Tombs.

The decoration of the tombs of non-royals is quite different from previous eras. These tombs do not feature any funerary or agricultural scenes, nor do they include the tomb occupant unless he or she is depicted with a member of the royal family. There is an absence of gods and goddesses, apart from the Aten, the sundisc. However, the Aten does not shine its rays on the tomb owner, only on members of the royal family. There is neither a mention of Osiris nor other funerary figures. There is also no mention of a journey through the underworld. Instead, excerpts from the Hymn to the Aten are generally present.

Sculpture.

Sculptures from the Amarna period are set apart from other periods of Egyptian art. One reason for this is the accentuation of certain features. For instance, the portrayals feature an elongation and narrowing of the neck and head, sloping of the forehead and nose, a prominent chin, large ears and lips, spindle-like arms and calves, and large thighs, stomachs and hips.  In a relief of Akhenaten, he is portrayed in an intimate setting with his primary wife, Nefertiti, and their children, the six princesses. His children appear to be fully grown, only shrunken to appear smaller than their parents, a routine stylistic feature of traditional Egyptian art. They also have elongated necks and bodies. An unfinished head of a princess from this time, in the "Tutankhamun, and the golden age of the pharaohs" exhibition, displays a very prominent elongation to the back of the head.  The unusual, elongated skull shape often used in portrayal of the royal family "may be a slightly exaggerated treatment of a hereditary trait of the Amarna royal family", according to the Brooklyn Museum, given that "the mummy of Tutankhamun, presumed to be related to Akhenaten, has a similarly shaped skull, although not so elongated as [in typical Amarna-style art]". However, it is possible that the style is purely ritualistic. The hands at the end of each ray extending from Aten in the relief are delivering the ankh, which symbolized "life" in the Egyptian culture, to Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and often also reach the portrayed princesses. The importance of the Sun God Aten is central to much of the Amarna period art, largely because Akhenaten's rule was marked by the monotheistic following of Aten.  In several sculptures of Akhenaten, if not most, he has wide hips and a visible paunch. His lips are thick, and his arms and legs are thin and lack muscular tone, unlike his counterparts of other eras in Egyptian artwork. Some scholars suggest that the presentation of the human body as imperfect during the Amarna period is in deference to Aten. Others think Akhenaten suffered from a genetic disorder, most likely the product of inbreeding, that caused him to look that way. Others interpret this unprecedented stylistic break from Egyptian tradition to be a reflection of the Amarna Royals' attempts to wrest political power from the traditional priesthood and bureaucratic authorities.  Much of the finest work, including the famous Nefertiti bust in Berlin, was found in the studio of the second and last Royal Court Sculptor Thutmose, and is now in Berlin and Cairo, with some in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.  The period saw the use of sunk relief, previously used for large external reliefs, extended to small carvings, and used for most monumental reliefs. Sunk relief appears best in strong sunlight. This was one innovation that had a lasting effect, as raised relief is rare in later periods.

Architecture.

Not many buildings from this period have survived the ravages of later kings, partially as they were constructed out of standard size blocks, known as talatat, which were very easy to remove and reuse. In recent decades, re-building work on later buildings has revealed large number of reused blocks from the period, with the original carved faces turned inwards, greatly increasing the amount of work known from the period.  Temples in Amarna did not follow the traditional Egyptian design. They were smaller, with sanctuaries open to the sun, containing large numbers of altars. They had no closing doors. See Great Temple of the Aten, Small Temple of the Aten and the Temple of Amenhotep IV.

Amarna art, or the Amarna style, is a style adopted in the Amarna Period during and just after the reign of Akhenaten (r. 1351–1334 BC) in the late Eighteenth Dynasty, during the New Kingdom. Whereas Ancient Egyptian art was famously slow to alter, the Amarna style was a significant and sudden break from its predecessor, which was restored after Akhenaten's death. It is characterized by a sense of movement and activity in images, with figures having raised heads, many figures overlapping and many scenes busy and crowded. The human body is portrayed differently; figures, always shown in profile on reliefs, are slender, swaying, with exaggerated extremities. In particular, depictions of Akhenaten give him distinctly feminine qualities such as large hips, prominent breasts, and a larger stomach and thighs. Other pieces, such as the most famous of all Amarna works, the Nefertiti Bust in Berlin, show much less pronounced features of the style.

L'art amarnien, durant la période amarnienne (1353–1336 avant notre ère), est une forme d'art de l'Égypte antique qui révolutionna les canons artistiques classiques en place depuis plusieurs siècles. C'est sous le pharaon que le style amarnien naît, style qui se développera surtout sous le règne de son successeur, Akhenaton, et essentiellement dans la nouvelle capitale fondée par ce pharaon. On le retrouve, par exemple, dans les sépultures des nobles qui furent ensevelis dans les environs. Le nom arabe de cette capitale est Tell el-Amarna, d'où l'adjectif « amarnien ».


Youth and aviation.

Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon to an aristocratic Catholic family that could trace its lineage back several centuries. He was the third of five children of the Viscountess Marie de Fonscolombe and Viscount Jean de Saint-Exupéry (1863–1904). His father, an executive of the "Le Soleil" (The Sun) insurance brokerage, died of a stroke in Lyon's "La Foux" train station before his son's fourth birthday. His father's death affected the entire family, transforming their status to that of 'impoverished aristocrats'.  Saint-Exupéry had three sisters and a younger blond-haired brother, François, who at age 15 died of rheumatic fever contracted while both were attending the Marianist College Villa St. Jean in Fribourg, Switzerland, during World War I. Saint-Exupéry attended to his brother, his closest confidant, beside François' death bed, and later wrote that François "...remained motionless for an instant. He did not cry out. He fell as gently as a [young] tree falls", imagery which would much later be recrafted into the climactic ending of "The Little Prince". At the age of 17, now the only man in the family following the death of his brother, the young author was left as distraught as his mother and sisters, but he soon assumed the mantle of a protector and took to consoling them.  After twice failing his final exams at a preparatory Naval Academy, Saint-Exupéry entered the École des Beaux-Arts as an auditor to study architecture for 15 months, again without graduating, and then fell into the habit of accepting odd jobs. In 1921, Saint-Exupéry began his military service as a basic-rank soldier with the "2e Régiment de chasseurs à cheval" (2nd Regiment of light cavalry) and was sent to Neuhof, near Strasbourg. While there he took private flying lessons and the following year was offered a transfer from the French Army to the French Air Force. He received his pilot's wings after being posted to the 37th Fighter Regiment in Casablanca, Morocco.  Later, being reposted to the 34th Aviation Regiment at Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris, and then experiencing the first of his many aircraft crashes, Saint-Exupéry bowed to the objections of the family of his fiancée, future novelist Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin, and left the air force to take an office job. The couple ultimately broke off their engagement and he worked at several more odd jobs without success over the next few years.  By 1926, Saint-Exupéry was flying again. He became one of the pioneers of international postal flight, in the days when aircraft had few instruments. Later he complained that those who flew the more advanced aircraft had become more like accountants than pilots. He worked for Aéropostale between Toulouse and Dakar, and then also became the airline stopover manager for the Cape Juby airfield in the Spanish zone of South Morocco, in the Sahara desert. His duties included negotiating the safe release of downed fliers taken hostage by Saharan tribes, a perilous task which earned him his first Légion d'honneur from the French Government.  In 1929, Saint-Exupéry was transferred to Argentina, where he was appointed director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline. He lived in Buenos Aires, in the Guemes gallery. He surveyed new air routes across South America, negotiated agreements, and even occasionally flew the airmail as well as search missions looking for downed fliers. This period of his life is briefly explored in "Wings of Courage", an IMAX film by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud.

Writing career.

Saint-Exupéry's first novella, "L'Aviateur" ("The Aviator"), was published in 1926 in a short-lived literary magazine "Le Navire d'Argent" ("The Silver Ship"). In 1929, his first book, "Courrier Sud" ("Southern Mail") was published; his career as an aviator and journalist was about to begin. That same year, Saint-Exupéry flew the Casablanca—Dakar route.  The 1931 publication of "Vol de nuit" ("Night Flight") established Saint-Exupéry as a rising star in the literary world. It was the first of his major works to gain widespread acclaim and won the prix Femina. The novel mirrored his experiences as a mail pilot and director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. That same year, at Grasse, Saint-Exupéry married Consuelo Suncin (née Suncín Sandoval), a once-divorced, once-widowed Salvadoran writer and artist, who possessed a bohemian spirit and a "viper's tongue".  Saint-Exupéry, thoroughly enchanted by the diminutive woman, would leave and then return to her many times—she was both his muse and, over the long term, the source of much of his angst. It was a stormy union, with Saint-Exupéry travelling frequently and indulging in numerous affairs, most notably with the Frenchwoman Hélène de Vogüé (1908–2003), known as "Nelly" and referred to as "Madame de B." in Saint-Exupéry biographies. Vogüé became Saint-Exupéry's literary executrix after his death and also wrote her own Saint-Exupéry biography under a pseudonym, Pierre Chevrier.  Saint-Exupéry continued to write until the spring of 1943, when he left the United States with American troops bound for North Africa in the Second World War.

Desert crash.

On 30 December 1935, at 2:45 am, after 19 hours and 44 minutes in the air, Saint-Exupéry, along with his mechanic-navigator André Prévot, crashed in the Libyan desert, during an attempt to break the speed record in a Paris-to-Saigon air race and win a prize of 150,000 francs. The crash site is thought to have been near the Wadi Natrun valley, close to the Nile Delta.  Both Saint-Exupéry and Prévot miraculously survived the crash, only to face rapid dehydration in the intense desert heat. Their maps were primitive and ambiguous, leaving them with no idea of their location. Lost among the sand dunes, their sole supplies consisted of some grapes, two oranges, a madeleine, a pint of coffee in a battered thermos and a half pint of white wine in another. They also had with them a small store of medicine: "a hundred grammes of ninety percent alcohol, the same of pure ether, and a small bottle of iodine."  The pair had only one day's worth of fluids. They both saw mirages and experienced auditory hallucinations, which were quickly followed by more vivid hallucinations. By the second and third day, they were so dehydrated that they stopped sweating. On the fourth day, a Bedouin on a camel discovered them and administered a native rehydration treatment that saved their lives. The near brush with death would figure prominently in his 1939 memoir, "Wind, Sand and Stars", winner of several awards. Saint-Exupéry's classic novella "The Little Prince", which begins with a pilot being stranded in the desert, is, in part, a reference to this experience.

Canadian and American sojourn and "The Little Prince".

Following the German invasion of France in 1940, Saint-Exupéry flew a Bloch MB.174 with the "Groupe de reconnaissance II/33" reconnaissance squadron of the Armée de l'Air.  After France's armistice with Germany, Saint-Exupéry went into exile in North America, escaping through Portugal. He arrived in New York City on the last day of 1940, with the intention of convincing the U.S. to enter the conflict against Nazi Germany quickly. On 14 January 1941, at a Hotel Astor author luncheon attended by approximately 1,500, he belatedly received his National Book Award for "Wind, Sand and Stars", won a year earlier while he was occupied witnessing the destruction of the French Army. Consuelo followed him to New York City several months later after a chaotic migration to the southern French town of Oppède, where she lived in an artist's commune, the basis of her autobiography, "Kingdom of the Rocks: Memories of Oppède".  Between January 1941 and April 1943, the Saint-Exupérys lived in New York City's Central Park South in twin penthouse apartments, as well as The Bevin House mansion in Asharoken on Long Island, New York and a townhouse on Beekman Place in Manhattan.  Saint-Exupéry and Charles Lindbergh both became P-38 pilots during World War II, with a disgraced Lindbergh fighting in the Pacific War, and with Saint-Exupéry fighting and dying over the Mediterranean.  It was after Saint-Exupéry's arrival in the United States that the author adopted the hyphen within his surname, as he was annoyed with Americans addressing him as "Mr. Exupéry". It was also during this period that he authored "Pilote de guerre (Flight to Arras)", which earned widespread acclaim, and ("Letter to a Hostage"), dedicated to the 40 million French living under Nazi oppression, plus numerous shorter pieces in support of France. The Saint-Exupérys also resided in Quebec City, Canada for several weeks during the late spring of 1942, during which time they met a precocious eight-year-old boy with blond curly hair, Thomas, the son of philosopher Charles De Koninck, with whom the Saint-Exupérys resided.  After he returned from his stay in Quebec, which had been fraught with illness and stress, the French wife of one of his publishers helped persuade Saint-Exupéry to produce a children's book, hoping to calm his nerves and also compete with the new series of "Mary Poppins" stories by P.L. Travers. Saint-Exupéry wrote and illustrated "The Little Prince" in New York City and the village of Asharoken in mid-to-late 1942, with the manuscript being completed in October. It would be first published months later in early 1943 in both English and French in the United States, and would only later appear in his native homeland posthumously after the liberation of France, as his works had been banned by the collaborationist Vichy Regime.

Return to war.

In April 1943, following his 27 months in North America, Saint-Exupéry departed with an American military convoy for Algiers, to fly with the Free French Air Force and fight with the Allies in a Mediterranean-based squadron. Then 43, soon to be promoted to the rank of commandant (major), he was far older than most men in operational units. Although eight years over the age limit for such pilots, he had petitioned endlessly for an exemption which had finally been approved by General Dwight Eisenhower. However, Saint-Exupéry had been suffering pain and immobility due to his many previous crash injuries, to the extent that he could not dress himself in his own flight suit or even turn his head leftwards to check for enemy aircraft.  Saint-Exupéry was assigned with a number of other pilots to his former unit, renamed "Groupe de reconnaissance 2/33 "Savoie"", flying P-38 Lightnings, which an officer described as "war-weary, non-airworthy craft". The Lightnings were also more sophisticated than models he previously flew, requiring him to undertake seven weeks of stringent training before his first mission. After wrecking a P-38 through engine failure on his second mission, he was grounded for eight months, but was then later reinstated to flight duty on the personal intervention of General Ira Eaker, Deputy Commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces.  After Saint-Exupéry resumed flying, he also returned to his longtime habit of reading and writing while flying his single seat F-5B (a specially configured P-38 reconnaissance variant). His prodigious studies of literature gripped him and on occasion he continued his readings of literary works until moments before takeoff, with mechanics having warmed up and tested his aircraft for him in preparation for his flight. On one flight, to the chagrin of his colleagues awaiting his arrival, he circled the airport for an hour after returning, so that he could finish reading a novel. Saint-Exupéry frequently flew with a lined notebook ("carnet") during his long solitary flights and some of his philosophical writings were created during such periods when he could reflect on the world below him.

Disappearance.

Prior to his return to flight duties with his squadron in North Africa, the collaborationist Vichy Regime unilaterally promoted Saint-Exupéry as one of its members – quite a shock to the author. Subsequently, French General (later French President) Charles de Gaulle, whom Saint-Exupéry and others held in low regard, publicly implied that the author-pilot was supporting Germany. Depressed at this, he began to drink heavily. Additionally, his health, both physically and mentally, had been deteriorating. Saint-Exupéry was said to be intermittently subject to depression and there was discussion of taking him off flying status.  Saint-Exupéry's last assigned reconnaissance mission was to collect intelligence on German troop movements in and around the Rhone Valley preceding the Allied invasion of southern France ("Operation Dragoon"). Although he had been reinstated to his old squadron with the provision that he was to fly only five missions, on 31 July 1944, he took off in an unarmed P-38 on his ninth reconnaissance mission from an airbase on Corsica. To the great alarm of the squadron compatriots who revered him, he did not return, vanishing without a trace. Word of his disappearance shortly spread across the literary world and then into international headlines. An unidentifiable body in a French uniform was found several days after his disappearance east of the Frioul archipelago south of Marseille and buried in Carqueiranne in September.

Discovery at sea.

In September 1998, to the east of Riou Island (south of Marseille) fisherman Jean-Claude Bianco found a silver identity bracelet ("gourmette") bearing the names of Saint-Exupéry, his wife Consuelo and his American publisher, Reynal & Hitchcock. The bracelet was hooked to a piece of fabric, presumably from his flight suit. The recovery of his bracelet was an emotional event in France, where Saint-Exupéry had by then assumed the mantle of a national icon and some disputed its authenticity as it was found far from his intended flight path, implying that the aircraft might not have been shot down.  In May 2000, Luc Vanrell, a diver, found the partial remains of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning on the seabed off the coast of Marseille, near where the bracelet was previously found. The discovery galvanized the country, which for decades had conducted searches for his aircraft and speculated on Saint-Exupéry's fate. After a two-year delay imposed by the French government, the remnants of the aircraft were recovered in October 2003.  On 7 April 2004, Patrick Granjean, head of the French Ministry of Culture, Captain Frederic Solano of the French Air Force, plus investigators from the French Underwater Archaeological Department confirmed that the remnants of the crash wreckage were, indeed, from Saint-Exupéry's Lockheed F-5B.  No marks or holes attributable to gunfire were found; however, that was not considered significant as only a small portion of the aircraft was recovered. In June 2004, the fragments were given to the Air and Space Museum in Le Bourget, Paris, where Saint-Exupéry's life is commemorated in a special exhibit.  The location of the crash site and the bracelet are less than 80 km by sea from where the unidentified French serviceman was found in Carqueiranne and it remains plausible, but has not been confirmed, that the body was carried there by sea currents after the crash over the course of several days.

Speculations in 1948, 1972, and 2008.

In 1948, former Luftwaffe telegrapher Rev. Hermann Korth published his war logs, noting an instance on 31 July around noon where a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 downed a P-38 Lightning. Korth's account ostensibly supported a shoot-down hypothesis for Saint-Exupéry. The veracity of his log, however, was met with skepticism, as it could be describing a P-38 flown by Second Lieutenant Gene Meredith on 30 July, downed South of Nice.  In 1972, the German magazine "Der Landser" quoted a letter from Luftwaffe reconnaissance pilot Robert Heichele, where he purportedly claimed to have shot down a P-38 on 31 July 1944. His account, corroborated by a spotter, seemingly supported a shoot-down hypothesis of Saint-Exupéry. However, Heichele's account was met with skepticism, as he described flying a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-9, a variant which had not yet entered Luftwaffe service.  In the lists held by the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, no victory was accredited to Heichele or his unit in July or August 1944, and the decrypted report of the day's reconnaissance does not include any flights by 2./NAG 13's Fw 190s. Heichele was shot down on 16 August 1944 and died five days later.  In 2008, a French journalist from "La Provence", investigating Saint-Exupéry's death, contacted former Luftwaffe pilots who flew in the area of Marseille, eventually getting an account from Horst Rippert. An admirer of Saint-Exupéry's books, Rippert's memoirs expressed both fears and doubts that he was responsible, but in 2003 he stated he became certain he was responsible when he learned the location of Saint-Exupéry's wreckage. Rippert claimed to have reported the kill over his radio, but there are no surviving records to verify this account.  Rippert's account, as discussed in two French and German books, was met with publicity and skepticism. Luftwaffe comrades expressed doubts in Rippert's claim, given that he held it private for 64 years. Very little German documentation survived the war, and contemporary archival sources, consisting mostly of Allied intercepts of Luftwaffe signals, offer no evidence to directly verify Rippert's claim. The entry and exit-points of Saint-Exupéry's mission were likely near Cannes, yet his wreckage was discovered South of Marseille.  Though it is possible that German fighters could have intercepted, or at least altered, Saint-Exupéry's flight path, the cause of his death remains unknown, and Rippert's account remains one hypothesis among many.

Literary works.

While not precisely autobiographical, much of Saint-Exupéry's work is inspired by his experiences as a pilot. One notable example is his novella, "The Little Prince," a poetic tale self-illustrated in watercolours in which a pilot stranded in the desert meets a young prince fallen to Earth from a tiny asteroid. "The Little Prince" is a philosophical story, including societal criticism, remarking on the strangeness of the adult world. One biographer wrote of his most famous work: "Rarely have an author and a character been so intimately bound together as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his Little Prince," and remarking of their dual fates, "...the two remain tangled together, twin innocents who fell from the sky."  Saint-Exupéry's notable literary works (published English translations in parentheses) are constituted by:

Other works.

During the 1930s, Saint-Exupéry led a mixed life as an aviator, journalist, author and publicist for Air France, Aéropostale's successor. His journalistic writings for "Paris-Soir", "Marianne" and other newspapers covered events in Indochina and the Far East (1934), the Mediterranean, Soviet Union and Moscow (1935), and the Spanish Civil War (1936–1937). Saint-Exupéry additionally wrote a number of shorter pieces, essays and commentaries for various other newspapers and magazines.  Notable among those during World War II was "An Open Letter to Frenchmen Everywhere", which was highly controversial in its attempt to rally support for France against Nazi oppression at a time when the French were sharply divided between support of the Gaullists and Vichy factions. It was published in "The New York Times Magazine" in November 1942, in its original French in "Le Canada, de Montréal" at the same time, and in "Pour la Victoire" the following month. Other shorter pieces include (in French except where translated by others to English):

Censorship and publication bans.

"Pilote de guerre" ("Flight To Arras"), describing the German invasion of France, was slightly censored when it was released in its original French in his homeland, by removing a derogatory remark made of Hitler (which French publisher Gallimard failed to reinsert in subsequent editions after World War II). However, shortly after the book's release in France, Nazi appeasers and Vichy supporters objected to its praise of one of Saint-Exupéry's squadron colleagues, Captain Jean Israël, who was portrayed as being amongst the squadron's bravest defenders during the Battle of France.  In support of their German occupiers and masters, Vichy authorities attacked the author as a defender of Jews (in racist terms) leading to the praised book being banned in France, along with prohibitions against further printings of Saint-Exupéry's other works. Prior to France's liberation new printings of Saint-Exupéry's works were made available there only by means of covert print runs, such as that of February 1943 when 1,000 copies of an underground version of "Pilote de guerre" were printed in Lyon.  A further complication occurred due to Saint-Exupéry's and others' view of General Charles de Gaulle, who was held in low regard. Early in the war, de Gaulle became the leader of the Free French Forces in exile, with his headquarters in London. Even though both men were working to free France from Nazi occupation, Saint-Exupéry viewed de Gaulle with apprehension as a possible post-war dictator, and consequently provided no public support to the General. In response, de Gaulle struck back at the author by implying that the author was a German supporter, and then had his literary works banned in France's North African colonies. Saint-Exupéry's writings were, with irony, banned simultaneously in both occupied France and Free France.

Extension of copyrights in France.

Due to Saint-Exupéry's wartime death, the French government awarded his estate the civil code designation "Mort pour la France" (English: "Died for France") in 1948. Amongst the law's provisions is an increase of 30 years to the duration of the original copyright's duration of 70 years; thus most of Saint-Exupéry's creative works will not fall out of copyright status in France for an extra 30 years.

Honours and legacy.

Museums and exhibits.

Museum exhibits, exhibitions and theme villages dedicated to both him and his diminutive Little Prince have been created in Le Bourget, Paris and other locations in France, as well as in the Republic of South Korea, Japan, Morocco, Brazil, the United States and Canada.

Other.

Numerous other tributes have been awarded to honour Saint-Exupéry and his most famous literary creation, his "Little Prince":

In popular culture.

Theatre.

In August 2011, "Saint-Ex", a theatrical production of Saint-Exupéry's life, premiered in Weston, Vermont.

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as de Saint-Exupéry (,, ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the United States National Book Award. He is best remembered for his novella "The Little Prince" ("Le Petit Prince") and for his lyrical aviation writings, including "Wind, Sand and Stars" and "Night Flight".

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, né le à Lyon et disparu en vol le au large de Marseille, est un écrivain, poète, aviateur et reporter français.


History.

1976–1984: Founding and incorporation.

Apple Computer Company was founded on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne as a business partnership. The company's first product was the Apple I, a computer designed and hand-built entirely by Wozniak, and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. Apple I was sold as a motherboard (with CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips)—a base kit concept which would now not be marketed as a complete personal computer. The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66 ($ in dollars, adjusted for inflation). Wozniak later said he had no idea

1984–1991: Success with Macintosh.

In 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh, the first personal computer to be sold without a programming language. Its debut was signified by "1984", a $1.5 million television advertisement directed by Ridley Scott that aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. This is now hailed as a watershed event for Apple's success and was called a "masterpiece" by CNN and one of the greatest TV advertisements of all time by "TV Guide".  Macintosh sales were initially good, but began to taper off dramatically after the first three months due to its high price, slow speed, and limited range of available software. In early 1985, this sales slump triggered a power struggle between Steve Jobs and CEO John Sculley, who had been hired two years earlier by Jobs using the famous line, "Do you want to sell sugar

1991–1997: Decline and restructuring.

The success of Apple's lower-cost consumer models, especially the LC, also led to the cannibalization of their higher-priced machines. To address this, management introduced several new brands, selling largely identical machines at different price points aimed at different markets. These were the high-end Quadra, the mid-range Centris line, and the consumer-marketed Performa series. This led to significant market confusion, as customers did not understand the difference between models.  Apple also experimented with a number of other unsuccessful consumer targeted products during the 1990s, including digital cameras, portable CD audio players, speakers, video consoles, the eWorld online service, and TV appliances. Enormous resources were also invested in the problem-plagued Newton division based on John Sculley's unrealistic market forecasts. Ultimately, none of these products helped and Apple's market share and stock prices continued to slide.  Throughout this period, Microsoft continued to gain market share with Windows by focusing on delivering software to cheap commodity personal computers, while Apple was delivering a richly engineered but expensive experience. Apple relied on high profit margins and never developed a clear response; instead, they sued

1997–2007: Return to profitability.

The NeXT acquisition was finalized on February 9, 1997, bringing Jobs back to Apple as an advisor. On July 9, 1997, Amelio was ousted by the board of directors after overseeing a three-year record-low stock price and crippling financial losses. Jobs acted as the interim CEO and began restructuring the company's product line; it was during this period that he identified the design talent of Jonathan Ive, and the pair worked collaboratively to rebuild Apple's status.  At the August 1997 Macworld Expo in Boston, Jobs announced that Apple would join Microsoft to release new versions of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh, and that Microsoft had made a $150 million investment in non-voting Apple stock. On November 10, 1997, Apple introduced the Apple Store website, which was tied to a new build-to-order manufacturing strategy.  On August 15, 1998, Apple introduced a new all-in-one computer reminiscent of the Macintosh 128K: the iMac. The iMac design team was led by Ive, who would later design the iPod and the iPhone. The iMac featured modern technology and a unique design, and sold almost 800,000 units in its first five months.  During this period, Apple completed numerous acquisitions to create a portfolio of digital production software for both professionals and consumers. In 1998, Apple purchased Macromedia's Key Grip software project, signaling an expansion into the digital video editing market. The sale was an outcome of Macromedia's decision to solely focus on web development software. The product, still unfinished at the time of the sale, was renamed "Final Cut Pro" when it was launched on the retail market in April 1999. The development of Key Grip also led to Apple's release of the consumer video-editing product iMovie in October 1999. Next, Apple successfully

2007–2011: Success with mobile devices.

During his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007, Jobs announced that Apple Computer, Inc. would thereafter be known as "Apple Inc.", because the company had shifted its emphasis from computers to consumer electronics. This event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV. The company sold 270,000 iPhone units during the first 30 hours of sales, and the device was called "a game changer for the industry". Apple would achieve widespread success with its iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad products, which introduced innovations in mobile phones, portable music players, and personal computers respectively. Furthermore, by early 2007, 800,000 Final Cut Pro users were registered.  In an article posted on Apple's website on February 6, 2007, Jobs wrote that Apple would be willing to sell music on the iTunes Store without digital rights management (DRM), thereby allowing tracks to be played on third-party players, if record labels would agree to drop the technology. On April 2,

2011–present: Post–Steve Jobs era; Tim Cook leadership.

On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs died, marking the end of an era for Apple. The first major product announcement by Apple following Jobs's passing occurred on January 19, 2012, when Apple's Phil Schiller introduced iBooks Textbooks for iOS and iBook Author for Mac OS X in New York City. Jobs had stated in his biography that he wanted to reinvent the textbook industry and education.  From 2011 to 2012, Apple released the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, which featured improved cameras, an intelligent software assistant named Siri, and cloud-synced data with iCloud; the third and fourth generation iPads, which featured Retina displays; and the iPad Mini, which featured a 7.9-inch screen in contrast to the iPad's 9.7-inch screen. These launches were successful, with the iPhone 5 (released September 21, 2012) becoming Apple's biggest iPhone launch with over two million pre-orders and sales of three million iPads in three days following the launch of the iPad Mini and fourth generation iPad (released November 3, 2012). Apple also released a third-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display and new iMac and Mac Mini computers.  On August 20, 2012, Apple's rising stock price increased the company's market capitalization to a world-record $624 billion. This beat the non-inflation-adjusted record for market capitalization set by Microsoft in 1999. On August 24, 2012, a US jury ruled that Samsung should

Products.

Macintosh.

Macintoshes currently in production: Apple sells a variety of computer accessories for

iPod.

On October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the iPod digital music player. Several updated models have since been introduced, and the iPod brand is now the market leader in portable music players by a significant margin. More

iPhone.

At the Macworld Conference & Expo in January 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the long-anticipated iPhone, a convergence of an Internet-enabled smartphone and iPod. The first-generation iPhone was released on June 29, 2007, for $499 (4 GB) and $599 (8 GB) with an AT&T contract. On February 5, 2008, it was updated to have 16 GB of memory, in addition to the 8 GB and 4 GB models. It combined a 2.5G quad band GSM and EDGE cellular phone with features found in handheld devices, running a scaled-down version of OS X (dubbed iPhone OS after the launch and later renamed to iOS), with various Mac OS X applications such as Safari and Mail. It also includes web-based and Dashboard apps such as Google Maps and Weather. The iPhone features a touchscreen display, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi (both "b" and "g").  A second version, the iPhone 3G, was released on July 11, 2008, with a reduced price of $199 for the 8 GB model and $299 for the 16 GB model. This version added support for 3G networking and assisted GPS navigation. The flat silver back and large antenna square of the original model were eliminated in favor of a glossy, curved black or white back. Software capabilities were improved with the release

iPad.

On January 27, 2010, Apple introduced their much-anticipated media tablet, the iPad. It offers multi-touch interaction with multimedia formats including newspapers, e-books, photos, videos, music, word processing documents, video games, and most existing iPhone apps using a 9.7-inch screen. It also includes a mobile version of Safari for web browsing, as well as access to the App Store, iTunes Library, iBookstore, Contacts, and Notes. Content is downloadable via Wi-Fi and optional 3G service or synced through the user's computer. AT&T was initially the sole U.S. provider of 3G wireless access for the iPad. On March 2, 2011, Apple introduced the iPad 2, which had a faster processor and a camera on the front and back. It also added support for optional 3G service provided by Verizon in addition to AT&T. The availability of the iPad 2 was initially limited as a result of a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011.  The third-generation iPad was released on March 7, 2012, and marketed as "the new iPad". It added

Apple Watch.

The original Apple Watch smartwatch was announced by Tim Cook on September 9, 2014, being introduced as a product with health and fitness-tracking. It was released on April 24, 2015.  The second generation of Apple Watch, Apple Watch Series 2, was released in September 2016, featuring greater water resistance, a faster processor, and brighter display.

Apple TV.

At the 2007 Macworld conference, Jobs demonstrated the Apple TV (Jobs accidentally referred to the device as "iTV", its codename, while on stage), a set-top video device intended to bridge the sale of content from iTunes with high-definition televisions. The device, running a variant of Mac OS X, links up to a user's TV and syncs over the wireless or wired network with one computer's iTunes library and can stream content from an additional four. The Apple TV originally incorporated a 40 GB hard drive for storage, included outputs for

HomePod.

Apple's first smart speaker, the HomePod was released on February 9, 2018, after being delayed from its initial December 2017 release. It features seven tweeters in the base, a four-inch woofer in the top, and six

Software.

Apple develops its own operating systems to run on its devices, including macOS for Mac personal computers, iOS for its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch smartphones and tablets, watchOS for its Apple Watch smartwatches, and tvOS for its Apple TV digital media player.  For iOS and macOS, Apple also develops its own software titles, including Pages for writing, Numbers for spreadsheets, and Keynote for

Electric vehicles.

According to the "Sydney Morning Herald", Apple wants to start producing an electric car with autonomous driving as soon as

Corporate identity.

Logo.

According to Steve Jobs, the company's name was inspired by his visit to an apple farm while on a fruitarian diet. Jobs thought the name "Apple" was "fun, spirited and not intimidating".  Apple's first logo, designed by Ron Wayne, depicts Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. It was almost immediately replaced by Rob Janoff's "rainbow Apple", the now-familiar rainbow-colored silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it. Janoff presented Jobs with several different monochromatic themes for the "bitten" logo, and Jobs immediately took a liking to it. However, Jobs insisted that the logo be colorized to humanize the company. The logo was designed with a bite so that it would not be confused

Advertising.

Apple's first slogan, "Byte into an Apple", was coined in the late 1970s. From 1997 to 2002, the slogan "Think Different" was used in advertising campaigns, and is still closely associated with Apple. Apple also has slogans for specific product lines — for example, "iThink, therefore iMac" was used in 1998 to promote the iMac, and "Say hello to iPhone" has been used in iPhone advertisements. "Hello" was also used to introduce the original Macintosh, Newton, iMac ("hello (again)"), and

Brand Semiotics.

Semiotics is the study of how meaning is derived from symbols and signs and provides major insight for understanding brand management and brand loyalty. Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist and semiotician, created a semiotic model that identifies two parts of a sign: the signified and signifier. The signifier is the perceptual component that we physically see, and the signified is then the concept which the sign refers to. In Saussure’s model, the sign results from the recognition of a sound or object with a concept. In his model, the signified and signifier are “as inseparable as two sides of a piece of paper". The second popular semiotic model that exists is the Peircean Model. Charles

Brand loyalty.

Apple customers gained a reputation for devotion and loyalty early in the company's history. In 1984, "BYTE" stated that:  Apple evangelists were actively engaged by the company at one time, but this was after the phenomenon had already been firmly established. Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki has called the brand fanaticism "something that was stumbled upon," while Ive explained in 2014 that "People have an incredibly personal relationship" with Apple's products. Apple Store openings and new product releases can draw crowds of hundreds, with some waiting in line as much as a day before the opening. The opening of New York City's Fifth Avenue "Cube" store in 2006 became the setting of a marriage proposal, and had visitors from Europe who flew in for the event. In June 2017, a newlywed couple took their wedding photos inside the then-recently opened Orchard Road Apple Store in Singapore.

Home page.

The Apple website home page has been used to

Headquarters.

Apple Inc.'s world corporate headquarters are located in the middle of Silicon Valley, at 1–6 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California. This Apple campus has six buildings that total and was built in 1993 by Sobrato Development Cos.  Apple has a satellite campus in neighboring Sunnyvale, California, where it houses a testing and research laboratory. AppleInsider claimed in March 2014 that Apple has a top-secret facility for development of the SG5 electric vehicle project codenamed "Titan" under the shell company name SixtyEight Research. In 2006, Apple announced its intention to build a second campus in Cupertino about east of the current campus and next to Interstate 280. The new campus building has been designed by Norman Foster. The Cupertino City Council approved the proposed "spaceship" design campus on October 15, 2013, after a 2011 presentation by Jobs detailing the architectural design of the new building and its environs. The new campus is planned to house up to 13,000 employees in one central, four-storied, circular building surrounded by extensive landscape. It will feature a café with room for 3,000 sitting people and parking underground as well as in a parking structure. The 2.8 million square foot facility will also include Jobs's original

Stores.

The first Apple Stores were originally opened as two locations in May 2001 by then-CEO Steve Jobs, after years of attempting but failing store-within-a-store concepts. Seeing a need for improved retail presentation of the company's products, he began an effort in 1997 to revamp the retail program to get an improved relationship to consumers, and hired Ron Johnson in 2000. Jobs relaunched Apple's online store in 1997, and opened the first two physical stores in 2001. The media initially speculated that Apple would fail, but

Corporate affairs.

Corporate culture.

Apple is one of several highly successful companies founded in the 1970s that bucked the traditional notions of corporate culture. Jobs often walked around the office barefoot even after Apple became a Fortune 500 company. By the time of the "1984" television advertisement, Apple's informal culture had become a key trait that differentiated it from its competitors. According to a 2011 report in "Fortune," this has resulted in a corporate culture more akin to a startup rather than a multinational corporation.  As the company has grown and been led by a series of differently opinionated chief executives, it has arguably lost some of its original character. Nonetheless, it has maintained a reputation for fostering individuality and excellence that reliably attracts talented workers, particularly after Jobs returned to the company. Numerous Apple employees have stated that projects without Jobs's involvement often took longer than projects with it.  To recognize the best of its employees, Apple created the Apple Fellows program which awards individuals who make extraordinary technical or leadership contributions to personal computing while at the company. The Apple Fellowship has so far been awarded to individuals including Bill Atkinson, Steve Capps, Rod Holt, Alan Kay, Guy Kawasaki, Al Alcorn, Don Norman, Rich Page, and

Manufacturing.

The company's manufacturing, procurement, and logistics enable it to execute massive product launches without having to maintain large, profit-sapping inventories. In 2011, Apple's profit margins were 40 percent, compared with between 10 and 20 percent for most other hardware companies. Cook's catchphrase to describe his focus on the company's operational arm is: "Nobody wants to buy sour milk".  During the Mac's early history Apple generally refused to adopt prevailing industry standards for hardware, instead creating their own. This trend was largely reversed in the late 1990s, beginning with Apple's adoption of the PCI bus in the 7500/8500/9500 Power Macs. Apple has since joined the industry standards groups to influence the future direction of technology standards such as USB, AGP, HyperTransport, Wi-Fi, NVMe, PCIe and others in its products. FireWire is an Apple-originated standard that was widely adopted across the industry after it was standardized as IEEE 1394 and is a legally mandated port in all Cable TV boxes in the United States.  Apple has gradually expanded its efforts in getting its products into the Indian market. In July 2012, during a conference call with investors, CEO Tim Cook said that he "[loves] India", but that Apple saw larger opportunities outside the region. India's requirement that 30% of products sold be manufactured in the country was described as "really adds cost to getting product to market". In October 2013, Indian Apple executives unveiled a plan for selling devices through instalment plans and store-within-a-store concepts, in an effort to expand further into the market. The news followed Cook's acknowledgment of the country in July when sales results showed that iPhone sales in India grew 400% during the second quarter of 2013. In March 2016, "The

Environmental practices and initiatives.

Apple Energy.

Apple Energy, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Inc. that sells solar energy., Apple's solar farms in California and Nevada have been declared to provide 217.9 megawatts of solar

Energy and resources.

Following a Greenpeace protest, Apple released a statement on April 17, 2012, committing to ending its use of coal and shifting to 100% renewable clean energy. By 2013, Apple was using 100% renewable energy to power their data centers. Overall, 75% of the company's power came from clean renewable sources.  In 2010, Climate Counts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to directing consumers toward the greenest companies, gave Apple a score of 52 points out of a possible 100, which puts Apple in their top category "Striding". This was an increase from May 2008, when Climate Counts only gave Apple 11 points out of 100, which placed the company last among electronics companies, at which time Climate Counts also labeled Apple

Toxins.

Following further campaigns by Greenpeace, in 2008, Apple became the first electronics manufacturer to fully eliminate all polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in its complete product line. In June 2007, Apple began replacing the cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlit LCD displays in its computers with mercury-free LED-backlit LCD displays and arsenic-free glass, starting with the upgraded MacBook Pro. Apple offers comprehensive and transparent information about the COe, emissions, materials, and electrical usage concerning every product they currently produce or have sold in the past (and which they have enough data needed to produce the report), in their portfolio on their homepage. Allowing consumers to make informed purchasing decisions on the products they offer for sale. In

Green bonds.

In February 2016, Apple issued a US$1.5 billion green bond (climate bond), the first ever of its kind by a U.S. tech company. The green bond proceeds are dedicated to the financing of environmental projects.

Finance.

Apple is the world's largest information technology company by revenue, the world's largest technology company by total assets, and the world's second-largest mobile phone manufacturer after Samsung.  In its fiscal year ending in September 2011, Apple Inc. reported a total of $108 billion in annual revenues—a significant increase from its 2010 revenues of $65 billion—and nearly $82 billion in cash reserves. On March 19, 2012, Apple announced plans for a $2.65-per-share dividend beginning in fourth quarter of 2012, per approval by their board of directors.  The company's worldwide annual revenue in 2013 totaled $170 billion. In May 2013, Apple entered the top ten of the "Fortune" 500 list

Tax practices.

Apple has created subsidiaries in low-tax places such as Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the British Virgin Islands to cut the taxes it pays around the world. According to "The New York Times," in the 1980s Apple was among the first tech companies to designate overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed the company to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other continents, sidestepping income taxes. In the late 1980s, Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique known as the "Double Irish with a Dutch sandwich," which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean.  British Conservative Party Member of Parliament Charlie Elphicke published research on October 30, 2012, which showed that some multinational companies, including Apple Inc., were making billions of pounds of profit in the UK, but were paying an effective tax rate to the UK Treasury of only 3 percent, well below standard corporation tax. He followed this research by calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to force these multinationals, which also included Google and The Coca-Cola Company, to state the effective rate of tax they pay on their UK revenues. Elphicke also said that government contracts should be withheld from multinationals who do not pay their fair share of UK tax.  Apple Inc. claims to be the single largest taxpayer to the Department of the Treasury of the United States of America with an effective tax rate of approximately of 26% as of the second quarter of the Apple

Board of directors.

the following individuals sit

Executive management.

the management

Litigation.

Apple has been a participant in various legal proceedings and claims since it began operation. In particular, Apple is known for and promotes itself as actively and aggressively enforcing its intellectual property interests. Some litigation examples include "Apple v. Samsung", "Apple v. Microsoft", "Motorola Mobility v. Apple Inc.", and "Apple Corps v. Apple Computer". Apple has also had to defend itself against charges on numerous occasions of

Privacy stance.

Apple has a notable pro-privacy stance, actively making privacy-conscious features and settings part of its conferences, promotional campaigns, and public image. With its iOS 8 mobile operating system in 2014, the company started encryption all contents of iOS devices through users' passcodes, making it impossible at the time for the company to provide customer data to law enforcement requests seeking such information. With the popularity rise of cloud storage solutions, Apple began a technique in 2016 to do deep learning scans for facial data in photos on the

Charitable causes.

Apple is a partner of (PRODUCT)RED, a fundraising campaign for AIDS charity. In November 2014, Apple arranged for all App Store revenue in a two-week period to go to the fundraiser, generating more than US$20 million, and in March 2017, it released an iPhone 7 with a red color finish.  Apple contributes financially to fundraisers in times of natural disasters. In November 2012, it donated $2.5 million to the American Red Cross to aid relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy, and in 2017 it donated $5 million to relief efforts for both Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey, as well as for the 2017 Central Mexico earthquake. The company has also used its iTunes platform to encourage donations, including, but not limited to, help the American Red Cross in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, followed by similar procedure in

Criticism and controversies.

Apple has been criticized for alleged unethical business practices such as anti-competitive behavior, rash litigation, dubious tax tactics, production methods involving the use of sweatshop labor, customer service issues involving allegedly misleading warranties and insufficient data security, and its products' environmental footprint. Critics have claimed that Apple products combine stolen and/or purchased designs that Apple claims are its original creations. It has been criticized for its alleged collaboration with the U.S. surveillance program PRISM.  Apple's issues regarding music over the years include those with the European Union regarding iTunes, trouble over updating the Spotify app on Apple devices and collusion with record labels.  Apple has faced scrutiny for its tax practices, including using a Double Irish Arrangement to reduce the amount of taxes it pays. A 2013 US Senate report claimed that Apple had not paid corporate taxes for five years due to its deals with the Irish government. In 2016, the European Union ordered Apple to pay a fine for its actions.  In 2018–19, Apple faced criticism for its failure to approve NVIDIA web drivers for GPU installed on legacy Mac Pro machines up to mid 2012 5,1 running macOS Mojave 10.14. Without Apple approved NVIDIA web drivers, Apple users are faced with replacing their NVIDIA cards with a competing supported brand, such as AMD Radeon from the list recommended by Apple.  In June 2019, Apple issued a recall for its 2015 MacBook Pro Retina 15" affecting 432,000 units after reports of batteries catching fire. The recall was criticized as waiting times for replacements were up to 3 weeks and the company did not provide alternative replacements or repair options.  Ireland's Data Protection Commission in Ireland also launched a privacy investigation to examine whether Apple complied with the EU's GDPR law following an investigation into how the company processes personal data with targeted ads on its platform.  In July 2019, following a campaign by the "right to repair" movement, challenging Apple's tech repair restrictions on devices, the FTC held a workshop to establish the framework of a future nationwide Right to Repair rule. The movement argues Apple is preventing consumers from legitimately fixing their devices at local repair shops which is having a negative impact on consumers.  The United States Department of Justice also began a review of big tech firms to establish whether they could be unlawfully stifling competition in a broad antitrust probe in 2019.  In December 2019, a report found that the iPhone 11 Pro continues tracking location and collecting user data even after users have disabled location services. In response, an Apple engineer said the Location Services icon "appears for system services that do not have a switch in settings."  In January 2020, US President Donald Trump slammed Apple for refusing to unlock two iPhones of a Saudi national, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, who shot and killed three American sailors and injured eight others in the Naval air base. The Pensacola shooting was declared an "act of terrorism" by the FBI, but Apple denied to crack the phones citing its data privacy policy.  On 16 March 2020, France fined Apple € 1.1bn for colluding with two wholesalers to stifle competition and keep prices high by handicapping independent resellers. The arrangement created aligned prices for Apple products such as iPads and personal computers for about half the French retail market. According to the French regulators, the abuses occurred between 2005 and 2017, but were first discovered after a complaint by an independent reseller, eBizcuss, in 2012.

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. It is considered one of the Big Tech technology companies, alongside Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Facebook.

Apple ( « pomme » en anglais) est une entreprise multinationale américaine qui crée et commercialise des produits électroniques grand public, des ordinateurs personnels et des logiciels informatiques. Parmi les produits les plus connus de l'entreprise se trouvent les ordinateurs Macintosh, l'iPod, l'iPhone et l'iPad, la montre Apple Watch, le lecteur multimédia iTunes, la suite bureautique iWork, la suite multimédia iLife ou des logiciels à destination des professionnels tels que Final Cut Pro et Logic Pro. En 2019, l'entreprise emploie et exploite répartis dans et une boutique en ligne où sont vendus les appareils et logiciels d'Apple mais aussi de tiers. Son bénéfice annuel pour l'année 2019 est de.


Taxonomy.

The extremely halophilic, aerobic members of Archaea are classified within the family Halobacteriaceae, order Halobacteriales in Class III. Halobacteria of the phylum Euryarchaeota (International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes, Subcommittee on the taxonomy of Halobacteriaceae). As of May 2016, the family Halobacteriaceae comprises 213 species in 50 genera.  Classification of Gupta et al.  Halobacteriales "Haladaptatus", "Halalkalicoccus", "Haloarchaeobius", "Halarchaeum", Halobacterium, "Halocalculus", "Halorubellus", "Halorussus", ""Halosiccatus"", "Halovenus", "Natronoarchaeum", "Natronomonas", "Salarchaeum". "Halapricum", Haloarcula, "Halomicroarcula", "Halomicrobium", "Halorientalis", "Halorhabdus", "Halosimplex". Halococcus.  Haloferacales "Halabellus", Haloferax, "Halogeometricum", ("Halogranum"), "Halopelagius", "Haloplanus", "Haloquadratum", "Halosarcina".  "Halobaculum", ("Halogranum"), "Halohasta", "Halolamina", "Halonotius", "Halopenitus", Halorubrum, "Salinigranum".  Natrialbales "Halobiforma", "Halopiger", "Halostagnicola", "Haloterrigena", "Halovarius", "Halovivax", Natrialba, "Natribaculum", "Natronobacterium", "Natronococcus", "Natronolimnobius", "Natronorubrum", "Salinarchaeum".

Living environment.

Haloarchaea require salt concentrations in excess of 2 M (or about 10%) to grow, and optimal growth usually occurs at much higher concentrations, typically 20–25%. However, Haloarchaea can grow up to saturation (about 37% salts).  Haloarchaea are found mainly in hypersaline lakes and solar salterns. Their high densities in the water often lead to pink or red colourations of the water (the cells possessing high levels of carotenoid pigments, presumably for UV protection). Some of them live in underground rock salt deposits, including one from middle-late Eocene (38-41 million years ago). Some even older ones from more than 250 million years ago have been reported.

Adaptations to environment.

Haloarchaea can grow at an a close to 0.75, yet a water activity (a) lower than 0.90 is inhibitory to most microbes. The number of solutes causes osmotic stress on microbes, which can cause cell lysis, unfolding of proteins and inactivation of enzymes when there is a large enough imbalance. Haloarchaea combat this by retaining compatible solutes such as potassium chloride (KCl) in their intracellular space to allow them to balance osmotic pressure. Retaining these salts is referred to as the “salt-in” method where the cell accumulates a high internal concentration of potassium. Because of the elevated potassium levels, haloarchaea have specialized proteins that have a highly negative surface charge to tolerate high potassium concentrations.  Haloarchaea have adapted to use glycerol as a carbon and energy source in catabolic processes, which is often present in high salt environments due to Dunaliella species that produce glycerol in large quantities.

Phototrophy.

Bacteriorhodopsin is used to absorb light, which provides energy to transport protons (H) across the cellular membrane. The concentration gradient generated from this process can then be used to synthesize ATP. Many haloarchaea also possess related pigments, including halorhodopsin, which pumps chloride ions in the cell in response to photons, creating a voltage gradient and assisting in the production of energy from light. The process is unrelated to other forms of photosynthesis involving electron transport, however, and haloarchaea are incapable of fixing carbon from carbon dioxide. Early evolution of retinal proteins has been proposed as the purple Earth hypothesis.

Cellular shapes.

Haloarchaea are often considered pleomorphic, or able to take on a range of shapes—even within a single species. This makes identification by microscopic means difficult, and it is now more common to use gene sequencing techniques for identification instead.  One of the more unusually shaped Haloarchaea is the "Square Haloarchaeon of Walsby". It was classified in 2004 using a very low nutrition solution to allow growth along with a high salt concentration, square in shape and extremely thin (like a postage stamp). This shape is probably only permitted by the high osmolarity of the water, permitting cell shapes that would be difficult, if not impossible, under other conditions.

As exophiles.

Haloarchaea have been proposed as a kind of life that could live on Mars; since the Martian atmosphere has a pressure below the triple point of water, freshwater species would have no habitat on the Martian surface. The presence of high salt concentrations in water lowers its freezing point, in theory allowing for halophiles to exist in saltwater on Mars.

Haloarchaea (halophilic archaea, halophilic archaebacteria, halobacteria) are a class of the Euryarchaeota, found in water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. Halobacteria are now recognized as archaea, rather than bacteria and are one of the largest groups. The name 'halobacteria' was assigned to this group of organisms before the existence of the domain Archaea was realized, and while valid according to taxonomic rules should be updated. Halophilic archaea are generally referred to as haloarchaea to distinguish them from halophilic bacteria.

Les Halobacteria, ou halobactéries, sont une classe d'archées de l'embranchement ("phylum") des "Euryarchaeota". Ce sont des microorganismes chimioautotrophes qui se développent dans des milieux saturés ou quasiment saturés en sels dissous, tels que les marais salants. On les qualifie d'halophiles, bien que cet adjectif s'applique également à des organismes qui requièrent des salinités moins élevées. On les trouve dans tous les environnements humides riches en matières organiques et en sels.


Etymology.

The spelling of the English term "Baal" derives from the Greek "Báal" (), which appears in the New Testament and Septuagint, and from its Latinized form "", which appears in the Vulgate. These forms in turn derive from the vowel-less Northwest Semitic form (Phoenician & ). The word's biblical senses as a Phoenician deity and false gods generally were extended during the Protestant Reformation to denote any idols, icons of the saints, or the Catholic Church generally. In such contexts, it follows the anglicized pronunciation and usually omits any mark between its two As. In close transliteration of the Semitic name, the ayin is represented, as "Baʿal".  In the Northwest Semitic languages—Ugaritic, Phoenician, Hebrew, Amorite, and Aramaic—the word "baʿal" signified "owner" and, by extension, "lord", a "master", or "husband". Cognates include the Akkadian "Bēlu" (), Amharic "bal" (), and Arabic "baʿl" (). "Báʿal" () and "baʿl" still serve as the words for "husband" in modern Hebrew and Arabic respectively. They also appear in some contexts concerning the ownership of things or possession of traits.  The feminine form is "baʿalah" (; ), meaning "mistress" in the sense of a female owner or lady of the house and still serving as a rare word for "wife".  Suggestions in early modern scholarship also included comparison with the Celtic god Belenus.

Semitic religion.

Generic.

Like EN in Sumerian, the Akkadian "bēlu" and Northwest Semitic "baʿal" (as well as its feminine form "baʿalah") was used as a title of various deities in the Mesopotamian and Semitic pantheons. Only a definitive article, genitive or epithet, or context could establish which particular god was meant.

Hadad.

Baʿal was also used as a proper name by the third millennium BCE, when he appears in a list of deities at Abu Salabikh. Most modern scholarship asserts that this Baʿal—usually distinguished as "The Lord" (, "Ha Baʿal")—was identical with the storm and fertility god Hadad; it also appears in the form "Baʿal Haddu". Scholars propose that, as the cult of Hadad increased in importance, his true name came to be seen as too holy for any but the high priest to speak aloud and the alias "Lord" ("Baʿal") was used instead, as "Bel" was used for Marduk among the Babylonians and "Adonai" for Yahweh among the Israelites. A minority propose that Baʿal was a native Canaanite deity whose cult was identified with or absorbed aspects of Adad's. Regardless of their original relationship, by the 1st millennium BCE, the two were distinct: Hadad was worshipped by the Aramaeans and Baʿal by the Phoenicians and other Canaanites.

El.

The Phoenician Baʿal is generally identified with either El or Dagan.

Baʿal.

Baʿal is well-attested in surviving inscriptions and was popular in theophoric names throughout the Levant but he is usually mentioned along with other gods, "his own field of action being seldom defined". Nonetheless, Ugaritic records show him as a weather god, with particular power over lightning, wind, rain, and fertility. The dry summers of the area were explained as Baʿal's time in the underworld and his return in autumn was said to cause the storms which revived the land. Thus, the worship of Baʿal in Canaan—where he eventually supplanted El as the leader of the gods and patron of kingship—was connected to the regions' dependence on rainfall for its agriculture, unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, which focused on irrigation from their major rivers. Anxiety about the availability of water for crops and trees increased the importance of his cult, which focused attention on his role as a rain god. He was also called upon during battle, showing that he was thought to intervene actively in the world of man, unlike the more aloof El. The Lebanese city of Baalbeck was named after Baal.  The Baʿal of Ugarit was the epithet of Hadad but as the time passed, the epithet became the god's name while Hadad became the epithet. Baʿal was usually said to be the son of Dagan, but appears as one of the sons of El in Ugaritic sources. Both Baʿal and El were associated with the bull in Ugaritic texts, as it symbolized both strength and fertility. The virgin goddess ʿAnat is his older sister and wife. She is sometimes mentioned bearing his child. He held special enmity against snakes, both on their own and as representatives of Yammu ( "Sea"), the Canaanite sea god and river god. He fought the Tannin ("Tunnanu"), the "Twisted Serpent" ("Bṭn ʿqltn"), "Litan the Fugitive Serpent" ("Ltn Bṭn Brḥ", the biblical Leviathan), and the "Mighty One with Seven Heads" ("Šlyṭ D.šbʿt Rašm"). Baʿal's conflict with Yammu is now generally regarded as the prototype of the vision recorded in the 7th chapter of the biblical Book of Daniel. As vanquisher of the sea, Baʿal was regarded by the Canaanites and Phoenicians as the patron of sailors and sea-going merchants. As vanquisher of Mot, the Canaanite death god, he was known as Baʿal Rāpiʾuma ("Bʿl Rpu") and regarded as the leader of the Rephaim ("Rpum"), the ancestral spirits, particularly those of ruling dynasties.  From Canaan, worship of Baʿal spread to Egypt by the Middle Kingdom and throughout the Mediterranean following the waves of Phoenician colonization in the early 1st millennium BCE. He was described with diverse epithets and, before Ugarit was rediscovered, it was supposed that these referred to distinct local gods. However, as explained by Day, the texts at Ugarit revealed that they were considered "local manifestations of this particular deity, analogous to the local manifestations of the Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church". In those inscriptions, he is frequently described as "Victorious Baʿal" ("Aliyn" or "ẢlỈyn Baʿal"), "Mightiest one" ("Aliy" or "ʿAly") or "Mightiest of the Heroes" ("Aliy Qrdm"), "The Powerful One" ("Dmrn"), and in his role as patron of the city "Baʿal of Ugarit" ("Baʿal Ugarit"). As Baʿal Zaphon ("Baʿal Ṣapunu"), he was particularly associated with his palace atop Jebel Aqra (the ancient Mount Ṣapānu and classical Mons Casius). He is also mentioned as "Winged Baʿal" ("Bʿl Knp") and "Baʿal of the Arrows" ("Bʿl Ḥẓ"). Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions describe "Bʿl Krntryš", "Baʿal of the Lebanon" ("Bʿl Lbnn"), "Baʿal of Sidon" ("Bʿl Ṣdn"), "Bʿl Ṣmd", "Baʿal of the Heavens" ("Baʿal Shamem" or "Shamayin"), Baʿal ʾAddir ("Bʿl ʾdr"), Baʿal Hammon ("Baʿal Ḥamon"), "Bʿl Mgnm".

Baʿal Hammon.

Baʿal Hammon was worshipped in the Tyrian colony of Carthage as their supreme god. It is believed that this position developed in the 5th century BCE following the severing of its ties to Tyre following the 480 BCE Battle of Himera. Like Hadad, Baʿal Hammon was a fertility god. Inscriptions about Punic deities tend to be rather uninformative, though, and he has been variously identified as a moon god and as Dagan, the grain god. Rather than the bull, Baʿal Hammon was associated with the ram and depicted with his horns. The archaeological record seems to bear out accusations in Roman sources that the Carthaginians burned their children as human sacrifices to him. He was worshipped as Baʿal Karnaim ("Lord of the Two Horns"), particularly at an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein ("Two-Horn Hill") across the bay from Carthage. His consort was the goddess Tanit.  The epithet Hammon is obscure. Most often, it is connected with the NW Semitic "ḥammān" ("brazier") and associated with a role as a sun god. Renan and Gibson linked it to Hammon (modern Umm el-‘Amed between Tyre in Lebanon and Acre in Israel) and Cross and Lipiński to Haman or Khamōn, the classical Mount Amanus and modern Nur Mountains, which separate northern Syria from southeastern Cilicia.

Judaism.

Baʿal (בַּעַל) appears about 90 times in the Hebrew Bible in reference to various gods. The priests of the Canaanite Baʿal are mentioned numerous times, most prominently in the First Book of Kings. Many scholars believe that this describes Jezebel's attempt to introduce the worship of the Baʿal of Tyre, Melqart, to the Israelite capital Samaria in the 9th century. Against this, Day argues that Jezebel's Baʿal was more probably Baʿal Shamem, the Lord of the Heavens, a title most often applied to Hadad, who is also often titled just Ba‘al.  1 Kings 18 records an account of a contest between the prophet Elijah and Jezebel's priests. Both sides offered a sacrifice to their respective gods: Ba'al failed to light his followers' sacrifice while Yahweh's heavenly fire burnt Elijah's altar to ashes, even after it had been soaked with water. The observers then followed Elijah's instructions to slay the priests of Baʿal, after which it began to rain, showing Yahweh's mastery over the weather.  Other references to the priests of Baʿal describe their burning of incense in prayer and their offering of sacrifice while adorned in special vestments.

Yahweh.

The title "baʿal" was a synonym in some contexts of the Hebrew "adon" ("Lord") and "adonai" ("My Lord") still used as aliases of the Lord of Israel Yahweh. According to some scholars, the early Hebrews did use the names Baʿal ("Lord") and Baʿali ("My Lord") in reference to the Lord of Israel, just as Baʿal farther north designated the Lord of Ugarit or Lebanon. This occurred both directly and as the divine element of some Hebrew theophoric names. However, according to others it is not certain that the name Baal was definitely applied to Yahweh in early Israelite history. The component Baal in proper names is mostly applied to worshippers of Baal, or descendants of the worshippers of Baal. Names including the element Baʿal presumably in reference to Yahweh include the judge Gideon (also known as Jerubaʿal, "The Lord Strives"), Saul's son Eshbaʿal ("The Lord is Great"), and David's son Beeliada ("The Lord Knows"). The name Bealiah ("The Lord is Jah"; "Yahweh is Baʿal") combined the two. However John Day states that as far as the names Eshba’al, Meriba’al, and Beeliada (that is Baaliada), are concerned it is not certain whether they simply allude to the Canaanite god Ba’al, or are intended to equate Yahweh with Ba’al, or have no connection to Ba’al.  It was the program of Jezebel, in the 9th century, to introduce into Israel's capital city of Samaria her Phoenician worship of Baal as opposed to the worship of Yahweh that made the name anathema to the Israelites.  Brad E. Kelle has suggested that references to cultic sexual practices in the worship of Baal, in Hosea 2, are evidence of an historical situation in which Israelites were either giving up Yahweh worship for Baal, or blending the two. Hosea's references to sexual acts being metaphors for Israelite "apostasy".

Baʿal Berith.

Baʿal Berith ("Lord of the Covenant") was a god worshipped by the Israelites when they "went astray" after the death of Gideon according to the Hebrew Scriptures. The same source relates that Gideon's son Abimelech went to his mother's kin at Shechem and received 70 shekels of silver "from the House of Baʿal Berith" to assist in killing his 70 brothers from Gideon's other wives. An earlier passage had made Shechem the scene of Joshua's covenant between all the tribes of Israel and "El Yahweh, our god of Israel" and a later one describes it as the location of the "House of El Berith". It is thus unclear whether the false worship of the "Baʿalim" being decried is the worship of a new idol or the continued worship of Yahweh, but by means of rites and teachings taking him to be a mere local god within a larger pantheon. The Hebrew Scriptures record the worship of Baʿal threatening Israel from the time of the Judges until the monarchy. The Deuteronomist and the present form of Jeremiah seem to phrase the struggle as monolatry or monotheism against polytheism. Yahweh is frequently identified in the Hebrew scriptures with El Elyon, however, this was after a conflation with El in a process of religious syncretism. "’El" () became a generic term meaning "god", as opposed to the name of a worshipped deity, and epithets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone, while Baal's nature as a storm and weather god became assimilated into Yahweh's own identification with the storm. In the next stage the Yahwistic religion separated itself from its Canaanite heritage, first by rejecting Baal-worship in the 9th century, then through the 8th to 6th centuries with prophetic condemnation of Baal, sun-worship, worship on the "high places", practices pertaining to the dead, and other matters.

Beelzebub.

Baʿal Zebub (, "Fly Lord") occurs in the first chapter of the Second Book of Kings as the name of the Philistine god of Ekron. In it, Ahaziah, king of Israel, is said to have consulted the priests of Baʿal Zebub as to whether he would survive the injuries from his recent fall. The prophet Elijah, incensed at this impiety, then foretold that he would die quickly, raining heavenly fire on the soldiers sent to punish him for doing so. Jewish scholars have interpreted the title of "Lord of the Flies" as the Hebrew way of calling Baʿal a pile of dung and his followers vermin, although others argue for a link to power over causing and curing pestilence and thus suitable for Ahaziah's question. The Septuagint renders the name as "Baälzeboúb" () and as "Baʿal of Flies" (, "Baäl muian"). Symmachus the Ebionite rendered it as "Beëlzeboúl" (), possibly reflecting its original sense. This has been proposed to have been "B‘l Zbl", Ugaritic for "Lord of the Home" or "Lord of the Heavens".

Classical sources.

Outside of Jewish and Christian contexts, the various forms of Baʿal were indifferently rendered in classical sources as Belus (, "Bē̂los"). An example is Josephus, who states that Jezebel "built a temple to the god of the Tyrians, which they call Belus"; this describes the Baʿal of Tyre, Melqart. In the "interpretatio graeca", Baʿal was usually associated with Jupiter Belus but sometimes connected with Hercules. Herrmann identifies the Demarus or Demarous mentioned by Philo Byblius as Baʿal.  Baʿal Hammon, however, was identified with the Greek Cronos and the Roman Saturn (as the "African Saturn"). He was probably never equated with Melqart, although this assertion appears in older scholarship.

Christianity.

Beelzebub or Beelzebul was identified by the writers of the New Testament as Satan, "prince" (i.e., king) of the demons.  John Milton's 1667 epic "Paradise Lost" describes the fallen angels collecting around Satan, stating that, though their heavenly names had been "blotted out and ras'd", they would acquire new ones "wandring ore the Earth" as false gods. The "Baalim" and "Ashtaroth" are given as the collective names of the male and female demons (respectively) who came from between the "bordering flood of old Euphrates" and "the Brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground". "Baal" and derived epithets like "Baalist" were used as slurs during the English Reformation for the Catholic saints and their devotees.

Islam.

The Quran mentions that Prophet Elijah (Elias) warned his people against Baʿal (بعل, literally means a male cattle or husband).

Baal (), properly Baʿal, was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods. Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cults and with a variety of unrelated patron deities, but inscriptions have shown that the name Baʿal was particularly associated with the storm and fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations.

Baal ou Ba'al (hébreu : בָּעַל, Báʿal, qui signifie "supérieur, suprême", arabe : بعل, Ba'al), akkadien : Bēl, phénicien : בעלת Baʿalat, בַּעֲלָה (Baʿlāh, en hébreu) au féminin, est un dieu sémitique, cananéen puis phénicien, qui, sous les dynasties des, est assimilé dans la mythologie égyptienne à Seth et à Montou.


History.

"Bokken" were designed to lessen the damage caused by fighting with real swords and were used for the training of samurai warriors in feudal Japan. Bokken eventually became lethal weapons themselves in the hands of trained experts.  Miyamoto Musashi, a kenjutsu master, was renowned for fighting fully armed foes with only one or two bokkens. In a famous legend, he defeated Sasaki Kojiro with a bokken he had carved from an oar while traveling on a boat to the predetermined island for the duel.  Although it is hard to determine precisely when the first Bokken appeared due to the nature of secrecy in ancient martial arts training, the oldest Bokken known to have been used as training tools date from the Edo period. Before the Meiji era, Bokken were very likely manufactured by woodworkers not specialized in Bokken manufacture. It is at the beginning of the 20th century that Bokken manufacture started, mainly in Miyakonojo (Kyushu region). Today, the last four workshops of Japan are still located in Miyakonojo.  The "standard Bokken", mostly used in Kendo, Iaido, and Aikido was created by master Aramaki in collaboration with the All Japan Kendo Federation in the 1950s and was the first standardized Bokken ever created.

Usage.

The "bokken" is used as an inexpensive and relatively safe substitute for a real sword in several martial arts such as "aikido", "kendo", "iaido", "kenjutsu" and "jodo". Its simple wooden construction demands less care and maintenance than a katana. In addition, training with a bokken does not carry the same mortal risk associated with that of a sharp metal sword, both for the user and other practitioners nearby. While its use has several advantages over use of a live edged weapon, it can still be deadly, and any training with a bokken should be done with due care. Injuries occurring from bokken are very similar to those caused by clubs and similar battering weapons and include compound fractures, ruptured organs, and other such blunt force injuries. In some ways, a bokken can be more dangerous as the injuries caused are often unseen and inexperienced practitioners may underestimate the risk of harm. It is not a sparring weapon, but is intended to be used in kata and to acclimate the student to the feel of a real sword. For sparring, a bamboo shinai is typically used instead for obvious safety reasons.  In 2003, the All Japan Kendo Federation (AJKF) introduced a set of basic exercises using a "bokuto" called "Bokuto Ni Yoru Kendo Kihon-waza Keiko-ho". This form of practice is intended primarily for kendo practitioners up to Nidan ranking, but can be beneficial for all kendo students.  "Suburito" are "bokken" designed for use in "suburi". "Suburi", literally "bare swinging," are solo cutting exercises. Suburito are thicker and heavier than normal "bokken" and users of suburito must therefore develop both strength and technique. Their weight makes them unsuitable for paired practice and solo forms. One famous user of the suburi-sized bokken is Miyamoto Musashi who used one in his duel against Sasaki Kojiro.  As late as 2015, bokken were issued to the Los Angeles Police Mounted Unit for use as batons.

Types.

Bokken can be made to represent any style of weapon required such as nagamaki, no-dachi, yari, naginata, kama, etc. The most widely used styles are:  Additionally, various koryu (traditional Japanese martial arts) have their own distinct styles of bokken which can vary slightly in length, tip shape, or in whether or not a tsuba (hilt guard) is added.  The All Japan Kendo Federation specify the dimensions of "bokken" for use in the modern kendo kata, called "Nippon kendo kata".

In fiction.

Bokken has been depicted in film, manga, anime, and comic books.  (Wayback Machine copy)

A bokken (, "bok(u)", "wood", and "ken", "sword") (or a "bokutō", as they are instead called in Japan) is a Japanese wooden sword used for training. It is usually the size and shape of a "katana", but is sometimes shaped like other swords, such as the "wakizashi" and "tantō". Some ornamental bokken are decorated with mother-of-pearl work and elaborate carvings. Sometimes it is spelled "boken" in English.

Le ou est un sabre japonais en bois imitant la forme du katana. Il peut être utilisé avec la garde ("tsuba") qui protège les mains, ou sans la garde.