projective geometry. It was also a subject with many practitioners for its own sake, as synthetic geometry. Another topic that developed from axiomatic studies of projective geometry is finite geometry.


title: Projective geometry

text: The topic of projective geometry is itself now divided into many research subtopics, two examples of which are projective algebraic geometry (the study of projective varieties) and projective differential geometry (the study of differential invariants of the projective transformations).


title: Projective geometry

text: Projective geometry is an elementary non-metrical form of geometry, meaning that it is not based on a concept of distance. In two dimensions it begins with the study of configurations of points and lines. That there is indeed some geometric interest in this sparse setting was first established by Desargues and others in their exploration of the principles of perspective art. In higher dimensional spaces there are considered hyperplanes (that always meet), and other linear subspaces, which exhibit the principle of duality. The simplest illustration of duality is in the projective plane, where the statements "two distinct points determine a unique line" (i.e. the line through them) and "two distinct lines determine a unique point" (i.e. their point of intersection) show the same structure as propositions. Projective geometry can also be seen as a geometry of constructions with a straight-edge alone. Since projective geometry excludes compass constructions, there are no circles, no angles, no measurements, no parallels, and no concept of intermediacy. It was realised that the theorems that do apply to projective geometry are simpler statements. For example, the different conic sections are all equivalent in (complex) projective geometry, and some theorems about circles can be considered as special cases of these general theorems.


title: Projective geometry

text: During the early 19th century the work of Jean-Victor Poncelet, Lazare Carnot and others established projective geometry as an independent field of mathematics


title: Projective geometry

text: . Its rigorous foundations were addressed by Karl von Staudt and perfected by Italians Giuseppe Peano, Mario Pieri, Alessandro Padoa and Gino Fano during the late 19th century. Projective geometry, like affine and Euclidean geometry, can also be developed from the Erlangen program of Felix Klein; projective geometry is characterized by invariants under transformations of the projective group.


title: Projective geometry

text: After much work on the very large number of theorems in the subject, therefore, the basics of projective geometry became understood. The incidence structure and the cross-ratio are fundamental invariants under projective transformations. Projective geometry can be modeled by the affine plane (or affine space) plus a line (hyperplane) "at infinity" and then treating that line (or hyperplane) as "ordinary". An algebraic model for doing projective geometry in the style of analytic geometry is given by homogeneous coordinates. On the other hand, axiomatic studies revealed the existence of non-Desarguesian planes, examples to show that the axioms of incidence can be modelled (in two dimensions only) by structures not accessible to reasoning through homogeneous coordinate systems.


title: Projective geometry

text: In a foundational sense, projective geometry and ordered geometry are elementary since they involve a minimum of axioms and either can be used as the foundation for affine and Euclidean geometry. Projective geometry is not "ordered" and so it is a distinct foundation for geometry.


title: Projective geometry

text: The first geometrical properties of a projective nature were discovered during the 3rd century by Pappus of Alexandria. Filippo Brunelleschi (1404–1472) started investigating the geometry of perspective during 1425 (see the history of perspective for a more thorough discussion of the work in the fine arts that motivated much of the development of projective geometry). Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) and Gérard Desargues (1591–1661) independently developed the concept of the "point at infinity". Desargues developed an alternative way of constructing perspective drawings by generalizing the use of vanishing points to include the case when these are infinitely far away. He made Euclidean geometry, where parallel lines are truly parallel, into a special case of an all-encompassing geometric system. Desargues's study on conic sections drew the attention of 16-year-old Blaise Pascal and helped him formulate Pascal's theorem. The works of Gaspard Monge at the end of 18th and beginning of 19th century were important for the subsequent development of projective geometry. The work of Desargues was ignored until Michel Chasles chanced upon a handwritten copy during 1845. Meanwhile, Jean-Victor Poncelet had published the foundational treatise on projective geometry during 1822. Poncelet examined the projective properties of objects (those invariant under central projection) and, by basing his theory on the concrete pole and polar relation with respect to a circle, established a relationship between metric and projective properties. The non-Euclidean geometries discovered soon thereafter were eventually demonstrated to have models, such as the Klein model of hyperbolic space, relating to projective geometry.


title: Projective geometry

text: In 1855 A. F. Möbius wrote an article about permutations, now called Möbius transformations, of generalised circles in the complex plane. These transformations represent projectivities of the complex projective line. In the study of lines in space, Julius Plücker used homogeneous coordinates in his description, and the set of lines was viewed on the Klein quadric, one of the early contributions of projective geometry to a new field called algebraic geometry, an offshoot of analytic geometry with projective ideas.


title: Projective geometry

text: Projective geometry was instrumental in the validation of speculations of Lobachevski and Bolyai concerning hyperbolic geometry by providing models for the hyperbolic plane: for example, the Poincaré disc model where generalised circles perpendicular to the unit circle correspond to "hyperbolic lines" (geodesics), and the "translations" of this model are described by Möbius transformations that map the unit disc to itself. The distance between points is given by a Cayley-Klein metric, known to be invariant under the translations since it depends on cross-ratio, a key projective invariant. The translations are described variously as isometries in metric space theory, as linear fractional transformations formally, and as projective linear transformations of the projective linear group, in this case SU(1, 1).


title: Projective geometry

text: The work of Poncelet, Jakob Steiner and others was not intended to extend analytic geometry. Techniques were supposed to be "synthetic": in effect projective space as now understood was to be introduced axiomatically. As a result, reformulating early work in projective geometry so that it satisfies current standards of rigor can be somewhat difficult. Even in the case of the projective plane alone, the axiomatic approach can result in models not describable via linear algebra.


title: Projective geometry

text: This period in geometry was overtaken by research on the general algebraic curve by Clebsch, Riemann, Max Noether and others, which stretched existing techniques, and then by invariant theory. Towards the end of the century, the Italian school of algebraic geometry (Enriques, Segre, Severi) broke out of the traditional subject matter into an area demanding deeper techniques.


title: Projective geometry

text: During the later part of the 19th century, the detailed study of projective geometry became less fashionable, although the literature is voluminous. Some important work was done in enumerative geometry in particular, by Schubert, that is now considered as anticipating the theory of Chern classes, taken as representing the algebraic topology of Grassmannians.


title: Projective geometry

text: Projective geometry later proved key to Paul Dirac's invention of quantum mechanics. At a foundational level, the discovery that quantum measures could fail to commute had disturbed and dissuaded Heisenberg, but past study of projective planes over noncommutative rings had likely desensitized Dirac. In more advanced work, Dirac used extensive drawings in projective geometry to understand the intuitive meaning of his equations, before writing up his work in an exclusively algebraic formalism.


title: Projective geometry

text: Projective geometry is less restrictive than either Euclidean geometry or affine geometry. It is an intrinsically non-metrical geometry, meaning that facts are independent of any metric structure. Under the projective transformations, the incidence structure and the relation of projective harmonic conjugates are preserved. A projective range is the one-dimensional foundation. Projective geometry formalizes one of the central principles of perspective art: that parallel lines meet at infinity, and therefore are drawn that way. In essence, a projective geometry may be thought of as an extension of Euclidean geometry in which the "direction" of each line is subsumed within the line as an extra "point", and in which a "horizon" of directions corresponding to coplanar lines is regarded as a "line". Thus, two parallel lines meet on a horizon line by virtue of their incorporating the same direction.


title: Projective geometry

text: Idealized directions are referred to as points at infinity, while idealized horizons are referred to as lines at infinity. In turn, all these lines lie in the plane at infinity. However, infinity is a metric concept, so a purely projective geometry does not single out any points, lines or planes in this regard—those at infinity are treated just like any others.


title: Projective geometry

text: Because a Euclidean geometry is contained within a projective geometry—with projective geometry having a simpler foundation—general results in Euclidean geometry may be derived in a more transparent manner, where separate but similar theorems of Euclidean geometry may be handled collectively within the framework of projective geometry. For example, parallel and nonparallel lines need not be treated as separate cases; rather an arbitrary projective plane is singled out as the ideal plane and located "at infinity" using homogeneous coordinates.


title: Projective geometry

text: Additional properties of fundamental importance include Desargues' Theorem and the Theorem of Pappus. In projective spaces of dimension 3 or greater there is a construction that allows one to prove Desargues' Theorem. But for dimension 2, it must be separately postulated.


title: Projective geometry

text: Using Desargues' Theorem, combined with the other axioms, it is possible to define the basic operations of arithmetic, geometrically. The resulting operations satisfy the axioms of a field — except that the commutativity of multiplication requires Pappus's hexagon theorem. As a result, the points of each line are in one-to-one correspondence with a given field, , supplemented by an additional element, ∞, such that , , , , , , except that , , , , and remain undefined.


title: Projective geometry

text: Projective geometry also includes a full theory of conic sections, a subject also extensively developed in Euclidean geometry. There are advantages to being able to think of a hyperbola and an ellipse as distinguished only by the way the hyperbola "lies across the line at infinity"; and that a parabola is distinguished only by being tangent to the same line. The whole family of circles can be considered as "conics passing through two given points on the line at infinity" — at the cost of requiring complex coordinates. Since coordinates are not "synthetic", one replaces them by fixing a line and two points on it, and considering the "linear system" of all conics passing through those points as the basic object of study. This method proved very attractive to talented geometers, and the topic was studied thoroughly. An example of this method is the multi-volume treatise by H. F. Baker.


title: Projective geometry

text: There are many projective geometries, which may be divided into discrete and continuous: a "discrete" geometry comprises a set of points, which may or may not be "finite" in number, while a "continuous" geometry has infinitely many points with no gaps in between.


title: Projective geometry

text: The only projective geometry of dimension 0 is a single point. A projective geometry of dimension 1 consists of a single line containing at least 3 points. The geometric construction of arithmetic operations cannot be performed in either of these cases. For dimension 2, there is a rich structure in virtue of the absence of Desargues' Theorem.


title: Projective geometry

text: The smallest 2-dimensional projective geometry (that with the fewest points) is the Fano plane, which has 3 points on every line, with 7 points and 7 lines in all, having the following collinearities:


title: Projective geometry

text: with homogeneous coordinates , , , , , , , or, in affine coordinates, , , , , , and . The affine coordinates in a Desarguesian plane for the points designated to be the points at infinity (in this example: C, E and G) can be defined in several other ways.


title: Projective geometry

text: The term "projective geometry" is used sometimes to indicate the generalised underlying abstract geometry, and sometimes to indicate a particular geometry of wide interest, such as the metric geometry of flat space which we analyse through the use of homogeneous coordinates, and in which Euclidean geometry may be embedded (hence its name, Extended Euclidean plane).


title: Projective geometry

text: The fundamental property that singles out all projective geometries is the "elliptic" incidence property that any two distinct lines and in the projective plane intersect at exactly one point . The special case in analytic geometry of "parallel" lines is subsumed in the smoother form of a line "at infinity" on which lies. The "line at infinity" is thus a line like any other in the theory: it is in no way special or distinguished. (In the later spirit of the Erlangen programme one could point to the way the group of transformations can move any line to the "line at infinity").


title: Projective geometry

text: The parallel property of elliptic geometry is the key idea that leads to the principle of projective duality, possibly the most important property that all projective geometries have in common.


title: Projective geometry

text: In 1825, Joseph Gergonne noted the principle of duality characterizing projective plane geometry: given any theorem or definition of that geometry, substituting "point" for "line", "lie on" for "pass through", "collinear" for "concurrent", "intersection" for "join", or vice versa, results in another theorem or valid definition, the "dual" of the first. Similarly in 3 dimensions, the duality relation holds between points and planes, allowing any theorem to be transformed by swapping "point" and "plane," "is contained by" and "contains." More generally, for projective spaces of dimension N, there is a duality between the subspaces of dimension R and dimension N−R−1. For N = 2, this specializes to the most commonly known form of duality—that between points and lines.


title: Projective geometry

text: To establish duality only requires establishing theorems which are the dual versions of the axioms for the dimension in question. Thus, for 3-dimensional spaces, one needs to show that (1*) every point lies in 3 distinct planes, (2*) every two planes intersect in a unique line and a dual version of (3*) to the effect: if the intersection of plane P and Q is coplanar with the intersection of plane R and S, then so are the respective intersections of planes P and R, Q and S (assuming planes P and S are distinct from Q and R).


title: Projective geometry

text: In practice, the principle of duality allows us to set up a "dual correspondence" between two geometric constructions. The most famous of these is the polarity or reciprocity of two figures in a conic curve (in 2 dimensions) or a quadric surface (in 3 dimensions). A commonplace example is found in the reciprocation of a symmetrical polyhedron in a concentric sphere to obtain the dual polyhedron.


title: Projective geometry

text: Another example is Brianchon's theorem, the dual of the already mentioned Pascal's theorem, and one of whose proofs simply consists of applying the principle of duality to Pascal's. Here are comparative statements of these two theorems (in both cases within the framework of the projective plane):


title: Projective geometry

text: Any given geometry may be deduced from an appropriate set of axioms. Projective geometries are characterised by the "elliptic parallel" axiom, that "any two planes always meet in just one line", or in the plane, "any two lines always meet in just one point." In other words, there are no such things as parallel lines or planes in projective geometry.


title: Projective geometry

text: Many alternative sets of axioms for projective geometry have been proposed (see for example Coxeter 2003, Hilbert & Cohn-Vossen 1999, Greenberg 1980).


title: Projective geometry

text: These axioms are based on Whitehead, "The Axioms of Projective Geometry". There are two types, points and lines, and one "incidence" relation between points and lines. The three axioms are:


title: Projective geometry

text: The reason each line is assumed to contain at least 3 points is to eliminate some degenerate cases. The spaces satisfying these


title: Projective geometry

text: three axioms either have at most one line, or are projective spaces of some dimension over a division ring, or are non-Desarguesian planes.


title: Projective geometry

text: One can add further axioms restricting the dimension or the coordinate ring. For example, Coxeter's "Projective Geometry", references Veblen in the three axioms above, together with a further 5 axioms that make the dimension 3 and the coordinate ring a commutative field of characteristic not 2.


title: Projective geometry

text: One can pursue axiomatization by postulating a ternary relation, [ABC] to denote when three points (not all necessarily distinct) are collinear. An axiomatization may be written down in terms of this relation as well:


title: Projective geometry

text: For two different points, A and B, the line AB is defined as consisting of all points C for which [ABC]. The axioms C0 and C1 then provide a formalization of G2; C2 for G1 and C3 for G3.


title: Projective geometry

text: The concept of line generalizes to planes and higher-dimensional subspaces. A subspace, AB...XY may thus be recursively defined in terms of the subspace AB...X as that containing all the points of all lines YZ, as Z ranges over AB...X. Collinearity then generalizes to the relation of "independence". A set {A, B, ..., Z} of points is independent, [AB...Z] if {A, B, ..., Z} is a minimal generating subset for the subspace AB...Z.


title: Projective geometry

text: The projective axioms may be supplemented by further axioms postulating limits on the dimension of the space. The minimum dimension is determined by the existence of an independent set of the required size. For the lowest dimensions, the relevant conditions may be stated in equivalent


title: Projective geometry

text: The maximum dimension may also be determined in a similar fashion. For the lowest dimensions, they take on the following forms. A projective space is of:


title: Projective geometry

text: and so on. It is a general theorem (a consequence of axiom (3)) that all coplanar lines intersect—the very principle Projective Geometry was originally intended to embody. Therefore, property (M3) may be equivalently stated that all lines intersect one another.


title: Projective geometry

text: It is generally assumed that projective spaces are of at least dimension 2. In some cases, if the focus is on projective planes, a variant of M3 may be postulated. The axioms of (Eves 1997: 111), for instance, include (1), (2), (L3) and (M3). Axiom (3) becomes vacuously true under (M3) and is therefore not needed in this context.


title: Projective geometry

text: In incidence geometry, most authors give a treatment that embraces the Fano plane PG(2, 2) as the smallest finite projective plane. An axiom system that achieves this is as follows:


title: Projective geometry

text: Coxeter's "Introduction to Geometry" gives a list of five axioms for a more restrictive concept of a projective plane attributed to Bachmann, adding Pappus's theorem to the list of axioms above (which eliminates non-Desarguesian planes) and excluding projective planes over fields of characteristic 2 (those that don't satisfy Fano's axiom). The restricted planes given in this manner more closely resemble the real projective plane.


title: Projective geometry

text: Given three non-collinear points, there are three lines connecting them, but with four points, no three collinear, there are six connecting lines and three additional "diagonal points" determined by their intersections. The science of projective geometry captures this surplus determined by four points through a quaternary relation and the projectivities which preserve the complete quadrangle configuration.


title: Projective geometry

text: An harmonic quadruple of points on a line occurs when there is a complete quadrangle two of whose diagonal points are in the first and third position of the quadruple, and the other two positions are points on the lines joining two quadrangle points through the third diagonal point.


title: Projective geometry

text: A spacial perspectivity of a projective configuration in one plane yields such a configuration in another, and this applies to the configuration of the complete quadrangle. Thus harmonic quadruples are preserved by perspectivity. If one perspectivity follows another the configurations follow along. The composition of two perspectivities is no longer a perspectivity, but a projectivity.


title: Projective geometry

text: While corresponding points of a perspectivity all converge at a point, this convergence is "not" true for a projectivity that is "not" a perspectivity. In projective geometry the intersection of lines formed by corresponding points of a projectivity in a plane are of particular interest. The set of such intersections is called a projective conic, and in acknowledgement of the work of Jakob Steiner, it is referred to as a Steiner conic.


title: Projective geometry

text: Suppose a projectivity is formed by two perspectivities centered on points "A" and "B", relating "x" to "X" by an intermediary "p":


title: Projective geometry

text: Given a conic "C" and a point "P" not on it, two distinct secant lines through "P" intersect "C" in four points. These four points determine a quadrangle of which "P" is a diagonal point. The line through the other two diagonal points is called the polar of "P" and "P "is the pole of this line. Alternatively, the polar line of "P" is the set of projective harmonic conjugates of "P" on a variable secant line passing through "P" and "C".


title: Wayne Wang

text: Wayne Wang (; born January 12, 1949) is a Hong Kong–American director, producer, and screenwriter. Considered a pioneer of Asian-American cinema, he was one of the first Chinese-American filmmakers to gain a major foothold in Hollywood. His films, often independently produced, deal with issues of contemporary Asian-American culture and domestic life.


title: Wayne Wang

text: His best known works include "" (1985), "Eat a Bowl of Tea" (1989), the Amy Tan literary adaptation "The Joy Luck Club" (1993), "Chinese Box" (1997), and "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" (2007). Other films include the Harvey Keitel and William Hurt–starring comedy "Smoke" (1995), the family film "Because of Winn-Dixie" (2005), the romantic comedies "Maid in Manhattan" (2002) and "Last Holiday" (2006), and the controversial erotic drama "The Center of the World" (2001).


title: Wayne Wang

text: He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Bodil Award, a Silver Bear, two Golden Shells, with BAFTA Award, Sundance Grand Jury, Golden Lion, and César Award nominations.


title: Wayne Wang

text: Wang was born and raised in Hong Kong, and named after his father's favorite movie star, John Wayne. When he was 17, his parents arranged for him to move to the United States to study, to prepare for medical school. Wang, however, soon put this plan aside when his 'eyes were completely opened' by new experience, and as he turned to the arts, studying film and television at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.


title: Wayne Wang

text: "Chan Is Missing" (1982), "" (1985), and "Eat a Bowl of Tea" (1989) established his reputation. He is best known for "The Joy Luck Club" (1993), "Maid in Manhattan" (2002), and the independent features "Smoke" (1995) and "Anywhere but Here" (1999). At the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, Wang premiered two feature films, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" and "The Princess of Nebraska", as well as appearing in the Arthur Dong documentary film "Hollywood Chinese".


title: Wayne Wang

text: He won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September 2007 for "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers".


title: Wayne Wang

text: He is married to former Miss Hong Kong and actress Cora Miao, and lives in San Francisco and New York City.


title: 2015 MotoGP World Championship

text: The 2015 FIM MotoGP World Championship was the premier class of the 67th F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season. The championship was won by Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo, racing for Movistar Yamaha Factory. It was his third and final world title in the MotoGP category, his fifth overall in Grand Prix motorcycle racing. The season had 18 races, beginning in Qatar and finishing in Valencia, which determined who would be world champion between Movistar Yamaha teammates Lorenzo and runner-up Valentino Rossi. It was first time since 2006 that the world title was decided on the final race of the season. Lorenzo also had the most pole positions, fastest laps and race wins throughout the season; while Rossi had the most finishes, completing every race throughout the season, while Lorenzo had one race retirement in San Marino.


title: 2015 MotoGP World Championship

text: 2015 was the final season that Bridgestone was the sole tyre supplier for MotoGP, as Michelin became the sole tyre supplier for the 2016 season.


title: 2015 MotoGP World Championship

text: The 2015 season also saw the début of the Suzuki GSX-RR and Aprilia RS-GP. The GSX-RR previously made an appearance at the 2014 Valencian Grand Prix ahead of a full-season return for Suzuki as a factory team for the first time since 2011 and the RS-GP was used by Gresini Racing after the team split from Honda at the end of last season.


title: 2015 MotoGP World Championship

text: This season is well-known for the Sepang clash, which involved a collision between two-time defending champion Marc Márquez and then-championship leader, Rossi. The clash remains one of the most memorable and controversial moments in the sport's history, with Rossi's penalty (a grid demotion in Valencia) for the incident helping Lorenzo win the race in Valencia and clinch his third MotoGP world title.


title: 2015 MotoGP World Championship

text: Marc Márquez started the season as the defending riders' champion, having won his second consecutive title in 2014. He had been undefeated in championships throughout his MotoGP career and won a record breaking 13 wins in a season.