Géographie des États fédérés de Micronésie

Geography.

The country consists of 607 islands extending across the Caroline Islands Archipelago. They are east of the Philippine Islands, and north of the island of New Guinea. The federal capital is Palikir, on Pohnpei island.  The 607 islands are grouped into four states, and from west to east are:  Separated from the main islands in southern Pohnpei State are the two islands of Nukuoro and Kapingamarangi. They are geographically part of the Micronesia region, but are linguistically and culturally part of the Polynesia region. The indigenous languages spoken on these two islands are in the Samoic family of Polynesian languages.

Location.

The Federated States of Micronesia are an island group in the Caroline Islands Archipelago of the western Pacific Ocean, in the Micronesia sub-region of Oceania.  Located about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Indonesia at Geographic coordinates: Map references are Oceania and Micronesia.

Dimensions.

Area:  The country's total area is four times the size of Washington, D.C. in the U.S.  Coastline: The combined coastlines of the country's 607 islands equal.  Maritime claims:

Terrain.

The country's 607 islands vary from high mountainous ones to low coral atolls. Geologically, there are volcanic rock outcroppings on the islands of Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Chuuk.

Extreme points.

The extreme points of the Federated States of Micronesia, the landforms that are farther north, south, east or west — than any other location in the country.

Environment.

Environment—current issues: Overfishing, land and water pollution.  Environment—international agreements:

Land use.

Products: Tropical woods and lumber, marine products, deep-seabed minerals, surface mined phosphate.

Climate.

The Federated States of Micronesia enjoys a tropical climate, with quite even, warm temperatures throughout the year.  Precipitation is generally plentiful, with heavy year-round rainfall. Pohnpei reputedly is one of the wettest places on earth, with up to 330 inches (8.4 m) of rain per year. Nevertheless, drought conditions do occur periodically throughout FSM, especially when the El Niño condition moves into the Western Pacific, when groundwater supplies can dwindle to emergency proportions.

Natural hazards.

Tropical typhoons are an annual threat, from June to December. The country is located on southern edge of the typhoon belt, with occasionally severe damage, particularly to the low-lying atolls.  Tsunamis and rising sea levels are other natural threats.

Geography of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), a country located in the western Pacific Ocean, and in the Micronesia cultural and ecological sub-region of Oceania. The total size very small. However, it has the 14th largest exclusive economic zone of.

Les États fédérés de Micronésie sont composés de 607 îles réparties sur à travers l’archipel des îles Carolines dans le Pacifique, à l’est des Philippines. Les îles sont divisées en quatre États, Yap, Chuuk (appelé "Truk" jusqu’en janvier 1990), Pohnpei (appelé "Ponape" jusqu’en 1984) et Kosrae. Les îles de Nukuoro et Kapingamarangi ne sont rattachées à aucun groupe. Bien qu’appartenant politiquement à la Micronésie, il s'agit d'exclaves polynésiennes.


Early life.

Bournonville was the son of the actors Louis-Amable Bournonville and Jeanne Evrard, born as the twin of his brother Guillame. He became the student of Noverre in 1769, at the age of nine, and toured in Vienna, Paris and London before he was employed in the Royal Swedish Ballet at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm with his sister Julie Alix de la Fay in 1782.

Career.

Sweden.

Bournonville was premier dancer and ballet instructor at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm until 1792. During his time in Sweden, he was described as beautiful as Apollo: "His appearance was that of a true Apollo. On top of that he had a form of virtuosity in all kinds of dance, which he used with the finest taste". King Gustav III of Sweden was at one point so enthusiastic about his performance and beauty that he called out to him to untie the ribbon of his hair so that he could see his loose hair fly during his pirouette.  His favourite student and dancing partner in Sweden was Charlotte Slottsberg, with whom he made a successful pair in the ballets. It was Antoine Bournonville himself who asked to have her as his partner, after he recognized her talent as an artist and, in 1784, by his own initiative gave her a part in "Les Meunieres Provencaux", which is considered to have been the starting point of Slottberg's true maturity as an artist. Charlotte Slottsberg was said to have been infatuated by his beauty, which at one occasion made her lover, Prince Charles to scream at Bournonville in his jealousy.  He was also active as an actor, a singer and a choreographer. During his stay in Sweden he wrote the ballets "Les Meuniers provençaux" (1785) and " Les Pêcheurs" (1789).

Denmark.

He left Sweden in 1792 after the assassination of king Gustav III of Sweden and was employed at the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen in Denmark after a guest performance there. His favourite dance partner in Denmark was Marie Christine Björn. In 1816–1823, he was the ballet master of the Royal Danish Ballet.

Private life.

Bournonville was married first to the Danish dancer Mariane Jensen, second to his Swedish housekeeper Lovisa Sundberg (the mother of August Bournonville) and also had a child with the Danish dancer Karen Olsen.

Antoine Bournonville (19 May 1760 – 11 January 1843) was a French ballet dancer a choreographer, active in the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet and eventually ballet master in the latter. He is considered to have played a great role in the development of the ballet in Scandinavia. He was the father of August Bournonville.

Antoine Bournonville est un danseur, chorégraphe et maître de ballet français né à Lyon le et mort à Fredensborg (Danemark) le.


Early life and career.

Russell Alexander Alger was born on February 27, 1836, in Lafayette Township in Medina County, Ohio. His parents were Russell and Caroline (Moulton) Alger. He was orphaned at age 13 and worked on a farm to support himself and two younger siblings. He attended Richfield Academy in Summit County, Ohio, and taught country school for two winters. He studied law in Akron, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in March 1859. He first began to practice law in Cleveland and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1860, where he engaged in the lumber business.  On April 2, 1861, he married Annette Huldana Squire Henry of Grand Rapids. They had six children; Henrietta Fay Huldana (Alger) Bailey, Caroline Annette (Alger) Shelden, Frances Aura (Alger) Pike, Russell Alexander Alger, Jr., Frederick Charles Moulton Alger and Allan Alger. Frederick graduated from Harvard in 1899, served as a lieutenant colonel with the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France during the First World War and was awarded the French Legion of Honor.  Alger was the scion of a prominent family, many of whom became involved in 20th century Michigan politics and active in the Republican Party.  His son, Russell A. Alger, Jr., was instrumental in persuading the Packard Motor Car Company to move to Michigan from Ohio; he also built in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a palatial Italian Renaissance style estate, "The Moorings", which was donated in 1949 and became the Grosse Pointe War Memorial, honoring veterans of World War II.  Russell A. Alger had a home in Black River which is in Alcona Township, Michigan, which he maintained while overseeing his lumbering operations.

Civil War.

He enlisted as a private soldier in the American Civil War on September 2, 1861. He was commissioned and served as a captain and major in the 2nd Michigan Cavalry Regiment.  At the Battle of Boonesville, July 11, 1862, he was sent by Colonel Philip Sheridan to attack the enemy's rear with ninety picked men. The Confederate forces were soundly defeated, and although Alger was wounded and taken prisoner, he escaped the same day. On October 16, he was made lieutenant colonel of the 6th Michigan Cavalry.  On February 28, 1863, he was promoted to colonel of the 5th Michigan Cavalry. His command was the first to enter Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on June 28, and he was specially mentioned in the report of General George Armstrong Custer on cavalry operations there. Alger was considered a military strategist and stood with President Lincoln on the battlefield surveying the Union supplies and while pursuing the enemy on July 8, he was severely wounded at Boonesborough, Maryland. He participated in General Sheridan's Valley Campaigns of 1864 in Virginia. On June 11, 1864, at Trevillian Station, he captured a large force of Confederates with a brilliant cavalry charge. Alger resigned from the army on September 20, 1864. On January 13, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Alger for the award of the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers to rank from June 11, 1865, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the award on March 12, 1866. On February 28, 1867, President Johnson nominated Alger for the award of the grade of brevet major general of volunteers to rank from June 11, 1865, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the award on March 2, 1867.  In three years, he served in 66 different battles and skirmishes. In 1868, he was elected the first commander of the Michigan department of the Grand Army of the Republic, and in 1889 became its national Commander-in-chief at the Twenty-Third National Encampment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was also a member of the Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS). Alger's two sons, Frederick W. Alger and Russell A. Alger, Jr. were hereditary companions of MOLLUS.

Lumber baron.

After the Civil War, Alger settled in Detroit as head of Alger, Smith & Company and the Manistique Lumbering Company. His great pine forest on Lake Huron comprised more than and produced annually more than of lumber. In order to transport the lumber, Alger led his company to create the Detroit, Bay City and Alpena Railroad, of which Alger served as president.  At the turn of the 20th century (following Alger's service as Secretary of War), he and Florida landowner Martin Sullivan established the Alger-Sullivan Lumber Company, which milled lumber in Foshee, Alabama and Century, Florida.

Politics.

In 1884, Alger was elected Governor of Michigan, serving from January 1, 1885, to January 1, 1887. He declined renomination in 1886 and was a presidential elector on the Republican ticket in 1888. Alger's name was placed in nomination for president at the 1888 Republican National Convention. He rose in balloting to 142 votes, with 416 necessary to win, but Benjamin Harrison ultimately obtained the nomination and went on to win the general election. In 1888, Alger was elected as the Commander of the Michigan Department of the Grand Army of the Republic and as the 18th Commander-in-Chief of the GAR in 1889.  Alger was appointed Secretary of War in the Cabinet of U.S. President William McKinley on March 5, 1897. As Secretary, he recommended pay increases for military personnel serving at foreign embassies and legations. He recommended legislation to authorize a Second Assistant Secretary of War and recommended a constabulary force for Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. He was criticized for the inadequate preparation and inefficient operation of the department during the Spanish–American War, especially for his appointment of William R. Shafter as leader of the Cuban expedition. "Algerism" became an epithet to describe the claimed incompetence of the army, especially as compared to the more stellar performance of the navy. Alger resigned at President McKinley's request, August 1, 1899, though he perhaps got the last word on his critics by publishing "The Spanish–American War" in 1901.  One sidelight of Alger's career in the McKinley Administration was his personal vendetta against former Confederate partisan Col. John Singleton Mosby. Mosby, a famous (or notorious) figure, had been United States Consul at Hong Kong, China, under Hayes but had been replaced with the election of Democrat Grover Cleveland. Upon his return to the United States, Mosby had taken a position obtained for him by his close friend former President Ulysses S. Grant with the Southern Pacific Railroad which he held for fifteen years. When the railroad changed ownership, Mosby lost his position so when McKinley became President, he returned east to seek out a position with the new administration. Mosby had known McKinley for many years through his involvement in Republican politics both in Virginia and California.  Unknown to Mosby as he headed east with hopes of a good position with the new administration, Alger was doing all in his power to thwart the former Confederate guerrilla. His hatred for Mosby was personal. While Alger served with Sheridan in the Shenandoah in 1864, a number of his command had been caught burning homes in the Valley and had been executed by members of Mosby's command as war criminals. Alger never forgot nor forgave what had happened for though Mosby was not present at the time of the events, he had concurred with the actions of his men. So despite having been asked to send a list to the McKinley administration of what posts he desired, by the time he arrived from the west coast Mosby found that all had been "unexpectedly" given to someone else and he was forced to return to the west coast disappointed and unemployed. But Alger's involvement with the defeat of Mosby's hopes did not remain hidden. It was reported in the May 11, 1898, San Francisco Call under the headline "Alger Dislikes Mosby" and it is probable that until he read that article, the 65-year-old Mosby had no idea that his failure to obtain a position was anything other than bad luck.  On September 27, 1902, Alger was appointed by Michigan Governor Aaron T. Bliss to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James McMillan. He was subsequently elected by the Michigan State Legislature to the Senate in January 1903. He served until his death in Washington, D.C. in 1907. During a memorial address in remembrance of Senator Alger, Senator John Spooner of Wisconsin said of the late senator: "No man without noble purpose, well-justified ambitions, strong fiber, and splendid qualities in abundance could have carved out and left behind him such a career." He was chairman of the Senate Committee on Pacific Railroads during the 59th Congress. He is interred in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.

Legacy.

Alger, Michigan, a small community in Michigan's lower peninsula was named after him in 1882. It is a small community located in the area of the lower peninsula where he oversaw lumbering and railroad operations. In addition, Alger County, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, was founded in 1885.  In May 1898, his War Department established Camp Russell A. Alger on a farm of called "Woodburn Manor" near the small communities of Falls Church and Dunn Loring, Virginia. In its brief existence, 23,000 men trained there for service in the Spanish–American War. Faced with a typhoid fever epidemic, it was abandoned the month that the War ended (in August 1898), and sold the following month. It is commemorated by an official Virginia historical marker.  Also in 1898, a movie was made, entitled "General Wheeler and Secretary of War Alger at Camp Wikoff", that documents an official visit as Secretary of War. Camp Wikoff was in New York, and this was an early event that permitted the McKinley administration to garner support from the New York newspapers.  A monument by Detroit sculptor Carlo Romanelli, consisting of a bronze bust of Alger mounted on a stone pedestal, is located on the grounds of the William G. Mather Building in Munising, Michigan. It was erected in June 1909, with funds provided by the heirs of Alger and by the Board of Education of the Munising Township Schools. A memorial fountain in Grand Circus Park, where it intersects East Adams and Woodward in downtown Detroit by sculptor Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon was dedicated in Detroit in 1921. Russell A. Alger street is in Black River, Michigan, and the town contains an eponymous "Alger" street. So too does Lincoln, Michigan. Alger's Camp was located a short distance from Mud Lake (now Jewell Lake) in Alcona County, Michigan.  The Grosse Pointe War Memorial is housed in one of the Alger family's former homes.  The Southeast side Grand Rapids, Michigan neighborhood Alger Heights is named after him.  In 1942, a United States Liberty ship named the was planned, but cancelled before construction.  Retrieved on 2008-02-11

Russell Alexander Alger (February 27, 1836January 24, 1907) was the 20th Governor and U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan and also U.S. Secretary of War during the Presidential administration of William McKinley. He was supposedly a distant relation of Horatio Alger; although Russell Alger lived his own "rags-to-riches" success tale, eventually becoming an army officer, financier, lumber baron, railroad owner, and government official in several high offices.

Russell Alexander Alger, né le à Lafayette (Ohio) et mort le à Washington (district de Columbia)), est un militaire et homme politique américain. Membre du Parti républicain, il est gouverneur du Michigan entre 1885 et 1887, secrétaire à la Guerre entre 1897 et 1899 dans l'administration du président William McKinley, puis sénateur du Michigan entre 1902 et 1907. Il a également été major-général dans l'armée de l'Union lors de la guerre de Sécession.


Life.

John Wallis was born in Ashford, Kent. He was the third of five children of Reverend John Wallis and Joanna Chapman. He was initially educated at a school in Ashford but moved to James Movat's school in Tenterden in 1625 following an outbreak of plague. Wallis was first exposed to mathematics in 1631, at Felsted School (then known as Martin Holbeach's school in Felsted); he enjoyed maths, but his study was erratic, since "mathematics, at that time with us, were scarce looked on as academical studies, but rather mechanical" (Scriba 1970). At the school in Felsted, Wallis learned how to speak and write Latin. By this time, he also was proficient in other languages such French, Greek, and Hebrew. As it was intended he should be a doctor, he was sent in 1632 to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. While there, he kept an "act" on the doctrine of the circulation of the blood; that was said to have been the first occasion in Europe on which this theory was publicly maintained in a disputation. His interests, however, centred on mathematics. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1637 and a Master's in 1640, afterwards entering the priesthood. From 1643 to 1649, he served as a nonvoting scribe at the Westminster Assembly. He was elected to a fellowship at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1644, from which he had to resign following his marriage.  Throughout this time, Wallis had been close to the Parliamentarian party, perhaps as a result of his exposure to Holbeach at Felsted School. He rendered them great practical assistance in deciphering Royalist dispatches. The quality of cryptography at that time was mixed; despite the individual successes of mathematicians such as François Viète, the principles underlying cipher design and analysis were very poorly understood. Most ciphers were ad hoc methods relying on a secret algorithm, as opposed to systems based on a variable key. Wallis realised that the latter were far more secure – even describing them as "unbreakable", though he was not confident enough in this assertion to encourage revealing cryptographic algorithms. He was also concerned about the use of ciphers by foreign powers, refusing, for example, Gottfried Leibniz's request of 1697 to teach Hanoverian students about cryptography.  Returning to London – he had been made chaplain at St Gabriel Fenchurch in 1643 – Wallis joined the group of scientists that was later to evolve into the Royal Society. He was finally able to indulge his mathematical interests, mastering William Oughtred's "Clavis Mathematicae" in a few weeks in 1647. He soon began to write his own treatises, dealing with a wide range of topics, which he continued for the rest of his life. Wallis wrote the first survey about mathematical concepts in England where he discussed the Hindu-Arabic system.  Wallis joined the moderate Presbyterians in signing the remonstrance against the execution of Charles I, by which he incurred the lasting hostility of the Independents. In spite of their opposition he was appointed in 1649 to the Savilian Chair of Geometry at Oxford University, where he lived until his death on. In 1650, Wallis was ordained as a minister. After, he spent two years with Sir Richard Darley and Lady Vere as a private chaplain. In 1661, he was one of twelve Presbyterian representatives at the Savoy Conference.  Besides his mathematical works he wrote on theology, logic, English grammar and philosophy, and he was involved in devising a system for teaching a deaf boy to speak at Littlecote House. William Holder had earlier taught a deaf man, Alexander Popham, to speak "plainly and distinctly, and with a good and graceful tone". Wallis later claimed credit for this, leading Holder to accuse Wallis of "rifling his Neighbours, and adorning himself with their spoyls".

Wallis' appointment as Savilian Professor of Geometry at the Oxford University.

The Parliamentary visitation of Oxford that began in 1647 removed many senior academics from their positions, including (in November 1648) the Savilian Professors of Geometry and Astronomy. In 1649 Wallis was appointed as Savilian Professor of Geometry. Wallis seems to have been chosen largely on political grounds (as perhaps had been his Royalist predecessor Peter Turner, who despite his appointment to two professorships never published any mathematical works); while Wallis was perhaps the nation's leading cryptographer and was part of an informal group of scientists that would later become the Royal Society, he had no particular reputation as a mathematician. Nonetheless, Wallis' appointment proved richly justified by his subsequent work during the 54 years he served as Savilian Professor.

Contributions to mathematics.

Wallis made significant contributions to trigonometry, calculus, geometry, and the analysis of infinite series. In his "Opera Mathematica" I (1695) he introduced the term "continued fraction".  Wallis rejected as absurd the now usual idea of a negative number as being less than nothing, but accepted the view that it is something greater than infinity. (The argument that negative numbers are greater than infinity involves the quotient formula_1 and considering what happens as "x" approaches and then crosses the point "x" = 0 from the positive side.) Despite this he is generally credited as the originator of the idea of the number line, in which numbers are represented geometrically in a line with the negative numbers represented by lengths opposite in direction to lengths of positive numbers.

Analytical geometry.

In 1655, Wallis published a treatise on conic sections in which they were defined analytically. This was the earliest book in which these curves are considered and defined as curves of the second degree. It helped to remove some of the perceived difficulty and obscurity of René Descartes' work on analytic geometry. In the "Treatise on the Conic Sections" Wallis popularised the symbol ∞ for infinity. He wrote, "I suppose any plane (following the "Geometry of Indivisibles" of Cavalieri) to be made up of an infinite number of parallel lines, or as I would prefer, of an infinite number of parallelograms of the same altitude; (let the altitude of each one of these be an infinitely small part 1/∞ of the whole altitude, and let the symbol ∞ denote Infinity) and the altitude of all to make up the altitude of the figure."

Integral calculus.

"Arithmetica Infinitorum", the most important of Wallis's works, was published in 1656. In this treatise the methods of analysis of Descartes and Cavalieri were systematised and extended, but some ideas were open to criticism. He began, after a short tract on conic sections, by developing the standard notation for powers, extending them from positive integers to rational numbers:  Leaving the numerous algebraic applications of this discovery, he next proceeded to find, by integration, the area enclosed between the curve "y" = "x", the axis of "x", and any ordinate "x" = "h", and he proved that the ratio of this area to that of the parallelogram on the same base and of the same height is 1/("m" + 1), extending Cavalieri's quadrature formula. He apparently assumed that the same result would be true also for the curve "y" = "ax", where "a" is any constant, and "m" any number positive or negative, but he discussed only the case of the parabola in which "m" = 2 and the hyperbola in which "m" = −1. In the latter case, his interpretation of the result is incorrect. He then showed that similar results may be written down for any curve of the form  and hence that, if the ordinate "y" of a curve can be expanded in powers of "x", its area can be determined: thus he says that if the equation of the curve is "y" = "x" + "x" + "x" +..., its area would be "x" + x/2 + "x"/3 +... He then applied this to the quadrature of the curves "y" = ("x" − "x"), "y" = ("x" − "x"), "y" = ("x" − "x"), etc., taken between the limits "x" = 0 and "x" = 1. He shows that the areas are, respectively, 1, 1/6, 1/30, 1/140, etc. He next considered curves of the form "y" = "x" and established the theorem that the area bounded by this curve and the lines "x" = 0 and "x" = 1 is equal to the area of the rectangle on the same base and of the same altitude as "m" : "m" + 1. This is equivalent to computing  He illustrated this by the parabola, in which case "m" = 2. He stated, but did not prove, the corresponding result for a curve of the form "y" = "x".  Wallis showed considerable ingenuity in reducing the equations of curves to the forms given above, but, as he was unacquainted with the binomial theorem, he could not effect the quadrature of the circle, whose equation is formula_11, since he was unable to expand this in powers of "x". He laid down, however, the principle of interpolation. Thus, as the ordinate of the circle formula_11 is the geometrical mean of the ordinates of the curves formula_13 and formula_14, it might be supposed that, as an approximation, the area of the semicircle formula_15 which is formula_16 might be taken as the geometrical mean of the values of  that is, 1 and formula_18; this is equivalent to taking formula_19 or 3.26... as the value of π. But, Wallis argued, we have in fact a series formula_20... and therefore the term interpolated between 1 and formula_21 ought to be chosen so as to obey the law of this series. This, by an elaborate method that is not described here in detail, leads to a value for the interpolated term which is equivalent to taking (which is now known as the Wallis product).  In this work also the formation and properties of continued fractions are discussed, the subject having been brought into prominence by Brouncker's use of these fractions.  A few years later, in 1659, Wallis published a tract containing the solution of the problems on the cycloid which had been proposed by Blaise Pascal. In this he incidentally explained how the principles laid down in his "Arithmetica Infinitorum" could be used for the rectification of algebraic curves and gave a solution of the problem to rectify (i.e., find the length of) the semicubical parabola "x" = "ay", which had been discovered in 1657 by his pupil William Neile. Since all attempts to rectify the ellipse and hyperbola had been (necessarily) ineffectual, it had been supposed that no curves could be rectified, as indeed Descartes had definitely asserted to be the case. The logarithmic spiral had been rectified by Evangelista Torricelli and was the first curved line (other than the circle) whose length was determined, but the extension by Neile and Wallis to an algebraic curve was novel. The cycloid was the next curve rectified; this was done by Christopher Wren in 1658.  Early in 1658 a similar discovery, independent of that of Neile, was made by van Heuraët, and this was published by van Schooten in his edition of Descartes's "Geometria" in 1659. Van Heuraët's method is as follows. He supposes the curve to be referred to rectangular axes; if this be so, and if ("x", "y") be the coordinates of any point on it, and "n" be the length of the normal, and if another point whose coordinates are ("x", η) be taken such that η : "h" = "n" : "y", where "h" is a constant; then, if "ds" be the element of the length of the required curve, we have by similar triangles "ds" : "dx" = "n" : "y". Therefore, "h ds" = η "dx". Hence, if the area of the locus of the point ("x", η) can be found, the first curve can be rectified. In this way van Heuraët effected the rectification of the curve "y" = "ax" but added that the rectification of the parabola "y" = "ax" is impossible. since it requires the quadrature of the hyperbola. The solutions given by Neile and Wallis are somewhat similar to that given by van Heuraët, though no general rule is enunciated, and the analysis is clumsy. A third method was suggested by Fermat in 1660, but it is inelegant and laborious.

Collision of bodies.

The theory of the collision of bodies was propounded by the Royal Society in 1668 for the consideration of mathematicians. Wallis, Christopher Wren, and Christian Huygens sent correct and similar solutions, all depending on what is now called the conservation of momentum; but, while Wren and Huygens confined their theory to perfectly elastic bodies (elastic collision), Wallis considered also imperfectly elastic bodies (inelastic collision). This was followed in 1669 by a work on statics (centres of gravity), and in 1670 by one on dynamics: these provide a convenient synopsis of what was then known on the subject.

Algebra.

In 1685 Wallis published "Algebra", preceded by a historical account of the development of the subject, which contains a great deal of valuable information. The second edition, issued in 1693 and forming the second volume of his "Opera", was considerably enlarged. This algebra is noteworthy as containing the first systematic use of formulae. A given magnitude is here represented by the numerical ratio which it bears to the unit of the same kind of magnitude: thus, when Wallis wants to compare two lengths he regards each as containing so many units of length. This perhaps will be made clearer by noting that the relation between the space described in any time by a particle moving with a uniform velocity is denoted by Wallis by the formula  where "s" is the number representing the ratio of the space described to the unit of length; while the previous writers would have denoted the same relation by stating what is equivalent to the proposition

Geometry.

He is usually credited with the proof of the Pythagorean theorem using similar triangles. However, Thabit Ibn Qurra (AD 901), an Arab mathematician, had produced a generalisation of the Pythagorean theorem applicable to all triangles six centuries earlier. It is a reasonable conjecture that Wallis was aware of Thabit's work.  Wallis was also inspired by the works of Islamic mathematician Sadr al-Tusi, the son of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, particularly by al-Tusi's book written in 1298 on the parallel postulate. The book was based on his father's thoughts which presented one of the earliest arguments for a non-Euclidean hypothesis equivalent to the parallel postulate. After reading this, Wallis then wrote about his ideas as he developed his own thoughts about the postulate, trying to prove it also with similar triangles.  He found that Euclid's fifth postulate is equivalent to the one currently named "Wallis postulate" after him. This postulate states that "On a given finite straight line it is always possible to construct a triangle similar to a given triangle". This result was encompassed in a trend trying to deduce Euclid's fifth from the other four postulates which today is known to be impossible. Unlike other authors, he realised that the unbounded growth of a triangle was not guaranteed by the four first postulates.

Calculator.

Another aspect of Wallis's mathematical skills was his ability to do mental calculations. He slept badly and often did mental calculations as he lay awake in his bed. One night he calculated in his head the square root of a number with 53 digits. In the morning he dictated the 27-digit square root of the number, still entirely from memory. It was a feat that was considered remarkable, and Henry Oldenburg, the Secretary of the Royal Society, sent a colleague to investigate how Wallis did it. It was considered important enough to merit discussion in the "Philosophical Transactions" of the Royal Society of 1685.

Musical theory.

Wallis translated into Latin works of Ptolemy, Bryennius, and Porphyrius's commentary on Ptolemy. He also published three letters to Henry Oldenburg concerning tuning. He approved of equal temperament that was being used in England's organs.

Other works.

His "Institutio logicae", published in 1687, was very popular. The "Grammatica linguae Anglicanae" was a work on English grammar, that remained in print well into the eighteenth century. He also published on theology.

Family.

On 14 March 1645 he married Susanna Glynde ( – 16 March 1687). They had three children:

John Wallis (; ; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 he served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court. He is credited with introducing the symbol ∞ to represent the concept of infinity. He similarly used 1/∞ for an infinitesimal. John Wallis was a contemporary of Newton and one of the greatest intellectuals of the early renaissance of mathematics.

John Wallis, né le à Ashford, et mort le à Oxford, est un mathématicien anglais. Ses travaux sont précurseurs de ceux de Newton. Il est également précurseur de la phonétique, de l'éducation des sourds et de l'orthophonie.


Origins.

The concept of the travelling gnome dates back to the 1970s when Henry Sunderland photographed his own garden gnomes, which he named Harry and Charlie, while he was travelling around Antarctica.  The earliest record of a prank involving a traveling gnome is from Australia in 1986 when the "Sydney Morning Herald" reported an "Eastern Suburbs gnome-owner was distressed when she discovered her gnome had been stolen at the weekend. A note was found in its place: 'Dear mum, couldn't stand the solitude any longer. Gone off to see the world. Don't be worried, I'll be back soon. Love Bilbo xxx.'"

Travelling gnome prank.

A running prank has developed, which has made national news at times, where people steal a garden gnome from an unknowing person's lawn and then send the owner photos of the gnome and sometimes cryptic messages that were supposedly written by the gnome for a time as a practical joke before returning it.  The most well-known instance of the travelling gnome prank was arguably in 2005 when a group of college students took a garden gnome, dubbed "Gnome Severson" in news, from a property in Redmond, Washington, U.S. and brought it on a roadtrip to California and Nevada. Gnome Severson became a national news story after the group ran into socialite Paris Hilton at a gas station, who posed for a picture with the gnome that was printed in "People" magazine. At the end of the week-long trip, the friends anonymously returned the gnome to its owner's front porch with a photo album titled "Gnome’s Spring Break 2005", which included the issue of "People" and other pictures of the gnome around Hollywood, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. The owner, who had not even noticed the gnome was missing until she found it returned on her porch, was interviewed on "Good Morning America".  According to "ABC News", the owner decided to auction the gnome on eBay, which sold with the photo album for in May 2005, because she became tired of all of the media attention. However, in February 2006, it was reported that the gnome had actually been secretly purchased on eBay by the owner's friends who continued to take photos of it around the world in locations such as Canada, Mexico, Italy, and Thailand. After it was returned for the second time, the original owner, referring to it as "the prodigal gnome", said she had decided to keep it and would not sell it on eBay again.

Gnoming as theft.

There have also been a number of criminal incidents in which individuals or groups steal large numbers of garden gnomes without the intention of returning, often with the purported mission of "freeing" gnomes and "returning them to the wild". These crimes can cause distress to the victims of the theft, particularly if the gnomes have sentimental value.  France's Garden Gnome Liberation Front (), which in 2006 claimed 100 active members in France, Canada, Germany, Spain, and the United States, became known to the public in 1990s when they took credit for the theft of hundreds of garden gnomes around France. In 1997, their ringleader was sent to prison and fined for stealing over 150 garden gnomes over a period of several years.  In 1998, the Garden Gnome Liberation Front made headlines again when they staged a "mass suicide" of gnomes by hanging 11 garden gnomes with nooses around their necks under a bridge at Briey in northeastern France with a note that stated, "When you read these few words we will no longer be part of your selfish world, where we serve merely as pretty decorations." The Front was in the news again in 2000 when they stole 20 gnomes overnight from a garden exhibition in Paris, and they were suspected in 2006, when 80 gnomes were stolen in the central Limousin region of France under a banner that said "gnome mistreated, gnome liberated".  In 2008, a 53-year-old man, who law enforcement officials believed acted alone, was arrested on suspicion of stealing as many as 170 garden gnomes in the Brittany region of France.

In popular culture.

The travelling gnome prank was popularized by the film "Amélie" (2001) in which the main character persuaded her father to follow his dream of touring the world by stealing his garden gnome and having an air hostess friend send pictures of it from all over the world. The traveling gnome theme later became the basis for Travelocity's "Where is my Gnome?" advertising campaign.  The short fantasy story "The Garden Gnome Freedom Front" (2005) by Laura Frankos, published in "", deals with the supernatural aspect of this custom.  The travelling gnome has appeared in several video games. For example, it has been used as a recurring Easter egg in "The Sims" computer game series, such as "Sim City 3" (1999) where different varieties of garden gnomes appear and move or change position daily and in "Sim City 4" (2004), in which gnomes reveal themselves in the game's buildable landmarks. In the video game, "" (2007), players receive a special achievement award for launching a garden gnome into outer space in a rocket after carrying it throughout most of the game. "Gnonstop Gnomes", a mobile app for Android and iOS devices, lets users attach clipart of virtual gnomes to their travel photographs that they can share with friends.

The travelling gnome (also known as the roaming gnome or gnoming) is when someone brings a garden gnome lawn ornament on a trip and takes pictures of it in front of famous landmarks. Some instances became national and international news stories, where people have stolen a garden gnome from a garden, and then sent the owner photos of the gnome for a period of time as a practical joke, before returning it.

Le voyage d'un nain de jardin est un gag ayant pour but de « rendre la liberté » à un nain de jardin ou simplement de harceler la victime dans un but humoristique ou de méchanceté. Il implique de voler un nain de jardin, de le photographier en divers endroits, devant des monuments célèbres par exemple, afin d'envoyer les clichés au propriétaire du nain, qui ne peut rien faire, bien que le ravisseur soit en constante correspondance avec lui. Évidemment, le ravisseur évite généralement de laisser une adresse de retour ou de signer la lettre qui peut accompagner les photos, à moins de connaître la victime ou d'être à l'étranger avec le nain, hors d'atteinte de la victime. Il peut également signer d'un nom commun, d'un surnom, ou d'un simple prénom ne permettant pas de l'identifier. Communiquer avec la victime par son nom et lui parler de sa vie personnelle s'avère parfois amusant puisque la victime peut alors soupçonner tous les gens de son entourage. Les photos sont généralement envoyées individuellement, pour signifier les derniers déplacements du nain, et de son ravisseur.


History.

Origin and development.

The concept of positive eugenics to produce better human beings has existed at least since Plato suggested selective mating to produce a guardian class. In Sparta, every Spartan child was inspected by the council of elders, the Gerousia, which determined if the child was fit to live or not. In the early years of ancient Rome, a Roman father was obliged by law to immediately kill his child if they were physically disabled. Among the ancient Germanic tribes, people who were cowardly, unwarlike or "stained with abominable vices" were put to death, usually by being drowned in swamps.  The idea of a modern project of improving the human population through a statistical understanding of heredity used to encourage good breeding was originally developed by Francis Galton and, initially, was closely linked to Darwinism and his theory of natural selection. Galton had read his half-cousin Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which sought to explain the development of plant and animal species, and desired to apply it to humans. Based on his biographical studies, Galton believed that desirable human qualities were hereditary traits, although Darwin strongly disagreed with this elaboration of his theory. In 1883, one year after Darwin's death, Galton gave his research a name: "eugenics". With the introduction of genetics, eugenics became associated with genetic determinism, the belief that human character is entirely or in the majority caused by genes, unaffected by education or living conditions. Many of the early geneticists were not Darwinians, and evolution theory was not needed for eugenics policies based on genetic determinism. Throughout its recent history, eugenics has remained controversial.  Eugenics became an academic discipline at many colleges and universities and received funding from many sources. Organizations were formed to win public support and sway opinion towards responsible eugenic values in parenthood, including the British Eugenics Education Society of 1907 and the American Eugenics Society of 1921. Both sought support from leading clergymen and modified their message to meet religious ideals. In 1909, the Anglican clergymen William Inge and James Peile both wrote for the British Eugenics Education Society. Inge was an invited speaker at the 1921 International Eugenics Conference, which was also endorsed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York Patrick Joseph Hayes. The book "The Passing of the Great Race" ("Or, The Racial Basis of European History") by American eugenicist, lawyer, and amateur anthropologist Madison Grant was published in 1916. Though influential, the book was largely ignored when it first appeared, and it went through several revisions and editions. Nevertheless, the book was used by people who advocated restricted immigration as justification for what became known as “scientific racism”.  Three International Eugenics Conferences presented a global venue for eugenists with meetings in 1912 in London, and in 1921 and 1932 in New York City. Eugenic policies were first implemented in the early 1900s in the United States. It also took root in France, Germany, and Great Britain. Later, in the 1920s and 1930s, the eugenic policy of sterilizing certain mental patients was implemented in other countries including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Japan and Sweden. Frederick Osborn's 1937 journal article "Development of a Eugenic Philosophy" framed it as a social philosophy—a philosophy with implications for social order. That definition is not universally accepted. Osborn advocated for higher rates of sexual reproduction among people with desired traits ("positive eugenics") or reduced rates of sexual reproduction or sterilization of people with less-desired or undesired traits ("negative eugenics").  In addition to being practiced in a number of countries, eugenics was internationally organized through the International Federation of Eugenics Organizations. Its scientific aspects were carried on through research bodies such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, the Cold Spring Harbor Carnegie Institution for Experimental Evolution, and the Eugenics Record Office. Politically, the movement advocated measures such as sterilization laws. In its moral dimension, eugenics rejected the doctrine that all human beings are born equal and redefined moral worth purely in terms of genetic fitness. Its racist elements included pursuit of a pure "Nordic race" or "Aryan" genetic pool and the eventual elimination of "unfit" races. Many leading British politicians subscribed to the theories of eugenics. Winston Churchill supported the British Eugenics Society and was an honorary vice president for the organization. Churchill believed that eugenics could solve "race deterioration" and reduce crime and poverty.  Early critics of the philosophy of eugenics included the American sociologist Lester Frank Ward, the English writer G. K. Chesterton, the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas, who argued that advocates of eugenics greatly over-estimate the influence of biology, and Scottish tuberculosis pioneer and author Halliday Sutherland. Ward's 1913 article "Eugenics, Euthenics, and Eudemics", Chesterton's 1917 book "", and Boas' 1916 article "" (published in "The Scientific Monthly") were all harshly critical of the rapidly growing movement. Sutherland identified eugenists as a major obstacle to the eradication and cure of tuberculosis in his 1917 address "Consumption: Its Cause and Cure", and criticism of eugenists and Neo-Malthusians in his 1921 book "Birth Control" led to a writ for libel from the eugenist Marie Stopes. Several biologists were also antagonistic to the eugenics movement, including Lancelot Hogben. Other biologists such as J. B. S. Haldane and R. A. Fisher expressed skepticism in the belief that sterilization of "defectives" would lead to the disappearance of undesirable genetic traits.  Among institutions, the Catholic Church was an opponent of state-enforced sterilizations. Attempts by the Eugenics Education Society to persuade the British government to legalize voluntary sterilization were opposed by Catholics and by the Labour Party. The American Eugenics Society initially gained some Catholic supporters, but Catholic support declined following the 1930 papal encyclical "Casti connubii". In this, Pope Pius XI explicitly condemned sterilization laws: "Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects; therefore, where no crime has taken place and there is no cause present for grave punishment, they can never directly harm, or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for the reasons of eugenics or for any other reason."  As a social movement, eugenics reached its greatest popularity in the early decades of the 20th century, when it was practiced around the world and promoted by governments, institutions, and influential individuals. Many countries enacted various eugenics policies, including: genetic screenings, birth control, promoting differential birth rates, marriage restrictions, segregation (both racial segregation and sequestering the mentally ill), compulsory sterilization, forced abortions or forced pregnancies, ultimately culminating in genocide. By 2014, gene selection (rather than "people selection") was made possible through advances in genome editing, leading to what is sometimes called "new eugenics", also known as "neo-eugenics", "consumer eugenics", or "liberal eugenics".

Nazism and the decline of eugenics.

The scientific reputation of eugenics started to decline in the 1930s, a time when Ernst Rüdin used eugenics as a justification for the racial policies of Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler had praised and incorporated eugenic ideas in "Mein Kampf" in 1925 and emulated eugenic legislation for the sterilization of "defectives" that had been pioneered in the United States once he took power. Some common early 20th century eugenics methods involved identifying and classifying individuals and their families, including the poor, mentally ill, blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, promiscuous women, homosexuals, and racial groups (such as the Roma and Jews in Nazi Germany) as "degenerate" or "unfit", and therefore led to segregation, institutionalization, sterilization, euthanasia, and even mass murder. The Nazi practice of euthanasia was carried out on hospital patients in the Aktion T4 centers such as Hartheim Castle.  By the end of World War II, many eugenics laws were abandoned, having become associated with Nazi Germany. H. G. Wells, who had called for "the sterilization of failures" in 1904, stated in his 1940 book "The Rights of Man: Or What Are We Fighting For?" that among the human rights, which he believed should be available to all people, was "a prohibition on mutilation, sterilization, torture, and any bodily punishment". After World War II, the practice of "imposing measures intended to prevent births within [a national, ethnical, racial or religious] group" fell within the definition of the new international crime of genocide, set out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also proclaims "the prohibition of eugenic practices, in particular those aiming at selection of persons". In spite of the decline in discriminatory eugenics laws, some government mandated sterilizations continued into the 21st century. During the ten years President Alberto Fujimori led Peru from 1990 to 2000, 2,000 persons were allegedly involuntarily sterilized. China maintained its one-child policy until 2015 as well as a suite of other eugenics based legislation to reduce population size and manage fertility rates of different populations. In 2007, the United Nations reported coercive sterilizations and hysterectomies in Uzbekistan. During the years 2005 to 2013, nearly one-third of the 144 California prison inmates who were sterilized did not give lawful consent to the operation.

Modern resurgence of interest.

Developments in genetic, genomic, and reproductive technologies at the end of the 20th century have raised numerous questions regarding the ethical status of eugenics, effectively creating a resurgence of interest in the subject. Some, such as UC Berkeley sociologist Troy Duster, claim that modern genetics is a back door to eugenics. This view is shared by White House Assistant Director for Forensic Sciences, Tania Simoncelli, who stated in a 2003 publication by the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College that advances in pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) are moving society to a "new era of eugenics", and that, unlike the Nazi eugenics, modern eugenics is consumer driven and market based, "where children are increasingly regarded as made-to-order consumer products". In a 2006 newspaper article, Richard Dawkins said that discussion regarding eugenics was inhibited by the shadow of Nazi misuse, to the extent that some scientists would not admit that breeding humans for certain abilities is at all possible. He believes that it is not physically different from breeding domestic animals for traits such as speed or herding skill. Dawkins felt that enough time had elapsed to at least ask just what the ethical differences were between breeding for ability versus training athletes or forcing children to take music lessons, though he could think of persuasive reasons to draw the distinction.  Lee Kuan Yew, the Founding Father of Singapore, started promoting eugenics as early as 1983.  In October 2015, the United Nations' International Bioethics Committee wrote that the ethical problems of human genetic engineering should not be confused with the ethical problems of the 20th century eugenics movements. However, it is still problematic because it challenges the idea of human equality and opens up new forms of discrimination and stigmatization for those who do not want, or cannot afford, the technology.  Transhumanism is often associated with eugenics, although most transhumanists holding similar views nonetheless distance themselves from the term "eugenics" (preferring "germinal choice" or "reprogenetics") to avoid having their position confused with the discredited theories and practices of early-20th-century eugenic movements.  Prenatal screening can be considered a form of contemporary eugenics because it may lead to abortions of children with undesirable traits. A system was proposed by California Senator Skinner to compensate victims of the well-documented examples of prison sterilizations resulting from California's eugenics programs, but this did not pass by the bill's 2018 deadline in the Legislature.

Meanings and types.

The term "eugenics" and its modern field of study were first formulated by Francis Galton in 1883, drawing on the recent work of his half-cousin Charles Darwin. Galton published his observations and conclusions in his book "Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development".  The origins of the concept began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance and the theories of August Weismann. The word "eugenics" is derived from the Greek word "eu" ("good" or "well") and the suffix "-genēs" ("born"); Galton intended it to replace the word "stirpiculture", which he had used previously but which had come to be mocked due to its perceived sexual overtones. Galton defined eugenics as "the study of all agencies under human control which can improve or impair the racial quality of future generations".  Historically, the term "eugenics" has referred to everything from prenatal care for mothers to forced sterilization and euthanasia. To population geneticists, the term has included the avoidance of inbreeding without altering allele frequencies; for example, J. B. S. Haldane wrote that "the motor bus, by breaking up inbred village communities, was a powerful eugenic agent." Debate as to what exactly counts as eugenics continues today.  Edwin Black, journalist and author of "War Against the Weak", claims eugenics is often deemed a pseudoscience because what is defined as a genetic improvement of a desired trait is often deemed a cultural choice rather than a matter that can be determined through objective scientific inquiry. The most disputed aspect of eugenics has been the definition of "improvement" of the human gene pool, such as what is a beneficial characteristic and what is a defect. Historically, this aspect of eugenics was tainted with scientific racism and pseudoscience.  Early eugenicists were mostly concerned with factors of perceived intelligence that often correlated strongly with social class. These included Karl Pearson and Walter Weldon, who worked on this at the University College London.  Eugenics also had a place in medicine. In his lecture "Darwinism, Medical Progress and Eugenics", Karl Pearson said that everything concerning eugenics fell into the field of medicine. He basically placed the two words as equivalents. He was supported in part by the fact that Francis Galton, the father of eugenics, also had medical training.  Eugenic policies have been conceptually divided into two categories. Positive eugenics is aimed at encouraging reproduction among the genetically advantaged; for example, the reproduction of the intelligent, the healthy, and the successful. Possible approaches include financial and political stimuli, targeted demographic analyses, "in vitro" fertilization, egg transplants, and cloning. The movie "Gattaca" provides a fictional example of a dystopian society that uses eugenics to decide what people are capable of and their place in the world. Negative eugenics aimed to eliminate, through sterilization or segregation, those deemed physically, mentally, or morally "undesirable". This includes abortions, sterilization, and other methods of family planning. Both positive and negative eugenics can be coercive; abortion for fit women, for example, was illegal in Nazi Germany.  Jon Entine claims that "eugenics" simply means "good genes" and using it as synonym for genocide is an "all-too-common distortion of the social history of genetics policy in the United States". According to Entine, eugenics developed out of the Progressive Era and not "Hitler's twisted Final Solution".

Scientific and moral legitimacy.

Scientific validity.

The first major challenge to conventional eugenics based on genetic inheritance was made in 1915 by Thomas Hunt Morgan. He demonstrated the event of genetic mutation occurring outside of inheritance involving the discovery of the hatching of a fruit fly ("Drosophila melanogaster") with white eyes from a family with red eyes, demonstrating that major genetic changes occurred outside of inheritance. Additionally, Morgan criticized the view that certain traits, such as intelligence and criminality, were hereditary because these traits were subjective. Despite Morgan's public rejection of eugenics, much of his genetic research was adopted by proponents of eugenics.  The heterozygote test is used for the early detection of recessive hereditary diseases, allowing for couples to determine if they are at risk of passing genetic defects to a future child. The goal of the test is to estimate the likelihood of passing the hereditary disease to future descendants.  Recessive traits can be severely reduced, but never eliminated unless the complete genetic makeup of all members of the pool was known, as aforementioned. As only very few undesirable traits, such as Huntington's disease, are dominant, it could be argued from certain perspectives that the practicality of "eliminating" traits is quite low.  There are examples of eugenic acts that managed to lower the prevalence of recessive diseases, although not influencing the prevalence of heterozygote carriers of those diseases. The elevated prevalence of certain genetically transmitted diseases among the Ashkenazi Jewish population (Tay–Sachs, cystic fibrosis, Canavan's disease, and Gaucher's disease), has been decreased in current populations by the application of genetic screening.  Pleiotropy occurs when one gene influences multiple, seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits, an example being phenylketonuria, which is a human disease that affects multiple systems but is caused by one gene defect. Andrzej Pękalski, from the University of Wrocław, argues that eugenics can cause harmful loss of genetic diversity if a eugenics program selects a pleiotropic gene that could possibly be associated with a positive trait. Pekalski uses the example of a coercive government eugenics program that prohibits people with myopia from breeding but has the unintended consequence of also selecting against high intelligence since the two go together.

Loss of genetic diversity.

Eugenic policies may lead to a loss of genetic diversity. Further, a culturally-accepted "improvement" of the gene pool may result in extinction, due to increased vulnerability to disease, reduced ability to adapt to environmental change, and other factors that may not be anticipated in advance. This has been evidenced in numerous instances, in isolated island populations. A long-term, species-wide eugenics plan might lead to such a scenario because the elimination of traits deemed undesirable would reduce genetic diversity by definition.  Edward M. Miller claims that, in any one generation, any realistic program should make only minor changes in a fraction of the gene pool, giving plenty of time to reverse direction if unintended consequences emerge, reducing the likelihood of the elimination of desirable genes. Miller also argues that any appreciable reduction in diversity is so far in the future that little concern is needed for now.  While the science of genetics has increasingly provided means by which certain characteristics and conditions can be identified and understood, given the complexity of human genetics, culture, and psychology, at this point there is no agreed objective means of determining which traits might be ultimately desirable or undesirable. Some diseases such as sickle-cell disease and cystic fibrosis respectively confer immunity to malaria and resistance to cholera when a single copy of the recessive allele is contained within the genotype of the individual. Reducing the instance of sickle-cell disease genes in Africa where malaria is a common and deadly disease could have severe consequences.

Ethics.

Societal and political consequences of eugenics call for a place in the discussion on the ethics behind the eugenics movement. Many of the ethical concerns regarding eugenics arise from its controversial past, prompting a discussion on what place, if any, it should have in the future. Advances in science have changed eugenics. In the past, eugenics had more to do with sterilization and enforced reproduction laws. Now, in the age of a progressively mapped genome, embryos can be tested for susceptibility to disease, gender, and genetic defects, and alternative methods of reproduction such as in vitro fertilization are becoming more common. Therefore, eugenics is no longer "ex post facto" regulation of the living but instead preemptive action on the unborn.  With this change, however, there are ethical concerns which lack adequate attention, and which must be addressed before eugenic policies can be properly implemented in the future. Sterilized individuals, for example, could volunteer for the procedure, albeit under incentive or duress, or at least voice their opinion. The unborn fetus on which these new eugenic procedures are performed cannot speak out, as the fetus lacks the voice to consent or to express his or her opinion. Philosophers disagree about the proper framework for reasoning about such actions, which change the very identity and existence of future persons.

Opposition.

Some have described potential "eugenics wars" as the worst-case outcome of eugenics. This scenario would mean the return of coercive state-sponsored genetic discrimination and human rights violations such as compulsory sterilization of persons with genetic defects, the killing of the institutionalized and, specifically, segregation and genocide of races perceived as inferior. Health law professor George Annas and technology law professor Lori Andrews are prominent advocates of the position that the use of these technologies could lead to such human-posthuman caste warfare. According to eugenics advocate Richard Lynn, the criticism of eugenics that "it inevitably leads to measures that are unethical" is a slippery slope argument.  In his 2003 book "Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age", environmental ethicist Bill McKibben argued at length against germinal choice technology and other advanced biotechnological strategies for human enhancement. He writes that it would be morally wrong for humans to tamper with fundamental aspects of themselves (or their children) in an attempt to overcome universal human limitations, such as vulnerability to aging, maximum life span and biological constraints on physical and cognitive ability. Attempts to "improve" themselves through such manipulation would remove limitations that provide a necessary context for the experience of meaningful human choice. He claims that human lives would no longer seem meaningful in a world where such limitations could be overcome with technology. Even the goal of using germinal choice technology for clearly therapeutic purposes should be relinquished, since it would inevitably produce temptations to tamper with such things as cognitive capacities. He argues that it is possible for societies to benefit from renouncing particular technologies, using as examples Ming China, Tokugawa Japan and the contemporary Amish.

Endorsement.

Some, for example Nathaniel C. Comfort from Johns Hopkins University, claim that the change from state-led reproductive-genetic decision-making to individual choice has moderated the worst abuses of eugenics by transferring the decision-making from the state to the patient and their family. Comfort suggests that "the eugenic impulse drives us to eliminate disease, live longer and healthier, with greater intelligence, and a better adjustment to the conditions of society; and the health benefits, the intellectual thrill and the profits of genetic bio-medicine are too great for us to do otherwise." Others, such as bioethicist Stephen Wilkinson of Keele University and Honorary Research Fellow Eve Garrard at the University of Manchester, claim that some aspects of modern genetics can be classified as eugenics, but that this classification does not inherently make modern genetics immoral. In a co-authored publication by Keele University, they stated that "[e]ugenics doesn't seem always to be immoral, and so the fact that PGD, and other forms of selective reproduction, might sometimes technically be eugenic, isn't sufficient to show that they're wrong."  In their book published in 2000, "From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice", bioethicists Allen Buchanan, Dan Brock, Norman Daniels and Daniel Wikler argued that liberal societies have an obligation to encourage as wide an adoption of eugenic enhancement technologies as possible (so long as such policies do not infringe on individuals' reproductive rights or exert undue pressures on prospective parents to use these technologies) in order to maximize public health and minimize the inequalities that may result from both natural genetic endowments and unequal access to genetic enhancements.  In his book "A Theory of Justice" (1971), American philosopher John Rawls argued that "Over time a society is to take steps to preserve the general level of natural abilities and to prevent the diffusion of serious defects". The Original position, a hypothetical situation developed by Rawls, has been used as an argument for "negative eugenics".

In fiction.

The film "Gattaca" (1997) provides a fictional example of a dystopian society that uses eugenics to decide what people are capable of and their place in the world. Although critically acclaimed, "Gattaca" was not a box office success, but it is said to have crystallized the debate over the controversial topic of human genetic engineering. The film's dystopian depiction of "genoism" has been cited by many bioethicists and laypeople in support of their hesitancy about, or opposition to, eugenics and the societal acceptance of the genetic-determinist ideology that may frame it. In a 1997 review of the film for the journal "Nature Genetics", molecular biologist Lee M. Silver stated that ""Gattaca" is a film that all geneticists should see if for no other reason than to understand the perception of our trade held by so many of the public-at-large".

References.

Notes

Eugenics (; from Greek εὐ- "good" and γενής "come into being, growing") is a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population, historically by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior and promoting those judged to be superior.

L’eugénisme peut être désigné comme « l’ensemble des méthodes et pratiques visant à sélectionner les individus d'une population en se basant sur leur patrimoine génétique et à éliminer les individus n'entrant pas dans un cadre de sélection prédéfini ». Il peut être le fruit d’une politique délibérément menée par un État. Il peut aussi être le résultat collectif d’une somme de décisions individuelles convergentes prises par les futurs parents, dans une société où primerait la recherche de l’« enfant parfait », ou du moins « indemne de nombreuses affections graves ».


Publications.

Among his regular writers were many female authors including Regina Maria Roche ("The Maid of Hamlet", 1793; "Clermont", 1798); Mrs. Eliza Parsons ("The Castle of Wolfenbach", 1793; "The Mysterious Warning", 1796); E. M. Foster; and Eleanor Sleath ("The Orphan of the Rhine", 1798) whose Gothic fiction is included in the list of the seven Northanger Horrid Novels, recommended by the character Isabella Thorpe in Jane Austen's novel of similar name. Six of the Northanger Seven were published by Minerva. However many titles were anonymous, including such novels as "Count Roderic's Castle" (1794), "The Haunted Castle" (1794), "The Animated Skeleton" (1798) and "The New Monk" (1798), and the five novels of Helen Craik. Authors such as Emma Parker ("Emma de Lisle") and Amelia de Beauclerc, who wrote for Minerva Press in the 1800s, are obscure today, and the market for Minerva's books became negligible after the death of its charismatic founder.  Lane was succeeded as proprietor of the Minerva Press by his partner, Anthony King (A. K.) Newman, who gradually dropped the Minerva name from his books' title pages during the 1820s. Later books published by the press bear the imprint "A. K. Newman & Co."  In the 20th century, the name Minerva Press has appeared at least once, unconnected with the original firm, e.g. Minerva Press, Delhi.

Valancourt Books reprints.

Valancourt Books began reprinting Minerva Press titles in 2005, beginning with their first release, the anonymously written "The Animated Skeleton". They have gone on to print over twenty of these titles, mostly with scholarly introductions.

Minerva Press was a publishing house, noted for creating a lucrative market in sentimental and Gothic fiction in the late 18th century and early 19th century. It was established by William Lane (c. 1745–1814) at No 33 Leadenhall Street, London, when he moved his circulating library there in about 1790.

Minerva Press est le nom d'une maison d'édition anglaise connue pour son influence dans le développement de la littérature sentimentale et du roman gothique à la fin du et au début du.


Early Years.

Born in Borno, Italy, the son of the carpenter Matteo Re (1908–2012), Giovanni Battista Re was ordained a priest by Archbishop Giacinto Tredici in Brescia on 3 March 1957. He holds a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and taught in the Brescia seminary. To prepare for a diplomatic career he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1961.

Curial service.

Re has been a member of the Roman Curia since 1963, where he served as personal secretary to Archbishop Giovanni Benelli. He was elevated to monsignor and served in various diplomatic positions before being named both bishop of the titular see of Forum Novum and secretary of the Congregation for Bishops on 9 October 1987. Pope John Paul II administered the episcopal consecration one month later, on 7 November.

Sostituto.

On 12 December 1989, he became "sostituto" ("substitute") for general affairs of the Vatican's Secretariat of State, one of the key positions under the Cardinal Secretary of State.

Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops.

He was named on 16 September 2000 to head the Congregation for Bishops and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Re became Cardinal-Priest of Ss. XII Apostoli in the consistory held 21 February 2001, named first among those elevated. The next year, on 1 October, he was named Cardinal Bishop of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto. Re automatically lost his position as prefect on 2 April 2005 upon the death of John Paul II and was reconfirmed in office by Pope Benedict XVI on 21 April 2005. He held both positions until 30 June 2010.

Lincoln excommunications.

In 1996, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, notified Catholics in his diocese that they would incur automatic excommunication if they belonged to groups that espoused beliefs that contradicted Catholic teaching, specifying Call to Action Nebraska, Catholics for a Free Choice, the Freemasons, the Hemlock Society, Planned Parenthood, and others. Call to Action challenged his authority to make such a declaration, asking the Congregation for Bishops to provide an "authoritative judgment of the Holy See". As prefect of the congregation, Re upheld Bruskewitz's action in 2006.

Wielgus scandal.

Re, who assisted the pope in deciding the future careers of the clergy as prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, said that, "When Monsignor Wielgus was nominated, we did not know anything about his collaboration [with the secret services]."

Society of Saint Pius X.

In January 2009, Re published a decree removing the excommunications from the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X. He later expressed regret over the move after the controversy over the comments of Bishop Richard Williamson. Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos stated that if anyone in the Vatican should have known about Williamson's negationist views, it was Re, whose congregation oversaw information about bishops and prelates.

Brazilian abortion.

In March 2009, after an abortion on a nine-year-old girl raped by her stepfather and pregnant with twins had been performed to save her life, Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife stated that automatic excommunication had been incurred by the girl's mother and the medical team. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized what he called the archbishop's "conservative attitude" and health minister José Gomes Temporão directed his criticism against the Catholic Church's position, describing it as "extreme, radical and inadequate". In a comment to an Italian newspaper, Re deplored what he called an attack on the church in Brazil: "It is a sad case, but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons, who had the right to live and could not be eliminated. Life must always be protected. The attack on the Brazilian church is unjustified." He added that excommunication of those who performed the abortion was just. The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil declared the Archbishop's statement mistaken.

McCarrick Scandal.

As prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Re played a central role in Benedict XVI’s attempts to discipline former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Re’s role in this matter came to light after Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s August 2018 “Testimony” made a number of specific claims regarding his involvement in the matter, which were clarified and expanded upon by subsequent reporting.  Viganò claimed that in 2000, Re, as newly-appointed prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, opposed McCarrick’s appointment as archbishop of Washington. This claim has been supported by reporting by the Catholic News Agency and by Andrea Tornielli and Gianni Valente’s book "Il Giorno del Giudizio".  Further, according to Tornielli and Valente, sometime after Bishop Paul Bootkoski of Metuchen, McCarrick’s former see, reported to Nuncio Gabriel Montalvo Higuera on December 5, 2005, that his diocese had made at least one settlement with a former seminarian who accused McCarrick of sexual harassment, Re informed McCarrick in writing that negative reports about him had come to light. McCarrick was replaced as archbishop of Washington shortly after. In late 2006 or early 2007, after McCarrick had been replaced as archbishop and further reports of McCarrick’s sexual assault of adults had reached Rome, Re sent McCarrick a letter via Nuncio Pietro Sambi in which he instructed him to leave the Redemptoris Mater seminary where he was living and to lead a life of retreat and prayer. These instructions were not obeyed. Following the April 2008 publication of Richard Sipe’s "Statement for Pope Benedict XVI," Re sent McCarrick another written letter, which was presented to him at the nunciature by Nuncio Pietro Sambi, telling him to leave Redemptoris Mater and live in a monastery or become the chaplain of a home for the elderly run by nuns. In a letter of response, McCarrick refused Re’s instructions and proposed instead that he live in a residence for priests in Washington, a parish in Washington, an apartment in Rome, or in a residence near an American Catholic university. He also argued that canceling all his pending invitations and public appearances would bring unwelcome attention. In a subsequently leaked communication to Fr. Anthony Figueiredo of October 7, 2008, McCarrick stated that “Cardinal Re has approved my moving to a parish and my Archbishop <nowiki>[</nowiki>Donald Wuerl<nowiki>]</nowiki> has been great in beginning to work that out.” He also stated that he had agreed to make no public appearances either in the United States or abroad without Re’s approval and to resign from all Roman and USCCB entities, and that Re had forbidden him to come to Rome. However, McCarrick continued to make many public appearances around the world and to travel to Rome in subsequent years, with no public objection from Re.  According to his August 2018 "Testimony," Viganò learned from a conversation with Re sometime between July 16, 2009 and June 30, 2010 that Benedict XVI had imposed disciplinary measures (which Viganò inaccurately referred to as “canonical sanctions”) on McCarrick that required him to leave Redemptoris Mater seminary and forbade him to celebrate mass in public, take part in public meetings, give lectures, or travel. While Vigano’s original statement gives the impression that he believed that Re was telling him about new events rather than actions that had been undertaken in 2007–2008, a subsequent October 2018 statement clarifies that the 2009-2010 time frame referred to the time when Re told him of these measures, not the time at which the measures were implemented.  Re has refused to speak about his involvement in the matter of McCarrick to journalists.

Other positions.

Re was a member of various offices of the Curia. In May 2008, Pope Benedict named him a member of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. He was also a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in addition to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. He held these memberships until his 80th birthday.

College of Cardinals.

Re was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.  When Pope Benedict XVI resigned on 28 February 2013, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals, and Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the subdean, were over the age of 80 and therefore ineligible to participate in the conclave to elect his successor. Re, as the senior cardinal elector, presided over the conclave that elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis. At the new pope's inauguration on 19 March 2013, Re was one of the six cardinals who made a public profession of obedience to the new pope on behalf of the College of Cardinals.  On 10 June 2017, Pope Francis approved Re's election as subdean of the College of Cardinals by the cardinals of the suburbicarian sees. On 18 January 2020, Pope Francis approved his election to a five-year term as dean of the College of Cardinals by the nine Latin-rite cardinal bishops.

Views.

Insiders describe him as a friend of Carlo Maria Martini, who has played a major role in the dissent against the last three Popes. As leader of the Congregation for Bishops, Re reportedly appointed several bishops in Germany, France and elsewhere who opposed some of the stances of John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Giovanni Battista Re (born 30 January 1934) is an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church whose service has been primarily in the Roman Curia. He was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 2001. He was prefect of the Congregation for Bishops from 2000 to 2010. As the senior cardinal-bishop in attendance, he chaired the March 2013 papal conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI's successor. Pope Francis approved his election as Dean of the College of Cardinals on 18 January 2020.

Giovanni Battista Re, né le à Borno (Province de Brescia, Italie), est un cardinal italien de l'Église catholique romaine, préfet émérite de la Congrégation pour les évêques depuis 2010. Il devient le vice-doyen du collège cardinalice le puis doyen de ce même collège le.


Club career.

Kaizer Chiefs.

Following a great season with "The Students", Fernández was signed by Kaizer Chiefs from Wits University in 2001 along with midfielder Stanton Fredericks. Fernández was to be an understudy to Brian Baloyi, who was on the verge of landing a lucrative contract in Europe.  Fernández initially struggled to break into the first team, as Baloyi put up solid performances week in and week out. The big break finally came, when he made his debut in the Vodacom Challenge against Ghanaian side Hearts of Oak at Royal Bafokeng Stadium on 30 June 2001. Chiefs won the game 2–0. He made his PSL debut for Chiefs in a 2–1 win against Classic on 22 August 2001.  "Spider", as he is known due to his amazing love for creepy crawlies (snakes and spiders), was hospitalised in April 2003 after he was bitten by one of his spiders. He had also battled to command a first team place in the same season and only got a run in the 5–0 ABSA Cup first round victory against Sporting at Ellis Park.  However, the 2003–04 season started off very well for Fernández who was handed the number one jersey as Baloyi struggled with a niggling injury.  The former national under-23 star began his playing career at Benoni amateur side "Benoni Northerns" before joining Wits where he caught the eye of the under-23 selectors. He has six under-23 caps. During the 2006–07 season he scored two goals. He kicked his way into the history books in February 2007 when he pounced on the rebound, after Brian Baloyi of Mamelodi Sundowns could only parry his retaken spot kick and knocked the ball home from close range. The fact that Rowen had missed the kick and scored on the rebound meant that his thirty second-minute equaliser against Sundowns was not classified as a penalty, but instead it was recorded as a goal scored from open play. The other goal resulted from a spot kick in a match against his former club Wits in September 2006.

Arminia Bielefeld.

Fernández joined German Bundesliga side Arminia Bielefeld in June 2007 on a free transfer after being out of contract with Chiefs to team up with former Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp who then coached Arminia. Fernández lost his place as first choice goalkeeper to Dennis Eilhoff after injury. On 1 January 2011, during the January transfer window, Fernández left Arminia Bielefeld for SuperSport United.

International career.

He made his full international debut in a 2–0 win against Tunisia in August 2004. He had hoped to be a part of his country's squad at the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be held in South Africa, but was omitted from the final 23 by coach Carlos Alberto Parreira in favour of Itumeleng Khune, Moeneeb Josephs and Shu-Aib Walters.

Rowen Fernández (born 28 February 1978) is a retired South African footballer. He is known for his ability to save penalties and his accurate goal kicks.

Rowen Fernández, né le à Springs, est un footballeur international sud-africain. Il joue au poste de gardien de but. Il a participé à la Coupe d'Afrique des nations 2008 avec l'équipe d'Afrique du Sud.


Early history.

The first shuttle coasters were in fact the first roller coasters ever built. Inspired by the so-called "Russian Mountains," these wheeled cars built on tracks found popularity in the early 19th century in Paris.  In 1884, Switchback Railway opened at Coney Island, and consisted of a car that traveled on two tracks between two towers. It was the first roller coaster designed as an amusement ride in America. The next shuttle roller coaster to be built was Backety-Back Scenic Railway, built in 1909.

First launched shuttle coasters.

The first two launched shuttle coaster designs were introduced in 1977 by competitors Arrow Development and Anton Schwarzkopf. Arrow built and opened three that year including Black Widow (now defunct) at Six Flags New England, Screamin' Demon (also defunct) at Kings Island, and Zoomerang at Circus World (now located to Fun Spot Amusement Park & Zoo). Arrow's models used an electric motor to launch the train. Anton Schwarzkopf went with a different design using a dropped weight as a launch mechanism. This design was known as the Shuttle Loop. The first three built by that company were King Kobra at Kings Dominion (now located at Hopi Hari in Brazil), White Lightnin' at Carowinds (now located at Gold Reef City in South Africa), and Tidal Wave at California's Great America.  Schwarzkopf later upgraded its launch mechanism to a flywheel design. The first two roller coasters based on this new design were both released in 1978 - Montezooma's Revenge at Knott's Berry Farm and Greezed Lightnin' at Six Flags AstroWorld, currently in storage in Plainview, Texas for Cliff's Amusement Park in New Mexico. The first flywheel launched roller coaster that opened in Europe was Turbine at Walibi Wavre in 1982.

Vekoma's Boomerang.

In 1984 Vekoma debuted its "Boomerang" shuttle coaster, which features a lift hill rather than a launched train. In addition to the original Boomerang, Vekoma also designed the "Invertigo" and the "Giant Inverted Boomerang". As of 2018, 55 Boomerangs and its variants are currently in operation around the world.

Linear motor launched shuttle coasters.

In 1996 Premier Rides debuted the first coasters ever to use linear induction motors, and in 1997 opened at Six Flags Great Adventure, a pair of dueling launched shuttle coasters.  Intamin introduced its reverse freefall coaster in 1997. In these models, the train is accelerated out of the station along a long, level track using linear synchronous motors, rises straight up a vertical tower, then free falls back down to return to the station. Only two reverse freefall coasters were built: Tower of Terror II at Dreamworld, and at Six Flags Magic Mountain, both of which first broke the 300 foot and 400 foot barriers. Tower of Terror II, however, discontinued in 2019. In 1998, Intamin introduced its first impulse coaster, Linear Gale at LaQua in Japan, which featured inverted trains traversing two vertical towers. In 2000, Intamin introduced Superman Ultimate Escape with a spiral tower and one vertical tower. Intamin introduced Wicked Twister in 2002, a variation with two spiral towers. With each pass through the station the train accelerates faster and travels further up the towers.

A shuttle roller coaster is any roller coaster that ultimately does not make a complete circuit, but rather reverses at some point throughout its course and traverses the same track backwards. These are sometimes referred to as boomerang roller coasters, due to the ubiquity of Vekoma's Boomerang coaster model.

Les montagnes russes navette sont un type de montagnes russes dont le circuit n’est pas fermé. Les trains n’effectuent donc pas un circuit classique et sont amenés à faire une partie en marche arrière.