Biography.

D'Arrigo was born in Catania, Sicily but grew up from a very early age in Paris, as his parents emigrated there in search of work. He returned to Sicily after graduating from the university in Paris, and from his base on Mt. Etna gained a number of world records and world titles in the field of ultra light flying and free flying.  In 2001 he initiated a sequence of breath-taking events which saw him flying alongside various birds of prey as he attempted to learn from them their techniques for migratory flight by taking advantage of thermal air currents for long distance flight with low energy consumption.  In 2002 he crossed the Sahara and the Mediterranean with an eagle. His hang glider was launched from a microlight.  In 2003 he flew 5,500 kilometres from northern Siberia to the Caspian Sea in Iran in the company of a flock of Siberian cranes who had been born in captivity and, due to imprinting, considered him their parent. The bird is at risk of extinction, and, in order to try to save the species, Russian ornithologists hatched a plan. It called for having the eggs incubated under Angelo's hang-glider, so the chicks saw this as they hatched. Angelo would then be with the chicks as they fledge. When they were ready to fly, they would fly alongside Angelo so they would consider him their mentor. That way, he could show them the traditional migratory route for their species. They had no other way to learn it. This approach was similar to the one taken in the movie "Fly Away Home".  In 2004, he was aerotowed by Richard Meredith-Hardy and released over Mount Everest another world record. He reportedly made this flight over the summit of Everest with a trained Nepalese eagle. However, there were no eyewitnesses to this achievement, even though climbers saw and photographed Meredith-Hardy's microlight aircraft. No evidence in the form of videos or photography has ever been brought forward, either, despite the fact that d'Arrigo's hang-glider was equipped with three video cameras and two still cameras. The story is fully narrated in the documentary "Flying Over Everest" by director Fabio Toncelli.  In 2006 he followed the migratory routes of the condor over Aconcagua in the Andean Cordillera, the highest mountain in the Americas.

Death.

In March 2006, he died in an accident during an airshow at Comiso, Italy, at the age of 44. A small Sky Arrow airplane, in which he was a passenger, fell 200 meters to the ground. Both d'Arrigo and the pilot, a general of the Italian Air Force and ex-test pilot, were killed on impact. At the time of his death, Angelo was engaged in planning an expedition to Peru to re-introduce two Andean condors bred in captivity and raised by d'Arrigo at his home on Mount Etna. A documentary about this was being made at the time. It was called "Born to Fly".  In memory of her husband, his widow Laura instituted a charity, the Fondazione Angelo d'Arrigo, with the aim of helping children in Peru. Angelo d'Arrigo was posthumously given the alternative sportsperson's award at the 2006 Laureus World Sports Awards.

Angelo d'Arrigo (April 3, 1961 – March 26, 2006) was an Italian aviator who held a number of world records in the field of flight, principally with microlights and hang gliders, with and without motors. He has been referred to as the "Human Condor".


Description.

"Lycium barbarum" is a deciduous woody shrub, growing high. The shrub has weak arching branches, and the side branches are often reduced to short leafless spines.

Leaves and flowers.

"L. barbarum" leaves form on the shoot either in an alternating arrangement, or in bundles of up to three. Each leaf is green, scarcely fleshy when fresh, usually lanceolate (spearhead-shaped), sometimes with rounded tips. Clustered leaves are up to 25 mm long; the single alternate leaves are up to 55 mm long.  The flowers grow in groups of one to three in the leaf axils, with pedicels 6–15 mm long. The calyx, eventually ruptured by the growing berry, is a whitish tube crowned by five or six radial triangular sepals, shorter than the tube, 10–12 mm long and 3–4 mm wide, sometimes 2–lipped, strongly curved. The sepals are whitish on the lower side (facing towards the branch) and deep mauve on the top side. Each flower has five stamens, exserted for 3–8 mm, with stalks longer than the anthers. The pistil is 8–11.5 mm long. The anthers are longitudinally dehiscent.

Fruit.

The fruit of "L. barbarum", the main variety of goji berry, is a bright orange-red, ellipsoid berry in diameter. The fruiting calyx is split deeply once or twice. The number of seeds in each berry varies widely based on cultivar and fruit size, ranging from 10 to 60. The seeds are about 2 mm long, 1 mm wide, yellowish, compressed with a curved embryo.

Reproduction.

The plants are self-pollinating, but may be cross pollinated by insects. The species is dispersed into natural areas by birds and other animals that eat its fruit.  In the Northern Hemisphere, flowering occurs from June through September and berry maturation from August to October, depending on the latitude, altitude, and climate. Where frost does not occur fruiting is continuous and plants do not lose their leaves.

Occurrence and cultivation.

China.

"Lycium barbarum" has been cultivated in China, along the fertile aggradational floodplains of the Yellow River, for more than 600 years. It is still extensively cultivated in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of north-central China, centered in Zhongning County, totaling 200,000 acres as of 2005, The region produced 13,000 tons of fruit in 2001, accounting for 42% of the nation's total production of goji berries. The plant is also cultivated in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China,  The berries of "L. barbarum" are the only therapeutic grade ("superior-grade") kinds of wolfberries used by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.  As Ningxia's borders merge with three deserts, "L. barbarum" is also planted to control erosion and reclaim irrigable soils from desertification.

United Kingdom.

"Lycium barbarum" has been used since the 18th century in the United Kingdom for hedging, especially in coastal districts. Its red berries are attractive to a wide variety of British birds.  The plant continues to grow wild in UK hedgerows. On 15 January 2003, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched a project to improve the regulations protecting traditional countryside hedgerows, and specifically mentioned Duke of Argyll's Tea Tree as one of the species to be found growing in hedges located in Suffolk Sandlings, Hadleigh, Bawdsey, near Ipswich, and Walberswick.  Importation of mature "Licium barbarum" plants into the United Kingdom from most countries outside Europe is illegal, due to the possibility they could be vectors of diseases attacking Solanaceae crops, such as potato or tomato.

United States.

"Lycium barbarum" has become a high demand plant in the United States. Nearly all major nursery catalogs now carry plants and there are many suppliers found on various web sites. There are a number of varieties available, ranging from leaf producing plants to fruit producing varieties. Most listed plants are hardy zones 5-9. One variety, Phoenix Tears is hardy zones 3-10. This variety produces fruit year round in warmer climates. Berries and leaves produced in the United States are probably more pesticide free than those produced in China.  At present only the US state of Pennsylvania requires inspection of imported "L. barbarum" plants. There have been cases of goji mite outbreaks in Pennsylvania and California. The mites have been found on wild plants in Utah and do have the potential to infect other family Solanaceae plants, but there is no documentation of such infections occurring in the United States.

Australia.

"Lycium barbarum" introduced to Australia became naturalised in south-eastern coastal and sub-coastal regions, and is regarded as an environmental weed in the provinces of Victoria and Tasmania. It is often found growing in disturbed sites, native bushland, and riverbanks, often forming dense thickets along the latter. It overlaps and is often confused with "Lycium ferocissimum", a similar species originating from Africa.

Chemistry.

Because of its claimed benefits as a drug of traditional medicine, the chemicals present in the fruit, root, and other parts of the plants have been studied in some detail.  The main compounds in the fruit (23% of the dry mass) are polysaccharides and proteoglycans. Carotenoid pigments are the second major group, chiefly zeaxanthin dipalmitate. The fruits further contain vitamins, in particular riboflavin, thiamin and ascorbic acid (vitamin C), the latter in a concentration similar to that in lemons. Other detected compounds include flavonoids derived from myricetin, quercetin, and kaempferol; hexadecanoic acid, linoleic acid, β-elemene, myristic acid and ethyl hexadecanoate; and some glycerogalactolipids. The fruit further contains 1–2.7% of free aminoacids; chiefly proline, and including gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and betaine. Other compounds include β-sitosterol, scopoletin, p-coumaric acid, lyciumide A and L-monomenthyl succinate. The alkaloid atropine, common in plants of the family Solanaceae, is not detectable.  The compounds present in the roots have been less studied, but they include betaine, choline, linoleic acid, and β-sitosterol [79]. Of particular interest are cyclic oligopeptides with 8 aminoacid rings, christened lyciumins A and B.  The leaves are known to contain the flavonoids quercetin 3-O-rutinoside-7-O-glucoside, kaempferol 3-O-rutinoside-7-O-glucoside, rutin, nicotiflorin, isoquercitrin, quercetin, kaempferol damascenone, choline, scopoletin, vanillic acid, salicylic acid, and nicotinic acid. From the flowers, diosgenin, β-sitosterol, and lanosterol have been isolated.

Lycium barbarum is a shrub native to China, with present-day range across Asia and southeast Europe. It is one of two species of boxthorn in the family Solanaceae from which the goji berry or wolfberry is harvested, the other being "Lycium chinense".


Design and development.

The Me 309 project began in mid-1940, just as the Bf 109 was having its first encounters with the Spitfire in the Battle of Britain, the first aircraft to match the 109 in speed and performance. Already, Messerschmitt anticipated the need for an improved design to replace the Bf 109. The Reich Air Ministry, however, did not feel the same urgency, with the project given a low priority, resulting in the design not being finalized until the end of 1941.  The new fighter had many novel features, such as tricycle landing gear (with a nosegear strut that twisted through 90° during retraction, to a "flat" orientation under the engine) and a pressurized cockpit, which would have given it more comfortable and effective high-altitude performance. Each of the new features was first tested on a number of Bf 109F airframes, the V23 having a ventral radiator, the V31 with a radiator and tricycle landing gear, and the V30 having a pressurized cockpit.  Low government interest in the project delayed completion of the first prototype until spring 1942, and trouble with the nosewheel pushed back the 309's first flight to July. When it did fly, the Me 309's performance was satisfactory – about 50 km/h (30 mph) faster than a standard Bf 109G – but not exemplary. In fact, the Bf 109G could out-turn its intended replacement. With the addition of armament, the aircraft's speed decreased to an unacceptable level. In light of its poor performance and the much more promising development of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190D, the Me 309 was canceled. In an attempt to revive the project, initiated in response to a 1941 Reich Air Ministry requirement for a new "Zerstörer" (destroyer) to replace the Bf 110, Messerschmitt's response was the Me 609. In order to meet the requirement of a new design in a minimum of time and with a minimum of new parts, the failed Me 309 project would form the basis of the new fighter. The Me 609 would have joined the two Me 309 fuselages with a new centre wing section. Only the two inner wheels of the joined Me 309's main landing gears would have been used and would retract into the centre section. This resulted in an unusual four-wheel arrangement. The Me 609 would have had its cockpit in the port fuselage, the starboard being smoothed over.  Two versions were planned: a heavy fighter with four or six 30 mm MK 108 cannon, and a "Schnellbomber" (light bomber) variant with two 30 mm MK 108 cannon and a bombload of 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) carried beneath the fuselages. By the time designs were being ironed out, the revolutionary Me 262 turbojet negated the need for further piston-engined fighter design.  In 1943, Messerschmitt made one last attempt at creating a replacement for the Bf 109 in the form of the Me 209-II. It was essentially a modification of the existing 109 airframe, Messerschmitt designers not wanting to invest the time and trouble in a new design like the Me 309.

References.

Notes  Bibliography

The Messerschmitt Me 309 was a prototype German fighter, designed in the early years of World War II to replace the Bf 109. Although it had many advanced features, the Me 309's performance left much to be desired and it had so many problems that the project was cancelled with only four prototypes built. The Me 309 was one of two failed Messerschmitt projects intended to replace the aging Bf 109, the other being the Me 209 of 1943.


Description.

When mature, "O. edulis" adults range from across.  Shells are oval or pear shaped, white, yellowish or cream in colour, with a rough surface showing pale brown or bluish concentric bands on the right valve. The two valves are quite different in shape and size, as the left one is concave and fixed to the substratum, while the right one is almost flat and fits inside the left. The inner surface is smooth, whitish or bluish-grey.

Biology.

"Ostrea edulis" are gregarious molluscs that start their lives as males. They mature sexually after eight–ten months and may change sex depending on the water temperature. Usually the lifespan can reach about six years, with a maximum of 15 years. Adult oysters feed by filtration.

Distribution.

The species naturally ranges along the western and southern coasts of Europe from Norway to Morocco and including most of the British Isles and the Mediterranean coast. Naturally viable populations have appeared in eastern North America from Maine to Rhode Island subsequent to artificial introduction in the 1940s and 1950s.

Habitat.

"Ostrea edulis" can be found in estuarine and shallow coastal water with hard substrata of mud and rocks.

Human use.

"Ostrea edulis" has been harvested throughout Europe as an important food source since prehistory. During Roman occupation of Britain "O. edulis" oysters were exported in large quantities back to Italy. However, due to their robust nature and ease of cultivation the Pacific oysters, "Crassostrea gigas", account for more than 75 percent of Europe's oyster production.  European flat oysters are famously grown in Brittany, France. The true Belon oyster is cultivated in the Belon River, France, and has the AOC protected name. In the 1950s, Dutch scientists artificially introduced Belon oyster seed into the waters around Maine in hopes to establish a viable stock. The initial project was abandoned but ten years later natural colonies of flat oysters were found in the wild. Many North American suppliers use the name 'Belon' to species that are found in the wild throughout the United States.  "Ostrea edulis" is now also being maricultured in the states of California, Maine, and Washington in the United States. The species once dominated European oyster production but disease, pollution, and overfishing sharply reduced the harvest.  U.S. oyster growers farm "O. edulis" in small quantities on both coasts. They are prized for their unique tannic seawater flavour, sometimes described as dry and metallic, and are more expensive than other American oysters. The flavour is considered excellent for eating raw on the half shell.  The abductor muscle of the European flat in combination with the shape of the shell results in a somewhat weaker seal compared with other oyster species. It is common practice to use rubber bands to prevent oysters from spilling their liquor and dehydrating in storage before consumption.

"Ostrea edulis", commonly known as the European flat oyster, is a species of oyster native to Europe. In the British Isles, regional names include Colchester native oyster, mud oyster, or edible oyster. In France, "Ostrea edulis" are known as "huîtres plates" (flat oysters) except for those that come from the Belon River estuary in Brittany, France, which are known as Belons.


Early career.

He was born in Chernigov the son of an infantry officer. He was of Ukrainian ethnicity.  He studied at the secondary military school of Voronej, but left the army in 1901, and joined a student Marxist circle in Warsaw. He graduated from military college in St Petersburg in 1904. In 1902 he secretly joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), and set about organising a military section of the party among graduate officers in five cities. Early in the Russian Revolution of 1905, he led an uprising in Novo-Alexandria in Poland and was arrested for the first time, but escaped to Vienna in spring 1905. There he joined the Menshevik faction of the RSDLP. He returned to St Petersburg in May, and was made chairman of the military organisation of the RSDLP St Petersburg committee. Rearrested in April 1906, he broke jail five days later, and moved to Sevastopol, on Crimea, where he organised a military revolt. Arrested and sentenced to death, his sentence was later commuted to 20 years hard labour in Siberia. He escaped in June 1907, and hid out in Moscow, in the home of a sympathetic lawyer, Pavel Malyantovich. For three years, he worked among co-operatives and with the printers' union in Moscow, until his next arrest, after which he emigrated to Prussia, in July 1910, but was deported, and settled in Paris, where he acted as secretary of the Menshevik bureau.  Soon after the outbreak of World War I, Antonov-Ovseyenko broke with the Mensheviks, and founded the anti-war paper "Golos" ("Голос" - 'Voice'), later renamed "Nashe Slovo" ("Наше слово" - Our Word), which he co-edited with Leon Trotsky and Yuli Martov. He returned to Russia in June 1917, joined the Bolsheviks and was briefly head of the party organisation in Helsingfors, and Chairman of the Northern Congress of Soviets. He was arrested after the pro-Bolshevik riots in July, and detained, with Trotsky, in Krestny prison. He was freed on the day that the right wing military revolt led by General Kornilov collapsed, and returned to Helsingfors.

Storming the Winter Palace.

Antonov-Ovseyenko returned to Petrograd in October 1917, and was appointed secretary of the Military revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. This meant that he played a pivotal role in military preparations for the October Revolution. Trotsky, who witnessed him in action, described him as "politically shaky, but personally courageous - impulsive and disorderly, but capable of initiative..." He personally led the famous storming of the Winter Palace, on 7 November (25 October according to Julian Calendar still used in Russia at the time), when Red Guards broke into the building where ministers of the Russian Provisional Government (excluding Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky), had taken refuge, and arrested them. They included Kerensky's Minister for Justice, Pavel Malyantovich, who had given Antonov-Ovseyenko sanctuary ten years earlier. There were no lives lost in this incident, which took on something like mythical status in Soviet history. It formed the climax of the classic 1928 silent movie, "October", directed by Sergei Eisenstein, in which Antonov-Ovseyenko took a starring role, playing himself.

Political career.

In the initial government formed by Vladimir Lenin after the Bolsheviks had seized power, Antonov-Ovseyenko was appointed to the Military Committee of Sovnarkom. He was sent to lead the Bolsheviks side in the first, relatively bloodless engagement of the civil war, at Gatchina, against Kerensky and a detachment of Cossacks, but had to replaced after he virtually collapsed from nervous exhaustion. On 21 December 1917, Antonov-Ovseyenko was put in charge of the Revolutionary forces in Ukraine and southern Russia. The army subsequently captured Kharkiv, where Soviet power in Ukraine was proclaimed. He opposed Lenin's decision to end the war with Germany, at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and was dismissed from the Red Army in May 1918 for fermenting guerilla warfare against the advancing German army. He was reinstated as People's Commissar for War in Ukraine in September 1918, and oversaw the defeat of Ukrainian People's Republic and White Army forces in Ukraine, ensuring the creation of the Ukrainian SSR.  By the end of the Russian Civil War, Antonov-Ovseyenko was in charge of the Tambov Governorate, brutally suppressing 1920–21 Tambov Rebellion alongside Mikhail Tukhachevsky, with the use of chemical weapons. In 1921, he was in charge of famine relief in the Samara region.  In 1922, Antonov-Ovseyenko was given the highly sensitive post of head of the Political Directorate of the Red Army, despite his public opposition to Lenin's New Economic Policy, which he denounced in a speech to the April 1922 Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) as a sell-out to the peasants. During Lenin's terminal illness, he backed Trotsky in the struggle for succession. He was a signatory of The Declaration of 46 in October 1923, which called for greater party democracy. In December, after one of his subordinates had been sacked for criticising the leadership, he wrote an angry letter to the Central Committee exclaiming that "we are not courtiers to the throne of party hierarchs!" In January 1924, he was summoned before the Orgburo, which was controlled by Josif Stalin, and sacked.  Later in 1923, Antonov-Ovseyenko was sent on a mission to China - the start of an 11-year career as a diplomat. In 1925, he was recalled and appointed Soviet representative in Czechoslovakia. He was one of a large group of Trotsky's supporters expelled from the CPSU in December 1927, but was one of the first to recant and seek readmission to the party during 1928. Later he was envoy in Poland, but in May 1934 was recalled to Moscow to serve as a Public Prosecutor. In this capacity, he observed the first of the great Moscow show trials, in which Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev were the main defendants, and signed an article in Izvestia calling for them to be shot. He was then posted to Barcelona, as Soviet Consul General, during the Spanish Civil War, where he directed the supply of Soviet aid to the Second Spanish Republic and where he organized the repression against the POUM party. He was recalled to Moscow in August 1937 where he talked with Joseph Stalin about the events in Spain. After a month without a job he was appointed People's Commissar for Justice of the Russian SFSR in September 1937, but after just one month in post, he was arrested during the night of 11–12 October 1937, and interrogated. He was shot on 10 February 1938.  Antonov-Ovseyenko was the first former Trotskyist to be posthumously rehabilitated, and in 1956 was named in a speech by Anastas Mikoyan to the 20th party congress. Later, his son Anton, a historian, feared that he was to be 'un-rehabilitated', and fought a long rearguard battle to protect his reputation.

Vladimir Alexandrovich Antonov-Ovseyenko (; ; 9 March 1883 – 10 February 1938), real surname Ovseyenko, party aliases the 'Bayonet' (Штык) and 'Nikita' (Ники́та), a literary pseudonym A. Gal (А. Га́льский), was a prominent Ukrainian Bolshevik leader and diplomat.


History.

Foundation and growth.

Conrad Widmer established the "Schweizerische Rentenanstalt" ("Swiss annuity institution") in 1857 as the first life insurance company in Switzerland, backed by guarantees from Schweizerische Kreditanstalt. Prominent Zurich politician Alfred Escher was closely involved in the development of the cooperative, whose goal was to provide Swiss families with insurance against the uncertainties of life: the company's board included representatives of most Swiss cantons. In 1866, Widmer obtained a license in Prussia, and a year later, the Rentenanstalt had business operations in Hamburg and Bremen. Beginning in 1894, it was one of the first insurance institutions to offer occupational insurance. Between 1866 and 1987, Rentenanstalt expanded to Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain, Luxembourg, and Italy. In 1988 it took over La Suisse insurance company of Lausanne.  The first registered office of Rentenanstalt was in the Tiefenhoefe buildings on the Paradeplatz in Zurich. Rapid expansion saw the offices moving in quick succession from the Gruene Schloss on Zwingliplatz, to the Chamhaus on the Untere Zäune and finally to the Alpenquai, where the new head office was opened in 1898. Although this building was spacious for its time, further expansion in the interwar period necessitated yet another move. During 1937–1939 a modern building designed by the Pfister firm of architects was constructed close to the old head office. It is this building, extended during 1961–1963 and later, that houses today's company head office in Zurich.

Going corporate.

In 1997, under the management of Manfred Zobl, Rentenanstalt changed from a mutual into a publicly traded proprietary company, with Rentenstalt/Swiss Life shares debuting in the Swiss Market Index in 1998. Swiss Life then embarked on an expansionary strategy, acquiring Livit, Banca del Gottardo, the Lloyd Continental and UTO Albis in 1999, and Schweizerische Treuhandgesellschaft in 2000, and taking over the real estate properties of Oscar Weber Holding AG in 2001. In 2002, the rapid acquisitions ceased as the company looked to restructuring and going back to its core business.

Acquisitions and divestments.

In 2002, the company changed its name to Swiss Life for all its operations except in the Netherlands, where it remained under the old name Zwitser Leven (Dutch for "Swiss Life"); the Netherlands company was sold in 2007 to SNS Reaal together with the Belgium business. In 2004, it sold its British operations to Resolution Life Group. In November 2007, Swiss Life sold off Banca del Gottardo for 1.775 billion CHF. On 3 December 2007, Swiss Life announced that it had launched a takeover bid for AWD Holding; on 13 March 2008, it succeeded in acquiring a total of 86.2% of AWD, which became Swiss Life Select in 2013. The acquisition of Corpus Sireo, a German real estate asset management service provider, was completed in the summer of 2014, and that of Mayfair Capital, a UK real estate investment management firm, in 2016.

Corporate structure.

The Swiss Life Group reports by country. Besides the three core markets Switzerland, France and Germany, the Group separately discloses its cross-border segments International and Asset Managers.

Switzerland.

Swiss Life Switzerland is a comprehensive life and pensions and financial service provider with the brands Swiss Life and Swiss Life Select, and is one of the leading providers with over one million insured persons.

France.

Swiss Life France specialises in personal insurance but also provides, through its Swiss Life Banque Privée subsidiary, asset management and insurance services combined with private banking for high net worth individuals.

Germany.

The German branch of Swiss Life, founded in 1866, is based in Munich and offers private and corporate clients services in pensions saving and financial security. Core competencies are occupational disability insurance and occupational pensions. Swiss Life's financial distribution subsidiaries (Swiss Life Select, HORBACH, Tecis and Proventus) are headquartered in Hanover.

International.

With locations in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Singapore, Swiss Life International offers Private placement life insurance (a form of investment with an insurance wrapper) for high-net-worth individuals in Europe and Asia, and provides employee benefits for large corporate clients. The financial advisors from Swiss Life Select Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Chase de Vere in the UK also operate under the Swiss Life International umbrella.

Asset Managers.

Swiss Life Asset Managers offers institutional and private investors access to investment and asset management services. In Switzerland, it is one of the largest institutional asset managers and the third largest fund provider in the country. In Germany, Swiss Life Asset Managers significantly strengthened its position in the market with the acquisition of the real estate asset management service provider Corpus Sireo in 2014. The real estate management company Livit AG is also a subsidiary of the Swiss Life Asset Management entity, along with London-based Mayfair Capital Investment which was acquired in 2016.

Corporate governance.

Board of directors.

The Board of Directors is responsible for the general direction of the Group and the supervision of the Corporate Executive Board. The Board is elected for one-year terms and is composed as follows:

Corporate executive board.

The group CEO directs the business operations of the group and works out the long-term objectives and strategic orientation of the group, together with the corporate executive board.

Financials.

According to Swiss law, shareholders are obliged to disclose information regarding their shareholdings in Swiss-based companies when these amount to or exceed 3%. Shareholders currently holding registered shares (purchasing positions included) of Swiss Life Holding Ltd., are BlackRock Inc. (over 5%), and UBS Fund Management (Switzerland) AG (over 3%).

CSR and sponsorship.

The “Perspectives Foundation” of Swiss Life, established in 2005, promotes charitable initiatives in the Swiss home market in the areas of health, science, education, culture and sport, donating between CHF 1.3 and 1.5 million every year to social and charitable projects.  Swiss Life also jointly founded the Swiss Climate Foundation with eleven other companies in 2008. All partners donate their net gains from redistributed CO2 levies to the foundation, which in turns supports projects helping small and medium-sized enterprises to reach voluntary target agreement with the Energy Agency of the Swiss Private Sector (EnAW), develop operational energy savings and climate protection systems.  In March 2016, the Swiss Life Group presented its first Corporate Responsibility Report in accordance with the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), as an integral part of the Annual Report 2015. The Corporate Responsibility Report focuses on business activities, society, employees and the environment and is guided by the principle of materiality. The report is published annually.  Swiss Life has been involved as a sponsor for the Swiss national football team since 2004.  In the field of culture, Swiss Life supports, among others, the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF), the Lucerne Festival, the Zurich Opera House, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Davos Festival.  Since the 2015/16 season, Swiss Life has been supporting the ice hockey club ZSC Lions as general sponsor. The Swiss Life Arena, the hockey and sports arena for 12,000 fans of the ZCS Lions club in Altstetten, is also named after Swiss Life. The opening is scheduled for June 2022.

The Swiss Life Group is the largest life insurance company of Switzerland and one of Europe’s leading comprehensive life and pensions and financial services providers, with approximately CHF 254.4 bn of assets under management. Founded in 1867 in Zurich as the "Schweizerische Lebensversicherungs und Rentenanstalt" cooperative, the company entered the Swiss stock market in 1997 and adopted its current name in 2002. In 2019 the group declared an adjusted profit from operations of CHF 1.69 billion, a 10% increase over the previous year. Net profit increased by 12% to CHF 1.20 billion. Swiss Life is one of the twenty companies listed under the Swiss Market Index, as SLHN.


Queen of Hungary.

Her father died in 1196 and Constance's fate was decided by the new King, her brother Peter II. Peter arranged her marriage with King Emeric of Hungary, and the nineteen-year-old Constance left Aragon for Hungary. The wedding took place in 1198. Two years later, in 1200, the Queen gave birth to a son, called Ladislaus.  When King Emeric was dying, he crowned his son Ladislaus co-ruler on 26 August 1204. The King wanted to secure his succession and had his brother Andrew promise to protect the child and help him govern the Kingdom of Hungary until reaching adulthood. Emeric died three months later, on 30 November.  Ladislaus succeeded him as King while Andrew became his Regent. Andrew soon took over all regal authority while Ladislaus and Constance were little more than his prisoners. Constance managed to escape to Vienna with Ladislaus.  The two found refuge in the court of Leopold VI, Duke of Austria, but Ladislaus would soon die (7 May 1205). The former Regent and now King Andrew II of Hungary took the body of his nephew and buried him in the Royal Crypt of Székesfehérvár. Duke Leopold sent Constance back to Aragon.

Holy Roman Empress.

When Constance returned to Aragon, she took up residence with her mother, Queen Sancha, in the Abbey of Nuestra Senora, at Sijena; Sancha had founded the abbey after her husband's death, and now lived there in retirement. Constance spent the next five years in the abbey with her mother, until her fate, again, was changed by her brother.  Peter II wanted to be on good terms with Pope Innocent III, since he wanted an annulment of his marriage with Maria of Montpellier, and needed the blessing of the Pope. The Pope solicited the hand of the Dowager Queen of Hungary for his pupil, the young King Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. The Aragonese King accepted the proposal; Constance left her mother and the abbey of Nuestra Senora and began her trip to Sicily (1208). She never returned to Aragon or saw her mother again. Sancha died shortly after the departure of her daughter.  Constance and Frederick were married in the Sicilian city of Messina on 15 August 1209. In the ceremony, she was crowned Queen of Sicily. By this time, Constance was thirty years old and her new husband only fourteen. Two years later, in 1211, Constance gave birth to a son, called Henry, who later had a tragic end.  On 9 December 1212, Frederick was crowned King of Germany in opposition to Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor. During the absence of her husband, Constance stayed in Sicily as regent of the Kingdom until 1220.  At first Frederick controlled Southern Germany but Otto IV was effectively deposed on 5 July 1215. This time Constance was crowned German Queen with her husband.  Pope Honorius III crowned Frederick Holy Roman Emperor on 22 November 1220. Constance was crowned Holy Roman Empress while their son Henry became the new King of Germany. She died of malaria less than two years later in Catania and was buried in the Cathedral of Palermo, in a Roman sarcophagus with a beautiful oriental tiara.

Constance of Aragon (1179 – 23 June 1222) was an Aragonese infanta who was by marriage firstly Queen of Hungary, and secondly Queen of Germany and Sicily and Holy Roman Empress. She was regent of Sicily from 1212–1220.


Overview.

An automaton can be said to "recognize" a string if we view the content of its tape as input. In other words, the automaton computes a function that maps strings into the set {0,1}. Alternatively, we can say that an automaton "generates" strings, which means viewing its tape as an output tape. On this view, the automaton generates a formal language, which is a set of strings. The two views of automata are equivalent: the function that the automaton computes is precisely the indicator function of the set of strings it generates. The class of languages generated by finite automata is known as the class of regular languages.  The two tapes of a transducer are typically viewed as an input tape and an output tape. On this view, a transducer is said to "transduce" (i.e., translate) the contents of its input tape to its output tape, by accepting a string on its input tape and generating another string on its output tape. It may do so nondeterministically and it may produce more than one output for each input string. A transducer may also produce no output for a given input string, in which case it is said to "reject" the input. In general, a transducer computes a relation between two formal languages.  Each string-to-string finite-state transducer relates the input alphabet Σ to the output alphabet Γ. Relations "R" on Σ*×Γ* that can be implemented as finite-state transducers are called rational relations. Rational relations that are partial functions, i.e. that relate every input string from Σ* to at most one Γ*, are called rational functions.  Finite-state transducers are often used for phonological and morphological analysis in natural language processing research and applications. Pioneers in this field include Ronald Kaplan, Lauri Karttunen, Martin Kay and Kimmo Koskenniemi. A common way of using transducers is in a so-called "cascade", where transducers for various operations are combined into a single transducer by repeated application of the composition operator (defined below).

Formal construction.

Formally, a finite transducer "T" is a 6-tuple () such that:  We can view ("Q", "δ") as a labeled directed graph, known as the "transition graph" of "T": the set of vertices is "Q", and formula_2 means that there is a labeled edge going from vertex "q" to vertex "r". We also say that "a" is the "input label" and "b" the "output label" of that edge.  NOTE: This definition of finite transducer is also called "letter transducer" (Roche and Schabes 1997); alternative definitions are possible, but can all be converted into transducers following this one.  Define the "extended transition relation" formula_3 as the smallest set such that:  The extended transition relation is essentially the reflexive transitive closure of the transition graph that has been augmented to take edge labels into account. The elements of formula_3 are known as "paths". The edge labels of a path are obtained by concatenating the edge labels of its constituent transitions in order.  The "behavior" of the transducer "T" is the rational relation ["T"] defined as follows: formula_11 if and only if there exists formula_12 and formula_13 such that formula_14. This is to say that "T" transduces a string formula_15 into a string formula_16 if there exists a path from an initial state to a final state whose input label is "x" and whose output label is "y".

Weighted automata.

Finite State Transducers can be weighted, where each transition is labelled with a weight in addition to the input and output labels. A Weighted Finite State Transducer (WFST) over a set "K" of weights can be defined similarly to an unweighted one as an 8-tuple, where: In order to make certain operations on WFSTs well-defined, it is convenient to require the set of weights to form a semiring. Two typical semirings used in practice are the log semiring and tropical semiring: unweighted automata may be regarded as having weights in the Boolean semiring.

Stochastic FST.

Stochastic FSTs (also known as probabilistic FSTs or statistical FSTs) are presumably a form of weighted FST.

Operations on finite-state transducers.

The following operations defined on finite automata also apply to finite transducers:

Applications.

Context-sensitive rewriting rules of the form "a" → "b" / "c" _ "d", used in linguistics to model phonological rules and sound change, are computationally equivalent to finite-state transducers, provided that application is nonrecursive, i.e. the rule is not allowed to rewrite the same substring twice.  Weighted FSTs found applications in natural language processing, including machine translation, and in machine learning. An implementation for part-of-speech tagging can be found as one component of the OpenGrm library.

A finite-state transducer (FST) is a finite-state machine with two memory "tapes", following the terminology for Turing machines: an input tape and an output tape. This contrasts with an ordinary finite-state automaton, which has a single tape. An FST is a type of finite-state automaton that maps between two sets of symbols. An FST is more general than a finite-state automaton (FSA). An FSA defines a formal language by defining a set of accepted strings, while an FST defines relations between sets of strings.


Plot.

After miraculously recovering from an apparently fatal bullet wound to the head, Gulf War veteran Jack Starks returns to Vermont in 1992, suffering from periods of amnesia. While walking, he sees a young girl, Jackie, and her alcoholic mother in despair beside their broken-down truck. Starks and Jackie quickly form a certain affinity; she asks him to give her his dogtags and he does so. He gets the truck started for them and continues on his way. Shortly after, a man driving along the same highway gives Jack a ride and they get pulled over by a policeman.  The scene changes: Starks is found lying on the deserted roadside near the dead policeman, with a slug from the policeman's gun in his body. The murder weapon is on the ground nearby. Although he testifies there was someone else at the scene, he is not believed because of his amnesia. Starks is found not guilty by reason of insanity and is incarcerated in a mental institution.  Starks is placed in the care of Dr. Thomas Becker, a psychiatrist, and his staff. In December 1992, Starks is forced to undergo an unauthorized treatment designed by Becker: he is injected with experimental drugs, bound in a straitjacket and then placed inside a morgue drawer as a form of sensory deprivation. While in this condition, he is somehow able to travel 15 years into the future and stay there for a short time. He meets an older version of Jackie at a roadside diner where she works. He suspects this happens because it is the only memory he can ever fully hold on to. She does not recognise him but seeing him standing forlornly, she takes pity on him and offers him shelter, just for the night. While in her apartment, Starks comes across his own dogtags and confronts her. Jackie, frightened, tells him that Jack Starks died on New Year's Day in 1993, and so he cannot possibly be who he says he is. She becomes upset and asks him to leave. Subsequently, Starks is transported back to the future on several occasions in the course of his treatment and, after earning Jackie's trust, they try to figure out how to make use of the time-travelling so as to remove Jack from the hospital and save his life.  Early on 1 January 1993, knowing that his time is quickly running out, Starks is briefly taken out of the hospital by Dr. Beth Lorenson, who he has finally convinced of his time travel experiences and his knowledge of future events. She drives Starks to the childhood home of Jackie and her mother, where he gives the mother a letter he has written, which outlines Jackie's bleak future and warns the mother that she is fated to orphan Jackie when she falls asleep with a lit cigarette in her hand and is burned to death. When he returns to the hospital, Starks experiences a flashback to the head wound he suffered in Iraq, simultaneously slipping on the ice and hits his head. Bleeding profusely, he convinces two of the more sympathetic doctors to put him into the jacket one last time.  Starks returns to 2007, where he finds that his letter to Jackie's mother has made all the difference. Jackie now has a better life than in the previous version of 2007. She is no longer a waitress, is now dressed in a nurse's uniform, and has a noticeably more cheerful outlook. They reprise their first 2007 meeting: she sees Starks standing in the snow and initially drives past him, but backs up when she notices his head wound. She stops and offers to take him to the hospital where she works. While they are in the car, Jackie receives a call from her mother — still alive and well. They drive on, the screen fades to white, and a voice-over reveals that the link to the "previous" future is not lost when Jackie says "How much time do we have?", a question she has asked him before. As the credits start to roll, the answer to the question is given by the words of the song: "We have all the time in the world" sung by Iggy Pop.

Basis.

"The Jacket" shares its title, and the idea of a person experiencing extra-corporeal time-travel while in an intolerably tight straitjacket, with a 1915 novel by Jack London. The novel was published in the United Kingdom as "The Jacket" and in the United States of America as "The Star Rover". Director Maybury has said that the film is "loosely based on a true story that became a Jack London story". The true story is that of Ed Morrell, who told London about San Quentin prison's inhumane use of tight straitjackets.

Reception.

"The Jacket" opened on March 4, 2005, and grossed $2,723,682 on opening weekend, with a peak release of 1,331 theaters in the United States. The film went on to gross $6,303,762 domestically, for a total of $21,126,225 worldwide.  "The Jacket" had mixed reviews on release; the film has a 44% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the site's critical consensus being "The Jacket is a case of creepy style over substance", and a 73% audience approval rating. and a 44% average critic rating on the aggregate reviews site Metacritic.

The Jacket is a 2005 American psychological thriller/horror film directed by John Maybury and starring Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It is partly based on the Jack London novel of the same name (published in the US as "The Star Rover"). Massy Tadjedin wrote the screenplay based on a story by Tom Bleecker and Marc Rocco. The original music score is composed by Brian Eno with Roger Eno and the cinematography is by Peter Deming.


Design and development.

The B-10 began a revolution in bomber design. Its all-metal monoplane airframe, along with its features of closed cockpits, rotating gun turrets (almost simultaneously with the 1933 British Boulton & Paul Overstrand biplane bomber's own enclosed nose-turret), retractable landing gear, internal bomb bay, and full engine cowlings, would become the standard for bomber designs worldwide for decades. It made all existing bombers completely obsolete. Martin received the 1932 Collier Trophy for designing the XB-10.  The B-10 began as the Martin Model 123, a private venture by the Glenn L. Martin Company of Baltimore, Maryland. It had a crew of four: pilot, copilot, nose gunner and fuselage gunner. As in previous bombers, the four crew compartments were open, but it had a number of design innovations as well.  These innovations included a deep belly for an internal bomb bay and retractable main landing gear. Its 600 hp (447 kW) Wright SR-1820-E Cyclone engines provided sufficient power. The Model 123 first flew on 16 February 1932 and was delivered for testing to the U.S. Army on 20 March as the XB-907. After testing it was sent back to Martin for redesigning and was rebuilt as the XB-10.  The XB-10 delivered to the Army had major differences from the original aircraft. Where the Model 123 had Townend rings, the XB-10 had full NACA cowlings to decrease drag. It also sported a pair of 675 hp (503 kW) Wright R-1820-19 engines, and an increase in the wingspan, along with an enclosed nose turret. When the XB-10 flew during trials in June, it recorded a speed of 197 mph (317 km/h) at 6,000 ft (1,830 m). This was an impressive performance for 1932.  Following the success of the XB-10, a number of changes were made, including reduction to a three-man crew, addition of canopies for all crew positions, and an upgrade to 675 hp (503 kW) engines. The Army ordered 48 of these on 17 January 1933. The first 14 aircraft were designated YB-10 and delivered to Wright Field, starting in November 1933, and used in the Army Air Corps Mail Operation. The production model of the XB-10, the YB-10 was very similar to its prototype.

Operational history.

In 1935, the Army ordered an additional 103 aircraft designated B-10B. These had only minor changes from the YB-10. Shipments began in July 1935. B-10Bs served with the 2d Bomb Group at Langley Field, the 9th Bomb Group at Mitchel Field, the 19th Bomb Group at March Field, the 6th Composite Group in the Panama Canal Zone, and the 4th Composite Group in the Philippines. In addition to conventional duties in the bomber role, some modified YB-10s and B-12As were operated for a time on large twin floats for coastal patrol.  In February 1936, the U.S. Army Air Corps used 13 49th Bomb Squadron B-10Bs to drop supplies to the residents of Virginia's Tangier Island and Maryland's Smith Island; with ships unable to reach the islands due to heavy ice in the Chesapeake Bay, the islanders faced starvation after a severe winter storm. The B-10B supply flights followed earlier supply flights to the islands by the Goodyear Blimp "Enterprise" on 2 February 1936 and by the squadron's Keystone B-6A bombers on 9 and 10 February 1936.  With an advanced performance, the Martin company fully expected that export orders for the B-10 would flood in. The U.S. Army owned the rights to the Model 139 design. Once the Army's orders had been filled in 1936, Martin received permission to export Model 139s, and delivered versions to several air forces. For example, six Model 139Ws were sold to Siam in April 1937, powered by Wright R-1820-G3 Cyclone engines; 20 Model 139Ws were sold to Turkey in September 1937, powered by R-1820-G2 engines.  On 19 May 1938, during the Sino-Japanese War, two Chinese Nationalist Air Force B-10s successfully flew to Japan. However, rather than dropping bombs, the aircraft dropped propaganda leaflets. That followed the project submitted during February 1938. Two French pilots from the 14th International Volunteer Squadron prepared a raid for dropping incendiary bombs over Kagoshima. It was refused.  Dutch Martins fought in the defense of the Dutch East Indies.

Legacy.

At the time of its creation, the B-10B was so advanced that General Henry H. Arnold described it as the airpower wonder of its day. It was half again as fast as any biplane bomber, and faster than any contemporary fighter. The B-10 began a revolution in bomber design; it made all existing bombers completely obsolete.  Rapid advances in bomber design in the late 1930s meant that the B-10 was eclipsed by the time the United States entered World War II. The Model 139s in combat in China and South East Asia suffered the same disadvantages as the other early war medium bombers, i.e. not enough armour and guns, while it could not outrun the latest fighters.  An abortive effort to modernize the design, the Martin Model 146, was entered into a USAAC long-distance bomber design competition 1934–1935, but lost out to the Douglas B-18 and much bigger Boeing B-17.

Variants.

Martin Model 123.

Private venture of Martin company, predecessor of the XB-10, served as prototype for the series, one built.

Martin Model 139, 139A and 139B.

Army Air Corps versions, 165 built.

Model 139W and 166.

The export versions, 100 built (182 including the Model 166, see below).  Final version, a.k.a. 139WH-3 and 139WH-3A, 82 built.

The Martin B-10 was the first all-metal monoplane bomber to be regularly used by the United States Army Air Corps, entering service in June 1934. It was also the first mass-produced bomber whose performance was superior to that of the Army's pursuit aircraft of the time.


Life and career.

Perscheid was born as Nikolaus Perscheid in near Koblenz, Germany, where he also went to school. At the age of 15, he began an apprenticeship as a photographer. Subsequently, Perscheid earned his living as an itinerant photographer; he worked, amongst other places, in Saarbrücken, Trier, and Colmar, but also in Nice, Vienna, or Budapest. In Klagenfurt in Austria he finally found a permanent position and on 1 March 1887, he became a member of the Photographic Society of Vienna ("Wiener Photographische Gesellschaft"). In 1889, he moved to Dresden, where he initially worked in the studio of Wilhelm Höffert (1832–1901), a well-known studio in Germany at that time, before opening his own studio in Görlitz on 6 June 1891. The next year he was appointed court photographer at the court of Albert, King of Saxony. In 1894, Perscheid moved to Leipzig.  Perscheid had his first publication of an image of his in a renowned photography magazine in 1897, and subsequently participated in many exhibitions and also had contacts with artist Max Klinger. As an established and well-known photographer, he moved in 1905 to Berlin. There, he experimented with early techniques for colour photography, without much success, and when his assistant Arthur Benda left him in 1907, Perscheid gave up these experiments altogether. His portraits, however, won him several important prizes, but apparently were not an economic success: he sold his studio on 24 June 1912.  In October 1913, he held a course at the Swedish society of professional photographers, the Svenska Fotografernas Förbund, which must have been a success as it was praised even ten years later. In 1923, he followed a call by the Danish college for photography in Kopenhagen.  Percheid had several students who would later become renowned photographers themselves. Arthur Benda studied with him from 1899 to 1902, and joined him again in 1906 as his assistant for experimenting with colour photography. Benda left Perscheid in 1907; together with Dora Kallmus he went to Vienna and worked in her studio "Atelier d'Ora", which he eventually took over and that continued to exist under the name d'Ora-Benda until 1965. Kallmus herself also had studied from January to May 1907 at Perscheid's. Henry B. Goodwin, who later emigrated to Sweden and in 1913 organized Perscheid's course there, studied with Perscheid in 1903. In 1924 the Swedish photographer Curt Götlin (1900–1993) studied at Perscheid's studio. Perscheid also influenced the Japanese photographer Toragorō Ariga, who studied in Berlin from 1908 to 1914 and also followed Perscheid's courses. He returned in 1915 to Japan.  The Perscheid lens was developed around 1920. It is a soft-focus lens with a wide depth of field, produced by Emil Busch AG after the specifications of Perscheid. The lens is designed especially for large format portrait photography. Ariga introduced the Perscheid lens in Japan, where it became very popular amongst Japanese portrait photographers of the 1920s.  Even after the sale of his studio, Perscheid continued to work as a photographer and even rented other studio rooms in 1917. Besides artistic photography, he also always did "profane" studio portraits, for instance for the "Postkartenvertrieb" Willi Sanke in Berlin that between 1910 and 1918 published a series of about 600 to 700 numbered aviation postcards, including a large number of portraits of flying aces, a number of which were done by Perscheid. Towards the end of the 1920s, Perscheid had severe financial problems. In autumn 1929 he had to sub-rent his apartment to be able to pay his own rent. Shortly afterwards, he suffered a stroke, and was hospitalized in spring of 1930. While he was at the hospital, his belongings, including his cameras and photographic plates, but also all his furniture were auctioned off to pay his debts. Two weeks after the auction, on 12 May 1930, Perscheid died at the Charité hospital in Berlin.

Nicola Perscheid (3 December 1864 – 12 May 1930) was a German photographer. He is primarily known for his artistic portrait photography. He developed the "Perscheid lens", a soft focus lens for large format portrait photography.


Description and interpretations.

On the right a woman sits, suckling a baby. The woman has been described as a "Gypsy" since at least 1530, and in Italy, the painting is also known as "La Zingara e il Soldato" ("The Gypsy woman and the soldier"), or as "La Zingarella e il Soldato" ("The Gypsy girl and the soldier"). Her pose is unusual – normally the baby would be held on the mother's lap; but in this case the baby is positioned at the side of the mother, so as to expose her pubic area. A man, possibly a soldier, holding a long staff or pike, stands in contrapposto on the left. He smiles and glances to the left, but does not appear to be looking at the woman. Art historians have identified the man alternatively as a soldier, a shepherd, a gypsy, or a member of a club of unmarried men. X-rays of the painting have revealed that in the place of the man, Giorgione originally painted another female nude. One may also note the stork on the rooftop on the right. Storks sometimes represent the love of parents for their children.  The painting's features seem to anticipate the storm. The colors are subdued and the lighting soft; greens and blues dominate. The landscape is a not a mere backdrop, but forms a notable contribution to early landscape painting. The painting has a'silent' atmosphere which continues to fascinate modern viewers.  There is no contemporary textual explanation for "The Tempest", and ultimately, no definitive reading or interpretation. To some it represents the flight into Egypt; to others, a scene from classical mythology (possibly Paris and Oenone; or Iasion and Demeter) or from an ancient Greek pastoral novel. According to the Italian scholar Salvatore Settis, the desert city would represent the Paradise, the two characters being Adam and Eve with their son Cain: the lightning, as in ancient Greek and Hebrew times, would represent God who has just ousted them from Eden. Others have proposed a moral allegorical reading, or concluded that Giorgione had no particular subject in mind.  In September, 1943, Professor Pasquale Rotondi, Central Inspector for the General Direction of the Arts, put it under his bed to hide it from German troops..

Cultural references and reception.

This was Lord Byron's favorite painting because the ambiguity of both its subject matter and symbolism allowed viewers to make up their own tale.  Jan Morris wrote that the picture changed the way she looked at painting. She was fascinated with the subject and "its sense of permanently suspended enigma", and calls it a "haunted picture", inhabited by the actual presence of the artist.  Czech poet Ladislav Novák wrote a poem called "Giorgione's Tempest" where Meister Eckhart explains its symbolism in a wealthy man's study. According to him, the man is a shepherd who represents Giorgione and the lady is a woman the painter loves, without hoping his love will be requited.  In Mark Helprin's 1991 novel "A Soldier of the Great War" the protagonist claims the painting as his favorite and it plays a central role in the plot. It is viewed by the main characters who visit the painting in Venice and is referred to several times throughout the novel.  In "" by Neil Gaiman, the painting is depicted hanging in the dining room of the Dream King.

The Tempest (Italian "La Tempesta") is a Renaissance painting by the Italian master Giorgione dated between 1506 and 1508. Originally commissioned by the Venetian noble Gabriele Vendramin, the painting is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia of Venice, Italy. Despite considerable discussion by art historians, the meaning of the scene remains elusive.


Life and career.

Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi located in the Mississippi Delta, and raised in the nearby town of Grenada. Her father, Don Tartt, was a successful local politician, while her mother, Taylor, was a secretary. At age thirteen, Tartt was published for the first time when a sonnet was included in a Mississippi literary review.  Tartt enrolled in the University of Mississippi in 1981, where her writing caught the attention of Willie Morris while she was a freshman. Following a recommendation from Morris, Barry Hannah, then an Ole Miss writer-in-residence, admitted the eighteen-year-old Tartt into his graduate course on the short story. "She was deeply literary," said Hannah. "Just a rare genius, really. A literary star."  Following the suggestion of Morris and others, she transferred to Bennington College in 1982. At Bennington, Tartt studied classics with Claude Fredericks.  In 2002, Tartt was reportedly working on a retelling of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus for the Canongate Myth Series, a series of novellas in which ancient myths are reimagined and rewritten by contemporary authors. In 2006, Tartt's short story "The Ambush" was included in the Best American Short Stories 2006.  Tartt is a convert to Catholicism and contributed an essay, "The spirit and writing in a secular world", to "The Novel, Spirituality and Modern Culture" (2000). In her essay Tartt wrote that "...faith is vital in the process of making my work and in the reasons I am driven to make it". However, Tartt also warned of the danger of writers who impose their beliefs or convictions on their novels. She wrote that writers should "shy from asserting those convictions directly in their work".

Donna Tartt (born December 23, 1963) is an American author. Tartt's novels include "The Secret History" (1992), "The Little Friend" (2002), and "The Goldfinch" (2013). Tartt won the WH Smith Literary Award for "The Little Friend" in 2003 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for "The Goldfinch" in 2014. She was included in "Time" magazine's 2014 "100 Most Influential People" list.


Design and development.

In 1934, the United States Army Air Corps put out a request for a bomber with double the bomb load and range of the Martin B-10, which was just entering service as the Army's standard bomber. In the evaluation at Wright Field the following year, Douglas showed its DB-1. It competed with the Boeing Model 299 (later developed into the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress) and Martin Model 146.  While the Boeing design was clearly superior, the crash of the B-17 prototype (caused by taking off with the controls still locked) removed it from consideration. During the depths of the Great Depression, the lower price of the DB-1 ($58,500 vs. $99,620 for the Model 299) also counted in its favor. The Douglas design was ordered into immediate production in January 1936 as the B-18.  The DB-1 design was essentially that of the DC-2, with several modifications. The wingspan was greater. The fuselage was deeper, to better accommodate bombs and the six-member crew; the wings were fixed in the middle of the cross-section rather than to the bottom due to the deeper fuselage. Added armament included nose, dorsal, and ventral gun turrets.  Preston Tucker's firm received a contract to supply a remote controlled gun turret for the aircraft.

Operational history.

The initial contract called for 133 B-18s (including DB-1), using Wright R-1820 radial engines. The last B-18 of the run, designated DB-2 by the company, had a power-operated nose turret. This design did not become standard. Additional contracts in 1937 (177 aircraft) and 1938 (40 aircraft) were for the B-18A, which had the bombardier's position further forward over the nose-gunner's station. The B-18A also used more powerful engines.  Deliveries of B-18s to Army units began in the first half of 1937, with the first examples being test and evaluation aircraft being turned over to the Materiel Division at Wright Field, Ohio, the Technical Training Command at Chanute Field, Illinois, the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and Lowry Field, Colorado. Deliveries to operational groups began in late 1937, the first being the 7th Bombardment Group at Hamilton Field, California.  Production B-18s, with full military equipment fitted, had a maximum speed of 217 mph, cruising speed of 167 mph, and combat range of 850 miles. By 1940, most USAAC bomber squadrons were equipped with B-18s or B-18As.  However, the deficiencies in the B-18/B-18A bomber were becoming readily apparent to almost everyone. In range, in speed, in bomb load, and particularly in defensive armor and armament, the design came up short, and the Air Corps conceded that the aircraft was obsolete and totally unsuited in the long-range bombing role for which it had originally been acquired. To send crews out in such a plane against a well-armed, determined foe would have been nothing short of suicidal.  However, in spite of the known shortcomings of the B-18/B-18A, the Douglas aircraft was the most numerous American bomber type deployed outside the continental United States at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was hoped that the B-18 could play a stopgap role until more suitable aircraft such as the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator became available in quantity.

World War II.

When war came to the Pacific, most of the B-18/B-18A aircraft based overseas in the Philippines and in Hawaii were destroyed on the ground in the initial Japanese onslaught. The few Bolos that remained played no significant role in subsequent operations.  The B-18s remaining in the continental US and in the Caribbean were then deployed in a defensive role in anticipation of attacks on the US mainland. These attacks never materialized. B-17s supplanted B-18s in first-line service in 1942. Following this, 122 B-18As were modified for anti-submarine warfare. The bombardier was replaced by a search radar with a large radome. Magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) equipment was sometimes housed in a tail boom. These aircraft, designated B-18B, were used in the Caribbean on anti-submarine patrol. On 2 October 1942, a B-18A, piloted by Captain Howard Burhanna Jr. of the 99th Bomb Squadron, depth charged and sank the north of Cayenne, French Guiana.  Two aircraft were transferred to "Força Aérea Brasileira" in 1942 and used with a provisional conversion training unit set up under the provisions of Lend-Lease. They were later used for anti-submarine patrols. They were struck off charge at the end of the war. In 1940 the Royal Canadian Air Force acquired 20 B-18As (as the Douglas Digby Mark I), and also used them for patrol duties, being immediately issued to 10 Squadron to replace the squadron's Westland Wapitis.  Bolos and Digbys sank an additional two submarines during the course of the war. RCAF Eastern Air Command (EAC) Digbys carried out 11 attacks on U-boats. was confirmed sunk by Flying Officer F. Raymes' crew of No. 10 (BR) Squadron, on 30 October 1942. east of Newfoundland. However, the antisubmarine role was relatively short-lived, and the Bolos were superseded in this role in 1943 by Consolidated B-24 Liberators which had a much heavier payload and a substantially longer range which finally closed the mid-Atlantic gap.  Surviving USAAF B-18s ended their useful lives in training and transport roles within the continental United States, and saw no further combat action. Two B-18As were modified as unarmed cargo transports under the designation C-58. At the end of the war, those bombers that were left were sold as surplus on the commercial market. Some postwar B-18s of various models were operated as cargo or crop-spraying aircraft by commercial operators.  Some of the Douglas Digbys in Canadian service were converted to either C-58s or used for training.

Aircraft on display.

Only six B-18s still exist, five of them preserved or under restoration in museums in the United States:

External links.

[[Category:1930s United States bomber aircraft]] [[Category:Douglas aircraft|B-18 Bolo]] [[Category:1930s United States military trainer aircraft]] [[Category:1930s United States military transport aircraft]] [[Category:Aircraft first flown in 1935]] [[Category:Mid-wing aircraft]] [[Category:World War II bombers of the United States]] [[Category:Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft]]

The Douglas B-18 Bolo is an American medium bomber which served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force (as the Digby) during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Bolo was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, based on its DC-2, and was developed to replace the Martin B-10.


Biography.

Born in Farmersville, Texas, and raised in the suburbs of Dallas, Ellis first heard the electric guitar performed by George Barnes on a radio program. This experience is said to have inspired him to take up the guitar. He became proficient on the instrument by the time he entered North Texas State University. Ellis majored in music, but because they did not yet have a guitar program at that time, he studied the string bass. Unfortunately, due to lack of funds, his college days were short-lived. In 1941, Ellis dropped out of college and toured for six months with a band from the University of Kansas.  In 1943, he joined Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra and it was with Gray's band that he got his first recognition in the jazz magazines. After Gray's band, Ellis joined the Jimmy Dorsey band where he played some of his first recorded solos. Ellis remained with Dorsey through 1947, traveling and recording extensively, and playing in dance halls and movie palaces. Then came a turnabout that would change Ellis's career forever. As pianist Lou Carter told journalist Robert Dupuis in a 1996 interview, "The Dorsey band had a six-week hole in the schedule. The three of us had played together some with the big band. John Frigo, who had already left the band, knew the owner of the Peter Stuyvesant Hotel in Buffalo. We went in there and stayed six months. And that's how the group the Soft Winds were born". Together with Frigo and Lou Carter, Ellis wrote the classic jazz standard "Detour Ahead".  The Soft Winds group was fashioned after the Nat King Cole Trio. They stayed together until 1952. Ellis then joined the Oscar Peterson Trio (replacing Barney Kessel) in 1953, forming what Scott Yanow would later on refer to as "one of the most memorable of all the piano, guitar, and bass trios in jazz history".  Ellis became prominent after performing with the Oscar Peterson Trio from 1953 to 1958 along with pianist Peterson and bassist Ray Brown. He was a somewhat controversial member of the trio, because he was the only white person in the group in a time when racism was still very much widespread.In addition to their great live and recorded work as the Oscar Peterson Trio, this unit usually with the addition of a drummer, served as the virtual "house rhythm section" for Norman Granz's Verve Records, supporting the likes of tenormen Ben Webster and Stan Getz, as well as trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, and Sweets Edison and other jazz stalwarts. Ellis was part of the rhythm section but did not solo on every track. With drummer Buddy Rich, they were also the backing band for popular "comeback" albums by the duet of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.  The trio were one of the mainstays of Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts as they swept the jazz world, almost constantly touring the United States and Europe. Ellis left the Peterson Trio in November 1958, to be replaced not by a guitarist, but by drummer Ed Thigpen. The years of 1957 through 1960 found Ellis touring with Ella Fitzgerald.  The three provided a stirring rendition of "Tenderly" as a jazz improvisational backdrop to John Hubley's 1958 cartoon "The Tender Game".  With fellow jazz guitarists Barney Kessel, Charlie Byrd and Tal Farlow, he created another ensemble, the Great Guitars.  Herb Ellis was also featured on an episode of "Sanford and Son" accompanying Fred Sanford's singing.  Ellis gave cartoonist and The Far Side creator Gary Larson guitar lessons in exchange for the cover illustration for the album "Doggin' Around" (Concord, 1988) by Ellis and bassist Red Mitchell.  In 1994 he joined the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame. On November 15, 1997 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of North Texas College of Music.  Ellis died of Alzheimer's disease at his Los Angeles home on the morning of March 28, 2010, at the age of 88.

Discography.

As leader.

With Monty Alexander and Ray Brown  With Oscar Peterson

As sideman.

With Mel Brown  With Benny Carter  With Harry Edison  With Roy Eldridge  With Victor Feldman  With Johnny Frigo  With Stan Getz  With Dizzy Gillespie  With Vince Guaraldi  With Coleman Hawkins  With Lou Rawls  With Illinois Jacquet  With Bud Shank  With Gábor Szabó  With Oscar Peterson  With Sonny Stitt  With Ben Webster  With Lester Young

Mitchell Herbert Ellis (August 4, 1921 – March 28, 2010), known professionally as Herb Ellis, was an American jazz guitarist. During the 1950s, he was in a trio with pianist Oscar Peterson.


History.

Until 1918, Hranice was part of the Austrian monarchy (Austria side after the compromise of 1867), in the district with the same name, one of the 34 "Bezirkshauptmannschaften" in Moravia. The German name only was used before 1867 (including "Weiskirchen").  In 1883, Antonín Kunz (1859–1910) founded a company in Hranice for the repair and production of small farm machinery and then specialized in the production of windpumps and other pumps. The company became the largest factory for water pumps in Austria-Hungary. At the end of the 19th century, it also produced complete communal water systems (by 1912 it had done so for 1,056 towns and municipalities, as well as factories and large landowners). The Sigma Pumps company developed out of Kunz's company.  In the days of Austria-Hungary, in the interbellum Czechoslovakia, and during the communist era the city hosted a large military academy. Notable graduates include Archduke Wilhelm of Austria and Herman Potočnik.

The Jews in Hranice.

The first Jews came at the beginning of the 17th century, receiving in 1637 the right for a self-governed Jewish quarter, around the present Janáčkova street (renamed from Židovská street). Besides those 17 houses, they were not allowed to purchase houses elsewhere. The community reached a high 802 people in 1857 (13% of the entire town). They had a significant role in the development of Hranice's industry: a textile plant established in 1844 (the largest factory until the mid-20th century), and distilleries (1827, 1836).

Twin towns — sister cities.

Hranice is twinned with:

Notable people.

Notable people that were born or lived in Hranice include:

Hranice (; or "Mährisch Weißkirchen", ) is a town in Moravia, the eastern Czech Republic. It is sometimes informally called Hranice na Moravě (literally, "Hranice in Moravia"), to distinguish from other places with the same name, Hranice. In fact, Hranice na Moravě (), is the name of one of the railway stations of the town, the other being "Hranice na Moravě město".


Customs.

Vietnamese people usually return to their families during Tết. Some return to worship at the family altar or visit the graves of their ancestors in their homeland. They also clean the graves of their family as a sign of respect. Although Tết is a national holiday among all Vietnamese, each region and religion has its own customs.  Tết in the three Vietnamese regions can be divided into three periods, known as "Tất Niên" (penultimate New Year's Eve), "Giao Thừa" (New Year's Eve), and "Tân Niên" (the New Year), representing the preparation before Tết, the eve of Tết, and the days of and following Tết, respectively.

The New Year.

The first day of Tết is reserved for the nuclear family. Children receive a red envelope containing money from their elders. This tradition is called "mừng tuổi" (happy new age) in the north and "lì xì" in the south. Usually, children wear their new clothes and give their elders the traditional Tết greetings before receiving the money. Since the Vietnamese believe that the first visitor a family receives in the year determines their fortune for the entire year, people never enter any house on the first day without being invited first. The act of being the first person to enter a house on Tết is called "xông đất", "xông nhà" or "đạp đất", which is one of the most important rituals during Tết. According to Vietnamese tradition, if good things come to the family on the first day of the lunar New Year, the entire following year will also be full of blessings. Usually, a person of good temper, morality, and success will be the lucky sign for the host family and be invited first into the house. However, just to be safe, the owner of the house will leave the house a few minutes before midnight and come back just as the clock strikes midnight to prevent anyone else entering the house first who might potentially bring any unfortunate events in the new year, to the household.  Sweeping during Tết is taboo or "xui" (unlucky), since it symbolizes sweeping the luck away; that is why they clean before the new year. It is also taboo for anyone who experienced a recent loss of a family member to visit anyone else during Tết.  During subsequent days, people visit relatives and friends. Traditionally but not strictly, the second day of Tết is usually reserved for friends, while the third day is for teachers, who command respect in Vietnam. Local Buddhist temples are popular spots as people like to give donations and to get their fortunes told during Tết. Children are free to spend their new money on toys or on gambling games such as "bầu cua cá cọp", which can be found in the streets. Prosperous families can pay for dragon dancers to perform at their house. Also, public performances are given for everyone to watch.

Traditional celebrations.

These celebrations can last from a day up to the entire week, and the New Year is filled with people in the streets trying to make as much noise as possible using firecrackers, drums, bells, gongs, and anything they can think of to ward off evil spirits. This parade will also include different masks, and dancers hidden under the guise of what is known as the "Mua Lan "or Lion Dancing. The "Lan" is an animal between a lion and a dragon, and is the symbol of strength in the Vietnamese culture that is used to scare away evil spirits. After the parade, families and friends come together to have a feast of traditional Vietnamese dishes, and share the happiness and joy of the New Year with one another. This is also the time when the elders will hand out red envelopes with money to the children for good luck in exchange for Tết greetings.  It is also tradition to pay off your debts before the Lunar New Year for some Vietnamese families.

Decorations.

Traditionally, each family displays "cây nêu", an artificial New Year tree consisting of a bamboo pole 5 to 6 m long. The top end is usually decorated with many objects, depending on the locality, including good luck charms, origami fish, cactus branches, etc.  At Tết, every house is usually decorated by Yellow Apricot blossoms ("hoa mai") in the central and southern parts of Vietnam; or peach blossoms ("hoa đào") in the northern part of Vietnam; or St. John's wort ("hoa ban") in the mountain areas. In the north, some people (especially the elite in the past) also decorate their house with a plum blossoms (also called "hoa mơ" in Vietnamese, but referring to a totally different species from mickey-mouse blossoms). In the north or central, the kumquat tree is a popular decoration for the living room during Tết. Its many fruits symbolize the fertility and fruitfulness for which the family hopes in the coming year.  Vietnamese people also decorate their homes with bonsai and flowers such as chrysanthemums ("hoa cúc"), marigolds ("vạn thọ") symbolizing longevity, cockscombs ("mào gà") in southern Vietnam and paperwhites ("thủy tiên") and pansies ("hoa lan") in northern Vietnam. In the past was a tradition where people tried to make their paperwhites bloom on the day of the observance.  They also hung up Dong Ho paintings and "thư pháp" calligraphy pictures.

Greetings.

The traditional greetings are ""Chúc Mừng Năm Mới"" (Happy New Year) and ""Cung Chúc Tân Xuân"", (gracious wishes of the new spring). People also wish each other prosperity and luck. Common wishes for Tết include:

Food.

In Vietnamese language, to celebrate Tết is to "ăn Tết", literally meaning "eat Tết", showing the importance of food in its celebration. Some of the food is also eaten year-round, while other dishes are only eaten during Tết. Also, some of the food is vegetarian since it is believed to be good luck to eat vegetarian on Tết. Some traditional foods on Tết are:

Games and entertainment.

People enjoy traditional games during Tết, including: "bầu cua cá cọp", "cờ tướng", "ném còn", "chọi trâu", and "đá gà". They also participate in some competitions presenting their knowledge, strength, and aestheticism, such as the bird competition and "ngâm thơ" competition.  Fireworks displays have also become an traditional part of a Tết celebration in Vietnam. During the New Year's Eve, fireworks displays at major cities, such as Hà Nội, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang, are broadcast through multiple national and local TV channels, accompanied by New Year wishes of the incumbent president. In 2017 only, fireworks displays were prohibited due to political and financial reasons. In Australia, Canada & the U.S., there are fireworks displays at many of its festivals.  "Gặp nhau cuối năm" ("Year-end Gathering") is a national favourite comedy show broadcast during the night before the New Year's Eve.

Dates in Lunar Calendar.

From 1996 to 2067.

Tết ( or ), Vietnamese New Year, Vietnamese Lunar New Year or Tet Holiday, is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. The word is a shortened form of Tết Nguyên Đán (節元旦), which is Sino-Vietnamese for "Feast of the First Morning of the First Day". Tết celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese calendar, which usually has the date falling in January or February in the Gregorian calendar.


Description.

"Rosa gallica" is a deciduous shrub forming large patches. The slender, straight prickles are various in size and frequency in this species The leaves are pinnately-compound, with three to seven bluish-green leaflets. The flowers are clustered one to four together, on glandular pedicels. Each flower has five or more petals, sometimes producing double corollas. The flowers are fragrant and deep pink. The hips are globose to ovoid, 10–13 mm diameter, orange to brownish.

Gallica cultivar group.

Cultivars of the species "R. gallica" and hybrids close in appearance are considered as a cultivar group, the Gallica Group roses. Their exact ancestry is usually unknown and other species may be involved. They are easily cultivated. The Gallica Group roses share the vegetative characters of the species:

Apothecary's rose.

Plants with semidouble deep pink flowers have been treated as either a variety, under the name "R. gallica" var. "officinalis", or as a cultivar, "R. gallica" 'Officinalis'. It is also called the apothecary's rose, the crimson damask rose, or the red rose of Lancaster. It is the county flower of Lancashire. A cultivar "R. gallica" var. "officinalis" 'Versicolor', with striped pink blooms, is also known as "Rosa mundi".  The names "Rosa gallica" f. "trigintipetala" or "Rosa" 'Trigintipetala' are considered to be synonyms of "Rosa damascena".

Cultivation.

It was cultivated by the Greek and Romans and commonly used in mediaeval gardens. In the 19th century it was the most important species of rose to be cultivated, and most modern European rose cultivars have at least a small contribution from "R. gallica" in their ancestry.  "Rosa gallica" is easily cultivated on well drained soil in full sun to semishade; it can survive temperatures down to −25 °C.  The following cultivars and hybrids have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Rosa gallica, the Gallic rose, French rose, or rose of Provins, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, native to southern and central Europe eastwards to Turkey and the Caucasus. It was one of the first species of rose to be cultivated in central Europe.


Geography.

The land area of this arrondissement is 16.305 km ( or 4,029 acres), slightly more than half of which consists of the Bois de Boulogne park. Excluding the Bois de Boulogne, its land area is 7.846 km ( or 1,939 acres). It is the largest arrondissement in Paris in terms of land area.

Demographics.

The 16th arrondissement population peaked in 1962, when it had 227,418 inhabitants. At the last census (2009), the population was 169,372. The 16th arrondissement contains a great deal of business activity; in 1999 it hosted 106,971 jobs.  The 16th arrondissement is commonly thought to be one of the richest parts of Paris (see Auteuil-Neuilly-Passy), and features some of the most expensive real estate in France including the famous Auteuil "villas", heirs to 19th century high society country houses, they are exclusive gated communities with huge houses surrounded by gardens, which is extremely rare in Paris. It is also the only arrondissement in Paris to be divided into two separate postal codes. The southern part of the arrondissement carries a postal code of 75016, while the northern part has the code of 75116.

Economy.

Four Fortune Global 500 have their head offices in this arrondissement: PSA Peugeot Citroën, Kering, Lafarge, and Veolia. In addition Lagardère and Technip have their headquarters in this arrondissement.  At one time Aérospatiale had its head office in the arrondissement.

Movies filmed in the 16th arrondissement.

In one of the opening scenes of the 1965 James Bond film "Thunderball", character Emilio Largo is seen arriving at the headquarters of "The International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons". This scene was shot on Avenue d'Eylau in the 16th arrondissement.  The 1972 film "Last Tango in Paris" was filmed at various locations in the 16th arrondissement, with the apartment the characters stayed in being located in Passy.

Marcel Petiot.

A notorious serial murder case, which generated an international media circus, centered in the 16th arrondissement during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. The focal point of the case was French doctor Marcel Petiot, who in 1941 bought a house at 21 Rue le Sueur in "the heart of Paris's fashionable 16th arrondissement". On 11 March 1944, Petiot's neighbors complained to police of a foul stench in the area and of large amounts of smoke billowing from a chimney of the house. Fearing a chimney fire, the police summoned firemen, who entered the house and found a roaring fire in a coal stove in the basement. In the fire, and scattered in the basement, were human remains. Following an investigation, during which time Petiot attempted to evade capture, "the monster of rue Le Sueur" was ultimately arrested and went on trial on 19 March 1946, facing 135 criminal charges. He was convicted of 26 counts of murder and sentenced to death. On 25 May, Petiot was beheaded, after a stay of several days due to a problem in the release mechanism of the guillotine.

Education.

Primary and secondary schools.

Here is a list of domestic French sixth-form colleges/high schools in the arrondissement  International schools:

Undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

The Université Paris-Dauphine is in the arrondissement, as well as Paris Institute of Technology, part of Paris Descartes University, one of Paris biggest public universities.  The renowned "classes préparatoires" establishment have one of their campuses in the arrondissement.

Supplementary schools.

The "École de langue japonaise de Paris" (パリ日本語補習校 "Pari Nihongo Hoshūkō"), a supplementary Japanese education programme, is held at the "École Maternelle et Primaire Saint Francois d'Eylau" in the 16th arrondissement. The school has its offices at the "Association Amicale des Ressortissants Japonais en France" (AARJF) in the 8th arrondissement.

The 16th arrondissement of Paris ("XVI arrondissement") is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as "seizième".


Early life.

Jean-François de Gondi was born in Montmirail, in the Brie region of northern France. He was the third son in his family, and according to Tallemant des Réaux was made a knight of Malta on the very day of his birth. The death of his second brother, however, destined him for a closer connection with the Church. The Retz side of his family had much church influence, and though young Jean-François was not much attracted to the clergy, his family insisted that he join it. They said he lacked the appearance of a soldier, being short, near-sighted, ugly and awkward.  He was tutored by St. Vincent de Paul and educated at the Sorbonne. When he was eighteen, he wrote "Conjuration de Fiesque", a little historical essay, influenced by the Italian of Agostino Mascardi, and audaciously insinuating revolutionary principles.

Family background.

The district of Retz or Rais is in southern Brittany, and has been under the control of several different families. Retz always spelled the word "Rais." The barony of Retz first belonged to the House of Retz, then to the Chabot family and the Laval family. Gilles de Rais, a Laval and comrade in arms of Joan of Arc, was executed without an heir, so the barony passed successively to the families of Tournemine, Annebaut and Gondi.  In 1581, it became a duchy, with Albert de Gondi its first duke. His brother Pierre de Gondi became bishop of Paris in 1570 and cardinal in 1587. Pierre was succeeded by his nephews Henri de Gondi (d. 1622) and Jean-François de Gondi (d. 1654), for whom the episcopal see of Paris was erected into an archbishopric in 1622. Finally, Jean François was then succeeded by Pierre's great-nephew Jean François Paul de Gondi.

Archbishop of Paris.

Retz received no preferment of importance during Cardinal Richelieu's life. Even after the minister's death, though he was presented to Louis XIII and well received, he found difficulty in attaining the co-adjutorship with reversion of the archbishopric of Paris. But almost immediately after the king's death, Anne of Austria appointed him to the coveted post on All Saints Eve, 1643. Retz, who had, according to some accounts, already plotted against Richelieu, set himself to work to make the utmost political capital out of his position. His uncle had lived in great seclusion; Retz, on the contrary, gradually acquired a very great influence with the populace of the city. This influence he gradually turned against Cardinal Mazarin, which helped lead to the outbreak of the Fronde in October 1648.  Of the two parties who joined the Fronde, Retz could only depend on the bourgeoisie of Paris. He had some speculative tendencies in favour of popular liberties, and even perhaps of republicanism, but represented no real political principle, which inevitably weakened his position. When the breakup of the Fronde came he was left in the lurch, having more than once been in no small danger from his own party. However, because of a misapprehension on the part of Pope Innocent X, he had been made cardinal.  In 1652, he was arrested and imprisoned, first at Vincennes, then at Nantes; he escaped after two years, and traveled through Europe. He went to Rome more than once, and helped elect Pope Alexander VII. In 1662, Louis XIV received him back into favor, and asked him to formally serve as envoy to Rome several times. For this reconciliation to occur, he resigned his claims to the archbishopric of Paris. He was appointed abbot of St-Denis, and restored to his other benefices with the payment of arrears.

Later life.

The last seventeen years of Retz's life were passed partly in his diplomatic duties (he was again in Rome at the papal conclaves of 1667 and 1669), partly in Paris, partly at his estate of Cornmercy, but mostly at Saint-Mihiel in Lorraine. His debts were enormous, and in 1675 he made over to his creditors all his income except twenty thousand "livres". He died at Paris on 24 August 1679. During these last years he corresponded with Madame de Sévigné, a relative by marriage.

Writings.

During the last ten years of his life, Retz wrote his "Memoirs," which go up to the year 1655. They are addressed in the form of narrative to a lady who is not known, though guesses have been made at her identity, some even suggesting Madame de Sévigné herself. In the beginning there are some gaps. They are known for their narrative skill and the verbal portraits of their characters. Alexandre Dumas, père drew heavily on the "Memoirs" for "Vingt ans après". Besides these memoirs and the youthful essay of the "Conjuration de Fiesque", Retz has left diplomatic papers, sermons, "Mazarinades" and correspondence.  Retz and François de La Rochefoucauld, the greatest of the "Frondeurs" in literary genius, were personal and political enemies, and each left a portrait of the other. De la Rochefoucauld wrote of Retz: ""Il a suscité les plus grands désordres dans l'état sans avoir un dessein formé de s'en prévaloir."" (He stirred up the greatest disorder in the State, without having a clear plan of how to gain from it).  The "Memoirs of the cardinal de Retz" were first published in a very imperfect condition in 1717. The first satisfactory edition appeared in the twenty-fourth volume of the collection of Joseph François Michaud and Jean Joseph François Poujoulat (Paris, 1836). In 1870 a complete edition of the works of Retz was begun by Alphonse Feillet in the collection of "Grands Ecrivains".

Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz (20 September 1613 – 24 August 1679) was a French churchman, writer of memoirs, and agitator in the Fronde.


Life.

Labouré was born on May 2, 1806, in the Burgundy region of France to Pierre Labouré, a farmer, and Madeleine Louise Gontard, the 9th of 11 living children. Her baptismal name was Zoe, after Saint Zoe, whose feast day falls on her birthday, but her family rarely used that. Catherine was her baptismal name. Labouré's mother died on October 9, 1815, when Labouré was nine years old. It is said that after her mother's funeral, Labouré picked up a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and kissed it saying, "Now you will be my mother." Her father's sister offered to care for her and her sister Marie Antoinette (Tonine). After he agreed, the sisters moved to their aunt's house at Saint-Rémy, a village from their home.  Labouré was observed to be extremely devout, of a somewhat romantic nature, given to visions and intuitive insights. As a young woman, she became a member of the nursing order founded by Vincent de Paul, the Daughters of Charity; she chose this order after a dream about him.

Visions.

Vincent de Paul.

In April 1830, the remains of Vincent de Paul were translated to the Vincentian church in Paris. The solemnities included a novena. On three successive evenings, upon returning from the church to the Rue du Bac, a church, Catherine reportedly experienced in the convent chapel, a vision of what she took to be the heart of de Paul above a shrine containing a relic of bone from his right arm. Each time the heart appeared a different color: white, red, and black. She interpreted this to mean that the Vincentian communities would prosper, and that there would be a change of government. The convent chaplain advised her to forget the matter.

Blessed Virgin Mary.

Labouré stated that on July 19, 1830, the eve of the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, she woke up after hearing the voice of a child calling her to the chapel, where she heard the Virgin Mary say to her, "God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do not fear; you will have the grace to do what is necessary. Tell your spiritual director all that passes within you. Times are evil in France and in the world." Labouré kept walking, thinking about what she just heard.  On November 27, 1830, Labouré reported that the Blessed Mother returned to her during evening meditations. She displayed herself inside an oval frame, standing upon a globe, rays of light came out of her hands in the direction of a globe. Around the margin of the frame appeared the words "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." As Labouré watched, the frame seemed to rotate, showing a circle of twelve stars, a large letter "M" surmounted by a cross, and the stylized Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary underneath. Asked why some of the rays of light did not reach the Earth, Mary reportedly replied "Those are the graces for which people forget to ask." Labouré then heard Mary ask her to take these images to her father confessor, telling him that they should be put on medallions. "All who wear them will receive great graces."  Labouré did so, and after two years of investigation and observation of her normal daily behavior, the priest took the information to his archbishop without revealing her identity. The request was approved and the design of the medallions was commissioned through French goldsmith Adrien Vachette. They proved to be exceedingly popular. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception had not yet been officially promulgated, but the medal with its "conceived without sin" slogan was influential in popular approval of the idea.

Death and legacy.

Labouré spent the next forty years caring for the aged and infirm. For this, she is called the patroness of seniors. She died on December 31, 1876, at the age of seventy. Her body is encased in glass beneath the side altar in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal at 140 Rue du Bac, Paris.  Her cause for sainthood was declared upon discovering her body was incorrupt. She was beatified on May 28, 1933 by Pope Pius XI and canonized on July 27, 1947 by Pope Pius XII.  Labouré's feast day is observed on November 28 according to the liturgical calendar of the Congregation of the Mission, the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris. She is listed in the Martyrologium Romanum for December 31.

Catherine Labouré, D.C.. (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876) was a French nun who was a member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and is a Marian visionary. She is believed to have relayed the request from the Blessed Virgin Mary to create the famous Miraculous Medal of Our Lady of Graces worn by millions of people around the world. Labouré spent forty years caring for the aged and infirm. For this, she is called the patroness of seniors.