Background.

Notable influences.

Playwrights who worked in the late 19th and early 20th century whose thought and work would serve as an influence on the aesthetic of postmodernism include Swedish dramatist August Strindberg, the Italian author Luigi Pirandello, and the German playwright and theorist Bertolt Brecht. In the 1910s, artists associated with Dadaism celebrated chance, parody, playfulness, and challenged the authority of the artist. Tristan Tzara claimed in "How to Make a Dadaist Poem" that to create a Dadaist poem one had only to put random words in a hat and pull them out one by one. Another way Dadaism influenced postmodern literature was in the development of collage, specifically collages using elements from advertisement or illustrations from popular novels (the collages of Max Ernst, for example). Artists associated with Surrealism, which developed from Dadaism, continued experimentations with chance and parody while celebrating the flow of the subconscious mind. André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, suggested that automatism and the description of dreams should play a greater role in the creation of literature. He used automatism to create his novel "Nadja" and used photographs to replace description as a parody of the overly-descriptive novelists he often criticized. Surrealist René Magritte's experiments with signification are used as examples by Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. Foucault also uses examples from Jorge Luis Borges, an important direct influence on many postmodernist fiction writers. He is occasionally listed as a postmodernist, although he started writing in the 1920s. The influence of his experiments with metafiction and magic realism was not fully realized in the Anglo-American world until the postmodern period. Ultimately, this is seen as the highest stratification of criticism among scholars.  Other early 20th-century novels such as Raymond Roussel's "Impressions d'Afrique" (1910) and "Locus Solus" (1914), and Giorgio de Chirico's "Hebdomeros" (1929) have also been identified as important "postmodern precursor[s]".

Comparisons with modernist literature.

Both modern and postmodern literature represent a break from 19th century realism. In character development, both modern and postmodern literature explore subjectivism, turning from external reality to examine inner states of consciousness, in many cases drawing on modernist examples in the "stream of consciousness" styles of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, or explorative poems like "The Waste Land" by T. S. Eliot. In addition, both modern and postmodern literature explore fragmentariness in narrative- and character-construction. "The Waste Land" is often cited as a means of distinguishing modern and postmodern literature. The poem is fragmentary and employs pastiche like much postmodern literature, but the speaker in "The Waste Land" says, "these fragments I have shored against my ruins". Modernist literature sees fragmentation and extreme subjectivity as an existential crisis, or Freudian internal conflict, a problem that must be solved, and the artist is often cited as the one to solve it. Postmodernists, however, often demonstrate that this chaos is insurmountable; the artist is impotent, and the only recourse against "ruin" is to play within the chaos. Playfulness is present in many modernist works (Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" or Woolf's "", for example) and they may seem very similar to postmodern works, but with postmodernism playfulness becomes central and the actual achievement of order and meaning becomes unlikely. Gertrude Stein's playful experiment with metafiction and genre in "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" (1933) has been interpreted as postmodern.

Shift to postmodernism.

As with all stylistic eras, no definite dates exist for the rise and fall of postmodernism's popularity. 1941, the year in which Irish novelist James Joyce and English novelist Virginia Woolf both died, is sometimes used as a rough boundary for postmodernism's start. Irish novelist Flann O'Brien completed "The Third Policeman" in 1939. It was rejected for publication and remained supposedly lost until published posthumously in 1967. A revised version called "The Dalkey Archive" was published before the original in 1964, two years before O'Brien died. Notwithstanding its dilatory appearance, the literary theorist Keith Hopper regards "The Third Policeman" as one of the first of that genre they call the postmodern novel.  The prefix "post", however, does not necessarily imply a new era. Rather, it could also indicate a reaction against modernism in the wake of the Second World War (with its disrespect for human rights, just confirmed in the Geneva Convention, through the rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Holocaust, the bombing of Dresden, the Katyn massacre, the fire-bombing of Tokyo, and Japanese American internment). It could also imply a reaction to significant post-war events: the beginning of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, postcolonialism (Postcolonial literature), and the rise of the personal computer (Cyberpunk and Hypertext fiction).  Some further argue that the beginning of postmodern literature could be marked by significant publications or literary events. For example, some mark the beginning of postmodernism with the first publication of John Hawkes' "The Cannibal" in 1949, the first performance of "En attendant Godot" in 1953 ("Waiting for Godot", 1955), the first publication of "Howl" in 1956 or of "Naked Lunch" in 1959. For others the beginning is marked by moments in critical theory: Jacques Derrida's "Structure, Sign, and Play" lecture in 1966 or as late as Ihab Hassan's usage in "The Dismemberment of Orpheus" in 1971. Brian McHale details his main thesis on this shift, although many postmodern works have developed out of modernism, modernism is characterised by an epistemological dominant while postmodernism works are primarily concerned with questions of ontology.

Post-war developments and transition figures.

Though postmodernist literature does not include everything written in the postmodern period, several post-war developments in literature (such as the Theatre of the Absurd, the Beat Generation, and magic realism) have significant similarities. These developments are occasionally collectively labeled "postmodern"; more commonly, some key figures (Samuel Beckett, William S. Burroughs, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar and Gabriel García Márquez) are cited as significant contributors to the postmodern aesthetic.  The work of Alfred Jarry, the Surrealists, Antonin Artaud, Luigi Pirandello and so on also influenced the work of playwrights from the Theatre of the Absurd. The term "Theatre of the Absurd" was coined by Martin Esslin to describe a tendency in theatre in the 1950s; he related it to Albert Camus's concept of the absurd. The plays of the Theatre of the Absurd parallel postmodern fiction in many ways. For example, "The Bald Soprano" by Eugène Ionesco is essentially a series of clichés taken from a language textbook. One of the most important figures to be categorized as both Absurdist and Postmodern is Samuel Beckett. The work of Beckett is often seen as marking the shift from modernism to postmodernism in literature. He had close ties with modernism because of his friendship with James Joyce; however, his work helped shape the development of literature away from modernism. Joyce, one of the exemplars of modernism, celebrated the possibility of language; Beckett had a revelation in 1945 that, in order to escape the shadow of Joyce, he must focus on the poverty of language and man as a failure. His later work, likewise, featured characters stuck in inescapable situations attempting impotently to communicate whose only recourse is to play, to make the best of what they have. As Hans-Peter Wagner says: The "Beat Generation" was the youth of America during the materialistic 1950s; Jack Kerouac, who coined the term, developed ideas of automatism into what he called "spontaneous prose" to create a maximalistic, multi-novel epic called the Duluoz Legend in the mold of Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time". More broadly, "Beat Generation" often includes several groups of post-war American writers from the Black Mountain poets, the New York School, the San Francisco Renaissance, and so on. These writers have occasionally also been referred to as the "Postmoderns" (see especially references by Charles Olson and the Grove anthologies edited by Donald Allen). Though this is now a less common usage of "postmodern", references to these writers as "postmodernists" still appear and many writers associated with this group (John Ashbery, Richard Brautigan, Gilbert Sorrentino, and so on) appear often on lists of postmodern writers. One writer associated with the Beat Generation who appears most often on lists of postmodern writers is William S. Burroughs. Burroughs published "Naked Lunch" in Paris in 1959 and in America in 1961; this is considered by some the first truly postmodern novel because it is fragmentary, with no central narrative arc; it employs pastiche to fold in elements from popular genres such as detective fiction and science fiction; it's full of parody, paradox, and playfulness; and, according to some accounts, friends Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg edited the book guided by chance. He is also noted, along with Brion Gysin, for the creation of the "cut-up" technique, a technique (similar to Tzara's "Dadaist Poem") in which words and phrases are cut from a newspaper or other publication and rearranged to form a new message. This is the technique he used to create novels such as "Nova Express" and "The Ticket That Exploded".  Magic Realism is a technique popular among Latin American writers (and can also be considered its own genre) in which supernatural elements are treated as mundane (a famous example being the practical-minded and ultimately dismissive treatment of an apparently angelic figure in Gabriel García Márquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"). Though the technique has its roots in traditional storytelling, it was a center piece of the Latin American "boom", a movement coterminous with postmodernism. Some of the major figures of the "Boom" and practitioners of Magic Realism (Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar etc.) are sometimes listed as postmodernists. This labeling, however, is not without its problems. In Spanish-speaking Latin America, "modernismo" and "posmodernismo" refer to early 20th-century literary movements that have no direct relationship to "modernism" and "postmodernism" in English. Finding it anachronistic, Octavio Paz has argued that postmodernism is an imported grand récit that is incompatible with the cultural production of Latin America.  Along with Beckett and Borges, a commonly cited transitional figure is Vladimir Nabokov; like Beckett and Borges, Nabokov started publishing before the beginning of postmodernity (1926 in Russian, 1941 in English). Though his most famous novel, "Lolita" (1955), could be considered a modernist or a postmodernist novel, his later work (specifically "Pale Fire" in 1962 and "" in 1969) are more clearly postmodern.

Scope.

Some of the earliest examples of postmodern literature are from the 1950s: William Gaddis' "The Recognitions" (1955), Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" (1955), and William Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" (1959). It then rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s with the publication of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" in 1961, John Barth's "Lost in the Funhouse" in 1968, Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" in 1969, and many others. Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel "Gravity's Rainbow" is "often considered as postmodern novel, redefining both postmodernism and the novel in general."  The 1980s, however, also saw several key works of postmodern literature. Don DeLillo's "White Noise", Paul Auster's "New York Trilogy" and this is also the era when literary critics wrote some of the classic works of literary history, charting American postmodern literature: works by Brian McHale, Linda Hutcheon, and Paul Maltby who argues that it was not until the 1980s that the term "postmodern" caught on as the label for this style of writing.  A new generation of writers—such as David Foster Wallace, Giannina Braschi, Dave Eggers, Michael Chabon, Zadie Smith, Chuck Palahniuk, Jennifer Egan, Neil Gaiman, Richard Powers, Jonathan Lethem—and publications such as "McSweeney's", "The Believer", and the fiction pages of "The New Yorker", herald either a new chapter of postmodernism or possibly post-postmodernism. Many of these authors emphasize a strong urge for sincerity in literature.

Common themes and techniques.

Several themes and techniques are indicative of writing in the postmodern era. These themes and techniques are often used together. For example, metafiction and pastiche are often used for irony. These are not used by all postmodernists, nor is this an exclusive list of features.

Irony, playfulness, black humour.

Linda Hutcheon claimed postmodern fiction as a whole could be characterized by the ironic quote marks, that much of it can be taken as tongue-in-cheek. This irony, along with black humor and the general concept of "play" (related to Derrida's concept or the ideas advocated by Roland Barthes in "The Pleasure of the Text") are among the most recognizable aspects of postmodernism. Though the idea of employing these in literature did not start with the postmodernists (the modernists were often playful and ironic), they became central features in many postmodern works. In fact, several novelists later to be labeled postmodern were first collectively labeled black humorists: John Barth, Joseph Heller, William Gaddis, Kurt Vonnegut, Bruce Jay Friedman, etc. It is common for postmodernists to treat serious subjects in a playful and humorous way: for example, the way Heller and Vonnegut address the events of World War II. The central concept of Heller's "Catch-22" is the irony of the now-idiomatic "catch-22", and the narrative is structured around a long series of similar ironies. Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" in particular provides prime examples of playfulness, often including silly wordplay, within a serious context. For example, it contains characters named Mike Fallopian and Stanley Koteks and a radio station called KCUF, while the novel as a whole has a serious subject and a complex structure.

Intertextuality.

Since postmodernism represents a decentred concept of the universe in which individual works are not isolated creations, much of the focus in the study of postmodern literature is on intertextuality: the relationship between one text (a novel for example) and another or one text within the interwoven fabric of literary history. Intertextuality in postmodern literature can be a reference or parallel to another literary work, an extended discussion of a work, or the adoption of a style. In postmodern literature this commonly manifests as references to fairy tales—as in works by Margaret Atwood, Donald Barthelme, and many others—or in references to popular genres such as sci-fi and detective fiction. An early 20th century example of intertextuality which influenced later postmodernists is "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" by Jorge Luis Borges, a story with significant references to "Don Quixote" which is also a good example of intertextuality with its references to Medieval romances. "Don Quixote" is a common reference with postmodernists, for example Kathy Acker's novel "Don Quixote: Which Was a Dream". References to "Don Quixote" can also be seen in Paul Auster's post-modern detective story, "City of Glass". Another example of intertextuality in postmodernism is John Barth's "The Sot-Weed Factor" which deals with Ebenezer Cooke's poem of the same name. Often intertextuality is more complicated than a single reference to another text. Robert Coover's "Pinocchio in Venice", for example, links Pinocchio to Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice". Also, Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" takes on the form of a detective novel and makes references to authors such as Aristotle, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Borges. Some critics point to the use of intertextuality as an indication of postmodernism's lack of originality and reliance on clichés.

Pastiche.

Related to postmodern intertextuality, pastiche means to combine, or "paste" together, multiple elements. In Postmodernist literature this can be a homage to or a parody of past styles. It can be seen as a representation of the chaotic, pluralistic, or information-drenched aspects of postmodern society. It can be a combination of multiple genres to create a unique narrative or to comment on situations in postmodernity: for example, William S. Burroughs uses science fiction, detective fiction, westerns; Margaret Atwood uses science fiction and fairy tales; Giannina Braschi mixes poetry, commercials, musical, manifesto, and drama; Umberto Eco uses detective fiction, fairy tales, and science fiction, and so on. Though commonly involves the mixing of genres, many other elements are also included (metafiction and temporal distortion are common in the broader pastiche of the postmodern novel). In Robert Coover's 1977 novel "The Public Burning", Coover mixes historically inaccurate accounts of Richard Nixon interacting with historical figures and fictional characters such as Uncle Sam and Betty Crocker. Pastiche can instead involve a compositional technique, for example the cut-up technique employed by Burroughs. Another example is B. S. Johnson's 1969 novel "The Unfortunates"; it was released in a box with no binding so that readers could assemble it however they chose.

Metafiction.

Metafiction is essentially writing about writing or "foregrounding the apparatus", as it's typical of deconstructionist approaches, making the artificiality of art or the fictionality of fiction apparent to the reader and generally disregards the necessity for "willing suspension of disbelief." For example, postmodern sensibility and metafiction dictate that works of parody should parody the idea of parody itself.  Metafiction is often employed to undermine the authority of the author, for unexpected narrative shifts, to advance a story in a unique way, for emotional distance, or to comment on the act of storytelling. For example, Italo Calvino's 1979 novel "If on a winter's night a traveler" is about a reader attempting to read a novel of the same name. Kurt Vonnegut also commonly used this technique: the first chapter of his 1969 novel "Slaughterhouse-Five" is about the process of writing the novel and calls attention to his own presence throughout the novel. Though much of the novel has to do with Vonnegut's own experiences during the firebombing of Dresden, Vonnegut continually points out the artificiality of the central narrative arc which contains obviously fictional elements such as aliens and time travel. Similarly, Tim O'Brien's 1990 short story cycle "The Things They Carried", about one platoon's experiences during the Vietnam War, features a character named Tim O'Brien; though O'Brien was a Vietnam veteran, the book is a work of fiction and O'Brien calls into question the fictionality of the characters and incidents throughout the book. One story in the book, "How to Tell a True War Story", questions the nature of telling stories. Factual retellings of war stories, the narrator says, would be unbelievable, and heroic, moral war stories don't capture the truth. David Foster Wallace in "The Pale King" writes that the copyright page claims it is fiction only for legal purposes, and that everything within the novel is non-fiction. He employs a character in the novel named David Foster Wallace.

Fabulation.

Fabulation is a term sometimes used interchangeably with metafiction and relates to pastiche and Magic Realism. It is a rejection of realism which embraces the notion that literature is a created work and not bound by notions of mimesis and verisimilitude. Thus, fabulation challenges some traditional notions of literature—the traditional structure of a novel or role of the narrator, for example—and integrates other traditional notions of storytelling, including fantastical elements, such as magic and myth, or elements from popular genres such as science fiction. By some accounts, the term was coined by Robert Scholes in his book "The Fabulators". Strong examples of fabulation in contemporary literature are found in Giannina Braschi's "United States of Banana" and Salman Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories".

Poioumena.

Poioumenon (plural: poioumena; from, "product") is a term coined by Alastair Fowler to refer to a specific type of metafiction in which the story is about the process of creation. According to Fowler, "the poioumenon is calculated to offer opportunities to explore the boundaries of fiction and reality—the limits of narrative truth." In many cases, the book will be about the process of creating the book or includes a central metaphor for this process. Common examples of this are Thomas Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus", and Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy", which is about the narrator's frustrated attempt to tell his own story. A significant postmodern example is Vladimir Nabokov's "Pale Fire" (1962), in which the narrator, Kinbote, claims he is writing an analysis of John Shade's long poem "Pale Fire", but the narrative of the relationship between Shade and Kinbote is presented in what is ostensibly the footnotes to the poem. Similarly, the self-conscious narrator in Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" parallels the creation of his book to the creation of chutney and the creation of independent India. "Anagrams" (1970), by David R. Slavitt, describes a week in the life of a poet and his creation of a poem which, by the last couple of pages, proves remarkably prophetic. In "The Comforters", Muriel Spark's protagonist hears the sound of a typewriter and voices that later may transform into the novel itself. Jan Křesadlo purports to be merely the translator of a "chrononaut's" handed down homeric Greek science fiction epic, the Astronautilia. Other postmodern examples of poioumena include Samuel Beckett's trilogy ("Molloy", "Malone Dies" and "The Unnamable"); Doris Lessing's "The Golden Notebook"; John Fowles's "Mantissa"; William Golding's "The Paper Men"; Gilbert Sorrentino's "Mulligan Stew"; and S. D. Chrostowska's "Permission".

Historiographic metafiction.

Linda Hutcheon coined the term "historiographic metafiction" to refer to works that fictionalize actual historical events or figures; notable examples include "The General in His Labyrinth" by Gabriel García Márquez (about Simón Bolívar), "Flaubert's Parrot" by Julian Barnes (about Gustave Flaubert), "Ragtime" by E. L. Doctorow (which features such historical figures as Harry Houdini, Henry Ford, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Booker T. Washington, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung), and Rabih Alameddine's "" which makes references to the Lebanese Civil War and various real life political figures. Thomas Pynchon's "Mason and Dixon" also employs this concept; for example, a scene featuring George Washington smoking marijuana is included. John Fowles deals similarly with the Victorian period in "The French Lieutenant's Woman". Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" has been said to feature a metafictional, "Janus-headed" outlook in the way the novel seeks to represent both "actual historical events" from World War II while, at the same time, "problematizes" the very notion of doing exactly that.

Temporal distortion.

This is a common technique in modernist fiction: fragmentation and nonlinear narratives are central features in both modern and postmodern literature. Temporal distortion in postmodern fiction is used in a variety of ways, often for the sake of irony. Historiographic metafiction (see above) is an example of this. Distortions in time are central features in many of Kurt Vonnegut's nonlinear novels, the most famous of which is perhaps Billy Pilgrim in "Slaughterhouse-Five" becoming "unstuck in time". In "Flight to Canada", Ishmael Reed deals playfully with anachronisms, Abraham Lincoln using a telephone for example. Time may also overlap, repeat, or bifurcate into multiple possibilities. For example, in Robert Coover's "The Babysitter" from "Pricksongs & Descants", the author presents multiple possible events occurring simultaneously—in one section the babysitter is murdered while in another section nothing happens and so on—yet no version of the story is favored as the correct version.

Magic realism.

Magic realism may be literary work marked by the use of still, sharply defined, smoothly painted images of figures and objects depicted in a surrealistic manner. The themes and subjects are often imaginary, somewhat outlandish and fantastic and with a certain dream-like quality. Some of the characteristic features of this kind of fiction are the mingling and juxtaposition of the realistic and the fantastic or bizarre, skillful time shifts, convoluted and even labyrinthine narratives and plots, miscellaneous use of dreams, myths and fairy stories, expressionistic and even surrealistic description, arcane erudition, the element of surprise or abrupt shock, the horrific and the inexplicable. It has been applied, for instance, to the work of Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentinian who in 1935 published his "Historia universal de la infamia", regarded by many as the first work of magic realism. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez is also regarded as a notable exponent of this kind of fiction—especially his novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude". The Cuban Alejo Carpentier is another described as a "magic realist". Postmodernists such as Salman Rushdie and Italo Calvino commonly use Magic Realism in their work. A fusion of fabulism with magic realism is apparent in such early 21st-century American short stories as Kevin Brockmeier's "The Ceiling", Dan Chaon's "Big Me", Jacob M. Appel's "Exposure", and Elizabeth Graver's "The Mourning Door".

Technoculture and hyperreality.

Fredric Jameson called postmodernism the "cultural logic of late capitalism". "Late capitalism" implies that society has moved past the industrial age and into the information age. Likewise, Jean Baudrillard claimed postmodernity was defined by a shift into hyperreality in which simulations have replaced the real. In postmodernity people are inundated with information, technology has become a central focus in many lives, and our understanding of the real is mediated by simulations of the real. Many works of fiction have dealt with this aspect of postmodernity with characteristic irony and pastiche. For example, Don DeLillo's "White Noise" presents characters who are bombarded with a "white noise" of television, product brand names, and clichés. The cyberpunk fiction of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and many others use science fiction techniques to address this postmodern, hyperreal information bombardment.

Paranoia.

Perhaps demonstrated most famously and effectively in Heller's "Catch-22", the sense of paranoia, the belief that there's an ordering system behind the chaos of the world is another recurring postmodern theme. For the postmodernist, no ordering is extremely dependent upon the subject, so paranoia often straddles the line between delusion and brilliant insight. Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49", long-considered a prototype of postmodern literature, presents a situation which may be "coincidence or conspiracy – or a cruel joke". This often coincides with the theme of technoculture and hyperreality. For example, in "Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut, the character Dwayne Hoover becomes violent when he's convinced that everyone else in the world is a robot and he is the only human.

Maximalism.

Dubbed maximalism by some critics, the sprawling canvas and fragmented narrative of such writers as Dave Eggers and David Foster Wallace has generated controversy on the "purpose" of a novel as narrative and the standards by which it should be judged. The postmodern position is that the style of a novel must be appropriate to what it depicts and represents, and points back to such examples in previous ages as "Gargantua" by François Rabelais and the "Odyssey" of Homer, which Nancy Felson hails as the exemplar of the polytropic audience and its engagement with a work.  Many modernist critics, notably B.R. Myers in his polemic "A Reader's Manifesto", attack the maximalist novel as being disorganized, sterile and filled with language play for its own sake, empty of emotional commitment—and therefore empty of value as a novel. Yet there are counter-examples, such as Pynchon's "Mason & Dixon" and David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" where postmodern narrative coexists with emotional commitment.

Minimalism.

Literary minimalism can be characterized as a focus on a surface description where readers are expected to take an active role in the creation of a story. The characters in minimalist stories and novels tend to be unexceptional. Generally, the short stories are "slice of life" stories. Minimalism, the opposite of maximalism, is a representation of only the most basic and necessary pieces, specific by economy with words. Minimalist authors hesitate to use adjectives, adverbs, or meaningless details. Instead of providing every minute detail, the author provides a general context and then allows the reader's imagination to shape the story. Among those categorized as postmodernist, literary minimalism is most commonly associated with Jon Fosse and especially Samuel Beckett.

Fragmentation.

Fragmentation is another important aspect of postmodern literature. Various elements, concerning plot, characters, themes, imagery and factual references are fragmented and dispersed throughout the entire work. In general, there is an interrupted sequence of events, character development and action which can at first glance look modern. Fragmentation purports, however, to depict a metaphysically unfounded, chaotic universe. It can occur in language, sentence structure or grammar. In "", a fictional diary by Greek writer Dimitris Lyacos, one of the major exponents of fragmentation in postmodern literature, an almost telegraphic style is adopted, devoid, in most part, of articles and conjunctions. The text is interspersed with lacunae and everyday language combines with poetry and biblical references leading up to syntax disruption and distortion of grammar. A sense of alienation of character and world is created by a language medium invented to form a kind of intermittent syntax structure which complements the illustration of the main character's subconscious fears and paranoia in the course of his exploration of a seemingly chaotic world.

Different perspectives.

John Barth, the postmodernist novelist who talks often about the label "postmodern", wrote an influential essay in 1967 called "The Literature of Exhaustion" and in 1980 published "The Literature of Replenishment" in order to clarify the earlier essay. "The Literature of Exhaustion" was about the need for a new era in literature after modernism had exhausted itself. In "The Literature of Replenishment" Barth says:  Many of the well-known postmodern novels deal with World War II, one of the most famous of which being Joseph Heller's "Catch-22". Heller claimed his novel and many of the other American novels of the time had more to do with the state of the country after the war:  In his "Reflections on 'The Name of the Rose", the novelist and theorist Umberto Eco explains his idea of postmodernism as a kind of double-coding, and as a transhistorical phenomenon:  Novelist David Foster Wallace in his 1990 essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" makes the connection between the rise of postmodernism and the rise of television with its tendency toward self-reference and the ironic juxtaposition of what's seen and what's said. This, he claims, explains the preponderance of pop culture references in postmodern literature:  Hans-Peter Wagner offers this approach to defining postmodern literature:

Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 30 November/1 December 2019) was a Latvian conductor. During his lifetime, Jansons was often cited as one of the world's top living conductors. He was best known for his interpretations of Mahler, Strauss and Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich.

Mariss Jansons (* 14. Januar 1943 in Riga; † 1. Dezember 2019 in Sankt Petersburg) war ein international tätiger lettischer Dirigent.


Background.

On 20 April 1792, the French Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria. In the War of the First Coalition (1792–97), France fought against most of the states with which it shared a border, as well as Great Britain, Portugal and the Ottoman Empire. Although the Coalition forces achieved several victories at the outset of the war, they were ultimately repulsed from French territory and then lost significant territories to the French, who began to set up client republics in their occupied territories. The efforts of Napoleon Bonaparte in the northern Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars pushed Austrian forces back and resulted in the negotiation of the Treaty of Leoben (18 April 1797) and the subsequent Treaty of Campo Formio (October 1797). leaving Britain to fight on alone and marking the end of the coalition.  In the summer of 1798, Bonaparte led an expedition to Egypt, where his army was trapped and which, after he returned to France, surrendered. Meanwhile, during his absence from Europe, the outbreak of violence in Switzerland drew French support against the old Swiss Confederation. When revolutionaries overthrew the cantonal government in Bern, the French Army of the Alps invaded, ostensibly to support the Swiss Republicans. In northern Italy, Russian general Aleksandr Suvorov won a string of victories, driving the French under Moreau out of the Po Valley, forcing them back on the French Alps and the coast around Genoa. However, the Russian armies in the Helvetic Republic were defeated by French commander André Masséna, and Suvorov eventually withdrew. Ultimately the Russians left the Coalition when Great Britain insisted on the right to search all vessels it stopped at sea. In Germany, Archduke Charles of Austria drove the French under Jean-Baptiste Jourdan back across the Rhine and won several victories in Switzerland. Jourdan was replaced by Massena, who then combined the Armies of the Danube and Helvetia.

Peace interrupted.

From October 1797 until March 1799 France and Austria, the signatories of the Treaty of Campo Formio, avoided armed conflict but remained suspicious of each other and several diplomatic incidents undermined the agreement. The French demanded additional territory not mentioned in the Treaty. The Habsburgs were reluctant to hand over designated territories, much less additional ones. The Congress at Rastatt proved inept at orchestrating the transfer of territories to compensate the German princes for their losses. Ferdinand of Naples refused to pay tribute to France, followed by the Neapolitan rebellion and the subsequent establishment of the Parthenopaean Republic. Republicans in the Swiss cantons, supported by the French army, overthrew the central government in Bern and established the Helvetic Republic.  Other factors contributed to the rising tensions. On his way to Egypt, Napoleon had stopped at the heavily fortified port city of Valletta, the capital city of Malta. Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim, who ruled the island, would only allow two ships at a time into the harbour, in accordance with the island's neutrality. Bonaparte immediately ordered the bombardment of Valletta and on 11 June, General Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers directed a landing of several thousand French troops at strategic locations around the island. The French Knights of the order deserted, and the remaining Knights failed to mount a successful resistance. Bonaparte forcibly removed the other Knights from their possessions, angering Paul, Tsar of Russia, who was the honorary head of the Order. The French Directory, furthermore, was convinced that the Austrians were conniving to start another war. Indeed, the weaker the French Republic seemed, the more seriously the Austrians, the Neapolitans, the Russians and the British actually discussed this possibility.

Preliminaries to war.

Military planners in Paris understood that the Upper Rhine Valley, the south-western German territories, and Switzerland were strategically important for the defence of the Republic. The Swiss passes commanded access to northern Italy; consequently, the army that held those passes could move troops to and from northern and southern theatres quickly.  Toward this end, in early November 1798, Jourdan arrived in Hüningen to take command of the French forces there, the so-called Army of Observation because its function was to "observe" the security of the French border on the Rhine. Once there, he assessed the quality and disposition of the forces and identified needed supplies and manpower. He found the army woefully inadequate for its assignment. The Army of the Danube, and its two flanking armies, the Army of Helvetia and the Army of Mayence, or Mainz, were equally short of manpower, supplies, ammunition, and training; most resources were already directed to the Army in Northern Italy, and Army of Britain, and the Egyptian expedition. Jourdan documented assiduously these shortages, pointing out in lengthy correspondence to the Directory the consequences of an under-manned and under-supplied army; his petitions seemed to have little effect on the Directory, which sent neither significant additional manpower nor supplies.  Jourdan's orders were to take the army into Germany and secure strategic positions, particularly on the south-west roads through Stockach and Schaffhausen, at the western-most border of Lake Constance. Similarly, as commander of the Army of Helvetia (Switzerland), Andre Massena would acquire strategic positions in Switzerland, in particular the St. Gotthard Pass, the passes above Feldkirch, particularly Maienfeld (St. Luciensteig), and hold the central plateau in and around Zürich and Winterthur. These positions would prevent the Allies of the Second Coalition from moving troops back and forth between the northern Italian and German theatres, but would allow French access to these strategic passes. Ultimately, this positioning would allow the French to control all western roads leading to and from Vienna. Finally, the army of Mayence would sweep through the north, blocking further access to and from Vienna from any of the northern Provinces, or from Britain.

War.

The coalition first began to come together on 19 May 1798 when Austria and the Kingdom of Naples signed an alliance in Vienna. The first military action under the alliance occurred on November 29 when Austrian General Karl Mack occupied Rome and restored Papal authority with a Neapolitan army.  By December 1, the Kingdom of Naples had signed alliances with both Russia and Great Britain. And by 2 January 1799, additional alliances were in place between Russia, Great Britain, and the Ottoman Empire.

1799.

In Europe, the allies mounted several invasions, including campaigns in Italy and Switzerland and an Anglo-Russian invasion of the Netherlands. Russian general Aleksandr Suvorov inflicted a series of defeats on the French in Italy, driving them back to the Alps. However, the allies were less successful in the Netherlands, where the British retreated after a defeat at Castricum, and in Switzerland, where after initial victories a Russian army was completely routed at the Second Battle of Zurich. These reverses, as well as British insistence on searching shipping in the Baltic Sea led to Russia withdrawing from the Coalition.  Napoleon himself invaded Syria from Egypt, but after a failed siege of Acre he retreated to Egypt, repelling a British-Turkish invasion. Alerted to the political and military crisis in France, he returned, leaving his army behind, and used his popularity and army support to mount a coup that made him First Consul, the head of the French government.

1800.

Napoleon sent Moreau to campaign in Germany, and went himself to raise a new army at Dijon and march through Switzerland to attack the Austrian armies in Italy from behind. Narrowly avoiding defeat, he defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo and reoccupied northern Italy.  Moreau meanwhile invaded Bavaria and won a great battle against Austria at Hohenlinden. Moreau continued toward Vienna and the Austrians sued for peace.

1801.

Prior to the Acts of Union of July/August 1800, Ireland was a separate kingdom, with its own Parliament, held in a personal union with Great Britain under the Crown. In response to the 1798 United Irishmen revolt, it became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, effective January 1, 1800.  The Austrians negotiated the Treaty of Lunéville, basically accepting the terms of the previous Treaty of Campo Formio. In Egypt, the Ottomans and British invaded and finally compelled the French to surrender after the fall of Cairo and Alexandria.  Britain continued the war at sea. A coalition of non-combatants including Prussia, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden joined to protect neutral shipping from Britain's blockade, resulting in Nelson's surprise attack on the Danish fleet in harbour at the Battle of Copenhagen.  France and Spain invaded Portugal, in the War of Oranges, forcing Portugal to sign the Treaty of Badajoz (1801).  In December 1801, France despatched the Saint-Domingue expedition to recapture the island, which had been independent since the 1791 Haitian Revolution. This included over 30,000 troops, many experienced and elite veterans but ended in catastrophic failure; by the end of 1802, an estimated 15,000 – 22,000 had died of disease and yellow fever, among them Napoleon's brother-in-law, General Charles Leclerc.

Aftermath.

In 1802, Britain and France signed the Treaty of Amiens, ending the war. Thus began the longest period of peace during the period 1792–1815. The treaty is generally considered to be the most appropriate point to mark the transition between the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, although Napoleon was not crowned emperor until 1804.

The War of the Second Coalition (1798–1802) was the second war on revolutionary France by most of the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples, various German monarchies and Sweden, though Prussia did not join this coalition and Spain supported France.

Der Zweite Koalitionskrieg (1798/99–1801/02) wurde von einer Allianz um Russland, Österreich und Großbritannien gegen das im Ersten Koalitionskrieg erfolgreiche revolutionäre Frankreich geführt. Der erfolgreichste französische General, Napoleon Bonaparte, war nach der verlorenen Seeschlacht bei Abukir in Ägypten isoliert. Auch deswegen war das Bündnis zunächst sehr erfolgreich und konnte die französisch dominierten Tochterrepubliken in Italien zerschlagen und die alte Ordnung wiederherstellen. Allerdings waren die Verbündeten zerstritten, und Russland verließ die Allianz. Nachdem Napoleon aus Ägypten zurückgekehrt war und in Frankreich mit dem Konsulat die Herrschaft übernommen hatte, siegte er in Italien. Die verbliebenen Verbündeten schlossen Frieden mit Frankreich. Der Friede von Lunéville (1801) bestätigte dabei im Wesentlichen die Bestimmungen von Campo Formio. Indirekt war die Niederlage der Alliierten für die völlige Neugestaltung des Heiligen Römischen Reiches durch den Reichsdeputationshauptschluss mitverantwortlich. Mit dem Frieden von Amiens (1802) zwischen Großbritannien und Frankreich war der Krieg endgültig beendet.


Origins and history.

According to tradition, the Tripiṭaka was compiled at the First Council shortly after the Buddha's death. The Vinaya Piṭaka is said to have been recited by Upāli, with little later addition. Most of the different versions are fairly similar, most scholars consider most of the Vinaya to be fairly early, that is, dating from before the separation of schools.

Contents.

The Pāli Vinaya consists of:  The Pali version of the Patimokkha contains 227 rules for bhikkhus and 311 rules for bhikkhunis. The Vibhaṅga sections consist of commentary on these rules, giving detailed explanations of them along with the origin stories for each rule. The Khandhaka section gives numerous supplementary rules grouped by subject that also consist of origin stories.

Place in the tradition.

According to the sutras, in the first years of the Buddha's teaching the sangha lived together in harmony with no vinaya, as there was no need, because all of the Buddha's early disciples were highly realized if not fully enlightened. As the sangha expanded, situations arose which the Buddha and the lay community felt were inappropriate for mendicants.  The first rule to be established was the prohibition against sexual intercourse. The origin story tells of an earnest monk whose family was distraught that there was no male heir and so persuaded the monk to impregnate his former wife. All three—the monk, his wife and son, the latter of whom later ordained—eventually became fully enlightened arhats.  The Buddha called his teaching the "Dhamma-Vinaya", emphasizing both the philosophical teachings of Buddhism as well as the training in virtue that embodies that philosophy. Shortly before his passing, the Buddha clarified to his disciples through Ānanda:

The (Sanskrit, Pali; English: "Basket of Discipline") is a Buddhist scripture, one of the three parts that make up the Tripiṭaka (lit. "Three Baskets"). The other two parts of the Tripiṭaka are the Sutra Piṭaka (Sanskrit; Pali: Sutta Piṭaka) and the Abhidharma Piṭaka (Sanskrit; Pali: Abhidhamma Piṭaka).

Der Vinayapitaka, auch Vinaya Pitaka, (Pali und Sanskrit, wörtlich "Korb der Disziplin") ist eine Sammlung von buddhistischen Ordensregeln. Er bildet die erste Abteilung („Korb der Ordensregeln“) des Pali-Kanon (Pitaka, „Dreikorb“). Er ist die Grundlage für das buddhistische Mönchtum. Er enthält Regeln für den Tagesablauf der Mönche (Bhikkhu) und Nonnen (Bhikkhuni), sowie Regeln für Umgangsformen, die ein harmonisches Zusammenleben sowohl im Kloster selbst, als auch zwischen Kloster- und Laiengemeinschaft gewährleisten sollen.


Research.

The Institute carries out basic research in organic and organometallic chemistry, in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis as well as in theoretical chemistry. The principal aim is to develop new methods for the selective and environmentally benign preparation of new compounds and materials.  The MPI KoFo has been at the forefront of research in chemistry since its formation. One of these is the development of the Fischer–Tropsch process through the efforts of Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch in 1925 when the institute was still organized as the "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Kohlenforschung". Nobel Prize laureate Karl Ziegler also worked at the institute alongside Hans-Georg Gellert, one of his former students, to discover aufbau reaction ("Aufbaureaktion") or growth reaction among aluminum alkyl compounds.

Departments.

Organic Synthesis.

Research in the Organic Synthesis Department, led by Tobias Ritter, focuses on the development of novel reaction chemistry. It seeks to discover molecular structure and reactivity that can contribute to interdisciplinary solutions for challenges in science.

Homogeneous Catalysis.

The Homogeneous Catalysis Department, led by, focuses on the development of new catalysis concepts within the areas of organocatalysis, transition metal catalysis, and, to some extent, biocatalysis. Since 1999, the group concentrates on enantioselective organocatalysis as a fundamental approach complementing biocatalysis and transition metal catalysis. They have a profound interest in developing “new reactions”, designing and identifying new principles for the development of organocatalysts, expanding the scope of already developed catalysts such as proline, using organocatalysis in the synthesis of natural products and pharmaceuticals, and also investigating the mechanism by which organocatalysts activate their substrates. Furthermore, in 2005 the department has first conceptualized another approach to asymmetric catalysis, namely Asymmetric Counteranion-Directed Catalysis (ACDC). This idea has not only progressed within the department but also at other institutions around the globe into a general strategy for asymmetric synthesis applied in organocatalysis as well as in transition metal catalysis and Lewis acid catalysis.

Heterogeneous Catalysis.

The Heterogeneous Catalysis Department, led by Ferdi Schüth, is concentrated on the synthesis and characterization of inorganic materials with an application focus in heterogeneous catalysis. Especially important are high surface area materials with controlled porosity and nanostructured catalysts. Reactions studied include model reactions, such as carbon monoxide oxidation, and energy relevant conversions, i.e. methane activation, biomass conversion, ammonia decomposition and catalyzed hydrogen storage. This research is supported by studies into the fundamental processes governing solids formation.

Organometallic Chemistry.

The Organometallic Chemistry Department, led by Alois Fürstner, is focused on the development and understanding of organometallic reagents and catalysts, as well as on their application to the synthesis of structurally complex targets of biological significance. Particular attention is paid to the development and validation of catalytic methods for Carbon–carbon bond formation. Long term projects of current interest concern alkene and alkyne metathesis, the development and use of pi-acids (platinum, gold etc.), iron catalysis and cross coupling in general. Moreover, the group is engaged in the development of novel donor ligands, including carbenes and compounds containing formally "zerovalent" carbon atoms. All methods are scrutinized by applications to the total synthesis and "diverted total synthesis" of natural products and pharmaceutically active compounds.

Theoretical Chemistry.

The Department of Molecular Theory and Spectroscopy, led by Frank Neese, focuses on theoretical developments that extend the scope of computational methodology, especially for large molecules, and applies theoretical methods to study specific chemical problems, mostly in close cooperation with experimental partners. The activities of the group cover a broad methodological spectrum such as ab initio methods, density functional theory, semiempirical methods and combined quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical methods.

The Max Planck Institute for Coal Research () is an institute located in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany specializing in chemical research on catalysis. It is one of the 86 institutes in the Max Planck Society ("Max-Planck-Gesellschaft"). Founded in 1912 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research ("Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Kohlenforschung") in Mülheim an der Ruhr to study the chemistry and uses of coal, it became an independent Max Planck Institute in 1949.

Das Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (MPI) hat seinen Sitz in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Forschungsschwerpunkt ist die Entwicklung selektiver Katalysatoren. Anders als die übrigen Max-Planck-Institute, die rechtlich unselbständige Teile der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) sind, ist dieses Institut eine gemeinnützige, selbständige rechtsfähige Stiftung des privaten Rechts. Zweck der Stiftung ist die wissenschaftliche Erforschung der Kohle zu gemeinem Nutzen. Er wird durch Grundlagenforschung im Bereich der Naturwissenschaften verwirklicht. Stiftungsträger sind die Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, die Stadt Mülheim an der Ruhr und der Kohlebergbau.


Childhood and Life in France.

Margaret was born on 10 January 1480 and named after her stepgrandmother, Margaret of York. She was the second child and only daughter of Maximilian of Austria (future Holy Roman Emperor) and Mary of Burgundy, co-sovereigns of the Low Countries. In 1482, her mother died and her three-year old brother Philip the Handsome succeeded her as sovereign of the Low Countries, with her father as his regent.  The same year her mother died, King Louis XI of France signed the Treaty of Arras, whereby her father promised to give her hand in marriage to Louis's son, Dauphin Charles. The engagement took place in 1483. With Franche-Comté and Artois as her dowry, Margaret was transferred to the guardianship of Louis XI, who died soon after. She was raised as a fille de France and prepared for her future role as Queen of France.  Under the supervision of her grande governess Madame de Segré, and fiancé's sister-regent, Anne of France or "Madame la Grande", Margaret received a fine education alongside several noble children, amongst which Louise of Savoy. Her studies presumably included politics, civic participation, mathematics, geometry, the languages French, Spanish and Italian, literature, rhetoric, etiquette, and music. She was well read, had interest in architecture, played several instruments, and wrote poetry.  Although their union was political, the young Margaret developed genuine affection for Charles. However, he renounced the treaty in the autumn of 1491 and married her former stepmother Anne, Duchess of Brittany, for political reasons. The French court had ceased treating Margaret as their future queen early and she couldn't return to her stepgrandmother's court until June 1493 after the Treaty of Senlis had been signed in May that year. She was hurt by Charles's actions and was left with a feeling of enduring resentment towards the House of Valois.

Marriages.

Princess of Asturias.

In order to achieve an alliance with Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, Maximilian started negotiating the marriage of their only son and heir, John, Prince of Asturias, to Margaret, as well as the marriage of their daughter Juana to Philip. Margaret left the Netherlands for Spain late in 1496. Her engagement to the Prince of Asturias seemed doomed when the ship carrying her to Spain hit a storm in the Bay of Biscay. In haste, she wrote her own epitaph should she not reach Spain: However, Margaret actually married Prince John on April 3 the following year in Burgos Cathedral. Although it was a political alliance, it was a good marriage and John was devoted to the Princess, who was fun-loving and had a sharp sense of humor. Tragically, John died of a fever after only six months, on 4 October. Margaret was left pregnant, but she gave birth to a premature stillborn daughter on 2 April 1498.  With neither husband nor heir, Margaret served no great geo-political purpose in Spain. Her parents-in-law treated her kindly and reluctantly bid her farewell when she departed for the Low Countries in September 1499 at Maximilian's insistence. Back in Flanders, the Dowager Princess of Asturias attended the baptism of her nephew, the future the future Charles V, on March 7, 1500. Her brother and sister-in-law invited her to be godmother to their newborn son.

Duchess of Savoy.

In 1501, Margaret married Philibert II, Duke of Savoy (1480–1504), whose realm played a decisive role in the rivalry between France and the Habsburgs in Italy on account of its strategic position in the Western Alps. Devoted to the hunt and his wife, Philibert showed little interest in governing his domains. Margaret willingly managed his affairs from their residence in the castle of Pont d'Ain at Bourg. Of those years in Italy, Ghislaine de Boom wrote: "For the first time, Margaret was revealed as an able and energetic woman, even imperious." The union was extremely happy, but childless and brief.  By 1504, Philibert died of pleurisy. Grief-stricken, Margaret threw herself out of a window, but was saved. After being persuaded to bury her husband, she had his heart embalmed so she could keep it with her forever. The Dowager Duchess cut off her long blonde hair and donned widow's clothing. She considered taking religious vows for a while, but instead endowed the construction of a monastery at Brou with an elaborate tomb for Philibert and herself with the words "FORTUNE. INFORTUNE. FORT. UNE" ("Fortune strongly persecutes a woman").  Margaret remained in Savoy for two years following her husband's death. Without her consent, Philip and Maximilian negotiated her marriage to King Henry VII of England. She refused to cooperate, determined to avoid further marital sorrow. Her court historian and poet Jean Lemaire de Belges gave her the title "Dame de deuil" (Lady of Mourning).

Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands.

In 1504, Queen Isabella died in late 1504, raising Philip and Juana, who eventually went to Castille to claim the crown. Their eldest son stayed behind, for the Burgundians refused to accept him as their ruler unless he were raised in the Low Countries. After Phillip's death, the House of Habsburg went into a new crisis: Charles was the new Sovereign of the Low Countries, but he was young and alone. Juana couldn't return to raise him because her unstable mental state and her Castilian subjects wouldn't allow their ruler to abandon the kingdom. With Charles too young to govern, the provinces of the Low Countries voted to make Maximilian their regent. Preoccupied with his affairs in Germany, the now Emperor named Margaret governor of the Low Countries and guardian of Charles in 1507, along with her nieces Eleanor, Isabella and Mary. She became the only woman elected as its ruler by the representative assembly of Franche-Comté, with her title confirmed in 1509.  Although her mother was a previous sovereign of the Netherlands, Margaret was always considered a foreigner because of her childhood at the French court. She knew neither Dutch nor German, and her principal advisers, such as Mercurino di Gattinara, were Italians who had followed her north. In any case, the Governess acted as intermediary between her father and her nephew's subjects in the Netherlands from her newly built palace at Mechelen. During a remarkably successful career, she broke new ground for women rulers.  While she lavished great care on her young nephew's education, Margaret immediately confronted his tutor William de Croy, lord of Chièvres and a dominant political figure at court. He retained the boy's trust, but his pro-French leanings brought him into conflict with her support for the Emperor. Jealous of her power, Croy and some nobles secretly pressed Emperor Maximilian to declare Charles of age to rule. The Estates paid Maximilian to resign as regent and installed Charles, who was not yet 15 years old, on 1515. Margaret's dethronement was a public humiliation. In his aunt's place, Charles established a council of regency, in which she was part but had no vote in its deliberations. Her ministers found themselves thrust aside and even persecuted. Maximilian shortly saw his mistake towards his intelligent, angry daughter, but Croy completely dominated Charles and urged upon him policies that not only conflicted with Habsburg interests, but gave little in return. King Ferdinand's death opened the way to her nephew's Spanish inheritance, but he had to go to Spain to claim it. After participating in councils with Croy and his ministers for a while, Charles soon recognized his need for Margaret and her ministers. In June 1518, he appointed Gattinara chancellor and helped arrange Margaret's return as regent of the Low Countries.  On a subsequent visit to the Low Countries in mid-1520, Charles made Margaret his governor-general "in consideration of the great, inestimable and praiseworthy services that our said lady and aunt has done us." He recognized his aunt as one of his wisest advisers and the only regent he ever re-appointed indefinitely from 1519 until her death in on 1 December 1530.

Economy.

Margaret possessed a rare aptitude for business and maintained prosperity in the Netherlands. She negotiated the restoration of a treaty of commerce with England favorable to the Flemish cloth interests. Because of the trade, industry and wealth of the regions and cities she oversaw, the Low Countries represented an important income for the Imperial treasury.  Margaret provided funds for her nephew's troops and supplies for effective wars, especially against King Francis I of France and the German Protestants. In following years, Habsburg forces consolidated their hold over Tournai, Friesland, Utrecht, and Overijssel, which became part of the Netherlands.

Internal conflict.

Although the Low Countries initially lacked any centralized political institutions, Margaret's reign was a period of relative peace for the Netherlands. The exception was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, especially in the north. The first martyrs were burnt at the stake in 1523.  More moderate than her nephew, the Governess feared that intense persecution of Protestants would only strengthen them. She had some difficulty in keeping Duke Charles of Guelders under control, but made him sign the Treaty of Gorinchem in 1528. Despite her efforts, the problem was not conclusively dealt with during her reign.

Foreign Policy.

Margaret soon found herself at war with France over the question of Charles's requirement to pay homage to the French king for Flanders as Duke of Burgundy. To preserve the Low Countries for her nephew, she persuaded Emperor Maximilian to make peace with King Louis XII. She journeyed to Cambrai in November 1508 to form the League of Cambrai, which largely removed the French threat to the Low Countries.  To curb Croy's pro-French influence over Charles, Margaret persuaded her father to join a papal alliance with Spain and England against France in 1513, although she maintained the Low Countries in neutrality. They created a council containing representatives of Emperor Maximilian, King Ferdinand, and King Henry VIII.  Given her father's poor health, Margaret and Charles began to negotiate the latter's election as Holy Roman Emperor despite the papacy and French strongly opposed to this. Thinking first of the dynasty, the Governess suggested supporting instead her younger nephew Ferdinand, but Charles refused to withdraw. Using a combination of diplomacy and bribery, she played a crucial role in the election of Charles as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519.  Journeying to Cambrai again in 1529, Margaret reunited with Louise of Savoy, his sister-in-law and mother of Francis I. They negotiated the end to a war that France could no longer sustain. The Treaty of Cambrai, the so-called Ladies' Peace, favored the dynastic interests of Charles: Besides withdrawing French forces from Italy, Francis renounced his claims to Flanders, Artois and Tournai.

Patronage of the arts.

Once she was declared Governor of the Netherlands, Margaret purchased the palace of Jean Laurin, Lord of Watervliet, located in the Korte Maagdenstraat (Virgins Short Street). She found the residence too small and started an ambitious expansion campaign in 1507. From 1517 to 1530, the architect Rombout II Keldermans furthered the project along the Keizerstraat (Emperor Street) and modified what became the rear wing, which faces the Palace of Margaret of York. The Governess kept several painters at her court, including the Master of the Legend of the Magdalen and Pieter van Coninxloo.  Margaret possessed a rich library, consisting mostly of missals, poetry, historical and ethical treatises, which included the works of Christine de Pizan and the famous illuminated Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry. She possessed several "Chansonniers" which contained works by Josquin des Prez, Johannes Ockeghem, Jacob Obrecht and Pierre de la Rue, who was her favourite composer. The Governess patronized writers and artists. Visiting her palace in 1521, Albrecht Dürer wondered at her many "precious things and precious library."  Margaret ended up raising her nephew and nieces in her palace. Her court was visited by the great humanists of her time, including Erasmus, Adrian of Utrecht (later Pope Adrian VI), and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. Agrippa dedicated his arguably feminist work Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex to her. The Governor was so impressed with diplomant Thomas Boleyn's charm that she offered his daughter Anne Boleyn (future Queen consort of England) a temporary place in her household. She reported to the English nobleman that the little girl was "so presentable and so pleasant, considering her youthful age, that I am more beholden to you for sending her to me, than you to me."  Margaret ordered several splendid music manuscripts from Pierre Alamire to send them as gifts to her relatives and political relations. She had one of the earliest collections of objects from the New World. Hernán Cortés had presented Charles V with treasures received from the Aztec King Moctezuma in 1519. Several of these treasures were sent to Mechelen as a gift from her nephew in 1523.

Death and Burial.

According to a legend about Margaret's death, one of her maids broke a glass goblet, a splinter of glass went into her foot, and the resulting wound became gangrenous. Her doctors strongly recommended that she agree to having her foot amputated. She gave her consent for the operation and received the sacrament, but she died before the operation from an overdose of opium given to her for the treatment. In reality, however, Margaret's health had declined since 1527 and an abscessed leg had tormented her during the negotiations in Cambrai. On November 20, 1530, a high fever caused by her infected leg forced her to bed and neither piety nor medicine made any headway against the spreading gangrene. She died shortly after midnight on December 1.  The Emperor bemoaned "the loss that we have made and principally I who held her as a mother and for the lack she does me in the government of the countries where she was in charge. Margaret's will appointed Charles as her sole heir and urged her nephew to protect the sovereignty of the Low Countries against the centralizing tendency of his imperial administrators. She was buried alongside her second husband at Bourg-en-Bresse, in the magnificent mausoleum of the Royal Monastery of Brou that she previously commissioned. There is a statue of the Governess next to the Cathedral of Mechelen.

Depiction in media.

Margaret of Austria is portrayed by Spanish actress Úrsula Corberó in the TV show "Isabel".

Archduchess Margaret of Austria (; ; ; ; 10 January 1480 – 1 December 1530), Suo jure Countess of Artois, was Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515 and again from 1519 to 1530. She was the first of many female regents in the Netherlands.

Margarete von Österreich (* 10. Januar 1480 in Brüssel; † 1. Dezember 1530 in Mechelen) war durch Heirat Fürstin von Asturien und später Herzogin von Savoyen. In der Zeit von 1507 bis Januar 1515 und von 1517 bis zu ihrem Tod im Jahr 1530 war sie Statthalterin der habsburgischen Niederlande und einer der großen Musikmäzene ihrer Zeit. Margarete stammte aus dem Geschlecht der Habsburger.


Table.

The Japanese names of the Heavenly Stems are based on their corresponding Wu Xing elements, while their Manchu names are based on their respective elements' colors.

Origin.

The Shang people believed that there were ten suns, each of which appeared in order in a ten-day cycle (旬; xún). The Heavenly Stems ("tiāngān" 天干) were the names of the ten suns, which may have designated world ages as did the Five Suns and the Six Ages of the World of Saint Augustine. They were found in the given names of the kings of the Shang in their Temple Names. These consisted of a relational term (Father, Mother, Grandfather, Grandmother) to which was added one of the ten "gān" names ("e.g." Grandfather Jia). These names are often found on Shang bronzes designating whom the bronze was honoring (and on which day of the week their rites would have been performed, that day matching the day designated by their name). David Keightley, a leading scholar of ancient China and its bronzes, believes that the "gān" names were chosen posthumously through divination. Some historians think the ruling class of the Shang had ten clans, but it is not clear whether their society reflected the myth or vice versa. The associations with Yin-Yang and the Five Elements developed later, after the collapse of the Shang Dynasty.  The literal meanings of the characters were, and are now, roughly as follows. Among the modern meanings, those deriving from the characters' position in the sequence of Heavenly Stems are in italics.

Current usage.

The Stems are still commonly used nowadays in East Asian counting systems similar to the way the alphabet is used in English. For example:

The ten Heavenly Stems or Celestial Stems () are a Chinese system of ordinals that first appear during the Shang dynasty, c. 1250 BC, as the names of the ten days of the week. They were also used in Shang-period ritual as names for dead family members, who were offered sacrifices on the corresponding day of the Shang week. The Heavenly Stems were used in combination with the Earthly Branches, a similar cycle of twelve days, to produce a compound cycle of sixty days. Subsequently, the Heavenly Stems lost their original function as names for days of the week and dead kin, and acquired many other uses, the most prominent and long lasting of which was their use together with the Earthly Branches as a 60-year calendrical cycle. The system is used throughout East Asia.

Die Himmelsstämme sind Bestandteil des chinesischen Kalenders. Jedem Jahr wird ein Himmelsstamm zugeordnet. Es gibt „zehn Himmelsstämme“ ( oder ; jap. "jikkan", dt. „zehn Stämme“). Diese sind eine Kombination aus den fünf Wandlungsphasen sowie Yīn und Yáng, hier im Japanischen als jüngerer Bruder "to" () und älterer Bruder "e" () bezeichnet. Kombiniert mit den zwölf Erdzweigen () ergeben die Himmelsstämme den 60er-Zyklus des chinesischen Kalenders.


Early life.

Michael Andrew McKagan grew up in Seattle's largely working-class University District, the youngest of eight children born to Marie and Elmer "Mac" McKagan. He has been called "Duff" since toddlerhood, to which he once referred as "an Irish thing". Following his parents' divorce, his mother supported the family by taking a job as a medical stenographer. He was taught how to play bass by his brother Bruce, further developing his skills by playing along with the albums "1999" by Prince and "Damaged" by Black Flag. In his autobiography, "It's So Easy (And Other Lies)", McKagan said that he fashioned himself after punk bassists such as Barry Adamson and Paul Simonon.  Although an honors student, McKagan dropped out of Roosevelt High School in the tenth grade. He then worked as a pastry chef for the Great American Food and Beverage Company while earning his GED. He was later awarded an honorary diploma after speaking at the class of 2012's graduation ceremony.

Career.

1979–1985: Early years.

In 1979, at the age of 15, McKagan formed the punk band the Vains, in which he played bass; they released the single "School Jerks" in 1980. During this time, he also played guitar in the punk band the Living, which opened shows for Hüsker Dü and D.O.A., which developed a devoted following.  In 1980, McKagan joined the pop-punk band the Fastbacks as their drummer. He appeared on their 1981 debut single "It's Your Birthday", which was issued on guitarist Kurt Bloch's label No Threes Records, and on the song "Someone Else's Room", which was included on the "Seattle Syndrome Volume One" compilation album, also released in 1981.  In 1982, McKagan became the drummer for the hardcore punk band The Fartz, with whom he recorded several demos, five of which were included on their 1990 album "You, We See You Crawling". After several line-up changes, The Fartz evolved into the post-punk band 10 Minute Warning, for which McKagan played guitar.  In 1983, McKagan moved to Los Angeles, California, with one of his brothers where he found work as an appetizer server at a Black Angus restaurant in Northridge. Answering an ad for a bass guitarist in a local newspaper, he met guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler, with whom he formed the short-lived band Road Crew. They auditioned a number of singers, including one-time Black Flag vocalist Ron Reyes, and worked on material that included the main riff of what would become the Guns N' Roses song "Rocket Queen". Slash eventually disbanded the group due to them not being able to find a singer, as well as Adler's lack of work ethic compared to himself and McKagan.

1985–1997: Guns N' Roses, "Believe in Me" and Neurotic Outsiders.

In March 1985, McKagan replaced bassist Ole Beich in Guns N' Roses, which was newly founded by singer Axl Rose, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin of Hollywood Rose, lead guitarist Tracii Guns and drummer Rob Gardner of L.A. Guns. McKagan's Road Crew bandmates Slash and Steven Adler joined the band two months later, after Guns and Gardner quit retrospectively. After two days of rehearsal, the line-up played its debut gig at The Troubadour on June 6. In 1987, Guns N' Roses released its debut album, "Appetite for Destruction", which to date has sold over 28 million copies worldwide, 18 million of which were in the United States, making it the best-selling debut album of all time in the U.S. The following year, the band released "G N' R Lies", which sold over five million copies in the U.S. alone, despite containing only eight tracks, four of which were included on the previously released EP "Live?!*@ Like a Suicide".  In 1990, Steven Adler was fired from the band because of his heroin addiction; he was replaced by Matt Sorum of The Cult.  In May 1991, Guns N' Roses embarked on the two-and-a-half-year-long Use Your Illusion Tour. The following September, the band released the long-awaited albums "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II", which debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 respectively on the U.S. chart, a feat unachieved by any other group. In November 1991, Izzy Stradlin abruptly left the band; he was replaced by Gilby Clarke of Kill For Thrills. In 1993, the band released ""The Spaghetti Incident?"", a cover album of mostly punk songs, which proved less successful than its predecessors. McKagan took on lead vocals on four songs, including live favorite "Attitude", originally by the Misfits. That same year, McKagan released his debut solo album, "Believe in Me", on which he sang lead vocals and played virtually every instrument.  In 1995, with Guns N' Roses largely inactive, McKagan formed the supergroup Neurotic Outsiders with Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, John Taylor of Duran Duran, and his Guns N' Roses bandmate Matt Sorum. Originally a gathering of friends jamming together at the Viper Room in Hollywood, they released their self-titled album on Maverick Records in 1996. The band played a brief tour of Europe and North America, before disbanding in 1997. McKagan was the last member of the "Appetite for Destruction" lineup to leave Guns N' Roses, resigning as bassist in August 1997. McKagan had recently become a father and wrote about his decision to leave in his autobiography, stating "Guns had been paying rent on studios for three years now—from 1994 to 1997—and still did not have a single song. The whole operation was so erratic that it didn't seem to fit with my hopes for parenthood, for stability."

1997–2002: 10 Minute Warning reunion, "Beautiful Disease" and Loaded.

Following his departure from Guns N' Roses in 1997, McKagan moved back to Seattle, where he met with many of his old friends, including Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard, who convinced him to reunite 10 Minute Warning. Singer Christopher Blue was brought in to replace Steve Verwolf, who was serving a term in federal prison. In 1998, the band released their self-titled album on Sub Pop. The album featured nine tracks, including two new versions of songs originally recorded by The Fartz, namely "Is This the Way?" and "Buried". 10 Minute Warning played its last show on August 22, 1998 at the Roseland theater in Portland, Oregon.  McKagan's second solo album, "Beautiful Disease", was intended to be released in 1999, but became lost in the legal shuffle of the merge between Geffen Records and Interscope Records. McKagan was dropped from Geffen's roster, and subsequently lost all commercial rights to release the record. For the tour supporting his ill-fated solo album, he formed the band Loaded, which consisted of McKagan on bass and vocals, Dez Cadena, formerly of Black Flag, on guitar, Michael Barragan, formerly of Plexi, on guitar, and Taz Bentley, formerly of The Reverend Horton Heat, on drums. Loaded independently released the live record "", before disbanding in late 1999.  In 2000, McKagan reformed Loaded, remaining as the lead vocalist but switching from bass to rhythm guitar, and adding drummer Geoff Reading of Green Apple Quick Step, guitarist Mike Squires of Harvey Danger, and bassist Jeff Rouse of Alien Crime Syndicate. Both Squires and Rouse joined after the recording of the band's debut album, "Dark Days", released in 2001. Dave Dederer, formerly of The Presidents of the United States of America, took up recording duties for the album.  In 2002, while on tour, both Squires and Rouse left Loaded to join the reformed Alien Crime Syndicate. Former Wasted Youth and Electric Love Hogs guitarist Dave Kushner and former Burning Witch bassist George Stuart Dahlquist were brought in to replace them. McKagan and Kushner went on to form Velvet Revolver, putting Loaded on hiatus.

2002–2010: Velvet Revolver, Alice in Chains, Loaded reunion, Jane's Addiction.

In 2002, McKagan founded the supergroup Velvet Revolver with his former Guns N' Roses bandmates Slash and Matt Sorum, and Loaded guitarist Dave Kushner. Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland completed the line-up. In 2004, they released their debut album, "Contraband", which debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. chart and sold two million copies. In 2005, the band was nominated for three Grammys, Rock Album of the Year, Rock Song, and Hard Rock Performance for their Contraband single Slither which won their first and only Grammy. Their second album, "Libertad", was released in 2007 to mixed reviews; it failed to achieve the same commercial success as its predecessor. The band toured extensively, until Weiland left in April 2008 to reunite with Stone Temple Pilots. Velvet Revolver has been on hiatus since Weiland's departure.  In 2006, McKagan temporarily joined Alice in Chains as a rhythm guitarist, performing with the band for the first time at VH1's Decades Rock Live concert honoring Heart, and later during their reunion tour.  McKagan subsequently reunited Loaded, with Mike Squires and Jeff Rouse returning to the group, and that same year, they released the EP "Wasted Heart". In 2009, the band released its second studio album, "Sick", and embarked on tours with Mötley Crüe and Black Stone Cherry. Later that year, Geoff Reading departed the band; he was replaced by Isaac Carpenter.  In 2010, McKagan briefly joined Jane's Addiction, with lead guitarist Dave Navarro originally confirming that McKagan had joined the band on a permanent basis. On joining the band, McKagan stated, "Something like a chance to write, record, and perhaps even perform with a band of the quality of Jane's Addiction does not come around every day. I have a lot of respect for this band and the guys in it." He worked on several songs with Jane's Addiction and played four shows with the band—two in Los Angeles, and two in Europe, including one at Rock in Rio in Madrid.  On September 6, six months after McKagan joined the band, Jane's Addiction announced that they had parted ways due to the fact that "musically [they] were all headed in different directions."

2010-present: Kings of Chaos, return to Guns N' Roses and "Tenderness".

On October 14, 2010, McKagan appeared on stage with Guns N' Roses for the first time since 1993 at The O2 Arena in London. He played bass on "You Could Be Mine", electric guitar on "Nice Boys" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", and acoustic guitar and tambourine on "Patience". McKagan then returned to Loaded, with whom he recorded a third studio album, "The Taking", which was released in 2011. Loaded twice served as opening act for Guns N' Roses in December of that year, with McKagan again briefly joining his old band on stage.  On April 14, 2012, McKagan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the classic lineup of Guns N' Roses.  In 2012, McKagan went on tour with the Rock N Roll All Stars, a band that consisted of many of rock's most recognized performers. The band downsized and became the Kings Of Chaos in 2013. The primary members with McKagan are Joe Elliott of Def Leppard and Joe Elliott's Down N' Outz, Matt Sorum of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, Gilby Clarke of Guns N' Roses and Steve Stevens of Billy Idol's band. Others who round out the group are: Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple fame and Sebastian Bach, formerly of Skid Row. The band released the cover song "Never Before" by Deep Purple.  In 2014, McKagan again briefly reunited with Guns N' Roses. He played five full shows in South America, filling in for Tommy Stinson. McKagan subsequently played with Guns N' Roses at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards show in Los Angeles. During Guns N' Roses' spring 2014 residency at The Joint in Las Vegas, McKagan played another full concert with the band.  In 2016, McKagan was announced (alongside Slash), as having returned to Guns N' Roses to headline Coachella. After playing a secret warmup gig at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on April 1, 2016, The band embarked on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour.  On December 5, 2018, it was announced that McKagan is currently in production for a new solo album to be released in 2019. On March 10, 2019, McKagan revealed that the album, "Tenderness", would be released on May 31 and also released a track from the album titled "Chip Away".  On June 25, 2019, "The New York Times Magazine" listed Duff McKagan among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

Session work.

In 1990, McKagan—along with his Guns N' Roses bandmate Slash—co-wrote and played several songs on Iggy Pop's "Brick by Brick". In 1995, he collaborated with Slash on his solo project Slash's Snakepit; he co-wrote "Beggars and Hangers-On" off their album "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere", which he played live during a Snakepit show in May of that year. In 1998, McKagan collaborated with his former Guns N' Roses bandmate Izzy Stradlin on his solo album "117°". The following year, he played on Stradlin's album "Ride On", and joined him on a tour of Japan supporting the album. Also in 1999, he contributed to the album "Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper", an Alice Cooper tribute album. In 2001, McKagan played on the album "Skyjin" by Zilch, Mark Lanegan's solo album "Field Songs", and Izzy Stradlin's album "River". The following year, he played on Stradlin's album "On Down the Road". In 2004, he again collaborated with Mark Lanegan on his album "Bubblegum", along with Stradlin.  McKagan played on three tracks off Izzy Stradlin's 2008 album "Concrete", including the title track, as well as seven songs off his album "Wave of Heat", which was released in 2010. Also in 2010, McKagan appeared on Slash's eponymous debut solo album; he played on the track "Watch This" with Dave Grohl on drums. That year, he also made a guest appearance—along with Slash and Matt Sorum—on Macy Gray's album "The Sellout", and appeared on the Manic Street Preachers song "A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun" off their album "Postcards From a Young Man".  In 2020, McKagan played bass and cowrote five songs on Ozzy Osbourne's album Ordinary Man (Ozzy Osbourne album), along with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. Mckagan's Guns N Roses bandmate Slash is featured on the song Straight to Hell (Ozzy Osbourne song), which also features cowriter Andrew Watt (musician) of California Breed fame.

Other ventures.

McKagan has two minor acting credits; in 1988, he appeared with his Guns N' Roses bandmates in the "Dirty Harry" film "The Dead Pool", and in 1997, he played a rocker vampire in an episode of the television series "Sliders". In 1999, he appeared in Anthony Scarpa's documentary film "Betty Blowtorch and Her Amazing True Life Adventures", which focuses on the all-female hard rock band Betty Blowtorch, whose debut EP "Get Off" McKagan produced the same year.  In addition to his musical career, McKagan has established himself as a writer. Since August 2008, he has written a weekly column for SeattleWeekly.com, from January to December 2009, he wrote a weekly financial column titled "Duffonomics" for Playboy.com, and since January 2011, he has written a weekly sports column for ESPN.com. McKagan's autobiography, "It's So Easy (And Other Lies)", was released on October 4, 2011. His second book, "How to Be a Man: (and other illusions)" was released on May 12, 2015. McKagan released a three-song EP with the same title to accompany the book, featuring Izzy Stradlin, Jerry Cantrell, Roy Mayorga and Taz Bentley.  In 2011, McKagan founded Meridian Rock, a wealth management firm for musicians. Headed by McKagan and British investor Andy Bottomley, the firm aims to educate musicians about their finances.  McKagan has been involved in "The Heroes Project", founded by his friend Tim Medvetz, which is dedicated to helping soldiers and their families. As part of the project he took part in a climb up Mount Rainier in 2012, accompanying a former soldier with a prosthetic limb. During this climb McKagan suffered a potentially fatal cerebral edema.  It was announced in 2012 that Rainstorm Entertainment will produce a "biographical documentary" based on "It's So Easy (And Other Lies)". McKagan is listed as a producer and writer. The film, titled "It's So Easy (And Other Lies)" after the book, was released in May 2016. Those interviewed for the project include Mick Jagger, Elton John, Slash, Joe Elliott and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Following an appearance with the Hollywood Vampires at the 2016 Grammy Awards ceremony in tribute to Lemmy Kilmister, McKagan was considered a member of the supergroup, although his time in the band was short-lived as he returned to Guns N' Roses two months later.

Personal life.

On May 28, 1988, McKagan married his first wife, Mandy Brixx; the couple divorced on April 1, 1990. In September 1992, he married Linda Johnson; this too ended in divorce in September 1995. On August 28, 1999 he married Susan Holmes. They have two daughters together: Grace "Grave" Elizabeth (born August 1997) and Mae Marie (born July 2000). McKagan and his family reside in Seattle.  McKagan was one of the last people confirmed to have seen Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain before he died on April 5, 1994. He sat next to Cobain on a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle on April 1. McKagan later recalled, "I didn't have any foresight that the guy was going to do what he did. I could tell he was bummed out, and I'd been that way before... I thought I'd ask him to come stay at my house; I turned around and he was gone."  On May 10, 1994, at the age of 30, McKagan became gravely ill due to acute alcohol-induced pancreatitis, which caused his pancreas to swell to the size of a football and leak digestive enzymes into his body. He was taken to Northwest Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle, where he was monitored until the swelling went down. He was told by his doctors that he would be dead within a month if he did not stop drinking. He had made previous efforts to curb his drinking, but this health crisis was his incentive to become sober for good. In his autobiography, he attributed his sobriety to exercise through first mountain biking, and later martial arts.  McKagan claimed in his autobiography that the fictional product Duff Beer on "The Simpsons" was named after him, and has received no royalties, but "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening called the claim "absurd".  A high school drop-out, McKagan enrolled in a basic finance course at Santa Monica Community College in 1994; he explained that going over the financial records from his Guns N' Roses days had made him want to understand the process more, stating, "I couldn't make sense of it. I didn't know how much we had made or lost on the tour. As a 30 year-old millionaire, how do I admit to somebody that I don't know what the fuck I'm doing?"  In 2000, after attending several more classes at Seattle Central Community College, McKagan enrolled full-time at Seattle University's Albers School of Business and Economics. When Velvet Revolver took off in his final year as an undergraduate student, McKagan took a hiatus from business school to go on tour; he is still one quarter short of graduating.  Also in the year 2000, McKagan was one of the eight members of Guns N' Roses referenced in the PlayStation title Mega Man X5, and was referenced through the boss Duff McWhalen.

Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan (born February 5, 1964), sometimes credited as Duff "Rose" McKagan, is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and author. He is best known for his twelve-year tenure as the bassist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. McKagan rejoined the band in 2016, following their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Michael Andrew „Duff“ McKagan (* 5. Februar 1964 in Seattle) ist ein US-amerikanischer Bassist. Er wurde als Mitglied der Rockband Guns N’ Roses bekannt, in der er von 1985 bis 1997 Bass spielte. Seit 2016 ist er wieder fester Bestandteil dieser Band.


Name.

The name “Galinstan” is a portmanteau of gallium, indium, and stannum (Latin for “tin”).  The brand-name “Galinstan” is a registered trademark of the German company Geratherm Medical AG, but “galinstan” is in common use for any eutectic alloy of gallium, indium, and tin.

Physical properties.

Galinstan tends to be “wet” and adhere to many materials, including glass, which limits its use compared to mercury.

Uses.

Galinstan is commercially used as a mercury replacement in thermometers due to its nontoxic properties, but the inner tube surface must be coated with gallium oxide to prevent the alloy from wetting the glass surface.  Galinstan has higher reflectivity and lower density than mercury. In the field of astronomy it is considered as a replacement for mercury in liquid-mirror telescopes.  Galinstan may be used as a thermal interface for computer hardware cooling solutions, though major obstacles for widespread use are its cost and aggressive corrosive properties (it corrodes many other metals such as aluminium by dissolving them). It is also electrically conductive, and so needs to be applied more carefully than regular non-conductive compounds. Two thermal interfaces have already been developed: Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut and Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra, with thermal conductivities of 73 and 38.4 W/mK respectively. However, they must be carefully applied with a Q-tip (unlike ordinary thermal compounds, where no manual spreading is needed), and cannot be used on aluminum heatsinks as aforementioned.  Galinstan is difficult to use for cooling fission-based nuclear reactors, because indium has a high absorption cross section for thermal neutrons, efficiently absorbing them and inhibiting the fission reaction. Conversely, it is being investigated as a possible coolant for fusion reactors. Unlike other liquid metals used in this application, such as lithium and mercury, the nonreactivity makes galinstan a safer material to use.

X-ray equipment.

Extremely high-intensity sources of 9.25 keV X-rays (gallium K-alpha line) for X-ray phase microscopy of fixed tissue (such as mouse brain), from a focal spot about 10 μm × 10 μm, and 3-D voxels of about one cubic micrometer, may be obtained with an X-ray source that uses a liquid-metal galinstan anode. The metal flows from a nozzle downward at a high speed, and the high-intensity electron source is focused upon it. The rapid flow of metal carries current, but the physical flow prevents a great deal of anode heating (due to forced-convective heat removal), and the high boiling point of galinstan inhibits vaporization of the anode.

Galinstan is a brand-name and a common name for any member of a family of liquid metal eutectic alloys whose composition is mainly consisting of gallium, indium, and tin. Such eutectic alloys are liquids at room temperature, typically melting at, while commercial Galinstan melts at.

Galinstan, ein Markenname, ist eine silbrige, eutektische Legierung aus Gallium, Indium und Zinn. Gallium, Indium und Stannum ( für "Zinn") bilden das Kunstwort Galinstan. Die Legierung ist bei Raumtemperatur flüssig und geht laut Herstellerangaben bei Temperaturen unter −19 °C in den festen Aggregatzustand über. Galinstan haftet an vielen Materialien, unter anderem auch an Glas, was die Anwendungen einschränkt. So können Thermometer mit Galinstan nur hergestellt werden, wenn das Innere der Röhre zuvor mit Gallium(III)-oxid beschichtet wird. Ebenso wie Quecksilber bildet Galinstan leicht Legierungen mit festen Metallen; beispielsweise lässt sich Aluminium in Galinstan auflösen. Galinstan besitzt eine sehr große Oberflächenspannung von 718,0 mN/m, in Gegensatz zu Wasser mit 72,75 mN/m und Quecksilber mit 476,0 mN/m (alle bei 20 °C).


Life.

A member of the Veltheim noble family, possibly of Swabian origin, Burchard was a maternal nephew of the archbishops Anno II of Cologne and Werner of Magdeburg. In 1057, he became provost of the Collegiate Church of St. Simon and St. Jude at the Imperial Palace of Goslar. In 1059, through the intervention of his uncle, Archbishop Anno, he succeeded Bishop Burchard I in the diocese of Halberstadt.  In October 1062, it was the decision of a German-Italian synod held at Augsburg to send Burchard, high in the favour of Empress dowager Agnes of Poitou, to Rome to mediate a disputed Papal election between the legitimate Pope Alexander II and the Antipope Honorius II. Although the German crown stood by Honorius, Burchard vowed to stand by Hildebrand, the great Papal reformer, and supported Alexander. In gratitude, Alexander bestowed on Burchard the coveted "pallium".  In the dead of winter 1067–1068, Burchard, crossing frozen marshland, invaded the country of the Slavic Lutici tribes. His forces razed the pagan temple at Rethra (Radagoszcz), and the bishop returned to Saxony riding the sacred black horse.  In 1070, he founded the Benedictine abbey of Huysburg. In Halberstadt, he consecrated the rebuilt Cathedral at Pentecost 1071. King Henry IV witnessed the ceremony, at the same time he accepted the subjugation by the rebellious Saxon noble Otto of Nordheim and his followers.  However, when the Saxon Rebellion broke out two years later, Bishop Burchard sided with the rebels against Henry IV. He acted as a witness at the 1074 Treaty of Gerstungen, but on 13 July 1075, he was captured at Homburg an der Unstrut and handed over to Bishop Rupert of Bamberg. In 1076, he was banished to Hungary, but he escaped and returned to Halberstadt. In the ongoing Investiture Controversy, Bishop Burchard sided with every imperial opponent of Henry IV, including the anti-kings Rudolf of Rheinfelden and Herman of Salm. After a resolution in 1085, Emperor Henry invaded the Halberstadt territory and sought to depose Burchard at the synod of Mainz, but he was only briefly successful in removing him from his diocese. On 5 June 1087, Burchard consecrated the Ilsenburg Abbey Church after nine years of work.  According to legend, Bishop Burchard was very fond of children. As late as the early twentieth century, children of the region around Halberstadt still sang Low German nursery rhymes in his memory:  "Buko von Halberstadt,
Bring doch meinen Kinde wat.
"Wat sall ik em denn bringen?"
"Goldne Schoh mit Ringen.""

Buko of Halberstadt,
Bring something to my child.
"What shall I bring to him?"
"Golden shoes with buckles." Finally, Burchard entered into a fierce dispute with the Brunonid margrave Egbert II of Meissen, who sought to be elected anti-king in succession to Hermann of Salm. According to the Annalista Saxo, Egbert's troops devastated the Halberstadt lands and the bishop sought support from the Saxon nobles in Goslar. On 6 April 1088, he was mortally wounded in a skirmish and was brought to the Ilsenburg monastery, where he succumbed to his injuries the next day.

Burchard of Veltheim (also "Burckhardt", "Bucco", or "Buko"; – 7 April 1088) was a German cleric and Bishop of Halberstadt (as Burchard II) from 1059 until his death.

Burchard von Veltheim (* um 1028; † 7. April 1088 im Kloster Ilsenburg; auch: "Bucco", "Buko" etc.) war ein deutscher Kleriker und als "Burchard II." Bischof von Halberstadt.