Green card system.

Around 300000 motor accidents a year were covered in Europe by the Green Card system during the year 2004 according to a survey.  In 2016, the Green card system counts around 377666 international accidents within the green card area.  At the origin, the green card system was checked while crossing the border. However, inside the single market the green card is no more checked at the cross of internal borders. Insurance for motorized vehicles remains mandatory within the European union. Within the European union, some countries (such as France and Belgium ) have kept the Green card as their national/domestic system of insurance, which make the green card a compulsory requirement in those nations.  The Green Card is usually issued when the insurance policy starts; but in some cases the Green Card is only issued later, upon request.  Insurers do not make people pay to have a Green Card, but intermediaries, including insurance brokers, are allowed in the UK to charge an administration fee.  The Council of Bureaux (CoBx) maintains an international motor insurance card system in and around Europe where the certificate issued is known by the name "Green card". In 1949 the system was established in the framework of UNECE. At later stage the EU and EFTA were involved and reflecting the deepening of the links with them the CoBx secretariat was relocated from London to Brussels in 2006.  In each member state of the Green Card System the insurance companies established a Green Card Bureaux operating with the recognition and approval of the government and the activities of the Green Card Bureaux are established by law or regulation in each of the countries participating in the system. Each Green Card Bureau has two functions:  There are three types of Green card member states as per the Multilateral Agreement:

Membership and geographic limits.

The Green Card System is primarily a European system. It presently includes most, but not all European countries, and some of their neighbors, in most cases bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The position of the CoBx is that the Green card system could be joined by the countries "west of the Urals and the Caspian Sea and countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea", but this rule is not followed strictly as Iran and Iraq fall outside of the area as described.  Additionally, insurance companies or national bureaux of some countries participate in the Green card system through foreign national bureaux:  Former member states:  According to recommendation of the Management Committee of CoBx it is strongly recommended that the geographical scope of the Green card System should be restricted to the following additional states, in accordance with the European and Mediterranean rule: Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Georgia and possibly upon further consideration Armenia. Instead of expansion further than that, it is recommended to examine arrangements of cooperation with other motor insurance systems. In 2012 it was decided to add Kazakhstan to the list of potential members since part of it lies west of the Urals.  Countries that are currently candidates for membership are:  In 2008 the Economic Cooperation Organization asked the CoBx for cooperation and since some of its members are outside the geographical scope of the Green card system, it was suggested that the ECO members would establish their regional motor insurance system - the White card system. At the same time there are discussion whether the scope of the Green card system should be expanded to all UNECE members or to abandon geographical limitations in exchange for criteria based on the density of trade exchanged by road between the candidate country and the existing members of the System.  In 2011 Kosovo submitted application for membership, but it was concluded that the conditions of vehicle license plate international recognition and UN membership are not fulfilled.  The UNECE Afro-Eurasian members states currently outside the Green card system are: Armenia (candidate), Georgia (candidate), Kazakhstan (potential candidate), Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.  Other states, falling within the defined geographical scope of the Green card system (or participating in cooperation activities in the Mediterranean region such as the EMP and/or the UfM), but not participating are:

Orange card system.

The Orange card system is established between most of the members of the Arab League and is applicable primarily in the Middle East and North Africa.  Participants are: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco (Green card member), Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia (Green card member), United Arab Emirates and Yemen.  The non-participating AL members are: Comoros, Djibouti and Palestine.

Blue card system.

The Blue card system is established between the members of the ASEAN and is applicable in South East Asia.  Participants are: Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. [Singapore?].

Pink card system.

The Pink card system is established between the members of the CEMAC and is applicable in Central Africa.  Participants are: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Brown card system.

The Brown card system is established between most of the members of the ECOWAS and is applicable in Western Africa.  Participants are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.  The non-participating ECOWAS member is Cabo Verde.

Yellow card system.

The Yellow card system is established between most of the members of the COMESA and is applicable primarily in Eastern Africa.  Participants are: Burundi, DR Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  The non-participating COMESA members are: Comoros, Egypt (Orange card member), Eswatini, Libya (Orange card member), Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Somalia (Orange card member), and Tunisia (Green and Orange card member).

White card system.

There is a proposal for the establishment of White card system between the members of the ECO, if the Green Card system territorial scope could not be expanded to include all of them.  Participants are: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan (Green card member), Iran (Green card member), Kazakhstan (Green card potential candidate), Kyrgyzstan (UNECE member), Pakistan, Tajikistan (UNECE member), Turkey (Green card member), Turkmenistan (UNECE member), Uzbekistan (UNECE member).

An International Motor Insurance Card System is an arrangement between authorities and insurance organizations of multiple states to ensure that victims of road traffic accidents do not suffer from the fact that injuries or damage sustained by them were caused by a visiting motorist rather than a motorist resident in the same country.


Club career.

Schmelzer was born in Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt. He started his professional career with Borussia Dortmund, making his first appearance on 9 August 2008, in the German Cup first-round match against Rot-Weiss Essen. His first league appearance came in the following week, as he played the final twenty minutes of a 3–2 win at Bayer Leverkusen. Schmelzer had his best season for Borussia Dortmund in the 2010–11 season, where he managed to play every minute of the season for the team who went on to win the Bundesliga that year.  The following season, Schmelzer, who missed the beginning of the Bundesliga due to injury, enjoyed yet another trophy as he helped Dortmund win another Bundesliga title. In addition to being the left back for the team for the entire season, Schmelzer also helped Dortmund secure the DFB Pokal with a 5–2 win against Bayern Munich, making it 3 titles in 2 years.  On 11 January 2013, Schmelzer extended his contract with Borussia, which will keep him at the club until 2017.  On 27 July 2013, Schmelzer won the 2013 DFL-Supercup with Dortmund 4–2 against rivals Bayern Munich.  On 25 April 2016, Marcel Schmelzer yet again extended his contract with BVB. He agreed on a five-year deal which will keep him with the black and yellows through 2021.  After the departure of Mats Hummels, Schmelzer was named a candidate to be the new captain. On 14 August 2016, Schmelzer captained his first match against league champions Bayern Munich during the 2–0 defeat of the DFL-Supercup.  On 31 May 2020, he scored his first goal in seven years in a 6–1 win against Paderborn, coming off the bench for Moroccan right-back Achraf Hakimi. Later that day, fans voted him as Man of the Match on the club's official Instagram account.

International career.

Schmelzer was called up by the U21 team for the 2009 European Championship, being used regularly, although not as a starter, he played the final five minutes in the final, a 4–0 success against England.

Marcel Schmelzer (; born 22 January 1988) is a German professional footballer who plays for Borussia Dortmund as a left back, serving as captain from 2016 to 2018. He has been capped by Germany at international level. A one-club man, Schmelzer has spent his entire professional career at Dortmund.


Missouri Territory.

From June 4, 1812 until August 10, 1821 the area that would become Kansas Territory 33 years later was part of the Missouri Territory. When Missouri was granted statehood in 1821 the area became unorganized territory and contained little to no permanent white settlement with the exception of Fort Leavenworth. The Fort was established in 1827 by Henry Leavenworth with the 3rd U.S Infantry from St. Louis, Missouri; it is the first permanent European settlement in Kansas. The fort was established as the westernmost outpost of the American military to protect trade along the Santa Fe Trail from Native Americans. The trade came from the East, by land using the Boone's Lick Road, or by water via the Missouri River. This area, called the Boonslick, was located due east in west-central Missouri and was settled by Upland Southerners from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee as early as 1812. Its slave-holding population would contrast with settlers from New England who would eventually arrive in the 1850s. The land that would become Kansas Territory was considered to be infertile by 19th century American pioneers. It was called the Great American Desert, for it lacked trees and was dryer than land eastward. Technically, it was part of the vast grasslands that make up the North American Great Plains and supported giant herds of American bison. After the invention of the steel plow and more sophisticated irrigation methods the thick prairie soil would be broken for agriculture. By the 1850s immigration pressure was increasing and organization into a Territory was desired.

Kansas–Nebraska Act.

Kansas Territory was established on May 30, 1854 by the Kansas–Nebraska Act. This act established both the Nebraska Territory and Kansas Territory. The most momentous provision of the Act in effect repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowed the settlers of Kansas Territory to determine by popular sovereignty whether Kansas would be a free state or a slave state.  The Act contained thirty-seven sections. The provisions relating to Kansas Territory were embodied in the last eighteen sections. Some of the more notable sections were:

Eastern emigration.

Pro-slavery settlers.

Within a few days after the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, hundreds of Missourians crossed into the adjacent territory, selected a section of land, and then united with fellow-adventurers in a meeting or meetings, intending to establish a pro-slavery preemption upon all this region.  As early as June 10, 1854, the Missourians held a meeting at Salt Creek Valley, a trading post west from Fort Leavenworth, at which a "Squatter's Claim Association" was organized. They said they were in favor of making Kansas a slave state if it should require half the citizens of Missouri, musket in hand, to emigrate there. According to these emigrants, abolitionists would do well not to stop in Kansas Territory, but keep on up the Missouri River until they reach Nebraska Territory, which was anticipated to be a free state. Before the first arrival of Free-State emigrants from the northern and eastern States, nearly every desirable location along the Missouri River had been claimed by men from western Missouri, by virtue of the preemption laws.

Free staters.

During the long debate that preceded the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, it had become the settled opinion at the North that the only remaining means whereby the territory might yet be rescued from the grasp of the slave power, was in its immediate occupancy and settlement by anti-slavery emigrants from the free states in sufficient numbers to establish free institutions within its borders. The desire to facilitate the colonization of the Territory took practical shape while the bill was still under debate in the United States Congress. The largest organization created for this purpose was the New England Emigrant Aid Company, organized by Eli Thayer.  Emigration from the free states (including Iowa, Ohio, and other Midwestern and New England states), flowed into the territory beginning in 1854. These emigrants were known as Free-Staters. Because Missourians had claimed much of the land closest to the border, the Free-Staters were forced to establish settlements further into Kansas Territory. Among these were Lawrence, Topeka, and Manhattan.  To protect themselves against the encroachments of non-residents, the "Actual Settlers' Association of Kansas Territory" was formed. This association held a meeting on August 12, 1854, the object being the adoption of some regulations that should afford protection to the Free-State settlers, under laws not unlike those adopted by the pro-slavery squatters in the border region east.

First Territorial appointments.

The first territorial appointments, looking to the inauguration of a local government, under the provisions of the organic law, were made in June and July 1854. The officers appointed by President Pierce, whose appointments were confirmed by the United States Senate, and who entered upon the duties of their officer. The first governor was Andrew Horatio Reeder (of Easton, Pennsylvania) was appointed June 29, 1854 and removed July 28, 1858.

Election of Territorial Legislature.

On March 30, 1855 "Border Ruffians" from Missouri entered Kansas during the territory's first legislative election and voted in a pro-slavery Territorial Legislature. Antislavery candidates prevailed in one election district, the future Riley County.  The first session of the legislature was held in Pawnee, Kansas (within the boundary of modern-day Fort Riley) at the request of Governor Reeder. The two-story stone building still stands and is open to the public as the First Territorial Capitol of Kansas. The building remained as the seat of the legislature for five days from July 2–6, 1855, then moved nearer Missouri to the Shawnee Methodist Mission.  In the election of 1857, free-staters out-voted the pro-slavery settlers in the territory, which meant that the territorial legislature fell into free-state hands. Then, on October 4, 1859, the Wyandotte Constitution was approved in a referendum by a vote of 10,421 to 5,530, and after its approval by the U.S. Congress, Kansas was admitted as a free state on January 29, 1861, shortly after the Southern legislators, who would never have permitted a new free state, had walked out. The last legislative act of the Territorial Legislature was the approval of the charter for the College of the Sisters of Bethany. This was February 2, 1861—four days after James Buchanan signed the act of Congress that officially brought Kansas into the Union.

Bleeding Kansas.

James H. Lane joined the Free-State movement in 1855 and became president of the Topeka Constitutional Convention, which met from October 23 to November 11, 1855. He was later a leader of "Jayhawkers." The first Free-state mass-meeting was in Lawrence on the evening of June 8, 1855; it was stated that persons from Missouri had invaded and had stolen elections to the legislature of the territory.  It was claimed that some Missourians had used violence toward the persons and property of the inhabitants of the Kansas Territory. It was agreed that Kansas should be a free State and that the stolen election was a gross outrage on the elective franchise and rights of freemen and a violation of the principles of popular sovereignty. Those attending did not feel bound to obey any law of illegitimate legislature enacted and opposed the establishment of slavery. The convention reserved the right to invoke the aid of the Federal government against the lawless course of the slavery propaganda in the territory.

The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the free state of Kansas.


History.

It was founded in 1926 with the name Communist Party of Cyprus (CPC). The communist party set as its aim not only the struggle against exploitation, but also the independence of Cyprus from British rule. The party became illegal in 1931 when the British colonial government imposed restrictions on civil rights following a nationalist riot. In 1941, leading members of the underground communist party and others founded AKEL. In the first municipal elections in 1943 (before that mayors were appointed) AKEL candidates became mayors of Limassol (Ploutis Servas) and Famagusta (Adam Adamantos).  List of general secretaries:  Unlike its predecessor, AKEL was not against Enosis. Instead, AKEL supported a gradual process, starting off with a constitution and self-government, while Cyprus would remain a colony, leading to self-determination and Enosis. After the failure of the consultative assembly in 1949 to grant a constitution acceptable to the Cypriot members, AKEL changed line, supporting immediate Enosis with no intermediate stages.  During the late 1950s, AKEL was opposed to the violent tactics followed by the anti-British resistance movement of EOKA. EOKA accused AKEL of being collaborators with the British, even though AKEL had also been illegal since 1955. Several AKEL members were assassinated by EOKA at the time for being "traitors", including AKEL supporter Savas Menikou, who was stoned to death. AKEL denounced EOKA's leadership as being anti-communist, as its leader George Grivas had fought against the communist side during the Greek Civil War. Grivas later founded EOKA B, which supported the 1974 coup d'état following his death.  About 1958, the Turkish Cypriot nationalist organization TMT started forcing Turkish Cypriots members of AKEL to leave. Editor of a workers' newspaper Fazıl Önder was killed and the head of the Turkish bureau of PEO (AKEL's trade union) Ahmet Sadi moved to the UK to save his life.  In the first presidential elections for independent Cyprus, AKEL backed Ioannis Kliridis (father of Glafkos Klerides) against Makarios III. The last Turkish Cypriot to be a member of the central committee of AKEL, Derviş Ali Kavazoğlu, was killed by TMT in 1965.  In the mid 1960s the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 10,000 (3.25% of the working age population).

Recent history.

At the legislative elections on 27 May 2001, the party won 34.7% of the popular vote and 20 out of 56 seats. After this election, AKEL's General Secretary, Dimitris Christofias, was elected as President of the House of Representatives, serving in that post until 2006. His election was supported by AKEL, Movement for Social Democracy (EDEK), and the Democratic Party (DIKO).  AKEL is a member of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left political group in the European Parliament, and it is considered to be moderately eurosceptic. Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, and in the 2004 European parliament election, AKEL elected two members (Adamos Adamou and Kyriacos Triantaphyllides).  AKEL remained the largest political party in the 2006 legislative elections; however, the party lost two seats, winning 18 seats with 31.31% of the vote.  In the second round presidential election held on 24 February 2008, Dimitris Christofias, General Secretary of AKEL, was elected President of Cyprus. Christofias won 53.36% of the vote against his right-wing opponent Ioannis Kasoulidis' 46.64%.  On 21 January 2009, Andros Kyprianou was elected general secretary of the party with 54.3% in the central committee election.  In the 2009 election to the European Parliament, AKEL received 34.9% of the votes, and again elected two out of Cyprus' six members (Kyriacos Triantaphyllides and Takis Hadjigeorgiou). In the 2014 election, they held their two seats with a reduced 27% of the vote.  In the 22 May 2011 legislative election AKEL received 32.67% of the votes, and elected 19 out of the 56 members of parliament.  In an interview with Athens News Agency, party leader Andros Kyprianou said that AKEL was considering Cyprus' exit from the eurozone, saying, "It is an option on the table", but that it will require "study and planning".  In the 2013 presidential election, the AKEL candidate Stavros Malas lost by a margin of 42.52% to 57.48%.

Youth.

The party's youth wing is the United Democratic Youth Organisation, which was founded in 1959.

The Progressive Party of Working People (, "Anorthotikó Kómma Ergazómenou Laoú" (AKEL); ) is a Marxist–Leninist, communist political party in Cyprus.


History.

In the 11th century, this area was occupied by a Romanesque church, which was built there for foreign merchants coming to the nearby Týn Courtyard. Later it was replaced by an early Gothic Church of Our Lady before Týn in 1256. Construction of the present church began in the 14th century in the late Gothic style under the influence of Matthias of Arras and later Peter Parler. By the beginning of the 15th century, construction was almost complete; only the towers, the gable and roof were missing. The church was controlled by Hussites for two centuries, including John of Rokycan, future archbishop of Prague, who became the church's vicar in 1427. The building was completed in the 1450s, while the gable and northern tower were completed shortly thereafter during the reign of George of Poděbrady (1453–1471). His sculpture was placed on the gable, below a huge golden chalice, the symbol of the Hussites. The southern tower was not completed until 1511, under architect Matěj Rejsek.  After the lost Battle of White Mountain (1620) began the era of harsh recatholicisation (part of the Counter-Reformation). Consequently, the sculptures of "heretic king" George of Poděbrady and the chalice were removed in 1626 and replaced by a sculpture of the Virgin Mary, with a giant halo made from by melting down the chalice. In 1679 the church was struck by lightning, and the subsequent fire heavily damaged the old vault, which was later replaced by a lower Baroque vault.  Renovation works carried out in 1876–1895 were later reversed during extensive exterior renovation works in the years 1973–1995. Interior renovation is still in progress.

Design.

The northern portal is a wonderful example of Gothic sculpture from the Parler workshop, with a relief depicting the Crucifixion. The main entrance is located on the church's western face, through a narrow passage between the houses in front of the church.

Architecture.

The strikingly vertical, basilically arranged three-aisled Gothic church contains a pair of Gothic prismatic towers in the west. In the east, the church is terminated by a short presbytery of one rectangular field, polygonal closed by four sides of the octagon. The side aisles are finished with deep polygonal chapels with five sides of the octagon. The side aisles are vaulted with five cross-ribbed vaults on an almost square floor plan, which is joined by one cross rib vault in the tower. The nave and the presbytery are then vaulted by six rectangular, wide-ranging fields of compressed Baroque arches with triangular sections. The side aisles have retained the original Gothic ribbed vault. The church is illuminated by a number of cantilevered Gothic windows with stone tracery. The church is accessible by four Gothic portals. The northern portal has a relief in the tympanum depicting three scenes from Christ’s Passion in multi- figured compositions. High-quality sculptural work is one of the most important monuments of Gothic sculpture of the pre- Hussite period in our country. The pair of towers is topped with richly decorated cantilevered Late Gothic octagonal helmets, which are complemented by a gallery, four corner turrets, and even more brilliantly halfway through another four decorative turrets. There is a Gothic gable containing the Baroque relief of the Madonna, that is surrounded by richly decorated rows of finials, in between the towers.

Furnishing.

Gothic.

The original medieval furnishing have been preserved in the interior:

Baroque.

The church’s furniture is mostly Baroque. The Baroque furnishings, made by woodcarvings of early Baroque altars, are eye catching as well as the valuable pipe organ by Jan J. Mundt from 1670-1673 that is one of the three oldest preserved pipe organs in Prague. From 1691, the musicologist Tomáš Baltazar Janovka worked there as organist for fifty years. The main altar from 1649 with a titular painting of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is also very valuable. The painting was by one of the prominent Czech Baroque artist, Karel Škréta, the painter of several other side altar canvases. In the church can be found works of other Baroque masters: sculptors Jan Jiří Bendl and Ignác František Weiss (altar sculptures), Jan Heidelberger (sculpture of St. Francis de Paul in the northern nave), painters M. Strasser (Finding the Holy Cross, moved from the main altar), Jan Jiří Heinsch (the painting of St. Joseph in the north aisle, the altarpiece of the Family Tree Of Jesse), Michael Václav Halbax (the painting of Saints Crispin and Crispinian), Petr Brandl (The arrival of St. Wenceslas at the Reichstag). From the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, an exceptionally interesting collection of carved tombstones and epitaphs has been preserved, including the 1601 tombstone of astronomer Tycho Brahe, which is located at the first southern pillar of the nave.

The Church of Mother of God before Týn (in Czech "Kostel Matky Boží před Týnem", also "Týnský chrám" ("Týn Church") or just "Týn"), often translated as Church of Our Lady before Týn, is a Gothic church and a dominant feature of the Old Town of Prague, Czech Republic. It has been the main church of this part of the city since the 14th century. The church's two towers are 80 m high, and each tower's spire is topped by eight smaller spires in two layers of four.


Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1808–1877)

Youth.

Princess Marie was the eldest daughter of Prince, and later Grand Duke, Charles Frederick of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, who was the sister of Emperor Alexander I of Russia. Her father was a shy man, whose favourite reading material were fairy tales until the end of his life. Her mother, by contrast, was "one of the most significant women of her time", according to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Marie and her younger sister Augusta, who became German Empress, received a comprehensive education, which focused on the courtly ceremonial duties they were to have as adults. This education included painting lessons by the court painter Louise Seidler and music lessons by the court conductor Johann Nepomuk Hummel.  Marie grew up at the court in Weimar, which was considered one of the most liberal in Germany. Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach adopted a constitution in 1816. The court was very receptive towards literature and other art forms, due to the influence of the late Duchess Anna Amalia, who had died in 1807. Goethe had been managing the court theater in Weimar until 1817 and remained a welcome guest at the ducal court afterwards.  Marie's grandfather, Duke Charles August was raised to "Grand Duke" in 1815, due to the influence of the Tsar and his own attitude at the Congress of Vienna. This allowed Marie to use the style "Royal Highness". Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach also achieved a considerable territorial expansion during the Congress of Vienna.

Marriage.

Negotiating a marriage.

Marie was 16 years old when she first met her future husband, Prince Charles of Prussia, in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1824. He was the third son of King Frederick William III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and her two daughters were travelling to Russia and had arranged to meet her brother, Grand Duke, and later Tsar, Nicholas, and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna in Frankfurt. When they arrived in Frankfurt, they were welcomed by Prince Charles and his brother William I.  King Frederick William III was in favour of Charles marrying Marie and immediately contacted the courts in Saint Petersburg and Weimar to negotiate a marriage arrangement. At the time, Maria Feodorovna, the mother of the Tsar, was still the authority in family matters. Neither she, nor Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, gave the response that Frederick William III had hoped for. Both courts were hoping that Marie could marry an heir to the throne, albeit a throne of a smaller country. The third son of a king was not quite what they had in mind.  The Russians proposed that Marie could marry William and his younger brother Charles would marry her younger sister Augusta. This would be a better fit in terms of age and would certainly satisfy the court in Weimar, and William liked Marie more than he did Augusta. Frederick William III, however, saw nothing in this proposal, which completely ignored the feelings of his sons.  Things were further complicated by William's being in love with Princess Elisa Radziwill. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna tried to defame "Ms. Radziwiłł" with every means available. Outwardly, she did not want to base her daughter's marriage on the ruins of William's happiness. She hoped that William would marry Elisa morganatically, not have a legitimate heir, and the Prussian throne would be inherited by the heirs of Charles and Marie. So she would not actually have been very happy if William were to break off his relationship with Elisa and marry a lady of his own rank and have legitimate heirs. An ally in her quest to paint Elisa as lower nobility was Grand Duke George of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, brother of Charles and William's late mother Queen Louise.  Negotiations had already lasted more than two years when Maria Feodorovna managed to persuade her daughter to agree to a marriage between Charles and Marie, without putting any conditions on William.

Two marriages.

On 26 May 1827, Princess Marie married Prince Charles of Prussia in Charlottenburg (now part of Berlin). Their son, Frederich Charles, was born 10 months later. Marie's sister Augusta and Charles' brother Wilhelm (William) gave in to dynastic pressure and married two years later. Their marriage, however, was complex and privately happy one. William regarded his wife as an "outstanding personality", but also as less charming than her older sister; he wrote "the Princess is nice and clever, but she leaves me cold.". Augusta, on the other hand, did at first like her husband and was full of hope for a happy marriage. She was aware of his unrequited love of Elisa Radziwiłł, but she was able to replace her in ways.

Issue.

Charles and Marie had three children:

Court life.

Marie's younger sister Augusta was married to the then Crown Prince Wilhelm (William) of Prussia. Marie consequently had lower status, being married to a mere Prince. She and her husband always resented their inferior position at court. While Charles took out his frustrations on womanizing and political schemes, Marie vied with Augusta over clothes, wigs, and jewels. Charles and Marie ran a fashionable household, surrounding themselves with high society, unlike the sober Wilhelm and intellectual Augusta.  Marie loathed both her sister and her successor Victoria, Princess Royal (married to the then Crown Prince Frederick). As Victoria was British, most of the vehemently anti-British court was in agreement with Marie that it would have been better had the marriage never occurred. In one letter, Victoria wrote her mother Queen Victoria stating that she overheard Marie being told by her sister-in-law the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin how "she never ceased regretting that there is an Englishwoman in the family".

Life in Berlin and Glienicke.

From 1829, the young family lived in their winter residence "Prince Charles Palace" at Wilhelmplatz No. 8–9 in Berlin, which had been rebuilt according to a design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.  In 1824, Prince Charles had purchased a country house in today's "Volkspark Glienicke". Between 1824 and 1826, it was rebuilt by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and became Glienicke Palace. This was Charles' and Marie's favourite residence. They added a casino, and the, which was decorated with antique mosaics from Carthage. In 1835, the rotunda was added and, in the following years, the park was extended.  In 1859, Charles purchased Jagdschloss Glienicke for his son Frederick Charles.

Second Schleswig War.

On 7 December 1865, King William I appointed Princess Marie as Royal Colonel of the First Westphalian Field Regiment No. 7, in recognition of the regiment's achievements during the Second Schleswig War, against Denmark in 1864. Her son Frederick Charles was a General of the cavalry during this war and had commanded the Prussian troops during the decisive Battle of Dybbøl.

Death.

Marie died on 18 January 1877 in Berlin, at the age of 69. Her husband had a vault constructed under the church of Ss. Peter and Paul in the Glienicke park. On his own death in 1883, he was buried beside her.

Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (3 February 1808 in Weimar – 18 January 1877 in Berlin) was a princess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, by birth, and, by marriage, a princess of Prussia. She was the daughter of Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia.


Family and early life.

Born at in Neuwied, she was the daughter of Hermann, Prince of Wied, and his wife Princess Marie of Nassau.  Elisabeth had artistic leanings; her childhood featured seances and visits to the local asylum for the mentally ill.

Marriage.

As a young girl, sixteen-year-old Elisabeth was considered as a possible bride for the heir apparent to the British throne, the future King Edward VII. His mother, Queen Victoria, strongly favored her as a prospective daughter-in-law, and urged her daughter Victoria to look further into her. Elisabeth was spending the social season at the Berlin court, where her family hoped she would be tamed into a docile, marriageable princess. Vicky responded, "I do not think her at all distinguée looking—certainly the opposite to Bertie's usual taste", whereas the tall and slender Alexandra of Denmark was "just the style Bertie admires". Bertie was also shown photographs of Elisabeth, but professed himself unmoved and declined to give them a second glance. In the end, Alexandra was selected for Bertie.  Elisabeth first met Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in Berlin in 1861. In 1869, Karl, who was now Prince Carol of Romania, traveled to Germany in search of a suitable consort. He was reunited with Elisabeth, and the two were married on 15 November 1869 in Neuwied. Their only child, a daughter, Maria, died in 1874 at age three — an event from which Elisabeth never recovered. She was crowned Queen of Romania in 1881 after Romania was proclaimed a kingdom.  In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, also known as the Romanian War of Independence, she devoted herself to the care of the wounded, and founded the Decoration of the Cross of Queen Elisabeth to reward distinguished service in such work. She fostered the higher education of women in Romania, and established societies for various charitable objects. She was the 835th Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa. She died at Curtea de Argeș or Bucharest. She founded the National Society for the Blind and was the first royal patron of the Romanian Red Cross.  Early distinguished by her excellence as a pianist, organist and singer, she also showed considerable ability in painting and illuminating; but a lively poetic imagination led her to the path of literature, and more especially to poetry, folk-lore and ballads. In addition to numerous original works she put into literary form many of the legends current among the Romanian peasantry.

Literary activity.

As "Carmen Sylva", she wrote with facility in German, Romanian, French and English. A few of her voluminous writings, which include poems, plays, novels, short stories, essays, collections of aphorisms, etc., may be singled out for special mention:  Several of the works of "Carmen Sylva" were written in collaboration with Mite Kremnitz, one of her maids of honor; these were published between 1881 and 1888, in some cases under the pseudonyms Dito et Idem. These include:  Among the translations made by "Carmen Sylva" include:  "The Bard of the Dimbovitza" was first published in 1891, and was soon reissued and expanded. Translations from the original works of "Carmen Sylva" have appeared in all the principal languages of Europe and in Armenian.

Văcărescu Affair.

In 1881, due to the lack of heirs to the Romanian throne, King Carol I adopted his nephew, Ferdinand. Ferdinand, a complete stranger in his new home, started to get close to one of Elisabeth's ladies in waiting, Elena Văcărescu. Elisabeth, very close to Elena herself, encouraged the romance, although she was perfectly aware of the fact that a marriage between the two was forbidden by the Romanian constitution.  The result of this was the exile of both Elisabeth (in Neuwied) and Elena (in Paris), as well as a trip by Ferdinand through Europe in search of a suitable bride, whom he eventually found in Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Marie of Edinburgh. The affair helped reinforce Elisabeth's image as a dreamer and eccentric.  Quite unusually for a queen, Elisabeth of Wied was personally of the opinion that a republican form of government was preferable to monarchy—an opinion which she expressed forthrightly in her diary, though she did not make it public at the time:I must sympathize with the Social Democrats, especially in view of the inaction and corruption of the nobles. These "little people", after all, want only what nature confers: equality. The Republican form of government is the only rational one. I can never understand the foolish people, the fact that they continue to tolerate us.

Pauline Elisabeth Ottilie Luise of Wied (29 December 18432 March 1916) was the Queen of Romania as the wife of King Carol I, widely known by her literary name of Carmen Sylva.


League business.

NHL player transfer.

KHL teams signed several players from the NHL, including Jaromír Jágr, Alexander Radulov, Ray Emery, Sergei Brylin, Ladislav Nagy, Jozef Stümpel, Marcel Hossa, Ben Clymer, Alexei Zhitnik, Bryan Berard and Chris Simon.

Dispute.

A dispute between the two leagues over some of these signings was supposed to have been resolved by an agreement signed on July 10, whereby each league would honor the contracts of the other, but the signing of Alexander Radulov was made public one day after the agreement (though it was actually signed two days prior to the agreement taking effect), leading to an investigation by the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Finances.

Ownership.

On a deal dated October 30, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works bought 11.76% of the KHL.

Salary cap.

The league has implemented a salary cap.

Economic trouble.

Metallurg Novokuznetsk has so far experienced difficulty financing its operations, largely due to the global financial crisis of 2008. Team sponsor Evraz Group is rumoured to be cutting funding. There is a possibility the team will cease operations by New Years.  HC MVD has experienced delays in paying players, while Khimik Voskresensk has run itself into debt. Metallurg Magnitogorsk has been forced to cut staff expenditures by 30%. Avangard Omsk owner Roman Abramovich has promised to continue financial support so long as the team maintains good results. Other teams experiencing financial limitations are Vityaz Chekhov, Atlant Moscow Oblast, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, HC CSKA Moscow.  As far as the league is concerned it has devised a "crisis package" for dealing with the economic turmoil. Cuts will be made to non-salary expenditures, such as pre-game activity, training camps, and elimination of pre-season tournaments. Mid-level player salaries may also be rolled back. Divisional re-alignment will also take place for the 2009–10 season to cut down on travel costs.

Inaugural All-Star Game.

The inaugural KHL All-Star Game took place on January 10, 2009. Each team consisted of ten forwards, five defensemen, and two goaltenders. The starting rosters were voted upon on the KHL.ru website and decided by December 22. The secondary lines and goaltenders were to be voted upon by the media, and announced December 26, with the following players and reserves announced by January 8. The game took place in Moscow's Red Square, with Team Jágr (International All-Stars) defeating Team Yashin (Russian All-Stars) 7–6.

Regular season.

Death of Alexei Cherepanov.

On October 13, 2008 during a match between Avangard Omsk and Vityaz Chekhov, forward Alexei Cherepanov died due to a heart condition.  On December 29, 2008, Russian investigators revealed that he suffered from myocarditis, a condition where not enough blood gets to the heart, and that he should not have been playing professional hockey. The federal Investigative Committee also announced that a chemical analysis of Cherepanov's blood and urine samples allowed experts to conclude "that for several months Alexei Cherepanov engaged in doping". Official sources have stated the banned substance taken was nikethamide, a stimulant, and that it had been taken 3 hours prior to the game in which he died.  Omsk club director Mikhail Denisov has since been fired, whereas the league Disciplinary Committee has since removed Omsk's doctors from that role with the club, and has suspended Avangard general manager Anatoly Bardin and team president Konstantin Potapov. The KHL Disciplinary Committee met on this matter on January 5, and also suspended Chekhov's team president.

League standings.

Final standings.  Points have been awarded as follows:

Scoring leaders.

Playoffs.

Playoff leaders.

Goaltenders: minimum 5 games played

Scoring leaders.

Source: khl.ru "GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/– = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalty minutes"

Leading goaltenders.

Source: khl.ru</small> "GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average"

Awards.

Players of the Month.

Best KHL players of each month.

KHL Awards.

On 15 May 2009, the KHL held their first award ceremony. A total of 23 different awards were handed out to teams, players, officials and media. The most important trophies are listed in the table below.

The 2008–09 KHL season was the inaugural season of the Kontinental Hockey League. It started on September 2, 2008, and finished on April 12, 2009. 24 teams each played 56 games.


Biography.

Ondra started climbing at the age of six; his parents are climbers and they shared their passion with him.  In 1999 (at age six) at Rovinj in Croatia Ondra easily climbed a route with bolts every half meter. Soon he became famous in climbing magazines, as his achievements quickly grew more and more notable:  In 2007 and 2008 he won the IFSC Youth World Championship, category Youth B.  In 2009, at age sixteen, Ondra competed for the first time in the Lead Climbing World Cup, winning ahead of Spanish Patxi Usobiaga and Japanese Sachi Amma.  In 2010, he also won the Bouldering World Cup, ahead of Austrian Kilian Fischhuber and Japanese Tsukuru Hori, and becoming the first athlete in history to win both the disciplines (lead and bouldering).  On March 2011, during a trip in Spain, Ondra became the second person ever to have onsighted after Patxi Usobiaga. In only a few days he onsighted five routes (two of which were on the same day).  On October 4, 2012, Ondra redpointed "Change", in the Hanshelleren Cave, Flatanger, Norway. It was the first route to receive a proposed grade of.  On October 29, 2012, Ondra flashed one of the Red River Gorge's hardest routes, "Southern Smoke Direct", suggesting the grade of. On November 1, he onsighted "Pure Imagination" and "The Golden Ticket", both 9a, suggesting the grade of 8c+.  On February 7, 2013, Ondra sent "La Dura Dura", in Oliana, Catalonia, Spain, his second after "Change". He worked on this project with Chris Sharma and the first ascent took Ondra nine weeks of work.  On February 9, 2013, just two days after "La Dura Dura", Ondra succeeded in the second ascent of the "Fight or flight", first climbed by Sharma in 2011.  On July 9, 2013, Ondra realized the second onsight in history after Alexander Megos, with the ascent of "Cabane au Canada" in Rawyl, Switzerland.  On November 21, 2016, Ondra completed the second free ascent of "The Dawn Wall", a multi-pitch route at "El Capitan" in Yosemite Valley, California. The route is widely regarded as the hardest big wall in the world. Ondra was also the first person to lead every pitch. The first free ascent was completed by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson in January 2015. They needed 19 days to complete the route (after 5 years to learn the moves), while Ondra needed only 8 days (after 3 weeks to learn the moves).  On April 23, 2017, he set a new highpoint of the Black Diamond Project in Stockholm, Sweden believed to be the hardest indoor sport route in the world.  On September 3, 2017, after about 4 years of trials, Ondra climbed "Silence", in the Hanshelleren Cave (Flatanger, Norway). At that point, the route was unclimbed and widely considered to be the most difficult project in the world, together with "Le blond", a route which is still unclimbed, bolted by Chris Sharma in Oliana (ESP). "Silence" was the first route to receive a proposed grade of. The route was previously known as "Project Hard".  On February 10, 2018, Ondra realized the first flash of a confirmed 9a+ route with his ascent of "Super Crackinette" in Saint-Léger du Ventoux, France. The route was first climbed by Alexander Megos after 3 days of work in 2016.  On November 12, 2018, Ondra onsighted "Just do it" (Smith Rock, Oregon, USA), a historic 8c+ route bolted by Alan Watts in 1989 and first ascended in 1992 by Jean-Baptiste Tribout. At that time, "Just do it" was considered the hardest route in the USA. It is a long slab (140 feet, 18 bolts) with many tricky moves and small holds hardly visible from the ground. This kind of classic route is considered to be particularly difficult to onsight, by both Adam Ondra and Alan Watts.  As of 2019, Ondra is working towards qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics. He failed to qualify at the 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships as he was disqualified for accidentally toeing a bolt during the lead climbing portion of the combined event. However, at the olympic qualifying event in Toulouse later that year, he managed to secure his selection for the olympic games even though he fell ill after making it through to the finals of the event.

Rankings.

Climbing World Championships.

Youth Adult

Single-pitch routes.

The table below shows the large number of routes graded or more ascended by Adam Ondra in about 16 years, from August 2, 2002 (when he redpointed his first 8a) to November 10, 2018. The total number is 1554, of which 1 was at and 725 were onsighted, including 3 onsights at and 1 flash at.

Boulder problems.

Ondra won the bouldering gathering Melloblocco in 2008, 2009 2010 and 2011.  He climbed 293 boulder problems between and. Namely:

Adam Ondra (born February 5, 1993) is a Czech professional rock climber, specializing in lead climbing and bouldering. Described in 2013 as a prodigy and the leading climber of his generation, Ondra is the only male athlete to have won World Championship titles in both disciplines in the same year (2014). He holds an analogous record in the World Cup, being the only male athlete to have won the World Cup series in both disciplines (lead climbing in 2009, 2015 and 2019, and bouldering in 2010).


Details.

If one imagines the light confined to a two-dimensional plane, the light from the flash spreads out in a circle after the event E occurs, and if we graph the growing circle with the vertical axis of the graph representing time, the result is a cone, known as the future light cone. The past light cone behaves like the future light cone in reverse, a circle which contracts in radius at the speed of light until it converges to a point at the exact position and time of the event E. In reality, there are three space dimensions, so the light would actually form an expanding or contracting sphere in three-dimensional (3D) space rather than a circle in 2D, and the light cone would actually be a four-dimensional version of a cone whose cross-sections form 3D spheres (analogous to a normal three-dimensional cone whose cross-sections form 2D circles), but the concept is easier to visualize with the number of spatial dimensions reduced from three to two.  This view of special relativity was first proposed by Albert Einstein's former professor Hermann Minkowski and is known as Minkowski space. The purpose was to create an invariant spacetime for all observers. To uphold causality, Minkowski restricted spacetime to non-Euclidean hyperbolic geometry.  Because signals and other causal influences cannot travel faster than light (see special relativity), the light cone plays an essential role in defining the concept of causality: for a given event E, the set of events that lie on or inside the past light cone of E would also be the set of all events that could send a signal that would have time to reach E and influence it in some way. For example, at a time ten years before E, if we consider the set of all events in the past light cone of E which occur at that time, the result would be a sphere (2D: disk) with a radius of ten light-years centered on the position where E will occur. So, any point on or inside the sphere could send a signal moving at the speed of light or slower that would have time to influence the event E, while points outside the sphere at that moment would not be able to have any causal influence on E. Likewise, the set of events that lie on or inside the "future" light cone of E would also be the set of events that could receive a signal sent out from the position and time of E, so the future light cone contains all the events that could potentially be causally influenced by E. Events which lie neither in the past or future light cone of E cannot influence or be influenced by E in relativity.

Mathematical construction.

In special relativity, a light cone (or null cone) is the surface describing the temporal evolution of a flash of light in Minkowski spacetime. This can be visualized in 3-space if the two horizontal axes are chosen to be spatial dimensions, while the vertical axis is time.  The light cone is constructed as follows. Taking as event "p" a flash of light (light pulse) at time "t", all events that can be reached by this pulse from "p" form the future light cone of "p", while those events that can send a light pulse to "p" form the past light cone of "p".  Given an event "E", the light cone classifies all events in spacetime into 5 distinct categories:  The above classifications hold true in any frame of reference; that is, an event judged to be in the light cone by one observer, will also be judged to be in the same light cone by all other observers, no matter their frame of reference. This is why the concept is so powerful.  The above refers to an event occurring at a specific location and at a specific time. To say that one event cannot affect another means that light cannot get from the location of one to the other "in a given amount of time". Light from each event will ultimately make it to the "former" location of the other, but "after" those events have occurred.  As time progresses, the future light cone of a given event will eventually grow to encompass more and more locations (in other words, the 3D sphere that represents the cross-section of the 4D light cone at a particular moment in time becomes larger at later times). However, if we imagine running time backwards from a given event, the event's past light cone would likewise encompass more and more locations at earlier and earlier times. The farther locations will be at later times: for example, if we are considering the past light cone of an event which takes place on Earth today, a star 10,000 light years away would only be inside the past light cone at times 10,000 years or more in the past. The past light cone of an event on present-day Earth, at its very edges, includes very distant objects (every object in the observable universe), but only as they looked long ago, when the Universe was young.  Two events at different locations, at the same time (according to a specific frame of reference), are always outside each other's past and future light cones; light cannot travel instantaneously. Other observers might see the events happening at different times and at different locations, but one way or another, the two events will likewise be seen to be outside each other's cones.  If using a system of units where the speed of light in vacuum is defined as exactly 1, for example if space is measured in light-seconds and time is measured in seconds, then, provided the time axis is drawn orthogonally to the spatial axes, as the cone bisects the time and space axes, it will show a slope of 45°, because light travels a distance of one light-second in vacuum during one second. Since special relativity requires the speed of light to be equal in every inertial frame, all observers must arrive at the same angle of 45° for their light cones. Commonly a Minkowski diagram is used to illustrate this property of Lorentz transformations. Elsewhere, an integral part of light cones is the region of spacetime outside the light cone at a given event (a point in spacetime). Events that are elsewhere from each other are mutually unobservable, and cannot be causally connected.

In general relativity.

In flat spacetime, the future light cone of an event is the boundary of its causal future and its past light cone is the boundary of its causal past.  In a curved spacetime, assuming spacetime is globally hyperbolic, it is still true that the future light cone of an event includes the boundary of its causal future (and similarly for the past). However gravitational lensing can cause part of the light cone to fold in on itself, in such a way that part of the cone is strictly inside the causal future (or past), and not on the boundary.  Light cones also cannot all be tilted so that they are 'parallel'; this reflects the fact that the spacetime is curved and is essentially different from Minkowski space. In vacuum regions (those points of spacetime free of matter), this inability to tilt all the light cones so that they are all parallel is reflected in the non-vanishing of the Weyl tensor.

In special and general relativity, a light cone is the path that a flash of light, emanating from a single event (localized to a single point in space and a single moment in time) and traveling in all directions, would take through spacetime.


History.

The Saint Petersburg architect Thomas de Thomon designed the first opera theatre, it opened on 10 February 1810. This last theatre is in almost exactly the same spot as the first theatre 200 years ago. The main entrance with its colonnade faced the sea. There was no foyer.  In 1831, Michael Vorontsov, governor-general of Russian empire, Novorossia kray (currently part of Ukraine) decided to assign the old instituted quarantine fees to the Odessa Theatre. Historian Charles King explains that one of the medical inspectors in Odessa was also the owner of the Odessa Theatre. When ticket sales were low, he would announce the discovery of an infection among newly arrived passengers and ordered them to be quarantined at their own cost. The expenses of the lazaretto, where the passengers that stayed would be used to hire a major performer for the theatre.  On the night of 2 January 1873, the building was gutted by fire.  A fund raising campaign began immediately. The city announced an international contest for the best theatre design. Forty designs were submitted, but none was chosen. Finally, the project was drafted along the lines of Dresden Semperoper built in 1878, with its nontraditional foyer following the curvatures of auditorium.  Two Viennese architects, Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer began to construct the larger replacement in 1883. The foundation stone was laid on 16 September 1884. On 1 October 1887 the theatre was completed, costing 1,300,000 rubles to build. It was named the Odessa City Theatre.  The theatre was the first building in Odessa to employ the Edison Company with electric illumination.  To keep theatre patrons comfortable in the summers, workers would lower waggonloads of ice and straw down a 35-foot shaft, then would carry it through a tunnel to a basement beneath the hall, where cool air rose up from vents beneath the seats.  In 1925, the building was burnt again in a fire. Fire team localized the burning, but the stage and orchestra pit were destroyed. During the fire of 1925, original curtain of the theater stage burned, which was never restored.  There is a story that, when the Odessa people learned that the construction cost 1.3 million gold rubles, they gasped, but when they saw the new theatre, they gasped again, this time in admiration.  In August 1941, when the Romanian army was dangerously close to Odessa, the command of the Odessa defensive area appointed a special anti-aircraft unit, which was given the task of protecting the theater building from bombing. On the roofs of the houses adjacent to the theater, guns were installed that shot all 73 days of the city defending. During World War II, Nikita Khrushchev, concerned about the condition of the city, visited Odessa immediately after it was liberated. Khrushchev reported that only one corner of the building had been damaged by an enemy shell.  The theatre was remodelled in the 1960s.  The theatre sits upon shifting ground and is in danger of collapse. The first cracks in the foundation appeared almost as soon as the theatre opened. The theatre's eastern half sagged almost seven inches in its first three years, and the six walls began to tilt. Gleb Dranov, a former opera singer who sang at the theatre for 25 years, and who worked five years as a geologist, is helping repair the building.

Construction.

The building's façade is decorated in the Italian baroque style. In the niches are the busts of Mikhail Glinka, Nikolai Gogol, Alexandr Griboyedov and Alexander Pushkin. The large hall was modelled after the style of Louis XVI, and is richly decorated with gilded stucco figures and designs. The architects provided the foyer with twenty-four exits, to avoid tragedy in the case of a fire. On the side of the theatre is a lawn with fresh flowers and shrubs.

People.

The famous Russian singer Feodor Chaliapin gave many concerts at the Odessa Opera.

References.

Notes

The Odessa National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet () is the oldest theatre in Odessa, Ukraine. The Theatre and the Potemkin Stairs are the most famous edifices in Odessa.


Early life.

McCullin grew up in Finsbury Park, North London, but he was evacuated to a farm in Somerset during the Blitz. He is slightly dyslexic but displayed a talent for drawing at the Secondary Modern School he attended. He won a scholarship to Hammersmith School of Arts and Crafts but, following the death of his father, he left school at the age of 15, without qualifications, for a catering job on the railways. He was then called up for National Service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1953.

Photojournalism.

During McCullin's period of National Service in the RAF he was posted to the Canal Zone during the 1956 Suez Crisis, where he worked as a photographer's assistant. He failed the written theory paper to become a photographer in the RAF and spent his service in the darkroom. During this period McCullin bought his first camera, a Rolleicord for £30 when stationed in Nairobi, Kenya. On return to Britain, shortage of funds led to his pawning the camera and his mother used her money to redeem the pledge.  In 1958 he took a photograph of a local London gang posing in a bombed out building. He was persuaded by his colleagues to take his photograph of "The Guvnors", as the gang was known, to "The Observer", who published it, setting him on his path as a photographer. Between 1966 and 1984, he worked as an overseas correspondent for the "Sunday Times Magazine", recording ecological and man-made catastrophes such as wars, amongst them Biafra in 1968, and victims of the African AIDS epidemic. His hard-hitting coverage of the Vietnam War and the Northern Ireland conflict is particularly highly regarded.  He also took the photographs of Maryon Park in London which were used in Michelangelo Antonioni's film "Blowup", In 1968, his Nikon camera stopped a bullet intended for him. Also in 1968, on 28 July, he was invited to photograph the Beatles, then at the height of their fame and in the midst of recording "The White Album". These sessions, made at several London locations, have become known as "The Mad Day Out". They contain many well known images of the band, including the gatefold sleeve picture from the Red and Blue compilations, where the Beatles mingled with the crowd seen through railings. The photographs from this day were published in the 2010 book "A Day in the Life of the Beatles".  In 1982 the British Government refused to grant McCullin a press pass to cover the Falklands War, claiming the boat was full. At the time he believed it was because the Thatcher government felt his images might be too disturbing politically.  He is the author of a number of books, including "The Palestinians" (with Jonathan Dimbleby, 1980), "Beirut: A City in Crisis" (1983) and "Don McCullin in Africa" (2005). His book, "Shaped by War" (2010) was published to accompany a retrospective exhibition at the Imperial War Museum North, Salford, England in 2010 and then at the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath and the Imperial War Museum, London. His most recent publication is "Southern Frontiers: A Journey Across the Roman Empire", a poetic and contemplative study of selected Roman and pre-Roman ruins in North Africa and the Middle East.  In 2012, a documentary film of his life titled "McCullin" and directed by David Morris and Jacqui Morris was released. The film was nominated for two BAFTA awards. In later years, McCullin has turned to landscape, still-life works and commissioned portraits. In November 2015 McCullin was named the Photo London Master of Photography for 2016, at the launch of "Photo London", an art fair due to open at Somerset House in May 2016. A special exhibition dedicated to his work is to be commissioned. When asked about the rise of digital photography, he said: "Digital photography can be a totally lying experience – you can move what you want, the whole thing can’t be trusted really".  Filmed in February 2018 and broadcast the following May, the BBC Four documentary "The Road To Palmyra" saw McCullin visit Syria with historian Dan Cruickshank to see the devastation left by the conflict on the UNESCO listed site of Palmyra. Discussing his trip with the "Radio Times" he spoke of his approach to entering war zones: "I have risked my life endless times, and ended up in hospital with all kinds of burns and shell wounds. I have those reptile eyes that see behind and in front of me. I’m constantly trying to stay alive. I’m aware of warfare, of hidden mines."  Despite his reputation as a war photographer, McCullin has said that Alfred Stieglitz was a key influence on his work.

Personal life.

Living in Somerset, he is married and has five children from his marriages.

Collections.

McCullin's work is held in the following permanent collection:

Sir Donald McCullin, CBE, Hon FRPS (born 9 October 1935), is a British photojournalist, particularly recognized for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialised in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and the impoverished.


Early life.

Atkins was born in Tunbridge, Kent, England in 1799. Her mother, Hester Anne Children, "didn't recover from the effects of childbirth" and died in 1800. Anna was close to her father John George Children, a renowned chemist, mineralogist, and zoologist. Anna "received an unusually scientific education for a woman of her time." Her detailed engravings of shells were used to illustrate her father's translation of Lamarck's "Genera of Shells".  In 1825 she married John Pelly Atkins, a London West India merchant, and moved to Halstead Place, the Atkins family home in Halstead, near Sevenoaks, Kent. They had no children. Atkins pursued her interests in botany by collecting dried plants, which were probably used as photograms later. She was elected a member of the London Botanical Society in 1839.

Photography.

John George Children and John Pelly Atkins were friends of William Henry Fox Talbot. Anna Atkins learned directly from Talbot about two of his inventions related to photography: the "photogenic drawing" technique (in which an object is placed on light-sensitized paper which is exposed to the sun to produce an image) and calotypes.  Atkins was known to have had access to a camera by 1841. Some sources claim that Atkins was the first female photographer. Other sources name Constance Fox Talbot as the first female photographer. As no camera-based photographs by Anna Atkins nor any photographs by Constance Talbot survive, the issue may never be resolved.

"Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions".

Sir John Herschel, a friend of Atkins and Children, invented the cyanotype photographic process in 1842. Within a year, Atkins applied the process to algae (specifically, seaweed) by making cyanotype photograms that were contact printed "by placing the unmounted dried-algae original directly on the cyanotype paper". Atkins self-published her photograms in the first installment of "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions" in October 1843. She planned to provide illustrations to William Harvey’s Manual of British Algae which had been published in 1841. Although privately published, with a limited number of copies, and with handwritten text, "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions" is considered the first book illustrated with photographic images.  Eight months later, in June 1844, the first fascicle of William Henry Fox Talbot's "The Pencil of Nature" was released; that book was the "first photographically illustrated book to be commercially published" or "the first commercially published book illustrated with photographs".  Atkins produced a total of three volumes of "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions" between 1843 and 1853. Only 17 copies of the book are known to exist, in various states of completeness. Copies are now held by the following institutions, among others:  Because of the book's rarity and historical importance, it is quite expensive. One copy of the book with 411 plates in three volumes sold for £133,500 at auction in 1996. Another copy with 382 prints in two volumes which was owned by scientist Robert Hunt (1807–1887) sold for £229,250 at auction in 2004.  In 2018, the New York Public Library opened an exhibition on Atkins' life and work, featuring various versions of "Photographs of British Algae".

Later life and work.

In addition to "Photographs of British Algae", Atkins published five fictional novels between 1852 and 1863. These included "The Perils of Fashion", "Murder will Out: a story of real life", and "A Page from the Peerage".  In the 1850s, Atkins collaborated with Anne Dixon (1799–1864), who was "like a sister" to her, to produce at least three presentation albums of cyanotype photograms:  Atkins retained the algae, ferns and other plants that she used in her work and in 1865 donated the collection to the British Museum.  She died at Halstead Place in 1871 of "paralysis, rheumatism, and exhaustion" at the age of 72.

In popular culture.

On 16 March 2015, Internet search engine Google commemorated Atkins's 216th birthday by placing a Google Doodle image of bluish leaf shapes on a darker background on its search page to represent her cyanoprint work.  Atkins work was a major feature in the "New Realities Photography in the Nineteenth Century" exhibition held in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, June – September 2017.

Anna Atkins (née Children; 16 March 1799 – 9 June 1871) was an English botanist and photographer. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images. Some sources claim that she was the first woman to create a photograph.


History.

Safdie's design for Habitat 67 began as a thesis project for his architecture program at McGill University. It was "highly recognized" at the institution, though Safdie cites its failure to win the Pilkington Prize, an award for the best thesis at Canadian schools of architecture, as early evidence of its controversial nature. After leaving to work with Louis Kahn in Philadelphia, Safdie was approached by Sandy van Ginkel, his former thesis advisor, to develop the master plan for Expo 67, the world's fair that was set to take place in Montreal during 1967. Safdie decided to propose his thesis as one of the pavilions and began developing his plan. After the plans were approved in Ottawa by Mitchell Sharp, the federal cabinet minister responsible for the exhibition, and Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, Safdie was given the blessing of the Expo 67 Director of Installations, Edward Churchill, to leave the planning committee in order to work on the building project as an independent architect. Safdie was awarded the project in spite of his relative youth and inexperience, an opportunity he later described as "a fairy tale, an amazing fairy tale."  The development was financed by the federal government, but is now owned by its tenants, who formed a limited partnership that purchased the building from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in 1985. Safdie still owns a penthouse apartment in the building.  Safdie's penthouse as well as a tour of a building are available via guided tours.

Concept and design.

Habitat 67 comprises 354 identical, prefabricated concrete forms arranged in various combinations, reaching up to 12 stories in height. Together these units create 146 residences of varying sizes and configurations, each formed from one to eight linked concrete units. The complex originally contained 158 apartments, but several apartments have since been joined to create larger units, reducing the total number. Each unit is connected to at least one private terrace, which can range from approximately in size.  The development was designed to integrate the benefits of suburban homes—namely gardens, fresh air, privacy, and multilevelled environments—with the economics and density of a modern urban apartment building. It was believed to illustrate the new lifestyle people would live in increasingly crowded cities around the world. Safdie's goal for the project to be affordable housing largely failed: demand for the building's units has made them more expensive than originally envisioned. In addition, the existing structure was originally meant to only be the first phase of a much larger complex, but the high per-unit cost of approximately C$140,000 (C$22,120,000 for all 158) prevented that possibility.  August Eduard Komendant (October 2, 1906 – September 14, 1992) was an Estonian-American structural engineer and a pioneer in the field of prestressed concrete. Komendant served as structural engineer for architect Moshe Safdie on the Habitat 67 project in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  The theme of Expo 67 was "Man and his World", taken from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's memoir "Terre des hommes" (literally "land of men", though it was published under the title "Wind, Sand and Stars"). Housing was also one of the main themes of Expo 67. Habitat 67 then became a thematic pavilion visited by thousands of visitors who came from around the world, and during the expo also served as the temporary residence of the many dignitaries visiting Montreal.  In March 2012, Habitat 67 won an online Lego Architecture poll and is a candidate to be added to the list of famous buildings that inspire a special replica Lego set. Lego bricks were actually used in the initial planning for Habitat; according to Safdie's firm, "initial models of the project were built using Lego bricks and subsequent iterations were also built with Lego bricks".

Legacy.

As one of the major symbols of Expo 67, which was attended by over 50 million people during the 6 months it was open, Habitat 67 gained worldwide acclaim as a "fantastic experiment" and "architectural wonder". This experiment was and is regarded as both a success and failure—it "redefined urban living" and has since become "a very successful co-op", but at the same time ultimately failed to revolutionize affordable housing or launch a wave of prefabricated, modular development as Safdie had envisioned. Despite its problems, however, Habitat's fame and success "made [Safdie's] reputation" and helped launch his career; Safdie has now designed over 75 buildings and master plans around the world.  Even now, decades after Habitat, much of Safdie's work still holds to the concepts that were so fundamental to its design, especially the themes of reimagining high-density housing and improving social integration through architecture that have become "synonymous" with his work.  In 2017, Canada Post issued a commemorative stamp for the 50th anniversary of Expo 67 featuring the structure.

HABITAT 67, or simply Habitat, is a model community and housing complex in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, designed by Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. It was originally conceived as his master's thesis in architecture at McGill University and then built as a pavilion for Expo 67, the World's Fair held from April to October 1967. It is located at 2600 Avenue Pierre-Dupuy on the Marc-Drouin Quay next to the Saint Lawrence River. Habitat 67 is widely considered an architectural landmark and one of the most recognizable buildings in both Montreal and Canada.


Excerpts of Henry's address to the jury.

I became an anarchist only recently. It was no longer ago than around mid-1891 that I threw myself into the revolutionary movement. Previously, I had lived in circles wholly permeated with the established morality. I had been accustomed to respecting and even cherishing the principles of the nation, family, authority and property.  But those educating the present generation all too often forget one thing – that life, indiscreet with its struggles and setbacks, its injustices and iniquities, sees to it that the scales are removed from the eyes of the ignorant and that they are opened to reality. Which was the case with me, as it is with everyone. I had been told that this life was easy and largely open to intelligent, vagarious people, and experience showed me that only cynics and lackeys can get a good seat at the banquet.  I had been told that society’s institutions were founded on justice and equality, and all around me I could see nothing but lies and treachery. Everyday I was disabused further. Everywhere I went, I witnessed the same pain in some, the same delights in others. It did not take me long to realize that the same great words that I had been raised to venerate: honor, devotion, duty were merely a mask hiding the most shameful turpitude.  The factory-owner amassing a huge fortune on the back of the labor of his workers who lacked everything was an upright gentleman. The deputy, the minister whose hands were forever outstretched for bribes were committed to the public good. The officer testing his new model rifle on seven-year-old children had done his duty well, and in open parliament the premier offered him his congratulation. Everything I could see turned my stomach and my mind fastened on criticism of social organization. The criticism has been voiced too often to need rehearsing by me. Suffice it say that I turned into an enemy of a society which I held to be criminal.  Momentarily attracted by socialism, I wasted no time in distancing myself from that party. My love of liberty was too great, my regard for individual initiative too great, my repudiation for feathering one’s nest too definite for me to enlist in the numbered army of the fourth estate. Also, I saw that, essentially, socialism changes the established order not one jot. It retains the authoritarian principle, and this principle, despite what supposed free-thinkers may say about it, is nothing but an ancient relic of the belief in a higher power.  (...)In the merciless war that we have declared on the bourgeoisie, we ask no mercy. We mete out death and we must face it. For that reason I await your verdict with indifference. I know that mine will not be the last head you will sever (...) You will add more names to the bloody roll call of our dead.  Hanged in Chicago, beheaded in Germany, garroted in Xerez, shot in Barcelona, guillotined in Montbrison and in Paris, our dead are many; but you have not been able to destroy anarchy. Its roots go deep: its spouts from the bosom of a rotten society that is falling apart; it is a violent backlash against the established order; it stands for the aspirations to equality and liberty which have entered the lists against the current authoritarianism. It is everywhere. That is what makes it indomitable, and it will end by defeating you and killing you.

Émile Henry (26 September 1872 in Barcelona – 21 May 1894 in Paris, France) was a French anarchist, who on 12 February 1894 detonated a bomb at the Café Terminus in the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare killing one person and wounding twenty.


Operations.

It operates the MATIF futures exchange, which trades futures and options on interest rate products and commodities, and MONEP, equity and index futures and options. All products are traded electronically on the NSC system adopted by all of the Euronext members. Transactions are cleared through LCH.Clearnet. Cash settlement is T+2. Trading hours are 9 am to 5:30 pm CET, Monday to Friday.

Structure and indices.

The French equities market is divided into three sections. The Premier Marché, formerly called the Official List, includes large French and foreign companies, and most Bond issues. The Second Marché, lists medium-sized companies, while nouveau marché lists fast-growing start up companies seeking capital to finance expansion, linked to Euro.nm, the European equity growth market. A fourth market, Marché Libre, is nonregulated, administered by Euronext Paris for transactions in securities not listed on the other three markets.  Euronext Paris calculates a family of indices. The CAC 40 is the exchange's benchmark, disseminated in real time. Its components are included in the broader SBF 120 Index, a benchmark for investment funds. The SBF 250 index, a benchmark for the long-term performance of equity portfolios, includes all of the SBF 120; it is structured by sector. The MIDCAC index includes 100 of the most liquid medium-size stocks on the Premier Marché and Nouveau Marché calculated on the basis of opening and closing prices, while the Second Marché index focuses on that market. Both indices are benchmarks for funds. The Nouveau Marché Index represents stocks in the growth market. The SBF-FCI index is based on a selection of convertible bonds that represent at least 70% of the total capitalization of this market, calculated twice daily. For derivatives, MONEP trades short-term and long-term stock options and futures and options on a family of Dow Jones indices. MATIF's products include commodity future and options on European rapeseed and futures on rapeseed meal, European rapeseed oil, milling wheat, corn and sunflower seeds; interest rate futures and options on the Euro notional bond, five-year Euro and three-month PIBOR (Paris Interbank Offered Rate), and futures on the 30-year Eurobond and two-year E-note, and index futures on the CAC 40.

Key figures.

For the fiscal year ending December 2004, Euronext Paris recorded sales of US $522 million, a −12.9% decrease in sales from 2003.  Euronext Paris has a US $2.9 trillion total market capitalization of listed companies and average daily trading value of its combined markets of approximately US $102 billion/€77 billion (as of 28 February 2007).

Euronext Paris is France's securities market, formerly known as the Paris Bourse, which merged with the Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Brussels exchanges in September 2000 to form Euronext NV, which is the second largest exchange in Europe behind the United Kingdom's London Stock Exchange Group.


Design and development.

Work began on the Model 219 in 1944, as a replacement for the PB4Y Privateer long-range patrol bomber, optimised for long range minelaying missions, with the first flight being on 20 October 1946. A large and complicated aircraft, it was powered by two Pratt & Whitney R4360 Wasp Major 28-cylinder radial engines. To give a boost during takeoff and combat, two Allison J33 turbojets were fitted in the rear of the two enlarged engine nacelles, the intakes being beneath and behind the radial engines. The jets, like those on most other piston/jet hybrids, burned gasoline instead of jet fuel which eliminated the need for separate fuel tanks.  A tricycle undercarriage was fitted, with the nosewheel retracting forwards. The single-wheel main legs retracted into coverless fairings in the wings, so that the sides of the wheels could be seen even when retracted. The wings themselves, unusually, had a different airfoil cross-section on the inner wings than the outer.  Heavy defensive armament was fitted, with two 20 mm (.79 in) cannon in an Emerson nose turret and a Martin tail turret, and two 0.5 in (12.7 mm) machine guns in a Martin dorsal turret. The bomb bay was, like British practice, long and shallow rather than the short and deep bay popular in American bombers. This gave greater flexibility in payload, including long torpedoes, bombs, mines, depth charges or extended-range fuel tanks.

Operational history.

The US Navy chose the smaller, simpler, cheaper and better performing P2V Neptune for the maritime patrol requirement, but nineteen aircraft were ordered in 1947 for high-speed minelaying purposes. The P4M entered service with Patrol Squadron 21 (VP-21) in 1950, the squadron deploying to NAS Port Lyautey in French Morocco. It remained in use with VP-21 until February 1953.  From 1951, the 18 surviving production P4Ms were modified for the electronic reconnaissance (or SIGINT, for "signals intelligence") mission as the P4M-1Q, to replace the PB4Y-2 Privateer. The crew was increased to 14 and later 16 to operate all the surveillance gear, and the aircraft was fitted with a large number of different antennae.  Starting in October 1951, electronic surveillance missions were flown from U.S. Naval Station Sangley Point in the Philippines, later from Naval Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, and Naval Air Station Atsugi, Japan, by a secretive unit that eventually gained the designation Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1). Long missions were flown along the coast (about 30 NM offshore) of Vietnam, China, North Korea and the eastern Soviet Union, and were of a highly secret nature; the aircraft sometimes masqueraded as regular P2V Neptunes in radio communications, and often flew with false serial numbers (Bureau Numbers) painted under the tail. Operational missions were always flown at night, during the dark with the moon when possible, and with no external running lights.

Losses.

The Mercators were replaced by the EA-3B Skywarrior, which, being carrier-based, had a greater degree of flexibility and the larger Lockheed WV-2Q Warning Star. Final withdrawal from service was in 1960 after which all of the remaining P4Ms were scrapped.

The Martin P4M Mercator was a maritime reconnaissance aircraft built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. The Mercator was an unsuccessful contender for a United States Navy requirement for a long-range maritime patrol bomber, with the Lockheed P2V Neptune chosen instead. It saw a limited life as a long-range electronic reconnaissance aircraft. Its most unusual feature was that it was powered by a combination of piston engines and turbojets, the latter being in the rear of the engine nacelles.


History.

John Gruber created the Markdown language in 2004 in collaboration with Aaron Swartz on the syntax, with the goal of enabling people "to write using an easy-to-read and easy-to-write plain text format, optionally convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML)".  Its key design goal is "readability" – that the language be readable as-is, without looking like it has been marked up with tags or formatting instructions, unlike text formatted with a markup language, such as Rich Text Format (RTF) or HTML, which have obvious tags and formatting instructions. To this end, its main inspiration is the existing conventions for marking up plain text in email, though it also draws from earlier markup languages, notably setext, Textile, and reStructuredText.  Gruber wrote a Perl script,, which converts marked-up text input to valid, well-formed XHTML or HTML and replaces angle brackets " " and ampersands " with their corresponding character entity references. It can be used as a standalone script, as a plugin for Blosxom or Movable Type, or as a text filter for BBEdit.  Markdown has since been re-implemented by others e.g. in a Perl module available on CPAN (), and in a variety of other programming languages. It is distributed under a BSD-style license and is included with, or available as a plugin for, several content-management systems.  Sites like GitHub, Bitbucket, Reddit, Diaspora, Stack Exchange, OpenStreetMap, and SourceForge use variants of Markdown to facilitate discussion between users.

Standardization.

Markdown has been characterised by an informal specification and a reference implementation for conversion to HTML. Over time, many Markdown implementations have appeared. People developed these mostly driven by the need for additional features on top of the base syntax—such as tables, footnotes, definition lists (technically HTML description lists), and Markdown inside HTML blocks. The behavior of some of these diverges from the reference implementation. At the same time, a number of ambiguities in the informal specification have attracted attention. These issues spurred the creation of tools such as Babelmark to compare the output of various implementations, and an effort by some developers of Markdown parsers for standardisation. However, Gruber has argued that complete standardization would be mistaken: "Different sites (and people) have different needs. No one syntax would make all happy."  In March 2016 two relevant informational Internet RFCs were published:

CommonMark.

From 2012, a group of people, including Jeff Atwood and John MacFarlane, launched what Atwood characterized as a standardization effort. A community website now aims to "document various tools and resources available to document authors and developers, as well as implementors of the various markdown implementations". In September 2014, Gruber objected to the usage of "Markdown" in the name of this effort and it was rebranded as a new dialect named CommonMark. CommonMark.org published several versions of a specification, reference implementation, and test suite, and "[plans] to announce a finalized 1.0 spec and test suite in 2019."

GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM).

In 2017, GitHub released a formal specification of their GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) that is based on CommonMark. It is a strict superset of CommonMark, following its specification exactly except for "tables, strikethrough, autolinks and task lists," which GFM adds as extensions. GitHub also changed the parser used on their sites accordingly, which required that some documents be changed. For instance, GFM now requires that the hash symbol that creates a heading be separated from the heading text by a space character.

Markdown Extra.

Markdown Extra is a lightweight markup language based on Markdown implemented in PHP (originally), Python and Ruby. It adds features not available with plain Markdown syntax. Markdown Extra is supported in some content management systems such as, for example, Drupal and TYPO3.  In MediaWiki, it is implemented in the currently unmaintained parser function extension  Markdown Extra adds the following features to Markdown:

Implementations.

Implementations of Markdown are available for over a dozen programming languages; in addition, many platforms and frameworks support Markdown. For example, Markdown plugins exist for every major blogging platform.  While Markdown is a minimal markup language and is read and edited with a normal text editor, there are specially designed editors that preview the files with styles, which are available for all major platforms. Many general purpose text and code editors have syntax highlighting plugins for Markdown built into them or available as optional download. Editors may feature a side-by-side preview window or render the code directly in a WYSIWYG fashion.

Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain-text-formatting syntax, created in 2004 by John Gruber with Aaron Swartz. Markdown is often used to format readme files, for writing messages in online discussion forums, and to create rich text using a plain text editor.


By industry.

Financial asset management.

The most common usage of the term "asset manager" refers to investment management, the sector of the financial services industry that manages investment funds and segregated client accounts. Asset management is part of a financial company which employs experts who manage money and handle the investments of clients. From studying the client's assets to planning and looking after the investments, all things are looked after by the asset managers and recommendations are provided based on the financial health of each client.

Physical and Infrastructure asset management.

Infrastructure asset management is the combination of management, financial, economic, engineering, and other practices applied to physical assets with the objective of providing the best value level of service for the costs involved. It includes the management of the entire life cycle—including design, construction, commissioning, operating, maintaining, repairing, modifying, replacing and decommissioning/disposal—of physical and infrastructure assets. Operation and maintenance of assets in a constrained budget environment require a prioritization scheme. As a way of illustration, the recent development of renewable energy has seen the rise of effective asset managers involved in the management of solar systems (solar park, rooftops, and windmills). These teams often collaborate with financial asset managers in order to offer turnkey solutions to investors. Infrastructure asset management became very important in most of the developed countries in the 21st century, since their infrastructure network was almost completed in the 20th century and they have to manage to operate and maintain them cost-effectively. Software asset management is one kind of infrastructure asset management.  The International Organization for Standardization published its management system standard for asset management in 2014. The ISO 55000 series provides terminology, requirements, and guidance for implementing, maintaining and improving an effective asset management system.

Enterprise asset management.

Enterprise asset management (EAM) systems are asset "information" systems that support the management of an organization's assets. An EAM includes an asset registry (inventory of assets and their attributes) combined with a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and other modules (such as inventory or materials management). Assets that are geographically distributed, interconnected or networked, are often also represented through the use of geographic information systems (GIS).  GIS-centric asset registry standardizes data and improves interoperability, providing users the capability to reuse, coordinate, and share information in an efficient and effective manner. A GIS platform combined with information of both the "hard" and "soft" assets helps to remove the traditional silos of departmental functions. While the hard assets are the typical physical assets or infrastructure assets, the soft assets might include permits, licenses, brands, patents, right-of-ways, and other entitlements or valued items.  The EAM system is only one of the 'enables' to good asset management. Asset managers need to make informed decisions in order to fulfill their organizational goals, this requires good asset information but also leadership, clarity of strategic priorities, competencies, inter-departmental collaboration and communications, workforce, and supply chain engagement, risk and change management systems, performance monitoring and continual improvement.

Public asset management.

Public asset management expands the definition of enterprise asset management (EAM) by incorporating the management of all things of value to a municipal jurisdiction and its citizens' expectations. An example in which public asset management is used is land-use development and planning.

Intellectual and non-physical asset management.

Increasingly both consumers and organizations use assets, e.g. software, music, books, etc. where the user's rights are constrained by a license agreement. An asset management system would identify the constraints upon such licenses, e.g. a time period. If, for example, one licenses software, often the license is for a given period of time. Adobe and Microsoft both offer time-based software licenses. In both the corporate and consumer worlds, there is a distinction between software ownership and the updating of software. One may own a version of the software, but not newer versions of the software. Cellular phones are often not updated by vendors, in an attempt to force a purchase of newer hardware. Large companies such as Oracle, that license software to clients distinguish between the right to use and the right to receive maintenance/support.

Asset management refers to systematic approach to the governance and realization of value from the things that a group or entity is responsible for, over their whole life cycles. It may apply both to tangible assets (physical objects such as buildings or equipment) and to intangible assets (such as human capital, intellectual property, goodwill or financial assets). Asset management is a systematic process of developing, operating, maintaining, upgrading, and disposing of assets in the most cost-effective manner (including all costs, risks and performance attributes).


Life and career.

Born in Dimokur (Dymokury) on 27 August 1875 into an ancient Bohemian noble family (the Czernin family), he was a younger brother of Ottokar, also a diplomat who would become Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister during World War I. He married Lucy Beckett (1884–1979), daughter of Ernest Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe, in London in 1903. The marriage produced three sons, but they divorced shortly after the outbreak of the war in 1914. In 1939, he married Maria Lisa Pfeiffer (1899–1983) in Bratislava.  Following studies at the Diplomatic Academy, Count von Czernin entered the Austro-Hungarian foreign service and was first dispatched to London and in 1904 to Rome. He was considered a disciple of Foreign Minister Count Lexa von Aehrenthal, whose activist expansionary policies he supported during the Bosnian annexation crisis in 1908.  Before the war, Count von Czernin served as a Counselor to the Embassy in St. Petersburg and served as Chargé d'Affaires during the first weeks of the July Crisis as the Ambassador Count von Szapáry was absent due to the illness of his wife. He was therefore in charge of dealing directly with Russian Foreign Minister Sazonov until Count Szapáry returned to the Russian capital in mid-July.  Following the outbreak of war, Count von Czernin returned to Vienna and was employed by the Imperial and Royal Army. On 24 January 1917, he was dispatched to Sofia as Minister replacing Count von Széchényi who had been there only a few months. In Sofia, he wielded significant influence over Bulgarian policy-making during the last months of the war. Considered an able diplomat and judged by some as superior to his older brother, he left his post on 4 November 1918.  After the war, Count von Czernin resigned from public service and sought to ward off expropriations of his Bohemian estates in Czechoslovakia. In the 1930s, he expressed some sympathies with the Nazi Party, although his son, Manfred (who had remained with his mother in England), was a RAF pilot during World War II. Following World War II, he joined Otto von Habsburg's cause for a unified Europe.  Count von Czernin died in Salzburg on 14 June 1962.

Otto Rudolf Theobald Ottokar Maria Graf Czernin von und zu Chudenitz (; 27 August 1875 – 14 June 1962) was an Austro-Hungarian diplomat during the time of World War I.