Qualified teams.

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Format.

All UEFA member associations are eligible to compete in the qualifying competition, with the host team France qualifying directly to the finals tournament. The other 53 teams are drawn into eight groups of six teams (Groups A–H) and one group of five teams (Group I). The group winners, runners-up, and the best third-placed team (with the results against the sixth-placed team discarded) directly qualify to the finals. The eight remaining third-placed teams contest two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers for the finals.

Seeding system.

Sides were seeded according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings, which were announced along with the draw procedure and final tournament match schedule after the 23–24 January Executive Committee meeting in Nyon. For the qualifying group stage, the teams were seeded into six pots (Pots 1–5 with 9 teams and Pot 6 with 8 teams) for the qualifying group stage draw according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings, with the title holders (Spain) automatically seeded into Pot 1. Each nation's coefficient is generated by calculating:  UEFA stated that nations with the largest markets in terms of contribution to the European Qualifiers revenue would be drawn into one of the groups containing six teams. They include England, Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. UEFA has also stated in their regulations that "the teams drawn into the group of five teams will have France added to their group for the purpose of playing centralised friendlies".  For the play-offs the four ties are determined by draw, including the order of the two legs of each tie. The teams are seeded for the play-off draw according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings updated after the completion of the group stage. Each nation's coefficient is generated by calculating:

Tiebreakers.

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied:  To determine the best third-placed team, the results against the teams in sixth place are discarded. The following criteria are applied:  For each play-off tie, the team that scores more goals on aggregate over the two legs qualifies for the final tournament. If the aggregate score is level, the away goals rule is applied, i.e., the team that scores more goals away from home over the two legs advances. If away goals are also equal, then thirty minutes of extra time is played, divided into two fifteen-minutes halves. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, i.e., if there are goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score is still level, the visiting team advances by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals are scored during extra time, the tie is decided by penalty shoot-out.

Schedule.

This is the first qualifying tournament after UEFA announced centralised rights deals for both UEFA Euro and FIFA World Cup qualifying. UEFA has proposed the "Week of Football" concept for the scheduling of qualifying matches:  There are ten matchdays for the qualifying group stage, and two matchdays for the play-offs:  Unlike previous qualifying campaigns where group fixtures were determined by negotiation between the national federations, UEFA themselves decided each group's fixture list, released the same day as the draw.

Draw.

The draw took place at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis, Nice, on 23 February 2014, 12:00 CET. Groups A–H each contain one team from each of Pots 1–6, while Group I contains one team from each of Pots 1–5.For television rights reasons, England, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands were drawn into groups of 6 teams. Before the draw UEFA confirmed that, for political reasons, Armenia would not be drawn against Azerbaijan (due to the dispute concerning territory of Nagorno-Karabakh) and Gibraltar would not be drawn against Spain (due to the disputed status of Gibraltar). France (Coeff: 30,992; Rank: 11) are partnered with the five-team Group I, which enables the 2016 tournament hosts to play friendlies against these countries on their'spare' dates. These friendlies do not count in the qualifying group standings.

Seeding.

The seeding pots were announced on 24 January 2014. Teams in bold qualified for the finals.

Groups.

Ranking of third-placed teams.

The highest ranked third-placed team from the groups directly qualified for the tournament, while the remainder entered the play-offs. As Group I contained five teams and the rest contained six, matches against any sixth-placed team in each group were not included in this ranking. As a result, a total of eight matches played by each team count toward the purpose of the third-placed ranking table.  Turkey became the best third-placed team, after winning against Iceland in its last match, while at the same time Kazakhstan beat Latvia to finish fifth in Group A.

Play-offs.

The eight remaining third-placed teams contested two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers for the finals. The teams were seeded for the play-off draw according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings updated after the completion of the qualifying group stage. The draw for the play-offs was held on 18 October 2015, 11:20 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon.

Matches.

The first legs were played on 12–14 November, and the second legs were played on 15–17 November 2015. The four play-off winners (Ukraine, Sweden, Republic of Ireland and Hungary) qualified for the final tournament.

Branding.

UEFA unveiled the branding for the qualifiers on 15 April 2013. It shows a national jersey inside a heart, and represents Europe, honour and ambition. The same branding was also used for the European qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup.

The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2016 final tournament.


Nazi Party membership.

Lina's brother Jurgen had joined the Nazi Party and was a member of the "Sturmabteilung" (SA). He spoke highly of the movement to Lina and she attended a Party rally in 1929 where Adolf Hitler spoke. Shortly thereafter, Lina von Osten joined the Nazi Party with party membership number 1,201,380.  On 6 December 1930, aged 19, she attended a rowing-club ball in Kiel and met then Naval Lieutenant Heydrich there. They became romantically involved and soon announced their engagement on 18 December 1930.  In 1931, he was charged with "conduct unbecoming to an officer and gentleman" for breaking an engagement promise to a woman he had known for six months before the engagement to Lina. Admiral Erich Raeder dismissed Heydrich from the navy that April. The dismissal devastated Heydrich, who found himself without career prospects.  Lina persuaded Heydrich to look into the recently formed "Schutzstaffel" (SS) as a career option. During 1931 SS Leader Heinrich Himmler began setting up a counterintelligence division of the SS. Acting on the advice of his associate Karl von Eberstein, a friend of the Heydrich family, Himmler agreed to interview Heydrich, but cancelled their appointment at the last minute. Lina ignored this message, packed Reinhard's suitcase, and sent him to Munich.  Eberstein met Heydrich at the train station and took him to see Himmler. Himmler asked Heydrich to convey his ideas for developing an SS intelligence service. Himmler was so impressed that he hired Heydrich immediately as the chief of the new SS 'Ic Service' or Intelligence Service (which would later become known as the "Sicherheitsdienst" (SD)). He returned to Hamburg with the good news. Heydrich entered into the Hamburg SS on 14 July. In August, he was transferred to Munich where he lived alone in a boarding house which rented rooms to unmarried SS men. Lina later stated that Reinhard Heydrich never read Hitler's book, "Mein Kampf". He and Lina wed at a small church in Grossenbrode on 26 December 1931.

Family.

Lina Heydrich gave birth to two sons, Klaus (born 17 June 1933) and Heider (born 23 December 1934). By the late 1930s, the duties of Reinhard Heydrich led him to work long hours and often be away from home. This left Lina at home with the children and having to run the household alone. This placed a serious strain on their marriage that nearly resulted in divorce. However, the reconciled Heydrich couple had another child, a daughter named Silke (born 9 April 1939). Reinhard proudly showed off his baby daughter and they had a close relationship.  Their fourth child, a daughter named Marte (born 23 July 1942) was born shortly after Reinhard Heydrich's death. Klaus died as a result of a traffic accident on 24 October 1943. On that day, Klaus was cycling with his brother Heider Heydrich in the courtyard of the Castle Panenské Břežany (Jungfern-Breschan). Seeing that the gate to the street was open, Klaus rode out onto the street where he was struck by a small truck coming down the road. Klaus died from his injuries later that afternoon.  In recognition of her husband's service to the Nazi cause, Hitler gave to Lina the country estate of Jungfern-Breschan in rural Bohemia. Lina sold the other family properties, including the home in Berlin and the hunting lodge near Nauen. The family lived there until April 1945 when they, along with many other Germans left the area to flee the advancing Soviet Red Army. The family made it to Bavaria and then moved back to the island of Fehmarn where they were allowed to live in their house after the British Army moved out that same year.

Post-war.

Lina Heydrich was cleared during the de-Nazification proceedings after the war's end. She further won the right to receive a pension as the result of a series of court cases against the West German government in 1956 and 1959. She was entitled to a substantial pension because her husband was a German general killed in action. The government had previously declined to pay because of Heydrich's role in the Holocaust.  In 1965, she met Finnish theatre director Mauno Manninen while she was on a holiday trip to Finland. Eventually they married for the purpose of changing her last name. She ran Reinhard Heydrich's former summer house on Fehmarn as a restaurant and inn until it burned down in February 1969.  In 1976, she published a memoir, "Leben mit einem Kriegsverbrecher" ("Life with a War Criminal"). She spoke with several authors, sent in letters of correction to many newspapers, and defended the reputation of her first husband until her own death at age 74 on 14 August 1985 in Fehmarn.

Lina Mathilde Heydrich (née von Osten, later Manninen; 14 June 1911 – 14 August 1985) was the wife of "SS-Obergruppenführer" Reinhard Heydrich, a central figure in Nazi Germany.


Plot.

Allan Karlsson is about to celebrate his hundredth birthday, and his retirement home in Malmköping is planning to throw a party. Allan is not interested. Instead, he climbs out the window and disappears. He walks to the bus station, intending to travel as far as his available cash will allow. There he meets a young man with a suitcase too large to take into the toilet with him. The man goes in, rudely demanding that Allan look after the case. But Allan's bus arrives and he decides to board, taking the case with him. It turns out to be full of illegal drug money, and Allan is chased by the drug gang as well as by the police who are treating him as a missing person. He gets caught up in various criminal activities, eventually escaping when the man from the bus station is accidentally trapped in a freezer, his body ending up in a container destined for Djibouti. An elephant crushes another member of the gang, his remains being inadvertently sent to Latvia in the boot of a Ford Mustang.  In parallel with Allan's adventures as a centenarian, the novel includes flashbacks to increasingly fantastic episodes from his younger days.  As a young man, Allan had worked in a dynamite factory, his expertise taking him to Spain during the civil war, where he accidentally saves General Franco. Moving to the United States he becomes good friends with Harry S. Truman, and helps to make the atom bomb.  After the war, Allan is sent to China to help the Kuomintang fight against the communists, but he loses interest and leaves for Sweden by foot, falling in with a group of communists; they cross the Himalayas to Iran, where Allan is taken into custody. As a ruse, Allan offers to help the Chief of Police in an assassination attempt against Winston Churchill.  On returning to Sweden, Allan finds that the authorities doubt his bomb-making expertise, but the Russians do take him seriously and he is befriended by Yury Popov who takes him to the Soviet Union to meet Stalin. However, Stalin is offended by his saving of Franco's life, and Allen finds himself sentenced to hard labour in a gulag in Vladivostok. There he meets Albert Einstein's fictional brother, Herbert.  Herbert and Allan escape from the gulag, setting fire to the whole of Vladivostok in the process. Travelling to North Korea during the Korean War, the pair pose as Soviet marshal Kirill Afanesievich Meretskov and his aide, and meet Kim Il-sung and Mao Tse-tung. Although they are quickly exposed as frauds, disaster is averted when Mao Tse-tung learns that Allan had saved his wife, Jiang Qing, during the Chinese Civil War. Allan and Herbert are given cash and sent to Bali for a long holiday.  In Bali, Herbert meets an Indonesian waitress, Ni Wayan Laksmi, whom he marries and renames Amanda. She corruptly makes use of the cash for her own political ends, and arranges to get herself appointed as Indonesia's ambassador to France.  In 1968, Amanda, Herbert and Allan travel to France. At the Élysée Palace Amanda and Allan have lunch with Charles de Gaulle and Lyndon B. Johnson who is in Paris for talks on the Vietnam War. Allan identifies the French Interior Minister Christian Fouchet's special advisor as a Soviet spy. This humiliates de Gaulle, but pleases Johnson who later makes Allan a CIA spy. Thanks to Allan's tip-off, the protests in Paris end. Allan is to be awarded a medal, but has already left for Moscow.  In Moscow, Allan is given cover in the American embassy, and is reunited with Popov. The pair decide to write intelligence reports which will please both sides. Their reports result in Richard Nixon visiting Leonid Brezhnev, but also causes both sides to increase spending on their nuclear deterrents. As the Soviet Union starts to collapse, Allan decides to return to Sweden.  Allan settles down to a peaceful life and adopts a cat that he names Molotov. Unfortunately, after Molotov is killed by a fox, Allan is unable to resist setting a trap with dynamite, resulting in a huge explosion. Eventually, the authorities decide to send Allan to the Malmköping retirement home. He rails at its strict rules, and decides to escape.  The book concludes with the 100-year-old Allan and his comrades flying to Indonesia, where they spend time at a luxury hotel managed by Amanda and her sons. When he is approached by a representative of the Indonesian government, who is interested in Allan's atomic bomb expertise, he agrees to help, telling himself that at least the Indonesian president, Yudhoyono, is sane - unlike the other leaders he has met in his lifetime.

Release and reception.

"The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared" was released as a hardback and audiobook in 2009, and as a paperback in 2010. It became the best selling book in Sweden in 2010, and by July 2012 had sold three million copies worldwide. The audiobook, read by the actor Björn Granath, won the "Iris Ljudbokspris" award in 2010. The book was published in the United Kingdom by Hesperus Press on 12 July 2012 and in the United States by Hyperion Books on 11 September 2012.  In 2013, it was adapted into a film of the same name.  On August 23, 2017, it was announced that CBS Films will collaborate with Gary Sanchez Productions in order to produce an American adaptation of the book. Will Ferrell will star in the film, and it will be produced by Ferrell along with Adam McKay and Jessica Elbaum. The screenplay will be written by Jason George.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (), also known as The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared in the US, is a 2009 comic novel by the Swedish author Jonas Jonasson. The Swedish version was first published on 9 September 2009, and the English version on 12 July 2012.


Early years.

Isabella was the royal couple's second child, and eldest daughter. Named after her paternal grandmother, Isabella of France, Isabella is believed to have been her father's favourite daughter, but less close to her mother.  Born at Woodstock Palace, in Oxfordshire, on 16 June 1332, she was a baby who was much pampered by her doting parents. She slept in a gilded cradle lined with taffeta and covered with a fur blanket. Her gowns were of imported Italian silk, embroidered with jewels and fur-lined. Isabella had, along with her siblings, a household of servants which included a personal chaplain, musicians, a noble governor and governess, and three ladies-in-waiting as well as a staff of grooms, esquires, clerks, butlers, cooks, and other attendants. As a child, Isabella was sent to the household of William and Elizabeth St Omer, which also included Isabella's older brother Edward and younger sister Joan.

Betrothals.

When she was just 3 years old, her father attempted to arrange a marriage between Isabella and Pedro of Castile, the Castilian King's heir; however, her younger sister Joan later became Pedro's betrothed, dying before they could actually marry.  Described as being over-indulged, wilful and wildly extravagant, Isabella – unusually for the times – remained unmarried until the age of 33. She had previously been the subject of various betrothal proposals; however, these had all failed to come to fruition. On 15 November 1351, when she was 19 years old, five ships were instructed to take her to Gascony where she was to marry Bernard d'Albret as had been previously arranged. He was the second eldest son of Bernard Ezi IV, Lord of Albret. At the last moment before departure, however, Isabella changed her mind, and the marriage was called off. Her father does not appear to have been angry at Isabella for her capricious behaviour as he granted her custody of Burtsall Priory in Yorkshire in 1355. He also settled the sum of 1,000 marks "per annum" on her.  Eventually, she was permitted to marry Enguerrand VII, Lord of Coucy, a wealthy French lord with whom she had fallen in love. Seven years her junior, he was the son and heir of Enguerrand VI, Lord of Coucy and Catherine of Austria.

Marriage and issue.

Isabella's husband had been brought to England in 1360 as a hostage exchanged for the freedom of King John II of France, an English prisoner. They married on 27 July 1365, at Windsor Castle, by which time Isabella was in her thirties. Her father, Edward III, gave her a dowry of £4,000 and a large lifetime annual income, together with expensive amounts of jewellery and lands; de Coucy was restored to his family's lands in Yorkshire, Lancaster, Westmorland and Cumberland, and was released as a hostage without any need for ransom.  In November 1365, Isabella and her husband were permitted to enter France; their first daughter, Marie, was born at the family lands at Coucy in April 1366. They later returned for a visit to England; on this occasion, Enguerrand was made Earl of Bedford on 11 May 1366, which made Isabella Countess of Bedford as well as Lady of Coucy. After the birth of Isabella's second daughter, Philippa, in 1367, Enguerrand and Isabella were also made Count and Countess of Soissons by Edward. Because her husband also served the King of France as a military leader, he was frequently away from home; consequently, Isabella, though living principally with Enguerrand at Coucy, made frequent visits to her family in England. She was made a Lady of the Garter in 1376.  Isabella bore two children by her marriage to Enguerrand de Coucy:

Death.

Isabella was at her father's side when he died on 21 June 1377 having been urgently summoned home from France by couriers the previous April.  After the accession of Richard II, Isabella's nephew, in August 1377, Enguerrand resigned all of his English ties and possessions. Isabella then died in England under mysterious circumstances, separated from her husband and eldest daughter, Marie.  Her death was either in April 1379, or between 17 June and 5 October 1382. She was buried in Greyfriars Church, Newgate, London. Seven years after her death, her husband took as his second wife, Isabelle, the daughter of John I, Duke of Lorraine and Sophie of Württemberg.

In fiction.

Molly Costain Haycraft's fictionalized account of Isabella's life and courtship with her husband, "The Lady Royal", recounts several incidents in the lives of the princess and other members of Edward III's family, but contains a number of historical errors. Chief among these is the explanation of the book's title; according to the story, Isabella (or Isabel, as she is identified in the story) was titled Princess Royal and later promoted to "Lady Royal" by her parents. This is impossible, given that the title of Princess Royal was not created until the reign of Charles I of England.  One reviewer commented that "Edward III's proclamation of the intended marriage... conveys more of the cadence of Plantagenet Britain than do pages of Mrs Haycraft's dreary efforts." Others praise the author's attention to historical detail.

Isabella of England (16 June 1332 – ) was the eldest daughter of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, and the wife of Enguerrand de Coucy, Earl of Bedford, by whom she had two daughters. She was made a Lady of the Garter in 1376.


Bryusov’s novel.

Prokofiev's "The Fiery Angel" was based on a novel of the same name by Valery Bryusov. Prokofiev was more intrigued by the “orgies” (here, indulgence of passion) presented in the novel rather than the story ideas. The novel was inspired by Bryusov’s own experiences with one Nina Petrovskaya, and was considered one of the beginnings of the Russian Symbolist movement known as Vesy, or “The Scales.” Nina was the mistress of Andrey Bely. In their time together, Nina also came to know Bryusov in 1904, and this started to cause obvious concerns for Bely. There was an anticipated brawl on a remote road in Moscow, but a mutual friend of Bryusov and Bely prevented the fight. Nina, Andrey, and Bryusov inspired Prokofiev’s characters in his opera, making the novel the prime source of inspiration for the work. The novel was also the basis for the libretto of Prokofiev’s opera, which Prokofiev himself wrote with the help of Demchinsky.

Synopsis.

Originally the opera was in three acts and eleven scenes, but was eventually reorganized into five acts and seven scenes.

Act 1.

Renata, a young woman searching for a missing love, resides at an inn. Ruprecht, a knight errant, meets Renata at the inn. She tells him that, since her childhood, she has been in love with an angel. This angel, Madiel, encouraged her to do good deeds, and at the age of seventeen she finally asked for his physical love. The angel, in response, glowed in fury, but agreed to return in human form. After Madiel’s promise, Renata had met Count Heinrich von Otterheim. Convinced that this was her angel returned to Earth, Renata immediately gave herself to him. One year later, Otterheim left. In denial, Renata begs Ruprecht to help her search for Otterheim.

Act 2.

As the two search for Otterheim, Ruprecht soon falls in love with Renata, although she does not share the feeling. They decide to resort to sorcery to find Otterheim, and a spell is cast. Three knocks are then heard at the door. Renata assumes the spell has worked and nearly goes insane at the thought of Otterheim returning. But nobody is there. Ruprecht and Renata seek out the powerful sorcerer Agrippa von Nettesheim. Once in his lair, they are met with his refusal to help; his concerns lie with the power of the Inquisition.

Act 3.

Ruprecht learns that Renata has finally found Count Heinrich von Otterheim, who has rejected her. She begs to be avenged, learning that he was never her angel. Ruprecht attempts to exact revenge for Renata by dueling with Otterheim. The duel is one-sided, as Otterheim easily overcomes Ruprecht and injures him.

Act 4.

Ruprecht and Renata have moved in together, but Renata now insists on joining a convent to better herself and for her soul’s sake. There is a comic relief, involving Faust and Mephistopheles at a tavern. (This tavern scene, used to break up the dark sarcastic nature of the opera, is sometimes left out.)

Act 5.

Renata is in the convent, where the leaders accuse her of demonic possession. As an attempt to heal Renata ensues, all Hell essentially breaks loose (both on stage and in the orchestra) as the other nuns are also possessed. She is condemned by the Inquisitor to be burned at the stake.

Progress.

With no previous commissions or any actual production being present, Prokofiev set out to write "The Fiery Angel" at one of the only times of his life in which religion was considered for his works. The thematic style is more like Prokofiev’s pre-Revolution operas (such as The Gambler), even with the ambiguity. The only theme that strays from the ambiguous is the theme involved with the evil forces.  The opera as a whole is a contrast to some of Prokofiev’s earlier operas (such as his opera "The Love for Three Oranges") just by being a tragedy, and the story was considered very appropriate for Prokofiev’s dark and sarcastic style.  The production of the opera was one of the biggest hurdles, for different reasons, Prokofiev faced. There was a large amount of extra material in the work, there were what was considered violations of theater, negotiations with different theaters both in Europe and America continued to fail. In the midst of it all, Prokofiev felt like he was unappreciated and unwanted, but his pride kept him striving for recognition.  In 1926, Bruno Walter made Prokofiev an offer to have "The Fiery Angel" produced at a Berlin theater, which prompted Prokofiev to work on the orchestration. The orchestration was finished in 1927. The production was still unsuccessful. The opera and inspiration came and went, but it was the promises of production that kept Prokofiev writing.  Prokofiev, who had been working on the opera for years, was reluctant to let the music languish unperformed, and after hearing a concert performance of its second act given by Serge Koussevitzky in June 1928, he adapted parts of the opera to make his Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 44, later that year.

Reception.

"The Fiery Angel" was met with mixed reviews for different reasons. Largely, "The Fiery Angel" was, despite lack of productions, reviewed as Prokofiev’s “... strongest and most dramatically intense scores.” In a review of the Bolshoi performance of "The Fiery Angel", it is said that Prokofiev’s “...score is crazy, but shouldn’t sound chaotic.” Prokofiev may have only been interested in the overarching story rather than the smaller details. It was also criticized that maybe the language would have been better in French rather than Russian. Some even called the opera a “16th-century Carmen with supernatural trimmings” amongst other mixed reviews. Another criticism is that "The Fiery Angel" is nothing but confusion and noise with the “modern” title. Using staging should not be there to make up for the music, but to mix with it and make a grand production. Prokofiev was able to write the music how he saw fit, which appealed to many more than the staging has, according to different reviews.

Recordings.

Source: Recordings of "The Fiery Angel" on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk

Sergei Prokofiev's opera, The Fiery Angel (), Op. 37, could be considered one of the composer’s largest challenges. Writing, production, and location were all factors in the piece’s progress. The journey to completion was not truly over until after Prokofiev’s time, when the piece was first presented in a full performance at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 25 November 1954, and was first premiered at the Venice Festival in 1955.


Background.

Gauguin had been a student at the Petit Séminaire de La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin, just outside Orléans, from the age of eleven to the age of sixteen. His subjects there included a class in Catholic liturgy; the teacher for this class was the Bishop of Orléans, Félix-Antoine-Philibert Dupanloup. Dupanloup had devised his own catechism to be lodged in the minds of the young schoolboys, and to lead them towards proper spiritual reflections on the nature of life. The three fundamental questions in this catechism were: "Where does humanity come from?" "Where is it going to?", "How does humanity proceed?". Although in later life Gauguin was vociferously anticlerical, these questions from Dupanloup's catechism obviously had lodged in his mind, and "where?" became the key question that Gauguin asked in his art.  Looking for a society more simple and elemental than that of his native France, Gauguin left for Tahiti in 1891. In addition to several other paintings that express his highly individualistic mythology, he completed this painting in 1897 or 1898. Gauguin considered it a masterpiece and the grand culmination of his thought. He was in despair when he undertook the painting, mourning the tragic death of his favourite daughter earlier in the year and oppressed by debts, and had planned to kill himself on finishing it. He subsequently made an unsuccessful attempt with an overdose of arsenic. Thomson thinks it quite possible that he only painted in the inscription while recovering from the attempt.

Style and analysis.

Gauguin indicated that the painting should be read from right to left, with the three major figure groups illustrating the questions posed in the title. The three women with a child represent the beginning of life; the middle group symbolizes the daily existence of young adulthood; and in the final group, according to the artist, "an old woman approaching death appears reconciled and resigned to her thoughts"; at her feet, "a strange white bird...represents the futility of words" or "the uselessness of vain words". The blue idol in the background apparently represents what Gauguin described as "the Beyond." Of its entirety he said, "I believe that this canvas not only surpasses all my preceding ones, but that I shall never do anything better—or even like it."  The painting is an accentuation of Gauguin's trailblazing post-impressionistic style; his art stressed the vivid use of colors and thick brushstrokes, tenets of the impressionists (though the Impressionists focused on quick brushstrokes), while it aimed to convey an emotional or expressionistic strength. It emerged in conjunction with other avant-garde movements of the twentieth century, including cubism and fauvism.

Reception and provenance.

In 1898, Gauguin sent the painting to Georges-Daniel de Monfreid in Paris. Monfreid passed it to Ambroise Vollard along with eight other thematically related pictures shipped earlier. They went on view at Vollard's gallery from November to December 1898. The exhibition was a success, although "D'où Venons Nous?" received mixed reviews. The critic Andre Fontainas of the "Mercure de France" acknowledged a grudging respect for the work but thought the allegory impenetrable were it not for the inscription, and compared the painting unfavourably to the murals of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes who had died recently. Vollard had already purchased the other works as a job lot from Monfreid for 1,000 francs (Gauguin was furious when he found out), but refrained from purchasing the larger monumental work and had difficulty selling it on.  Subsequently, Frizeau sold the painting around 1913 to Galerie Barbazanges, which sold it before 1920 to the Norwegian ship owner and art collector. He sold the painting via in 1935, and it was bought by the Marie Harriman Gallery in New York City in 1936. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acquired it from the Marie Harriman Gallery on 16 April 1936.

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? is a painting by French artist Paul Gauguin. Gauguin inscribed the original French title in the upper left corner: D'où Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous. The inscription the artist wrote on his canvas has no question mark, no dash, and all words are capitalized. In the upper right corner he signed and dated the painting: "P. Gauguin / 1897". The painting was created in Tahiti, and is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, US.


Characteristics.

Currently, only a fossil of a "Panthera blytheae" cranium has been found. However, current evidence shows that the species has a number of features common in other "Panthera" species, including a "frontoparietal suture located at the postorbital constriction", and an "absence of an anterior bulge overhanging the infraorbital canal". Its size is thought to be on par with that of the clouded leopard. It is about 10% smaller than the snow leopard. However, this is purely based on the relative sizes of the cranium, so this may be slightly inaccurate.

Relation to other "Panthera" species.

The closest extant relative of "Panthera blytheae" is the snow leopard. The evidence for this is that it is more similar in cranial structure to the snow leopard than to other pantherines, as well as two species having similar ranges spanning the Tibetan Plateau. Based on the age of the fossil, "P. blytheae" is believed to have been very similar in diet to the snow leopard, as many species that constitute a large part of the snow leopard's diet existed before the extinction of "P. blytheae".  "P. blytheae" is not believed to be as closely related to the other extant species of the genus "Panthera", and is therefore not believed to be the common ancestor of all pantherines. This implies that the divergence of "Panthera" from the rest of Felidae was much earlier, with current estimates being approximately 16.4 million years ago. Analysis of the location of "P. blytheae" in relation to other "Panthera" species indicates that "Panthera" arose in Central/Northern Asia or the Holarctic region of Asia, with other pantherines migrating to Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Panthera blytheae is an extinct species of the genus "Panthera" that is thought to have existed during the late Messinian to early Zanclean ages approximately 5.95–4.1 million years ago. It is currently the oldest known "Panthera" species. The first fossils were excavated in 2010 in the Zanda Basin located in the Ngari Prefecture on the Tibetan Plateau.


Early life and education.

Born in Banská Bystrica in what was then Czechoslovakia, Kotleba attended the local Jozef Murgas High School before enrolling at the Sports Grammar School () specialising in sports. After finishing the Grammar School he enrolled at the Matej Bel University receiving a Master's Degree in Pedagogics, later he once again enrolled at the Economics faculty at the same university and graduated with a master's degree in Economics.

Political views.

Kotleba supports of Jozef Tiso and the First Slovak Republic, and he is openly against Roma people, Slovak National Uprising, NATO, the United States and the European Union. According to "Hospodárske noviny", his position on the Holocaust is unclear. The BBC and "The Economist" have described him as a neo-Nazi. Kotleba has promoted the Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory and described Jews as "devils in human skin".  Kotleba has been charged with demonstrating sympathy for a movement directed at suppression of fundamental rights and freedoms by donating the amount of 1,488 € to charity, which is alleged to carry a white supremacist and Neo-Nazi message.  Kotleba has received a negative reception from the Slovak and foreign media due to his political views. Outlets such as "Pravda", "Denník SME", and "Aktuality" have characterized him as "extremist", "fascist", and "neo-Nazi".

Political career.

In 2003, Kotleba founded the far-right political party Slovak Togetherness (). In 2007 the Slovak interior ministry banned the party from running and campaigning in elections, however it still functioned as a civic organisation. In 2009 he ran for the post of Governor of the Banská Bystrica region and received 10% of the votes. In the 2013 local elections he ran again and this time received approximately 20% of the votes, thereby securing a run-off against favourite Vladimír Maňka. Kotleba won the run-off by receiving 55% of the votes.  Kotleba's win was described as a "shock" by political analysts, who attributed it to deep anti-Romani sentiments in the region. Observers originally had said that they saw almost no chance for Kotleba to succeed in the second round against Maňka, but nonetheless found his strong showing "disturbing".  Prior to the 2016 elections to the National Council, he renamed his party Ľudová strana Naše Slovensko (English: People's Party Our Slovakia) to Kotleba – Ľudová strana Naše Slovensko. Despite the polls suggesting the 1.5–3.5% gain of votes, the party rocketed to the parliament with a gain of over 8% of the vote. Despite elements of Neo-Nazism, the post-electoral polls suggest that his success was a result of dissatisfaction with the running of Slovakia and was seen as a protest vote against the ruling Smer – Sociálna demokracia and the fractured right. It was also linked to the fall of the Christian Democratic Movement, the Christian conservative party, and the European migrant crisis.  He was defeated in the Slovak regional elections of 2017 by an independent candidate, Ján Lunter.

International Views.

Russia and Syria.

Kotleba is known for his sympathy towards Russian Federation and Syrian Arab Republic, having slogans during presidential campaign in 2019 such as "For Slavic unity, against war with Russia" or declaring on national television that "Bashar Al-Assad is a hero of the Middle-East". Kotleba also made trips to Syria, having met with Syrian House Speaker and Foreign Minister of Syria. It was revealed upon his departure from Banská Bystrica governorship from the documents found there, that he wanted to send a letter to Russian ambassador, in which he asked for assistance and profoundly wrote about his intention to buy a Russian car. He also spoke critically of American intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Libya, and Syria, once reading all of United States involvement in regime change in the Slovak Parliament.

Marian Kotleba (; born 7 April 1977) is a Slovak politician and leader of the far-right, neo-Nazi political party Kotlebists – People's Party Our Slovakia ().


Plot.

After years of undertaking confidence tricks, Moist von Lipwig is caught by the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, and is sentenced to death under his current alias, Albert Spangler. After a brief spell in prison he is hanged by the neck, but not killed. He is brought before Patrician Havelock Vetinari who likens himself to an angel, offering Moist a change of life. He gives Moist the choice to either become the new Postmaster or be executed by falling down a deep pit.  Moist immediately attempts to escape but is caught by his parole officer Mr Pump, a golem, and brought to the rundown post office where he meets his two staff: the elderly Junior Postman Tolliver Groat and his assistant, the pin-obsessed Stanley Howler. Moist learns that the post office has been superseded by semaphore towers known as "Clacks" which send messages using light signals which are faster than sending letters by post and owned by the unscrupulous Reacher Gilt.  Initially Moist attempts to escape his duty, but realises that he cannot get away without overcoming Mr Pump, so he goes to the Golem Trust to help understand how golems are created and controlled. There he meets Adora Belle Dearheart for whom he begins to develop feelings. His skills prove to be useful in making the post office popular again, both when he invents the postage stamp in an attempt to raise money (which proves to be highly successful), and when he starts an express post service to neighbouring cities.  While staying in the post office Moist begins to experience visions which show him that some of his confidence tricks led to tragedies for those he conned, which result in him having feelings of remorse for the first time. These feelings are heightened when he discovers that Adora Belle's father, Robert Dearheart, was indirectly a victim of one of his cons, and as a result lost ownership of his invention, the Clacks. Moist confesses his past misdeeds to Adora Belle just as the post office is set afire. Moist sets his own safety aside and runs into the burning building to rescue Stanley Howler. Before finding Stanley, he encounters Mr Gryle, a banshee assassin, who confesses that he killed the previous four Postmasters on behalf of Gilt. Just as Gryle is about to strike, Moist calls on the haunted letters in the post office to stop Gryle, which they do.  The burning of the post office means that the people of Ankh-Morpork are turning back to the "Clacks" for sending their messages, so Moist comes up with a plan to draw people back to the post office by pretending that he has experienced a vision telling him where the gods have buried money to help repair the post office (in reality the money was a hidden stash from his past cons). This succeeds, so Moist announces a new long distance delivery service.  Meanwhile, Adora Belle Dearheart is working on a way to jam up the Clacks with the help of a group of hackers (clacks-crackers) called "The Smoking Gnu" which they succeed in doing temporarily. The Clacks' chief engineer, Mr Pony, finds a way of preventing the jamming process, but Pony begins to see that working for Gilt is wrong and presents Adora with evidence to prove that Gilt had the past four postmasters, as well as Adora's brother, killed.  When an attempt to jam the Clacks fails Moist challenges Gilt to a race to the city of Uberwald, Clacks versus post office. The message to be sent is a biography of Havelock Vetinari. Moist and Adora employ a disused Clack tower to intercept and successfully change the message from a biography to the content of Gilt's ledgers, providing evidence of the hired murders, which is witnessed in Ankh-Morpork. Gilt flees before he can be arrested and Adora is made manager of the Clacks and begins a relationship with Moist. At the end of the story Gilt, having been tracked down by a Golem the same way Moist was, is awoken in Vetinari's office who asks Gilt if he knows anything about angels. When a postman (played by Terry Pratchett) later arrives at Vetinari's palace to deliver a letter to Gilt, Vetinari implies that Gilt killed himself by falling down the deep pit.  In a post-credits sequence, Groat and Stanley are sore and exhausted after making the round-trip to Überwald with a mail coach, but excited because they bet on Moist to win the race at odds of 50-1. Then Groat remembers that he left the betting slip in Überwald, so they immediately set off again in the desperate hope of finding it.

US Release.

Both episodes of the Mini Series were released on one DVD in the United States on 11 September 2011.

Terry Pratchett's Going Postal is a two-part television film adaptation of "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett, adapted by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle and produced by The Mob, which was first broadcast on Sky1, and in high definition on Sky1 HD, at the end of May 2010.


Synopsis.

"Mom" follows Christy Plunkett (Anna Faris), a single mother who, after dealing with her battle with alcoholism and drug abuse, decides to restart her life in Napa, California, working as a waitress and attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Her mother, Bonnie Plunkett, (Allison Janney) is also a recovering addict. Christy's daughter, Violet (Sadie Calvano), who was born when Christy was 17, has also become a teen mother by her boyfriend, Luke (Spencer Daniels). Christy also has a young son, Roscoe (Blake Garrett Rosenthal) by her ex-husband, Baxter (Matt Jones), a deadbeat but likable pothead.  Christy has gone back to school and is pursuing her dream of becoming a lawyer, while Bonnie attempts to have a healthy romantic relationship with her new husband, Adam (William Fichtner). Through it all, Christy and Bonnie rely on their support system from AA, including the wise Marjorie (Mimi Kennedy), the wealthy and sometimes misguided Jill (Jaime Pressly), the overly-emotional Wendy (Beth Hall), and the loudmouthed but sweet Tammy (Kristen Johnston). Collectively, they help each other stay sober in the face of whatever life throws at them.

Production.

Development.

"Mom" was one of the many projects that became a priority for CBS and Warner Bros when it was pitched in December 2012, in part due to Lorre's new four-year deal with Warner the previous September. It was green-lit by CBS for a series order pickup on May 9, 2013. This pickup also gives Lorre the distinction of having four sitcoms airing on one network starting in the 2013–14 season. The following week, the network announced that it would place the sitcom in the Monday night 9:30 pm (ET/PT) time slot following "2 Broke Girls". However, after the cancelation of "We Are Men", "2 Broke Girls" was moved into the show's 8:30 pm slot, with repeats of "The Big Bang Theory" occupying the 9 pm lead-in time slot to "Mom" until the season debut of "Mike & Molly" on November 4, 2013. The show received a full first season order for 22 episodes on October 18, 2013.  On March 13, 2014, CBS announced the second season renewal of "Mom". The series moved from Mondays at 9:30 PM to Thursdays at 8:30 PM for the first fourteen episodes until the series moved to Thursdays at 9:30 PM following "The Odd Couple" series premiere and the series finale of "Two and a Half Men".  By season three, the focus became more about Christy and Bonnie and their group from AA, while the restaurant set, the kids, and Baxter roles were reduced significantly.

Casting.

The series gives Faris, who had guest-starred in various television programs between her film projects and been sought after for other television projects (including a failed pilot called "Blue Skies" that was being produced for NBC), her first full-time television role, as she landed the part of the lead character, Christy, in January 2013. On January 28, 2013, Janney was next to come aboard the project, playing Christy's mother. Matt Jones and Spencer Daniels were added to the cast in February 2013, with Jones playing Christy's ex-husband, Baxter, and Daniels taking the role of Luke, the boyfriend of Christy's daughter, Violet.

Broadcast.

In Australia, "Mom" debuted on Nine Network on April 9, 2014. In Canada, Citytv airs the series simultaneously. In Greece, Star Channel debut the series on October 25, 2014. In India, Comedy Central (India) has been broadcasting the series through 2015. In Israel, the show is broadcast on HOT Comedy Central. In the United Kingdom, ITV2 debuted the show on January 20, 2014, they have since dropped the show which has not been available to UK viewers since the end of Season 4.

Syndication.

"Mom" went into syndication during the fall of 2017. The series airs on local affiliates, as well as on FXX, Paramount Network, Nick at Nite, and CMT. It previously aired on TV Land, until July 2, 2018, when it switched networks with "Two and a Half Men" for Nick at Nite. Aside from FXX, the stations are owned by ViacomCBS, which often shares its programming.

Reception.

Critical response.

"Mom" has been met with widespread critical acclaim, with much praise going towards its writing and performances of its cast, especially that of Allison Janney. The series received a Metacritic score of 65 out of 100 for its first season, based on 25 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 70%, based on 40 reviews, and an average rating of 5.71/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Anna Faris and Allison Janney share an undeniable comedic chemistry, and if the jokes are sometimes too crass, "Mom" represents a sincere (and often witty) attempt to address addiction issues." "Boston Herald" critic Mark A. Perigard gave a positive review, writing: "This is dark material, yet Faris balances it with a genuine winsomeness, able to wring laughs out of the most innocuous lines." "New York Magazine" critic Matt Zoller Seitz praised the cast and called it "just about perfect".  The second season was met with even more critical acclaim. The season received a Metacritic score of 81 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim". On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 88%, based on 8 reviews, and an average rating of 8.5/10.  The third season was also met with critical acclaim. The season received a Metacritic score of 82 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim". On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 100%, based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 8.33/11. The site's critical consensus reads: ""Mom" continues to nurture the multi-cam sitcom genre with mature storytelling and wonderful performances by Anna Faris and Allison Janney, who both handle reflective drama with the same deft touch as they do comedic timing".

Mom is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 23, 2013. The series was created by Chuck Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky and Gemma Baker, while the former two also serve as executive producers on the series along with Nick Bakay. On February 5, 2019, it was renewed for its seventh and eighth seasons, The seventh season premiered on September 26, 2019. With the eighth season set to premiere sometime during the 2020–21 television season.


Background.

Lil Bub was the runt of her litter born to a feral mother. She was born with several genetic mutations, had to be bottle-fed, and had difficulty being adopted. Lil Bub had an extreme form of feline dwarfism that caused her limbs and lower jaw to be quite small in comparison to the rest of her body. The shortened lower jaw meant that, among other things, she could not retain her tongue within her mouth. Her owner, Mike Bridavsky, adopted her when his friends asked him to give her a home. When Bridavsky first picked her up, he said "Hey, Bub!"  Lil Bub suffered from osteopetrosis for which she received medication. In late 2012, during the filming of "Lil Bub & Friendz", she had a serious health episode and was diagnosed with osteopetrosis by a specialist in Indianapolis. Lil Bub's short legs and osteopetrosis restricted her movement but she was termed "a fantastic waddler." Vibrations from travel also break down the osteoclasts.  A group of individuals launched a campaign on the website Experiment.com to sequence Lil Bub's genome. The purpose of this project was to better understand Lil Bub's unique appearance (for example, her extra digits). The campaign reached its funding goal on May 25, 2015. The scientists found Lil Bub had a mutation in gene RANK/TNFRSF11A which has also been found in one mouse and fifteen humans. Their research on Lil Bub is published at bioRxiv.  Bridavsky sold a variety of merchandise under the LIL BUB moniker and donated much of the profits to animal rescue groups. Some of the money also helped Bridavsky pay off six months of back rent on his recording studio. Bridavsky has a policy to not "approach anybody for anything" and chose to not sign with talent agent Ben Lashes, whose clients have included Grumpy Cat. "Lil Bub’s Lil Book: The Extraordinary Life of the Most Amazing Cat on the Planet" was released September 3, 2013.

Meet and greets.

Bridavsky arranged "meet and greets" for both he and Lil Bub at animal shelters around the US. The shelters received donations and a cut of merchandise sales.  Lil Bub posed for a PETA campaign that encourages people to spay and neuter their pets.  Lil Bub met Grumpy Cat at the second annual Internet Cat Video Film Festival. Lil Bub had a book signing for her new book at Strand Books on September 5.  A screening of "Lil Bub & Friendz" at Metro Chicago raised $1,800 for Tree House Humane Society.

Media appearances.

Lil Bub appeared on "Good Morning America" in August 2012. She did a photoshoot with "Bullett Magazine" in October 2012. She was also featured in "Bloom Magazine" in the December 2012/January 2013 edition.  She appeared on "Today" and "The View" in April 2013. Lil Bub appeared in the YouTube Big Live Comedy Show with Jack McBrayer and the cast of "Workaholics". She appeared on an episode of "Meme'd" on The Pet Collective.  In September 2014, Lil Bub was interviewed by David Yow of The Jesus Lizard for "The A.V. Club".  Lil Bub makes an appearance in the film "Nine Lives" (2016) as the cat form of the film's main antagonist Ian Cox (Mark Consuelos) after he is hit by a car and his soul goes inside the cat's body.  Her final media appearance was in the 2018 movie "I'll Be Next Door for Christmas".. She appeared as Parsley the Cat.

Appearance on Japanese TV.

Lil Bub's life story was featured for 30 minutes during the three hour "Animal Special" episode of the Japanese TV show "Experience a Miracle – Unbelievable". In this dramatization the role of Mike Bridavsky was played by New Zealand actor Gregory Snelgar.

"Lil Bub & Friendz".

Lil Bub stars in "Lil Bub & Friendz", a documentary directed by Andy Capper and Juliette Eisner and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18, 2013. The film also stars Keyboard Cat, Nyan Cat and Grumpy Cat. Capper and Eisner decided to make a full-length film after meeting Lil Bub and seeing the turnout of 10,000 people at the 2012 Internet Cat Video Film Festival in Minneapolis. "Lil Bub & Friendz" won the Tribeca Online Festival Best Feature Film.  Lil Bub, Bridavsky, Capper and Eisner attended the Tribeca Drive-In outdoor screening at the World Financial Center Plaza on April 20. Lil Bub did a petting and photo session. Festival co-head Robert De Niro met Lil Bub at the Director's Brunch on April 23 after co-head Jane Rosenthal quipped to "The Hollywood Reporter" "I keep saying Little Bub needs to meet Big Bob."  On Lil Bub's second birthday, June 21, 2013, it was announced that she would star in "Lil BUB's Big SHOW" web series with Revision3. Bridavsky selected Rev3 for its connections to Discovery Communications and Animal Planet. Bridavsky had full writing and creative control. The talk show format was made possible by having a subtitled Lil Bub edited with footage of her guests recorded separately. Her first guest was Whoopi Goldberg who met her on "The View" in April 2013. The episode ended with Lil Bub introducing the audience to Tabby's Place, a cat sanctuary for disadvantaged felines. The episode aired September 3, 2013.

Death.

Lil Bub died in her sleep on December 1, 2019. According to her owner, Lil Bub had been fighting an aggressive bone infection at the time of her death.

Lil Bub, officially Lil BUB (June 21, 2011 – December 1, 2019), was an American celebrity cat known for her unique physical appearance. Her photos were first posted to Tumblr in November 2011, before being taken off after being featured on the social news website Reddit. "Lil Bub" on Facebook has over three million likes. Lil Bub starred in "Lil Bub & Friendz", a documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18, 2013, and won the Tribeca Online Festival Best Feature Film.


Playing career.

As a youth, Smith played in the 2001 and 2002 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with the New York Rangers minor ice hockey team.  Smith graduated from Westminster School in 2006 and played four seasons at Boston College. While playing for Boston College, Smith was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks 169th overall in the sixth round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. On October 29, 2010 the Blackhawks recalled Smith from the AHL's Rockford IceHogs to make his NHL debut in a home game against the Edmonton Oilers. He scored his first NHL goal on April 8, 2011 against Jimmy Howard of the Detroit Red Wings. On April 15, 2011, Smith scored 2 goals against the Vancouver Canucks in a 4–3 loss in only his second NHL playoff game.  On Sunday, April 24, 2011, during Game 6 of the Western Conference quarterfinals, Smith scored the overtime goal on a rebound against the Vancouver Canucks' goaltender, Roberto Luongo, to force a Game 7 in Vancouver after the Canucks had previously been leading the series 3–0. The Blackhawks ended up losing Game 7 in overtime.  On June 17, 2013, Smith was called up to play his first Stanley Cup Finals game, a 2–0 loss to the Boston Bruins, to fill in over the injured Marián Hossa. The Blackhawks won the Cup on June 24, 2013, when they defeated the Bruins in Game 6. On June 27, 2014, the Blackhawks signed him to a two-year contract extension. In the following season, Smith scored four goals in 19 playoff games to help the Blackhawks advance to the Western Conference finals.  On March 2, 2015, Smith was traded by the Blackhawks to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Andrew Desjardins. He scored his first goal with the Sharks the same day in their shutout game against the Montreal Canadiens, but remained for most of the season with the Sharks' AHL affiliate San Jose Barracuda.  On February 27, 2016, Smith, Alex Stalock and a conditional 4th round pick in 2018 were traded by the Sharks to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for James Reimer and Jeremy Morin.  Despite putting up acceptable numbers with the Maple Leafs, Smith was placed on waivers by the team on March 30, 2016. Smith cleared the following day and was assigned to the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. Despite being considered to be favourites to win the Calder Cup, the Marlies were eliminated in the third round of the playoffs, with Smith contributing nine points in their fifteen-game run.  On August 16, 2016, he signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Colorado Avalanche, worth $675,000 at the NHL level and $150,000 at the AHL level. Having made the Avalanche opening night roster, Smith made his debut with Colorado to start the 2016–17 season in a 6–5 victory over the Dallas Stars on October 15, 2016. Smith would play in four scoreless games for the Avalanche before being placed on waivers and being claimed by the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 24, 2016. Smith was claimed due to the depth he provided the team on the penalty kill, a position coach Mike Babcock praised him for during his stint the previous season in Toronto. On May 2, 2017, Smith agreed to a one-year extension to remain with the Maple Leafs. In the 2017–18 season, he won the Calder Cup with the Toronto Marlies, serving as team captain. On June 15, 2018, he signed with Adler Mannheim of the German DEL.

Personal life.

Smith was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and raised in Avon, Connecticut. Smith is the first player born in the state of North Carolina to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup.  Smith's younger brother played Division I soccer for William & Mary.  His uncle is Canadian conductor Peter Oundjian.

Benjamin Alexander Smith (born July 11, 1988) is an American professional ice hockey player currently playing for Adler Mannheim in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). He previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs and the Colorado Avalanche.


Education.

Asselineau enrolled in HEC Paris where he graduated in 1980 with the MSc in Management. He enrolled at the École nationale d'administration (promotion "Léonard de Vinci", 1985).

Career.

Asselineau started his career in Japan in the department of economic expansion for National Service Overseas (CSNE). Served in 1985 as inspector General in the "inspection générale des Finances".  From 1989 to 1990, he was chief of mission for the National Credit. He was also president of the direction of the "Society for Economical and Financial Analysis and Diagnostic" (SADEF). In 1991, he became chief of mission of the Asia-Oceania office at the "Direction of Foreign Economical Relation" (DREE) in the Ministry of Economy and Finance under the Pierre Bérégovoy government.  From 1994 to 1995, he served as counsellor for international affairs in the Ministry of Industry under the Edouard Balladur government.  In June 1995, he was named director of the office of the Ministry of Tourism. In 1996, he moved to the ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was in charge of economic matters for Asia, Oceania and Latin America until the dissolution of parliament by Jacques Chirac in 1997.

Political career.

In 1999, François Asselineau got involved in politics by becoming a member of the Rally for France (RPF), a party created by Charles Pasqua and Philippe de Villiers. He became a member of the national bureau, director of studies and spokesman of the party until autumn 2005. On July 27, 2000, he became vice-director of the general council of the Hauts-de-Seine. He was in charge of economic and international affairs. On May 23, 2001, Charles Pasqua nominated François Asselineau as the director of his office of the presidency of the general council of Hauts-de-Seine where he worked until March 30, 2004 when Nicolas Sarkozy took over the position of Charles Pasqua.  On October 20, 2004, Nicolas Sarkozy appointed Asselineau as the director of the general delegation for economic intelligence within the Minister of Economy and Finance.  In November 2006, Asselineau joined the steering committee of "Rally for an Independent and Sovereign France" (RIF), a party created by Paul-Marie Coûteaux,

Municipal councillor.

On March 19, 2001, he was elected as a member of the council of Paris in the 19e arrondissement de Paris. His list, a right-wing dissident list made with an agreement between Jean Tiberi and Charles Pasqua, was third with 15,78% in a triangular against a Rally for the Republic (RPR) list and unified left list composed with Socialist Party (PS). His campaign was marked by a radical rhetoric on security, with posters denouncing "six years of socialist laxity", supposed drug trafficking, alleged prostitution and an asserted lack of police forces.  On December 31, 2004, Asselineau decided to join the group Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) at the Council of Paris. On November 3, 2006, he decided to quit the group and seat with the "non-inscrits" just after Françoise de Panafieu, for whom he worked, was elected president of the council of Paris for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).  In September 2007, Asselineau participated in a dissident political group named "Paris Libre" with several other ex-UMP members. The group ran several lists against the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), and Asselineau ran a list in the 17e arrondissement de Paris against Françoise de Panafieu. However, he then backtracked, denouncing consequent pressure on the members of his list.

Creation of the UPR.

On March 25, 2007, for the 50th anniversary of the Rome Treaty signature, he created the Popular Republican Union (UPR).

Election results.

In January 2011, François Asselineau announced his intention to run for the 2012 French presidential election, and confirmed this intention in December 2011. However, he was only able to garner 17 of the required 500 endorsements from elected politicians necessary to be on the ballot. As a result, Asselineau called for a boycott of the presidential election.  Following the Cahuzac affair and the resignation of Jérôme Cahuzac for whom Asselineau had worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance, Asselineau ran for the legislative by-election in Lot-et-Garonne's 3rd constituency with Régis Chamagne. They failed to reach the second round with a score of 189 votes (0.58%).  Asselineau ran for the 2014 European Parliament election as the head of the list for the Île-de-France constituency. He hoped that the UPR's agenda could rally voters disappointed by the current political system. Asselineau complained to the CSA for not having had access to mainstream media; he also claimed that the principle of equity for all candidates was actually undermined by the media, that tended to give voice to parties that were already well-known. He scored 0.56% of votes cast in his constituency.

Political views.

François Asselineau's'souverainiste' platform has two main targets, the European Union and the United States. He insists that France should leave the Eurozone, the European Union, and NATO. According to Asselineau, the EU and NATO "as seen from Washington...are the political and military side of the same coin, that of the enthrallment of the European continent to their 'buffer zone' so as to surround and contain the Russian continental power". He says the process leading to European unification was launched solely upon orders from the American government.  Asselineau denies he is a "eurosceptic", preferring to call himself a "euro-atheist". He said on the French TV program "On n'est pas couché" that he opposes military intervention in Syria and Iraq.  Asselineau claims the 1944 Conseil national de la Résistance as the source of inspiration for his presidential program in 2012, including "re-nationalisations" and "quality public services". Asselineau does not say what should be done about "the major national issues such as nuclear power in France, the French debt crisis or the decisions to be made about immigration, [which] should be addressed through referendums", "once France has left the European Union".

Conspiracy theories.

The regional daily newspaper "Sud-Ouest" notes that Rudy Reichstadt, the coordinator of "", summed up François Asselineau's ideas as being "utter "souverainisme" interlaced with anti-US conspiracy theories (""un souverainisme intégral mâtiné de théorie du complot anti-américaine"") and views his strategy as aiming at launching a kind of "take-over bid" on this part of the public enticed by the conspiracist approach of such websites as "Réseau Voltaire" or Alain Soral's "Égalité et Réconciliation".  The journalist Laure Daussy observed on the "Arrêt sur images" website that Asselineau's videoconferences on YouTube include claims that "Marine Le Pen is entrusted with ruining [his] discourse" and that her party, the National Front "was an invention of François Mitterrand and Jacques Attali" and had been financed by "Pierre Ceyrac and the financial arm of the Moonies, CAUSA International, and behind them by the CIA and the Bush family", whose "fortune manager, the Carlyle group (...), is represented in France by Yves de Chaisemartin, the owner of 25% of the magazine "Marianne" which promotes Marine Le Pen in order to have Dominique Strauss-Kahn elected". Asselineau also told the regional newspaper "Nord Éclair" that the National Front's intention of leaving the European Union is part of the "smokescreen" of the French political theatre and that they do not want to do so at all.

François Asselineau (, born 14 September 1957) is a French politician and an Inspector General for finances. Asselineau was a member of the Rally for France (RPF) and UMP before creating his own political party the Popular Republican Union (Union Populaire Républicaine or UPR). His movement promotes France's unilateral withdrawal from the European Union, the Eurozone and NATO.


Overview and history.

Dogecoin was created by programmer Billy Markus from Portland, Oregon, who hoped to create a fun cryptocurrency that could reach a broader demographic than Bitcoin. In addition, he wanted to distance it from the controversial history of other coins. At the same time, Jackson Palmer, a member of Adobe Systems' marketing department in Sydney, was encouraged on Twitter by a student at Front Range Community College to make the idea a reality.  After receiving several mentions on Twitter, Palmer purchased the domain <nowiki>dogecoin.com</nowiki> and added a splash screen, which featured the coin's logo and scattered Comic Sans text. Markus saw the site linked in an IRC chat room, and started efforts to create the currency after reaching out to Palmer. Markus based Dogecoin on an existing cryptocurrency, Luckycoin, which features a randomized reward that is received for mining a block, although this behavior was later changed to a static block reward in March 2014. In turn, Luckycoin is based on Litecoin, which also uses scrypt technology in its proof-of-work algorithm. The use of scrypt means that miners cannot use SHA-256 bitcoin mining equipment, and that dedicated FPGA and ASIC devices used for mining are complicated to create. Dogecoin was officially launched on December 6, 2013. The Dogecoin network produces infinite Dogecoins.  On December 19, 2013, Dogecoin jumped nearly 300 percent in value in 72 hours, rising from US$0.00026 to $0.00095, with a volume of billions of Dogecoins per day. This growth occurred during a time when Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies were reeling from China's decision to forbid Chinese banks from investing into the Bitcoin economy. Three days later, Dogecoin experienced its first major crash by dropping by 80% due to this event and due to large mining pools seizing opportunity in exploiting the very little computing power required at the time to mine Dogecoin.  On December 25, 2013, the first major theft of Dogecoin occurred when millions of coins were stolen during a hack on the online cryptocurrency wallet platform Dogewallet. The hacker gained access to the platform's filesystem and modified its send/receive page to send any and all coins to a static address. This hacking incident spiked tweets about Dogecoin, making it the most mentioned altcoin on Twitter at the time, although it was in reference to a negative event. To help those who lost funds on Dogewallet after its breach, the Dogecoin community started an initiative named "SaveDogemas" to help donate coins to those who had them stolen. Approximately one month later, enough money was donated to cover all of the coins that were stolen. On January 2014, the trading volume of Dogecoin briefly surpassed that of Bitcoin and all other crypto-currencies combined, however, its market capitalization remained substantially behind that of Bitcoin., Dogecoin had a market capitalization of USD 13.5 million. In April 2015, Jackson Palmer announced he is taking an "extended leave of absence" from the cryptocurrency community.  At the peak of the 2017 to early 2018 Cryptocurrency bubble, Dogecoin briefly reached a peak of $0.017/coin on January 8, 2018, with a total market capitalization of USD 2 billion.

Fundraising.

2014 Winter Olympics.

The Dogecoin community and foundation have encouraged fundraising for charities and other notable causes. On January 19, 2014, a fundraiser was established by the Dogecoin community to raise $50,000 for the Jamaican Bobsled Team, which had qualified for, but could not afford to go to, the Sochi Winter Olympics. By the second day, $36,000 worth of Dogecoin was donated and the Dogecoin to bitcoin exchange rate rose by 50%. The Dogecoin community also raised funds for a second Sochi athlete Shiva Keshavan.

Doge4Water.

Inspired by the Winter Olympics fundraiser and smaller charity fundraising successes, the Dogecoin Foundation, led by Eric Nakagawa, began collecting donations to build a well in the Tana river basin in Kenya in cooperation with. They set out to raise a total of 40,000,000 ($30,000 at the time) Dogecoin before World Water Day (March 22). The campaign succeeded, collecting donations from more than 4,000 donors, including one anonymous benefactor who donated 14,000,000 Dogecoin (approx. $11,000).

NASCAR.

On March 25, 2014, the Dogecoin community successfully raised 67.8 million Dogecoins (around $55,000 at the time) in an effort to sponsor NASCAR driver Josh Wise. Wise ran with a Dogecoin/Reddit-sponsored paint scheme at the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. On May 4, 2014, Wise and his car were featured for nearly a minute, during which the race commentators discussed Dogecoin and the crowdfunding effort, while finishing twentieth and narrowly avoiding multiple wrecks. On May 16, 2014, Wise won a spot at the Sprint All-Star Race through an online fan vote beating household name Danica Patrick, largely due to the efforts of the Dogecoin Reddit community. He finished the race in fifteenth, the last car running. The following race in the Coca-Cola 600, Wise debuted a Dogecoin/Reddit.com helmet. Wise later announced he would run the car again at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 as a thank-you gift to the community and the GEICO 500. He finished twenty-eighth in the race due in part to a refueling issue; he was in twelfth place after a gas-and-go pit stop, but the gas can did not engage long enough, resulting in a second pit stop that took him towards the back of the pack. Eutechnyx, developer of the "NASCAR '14" video game, added the Dogecoin car as a drivable car in a DLC pack.

Use and exchanges.

Several online exchanges offer DOGE/BTC and DOGE/LTC trading.  Trading physical, tangible items in exchange for DOGE takes place on online communities such as Reddit and Twitter, where users frequently share currency-related information.  Dogecoin has also been used to try to sell a house, and has been used in the pornography and poker industries.  Dogetipbot was a cryptocurrency transaction service used on popular sites like Reddit and Twitch. It allowed users to send Dogecoins to other users through commands via Reddit comments. In May 2017 Dogetipbot was discontinued and taken offline after its creator declared bankruptcy; this left many Dogetipbot users losing their coins stored in the Dogetipbot system.

Mining parameters.

Dogecoin's implementation differs from Litecoin by several parameters. Dogecoin's block time is 1 minute as opposed to Litecoin's 2.5 minutes.  Several cases of using employer or university computers to mine Dogecoin have been discovered.

Currency supply.

Unlike deflationary cryptocurrencies which have a limit on the number of coins that can be produced, there is no limit to how many Dogecoins can be produced, which makes it an inflationary coin. Dogecoin was initially to have a limit of 100 billion coins, which would already have been far more coins than the top digital currencies were allowing. In February 2014, Dogecoin founder Jackson Palmer announced that that limit would be removed and there would be no cap, which should have the result of constant reduction of its inflation rate over a long time.

Dogecoin (, code: DOGE, symbol: Ð) is a cryptocurrency featuring a likeness of the Shiba Inu dog from the "Doge" Internet meme as its logo. Introduced as a "joke currency" on 6 December 2013, Dogecoin quickly developed its own online community and reached a capitalization of US$60 million in January 2014.


History.

1945.

The Third Republic came into being in April 1945. Its government, installed at Košice on 4 April and moved to Prague after its liberation on 10 May, was a National Front coalition in which three socialist parties—KSČ, Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party, and Czechoslovak National Social Party—predominated. The Slovak Popular Party was banned as collaborationist with the Nazis. Other conservative yet democratic parties, such as the Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants, were prevented from resuming activities in the postwar period. Certain acceptable nonsocialist parties were included in the coalition; among them were the Catholic People's Party (in Moravia) and the Slovak Democratic Party. Employing 61.2 percent of the industrial labour force—were nationalised.  14 October 1945 saw a new provisional national assembly voted in.  Beneš had compromised with the KSČ to avoid a postwar coup; he naïvely hoped that the democratic process would restore a more equitable distribution of power. Beneš had negotiated the Soviet alliance, but at the same time he hoped to establish Czechoslovakia as a "bridge" between East and West, capable of maintaining contacts with both sides. The KSČ leader Klement Gottwald, however, professed commitment to a "gradualist" approach, that is, to a KSČ assumption of power by democratic means.  The popular enthusiasm evoked by the Soviet armies of liberation benefited the KSČ. Czechoslovaks, bitterly disappointed by the West at the Munich Agreement, responded favourably to both the KSČ and the Soviet alliance. Communists secured strong representation in the popularly elected national committees, the new organs of local administration. The KSČ organised and centralised the trades union movement; of 120 representatives to the Central Council of Trades Unions, 94 were communists. The party worked to acquire a mass membership, including peasants and the petite bourgeoisie, as well as the proletariat. Between May 1945 and May 1946, KSČ membership grew from 27,000 to over 1.1 million.

1946.

In the May 1946 election, the KSČ won in the Czech part of the country (40.17%), while the anti-Communist Democratic Party won in Slovakia (62%). In sum, however, the KSČ won a plurality of 38 percent of the vote at the Czechoslovak level. Beneš continued as president of the republic, and Jan Masaryk, son of the revered founding father, continued as foreign minister. Gottwald became prime minister. Most important, although the communists held only a minority of portfolios, they were able to gain control over such key ministries as information, internal trade, finance and interior (including the police apparatus). Through these ministries, the communists were able to suppress noncommunist opposition, place party members in positions of power, and create a solid basis for a takeover attempt.

1947.

The year that followed was uneventful. The KSČ continued to proclaim its "national" and "democratic" orientation. The turning point came in the summer of 1947. In July, the Czechoslovak government, with KSČ approval, accepted an Anglo-French invitation to attend preliminary discussions of the Marshall Plan. The Soviet Union responded immediately to the Czechoslovak move to continue the Western alliance: Stalin summoned Gottwald to Moscow.  Upon his return to Prague, the KSČ reversed its decision. In subsequent months, the party demonstrated a significant radicalisation of its tactics. The KSČ argued that a reactionary coup was imminent, and that immediate action was necessary to prevent it. Through media and police means, they intensified their activity. Originally announced by Gottwald at the KSČ Central Committee meeting in November 1947, news of the "reactionary plot" was disseminated throughout the country by the communist press.  From June of that year, and especially after the outbreak of the 1947-1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine in November, Czechoslovakia began to sell arms to the Palestinian Jewish Haganah defense force. It was the only foreign state to do so. This policy, continued after the declaration of the State of Israel the following year, would play an important role in the victory of the Jewish state in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

1948.

In January 1948, the communist-controlled Ministry of Interior proceeded to purge the Czechoslovak security forces, substituting noncommunists with communists. Simultaneously, the KSČ began agitating for increased nationalisation and for a new land reform limiting landholdings to fifty hectares.  A cabinet crisis precipitated the February coup. Backed by all non-communist parties, the National Social ministers said that the communists were using the Ministry of Interior's police and security forces to suppress non-communists, and demanded a halt to this. Prime Minister Gottwald, however, repeatedly forestalled discussion of the police issue. On 21 February, National Socialists resigned from the cabinet in protest. The Catholic People's Party and the Slovak Democratic Party followed suit.  The twelve noncommunist ministers resigned, in part, to induce Beneš to call for early elections. Communist losses were anticipated owing to popular disapproval of recent KSČ tactics. A January poll indicated a 10-percent decline in Communist electoral support. Yet the Czechoslovak National Socialists made their move without adequate coordination with Beneš. The democratic parties, in addition, made no effort to rally popular support.  The non-Communists believed that Beneš would refuse to accept their resignations and keep them in a caretaker government, which would presumably force Gottwald to either back down or resign. Beneš initially refused to accept the resignations and declared that no government could be formed without non-Communist ministers. However, in the days that followed, he shunned the non-Communist ministers to avoid accusation of collusion. The Czechoslovak Army remained neutral.  In the meantime, the KSČ garnered its forces. The communist-controlled Ministry of Interior deployed police regiments to sensitive areas and equipped a workers' militia. The communist-controlled Ministry of Information refused broadcasting time to noncommunist officials. Ministries held by noncommunist parties were secured by communist "action committees." The action committees also purged all governmental and political party organs of unreliable elements. Gottwald threatened to call a general strike unless Beneš appointed a new, Communist-dominated government.  On 26 February, Beneš, perhaps fearing civil war and/or Soviet intervention, capitulated. He accepted the resignations of the dissident ministers and appointed a new cabinet from a list submitted by Gottwald. The new cabinet was dominated by Communists and pro-Soviet Social Democrats. Members of the People's, National Socialist and Czech Democratic parties were also included, so the government was still nominally a coalition. However, the ministers using those labels were fellow travellers working hand in glove with the Communists. This act marked the onset of out-and-out Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

During World War II, Czechoslovakia disappeared from the map of Europe. The Third Czechoslovak Republic (, ) which emerged as a sovereign state was not only the result of the policies of the victorious Western allies, the French Fourth Republic, the United Kingdom and the United States, but also an indication of the strength of the Czechoslovak ideal embodied in the First Czechoslovak Republic. However, at the conclusion of World War II, Czechoslovakia fell within the Soviet sphere of influence, and this circumstance dominated any plans or strategies for postwar reconstruction. Consequently, the political and economic organisation of Czechoslovakia became largely a matter of negotiations between Edvard Beneš and Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) exiles living in Moscow.


Early Norman border castle.

Immediately after the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror installed three of his most trusted confidants, Hugh d'Avranches, Roger de Montgomerie, and William FitzOsbern, as the Earls of Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford respectively. The earldoms served to guard the frontier and provided bases for the Norman invasion of Wales. Over the next four centuries, Norman lords established mostly small Marcher Lordships between the Dee and Severn, and further west. Military adventurers came to Wales from Normandy and elsewhere, raided an area of Wales, and then fortified it and granted land to some of their supporters.  William FitzOsbern established Monmouth Castle between 1066 and 1069 as a counterpart to his other major castle at Chepstow. It occupied relatively high ground, overlooking the confluence of the Monnow with the River Wye. It was originally an earth and timber ringwork fortress, which was listed in the Domesday Book. Initially, Monmouth was a fairly typical border castle in the Welsh Marches, presided over by a Marcher Lord and similar in style and status to its near neighbours Grosmont Castle, Skenfrith Castle, White Castle and Abergavenny Castle. The wooden castle had stonework added before 1150. Its tower shares some similarities with that of Chepstow Castle, another stronghold built for FitzOsbern further south, at the lower end of the River Wye.

Expansion and later use.

After briefly being held by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, Monmouth Castle passed into the hands of Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster and son of Henry III in 1267. He redeveloped the castle, building the Hall and took it as his main residence in the area. It was also improved by Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. During this period large decorated windows were installed in the upper part of the Great Tower which also had a new roof. As a town developed around the castle, the castle's defences were augmented by a town wall and fortified bridge, built at the end of the 13th century.  Edward II briefly was held prisoner in the castle before he was transferred to Berkeley Castle where he died. The castle was a favourite residence of Henry Bolingbroke, later King as Henry IV. It was here that in 1387 the future King Henry V of England was born, to Bolingbroke's first wife Mary de Bohun.  The turmoil and conflict in Wales during the ten years of the Owain Glyndŵr rebellion did not directly affect Monmouth Castle as it was a stronghold of the region and lesser targets presented themselves more readily to essentially a guerilla army. However other local towns, settlements and castles were directly attacked with Grosmont and Abergavenny being razed and Crickhowell Castle and Newport Castle successfully attacked.  Over the centuries, as its defensive function diminished, the outer bailey of the castle became increasingly used as a market place, later (and now) known as Agincourt Square. During the sixteenth century, when Monmouth became the county town of the newly formed shire of Monmouth, the county's Courts of Assize began to be held in the castle's Great Hall.

Civil War.

In the tumult of the English Civil War, Monmouth Castle changed hands three times, finally falling to the Parliamentarians in 1645. When Oliver Cromwell visited in 1646 he ordered it to be slighted to prevent its military re-use. The round tower was attacked on 30 March 1647 and subsequently fell down.  Great Castle House was built in 1673, on the site of the old round tower, by Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort. It is a Grade I listed building, and has been described as "a house of splendid swagger outside and in". It later became used for the Assize Courts, until they relocated to the new Shire Hall in 1725.

Modern history.

Only fragments of the castle, including the Great Tower and Hall and parts of the walls, remain above ground, and on the site Castle House and Great House have been built. In 1875, the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers Militia, the senior Territorial Army regiment today, made it their Headquarters building and so it remains. It is one of the few British castles in continuous military occupancy.  The Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers museum is located in the stable block attached to Great Castle House. It includes exhibits relating to the history of the regiment from 1539 to the present day.

Monmouth Castle () is a castle in the town of Monmouth, county town of Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It is a Grade I listed building and scheduled monument.


Background.

After the Battle of Shaho, the Russian and Japanese forces faced each other south of Mukden until the frozen Manchurian winter began. The Russians were entrenched in the city of Mukden, while the Japanese occupied a 160-kilometer front with the Japanese 1st Army, 2nd Army, 4th Army and the Akiyama Independent Cavalry Regiment. The Japanese field commanders thought no major battle was possible and assumed that the Russians had the same view regarding the difficulty of winter combat.  The Russian commander, General Aleksey Kuropatkin was receiving reinforcements via the Trans-Siberian Railway but was concerned about the impending arrival of the battle-hardened Japanese Third Army under General Nogi Maresuke to the front after the fall of Port Arthur on 2 January 1905.  General Nikolai Linevich had joined Kuropatkin’s staff at Mukden from Vladivostok to command the 1st Manchurian Army and Kuropatkin’s left flank. The center was held by General Alexander Kaulbars’s 3rd Manchurian Army. The right flank was commanded by General Oskar Gripenberg, the inexperienced newly arrived commanding general of the 2nd Manchurian Army. The 2nd Manchurian Army consisted of the 8th European Army Corps, a division of the 10th, the 61st Reserve Division, the 5th Rifle Brigade, and the 1st Siberian Army Corps under General Baron Georgii Stackelberg, besides a large body of cavalry, or approximately, 285,000 men and 350 guns.  Gripenberg was initially pessimistic towards Kuropatkin's plans for an offensive against the Japanese left wing, which was in an exposed northern position close to Russian territory near the small village of Heikoutai. He agreed to the plan on the condition that all three Russian armies coordinate their attack. Details of the plan were leaked by St Petersburg to a war correspondent from "L'Écho de Paris," who credited the plan to Gripenberg. This news article, as well as Gripenberg’s major redeployments of his forces in 14 and 16 January, signaled the Russian intentions to the Japanese.

The Mishchenko Raid.

Kuropatkin’s first move was to send General Pavel Mishchenko south with 6000 cavalry and six batteries of light artillery with the aim of destroying Newchang Station on the South Manchurian Railroad. The station was known to have a large stockpile of food and supplies. Mishchenko was also instructed to destroy railway bridges and sections of the train track along the way. Departing on 8 January, Mishchenko made unexpectedly slow progress due to inclement weather and the lack of forage and supplies along the way. By the time he reached the station on 12 January, it had been heavily reinforced by the Japanese. After failing to take the station in three attempts, he was forced to withdraw, returning to Mukden on 18 January. The damage made by his dragoons to the rail tracks was quickly repaired by the Japanese.

The Battle of Sandepu.

On 19 January, Kuropatkin issued orders for the Second Manchurian Army to attack in a maneuver to outflank General Oku's Japanese Second Army and to drive it back across the Taitzu River before Nogi's Third Army could arrive. However, Gripenberg was not allowed to commit all of his forces – Kuropatkin limited him to three divisions plus the 1st East Siberian Army Corps and cavalry. The Japanese were aware of these plans, causing Ōyama to reinforce his left flank. Kuropatkin afterwards blamed premature moves by Gripenberg for alerting the Japanese.  On 25 January 1905, the battle began with an attack by the 1st Siberian Rifle Corps on the fortified village of Heikoutai, which the Russians took with severe losses. The Russian 14th Division, which was intended to attack the fortified village of Sandepu (三界坝村), failed to coordinate its attack with the 1st Siberian, and attacked on the following day, 26 January, instead. Hampered by a lack of maps, reconnaissance and poor weather conditions, with occasional blizzards the Russians also attacked the wrong village, occupying the neighboring hamlet of Paotaitzu, which came under a strong artillery barrage and counterattack from Sandepu, which was occupied in strength by the Japanese 5th Division. Rather than come to their rescue, Gripenberg sent a false report to Kuropatkin that Sandepu had been taken, and ordered his men to rest on 27 January. However, the rest area assigned to Stackelberg's troops was in Japanese hands, and despite standing orders to the contrary, Stackelberg ordered his men to attack. After losing 6000 men, Stackelberg was forced to fall back.  By the morning of 28 January, Gripenberg found that he was separated from Kaulbars by the village of Sandepu, which prevented any attempt to link forces. However, as he still outnumbered the Japanese defenders by seven divisions to five divisions, he insisted on continuing the offensive. His decision was not supported by Kuropatkin, who acted with his usual caution and hesitation, and ordered Gripenberg's forces back. Stackelberg, again ignoring orders, continued to attack, and with the help of Mishchenko's cavalry, took part of Sandepu village. Simultaneously, the Russian 10th Army Corps under General Konstantin Tserpitsky, with Gripenberg's consent, succeeded in securing positions to the rear of Sandepu. Despite the advantageous situation, Kuropatkin then relieved Stackelberg of his command for insubordination, and again demanded that Gripenberg withdraw. Advancing Russian soldiers, their morale high as they were on what appeared to be a successful offense for the first time since the beginning of the war, could not understand the reason.  Ōyama then launched a massive counteroffensive on 29 January 1905, and succeeded in retaking Heikoutai by mid-morning.  Immediately after the battle, Gripenberg resigned his commission, claiming illness and was replaced by Kaulbars. On his return to St Petersburg, he stopped at Harbin where he bitterly blamed Kuropatkin for the debacle in the newspapers, declaring that he was a traitor and that Kuropatkin withheld crucial support due to jealousy at his success. He continued a harsh publicity campaign against Kuropatkin in the newspapers after his return to Russia. Stackelberg was also relieved of his command by Kuropatkin, and charged with insubordination.

Results.

Total Russian casualties at the Battle of Sandepu were 1,781 killed, 9,395 wounded and 1,065 MIA per modern Soviet sources, although other sources put the toll at over 20,000 men. Japanese casualties totaled around 9,000 with only 2,000 killed.  As the battle ended in a tactical stalemate, neither side claimed victory. In Russia, the Marxists used the newspaper controversy created by Gripenberg, and by Kuropatkin’s incompetence in previous battles, to drum up more support in their campaign against the government.

The Battle of Sandepu (also known as the Battle of Heikoutai) ( ("Kokkōdai no kaisen"), ) was a major land battle of the Russo-Japanese War. It was fought within a group of villages about southwest of Mukden, Manchuria.


Early life.

King was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Walnut, California. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University's School of Drama in 2010. At Yale University, King performed in a number of productions, including "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Little Shop of Horrors", and "".

Career.

2010–2013.

King appeared in several short films in the early period of her career. She made her television debut in 2010, as a guest star in the CBS police procedural "Blue Bloods", and later appeared on "Person of Interest", "The Blacklist", and "Deadbeat". She made her feature film debut in the 2011 independent film "Damsels in Distress", as a minor character. Her big break came in 2012, when she was cast as new surgical intern Cassandra Kopelson and the series' primary antagonist, on the CW medical comedy-drama series "Emily Owens, M.D." The series was canceled after a single season in 2013. She later starred in the Amazon Studios comedy pilot "The Onion Presents: The News".  In 2013, King co-starred in two independent films. She played Abigayle, the daughter of Wendell Pierce's character, in the independent drama "Four", released on September 13, 2013. Along with her castmates, she won a Los Angeles Film Festival Award for Best Performance by Cast for her role in this movie. She also appeared alongside Laverne Cox and Britne Oldford in the film "36 Saints". In 2014, she had supporting role in the romantic comedy "The Rewrite", starring Hugh Grant and Marisa Tomei. The film was shot in 2013 but was released theatrically in the United States in 2015.

2014–present: Breakthrough.

In early 2014, King had a recurring role as Ali Henslee in the ABC medical drama series "Black Box", starring Kelly Reilly. The series was cancelled after a single season. In February 2014, she was cast as one of the lead characters in the ABC legal thriller "How to Get Away with Murder", produced by Shonda Rhimes. The series stars Viola Davis as a law professor Annalise Keating. King plays the role of Michaela Pratt, one of the five lead students, alongside Jack Falahee, Alfred Enoch, Matt McGorry, and Karla Souza. The series premiered on September 25, 2014 with generally positive reviews from critics, and 14 million viewers. King received her first NAACP Image Award nomination for her performance in series.  In 2015, King had her first the leading role in the science-fiction thriller "Reversion". The film had limited theatrical release on October 9, 2015. Also in 2015, she was cast as the female lead in the historical drama film "The Birth of a Nation", based on the story of the 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner. The film also stars Nate Parker, Aunjanue Ellis, Gabrielle Union, and Armie Hammer. She played Nat Turner's wife, Cherry. The film premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2016, and received positive reviews from critics. King's performance was also well received. "Variety" placed her in their list of one of the "Biggest Breakthrough Performances" at Sundance, writing that "King transforms herself from contemporary glamour girl to 19th-century slave in Nate Parker's festival smash. A harrowing scene late in the film opposite Parker as Nat Turner reveals a depth and range King has never been asked to deliver in her small screen work, and a potential new star is born." King has also been shortlisted as a possible contender for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress but did not receive a nomination. She received a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture nomination for her role. She received the "Rising Star Award" at the 10th annual Essence Black Women In Hollywood event in February 2017.  In 2017, King appeared opposite Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston, and Nicole Kidman in "The Upside", a remake of the 2011 French film "The Intouchables". Later that year, she was cast in the leading role of Somali activist Ifrah Ahmed in the biopic "A Girl from Mogadishu". In 2020, she appeared in the drama film "Sylvie", opposite Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asomugha. King later played a female leading role in the historical drama film "The 24th" about Houston riot of 1917 directed by Kevin Willmott.

Other ventures.

King was the face of skincare line Olay's fall 2015 advertising campaign. She became a spokesperson for L'Oreal Paris in 2017. King has graced the covers of numerous magazines, including "Vanity Fair", "Elle", "Marie Claire", "Nylon", "Glamour, Essence," "Entertainment Weekly" and "Shape".

Aja Naomi King (born January 11, 1985) is an American actress. She began her career in guest-starring roles on television, and starred as Cassandra Kopelson in The CW medical comedy-drama "Emily Owens, M.D.".