Biography.

Aesthetic and political struggles.

The grandson of Norman notaries and the son of a doctor, Mirbeau spent his childhood in a village in Normandy, Rémalard, pursuing secondary studies at a Jesuit college in Vannes, which expelled him at the age of fifteen. Two years after the traumatic experience of the 1870 war, he was tempted by a call from the Bonapartist leader Dugué de la Fauconnerie, who hired him as private secretary and introduced him to "L'Ordre de Paris".  After his debut in journalism in the service of the Bonapartists, and his debut in literature when he worked as a ghostwriter, Mirbeau began to publish under his own name. Thereafter, he wrote in order to express his own ethical principles and aesthetic values. A supporter of the anarchist cause (cf. La Grève des électeurs) and fervent supporter of Alfred Dreyfus, Mirbeau embodied the intellectual who involved himself in civic issues. Independent of all parties, Mirbeau believed that one's primary duty was to remain lucid.  As an art critic, he campaigned on behalf of the “great gods nearest to his heart”: he sang the praises of Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Félicien Rops Auguste Renoir, Félix Vallotton, and Pierre Bonnard, and was an early advocate of Vincent van Gogh, Camille Claudel, Aristide Maillol, and Maurice Utrillo (cf. his "Combats esthétiques", 1993).  As a literary critic and early member of Académie Goncourt, he 'discovered' Maurice Maeterlinck and Marguerite Audoux and admired Remy de Gourmont, Marcel Schwob, Léon Bloy, Georges Rodenbach, Alfred Jarry, Charles-Louis Philippe,, Valery Larbaud and Léon Werth (cf. his "Combats littéraires", 2006).

Mirbeau's novels.

Autobiographical novels.

Mirbeau ghostwrote ten novels, including three for the Swiss writer Dora Melegari. He made his own literary debut with "Le Calvaire" ("Calvary", 1886), in which writing allowed him to overcome the traumatic effects of his devastating liaison with the ill-reputed Judith Vinmer (1858-1951), renamed Juliette Roux in the novel.  In 1888, Mirbeau published ("Abbé Jules"), the first pre-Freudian novel written under the influence of Dostoyevsky to appear in French literature; the text featured two main characters: l'abbé Jules and Father Pamphile. In (1890) (English translation: "Sébastien Roch", 2000), Mirbeau purged the traumatic effects of his experience as a student at a Jesuits school in Vannes. In the novel, the 13-year-old Sébastien is sexually abused by a priest at the school and the abuse destroys his life.

Crisis of the novel.

Mirbeau then underwent a grave existential and literary crisis, yet during this time, he still published in serial form a pre-existentialist novel about the artist's fate, "Dans le ciel" ("In the Sky"), introducing the figure of a painter (Lucien), directly modeled on Van Gogh. In the aftermath of the Dreyfus Affair — which exacerbated Mirbeau's pessimism — he published two novels judged to be scandalous by self-styled paragons of virtue: "(Torture Garden" (1899) and ("Diary of a Chambermaid") (1900), then "Les Vingt et un Jours d'un neurasthénique" (The twenty one days of a neurasthenic person) (1901). In the process of writing these works, Mirbeau unsettled traditional novelistic conventions, exercising collage techniques, transgressing codes of verisimilitude and fictional credibility, and defying the hypocritical rules of propriety.

Death of the novel.

In his last two novels, "La 628-E8" (1907) – including "La Mort de Balzac" – and "Dingo" (1913), he strayed ever further from realism, giving free rein to clinical fantasy elements and casting his cat and his own dog as heroes. These last Mirbeau stories show a complete break with the conventions of realist fiction, also signifying a breakdown of reality.

Mirbeau's theatre.

In the theatre, Mirbeau made his first steps with a proletarian drama and modern tragedy, "Les Mauvais bergers" ("The Bad Shepherds", 1897). Then he experienced worldwide acclaim with ("Business is business", 1903) — his classical comedy of manners and characters in the tradition of Molière. Here Mirbeau featured the character of Isidore Lechat, predecessor of the modern master of business intrigue, a product of the new world, a figure who makes money from everything and spreads his tentacles out over the world.  In 1908 — at the end of a long legal and media battle — Mirbeau saw his play "Le Foyer" ("Home") performed by the Comédie-Française. In this work, he broached a new taboo subject, the economic and sexual exploitation of adolescents in a home that pretended to be a charitable one. He also wrote six one act plays, published under the title of "Farces et moralités" (1904), among them being "L'Épidémie" ("Epidemics", 1898). Here, Mirbeau can be seen as anticipating the theatre of Bertolt Brecht, Marcel Aymé, Harold Pinter, and Eugène Ionesco. He calls language itself into question, demystifying law, ridiculing the discourse of politicians, and making fun of the language of love ("Les Amants", "The Lovers", 1901).

Posthumous fame.

Mirbeau has never been forgotten, and there has been no interruption in the publication of his works. Yet his immense literary production has largely been known through only three works, and he was considered as literally and politically incorrect.  But, more recently, Mirbeau has been rediscovered and presented in a new light. A fuller appreciation of the role he played in the political, literary, and artistic world of la Belle Époque is emerging.  Mirbeau lies buried in the Passy Cemetery, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

Octave Mirbeau (16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist, and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, while still appealing to the literary and artistic avant-garde with highly transgressive novels that explored violence, abuse and psychological detachment. His work has been translated into thirty languages.


Early life.

He was born Sebastián Moyano in the province of Córdoba, Spain, in either 1479 or 1480. He took the name Belalcázar as that was the name of the castle-town near to his birthplace in Córdoba. According to various sources, he may have left for the New World with Christopher Columbus as early as 1498, but Juan de Castellanos wrote that he killed a mule in 1507, and fled Spain for the West Indies due to fear of punishment, and as a chance to escape the poverty in which he lived.

Americas.

He was an encomendero in Panama in 1522. He entered Nicaragua with Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1524 during the conquest of Nicaragua, and became the first mayor of the city of León in Nicaragua. He remained there until 1527, when he left for Honduras as a result of internal disputes among the Spanish governors. Briefly returning to León, he sailed to the coast of Peru, where he united with the expedition of Francisco Pizarro in 1532.

Conquest of Ecuador.

In 1534, while commanding the settlement of San Miguel for Francisco Pizarro, Sebastian set off to conquer Quito in Ecuador, without orders from Pizarro. Quito had been the northernmost city of the Inca Empire, but while Belalcázar defeated the Inca general Rumiñahui, the local population secreted the city treasure away. Belalcázar then founded the new city of Quito with Diego de Almagro and Baltasar Maldonado, honoring Pizarro by naming it in full "San Francisco de Quito".  His battles, though, were not entirely honourable. At a village called Quinche near Puritaco, he found that all the men were away fighting with the national army. To make an example of these people (and to vent his frustration at finding so little treasure), he ordered all the women and children to be slaughtered. 'A feeble excuse to justify cruelty unworthy of a Castilian', was the verdict of Herrera, the official Chronicler of the Conquest, to Belalcázar's excuse that this was done to terrify other natives into returning to their homes.

Conquest of Colombia.

Moving northward into present day Colombia in search of "El Dorado" in 1535, he entered the Cauca River Valley, founding the southwestern Colombian cities of Santiago de Cali in 1536, and Pasto and Popayán (next in importance after Quito) in 1537. Crossing overland to the Magdalena River Valley, he entered the highlands of central Colombia, which had also been reached by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and Nikolaus Federmann, a German, in 1539. The three presented their dispute before King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The King granted Belalcázar rule of the area with the title of governor of Popayán and the honorary title of adelantado in May 1540. As so often happened among the conquistadors, land squabbles developed again, this time between Belalcázar and Pascual de Andagoya (1495–1548), who also claimed the governorship of Popayán. Belalcázar successfully defended his lands, and took over some of Andagoya's. He then intervened in a disagreement between supporters of the families of Pizarro and Almagro in Perú. In 1546, he ordered the execution of Jorge Robledo, who governed a neighboring province in yet another land-related vendetta. He was put to trial in absentia in 1550, convicted and condemned to death for the death of Robledo, and other offenses pertaining to his constant involvement in the various wars between other conquistadors. A victim of his own ambition, he died in 1551 before he could begin the voyage back to Spain to appeal the decision, in Cartagena, Colombia.

References.

Sebastián de Belalcázar (; 1479/1480 – 1551) was a Spanish conquistador. De Belalcázar, also written as de Benalcázar, is known as the founder of important early colonial cities in the northwestern part of South America; Quito in 1534 and Cali, Pasto and Popayán in 1537. De Belalcázar led expeditions in present-day Ecuador and Colombia and died of natural causes after being sentenced to death in Cartagena, at the Caribbean coast in 1551.


Early life and family.

Winnaretta Singer was the twentieth of the 24 children of Isaac Singer. Her mother was his Parisian-born second wife, Isabella Eugénie Boyer. Winnaretta was born in Yonkers, New York. After the American Civil War, the Singer family moved to Paris, where they remained until the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. The family then settled in England, first in London, and then Paignton, Devon where they moved to Oldway Mansion a 115-room palace built by her father.

Relatives.

Winnaretta's older brother, Adam Mortimer Singer, became one of England's landed gentry. Her younger sister, Isabelle-Blanche (1869-1896) married Jean, duc Decazes. Their daughter, Daisy Fellowes, was raised by Winnaretta after Isabelle-Blanche's death and became a noted socialite, magazine editor, and fashion trendsetter. Winnaretta's younger brother, Paris Singer, was one of the architects and financiers of the resort of Palm Beach, Florida; he had a son by Isadora Duncan. Another brother, Washington Singer, became a substantial donor to the University College of the southwest of England, which later became the University of Exeter; one of the university's buildings is named in his honor.

Marriages and relationships.

After Isaac Singer's death in 1875, Isabelle and her children moved back to Paris. Although known within private social circles to be a lesbian, Winnaretta married at the age of 22 to Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard. The marriage was annulled in 1892 by the Catholic church, five years after a wedding night that reportedly included the bride's climbing atop an armoire and threatening to kill the groom if he came near her.  In 1893, at the age of 28, she stepped companionably into an equally chaste marriage with the 59-year-old Prince Edmond de Polignac (1834–1901), a gay amateur composer. Although it was a "mariage blanc" (unconsummated marriage), or indeed a lavender marriage (a union between a gay man and a lesbian), it was based on profound love, mutual respect, understanding, and artistic friendship, expressed especially through their love of music. The same year Singer exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

Lesbian relationships.

She had affairs with numerous women, never making attempts to conceal them, and never going for any great length of time without a female lover. She had these affairs during her own marriages and afterwards, and often with other married women. The affronted husband of one of her lovers once stood outside the princess's Venetian palazzo, declaring, "If you are half the man I think you are, you will come out here and fight me."  Polignac had a relationship with painter Romaine Brooks, which had begun in 1905, and which effectively ended her affair with Olga de Meyer, who was married at the time and whose godfather (and purported biological father) was Edward VII. Composer and conductor Ethel Smyth fell deeply in love with her during their affair. In the early 1920s Polignac became involved with pianist Renata Borgatti. From 1923 to 1933 her lover was the British socialite and novelist Violet Trefusis, with whom she had a loving but often turbulent relationship. Alvilde Chaplin, the future wife of the author James Lees-Milne, was involved with Singer from 1938 to 1943; the two women were living together in London at the time of Winnaretta's death.

Patron of the arts.

In 1894 the Prince and Princesse de Polignac established a salon in Paris in the music room of their mansion on Avenue Henri-Martin (today, Avenue Georges-Mandel). The Polignac salon came to be known as a haven for avant-garde music. First performances of Chabrier, d'Indy, Debussy, Fauré, and Ravel took place in the Polignac salon. The young Ravel dedicated his piano work, "Pavane pour une infante défunte", to the Princesse de Polignac. Many of Marcel Proust's evocations of salon culture were born during his attendance at concerts in the Polignac drawing room.  After her husband's death, Winnaretta Singer-Polignac used her fortune to benefit the arts, sciences, and letters. She decided to honor his memory by commissioning several works of the young composers of her time, amongst others Igor Stravinsky's "Renard", Erik Satie's "Socrate" (by her intercession Satie was kept out of jail when he was composing this work), Darius Milhaud's "Les Malheurs d'Orphée", Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos and Organ Concerto, Jean Françaix's "Le Diable boîteux" and "Sérénade pour douze instruments", Kurt Weill's Second Symphony, and Germaine Tailleferre's First Piano Concerto. Manuel de Falla's "El retablo de maese Pedro" was premiered there, with the harpsichord part performed by Wanda Landowska.  In addition to Proust and Antonio de La Gándara, the Princesse de Polignac's salon was frequented by Isadora Duncan, Jean Cocteau, Claude Monet, Sergei Diaghilev, and Colette. She was also patron to many others, including Nadia Boulanger, Clara Haskil, Dinu Lipatti, Arthur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Armande de Polignac, Ethel Smyth, Le Corbusier, Adela Maddison, the Ballets Russes, l'Opéra de Paris, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. In addition to performing as pianist and organist in her own salon, she was an accomplished painter who exhibited in the Académie des Beaux-Arts. One canvas eventually appeared in the showcase of an art gallery, advertised as being a Manet.

Public service.

Winnaretta Singer-Polignac was also an important leader in the development of public housing in Paris. Her 1911 building of a housing project for the working poor at Rue de la Colonie, in the 13th arrondissement, was considered to be a model for future projects. In the 1920s and 1930s, Singer commissioned the architect Le Corbusier to rebuild or construct several public shelters for Paris's Salvation Army. The plans of Le Corbusier's Salvation Army hostel in Paris show a private apartment at the top floor for "Miss Singer". With her friend Madeleine Zillhardt, she bought the barge 'Louise-Catherine' named in memory of Zillhardt's companion Louise Catherine Breslau. The boat was rehabilitated by Le Corbusier in 1929 in order to be a refuge of the Salvation Army for the homeless in winter and a summer camp for children, moored in Paris on the banks of the Seine, at the Pont des Arts and at the Pont d'Austerlitz.  During World War I, working with Marie Curie, Singer-Polignac helped convert private limousines into mobile radiology units to help wounded soldiers at the front.  During the inter-war period, Singer-Polignac worked with Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan and assisted in the construction of a 360-bed hospital destined to provide medical care to middle-class workers. The result of this effort is the Foch Hospital, located in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris, France. The hospital also includes a school of nursing and is one of the top-ranked hospitals in France, especially for renal transplants. It has remained true to its origins and stayed a private not-for-profit institution that still serves the Paris community. It is managed by the Fondation médicale Franco-américaine du Mont-Valérien, commonly called Fondation Foch.

Fondation Singer-Polignac.

After Singer-Polignac's death, her legacy of enlightened generosity was carried on through the work of the Fondation Singer-Polignac. Created in 1928, the goals of the foundation are the promotion, through gifts and bourses, of science, literature, the arts, culture, and French philanthropy. The Foundation continued to present concerts and recitals in the Polignac mansion's music room. The performances were first organized by Nadia Boulanger, who presented programs that juxtaposed early music and modern compositions. After Boulanger's death in 1979, the composer Jean Françaix took over the organization of the concert series.

Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac (8 January 186526 November 1943), was an American-born heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. She used this to fund a wide range of causes, notably a musical salon where her protégés included Debussy and Ravel, and numerous public health projects in Paris, where she lived most of her life. Singer entered into two marriages that were unconsummated, and openly enjoyed many high-profile relationships with women.


Materials.

Lightweight white, solid-color or printed plain weave, satin weave, or flannel cotton or cotton/polyester blends are the most common types of sheeting, although linen and silk may also be used, including in combination. Goose or duck down and other feathers are frequently used as a warm and lightweight filling in duvets, comforters and quilts. But such fill can protrude in part even from tightly-woven fabric, and be an irritant for many people, particularly those with allergies. Natural and synthetic down alternatives are marketed. Cotton, wool or polyester batting is commonly used as fill in quilts and down alternative comforters. These are less expensive and more easily laundered than natural down or feathers. Synthetic fibers are best in the form of thermofused (where fibers cross) batting. Thick-woven or knitted wool, cotton, acrylic or other microfiber synthetics, or blends of these, are typically used for blankets.

History.

Around 3400 BC Egyptian pharaohs had their beds moved off the ground and slept on a raised surface. Bed linen was widely evolved in Egypt. It was seen as a symbol of light and purity, as well as a symbol of prosperity. The Egyptian mummies were often wrapped in bed linen.  Roman Empire mattresses were stuffed with wool, feather, reeds or hay. The beds were decorated with paint, bronze, silver, jewels and gold.  In Japan, mattress types were stuffed with cotton and rolled up for storage during the day.  During the Renaissance, mattresses were stuffed with straw and feathers and then covered with silks, velvets or satin material.  In the 18th century, Europeans began to use bed frames made from cast iron, and mattresses that were made of cotton.  In the 19th century the bed spring was invented, also called the box spring.  In the 20th century United States, consumers bought the inner spring mattress, followed in the 1960s by the water bed (originating on the West Coast), and adoption of Japanese-style futons, air mattresses, and foam rubber mattresses and pillows.

Sizes.

Bedding sizes are made with consideration of the dimensions of the bed and mattress for which it is to be used. Bed sizes vary around the world, with countries having their own standards and terminology.

Bedding, also known as bedclothes or bed linen, is the materials laid above the mattress of a bed for hygiene, warmth, protection of the mattress, and decorative effect. Bedding is the removable and washable portion of a human sleeping environment. Multiple sets of bedding for each bed are often washed in rotation and/or changed seasonally to improve sleep comfort at varying room temperatures. Most standardised measurements for bedding are rectangular, but there are also some square-shaped sizes, which allows the user to put on bedding without having to consider its lengthwise orientation (i.e. a duvet).


Life.

Philippine Charlotte was the fourth child and third daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia and his spouse Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (those who reached adulthood; she was otherwise seventh child and fourth daughter).  On 2 July 1733 in Berlin, Princess Philippine Charlotte married Duke Charles of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, eldest son of Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Charles inherited the dukedom on his father's death in 1735, making her Duchess consort.  The double marriage alliance between Prussia and Brunswick by her marriage to Charles I, and that of her brother Frederick to Charles' sister Elisabeth Christine, led to a permanent alliance of the most important North German Protestant houses Prussia and Brunswick. The family ties of the two dynasties resulted the alliance of Brunswick and Prussia in the Seven Years' War, and the career of Philippines sons in the Prussian service.  Philippine Charlotte was described as subtle, highly educated and a child of the enlightenment. She worked independently of an extract of the philosophical writings of Christian von Wolff in French. The Duchess pursued, partly because of the influence of the ducal adviser Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem, the German intellectual life very closely. She appreciated the poet Salomon Gessner and maintained a personal relationship Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. The dramatist Lessing were also among her circle.  As Duchess consort, Philippine Charlotte's court life focused on the circle of conversation she held before and after dinner in her state apartments in the Grauer Hof, to which she attracted scholars and men of letters with positions at court. The Brunswick court attended a few opera performances and public balls a year in accordance with court etiquette, but the large expenditure of her spouse soon made it necessary to have a more economic court life.  She raised her son Charles in reverence of her brother, Frederick of Prussia, gave him a humanist education with Abbé Jerusalem among his tutors, and sent him on a Grand Tour with the archaeologist Winckelmann as his companion.  In 1773, Charles I was obliged to make his son regent, and in 1780, he died, and was succeeded by her son.  The Swedish Princess Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte described her, as well as her family, at the time of a visit in August, 1799: Our cousin, the Duke, arrived immediately the next morning. [...] After he left us, I visited the Dowager Duchess, the aunt of my consort. She is an agreeable, highly educated and well respected lady, but by now so old that she has almost lost her memory.  Philippine Charlotte left to the Wolfenbüttel Library her own collection of 4,000 volumes.

Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia () (13 March 1716, in Berlin – 17 February 1801, in Brunswick) was a Duchess consort of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by marriage to Charles I of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and a known intellectual in contemporary Germany. She is listed as a female composer as she is thought to have written marches and other music.


Description.

The roach is a small fish, often reaching no more than about ; maximum length is 45–50 cm. The body has a bluish silvery colour and becomes white at the belly. The fins are red. The number of scales along the lateral line is 39–48. The dorsal and anal fins have 12–14 rays. Young specimens have a slender build; older specimens acquire a higher and broader body shape. The roach can often be recognized by the big red spot in the iris above and beside the pupil. Colours of the eye and fins can be very pale, however, in some environments.  In Central and Northern Europe, the common roach can most easily be confused with the common rudd ("Scardinius erythropthalmus"), the dace ("Leuciscus leuciscus"), or the ide ("Leuciscus idus"). They can be distinguished by these characteristics:

Distribution.

The common roach is found throughout Europe except for the area around the Mediterranean, and its distribution reaches eastward into Siberia. Eastern Europe and Asia have several subspecies, some with an oceangoing lifecycle living around the Caspian and Black Seas. Around the Mediterranean and in northwestern part of Spain and Portugal, several closely related species occur with no overlap in their distribution.  It was introduced in Australia in the Murray River and coastal drainages of southern New South Wales and Victoria from Europe during the 1860s and 1880s for sport purposes.

Ecology.

The common roach is very adaptable and can be found in any freshwater ecosystem, ranging from small ponds to the largest rivers and lakes. It will feed at any depth, although its preferred food sources tend to be in shallower water. It tolerates organic pollution and is one of the last species to disappear in polluted waters, and is also often the most numerous cyprinid in nutrient-poor waters. It also tolerates brackish water. Roach will survive in temperatures from close to freezing 4 °C (39 °F) up to around 31 °C (88 °F). In most parts of its distribution, it is the most numerous fish, but it can be surpassed by the common bream in biomass in water bodies with high turbidity and sparse vegetation. The roach is a shoaling fish and is not very migratory with the exception of the oceangoing subspecies. In the cold season, they migrate to feed in deeper waters, whereas they prefer to feed near the surface during warmer weather.  The roach mostly inhabits freshwater ecosystems that are somewhat vegetated, because larval and young fish are protected by the vegetation and the mature fish can use it for food. The common roach eats a wide range of foods, from plant material, bottom-dwelling (benthic) invertebrates, to worms and maggots. Young fish feed mainly on plankton, until they are of a size to enjoy a wider diet. The roach can adapt to environments where invertebrates are scarce by slowing their growth, maintaining slender body shapes, and early maturation.  Roach may live for 15 years or more.

Reproduction.

The spawning season is generally from March to June, with some variation due to spawning being triggered by the rising of water temperature during spring and summer. Roach generally spawn at the same location each year. Large males form schools, which females enter. Males trail the females and fertilize their eggs. The behaviour is rough and the fish often jump out of the water. A female can lay up to 100,000 eggs. When the pH of the water is below 5.5, the roach cannot reproduce successfully.

The roach ("Rutilus rutilus"), also known as the common roach, is a fresh and brackish water fish of the family Cyprinidae, native to most of Europe and western Asia. Fishes called roach can be any species of the genera "Rutilus" and "Hesperoleucus", depending on locality. The plural of the term is also roach.


History.

From about 500 BC to 500 AD, the region of what is now Karakalpakstan was a thriving agricultural area supported by extensive irrigation. The Karakalpak people, who used to be nomadic herders and fishers, were first recorded in the 16th century. Karakalpakstan was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Khanate of Khiva in 1873. Under Soviet rule, it was an autonomous area within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic before becoming part of Uzbekistan in 1936. The region was probably at its most prosperous in the 1960s and 1970s, when irrigation from the Amu Darya was being expanded. Today, however, the drainage of the Aral Sea has rendered Karakalpakstan one of Uzbekistan's poorest regions. The region is suffering from extensive drought, partly due to weather patterns, but also largely because the Amu and Syr Darya rivers are exploited mostly in the eastern part of the country. Crop failures have deprived about 48,000 people of their main source of income and shortages of potable water have created a surge of infectious diseases.

Geography.

Karakalpakstan is now mostly desert and is located in western Uzbekistan near the Aral Sea, in the lowest part of the Amu Darya basin. It has an area of 164,900 km2 and is surrounded by desert. The Kyzyl Kum Desert is located to the east and the Karakum Desert is located to the south. A rocky plateau extends west to the Caspian Sea.

Politics.

The Republic of Karakalpakstan is formally sovereign and shares veto power over decisions concerning it with Uzbekistan. According to the constitution, relations between Karakalpakstan and Uzbekistan are "regulated by treaties and agreements" and any disputes are "settled by way of reconciliation". Its right to secede is limited by the veto power of Uzbekistan's legislature over any decision to secede. Article 74, chapter XVII, Constitution of Uzbekistan, provides that: "The Republic of Karakalpakstan shall have the right to secede from the Republic of Uzbekistan on the basis of a nationwide referendum held by the people of Karakalpakstan."

Demographics.

The population of Karakalpakstan is estimated to be around 1.7 million and in 2007 it was estimated that about 400,000 of the population are of the Karakalpak ethnic group, 400,000 are Uzbeks and 300,000 are Kazakhs. Their name means "Black Hat", but Karakalpak culture was so lost through Sovietization that the original meaning of the black hat is now unknown. The Karakalpak language is considered closer to Kazakh than to Uzbek. The language was written in a modified Cyrillic in Soviet times and has been written in the Latin alphabet since 1996.  The population grew to 1.8 million in 2017. The crude birth rate is 2.19%: approximately 39,400 children were born in 2017. Nearly 8,400 people died in the same period. The crude death rate is 0.47%. The natural growth rate is 31,000, or 1.72%.  The median age was 27.7 years old in 2017, which is younger than the rest of Uzbekistan (median age of 28.5 countrywide). Men are 27.1 years old, while women are 28.2 years old.  Other than the capital Nukus, large cities include Xojeli (Cyrillic: ), Taxiatosh (), Shimbai (), Konirat () and Moynaq (), a former Aral Sea port now completely dried up according to NASA.

Economy.

The economy of the region used to be heavily dependent on fisheries in the Aral Sea. It is now supported by cotton, rice and melons. Hydroelectric power from a large Soviet-built station on the Amu Darya is also important.  The Amu Darya delta was once heavily populated and supported extensive irrigation based agriculture for thousands of years. Under the Khorezm, the area attained considerable power and prosperity. However, the gradual climate change over the centuries, accelerated by human induced evaporation of the Aral Sea in the late 20th century has created a desolate scene in the region. The ancient oases of rivers, lakes, reed marshes, forests and farms are drying up and being poisoned by wind-borne salt and by fertilizer and pesticide residues from the dried bed of the Aral Sea. Summer temperatures have risen and winter temperatures have decreased by. The rate of anemia, respiratory diseases and other health problems has risen dramatically.

Administrative divisions.

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Media.

Radio.

In 2009, the first radio station of Karakalpakstan was opened. The station is called Nukus FM, which broadcasts on radio frequency 100.4 MHz, only in Nukus.

External links.

Karakalpakstan ( / ; ), officially the Republic of Karakalpakstan ( / ; ), is an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan. It occupies the whole northwestern end of Uzbekistan. The capital is Nukus ("" / ). The Republic of Karakalpakstan has an area of. Its territory covers the classical land of Khwarezm, though in classical Persian literature the area was known as ().


Description.

It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree, reaching tall and wide, with a trunk up to in circumference. The bark is smooth, shiny orange-red, peeling in thin, papery layers; it may become fissured in old trees. The shoots are densely downy at first, this wearing off by the second or third year and the bark exfoliating by the third or fourth year.  The leaves are compound, with a 2–4 cm petiole with three leaflets, each 3–10 cm long and 2–6 cm broad, dark green above, bright glaucous blue-green beneath, with several blunt teeth on the margins.  The yellow flowers are androdioecious, produced in small pendent corymbs in spring, the fruit being a paired samara with two winged seeds about 1 cm long with a 3 cm wing.

Cultivation and uses.

"Acer griseum" was introduced to cultivation in Europe in 1901 by Ernest Henry Wilson for the Veitch Nurseries, and to North America shortly after. It is one of many species of maples widely grown as ornamental plants in temperate regions. It is admired for its decorative exfoliating bark, translucent pieces of which often stay attached to the branches until worn away. It also has spectacular autumn foliage which can include red, orange and pink tones.  This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.  In 2015, the North America-China Plant Exploration Consortium (NACPEC) conducted an expedition specifically targeting "Acer griseum" for seed collection with the object of increasing the genetic diversity of plants in cultivation. Propagation of "Acer griseum" is somewhat difficult as seeds have the same parthenocarpic tendencies as those of "Acer maximowiczianum".

Acer griseum, the paperbark maple (), is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae, native to central China. "Acer griseum" is found in the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Sichuan, at altitudes of.


History.

Present-day Sfax was founded in AD849 on the site of the ancient Roman town ("") of Taparura. The modern city has also grown to cover some other ancient settlements, most notably Thenae in its southern suburb of Thyna.  By the end of the 10th century, Sfax, had become an independent city-state. The city was conquered by Roger II of Sicily in 1148 and occupied until it was liberated in 1156 by the Almohads, and was briefly occupied by European forces again; this time by the Spanish, in the 16th century, before falling into Ottoman hands this time. Sfax became an integral base of the Barbary piracy, prompting an unsuccessful invasion by Venice in 1785.  When the Bey of Tunis signed the Bardo Treaty, in 1881, making Tunisia a protectorate, an insurrection broke out in Sfax. Six ironclads were dispatched from Toulon ("Colbert", "Friedland", "Marengo", "Trident", "Revanche", "Surveillante") to join the French Navy ships in Tunisian waters. In Sfax, three ironclads from the Division of the Levant were already present ("Alma", "Reine Blanche", "La Galissonnière"), together with four cannon boats. Sfax was bombarded, and on 16 July the city was taken by the French after hard fighting, with 7 dead and 32 wounded for the French.  During World War II, the Axis powers used the city as a major base until British forces took it on 10 April 1943. After World War II, Tunisia was returned to France, but gained independence in 1956.

Transport.

The A1 motorway connects Sfax with Tunis. A narrow gauge railway system of SNCFT offers passenger services to Tunis and delivers phosphates and iron ore for export. Sfax is served by Sfax–Thyna International Airport and Syphax Airlines has regularly scheduled flights to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, Tripoli International Airport, and charter flights to Jeddah Airport for the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Communications.

Founded in 1961, Radio Sfax broadcasts twenty hours a day on MW 720 kHz/105.21 MHz.

Climate.

Sfax has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSh"). Owing to its sheltered location relative to Mediterranean Sea winter storms, Sfax receives half the rainfall of Tunis and less even than the major cities of Libya (Tripoli and Benghazi). Summers, like all of North Africa, are hot and almost rainless, whilst winters are very pleasant with only light rain usual.

Education.

The University of Sfax includes:

International relations.

Twin towns — sister cities.

Sfax is twinned with:

Sfax ( '; "Sifaks") is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD849 on the ruins of Roman Taparura, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate (about 955,421 inhabitants in 2014), and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has a population of 330,440 (census 2014). The main economic activities of Sfax are industries (phosphate processing), agriculture (olive and olive oil, nuts), fishing (largest fishing port in Tunisia) and trade (import-export). The city is often described as Tunisia's "second city", being the second-most populous city after the capital Tunis.


Biography.

Career.

Bergqvist was born up in Sollentuna Municipality in Stockholm County. Her interest in sport began when she was 6 years old and tried sports such as football, volleyball, badminton, swimming and cross-country skiing, none of which was able to keep her interest.  When she was 10 years old, she was persuaded by her big brother, Anders, to compete in Rösjöloppet, a long-distance track event. After that event, she began to try out several athletic events.  Bergqvist continued to train in several athletic events until she was 15 years old, when a new coach, Bengt Jönsson, came to her club, Turebergs FK. Soon after his arrival, he and Bergqvist chose to concentrate on the event that was her best, high jump.  She attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas (USA) in 1995–1999, with a degree in Advertising. She was the NCAA champion in 1997 with a clearance of 1.93 in the rain at the Indiana University over Amy Acuff of UCLA ending her streak at two. She won the NCAA meet again in 1999 with a height of 1.90 in Boise. In the season 1999, she tied Acuff's collegiate outdoor record of 1.95 (6-6). That record is sometimes omitted as it was set in international competition after the NCAA meet.  During 2001–2008 she lived in Monaco.  By 2004, lack of progress and long travel distances caused Bergqvist to end the relationship with her coach, Bengt Jönsson. She joined a group of athletes (including Olympic gold medalist Christian Olsson) under Yannick Tregaro.  At a competition in Båstad, on 18 July 2004, Bergqvist tore her Achilles tendon. Due to the injury, she missed the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but managed to return to form just in time for the 2005 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki. There she made an impressive series of jumps to edge out Chaunté Howard for the gold medal. Her Helsinki victory earned the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal for that year.  In 2006, she had been ranked the number one female high jumper in the world but failed to win in that summer's European Championships in front of her home fans in Gothenburg, having to settle for a bronze medal.  At the Hochsprung mit Musik meeting in Arnstadt, Germany, on 4 February 2006, Bergqvist set her first world record: she made an indoor leap of 2.08 on her first attempt, surpassing Heike Henkel's 2.07 m leap on 8 February 1992. The record was not totally unexpected since she jumped 2.00 m already in the warm up for the competition.  Bergqvist chose not to compete in the 2007 European Indoor Athletics Championships, opting, instead, to concentrate on defending her world outdoor crown. She had not started the indoor season well, and was nowhere near the form which had seen her set the world record the year before. It did not pay off as she finished 7th in Osaka.  Bergqvist married director Måns Herngren on New Year's Eve in 2007 and shortly afterwards, on 7 January 2008, announced that she would retire from high jumping. She had found her life entering "a new phase" and that she no longer felt as motivated to keep competing, even after her break in 2007.

Post-athletics.

Since her retirement, she has been an ambassador for both UNICEF and the IAAF.

Personal life.

Bergqvist married director Måns Herngren on New Year's Eve in 2007. The couple announced their divorce in early 2011.  In December 2011, Bergqvist confirmed in an interview that she is in a relationship with a woman, and stated: "As lesbian as I feel today, as heterosexual I felt when I was together with Måns. But when I get old and look back on my life, perhaps one can think that I'm bisexual." This announcement came after a period of rumours concerning Bergqvist's personal life.

Kajsa Margareta Bergqvist (; born 12 October 1976 in Sollentuna, Stockholm) is a Swedish former high jumper. She won one bronze medal in the Olympic Games, one gold and two bronze medals in the World Championships in Athletics and one gold and one bronze in the European Championships. Her personal outdoor record of 2.06 m, set in Germany in 2003, is also a Swedish record. Her indoor record of 2.08 m, set at the Hochsprung mit Musik meeting in 2006, is the world indoor record.


Conceptual properties.

The concept of particles is particularly useful when modelling nature, as the full treatment of many phenomena can be complex and also involve difficult computation. It can be used to make simplifying assumptions concerning the processes involved. Francis Sears and Mark Zemansky, in "University Physics", give the example of calculating the landing location and speed of a baseball thrown in the air. They gradually strip the baseball of most of its properties, by first idealizing it as a rigid smooth sphere, then by neglecting rotation, buoyancy and friction, ultimately reducing the problem to the ballistics of a classical point particle. The treatment of large numbers of particles is the realm of statistical physics.

Size.

The term "particle" is usually applied differently to three classes of sizes. The term "macroscopic particle", usually refers to particles much larger than atoms and molecules. These are usually abstracted as point-like particles, even though they have volumes, shapes, structures, etc. Examples of macroscopic particles would include powder, dust, sand, pieces of debris during a car accident, or even objects as big as the stars of a galaxy.  Another type, "microscopic particles" usually refers to particles of sizes ranging from atoms to molecules, such as carbon dioxide, nanoparticles, and colloidal particles. These particles are studied in chemistry, as well as atomic and molecular physics. The smallest of particles are the "subatomic particles", which refer to particles smaller than atoms. These would include particles such as the constituents of atoms – protons, neutrons, and electrons – as well as other types of particles which can only be produced in particle accelerators or cosmic rays. These particles are studied in particle physics.  Because of their extremely small size, the study of microscopic and subatomic particles fall in the realm of quantum mechanics. They will exhibit phenomena demonstrated in the particle in a box model, including wave–particle duality, and whether particles can be considered distinct or identical is an important question in many situations.

Composition.

Particles can also be classified according to composition. "Composite particles" refer to particles that have composition – that is particles which are made of other particles. For example, a carbon-14 atom is made of six protons, eight neutrons, and six electrons. By contrast, "elementary particles" (also called "fundamental particles") refer to particles that are not made of other particles. According to our current understanding of the world, only a very small number of these exist, such as leptons, quarks, and gluons. However it is possible that some of these might turn up to be composite particles after all, and merely appear to be elementary for the moment. While composite particles can very often be considered "point-like", elementary particles are truly "punctual".

Stability.

Both elementary (such as muons) and composite particles (such as uranium nuclei), are known to undergo particle decay. Those that do not are called stable particles, such as the electron or a helium-4 nucleus. The lifetime of stable particles can be either infinite or large enough to hinder attempts to observe such decays. In the latter case, those particles are called "observationally stable". In general, a particle decays from a high-energy state to a lower-energy state by emitting some form of radiation, such as the emission of photons.

"N"-body simulation.

In computational physics, "N"-body simulations (also called "N"-particle simulations) are simulations of dynamical systems of particles under the influence of certain conditions, such as being subject to gravity. These simulations are very common in cosmology and computational fluid dynamics.  "N" refers to the number of particles considered. As simulations with higher "N" are more computationally intensive, systems with large numbers of actual particles will often be approximated to a smaller number of particles, and simulation algorithms need to be optimized through various methods.

Distribution of particles.

Colloidal particles are the components of a colloid. A colloid is a substance microscopically dispersed evenly throughout another substance. Such colloidal system can be solid, liquid, or gaseous; as well as continuous or dispersed. The dispersed-phase particles have a diameter of between approximately 5 and 200 nanometers. Soluble particles smaller than this will form a solution as opposed to a colloid. Colloidal systems (also called colloidal solutions or colloidal suspensions) are the subject of interface and colloid science. Suspended solids may be held in a liquid, while solid or liquid particles suspended in a gas together form an aerosol. Particles may also be suspended in the form of atmospheric particulate matter, which may constitute air pollution. Larger particles can similarly form marine debris or space debris. A conglomeration of discrete solid, macroscopic particles may be described as a granular material.

In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object or entity to which can be ascribed several physical or chemical properties such as volume, density or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from subatomic particles like the electron, to microscopic particles like atoms and molecules, to macroscopic particles like powders and other granular materials. Particles can also be used to create scientific models of even larger objects depending on their density, such as humans moving in a crowd or celestial bodies in motion.


World War I.

Born in 1896, Felix Steiner joined the Royal Prussian Army as an infantry cadet. During World War I, he was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class. In 1919, Steiner joined the paramilitary "Freikorps" in the East Prussian city of Memel and was incorporated into the "Reichswehr" in 1921. In 1933, he left the army having attained the rank of major.

SS career.

Steiner first joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) (membership number: 4,264,295) and the "Sturmabteilung" (SA). In 1935 he enlisted in the SS. He took command of a battalion of "SS-Verfügungstruppen" (SS-VT) troops, and within a year had been promoted to SS-"Standartenführer"; and later was put in command of the "SS-Deutschland" Regiment.  At the outbreak of World War II, he was SS-Oberführer (Senior leader) in charge of the Waffen-SS regiment "SS-Deutschland". He led this regiment through the Invasion of Poland and the Battle of France, for which he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 15 August 1940. Steiner was introduced to Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, to oversee the creation of, and then command the new SS Division Wiking. At the time of its creation, it consisted mostly of non-German volunteers (Dutch, Flemish, Finns and Scandinavians), including the Danish regiment Frikorps Danmark. Steiner was an outstanding soldier, an aggressive commander, of considerable personal courage, a born leader with a shrewd knowledge of panzer warfare: "Gruppenfuhrer Steiner moved quickly and fearlessly behind the tanks, in his light-coloured dust jacket and with his small battle staff. His command post was up front. Decisions and orders were adjusted to the progress of the fighting - rapidly with no time lapse. The artillery went into position; the forward observers registered and corrected the guns."  In April 1943, he was placed in command of a newly formed III SS Panzer Corps. The unit participated in anti-partisan actions in Yugoslavia. In November/December 1943 his corps was transferred to the Eastern Front and positioned in the northern sector at Leningrad under Army Group North. Steiner's Panzer Corps played a leading role during the Battle of Narva and the Battle of Tannenberg Line. His unit then withdrew with the rest of Army Group North to the Courland Peninsula.

Battle of Berlin.

In January 1945, Steiner along with the III SS Panzer Corps was transferred by ship from the Courland Pocket to help with the defence of the German homeland. The corps was assigned to Army Group Vistula under the new Eleventh SS Panzer Army, although this army really only existed on paper. Once the Soviet Army reached the Oder river, the Eleventh SS Panzer Army became inactive and the III SS Panzer Corps was reassigned to the German Third Panzer Army as a reserve during the Soviets' Berlin Offensive Operation. During the Battle of Seelow Heights, the first major battle of the offensive, General Gotthard Heinrici, the commander of Army Group Vistula, transferred most of the III SS Panzer Corps' divisions to General Theodor Busse's Ninth Army.  By 21 April, Soviet Marshal Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front had broken through the German lines on the Seelow Heights. Hitler, ignoring the facts, started to call the ragtag units that came under Steiner's command Army Detachment Steiner ("Armeeabteilung Steiner"). An army detachment was something more than a corps but less than an army.  Hitler ordered Steiner to attack the northern flank of the huge salient created by the 1st Belorussian Front's breakout. Steiner's attack was due to coincide with General Busse's Ninth Army, attacking from the south in a pincer attack. The Ninth Army had been pushed to south of the 1st Belorussian Front's salient. To facilitate this attack, Steiner was assigned the three divisions of the Ninth Army's CI Army Corps: the 4th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Polizei", the 5th Jäger Division, and the 25th Panzergrenadier Division. All three divisions were north of the Finow Canal on the Northern flank of Zhukov's salient. Weidling's LVI Panzer Corps, which was still east of Berlin with its northern flank just below Werneuchen, was also ordered to participate in the attack. The three divisions from CI Army Corps planned to attack south from Eberswalde on the Finow Canal towards the LVI Panzer Corps. The three divisions from CI Army Corps were 24 kilometres (about 15 miles) east of Berlin and the attack to the south would cut the 1st Belorussian Front's salient in two. Steiner called Heinrici and informed him that the plan could not be implemented because the 5th Jäger Division and the 25th Panzergrenadier Division were deployed defensively and could not be redeployed until the 2nd Naval Division arrived from the coast to relieve them. This left only two battalions of the 4th SS Panzergrenadier Division available and they had no combat weapons.  Based on Steiner's assessment, Heinrici called Hans Krebs, Chief of Staff of the German General Staff of the Army High Command ("Oberkommando des Heeres" or OKH), and told him that the plan could not be implemented. Heinrici asked to speak to Hitler, but was told Hitler was too busy to take his call. On 22 April 1945, at his afternoon conference, Hitler became aware that Steiner was not going to attack and he fell into a tearful rage. Hitler declared the war was lost, he blamed the generals and announced that he would stay on in Berlin until the end, then kill himself. On the same day, General Rudolf Holste was given what few mobile forces Steiner commanded so that he could participate in a new plan to relieve Berlin. Holste was to attack from the north while General Walther Wenck attacked from the west and General Theodor Busse attacked from the south. These attacks amounted to little and, on 25 April, the Soviet forces attacking to the north and to the south of Berlin linked up to the west of the city.

Post-war.

After the surrender, Steiner was incarcerated until 1948. He faced charges at the Nuremberg Trials, but they were dropped for lack of solid evidence and he was released. With Paul Hausser, Herbert Gille and Otto Kumm, Steiner became a founding member of HIAG, the lobby group founded by former high-ranking Waffen-SS officers in West Germany in 1951.  From his home in West Germany he published "Die Freiwilligen der Waffen-SS: Idee und Opfergang"; English: "The Volunteers of Waffen-SS: Idea and Sacrifice" in 1958. Steiner's books and memoirs have been characterised by historian Charles Sydnor as one of the "most important works of apologist literature," together with warfare analyses "Grenadiere" by Kurt Meyer and "Waffen-SS in Action" by Paul Hausser. These works demanded rehabilitation of the military branch of the NSDAP, with Steiner's works being important in stressing the theme of the purely military Waffen-SS.  A second book was published in 1963 under the title "Die Armee der Geächteten" (English: "The Army of the Outlaws") and was also tendentious.  Steiner died on 12 May 1966, 11 days before his 70th birthday. He never married.

Felix Martin Julius Steiner (23 May 1896 – 12 May 1966) was a German SS commander during the Nazi era. During World War II, he served in the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the SS, and commanded several SS divisions and corps. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Together with Paul Hausser, he contributed significantly to the development and transformation of the Waffen-SS into a combat force made up of volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and un-occupied lands.


Background.

She was the daughter of the former Crown Prince Gustav of Sweden and Princess Louise Amelie of Baden, and a granddaughter of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden who had been deposed in 1809.  In the early 1850s, she was considered one of the most beautiful princesses of Europe. Suitors were not lacking, and there had been plans for her to marry Napoléon III, Emperor of the French. She was a cousin of the Emperor's through her maternal grandmother Stéphanie de Beauharnais, also the adoptive daughter of Napoleon I and a Princess of the First French Empire. Her father was against the marriage due to the volatile political situation in France and his dynasty's historical dispute with the Bonaparte dynasty. 20 years later, when Napoleon III fell from power, her father is quoted as saying, ""I foresaw that correctly!""

Crown princess.

In 1852, against her father's wishes, Carola converted to Catholicism. On 18 June 1853, Carola married in Dresden, Crown Prince Albert of Saxony. Their marriage was childless, although she suffered many miscarriages. Her closest heirs were: in paternal side, Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden (1857–1928), son of her first cousin; and her first cousin King Carol I of Romania (1839–1914) in maternal side.  She had a good relationship to her parents-in-law and was described as their support during difficult times. Already as a crown princess, Carola began the activity within social issues which she would continue as a queen. In 1866, she visited Saxony's field hospitals in Vienna, where she made herself known as a good samaritan. In 1867, she founded the Albert commission, which contributed to the medical care of the German army during the war of 1870-71. For her work, she was decorated with the Prussian Luisen-Orden and the Saxon Order of Sidonia. In 1871, she accompanied Albert to Compiègne after the defeat of France, where she entertained the officers of the victorious armies as a popular hostess.

Queen.

In 1873, her spouse succeeded his father as King Albert I, making Carola queen. In 1884, the deposed Swedish branch of the House of Oldenburg made peace with the new Swedish Bernadotte dynasty through her and her first cousin once removed Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, when the remains of Carola's grandfather, king Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, her father and her brother Ludvig were taken to Stockholm and interred in the royal crypt. In 1888, Carola and her spouse made an official visit to Sweden.  Queen Carola made an important contribution to the health care organisation in Saxony. In 1867, as Crown princess, she and Marie Simon founded the Albert-Verein. She founded a wet nurse school at Leipziger Tor (1869), the hospital "Carola-Haus" (1878), the women employment agency Johannes-Verein (1876), a women's school in Schwarzenberg (1884), the home "Gustavheim" for the old, sick and weak in Niederpoyritz (1887), the school Lehrertöchterheim Carola-Stift Klotzsche (1892) and the home for handicapped Amalie hus Löbtau, Friedrichstadt (1896). Carola was a popular queen. She was widowed in 1902.  She was the 499th Dame of the Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa.  At the time of her death, she was the last surviving grandchild of Gustaf IV Adolf.

Carola of Vasa (Karoline Frederikke Franziska Stephanie Amalia Cecilia; 5 August 1833 at Schönbrunn – 15 December 1907 at Dresden) was a titular princess of Sweden, and the queen consort of Saxony. She was the last Queen of Saxony.


Life.

Kaluza was born to a Roman Catholic family from the town of Ratibor (present-day Racibórz in Poland) in the German Empire's Prussian Province of Silesia. Kaluza himself was born in Wilhelmsthal (a village that was incorporated into Oppeln (present-day Opole) in 1899). He spent his youth in Königsberg, where his father, Max Kaluza, was a professor of the English language. He entered the University of Königsberg to study mathematics and gained his doctorate with a thesis on Tschirnhaus transformations. Kaluza was primarily a mathematician but began studying relativity. In April 1919 Kaluza noticed that when he solved Albert Einstein's equations for general relativity using five dimensions, then Maxwellian equations for electromagnetism emerged spontaneously. Kaluza wrote to Einstein who, in turn, encouraged him to publish. Kaluza's theory was published in 1921 in a paper, "Zum Unitätsproblem der Physik" with Einstein's support in "Sitzungsberichte Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften" 966–972 (1921).  Kaluza's insight is remembered as the Kaluza–Klein theory (also named after physicist Oskar Klein). However, the work was neglected for many years as attention was directed towards quantum mechanics. His idea that fundamental forces can be explained by additional dimensions did not re-emerge until string theory was developed. It is however also notable that many of the aspects of this body of work were already published in 1914 by Gunnar Nordström, but his work also went unnoticed and was not recognized when the ideas re-emerged.  For the rest of his career Kaluza continued to produce ideas about relativity and about models of the atomic nucleus. Despite Einstein's support, Kaluza remained at a low rank (Privatdozent) at Königsberg until 1929 when he was appointed as professor at the University of Kiel. In 1935 he became a full professor at the University of Göttingen where he remained until his death in 1954. Perhaps his finest mathematical work is the textbook "Höhere Mathematik für die Praktiker" which was written jointly with Georg Joos.

Personal life.

Kaluza was extraordinarily versatile. He spoke or wrote 17 languages. He also had an unusually modest personality. He refused the Nazi ideology and his appointment to the Göttingen chair was possible only with difficulties and by protection of his colleague Helmut Hasse. Strange stories were told of his private life, for example, that he taught himself to swim in his thirties by reading a book and succeeded at his first attempt in the water.  Kaluza had a son (born 1910), also named who was a notable mathematician.

Theodor Franz Eduard Kaluza (; 9 November 1885 – 19 January 1954) was a German mathematician and physicist known for the Kaluza–Klein theory involving field equations in five-dimensional space-time. His idea that fundamental forces can be unified by introducing additional dimensions re-emerged much later in string theory.


Biography.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz was born in Riga, Russian Empire (now in Latvia) in 1903, to a religious Zionist family. His father was a lumber trader, and his cousin was future chess grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch. In 1919, he studied chemistry and philosophy at the University of Berlin. After completing his doctorate in 1924, he went on to study biochemistry and medicine, receiving an MD in 1934 from the University of Basel.  He immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1935, and settled in Jerusalem. Leibowitz was married to Greta, with whom he had six children. His son, Elia, was chairman of the Tel Aviv University astrophysics department, and the longest-serving director of the Wise Observatory. Another son, Uri, was a professor of medicine at Hadassah University Medical Center.  His daughter, Yiska, is a district prosecutor. His sister, Nechama Leibowitz, was a world-famous biblical scholar. Leibowitz was active until his last day. He died in his sleep on 18 August 1994. Shamai Leibowitz is one of his grandchildren.

Academic and literary career.

Leibowitz joined the faculty of mathematics and natural science of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1936. He became a professor of biochemistry in 1941, and was promoted to the position of senior professor of organic chemistry and neurology in 1952. He taught at the Hebrew University for nearly six decades, lecturing in biochemistry, neurophysiology, philosophy, and the history of science.  Leibowitz served as the editor of the "Encyclopaedia Hebraica" in its early stages. Apart from his innumerable articles and essays, Leibowitz authored a wide range of books on philosophy, human values, Jewish thought, the teachings of Maimonides, and politics. Many of his lectures and discourses, including those given as part of the "Broadcast University" project run by Israeli Army Radio, were subsequently compiled and printed in book form. Leibowitz was a prolific letter-writer, and his advice or comment was sought out widely. A first collection of his letters (in Hebrew) was published posthumously.

Religious philosophy.

Leibowitz was an Orthodox Jew who held controversial views on the subject of "halakha", or Jewish law. He wrote that the sole purpose of religious commandments was to obey God, and not to receive any kind of reward in this world or the world to come. He maintained that the reasons for religious commandments were beyond man's understanding, as well as irrelevant, and any attempt to attribute emotional significance to the performance of "mitzvot" was misguided and akin to idolatry.  The essence of Leibowitz's religious outlook is that a person's faith is his commitment to obey God, meaning God's commandments, and this has nothing to do with a person's image of God. This must be so because Leibowitz thought that God cannot be described, that God's understanding is not man's understanding, and thus, all the questions asked of God are out of place. Leibowitz claimed that a person's decision to believe in God (in other words: to obey him) defines or describes that person, not God.  One result of this approach is that faith, which is a personal commitment to obey God, cannot be challenged by the usual philosophical problem of evil or by historical events that seemingly contradict a divine presence. When someone told Leibowitz that he stopped believing in God after the Holocaust, Leibowitz answered, "Then you never believed in God". If a person stops believing after an awful event, it shows that he only obeyed God because he thought he understood God's plan, or because he expected to see a reward. But "for Leibowitz, religious belief is not an explanation of life, nature, or history, or a promise of a future in this world or another, but a demand".  Leibowitz believed in the separation of state and religion, and held that mixing the two corrupted faith. He condemned the veneration of Jewish shrines, cynically referring to the Western Wall as the "Discotel" (a play on the words "discothèque" and "Kotel", a transliterated Hebrew word which literally means "wall", but capitalized refers to the Western Wall).  In contrast to his strict views on some matters, he was liberal on others. On the subject of homosexuality, for example, Leibowitz believed that despite the ban on homosexual relations in Judaism, homosexuals should do their best to remain observant Jews.

Views and opinions.

Even before the founding of Israel, Leibowitz was an adamant supporter of a separation between religious institutions and the state – he even personally asked this of David Ben-Gurion. In the 1949 Knesset elections he headed the United List of Religious Workers, which failed to win a seat.  He became progressively critical of government policy following the 1953 Qibya massacre. In his later philosophy, he denied that the state of Israel had any Jewish religious significance, and became an outspoken defender of the complete separation between religion and state. He was among the first Israeli intellectuals to state immediately after the 1967 Six-Day War that if occupation continued, this would lead to the decline in moral stature.  In a 1968 essay titled "The Territories", Leibowitz postulated a hellish future:  The Arabs would be the working people and the Jews the administrators, inspectors, officials, and police—mainly secret police. A state ruling a hostile population of 1.5 to 2 million foreigners would necessarily become a secret-police state, with all that this implies for education, free speech and democratic institutions. The corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the State of Israel. The administration would suppress Arab insurgency on the one hand and acquire Arab Quislings on the other. There is also good reason to fear that the Israel Defense Forces, which has been until now a people's army, would, as a result of being transformed into an army of occupation, degenerate, and its commanders, who will have become military governors, resemble their colleagues in other nations.  In an interview in "Haaretz" newspaper, Carlo Strenger, who knew Leibowitz personally, stated: Because of his provocativeness, it's easy to miss Leibowitz’s profound moral seriousness and the great relevance of his thought today. He is often pigeonholed as belonging to the extreme left, which is a mistake. Leibowitz, never willing to bow to collective pressure, was the most unlikely of combinations: On the one hand he was a libertarian, an extreme form of classical liberalism, and believed that human beings should be free to determine their way of life without any state interference. On the other hand, he was an ultra-Orthodox Jew who insisted that the state and religion must be separated completely to avoid corrupting each other.  Leibowitz repeatedly called for Israelis to refuse to serve in the occupied territories, and warned that Israel was turning its soldiers in to "Judeo-Nazis", writing that if "the law... can allow the use of torture as a way of getting confessions out of prisoners, then this testifies to a Nazi mentality."

Awards and recognition.

In 1993, he was selected for the Israel Prize. Before the award ceremony, Leibowitz was invited to speak to the Israel Council for Israeli–Palestinian Peace, where his controversial remarks calling upon Israeli soldiers to refuse orders triggered outrage (and Yitzhak Rabin had threatened to boycott the ceremony). The jury convened to discuss the possibility of withdrawing the prize, but Leibowitz himself announced that he would refuse to accept it, because he did not want to create antagonism when receiving the prize.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz (; 29 January 1903 – 18 August 1994) was an Israeli Orthodox Jewish public intellectual and polymath. He was professor of biochemistry, organic chemistry, and neurophysiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as a prolific writer on Jewish thought and western philosophy. He was known for his outspoken views on ethics, religion, and politics. Leibowitz cautioned that the state of Israel and Zionism had become more sacred than Jewish humanist values and controversially went on to describe Israeli conduct in the occupied Palestinian territories as "Judeo-Nazi" in nature, while warning of the dehumanizing effect of the occupation on the victims and the oppressors.


Block and tackle.

A set of pulleys assembled so that they rotate independently on the same axle form a block. Two blocks with a rope attached to one of the blocks and threaded through the two sets of pulleys form a block and tackle.  A block and tackle is assembled so one block is attached to fixed mounting point and the other is attached to the moving load. The ideal mechanical advantage of the block and tackle is equal to the number of parts of the rope that support the moving block.  In the diagram on the right the ideal mechanical advantage of each of the block and tackle assemblies shown is as follows:

Rope and pulley systems.

A rope and pulley system—that is, a block and tackle—is characterised by the use of a single continuous rope to transmit a tension force around one or more pulleys to lift or move a load—the rope may be a light line or a strong cable. This system is included in the list of simple machines identified by Renaissance scientists.  If the rope and pulley system does not dissipate or store energy, then its mechanical advantage is the number of parts of the rope that act on the load. This can be shown as follows.  Consider the set of pulleys that form the moving block and the parts of the rope that support this block. If there are "p" of these parts of the rope supporting the load "W," then a force balance on the moving block shows that the tension in each of the parts of the rope must be "W/p." This means the input force on the rope is "T"="W/p." Thus, the block and tackle reduces the input force by the factor "p."

Method of operation.

The simplest theory of operation for a pulley system assumes that the pulleys and lines are weightless, and that there is no energy loss due to friction. It is also assumed that the lines do not stretch.  In equilibrium, the forces on the moving block must sum to zero. In addition the tension in the rope must be the same for each of its parts. This means that the two parts of the rope supporting the moving block must each support half the load. These are different types of pulley systems:  The mechanical advantage of the gun tackle can be increased by interchanging the fixed and moving blocks so the rope is attached to the moving block and the rope is pulled in the direction of the lifted load. In this case the block and tackle is said to be "rove to advantage." Diagram 3 shows that now three rope parts support the load "W" which means the tension in the rope is "W/3". Thus, the mechanical advantage is three.  By adding a pulley to the fixed block of a gun tackle the direction of the pulling force is reversed though the mechanical advantage remains the same, Diagram 3a. This is an example of the Luff tackle.

Free body diagrams.

The mechanical advantage of a pulley system can be analyzed using free body diagrams which balance the tension force in the rope with the force of gravity on the load. In an ideal system, the massless and frictionless pulleys do not dissipate energy and allow for a change of direction of a rope that does not stretch or wear. In this case, a force balance on a free body that includes the load, "W", and "n" supporting sections of a rope with tension "T", yields:  The ratio of the load to the input tension force is the mechanical advantage "MA" of the pulley system,  Thus, the mechanical advantage of the system is equal to the number of sections of rope supporting the load.

Belt and pulley systems.

A belt and pulley system is characterized by two or more pulleys in common to a belt. This allows for mechanical power, torque, and speed to be transmitted across axles. If the pulleys are of differing diameters, a mechanical advantage is realized.  A belt drive is analogous to that of a chain drive; however, a belt sheave may be smooth (devoid of discrete interlocking members as would be found on a chain sprocket, spur gear, or timing belt) so that the mechanical advantage is approximately given by the ratio of the pitch diameter of the sheaves only, not fixed exactly by the ratio of teeth as with gears and sprockets.  In the case of a drum-style pulley, without a groove or flanges, the pulley often is slightly convex to keep the flat belt centered. It is sometimes referred to as a crowned pulley. Though once widely used on factory line shafts, this type of pulley is still found driving the rotating brush in upright vacuum cleaners, in belt sanders and bandsaws. Agricultural tractors built up to the early 1950s generally had a belt pulley for a flat belt (which is what "Belt Pulley" magazine was named after). It has been replaced by other mechanisms with more flexibility in methods of use, such as power take-off and hydraulics.  Just as the diameters of gears (and, correspondingly, their number of teeth) determine a gear ratio and thus the speed increases or reductions and the mechanical advantage that they can deliver, the diameters of pulleys determine those same factors. and step pulleys (which operate on the same principle, although the names tend to be applied to flat belt versions and V-belt versions, respectively) are a way to provide multiple drive ratios in a belt-and-pulley system that can be shifted as needed, just as a transmission provides this function with a gear train that can be shifted. V-belt step pulleys are the most common way that drill presses deliver a range of spindle speeds.

A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction of a taut cable or belt, or transfer of power between the shaft and cable or belt. In the case of a pulley supported by a frame or shell that does not transfer power to a shaft, but is used to guide the cable or exert a force, the supporting shell is called a block, and the pulley may be called a sheave.


Biography.

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, whose father was the treasurer for Aloys II, Prince of Liechtenstein, showed exceptional musical talent at an early age. When only seven years old, he was already serving as organist of the Vaduz parish church, and his first composition was performed the following year. In 1849, he studied with composer Philipp M. Schmutzer (31 December 1821 – 17 November 1898) in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg.  In 1851, his father, who had initially opposed his son's desire to embark on the life of a professional musician, relented and allowed him to enter the Munich Conservatorium. Not long after graduating, he became professor of piano and of composition at the same institution. When this first version of the Munich Conservatorium was dissolved, he was appointed "répétiteur" at the Court Theatre, from which he resigned in 1867. Rheinberger married his former pupil, the poet and socialite Franziska "Fanny" von Hoffnaass (eight years his senior) in 1867. The couple remained childless, but the marriage was happy. Franziska wrote the texts for much of her husband's vocal work.  The stylistic influences on Rheinberger ranged from contemporaries such as Brahms to composers from earlier times, such as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert and, above all, Bach. He was also an enthusiast for painting and literature (especially English and German).  In 1877 he was appointed court conductor, responsible for the music in the royal chapel. He was subsequently awarded an honorary doctorate by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. A distinguished teacher, he numbered many Americans among his pupils, including Horatio Parker, William Berwald, George Whitefield Chadwick, Bruno Klein, Sidney Homer and Henry Holden Huss. Other students of his included important figures from Europe: Italian composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Serbian composer Stevan Stojanovic Mokranjac, and German composers Engelbert Humperdinck and Richard Strauss and the conductor (and composer) Wilhelm Furtwängler. When the second (and present) Munich Conservatorium was founded, Rheinberger was appointed Royal Professor of organ and composition, a post he held for the rest of his life.  On 31 December 1892 his wife died, after suffering a long illness. Two years later, poor health led him to give up the post of Court Music Director. Rheinberger was a prolific composer. His religious works include twelve Masses (one for double chorus, three for four voices "a cappella", three for women's voices and organ, two for men's voices and one with orchestra), a Requiem and a Stabat Mater. His other works include several operas, symphonies, chamber music, and choral works.  Today Rheinberger is remembered above all for his elaborate and challenging organ compositions; these include two concertos, 20 sonatas in 20 different keys (of a projected set of 24 sonatas in all the keys), 22 trios, and 36 solo pieces. His organ sonatas were once declared to be  Rheinberger died in 1901 in Munich, and was buried in the Alter Südfriedhof. His grave was destroyed during World War II, and his remains were moved to his home town of Vaduz in 1950.

Compositions.

This list only mentions works that were assigned an opus number by Rheinberger himself.

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (17 March 1839, in Vaduz – 25 November 1901, in Munich) was an organist and composer, born in Liechtenstein and resident for most of his life in Germany.


Life.

Elisa was a daughter of Prince Antoni Radziwiłł and Princess Louise of Prussia, niece of King Frederick the Great and a relative of the Prussian Royal Family. Prince William, her second cousin once removed and the heir presumptive of the Prussian throne, met with and fell in love with her.  William was expected to marry and produce further heirs. His father and her kinsman King Frederick William III were fond of the relationship between Wilhelm and Elisa, but some in the Prussian court had discovered historical allegations that her ancestors had bought their princely title from Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. In the eyes of certain people, she was not deemed of sufficiently high nobility to marry the heir to the Prussian throne (Elisa was not royal, because her father was not a reigning prince). William's older brother, Frederick William IV of Prussia was married to Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria, and Elisabeth was descended from both Bogusław Radziwiłł and Prince Janusz Radziwiłł.  Thus in 1824, the King of Prussia turned to the childless Emperor Alexander I of Russia to adopt Elisa, but the Russian ruler declined. The second adoption plan by Elisa's uncle, Prince Augustus of Prussia, likewise failed as the responsible committee considered that adoption "does not alter the blood" (a principle which governs noble and royal connections to the present day). Another factor was the influence of the Mecklenburgish kinsmen of the deceased Queen Louise in the German and Russian courts who were not fond of Elisa's father and opposed the possible marriage.  Eventually, in June 1826, Wilhelm's father was obligated to demand the renunciation of a potential marriage to Elisa. Wilhelm spent the next few months looking for a more suitable bride, but did not relinquish his emotional ties to Elisa. Eventually, Wilhelm asked for the hand of Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, fourteen years his junior, in marriage on 29 August 1826 (in writing and through the intervention of his father). Wilhelm saw his cousin, Elisa, for the last time in 1829.  Elisa was later engaged to Prince Friedrich of Schwarzenberg, but the engagement failed. She died, unmarried, in 1834, of tuberculosis while at a spa seeking a cure.  Historian Karin Feuerstein-Prasser has pointed out, on the basis of evaluations of the correspondence between both fiancées, the different expectations Wilhelm had of both marriages: he wrote to his sister, Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia), wife of Czar Nicholas I of Russia, regarding Elisa Radziwill, that "One can love only once in life, really", but confessed regarding Augusta that "the princess is nice and clever, but she leaves me cold." Though Augusta was in love with her future husband and hoped for a happy marriage, theirs was a troubled relationship; Elisa Radziwill was aware of this, and she believed that she herself would have been a better wife to the Prussian prince.

Princess Elisa Radziwill ("Elisa Friederike Luise Martha"; ; 28 October 1803, Berlin – 27 August 1834, Bad Freienwalde) was a member of Polish nobility (of the Radziwiłł family, who were elite magnates), of royal ancestry. She was the desired bride of Prince William of Prussia, who later became William I, German Emperor, but they were not allowed to marry.


Early life.

Born at Saint-Gilles, Gard, he was a son of Raymond V and Constance of France. His maternal grandparents were Louis VI of France and his second wife Adélaide de Maurienne. His maternal uncles included Louis VII of France. In 1194 he succeeded his father as count of Toulouse. He immediately re-established peace with both Alfonso II of Aragon and with the Trencavel family.

Marriages.

He was married five times:

Problems with the Church.

Raymond VI held vast territories but his control of them was problematic. Aside from theoretically owing allegiance to the King of France, Raymond held Provence as a vassal of the Holy Roman Emperor. Henry II of England controlled neighboring Aquitaine through his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had a claim to Toulouse through her grandmother, Philippa of Toulouse, daughter of William IV, Count of Toulouse. Alfonso II of Aragon was involved in the affairs of Languedoc, stimulating emigration from the north to colonize newly reconquered lands in Aragon.  In Toulouse, Raymond maintained the communal freedoms, extended exemptions from taxation, and extended his protection to the communal territory. A poet and a man of culture, he hated war but did not lack energy.  According to Henri Pirenne, "At the end of the 12th century Languedoc was swarming with those mystics who aspired to lead the Church and the age back to apostolic simplicity, condemning both the religious hierarchy and the social order..." At first Innocent III tried to deal with the Cathars by peaceful conversion, sending into the affected regions a number of legates or representatives. Count Raymond declined to assist, although constantly embroiled with his vassals, and given the autonomy of the towns, Kenneth Setton questions whether Raymond "could have coped effectively with the challenge of heresy even if he had wished to do so."  The legates sent from Rome and France received little support as they were considered foreign reformers. Papal legate Pierre de Castelnau was sent to address Raymond's tolerance for the practice of the Cathars, but withdrew for six months in 1206 out of concerns for his safety.  Pierre's assassination on January 15, 1208 led to Raymond's excommunication. The excommunication was lifted after Raymond humbled himself before the Pope.  After the capture and massacre of Béziers, the siege and capture of Carcassonne, and the death of Raymond Roger Trencavel, all in 1209, he moved his camp, was again excommunicated by the Council of Montpellier in 1211, and tried to organize resistance against the Albigensian Crusade. More of a diplomat than a soldier, he was unable to stop the advance of Simon de Montfort, who conquered Toulouse. Raymond was exiled to England under his former brother-in-law John, King of England.  In November 1215 Raymond and his son (the later Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse) were in Rome with Raymond-Roger, Count of Foix on the occasion of the Fourth Lateran Council to vindicate themselves and dispute the loss of their territories. Raymond's son-in-law, Pierre-Bermond II of Sauve, was also there to lay claim to the county of Toulouse, but this claim failed. Raymond and his son went from Rome to Genoa and thence to Marseille in February 1216. Raymond's son set out from Marseille to regain the family territories in Provence; in May 1216 he besieged Beaucaire and captured it on August 24.  Meanwhile, Raymond went to Aragon, hoping to rally support. From there he engaged in secret negotiations with leaders in Toulouse during 1216. Simon de Montfort possibly believed that Raymond was on his way to the city in September 1216; at any rate he returned in great haste from Beaucaire and conducted a partial sack of the city, apparently intended as punishment. Finally, on September 12, 1217, Raymond re-entered Toulouse again. Simon de Montfort immediately besieged the city once more. Simon was killed during the siege (on 25 June 1218); his son Amaury VI of Montfort took his place, and for five years the Crusade faltered. The failure of Louis VIII's campaigns, from 1219 to 1226, finally permitted Raymond, and his son and successor, to recover most of their territories.  Raymond VI is represented as one of four figures on the ceiling of the Minnesota Supreme Court in the United States of America. His painting is next to Moses, Confucius, and Socrates, each painting representing an aspect of law. Raymond VI's painting is entitled "The Adjustment of Conflicting Interests", and the scene is of Raymond VI of Toulouse standing before the papal legate in 1208. Raymond argued successfully for city freedoms, extended exemptions from taxation, and protection of the communal territory from the church. The paintings were made by John LaFarge in 1903.

Raymond VI (; October 27, 1156 – August 2, 1222) was Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence from 1194 to 1222. He was also Count of Melgueil (as Raymond IV) from 1173 to 1190.


Family and marriages.

Raymond was born at the Château de Beaucaire, the son of Raymond VI of Toulouse and Joan of England. Through his mother, he was a grandson of Henry II of England and a nephew of kings Richard I and John of England.  In March 1211, Raymond VII married Sancha of Aragon. They had one daughter, Joan, and were divorced in 1241. He was engaged to Sanchia of Provence, but she married Richard of Cornwall instead. In 1243 Raymond married Margaret of Lusignan, the daughter of Hugh X of Lusignan and Isabella of Angoulême. They had no children and the Council of Lyons in 1245 granted Raymond a divorce. He then tried to get support of Blanche, mother of King Louis IX of France, to marry Beatrice of Provence, who had just become Countess of Provence, but Beatrice married Blanche's son Charles instead.

Life.

During the Albigensian Crusade in May 1216, Raymond set out from Marseille and besieged Beaucaire, which he captured on 24 August. He fought to reconquer the county of Toulouse from Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester and later Simon's son Amaury VI of Montfort.  He succeeded his father in 1222. At the moment of his accession, he and the new count of Foix, Roger Bernard II the Great, besieged Carcassonne. On 14 September 1224, the Albigensian Crusaders surrendered and the war came to an end, each southern lord making peace with the church. However, in 1225, the council of Bourges excommunicated him and launched a crusade against him, the king of France, Louis VIII, called "the Lion", wanting to renew the conflict in order to enforce his royal rights in Languedoc. Roger-Bernard tried to keep the peace, but the king rejected his embassy and the counts of Foix and Toulouse took up arms again. The war was largely a discontinuous series of skirmishes and, in January 1229, Raymond, defeated, was forced to sign the Treaty of Paris (also known as the "Treaty of Meaux"). By this treaty he ceded the former viscounty of Trencavel to Louis IX and his daughter Joan was forced to marry Alphonse, brother of the king.  When Raymond died, Alphonse became count of Toulouse, and after Alphonse's death the county was annexed by France. Raymond VII was buried beside his mother Joan in Fontevrault Abbey.

Raymond VII (July 1197 – 27 September 1249) was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne and Marquis of Provence from 1222 until his death.


Description.

European perch are greenish with red pelvic, anal and caudal fins. They have five to eight dark vertical bars on their sides. When the perch grow larger, a hump grows between its head and dorsal fin.  European perch can vary greatly in size between bodies of water. They can live for up to 22 years, and older perch are often much larger than average; the maximum recorded length is. The British record is, but they grow larger in mainland Europe than in Britain. As of May 2016, the official all tackle world record recognised by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) stands at for a Finnish fish caught September 4, 2010. In January 2010 a perch with a weight of 3.75 kg (8 lb 4 oz) was caught in the River Meuse, Netherlands. Due to the low salinity levels of the Baltic Sea, especially around the Finnish archipelago and Bothnian Sea, many freshwater fish live and thrive there. Perch especially are in abundance and grow to a considerable size due to the diet of Baltic herring.

Distribution and habitat.

The range of the European perch covers fresh water basins all over Europe, excluding the Iberian peninsula. Their range is known to reach the Kolyma River in Siberia to the east. It is also common in some of the brackish waters of the Baltic Sea.  European perch has been widely introduced, with reported adverse ecological impact after introduction.  The European perch lives in slow-flowing rivers, deep lakes and ponds. It tends to avoid cold or fast-flowing waters but some specimens penetrate waters of these type, although they do not breed in this habitat.

Behaviour and reproduction.

The perch is a predatory species. Juveniles feed on zooplankton, bottom invertebrate fauna and other perch fry, while adults feed on both invertebrates and fish, mainly sticklebacks, perch, roach and minnows. Perch start eating other fish when they reach a size of around 120 mm.  Male perch become sexually mature at between one and two years of age, females between two and four. In the northern hemisphere they spawn between February and July, depositing their eggs on water plants or the branches of trees or shrubs immersed in the water. There has been speculation, but only anecdotal evidence, that eggs stick to the legs of wading birds and are then transferred to other waters.

Taxonomy.

The first scientific description of the river perch was made by Peter Artedi in 1730. He defined the basic morphological signs of this species after studying perch from Swedish lakes. Artedi described its features, counting the fin rays scales and vertebrae of the typical perch.  In 1758, Carl Linnaeus named it "Perca fluviatilis". His description was based on Artedi's research.  Because of their similar appearance and ability to cross-breed, the yellow perch ("Perca flavescens") has sometimes been classified as a subspecies of the European perch, in which case its trinomial name would be "Perca fluviatilis flavescens".

Fishing.

European perch is fished for food and game fishing.  According to FAO statistics 28,920 tonnes were caught in 2013. Largest perch fishing countries were Russia, (15,242 tonnes), Finland (7,666 tonnes), Estonia (2,144 t), Poland (1,121 t) and Kazakhstan (1,103 t).  Baits for perch include minnows, goldfish, weather loaches, pieces of raw squid or pieces of raw fish (mackerel, bluey, jack mackerel, sardine), or brandling, red, marsh, and lob worms, maggots, shrimp ("Caridina", "Neocaridina", "Palaemon", "Macrobrachium") and peeled crayfish tails. The tackle needed is fine but strong. Artificial lures are also effective, particularly for medium-sized perch.  It is possible to fly fish for perch using artificial flies tied for the purpose. Often, the flies required are "streamers" or bait-fish imitations and use flash, colour and movement to entice a take from the perch.

Predators.

The European perch is a frequent prey of many fish-eating predators, such as the great cormorant and common kingfisher.

Diseases and parasites.

"Cucullanus elegans" is a species of parasitic nematode. It is an endoparasite of the European perch. Juvenile perch are commonly infected by "Camallanus lacustris" (Nematoda), "Proteocephalus percae", "Bothriocephalus claviceps", "Glanitaenia osculata", "Triaenophorus nodulosus" (all Cestoda) and "Acanthocephalus lucii" (Acanthocephala)

Perch in culture.

The European perch is Finland’s national fish.  It is also pictured in emblems of several European towns and municipalities, such as Bad Buchau, Gröningen and Schönberg, Plön.

Perca fluviatilis, commonly known as the common perch, European perch, redfin perch, big-scaled redfin, English perch, Eurasian perch, Eurasian river perch or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the perch, is a predatory species of the freshwater perch native to Europe and northern Asia. The species is a popular quarry for anglers, and has been widely introduced beyond its native area, into Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. They have caused substantial damage to native fish populations in Australia and have been proclaimed a noxious species in New South Wales.