Distribution and extent.

Bogs are widely distributed in cold, temperate climes, mostly in boreal ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere. The world's largest wetland is the peat bogs of the Western Siberian Lowlands in Russia, which cover more than a million square kilometres. Large peat bogs also occur in North America, particularly the Hudson Bay Lowland and the Mackenzie River Basin. They are less common in the Southern Hemisphere, with the largest being the Magellanic moorland, comprising some. Sphagnum bogs were widespread in northern Europe but have often been cleared and drained for agriculture.  A 2014 expedition leaving from Itanga village, Republic of the Congo, discovered a peat bog "as big as England" which stretches into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Habitats.

There are many highly specialised animals, fungi, and plants associated with bog habitat. Most are capable of tolerating the combination of low nutrient levels and waterlogging. Sphagnum is generally abundant, along with ericaceous shrubs. The shrubs are often evergreen, which is understood to assist in conservation of nutrients. In drier locations, evergreen trees can occur, in which case the bog blends into the surrounding expanses of boreal evergreen forest. Sedges are one of the more common herbaceous species. Carnivorous plants such as sundews ("Drosera") and pitcher plants (for example "Sarracenia purpurea") have adapted to the low-nutrient conditions by using invertebrates as a nutrient source. Orchids have adapted to these conditions through the use of mycorrhizal fungi to extract nutrients. Some shrubs such as "Myrica gale" (bog myrtle) have root nodules in which nitrogen fixation occurs, thereby providing another supplemental source of nitrogen.  Bogs are recognized as a significant/specific habitat type by a number of governmental and conservation agencies. They can provide habitat for mammals, such as caribou, moose, and beavers, as well as for species of nesting shorebirds, such as Siberian cranes and yellowlegs. The United Kingdom in its Biodiversity Action Plan establishes bog habitats as a priority for conservation. Russia has a large reserve system in the West Siberian Lowland. The highest protected status occurs in Zapovedniks (IUCN category IV); Gydansky and Yugansky are two prominent examples. Bogs even have distinctive insects; English bogs give a home to a yellow fly called the hairy canary fly ("Phaonia jaroschewskii"), and bogs in North America are habitat for a butterfly called the bog copper ("Lycaena epixanthe"). In Ireland, the viviparous lizard, the only known reptile in the country, dwells in bogland.

Types.

Bog habitats may develop in various situations, depending on the climate and topography (see also hydrosere succession).

By location and water source.

One way of classifying bogs is based upon their location in the landscape, and their source of water.

Valley bog.

These develop in gently sloping valleys or hollows. A layer of peat fills the deepest part of the valley, and a stream may run through the surface of the bog. Valley bogs may develop in relatively dry and warm climates, but because they rely on ground or surface water, they only occur on acidic substrates.

Raised bog.

These develop from a lake or flat marshy area, over either non-acidic or acidic substrates. Over centuries there is a progression from open lake, to a marsh, to a fen (or on acidic substrates, valley bog), to a carr, as silt or peat accumulates within the lake. Eventually, peat builds up to a level where the land surface is too flat for ground or surface water to reach the center of the wetland. This part, therefore, becomes wholly rain-fed (ombrotrophic), and the resulting acidic conditions allow the development of bog (even if the substrate is non-acidic). The bog continues to form peat, and over time a shallow dome of bog peat develops into a raised bog. The dome is typically a few meters high in the center and is often surrounded by strips of fen or other wetland vegetation at the edges or along streamsides where groundwater can percolate into the wetland.  The various types of raised bog may be divided into:

Blanket bog.

In cool climates with consistently high rainfall (on more than c. 235 days a year), the ground surface may remain waterlogged for much of the time, providing conditions for the development of bog vegetation. In these circumstances, bog develops as a layer "blanketing" much of the land, including hilltops and slopes. Although a blanket bog is more common on acidic substrates, under some conditions it may also develop on neutral or even alkaline ones, if abundant acidic rainwater predominates over the groundwater. A blanket bog cannot occur in drier or warmer climates, because under those conditions hilltops and sloping ground dry out too often for peat to form – in intermediate climates a blanket bog may be limited to areas which are shaded from direct sunshine. In periglacial climates a patterned form of blanket bog may occur, known as a string bog. In Europe, these mostly very thin peat layers without significant surface structures are distributed over the hills and valleys of Ireland, Scotland, England and Norway. In North America, blanket bogs occur predominantly in Canada east of Hudson Bay. These bogs are often still under the influence of mineral soil water (groundwater). Blanket bogs do not occur north of the 65th latitude in the northern hemisphere.

Quaking bog.

A "quaking bog" is a form of bog occurring in wetter parts of valley bogs and raised bogs and sometimes around the edges of acidic lakes. The bog vegetation, mostly sphagnum moss anchored by sedges (such as "Carex lasiocarpa"), forms a floating mat approximately half a meter thick on the surface of the water or on top of very wet peat. White spruces are also common in this bog regime. Walking on the surface causes it to move – larger movements may cause visible ripples on the surface, or they may even make trees sway. In the absence of disturbance from waves, the bog mat may eventually cover entire bays or even entire small lakes. Bogs at the edges of lakes may become detached and form floating islands.

Cataract bog.

A cataract bog is a rare ecological community formed where a permanent stream flows over a granite outcropping. The sheeting of water keeps the edges of the rock wet without eroding the soil, but in this precarious location, no tree or large shrub can maintain a roothold. The result is a narrow, permanently wet habitat.

By nutrient content.

Bogs may also be classified by the nutrient content of the peat.

Eutrophic bog.

A eutrophic bog, also called a minerotrophic bog, is one that lies on top of fen-peat. As a result, its water is rich in nutrients. They are found in temperate regions. Fens are an example of this kind of bog.

Mesotrophic bog.

A mesotrophic bog, also called a transitional peat bog, contains a moderate quantity of nutrients.

Oligotrophic bog.

Oligotrophic bogs occur where the groundwater is poor in nutrients e.g. in wetlands with nutrient-poor soils. They occur in several variants: raised bogs, soligenic bogs and blanket bog.

Uses.

Tourism uses.

The Great Kemeri Bog Boardwalk is a tourist destination in Ķemeri National Park, Jūrmala, Latvia, offering visitors a chance to explore the bog and its inhabitants. Short () and long () boardwalk trails are present, with an observation platform popular with photographers for sunrise and sunset scenes.

Industrial uses.

After drying, peat is used as a fuel, and it has been used that way for centuries. More than 20% of home heat in Ireland comes from peat, and it is also used for fuel in Finland, Scotland, Germany, and Russia. Russia is the leading exporter of peat for fuel, at more than 90 million metric tons per year. Ireland's "Bord na Móna" ("peat board") was one of the first companies to mechanically harvest peat, which is being phased out.  The other major use of dried peat is as a soil amendment (sold as "moss peat" or "sphagnum peat") to increase the soil's capacity to retain moisture and enrich the soil. It is also used as a mulch. Some distilleries, notably in the Islay whisky-producing region, use the smoke from peat fires to dry the barley used in making Scotch whisky.  Once the peat has been extracted it can be difficult to restore the wetland, since peat accumulation is a slow process. More than 90% of the bogs in England have been damaged or destroyed. In 2011 plans for the elimination of peat in gardening products were announced by the UK government.

Other uses.

The peat in bogs is an important place for the storage of carbon. If the peat decays, carbon dioxide would be released to the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Undisturbed, bogs function as a carbon sink. As one example, the peatlands of the former Soviet Union were calculated to be removing 52 Tg of carbon per year from the atmosphere.  Therefore, the rewetting of drained peatlands may be one of the most cost-effective ways to mitigate climate change.  Peat bogs are also important in storing fresh water, particularly in the headwaters of large rivers. Even the enormous Yangtze River arises in the Ruoergai peatland near its headwaters in Tibet.  Blueberries, cranberries, cloudberries, huckleberries, and lingonberries are harvested from the wild in bogs. Bog oak, wood that has been partially preserved by bogs, has been used in the manufacture of furniture.  Sphagnum bogs are also used for outdoor recreation, with activities including ecotourism and hunting. For example, many popular canoe routes in northern Canada include areas of peatland. Some other activities, such as all-terrain vehicle use, are especially damaging to bogs.

Archaeology.

The anaerobic environment and presence of tannic acids within bogs can result in the remarkable preservation of organic material. Finds of such material have been made in Slovenia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Some bogs have preserved bog-wood such as ancient oak logs useful in dendrochronology, and they have yielded extremely well preserved bog bodies, with hair, organs, and skin intact, buried there thousands of years ago after apparent Germanic and Celtic human sacrifice. Excellent examples of such human specimens are Haraldskær Woman and Tollund Man in Denmark, and Lindow man found at Lindow Common in England. At Céide Fields in County Mayo in Ireland, a 5,000-year-old neolithic farming landscape has been found preserved under a blanket bog, complete with field walls and hut sites. One ancient artifact found in various bogs is bog butter, large masses of fat, usually in wooden containers. These are thought to have been food stores, of both butter and tallow.

A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, quagmire, and muskeg; alkaline mires are called fens. They are frequently covered in ericaceous shrubs rooted in the sphagnum moss and peat. The gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink.

Une tourbière est une zone humide caractérisée par la présence de sphaignes, ces mousses en mourant s'accumulent progressivement pour former de la tourbe, un sol caractérisé par sa très forte teneur en matière organique, peu ou pas décomposée, d'origine végétale. La synthèse de matière organique y est plus importante que sa dégradation. Les écosystèmes tourbeux couvrent 3 % à 5 % des surfaces terrestres émergés, mais la biodiversité y est très élevée, et il stoquent le carbone de façon très efficace.


Biography.

Early years.

Errico Malatesta was born to a family of middle-class landowners in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Italy (in the province of Caserta) on 14 December 1853. More distantly, his ancestors ruled Rimini as the House of Malatesta. The first of a long series of arrests came at age fourteen, when he was apprehended for writing an "insolent and threatening" letter to King Victor Emmanuel II.  Malatesta was introduced to Mazzinian Republicanism while studying medicine at the University of Naples; however, he was expelled from the university in 1871 for joining a demonstration. Partly via his enthusiasm for the Paris Commune and partly via his friendship with, he joined the Naples section of the International Workingmen's Association that same year, as well as teaching himself to be a mechanic and electrician. In 1872 he met Mikhail Bakunin, with whom he participated in the St. Imier Congress of the International. For the next four years, Malatesta helped spread Internationalist propaganda in Italy; he was imprisoned twice for these activities. Following Bakunin, Malatesta became a freemason at Naples on 19 October 1875, hoping to influence younger members. However, when the lodge organised a reception honouring Giovanni Nicotera, the Interior Minister, Malatesta left on 18 March 1876 and became anti-Masonic.  In April 1877, Malatesta, Carlo Cafiero, Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky and about thirty others started an insurrection in the province of Benevento, taking the villages of Letino and Gallo without a struggle. The revolutionaries burned tax registers and declared the end of the King's reign and were met by enthusiasm. After leaving Gallo, however, they were arrested by government troops and held for sixteen months before being acquitted. After Giovanni Passannante's murder attempt on the king Umberto I, the radicals were kept under constant surveillance by the police. Even though the anarchists claimed to have no connection to Passannante, Malatesta, being an advocate of social revolution, was included in this surveillance. After returning to Naples, he was forced to leave Italy altogether in the fall of 1878 because of these conditions, beginning his life in exile.

Years of exile.

He went to Egypt briefly, visiting some Italian friends but was soon expelled by the Italian Consul. After working his passage on a French ship and being refused entry to Syria, Turkey and Italy, he landed in Marseille where he made his way to Geneva, Switzerland – then something of an anarchist centre. It was there that he befriended Élisée Reclus and Peter Kropotkin, helping the latter to produce "La Révolte." The Swiss respite was brief, however, and after a few months he was expelled from Switzerland, traveling first to Romania before reaching Paris, where he worked briefly as a mechanic.  In 1881 he set out for a new home in London. He would come and go from that city for the next 40 years.  There Malatesta worked as an ice cream seller and a mechanic. Malatesta's mistress in the 1870s, Emilia Tronzio, was the step-sister of the internationalist Tito Zanardelli. With Malatesta's consent and support she married Giovanni Defendi, who came to stay with Malatesta in London in 1881 after being released from jail.  Malatesta attended the Anarchist Congress that met in London from 14 July 1881. Other delegates included Peter Kropotkin, Francesco Saverio Merlino, Marie Le Compte, Louise Michel and Émile Gautier. While respecting "complete autonomy of local groups" the congress defined propaganda actions that all could follow and agreed that "propaganda by the deed" was the path to social revolution.  With the outbreak of the Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882, Malatesta organized a small group to help fight against the British. In August, he and three other men departed for Egypt. They landed in Abu Qir, then travelled towards Ramleh, Alexandria. After a difficult crossing of Lake Mariout, they were surrounded and detained by British forces, without having undertaken any fighting. He secretly returned to Italy the following year.  In Florence he founded the weekly anarchist paper "La Questione Sociale" ("The Social Question") in which his most popular pamphlet, "Fra Contadini" ("Among Farmers"), first appeared. Malatesta went back to Naples in 1884—while waiting to serve a three-year prison term—to nurse the victims of a cholera epidemic. Once again, he fled Italy to escape imprisonment, this time heading for South America. He lived in Buenos Aires from 1885 until 1889, resuming publication of "La Questione Sociale" and spreading anarchist ideas among the Italian émigré community there. He was involved in the founding of the first militant workers' union in Argentina, the bakers union, and left an anarchist impression in the workers' movements there for years to come.  Returning to Europe in 1889, Malatesta first published a newspaper called "L'Associazione" in Nice, France, remaining there until he was once again forced to flee to London.

Arrest in Italy.

The late 1890s were a time of social turmoil in Italy, marked by bad harvests, rising prices, and peasant revolts. Strikes of workers were met by demands for repression and for a time it seemed as though government authority was hanging by a thread. Malatesta found the situation irresistible and early in 1898 he returned to the port city of Ancona to take part in the blossoming anarchist movement among the dockworkers there. Malatesta was soon identified as a leader during street fighting with police and arrested; he was therefore unable to participate further in the dramatic industrial and political actions of 1898 and 1899.  From jail Malatesta took a hard line against participation in elections on behalf of liberal and socialist politicians, contradicting Saverio Merlino and other anarchist leaders who argued in favor of electoral participation as an emergency measure during times of social turmoil. Malatesta was convicted of "seditious association" and sentenced to a term of imprisonment on the island of Lampedusa. He was able to escape from prison in May 1899, however, and he was able to make his way home to London via Malta and Gibraltar. His escape occurred with the help of comrades around the world, including anarchists in Paterson, New Jersey, London, and Tunis, who helped arrange for him to leave the island on the ship of Greek sponge fishermen, who took him to Sousse.  In subsequent years Malatesta visited the United States, speaking there to anarchists in the Italian and Spanish immigrant communities. Home again in London, he was closely watched by the police, who increasingly regarded anarchists as a threat following the July 1900 assassination of Umberto I by an Italian anarchist who had been living in Paterson, New Jersey.

Return to London.

By 1910 he had opened an electrical workshop in London at 15 Duncan Terrace Islington and allowed the jewel thief George Gardenstein to use his premises. On 15 January 1910 he sold oxyacetylene cutting equipment for £5 (£500 at 2013 monetary values) to George Gardenstein so that he could break into the safe at H.S.Harris jewellers Houndsditch. Gardenstein led the gang that mounted the abortive Houndsditch robbery that is the precursor to the Siege of Sidney Street. Malatesta's cutting gear is on permanent display at the City of London Police museum at Wood St police station.  While based in London, Malatesta made clandestine trips to France, Switzerland and Italy and went on a lecture tour of Spain with Fernando Tarrida del Mármol. During this time he wrote several important pamphlets, including "L'Anarchia". Malatesta then took part in the International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam (1907), where he debated in particular with Pierre Monatte on the relation between anarchism and syndicalism (or trade-unionism). The latter thought that syndicalism was revolutionary and would create the conditions of a social revolution, while Malatesta considered that syndicalism by itself was not sufficient. (see on Labor Unions, below). In 1912, Malatesta appeared in Bow Street Police Court on a criminal libel (defamation) charge, which resulted in a 3-month prison sentence, and his recommendation for deportation. This order was quashed following campaigning by the radical press and demonstrations by workers organisations.  After the First World War, Malatesta eventually returned to Italy for the final time. Two years after his return, in 1921, the Italian government imprisoned him, again, although he was released two months before the fascists came to power. From 1924 until 1926, when Benito Mussolini silenced all independent press, Malatesta published the journal "Pensiero e Volontà", although he was harassed and the journal suffered from government censorship. He was to spend his remaining years leading a relatively quiet life, earning a living as an electrician. After years of suffering from a weak respiratory system and regular bronchial attacks, he developed bronchial pneumonia from which he died after a few weeks, despite being given 1500 litres of oxygen in his last five hours. He died on Friday 22 July 1932. He was an atheist.

Political beliefs.

On labor unions.

He argued with Pierre Monatte at the Amsterdam Conference of 1907 against pure syndicalism. Malatesta thought that trade-unions were reformist, and could even be, at times, conservative. Along with Christiaan Cornelissen, he cited as example US trade-unions, where trade-unions composed of skilled qualified workers sometimes opposed themselves to un-skilled workers in order to defend their relatively privileged position. Malatesta warned that the syndicalists aims were in perpetuating syndicalism itself, whereas anarchists must always have overthrowing capitalism and the state, and the anarchist ideal of communist society as their end, and consequently refrain from committing to any particular method of achieving it.  His arguments against the doctrine of revolutionary unions known as anarcho-syndicalism were later developed in a series of articles, where he wrote "I am against syndicalism, both as a doctrine and a practice, because it strikes me as a hybrid creature." Despite their drawbacks, he advocated activity in the trade unions, both because they were necessary for the organization and self-defense of workers under a capitalist state regime, and as a way of reaching broader masses. Anarchists should have discussion groups in unions, as in factories, barracks and schools, but "anarchists should not want the unions to be anarchist."  He thought that, like all unions, "Syndicalism...is by nature reformist." While anarchists should be active in the rank and file, he said "any anarchist who has agreed to become a permanent and salaried official of a trade union is lost to anarchism."  While some anarchists wanted to split from conservative unions to form revolutionary syndicalist unions, Malatesta predicted they would either remain an "affinity group" with no influence, or go through the same process of bureaucratization as the unions they left. This early statement of what would come to be known as "the rank-and-file strategy" remained a minority position within anarchism, but Malatesta's ideas did have echoes in the anarchists Jean Grave and Vittorio Aurelio.

On violence.

Malatesta was a committed revolutionary: he believed that the anarchist revolution was inevitable, and that violence would be a necessary part of it since the state rested ultimately on violent coercion. As he wrote in his article "The Revolutionary 'Haste'":  However, Malatesta himself denounced the use of terrorism and violent physical force, stating in one of his essays:

Errico Malatesta (4 December 1853 – 22 July 1932) was an Italian anarchist. He spent much of his life exiled from Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. Malatesta wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of Mikhail Bakunin.

Errico Malatesta (né le à Santa Maria Capua Vetere, dans la province de Caserte, en Campanie, Italie - mort le ) est un intellectuel, écrivain, propagandiste et révolutionnaire anarchiste italien.


Business and Services.

SES provides services through two business units, SES Video and SES Networks, for video-centric and data-centric markets, respectively.

SES Video.

SES Video's business comprises video distribution and video services. Video distribution delivers video content via Direct-to-Home, Direct-to-Cable and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) platforms, and includes wholly owned subsidiary HD+, the direct-to-consumer high-definition digital satellite TV platform in Germany. Video services encompasses technical ground services, such as content management, playout, encryption, satellite uplinks and interactive services, to broadcasters worldwide.  SES has been a major player in the development of the direct-to-home market in Europe and the cable TV and DBS markets in the U.S. SES satellites transmit a variety of digital formats from radio to Ultra High Definition TV (UHD) and the company has been instrumental in defining technical standards for broadcast and interactive media.  By the end of 2019, SES satellites carried over 8,300 TV channels, including more than 2,900 HD and 59 UHD channels, to more than 1 billion people in 367 million homes globally, or regionally as follows:

SES Networks.

SES Networks provides managed connectivity services to customers in markets including telecommunications, Cloud computing, commercial air and shipping, holiday cruises, energy, mining, and government and institutional areas, with end users of the technology including internet users in remote regions, air and at sea travellers, windfarms, mines, defence and humanitarian missions.  SES Networks includes the O3b satellites (originally owned and operated by O3b Networks), GovSat (a public-private partnership with 50% SES participation) and SES subsidiary, SES Government Solutions.  Services include capacity-on-demand, and mobile backhaul solutions anywhere on the planet for telcos and Mobile Network Operators, reliable network connections for mining and energy companies in remote occasions, and critical connectivity that is rapidly deployable, even in challenging and remote situations, for 62 government defence, civil, and humanitarian operations in 28 countries.  SES Networks delivers broadband connectivity for maritime vessels in any body of water or port in the world and in-flight services to aircraft ranging from secure cockpit communications to passenger connectivity and entertainment, through providers such as Global Eagle Entertainment, Gogo, Thales and Panasonic Avionics.  Using medium Earth orbit satellites, SES Networks is able to supply these services with a low-latency (less than 150 ms), scalable satellite-based communications and network services worldwide.

Innovations.

SES has pioneered many industry technological developments, including DTH transmission, co-location of satellites, free-to-air broadcast neighbourhoods, digital broadcasting, HDTV and 3DTV. SES has also helped develop innovative reception technology such as the first home dish LNBFs, Universal LNBs, optical fibre signal distribution and the SAT>IP system for receiving and distributing satellite signals over home computer networks.  SES is currently pioneering the broadcast of next generation Ultra High Definition TV (UHD) and helping to establish the international technical standards for UHD broadcast and reception. SES first produced demonstration UHD broadcasts in 2012 and transmitted the first HEVC-standard UHD TV in 2013. A continuous SES UHD demonstration channel is broadcast to Europe from SES' Astra 19.2°E satellite position and Europe's first free-to-air Ultra HD channel launched in September 2015, broadcast via Astra 19.2°E. As of April 2016, SES broadcasts 23 Ultra HD channels, of which 15 are commercial operations.  SES-8 was the first geostationary satellite to be launched (in 2013) by SpaceX, which has revolutionised the costs of satellite launches. The SES-10 satellite, was launched in March 2017 (delayed from October 2016 due to a pad explosion and subsequent loss of a Falcon 9 booster in September 2016) on the first SpaceX launch with a 'flight-proven' (reused) Falcon first stage, recovered from a previous launch. The SES-12, SES-14 and SES-15 satellites (launched in June 2018, Jan 2018 and May 2017, respectively) are constructed with an electric plasma propulsion system for orbit raising and in-orbit manoeuvres to save weight and enable a larger communications payload to be included. SES reckons that SES-12 would weigh some 4700 kg more with a conventional chemical propulsion system.  SES is the first commercial customer for SIS's future satellite life extension mission, following an agreement in June 2017 with MDA. The SIS craft is being built by Space Systems/Loral (SSL), a manufacturing subsidiary of MDA, for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) programme, and will refuel an SES satellite running low on propellant while still in orbit to lengthen its service life.

Corporate management.

SES is managed by the Senior Leadership Team which comprises:  In 2002, the then CEO, Romain Bausch was awarded 'Satellite Executive of the Year'.

History.

Early years.

SES was formed on the initiative and support of the Luxembourg Government in 1985 as "Société Européenne des Satellites" (SES). The Luxembourg State remains a major shareholder. In 1988, as Europe's first private satellite operator, SES launched its first satellite, Astra 1A, to the 19.2° east orbital position. Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV, along with German broadcasters Pro7, Sat.1, and RTL were among Astra's first major customers.  By 1990, Astra was broadcasting to 14 million cable and DTH (Direct to Home) viewers. SES was the pioneer of 'co-location' by which several satellites share the same orbital position to provide mutual backup and increase the number of channels available to a fixed receiving dish, creating what became known as a'satellite neighbourhood'. Astra's prime slot, 19.2° east, saw as many as eight satellites sharing the position simultaneously and helped to build up Astra's reputation for reliability.  Rapid growth in Germany, in what would become Astra's largest European market, was helped by the German government's decision to liberalize the installation of dishes in 1991. In this time SES became the leading satellite system providing direct-to-home transmission, and became the world's largest satellite platform for TV distribution.  In 1996, after the launch of Astra 1E, SES pioneered digital satellite transmission with the French Canal+. In 1998, SES launched Astra 2A for the UK market, transmitting at the new orbital position 28.2° east, and eventually moving all of its UK and Ireland transmission capacity to this orbital slot.  In the same year, SES went public on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange trading as SESG (in 2005 SES would also list on the Paris Euronext).

Global expansion.

From 1999 SES began a period of ambitious global expansion beyond its European home market. Geographic expansion went hand-in-hand with the diversification of SES' services beyond just TV broadcasting, to cover telecommunication services for businesses, telecommunications companies and government customers, as well as broadband access and technical consultancy services.  In 1999, SES acquired a 34.13% stake in Hong Kong-based satellite operator AsiaSat and took a foothold in Asia and the Pacific region. A year later, SES acquired 50% of Scandinavian satellite broadcaster Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB), later renamed SES Sirius, which strengthened SES' coverage in northern and eastern Europe. The same year, SES also took a participation of 19.99% in Brazilian satellite operator Star One, gaining a first presence in Latin America.  In 2001, SES bought 28.75% of Argentina's Nahuelsat and acquired GE Americom, giving it a solid presence in the important North American market. This resulted in the formation of SES Global, a corporate entity with two operating companies, SES Astra and SES Americom. Altogether, SES operated a fleet of 41 geostationary satellites, the largest in the world in 2001.  Further acquisitions followed. In 2003 SES' stake in NSAB was increased to 75% and in 2005 SES acquired a participation in Canadian satellite operator Ciel and in Mexico's Quetzsat, as well as the divestment from Nahuelsat.  SES acquired services provider, Digital Playout Centre GmbH (later Astra Platform Services, then SES Platform Services, then MX1, now merged into SES) in 2005. and in 2006 SES also acquired ND SatCom, a German provider of government services, developing a services portfolio beyond just bandwidth provision.  Also in 2006, SES acquired New Skies Satellites, later renamed SES New Skies, adding six satellites to the SES fleet and strengthening coverage in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.  In 2007 SES divested from its holdings in AsiaSat and Star One in a complex transaction with General Electric which itself divested from SES.  In 2008, SES increased its stake in NSAB to 90%. and merged its two international operating units, SES Americom and SES New Skies into a new segment which was branded SES World Skies in September 2009.  In 2009, SES and Middle East satellite operator Yahsat announced the formation of a joint venture, YahLive, to commercialise 23 Ku-band transponders on Yahsat 1A, serving the Middle East, North Africa and South-West Asia with direct-to-home TV services. Also in 2009, SES announced its investment in O3b Networks a project to build a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation to deliver high-speed, low-latency, fibre-like internet broadband trunking to the world's emerging regions ("the Other 3 billion").  In 2010, SES grew its stake in SES Sirius to 100% and closed the acquisition of the in-orbit satellite Protostar-2/Indostar-2, renaming it SES-7 and integrating it into its fleet covering India and South East Asia.  In May and September 2011, SES restructured and rebranded the company to streamline the organisation's activities under a single management team and one main brand (SES), incorporating the company's two previous operating entities, SES Astra and SES World Skies.

Global operator.

In August 2011, the Astra 1N satellite was launched to the Astra 28.2° East orbital position, and in September the QuetzSat 1 satellite was launched to 77° W  In February 2012, SES-4 was successfully launched to become SES' 50th satellite and the largest, heaviest and most powerful in the fleet. In July 2012, SES-5, the 51st SES Satellite was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan to 5.0° East with 36 Ku-band transponders to provide coverage over Sub-Saharan Africa and the Nordic and the Baltic regions in Europe, and 28 C-band transponders for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.  In September 2012, Astra 2F was successfully launched from Kourou in French Guiana, the first of three "next generation" satellites at the second Astra orbital position at 28.2° East. The satellite has Ku-band coverage of all Europe, the British Isles and sub-Saharan Africa for DTH television, and Ka-band coverage of Central Europe for the SES Broadband satellite internet service.  SES-6 was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on 3 June 2013 to 40.5° East, to replace NSS-806 and provide continuity of service and expansion capacity in C-band for Latin America and the Caribbean. The satellite has 43 C-band and 48 Ku-band transponders with comprehensive coverage of North America, Latin America, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean.  Astra 2E was launched to the Astra 28.2° East position from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on 30 September 2013 to provide free-to-air and encrypted DTH digital TV and satellite broadband services for Europe and the Middle East. The successful launch followed a 10-week delay due to the postponement of all launches by launch services provider ILS after a catastrophic failure of the rocket in a previous launch.  In December 2013, SES-8 was launched from Cape Canaveral using a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1, the first geostationary satellite to be launched with a SpaceX rocket.  In March 2014, Astra 5B was launched as SES' 56th satellite to the Astra 31.5° East position from Kourou in French Guiana to provide transponder capacity and extend geographical reach over Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States for DTH, direct-to-cable and contribution feeds to digital terrestrial television networks.  In April 2014, Romain Bausch stepped down as President and CEO of SES, a position he had held since 1995 overseeing the growth of the company from a European Direct-to-home satellite system with four satellites into a global satellite industry leader operating a fleet of more than 50 satellites. Bausch continues to serve SES as a non-executive Director, and is elected to take the role of Chairman at the start of 2015. He was succeeded as CEO by Karim Michel Sabbagh.  In July 2014, SES announced that nearly half of the SES satellite fleet is controlled from the new satellite operations center (SOC) opened at its sales and engineering offices in Princeton, New Jersey. 23 satellites are controlled from Princeton with the remainder operated from SES's global headquarters in Luxembourg.  Astra 2G, the final "next generation" satellite for the Astra 28.2°E orbital position was launched from the Baikonur in December 2014 to deliver broadcast, VSAT and broadband services to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and to connect West Africa to Europe via Ka-band.  On 13 January 2015, SES announced that it plans to procure and launch a satellite in partnership with the Luxembourg Government, to be called GovSat-1. Jointly owned, the satellite is launched in 2017 to an orbital position above Europe and provide governmental and military communications in the X-band and Ka-band with coverage of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.  In February 2016, it was announced that, subject to regulatory approvals, subsidiary, SES Platform Services would purchase RR Media, a global digital media services provider to the broadcast and media industries, based in Israel. In July 2016, SES announced that the acquisition was complete and that the merged company would be known as MX1.  In March 2016, the SES-9 satellite was successfully launched by a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket from Cape Canaveral after four previous attempts on 24 February 2016, 25 February 2016, 28 February 2016, and 1 March 2016 - all aborted due to weather and launcher problems. The satellite used electric propulsion to reach geostationary orbit and will be positioned at 108.2° East to provide 81 Ku-band transponder equivalents for pay-TV, data and mobility across Northeast Asia and South Asia, and Indonesia.  In April 2016, SES announced that (subject to regulatory approvals which are expected to be completed by the end of 2016) it will pay $US20 million to increase its fully diluted ownership of O3b Networks from 49.1% to 50.5%, taking a controlling share in the company. In May 2016, SES said it would raise another US$710 million to purchase 100% of O3b Networks, exercising a call option with O3b minority shareholders and eliminating the possibility of an O3b stock offering, and then subsequently announced the completion of the capital raising and completion of the acquisition.  In May 2016, Modern Times Group, owner of the Viasat DTH platform announced that the Viasat Ultra HD channel would launch in the autumn on the SES-5 satellite at 5.0° East, as the first UHD channel for the Nordic region and the first UHD Sports channel in the World. The channel will feature selected live sport events especially produced in Ultra HD and Viasat will also be launching an Ultra HD set-top box from Samsung and a TV-module to enable existing UHD TVs to display the channel. SES claimed the launch of Viasat Ultra HD will bring the number of UHD channels (including test channels and regional versions) carried on SES satellites to 24, or 46% of all UHD channels broadcast via satellite worldwide.  On 30 March 2017, the SES-10 satellite was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket using a refurbished first stage booster that had been previously used to launch a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship to the International Space Station for NASA in April 2016 and then landed and recovered. This is the first time that a rocket booster has been reused in this way. Both the Falcon 9 first stage and the payload fairing were successfully recovered after the SES-10 launch for subsequent reuse. SES-10 is positioned at 67.0° West to serve Latin America.  In May 2017, SES announced the successful integration with the SES-14 satellite of the NASA Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) scientific hosted payload built by the University of Colorado Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The first scientific payload carried by an SES satellite, GOLD was integrated with SES-14 at Airbus Defense and Space in Toulouse, France ahead of its launch to 47.5° West in late 2017 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Full Thrust from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.  In June 2017, SES announced the start of a 30-month project by the Satellite and Terrestrial Network for 5G (SaT5G) consortium for the seamless, and economically viable, integration of satellite (such as SES' geostationary orbit and medium Earth orbit high throughput satellites) into future 5G networks, improving the ubiquity, resilience and efficiency of 5G services, and opening new markets in media distribution, transport and underserved areas. The consortium is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme and comprises 16 members, including SES and Airbus Defence and Space, Avanti Communications, British Telecom, Broadpeak, Gilat Satellite Networks, OneAccess, Thales Alenia Space, TNO, University of Surrey, and Zodiac Inflight Innovation.  In September 2017, SES announced the next generation of O3b satellites and service. Named O3b mPower, the new constellation of (initially) seven MEO satellites built by Boeing Satellite Systems will deliver 10 terabits of capacity globally through 30,000 spot beams for broadband internet services. O3b mPower is expected to launch in 2021.  On 11 October 2017, a flight-proven (refurbished) SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the SES-11 satellite to the geostationary orbital position of 105.0° West. The launch was originally set for late 2016 but suffered a year-long delay because of SpaceX's September 2016 Falcon 9 explosion. SES-11 was built by Airbus Defence and Space and is a dual mission satellite, with 24 Ku-band transponders marketed by EchoStar as EchoStar 105 to replace capacity on SES' AMC-15 satellite, and 24 C-band transponders marketed by SES as SES-11 for replacement capacity for AMC-18 delivering video, especially HD and UHD, to the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean. Following positioning at 105.0° West and in-orbit testing, SES-11 was declared fully operational on 29 November 2017.

Recent Events.

In February 2018 SES teamed up with Intelsat (later joined by Eutelsat in July 2018) for a proposal to US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to form a consortium of satellite service providers to protect the quality and reliability of existing video and audio services to US households downlinking in the 3700-4200 MHz C-band spectrum while enabling wireless operators to access 100 MHz of C-band spectrum for deployment of next generation 5G services in the US.  In March 2018 Saint Martin-based satellite TV provider Kiwisat launched a new DTH platform to deliver about 130 channels (including 90 HD channels) of TV entertainment to consumers across the Caribbean using the SES-10 satellite at 67°W.  In May 2018 SES broadcast an 8K television signal via its satellite system for the first time, as part of its Industry Days conference at the Luxembourg HQ. The 8K demonstration content, with a resolution of 7680x4320 pixels, a frame rate of 60 frames per second and 10-bit colour depth, was encoded in HEVC and transmitted at a rate of 80 Mbit/s via the Astra 3B satellite.  In September 2018, in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of July 2018 from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz spectrum available for next-generation terrestrial fixed and mobile broadband services, SES, along with Intelsat, Eutelsat and Telesat - together providing the majority of C-band satellite services in the US, including media distribution reaching 100 million US households - established the C-Band Alliance (CBA). The consortium's proposal to the FCC is to act as a facilitator for the clearing and repurposing of a 200 MHz portion of C-band spectrum to accelerate the deployment of next generation 5G services while protecting incumbent users and their content distribution and data networks in the US from potential interference.  In April 2019, four O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites were launched by Arianespace at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana to complete the constellation of 20 first generation satellites for the SES-owned network communications service provider.  In May 2019, for the first time in Europe, 8K demonstration content was received via satellite without the need for a separate external receiver or decoder. At the 2019 SES Industry Days conference at Betzdorf, Luxembourg broadcast quality 8K content (with a resolution of 7680x4320 pixels at 50 frames/s) was encoded using a Spin Digital HEVC encoder (at a bit rate of 70 Mbit/s), uplinked to a single 33 MHz transponder on SES' Astra 28.2°E satellites and the downlink received and displayed on a Samsung 82in Q950RB production model TV.  In September 2019, SES announced a new Free-to-view DTH platform on Astra 1N at 19.2°E, encrypted using Verimatrix and carrying 30-40 channels from Russian-language OTT broadcaster Kartina TV for Russian-speaking diaspora across Europe with limited broadband connectivity.  In September 2019, the media technical services provider MX1, a wholly owned subsidiary of SES, was merged into the SES Video division, dropping the MX1 brand and providing all broadcast and streamed content management, playout, distribution, and monetisation services under the SES name.  in May 2020 SES released the results of the 2019 Satellite Monitor TV reception survey, which for the first time covered the Philippines. The survey found satellite TV is the second-most popular mode of TV reception in the Philippines with 17% of over 20.8 million TV households, behind terrestrial TV (66%), and that broadcasts from SES satellites reach 98% of Filipino satellite TV households.  On 26 May 2020 SES elected to clear a portion of the C-band spectrum in the US, currently used for satellite TV services, in accordance with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order for the accelerated release of the 3.7-4.0 GHz portion of the band for 5G mobile broadband services. The SES Board of Directors approved US$1.6 billion for the procurement and launch of new satellites and other equipment and services for the migration of existing customers using the spectrum, which will be reimbursable through the FCC Clearinghouse.

Satellite fleet.

The following active satellites are owned and operated by SES,.

Hosted payloads.

SES is active in the hosted payload market, selling space on planned and under-construction satellites to governments and institutions. SES-2 (launched September 2011) carries the US Air Force's Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP), a wide field-of-view, passive infrared sensor to provide early warning of missile launches, the first time a US Air Force payload has been hosted on a commercial mission. The SES-5 and Astra 5B satellites (launched July 2012 and March 2014, respectively) incorporate European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) payloads, a supplementary network to the GPS and GLONASS navigation systems.  SES-15 (launched May 2017) includes the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) air navigation aid to augment the Global Positioning Systems (GPS), with the goal of improving its accuracy, integrity and availability.  SES-14 (launched January 2018) hosts the Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission for NASA to investigate the Sun's impact on the Earth's thermosphere and ionosphere.

Teleports.

SES, and its subsidiary companies has teleports across the world, including: SES Government Solutions operates Earth stations at the following US Government locations:

SES S.A. is a satellite and terrestrial telecommunications network provider supplying video and data connectivity worldwide to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators, governments and institutions.

SES est le premier fournisseur de services de télécommunications par satellites au monde avec plus de 2 milliards d'euros de chiffre d'affaires.


Name.

"Grand Ballon" means "great [round-topped] mountain" because a "ballon" in French is a geographical term for a mountain with a rounded summit.  Some still call it "Ballon de Guebwiller", after the name of the closest town, Guebwiller, located to the east. It is high.

Climate.

According Köppen climate classification, the top of the Grand Ballon features an alpine-tundra climate (Köppen : "ET") due to its high latitude, compare to the Alps or the Pyrenees. Along with the Hohneck the summit of the Grand Ballon is the coldest and windiest point in Alsace. A record low of was recorded on 10 February 1956, a record high of was recorded on 13 August 2003. The difference between the Grand Ballon and the neighboring plain (Mulhouse area) usually ranges from and is higher in summertime. Winter snow cover is usually more than above of altitude. The highest snow accumulation ever recorded was 7 March 2006; in 1969 and 1970 the snow cover was above..

Trails.

The well known Route des Crêtes (French for "route of the peaks") circumvents the mountain top around east, crossing a mountain pass at an altitude of, between Le Markstein winter sports station and Hartmannswillerkopf, a rocky spur.

Tour de France.

The road over the pass to the north of the mountain is occasionally used in the Tour de France, the first crossing being in 1969. It is the only "Hors categorie" (beyond categorization) climb in northern France.

Belchen System.

The mountain is part of the so-called Belchen System, a group of mountains with the name "Belchen" (in German) that may have been part of a Celtic sun calendar.

The Grand Ballon () or Great Belchen is the highest mountain of the Vosges, located northwest of Mulhouse, France. It is also the highest point of the Grand-Est French region.

Le Grand Ballon (en allemand : "Belchen", en alsacien : "Grosser Belchen") est le point culminant du massif des Vosges, de la région Grand Est et du département du Haut-Rhin. Il est situé à au nord-ouest de Mulhouse dont il domine visuellement l'agglomération.


Homotopy of paths.

Paths and loops are central subjects of study in the branch of algebraic topology called homotopy theory. A homotopy of paths makes precise the notion of continuously deforming a path while keeping its endpoints fixed.  Specifically, a homotopy of paths, or path-homotopy, in "X" is a family of paths "f" : "I" → "X" indexed by "I" such that The paths "f" and "f" connected by a homotopy are said to be homotopic (or more precisely path-homotopic, to distinguish between the relation defined on all continuous functions between fixed spaces). One can likewise define a homotopy of loops keeping the base point fixed.  The relation of being homotopic is an equivalence relation on paths in a topological space. The equivalence class of a path "f" under this relation is called the homotopy class of "f", often denoted ["f"].

Path composition.

One can compose paths in a topological space in an obvious manner. Suppose "f" is a path from "x" to "y" and "g" is a path from "y" to "z". The path "fg" is defined as the path obtained by first traversing "f" and then traversing "g": Clearly path composition is only defined when the terminal point of "f" coincides with the initial point of "g". If one considers all loops based at a point "x", then path composition is a binary operation.  Path composition, whenever defined, is not associative due to the difference in parametrization. However it "is" associative up to path-homotopy. That is, [("fg")"h"] = ["f"("gh")]. Path composition defines a group structure on the set of homotopy classes of loops based at a point "x" in "X". The resultant group is called the fundamental group of "X" based at "x", usually denoted π("X","x").  In situations calling for associativity of path composition "on the nose," a path in "X" may instead be defined as a continuous map from an interval [0,"a"] to X for any real "a" ≥ 0. A path "f" of this kind has a length |"f"| defined as "a". Path composition is then defined as before with the following modification: Whereas with the previous definition, "f", "g", and "fg" all have length 1 (the length of the domain of the map), this definition makes |"fg"| = |"f"| + |"g"|. What made associativity fail for the previous definition is that although ("fg")"h" and "f"("gh") have the same length, namely 1, the midpoint of ("fg")"h" occurred between "g" and "h", whereas the midpoint of "f"("gh") occurred between "f" and "g". With this modified definition ("fg")"h" and "f"("gh") have the same length, namely |"f"|+|"g"|+|"h"|, and the same midpoint, found at (|"f"|+|"g"|+|"h"|)/2 in both ("fg")"h" and "f"("gh"); more generally they have the same parametrization throughout.

Fundamental groupoid.

There is a categorical picture of paths which is sometimes useful. Any topological space "X" gives rise to a category where the objects are the points of "X" and the morphisms are the homotopy classes of paths. Since any morphism in this category is an isomorphism this category is a groupoid, called the fundamental groupoid of "X". Loops in this category are the endomorphisms (all of which are actually automorphisms). The automorphism group of a point "x" in "X" is just the fundamental group based at "x". More generally, one can define the fundamental groupoid on any subset "A" of "X", using homotopy classes of paths joining points of "A". This is convenient for the Van Kampen's Theorem.

Lindley Murray (7 June 1745 – 16 February 1826), was an American Quaker lawyer, writer and grammarian, best known for his English language grammar-books used in schools in England and the United States.

Lindley Murray ( à Swantara en Pennsylvanie - à Holdgate près de York en Angleterre) est un avocat américain (à New York) avant de devenir grammairien et auteur de manuels scolaires en Angleterre.


Antecedents to the Act of Union, 1840.

Rebellion of Lower Canada.

After the War of 1812, the Elected Assembly of Lower Canada was dominated by French Canadians. A strong sense of nationalism sprung up among the francophones living in Lower Canada. The nationalists were led by Louis-Joseph Papineau, who was a part of what would later be known as The Patriot Party. One of the biggest demands this party had was to determine for themselves how the colony's revenue would be spent. They challenged the authority of the upper house or legislative government. As well they sought to take control of civil services such as executive council, which advised the sitting governor-general.  All of these demands were refuted by the current Governor-General, Earl of Dalhousie, who served as the governor-general of British North America from 1820 to 1828. However, in 1828 the Earl of Dalhousie was replaced due to a negative report given by Members of Parliament comprising British reformers who sought to make peace with the Lower Canadian Assembly. The next Governor-General Sir James Kempt, who lasted a mere two years from 1828–30. Kempt's time in office eased tensions between the Patriot Party and the existing government for a short time. The next two Governor Generals, Lord Aylmer (1830–35) and Lord Gosford (1835-38), also sought to reconcile the government with the ever-growing demands of the people. The situation in Lower Canada continued to worsen nevertheless.  French and English people living in Lower Canada became increasingly polarized from one another as tensions continue to grow. The Patriot Party tried to reason with British rule, including by sending the Ninety-Two resolutions. The British parliament ignored the resolutions for about 3 years, before all but dismissing them.  Eventually, The Patriot Party organized and executed two rebellions, the first in November 1837, the second a year later in November 1838. French Canadians on both occasions battled with British soldiers and English settlers. Both times due to a lack of organization and numbers the French Canadians fell within a week of the rebellions beginning.

Rebellion in Upper Canada.

The rebellion that took place in Upper Canada in 1837 was less violent than its counterpoint in Lower Canada had been. However, Upper Canadian rebels were equally serious in their demands. The main leader of the rebellion was William Lyon Mackenzie. Their demands included democratic reform and the end of the rule of privileged oligarchy.  The rebellion in Upper Canada ran from December 5th through 8th. The transfer of some of Britain's militia force to Lower Canada inspired rebels to try to seize the government and institute the constitution they had drafted, similar to that of the US Constitution. The rebels were dispersed by British arms and a group of government volunteers.

Effects of the Rebellions.

Because of these Rebellions, the crown and British parliament sent John George Lambton, the Earl of Durham back to Canada to report on what had caused the rebellions and outline suggestions on how to best fix the situation.  This investigation is now commonly known as Lord Durham's Report. Because of suggestions made by Lord Durham in his report, British Parliament united Upper and Lower Canada as The Province of Canada.

History.

Lord Durham wanted to re-instate peace throughout the colonies and recommended a political union. It was under his belief that peace could best be achieved by ensuring a loyal English majority in British North America, as well as by anglicizing French Canadians, and by granting responsible government. The union was also proposed to solve pressing financial issues in Upper Canada, which had become increasingly indebted under the previous regime dominated by the Family Compact. These debts stemmed mostly from poor investments in canals connecting Upper Canada to the port of Montreal in Lower Canada via the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. Due to Upper Canada's considerable debt and chronic budget shortfalls, it was hoped that its finances could be salvaged by merging it with the then-solvent Lower Canada.  Upper Canada, with its British and Protestant majority, was growing more rapidly than Lower Canada, with the French-Canadian and Catholic majority. It was hoped that by merging the two colonies, the French-Canadian cultural presence in North America would gradually disappear through assimilation. As such, the "Act" also contained measures banning the French language from official use in the Legislative Assembly. However, despite the amalgamation, the distinct legal systems of the two colonies were retained with Upper Canada becoming referred to as Canada West (with English common law) and Lower Canada as Canada East (with French civil law). In Upper Canada, there was opposition to unionization from the Family Compact, while in Lower Canada political and religious leaders reacted against Upper Canada's anti-French measures.

Act of Union, 1840.

The Act had a number of main provisions. It established a single parliament with an equal number of seats for each region. The two areas were now called Canada East and Canada West. The two regions’ debts were consolidated. A permanent Civil List was created. The French language was banished from official government use. Specific French Canadian institutions related to education and civil law were suspended.  The legislation to fuse the two separate colonies into one functioning unit that would operate under one government instead of two separate legislations was brought before The British House of Commons in May, 1839. Later the legislation was sent for approval by both Upper and Lower Canada by way of Charles Poulett Thomson. He received acceptance of the legislation by both colonies in November and December of the same year. The legislation then became in Act in July 1840 when passed by the British Parliament. On the 10 of February 1841, it was declared in Montreal, officially marking the beginning of the newly formed Province of Canada. The capitol was moved to Kingston.  One of the main provisions of the act was establishing a single parliament with an equal number of seats per region. Canada West, with its 450,000 inhabitants, was represented by 42 seats in the Legislative Assembly, the same number as the more-populated Canada East, with 650,000 inhabitants. The French-Canadian majority, as well as numerous anglophones, considered this an injustice. In Lower Canada, Louis-Joseph Papineau demanded representation by population and the recall of the union the minute he entered the new parliament of the united Canadas. Debts from Upper and Lower Canada were also combined and transferred to the Province of Canada.  The granting of responsible government to the colony is typically attributed to reforms in 1848 (principally the effective transfer of control over patronage from the governor to the elected ministry). These reforms resulted in the appointment of the second Baldwin-Lafontaine government that quickly removed many of the disabilities on French-Canadian political participation in the colony.

Effects of the Act of Union, 1840.

By the late 1850s, massive immigration from the British Isles to Canada West changed the previous demographic imbalance between the English and French sections of the colony. Many politicians in Canada West began to lobby for representation by population as they no longer considered the equal representation mandated by the "Act of Union" to be just.  In the end, the "Act of Union" failed at shutting down French-Canadian political influence, especially after responsible government was granted to the colony. By voting "en bloc" while the anglophones of Canada West were highly factionalized, the francophones of Canada East guaranteed a strong, unified presence in the legislative assembly. As a result, bills proposed by one of the anglophone Canada West factions required the support of the francophone Canada East votes to be passed. This was known as the double majority principle and reflected the duality of the two administrations. The double majority principle was never officially recognized and was demonstrated to be impracticable.  However, the francophone presence remained inferior to their demographic weight in the executive and legislative councils. The government of Lafontaine-Baldwin succeeded in repealing the measure against the French language in the assembly, in the courts, and in the civil administration. With the double majority principle, both Canadas were so to speak "reseparated" and for a short while, both sides were managed independently. Joint premierships shared by an anglophone from Canada West and a francophone from Canada East became the convention, but continual legislative deadlock resulting from the conflicting aspirations of the two Canadas remained. Dissatisfaction resulting from this deadlock was one of the main factors for Canadian Confederation in 1867.

The British North America Act, 1840 (3 & 4 Victoria, c.35), also known as the Act of Union 1840, (the "Act") was approved by Parliament in July 1840 and proclaimed February 10, 1841, in Montreal. It abolished the legislatures of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and established a new political entity, the Province of Canada to replace them. The "Act" was similar in nature and in goals to the other Acts of Union enacted by the British Parliament.

L'Acte d'Union de 1840 est une constitution adoptée par le Parlement du Royaume-Uni en et publiée le. Cette loi a aboli les provinces et les assemblées législatives des colonies du Bas-Canada et du Haut-Canada mises sur pied par l'Acte constitutionnel de 1791 et a créé une seule colonie sous l'administration d'un gouverneur-général : la province du Canada (ou Canada-Uni). Le pouvoir législatif était détenu par le Parlement de la province du Canada, comprenant l'Assemblée législative (chambre basse, élue) et le Conseil législatif (chambre haute, nommée). Cette nouvelle colonie fut proclamée le.


Ingredients.

Morocco produces a large range of Mediterranean fruits, vegetables and even some tropical ones. Common meats include beef, goat, mutton and lamb, chicken and seafood, which serve as a base for the cuisine. Characteristic flavorings include lemon pickle, argan oil, cold-pressed, unrefined olive oil and dried fruits. As in Mediterranean cuisine in general, the staple ingredients include wheat, used for bread and couscous, and olive oil; the third Mediterranean staple, the grape, is eaten as a dessert, though a certain amount of wine is made in the country.

Flavorings.

Spices are used extensively in Moroccan food. Although some spices have been imported to Morocco through the Arabs for thousands of years, many ingredients—like saffron from Talaouine, mint and olives from Meknes, and oranges and lemons from Fes—are home-grown, and are being exported. Common spices include cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, paprika, coriander, saffron, mace, cloves, fennel, anise, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, fenugreek, caraway, black pepper and sesame seeds. Twenty-seven spices are combined for the famous Moroccan spice mixture "ras el hanout".  Common herbs in Moroccan cuisine include mint, parsley, coriander, oregano, peppermint, marjoram, verbena, sage and bay laurel.

Structure of meals.

A typical lunch meal begins with a series of hot and cold salads, followed by a tagine or Dwaz. Often, for a formal meal, a lamb or chicken dish is next, or couscous topped with meat and vegetables. Moroccans either eat with fork, knife and spoon or with their hands using bread as a utensil depending on the dish served. The consumption of pork and alcohol is uncommon due to religious restrictions.

Main dishes.

The main Moroccan dish most people are familiar with is couscous, Beef is the most commonly eaten red meat in Morocco, usually eaten in a tagine with a wide selection of vegetables. Chicken is also very commonly used in tagines or roasted. They also use additional ingredients such as plums, boiled eggs, and lemon. Like their national food, the tagine has a unique taste of popular spices such as saffron, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and cilantro, as well as ground red pepper.  Since Morocco lies on two coasts, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Moroccan cuisine has ample seafood dishes. European pilchard is caught in large but declining quantities. Other fish species include mackerel, anchovy, sardinella, and horse mackerel.  Other famous Moroccan dishes are Pastilla (also spelled Basteeya or Bestilla), Tanjia, and Rfissa.  A big part of the daily meal is bread. Bread in Morocco is principally made from durum wheat semolina known as khobz. Bakeries are very common throughout Morocco and fresh bread is a staple in every city, town, and village. The most common is whole grain coarse ground or white flour bread or baguettes. There are also a number of flat breads and pulled unleavened pan-fried breads.  In addition, there are dried salted meats and salted preserved meats such as khlea and g'did (basically sheep bacon), which are used to flavor tagines or used in "el rghaif", a folded savory Moroccan pancake.

Soups.

Harira, a typical heavy soup, eaten during winter to warm up and is usually served for dinner. It is typically eaten with plain bread or with dates during the month of Ramadan. Bissara is a broad bean-based soup that is also consumed during the colder months of the year.

Salads.

Salads include both raw and cooked vegetables, served either hot or cold. Cold salads include "zaalouk," an aubergine and tomato mixture, and taktouka (a mixture of tomatoes, smoked green peppers, garlic, and spices) characteristic of the cities of Taza and Fes, in the Atlas. Another cold salad is called Bakoula, or Khoubiza. It consists of braised mallow leaves, but can also be made with spinach or arugula, with parsley, cilantro, lemon, olive oil, and olives.

Desserts.

Usually, seasonal fruits rather than cooked desserts are served at the close of a meal. A common dessert is "kaab el ghzal" (, "gazelle ankles"), a pastry stuffed with almond paste and topped with sugar. Another is "Halwa chebakia", pretzel-shaped dough deep-fried, soaked in honey and sprinkled with sesame seeds; it is eaten during the month of Ramadan. "Jowhara" is a delicacy typical of Fes, made with fried "waraq" pastry, cream, orange blossom water, and toasted almond slices. Coconut fudge cakes, 'Zucre Coco', are popular also.

Seafood.

Morocco is endowed with over 3000 km of coastline. There is an abundance of fish in these coastal waters with the sardine being commercially significant as Morocco is the world's largest exporter. Sardines were used in the production of garum in Lixus.  At Moroccan fish markets one can find sole, swordfish, tuna, tarbot, mackerel, shrimp, congre eel, skate, red snapper, spider crab, lobster and a variety of mollusks.  In Moroccan cuisine, seafood is incorporated into, among others: tajines, bastilla, briwat, and paella.

Drinks.

The most popular drink is green tea with mint. Traditionally, making good mint tea in Morocco is considered an art form and the drinking of it with friends and family is often a daily tradition. The pouring technique is as crucial as the quality of the tea itself. Moroccan tea pots have long, curved pouring spouts and this allows the tea to be poured evenly into tiny glasses from a height. For the best taste, glasses are filled in two stages. The Moroccans traditionally like tea with bubbles, so while pouring they hold the teapot high above the glasses. Finally, the tea is accompanied with hard sugar cones or lumps. Morocco has an abundance of oranges and tangerines, so fresh orange juice is easily found freshly squeezed and is cheap.

Snacks and fast food.

Selling fast food in the street has long been a tradition, and the best example is Djemaa el Fna square in Marrakech. Starting in the 1980s, new snack restaurants started serving "Bocadillo" (a Spanish word for a sandwich).  Dairy product shops locally called Mhlaba, are very prevalent all around the country. Those dairy stores generally offer all types of dairy products, juices, and local delicacies such as Bocadillos, Msemen and Harcha.  Another popular street food in Morocco is the snails, which are served in their stew in small bowls and eaten using a toothpick.  In the late 1990s, several multinational fast-food franchises opened restaurants in major cities.

Moroccan cuisine is influenced by Morocco's interactions and exchanges with other cultures and nations over the centuries. Moroccan cuisine is typically a mix of Berber, Arab, Andalusi, and Mediterranean cuisines, with slight European and sub-Saharan influences.

La cuisine marocaine est une cuisine méditerranéenne caractérisée par sa variété de plats issus principalement de la cuisine berbère, avec des influences arabes et juives. Malgré ses traits communs avec les cuisines des autres pays nord-africains, la cuisine marocaine a su conserver son originalité et ses spécificités culturelles uniques. En 2015, elle a été classée deuxième cuisine au monde par le site Worldsim.


Overview.

Pelot began his writing career by writing westerns. His first novel, "La piste du Dakota" [The Dakota Trail], takes place in the United States after the end of the Civil War. It appeared in the imprint "Marabout Junior".  In 1967, Pelot created the character of "Dylan Stark", who was born in the Confederacy. The first novel in this book series, "Quatre Hommes pour l'Enfer" Four Men to Hell, also takes place during the Civil War. In this novel Dylan Stark reluctantly fights on the side of the Confederacy. The "Dylan Stark" series was mostly published by "Pocket Marabout" starting in 1967.  In the early 1970s, Pelot began to contribute novels to both the "Angoisse" horror and "Anticipation" science fiction imprints of publisher Fleuve Noir. For the latter, he penned a series of remarkably mature space operas under the pseudonym of "Pierre Suragne". Between 1972 and 1980, Pelot contributed 14 science fiction novels and 7 horror novels to Fleuve Noir. His "Anticipation" novels were notable for their bleak endings, which was unusual at the time, as well as their new concepts, often incorporating post-1968 political themes such as ecology. They were written in a hard-hitting style borrowed from thrillers rather than space opera, and included the occasional sexual scenes.  Throughout the 1980s, Pelot produced a huge number of novels for virtually every science fiction publisher in France. Most, if not all, carried the same message, vilifying the evils of the military-industrial complex and capitalist economy, protecting the environment and expressing socialist ideas. His works for the most part described police states, utopias and dystopias, and usually featured doomed rebels who tried to see behind the veil of their protected lives. "Transit" (1977), one of his most accomplished novels, featured an experimental hypnotic journey that leads a researcher to a peaceful utopia.  Pelot's major stream of dystopic novels during the 1980s were produced for "Presses-Pocket", for which he wrote twelve novels between 1977 and 1990. Most of these fit in a series entitled "Les Hommes sans Futurs" [Men Without A Future], which portray the desperate and often all too futile wanderings of the last men and women on an Earth now inhabited by unfathomable new mutants.  In the 1990s, Pelot diversified his career further, producing crime thrillers, adventure novels, in addition to his science fiction work.

Pierre Pelot (Pierre Grosdemange, also known as Pierre Pelot, Pierre Suragne or Pierre Carbonari), is a French science fiction writer. Born on 13 November 1945, in Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle, Vosges, France.

Pierre Pelot, de son vrai nom Pierre Grosdemange, né le à Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle dans les Vosges, est un écrivain français. Il est extrêmement prolifique, on lui attribue près de. Il écrit également sous les pseudonymes de Pierre Suragne (pseudonyme imposé par le Fleuve noir de 1972 à 1980) et Pierre Carbonari (seulement pour quelques nouvelles).


Biography.

Latour is related to a well-known family of winemakers from Burgundy, but is not associated with the similarly named estate in Bordeaux.  As a student, Latour originally focused on philosophy. In 1971–1972, he ranked second and then first (reçu second, premier) in the French national competitive exam (agrégation/CAPES de philosophie). He was deeply influenced by Michel Serres.. Latour went on to earn his Ph.D. in philosophical theology in 1975 at the University of Tours. His thesis title was "Exégèse et ontologie: une analyse des textes de resurrection" ("Exegesis and Ontology: An Analysis of the Texts of Resurrection").  He developed an interest in anthropology, and undertook fieldwork in Ivory Coast which resulted in a brief monograph on decolonization, race, and industrial relations. After spending more than twenty years (1982–2006) at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation at the École des Mines in Paris, Latour moved in 2006 to Sciences Po, where he was the first occupant of a chair named for Gabriel Tarde. In recent years he also served as one of the curators of successful art exhibitions at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe, Germany, including "Iconoclash" (2002) and "Making Things Public" (2005). In 2005 he also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.

Awards and honors.

On 22 May 2008, Latour was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal on the occasion of an organizational communication conference held in honor of the work of James R. Taylor, on whom Latour has had an important influence. He holds several other honorary doctorates, as well as France's Légion d'Honneur (2012). The Dutch "International Spinozaprijs Foundation" will award the "Spinozalens 2020" to Bruno Latour on November 24, 2020. (http://www.spinozalens.nl/en/news/6/Spinozalens-2020-awarded-to-French-philosopher-Bruno-Latour)

Holberg Prize.

On 13 March 2013, he was announced as the winner of the 2013 Holberg Prize. The prize committee stated that "Bruno Latour has undertaken an ambitious analysis and reinterpretation of modernity, and has challenged fundamental concepts such as the distinction between modern and pre-modern, nature and society, human and non-human." The committee states that "the impact of Latour's work is evident internationally and far beyond studies of the history of science, art history, history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, theology, literature and law."  A 2013 article in Aftenposten by Jon Elster criticised the conferment to Latour, by saying "The question is, does he deserve the prize."..."If the statutes [of the award] had used new knowledge as a main criteria, instead of one of several, then he would be completely unqualified in my opinion."

Main works.

"Laboratory Life".

After his early career efforts, Latour shifted his research interests to focus on laboratory scientists. Latour rose in importance following the 1979 publication of "Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts" with co-author Steve Woolgar. In the book, the authors undertake an ethnographic study of a neuroendocrinology research laboratory at the Salk Institute. This early work argued that naïve descriptions of the scientific method, in which theories stand or fall on the outcome of a single experiment, are inconsistent with actual laboratory practice.  In the laboratory, Latour and Woolgar observed that a typical experiment produces only inconclusive data that is attributed to failure of the apparatus or experimental method, and that a large part of scientific training involves learning how to make the subjective decision of what data to keep and what data to throw out. Latour and Woolgar argued that, for untrained observers, the entire process resembles not an unbiased search for truth and accuracy but a mechanism for ignoring data that contradicts scientific orthodoxy.  Latour and Woolgar produced a highly heterodox and controversial picture of the sciences. Drawing on the work of Gaston Bachelard, they advance the notion that the objects of scientific study are "socially constructed" within the laboratory—that they cannot be attributed with an existence outside of the instruments that measure them and the minds that interpret them. They view scientific activity as a system of beliefs, oral traditions and culturally specific practices— in short, science is reconstructed not as a procedure or as a set of principles but as a culture. Latour's 1987 book "Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society" is one of the key texts of the sociology of scientific knowledge in which he famously wrote his Second Principle as follows: "Scientist and engineers speak in the name of new allies that they have shaped and enrolled; representatives among other representatives, they add these unexpected resources to tip the balance of force in their favor."  Some of Latour's position and findings in this era provoked vehement rebuttals. Gross and Leavitt argue that Latour's position becomes absurd when applied to non-scientific contexts: e.g., if a group of coworkers in a windowless room were debating whether or not it were raining outside and went outdoors to discover raindrops in the air and puddles on the soil, Latour's hypothesis would assert that the rain was socially constructed. Similarly, philosopher John Searle argues that Latour's "extreme social constructivist" position is seriously flawed on several points, and furthermore has inadvertently "comical results."

"The Pasteurization of France".

After a research project examining the sociology of primatologists, Latour followed up the themes in "Laboratory Life" with "Les Microbes: guerre et paix" (published in English as "The Pasteurization of France" in 1988). In it, he reviews the life and career of one of France's most famous scientists Louis Pasteur and his discovery of microbes, in the fashion of a political biography. Latour highlights the social forces at work in and around Pasteur's career and the uneven manner in which his theories were accepted. By providing more explicitly ideological explanations for the acceptance of Pasteur's work more easily in some quarters than in others, he seeks to undermine the notion that the acceptance and rejection of scientific theories is primarily, or even usually, a matter of experiment, evidence or reason. Another work, "Aramis, or, The Love of Technology" focuses on the history of an unsuccessful mass-transit project.

"We Have Never Been Modern".

Latour's work "Nous n’avons jamais été modernes : Essais d’anthropologie symétrique" was first published in French in 1991, and then in English in 1993 as "We Have Never Been Modern".  Latour encouraged the reader of this anthropology of science to re-think and re-evaluate our mental landscape. He evaluated the work of scientists and contemplated the contribution of the scientific method to knowledge and work, blurring the distinction across various fields and disciplines.  Latour argued that society has never really been modern and promoted nonmodernism (or amodernism) over postmodernism, modernism, or antimodernism. His stance was that we have never been modern and minor divisions alone separate Westerners now from other collectives. Latour viewed modernism as an era that believed it had annulled the entire past in its wake. He presented the antimodern reaction as defending such entities as spirit, rationality, liberty, society, God, or even the past. Postmoderns, according to Latour, also accepted the modernistic abstractions as if they were real. In contrast, the nonmodern approach reestablished symmetry between science and technology on the one hand and society on the other. Latour also referred to the impossibility of returning to premodernism because it precluded the large scale experimentation which was a benefit of modernism.  Latour attempted to prove through case studies the fallacy in the old object/subject and Nature/Society compacts of modernity, which can be traced back to Plato. He refused the concept of "out there" versus "in here". He rendered the object/subject distinction as simply unusable and charted a new approach towards knowledge, work, and circulating reference. Latour considered nonmoderns to be playing on a different field, one vastly different than that of post-moderns. He referred to it as much broader and much less polemical, a creation of an unknown territory, which he playfully referred to as the Middle Kingdom.  In 1998, historian of science Margaret C. Jacob argued that Latour's politicized account of the development of modernism in the 17th century is "a fanciful escape from modern Western history".

"Pandora's Hope".

"Pandora's Hope" (1999) marks a return to the themes Latour explored in "Science in Action" and "We Have Never Been Modern". It uses independent but thematically linked essays and case studies to question the authority and reliability of scientific knowledge. Latour uses a narrative, anecdotal approach in a number of the essays, describing his work with pedologists in the Amazon rainforest, the development of the pasteurization process, and the research of French atomic scientists at the outbreak of the Second World War. Latour states that this specific, anecdotal approach to science studies is essential to gaining a full understanding of the discipline: "The only way to understand the reality of science studies is to follow what science studies do best, that is, paying close attention to the details of scientific practice" (p. 24). Some authors have criticized Latour's methodology, including Katherine Pandora, a history of science professor at the University of Oklahoma. In her review of "Pandora's Hope", Katherine Pandora states:  "[Latour's] writing can be stimulating, fresh and at times genuinely moving, but it can also display a distractingly mannered style in which a rococo zeal for compounding metaphors, examples, definitions and abstractions can frustrate even readers who approach his work with the best of intentions (notwithstanding the inclusion of a nine-page glossary of terms and liberal use of diagrams in an attempt to achieve the utmost clarity)".  In addition to his epistemological concerns, Latour also explores the political dimension of science studies in "Pandora's Hope". Two of the chapters draw on Plato's "Gorgias" as a means of investigating and highlighting the distinction between content and context. As Katherine Pandora states in her review:  "It is hard not to be caught up in the author's obvious delight in deploying a classic work from antiquity to bring current concerns into sharper focus, following along as he manages to leave the reader with the impression that the protagonists Socrates and Callicles are not only in dialogue with each other but with Latour as well."  Although Latour frames his discussion with a classical model, his examples of fraught political issues are all current and of continuing relevance: global warming, the spread of mad cow disease, and the carcinogenic effects of smoking are all mentioned at various points in "Pandora's Hope". In Felix Stalder's article "Beyond constructivism: towards a realistic realism", he summarizes Latour's position on the political dimension of science studies as follows: "These scientific debates have been artificially kept open in order to render impossible any political action against these problems and those who profit from them".

"Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?".

In a 2004 article, Latour questioned the fundamental premises on which he had based most of his career, asking, "Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?" He undertakes a trenchant critique of his own field of study and, more generally, of social criticism in contemporary academia. He suggests that critique, as currently practiced, is bordering on irrelevancy. To maintain any vitality, Latour argues that social critiques require a drastic reappraisal: "our critical equipment deserves as much critical scrutiny as the Pentagon budget." (p. 231) To regain focus and credibility, Latour argues that social critiques must embrace empiricism, to insist on the "cultivation of a stubbornly realist attitude -- to speak like William James". (p. 233)  Latour suggests that about 90 per cent of contemporary social criticism displays one of two approaches which he terms "the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 237) The fairy position is anti-fetishist, arguing that "objects of belief" (e.g., religion, arts) are merely concepts created by the projected wishes and desires of the "naive believer"; the "fact position" argues that individuals are dominated, often covertly and without their awareness, by external forces (e.g., economics, gender). (p. 238) "Do you see now why it feels so good to be a critical mind?” asks Latour: no matter which position you take, "You’re always right!” (p. 238-239) Social critics tend to use anti-fetishism against ideas they personally reject; to use "an unrepentant positivist" approach for fields of study they consider valuable; all the while thinking as "a perfectly healthy sturdy realist for what you really cherish." (p. 241) These inconsistencies and double standards go largely unrecognized in social critique because "there is never any crossover between the two lists of objects in the fact position and the fairy position." (p. 241)  The practical result of these approaches being taught to millions of students in elite universities for several decades is a widespread and influential "critical barbarity" that has—like a malign virus created by a "mad scientist"—thus far proven impossible to control. Most troubling, Latour notes that critical ideas have been appropriated by those he describes as conspiracy theorists, including global warming deniers and the 9/11 Truth movement: "Maybe I am taking conspiracy theories too seriously, but I am worried to detect, in those mad mixtures of knee-jerk disbelief, punctilious demands for proofs, and free use of powerful explanation from the social neverland, many of the weapons of social critique." (p. 230)  The conclusion of the article is to argue for a positive framing of critique, to help understand how matters of concern can be supported rather than undermined: "The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naïve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in which to gather. The critic is not the one who alternates haphazardly between antifetishism and positivism like the drunk iconoclast drawn by Goya, but the one for whom, if something is constructed, then it means it is fragile and thus in great need of care and caution."  Latour's article has been highly influential within the field of postcritique, an intellectual movement within literary criticism and cultural studies that seeks to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. The literary critic Rita Felski has named Latour as an important precursor to the project of postcritique.

"Reassembling the Social".

In "Reassembling the Social" (2005), Latour continues a reappraisal of his work, developing what he calls a "practical metaphysics", which calls "real" anything that an actor (one whom we are studying) claims as a source of motivation for action. So if someone says, "I was inspired by God to be charitable to my neighbors" we are obliged to recognize the "ontological weight" of their claim, rather than attempting to replace their belief in God's presence with "social stuff", like class, gender, imperialism, etc. Latour’s nuanced metaphysics demands the existence of a plurality of worlds, and the willingness of the researcher to chart ever more. He argues that researchers must give up the hope of fitting their actors into a structure or framework, but Latour believes the benefits of this sacrifice far outweigh the downsides: "Their complex metaphysics would at least be respected, their recalcitrance recognized, their objections deployed, their multiplicity accepted."  For Latour, to talk about metaphysics or ontology–what really is–means paying close empirical attention to the various, contradictory institutions and ideas that bring people together and inspire them to act. Here is Latour's description of metaphysics:  If we call metaphysics the discipline... that purports to define the basic structure of the world, then empirical metaphysics is what the controversies over agencies lead to since they ceaselessly populate the world with new drives and, as ceaselessly, contest the existence of others. The question then becomes how to explore the actors' own metaphysics.  A more traditional metaphysicist might object, arguing that this means there are multiple, contradictory realities, since there are "controversies over agencies" – since there is a plurality of contradictory ideas that people claim as a basis for action (God, nature, the state, sexual drives, personal ambition, and so on). This objection manifests the most important difference between traditional philosophical metaphysics and Latour's nuance: for Latour, there is no "basic structure of reality" or a single, self-consistent world. An unknowably large multiplicity of realities, or "worlds" in his terms, exists–one for each actor’s sources of agency, inspirations for action. Actors bring "the real" (metaphysics) into being. The task of the researcher is not to find one "basic structure" that explains agency, but to recognize "the metaphysical innovations proposed by ordinary actors". Mapping those metaphysical innovations involves a strong dedication to relativism, Latour argues. The relativist researcher "learns the actors' language," records what they say about what they do, and does not appeal to a higher "structure" to "explain" the actor's motivations. The relativist "takes seriously what [actors] are obstinately saying" and "follows the direction indicated by their fingers when they designate what'makes them act'". The relativist recognizes the plurality of metaphysics that actors bring into being, and attempts to map them rather than reducing them to a single structure or explanation.

Bruno Latour (; ; born 22 June 1947) is a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist. He is especially known for his work in the field of science and technology studies (STS). After teaching at the École des Mines de Paris (Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation) from 1982 to 2006, he became Professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he was the scientific director of the Sciences Po Medialab. He retired from several university activities in 2017. He was also a Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.

Bruno Latour est un sociologue, anthropologue et philosophe des sciences français né le à Beaune. Après avoir été assistant de Jean-Jacques Salomon au CNAM, puis avoir enseigné à l'École des mines de Paris, de 1982 à 2006, il est depuis septembre 2006 professeur à l'Institut d'études politiques de Paris. En septembre 2007, il devient directeur scientifique et directeur adjoint de Sciences-Po. En 2009, il participe à la création du Médialab. En 2010, il initie, au sein de Sciences-Po, le programme d'expérimentation en arts et politique (SPEAP).