Harlow Shapley was an American scientist, head of the Harvard College Observatory, political activist during the latter New Deal and Fair Deal. Shapley used RR Lyrae stars to estimate the size of the Milky Way Galaxy and the Sun's position within it by using parallax. In 1953 he proposed his "liquid water belt" theory, now known as the concept of a habitable zone. Shapley was born on a farm in Nashville, Missouri, to Willis and Sarah Shapley, dropped out of school with only the equivalent of a fifth-grade education. After studying at home and covering crime stories as a newspaper reporter, Shapley returned to complete a six-year high school program in only two years, graduating as class valedictorian. In 1907, Shapley went to study journalism at the University of Missouri; when he learned that the opening of the School of Journalism had been postponed for a year, he decided to study the first subject he came across in the course directory. Rejecting Archaeology, which Shapley claimed he could not pronounce, he chose the next subject, Astronomy.

After graduation, Shapley received a fellowship to Princeton University for graduate work, where he studied under Henry Norris Russell and used the period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars to determine distances to globular clusters. He was instrumental in moving astronomy away from the idea that Cepheids were spectroscopic binaries, toward the concept that they were pulsators, he realized that the Milky Way Galaxy was far larger than believed, that the Sun's place in the galaxy was in a nondescript location. This discovery supports the Copernican principle, according to which the Earth is not at the center of our Solar System, our galaxy, or our Universe. Shapley participated in the "Great Debate" with Heber D. Curtis on the nature of nebulae and galaxies and the size of the Universe; the debate took place on April 26, 1920, in the hall of the United States National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. Shapley took the side that spiral nebulae are inside our Milky Way, while Curtis took the side that the spiral nebulae are'island universes' far outside our own Milky Way and comparable in size and nature to our own Milky Way.

This issue and debate are the start of extragalactic astronomy, while the detailed arguments and data with ambiguities, appeared together in 1921. Characteristic issues were whether Adriaan van Maanen had measured rotation in a spiral nebula, the nature and luminosity of the exploding novae and supernovae seen in spiral galaxies, the size of our own Milky Way. However, Shapley's actual talk and argument given during the Great Debate were different from the published paper. Historian Michael Hoskin says "His decision was to treat the National Academy of Sciences to an address so elementary that much of it was uncontroversial.", with Shapley's motivation being only to impress a delegation from Harvard who were interviewing him for a possible offer as the next Director of Harvard College Observatory. With the default by Shapley, Curtis won the debate; the astronomical issues were soon resolved in favor of Curtis' position when Edwin Hubble discovered Cepheid variable stars in the Andromeda Galaxy.

At the time of the debate, Shapley was working at the Mount Wilson Observatory, where he had been hired by George Ellery Hale. After the debate, however, he was hired to replace the deceased Edward Charles Pickering as director of the Harvard College Observatory, he is known to have incorrectly opposed Edwin Hubble's observations that there are additional galaxies in the universe other than the Milky Way. Shapley fiercely regarded his work as junk science. However, after he received a letter from Hubble showing Hubble's observed light curve of V1, he withdrew his criticism, he told a colleague, "Here is the letter that destroyed my universe." He encouraged Hubble to write a paper for a joint meeting of the American Astronomical Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hubble's findings went on to reshape fundamentally the scientific view of the universe. Shapley went on to make significant progress in the research of the distribution of galaxies, working between 1925 and 1932.

In this time period, with the Harvard College Observatory, he worked to map 76,000 galaxies. One of the first astronomers to believe in the existence of galaxy superclusters, Shapley discovered and found rather notable the large and distant Shapley Supercluster, which would be named after him in 1989. Shapley estimated the distance to this supercluster at 231 Mpc, within 15% of the accepted value. A mere 12 years earlier it was unproven whether or not stars beyond 0.1 Mpc existed, for which Shapley once believed they did not. He served as director of the HCO from 1921–1952. During this time, he hired Cecilia Payne, who, in 1925, became the first person to earn a doctorate at Radcliffe College in the field of astronomy, for work done at Harvard College Observatory. From 1941 he was on the original standing committee of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, he served on the board of trustees of Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1935–1971. In the 1940s, Shapley helped found government funded scientific associations, including the National Science Foundation.

He is responsible for the addition of the "S" in UNESCO. On November 14, 1946, Shapley appeared under subpoena by the House Un-American Activities Committee in his role as member of the Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts and Professions, a "major pol

August Martin High School is a New York City public high school located in South Jamaica, Queens, at 156-10 Baisley Boulevard. The school focuses on aviation and other vocational areas. Presently, the school comprises the following four academies, which as of 2014 had a combined enrollment of 853 students: Aerospace and Technology Academy Communication Arts Academy Law Scholars Academy Culinary Arts AcademyIn addition, two separate alternative high schools share the same building: Foundry High School, enrollment 108 Voyages Preparatory High School South Queens, enrollment 150As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 678 students and 42.6 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 15.9:1. There were 42 eligible for reduced-cost lunch. Plans for the school the Woodrow Wilson High School, existed as early as 1930, to relieve crowding in Jamaica High School; the school's building opened in 1942 as Woodrow Wilson Vocational High School. Quotes from former President Woodrow Wilson still adorn the school building's facade.

It trained thousands of people to join defense-related industries during World War II, although it was planned in 1940, prior to the nation's entry into the war. Woodrow Wilson closed in 1971; the primary goal of the new school was to train African Americans to enter the aviation industry. The school's namesake, August Martin, was trained as a military pilot during World War II as one of the Tuskegee Airmen, after the war became the first African American commercial airline pilot. Martin graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx in 1938 and lived in New York City for much of his life, he died in 1968 when the plane he was piloting crashed during a humanitarian relief mission to the Biafra region of Nigeria. In 2012, neighborhood residents, elected officials, students protested a plan to close August Martin High School, considered to be under-performing by the New York City Department of Education's leadership, open new schools in the same building under different names; this practice had been followed at other schools around the city.

The protesters stressed the importance of the name to the community. As of 2015, the school continues to operate as August Martin High School, this name is still prominently engraved over the door, although the building hosts two smaller high schools that use different names. Lloyd Banks, rapper in the group G-Unit. Najee and smooth jazz saxophonist and flautist Joshua Wooten, First African American Football Player to win consecutive NCAA Football Player of the Year Awards for the Colonial Athletic Association. Selected as an Undrafted Rookie to the San Diego Chargers. Kelly Price, R&B and soul singer on the Def Soul label. Freedom Williams. African American entertainer and rapper and co-founder of the seminal dance hip-hop group C+C Music Factory. Russell Simmons, African American entrepreneur, the co-founder, with Rick Rubin, of the pioneering hip-hop label Def Jam, creator of the clothing fashion line Phat Farm. Graduated in 1975. Notes Official August Martin HS homepage Review of August Martin HS at insideschools.org Biography of August Martin at black-n-flight.com

Andy Hyman is a playwright from Los Angeles, California. His plays include The Crusaders, Lies 7, Grand Junction, La Dispute and Drake the Amazing. Andy Hyman grew up in the North Hollywood area of Los Angeles, he attended Oakwood School in North Hollywood and Kenyon College in Ohio, graduating in 2003. In 2008 he received an M. A. from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Andy Hyman produced and directed his first play, The Crusaders, in the fall of 1998, while attending Oakwood School. Hyman's one-man play, was given its first workshop production in Los Angeles in 2001; the play was produced again in 2003 starring Jeremy Sisto and directed by Jon Shear at the Second Stage Theatre in Los Angeles. According to the LA Times in an article about the production, Hyman had written the original script for Sanguine at the age of 19. Sanguine was staged in New York City by the Double Helix Theatre Company, in a production directed by David Muse. In March and April 2005, a double bill of two Hyman's one-act plays, Lies 7 and Grand Junction, appeared at The Complex in Los Angeles.

Hyman directed Lies 7 himself, while Grand Junction was directed by Rory C. Mitchell. In July and August 2009, Hyman's new adaptation of the 18th century play La Dispute by Pierre Marivaux was staged at both the Old Red Lion Theatre and Soho Theatre in London, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A second production of La Dispute, along with Hyman's play, Drake the Amazing, took place at the Darlinghurst Theatre, Australia, in July and August 2011. 1. Brandes, Philip. "An Ego Is Downsized In'Sanguine'", LA Times, February 27, 2003. 2. Hart, Hugh "Afraid Of The Dark", LA Times, February 14, 2003. 3. Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation/Onassis Cultural Center 4. Clark, Jacob. "Lies 7 & Grand Junction" NohoLA Magazine, April 5, 2005 5. Wilcock, Tim. "Edinburgh Fringe 2009: La Dispute", Fringe Review, August 21, 2009. 6. "Playwright Summary on Doolee" 7. "Biography at Owl Farm Theatre" 8. "Double bill with a dash of vaudeville and sprinkling of love"