octombrie 31, 2009
octombrie 30, 2009
Balada pentru John DOE…
The name “John Doe” is used as a placeholder name for a male party in a legal action, case or discussion whose true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons. The name is also used to refer to a male corpse or hospital patient whose identity is unknown. This practice is widely used in the United States and Canada, but is rare in other English-speaking countries (including the United Kingdom itself, from where it probably originates – see “Origin” below). In the United States, the term John Doe is sometimes used to refer to a generic male. On various forms, the first name listed is often John Doe, along with a fictional address or other fictional information, to provide an example of how to fill out the form.
The female equivalent is Jane Doe, whilst a child or baby whose identity is unknown may be referred to as Baby Doe (or, in one particular case only, as Precious Doe). Additional persons may be called James Doe, Judy Doe, etc. However, to avoid possible confusion, if two anonymous or unknown parties are cited in a specific case or action, the surnames Doe and Roe may be used simultaneously – for example, “John Doe v. Jane Roe”. Other variations are John Stiles and Richard Miles, now rarely used, and Mary Major, which has been used in some American federal cases.
The Doe names are often, though not always, used for anonymous or unknown defendants (but see “origin” below). Another set of names often used for anonymous parties, particularly plaintiffs, are Richard Roe for males and Jane Roe for females (as in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court abortion decision Roe v. Wade).
Even outside specific legal and medical contexts, the name John Doe is often used in general discourse and popular culture to refer to an unknown or “typical” person. A famous example is the Frank Capra film Meet John Doe. In this context its use is very similar to that of John Q. Public or Joe Public.
Bearing the actual name John Doe can cause difficulty, such as being stopped by airport security or suspected of being an incognito celebrity.
Origin…
The name was used at least as far back as 1659, in England—“To prosecute the suit, to witt John Doe And Richard Roe”—and perhaps as early as the reign of England’s King Edward III.
The Oxford English Dictionary states that John Doe is “the name given to the fictitious lessee of the plaintiff, in the (now obsolete) mixed action of ejectment, the fictitious defendant being called Richard Roe”. (Note that this is in marked contrast to current Nuttall Encyclopaedia states that John O’Noakes, or John Noakes, is a fictitious name for a litigious person, used by lawyers in actions of ejectment.)
Since its original use in 1659, John Doe has been used to describe unknown men and has been used frequently in popular culture. Some of these uses include comics, albums, movies, and was even the name of a 2002 American television series starring Dominic Purcell.
Court cases..
- The landmark 1973 Supreme Court abortion case Roe v. Wade gets half of its name from Jane Roe, an anonymous plaintiff later revealed to be Norma McCorvey.
- A Toronto woman, publicly known only as Jane Doe, waged an 11-year court battle against the Toronto Police Service after being raped in 1986, alleging that the police had used her as bait to catch the rapist. She won the case in 1998, and was named Chatelaine’s Woman of the Year that year.[4] She published a book about her experience, The Story of Jane Doe, in 2003.
- A St. Catharines, Ontario minor known as “Jane Doe” was drugged, raped and sodomized by the notorious Canadian killers Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, who videotaped the assault. Her identity remains protected by law.
- A Doe subpoena is a tool of discovery that a plaintiff may use to seek the identity of an unknown defendant. Doe subpoenas are often served on online service providers and ISPs to obtain the identity of the author of an anonymous post.
octombrie 29, 2009
Van GOGH…
Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853–29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art for its vivid colors and emotional impact. He suffered from anxiety and increasingly frequent bouts of mental illness throughout his life, and died largely unknown, at the age of 37, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Little appreciated during his lifetime, his fame grew in the years after his death. Today, he is widely regarded as one of history’s greatest painters and an important contributor to the foundations of modern art. Van Gogh did not begin painting until his late twenties, and most of his best-known works were produced during his final two years.
He produced more than 2,000 artworks, consisting of around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches. He was little known during his lifetime, however his work was a strong influence on the Modernist art that followed, and today many of his pieces—including his numerous self portraits, landscapes, portraits and sunflowers—are among the world’s most recognizable and expensive works of art.
Van Gogh spent his early adulthood working for a firm of art dealers and traveled between The Hague, London and Paris, after which he taught in England. An early vocational aspiration was to become a pastor and preach the gospel, and from 1879 he worked as a missionary in a mining region in Belgium. During this time he began to sketch people from the local community, and in 1885 painted his first major work The Potato Eaters. His palette at the time consisted mainly of sombre earth tones and showed no sign of the vivid coloration that distinguished his later work. In March 1886, he moved to Paris and discovered the French Impressionists. Later he moved to the south of France and was taken by the strong sunlight he found there. His work grew brighter in color and he developed the unique and highly recognizable style which became fully realized during his stay in Arles in 1888.
The extent to which his mental illness affected his painting has been a subject of speculation since his death. Despite a widespread tendency to romanticise his ill health, modern critics see an artist deeply frustrated by the inactivity and incoherence brought about by his bouts of sickness. According to art critic Robert Hughes, Van Gogh’s late works show an artist at the height of his ability, completely in control and “longing for concision and grace”.
Death…
Recently acquitted from hospital, Van Gogh suffered a severe setback in December 1889. Although had been troubled by mental health issues throughout his life, the episodes became more pronounced during the last few years of his life. In some of these periods he chose or was unable to paint, a factor which added to the mounting frustrations of an artist at the peak of his ability.
His depression gradually deepened. On 27 July 1890, aged 37, he walked into a field and shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He survived the impact, but not realizing that his injuries were to be fatal, he walked back to the Ravoux Inn. He died there two days later. Theo rushed to be at his side. Theo reported his brother’s last words as “La tristesse durera toujours” (the sadness will last forever.)
Theo’s health deteriorated soon after the death of his brother. He contracted syphilis—though this was not admitted by the family for many years. He was admitted to hospital, and weak and unable to come to terms with Vincent’s absence, he died six months later, on 25 January, at Utrecht. In 1914, Theo’s body was exhumed and re-buried with his brother at Auvers-sur-Oise.
While most of Vincent’s late paintings are somber, they are essentially optimistic and reflect a desire to return to lucid mental health. However, the paintings completed in the days before his suicide are severely dark. His At Eternity’s Gate, a portrayal of an old man holding his head in his hands, is particularly bleak. The work serves as a compelling and poignant expression of the artist’s state of mind in his final days.
There has been much debate over the years as to the source of Van Gogh’s illness and its effect on his work. Over 150 psychiatrists have attempted to label its root, and some 30 different diagnoses have been suggested. Diagnoses that have been put forward include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphilis, poisoning from swallowed paints, temporal lobe epilepsy and acute intermittent porphyria. Any of these could have been the culprit and been aggravated by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia and a fondness for alcohol, especially absinthe.
