THE first lightning-conductor was erected by Benjamin Franklin upon his own house in Philadelphia in 1752. The invention is, therefore, now a little more than one hundred and thirty years old. Franklin was led to the investigations which resulted in its construction by the fortuitous circumstance that, about six years previously, he had been present at a lecture on electricity delivered in Boston by Dr. Spence. In the same year—that is, in 1746—he received a present from Peter Collinson, a member of the Royal Society in London, who was also the agent of the Library Company in Philadelphia, of one of the London electric tubes, and an account of some experiments that had recently been made by Dr. Watson, Martin Folkes, Lord Charles Cavendish, Dr. Bevis, and others of their contemporaries. The idea had already suggested itself to these investigators that the luminous gleam which was elicited from glass tubes when they were rubbed in dark cellars, in performance of the frequently repeated and fashionable experiment of the day, might possibly be of a kindred nature to the lightning of the thunder-storm. In a book describing some "physico-mechanical experiments" that he had made, published in London in 1709, Francis Hawksbee remarked that the luminous flash and crackling sounds produced by rubbing amber were similar to lightning and thunder. In 1720 Stephen Gray, the pensioner of the Charterhouse, so celebrated for his electrical investigations, boldly and uncompromisingly affirmed that, "if great things might be compared with small," the light and sound called forth when glass rods were rubbed were of the same nature as lightning and thunder. Franklin, from the time when the electrical experiments came under his notice, enthusiastically adopted this view. In a letter written to a friend in 1749, he very clearly expressed his reasons for this belief. In this communication he insisted upon the facts that the electric spark gives light like lightning; that the luminous discharge follows a similar crooked track; that this discharge is swift in its motion, is conducted by metals, is accompanied by an explosion when it escapes, rends bodies that it passes through, destroys animal life, melts metals, sets fire to inflammable substances, and causes a smell of sulphur—all of which attributes seemed to him to point to the identity of the phenomena. He also observed that the electric discharge was attracted by points, and stated that he was bent upon ascertaining whether lightning had not the same tendency. In the autumn of the following year he wrote to Mr. Collinson to say that he had satisfied himself in this particular; that he was entirely convinced of the identity of the so called electricity with lightning; that he believed the damage done by lightning descending from the clouds to the earth might be altogether prevented by placing iron rods, with sharp points, upon the summits of buildings; that he intended to test experimentally the soundness of his belief in that matter; and that he hoped other persons would assist him in his labors by following his example. This was virtually the definite forecast of the conductor which Franklin attached to his house in 1752.
In the mean time the suggestion that buildings might be protected from lightning by the use of iron rods with sharp points was incidentally communicated by Mr. Collinson to the editor of the "Gentleman's Magazine" in London, who, at once perceiving the practical importance of the hint, offered to print an account of Franklin's views in the form of a pamphlet. This offer was accepted, and, in the month of May, 1751, a pamphlet was published in London, entitled "New Experiments and Observations on Electricity made at Philadelphia, in America, by Benjamin Franklin." The pamphlet was not very warmly received in England, but it was enthusiastically welcomed and appreciated in France. Count de Buffon had it translated into French, and the translation appeared in Paris within four months of the publication of the original pamphlet in England. It was soon afterward translated into German, Italian, and Latin. The attention of scientific men in Paris was quickly drawn to the method of defense proposed by Franklin, and M. Dalibard, a man of some wealth, undertook to erect the apparatus at his country residence at Marly-la-Ville, some eighteen miles from Paris. The situation of the house was considered to be eminently favorable for the purpose, as the building stood some four hundred feet above the sea. A lofty wooden scaffold, supporting an iron rod an inch in diameter and eighty feet long, was erected in the garden. The rod was finished at the top by a sharp point of bronzed steel, and it terminated at the bottom, five feet above the ground, in a smaller horizontal rod, which ran to a table in a kind of sentry-box, furnished with electrical apparatus. On May 10th, when M. Dalibard was himself absent in Paris, the apparatus having been left temporarily in the charge of an old dragoon named Coiffier, a violent storm drifted over the place, and the old dragoon, who was duly instructed for the emergency, went into the sentry-box and presented a metal key, partly covered with silk, to the termination of the rod, and saw a stream of fire burst forth between the rod and the key. The old man sent for the Prior of Marly, who dwelt close by, to witness and confirm his observation, and then started on horseback to Paris, to carry to his master the news of what had occurred. Three days afterward, that is, on May 13, 1752, M. Dalibard communicated his own account of the incident to a meeting of the Académie des Sciences, and announced that Franklin's views of the identity of the fire of the storm-cloud with that of the electrical spark had been thus definitely established.
Before the success of M. Dalibard's experiment could be reported in America, however, Franklin had secured his own proof of the identity by the memorable experiment with the kite, so well known to the scientific world. He was anxiously waiting for the erection of the first steeple in Philadelphia for the opportunity which this would afford him for the support of a lofty iron rod, when the happy idea occurred to him to try, in the mean time, upon some suitable occasion, whether he could not contrive to hold up a lightning-conductor toward a storm-cloud by means of a kite. On the evening of July 4th, that is, fifty-two days after the experiment of M. Dalibard, his kite was raised during a thunder-storm, and, with the help of his son, he drew electric sparks from the rain-saturated string, as the two stood in the shelter of an old cow-shed in the outskirts of Philadelphia. He held the kite by a silken cord that was attached to a key at the bottom of the string, and with this arrangement he charged and discharged an ordinary Leyden-jar several times in succession. Franklin at first not unnaturally conceived that he had actually drawn the lightning down from the storm-cloud. He was, however, no doubt mistaken in this. The storm-cloud had inductively excited the neighboring surface of the earth, and what Franklin saw was the electric stream escaping out through the wet string toward the storm-cloud to relieve the tension set up by this induction. It was in the summer of the same year, after the performance of this world-renowned experiment with the kite, that Franklin attached to his house a lightning-conductor, which was composed of an iron rod, having a sharp steel point projecting seven or eight feet above the roof, and with its lower end plunged about five feet into the ground.
As a matter of course, the new doctrine of Franklin and his allies was not received without considerable opposition. A sharp shock of an earthquake having been experienced in Massachusetts in 1755, this was forthwith attributed to the evil influences of Franklin's lightning-rods. A Boston clergyman preached against them in 1770 as "impious contrivances to prevent the execution of the wrath of Heaven." Even as late as 1826, an engineer in the employment of the British Government recommended that all lightning-rods should be removed from public buildings as dangerous expedients, and in 1838 the Governor-General and Council of the East India Company ordered that all lightning-rods should be removed from public buildings, arsenals, and powder-magazines throughout India, and only became reconciled to their restoration after a large magazine and corning-house, not furnished with a conductor, had been blown up during a storm.
Franklin was so much in earnest in reference to his invention that he sent a friend at his own charge through the principal towns of the New England Colonies to make known the powers and virtues of the lightning-rod. In the "Poor Richard" for 1758, a kind of almanac or manual which he was at that time publishing, he gave specific instructions for the erection of his rods. The second conductor which he himself constructed was placed upon the house of Mr. West, a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia. A few months after this had been erected a storm burst over the town, and a flash of lightning was seen to strike the point of the conductor, and to spread itself out as a sheet of flame at its base. It was afterward found that about two inches and a half of the brass point had been dissipated into the air, and that immediately beneath the metal was melted into the form of an irregular blunt cap. The house, nevertheless, was quite uninjured. The sheet of flame seen at the base of the conductor Franklin correctly ascribed to the ground having been very dry, and to there not having been a sufficiently capacious earth contact under those circumstances. He nevertheless shrewdly, and quite justifiably, assumed that in this case Nature had itself pronounced an unmistakable verdict in favor of his invention.
The controversy concerning the efficacy of lightning-rods continued to agitate the councils of scientific men, notwithstanding this memorable demonstration of their efficiency; but, upon the whole, the new doctrines made their way into the confidence of the intelligent classes of the community. The most important circumstance in connection with the early fortunes of the invention, perhaps, was the admirable series of reports and instructions which were issued by the French Government between the years 1823 and 1867, and to which Mr. Anderson now once again, and not superfluously, draws public attention in his recent pamphlet entitled "Information about Lightning-Conductors issued by the Academy of Sciences of France." The first of these reports was drawn up in 1823 by Gay-Lussac, the discoverer of the law of the expansibility of gases, the companion of Humboldt, and the distinguished meteorologist who first ascended four miles and a half into the air in a balloon. The second and the third were prepared in 1854, and in 1867, by M. Pouillet, the director of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris, and the author of a well-known work on the elements of experimental physics and meteorology, which has been translated into many languages. These reports, although drawn up by an individual, were the results of the deliberations and experiments of a considerable number of scientific men, acting as a commission, and comprising among them such distinguished names as those of Poisson, Fresnel, Becquerel, Duhamel, Fizeau, and Regnault. In the first of these reports, that, namely, of Gay-Lussac, which was adopted by the Academy of Sciences on April 23, 1823, it was premised as a kind of axiom that there are no bodies which do not offer some resistance to the transmission of electricity, and that conductors of small diameter offer more resistance than those which are of the same composition and of larger size. The electrical state was conceived in these investigations as consisting of some kind of matter—as depending upon molecules which are mutually repulsive, and which therefore tend to separate and disperse themselves through space, and which are only retained upon the surface of solid bodies by the pressure of the atmosphere. When the electric matter escapes, it seeks the earth under its tendency to diffuse itself over the most capacious conductors it can find, selecting the most perfect of them that are within its reach, but dividing itself in proportion to their individual capacities of accommodation, when several conductors of unequal power are open to its transmission. A storm-cloud, hovering above in the air, attracts toward the nearer part of the terrestrial surface an electrical matter of a contrary nature to its own, and drives back into the ground an electrical matter of the same nature as its own. Each prominent part of the ground is therefore, for the time, in a state of electrical tension during the presence of a neighboring storm-cloud, and becomes a center of attraction toward which the lightning inclines. When the prominent object is in good connection with the ground, its electrical matter may shoot forth toward that of the cloud, and make a path between it and the cloud. If the prominent body projects as a sharp point toward the cloud, the escape of the electric matter from it to the cloud becomes very rapid, and the lightning strikes to it from the cloud, from a greater distance. It was further conceived that a good conductor protected from any violent discharge a circular space whose radius was twice the height of the rod. An iron bar three quarters of an inch square was taken to be of sufficient dimensions for the construction of a conductor, because no instance had been known of a rod a little in excess of half an inch in diameter having ever been fused or raised to a red heat by lightning. Even small rods or wires that were dispersed by the passage of lightning had served to convey it to the ground, and had protected surrounding objects from single strokes. Trees were recognized as dangerous to animals taking shelter near their trunks, because they do not convey a lightning-discharge with sufficient rapidity to the ground, and because they are worse conductors themselves than animal bodies. But the discharge will not in any case leave a good conductor, well connected with the ground, to strike a living animal placed near its course. The terminal rod of a conductor was ordered to be two and a half inches square at its base, and to taper to a height of twenty or thirty feet above the building, with a needle of platinum, or of copper and silver alloy, at its top. The base of the rod was to be plunged into the ground, and then led away from the building for fifteen feet, being finally turned down into a hole or well fifteen feet deep, and then divided into root-like ramifications, the whole being well packed round with charcoal to protect the metal from rust. In a dry soil the earth contact was to be twice the length of the one which was deemed sufficient in a wet one. It was above all things insisted upon that too great precautions could not be taken to give the lightning a ready passage into the ground, as it was chiefly upon the freedom of this passage that the efficacy of the conductor must depend. A conductor with insufficient earth contact was stigmatized as being not only inefficacious, but dangerous, because it would attract the lightning without being able to convey it to the ground.
It was further asserted in this most comprehensive and notable report that an experience of fifty years had proved buildings to be effectually protected when good conductors were placed on them. In the United States a number of conductors had been known to have been struck, but in not more than two of these cases had the buildings themselves suffered any damage. It was generally assumed, from the data then at command, that buildings which were protected by lightning-rods were not more likely to have the discharge brought down in their neighborhood on account of the presence of the rods, and it was also held that, even if they were open to such a liability, this could be of no practicable moment, because the power of a conductor to attract the lightning more frequently would, of necessity, also involve the capacity to convey it more freely to the ground. Points were spoken of as undoubtedly tending to neutralize the tension of a charged cloud. Dr. Rittenhouse was referred to as having observed in Philadelphia that the points of lightning-conductors were frequently blunted by fusion without the houses to which they were attached having been in any way injured.
The views advocated in this early code of instructions have been dwelt upon it some detail, in order that it may be seen how effectively this document laid down the broad principles of defense which are acted upon even at the present day. This instruction, after it had been stamped with the approval of the Academy of Sciences, became a sort of popular manual under the weight of this sanction. The Government gave force to the instruction by providing that it should have effect in reference to all public buildings and churches. The report also became the chief authority on the subject in most foreign lands. It likewise served the useful purpose of weakening the opposition, which still endeavored to maintain that disastrous explosions were caused by conductors, and furnished clear and precise rules for construction that were intelligible to ordinary workmen.
In the year 1854 iron was much more generally used in buildings than it had been at an earlier date, and some additional knowledge of the conditions and laws of electrical action had been acquired. The Academy, on this account, thought it well to request the Section of Physics to reconsider the lightning-rod instruction of 1823. This led to the first report, which was prepared by M. Pouillet, adopted by the Academy of Sciences on March 5, 1855, and immediately afterward issued by the Government as an additional instruction. In this document it was held that the large masses of iron employed in buildings certainly serve to attract the lightning. If two buildings of an equal size were similarly placed, the one being exclusively of stone and wood, and the other having large masses of metal in its construction, the lightning would certainly strike the latter and avoid the former, just as, when a ball of metal and a ball of wood are presented together toward a charged prime conductor of an electrical machine, it is always the former, and never the latter, which receives the spark. A dry soil, it was pointed out, does not attract the lightning. But, if, under such a soil, there occur at some depth large masses of metal, or accumulations of water, the lightning would explode through the dry earth, splitting it up as a coat of varnish is pierced by an electric spark. The line of lightning-discharge is always marked out for it beforehand, in conformity with the law of electric tension, beginning at the same instant at both the extremities of the track. The objects which are most liable to strokes of lightning are good conductors that project farthest over toward the clouds.
In the report of 1855 the occasion was used to draw attention to some instructive instances of the mechanical effects of lightning-discharges which had taken place upon the open sea. In 1827 the packet-boat New York, not at the time carrying a conductor, was struck during its passage across the ocean, and a leaden pipe, three inches in diameter and one inch thick, was fused where the discharge escaped into the sea. A chain of iron wire, one quarter of an inch in diameter and one hundred and thirty feet long, having been then hoisted up on one of the masts and trailed in the sea, was struck by a second discharge, and scattered into molten molecules and broken fragments, the bridge being set on fire, although at the time covered by a sheet of hail and a deluge of rain. The Jupiter, in the North Sea fleet, in 1854, carrying a chain of several strands of fortieth-of-an-inch brass wire, two hundred and sixty feet long, hung from the mainmast-head, and trailing seven feet into the sea, was struck, and had the chain scattered into thousands of fragments, without any damage being done to the vessel itself. A Turkish ship cruising near at the time, with a chain from the masthead which did not reach into the sea, had a hole like that which would have been made by a cannon-shot pierced through the hull near the water-line. The inference was drawn from these cases that chains, and especially small chains, were not trustworthy for the purpose of conducting discharges of lightning. The mechanical violence sustained was perceived to be due to the circumstance that the conductors provided were of a bad principle of construction. They were at the least from nine to ten times too small. Conductors provided by engineering art are intended to be struck, but struck in such a manner as to govern the lightning, and to render the heaviest strokes harmless. No case had been known of a continuous iron rod, three quarters of an inch in diameter, or with a sectional area of one and a quarter square inch, having been structurally injured. The cases alluded to were held to demonstrate that conductors must have a sufficient size and thickness of metal, and must be continuous and without defect from end to end. It was definitely settled that, in accordance with these requirements, a square iron rod used as a defense against lightning should have, at least, a diameter of nine sixteenths of an inch, and that a round rod should have a diameter of ten sixteenths of an inch.
Some modification was also made in this instruction in reference to air-terminals. It was considered that a blunt point, fashioned like the apex of a cone subtending an angle of thirty degrees, would be less liable to fusion than a sharper and more attenuated point, and that therefore it should be adopted for the upper terminal, although it might, perhaps, not exert altogether so satisfactory a neutralizing influence. The area protected by a conductor was now considered not to be so definite and certain as it was previously held to be. It was recognized that it would be less in the case of a building with a metal roof, for instance, than in other circumstances. The earth contact, it was remarked, could not be looked upon as efficacious unless it were made, through the instrumentality of sheets of water, at least as large as the area of the storm-cloud, and access to such sheets must be secured by boring both in the direction of the surface moisture and in that of the deeper soil. Chains of red copper with a square section of three eighths of an inch, and weighing a pound and three quarters per yard, were recommended for ships. Such were the principal suggestions of a practical kind that were submitted in this report. In all other particulars the provisions of the earlier instructions were substantially approved and confirmed. There was, however, one incidental remark contained in this excellent report which is deserving of the highest commendation and approval on account of its practical wisdom. This emphasized the necessity for continued and minute observation and study of the effects of thunder-storms, with a view alike to ascertain what it is that lightning spares, as well as what it strikes. It is of the utmost importance, for the advance of man's knowledge in this branch of physical investigation, that all instances of injury from lightning should be immediately examined and tested, and that all facts ascertained should be accurately described and placed upon record.
In the year 1866 the Minister of War in France became doubtful in regard to the measures which were then taken to secure powder-magazines against accident from lightning, and in consequence once again brought the matter formally under the consideration of the Academy of Sciences. It was this action of the minister which led to the third report, also drawn up by M. Pouillet, adopted by the Academy in the beginning of 1867, and shortly afterward issued under the authority of the French Government. In this report the best method of making joints in a conductor by overlapping, riveting, and soldering the contiguous ends, was pointed out, and it was urged that the underground continuation of the rod should be carried on to an adequately moist place, even if miles had to be traversed for the purpose. The increase in the number of air-terminals and the connecting them together were deemed of more consequence than the increasing the height of a smaller number. Secondary terminals were advised for every additional length of thirty-three yards of roof. The expansion of rods by heat was provided for by inserting free semicircular bands of red copper at suitable intervals, four inches of addition to the length being allowed for in every hundred yards of rod.
The example set by France in the preparation of these reports was followed for the first time in England by the appointment of a Naval Commission in 1839 to inquire into the protection of the vessels of the Royal Navy. This commission was formed in consequence of the public attention which had been drawn to the matter by Snow Harris, who stated that, within the forty years that ended in 1832, two hundred and fifty vessels had been more or less seriously injured by lightning. The commission somewhat haltingly reported that there was no harm in lightning-conductors, and that it thought the system of protection might be tried. Snow Harris thereupon introduced the plan of nailing a double set of overlapping strips of copper along the masts. After the adoption of this method the conductors were struck by lightning in several instances, but in no case did the vessels suffer any damage. This excellent system was only superseded in the end by the natural result of the introduction of iron vessels, which made the ships themselves efficient conductors in virtue of the principle of their construction. The original idea of Snow Harris was, indeed, to bring the general structure requiring defense as nearly as possible into the same non-resisting state that it would have if entirely composed of metal. He was knighted for his services in 1847, and in 1855 was employed to design the protection of the then new Houses of Parliament at Westminster, which he carried out by a modification of the plan that he had matured for the protection of the vessels of the Royal Navy. Two-inch tubes of copper, connected by solid screw plugs and coupling pieces, were affixed to all the more elevated portions of the building. The sum of £2,314 provided for the execution of this work was memorable as being the first grant made by the English Parliament for the protection of a public building against lightning.
About ten years after the erection of the lightning-conductors upon the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, it was found to be desirable to provide a similar protection for the magnificent old Hôtel de Ville at Brussels, in consequence of some damage having occurred to the principal tower of the building during a thunder storm. The communal administration of the city had recourse to the Académie Royale des Sciences for advice in the emergency, and a commission, consisting of M. Duprez, M. Liagre, and Professor Melsens, was appointed to give a careful consideration to the matter. Professor Melsens visited Plymouth and London, to consult with Sir W. Snow Harris, and to examine the plan of defense which had been adopted for the Houses of Parliament. Shortly afterward the commission at Brussels submitted to the communal administration the famous plan of lightning-defense which has since been carried out at the Hôtel de Ville, and which has been described in the minutest detail in an illustrated work entitled "Description détaillée des Paratonnerers établis sur l'Hôtel de Ville de Bruxelles," and printed in 1865, in explanation of his views, by Professor Melsens himself.
Professor Melsens's method of defense differs in one important particular from the measures which had been recommended in the Paris instructions, and which have been most generally adopted in England. He had for some time been inclined to advocate the use of numerous rods of small size, rather than one dominant rod of more ample dimensions, whenever large buildings with numerous projecting pinnacles and gables were concerned. His view virtually is that the aim in such cases should be to throw a sort of metallic net broadcast over the building, with salient points carried up into the air at all projecting parts of the structure, and with numerous rootlets plunging down into the conducting mass of the earth beneath; and he contrived an experiment which he was in the habit of exhibiting to his visitors at the laboratory in l'École de Médecine Vétérinaire de l'État, which certainly went very far to justify the position he had taken up. He prepared a spherical case or cage of stout iron wire, and, having inclosed a small bird in this cage, he passed electric shocks through it from a battery of fifteen very large Leyden-jars, without causing either injury or inconvenience to the bird. A couple of little feathered pensioners were maintained at the laboratory for the performance of this experiment, and were subjected to the ordeal a considerable number of times, and there is no doubt could be subjected to it for any number of times, without the remotest chance that they would ever be touched by the terrific discharges that were flashed through the walls of their prison-cell in such close propinquity to them. What happened in the case of the birds in this experiment assuredly would happen also in the case of any building that was encaged in metallic rods in a similar way. No demonstration of a mere physical fact could possibly be more absolute or more complete.
The Hôtel de Ville at Brussels is a large mediæval building, inclosing in its center an open quadrangular court, and surmounted in the middle of its principal face by an elaborately pinnacled tower, 297 feet high, with a gilt statue of St. Michael at the top, standing upon a prostrate dragon and flourishing a drawn sword above his head. There are four galleries on the spire beneath the statue, and there are also six spire-crowned subordinate turrets, and three parapeted gables projecting above the roof from other parts of the building. The statue of the saint is reared upon a lead-covered cupola or platform, and Professor Melsens determined that the point of its sword should serve as the culminant point of his system of lightning-rods; but he also took the precaution of very largely re-enforcing this highest terminal by surrounding the base of the lead-covered platform at the feet of the statue with a chevaux-de-frise of outwardly and upwardly branching rods, constituting a radiant circle of tufted points or aigrettes. There were altogether forty-eight of these points projecting round the feet of the statue to a distance of eight feet in all directions. From these radiating aigrettes, and from the statue standing above, a series of eight iron rods were carried down along the face of the tower and the slope of the roof, through an entire length of 310 feet, to the interior court-yard. But as these rods descended along the perpendicular face of the building they were joined by other similar rods from the various subordinate turrets, pinnacles, gables, and ridges, which all had their own systems of terminal points rising up toward the sky. There were altogether 426 points projecting up from the building. An observer looking down from one of the elevated galleries of the spire took in at a glance quite a little forest of spikes bristling up into the air, which were all in direct metallic contact with the main stems of the conductors.
An even more ample provision was made for the connection of this system of conductors with the ground. The vertical rods were first collected into an iron box fixed about a yard above the ground in the inner court, and filled with molten zinc so as to unite the whole into one continuous block of metal. From the hollow of this box twenty-four iron rods, two fifths of an inch in diameter, issued, and of these a third part was carried to an iron cylinder sunk in a well, another third was connected with the iron water-mains of the town, and the remaining third was put into communication in a similar way with the gas-mains. Professor Melsens estimated that the earth contact which was established by this threefold distribution amounted altogether to 333,000 square yards of conducting communication. Iron rods were used in preference to copper in this construction on account of the cost which would have been entailed if copper had been employed for so extensive a work, and also because Professor Melsens had satisfied himself that iron has more tenacity and power of cohesion than copper when exposed to the disintegrating strain of powerful discharges of electricity. He devised a very pretty experimental proof of this, in which the discharge of a large battery of Leyden-jars was passed through a fine wire of equal dimensions throughout, but of which one half was composed of copper and the other half of iron. The iron portion was converted into a beaded, but still unbroken, strand by the discharge, but the copper part was scattered into a black impalpable powder. It is scarcely too much to say that the Hôtel de Ville at Brussels at the present day, with its lofty aigrette-defended tower, its forest of points, its net-work of rods, and its widely ramifying earthroots, is, as far as danger from lightning is concerned, one of the best protected buildings in the world. It may safely be affirmed that it is quite as hard for the lightning to get mischievously at this building, as it is for the discharge of the Leyden battery to get at Professor Melsens's birds when they are inclosed in their iron cage. In the heaviest of storms Professor Melsens travels about within the meshes of his system of conductors, to investigate their behavior, with the most perfect sang-froid and confidence. In 1866 Professor Melsens examined with great care the transmitting capacity of his system of conductors at the Hôtel de Ville, and in this final investigation he employed all the various means that are now at the command of science. He used continuous currents, instantaneous discharges, sparks from the electrical machine, from powerful batteries, and from a large Ruhmkorff coil, and with all he found that the conductibility of his system was practically perfect.
One of the grounds upon which Professor Melsens adopts his system of multiple rods is the circumstance that an electrical discharge diffuses itself through all the branches of a multifold conductor in proportion to the resistance which is offered by each part, and that it does not all concentrate itself into the shortest and most open path. He has devised some very ingenious experiments for proving this position, and has been able to show the sixty-thousandth part of a discharge passing by a very narrow and roundabout path, when a broad and direct one was open, and traversed by the larger proportions of the discharge. He brought this part of his subject under the notice of the Academy of Sciences of Belgium in a special note, which was printed in their "Bulletins" in 1875.—Edinburgh Review.
↑ It is, perhaps, worthy of remark that, in this lecture, the experiments were made by the primitive instrumentality of a glass rod and silk pocket-handkerchief.
↑ M. de Fonvielle says of this plan of defense that Professor Melsens does not leave the lightning a gap that it can get through.


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People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing — that's why we recommend it daily. Someday is not a day of the week.
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text:
THE LAUREATES OF 2022 EDITION HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED
SEE THE LAUREATES
STRATEGIC SPONSOR
INTERCOLLEGIATE CONSORTIUM
THE INTERNATIONAL STEFAN BANACH PRIZE
2009-2017 editions
The International Stefan Banach Prize for a Doctoral Dissertation in the Mathematical Sciences was established in 2008 by the Polish Mathematical Society and Ericpol Telecom – an IT company based in Łódź, who financed the prize and the competition itself. The idea came from the President of the Polish Mathematical Society, Stefan Jackowski, and Vice-President, Paweł Walczak – member of the Łódź branch.
The Prize was awarded annually from 2009 until 2017, with the competition open to young mathematicians from Belarus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, and Ukraine. Over nine years the competition had six winners from Poland, and one each from Hungary, Denmark and Finland. The list of winners is available here. In 2016 Ericpol became part of the Swedish Ericsson Group, which withdrew from organizing the competition after 2017, leading to the event being suspended.
current editions
On the centenary of Stefan Banach receiving his doctoral degree, we would like to reactivate this competition. The goals, as before, are to promote mathematics and provide financial supports to the most talented young researches from Central and Eastern Europe. The historical and political circumstances of these countries following World War 2 have made starting out on the research path a much more difficult task than in Western Europe.
We would like to thank the PwC company, who is the Chief Sponsor of the Competition. We would also like to thank the Strategic Sponsor: the University Center of Excellence at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, as well as the Intercollegiate Consortium composed of Departments of Mathematics at nine of the largest universities in Poland. The Consortium, as a whole, is the largest of the sponsors.
We invite young doctors of mathematics (with the degree obtained between May 1, 2021 and April 30, 2022) from Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine to take part in our competition.
Submissions can be sent to the Polish Mathematical Society until May 15, 2022. Winners will be announced no later than July 31, 2022.
STEFAN BANACH (1892-1945)
Stefan Banach – the founder of functional analysis and the patron of the prize – symbolizes the values of talent, hard-work and determination. Banach, known also for his talent and unconventional approach to research, rose to prominence as one of the most famous mathematicians in the world.
Banach was born in 1892 and spent his youth in Kraków. He studied at the Technical University in Lwów. In 1920, without completing a university level mathematical education, he received the doctoral degree in mathematics from the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów, where after four years he became a full professor. In 1935 he was invited to deliver a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Oslo. Shortly before World War II Banach was elected President of the Polish Mathematical Society. Banach died in Lwów in the Summer of 1945.
Countries covered by the contest:
Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine
Polish Mathematical Society
Sniadeckich 8, 00-656 Warsaw
zgptm@ptm.org.pl
www.ptm.org.pl


text:
Belgian WorldTour team sponsors consider budgets as coronavirus crisis continues
By Cyclingnews published 8 April 20
Deceuninck-QuickStep and Lotto Soudal could be affected by potential 'adjustments'
Lotto Soudal's Thomas De Gendt and Deceuninck-QuickStep's Julian Alaphilippe go head-to-head on the seventh and final stage of the 2020 Paris-Nice (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Belgium's two WorldTour teams, Deceuninck-QuickStep and Lotto Soudal, could see their budgets reduced by potential cutbacks from their major sponsors as the coronavirus crisis continues, according to reports in the Belgian press.
The lack of any racing during the sport's current shutdown has now prompted some serious conversations between team managers and their teams' sponsors.
Lotto Soudal are one of a number of teams – along with CCC Team, Astana, Bahrain McLaren and Mitchelton-Scott – that have already reduced their riders', and in most cases members of staff's, salaries.
Deceuninck-QuickStep's main sponsor has now told Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad that it is talking to team manager Patrick Lefevere about reducing its contribution.
Mitchelton-Scott make substantial cut to wages
ASO set May 15 deadline for Tour de France decision
Lefevere: I'm sceptical about a July Tour de France
Van Avermaet wins lockdown edition of Tour of Flanders
'It's a special situation' says Lotto Soudal manager Lelangue of riders' reduced pay
"Especially now that we're in our second season [as sponsor], we wanted to reap the benefits of our sponsorship," Deceuninck CEO Francis Van Eeckhout told nieuwsblad.be on Tuesday. "That's not possible now.
"But we know how many riders, sports directors, carers and drivers are employed by the team," he added, "and we're not going to pull the plug."
Experienced team boss Lefevere has always been realistic about the difficulties of finding the budget to run one of the world's biggest and best teams, but also defended his squad's current situation.
"Last year, they [team sponsors] were of course spoiled," he said of Deceuninck-QuickStep's 68 race victories. "Now, we're not winning as much, but you can't say that we haven't been offering exposure.
"We actually have more media visibility than last year, and last weekend more than 600,000 people watched the 'virtual Tour of Flanders'," he added, in which Deceuninck-QuickStep riders Remco Evenepoel, Yves Lampaert and Zdenek Stybar took part.
"But I also want to wait until April 20 to get a global picture," Lefevere said, having asked Deceuninck to revisit the budget situation then, according to Het Nieuwsblad.
The newspaper also spoke to Lotto Soudal's two main sponsors, where it was a similar picture.
"Our contribution will remain unchanged for the time being, with the emphasis on that being provisional," Joke Vermoere, spokesperson for the Belgian national lottery, Lotto, said, adding that the outcome of Tour de France organiser ASO's May 15 deadline to decide when the Tour will take place will be key.
"Then there might be an adjustment of our sponsor budget," Vermoere said.
"We won't drop the team, but it makes sense that certain things need to be arranged," co-sponsor Soudal's PR manager Marko Heijl said. "We have daily contact [with the team], and this situation will bring repercussions to the team's sponsorship budget."


Spectrailis optical coherence tomography has come with a new posterior pole asymmetry analysis for glaucoma diagnosis. The aim of the investigators study was to assess its applicability in diagnosing early glaucoma patients.
The study group consisted of consecutive unilateral glaucoma patients, categorized as early stage by Hodapp-Anderson-Parrish classification.
Normal control subjects had a normal ocular examination, Intraocular pressure (IOP) <22 mmHg, no past history of high IOP, no family history of glaucoma, normal optic disc morphology and visual field in both eyes. One eye of control subject was randomly selected.
This was a cross sectional study with one time measurement of the diagnostic parameters of the optical coherence tomography.
Consecutive 80 eyes of 80 normal subjects and 76 eyes of 76 patients with early glaucoma were included for the study.
Any retinal or neurological disease other than glaucoma that could confound the results of visual field examination and OCT.
Mori S, Hangai M, Sakamoto A, Yoshimura N. Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography measurement of macular volume for diagnosing glaucoma. J Glaucoma. 2010 Oct-Nov;19(8):528-34. doi: 10.1097/IJG.0b013e3181ca7acf.
Nakatani Y, Higashide T, Ohkubo S, Takeda H, Sugiyama K. Evaluation of macular thickness and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness for detection of early glaucoma using spectral domain optical coherence tomography. J Glaucoma. 2011 Apr-May;20(4):252-9. doi: 10.1097/IJG.0b013e3181e079ed.
Seong M, Sung KR, Choi EH, Kang SY, Cho JW, Um TW, Kim YJ, Park SB, Hong HE, Kook MS. Macular and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer measurements by spectral domain optical coherence tomography in normal-tension glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2010 Mar;51(3):1446-52. doi: 10.1167/iovs.09-4258. Epub 2009 Oct 15.
Rao HL, Babu JG, Addepalli UK, Senthil S, Garudadri CS. Retinal nerve fiber layer and macular inner retina measurements by spectral domain optical coherence tomograph in Indian eyes with early glaucoma. Eye (Lond). 2012 Jan;26(1):133-9. doi: 10.1038/eye.2011.277. Epub 2011 Nov 11.


Alexis is wearing a cute dress off the rack at H&M and we got her to talk about modern relationships, why women pick guys who are maybe too much in charge and how she enjoyed that fact that the film is very "real", even including a romantic love scene break to reach for a condom!
Alexis verified there will be no more "Traveling Pants" films and we talked about her very different upcoming role as a young woman living in the 1800's in The Conspirator.
Q: Tommy and Daniel are almost polar opposites as guy types. Why do you think Beth originally goes for Tommy?
Alexis: At the beginning she has a pretty clear idea in her head about what she's looking for in a man. I think when she meets Tommy he's got everything she's looking for and she's really happy about that and she's falling for him. But she can't quite see (the real) him because of this ideal that she has.
So when she meets Daniel he's probably got none of the things that she's looking for. At first she doesn't know what to make of him. I don't think she meets a lot of guys like him so I think she's really curious and as they develop a friendship she can't figure him out. She wants to know more and that's kind of how they start to get close.
Q: In this film, Scott Porter's character Tommy sure isn't who we think he is. Do you think we should end up feeling sorry for him as your character Beth does?
Alexis: I don't think that I've ever actually said to someone, 'I feel sorry for you.' And at that point I think she's wanting to hurt him. I think she's trying not to be unkind. Maybe there's nothing left to say at that point and that's just what comes out.
So it was really an interesting scene, I'm not one to tell people what they should feel. I think you should feel whatever you feel at that point, after watching the film.
Q: Beth was so excited to get to go to Italy and disappointed when her trip falls through. Is there any place that you, Ms. "Traveling Pants" is dying to go?
Alexis: (she laughs) I'd love to sail around the Mediterranean. That would be nice. (In the film), I think it's also a comment on modern life, if not modern love. Everybody has these things that they would like to do but work or life or family or whatever it is gets in the way. Those things exist. Those things inspire us, just as love does but they're just things that we want to do. Sometimes a lot of people don't get to but I think it's nice to mention them because that adds and informs you a little bit about who she is as a character.
Q: Do you feel that Beth is just living her life according to Tommy's schedule? Why wasn't he ever living on her schedule?
Alexis: I think that's just Tommy. That's kind of his way of doing things. He likes to keep people at arm's length and especially people he's dating. He likes to keep people guessing because that probably gives him the control. In Beth's mind, maybe that's a part of her ideal man, that he is an anchor, that he gives her life some stability.
And maybe in a different kind of relationship she might discover that she could have more in her life like travel and other things if she were with a different kind of person. She's trapped by her relationship.
Q: But yet, when she figures him out, she drops him just like that so she's strong.
Alexis: Yeah, and I think that's a New York woman, too.
Q: The film is pretty "real" about modern relationships. They include the moment when Beth reaches for a condom, adding some reality.
Alexis: I liked that part of the scene because it just adds a realistic [element]. Not an embarrassment but an awkwardness that happens. I mean there were a lot of little moments in the film that felt more realistic than in your average movie, a movie with a romantic storyline. That was one of them.
Q: Would you go back to TV or do a big studio film?
Alexis: Yeah. I'm open. There are great films made through studios and independently and great characters on television. I'm not really confined to one sort of medium. I'm just looking for interesting characters and good stories to do.
Q: Your character in The Good Guy is a very modern young woman but you just finished playing a woman living in the 1800's; Sarah Weston who is caught up in the conspiracy to kill President Abraham Lincoln. Was that role a challenge? How did you prepare for it?
Alexis: Well, I was mostly a love interest but there were a lot of questions that I had about social propriety and certain manners that I thought I should have because I play Mary Surratt's defense lawyer's love interest. She's from the north and she's educated and I wanted her to be a contrast between her and this other nurse who was being accused.
But it was a story that I had not heard and so it was fascinating for me because most people are taught that John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln and as it turns out there were a lot of conspirators involved in his murder and Mary Surratt was accused as one of them. But she ran a boarding house where they conspired and it's about her trial and how it was completely unconstitutional.


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Case History: Farai Maguwu
À propos de Farai Maguwu
About the situation
Farai Maguwu was arrested for his human rights work, charged and detained for 40 days by the Zimbabwean government.
About Farai Maguwu
Farai Maguwu is a human rights defender and founding Director of the Center for Research and Development which carries out extensive research and documentation on human rights abuses and illicit trade in diamonds in Zimbabwe. Maguwu was the first Zimbabwean to bring to international attention the horrific abuses committed by Zimbabwe's security forces in the Marange diamond fields in 2008.
Rencontre avec Farai Maguwu
14 Octobre 2011 : Police harassment and intimidation of human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu
21 Octobre 2010 : Charges dropped against human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu
17 Août 2010 : Court eases bail conditions of human rights defender, Farai Maguwu
12 Juillet 2010 : Farai Maguwu finally released on bail
2 Juillet 2010 : Human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu denied bail for a third time
21 Juin 2010 : Farai Maguwu's bail application denied by High Court
3 Juin 2010 : Decision on bail delayed for human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu
Police harassment and intimidation of human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu
On 10 October 2011, human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu was detained by Zimbabwean officials at Harare International Airport. While detained Maguwu was subjected to questioning regarding his trip and his organisation's human rights activities, and his luggage was searched.
After being released Maguwu received numerous anonymous phone calls which were terminated each time he attempted to answer. Farai Maguwu is the director of the Mutare Centre for Research and Development (CRD), an organisation which carries out research and advocacy in the area of human rights, particularly with respect to diamond mining, and has campaigned strongly against alleged military human rights abuses and illegal mining operations in Zimbabwe.
On 10 October 2011, at approximately 2 pm, Farai Maguwu observed an unknown man looking at him suspiciously while he was waiting to pass from the immigration queue to the arrivals hall. At the immigration desk, the officer told Farai Maguwu that she was having difficulties scanning his passport, and she signalled the man who the human rights defender had seen observing him, and who is believed to belong to the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). Although the official waved Farai Maguwu through, more suspected CIO officials began to arrive into the arrivals hall.
After collecting his luggage, which had already been unloaded from the carousel, Farai Maguwu was stopped and asked to produce his passport by three plain clothes police officers. A fourth man then arrived and asked Farai Maguwu to follow him to a room in which six men had gathered, several of whom identified themselves as officials of the Criminal Investigation Department. The security officials searched Farai Maguwu's luggage and questioned him about his trip and the activities of CRD, before releasing him. On his way from the airport to Mutare, the human rights defender began to receive anonymous calls which were terminated each time he attempted to answer. The calls continued throughout the night until the following morning.
This is not the first time Farai Maguwu has been harassed by state security agents in relation to his freedom of movement. On 10 September 2011, he was similarly harassed and had his property seized by officials when attempting to leave Harare International Airport. These actions prompted the issuance of a High Court Order requiring state authorities to "desist and stop from interfering with the Applicant's freedom of movement, association, right to property and protection of the law." The actions of the officials at Harare International Airport on 10 October and the continued refusal to return the property confiscated on 10 September appear to be in contempt of this court order.
Charges dropped against human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu
On 21 October 2010 charges were dropped against human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu. Harare Magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti informed the court that Farai Maguwu would not be placed on remand, but was free to go. Leading prosecutor Tapiwa Kasema told the court that the state of Zimbabwe was no longer interested in pursuing the matter.
Mr Maguwu, who was charged five months ago and was on bail awaiting trial had appeared at Rotten Row Courts for his routine remand. He was informed that the charges had in fact been dropped and he was free to leave. Although Mr Maguwu has been released, the charges were dropped before a plea was lodged with the court, therefore the authorities may choose to issue a summons and raise the same charges in the future.
Farai Maguwu was arrested on 3 June 2010 and charged with publishing falsehoods against the State with the intention of causing prejudice to the security or economic interests of the country, a charge which carries a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment. Farai Maguwu was released on bail on 12 July 2010 after spending 39 days in prison. The conditions of his bail were relaxed on 6 August 2010 when a travel ban to which he had been subject was canceled, and he was ordered to report to the police station only once a week rather than daily.
Court eases bail conditions of human rights defender, Farai Maguwu
A Zimbabwe Magistrates' Court has eased the bail conditions of human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu. At a second bail hearing which took place in Court 6 in Harare on 17 August, the Presiding Magistrate, Munamato Mutevedzi, renewed Farai Maguwu's bail but relaxed the conditions of his release, cancelling a travel ban to which he had been subject beyond a 40km zone around the city of Mutare, and ordering that he report to the police station only once a week rather than daily. Farai Maguwu has now been remanded on bail until 23 September 2010.
Farai Maguwu was initially arrested on 3 June 2010 following a meeting with Mr Abbey Chikane, a Kimberley Process monitor, in which they discussed evidence of alleged military abuses in the diamond-rich Marange region in Mutare West. Farai Maguwu was released on bail on 12 July 2010. The court is yet to set a date for Farai Maguwu's trial. If found guilty of the charges of "communicating and publishing falsehoods against the State with the intention to cause prejudice to the security or economic interests of the country" under Section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act), Farai Maguwu would face up to 20 years' imprisonment.
In addition, court orders previously issued by the High Court of Zimbabwe and the Magistrates Court have not been complied with. The orders required the submission to the court of an inventory of Farai Maguwu's possessions as well as his passport, which had been seized by the police, with a view to enabling the eventual return of the items to the human rights defender. However, although the defence team learned that this list was eventually submitted, to date none of Farai Maguwu's possessions have been returned to him, and it is unknown whether his passport has been surrendered. During the bail hearing on 17 August, the court refused to consider Farai Maguwu's lawyers' complaints about the matter, and only directed that the Prosecutor and defence team work together outside the court to solve the problem.
Farai Maguwu finally released on bail
After 39 days of detention, human rights defender Farai Maguwu was finally released on bail on 12 July 2010. The High Court granted bail on conditions of the payment of $1,500 bail deposit, daily reporting to Mutare Central police station, that he resides in his home in Mutare and that he does not travel more than 40 km from Mutare, except for court hearing in Harare.
Bail had been denied three times on 10 and 21 June and 2 July on the basis of the Public Prosecutor's argument that more time was needed for the investigation. It is believed that police were deliberately refusing to conclude their investigations in order to prevent the court from granting bail to Farai Maguwu.
Since his arrest, Farai Maguwu's detention has been characterised by accusations of ill-treatment including threats and delays in providing medical assistance, and worrying procedural irregularities including his removal from remand for interrogation over the weekend of 12-13 June.
Farai Maguwu was originally arrested on 3 June 2010 in Mutare, Zimbabwe, and has been charged with publishing falsehoods against the State with the intention to cause prejudice to the security or economic interests of the country: a charge which, should he be found guilty, could lead to up to 20-years imprisonment.
Farai Maguwu's arrest came following a meeting, on 25 May 2010, with Kimberley Process monitor Mr Abbey Chikane in which he discussed evidence of alleged military abuses in the diamond-rich Marange region in Mutare West. Mr Chikane in turn informed the Zimbabwean authorities about the evidence, reportedly for fear of being arrested himself.
Human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu denied bail for a third time
Farai Maguwu was denied bail for a third time on 2 July 2010 by Magistrate Donal Ndirowei. The grounds of the denial were that the State needed more time to conclude its investigation. A previous application for bail was rejected on 10 June 2010 on the basis that the police would have concluded their investigations by 22 June 2010. As outlined in a previous update, bail was rejected again on 21 June 2010.
It is believed that police are deliberately refusing to conclude their investigations in order to prevent the court from granting bail to Farai Maguwu. On 30 June the State sought a further two weeks to conclude its investigations. Farai Maguwu remains in prison hospital where he has developed stomach and abdominal pains which have resulted in diahorrea. On 30 June 2010 Farai Maguwu testified in court that he had been put in leg irons and chains which prevented him from sleeping properly or from freely using the toilet. He told the court that when he sought an explanation for this treatment from prison guards, he was told that they were following orders from above which they had been ordered to obey because his case was allegedly 'political'. Farai Maguwu has instructed his lawyers to appeal this latest rejection of bail on the grounds that no proof of any pending relevant investigations was tendered in court, that his own testimony went unchallenged, that the testimony given by Detective Inspector Dowa was contradictory in nature and that the ruling by the Court was far removed from the evidence led in Court.
Farai Maguwu was originally arrested on 3 June 2010 in Mutare, Zimbabwe, and has been charged with publishing falsehoods against the State with the intention to cause prejudice to the security or economic interests of the country: a charge which, should he be found guilty, could lead to up to 20-years imprisonment. The Judge stated that the crimes of which Farai Maguwu is charged represent "treacherous and abominable" behaviour. No mention whatsoever was made, however, of the admitted denial of medical attention and medication and the admitted illegal detention of Farai Maguwu.
Farai Maguwu's arrest came following a meeting, on 25 May 2010, with Kimberley Process monitor Mr Abbey Chikane in which he discussed evidence of alleged military abuses in the diamond-rich Marange region in Mutare West. Mr Chikane in turn informed the Zimbabwean authorities about the evidence, reportedly for fear of being arrested himself. Since his arrest, Farai Maguwu's detention has been characterised by accusations of ill-treatment including threats, and worrying procedural irregularities including his removal from remand for interrogation over the weekend of 12-13 June.
Farai Maguwu's bail application denied by High Court
On 21 June 2010, Farai Maguwu's bail application was denied by High Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu, who stated in his nine-page judgement that Magistrate Don Ndirowei had not misdirected himself in denying Farai Maguwu bail in a hearing on 10 June 2010.
The Judge stated that the crimes of which Farai Maguwu is charged represent "treacherous and abominable" behaviour. No mention whatsoever was made, however, of the admitted denial of medical attention and medication and the admitted illegal detention of Farai Maguwu.
Farai Maguwu's arrest came following a meeting, on 25 May 2010, with Kimberley Process monitor Mr Abbey Chikane in which he discussed evidence of alleged military abuses in the diamond-rich Marange region in Mutare West.
Mr Chikane in turn informed the Zimbabwean authorities about the evidence, reportedly for fear of being arrested himself. Since his arrest, Farai Maguwu's detention has been characterised by accusations of ill-treatment including threats, and worrying procedural irregularities including his removal from remand for interrogation over the weekend of 12-13 June.
Decision on bail delayed for human rights defender Mr Farai Maguwu
Farai Maguwu remains in detention in Zimbabwe pending a bail hearing which has been postponed until 21 June 2010. He was originally arrested on 3 June 2010 in Mutare, Zimbabwe, and has been charged with publishing falsehoods against the State with the intention to cause prejudice to the security or economic interests of the country: a charge which, should he be found guilty, could lead to up to 20-years imprisonment. Bail was denied on 10 June.
Farai Maguwu's arrest came following a meeting, on 25 May 2010, with Kimberley Process monitor Mr Abbey Chikane in which he discussed evidence of alleged military abuses in the diamond-rich Marange region in Mutare West. Mr Chikane in turn informed the Zimbabwean authorities about the evidence, reportedly for fear of being arrested himself. The following day, it is reported that a group of heavily-armed men visited Farai Maguwu's home looking for him, and police arrested his brother, Lisbern, in what some lawyers allege to have been a "hostage arrest". Farai Mugawu subsequently handed himself over to police in Mutare on 3 June 2010 in the presence of his lawyer.
Since his arrest, serious concerns have arisen regarding the treatment of Farai Maguwu whilst in detention. On the night of 4 June 2010, Farai Maguwu's blanket was taken from him and he was forced to sleep without any cover on a cement floor, leading to the development of a fever, as well as throat and chest infections. From that point on, Farai Maguwu was consistently denied access to medication and medical attention by prison staff, despite a court order on 10 June 2010 which ordered that he be examined by a medical doctor. Most worryingly, it has been reported that subsequently, Farai Maguwu was denied access to hospital-prescribed medication, and an attempt was made to substitute it with another form of medication which had not been prescribed. The resultant deterioration in his condition was such that he was admitted to Avenues Clinic on 17 June 2010.
Farai Maguwu's detention has also been characterised by worrying procedural irregularities. Farai Maguwu was kept in detention without a Warrant for Further Detention – which is required after 48 hours, and thus became necessary on 5 June 2010 – until one was finally obtained on 7 June 2010.
Furthermore, Farai Maguwu has been illegally removed from remand on various occasions. On 6 June 2010, it is reported that an attempt was made to remove Farai Maguwu from his cell for interrogation by Detective Inspector Henry Dowa. Despite attempts by lawyers to intervene and protect the rights of Farai Maguwu, he was interrogated for an hour and moved to Harare Central Police Station.
On the weekend of 12 and 13 June 2010, Farai Maguwu was again removed from remand and transferred to Matapi police cells for interrogation. According to Farai Maguwu's lawyers, the Matapi detention facilities have been condemned as unfit for the incarceration of humans by Zimbabwe's Supreme Court, and detention therein constitutes a violation of the constitutional right to be protected from inhuman and degrading treatment.
Farai Maguwu was also threatened on various occasions, in particular when he was removed from remand prison on 12-13 June. Two individuals to whom Farai Maguwu had been handed over for interrogation without the presence of his lawyers threatened that untold harm would be done to him if he did not cooperate with the police.
He was also informed by Law and Order officers that he was damaging his chances of early release and making life more difficult for himself by listening to his lawyers. On another occasion, Farai Maguwu was visited one evening by an unknown individual who threatened to make life very difficult for him and cause him unspecified harm. Farai Maguwu was also informed that his relocation took place at the request of the KGIV, a military establishment.
Violations #Acharnement judiciaire #Arrestation / Détention / Emprisonnement


CEAC has a variety of small groups which regularly from every week to once a month. Care Groups are anywhere from five to fifteen individuals who gather as a smaller community for bible study and fellowship. They may meet according to geographical location or commonality (e.g. seniors, couples, Filipino-speaking, etc.).


text:
Parhippolyte cavernicola is een garnalensoort uit de familie van de Barbouriidae. De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1996 door Wicksten.

Barbouriidae

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Mark Pontin Group – Kaleidoscope
The third album from the Mark Pontin Group couldn't be better named.
Previous album Textures reflected its title (a textured affair that ranged from gritty amps to 11 blues raunch to the melodically soulful) but here we have a Kaleidoscope of ever-shifting musical colours that continually change shape though a narrative that tells the tale of a man who wakes up to find he's lost not just the one he loves, but everything else.
As dark as all that sounds Kaleidoscope is a musically uplifting work due, in no small part, to the late 60s/ early 70s soul-blues-funk vibe and feel of the album, which suits its narrative perfectly (even the album cover reflects the musical timeframe within).
The fact that Mark Pontin – a consummate singer (with soulful tendencies) and exemplary guitarist – was listening to a lot of Johnny Guitar Watson, Sly And The Family Stone, James Brown and the band Rufus, among others, at the time of recording, is also evident (no bad thing).
Additionally, much of the album features Pontin's '61 and '65 Stratocasters, along with a host of vintage amps (augmented by strings and brass in places); all of which help tell the musically authentic story.
Kaleidoscope opens with the echoing guitar chords of short instrumental 'Sunrise,' as our protagonist wakes up to the realisation (through end of track rainfall) that 'Everything (Today)' has changed, via a Motown blues vibe with strings & brass accompaniment and Mark Pontin's soulfully soaring vocal ("I reach out as though to touch, through this fading farewell") and equally soulful guitar solo.
Following number, the lazy and hazy 'Don't Sleep,' with easy on the ear chorus, is as melodic as it is melancholic (with a funky little touch on the short but complementary guitar solo).
An interlude from the main story then kicks in with the funk and brass (and swishy Moog solo from featured keyboardist Owain Hughes) of the Average White Band styled 'This Will Never Be a Hit Now. '
The latter is a well-formed dig at over-hyped commodities reigning supreme over musical creativity or, as Mark Pontin so astutely put it in pre-release press "it's all about how much money you spend that determines success." Spot on, sadly.
The story (and the protagonist's depression) continues as Mark Pontin gets his early-era Robin Trower on (in seriously impressive style) for the weighty, psychedelic fusion blues of 'Starmaker.'
The only track on the album performed with the core band/ as a power trio (Pontin, drummer James Garvey and bassist Callum Morgan-Jones – who shares four-string duties on the album with Tim Hamill), 'Starmaker' showcases one of Mark Pontin's best vocals (and full-bodied guitar solos) of the entire album.
Providing delightful contrast is the string-backed, melodic slow blues of 'Roll With Me Easy,' featuring a reflective, looking-back lyric of happier times ("we would talk for hours, you showed me where you used to play your games").
The short and psychedelically sharp 'Forever' then rocks up the ante as our now despairing character tries to come to terms with his loss, while not fully accepting it ("I will leave you behind… I will want you forever").
The instrumental 'Hotel Diablo' (featuring some jazz-sparring between Mark Pontin's guitar and Owain Hughes' Fender Rhodes) finds our man in complete freefall before finding himself walking the guitar twanging, slow rock 'n' roll streets of 'Hell's Kitchen' ("can't catch a breeze when you're down on your knees").
The funky, percussive blues of 'Freeway Fantasy' leads to the soulful and rhythmic sway of 'Waiting' (one of many songs to benefit from the vocal contributions of Ayesha Pontin).
An early 70s soul classic in 21st century clothing, 'Waiting' is outdone by the soul-groove and smooth 'Everything (Tomorrow);' the latter's string-backed beauty is countered by our protagonist's realisation of how far he has fallen, through drug addiction, as he catches himself in a reflection ("said the mirror through a smile, we can make a deal – I'll make it worth your while!").
Having hit rock bottom, there's a 'Phoenix' like recovery from the ashes of anguish on the emotive and cinematically framed closing track, which doubles as a call of hope to those who have suffered similarly, battle within, or have mental health problems ("to all those who draw battlelines, crawl through fields of landmines, alone in your mind to survive… I see with your eyes").
South Wales should be rightly proud of Mark Pontin and the Mark Pontin Group, just as Mark Pontin should be rightly proud of the musical scope and storytelling soul-depth of Kaleidoscope.


text:
package com.longluo.demo.opengl;

import android.app.ListActivity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
import android.content.pm.ResolveInfo;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ListView;
import android.widget.SimpleAdapter;

import java.text.Collator;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * Created by luolong on 2016/5/17.
 */
public class OpenGLDemoActivity extends ListActivity {

    private static final String CategoryName = "longluo.intent.category.opengl.SAMPLE_CODE";

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setListAdapter(new SimpleAdapter(this, getData(),
                android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, new String[]{"title"},
                new int[]{android.R.id.text1}));
        getListView().setTextFilterEnabled(true);

    }

    protected List getData() {
        List<Map> myData = new ArrayList<Map>();

        Intent mainIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
        mainIntent.addCategory(CategoryName);

        PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
        List<ResolveInfo> list = pm.queryIntentActivities(mainIntent, 0);

        if (null == list)
            return myData;

        String[] prefixPath;

        prefixPath = null;

        int len = list.size();

        Map<String, Boolean> entries = new HashMap<String, Boolean>();

        for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
            ResolveInfo info = list.get(i);
            CharSequence labelSeq = info.loadLabel(pm);
            String label = labelSeq != null ? labelSeq.toString()
                    : info.activityInfo.name;

            String[] labelPath = label.split("/");

            String nextLabel = prefixPath == null ? labelPath[0]
                    : labelPath[prefixPath.length];

            if ((prefixPath != null ? prefixPath.length : 0) == labelPath.length - 1) {
                addItem(myData,
                        nextLabel,
                        activityIntent(
                                info.activityInfo.applicationInfo.packageName,
                                info.activityInfo.name));
            } else {
                if (entries.get(nextLabel) == null) {
                    addItem(myData, nextLabel, browseIntent(nextLabel));
                    entries.put(nextLabel, true);
                }
            }

        }

        Collections.sort(myData, sDisplayNameComparator);

        return myData;
    }

    private final static Comparator<Map> sDisplayNameComparator = new Comparator<Map>() {
        private final Collator collator = Collator.getInstance();

        public int compare(Map map1, Map map2) {
            return collator.compare(map1.get("title"), map2.get("title"));
        }
    };

    protected Intent activityIntent(String pkg, String componentName) {
        Intent result = new Intent();
        result.setClassName(pkg, componentName);
        return result;
    }

    protected Intent browseIntent(String path) {
        Intent result = new Intent();
        result.setClass(this, OpenGLDemoActivity.class);
        return result;
    }

    protected void addItem(List<Map> data, String name, Intent intent) {
        Map<String, Object> temp = new HashMap<String, Object>();
        temp.put("title", name);
        temp.put("intent", intent);
        data.add(temp);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
        Map map = (Map) l.getItemAtPosition(position);
        Intent intent = (Intent) map.get("intent");
        startActivity(intent);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Sudipto Dasgupta
Professor of Finance, Chinese University of Hong Kong, ABFER and CEPR
Sudipto Dasgupta is currently a Professor at the Department of Finance at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He previously held academic positions at Lancaster University (where he was Distinguished Professor of Finance), The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (where he was Department Head during 2013-2015; Chair Professor from 2008, and Professor from 2004), The Jawaharlal Nehru University, The Indian Statistical Institute, and The University of Southern California. He has been the Managing Editor of the International Review of Finance since 2008 and is a Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and a senior fellow of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economics Research (ABFER). He received his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Southern California.
Articles by sdasgupta
Socially responsible investors amplify the positive externalities of regulatory enforcement
Compliance with stay-at-home orders can be good news for shareholders


Evander Kane's goal tonight gives him 12 points (7+5) in his last 12 games.
Kane, who leads all NHL players in even-strength goals since Dec. 1, finished the game tied for 11th in the league with 18 even-strength goals on the season.
Robin Lehner earned his second shutout of the season and the fifth of his career. His 23 saves were the fewest needed by a Sabres goaltender in a shutout since Ryan Miller stopped all 22 Florida Panthers shots on Oct. 20, 2011 in Florida.
Lehner finished tonight's game ranked sixth in the NHL with a .926 save percentage this season.
With his power-play goal, Sam Reinhart now has six points (2+4) in his last six games.
Ryan O'Reilly, who recorded an assist on Reinhart's goal, has tallied at least a point in all three of his career games against the Avalanche (0+4).
With his assist on Reinhart's goal, Rasmus Ristolainen has points in a career-best five straight home games (1+4).
Injury update: Derek Grant left tonight's game with a shoulder injury.
This entry was posted in Post-Game Report and tagged Calvin Pickard, Colorado Avalanche, Dan Bylsma, Evander Kane, Gabriel Landeskog, Jared Bednar, Robin Lehner, Sam Reinhart. Bookmark the permalink.


August | 2008 | To Twit, perchance, to dream.
Wild Oats is moving – but everything 1/2 price!
Local Wild Oats is moving up the street. Picked up countertop water filter for $20! Works!
Mobile post sent by simplify3 using Utterz. Replies.
fore!!! – this is how fast a nanosecond is.
The goat is yelling at me.
Fred, the goat, is yelling at me. Baah, Baah – feed me. I just fed him a 1/2 hour ago. Never get a male goat.
Naples Pest Control Technicians! Attention!
We want your referrals to come to us!
We're NeighborHelp Referrals' Affordable Trapping.(239-465-9291) We take care of the critters that you DON'T take care of.
We do home exclusion services ("rat proofing" is what the customers call it). We seal up homes and businesses against intrusion of rats, bats, raccoons and even snakes!
– You call us with the customer information. Name, address, phone number, and nature of the problem. We call the customer and make an appointment. As far as they are concerned, we work for you. This also take ALL THE PRESSURE off of the CUSTOMER since they don't have to go through the trouble of calling someone up THEMSELVES.
– You pass our information on to the customer. This is not as good in the mind of the customer, as the burden is on the CUSTOMER to contact US.
We don't care which method you use, but in our experience, you will have better success with Method #1, as the customer doesn't have to think of a THING. You take care of that stuff for them.
ANALOGY: Think of a doctor's office: Your regular doctor sends you to a specialist. Would you prefer to call the specialist yourself and have to mention that Doctor So and So referred you to them? NO!
You would rather the SPECIALIST call YOU and set up the appointment. "This is Doctor So-and-So's office – when would you like to come in to get your […] looked at?" It makes you feel SPECIAL and TAKEN CARE OF.
But you said money? Yes! For each successful referral, we will send you either $15 or $30, depending on the nature of the job. WE DO NOT CHARGE YOUR CUSTOMER THE REFERRAL FEE. THIS COMES OUT OF OUR OWN POCKETS AS A THANK YOU TO YOU.
Will NeighborHelp Referrals' Affordable Trapping refer business in our direction?
We will try. If you have a real SPECIALTY – WE WANT TO KNOW — it makes referring to you more likely. Otherwise, you are on a rotating list. You get bumped up in priority if you are a regular referrer (the more successful you are, the more successful we are and then you become even MORE successful).
STICK TO WHAT YOU KNOW, and we stick to WHAT WE KNOW. You keep your customers – we just do the work.
While you're at it, check out your business listing here on http://free.naplesplus.us and let us know if needs updating (phone number, website) – or add it yourself if you are not listed. We run this website as a free service to businesses and residents of Collier County, Florida because we believe in SUCCESS, not just our own, but EVERYBODY'S.
We're with the NWCOA and FLWCA. (National and Florida Nuisance Wildlife Control Associations) and we have worked in 83% (yes, we checked) of the communities in Collier County and Bonita Springs. The guards all know us at the gates.
You are currently browsing the To Twit, perchance, to dream. blog archives for August, 2008.


text:
Q: Google OAuth2 in distributed, self-hosted packages complaining about redirect_uri I've taken over development of a Google Analytics API dashboard for a content management platform, and upgraded the code to use OAuth2 as the older oauth was disabled recently. The authentication flow and subsequent API calls are all working fine on my localhost for development.
The problem is when trying the code from a different domain.  Google wants the redirect_uri to be whitelisted through the developer console, and if it isn't there, it throws Error: redirect_uri_mismatch
As this is a self-hosted (+ open source) package, people will be able of installing on their own servers, there is no way I'll be able of adding all possible redirect_uri values to the app key in the developer console.
After a bunch of Googling and trying to understand the docs, I get the impression there are 2 possible solutions.

*

*Instruct users to go to the Google Developer console, and to create an app key of their own, before also going through the OAuth2 flow within the distributed app to provide the code access to the data in Google Analytics.

*Use a redirect_uri value of urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob with an Installed App key, instructing people to copy/paste the code back into the self-hosted app after authentication.
Neither of these are really appealing as it adds a bunch of complexity for the user (though option 2 sounds mostly doable). Are there other options, or am I simply overlooking something simple?

A: You actually don't have any choice in this matter. You must go with nr 1.  When you state this is a dashboard and web application it leads me to believe this is some kind of scripting language. This means that the client id and client secret will be displayed to your users / customers.    This is against googles terms of service.

Changes to the Google APIs Terms of Service  Asking developers to
  make reasonable efforts to keep their private keys private and not
  embed them in open source projects.

You may not release your client id and client secret to your users they are going to have to create there own.   Which nicely solvers your redirect URI problem they have to make there own.
Further reading Can I really not ship open source with Client ID?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Open Thread: 6/27, San Diego vs. San Francisco
By jbox Jun 27, 2007, 11:43am PDT
Share All sharing options for: Open Thread: 6/27, San Diego vs. San Francisco
Today we have Maddux (6-4, 3.84) vs. Cain (2-8, 3.46).
I don't think we are going to get a big bat and I certainly don't want to ruin my enjoyment of this season by waiting for a trade. If we do get someone a little closer to the trade deadline it'll be somebody I've never heard of from Toronto that will be a minor upgrade to Sledge. I don't think we need the big bat if it's going to weaken our pitching. We're doing okay now and I still think we will win the division. When it comes to the playoffs we don't need an A-Rod or a Pujols, we just need Gonzalez, Cameron or Kooz to act like one of those guys for a few games in a playoff series. Any of those guys can carry a team for brief stints and it's all going to come down to if they get hot at the right time. We know our team can hit, it's just a matter of timing and clutchness.
Mike Thompson was called up and will be in uniform today. Chase Headly gets sent to AA San Antonio. Is Hensley still struggling up in Portland? I'll have to look that up.
There's a little bit of drama surrounding "Pride Night" at Petco Park on July 9th.
San Diego Pride is promoting the night as "Out in Petco Park" and the Gay Men's Chorus of San Diego will perform the national anthem before the game, which will be shown on ESPN.
San Diego Pride's response to the hubbub: It's people enjoying a game together, not a drag show.
Those upset about the Pride Night don't like how it coincides with the Floppy Hats for Kids promotion. I'm not really sure what the problem is, maybe they are afraid that children have a weaker immune system and might catch gay. I think if the kids wear the floppy hats then that should protect them. Unless the floppy hats are really flamboyant.
Update [2007-6-27 16:14:0 by jbox]:
Courtesy of Shane:


Feb 2019: An Android App called "二郎神" was released, which can recognize text and object with camera for visually impaired.
Jul 2018: Taking personal health and family issues into account, Cameron planed to suppend eGuideDog project for one year.
May 2018: eGuideDog Scholarship (2nd) was setup.
May 2018: eGuideDog Linux 0.5 releaed.
Apr 2017: eGuideDog Scholarship was setup.
Sep 2016: Ekho 7.0 released. New overlap algorithm applied. eSpeak was used as default English engine.
Apr 2016: eGuideDog Linux 0.2, which was based on Ubuntu Linux 16.04, was released.
Feb 2016: 听风者收音机 - a network radio software was released.
Feb 2016: A command-line weather query tool tianqi was released.
Jan 2016: eGuideDog Toolbox was released.
Jan 2016: ibusreader-2.0-alpha was released.
May 2015: For Cameron's health reason, this project was suspended for months.
Feb 2015: Cantonese Dictionary page had made significant updates.
Sep 2014: A new male Mandarin voice was released.
Jul 2014: Linux盲人教程 was finished.
Feb 2014: A plan of writting Linux tutorial for the blind (Linux盲人教程) was carried out.
Dec 2013: Ekho 5.8 released. English was supported with Cantonese in Android version.
Oct 2013: Ekho 5.7 released. Noises between characters were greatly reduced.
Aug 2013: Ekho for Android 2.0 released. Android 4.x supported.
Jul 2013: eGuideDog Linux released.
Jun 2013: Linux ibus input method screen reader software - ibusreader was developed.
Mar 2013: WebSpeech module for Drupal 7 was developed.
Jan 2013: Ekho 5.2 released. Naturalness of voice was greatly improved.
Dec 2012: Thanks to Tennom YK and Trinley Pedron, Tibetan was supported since Ekho 5.0.
Nov 2012: Thanks to Zhao Qianshan, Ngangien (an acient Chinese before Yuan Dynasty) was supported since Ekho 5.0.
May 2012: WebSpeech 3 released. Android supported.
May 2012: Speech-dispatcher API is supported since Ekho 4.12, which means Ekho can be used with Linux screen reader like Orca.
Apr 2012: 放大镜, a magnifier on Android, was released on Google Play.
Mar 2012: Ekho TTS was released on Google Play.
Jan 2012: Ekho 4.9 for Android released.
Nov 2011: Thanks to Liao Weicheng, Ekho supports Zhaoan Hakka since version 4.8.
Nov 2011: Helped to edit JyutDict Cantonese dictionaries: JyutEnDict (Cantonese-English), JyutDeDict (Cantonese-German), JyutFrDict (Cantonese-French).
Dec 2010: Ekho supported Android since version 4.0.
Jul 2010: A web-based self-voiced classic Chinese game - 华容道 was released.
Jul 2010: A web-based self-voiced Chinese game - 记忆翻牌游戏 was released.
Dec 2009: eGuideDog project began to accept donation with SourceForge's donation system through Paypal.
Nov 2009: Ekho 2.0 released, which supports SAPI5 on Windows.
Oct 2009: eGuideDog team finished the draft coding for multi-language framework of WebAnywhere.
Aug 2009: eguidedog.net was registered as the official domain of eGuideDog project.
Mar 2009: Ekho 0.91 was released, which was the first stable version of Ekho.
Mar 2009: A new Cantonese voice with 7 tones recorded by Cameron Wong was released.
Feb 2009: zhspeak, which is a mini version of Ekho in Python, was released with the help of Dr. Colin Kong.
Jan 2009: Michael Tang joined in eGuideDog team who made great contribution to the Cantonese dictionary and Ekho voice improvement.
Jan 2009: eSpeak-Chinese was stopped updating because we have no time to maintained.
Oct 2008: With Silas S. Brown and Hae-Sung Jeon's help, a Korean voice was supported in Ekho 0.75 for trial.
Sep 2008: eGuideDog Browser is deprecated because its prospect and our limited time.
Jul 2008: With Silas S. Brown and Yali Cheng's help, a Mandarin voice was released. Ekho supports Cantonese, Mandarin and English (through Festival) since then.
Mar 2008: eGuideDog TTS - egdspeak was released, which was renamed to Ekho later.
Nov 2007: With Kyle Wang and Silas S. Brown's help, eSpeak-Chinese was released. It is a Chinese version of eSpeak with Chinese installer and build-in Cantonese/Mandarin dictionaries. eSpeak-Cantonese was merged into it since then.
Sep 2007: eSpeak-Cantonese was released, which is a Cantonese version of eSpeak.
Sep 2007: After annotating phonetic symbols for about 40,000 words, a draft Cantonese phonetic dictionary was done.
Jan 2007: eGuideDog Browser became a functional voice browser for the blind.
Dec 13, 2006: eGuideDog project was founded by Cameron Wong. eGuideDog Browser written in Perl was the first software in the project.