Michel Foucault of left-wing groups involved in campaigns against racism and human rights abuses and for penal reform. Foucault later published "Discipline and Punish" (1975) and "The History of Sexuality" (1976), in which he developed archaeological and genealogical methods which emphasized the role that power plays in society. Foucault died in Paris of neurological problems compounded by HIV/AIDS; he became the first public figure in France to die from the disease. His partner Daniel Defert founded the AIDES charity in his memory. Paul-Michel Foucault was born on 15 October 1926 in the city of Poitiers, west-central France, as the second of three
Pendulum all intents constant, and the second, which was defined by the rotation rate of the Earth, also constant. The idea was that anyone, anywhere on Earth, could recreate the standard by constructing a pendulum that swung with the defined period and measuring its length. Virtually all proposals were based on the seconds pendulum, in which each swing (a half period) takes one second, which is about a meter (39 inches) long, because by the late 17th century it had become a standard for measuring gravity (see previous section). By the 18th century its length had been measured with sub-millimeter accuracy