query: Who owns HGTV?

title: HGTV

text: HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Discovery, Inc.

title: HGTV

text: Scripps Network Interactive has purchased a majority stake in TVN from Grupa ITI, taking control of company's channels. On 7 January 2017, HGTV has replaced fitness and weather channel TVN Meteo Active. HGTV is referred to in Poland as HGTV Home&Garden. This was the first market in Europe the channel has expanded to.

title: HGTV Design Star All Stars

text: HGTV Design Star All Stars is a spin-off series based on HGTV Design Star. It features 6 designers from the first seven seasons of the original series. Host and mentor David Bromstad and incumbent judges Vern Yip and Genevieve Gorder will all return to their respective positions for this competition. The season premiered on HGTV on July 31, 2012, a week following the conclusion of the seventh season of the parent series.

title: Kudzu.com

text: In August 2010, Kudzu.com partnered with HGTV, where HGTV's videos and content were added to Kudzu.com, and the ability to search Kudzu.com's listings was added to several HGTV websites. The partnership ended at the end of 2011.

title: HGTV (Canada)

text: On October 27, 2010, the channel's ownership changed again as Shaw Communications gained control of HGTV as a result of its acquisition of Canwest and Goldman Sachs' interest in CW Media. Shaw Media has since been subsumed by its sister company Corus Entertainment, who owns the channel to this day.

title: HGTV Design Star (season 3)

text: HGTV Design Star season 3 was the third season of the American reality TV home design show HGTV Design Star. The season first aired from 8 June to 3 August 2008 on HGTV in 9 weekly episodes. The season was hosted by Clive Pearse and the judges were designers Vern Yip and Cynthia Rowley. The final challenge involved renovating houses damaged during Hurricane Katrina and the winner was chosen in a vote open to viewers. The winner was Jennifer Bertrand, who won her own TV show on HGTV called "Paint-Over! with Jennifer Bertrand".

title: List of Love It or List It episodes

text: Love It or List It is a Canadian home design TV show currently airing on HGTV, W Network and on OWN Canada. The show is produced by Big Coat Productions and is based in Toronto and other surrounding areas in Ontario, Canada. The show premiered as a primetime program on W Network on September 8, 2008, and has since aired on OWN Canada as well as HGTV in the United States.

title: HGTV Star

text: The contestants compete for their own design show on HGTV, which follows the format of "The Next Food Network Star" on sister channel Food Network. Each week, the judges decide whom to eliminate; and, in Seasons 1-4, Clive Pearse would tell the contestant(s) who had been eliminated, "Your show has been cancelled...please exit the studio."

title: David Bromstad

text: He has three shows on HGTV: "HGTV Design Star", where he has been a mentor from Season 6, and host from Season 7; HGTV's "Beach Flip"; and HGTV's "My Lottery Dream Home".

title: Jennifer Bertrand

text: Jennifer Bertrand is the host of Home & Garden Television's "Paint-Over! with Jennifer Bertrand" and the season three champion of "HGTV Design Star". "Paint-Over! with Jennifer Bertrand" is an hour-long show that showcases her decorative painting and murals. She will also be on the show "HGTV Showdown", in which she will compete head-to-head with another HGTV designer. In addition to appearances and a hosting job on HGTV, Bertrand owns a design business with her husband in Weatherby Lake, Missouri.

title: HGTV Design Star (season 1)

text: This season is the first season of HGTV Design Star. It features 10 designers competing for their own show on HGTV. In the fourth episode, the designer with the worst design in the clients' eyes would be eliminated outside of the judging panel. The worst design was Teran's, and so he was cut. The design deemed best was Temple's.

title: Jim Samples

text: Samples served as President of HGTV from 2007 to 2011. During his tenure, HGTV ranked every year as the #1 network among upscale female viewers in the U.S. At HGTV, Samples broadened the network's programming slate by introducing a series of hits shows including "Love It or List It", "Property Brothers" and "Kitchen Cousins" while greatly expanding the network's hit franchise "House Hunters". He also partnered with the consumer products team to create new off-air brand extensions including "HGTV Magazine", the #1 home magazine in the U.S., and an extensive HGTV-branded product line.

title: HGTV (Canada)

text: Noted personalities who have been featured in HGTV Canada programming have included Mike Holmes, Drew and Jonathan Scott, Bryan Baeumler, and Damon Bennett, among others.

title: Karen McAloon

text: Karen McAloon (born August 16, 1968) is the designer/host on the television show "Find Your Style" on HGTV (seasons 1& 2: 2007; season 3: 2008), and the designer/host of HGTV's Design Remix that ran from 2005-2007 (7 season, 91 episodes). Karen began on the HGTV Network as a guest landscape designer on five episodes of Landscape Smart in 2004/05. She also designed and hosted six one-hour specials for HGTV, and was a host of the HGTV 2007 Tournament Of Roses Parade live broadcast.

title: HGTV

text: HGTV was honored with the Academy of Achievement Award for their significant impact on the home and garden décor industry at the 22nd Annual Accessories Resource Team (ARTS) gala event on January 2, 2011.[17] In 2012, HGTV won the Dixon Award for Best TV Channel.

title: HGTV Star

text: HGTV Star, named HGTV Design Star for the first seven seasons, is an American reality competition show airing on the cable television network HGTV. It premiered July 23, 2006, and was canceled after seven seasons.

title: HGTV

text: On 27 June 2016, HGTV launched in New Zealand as a free-to-air channel on the Freeview terrestrial platform. On 24 August 2016, HGTV launched on the Freeview satellite platform and on Sky.

title: David Bromstad

text: After being laid off as a Disney illustrator, Bromstad started his own company, Bromstad Studio, designing fantasy bedrooms for children. At the urging of a friend, Bromstad moved to Miami Beach and tried out for HGTV's "Design Star", a reality show competition to pick a host for a new show on the HGTV cable network. On "Design Star", Bromstad competed against nine other potential designers, winning the grand prize – a car, and the chance to host his own show on HGTV. In "Color Splash"'s 23rd episode, Bromstad noted that HGTV opted for a second set of 26 episodes.

title: Designer Superstar Challenge

text: The winner of the challenge is supposed to get their own design TV show on HGTV, although several non-winners have also emerged as HGTV personalities.

title: Love It or List It

text: Love It or List It is a Canadian home design TV show currently airing on HGTV, W Network, and on OWN Canada, and is the original show in the "Love it or List It" franchise. The show is produced by Big Coat Productions and was based in Toronto and other surrounding areas in Ontario, Canada. The show premiered as a primetime program on W Network on September 8, 2008, and has since aired on OWN Canada as well as HGTV in the United States. In September 2014, the show began filming in the United States in North Carolina.

title: HGTV (Canada)

text: HGTV is a Canadian English-language Category A cable and satellite specialty channel that is owned as a joint venture between Corus Entertainment (which serves as managing partner and owns 80.24% majority control through licensee HGTV Canada, Inc.) and Discovery Inc. (which owns the remaining 19.76%). HGTV broadcasts programs relating to real estate, home and garden design, and renovations.

title: The Antonio Treatment

text: The Antonio Treatment is a one-hour weekly docu-design series show on HGTV and is hosted by Antonio Ballatore, who won Season 4 of the HGTV reality show "Design Star". The pilot episode aired on January 1, 2010 and the show officially premiered March 14, 2010,

title: Kathy Patrick

text: Patrick appeared on "Good Morning America"s "Recipe Show" with her chicken shish kabob recipe. She also appeared on radio on the "Kacey Kowars Show" in January 2008. For one season, she hosted her own talk show, "Beauty and the Book", which debuted on HGTV in March 2009, and was listed in HGTV's Top 10.

title: Buy Herself

text: Buy Herself is a Canadian reality television series, which premiered April 16, 2012 on HGTV Canada. Hosted by Sandra Rinomato, formerly of the HGTV series "Property Virgins", the series focused on single women who are seeking to buy their first house on their own. Its format is otherwise similar to that of "Property Virgins", with Rinomato showing the potential buyer three homes and discussing how to manage and balance needs and expectations and complications in the home-buying process.

title: Peter Fallico

text: Peter Fallico is a Canadian designer and television personality, best known as a host of various programs on HGTV Canada. Originally a supporting craft and handyman on "Style at Home", he subsequently became a cohost of "This Small Space", as well as a set decorator for "", and was first given his own show, "Home to Go", in 2002. He has since hosted a number of other HGTV series, each based on the "Home to..." brand.

title: Meridith Baer

text: After an appearance on the HGTV series "Selling L.A.," Baer was approached by several networks about developing a television series about her home staging work. In 2013, she launched her own television show on HGTV, entitled “Staged To Perfection”. The show chronicled Baer and her team of 18 designers as she staged luxury properties that have stalled on the market for over a month.

title: Buy Me

text: Buy Me is a television program that has aired on HGTV in the U.S. since 2005, and on HGTV Canada since 2003, where it is that cable network's most popular show. It is also seen in Belgium and South Africa, either dubbed or with subtitles. It is produced by Whalley-Abbey Media Holdings (WHAM), which is owned by Debbie Travis and her husband, and produced "Debbie Travis' Facelift".

title: Bought & Sold

text: Bought & Sold is a television program that airs on HGTV. The show is a spin-off of HGTV Canada's "Buy Me". The show focuses on 12 realtors who work out of ReMax Village Square Realtors located in northern New Jersey.

title: David Bromstad

text: David Reed Bromstad (born August 17, 1973) is an American designer and television personality. In 2006, he became the winner of the debut season of "HGTV Design Star". He is the host of his own television show, "Color Splash with David Bromstad", which debuted in March 2007 on HGTV as well as "Color Splash Miami" on HGTV which debuted in 2010. He also hosts HGTV's "My Lottery Dream Home", in which he helps lottery winners find their dream real estate property.

title: Donna Moss (designer)

text: Moss' husband Paul began building small homes in the Dallas/Ft Worth area in the early 1980s. Moss began helping her husband's clients with their interior design selections for the homes he would build. As his business grew to larger custom homes, Moss' design business also grew. Although she had taken a job as a travel industry professional with American Airlines, she continued to work toward an interior design career. Moss had ten years of personal design experience by the time she was chosen to become a contestant in Season 1 of HGTV's "Design Star", now named HGTV Star. She was voted out just behind the top five finalists. Afterward, she opened her own boutique in Texas, "That's Haute" and "That's Haute Kids" together with her daughters. In 2011, HGTV pitched her own show, and HGTV's "Donna Decorates Dallas" aired. It was cancelled in 2014.


query: Who is the mayor of NYC?

title: List of mayors of New York City

text: The Mayor of New York City is the chief executive of New York City's government, as stipulated by New York City's charter. The current mayor, the 109th in the sequence of regular mayors, is Bill de Blasio, a Democrat.

title: 2017 New York City mayoral election

text: There were two Democratic primary debates to determine who would be the Democratic nominee for NYC Mayor. The candidates were incumbent Mayor, Bill De Blasio and former NYC Council Member, Sal Albanese. Both candidates had democratic primaries on August 23 and on September 6th.

title: James S. Vlasto

text: In 1973, Vlasto was Communication Director for former New York City Finance Administrator, Richard Lewisohn’s campaign for NYC Comptroller on a ticket headed by Republican State Senator John J. Marchi, who was seeking to become mayor in the New York City mayoral election, 1973 in a run against Democrat Abraham Beame.

title: Jesse Simons

text: From 1963-1966, Simons directed the American Arbitration Association's Labor Management Institute. Following two lengthy strikes in 1965 by NYC employees, Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. convened a committee to create an independent agency to oversee municipal labor relations. Simons was an adviser to this committee and his contribution ultimately helped to bring about the NYC Collective Bargaining Law (1967). This law led to the formation of the NYC Office of Collective Bargaining, who mediate and arbitrate between the city and the bulk of its employees.

title: The Great Saunter

text: The Great Saunter has received support from Bill deBlasio, Michael Bloomberg and other mayors of NYC as well as Manhattan Borough Presidents Scott Stringer, Ruth Messinger and Gale Brewer. Other supporters include Representatives  Charles Rangel, Carolyn Maloney, and Jerrold Nadler; state legislator Dan O’Donnel ; NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe; NYC councilors and community boards; and legendary folk singer Pete Seeger, who co-wrote the "Shorewalkers' Saunter Song".

title: Birds Nest Foundation

text: After the successful launch of "LUNCH", Richards produced a public television series entitled "Lunch NYC" for NYC Media, part of New York's Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting. "Lunch NYC" is a weekly series that explores healthy restaurants and hotspots throughout New York City, educating New Yorkers about living a healthy lifestyle. The show piloted in fall 2010 on NYC Media's Channel 25 and featured 12 episodes. "Lunch NYC" was nominated for three New York Emmy Awards in February 2012, for categories in Community Service, Health/Science: Program Feature/Segment, and Graphics: News/Program.

title: NYC Media

text: In 2003, co-founders Seth Unger and Arick Wierson - both aides to Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg - launched NYC-TV, which replaced "Crosswalks Television," the name of the previous network.

title: Jeff Bewkes

text: On behalf of NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Bewkes was one of the chairs of Media.NYC.2020, which reviewed the future of the global media industry, the implications for NYC, and suggested actionable next steps for the NYC government.

title: Katherine Oliver

text: In 2013, Oliver and Mayor Bloomberg were featured on the cover of Variety and were credited for their role in "revitalizing the city's entertainment sector." An economic impact study released by the Boston Consulting Group in 2012 found that New York City's entertainment industry during Oliver's tenure as film commissioner had grown to account for a $7.1 billion annual direct spend in New York City, an increase of $2 billion since 2002, and that the local industry created 30,000 jobs in New York City since 2004, growing to employ 130,000 people. AM New York noted that: "New York's film and TV industry is stronger than it has ever been, pumping $7.1 billion into the local economy in 2011 and bringing in some $60 billion over the last decade." After Bloomberg announced that former president and co-founder of NYC Media Group Arick Wierson was returning to the private sector, Bloomberg named Oliver as the incoming president of NYC Media and general manager of NYC Media. In July 2010, Oliver became the commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, the city agency that includes the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, NYC Media, and NYC Digital.

title: Mayoralty of Michael Bloomberg

text: Another of Bloomberg's technology initiatives was the creation of NYC Media. By virtue of the franchise agreements with the cable TV operators, New York City had always had access to valuable spectrum on local cable providers Cablevision and Time Warner Cable, but had made little use of the channels. Upon taking office in 2002, Bloomberg tapped two trusted campaign aides, Seth Unger and Arick Wierson, to revamp the City's cable channels. In 2003, Bloomberg unveiled their creation, a network called NYC TV. Unlike typical Government-access television (GATV) run local channels, NYC TV would be focused on local lifestyle and events, parks, history and culture. Some members of the New York City Council initially criticized the network for being overly preoccupied with ratings. Nonetheless, the network gained early traction, most notably for its coverage of the local fashion industry and local arts and music scene. Since its inception, NYC TV has gone on to absorb local broadcaster WNYE-TV and has emerged as the largest local broadcast network in the New York region with one full power broadcast station, four cable stations, and one FM Radio station, collectively now known as NYC Media. By many regards, Bloomberg's belief that NYC TV could reinvent the local television landscape largely held true. In 2006, WNBC entered into a large syndication agreement to air over 100 hours of NYC TV's original shows. The network has won numerous New York Emmys since its inception, and series such as "Secrets of New York" are being distributed nationally on PBS, DiSH Network, airlines and overseas. In the Spring of 2009, the Mayor announced that NYC Media President Arick Wierson was returning to the private sector, and that Katherine Oliver, the current Film Commissioner and another longtime friend and colleague of the Mayor, would be stepping into Wierson's former role as the top executive at the NYC TV stations.

title: A. R. Bernard

text: Bernard sat on the NYC Economic Development Corporation Board for current Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; NYC School Chancellor’s Advisory Cabinet and served on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2001 Transition Team and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2014 Transition Team.

title: NYC Emergency Management

text: The NYC Emergency Management (NYCEM) (formerly New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM)) was originally formed in 1996 as part of the Mayor's Office under Rudolph W. Giuliani. By a vote of city residents in 2001 it became an independent agency, headed by the Commissioner of Emergency Management. In 2006 the office was reorganized under the Deputy Mayor for Administration by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

title: Disability Pride Parades

text: After attending the Philadelphia Disability Pride Parade in 2011, a group of NYC area based disability activists began brainstorming about how to make a Disability Pride Parade happen in NYC. Jazz musician Mike LeDonne, who had previously formed Disability Pride NYC, Inc. and was in the process of filing for non-profit status, joined with these activists to realize their shared dream. This group, together with support from the Mayor's Office for People With Disabilities (MOPD) held the first annual Disability Pride Parade on July 12, 2015, on the 25th anniversary of the signing of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Some of the seed money for the parade was raised from a Jazz concert called Jazz Legends Play For Disability Pride put on by Mike in which many of the biggest names in Jazz donated their talent for the night. Almost 4,000 people showed up for the first parade which culminated with a celebration featuring the talents of the disability community. There are 2 or 3 Grand Marshals each year and Mayor Bill De Blasio declared July to be Disability Pride Month in New York City.

title: Fred Wilson (financier)

text: Wilson has served as a judge for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's NYC BigApps competition in NYC.

title: Robert K. Steel

text: As Deputy Mayor, Steel was responsible for overseeing more than 10 mayoral agencies with collective annual operating budgets of $5B and more than 20,000 employees, including the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the Department of City Planning, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Finance, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, NYC & Company (the City’s official tourism promotion partner), the Taxi and Limousine Commission and the Department of Small Business Services. As Deputy Mayor, he served as Chairman of Brooklyn Bridge Park and Vice Chairman of Hudson River Park.

title: Kara Swisher

text: Swisher has also served as a judge for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's NYC BigApps competition in NYC.

title: General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York

text: Notable General Society members include Duncan Phyfe (furniture maker), James Harper (publisher, 66th mayor of NYC), Peter Cooper (inventor, industrialist), Nathaniel Currier (lithographer), John Bishop Putnam (printer and publisher), Andrew Carnegie (industrialist and philanthropist), Abram S. Hewitt (Glue Manufacturer, 87th mayor of NYC) and former presidents of the society: Stephen Allen (sailmaker, 55th mayor of NYC), Gideon Lee (shoemaker, 61st mayor of NYC), and Jacob Aaron Westervelt (shipbuilder, 72nd mayor of NYC).

title: NYC Media

text:
NYC Media has received attention as an innovator in municipal broadcasting. Since its inception, NYC Media has been nominated for 160 New York Emmy Awards, winning 42. It has also won 42 Telly Awards and 4 Promax Awards and was recently nominated for 4 Webby Awards. Cities such as Seoul, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and Los Angeles have expressed interest in replicating the station's success.
On September 24, 2007 Mayor Bloomberg held a press conference to introduce "NYC Media On Demand", a partnership with online video platform Brightcove to offer on demand programming online.

title: Kevin P. Ryan

text: Ryan serves on the board of directors for Human Rights Watch, The NYC Investment Fund and INSEAD and most recently, the Partnership for New York City. He was one of the project chairs for NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's review of the future of NYC's fashion industry, Fashion.NYC.2020.

title: Terry Lundgren

text: Lundgren is very active in the community; he is a trustee of Carnegie Hall and served as Commissioner on Women's Economic Development by appointment of the Mayor of New York. Also, at the request of NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg he served as one of the industry chairs of Fashion.NYC.2020, which looked at the future of NYC's fashion industry and made recommendations for actionable steps the NYC government could take to promote NYC's fashion industry

title: Bracha Turner

text: Bracha Turner’s paintings are on permanent display at the Bible Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel; Hadassah Headquarters in New York City; ZOA House, Tel Aviv, Israel; The National Council of Jewish Women, N.Y. Section; NCJW, National Headquarters, New York City; The Office of the Mayor of Jerusalem, Israel; The Office of the Mayor of Safed, and in the Mayor’s office in New York City. Her works are on display at the Yeshiva University Museum in New York City; Columbia University Hospital, NYC; Jacob Medical Hospital Chapels, Bronx, NY; Bikur Cholim Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel; Emunah of America, NYC; Ramaz School, NYC: Lubavitch Youth Organization, Brooklyn, NY; Habonim, NYC; Haaguda lema’an Hachayal BeIsrael, Tel Aviv; The Queens Borough President’s office, NY; Hadassah Hospital Mother and Child Center, Jerusalem; Rambam Hospital, Haifa. Her works are also found in many private collections.

title: Green Schools Alliance

text: The GSA was formed in October 2007 as a result of Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC and related challenge to all NYC facilities to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2050, with support from the NYC Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), Consolidated Edison, National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and National Business Officers Association (NBOA).

title: NYC Media

text: In late 2009, it was announced that NYC Media Group would be split off from the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications and merge with the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting to form the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. As of 2018, the general manager of NYC Media is Janet Choi.

title: Opportunity NYC

text: Opportunity NYC was an experimental Conditional Cash Transfer program (CCT) by the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. Announced in April 2007, it was the first CCT program to be launched in the United States or any other developed nation. Its initial phases were funded by a number of private partners including The Rockefeller Foundation, Robin Hood Foundation, the Open Society Institute, Starr Foundation, AIG, and Mayor Bloomberg's own Bloomberg Family Foundation. The program is being evaluated by MDRC, a nonprofit research firm, using a random assignment research design. Opportunity NYC is administered by Seedco, a nonprofit community development organization. The program ended on August 31, 2010.

title: FreshDirect

text: Locally elected representatives, among them councilmembers María del Carmen Arroyo and Melissa Mark-Viverito, New York State Senator José M. Serrano, US Congressman José E. Serrano, Comptroller Liu and then-NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, publicly came out against the proposed move. In an audit, then-comptroller John Liu supported the group's claims by stating that EDC subsidizes "empty job promises." Mr. Liu, who was campaigning for New York City mayor at the time, also told the press that FreshDirect was holding the city 'hostage' with the proposed move. In November 2012, Gristede's supermarket owner John Catsimatidis, the New York Association of Grocery Stores, the National Supermarket Association and the Bodega Association announced that they were joining the opposition, claiming that FreshDirect was receiving unfair benefits from the city. Both during his primary campaign for NYC mayor, and after winning the candidacy of the Democratic party, then-NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, repeatedly criticized Fresh Direct's proposed relocation to the South Bronx.

title: Seth Unger

text: Seth Unger is a co-founder of NYC TV now called NYC Media, the network he and Arick Wierson launched in 2003 while working for Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Among Unger's most notable accomplishments at the network is the creation of "Blueprint | NYC", a documentary series that highlights local architectural and historical interests in New York City. In 2004, the series won five local New York Emmy Awards. Previous to joining NYC TV, Unger was an executive at Messenger Records, later leaving to work as a campaign aide to Michael Bloomberg in 2001. Unger retired from NYC TV in 2006 to spend more time with his daughters.

title: Martin Sorrell

text: On behalf of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he chaired Media.NYC.2020, which reviewed the future of the global media industry, the implications for NYC, and suggested actionable next steps for the NYC government.

title: Steven Strauss

text: Strauss received his PhD in Management from Yale University in 2002, after which he joined McKinsey & Company. In 2008 Strauss was recruited by the Bloomberg administration to oversee a review of NYC's economic development strategy, and based on Strauss's recommendations Mayor Bloomberg decided to focus on growing knowledge-based industries, the most prominent initiative from this work was the Applied Sciences NYC project, which resulted in the NYC Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island and New York University creating the Center for Urban Science and Progress. Strauss was Mayor Bloomberg's representative on the panels that judged New York City's Next Idea Business Plan Competition, NYC BigApps, and New York City Venture Fellows.

title: Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel

text: Diamonstein-Spielvogel was a White House Assistant, and helped create the White House Fellows and the Presidential Scholars Program. She was the first Director of Cultural Affairs in New York City, and was the longest serving Landmarks Commissioner, serving under four New York City Mayors. She has also served as a Member of the NYC Cultural Affairs Commission, where she was Chair/Founder of the Mayor's Awards of Arts and Culture, and was a Commissioner on the NYC Art Commission (now the Public Design Commission). She is currently the Chair of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center and the NYC Landmarks50 Alliance, and in April, 2016, was appointed the Chair of the N.Y. State Council on the Arts. In September 2013, she was elected a Democratic National Committeewoman from New York State for a four-year term.

title: Robert J. Kafin

text: In 1987, Kafin returned to New York City to create an Environmental Law Practice Group at Proskauer Rose LLP. The Manhattan Borough president appointed him to the Manhattan Citizens’ Solid Waste Advisory Board, and thereafter NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani appointed him as a member of the Council on the Environment of New York City, now known as GrowNYC. In 2005, he was reappointed by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg who also named him chairman of that organization. On April 25, 2018, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio reappointed him for a two-year term as Chair of GrowNYC.

title: We Speak NYC

text: In May 2018, the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs launched the second season of "We Speak NYC".We Speak NYC previously known as "We Are New York" (WANY) is an Emmy-Award winning educational television series produced by the NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and The City University of New York in 2009. The 10-episode comedic drama is based on true-to-life stories of immigrants making their way in New York City. Each episode provides useful information on essential City services and shows how people working across ethnic lines can access resources and solve common problems.


query: When did Thomas Jefferson build Monticello?

title: Monticello

text: Work began on what historians would subsequently refer to as "the first Monticello" in 1768, on a plantation of 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares). Jefferson moved into the South Pavilion (an outbuilding) in 1770, where his new wife Martha Wayles Skelton joined him in 1772. Jefferson continued work on his original design, but how much was completed is of some dispute.[5] In constructing and later reconstructing his home, Jefferson used a combination of free workers, indentured servants and enslaved laborers.[6]

title: Edmund Bacon (1785–1866)

text: Edmund Bacon (1785–1866), was the business manager and primary overseer for 20 years for Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, at Monticello. Among some of his other business duties, Bacon supervised the daily chores and activities of farming and ranching at Monticello along with Jefferson's nail forge. His duties included supervising and providing supplies and other needs for Jefferson's slaves. When he retired, Bacon moved to Kentucky and was discovered by the author Rev. Hamilton Pierson, who made use of his memoirs and letters to write a book about Jefferson's personal life and character. The memoirs of Bacon's life at Monticello has given much insight into the daily activities there, as well as into Jefferson's life and personality.

title: Thomas Jefferson Randolph

text: Thomas Jefferson Randolph was the son of Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. and Martha Jefferson Randolph, the oldest son and the second born of their eleven children who survived. His mother was the eldest daughter, and he was the eldest grandson of United States President Thomas Jefferson. Part of the time, he grew up at Monticello and was close to his grandfather, who died when Randolph was 34.

title: Jefferson–Hemings controversy

text: With the Carr nephews disproved and a match for the Eston Hemings descendant found with the Jefferson male line, formerly skeptical biographers, such as Joseph Ellis and Andrew Burstein, publicly said they had changed their opinions and concluded that Jefferson had fathered Hemings' children. As Burstein said in 2005,[T]he white Jefferson descendants who established the family denial in the mid-nineteenth century cast responsibility for paternity on two Jefferson nephews (children of Jefferson's sister) whose DNA was not a match. So, as far as can be reconstructed, there are no Jeffersons other than the president who had the degree of physical access to Sally Hemings that he did.In 2000, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which operates Monticello, issued a report of its own investigation, which concluded by accepting Jefferson's paternity. Dr. Daniel P. Jordan, president of Monticello, committed at the time to incorporate "the conclusions of the report into Monticello's training, interpretation, and publications." This included new articles and monographs on the Hemings descendants reflecting the new evidence, as well as books on the interracial communities of Monticello and Charlottesville. New exhibits at Monticello show Jefferson as the father of the Sally Hemings children. In 2010, the Monticello website noted the new consensus that has emerged on Jefferson's paternity of Hemings' children in the decade since those major studies.

title: Thomas Jefferson Foundation

text: The Foundation has coordinated with several institutions for exhibits that focus on the history of Thomas Jefferson and Monticello. In 2012 the Foundation partnered with the National Museum of African American History and Culture for the exhibit "Jefferson and Slavery at Monticello: Paradox of Liberty", which was hosted at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The following year the exhibit was shown in Atlanta, St. Louis, and Philadelphia under the title "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: How the Word Is Passed Down."

title: Early life and career of Thomas Jefferson

text: Jefferson's oldest daughter Martha (called Patsy) married Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. in 1790. They had 12 children, eleven of whom survived to adulthood. She suffered severe problems as Randolph became alcoholic and was abusive. When they separated for several years, Martha and her many children lived at Monticello with her father, adding to his financial burdens. Her oldest son, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, helped her run Monticello for a time after her father's death. She had the longest life of Jefferson's children by Martha.

text: In early June 1781, Cornwallis dispatched a 250-man cavalry force commanded by Banastre Tarleton on a secret expedition to capture Governor Jefferson and members of the Assembly at Monticello. Tarleton hoped to surprise Jefferson, but Jack Jouett, a captain in the Virginia militia, thwarted the British plan by warning the governor and members of the Assembly. Jefferson and his family escaped and fled to Poplar Forest, his plantation to the west. Tarleton did not allow looting or destruction at Monticello by his troops.

title: Martha Jefferson

text: Martha Wayles likely met her future husband, Thomas Jefferson, in Williamsburg, Virginia, about 1768. They were third cousins. Following their January 1, 1772, wedding, the Jeffersons spent two weeks at The Forest (her father's plantation in Charles City County) before setting out in a two-horse carriage for Monticello (Jefferson's plantation in the Piedmont). They made the 100-mile trip in one of the worst snowstorms to hit Virginia. Eight miles from their destination, their carriage bogged down, in snow drifts up to six feet high, and they had to proceed on horseback. Arriving at Monticello late at night after the slaves had banked the fires and retired, the couple settled in the freezing one-room, 20-foot-square brick building, the "Honeymoon Cottage". Later known as the North Pavilion, it was to be their home until Jefferson had completed the main house at Monticello.

title: Thomas Jefferson High School (Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania)

text: the school district is designing a new building for the school. It will be a red brick building modeled off of Monticello, with an initial estimated cost of $100 million.

title: Thomas Jefferson Foundation

text: The Foundation has published multiple works that focus on the history of Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, and slavery at the plantation. Its first publication, a series of six small books called the "Monticello Papers", appeared between 1923 and 1936. Other published works include "A Passion for Nature: Thomas Jefferson and Natural History, Jefferson and Science, Jefferson and Monroe: Constant Friendship and Respect," and "Letters from the Head and Heart: Writings of Thomas Jefferson."

title: Gardens of Monticello

text: In 1923 the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Fund (now Thomas Jefferson Foundation) was established and purchased large portions of the Monticello property. The Garden Club of Virginia was later enlisted to restore the gardens. They found that Jefferson had left extensive notes on his original planting, as well as instructions. The original plan for the gardens written by Jefferson in 1807 was found and used as the basis for the restoration project. The original beauty of the Monticello Gardens has been restored with great accuracy. Visitors can see the oval and circular flower beds around the house which Jefferson had designed and enjoyed nearly 200 years before.

title: Monticello

text: Monticello (mon-tee-CHEL-oh) was the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, who began designing and building Monticello at age 26 after inheriting land from his father. Located just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, in the Piedmont region, the plantation was originally 5,000 acres (20km2), with Jefferson using slaves for extensive cultivation of tobacco and mixed crops, later shifting from tobacco cultivation to wheat in response to changing markets. Due to its architectural and historic significance, the property has been designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1987 Monticello and the nearby University of Virginia, also designed by Jefferson, were together designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The current nickel, a United States coin, features a depiction of Monticello on its reverse side.

title: Simon Willard clocks

text: In subsequent years, Simon Willard visited Thomas Jefferson at his home, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia. There they held many conversations. On one occasion, Thomas Jefferson invited Willard to chop a young tree down. Subsequently, Jefferson transformed it into a cane. It was given a silver mount that read: "Thomas Jefferson to Simon Willard, Monticello."

title: Monticello, Florida

text: Monticello is a city in Jefferson County, Florida, United States. The population was 2,506 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Jefferson County. The city is named after Monticello, the estate of the county's namesake, Thomas Jefferson, on which the Jefferson County Courthouse (Monticello, Florida) was modeled.

title: Thomas Jefferson Foundation

text: The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, originally known as the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, is a private, nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation founded in 1923 to purchase and maintain Monticello, the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. The Foundation's initial focus was on architectural preservation, with the goal of restoring Monticello as close to its original appearance as possible. It has since grown to include other historic and cultural pursuits and programs such as its Annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. It also publishes and provides a center for scholarship on Jefferson and his era.

title: Monticello, Ohio

text: Monticello had its start when the railroad was extended to that point. The community has the name of Monticello, the Virginia estate of Thomas Jefferson. A post office was established at Monticello in 1879, and remained in operation until 1909.

title: Thomas Mann Randolph Jr.

text: The loss of his property was humiliating for Randolph, since in Virginian society at that time men had to own a certain amount of land before being allowed to hold office or even to vote. Randolph, who had always had a temper, became increasingly angry toward his wife's father, his sons, and Martha herself, feeling that they did not do enough to save Edgehill but focused on saving Thomas Jefferson's estate, Monticello, instead. Monticello was also in danger of being sold due to debts and the poor economy, but most members of the family believed that it would provide a better chance for them than would the more heavily encumbered Edgehill property. At times Randolph became irrational, and his angry outbursts caused all his adult children to distance themselves from him. He left Martha and their younger children at Monticello with her father, Thomas Jefferson, and lived alone for several years. After Jefferson's death, Martha Randolph moved with her two youngest children to Boston to gain distance from her husband, and to spend time with her older daughter. Randolph and his wife were reconciled shortly before his death, and he was cared for at Monticello. Randolph died there and was interred in the Jefferson family burial ground.

title: Thomas Jefferson and slavery

text: In collaboration with Monticello, now the major public history site on Jefferson, the Smithsonian opened an exhibit, "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: The Paradox of Liberty," (January – October 2012) at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. It covered Jefferson as a slaveholder and the roughly 600 slaves who lived at Monticello over the decades, with a focus on six slave families and their descendants. It was the first national exhibit on the Mall to address these issues. In February 2012, Monticello opened a related new outdoor exhibition, "Landscape of Slavery: Mulberry Row at Monticello," which "brings to life the stories of the scores of people—enslaved and free—who lived and worked on Jefferson's 5,000 acre plantation." (On the Internet at http://www.slaveryatmonticello.org/mulberry-row )

title: Gardens of Monticello

text: In 1923, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation (now the Thomas Jefferson Foundation) was founded to preserve Monticello, as it was a larger task than one person could afford. Soon after acquiring it, the Restoration Committee hired architects to restore the house and grounds. They left Monticello and Jefferson's gardens without completing the task, especially because of the expenses during the Great Depression.

title: Thomas Jefferson and slavery

text: Two major exhibitions opening in 2012 addressed slavery at Monticello: the Smithsonian collaborated with Monticello in "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: The Paradox of Liberty", held in Washington, D.C. It addresses Jefferson as slaveholder and traces the lives of six major slave families, including Hemings and Granger, and their descendants who worked in the household.

title: Virginia Glee Club

text: The Glee Club has often provided musical accompaniment to public observances in honor of the founder of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, and his home, Monticello. They presented musical accompaniment to a visit to Monticello by the French Ambassador to the United States, Jules Jusserand, in 1904, and sang for the ceremony honoring the creation of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation in 1923. At one of the group's concerts in Washington, DC in 1912, the then-owner of Monticello, Jefferson Monroe Levy, was in attendance and was publicly baited for not turning Monticello over outright to the United States government.

title: John Hemings

text: In the Monticello Joinery, Thomas Jefferson hired white joiners to train and work side by side with enslaved joiners. John Hemmings received his first instructions at 17 years of age in 1793, when Thomas Jefferson wrote to his son-in-law Tom Randolph and asked Randolph to make sure Hemmings received training from the house joiner David Watson to fashion wheels and work with wood. The Monticello Joinery was well-stocked, as Jefferson was intensely engaged in refashioning his properties, and always had projects to complete. Hemmings therefore had the benefit of both materials and experience. Hemmings later worked as principal assistant to James Dinsmore, another Monticello joiner.

title: Monticello Association

text: While there have been some changes in the Monticello Association during the past 100 years, the scope and purposes of the Monticello Association have remained the same, as stated in Article II of its Constitution. Somewhat abbreviated, they are: (i) to preserve and care for the graves and grounds of the Monticello graveyard, (ii) to protect and perpetuate the reputation and fame of Thomas Jefferson, and (iii) to encourage association and friendship among Mr. Jefferson's descendants. Additional purposes of The Monticello Association include: (i) to defend the property rights of the lineal descendants of Col. T. J. Randolph as owners of the original Monticello graveyard, and (ii) to affirm the rights of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson to burial in the addition to the Monticello graveyard as provided in the covenant under which this property was deeded.

title: Gardens of Monticello

text:
Thomas Jefferson loved to garden. He fell in love with designing gardens immediately after his inheritance of Monticello in 1757. Jefferson wanted to construct the gardens of Monticello from his own naturalistic point of view, and thus gathered materials from travelers all over the United States and other countries as well. Many of his acquaintances knew of his passion for gardening and often sent him various seeds and plants. With this assortment of seeds, Jefferson cultivated and designed his Monticello gardens according to his vision. First, Jefferson proposed a 1000-foot vegetable garden which he called the "hanging garden." Once sown, the "hanging garden" was divided into twenty-four different growing parcels according to what was being harvested. For example, one section contained fruits, while others contained roots and leaves. Jefferson also ordered the creation of a "ferme ornee" or ornamental farm. Here, he chose to plant a large tree of varying shades of scarlet, set up rows of purple, white, and green broccoli surrounding the tree, and planted smaller cherry trees along a picturesque walkway. To complete his masterwork, Jefferson designed a pavilion to overlook his gardens and built four roads providing access to them.
While Jefferson's gardens did provide his family with food, their primary purpose was to serve as his laboratory where he experimented with hundreds of different types of vegetables from all over the world. He was as meticulous in his experimentation as he had been with his design. He kept a garden book, titled the Garden Kalender, in which he documented every success and failure. He logged the exact dates his seeds were initially planted. He also noted when leaves appeared and when the flowers blossomed. Thomas Jefferson enjoyed experimenting with his gardens and working to produce fruits that were difficult to grow, such as pears, plums, and apricots, even though he rarely succeeded. In his garden book, Jefferson stated that his favorite fruit was the Carnation cherry. He believed it was "superior to all the others." Jefferson also took great interest in the production of grape vines. He aspired to make Monticello-grown wine, but he often failed at his attempts to cultivate grapes. Not willing to give up, Jefferson imported several different vines from America and Europe but never achieved his goal. Still, Jefferson's hard work did not go unnoticed. Near the end of his life, he received an award from the French Society of Agriculture for his unique invention of a plow moldboard, which assisted the cutting blade and was advancement in plow creation. He loved presenting his work to guests of Monticello and was proud that his gardens were constantly evolving throughout his life.

title: Monticello Association

text:
In his will, Jefferson conveyed the graveyard to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., his daughter Martha's husband, and then in trust to Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. He named his eldest grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, as his executor. The original section of the graveyard was given to T. J. Randolph's descendants under a restrictive covenant deed and will, and a subsequent section given to all of the lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson under a restrictive covenant deed.
Thus from its inception, the Monticello graveyard has been available to all lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson and has been managed and cared for by The Monticello Association as a single unit. Burials in the Monticello graveyard continue to this day.

title: Monticello Association

text: The Monticello Association was founded in 1913 to care for, preserve, and continue the family graveyard at Monticello. It is a non-profit organization whose members include the lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the United States, and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. Jefferson was the designer, builder, owner, and, with his family, first residents of Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia.

title: Isaac Jefferson

text: The Monticello staff have found another reference to the Granger surname in Monticello and related records: in the 1870 census of Albemarle County, an Archy Granger and his family were living at Edgehill Plantation, then owned by Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's grandson. They worked for Randolph's sister Septimia Randolph Meikleham. Thomas J. Randolph had purchased Archy from Monticello after his grandfather Jefferson's death in 1826, when 130 slaves were sold to pay off debts of the estate. Archy Granger matches in age the plantation records of Archy, the son of the slaves Bagwell and Minerva of Monticello. (He was the grandson of Great George and Ursula.) In addition, Randolph family letters document an Archy Granger and his family at their plantation of Edgehill. He appears to have been the nephew of Isaac (Jefferson) Granger, and his use of the Granger name is another indication that it was originally adopted within the family.

title: Israel Jefferson

text: In 1829, three years after Jefferson's death, Gillette was among the 130 slaves sold from Monticello to settle Jefferson's debts. He was sold to Thomas Walker Gilmer. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Jefferson's oldest grandson and executor of the late President's estate, supervised the sales, which broke up many of the slave families of Monticello.

text: In January 2012, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of American History partnered with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (which owns Jefferson's home, Monticello) to create a major new exhibit, "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: Paradox of Liberty." The exhibition opened on January 12, 2012, at the National Museum of American History, and closed on October 14, 2012. The exhibit received nationwide attention, garnering articles from sources such as the Associated Press, Huffington Post, National Public Radio, the "New York Times", United Press International, "USA Today", and the "Washington Post". The exhibit was created by Rex Ellis (an associate director of the NMAAHC) and Elizabeth Chew (a curator at Monticello). It was accompanied by a companion book, "'Those Who Labor for My Happiness': Slavery at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello", by Lucia Stanton. NMAAHC director Lonnie Bunch III said that the exhibit explored one way in which slavery might be presented at the National Museum of African American History and Culture when it opens in 2015.

title: Jefferson Monroe Levy

text: In 1879 at the age of 27, he took control of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. His late uncle Uriah P. Levy had purchased the property in 1834, several years after Jefferson's death. Like his uncle, Levy spent a considerable part of his fortune in having Monticello and its grounds restored and preserved. In 1923, the property was purchased by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (then known as the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation), a privately established group formed to purchase and operate Monticello as a memorial. It has since operated the site and mansion as a house museum. The Levy family privately protected the National Historic Landmark for nearly a century because of their regard for Thomas Jefferson and on behalf of the American people.

text: When Colonel William Randolph, an old friend of Peter Jefferson, died in 1745, Peter assumed executorship and personal charge of Randolph's estate in Tuckahoe as well as his infant son, Thomas Mann Randolph. That year the Jeffersons relocated to Tuckahoe, where they lived for the next seven years before returning to their home in Albemarle in 1752. Peter Jefferson was appointed to the colonelcy of the county, an important position at the time. After he died in 1757, his son Thomas Jefferson inherited his estate, including about 20-40 slaves. They comprised the core of his labor force when he started to build Monticello as a young man.


query: What is the temperature of Venus' atmosphere?

title: Atmosphere of Venus

text: The atmosphere of Venus is the layer of gases surrounding Venus. It is composed primarily of carbon dioxide and is much denser and hotter than that of Earth. The temperature at the surface is 740K (467°C, 872°F), and the pressure is 93bar (9.3MPa), roughly the pressure found 900m (3,000ft) underwater on Earth.[1] The Venusian atmosphere supports opaque clouds made of sulfuric acid, making optical Earth-based and orbital observation of the surface impossible. Information about the topography has been obtained exclusively by radar imaging.[1] Aside from carbon dioxide, the other main component is nitrogen. Other chemical compounds are present only in trace amounts.[1]

title: Terraforming

text: Terraforming Venus requires two major changes; removing most of the planet's dense 9 MPa carbon dioxide atmosphere and reducing the planet's 450 °C (723.15 K) surface temperature. These goals are closely interrelated, because Venus's extreme temperature is thought to be due to the greenhouse effect caused by its dense atmosphere. Sequestering the atmospheric carbon would likely solve the temperature problem as well.

title: Solar System

text: Venus (0.7 AU from the Sun) is close in size to Earth (0.815M⊕) and, like Earth, has a thick silicate mantle around an iron core, a substantial atmosphere, and evidence of internal geological activity. It is much drier than Earth, and its atmosphere is ninety times as dense. Venus has no natural satellites. It is the hottest planet, with surface temperatures over 400°C (752°F), most likely due to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.[78] No definitive evidence of current geological activity has been detected on Venus, but it has no magnetic field that would prevent depletion of its substantial atmosphere, which suggests that its atmosphere is being replenished by volcanic eruptions.[79]

title: Carbon capture and storage

text: Terraforming the planet Venus by removing CO from the atmosphere was first scholarly proposed by the astronomer Carl Sagan in 1961, although fictional treatments, such as "The Big Rain" of The Psychotechnic League by novelist Poul Anderson, preceded it. Adjustments to the existing environment of Venus to support human life would require at least three major changes to the planet's atmosphere: Reducing Venus's surface temperature of , eliminating most of the planet's dense carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide atmosphere via removal or conversion to some other form, and the addition of breathable oxygen to the atmosphere. These three changes are closely interrelated, because Venus's extreme temperature is due to the high pressure of its dense atmosphere, and the greenhouse effect.

title: TRAPPIST-1b

text: The refined density of TRAPPIST-1b, along with the planet's transmission spectrum, indicate that its atmosphere is made mainly of vaporized water. The atmosphere has likely risen the planet's surface temperature to about 750-1500 K, which would require an atmospheric pressure between 10 (10) to 10 (10,000) bar, potentially thicker than Venus's atmosphere. TRAPPIST-1b's atmosphere is likely very similar to that of Venus.

title: Terraforming of Venus

text: The main problem with Venus today, from a terraformation standpoint, is the very thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. The ground level pressure of Venus is . This also, through the greenhouse effect, causes the temperature on the surface to be several hundred degrees too warm for any known lifeforms. Basically, all approaches to the terraforming of Venus include somehow getting rid of practically all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

title: Atmosphere of Venus

text: Despite the harsh conditions on the surface, the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50km to 65km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth, making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System, even more so than the surface of Mars. Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air (21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth, the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization.[9]

title: Atmosphere of Venus

text: The mesosphere of Venus can be divided into two layers: the lower one between 62–73km[29] and the upper one between 73–95km.[17] In the first layer the temperature is nearly constant at 230K (−43°C). This layer coincides with the upper cloud deck. In the second layer temperature starts to decrease again reaching about 165K (−108°C) at the altitude of 95km, where mesopause begins.[17] It is the coldest part of the Venusian dayside atmosphere.[2] In the dayside mesopause, which serves as a boundary between the mesophere and thermosphere and is located between 95–120km, temperature increases to a constant—about 300–400K (27–127°C)—value prevalent in the thermosphere.[2] In contrast, the nightside Venusian thermosphere is the coldest place on Venus with temperature as low as 100K (−173°C). It is even called a cryosphere.[2]

title: Atmosphere of Venus

text: In 1761, Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov observed an arc of light surrounding the part of Venus off the Sun's disc at the beginning of the egress phase of the transit and concluded that Venus has an atmosphere.[67][68] In 1940, Rupert Wildt calculated that the amount of CO2 in the Venusian atmosphere would raise surface temperature above the boiling point for water.[69] This was confirmed when Mariner 2 made radiometer measurements of the temperature in 1962. In 1967, Venera 4 confirmed that the atmosphere consisted primarily of carbon dioxide.[69]

title: Runaway greenhouse effect

text: A runaway greenhouse effect involving carbon dioxide and water vapor may have occurred on Venus. In this scenario, early Venus may have had a global ocean. As the brightness of the early Sun increased, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere increased, increasing the temperature and consequently increasing the evaporation of the ocean, leading eventually to the situation in which the oceans boiled, and all of the water vapor entered the atmosphere. On Venus today there is little water vapor in the atmosphere. If water vapor did contribute to the warmth of Venus at one time, this water is thought to have escaped to space. Some evidence for this scenario comes from the extremely high deuterium to hydrogen ratio in Venus' atmosphere, roughly 150 times that of Earth, since light hydrogen would escape from the atmosphere more readily than its heavier isotope, deuterium. Venus is sufficiently strongly heated by the Sun that water vapor can rise much higher in the atmosphere and be split into hydrogen and oxygen by ultraviolet light. The hydrogen can then escape from the atmosphere and the oxygen recombines. Carbon dioxide, the dominant greenhouse gas in the current Venusian atmosphere, owes its larger concentration to the weakness of carbon recycling as compared to Earth, where the carbon dioxide emitted from volcanoes is efficiently subducted into the Earth by plate tectonics on geologic time scales.

title: Observations and explorations of Venus

text: "Venus Express" was a mission by the European Space Agency to study the atmosphere and surface characteristics of Venus from orbit. The design was based on ESA's "Mars Express" and "Rosetta" missions. The probe's main objective was the long-term observation of the Venusian atmosphere, which it is hoped will also contribute to an understanding of Earth's atmosphere and climate. It also made global maps of Venerean surface temperatures, and attempted to observe signs of life on Earth from a distance.

title: Geology of Venus

text: The surface of Venus is not easily accessible because of the extremely thick atmosphere (some 90 times that of Earth's) and the surface temperature. Much of what is known about it stems from orbital radar observations, because the surface is permanently obscured in visible wavelengths by cloud cover. In addition, a number of landers have returned data from the surface, including images.

title: Life on Venus

text: Venus's location closer to the Sun than Earth and the extreme greenhouse effect raising temperatures on the surface to nearly , and the atmospheric pressure 90 times that of Earth, make water-based life as we know it unlikely on the surface of the planet. However, a few scientists have speculated that thermoacidophilic extremophile microorganisms might exist in the lower-temperature, acidic upper layers of the Venusian atmosphere.

title: Atmosphere of Venus

text: The atmospheric pressure at the surface of Venus is about 92 times that of the Earth, similar to the pressure found 900m (3,000ft) below the surface of the ocean. The atmosphere has a mass of 4.8×1020 kg, about 93 times the mass of the Earth's total atmosphere. The density of the air at the surface is 67kg/m3, which is 6.5% that of liquid water on Earth.[1] The pressure found on Venus's surface is high enough that the carbon dioxide is technically no longer a gas, but a supercritical fluid. This supercritical carbon dioxide forms a kind of sea that covers the entire surface of Venus. This sea of supercritical carbon dioxide transfers heat very efficiently, buffering the temperature changes between night and day (which last 56 terrestrial days).[18]

title: Lifting gas

text: Balloons cannot work on the Moon because it has no atmosphere. Mars has a very thin atmosphere – the pressure is only 1/160th of earth atmospheric pressure – so a huge balloon would be needed even for a tiny lifting effect. Overcoming the weight of such a balloon would be difficult, but several proposals to explore Mars with balloons have been made.[4] Venus has a CO2 atmosphere at the surface. Because CO2 is about 50% more dense than Earth air, ordinary Earth air could be a lifting gas on Venus. This has led to proposals for a human habitat that would float in the atmosphere of Venus at an altitude where both the pressure and the temperature are earthlike. In 1985, the Soviet Vega program sent two balloons to float in Venus' atmosphere at 54km altitude. Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has a dense atmosphere of mostly nitrogen that is appropriate for ballooning. A use of Aerobots was proposed on Titan. Also the Titan Saturn System Mission included a balloon to circumnavigate Titan.

title: Venus Express

text: PFS: The "Planetary Fourier Spectrometer" (PFS) operates in the infrared between the 0.9 µm and 45 µm wavelength range and is designed to perform vertical optical sounding of the Venus atmosphere. It performed global, long-term monitoring of the three-dimensional temperature field in the lower atmosphere (cloud level up to 100 kilometers). Furthermore, it searched for minor atmospheric constituents that may be present, but had not yet been detected, analyzed atmospheric aerosols, and investigated surface to atmosphere exchange processes. The design is based on a spectrometer on "Mars Express", but modified for optimal performance for the "Venus Express" mission.

title: Transit of Venus

text: The existence of an atmosphere on Venus was concluded by Mikhail Lomonosov on the basis of his observation of the transit of Venus of 1761 from the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg. He used a two-lens achromat refractor and a weak solar filter (smoked glass) and reported seeing a bump or bulge of light ("Lomonosov's arc") off the solar disc as Venus began to exit the Sun. Lomonosov attributed that effect to refraction of solar rays through an atmosphere; he also reported the appearance of a sliver around the part of Venus that had just entered the Sun's disk during the initial phase of transit. In 2012, Pasachoff and Sheehan reported, based on knowing what Venus's atmosphere would look like because of Pasachoff and Schneider's observations of the 2004 transit of Venus, that what Lomonosov reported was not Venus's atmosphere. To make a decisive test, a group of researchers carried out experimental reconstruction of Lomonosov's discovery of Venusian atmosphere with antique refractors during the transit of Venus on 5–6 June 2012. They observed the "Lomonosov's arc" and other aureole effects due to Venus's atmosphere and concluded that Lomonosov's telescope was fully adequate to the task of detecting the arc of light around Venus off the Sun's disc during ingress or egress if proper experimental techniques as described by Lomonosov in his 1761 paper are employed.

title: Terraforming of Venus

text: As an alternative to changing the atmosphere of Venus, it has been proposed that a large artificial mountain, dubbed the "Venusian Tower of Babel", could be built on the surface of Venus that would reach up to into the atmosphere where the temperature and pressure conditions are similar to Earth and where a colony could be built on the peak of this artificial mountain. Such a structure could be built using autonomous robotic bulldozers and excavators that have been hardened against the extreme temperature and pressure of the Venus atmosphere. Such robotic machines would be covered in a layer of heat and pressure shielding ceramics, with internal helium-based heat pumps inside of the machines to cool both an internal nuclear power plant and to keep the internal electronics and motor actuators of the machine cooled to with in operating temperature. Such a machine could be designed to operate for years without external intervention for the purpose of building colossal mountains on Venus to serve as islands of colonization in the skies of Venus.

title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: There are some properties that make certain compounds and elements much more favorable than others as solvents in a successful biosphere. The solvent must be able to exist in liquid equilibrium over a range of temperatures the planetary object would normally encounter. Because boiling points vary with the pressure, the question tends not to be "does" the prospective solvent remain liquid, but "at what pressure". For example, hydrogen cyanide has a narrow liquid phase temperature range at 1 atmosphere, but in an atmosphere with the pressure of Venus, with of pressure, it can indeed exist in liquid form over a wide temperature range.

title: Venus

text: Venus has an extremely dense atmosphere composed of 96.5% carbon dioxide, 3.5% nitrogen, and traces of other gases, most notably sulfur dioxide. The mass of its atmosphere is 93 times that of Earth's, whereas the pressure at its surface is about 92 times that at Earth's—a pressure equivalent to that at a depth of nearly under Earth's oceans. The density at the surface is 65 kg/m, 6.5% that of water or 50 times as dense as Earth's atmosphere at at sea level. The -rich atmosphere generates the strongest greenhouse effect in the Solar System, creating surface temperatures of at least . This makes Venus's surface hotter than Mercury's, which has a minimum surface temperature of and maximum surface temperature of , even though Venus is nearly twice Mercury's distance from the Sun and thus receives only 25% of Mercury's solar irradiance. This temperature is higher than that used for sterilization.

title: Rare Earth hypothesis

text: A planet that is too small cannot hold much atmosphere, making surface temperature low and variable and oceans impossible. A small planet will also tend to have a rough surface, with large mountains and deep canyons. The core will cool faster, and plate tectonics may be brief or entirely absent. A planet that is too large will retain too dense an atmosphere like Venus. Although Venus is similar in size and mass to Earth, its surface atmospheric pressure is 92 times that of Earth, and surface temperature of 735 K (462 °C; 863 °F). Earth had a similar early atmosphere to Venus, but may have lost it in the giant impact event.

title: Colonization of Venus

text: As an alternative to floating cities, it has been proposed a large artificial mountain, dubbed the "Venusian Tower of Babel", could be built on the surface of Venus that would reach up to into the atmosphere where the temperature and pressure conditions are similar to Earth. Such a structure could be built using autonomous robotic bulldozers and excavators that have been hardened against the extreme temperature and pressure of the Venus atmosphere. Robotic machines would be covered in a layer of heat and pressure shielding ceramics, with internal helium-based heat pumps inside of the machines to cool both an internal nuclear power plant and to keep the internal electronics and motor actuators of the machine cooled to within operating temperature. These machines could be designed to operate for years without external intervention for the purpose of building colossal mountains on Venus to serve as islands of colonization in the skies of Venus.

title: Gliese 581c

text: Using the measured stellar luminosity of Gliese 581 is of 0.013 times that of our Sun, it is possible to calculate Gliese 581c's effective temperature a.k.a. black body temperature. (note: this probably differs from its surface temperature). According to Udry's team, the effective temperature for Gliese 581c, assuming an albedo (reflectivity) such as Venus' (0.64), would be , and assuming an Earth-like albedo (0.296), then it would be , a range of temperatures which overlaps with the range that water would be liquid at a pressure of 1 atmosphere. However, the effective temperature and actual surface temperature can be very different due to the greenhouse properties of the planetary atmosphere: for example, Venus has an effective temperature of , but a surface temperature of (mainly due to a 96.5% carbon dioxide atmosphere), a difference of about .

title: Venus Spectral Rocket Experiment

text: The atmosphere of Venus is known to have undergone substantial evolution over geologic time. Evidence for this includes the present remarkable contrast between Venus’ atmosphere and the Earth’s: Venus has very little water, a 95% CO atmosphere, a surface temperature of 750 K, and a surface pressure of 90 bar. The early Venusian atmosphere is thought to have undergone either a moist or runaway greenhouse heating episode to produce these conditions, and this would have included hydrodynamic escape of light gases from the upper atmosphere to deplete possibly as much as an ocean of water. Support for this scenario comes from the measured ratio of D/H in Venus' atmosphere of roughly 1.6% from the Pioneer Venus mass spectrometer, orbiting ion mass spectrometer (OIMS) data, and IR spectra of the night-side atmosphere. This large enhancement over cosmic abundances is consistent with the loss of an ocean's worth of HO over geologic time.

title: Super-Earth

text: Since the atmospheres, albedo and greenhouse effects of super-Earths are unknown, the surface temperatures are unknown and generally only an equilibrium temperature is given. For example, the black-body temperature of the Earth is 255.3 K (−18 °C or 0 °F ). It is the greenhouse gases that keep the Earth warmer. Venus has a black-body temperature of only 184.2 K (−89 °C or −128 °F ) even though Venus has a true temperature of 737 K (464 °C or 867 °F ). Though the atmosphere of Venus traps more heat than Earth's, NASA lists the black-body temperature of Venus based on the fact that Venus has an extremely high albedo (Bond albedo 0.90, Visual geometric albedo 0.67), giving it a lower black body temperature than the more absorbent (lower albedo) Earth.

title: Terraforming of Venus

text: Birch proposed that solar shades could be used to not merely cool the planet but that this could be used to reduce atmospheric pressure as well, by the process of freezing of the carbon dioxide. This requires Venus's temperature to be reduced, first to the liquefaction point, requiring a temperature less than and partial pressures of CO to bring the atmospheric pressure down to 73.8 bar (carbon dioxide's critical point); and from there reducing the temperature below (carbon dioxide's triple point). Below that temperature, freezing of atmospheric carbon dioxide into dry ice will cause it to deposit onto the surface. He then proposed that the frozen CO could be buried and maintained in that condition by pressure, or even shipped off-world (perhaps to provide greenhouse gas needed for terraforming of Mars or the moons of Jupiter). After this process was complete, the shades could be removed or solettas added, allowing the planet to partially warm again to temperatures comfortable for Earth life. A source of hydrogen or water would still be needed, and some of the remaining 3.5 bar of atmospheric nitrogen would need to be fixed into the soil. Birch suggests disrupting an icy moon of Saturn, for example Hyperion (moon) and bombarding Venus with its fragments.

title: Terraforming

text: The renowned astronomer Carl Sagan proposed the planetary engineering of Venus in an article published in the journal "Science" in 1961. Sagan imagined seeding the atmosphere of Venus with algae, which would convert water, nitrogen and carbon dioxide into organic compounds. As this process removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect would be reduced until surface temperatures dropped to "comfortable" levels. The resulting carbon, Sagan supposed, would be incinerated by the high surface temperatures of Venus, and thus be sequestered in the form of "graphite or some involatile form of carbon" on the planet's surface. However, later discoveries about the conditions on Venus made this particular approach impossible. One problem is that the clouds of Venus are composed of a highly concentrated sulfuric acid solution. Even if atmospheric algae could thrive in the hostile environment of Venus's upper atmosphere, an even more insurmountable problem is that its atmosphere is simply far too thick—the high atmospheric pressure would result in an "atmosphere of nearly pure molecular oxygen" and cause the planet's surface to be thickly covered in fine graphite powder. This volatile combination could not be sustained through time. Any carbon that was fixed in organic form would be liberated as carbon dioxide again through combustion, "short-circuiting" the terraforming process.

title: Terraforming of Venus

text: Prior to the early 1960s, the atmosphere of Venus was believed by astronomers to have an Earth-like temperature. When Venus was understood to have a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere with a consequence of a very large greenhouse effect, some scientists began to contemplate the idea of altering the atmosphere to make the surface more Earth-like. This hypothetical prospect, known as terraforming, was first proposed by Carl Sagan in 1961, as a final section of his classic article in the journal "Science" discussing the atmosphere and greenhouse effect of Venus. Sagan proposed injecting photosynthetic bacteria into the Venus atmosphere, which would convert the carbon dioxide into reduced carbon in organic form, thus reducing the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

title: Gliese 1132 b

text: The planet receives 19 times more stellar radiation than Earth. The temperature of the top of its atmosphere is estimated at . The planet is estimated to be hotter than Venus, as higher temperatures may prevail near the surface. "(cf. Atmosphere of Venus, Colonization of Venus)" It is possible that one side of the planet is cooler, because it is presumed to be tidally locked due to its proximity to its star; however, under most circumstances where an atmosphere is thick, it would be able to transfer heat to the far side.

title: Observations and explorations of Venus

text: The descent capsule of "Venera 4" entered the atmosphere of Venus on October 18, 1967, making it the first probe to return direct measurements from another planet's atmosphere. The capsule measured temperature, pressure, density and performed 11 automatic chemical experiments to analyze the atmosphere. It discovered that the atmosphere of Venus was 95% carbon dioxide (), and in combination with radio occultation data from the "Mariner 5" probe, showed that surface pressures were far greater than expected (75 to 100 atmospheres).

title: Venus

text: The fact that Venus is located closer to the Sun than Earth, raising temperatures on the surface to nearly , the atmospheric pressure is ninety times that of Earth, and the extreme impact of the greenhouse effect, make water-based life as currently known unlikely. A few scientists have speculated that thermoacidophilic extremophile microorganisms might exist in the lower-temperature, acidic upper layers of the Venusian atmosphere. The atmospheric pressure and temperature fifty kilometres above the surface are similar to those at Earth's surface. This has led to proposals to use aerostats (lighter-than-air balloons) for initial exploration and ultimately for permanent "floating cities" in the Venusian atmosphere. Among the many engineering challenges are the dangerous amounts of sulfuric acid at these heights.