Development.

The RWD 8 was designed in response to a Polish Air Force requirement in 1931 for a basic trainer aircraft. It was designed by the RWD team of Stanisław Rogalski, Stanisław Wigura and Jerzy Drzewiecki. The first prototype (registration SP-AKL), was flown in early 1933. It won the contest for the new Polish military trainer, against the PZL-5bis and Bartel BM-4h biplanes. It was considered a very stable and well-handling aircraft.  Since the DWL ("Doświadczalne Warsztaty Lotnicze") workshops – a manufacturer of RWD designs – had limited production capability, the Polish military decided to produce the aircraft in a nationalized factory PWS ("Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów"). DWL gave away the licence free of charge, only for covering design costs. PWS produced aircraft for both military and civilian aviation, while DWL produced aircraft for civilian use only. The first PWS-built RWD 8 was flown in September 1934. These aircraft, designated RWD 8 PWS (or RWD 8 pws), differed from the original RWD 8 DWL (or RWD 8 dwl) in minor details, mainly having thinner landing gear shock absorbers and being slightly heavier and therefore slower.  Apart from the standard variant, 50 RWD 8a PWS were built with an additional 95 l (25 U.S. gal) fuel tank in thicker central wing section, giving increased range. A small series was built with a rear cab covered with blinds, for blind flying training. A frame with a hook for glider towing could be attached to the aircraft. A further development of the RWD 8 was the aerobatics and training aircraft, the RWD-17.  In total, over 550 RWD 8s were built (about 80 by DWL and about 470 by PWS). Production ceased in early 1939. The RWD 8 was the most numerous aircraft manufactured in Poland up to that time. Small series of license-built produced 1935 by Rogožarski Belgrade (three aircraft).

Technical description.

The RW-8 was conventional in layout, and had mixed construction (steel and wood frame with canvas and plywood covering). The crew of two, sitting in tandem, were in an open cockpit, with individual windshields. Twin controls were fitted. Power came from a 4-cylinder air-cooled 90 kW (120 hp) straight engine PZInż, Junior (licence built Walter Junior) (82 kW /110 hp nominal power). 120 hp Walter Major or de Havilland Gipsy Major. A two-blade wooden propeller was fitted. The aircraft had a conventional landing gear, with a rear skid. The fuel tank in fuselage had 75 l (18 U.S. gal) (RWD 8 PWS) or 85 l (21 U.S. gal) (RWD 8 DWL). The wings folded rearwards.

Operational history.

RWD 8s were used in the Polish military trainer aviation from 1934, becoming a standard type of primary trainer. In November 1938, there were 349 RWD 8s in the Air Force. RWD 8s were also used in Polish civilian aviation – particularly in regional aeroclubs. More than 80 aircraft were bought for public collection funds, in order to train aviators. They were also used in the Polish aviation sport.  A small number were exported: three were sold to Palestine, one to Spain, Morocco and Brazil. Licences for building the RWD 8 was sold to Estonia (one aircraft was produced, with markings ES-RWD) and Rogozarski of Yugoslavia (a small series with radial engines was built). At least one RWD 8 was sold to Spain via Portugal during the Spanish Civil War. It was used as a reconnaissance aircraft and a trainer for the Nationalist forces.  In the invasion of Poland 1939, the RWD 8s were used in 13 liaison flights, three aircraft in each, assigned to Armies. Many other aircraft were mobilized during the campaign and used in improvised liaison units. An advantage of the RWD 8 was its capability for short take off and landing on unprepared fields, but the missions of their crews were dangerous. RWD 8s of the Polesie Operational Group were the last Polish aircraft in the sky during the campaign. They were flying reconnaissance missions during the Battle of Kock, and even threw hand grenades.  A great number of RWD 8s were bombed by the Germans in air bases (unlike Polish combat aircraft) or burned by withdrawing Poles. A total of 57 aircraft were withdrawn to Romania, about 40 to Latvia and 2 to Hungary. Only some dozen aircraft were captured by the Germans in airworthy condition. In Romania and Hungary they were used until the late 1940s. None returned to Poland after the war, and today, none have survived.

The RWD 8 was a Polish parasol wing monoplane trainer aircraft produced by RWD. It was used from 1934 to 1939 by the Polish Air Force and civilian aviation.


Story.

Too busy playing an elf-related game on his myPad (parody of iPad) at work, Homer neglects his workstation and accidentally causes a meltdown at the nuclear power plant, leading to a complete destruction of Springfield. Left stranded, he is solely responsible for rebuilding Springfield and bringing back its town members. Homer is desperate to find other characters so that he can get them to rebuild and he can get back to his elf game. With the help of Lisa, Homer rebuilds Springfield and brings back key sought-out characters.

Gameplay.

The game may be considered a city-building game. It offers a variety of buildings (houses, shops, public buildings from the animation series) that the player buys with "Money ($)" in-game currency. Premium items are bought with donuts which can also be purchased with real-world cash. This references Homer Simpson's passion for donuts within the series. The player uses building and character quest-lines to make in-game progress. By completing quests and levels, the player collects more characters and buildings unlocking further quests and levels. Each building regularly generates in-game money to collect, under names such as "Income tax" from houses and the "Collection plate" from the First Church of Springfield. Players can place rivers, roads, pavement and decorations on the land. In 2013, developers added the "Krustyland" transporter, to get players from Springfield to the infamous Krustyland, where they can expand and build like the main Springfield game.  The game is supported by EA's Origin, which acts as a social bridge to where players log into their Origin accounts and visit friends' towns to collect cash once every 24 hours; and occasionally other tasks during an event.  There is a hidden easter egg where, in order to obtain the statue of Jebediah Springfield decoration, the player must tap Homer 10 times in a row whilst he is performing any task. This action also gives the player 10 free donuts, but can only work once.  Since the May 18, 2016 update, the maximum number of levels is counted to 939, because this is the Simpsons' area code in Springfield.  Frequent content updates have been released for the game, with new game content or time-limited events related to episode promotions or holidays. Major events include a temporary currency, which can be used to buy – or win – limited edition prizes. For some events every user's winnings contributed to a community fund, which includes prizes for certain levels of the event currency.

Development.

According to game runner and longtime "Simpsons" writer J. Stewart Burns, the game originally started as a "labor of love" and he didn't expect much to happen after the game's release. Although they do not get credited, there are about ten writers who currently work on the game, including "Simpsons" writers Burns, Matt Selman, Brian Kelley, Jeff Westbrook, Jon Kern, Carolyn Omine and Diana Wright.

In-game problems.

Shortly after the iOS launch, the game was pulled from the iOS App Store due to EA's servers being unable to cope with the demand and a plethora of serious glitches reported by users. After a month had passed, EA set up a forum whereby users could report bug issues, but failed to offer solutions to issues or temporary updates. Some users who had made in-app purchases discovered that their purchases had vanished. After contacting EA, users were able to collect refunds directly from Apple. Several months later on August 16, 2012, the app returned to the App Store. Since 2016 there has been a bug that removes most functionality from the game interface. Players are calling this the "rollback bug" since the only way to fix your game is to have EA support roll your game back to a previous date before you acquired the bug. As of April 2018 there is still no fix for this bug and it continues to grow, affecting almost 20% of all players. Since the end of 2019 the bug has a fix.

Criticism.

Due to criticism of the larger trend of freemium games' revenue structure, the game was satirized in the "South Park" episode "Freemium Isn't Free" as exploitative and lacking in gameplay. The game itself earlier lampooned this point during an in-game conversation between two characters. In "The Simpsons" season 25 episode "Labor Pains" Homer opens the game on his phone and is automatically charged $300.

Accolades.

The game won the People's Voice Award for "Strategy/Simulation" at the 2018 Webby Awards.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out is a freemium mobile game for iOS and Android, based on the American animated series "The Simpsons". It allows users to create and maintain their own version of Springfield using familiar characters and buildings. The game is regularly updated with new content, often season and holiday themed, for example during holidays like Thanksgiving, and "Treehouse of Horror" episodes-related content for Halloween. The game is available in several languages such as English, French, Turkish, Italian, German, Simplified Chinese, Peninsular Spanish and both European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. The game was developed and published by EA Mobile and launched in Europe on February 29, 2012 and in North America on March 1, 2012 for iOS and February 6, 2013 for Android. The game was released for Kindle Fire devices in several markets on June 24, 2013.


History.

The original Gothic Parish church of Saint Nicholas stood on the site of the present church which dated from the 13th century. In the second half of the 17th century the Jesuits decided to build a new church designed by Giovanni Domenico Orsi. A partial impression of the original planned appearance of the church at the time the Jesuits chose the initial plans by Giovanni Domenico Orsi in 1673 and laid the foundation stone is provided by the Chapel of St Barbara, which was built first so that mass could be celebrated. The church was built in two stages during the 18th century. From 1703 till 1711 the west façade, the choir, the Chapels of St Barbara and St Anne were built.  Count Wenceslaus Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky (1634 - 6 October 1659) from the prominent Czech House of Kolowrat was the largest patron of The church of St. Nicholas. He donated his entire estate, worth 178,500 gold, for the construction of the church and the adjacent buildings in Prague in Malá Strana.  The new plans involved an intricate geometrical system of interconnected cylinders with a central dome above the transept. The massive nave with side chapels and an undulating vault based on a system of intersecting ellipsoids was apparently built by Christoph Dientzenhofer. The pillars between the wide spans of the arcade supporting the triforium were meant to maximize the dynamic effect of the church. The chancel and its characteristic copper cupola were built in 1737-1752, this time using plans by Christoph's son, Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer.  In 1752, after the death Dientzehofer in 1751, the construction of the church tower was completed. During the years the church continued to expand its interior beauty. Following the abolition of the Jesuit Order by Pope Clement XIV, St Nicholas became the main parish church of the Lesser Town in 1775.  During the communist era the church tower was used as an observatory for State Security since from the tower it was possible to keep watch on the American and Yugoslav embassies respectively and the access route to the West German embassy.

Decoration.

It has been described as "the most impressive example of Prague Baroque" and "without doubt the greatest Baroque church in Prague and the Dientzenhofers' supreme achievement". On the shield is a sign of the alleged patron of the building Frantisek Karel Count of Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky. The mark of the actual patron Václav Count of Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky on the facade of the temple is not found. He was so humble that he did not want his name to be associated with the building, and after the completion of the building he was used on the front of the coat of arms of his uncle.  The church excels not only in the architecture, but also in the decoration, mainly with the frescos by Jan Lukas Kracker and a fresco inside the 70 m high dome by František Xaver Palko. The interior is further decorated with sculptures by František Ignác Platzer. The Baroque organ has over 4,000 pipes up to six metres in length and was played by Mozart in 1787. Mozart's spectacular masterpiece, Mass in C, was first performed in the Church of Saint Nicholas shortly after his visit.  The 79 m tall belfry is directly connected with the church’s massive dome. The belfry with great panoramic view, was unlike the church completed in Rococo forms in 1751-1756 by Anselmo Lurago.

Services.

The parish church celebrates a weekly mass every Sunday at 8.30pm.

The Church of Saint Nicholas () is a Baroque church in the Lesser Town of Prague. It was built between 1704-1755 on the site where formerly a Gothic church from the 13th century stood, which was also dedicated to Saint Nicholas. It has been described as the greatest example of Prague Baroque.


Background and design.

In the 1930s, the Japanese government began a shift towards ultranationalist militancy. Planners envisioned an empire stretching from Japan to the resource-rich European colonies in Southeast Asia, and defensible islands in the Pacific Ocean (the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere). The extensive distances involved, and the likelihood of this expansion leading to a confrontation with the United States, led the Japanese to build and maintain a large fleet that could seize and hold onto these territories. The U.S. posed a particular problem for Japan, as it possessed significantly greater industrial power, and several leading members of the United States Congress had pledged "to outbuild Japan three to one in a naval race".  The Imperial Japanese Navy had recognized since at least 1896 that the country could not outproduce its potential opponents, and therefore insisted that its ships had to be more powerful than foreign equivalents. It established this qualitative lead at various times over the next 40 years, with the s just before World War I, the s at the end of that war, and the s in the 1930s. The A-150s were designed according to that doctrine to continue their qualitative superiority in battleships over their most likely opponents, the United States and Great Britain.  Early conceptions for what would become the A-150 battleships called for eight or nine 51-centimeter guns in double or triple turrets, as the successful construction of a gun in 1920–1921 made the Japanese confident that such a large weapon could be built. The designers hoped to give the ships a top speed of, which would give them a comfortable margin over the American s. However, these grand specifications were curtailed when tests culminated in a ship that had a displacement of some ; it was felt that ships of this size would be "too large and too expensive".  Formal design studies began in 1938–1939. They initially focused on a ship closer to the displacement of the preceding, on which plans had just been completed, albeit one mounting six 51-centimeter guns. As the Japanese expected that the Americans would ascertain the true characteristics of the "Yamato" class—especially its primary armament of guns, which would become the largest naval weapons in use in the world—they hoped that the 51-centimeter guns would outperform any American response to the "Yamato"s' smaller guns.

Specifications.

Plans for the A-150s were finished in early 1941, for most intents and purposes. However, these were destroyed at the end of the war, along with most of the other documentation relating to the class. The general destruction of records and Japan's extensive efforts (before and during the war) to keep any information about the ships out of the hands of foreign nations severely limited the amount of information on the ships available to historians. This is, for example, why the A-150's exact specifications are up to some debate. The displacement was to be similar to the "Yamato" class, which was around, and the belt armor was probably going to be thick. This was so large that steel mills in Japan were incapable of manufacturing it. Instead, two layers of armor plates would have been used, despite its reduced effectiveness as compared to a single plate of the same total thickness.

Armament.

The design of the A-150s called for a main battery of six 45-caliber 51-centimeter guns in three twin turrets. These would have been the largest ever fitted to a capital ship, dwarfing the 46-centimeter guns mounted on the "Yamato" class, and were a key factor in historians William H. Garzke and Robert O. Dulin's argument that the A-150s would have been the "most powerful battleships in history". By 1941, one—possibly two—of the 51-centimeter guns were being constructed at the Kure Naval Arsenal and detailed designs of their turrets were drawn up. The turrets would have weighed and each gun would have massed. They would have had a total length of and the bore length was to have been around. The armor-piercing shells would have weighed.  The composition of the A-150's secondary armament is not fully known. Historians Eric Lacroix and Linton Wells have written that Japanese designers were considering mounting a large number of 65-caliber Type 98 dual-purpose guns, though this was not final. These guns had a maximum elevation of +90°, which gave them an effective ceiling of and a horizontal range of. They fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of, although resulting wear on the barrels reduced their designed lifespan to only about 350 rounds. They were able to fire 15–19 rounds per minute.

Construction.

As war with the United States became increasingly likely over the Second Sino-Japanese War, and particularly after the Japanese seizure of French Indochina in mid-1940, all design work on battleships was diverted in early 1941—even though the A-150's design was nearly complete—in order to focus on higher-priority warships like aircraft carriers and cruisers. Two A-150s, provisionally designated as Warships Number 798 and 799, were projected in a 1942 building program. Under this plan, 798 would have been built in the same dock as, while 799 would be built in Kure in the same dock as after a fourth "Yamato"-class ship was launched. The ships would have then have been finished in 1946–1947, but the war's turn against the Japanese after the Battle of Midway meant that the need for ships other than battleships never abated.

Design A-150, popularly known as the "Super Yamato" class, was a planned class of battleships for the Imperial Japanese Navy. In keeping with the Navy's long tradition, they were designed to be qualitatively superior to battleships that might be faced in battle, such as those from the United States or Great Britain. As part of this, the class would have been armed with six guns, the largest weapons carried aboard any warship in the world. Design work on the A-150s began after the preceding in 1938–1939 and was mostly finished by early 1941, when the Japanese began focusing on aircraft carriers and other smaller warships in preparation for the coming conflict. No A-150 would ever be laid down, and many details of the class' design were destroyed near the end of the war.


Early life.

Ichmouratov was born and raised in Kazan, the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, he is second child of Razima Icmouratova (Gatina) and Rafail Ichmouratov. He studied Clarinet at the Kazan Music School N3, Kazan Music College and Kazan Conservatory, graduating in 1996. In 1993, when he was appointed as Associate clarinetist of the Tatarstan's Opera and Ballet Theatre, and of the Kazan State Symphony Orchestra, he began to extensively tour in Europe. In 1997, Ichmouratov comes to Canada to participate as student at Orford Art's Centre Festival, where he met Yuli Turovsky, Soviet-born Canadian cellist and conductor, who later became his close mentor.

Career.

In 1998, Ichmouratov permanently moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he obtained a Master degree at the University of Montreal, where he studied with Andre Moisan. He then founded the Muczynski Trio with Luo Di -Cello and Evgenia Kirjner on piano, which won 1st prize and the Grand Award at the National Music Festival (Canada, 2002) and 1st Prize at the 8th International Chamber Music Competition in Kraków (Poland, 2004).

Conductor.

Ichmouratov's first conducting job, after obtaining his Doctorat degree in Orchestra Conducting at University of Montreal (2005) was with chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy in Quebec City, where he was assistant conductor of renown specialist in Baroque and Classical repertoire, Canadian conductor Bernard Labadie. Les Violons du Roy's Concert on 5.12.2008 "Russian Impressions" under Ichmouratov's direction, also presented the world premiere of his own Cello Concerto, won the Opus Prize in the category – Best concert of the Year. Airat was appointed to the position of Resident Conductor of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra from 2009 until 2011, where he was assisting Israeli conductor and composer Yoav Talmi. In 2011, replacing on short notice Yuli Turovsky – Mr Ichmouratov conducted I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra on tour in USA, Brazil and Peru. In October 2011 he made his debut with Tatarstan Academic State Opera and Ballet Theatre (Russia) and was immediately re invited to conduct Puccini's Turandot and Verdi's Rigoletto during the 2012–13 season and on the following European Tour.

Kleztory.

In 2000, Mr. Ichmouratov joined the klezmer group Kleztory, in which he presently plays the clarinet, composes and arranges. In 2004, Kleztory recorded for the Chandos Records (Great Britain) CD with I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra and Yuli Turovsky. In 2007 Kleztory's album "Nomade" won the Opus Prize. Most recent (2014) Album "Arrival" was nominated as Best album of the year in Traditional music category by ADISQ. In 2012 Kleztory won klezmer Furth Prize at International Klezmer festival and Competition in Amsterdam and as result appeared at Furth Klezmer Festival during the following spring. With Kleztory, Mr. Ichmouratov has appeared as soloist with several orchestras including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy and Brussels Chamber Orchestra and toured intensively in Canada, USA, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania and China.

Composer.

The music of Airat Ichmouratov has been performed by a wide range of ensembles and musicians in countries around the world, including Maxim Vengerov, Jonathan Crow, Andrew Wan, Eric Paetkau, Alexis Hauser, Jean Francois Rivest, Alexandre Da Costa, Alain Trudel, Stephane Laforest, Andre Moisan, Mark Simons, Yegor Dyachkov, Max Pollak, Stephane Tetreault, Sasha Mirkovic & ensemble Metamorphosis (Serbia), Quebec Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, Les Violons du Roy, Orchestra London, Longueuil Symphony Orchestra, New Orford String Quartet, Yuli Turovsky & I Musici de Montreal, 13 Strings (Ottawa), Tatarstan State Symphony Orchestra (Russia), La Primavera Chamber Orchestra, Alcan Quartet, Molinari Quartet, Orford Camerata Ensemble, Sinfonia Toronto, Nouvelle Generation Chamber orchestra just to name a few.  Ichmouratov was named as Resident Composer 2012 at Concerts aux îles du Bic (Canada), in 2013 Composer of Summer at Orford Arts Centre (Canada) and in 2015 Summer Composer at 17e édition of Festival Classique des Hautes-Laurentides (Canada). Since 2010 Ichmouratov is Associate Composer with Canadian Music Centre.

List of compositions.

movie.

Music for movie Master of Silence Op.14 (2006)

Personal life.

Ichmouratov is married to violist and violinist Elvira Misbakhova, and they have two daughters.

Airat Rafailovich Ichmouratov (, Tatar Cyrillic: Айрат Рафаил улы Ишмурат,) born June 28, 1973) is a Volga Tatar born Russian / Canadian composer, conductor and klezmer clarinetist. He is conductor and composer in residence of Longueuil Symphony Orchestra, clarinetist of Montreal-based Klezmer group Kleztory and invited professor at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.


Early life.

Born the son of William Douglas, 1st Earl of Selkirk and Anne, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton, Hamilton was commissioned into the His Majesty's Royal Regiment of Foot, a regiment for which his uncle, Lord Dumbarton, held the colonelcy, on 9 May 1684.

Military career.

Ireland and the Low Countries.

Hamilton became a lieutenant colonel of Lloyd's Regiment of Enniskillen Foot in June 1689 and, having been promoted to brevet colonel, commanded the regiment at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, at the Siege of Athlone in June 1691 and at the Battle of Aughrim, where he was wounded, in July 1691 during the Williamite War in Ireland. He also commanded the regiment at the Siege of Limerick in October 1691 and then became colonel of the Royal Fusiliers in January 1692 before fighting with that regiment at the Battle of Steenkerque in August 1692 in the Low Countries during the Nine Years' War. Rewarded with the colonelcy of the 1st Regiment of Foot in late 1692, he participated in further battles in Ireland before returning to the continent to fight at the Battle of Landen in July 1693 and at the Siege of Namur, where he was wounded, in July 1695 during the latter stages of the Nine Years' War.  On 25 November 1695 Hamilton married Elizabeth Villiers, a favourite and perhaps former mistress of William III, and on 3 January 1696 he was created Earl of Orkney, Viscount Kirkwall, and Baron Dechmont in the Peerage of Scotland. Shortly thereafter he acquired the estates of Taplow Court and Cliveden. He became Governor of Virginia in 1698, but appears never to have visited the colony.

War of the Spanish Succession.

Promoted to major general on 9 March 1702, Hamilton fought under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough at the Siege of Stevensweert in October 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Promoted to lieutenant general on 1 January 1704, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle later that year. He led the final assault at the Battle of Blenheim attacking the village churchyard with eight battalions of men and then receiving the surrender of its French defenders in August 1704. After marching his column from the Moselle, he relieved the besieged city of Liège in June 1705.  Hamilton led a diversion at the Battle of Ramillies but turned the manoeuvre into a highly successful assault, from which he had to withdraw before leading the relentless pursuit of the defeated French troops in May 1706. He also took part in the Siege of Menin in July 1706 and then played a major role at the Battle of Oudenarde in July 1708. He also saw action at the passage of the Scheldt in November 1708, fought at the Siege of Tournai in June 1709 and led the charge of fifteen infantry battalions in an extremely bloody assault on the French entrenchments at the Battle of Malplaquet in September 1709. Promoted to general of foot in 1710, Hamilton was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire in 1711. He returned to the continent in 1712 and continued to serve in the Army commanded by the Duke of Ormonde besieging Douai and then Bouchain until 1713.

Later life.

Hamilton became a Lord of the Bedchamber to George I and was installed as Governor of Edinburgh Castle in 1714. He also sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish representative peer. Promoted to field marshal (the first-ever promotion to this rank) on 31 January 1735, he commissioned the building of a temple at his Buckinghamshire home, Cliveden, by the architect Giacomo Leoni later that year.  Hamilton died at his home at Albemarle Street in London on 29 January 1737 and was buried at Taplow Court. In 1733 Michael Rysbrack, a sculptor from Antwerp, carved a marble bust of Hamilton in the form of a Roman centurion. As a boy, Rysbrack would have witnessed Hamilton's unopposed entry into Antwerp shortly after his victory at Ramillies. The bust is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Family.

In 1695 Hamilton married Elizabeth Villiers, a former mistress of William III; they had three daughters:

Field Marshal George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, KT (9 February 1666 – 29 January 1737), styled Lord George Hamilton from 1666 to 1696, was a British soldier and Scottish nobleman and the first British Army officer to be promoted to the rank of field marshal. After commanding a regiment for the cause of William of Orange during the Williamite War in Ireland, he commanded a regiment in the Low Countries during the Nine Years' War. He then led the final assault at the Battle of Blenheim attacking the village churchyard with eight battalions of men and then receiving the surrender of its French defenders during the War of the Spanish Succession. He also led the charge of fifteen infantry battalions in an extremely bloody assault on the French entrenchments at the Battle of Malplaquet. In later life he became a Lord of the Bedchamber to George I and was installed as Governor of Edinburgh Castle.


History.

The first version of RETScreen was released on April 30, 1998. RETScreen Version 4 was launched on December 11, 2007 at Bali, Indonesia by Canada's Minister of the Environment. RETScreen Plus was released in 2011. RETScreen Suite (integrating RETScreen 4 and RETScreen Plus with numerous additional upgrades), was released in 2012. RETScreen Expert was released to the public on September 19, 2016. RETScreen Expert Version 8 was launched on June 2, 2020.

Program requirements.

This program requires Microsoft® Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10; and Microsoft®.NET Framework 4.7.2 or higher. It is possible for the program to work on Apple Macintosh computers using Parallels or VirtualBox for Mac.

Partners.

RETScreen is managed under the leadership and ongoing financial support of the CanmetENERGY Varennes Research Centre of Natural Resources Canada, a department of the Government of Canada. The core team leverages collaboration with a number of other government and multilateral organisations, with technical support from a large network of experts from industry, government and academia. Principal external partners include NASA's Langley Research Center, Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), UNEP's Energy Unit of the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund, and York University's Sustainable Energy Initiative.

Examples of use.

As of June 2020, the RETScreen software had more than 675,000 users in every country and territory of the world.  An independent impact study estimated that by 2013, the use of the RETScreen software had been responsible, worldwide, for over $8 billion in user transaction cost savings, 20 MT per year of greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and has enabled at least 24 GW of installed clean energy capacity.  RETScreen is widely used to facilitate and implement clean energy projects. For example, RETScreen has been used:  An extensive collection of posts and articles detailing how RETScreen has been used in different contexts is available on RETScreen's LinkedIn page and archived website.  RETScreen is also used as a teaching and research tool by well-over 1,200 universities and colleges worldwide, and is frequently cited in academic literature. Examples of RETScreen's use in academia can be found under the “Publications and Reports” and "University and College Courses" sections of the RETScreen newsletter, accessible through the User manual in the downloaded software.  The use of RETScreen is mandated or recommended by clean energy incentive programs at all levels of government worldwide, including the UNFCCC and the EU; Canada, New Zealand and the UK; numerous American states and Canadian provinces; cities and municipalities; and utilities. National and regional RETScreen training workshops have been conducted upon the official request of the Governments of Chile, Saudi Arabia, 15 countries in West and Central Africa, and the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE).

Awards and recognition.

In 2010, RETScreen International was awarded the Public Service Award of Excellence, the highest award given by the Canadian government to its civil servants.  RETScreen and the RETScreen team have been nominated for and received numerous other prestigious awards including the Ernst & Young/Euromoney Global Renewable Energy Award, Energy Globe (National Award for Canada), and the GTEC Distinction Award Medal.

Reviews.

An International Energy Agency review of the beta release of the hydropower part of the software described it as "very impressive". The European Environment Agency asserts that RETScreen an "extremely useful tool." RETScreen has also been called "one of the few software tools, and by far the best, available for evaluating the economics of renewable energy installations" and "a tool to enhance... market coherence" in clean energy worldwide.

The RETScreen Clean Energy Management Software (usually shortened to RETScreen Expert) is a software package developed by the Government of Canada. RETScreen Expert was highlighted at the 2016 Clean Energy Ministerial held in San Francisco. The Government of Canada's Treasury Board Secretariat uses RETScreen Expert as its greenhouse gas reporting tool for all federal departments and agencies required to report emissions.


Events.

Medals were awarded in the following competitions:

Qualification.

Each event had its own qualification rules, but generally rely on FEI rankings.

Dressage.

For the team competition, ten quota spots were available. Three team spots were awarded at the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games. In addition, six more were awarded at regional competitions (Europe: 3, America: 1, Africa/Asia: 2). In addition, should a country had qualified 3 or 4 athletes in the individual competition, they also qualified as a team and were allowed to compete in the team competition.  For the individual competition, 60 spots were allocated as follows: 40 to the athletes who qualified from the teams above. In addition, the two highest ranked riders from each of seven geographic regions were qualified. The top six riders based on FEI ranking who did not qualify otherwise were given spots as well.

Jumping.

A country might have sent up to four riders if it had qualified for the team competition. Similar to dressage, teams of four riders were qualified at either the World Equestrian Games (WEG) or through a regional competition. The WEG awarded five spots, the regions nine (Americas: two, Europe: four, Asia: two, Africa and the Middle East: one), and the hosts (Brazil). For the individual competition, a total of 75 spots was allocated as follows: 60 from the above teams the rest regional or through rankings.

Eventing.

A country might have sent up to four riders if it had qualified for the team competition. Similar to dressage, teams of four riders were qualified at either the WEG, a regional competition, or through a composite spot. The WEG awarded six spots, the regions seven (America: one, Europe: two, Asia, Africa and Oceania: one), the hosts (Brazil). For the individual competition, a total of 65 spots was allocated as follows: 44 from the above teams, 7 through regional competitions and 14 through the world rankings.

Participating.

Participating nations.

43 nations qualified. Chinese Taipei, Dominican Republic, Palestine, Qatar and Zimbabwe made their Olympic debuts in equestrian events.

Officials.

Appointment of officials is as follows:

Competition format.

Show jumping.

Five rounds are ridden to determine individual medals. Riders placing first through 60th (including ties for 60th place) advance to the second round. The top 45 riders of round 2, including ties for 45th, advance to the third round. The top 35 riders of the third round progress to the 4th round, but only up to three riders per team (so if a country has four riders in the top 35, one of those is not allowed to compete for individual medals).  In the fourth round (individual final round A), the slate is wiped clean and all riders begin with zero faults. The top 20 riders in round 4 advance to round 5 (individual final round B), and ride another course. The faults for individual final round A and B and added together to determine individual medals.  The team competition completes three rounds to determine medals. It runs concurrently with the individual competition (riders running over the same course) so team riders are also competing for individual medals. The first round for team competition is the round 2 course for individual medals. The top eight teams from the first team round advance to the second team round (which is the same course as the individual round 3). The scores for these eight countries over team rounds 1 and 2 are combined, and medals are awarded based on those scores.

Dressage.

Teams are made of up to four riders, all of whom are also competing concurrently for individual medals. Additionally, countries who can not make a full team may send riders to compete for individual medals.  All riders compete in the Grand Prix, which serves as the first round of both the individual and team medals. The top six teams (included those tied for 6th) advance to the Grand Prix Special, which is a slightly more rigorous test. The combined scores of the top three riders of those teams in both the Grand Prix and the Special determine the team medals, with the team with the highest score winning gold.  Riders completing the Grand Prix test (first qualifying round of the individual competition) may move on to the Grand Prix Special (second qualifying round for the individual competition) if their team is in the top six (24 riders total). Additionally, the top 8 riders who do not qualify with a team may also advance to the Special to ride for individual medals. The top 18 riders from the Special move on to the third individual round, the freestyle. However, no more than three members on a team may advance. Each rider designs their own test for the freestyle, which must be set to music and has several compulsory movements. Riders can tailor a test to their horses' strengths, as well as incorporate movements that are more difficult than those required in the Grand Prix or the Special (such as a pirouette in piaffe) in order to increase their scores. As the slate is wiped clean after the first two rounds, individual medals are assigned based on scores in the freestyle.

Eventing.

Competitions for team and individual medals ran concurrently. Riders performed a dressage test, a cross-country round, and a jumping round. Team medals were then awarded by adding together the best three scores from a country's team, out of a maximum of five team members, from all three phases, the team with the lowest number of penalty points winning the gold. The top 25 individual scores after the first show jumping round performed a second, final, show jumping round to determine individual medals, with up to 3 riders in the individual running per team. Therefore, those competing for individual spots completed one dressage test and cross-country round, and two jumping rounds.

Medal summary.

The 2016 event was marked by returning champions in the individual events, and new nations winning the team events. 2012 Individual eventing champion Michael Jung retained his title, as did 2012 Individual dressage gold medallist, Great Britain's Charlotte Dujardin on Valegro. In jumping, veteran Nick Skelton, part of the gold medal winning Great Britain jumping team from 2012, returned to take the individual title on Big Star, his 2012 gold winning horse.  In the team events, Germany displaced Great Britain from the top step of the Team Dressage podium, with the 2012 winners in silver, and the United States taking an unexpected bronze ahead of traditional powerhouse, the Netherlands. In Eventing and Jumping, France won the team gold medals.  As a result, Germany, Great Britain and France dominated the medal table with two golds each, Germany leading by dint of four minor medals to the one silver each for France and Great Britain.

The equestrian events at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro were held between 6 and 19 August at National Equestrian Center in Deodoro. Medals were awarded in three disciplines for both individual and team competitions.


Biography.

Hetman of Ukraine.

Yuri Khmelnytsky was born in 1641 in Subotiv near Chyhyryn in central Ukraine. In 1659 the Cossack Rada elected the 17-year-old Yurii as their hetman in Bila Tserkva, replacing the deposed Ivan Vyhovsky. The young hetman faced problems: the uneasy alliance with the Tsardom of Russia and the ongoing wars against Poland-Lithuania and against the Crimean Khanate.  In 1659 the parliament (sejm walny) of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth granted him nobility. On 24 March 1661 he became starost of Hadiach.  During the latter conflict, Yuri Khmelnytsky's Cossacks were defeated near the town of Korsun, he was captured by the Poles and later pledged loyalty to king Jan II Kazimierz of Poland-Lithuania (reigned 1648-1668). This provoked a civil war within Ukraine in 1661, when the new ataman Yakym Somko led the pro-Moscow Cossacks against Yuri and his new Polish allies. At the battle near the town of Pereiaslav in the summer of 1662 Somko's Cossacks and the Russians under Grigory Romodanovsky defeated Yuri Khmelnytsky.  After the defeat, Khmelnytsky entered an alliance with the Crimean Khanate, but this resulted in little beyond massive looting and raiding of Ukrainian towns and villages by the Tatars. Thereupon Yuri gave up his hetman title and became a monk at the Mharsky Monastery in the autumn of 1662. Between 1664 and 1667 the hetman Pavlo Teteria imprisoned him in Lviv.

Hetman of Right-bank Ukraine.

After his release, in 1672 he participated in a campaign against the Tatars and was captured near Uman and brought to Constantinople, where he was allowed to live in a Greek Orthodox monastery. In 1676 — after the Sultan's ally, Petro Doroshenko, surrendered to the Russians — the Porte decided to use Khmelnytsky's famous name to reinforce their claim to the Right-bank Ukraine starting the Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681).  In 1678 the Turkish army captured Chyhyryn and declared Yuri Khmelnytsky as a new hetman of Ukraine, although in reality he was only a puppet for the Ottoman Sultan. Ottoman Turkish army with Yuri in tow captured and burned down Kaniv and other Ukrainian towns. He then retired to his Sultan dictated capital at Nemyriv in Turkish occupied parts of Ukraine, as a vassal of sultan Mehmed IV until 1681, when the Turks removed him from power due to his unstable mental health and unprecedented cruelty. Two years later, he was briefly re-instated by the Poles. Finally in 1685 the Turks captured Yuri and executed him (strangled) in Kamianets-Podilskyi.  Unlike his father, Yuri was unable to master the very complex situation he faced and was often manipulated by foreign powers.

Yuri Khmelnytsky (,, ) (1641–1685), younger son of the famous Ukrainian Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and brother of Tymofiy Khmelnytsky, was a Zaporozhian Cossack political and military leader. Although he spent half of his adult life as a monk, he also was Hetman of Ukraine on several occasions — in 1659-1660 and 1678–1681 and starost of Hadiach. For background see The Ruin (Ukrainian history).


Overview.

OBS Studio is a free and open-source software suite for recording and live streaming. Written in C, C++ and Qt, OBS provides real-time source and device capture, scene composition, encoding, recording, and broadcasting. Transmission of data is primarily done via the Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) and can be sent to any RTMP supporting destination, including many presets for streaming websites such as YouTube, Twitch, Instagram and Facebook.  For video encoding, OBS Studio is capable of using the x264 free software library, Intel Quick Sync Video, Nvidia NVENC and the AMD Video Coding Engine to encode video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format and the H.265/HEVC format. Multiple tracks of audio can be encoded using the AAC codec. Advanced users can choose to use any codecs and containers available in libavcodec / libavformat as well as output the stream to a custom ffmpeg URL.

User interface.

The main user interface is organized into five sections: scenes, sources, audio mixer, transitions, and controls. Scenes are groups of sources like live and recorded video, text and audio. The mixer panel lets the user mute the audio, and adjust the volume through virtual faders, and apply effects by pressing the cogwheel next to the mute button. The control panel has options for starting/stopping a stream or recording, a button to transform OBS to a more professional Studio Mode (see below), a button for opening the settings menu and a button to exit the program. The upper section has a live video preview, used to monitor and edit the current scene. The user interface can be switched to a variety of themes, including both dark and light themes, depending on what the user prefers.  When in Studio Mode, there are two canvas preview windows, the left one for modifying and preview of non-active scenes, while the right window is for preview of the live scene ("Preview" and "Program" respectively). In the middle there is a secondary transition button, allowing for transitioning to the non-active scene in the left window using user-defined "quick transitions".  There are some simple tutorials on the Internet that show how to use Open Broadcaster Software, including more in-depth tutorials designed to cover every aspect of the application.

History.

Open Broadcaster Software started out as a small project created by Hugh "Jim" Bailey, but quickly grew with the help of many online collaborators working both to improve OBS and spread the knowledge about the program. In 2014, development started on a rewritten version known as OBS Multiplatform (later renamed OBS Studio) for multi-platform support, a more thorough feature set, and a more powerful API. In 2016, OBS "Classic" was no longer supported with OBS Studio becoming the primary version.

Plug-ins.

Open Broadcaster Software supports a variety of plug-ins to extend its functionality. Plug-ins are loaded as native dynamic libraries, although a wrapper plug-in is available that allows hosting of plug-ins written in the.NET Framework.

Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is a free and open-source cross-platform streaming and recording program built with Qt and maintained by the OBS Project. As of 2016, the software is now referred to as OBS Studio. There are versions of OBS Studio available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux distributions. OBS is funded on Open Collective.


For painting.

Canvas has become the most common support medium for oil painting, replacing wooden panels. It was used from the 14th century in Italy, but only rarely. One of the earliest surviving oils on canvas is a French "Madonna with angels" from around 1410 in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Its use in "Saint George and the Dragon" by Paolo Uccello in about 1470, and Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in the 1480s was still unusual for the period. Large paintings for country houses were apparently more likely to be on canvas, and are perhaps less likely to have survived. It was a good deal cheaper than a panel painting, and may sometime indicate a painting regarded as less important. In the Uccello, the armour does not use silver leaf, as other of his paintings do (and the colour therefore remains undegraded). Another common category of paintings on lighter cloth such as linen was in distemper or glue, often used for banners to be carried in procession. This is a less durable medium, and surviving examples such as Dirk Bouts' "Entombment", in distemper on linen (1450s, National Gallery) are rare, and often rather faded in appearance.  Panel painting remained more common until the 16th century in Italy and the 17th century in Northern Europe. Mantegna and Venetian artists were among those leading the change; Venetian sail canvas was readily available and regarded as the best quality.  Canvas is usually stretched across a wooden frame called a stretcher and maybe coated with gesso prior it is to be used; this is to prevent oil paint from coming into direct contact with the canvas fibres, which will eventually cause the canvas to decay. A traditional and flexible chalk gesso is composed of lead carbonate and linseed oil, applied over a rabbit skin glue ground; a variation using titanium white pigment and calcium carbonate is rather brittle and susceptible to cracking. As lead-based paint is poisonous, care has to be taken in using it. Various alternative and more flexible canvas primers are commercially available, the most popular being a synthetic latex paint composed of titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate, bound with a thermo-plastic emulsion. Many artists have painted onto unprimed canvas, such as Jackson Pollock, Kenneth Noland, Francis Bacon, Helen Frankenthaler, Dan Christensen, Larry Zox, Ronnie Landfield, Color Field painters, Lyrical Abstractionists and others. Staining acrylic paint into the fabric of cotton duck canvas was more benign and less damaging to the fabric of the canvas than the use of oil paint. In 1970 artist Helen Frankenthaler commented about her use of staining: When I first started doing the stain paintings, I left large areas of canvas unpainted, I think, because the canvas itself acted as forcefully and as positively as paint or line or color. In other words, the very ground was part of the medium, so that instead of thinking of it as background or negative space or an empty spot, that area did not need paint because it had paint next to it. The thing was to decide where to leave it and where to fill it and where to say this doesn't need another line or another pail of colors. It's saying it in space. Early canvas was made of linen, a sturdy brownish fabric of considerable strength. Linen is particularly suitable for the use of oil paint. In the early 20th century, cotton canvas, often referred to as "cotton duck", came into use. Linen is composed of higher quality material, and remains popular with many professional artists, especially those who work with oil paint. Cotton duck, which stretches more fully and has an even, mechanical weave, offers a more economical alternative. The advent of acrylic paint has greatly increased the popularity and use of cotton duck canvas. Linen and cotton derive from two entirely different plants, the flax plant and the cotton plant, respectively.  Gessoed canvases on stretchers are also available. They are available in a variety of weights: light-weight is about or ; medium-weight is about or ; heavy-weight is about or. They are prepared with two or three coats of gesso and are ready for use straight away. Artists desiring greater control of their painting surface may add a coat or two of their preferred gesso. Professional artists who wish to work on canvas may prepare their own canvas in the traditional manner.  One of the most outstanding differences between modern painting techniques and those of the Flemish and Dutch Masters is in the preparation of the canvas. "Modern" techniques take advantage of both the canvas texture as well as those of the paint itself. Renaissance masters took extreme measures to ensure that none of the texture of the canvas came through. This required a painstaking, months-long process of layering the raw canvas with (usually) lead-white paint, then polishing the surface, and then repeating. The final product had little resemblance to fabric, but instead had a glossy, enamel-like finish.  With a properly prepared canvas, the painter will find that each subsequent layer of color glides on in a "buttery" manner, and that with the proper consistency of application (fat over lean technique), a painting entirely devoid of brushstrokes can be achieved. A warm iron is applied over a piece of wet cotton to flatten the wrinkles.  Canvas can also be printed on using offset or specialist digital printers to create canvas prints. This process of digital inkjet printing is popularly referred to as Giclée. After printing, the canvas can be wrapped around a stretcher and displayed.

For embroidery.

Canvas is a popular base fabric for embroidery such as cross-stitch and Berlin wool work. Some specific types of embroidery canvases are Aida cloth (also called Java canvas), Penelope canvas, Chess canvas, and Binca canvas. Plastic canvas is a stiffer form of Binca canvas.

As a compound agent.

From the 13th century onward, canvas was used as a covering layer on Pavise shields. The canvas was applied to the wooden surface of the Pavise, covered with multiple layers of gesso and often richly painted in tempera technique. Finally, the surface was sealed with a transparent varnish. While the gessoed canvas was a perfect painting surface, the primary purpose of the canvas application may have been the strengthening of the wooden shield corpus in a manner similar to modern glass-reinforced plastic.

Splined canvas, stretched canvas and canvas boards.

"Splined canvases" differ from traditional side-stapled canvas in that canvas is attached with a spline at the rear of the frame. This allows the artist to incorporate painted edges into the artwork itself without staples at the sides, and the artwork can be displayed without a frame. Splined canvas can be restretched by adjusting the spline.  "Stapled canvases" stay stretched tighter over a longer period of time, but are more difficult to re-stretch when the need arises.  "Canvas boards" are made of canvas stretched over and glued to a cardboard backing, and sealed on the backside. The canvas is typically linen primed for a certain type of paint. They are primarily used by artists for quick studies.

Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, and other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags, electronic device cases, and shoes. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame.


Early life.

Adler was born to a Jewish family in Queens, New York, the eldest son of Lisa (nėe Kobrin) and Doug Adler. A year after Adler was born, his family relocated to Fountain Hills, Arizona, then to Scottsdale, Arizona. Adler attended Horizon High School, where he was a First Chair All-State show choir member. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. Adler has a younger brother named Jake, born in 1992.

Career.

After various roles in a number of productions, Adler was cast in a minor recurring role in the Fox television series "Glee" as school jock and bully Dave Karofsky. "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy was impressed with his acting and wanted to write more with him. In the November 2010 episode "Never Been Kissed", written to tackle the issue of LGBT youth bullying, Karofsky is revealed to be a closeted gay teen. Adler had previously questioned his character's motivations, but was surprised by the scene in which Karofsky kisses the object of his bullying, openly gay student Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer). He received a positive response via the social networking websites Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, and commented that he was "glad to represent such a large group of people". He expanded on this, saying, "I've gotten so many messages from people all around the world these last couple of days thanking me because either they are Karofsky, they were Karofsky or they know a Karofsky." The character eventually gives up his bullying and makes his peace with Kurt, but he remains closeted. Adler has been praised for his performance in episode 3x14, "On My Way", during which, after his character is outed, he attempts suicide.  Adler is a resident artist with The Porters of Hellsgate theatre company in Los Angeles, appearing in three Shakespearean productions with them since 2008.  From 2014 to 2017, Adler had a recurring role as Tank, Bay's college friend on "Switched at Birth".  In 2014, Adler played the role of Baker in the religious satire "Believe Me".

Activism.

Following the "Glee" episode "Never Been Kissed", Adler was contacted by the It Gets Better Project, an internet based project founded by Dan Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, which aims to prevent suicide among LGBT youth. Adler recorded a heartfelt video for the project, offering words of hope and encouragement for kids and teens facing bullying due to their sexual orientation. Through playing one of the most well-known bullies on television, Adler offers viewers insight and advice, telling viewers, “most bullies are extremely insecure, and want to knock you down a peg to feel better about themselves. So, being who you are is what's awesome. It's what makes you special, interesting, fun to talk to, [and] desirable."  On November 15, 2010, Adler spoke at the Anti-Defamation League Concert Against Hate at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C..  Adler has also worked with the FSHD Society and MDA to help raise awareness for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) and other hereditary muscle diseases. Adler's mother and grandmother suffered from relatively severe forms of FSHD. Because of the support that his mother gave him in becoming an actor, he feels that devoting time to raising money for MDA is a way for him to return the favor to her.  Adler, under "Team Max" is the host of the Celebrity Charity Walk 'n' Roll for FSHD to help raise funds directly for research of FSHD, one of the most prevalent muscular dystrophies. The walk is for the benefit of the FSHD Society, which is the largest grassroots organization of its kind solely dedicated to finding a treatment or cure for FSHD.

Personal life.

In 2012, Adler became engaged to his longtime girlfriend Jennifer Bronstein; he proposed while they were visiting Rome. They were married on December 19, 2015. In January 2020, he announced that they were expecting their first child together. On March 27th, 2020, the couple welcomed their first child, Dylan Remington.

Max Adler (born January 17, 1986) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dave Karofsky on the television series "Glee" (2009–2015).


Description.

"Rudbeckia hirta" is an upright annual (sometimes biennial or perennial) growing tall by wide. It has alternate, mostly basal leaves 10–18 cm long, covered by coarse hair, with stout branching stems and daisy-like, composite flower heads appearing in late summer and early autumn. In the species, the flowers are up to in diameter, with yellow ray florets circling conspicuous brown or black, dome-shaped cone of many small disc florets. However, extensive breeding has produced a range of sizes and colours, including oranges, reds and browns.

Etymology.

The specific epithet "hirta" is Latin for “hairy”, and refers to the trichomes (hairs) occurring on leaves and stems.

Varieties.

There are four varieties

Cultivation.

"Rudbeckia hirta" is widely cultivated in parks and gardens, for summer bedding schemes, borders, containers, wildflower gardens, prairie-style plantings and cut flowers. Numerous cultivars have been developed, of which 'Indian Summer' and 'Toto' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Other popular cultivars include 'Double Gold' and 'Marmalade'.  Gloriosa daisies are tetraploid cultivars having much larger flower heads than the wild species, often doubled or with contrasting markings on the ray florets. They were first bred by Alfred Blakeslee of Smith College by applying colchicine to "R. hirta" seeds; Blakeslee's stock was further developed by W. Atlee Burpee and introduced to commerce at the 1957 Philadelphia Flower Show. Gloriosa daisies are generally treated as annuals or short-lived perennials and are typically grown from seed, though there are some named cultivars.

Symbolism and uses.

University of Southern Mississippi.

In 1912, the black-eyed Susan became the inspiration for the University of Southern Mississippi school colors (black and gold), suggested by Florence Burrow Pope, a member of the university's first graduating class. According to Pope: “On a trip home, I saw great masses of Black-Eyed Susans in the pine forests. I decided to encourage my senior class to gather Black-Eyed Susans to spell out the name of the class on sheets to be displayed during exercises on Class Day. I then suggested black and gold as class colors, and my suggestion was adopted."

Butterfly attractant for enhancing gardens.

It is a larval host to the bordered patch, gorgone checkerspot, and silvery checkerspot species.  Juice from the roots has been used as drops for earaches.

Rudbeckia hirta, commonly called black-eyed Susan, is a North American flowering plant in the sunflower family, native to Eastern and Central North America and naturalized in the Western part of the continent as well as in China. It has now been found in all 10 Canadian Provinces and all 48 of the states in the contiguous United States.


Plot.

David is escorted to a hotel after his wife has left him for another man. The hotel manager reveals that single people have 45 days to find a partner, or they will be transformed into an animal of their choice; the dog accompanying David is his brother. David chooses to become a lobster. David makes acquaintances with Robert, a man with a lisp, and John, a man with a limp, who become his quasi-friends.  The hotel has many rules and rituals: masturbation is banned, but sexual stimulation by the hotel maid is mandatory, and guests attend dances and watch propaganda extolling the advantages of partnership. Residents can extend their deadline by hunting and tranquilizing the single people who live in the forest; each captured "loner" earns them a day. On one hunt, a woman with a fondness for biscuits offers David sexual favours, which he declines. She tells him that if she fails to find a mate, she will kill herself by jumping from a hotel window.  John wins the affections of a woman with constant nosebleeds by purposely smashing his nose in secret. They move to the couples' section to begin a month-long trial partnership. David later decides to court a notoriously cruel woman who has tranquilized more loners than anyone else. Their initial conversation is accompanied by the screams of the biscuit-loving woman, who has injured herself by jumping from a first floor window. David pretends to enjoy the woman's suffering to gain the heartless woman's interest. He later joins her in a jacuzzi where she feigns choking to test him. Noticing that he makes no attempt to help her, she decides that they are a match, and the two are shifted to the couples' suite. David wakes up one morning and finds that she has kicked his brother to death. As David cries in response to losing his canine sibling, she concludes that their relationship is a lie and attempts to drag him to the hotel manager to have him punished. However, he escapes and, with the help of a sympathetic maid (who is later revealed to be a mole working for the loners), tranquilizes his partner and transforms her into an unspecified animal.  David escapes the hotel and joins the loners in the woods. In contrast to the hotel, they forbid any kind of romance, which is punishable by mutilation. David, who is short-sighted, begins a secret relationship with a woman who is also short-sighted. They develop a gestural language they use to communicate. They are taken on covert missions to the nearby city, where their cover requires them to appear as lovers, which they secretly enjoy.  The loners launch a raid to sabotage the work of the hotel. David tells the woman with nosebleeds that John has been faking his. Other loners hold the hotel manager and her husband at gunpoint, tricking him into shooting his wife to save himself, but the gun is not loaded. They leave the couple to face each other.  The leader of the loners obtains the short-sighted woman's journal and discovers her plan to escape with David. The leader takes the woman to the city, ostensibly to have an operation to cure her short-sightedness, but instead has her blinded. David and the woman try to find something else that they have in common, to no avail. One morning, David overpowers the leader, leaving her tied up in an open grave to be eaten by wild dogs. He and the blind woman escape to the city and stop at a restaurant. David goes to the restroom and hesitantly prepares to blind himself with a steak knife.

Production.

Principal photography began on 24 March 2014, and concluded on 9 May 2014. Filming took place in Dublin, Ireland, which represents "The City" in the film, and also at locations in and around County Kerry, including Sneem, Dromore Woods and Kenmare.

Marketing and distribution.

In May 2014, it was announced that Sony Pictures Releasing acquired the distribution rights for Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. A film still featuring Farrell, Whishaw, and Reilly was released around the same time. The film's posters were designed by Vasilis Marmatakis, with the Colin Farrell one sheet version considered by professional poster designer Adrian Curry to be the 2nd best poster of the 2010s.  In May 2015, Alchemy acquired United States distribution rights; however, due to the company's financial struggles at the time, A24 acquired the US rights instead. Originally scheduled for an 11 March 2016 release, it was rescheduled to 13 May 2016.

Reception.

Critical response.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on reviews from 254 critics, with an average rating of 7.55/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "As strange as it is thrillingly ambitious, "The Lobster" is definitely an acquired taste — but for viewers with the fortitude to crack through Yorgos Lanthimos' offbeat sensibilities, it should prove a savory cinematic treat." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 82, based on 44 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".  Oliver Lyttelton of "The Playlist" awarded the film an "A" grade and described it as "an atypically rich and substantial comedy" with "an uproarious yet deadpan satire concerning societal constructs, dating mores and power structures that also manages to be a surprisingly moving, gloriously weird love story." He concluded that the film was Lanthimos' "most accessible and purely enjoyable film yet". Chris Nashawaty of "Entertainment Weekly" gave a positive review and commended the film for being "visually stunning, narratively bold, and totally singular", adding that "it opens [one's] eyes to a new way of storytelling."  Guy Lodge, writing for "Variety", called the film "a wickedly funny, unexpectedly moving satire of couple-fixated society", elaborating that Lanthimos' "confounding setup emerges as a brilliant allegory for the increasingly superficial systems of contemporary courtship, including the like-for-like algorithms of online dating sites and the hot-or-not snap judgments of Tinder."  Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" rated the film three stars out of five, and wrote that "The Lobster" is "elegant and eccentric in Lanthimos' familiar style", but "appears to run out of ideas at its mid-way point". Similarly, reviews in the "Cleveland Plain Dealer" and the "Vancouver Sun" judged the film unable to sustain itself across its full runtime. "IGN" awarded it a score of 8.5 out of 10, saying "Colin Farrell heads up this surreal, hilarious and ultimately quite disturbing tale."  Wai Chee Dimock, writing in the "Los Angeles Review of Books", called "The Lobster" a "fable of purgatory" and compared the film to the work of Samuel Beckett, saying that, for this all-Greek team, "absurdist theater is second nature, as it was second nature to the Irish Beckett a century ago."

The Lobster is a 2015 absurdist dystopian black comedy film directed, co-written, and co-produced by Yorgos Lanthimos, co-produced by Ceci Dempsy, Ed Guiney, and Lee Magiday, and co-written by Efthimis Filippou. In the film's setting, single people are given 45 days to find a romantic partner or otherwise be turned into animals. It stars Colin Farrell as a newly single man trying to find someone so he can remain human, and Rachel Weisz as a woman who is also looking for a relationship, so they attempt to form one together. The film is a co-production by Ireland, the United Kingdom, Greece, France, and the Netherlands.


Biography.

Osuský was born in March 1889 in Brezová pod Bradlom, in the Nyitra County of the Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Slovakia). In 1902 he began his studies at the Lutheran Lyceum in present-day Bratislava. However, in 1905 he was expelled from school because of his Slovak patriotic feelings and banned from all schools in the territory of the Dual Monarchy Austria-Hungary on a direct order of count Apponyi, Minister of Religion and Education of Hungary. Count Apponyi asked Osuský if he was going to be a "good Hungarian"; Osuský's silence on the question was taken by Apponyi as an offence. Osuský recalls the incident in his biography:  Therefore, in 1906, he left for the United States. In Springfield and Chicago Osuský pursued his studies of theology, natural sciences and law, receiving a JD degree in 1916.  Immediately after his arrival in the United States he began working actively in expatriate organizations, at first in the Czech National Association, later in the Slovak League in the US. In 1915 he established the newspapers "Slovenské slovo" ("Slovak Word") and "Slovenský týždenník" ("Slovak Weekly"). In 1916 Osuský became the vice-president of the Slovak League, which in turn sent him to Europe to negotiate cooperation with Czecho-Slovak foreign resistance. His task was to ensure the acceptance of the Cleveland Agreement principles.  In Paris he started to cooperate with the Czechoslovak National Council, whose objective was the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and the creation of a new state for Czechs and Slovaks. Between 1917 and 1918 Osuský worked as the director of a Czecho-Slovak press agency in Geneva. Between 8–10 April 1918 in Rome he was a representative, together with Milan Rastislav Štefánik, of Slovaks at the Congress of Oppressed Nations. In 1918 he helped organize the Czechoslovak Legions in Italy, established in spite of international treaties prohibiting the creation of military units out of captured enemies.  After the creation of Czechoslovakia he began working in the diplomatic services of the new republic. From October 1918 he held the post of the country's diplomatic representative in the United Kingdom. As secretary general of a Czechoslovak delegation in 1919-1920 he participated in the Paris Peace Conference. On 4 June 1920 in Grand Trianon as the extraordinary and plenipotentiary envoy of Czechoslovakia he signed the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary. He later recalled: "I will never forget about one thing. When I was signing my name underneath the treaty carrying the name Trianon, at quarter to five in June 1920, I was fully aware, that I was signing for the final account of the Slovak nation to Kingdom of Hungary, accounting for the costs signed top down by blood, suffering and poverty of my nation. And this statement of account is eternal."  He significantly contributed to the functioning of the newly formed League of Nations; between 1921 and 1932 he worked with the Reparations Commission, representing not only Czechoslovakia but also Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania and Greece. From 1922 he was the chairman of the Supervisory Commission - a function he held for fourteen years. He was also active in the Delimitation Commission, tasked with setting new borders in Europe.  From 1921 Osuský worked as the Czechoslovak ambassador in France, contributing significantly to the development of Czechoslovak-French relations, a cornerstone of ČSR's international security. He remained at this post until the Second World War. After the breakup of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, he refused to relinquish the embassy and kept the office functioning. He began to organize Czechoslovak foreign resistance. 2 October 1939 Osuský signed an Agreement on the Reestablishment of the Czechoslovak Army in France with French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier. His activity, however, met with resistance, especially with Eduard Beneš. Although in November 1939 he became a member of the Czechoslovak National Committee founded by Beneš, and in July 1940 Osuský was designated a minister of the Czechoslovak government in exile in London, his relations with Beneš were deteriorating. The differences with Beneš lay especially in the areas of foreign policy, the organization of Czechoslovak foreign resistance, the post-war restructuring of the republic and the solution of the Slovak issue. In March 1942 Beneš removed him from all functions and Osuský retired from the active scene.  He began lecturing on the history of diplomacy and international relations at Oxford. In the spring of 1945 Osuský left for the United States, becoming a professor at the Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. After the Communist takeover in February 1948 he was active in the Council of Free Czechoslovakia. He also worked as a journalist-political scientist. In his work he especially paid attention to the history and presence of Czechoslovak politics in international relations. He died in Herndon, Virginia, on 27 September 1973.  He is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, Washington, D.C. The epitaph on his grave reads: "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither."  In 1992 the post-Communist Czechoslovak government posthumously awarded him the Order of T. G. Masaryk I-class. In 2001 Osuský received the Order of the White Double Cross II-class in memoriam.

Štefan Osuský, Ph.D., J.D. (31 March 1889 – 27 September 1973) was an Austro-Hungarian born Slovak lawyer, diplomat, politician and university professor.


Early life.

James Louis McCartney was born in Avenue Clinic at London on 12 September 1977. He is the only son of songwriter and former Beatle Paul McCartney and his first wife Linda McCartney. He was named after both his paternal grandfather Jim McCartney and his father, whose full name is James Paul McCartney, as well as Linda's late mother, Louise Sara (Lindner) Eastman. His mother was Jewish.  He spent the first two and a half years of his life on the road while his parents toured with their band Wings. After the band broke up in 1980, the McCartneys settled in Rye, East Sussex. He attended the local state secondary school, the Thomas Peacocke Community College. He has said his earliest inspiration to learn guitar was Michael J. Fox in "Back to the Future". He began playing music when his father gave him a Fender Stratocaster at age nine. The guitar had previously been owned by Carl Perkins.  In 1989, McCartney and his sisters Mary McCartney and Stella McCartney again joined Paul and Linda on a world tour. He continued his education with a tutor while on the road. In 1993, at age 16, while surfing with friends, he was swept out to sea. The coast guard was called, his family rushed to the site, and he emerged safe on his own 40 minutes later. In 1995, James introduced his sister Mary to television producer Alistair Donald, whom she later married.  On 17 April 1998, in Tucson, Arizona, James, along with his father and sisters, was at his mother's side when she died from breast cancer, which had been diagnosed in 1995. Later that year, he graduated from Bexhill College, near his home in East Sussex, where he pursued studies in A-level Art and Sculpture.

Music career.

1997–2007: Early years.

James has played guitar and drums on some of his father's solo albums, including "Flaming Pie" (1997) and "Driving Rain" (2001), as well as co-writing a few songs. On "Flaming Pie" he has an electric guitar solo on the track "Heaven on a Sunday". On "Driving Rain", he co-wrote the songs "Spinning On An Axis" and "Back In The Sunshine Again" with his father, and played percussion on the former track and guitar on the latter.  He also plays lead guitar on his mother's posthumously released solo album, "Wide Prairie" (1998), which included tracks recorded privately over the previous twenty years.  In 2004 he again left the McCartney family home and began living in a flat in Brighton, where he waited tables while he attended college and worked on his music. In 2005, he accompanied Paul during his 'US' Tour.

2008–2011: "Available Light" and "Close At Hand".

Around 2008, he began working with David Kahne, his father, and a number of other musicians on recording his own music. He made his US performing debut with his own original solo material on 14 November 2009 at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, during the Fourth Annual David Lynch Weekend for World Peace and Meditation in Fairfield, Iowa. He performed under the pseudonym Light.  "Available Light" was McCartney's first official release as both a performer and songwriter. The EP included four original songs composed by James as well as a cover of Neil Young's classic "Old Man". In addition to composing the songs and singing, he plays electric and acoustic guitar, mandolin, piano and bass on the recordings. Produced by David Kahne and Paul McCartney, the EP was recorded between Sussex, London and New York over the previous year, including Abbey Road Studios.  He stated, "The music was inspired by The Beatles, Nirvana, The Cure, PJ Harvey, Radiohead—and all good music. It is basically rock n' roll, clean sounding and vocal. The words on the album refer to spirituality, love, family, trying to sort out one's life, and many other things."  He previewed tracks from "Available Light" when he toured the UK for the first time in February and March 2010, though he at first performed under a pseudonym. The album was released electronically September 2010 on Blake Morgan's Engine Company Records, (now ECR Music Group) to positive reviews. "Close At Hand", his second EP, was released in 2011.  McCartney's "The Complete EP Collection" was released on 22 November 2011. The album combines the previous two EPs along with five new original tracks and two new covers. It is his first physical release, the two individual EPs being digital only. Like the EPs, it was produced by Paul McCartney and David Kahne, and is being released by Engine Company Records (now ECR Music Group). "Rolling Stone" called the opening track, "Angel," a "light and cheerful pop track." "AntiMusic" dubbed the release "whimsical and reflective, sharp-witted and affectionate. Full of smart, engaging pop songwriting." In a "Rolling Stone" song exclusive about the track "New York Times", James notes he composed the main riff on a family trip when his father "... was just inches away from me."

2012–present.

In April 2012, McCartney told a BBC interviewer that he had mooted the idea "a little bit" of forming a "next generation" version of the Beatles with Sean Lennon, Zak Starkey and Dhani Harrison.  McCartney released his first album on 21 May 2013, titled "Me". The album was supported by a tour of the US, starting on 6 April 2013.  McCartney played at San Francisco's Outside Lands Music Festival in August 2013. He recorded The Beatles' "Hello, Goodbye" with The Cure for the album "The Art of McCartney", a collection of The Beatles and Paul McCartney solo covers.  McCartney's newest studio album, "The Blackberry Train", was released on 6 May 2016.

Personal life.

Like his elder half-sister Heather McCartney, James lives a relatively private life; his sisters Stella, a fashion designer, and Mary, a photographer, do not. James has a much younger half-sister, Beatrice Milly McCartney, born in 2003 to Paul and his second wife, Heather Mills.  He has a vegetarian diet leaning towards veganism, and is an animal rights activist.  In November 2012, James performed at a London benefit for the David Lynch Foundation, which his father also supports.  McCartney practises Transcendental Meditation: "Transcendental Meditation plays a big role in my life as it has done for my father and the other Beatles. I meditate regularly—twice a day.... I find that just 30 minutes of Transcendental Meditation refreshes me as if I had slept a few hours!"

James Louis McCartney (born 12 September 1977) is a British musician and songwriter. He is the only son of songwriter and former Beatle Paul McCartney. He has contributed to a number of solo albums by his parents, including "Flaming Pie" (1997) and "Driving Rain" (2001) by Paul McCartney and "Wide Prairie" (1998) by Linda McCartney. He has released two EPs and two albums. His most recent, "The Blackberry Train", was released on 6 May 2016.


Equation.

Special case: Two straight parallel wires.

The best-known and simplest example of Ampère's force law, which underlied (before 20-May-2019) the definition of the ampere, the SI unit of current, states that the force per unit length between two straight parallel conductors is  where "k" is the magnetic force constant from the Biot–Savart law, "F/L" is the total force on either wire per unit length of the shorter (the longer is approximated as infinitely long relative to the shorter), "r" is the distance between the two wires, and "I", "I" are the direct currents carried by the wires.  This is a good approximation if one wire is sufficiently longer than the other, so that it can be approximated as infinitely long, and if the distance between the wires is small compared to their lengths (so that the one infinite-wire approximation holds), but large compared to their diameters (so that they may also be approximated as infinitely thin lines). The value of "k" depends upon the system of units chosen, and the value of "k" decides how large the unit of current will be. In the SI system,  with μ the magnetic constant, "defined" in SI units as  Thus, in vacuum,

General case.

The general formulation of the magnetic force for arbitrary geometries is based on iterated line integrals and combines the Biot–Savart law and Lorentz force in one equation as shown below.  where  To determine the force between wires in a material medium, the magnetic constant is replaced by the actual permeability of the medium.  For the case of two separate closed wires, the law can be rewritten in the following equivalent way by expanding the vector triple product and applying Stokes' theorem:  In this form, it is immediately obvious that the force on wire 1 due to wire 2 is equal and opposite the force on wire 2 due to wire 1, in accordance with Newton's 3rd law.

Historical background.

The form of Ampere's force law commonly given was derived by Maxwell and is one of several expressions consistent with the original experiments of Ampère and Gauss. The x-component of the force between two linear currents I and I’, as depicted in the adjacent diagram, was given by Ampère in 1825 and Gauss in 1833 as follows:  Following Ampère, a number of scientists, including Wilhelm Weber, Rudolf Clausius, James Clerk Maxwell, Bernhard Riemann, Hermann Grassmann, and Walther Ritz, developed this expression to find a fundamental expression of the force. Through differentiation, it can be shown that:  and also the identity:  With these expressions, Ampère's force law can be expressed as:  Using the identities:  and  Ampère's results can be expressed in the form:  As Maxwell noted, terms can be added to this expression, which are derivatives of a function Q(r) and, when integrated, cancel each other out. Thus, Maxwell gave "the most general form consistent with the experimental facts" for the force on ds arising from the action of ds':  Q is a function of r, according to Maxwell, which "cannot be determined, without assumptions of some kind, from experiments in which the active current forms a closed circuit." Taking the function Q(r) to be of the form:  We obtain the general expression for the force exerted on ds by ds:  Integrating around s' eliminates k and the original expression given by Ampère and Gauss is obtained. Thus, as far as the original Ampère experiments are concerned, the value of k has no significance. Ampère took k=-1; Gauss took k=+1, as did Grassmann and Clausius, although Clausius omitted the S component. In the non-ethereal electron theories, Weber took k=-1 and Riemann took k=+1. Ritz left k undetermined in his theory. If we take k = -1, we obtain the Ampère expression:  If we take k=+1, we obtain  Using the vector identity for the triple cross product, we may express this result as  When integrated around ds' the second term is zero, and thus we find the form of Ampère's force law given by Maxwell:

Derivation of parallel straight wire case from general formula.

Start from the general formula: Assume wire 2 is along the x-axis, and wire 1 is at y=D, z=0, parallel to the x-axis. Let formula_28 be the x-coordinate of the differential element of wire 1 and wire 2, respectively. In other words, the differential element of wire 1 is at formula_29 and the differential element of wire 2 is at formula_30. By properties of line integrals, formula_31 and formula_32. Also, and Therefore, the integral is Evaluating the cross-product: Next, we integrate formula_37 from formula_38 to formula_39: If wire 1 is also infinite, the integral diverges, because the "total" attractive force between two infinite parallel wires is infinity. In fact, what we really want to know is the attractive force "per unit length" of wire 1. Therefore, assume wire 1 has a large but finite length formula_41. Then the force vector felt by wire 1 is: As expected, the force that the wire feels is proportional to its length. The force per unit length is: The direction of the force is along the y-axis, representing wire 1 getting pulled towards wire 2 if the currents are parallel, as expected. The magnitude of the force per unit length agrees with the expression for formula_44 shown above.

Notable derivations of Ampère's force law.

Chronologically ordered:

In magnetostatics, the force of attraction or repulsion between two current-carrying wires (see first figure below) is often called Ampère's force law. The physical origin of this force is that each wire generates a magnetic field, following the Biot–Savart law, and the other wire experiences a magnetic force as a consequence, following the Lorentz force law.


Classification.

Mootnick and Groves stated that hoolock gibbons do not belong in the genus "Bunopithecus", and placed them in a new genus, "Hoolock". This genus was argued to contain two and later three distinct species which were previously thought to be subspecies: "Hoolock hoolock", "Hoolock leuconedys" and "Hoolock tianxing". It was later found that there is a larger evolutionary distance between these three species and the white-handed gibbons than there is between bonobos and chimpanzees.

Vocalisation.

Like other gibbons, hoolock gibbon pairs produce a loud, elaborate song, usually sung as a duet from the forest canopy, in which younger individuals of the family group may join in. The song includes an introductory sequence, an organising sequence, and a great call sequence, with the male also contributing to the latter (unlike in some other gibbon species).

Habitat.

In India and Bangladesh it is found where there is contiguous canopy, broad-leaved, wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests dipterocarpus forest often mountainous. The species is an important seed disperser; its diet includes mostly ripe fruits, with some flowers, leaves and shoots.

Conservation.

There are numerous threats to western hoolock gibbons in the wild, and are now entirely dependent on human action for their survival. Threats include habitat encroachment by humans, forest clearance for tea cultivation, the practice of "jhuming" (slash-and-burn cultivation), hunting for food and “medicine”, capture for trade, and forest degradation.  Over the last 30–40 years, western hoolock gibbon numbers are estimated to have dropped from more than 100,000 (Assam alone was estimated to have around 80,000 in the early 1970s) to less than 5,000 individuals (a decline of more than 90%). In 2009 it was considered to be one of the 25 most endangered primates, though it has been dropped from the later editions of the list.

Diet.

Hoolock gibbons feed mostly on various fruits, with some leaves, flowers and insects.

The western hoolock gibbon ("Hoolock hoolock") is a primate from the gibbon family, Hylobatidae. The species is found in Assam, Mizoram, Bangladesh and in Myanmar west of the Chindwin River.


Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague

History.

The faculty was founded as the Faculty of Liberal Arts of Charles University by Emperor Charles IV on April 7, 1348, part of the emperor's attempt to establish the Kingdom of Bohemia as the permanent centre of the Holy Roman Empire and to place greater emphasis on the development of learning and culture in Prague. At that time, students attended the Faculty of Liberal Arts to receive education primarily in rhetorics and philosophy, later going on to pursue other subjects. The Faculty of Liberal Arts soon became the largest part of the university. In 1366, Emperor Charles IV endowed it with the first Prague college, the Collegium Carolinum; as part of the college, the first library of the artistic faculty was established, of manuscripts donated by the king. Following the Hussite wars, the Faculty of Liberal Arts became the nucleus of the university for two centuries. From the 17th century, the faculty was known as the Faculty of Arts and, until the middle of the 19th century, its programme served as a compulsory preparatory higher education for future students of all the other faculties.  From the 18th century, as well as philosophy, the faculty offered programmes in aesthetic theory, pedagogy, mathematics, astronomy, natural sciences, engineering sciences, economy, and history. These were complemented in the 19th century by oriental studies, archaeology, religious studies, and philology. Study of languages such as Czech, Italian, French, and Hebrew, and their respective literature and culture, also began to develop. Following the liberalization of the academic environment in the second half of the 19th century, the faculty started to accept women students in 1897.  The faculty was divided into Czech and German parts in 1882, and the Faculty of Natural Sciences became a separate institution between 1920-1939. In 1939, the school was closed by the occupying forces of Nazi Germany, and brutal persecution of teachers and students followed. Following the end of the occupation in 1945, the Faculty of Arts flourished again for a few years; this was forcibly terminated in 1948 by the Communist coup in 1948. The prestige of the faculty rapidly decreased as a result of the forced departure of numerous respected teachers and the introduction of Marxist–Leninist studies. In the 1960s, the faculty slowly began to open to prominent thinkers of the time, but this trend was reversed by the Soviet occupation in 1968, which Jan Palach, a student of the faculty, protested against by setting himself on fire. After the end of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989, and the departure of its representatives in the faculty, it was re-established as one of the country's most highly regarded university institutions.

Organization of study.

Degree programmes.

All study programmes comply with the Bologna system and are structured into the BA, MA and doctoral (Ph.D.) stages. Study programmes may be in single-subject or double-subject form, some are available in either single-subject or double-subject form. The standard length of study is 3–4 years in the BA programme and 2–3 years in the follow-up MA programme. After finishing their MA studies, graduates may apply for a doctoral study programme. The doctoral study programme which offers the award of Ph.D. requires completion of a doctoral programme, Ph.D. finals and dissertation defence.

Other programmes.

Beside the degree programmes, the Faculty offers a number of short-term courses or summer schools and long-lasting education to its students, visiting students or the general public. For example, the East and Central European Studies Programme (ECES) is a semester-long programme with instruction in English, designed for international students of the Faculty of Arts. The Faculty also organises the Summer School of Slavonic Studies.

Faculty activities.

, the total number of students is over 8,000; 7,040 studying for Master or bachelor's degrees, and 1,701 for a doctoral degree. The faculty is composed of 46 basic working units and six specialized working units, as well as two scholarly research institutes (the Czech Institute of Egyptology and the Institute of the Czech National Corpus). Each year authors of the faculty publish an average of 35 book titles.  The faculty participates in a number of international exchange programmes, including LLP Erasmus, the Central European Exchange Program for University Studies (CEEPUS), AKTION, exchange programmes under the auspices of the Visegrad Fund, and governmental scholarships. The number of visiting students within the LLP Erasmus programme was 280 in 2008.

Philology.

Courses at the faculty are offered in more than 50 languages, as well as the literature, history and cultural background associated with them. These include:

The Faculty of Arts, Charles University, is one of the original four faculties of Charles University in Prague. When founded, it was named the Faculty of the Liberal Arts or the Artistic Faculty. The faculty provides lectures in the widest range of fields of the humanities in the Czech Republic, and is the only university faculty in Europe which provides studies in all the official languages of the European Union. The faculty has around 1,000 members of staff, over 9,000 students, and a flexible system of more than 700 possible double-subject degree combinations.