A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection, the decimal equivalent of a binary checksum. It consists of a single digit computed from the other digits in the message.

Examples
The final digit of a Universal Product Code is a check digit computed as follows:
For instance, a UPC-A barcode (In this case, a UPC for a box of tissues) "03600029145X" where X is the check digit, X can be calculated by adding the odd-numbered digits (0+6+0+2+1+5 = 14), multiplying by three (14 × 3 = 42), adding the even-numbered digits (42+3+0+0+9+4 = 58) and subtracting from the next-highest multiple of ten (60 - 58 = 2). The check digit is thus 2.

Add the digits in the odd-numbered positions (first, third, fifth, etc.) together and multiply by three.
Add the digits in the even-numbered positions (second, fourth, sixth, etc.) to the result.
Subtract the result from the next-higher multiple of ten. The answer is the check digit.

Nominations
The Republicans convened in Chicago with US Senator and former Speaker of the House James G. Blaine of Maine, President Chester A. Arthur, and Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont leading the contest. Blaine led on the first ballot, with Arthur in second, and Edmunds in third. This order did not change on successive ballots as Blaine increased his lead, and he won a majority on the fourth ballot.
After nominating Blaine, the convention chose Senator John A. Logan of Illinois as the vice-presidential nominee.
Famed Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman was considered a possible Republican candidate, but ruled himself out with what has become known as the Sherman pledge: "If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve."

Republican Party
The Democratic Party convention (also in Chicago) chose New York Governor Grover Cleveland as its Presidential nominee. He defeated a host of candidates who failed to claim the nomination in previous attempts, including Thomas F. Bayard, Thomas A. Hendricks, Allen G. Thurman, and Samuel J. Randall. Thomas A. Hendricks, however, did get the nomination for Vice President of the United States.

Democratic Party
Dissatisfied with resistance by the men of the major parties to woman suffrage, a small group of women announced the formation in 1884 of this third party. Belva Lockwood, an attorney in Washington, D.C., agreed to be its candidate even though most women in the United States did not yet have the right to vote. She said, "I cannot vote but I can be voted for." She was the first woman to run a full campaign for the office (Victoria Woodhull conducted a more limited campaign in 1872). The Equal Rights Party had no treasury but Lockwood gave lectures to pay for campaign travel. She won fewer than 5000 votes but taught the nation an important civics lesson: that women were interested in politics and could be good candidates.

Equal Rights Party
The Greenback Labor Party dropped "Labor" from its name and chose Civil War hero Benjamin Franklin Butler as its Presidential nominee and Confederate General Absolom M. West for Vice President.

Greenback Party
The Prohibitionists chose their third Presidential ticket with John St. John for President and William Daniel for Vice President. The straightforward single-issue Prohibition Party platform advocated for the criminalization of alcoholic beverages.

Prohibition Party

General election
The issue of personal character marked this campaign. Former Speaker of the House James G. Blaine, had been prevented from getting the Republican presidential nomination during the previous two elections because of the stigma of the "Mulligan letters": in 1876, a Boston bookkeeper named James Mulligan had located some letters showing that Blaine had sold his influence in Congress to various businesses. One such letter ended with the phrase "burn this letter", from which a popular chant of the Democrats arrose - "Burn, burn, burn this letter!" .In just one deal, he had received $110,150 (over $1.5 million in 2005 dollars) from the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad for, among other things, securing a federal land grant. Democrats and anti-Blaine Republicans made unrestrained attacks on his integrity as a result.
New York Governor Grover Cleveland, on the other hand, was known as "Grover the Good" for his personal integrity; in the space of the three previous years he had become, successively the Mayor of Buffalo and then the Governor of the state, cleaning up large amounts of Tammany Hall's graft.
Thus, it was a huge shock when, on July 21st, the Buffalo Evening Telegraph reported that Cleveland had fathered a child out of wedlock, that the child had gone to an orphanage, and that the mother had been driven to an asylum. Cleveland's campaign decided that candor was the best approach to this scandal: they admitted that Cleveland had formed an "illicit connection" with the mother and that a child had been born and given the Cleveland surname. They also noted that there was no proof that Cleveland was the father, and claimed that, by assuming responsibility and finding a home for the child, he was merely doing his duty. Finally, they showed that the mother had not been forced into an asylum; her whereabouts were unknown. Blaine's supporters condemned Cleveland in the strongest of terms. However, the Cleveland campaign's approach worked well enough and the race remained close through Election Day. In fact, many Republican reformers, put off by Blaine's scandals, worked for the election of Cleveland; these reformers were known as "Mugwumps".
In the final week of the campaign, Blaine's campaign suffered a catastrophe. A group of New York preachers visited Blaine and made a speech castigating the Mugwumps. Their spokesman, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Burchard, made this fatal statement: "We are Republicans, and don't propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been rum, Romanism, and rebellion." Blaine did not notice Burchard's anti-Catholic slur, nor did the assembled newspaper reporters, but a Democratic operative did, and Cleveland's campaign managers made sure that it was widely publicized. The statement energized the Catholic vote in New York City heavily against Blaine, costing him New York state and the election by the narrowest of margins.

Campaign
Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1884 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 27, 2005).
Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 31, 2005).

See also
online version, focus on 1884

Mark Hirsch, "Election of 1884," in History of Presidential Elections: Volume III 1848-1896, ed. Arthur Schlesinger and Fred Israel (1971), 3:1578.
Josephson, Matthew (1938). The Politicos: 1865–1896. 
Keller, Morton (1977). Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth Century America. 
Kleppner, Paul (1979). The Third Electoral System 1853-1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures. 
Lynch, G. Patrick "U.S. Presidential Elections in the Nineteenth Century: Why Culture and the Economy Both Mattered." Polity 35#1 (2002) pp 29+.
Norgren, Jill. Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would be President (NY: New York University Press, 2007).
Morgan, H. Wayne (1969). From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877–1896. 
Rhodes, James Ford (1920). History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the Roosevelt-Taft Administration (8 vols.). 
Mark Wahlgren Summers. Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884 (2000) online version

William IX of Aquitaine (October 22, 1071 – February 10, 1126, also Guillaume or Guilhem d'Aquitaine), nicknamed the Troubador was Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou as William VII of Poitou between 1086 and 1126. He was also one of the leaders of the crusade of 1101 and one of the first medieval vernacular poets.
His Occitan name was Guilhèm de Peitieus.

Military life
William's greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a poet. He was the first known troubadour, or lyric poet employing the Romance vernacular called Provençal or Occitan. Eleven of his songs survive (Merwin, 2002). They are attributed to him under his title as Count of Poitou (lo coms de Peitieus). The topics vary, treating sex, love, women, his own sexual prowess, and feudal politics. His frankness, wit and vivacity caused scandal and won admiration at the same time. He is among the first Romance vernacular poets of the Middle Ages, one of the founders of a tradition that would culminate in Dante, Boccaccio, and Villon. Ezra Pound mentions him in Canto VIII:
And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers, had brought the song up out of Spain with the singers and viels...
William was a man who loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences. He also composed a song about founding a convent in his lands, where the nuns would be picked from among the most beautiful women in the region, or from the best whores, depending on the translation. While this confirms William's lusty persona, it also makes a joke about the penitentiary convents for prostitutes founded by the charismatic preacher Robert of Arbrissel. (Bond, xlix) In fact, William granted large donations to the church, perhaps to regain the pope's favour. He also added to the palace of the counts of Poitou (which had stood since the Merovingian Era), later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and surviving in Poitiers as the Palace of Justice to this day.
One of William's poems, possibly written at the time of his first excommunication, since it implies his son was still a minor, is partly a musing on mortality: Pos de chantar m'es pres talenz (Since I have the desire to sing,/I'll write a verse for which I'll grieve). It concludes:
I have given up all I loved so much: chivalry and pride; and since it pleases God, I accept it all, that He may keep me by Him.
I enjoin my friends, upon my death, all to come and do me great honour, since I have held joy and delight far and near, and in my abode.
Thus I give up joy and delight, and squirrel and grey and sable furs.
He died on February 10th, 1126, aged 55, after suffering a short illness.

Works online

Biographies des troubadours ed. J. Boutière, A.-H. Schutz (Paris: Nizet, 1964) pp. 7-8, 585-587.
Bond, Gerald A., ed., transl. intro. The Poetry of William VII, Count of Poitier, IX Duke of Aquitaine, (Garland Publishing Co.:New York) 1982
Duisit, Brice. Las Cansos del Coms de Peitieus (CD), Alpha 505, 2003
Harvey, Ruth E. The wives of the 'first troubadour', Duke William IX of Aquitaine (Journal of Medieval History), 1993
Meade, Marion. Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1991
Merwin, W.S. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 2002. pp xv-xvi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41476-2.
Owen, D.D.R. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Legend
Parsons, John Carmi. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady, 2002
Verdon, J. La chronique de Saint Maixent, 1979.
Waddell, Helen. The Wandering Scholars: the Life and Art of the Lyric Poets of the Latin Middle Ages, 1955

Ralph Plaisted travelled to the Geographic North Pole in 1968 with three companions using snowmobiles for transportation . He arrived on 19 April 1968 and laid a claim to being the first person to travel over the surface of the Earth to the North Pole.
Starting his trek from Ward Hunt Island, northern Ellesmere Island, Canada, on March 7, 1968. In minus 60 degree weather, Plaisted's expedition arrived exactly at the North Pole in a total elapsed time of 43 days, 2 hours and 30 minutes. His position was verified by a U.S. Air Force plane several hours later. Given the doubts surrounding the North pole conquest claims of Robert Peary and Frederick Cook, Ralph Plaisted's April 19, 1968 record is now part of history as the first fully confirmed successful surface conquest of the North Pole.

Newton Diehl Baker, Jr. (December 3, 1871 – December 25, 1937) was an American politician of the Democratic Party, and a notable figure in the Progressive movement. He served as the 37th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio from 1912 to 1915 and as Secretary of War from 1916 to 1921.
Baker was a native of Martinsburg, West Virginia, and an 1892 graduate of Johns Hopkins University. After receiving his law degree from Washington and Lee University in 1894, Baker became the secretary to the Postmaster General, William L. Wilson.
After leaving Washington, D.C., Baker moved to Cleveland, where he became active in local politics. He married Elizabeth Leopold on July 5, 1902. After serving as city solicitor from 1901 to 1909, he became mayor of the city in 1911. As a city official, Baker's main interests were public power, transit reform, and city beautification. He was a strong backer of Cleveland College (now a part of Case Western Reserve University).
Following his tenure as mayor of Cleveland, in 1916, Baker, along with two other partners, founded the law firm of Baker & Hostetler. As the United States considered whether to enter World War I, President Woodrow Wilson named Baker Secretary of War, because Baker was an acceptable candidate for politicians on both sides of the question. As Secretary of War, Baker presided over the American military involvement in the war (1917-18), including the unprecedented creation of a nationwide military draft.
After stepping down as Secretary of War in 1921, Baker returned to practicing law at Baker & Hostetler, and never again served in a public office (although he was considered as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1924, 1928, and 1932). He died Christmas Day in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and was interred in Lake View Cemetery.
In 1957 Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve) erected the Newton D. Baker Building in his honor; it served as a large unit of general purpose classrooms and administrative offices. It was located on the corner of Adelbert and Euclid, across from Severance Hall. The building was torn down in November 2004.
Today, the law firm founded by Baker, Baker & Hostetler, is one of the nation's top 100 law firms with more than 600 attorneys serving clients around the country and throughout the world. The firm currently has offices in ten U.S. cities across four time zones, and represents several leading corporations, including ABC, Inc., Bayer Corporation, Boeing, Cardinal Health, Inc., CNL, EDS, ExxonMobil, Fisher Scientific, Ford, HCA, Hyatt Hotels, IBM, Morgan Stanley, New York Times, Co., Northwest Airlines, Ocean Spray, Orvis, Ritz Carlton Club, Schlumberger, Sprint Nextel, The E.W. Scripps Company, The Progressive Corporation, Verizon, and Wachovia.

This article is part of the series on:
History of Greece
Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean. There are in fact three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization from the Early Bronze Age, while the Cyclades and the mainland have distinct cultures. The Cyclades converge with the mainland during the Early Helladic ("Minyan") period and with Crete in the Middle Minoan period. From ca. 1450 (Late Helladic, Late Minoan), the Greek Mycenaean civilization spreads to Crete.

Periodization

Main article: Helladic period Crete

Main article: Cycladic civilization Cyclades
Commerce was practised to some extent in very early times, as is proved by the distribution of Melian obsidian over all the Aegean area. We find Cretan vessels exported to Melos, Egypt and the Greek mainland. Melian vases came in their turn to Crete. After 1600 B.C. there is very close commerce with Egypt, and Aegean things find their way to all coasts of the Mediterranean. No traces of currency have come to light, unless certain axeheads, too slight for practical use, had that character. Standard weights have been found, as well as representations of ingots. The Aegean written documents have not yet proved (by being found outside the area) to be epistolary (letter writing) correspondence with other countries. Representations of ships are not common, but several have been observed on Aegean gems, gem-sealings, frying pans and vases. They are vessels of low free-board, with masts and oars. Familiarity with the sea is proved by the free use of marine motifs in decoration.
Discoveries, later in the twentieth century, of sunken trading vessels round the coasts of the region have brought forth an enormous amount of new information about that culture.

Commerce
For details of monumental evidence the articles on Crete, Mycenae, Tiryns, Troad, Cyprus, etc., must be consulted. The most representative site explored up to now is Knossos (see Crete) which has yielded not only the most various but the most continuous evidence from the Neolithic age to the twilight of classical civilization. Next in importance come Hissarlik, Mycenae, Phaestus, Hagia Triada, Tiryns, Phylakope, Palaikastro and Gournia.

Evidence of Aegean civilization

Structures; Ruins of palaces, palatial villas, houses, built dome- or cist-graves and fortifications (Aegean islands, Greek mainland and northwestern Anatolia), but not distinct temples; small shrines, however, and temene (religious enclosures, remains of one of which were probably found at Petsofa near Palaikastro by J. L. Myres in 1904) are represented on intaglios and frescoes. From the sources and from inlay-work we have also representations of palaces and houses.
Structural Decoration; Architectural features, such as columns, friezes and various mouldings; mural decoration, such as fresco-paintings, coloured reliefs and mosaic inlay. Roof tiles were also occasionally employed, as at early Helladic Lerna and Akovitika,
Furniture; (a) Domestic furniture, such as vessels of all sorts and in many materials, from huge store jars down to tiny unguent pots; culinary and other implements; thrones, seats, tables, etc., these all in stone or plastered terra-cotta. (b) Sacred furniture, such as models or actual examples of ritual objects; of these we have also numerous pictorial representations. (c) Funerary furniture, e.g. coffins in painted terra-cotta.
Art products; E.g. plastic objects, carved in stone or ivory, cast or beaten in metals (gold, silver, copper and bronze), or modelled in clay, faience, paste, etc. Very little trace has yet been found of large free-standing sculpture, but many examples exist of sculptors' smaller work. Vases of all kinds, carved in marble or other stones, cast or beaten in metals or fashioned in clay, the latter in enormous number and variety, richly ornamented with coloured schemes, and sometimes bearing moulded decoration. Examples of painting on stone, opaque and transparent. Engraved objects in great number e.g. ring-bezels and gems; and an immense quantity of clay impressions, taken from these.
Weapons, tools and implements; In stone, clay and bronze, and at the last iron, sometimes richly ornamented or inlaid. Numerous representations also of the same. No actual body-armour, except such as was ceremonial and buried with the dead, like the gold breastplates in the circle-graves at Mycenae or the full length body armour from Dendra.
Articles of personal use; E.g. brooches (fibulae), pins, razors, tweezers, etc., often found as dedications to a deity, e.g. in the Dictaean Cavern of Crete. No textiles have survived other than impressions in clay.
Written documents; E.g. clay tablets and discs (so far in Crete only), but nothing of more perishable nature, such as skin, papyrus, etc.; engraved gems and gem impressions; legends written with pigment on pottery (rare); characters incised on stone or pottery. These show a number of systems of script employing either ideograms or syllabograms (see Linear_B).
Excavated tombs; Of either the pit, chamber or the tholos kind, in which the dead were laid, together with various objects of use and luxury, without cremation, and in either coffins or loculi or simple wrappings.
Public works; Such as paved and stepped roadways, bridges, systems of drainage, etc. Internal evidence
Mycenae and Tiryns are the two principal sites on which evidence of a prehistoric civilization was remarked long ago by the classical Greeks.

Monuments and records of other contemporary civilizations; E.g. representations of alien peoples in Egyptian frescoes; imitation of Aegean fabrics and style in non-Aegean lands; allusions to Mediterranean peoples in Egyptian, Semitic or Babylonian records.
Literary traditions of subsequent civilizations; Especially the Hellenic; such as, e.g., those embodied in the Homeric poems, the legends concerning Crete, Mycenae, etc.; statements as to the origin of gods, cults and so forth, transmitted to us by Hellenic antiquarians such as Strabo, Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, etc.
Traces of customs, creeds, rituals, etc; In the Aegean area at a later time, discordant with the civilization in which they were practised and indicating survival from earlier systems. There are also possible linguistic and even physical survivals to be considered. External evidence
The curtain-wall and towers of the Mycenaean citadel, its gate with heraldic lions, and the great "Treasury of Atreus" had borne silent witness for ages before Heinrich Schliemann's time; but they were supposed only to speak to the Homeric, or, at farthest, a rude Heroic loser beginning of purely Hellenic civilization. It was not until Schliemann exposed the contents of the graves which lay just inside the gate, that scholars recognized the advanced stage of art which prehistoric dwellers in the Mycenaean citadel had attained.
There had been, however, a good deal of other evidence available before 1876, which, had it been collated and seriously studied, might have discounted the sensation that the discovery of the citadel graves eventually made. Although it was recognized that certain tributaries, represented e.g. in the XVIIIth Dynasty tomb of Rekhmara at Egyptian Thebes as bearing vases of peculiar forms, were of some Mediterranean race, neither their precise habitat nor the degree of their civilization could be determined while so few actual prehistoric remains were known in the Mediterranean lands. Nor did the Aegean objects which were lying obscurely in museums in 1870, or thereabouts, provide a sufficient test of the real basis underlying the Hellenic myths of the Argolid, the Troad and Crete, to cause these to he taken seriously. Aegean vases have been exhibited both at Sèvres and Neuchatel since about 1840, the provenience (i.e. source or origin) being in the one case Phylakope in Melos, in the other Cephalonia.
Ludwig Ross, the German archaeologist appointed Curator of the Antiquities of Athens at the time of the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece, by his explorations in the Greek islands from 1835 onwards, called attention to certain early intaglios, since known as Inselsteine; but it was not until 1878 that C. T. Newton demonstrated these to be no strayed Phoenician products. In 1866 primitive structures were discovered on the island of Therasia by quarrymen extracting pozzolana, a siliceous volcanic ash, for the Suez Canal works. When this discovery was followed up in 1870, on the neighbouring Santorin (Thera), by representatives of the French School at Athens, much pottery of a class now known immediately to precede the typical late Aegean ware, and many stone and metal objects, were found. These were dated by the geologist Ferdinand A. Fouqué, somewhat arbitrarily, to 2000 B.C., by consideration of the superincumbent eruptive stratum.
Meanwhile, in 1868, tombs at Ialysus in Rhodes had yielded to Alfred Biliotti many fine painted vases of styles which were called later the third and fourth "Mycenaean"; but these, bought by John Ruskin, and presented to the British Museum, excited less attention than they deserved, being supposed to be of some local Asiatic fabric of uncertain date. Nor was a connection immediately detected between them and the objects found four years later in a tomb at Menidi in Attica and a rock-cut "bee-hive" grave near the Argive Heraeum.
Even Schliemann's first excavations at Hissarlik in the Troad did not excite surprise. But the "Burnt City" of his second stratum, revealed in 1873, with its fortifications and vases, and a hoard of gold, silver and bronze objects, which the discoverer connected with it, began to arouse a curiosity which was destined presently to spread far outside the narrow circle of scholars. As soon as Schliemann came on the Mycenae graves three years later, light poured from all sides on the prehistoric period of Greece. It was recognized that the character of both the fabric and the decoration of the Mycenaean objects was not that of any well-known art. A wide range in space was proved by the identification of the Inselsteine and the Ialysus vases with the new style, and a wide range in time by collation of the earlier Theraean and Hissarlik discoveries. A relationship between objects of art described by Homer and the Mycenaean treasure was generally allowed, and a correct opinion prevailed that, while certainly posterior, the civilization of the Iliad was reminiscent of the Mycenaean.
Schliemann got to work again at Hissarlik in 1878, and greatly increased our knowledge of the lower strata, but did not recognize the Aegean remains in his "Lydian" city of the sixth stratum. These were not to be fully revealed until Dr. Wilhelm Dorpfeld, who had become Schliemann's assistant in 1879, resumed the work at Hissarlik in 1892 after the first explorer's death. But by laying bare in 1884 the upper stratum of remains on the rock of Tiryns, Schliemann made a contribution to our knowledge of prehistoric domestic life which was amplified two years later by Christos Tsountas's discovery of the palace at Mycenae. Schliemann's work at Tiryns was not resumed till 1905, when it was proved, as had long been suspected, that an earlier palace underlies the one he had exposed.
From 1886 dates the finding of Mycenaean sepulchres outside the Argolid, from which, and from the continuation of Tsountas's exploration of the buildings and lesser graves at Mycenae, a large treasure, independent of Schliemann's princely gift, has been gathered into the National Museum at Athens. In that year tholos-tombs, most already pillaged but retaining some of their furniture, were excavated at Arkina and Eleusis in Attica, at Dimini near Volos in Thessaly, at Kampos on the west of Mount Taygetus, and at Maskarata in Cephalonia. The richest grave of all was explored at Vaphio in Laconia in 1889, and yielded, besides many gems and miscellaneous goldsmiths' work, two golden goblets chased with scenes of bull-hunting, and certain broken vases painted in a large bold style which remained an enigma until the excavation of Cnossus.
In 1890 and 1893 Staes cleared out certain, less rich tholos-tombs at Thoricus in Attica; and other graves, either rock-cut "bee-hives" or chambers, were found at Spata and Aphidna in Attica, in Aegina and Salamis, at the Argive Heraeum and Nauplia in the Argolid, near Thebes and Delphi, and not far from the Thessalian Larissa. During the Acropolis excavations in Athens, which terminated in 1888, many potsherds of the Mycenaean style were found; but Olympia had yielded either none, or such as had not been recognized before being thrown away, and the temple site at Delphi produced nothing distinctively Aegean (in dating). The American explorations of the Argive Heraeum, concluded in 1895, also failed to prove that site to have been important in the prehistoric time, though, as was to be expected from its neighbourhood to Mycenae itself, there were traces of occupation in the later Aegean periods.
Prehistoric research had now begun to extend beyond the Greek mainland. Certain central Aegean islands, Antiparos, Ios, Amorgos, Syros and Siphnos, were all found to be singularly rich in evidence of the middle-Aegean period. The series of Syran built graves, containing crouching corpses, is the best and most representative that is known in the Aegean. Melos, long marked as a source of early objects but not systematically excavated until taken in hand by the British School at Athens in 1896, yielded at Phylakope remains of all the Aegean periods, except the Neolithic.
A map of Cyprus in the later Bronze Age (such as is given by J. L. Myres and M. O. Richter in Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum) shows more than twenty-five settlements in and about the Mesaorea district alone, of which one, that at Enkomi, near the site of Salamis, has yielded the richest Aegean treasure in precious metal found outside Mycenae. E. Chantre in 1894 picked up lustreless ware, like that of Hissariik, in central Phtygia and at Pteria, and the English archaeological expeditions, sent subsequently into north-western Anatolia, have never failed to bring back ceramic specimens of Aegean appearance from the valleys of the Rhyndncus, Sangarius and Halys.
In Egypt in 1887 W. M. F. Petrie found painted sherds of Cretan style at Kahun in the Fayum, and farther up the Nile, at Tell el-Amarna, chanced on bits of no fewer than 800 Aegean vases in 1889. There have now been recognized in the collections at Cairo, Florence, London, Paris and Bologna several Egyptian imitations of the Aegean style which can be set off against the many debts which the centres of Aegean culture owed to Egypt. Two Aegean vases were found at Sidon in 1885, and many fragments of Aegean and especially Cypriote pottery have been turned up during recent excavations of sites in Philistia by the Palestine Fund.
Sicily, ever since P. Orsi excavated the Sicel cemetery near Lentini in 1877, has proved a mine of early remains, among which appear in regular succession Aegean fabrics and motives of decoration from the period of the second stratum at Hissarlik. Sardinia has Aegean sites, e.g. at Abini near Teti; and Spain has yielded objects recognized as Aegean from tombs near Cadiz and from Saragossa.
One land, however, has eclipsed all others in the Aegean by the wealth of its remains of all the prehistoric ages— Crete; and so much so that, for the present, we must regard it as the fountainhead of Aegean civilization, and probably for long its political and social centre. The island first attracted the notice of archaeologists by the remarkable archaic Greek bronzes found in a cave on Mount Ida in 1885, as well as by epigraphic monuments such as the famous law of Gortyna. But the first undoubted Aegean remains reported from it were a few objects extracted from Cnossus by Minos Kalokhairinos of Candia in 1878. These were followed by certain discoveries made in the S. plain Messara by F. Halbherr. Unsuccessful attempts at Cnossus were made by both W. J. Stillman and H. Schliemann, and A. J. Evans, coming on the scene in 1893, travelled in succeeding years about the island picking up trifles of unconsidered evidence, which gradually convinced him that greater things would eventually be found. He obtained enough to enable him to forecast the discovery of written characters, till then not suspected in Aegean civilization. The revolution of 1897-98 opened the door to wider knowledge, and much exploration has ensued, for which see Crete.
Thus the "Aegean Area" has now come to mean the Archipelago with Crete and Cyprus, the Hellenic peninsula with the Ionian islands, and Western Anatolia. Evidence is still wanting for the Macedonian and Thracian coasts. Offshoots are found in the western Mediterranean area, in Sicily, Italy, Sardinia and Spain, and in the eastern Mediterranean area in Syria and Egypt. About the Cyrenaica we are still insufficiently informed.

Notes

Minoan civilization
Mycenaean Greece
Aegean Sea

The Blessed Sacrament, or the Body and Blood of Christ, is a devotional name used in the Roman Catholic Church, Old Catholic and Anglican Churches, to refer to the Host and wine after they have been consecrated in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Christians in these traditions believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic elements of the bread and wine, and hence carry out Eucharistic adoration. This belief is based on interpretations of biblical scripture and tradition. In the Roman Catholic tradition, Christ's presence is believed to be corporeal, while in the Old Catholic and Anglican traditions, his presence is more usually seen as spiritual. The Roman Catholic understanding is defined by numerous church councils including the Fourth Lateran Council and the Council of Trent and is quoted in paragraph 1376 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (which explains the meaning of Transubstantiation).

Old Catholic and Anglican Churches

Eucharist
Corpus Christi

Giosuè Carducci (July 27, 1835 – February 16, 1907) was an Italian poet, oft reckoned one of Italy's greatest; also, a teacher. He was very influential and was regarded as the unofficial national poet of modern Italy. In 1906 he became the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Notes

Jessie White Mario

For the American actor of the 1930s and 1940s, please see Richard Cromwell (actor)
Richard Cromwell (4 October 1626 – 12 July 1712) was the third son of Oliver Cromwell, and the second Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, for little over eight months, from 3 September 1658 until 25 May 1659. Richard Cromwell's enemies called him Tumbledown Dick and Queen Dick.

Lord Protector (1658-1659)
During the political difficulties of the winter of 1659, there were rumours that Richard was to be recalled as Protector, but these came to nothing. In July 1660 Richard left for France, never to see his wife again. While there he went by a variety of pseudonyms, including "John Clarke". He later travelled around Europe, visiting various European courts. During this period of voluntary exile he wrote many letters to his family back in England; these letters are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at the County Record Office in Huntingdon.
In 1680 or 1681 he returned to England and lodged with the merchant Thomas Pengelly in Finchley in Middlesex, living off the income from his estate in Hursley. He died on 12 July 1712. Despite his very short reign, Richard Cromwell is the longest lived ruler of England or any of its successor states (currently the United Kingdom).

Middle school (also known as intermediate school or junior high school) covers a period of education that straddles primary/elementary education and secondary education, serving as a bridge between the two. The terms can be used in different ways in different countries, sometimes interchangeably.
Thus in some governmental and institutional contexts, "Middle school" may be used as no more than an alternative name to "junior high school", or it might imply a pedagogical shift away from primary and secondary school practices. The concept itself dates back to 1909, with the founding of Indianola Junior High School in Columbus, Ohio.

Middle School as a Pedagogy

Asia
In the People's Republic of China, middle schools (chuzhong or 初中) refer to years 7–9. It covers the last 3 years of the 9-year compulsory education, which is supposed to be free but in fact is subject to fees. At the end of the last year, the college-bound students take exams to enter high school (gaozhong or 高中) others wishing to continue their training may enter technical high school (中学专科/中专) or vocational school (职业学校).

China
In Japan, junior high schools, which cover years seven through nine, are called chū gakkō (中学校, literally, middle school). They are referred to as "junior high schools" in most conversations in English but are referred to by MEXT as "lower secondary schools". (See Secondary education in Japan.)

Japan
In the Republic of Korea, a middle school is called junghakgyo (중학교, 中學校) which includes grades 7 through 9.

South Korea
In India, middle school consists of classes 5th, 6th and 7th.

India
In Indonesia, a middle school is called Sekolah Menengah Pertama (SMP). It consists grades 7, 8, 9. Previously 1, 2, 3. For example SMPN 252 consists grade 7, 8, 9. And previously SLTP (Sekolah Lanjutan Tingkat Pertama) 252 consists grade 1, 2, 3

Indonesia
In the Philippines, what is referred to as middle school generally consists of the grades 4 through 6. In the Philippines, there is no such thing as Middle School. It goes Kindergarten, Grade One, Grade Two, Grade Three, Grade four, Grade Five, Grade Six, Grade 7(Some private schools), First Year High School, Second Year High School, Third Year High School, and finally Fourth Year of High School.

The Philippines
Taiwanese junior high schools (3-year) were originally called chuzhong (初級中學, 初中; "primary middle school"). However, in August 1968, they were renamed guozhong (國民中學, 國中; "citizen middle school") when they became free of charge and compulsory. Private middle school nowadays are still called chuzhong. Taiwanese junior high schools are attended normally by those older than twelve. Accompanied with the switch from junior high to middle school was the cancellation of entrance examination needed to enter senior high school.

Taiwan

Australasia
In 1996 and 1997 a national conference met to develop what became known as the National Middle Schooling Project, which aimed to develop a common Australian view of
As of 2007, the Northern Territory has introduced a three tier system featuring Middle Schools for years 7-9 (approx ages 11-14) and high school year 10-12.

early adolescent needs
guiding principles for educators
appropriate strategies to foster positive adolescent learning. Australia
In New Zealand intermediate schools cover years 7 and 8 (formerly known as form 1 and 2) in areas where the local primary schools teach year 1 to year 6 students. Many primary schools however, do teach year 7 and 8. These primary schools may have a relationship with a nearby intermediate school to teach manual training classes such as woodwork.
Recently, however, Junior High Schools covering years 7-10 (the four years between primary and NCEA, the national secondary qualification). The first was Albany Junior High School in Albany, Auckland.

New Zealand

Europe
In the countries of former Yugoslavia, srednja škola (literally translated as Middle School) refers to age between 14 and half - 15 and 18, and lasts 2-4 years since elementary school (which lasts 8 or 9 years). The final four years of elementary school are actually what would be called junior high school in USA. Students have up to 12-13 different subjects in each school year (most of them only two 45-minute class periods per week). For example, 8th grade students do not have one subject called Science but three separate subjects called Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia
In the United Kingdom, some English Local Education Authorities introduced Middle Schools in the 1960s and 1970s. The notion of Middle Schools was mooted by the Plowden Report of 1967 which proposed a change to a three-tier model including First schools for children aged between 5 and 8, Middle Schools for 8–12 year-olds, and then Upper or High Schools for 12–16 year-olds. Some authorities introduced Middle Schools for ideological reasons, in line with the report, while others did so for more pragmatic reasons relating to the raising of the school leaving age in compulsory education to 16.
Different authorities introduced different age-range schools, although in the main, three models were used:
In addition, some schools were provided as combined schools catering for pupils in the 5–12 age range as a combined first and middle school.
Around 2000 middle and combined schools were in place in the early 1980s. However, that number began to fall in the later 1980s with the introduction of the National Curriculum. The new curriculum's splits in Key Stages at age 11 encouraged the majority of Local Education Authorities to return to a two-tier system of Primary and Secondary schools.
Under current legislation, all middle schools must be deemed either primary or secondary. Thus, schools which accept pupils up to age 12 are entitled middle-deemed-primary, while those accepting pupils aged 13 or over are entitled middle-deemed-secondary. For statistical purposes, such schools are often included under primary and secondary categories "as deemed". Notably, most schools also follow teaching patterns in line with their deemed status, with most deemed-primary schools offering a primary-style curriculum taught by one class teacher, and most deemed-secondary schools adopting a more specialist-centred approach.
Some Middle Schools still exist in various areas of England. The are supported by the National Middle Schools' Forum. A list of Middle Schools in England is available.
In Scotland a similar system was trialled in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire between 1975 and 1987. (See Grangemouth middle schools article)

5–8 First Schools, followed by 8–12 Middle Schools, as suggested by Plowden
5–9 First Schools, followed by 9–13 Middle Schools
5–10 First Schools followed by 10–13 Middle Schools, or Intermediate Schools United Kingdom
The definition of "middle school" is muddied somewhat because, in North American contexts, "secondary education" quite frequently means post-compulsory (High School level) education, encompassing such diverse institutions as "English as a second language" schooling, trade schools and certificate programs, as well as other intermediate options such as Junior colleges, four-year colleges and full universities.

Canada and the United States
In Mexico, the middle school system is called "secundaria" ("secondary") and comprises grades 7-9 and is completed after primary (1-6) and before preparatory (10-12).

Professional organizations

Arnold, J. "Needed: A Realistic Perspective of the Early Adolescent Learner." CLEARINGHOUSE 54:4 (1980).
Atwell, Nancie. "In the Middle: New Understanding About Writing, Reading, and Learning." Boynton/Cook Pub (1987).
Beane, J. "Dance to the Music of Time: The Future of Middle Level Education." THE EARLY ADOLESCENT MAGAZINE 2 (September 1987):18–26.
Beane, J. A MIDDLE SCHOOL CURRICULUM: FROM RHETORIC TO REALITY. Columbus, Ohio: National Middle School Association, 1990a.
Beane, J. AFFECT IN THE CURRICULUM: TOWARD DEMOCRACY, DIGNITY, AND DIVERSITY. New York: Teachers College Press, 1990b.
Cross Keys Middle School. A PLACE OF OUR OWN. Florissant, Missouri: Florissant Public Schools, 1990.
Jennings, W., and Nathan, J. "Startling/Disturbing Research on School Program Effectiveness." PHI DELTA KAPPAN 59 (1977): 568–572.
Fenwick, J. (Primary Author) Taking Center Stage: A Commitment to Standards-Based Education for California's Middle Grades Students. Sacramento: California Department of Education, 2001
"Why Middle Level Schools Are KEY to Young Adolescent Success" Westerville, OH: NMSA, 2003. [2]

Etymology
Buddhism does not recognize the idea behind sin because in Buddhism, instead, there is a "Cause-Effect Theory", known as Karma, or action. In general, Buddhism illustrates intentions as the cause of Karma, either good or bad. Furthermore, most thoughts in any being's mind can be negative.
Vipaka, the result of your Karma, may create low quality living, hardships, destruction and all means of disharmony in life and it may also create the healthy living, easiness, and harmony in life. Good deeds produce good results while bad deeds produce bad results. Karma and Vipaka is your own action and result.
Pañcasīla (Pāli) is the fundamental code of Buddhist ethics, willingly undertaken by lay followers of Gautama Buddha. It is a basic understanding of the Noble Eightfold Path, which is a Buddhist teaching on ways to stop suffering.
Pancasila

1. I undertake the rule to refrain from destroying living creatures.


2. I undertake the rule to refrain from taking that which is not given.


3. I undertake the rule to refrain from sexual misconduct.


4. I undertake the rule to refrain from incorrect speech.


5. I undertake the rule to refrain from intoxicants which lead to carelessness.

Noble Eightfold Path

1. Right View


2. Right Intention


3. Right Speech


4. Right Action


5. Right Work


6. Right Effort


7. Right Mindfulness


8. Right Concentration

These ultimately lead to cessation of suffering and thus is a way to be free of Samsara, the cycle of death. After that, Nirvana is achieved.

I undertake the rule to refrain from destroying living creatures.
I undertake the rule to refrain from taking that which is not given.
I undertake the rule to refrain from sexual misconduct.
I undertake the rule to refrain from incorrect speech.
I undertake the rule to refrain from intoxicants which lead to carelessness.
Right View
Right Intention
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Work
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration Buddhist views of sin
Judaism regards the violation of divine commandments to be a sin. Judaism teaches that sin is an act, and not a state of being. Mankind was not created with an inclination to do evil, but has that inclination "from his youth"(Genesis 8:21). It should be noted that if indeed this was the case, that God had created man sinfully, it would criticize the absolute goodness of God that all three Abrahamic religions profess. He does have the ability to master this inclination (Genesis 4:7) and choose good over evil (conscience)(Psalm 37:27). Judaism holds that all people sin at various points in their lives, and hold that God tempers justice with mercy.
The generic Hebrew word for any kind of sin is avera. Based on verses in the Hebrew Bible, Judaism describes three levels of sin. There are three categories of a person who commits an avera. The first one is someone who does an avera intentionally, or "B'mezid." This is the most serious category. The second is one who did an avera by accident. This is called "B'shogeg," and while the person is still responsible for their action it is considered less serious. The third category is someone who is a "Tinok Shenishba", which is a person who was raised in an environment that was assimilated or non-Jewish, and is not aware of the proper Jewish laws, or halacha. This person is not held accountable for their actions.
Judaism holds that no human being is perfect, and all people have sinned many times. However, certain states of sin (i.e. avon or cheit) do not condemn a person to damnation; only one or two truly grievous sins lead to anything approaching the Biblical conception of hell. The Biblical and rabbinic conception of God is that of a creator who tempers justice with mercy. Based on the views of Rabbeinu Tam in the Babylonian Talmud (tractate Rosh HaShanah 17b), God is said to have thirteen attributes of mercy:
As Jews are commanded in imitatio Dei, emulating God, rabbis take these attributes into account in deciding Jewish law and its contemporary application.
A classical rabbinic work, Midrash Avot de Rabbi Natan, states:
The Babylonian Talmud teaches that "Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Eleazar both explain that as long as the Temple stood, the altar atoned for Israel, but now, one's table atones [when the poor are invited as guests]." (Tractate Berachot, 55a.)
The traditional liturgy of the Days of Awe (the High Holy Days; i.e. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) states that prayer, repentance and tzedakah (charitable actions) are ways to repent for sin. In Judaism, sins committed against people (rather than against God or in the heart) must first be corrected and put right to the best of a person's ability; a sin which has not also been put right as best as possible cannot truly be said to be repented.

Pesha or Mered - An intentional sin; an action committed in deliberate defiance of God; (Strong's Concordance :H6588 (פשע pesha', peh'shah). According to Strong it comes from the root (:H6586); rebellion, transgression, trespass.
Avon - This is a sin of lust or uncontrollable emotion. It is a sin done knowingly, but not done to defy God; (Strong's Concordance :H5771 (avon, aw-vone). According to Strong it comes from the root (:H5753); meaning perversity, moral evil:--fault, iniquity, mischief.
Cheit - This is an unintentional sin, crime or fault. (Strong's Concordance :H2399 (חַטָּא chate). According to Strong it comes from the root khaw-taw (:H2398, H2403) meaning "to miss, to err from the mark (speaking of an archer), to sin, to stumble."
God is merciful before someone sins, even though God knows that a person is capable of sin.
God is merciful to a sinner even after the person has sinned.
God represents the power to be merciful even in areas that a human would not expect or deserve.
God is compassionate, and eases the punishment of the guilty.
God is gracious even to those who are not deserving.
God is slow to anger.
God is abundant in kindness.
God is the god of truth, thus we can count on God's promises to forgive repentant sinners.
God guarantees kindness to future generations, as the deeds of the righteous patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) have benefits to all their descendants.
God forgives intentional sins if the sinner repents.
God forgives a deliberate angering of Him if the sinner repents.
God forgives sins that are committed in error.
God wipes away the sins from those who repent. Jewish views of sin

For more details on this topic, see Repentance in Judaism. Jewish conceptions of atonement for sin

Christian views of sin
In Western Christianity, in a sense, sin is often viewed as a legal infraction or contract violation, and so salvation tends to be viewed in legal terms, similar to Jewish thinking. In Eastern Christianity, sin is more often viewed in terms of its effects on relationships, both among people and between people and God. The Bible, however, shows sin to be not following God's moral guidance. This is based on the account of Adam and Eve in Genesis. They went against God and acquired from disobeying Him, the "knowledge of good and evil," by eating the fruit of "the tree of knowledge of good and evil." They now had the ability to judge for themselves. To abide by God's judgement and value is Not sin. Thus, the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree which God commanded them not to, sin was born; it was the disobeying act that was the sin. Though, since God spoke specifically to Adam, and then Adam told Eve what God had said, it usually believed that Adam held the most responsibility for the evil that took place on that day.
The Greek word in the New Testament that is translated in English as "sin" is hamartia, which literally means missing the target. In Christianity, salvation is viewed in terms of reconciliation and a genuine relationship with Christ. 1 John 3:4 states: "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness." (ESV) This law refers to the statements (commonly called the Ten Commandments) in Exodus 20:1-17 that God demands of those that follow Him. Another example of this is in Romans 6:23 where it says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ our Lord. Both Eastern and Western Christians agree, on the basis God's Word, that sin serves as a barrier in one having a complete relationship with God. But in the Gospel of John 3:16 it states "For God so loved the world, He gave his one and only son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." This verse is the base of Christianity. Salvation is not obtained through good works but faith alone accompanied by obedience to the law that which God has set forth. The works will follow the faith. Christians trust that every one of us falls short of the perfect glory of God because of our sins (imperfections), but the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins was the perfect and ultimate sacrifice; therefore, one can obtain salvation only through seeking faith in Jesus Christ who was crucified and resurrected for all of mankind (Romans 3:23-24).

In general
Roman Catholic doctrine distinguishes between personal sin and original sin. Personal sins are either mortal or venial.
Mortal sins are sins of grave (serious) matter, where the sinner is fully aware that the act (or omission) is both a sin and a grave matter, and performs the act (or omission) with fully deliberate consent. The act of committing a mortal sin cuts off the sinner from God's grace; it is in itself a rejection of God. If left un-reconciled, mortal sins result in eternal punishment in Hell.
Venial sins are sins which do not meet the conditions for mortal sins. The act of committing a venial sin does not cut off the sinner from God's grace, as the sinner has not rejected God. However, venial sins do injure the relationship between the sinner and God, and as such, must be reconciled to God, either through the sacrament of reconciliation or receiving the Eucharist.
Both mortal and venial sins have a dual nature of punishment. They incur both guilt for the sin, yielding eternal punishment, and temporal punishment for the sin. Reconciliation is an act of God's mercy, and addresses the guilt and eternal punishment for sin. Purgatory and indulgences address the temporal punishment for sin, and exercise of God's justice.
Roman Catholic doctrine also sees sin as being twofold: Sin is, at once, any evil or immoral action which infracts God's law and the inevitable consequences, the state of being that comes about by committing the sinful action. Sin can and does alienate a person both from God and the community. Hence, the Catholic Church's insistence on reconciliation with both God and the Church itself.
According to Roman Catholicism, in addition to Jesus, the Virgin Mary also lived her entire life without sin. Catholicism teaches as infallible dogma that Jesus assumed her directly into heaven after the end of her life on Earth; see Assumption of Mary. The belief in Mary's sinlessness is shared by many Eastern Orthodox theologians, but is not universally held and is not generally considered to be a point of dogma. In addition, the Orthodox view of the sinlessness of the Theotokos is not quite of the same nature as that held by Roman Catholics, since the Catholic teaching of the Immaculate Conception is not an Orthodox doctrine.

Roman Catholic views
Sin is differentiated from the relativistic, individualized transgressions of moral standards pure human rationale dictates, by secular humanism, by its immutability and everlasting nature. Sin never changes, but popular notion does. Hence, sin will always be sin, regardless of epoch.
Religions other than Roman Catholicism view the concept of sin as a wandering from the path to enlightenment, and this also applies to Roman Catholicism, with the addition that God is a Person, and is unchanging; The Father by which everything in three dimensional reality is defined. What is contrary to the Will of God is sin.
Man is the only thing that can sin because free will is required, and with the exception of mankind, everything in the Universe perfectly obeys the Will of God. The predictability of all things created belies the nature of all things as being ordered according to time, measure, and weight; as recorded in The Holy Bible. Relative physics adopted this view of the Universe and refers to the second, meter, and kilogram as the foundation of all three dimensional reality.
In the grand scheme of everything, from beginning to end, God's Will must be done. The illusion of free will and personal accountability serves as consolation for those not chosen for The Everlasting Kingdom of God. By this measure sin can be viewed as the wraith of primordial guilt, or original sin.
The term sin is only applicable to competent individuals past the age of reason. If a person doesn't know something is contrary to the Will of God they cannot be held accountable for sin until such time comes that the individual understands that particular sin is wrong.
This doesn't always happen during the temporal, physical, organic life of the physical body. In this instance the person will be illuminated after death, at which point the soul will be aware of exactly what sins they are guilty of. Atonement for sin cannot be made after the physical death of the human organism, and thus the soul of the unrepentant sinner is in an impossible predicament of final annihilation from existence.
However, God is not bound by time, and if a person was ever forgiven, they were always forgiven. And such is the nature of all Roman Catholics to pray for the departed soul, who didn't understand sin while physical life was in his/her flesh.
Roman Catholic Doctrine dictates Jesus Christ alone can forgive sin, although sin need only be forgiven if one desires immortality in everlasting paradise. Many people alive today do not want this, so sin does not apply to them.
This section is based on the works: Thomas Aquinas, [| The Summa Theologica], and Saint Augustine, [| Confessions] and [| On Christian Doctrine]
See also: Seven deadly sins

View of Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas
Many Protestants teach that, due to original sin, man has lost any and all capacity to move towards reconciliation with God (Romans 3:23;6:23; Ephesians 2:1-3); in fact, this inborn sin turns humans away from God and towards themselves and their own desires (Isaiah 53:6a). Thus, humans may be brought back into a relationship with God only by way of God's rescuing the sinner from his hopeless condition (Galatians 5:17-21; Ephesians 2:4-10) through Jesus's ransom sacrifice (Romans 5:6-8; Colossians 2:13-15). Salvation is sola fide (by faith alone); sola gratia (by grace alone); and is begun and completed by God alone through Jesus (Ephesians 2:8,9). This understanding of original sin (Romans 5:12-19), is most closely associated with Calvinism (see total depravity) and Lutheranism. Calvinism allows for the "goodness" of humanity through the belief in God's common grace. Methodist theology adapts the concept by stating that humans, entirely sinful and totally depraved, can only "do good" through God's prevenient grace.
This is in contrast to the Catholic teaching that while sin has tarnished the original goodness of humanity prior to the Fall, it has not entirely extinguished that goodness, or at least the potential for goodness, allowing humans to reach towards God to share in the Redemption which Jesus Christ won for them. Some non-Catholic or Orthodox groups hold similar views.
There is dispute about where sin originated. Some refer to Ezekiel 28 that suggests that sin originated with Satan when he coveted the position that rightfully belongs to God. The origin of individual sins is defined in James 1:14&15 - "(14)but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. (15)Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."(NIV)

Protestant views
Within some branches of Protestantism, there are several defined types of sin (as in Roman Catholicism):

Original sin -- Most denominations of Christianity interpret the Garden of Eden account in Genesis in terms of the fall of man. Adam and Eve's disobedience was the first sin man ever committed, and their original sin (or the effects of the sin) is passed on to their descendants (or has become a part of their environment). See also: total depravity.
Concupiscence
Venial sin
Mortal sin
Eternal sin -- Commonly called the Unforgivable sin (mentioned in Matthew 12:31), this is perhaps the most controversial sin, whereby someone has become an apostate, forever denying himself a life of faith and experience of salvation; the precise nature of this sin is often disputed. Some say it is an unforgivable sin because if you do not believe in what Jesus has said (John 3:16), how can he save you? Defined types of sin
The Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox use sin both to refer to humanity's fallen condition and to refer to individual sinful acts. In many ways the Orthodox Christian view of sin is similar to the Jewish, although neither form of Orthodoxy makes formal distinctions among "grades" of sins.
The Eastern Catholic Churches, which derive their theology and spirituality from same sources as the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, do not use the Latin Catholic distinction between Mortal and Venial sin. However, like the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, the Eastern Catholic Churches do make a distinction between sins that are serious enough to bar one from Holy Communion (and must be confessed before receiving once again) and those which are not sufficiently serious to do so. In this respect, the Eastern Tradition is similar to the Western, but the Eastern Churches do not consider death in such a state to automatically mean damnation to Hell.

Eastern/Oriental Orthodox views
Within the emerging church movement and other progressive forms of Christianity, the definition of "sin" may or may not be central to an understanding of Christianity and its relationship to society. This non-dogmatic formulation of sin is perhaps more characteristic of the post-modern fluid views of the emerging church. Sin in this context can have multiple meanings, including but not limited to interpersonal sins (harming one's neighbours, friends, or families with negative actions), environmental sins (pollution, overconsumption), structural sins (homophobia and heterosexism, misogyny, racism, etc.), or even personal sins (actions which are harmful to oneself). As a result of this re-interpretation of the traditional concept of sin, new concepts of liberation and salvation are required.

Emerging Church, Liberal Theology, and Liberation Theology
In Christianity, atonement can refer to the redemption achieved by Jesus Christ by his virgin birth, sinless life, crucifixion, and resurrection. Thereby fulfilling more than 300 Old Testament prophecies. Its centrality to traditional interpretations of Christian theology means that it has been the source of much discussion and some controversy throughout Christian history. Generally it is understood that the death of Jesus Christ was a sacrifice that relieves believers of the burden of their sins. However, the actual meaning of this precept is very widely debated. The traditional teaching of some churches traces this idea of atonement to blood sacrifices in the ancient Hebraic faith.
Various Christian theologians have presented various interpretations of atonement:
The several ideas of these and many more Christian theologians can perhaps be summed up under these rubrics:
See also: Salvation; Penance; Repentance; Reconciliation; Sacraments (Catholic Church)

Origen taught that the death of Christ was a ransom paid to Satan in satisfaction of his just claim on the souls of humanity as a result of sin. This was opposed by theologians like St. Gregory Nazianzen, who maintained that this would have made Satan equal to God.
Irenaeus of Lyons taught that Christ recapitulated in Himself all the stages of life of sinful man, and that His perfect obedience substituted for Adam's disobedience.
Athanasius of Alexandria taught that Christ came to overcome death and corruption, and to remake humanity in God's image again. See On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius.
Augustine of Hippo said that sin was not a created thing at all, but that it was "privatio boni", a "taking away of good", and uncreation.
Anselm of Canterbury taught that Christ's death satisfied God's offended sense of justice over the sins of humanity. Also, God rewarded Christ's obedience, which built up a storehouse of merit and a treasury of grace that believers could share by their faith in Christ. This view is known as the satisfaction theory, the merit theory, or sometimes the commercial theory. Anselm's teaching is contained in his treatise Cur Deus Homo, which means Why God Became Human. Anselm's ideas were later expanded utilizing Aristotelian philosophy into a grand theological system by Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century, particularly in his masterpiece, the Summa Theologica, which eventually became official Roman Catholic doctrine.
Pierre Abélard held that Christ's Passion was God suffering with His creatures in order to show the greatness of His love for them. This is often known as the moral influence view, and has dominated Christian liberalism.
Martin Luther and John Calvin, leaders of the Protestant Reformation, owed much to Anselm's theory and taught that Christ, the only sinless person, was obedient to take upon Himself the penalty for the sins that should have been visited on men and women. This view is a version of substitutionary atonement and is sometimes called substitutionary punishment or a satisfaction theory, though it is not identical to that of Anselm. Calvin additionally advocated the doctrine of limited atonement, which teaches that the atonement applies only to the sins of the elect rather than to all of humanity.
D.L. Moody once said, "If you are under the power of evil, and you want to get under the power of God, cry to Him to bring you over to His service; cry to Him to take you into His army. He will hear you; He will come to you, and, if need be, He will send a legion of angels to help you to fight your way up to heaven. God will take you by the right hand and lead you through this wilderness, over death, and take you right into His kingdom. That's what the Son of Man came to do. He has never deceived us; just say here; "Christ is my deliverer.""
Arminianism has traditionally taught what is known as "Moral Government" theology or the Governmental theory. Drawing primarily from the works of Jacobus Arminius and Hugo Grotius, the Governmental theory teaches that Christ suffered for humankind so that God could forgive humans while still maintaining divine justice. Unlike the perspectives of Anselm of Canterbury or Calvinism, this view states that Christ was not punished for humanity, for true forgiveness would not be possible if humankind's offenses were already punished. Christ's suffering was a real and meaningful substitutionary atonement for the punishment humans deserve, but Christ was not punished on behalf of the human race. This view has prospered in traditional Methodism and all who follow the teachings of John Wesley, and has been detailed by, among others, 19th century Methodist theologian John Miley in his classic Atonement in Christ and 20th century Church of the Nazarene theologian J. Kenneth Grider in his Wesleyan-Holiness Theology. Variations of this view have also been espoused by 18th century Puritan Jonathan Edwards and 19th century revival leader Charles Grandison Finney.
Karl Barth taught that Christ's death manifested God's love and His hatred for sin.
Barbara Reid (theologian), a feminist Dominican theologian argues that atonement is a harmful theology, especially to women and other oppressed groups. Other liberal or progressive theologians have also challenged the traditional view of atonement. In this view, atonement theology--as central as it is to traditional Christian faith--needs to be re-interpreted or perhaps even disposed of as it focuses on death, sin, and suffering as opposed to liberation, life, and resurrection.
Victory: the idea that Jesus defeated Death through his death, and gave life to those in the grave. Both following models may be understood as variations of the Victory idea:
Participation: the idea that God's death on the cross completed his identification with humanity - God's participation in our sin and sorrow allowing our participation in his love and triumph;
Ransom: the idea that Jesus released humanity from a legal obligation to the Devil, incurred by sin. (Theories involving ransom owed to divine justice are generally classified under Punishment, below.)
Punishment: the idea that God assumed the penalty for human sins on the Cross, and volunteered punishment as the price paid to release humanity from so that the faithful might escape it;
Government: the idea that God forgives the penalty due humans for their sins, provisioned on their acceptance of that forgiveness, but that Christ suffered on the Cross in order to demonstrate the seriousness of sin;
Example: the idea that Jesus' death was meant as a lesson in ideal submission to the will of God, and to show the path to eternal life;
Revelation: the idea that Jesus' death was meant to reveal God's nature and to help humans know God better.
Liberation: the concept that both the life and death of Jesus are somehow responsible for social and personal liberation from the effects of sin. Christian teachings on atonement, or the remedy for sin
Islam sees sin (dhanb, thanb ذنب) as anything that goes against the will of Allah (God). Islam teaches that sin is an act and not a state of being. The Qur'an teaches that "the (human) soul is certainly prone to evil, unless the Lord does bestow His Mercy" and that even the prophets do not absolve themselves of the blame (Qur'an </ref>
Some Islamic scholars such as Ibn Sina and Eghbal believe that jahannam (Hell) is not material.
In Islam there are opposing views that if a person commits a sin, he will be out of Islam.

sayyia, khatia: mistakes (Suras 7:168; 17:31; 40:45; 47:19 48:2)
itada, junah, dhanb: immorality (Suras 2:190,229; 17:17 33:55)
haram: transgressions (Suras 5:4; 6:146)
ithm, dhulam, fujur, su, fasad, fisk, kufr: wickedness and depravity (Suras 2:99, 205; 4:50, 112, 123, 136; 12:79; 38:62; 82:14)
shirk: ascribing a partner to God (Sura 4:48) Islamic views of sin
Qur'an teaches that the main way back to Allah is through genuine tawbah (repentance) which literally means 'to return'). See Repentance in Islam for further discussions.
Islam does not accept any blood sacrifice for sin. The Islamic understanding of forgiveness is that it is made on the basis of divine grace and repentance. According to Islam, no sacrifice can add to divine grace nor replace the necessity of repentance. In the Islamic theology, the animal sacrifices or blood are not directly linked to atonement (Qur'an ). The Islamic Law, Sharia specifies the atonement of any particular sin. Depending on the sin, the atonement can range from repentance and compensation of the sin if possible, feeding the poor, freeing slaves to even stoning to death or cutting hands.
Some of the major sins are held to be legally punishable in an Islamic state (for example, murder, theft, adultery, and in some views apostasy; see sharia). Most are left to Allah to punish (for example, backbiting, hypocrisy arrogance, filial disrespect, lying).
Also, it is said that for every good deed that is done, 10 bad ones (sins) will be taken off.

Islamic conceptions of atonement for sin
There is considerable difference among scholars as to which sins are Al-Kaba'r (major sins).
According to Sahih Bukhari there are seven al-Kaba'ir (major sins) according to this tradition: >

Associating anything with Allah
Murder
Practicing magic
Not praying
Not paying Zakat
Not fasting on a Day of Ramadan without excuse
Not performing Hajj, while being able to do so
Disrespect to parents
Abandoning relatives
Fornication and Adultery
Homosexuality (sodomy)
Interest
Wrongfully consuming the property of an orphan
Lying about Allah and His Messenger
Running away from the battlefield
A leader's deceiving his people and being unjust to them
Pride and arrogance
Bearing false witness
Drinking Khamr (wine)
Gambling
Slandering chaste women
Stealing from the spoils of war
Stealing
Highway Robbery
Taking false oath
Oppression
Illegal gain
Consuming wealth acquired unlawfully
Committing suicide
Frequent lying
Judging unjustly
Giving and Accepting bribes
Woman's imitating man and man's imitating woman
Being cuckold
Marrying a divorced woman in order to make her lawful for the husband
Not protecting oneself from urine
Showing off
Learning knowledge of the religion for the sake of this world and concealing that knowledge
Betrayal of trust
Recounting favours
Denying Allah's Decree
Listening (to) people's private conversations
Carrying tales
Cursing
Breaking contracts
Believing in fortune-tellers and astrologers
A woman's bad conduct towards her husband
Making statues and pictures
Lamenting, wailing, tearing the clothing, and doing other things of this sort when an affliction befalls
Treating others unjustly
Overbearing conduct toward the wife, the servant, the weak, and animals
Offending one's neighbour
Offending and abusing Muslims
Offending people and having an arrogant attitude toward them
Trailing one's garment in pride
Men's wearing silk and gold
A slave's running away from his master
Slaughtering an animal which has been dedicated to anyone other than Allah
To knowingly ascribe one's paternity to a father other than one's own
Arguing and disputing violently
Withholding excess water
Giving short weight or measure
Feeling secure from Allah's Plan
Offending Allah's righteous friends
Not praying in congregation but praying alone without an excuse
Persistently missing Friday Prayers without any excuse
Usurping the rights of the heir through bequests
Deceiving and plotting evil
Spying for the enemy of the Muslims
Cursing or insulting any of the Companions of Allah's Messenger Islamic Major sins: Al-Kaba'ir
In the Bahá'í Faith, humans are considered to be naturally good, fundamentally spiritual beings. Human beings were created because of God's immeasurable love for us. However, the Bahá'í teachings compare the human heart to a mirror, which, if turned away from the light of the sun (i.e. God), is incapable of receiving God's love. It is only by turning unto God that the spiritual advancement can be made. In this sense, "sinning" is to follow the inclinations of one's own lower nature, to turn the mirror of one's heart away from God.
One of the main hindrances to spiritual development is the Bahá'í concept of the "insistent self" which is a self-serving inclination within all people. Bahá'ís interpret this to be the true meaning of Satan, often referred to in the Bahá'í Writings as "the Evil One".
Watch over yourselves, for the Evil One is lying in wait, ready to entrap you. Gird yourselves against his wicked devices, and, led by the light of the name of the All-Seeing God, make your escape from the darkness that surroundeth you. — Bahá'u'lláh [5]
This lower nature in man is symbolized as Satan — the evil ego within us, not an evil personality outside. — `Abdu'l-Bahá
In the end, only God can decide who is forgiven and who is not.

Bahá'í views of sin
In Hinduism, the term sin or pāpa is often used to describe actions that create negative karma.
Sin, in Hinduism, besides creating negative karma, is violating moral and ethical codes as in the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In fact, it is much described in the scriptures that chanting the name of Hari or Narayana or Shiva is the one of the ways to atone for sins, prevent rebirth and attain moksha. For reference, see the famous story of Ajamila, described in a story described in the Bhagavata Purana.
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami explains in the lexicon section of his book, Dancing with Siva, that "sin is an intentional transgression of divine law and is not viewed in Hinduism as a crime against God as in Judaeo-Christian religions, but rather as 1) an act against dharma, or moral order and 2) one's own self." Furthermore, he notes that it is thought natural, if unfortunate, that young souls act wrongly, for they are living in nescience, avidya, the darkness of ignorance.
He further mentions that sin in Hinduism is an adharmic course of action which automatically brings negative consequences. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami explains that the term sin carries a double meaning, as do its Sanskrit equivalents: 1) a wrongful act, 2) the negative consequences resulting from a wrongful act. In Sanskrit the wrongful act is known by several terms, including pataka (from pat, "to fall") papa, enas, kilbisha, adharma, anrita and rina (transgress, in the sense of omission).
He comments that the residue of sin is called papa, sometimes conceived of as a sticky, astral substance which can be dissolved through penance (prayashchitta), austerity (tapas) and good deeds (sukritya). Note that papa is also accrued through unknowing or unintentional transgressions of dharma, as in the term aparadha (offense, fault, mistake).
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami further notes that in Hinduism, except for Dvaita school of Shri Madhvacharya, there are no such concepts of inherent or mortal sin, according to some theologies, which he defined as sins so grave that they can never be expiated and which cause the soul to be condemned to suffer eternally in hell.
Adapted and cited from lexicon section of his book, Dancing with Siva., with italics to indicate non-quotes.

Hindu views of sin
To the atheist, the concept of sin is not very meaningful; sin is generally regarded by most people as a theological concept, and atheists are by definition not followers of a theology. Non-believers may certainly regard action as being right or wrong according to their particular moral system, but they generally do not think of them as being "sinful" per se, particularly if "sinful" is taken to mean "acting against the wishes/commands of my deity."
It is, however, important to note that "atheism" is as vague a category as "theism": just as there is no universal doctrine of "theism" (apart from the mere assertion that some divine entity exists), there is no universal doctrine of "atheism" and no single view on the concept of sin.

See also