History of the painting.

The altarpiece for the Augustinian monastery in Kłodzko was commissioned before 1350 by Archbishop Arnošt of Pardubice, the monastery's founder, who spent his youth at the parish church there and, as a child, reputedly had a vision of the Virgin Mary. As archbishop he was the founder of the Marian cult in the Czech lands. He is buried in the Church of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary in Kłodzko. The original winged altarpiece, which included another four panels with painted scenes depicting the life of Christ (the "Birth of Jesus", the "Circumcision", the "Flight to Egypt" and the "Twelve-year-old Christ in the Temple") was seen and described by Bohuslav Balbín in his work "Vita Venerabilis Arnesti primi archiepiscopi Pragensis" of 1664. The monastery was taken over from the Augustinians by the Jesuits and until 1618 served as a Jesuit college. Although Kłodzko was besieged and damaged during the Thirty Years’ War, the altar was saved by the burgrave Johann Georg Semling and the Lutheran nobleman Adrian von Eckersdorf. After 1625 the altarpiece was the pride of the local parish church and in the 19th century it was situated in the royal grammar school in Kłodzko. From there, the painting of the enthroned Madonna was purchased in 1902 by the Berlin Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum. It now belongs to the Berlin-Dahlem State Museum.

Description.

This monumental picture is 186 x 95 cm large and is tempera painted on stretched canvas over a poplar panel. It is a work that comes from the circle of the Master of the Vyšší Brod Altarpiece or his follower. The motif of the Enthroned Madonna surrounded by angels, the composition of space united by the perspective-based receding of lines, the dark-skinned complexion, the unusual size of the child and the fondness for precious fabrics all have their origin in northern Italy. At the same time, however, a series of details indicate a direct influence mediated by the Rhineland. The Madonna's crown of leaves and richly folded veil appear as archaic French models that emerged in Bohemian book painting as soon as the early 14th century. The architecture of the throne also relates to French ivory reliefs.  The soft modelling of the faces links this picture with the work of the Master of Vyšší Brod. The appearance of the Madonna and angels links it with the panel paintings The Adoration of the Magi, The Annunciation, The Resurrection and The Lamentation of the Vyšší Brod Altarpiece.  Both the "Madonna of Veveří" and the "Strahov Madonna" belong to the same period as the Kłodzko Madonna, while the artist who painted the Kaufmann Crucifixion also belonged to a broader circle perhaps linked by previous training in the workshop of the "Master of the Klosterneuberg Altarpiece".  Compared with the Vyšší Brod panels, the Kłodzko Madonna shows several important innovations, especially in the perspectival projection of the throne, the accentuating of spatial depth through the colour-based graduating of areas, the modelling of the high relief of the drapery and in the overall human warmth of the presentation from which the entire typology of Bohemian loving Madonnas was developed right through to the early 15th century.

The Enthroned Madonna of Kłodzko (de: Glatzer Madonna) is a Bohemian panel painting dating from 1343-1344 that was originally the central part of a larger winged altarpiece. The altarpiece's donor was Archbishop Arnošt of Pardubice, who is portrayed in the bottom left-hand corner.


Plot.

At the age of 26, when his reign began, Sultan Süleyman sought to build an empire more powerful than Alexander the Great and to render the Ottomans invincible. Throughout his 46-year reign, his fame as the greatest warrior and ruler of his age spreads both to the East and West. With his companion Pargalı İbrahim, Süleyman achieves great victories, and makes his name known in the Muslim World. Süleyman called İbrahim his brother, friend and advisor. The television series shows Süleyman's consolidation of his power: Pargalı İbrahim being grand minister of state, reinforcing the rule of law throughout the empire, meeting foreign diplomats, and preparing for military campaigns, all set against the backdrop of the tension between Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire.  The series also focuses on the relationships among the members of the imperial household, especially romantic entanglements and rivalries. The animosity between Hürrem Sultan and Mahidevran Sultan, mother of the Sultan's eldest son, and the role of Hafsa Sultan, the valide sultan; Hürrem's rise as Süleyman's favorite while pregnant with his son, her falling from favor several times and her eventual return to grace; Pargalı İbrahim's entanglement with Hatice Sultan, the Sultan's sister, and many others.

Spinoff.

The story begins 37 years after the death of Suleiman the Magnificent. It recounts the life of Mahpeyker Kösem Sultan, a female ruler of the Ottoman Empire through her sons and grandson.

Reception.

Controversy.

The show generated controversy and complaints from some viewers, for what they referred to as a "disrespectful", "indecent" and "hedonistic" portrayal of the historical sultan. Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council, known as RTÜK, claimed they had received over 70,000 complaints about the show and warned Show TV to publicly apologise for wrongly exposing "the privacy of a historical person". The Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned the show as "an effort to show our history in a negative light to the younger generations." An MP for the governing Justice and Development Party, Oktay Saral, went further, threatening to outlaw the "misrepresentation of historical figures" in shows such as Muhteşem Yüzyıl. Small groups of Islamists and Nationalists protested the studio but the show remains successful with consistently high ratings.  Elif Batuman wrote in "The New Yorker": ""On the surface, 'Magnificent Century' looks like a quintessential product of the Erdoğan years. Thanks to Erdoğan's economic policies, Turkey has a thriving television industry, capable of staging elaborate period dramas, and a prosperous family-oriented middle class of observant Muslims eager to watch their own values reflected in a historical imperial setting. And, much as Erdoğan's foreign policy has promoted relations with former Ottoman lands, the show has conquered large audiences in Balkan, Caucasian, and Arab countries not known for their fond memory of Ottoman rule. Broadcast to more than two hundred million viewers in fifty-two countries, "Magnificent Century" has accomplished one of Erdoğan's main goals: Making a powerful, non-secularist, globally involved version of Turkey both plausible and appealing... And yet Erdoğan is not a fan. In late 2012, at the opening of a provincial airport he took a moment to condemn the show's depiction of Süleyman, as well as its directors and broadcasters, hinting at severe judicial repercussions.""

International popularity.

"Muhteşem Yüzyıl" is reported to have an international audience of 200 million viewers in over 50 countries.  The show is part of an ongoing revival of Turkish culture in the Balkans through imported TV shows from Turkey, such as "Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki" ("As time goes by", number one TV show in Macedonia), or "Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?" ("What is Fatmagül's fault"), which was top ranked TV show in Kosovo 2012. Serbian sociologist Ratko Bozovic explains the popularity by pointing at the traditional, patriarchal values of the Turkish shows, and the many cultural and linguistic similarities between Turkey and the Balkan countries: "The mentality depicted in those shows has to do with a traditional understanding of morality that people in Serbia remember at some level." According to Bozovic, all Balkan countries have seen dramatic changes in terms of family life, and the Turkish shows help them recall value systems that now seem lost.  In Greece, the series has become quite popular. It has become so popular that Bishop Anthimos of Thessaloniki and the Golden Dawn party condemned the show and urged Greeks not to watch it. "No one should watch "Muhteşem Yüzyıl", "The Magnificent Century"," Anthimos said. He added, "By watching the Turkish series we are telling them we have surrendered."  In the Republic of North Macedonia, Turkish series have become so popular, that the Macedonian parliament has moved to ban Turkish soaps to reduce the Turkish impact on Macedonian society. Turkish series will gradually be removed and replaced by national programs, according to a 2012 bill.  In Chile where the series is called "El Sultán" (The Sultan) it is aired since December 14 in Canal 13 on prime time with great success. The Spanish voice of Süleyman is the same as the one of Onur in the Turkish soap opera "Las mil y una noches". The series is part of a wave of Turkish soap operas that have become popular in Chilean TV. The series debuted right after the penultimate chapter of "Los 80", a popular historical family drama produced by Canal 13.  In Pakistan, the show was named "میرا سلطان: داستان جلال و جمال" ("Mera Sultan: Dastan-e-Jalal-o-Jamal"; lit. "My Emperor: Story of Bravery and Love") and it aired on channel Geo Kahani. Geo Kahani claims that it was the channel's most popular show and received the highest TRPs. However, the channel faced several controversies and serial got banned few times, but still completed the broadcast due to public pressure. The Pakistani drama industry was adversely affected by the popularity of Turkish dramas, and lead actor Halit Ergenç to win first ever International Icon Award in Pakistan's biggest awards show Lux Style Awards in 2017.

Muhteşem Yüzyıl (, ) is a Turkish historical fiction television series. Written by Meral Okay and Yılmaz Şahin, it is based on the life of Ottoman Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, the longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and his wife Hürrem Sultan, a slave girl who became a Sultana. It also shines the light on the era known as the sultanate of women. It was originally broadcast on Show TV and then was transferred to Star TV.


Design and description.

Combat experience in the First Sino-Japanese War convinced the Imperial Japanese Navy of weaknesses in the Jeune Ecole naval philosophy, and Japan embarked on a program to modernize and expand its fleet. As with the earlier "Fuji"-class battleships, Japan lacked the technology and capability to construct its own battleships, and turned again to the United Kingdom. They were ordered as part of the Ten Year Naval Expansion Programme and paid for from the £30,000,000 indemnity paid by China after losing the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. The design of the "Shikishima" class was a modified and improved version of the s of the Royal Navy. They had the same armament and similar machinery as the "Fuji" class which was intended to allow them to work together as a homogenous group. The "Shikishima"-class ships had an overall length of, a beam of, and a normal draught of. They displaced at normal load. The hull had a double bottom and was subdivided into 261 watertight compartments. The crew numbered about 741 officers and ratings, although this increased to 849 when serving as a flagship.

Propulsion.

The ships were powered by two Humphrys Tennant vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller, using steam generated by 25 Belleville boilers. The engines were rated at, using forced draught, and designed to reach a top speed of although they proved to be faster during their sea trials. "Shikishima" reached a speed of using. The ships carried a maximum of of coal which allowed them to steam for at a speed of.

Armament.

The main battery of the "Shikishima" class consisted of the same four Elswick Ordnance Company 40-calibre twelve-inch guns as used in the "Fuji" class. They were mounted in twin-gun barbettes fore and aft of the superstructure that had armoured hoods to protect the guns and were usually called gun turrets. The hydraulically powered mountings could be loaded at all angles of traverse while the guns were loaded at a fixed angle of +13.5°. They fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of.  Secondary armament of the "Shikishima" class consisted of fourteen 40-calibre Type 41 six-inch quick-firing guns mounted in casemates. Eight of these guns were positioned on the main deck on the side of the ship's hull and the other six guns were placed in the superstructure. They fired shells at a muzzle velocity of. Protection against torpedo boat attacks was provided by twenty QF 12-pounder 12 cwt guns and four 2.5-pounder Hotchkiss guns. The 12-pounders fired, projectiles at a muzzle velocity of. The ships were also equipped with four submerged 18-inch torpedo tubes, two on each broadside.

Armour.

The waterline main belt of the "Shikishima"-class vessels consisted of Harvey armour high, of which was above the waterline at normal load, and had a maximum thickness of for the middle of the ship. It was only inches thick at the ends of the ship and was surmounted by a six-inch strake of armor that ran between the barbettes for 220 feet. The barbettes were thick, but reduced to at the level of the lower deck. The armour of the barbette hoods had a maximum thickness of while their roofs were three inches thick. Diagonal bulkheads thick connected the barbettes to the side armor, but the bulkheads were only six inches thick at the lower deck level. The casemates protecting the secondary armament were also six inches thick. The flat portion of the deck armour was thick and four inches thick where it sloped down to the bottom of the armour belt. This significantly improved the ships' protection as any shell that penetrated their vertical armour also had to penetrate the sloping deck before it could reach the machinery compartments or magazines. Outside the central armoured citadel, the sloped deck had a thickness of. The forward conning tower was protected by 14 inches of armour, but the aft conning tower only had three inches of armour.

Ships.

At the start of the Russo-Japanese War, "Hatsuse" and "Shikishima" were assigned to the 1st Division of the 1st Fleet. They participated in the Battle of Port Arthur on 9 February 1904 when Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō led the 1st Fleet in an attack on the Russian ships of the Pacific Squadron anchored just outside Port Arthur. Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal defences with his main armament and engage the Russian ships with his secondary guns. Splitting his fire proved to be a bad idea as the Japanese and six-inch guns inflicted very little damage on the Russian ships who concentrated all their fire on the Japanese ships with some effect. "Hatsuse" was hit twice during the battle, 10 men being killed and 17 wounded, but "Shikishima" was only hit once with 17 men wounded.  Both ships participated in the action of 13 April when Tōgō successfully lured out two battleships of the Pacific Squadron. When the Russians spotted the five battleships of the 1st Division, they turned back for Port Arthur and the battleship struck a minefield laid by the Japanese the previous night. It sank in less than two minutes after one of her magazines exploded. Emboldened by his success, Tōgō resumed long-range bombardment missions, which prompted the Russians to lay more minefields.  On 14 May 1904, "Hatsuse", "Shikishima", and the battleship, the protected cruiser "Kasagi", and the dispatch boat put to sea to relieve the Japanese blockading force off Port Arthur. On the following morning, the squadron encountered a newly laid Russian minefield. "Hatsuse" struck one mine that disabled her steering and "Yashima" struck another when moving to assist "Hatsuse". "Hatsuse" struck another mine while drifting about a half-hour later that detonated one of her magazines and the ship sank in a little over a minute. The catastrophe claimed 496 crewmen although the escorting ships were able to rescue 336 men.  "Shikishima" was not hit during the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August 1904, although a shell exploded prematurely in one of her 12-inch guns, disabling it. During the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905, she was hit nine times; the most serious of which penetrated beneath a six-inch gun, killing or wounding the entire gun crew. Again the ship had another 12-inch shell prematurely detonate in one of the forward guns, wrecking it completely. "Shikishima" was reclassified as a first-class coast defence ship in September 1921, and was used for training duties in various capacities until disarmed and reclassified as a transport in 1923. Her hulk continued to be used as a training ship until she was scrapped in 1948.

The was a two-ship class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, they were designed and built in the UK. The ships participated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, including the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war. "Hatsuse" sank after striking two mines off Port Arthur in May 1904. "Shikishima" fought in the Battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima and was lightly damaged in the latter action, although shells prematurely exploded in the barrels of her main guns in each battle. The ship was reclassified as a coast defence ship in 1921 and served as a training ship for the rest of her career. She was disarmed and hulked in 1923 and finally broken up for scrap in 1948.


Plot summary.

Detective Elijah Baley of Earth is training with his son and others to overcome their socially ingrained agoraphobia when he is told that the Spacer world of Aurora has requested him to investigate a crime: the destruction of the mind of R. Jander Panell, a humaniform robot identical to R. Daneel Olivaw, with a mental block. The robot's inventor, Han Fastolfe, has admitted that he is the only person with the skill to have done this, but denies having done so. Fastolfe is also a prominent member of the Auroran political faction that favors Earth; therefore, it is politically expedient that he be exonerated. En route to Aurora, Baley again is partnered with R. Daneel Olivaw, and introduced to R. Giskard Reventlov, a robot of an earlier model.  On Aurora, he interviews Gladia Delmarre, R. Jander's last owner, and discovers that Gladia had a sexual relationship with Jander, to the point of considering him husband in an emotional sense. Baley later interviews Fastolfe's estranged daughter, Vasilia Fastolfe (alias "Vasilia Aliena"), who claims that her father would do anything necessary to advance psychohistory, including the incapacitation of Jander and Gladia's heartbreak. Following that, Baley interviews Santirix Gremionis, an Auroran who, with both Gladia and Vasilia, committed the Auroran taboo of offering himself repeatedly (sexually) after rejection. Gremionis denies involvement in the murder, and says he has reported Baley to the Chairman (the executive of the Auroran Government) for slander; but realizes, upon questioning, that Vasilia arranged his infatuation with Gladia.  Next, Baley interviews Kelden Amadiro, Fastolfe's chief political rival and head of the Robotics Institute, who explains the Institute's political motivations: that they wish to see Aurora alone colonize the Galaxy, by means of humaniform robots which at present only Fastolfe can build. On the way from the interview with Amadiro, Baley's airfoil (a personal hovercraft) is forced to stop. The air compressor has been sabotaged. Baley, suspecting Amadiro, orders Daneel and Giskard to flee. When several robots catch up with the car and question Baley, Baley tells them that he ordered Daneel back to the Robotics Institute, and they leave. Baley flees the car into the thunderstorm outside, where his agoraphobia renders him unconscious. He is recovered by Gladia and Giskard, and taken to Gladia's house. At an earlier-arranged meeting with the Chairman, Fastolfe, and Amadiro, Baley accuses Amadiro of sabotaging the car so that he could keep him, helpless, in the Institute, and thus have a legitimate reason to have Daneel there as well, unsupervised. As Baley states, without Fastolfe's cooperation, the only way to obtain knowledge about humaniform robots is to reverse engineer Daneel by thorough questioning, which would have allowed Amadiro to learn the details of his workings.  While logically consistent, Baley's unsupported accusation cannot stand against a formal denial by an Auroran as prominent and respected as Amadiro. However, Baley then confronts Amadiro with the revelation that Amadiro knew of the relationship between Gladia and Jander, and moreover, of her considering him her husband; something quite unthinkable for a native Auroran. Amadiro says he may have heard it from someone, but cannot remember whom.  Baley then states that only one Auroran could have told Amadiro about the relationship: Jander himself. Then, he gives the solution to the mystery: that in Gladia's absence, Amadiro questioned and tested Jander via trimensional viewing (telepresence). Daneel was part of Fastolfe's establishment, and thus well guarded, but Jander was at the house of the much less skilled Gladia, thus questioning him for reverse engineering purposes was much easier. Gremionis was encouraged to court Gladia because they tended to take long walks together, allowing Amadiro more time for his testing. The sabotage to the car was intended to capture Daneel and complete the analysis.  When Baley states that these experiments might have accidentally led to Jander's deactivation, Amadiro snaps and states the experiments were completely harmless. Thus, he effectively admits he was working with Jander, which makes his situation hopeless. As a result, he is forced to compromise with Fastolfe's policies; Amadiro agrees with Earth's right to share in the galactic colonization, while Fastolfe gives the Institute his data about humaniform robot design. Baley, however, confronts Giskard, who admits that Vasilia unknowingly gave him telepathic abilities during experiments when she was a child. Using knowledge derived from Han Fastolfe's mind, Giskard shut down Jander, to thwart Amadiro's attempt to build humaniform robots. Giskard allows Baley to retain knowledge of his abilities, but prevents him (with the help of his telepathic abilities) from revealing the secret.

Characters.

Below is a list of all the major and minor characters in the book, in order of appearance, with plot detail.

The Robots of Dawn is a "whodunit" science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, first published in 1983. It is the third novel in Asimov's "Robot" series.


Early life.

The son of Cosmo Lewis Duff-Gordon and the former Anna Maria Antrobus, Cosmo Duff-Gordon became the 5th Baronet of Halkin in 1896, his title stemming from a Royal licence conferred on his great-uncle in 1813 in recognition of his aid to the Crown during the Peninsular War. In 1772 his family had founded the Duff-Gordon sherry bodega in Spain, which still produces high-quality fortified wines. The Duff-Gordons were, by descent, a Scottish aristocratic family.  In 1900, Duff-Gordon married the celebrated London fashion designer "Madame Lucile" (née Lucy Christiana Sutherland, then Mrs. James Stuart Wallace). This was a slightly risqué union, as Lucy was a divorcee whose sister, Elinor Glyn, was a notorious romance novelist. As a sportsman, Duff-Gordon was most noted as a fencer, representing Great Britain at the 1906 Intercalated Games, winning silver in the team épée event. King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra were among distinguished spectators at one of the final bouts between Sir Cosmo and his German opponent Herr G. Casimir. Duff-Gordon served on the organizing committee at the 1908 Summer Olympics, appointed by Lord Desborough, chairman of the British Olympic Association. He was also a self-defence enthusiast who trained with champion Swiss wrestler Armand Cherpillod at the Bartitsu Club in London's Soho district. was a co-founder of the London Fencing League, a member of the Bath Club and the Royal Automobile Club. He was also a sheriff and magistrate in his native Kincardineshire, near Aberdeen, where his ancestral country estate Maryculter was located.

"Titanic" voyage.

Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon is best known for the circumstances in which he survived the sinking of the RMS "Titanic" in 1912, along with his wife and her secretary, Laura Mabel Francatelli. The three were among only 12 people who escaped in Lifeboat #1, which had a capacity of 40. The ladies had earlier turned down places in two other lifeboats for women and children because Lady Duff-Gordon refused to be separated from her husband.  Criticism after the disaster claimed Sir Cosmo boarded the lifeboat in violation of the "women and children first" policy and that, once the craft was afloat, he bribed its crew not to return to rescue people struggling in the water. Duff-Gordon denied the allegation that he disobeyed orders, maintaining there had been no women or children in the immediate vicinity when his boat was launched. (There is additional confirmation from other witnesses that First Officer William Murdoch allowed Sir Cosmo a place in the boat so he could join his wife.) Moreover, Sir Cosmo denied his offer of money to the lifeboat's crew was a bribe, and the British Board of Trade's inquiry into the disaster accepted his explanation that it was a charitable contribution for crew members who had lost not only their possessions but their jobs.  The inquiry nonetheless concluded that, if the lifeboat had returned to the wreck site, it might have been able to rescue others. Regarding the bribery allegation the report stated: "The very gross charge against Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon that, having got into No. 1 boat he bribed the men in it to row away from the drowning people, is unfounded".

Later life and legacy.

Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon continued in his social and sporting interests in Scotland and later in London, where he lived at 5, Alfred Place, South Kensington.  He was estranged from his wife from 1915 until his death, although they never divorced and remained friends. He died on 20 April 1931 of natural causes and is buried at Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, Surrey. His wife died exactly four years later, on 20 April 1935.  Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff-Gordon were portrayed by the actors Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres, themselves a married couple, in the 1997 film "Titanic". In the 2012 ITV mini-series "Titanic" the couple was portrayed by Simon Paisley Day and Sylvestra Le Touzel.  In 2012 a box of documents and letters concerning the "Titanic" sinking belonging to the Duff-Gordons was rediscovered at the London office of Veale Wasbrough Vizards, the legal firm that merged with Tweedies, who represented the couple. Amongst the papers was a rebuttal of the evidence given against them at the Board of Trade inquiry, and an inventory of Lady Duff-Gordon's possessions that were lost, the total value listed as £3,208 3s 6d. In one letter Sir Cosmo complains: "There seems to be a feeling of resentment against any English man being saved...The whole pleasure of having been saved is quite spoilt by the venomous attacks they made at first in the papers. This, I suppose, was because I refused to see any reporter."  Despite the official vindication by the Board of Trade inquiry, public suspicion that the Duff-Gordons had acted selfishly tainted the couple for the remainder of their lives.

Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-Gordon, 5th Baronet DL (22 July 1862 – 20 April 1931) was a prominent Scottish landowner and sportsman, best known for the controversy surrounding his escape from the sinking of the "RMS Titanic".


Classification.

It is now generally accepted that the yellow-legged gull is a full species, but until recently there was much disagreement. For example, "British Birds" magazine split yellow-legged gull from herring gull in 1993 but included the Caspian gull in the former, but the BOU in Great Britain retained the yellow-legged gull as a subspecies of the herring gull until 2007. DNA research, however, suggests that yellow-legged gull is actually closest to the great black-backed gull "L. marinus" and Armenian gull "L. armenicus", while the Caspian gull is closer to herring gull and lesser black-backed gull "L. fuscus", rather than being each other's closest relatives.  There are two subspecies of the yellow-legged gull:

Distribution.

The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea. In North Africa it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places. Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt. In the Middle East, a few breed in Israel and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey. In Europe there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores. It also breeds on the west side of the Black Sea; here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and Caspian gull on flatter shores. In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe. One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 (sometimes hybrid pairs with lesser black-backed gulls), though colonisation has been very slow.  Many birds remain in the same area all year round but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, the Gambia and the Red Sea. There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October. It is reported as a vagrant to northeastern North America and Nigeria.

Description.

The yellow-legged gull is a large gull, though the size does vary, with the smallest females being scarcely larger than a common gull and the largest males being roughly the size of a great black-backed gull. They range in length from in total length, from in wingspan and from in weight. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is, the bill is and the tarsus is. Adults are externally similar to herring gulls but have yellow legs. They have a grey back, slightly darker than herring gulls but lighter than lesser black-backed gulls. They are much whiter-headed in autumn, and have more extensively black wing tips with few white spots, just as lesser black-backed. They have a red spot on the bill as adults, like the entire complex. There is a red ring around the eye like in the lesser black-backed gull but unlike in the herring gull which has a dark yellow ring.  First-year birds have a paler head, rump and underparts than those of the herring gull, more closely resembling first-year great black-backed gulls in plumage. They have a dark bill and eyes, pinkish grey legs, dark flight feathers and a well-defined black band on the tail. They become lighter in the underparts and lose the upperpart pattern subsequently. By their second winter, birds are essentially feathered like adults, save for the patterned feathers remaining on the wing coverts. However, their bill tips are black, their eyes still dark, and the legs are a light yellow flesh colour.  The call is a loud laugh which is deeper and more nasal than the call of the herring gull.

Diet.

Like most "Larus" gulls, they are omnivores and opportunistic foragers. They will scavenge on rubbish tips and elsewhere, as well as seeking suitable prey in fields or on the coast, or robbing smaller gulls and other seabirds of their catches. Although urban populations are generally opportunistic scavengers, they can shift to a predatory diet if necessary; this was observed during the lockdown of Italy in 2020, when the lack of food scraps led the yellow-legged gulls of Rome to take prey as large as rats and rock pigeons.

Reproduction.

Yellow-legged gulls usually breed in colonies. Eggs, usually three, are laid from mid March to early May and are defended vigorously by this large gull. The nest is a sometimes sparse mound of vegetation built on the ground or on cliff ledges. In some places such as Gibraltar they have started nesting on buildings and even on trees. The eggs are incubated for 27–31 days and the young birds fledge after 35–40 days.

The yellow-legged gull ("Larus michahellis"), sometimes referred to as western yellow-legged gull (to distinguish it from eastern populations of yellow-legged large white-headed gulls), is a large gull of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of either the Caspian gull "L. cachinnans", or more broadly as a subspecies of the herring gull "L. argentatus". The genus name is from Latin "Larus" which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird, and the species name honours the German zoologist Karl Michahelles.


Early life and family.

Lionel George Logue was born in College Town, Adelaide, South Australia, the oldest of four children. His grandfather Edward Logue, originally from Dublin, in 1856 founded Logue's Brewery, a predecessor of the South Australian Brewing Company. His parents were George Edward Logue, an accountant at his grandfather's brewery who later managed the Burnside Hotel as well as Elephant and Castle Hotel, and Lavinia Rankin. Although not a Catholic himself, he was reportedly related to Michael Logue, who was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  He attended Prince Alfred College between 1889 and 1896. Unable to decide what to study, Logue came across Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha":  The poem's rhythm inspired Logue to put his interest in voices to good use. After leaving school at sixteen, he received elocution training from Edward Reeves. Reeves had moved to Adelaide in 1878 and taught elocution to his pupils by day and gave popular recitals to audiences in Victoria Hall by night. Logue worked for Reeves as a secretary and assistant teacher from 1902, while studying music at the University of Adelaide's Elder Conservatorium. While working for Reeves, Logue began to give recitals of his own for which he was praised for his "clear, powerful voice."  After his father died on 17 November 1902, Logue set up his own practice as a teacher of elocution. By 1904, he had gained a good reputation and was receiving praise from the local newspapers. However, he decided to take a contract with an engineering firm some westward in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, installing an electricity supply at a gold mine.

Professional career.

His professional career began in Perth, where, in addition to teaching elocution, acting, and public speaking, he put on plays and recitations, and also founded a club for public speakers. He was also involved with YMCA Perth and schools such as Methodist Ladies' College, Loreto Convent, Scotch College, Perth Technical School, and Claremont Teachers College.  In 1911, Logue and his wife set out on a tour of the world to study methods of public speaking. Later he developed treatments for Australian First World War war veterans who had shell shockinduced impaired speech. In addition to physical exercises, which helped with patients' breathing, Logue's distinctive therapy emphasised humour, patience, and "superhuman sympathy".  In 1924, Logue took his wife and three sons to England, ostensibly for a holiday. Once there, he took jobs teaching elocution at schools around London, and in 1926 he opened a speech-defect practice at 146 Harley Street. Logue used fees paid by wealthy clients to subsidise patients unable to pay. It was here that the Duke of Yorkthe future King George VIsought Logue's help. Logue became a founding fellow of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in 1944.

Treatment of George VI.

As a speech therapist, Logue was self-taught and was initially dismissed by the medical establishment as a quack, but he worked with the Duke from the late 1920s into the mid-1940s.  Before ascending the throne as George VI, the Duke of York dreaded public speaking because of a severe stammer; his closing speech at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley on 31 October 1925 proved an ordeal for speaker and listeners alike. The Duke resolved to find some way to manage his stammer, and engaged Logue in 1926 after being introduced to him by Lord Stamfordham.  Diagnosing poor co-ordination between the Duke's larynx and thoracic diaphragm, Logue prescribed a daily hour of vocal exercises. Logue's treatment gave the Duke the confidence to relax and avoid tension-induced muscle spasms. As a result, he suffered only the occasional hesitancy in speech. By 1927, he was speaking confidently and managed his address at the opening of the Old Parliament House in Canberra without stammering.  Logue was often called over the years when the king was expected to make a speech. Their relationship was featured in a film, a play and a book.

Honours.

In 1944, King George VI appointed Logue a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO), elevating him from Member of the Order (MVO), which was conferred upon Logue at the time of George VI's Coronation.  King George VI died on 6 February 1952. On 26 February 1952, Logue wrote to the late king's wife, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother:  The Queen Mother replied: "I think that I know perhaps better than anyone just how much you helped the King, not only with his speech, but through that his whole life and outlook on life. I shall always be deeply grateful to you for all you did for him."

Personal life.

Logue married Myrtle Gruenert, a 21-year-old clerk, at St George's Anglican Cathedral, Perth, on 20 March 1907. They had three sons, Valentine, Laurie, and Anthony—Valentine trained at King's College London and St George's Hospital and went on to become one of the most distinguished neurosurgeons of his generation.  Lionel Logue was a Freemason, initiated, passed, and raised in 1908, and became Worshipful Master in 1919; he was a member of St. George's Lodge (now J.D. Stevenson St. George's Lodge No.6, Western Australian Constitution).  He lived in a 25-room Victorian villa called Beechgrove in Sydenham from 1932 until 1947, now demolished and part of Sydenham Hill Wood.  Myrtle suddenly died from a heart attack in June 1945, and Logue died in London, on 12 April 1953. His funeral was held 17 April in Holy Trinity Brompton before his body was cremated. Representatives of Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother attended the funeral.

In popular culture.

With Peter Conradi, Logue's grandson Mark wrote a book, "", about his grandfather's relationship with the king. In the 2010 British film "The King's Speech", written by David Seidler, Logue was played by Geoffrey Rush, his wife by Jennifer Ehle, and his patient by Colin Firth. In the West End stage adaptation of "The King's Speech" at Wyndham's Theatre, Australian actor Jonathan Hyde played Lionel Logue, and in the US stage premiere, Logue was played by James Frain.  Welsh actor Michael Elwyn played Logue in the 2002 television film "Bertie and Elizabeth". Derek Lawson portrayed Logue in the 2015 comedy "A Royal Night Out".

Lionel George Logue, CVO (26 February 1880 – 12 April 1953) was an Australian speech and language therapist and amateur stage actor who successfully treated King George VI for a pronounced stammer.


Life.

Lucas was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her father is a Black Canadian, and her mother is Euro-Canadian. She began acting at seven years old, and trained with the Children's Arts Theatre School in Toronto. She started her career appearing in stage productions, including local productions of "Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs", "Grease", "Cinderella", "Mousetrap" and "Music Medley".  In April 2017, Lucas announced her engagement to chef Alex Jermasek.

Career.

In 2001 she joined the Canadian teen drama television series "Edgemont" as recurring character Bekka Lawrence, later becoming a series regular on the show, which she remained through the end of the show's run in 2005. She was also a series regular on another Canadian television series, YTV's short-lived "2030 CE" in 2002.  She guest starred in an episode of "The L Word" as Roxanne in 2004. She went on to appear as a series regular in the short-lived ABC teen drama series "Life as We Know It" as Sue; the series which ran for just one season. In 2006 she appeared in the film "She's the Man" and co-starred in "The Covenant". She was cast in another ABC television pilot, "Secrets of a Small Town", though it was not picked up to series.  In 2007, she joined the cast of "" playing the recurring character of Ronnie Lake. Despite appearing in four episodes, rumours were denied that she would be a permanent replacement for Sara Sidle. The character was written out of the series with no explanation. She also appeared in a made-for-television film "Split Decision".  In 2008, she guest starred as Kimberly MacIntyre in four episodes of The CW's "90210". She also starred in a leading role as Lily in J. J. Abrams "Cloverfield", which was a box office success and was well received by critics.  She was cast as Lisa in the film "Amusement" in 2006; the film was set to be released theatrically by New Line Cinema, but after a negative reaction it was released instead straight-to-DVD in 2009. The same year, Lucas was announced to have signed on as Riley Richmond, one of the lead roles in another CW television series "Melrose Place", a followup to the popular 1990s series of the same name.  Lucas was part of the main cast of the NBC sitcom "Friends with Benefits", which aired during the summer of 2011 before being cancelled. In 2011 she played Haley in "", where she showcased her singing talents as well as her acting skills.  In 2012 Lucas was cast as the lead character, Skye Yarrow, in the CW series "Cult", which was filmed in Spring 2012. In 2012 she was cast in a main role in the 2013 remake of the classic horror film "The Evil Dead.  In 2014, Lucas appeared in "Pompeii" directed by Paul W. S. Anderson.  From 2015 to 2019, she has had a regular role in FOX's "Gotham" as Tabitha Galavan.

Jessica Lucas (born September 24, 1985) is a Canadian actress and singer. She is known for her roles in television, such as "Edgemont", "Melrose Place", "Cult", and "Gotham", and in the films "The Covenant", "Cloverfield" and the 2013 "Evil Dead". She also starred in the music video for Coldplay's 2014 single "True Love".


Early life.

Ashley Benson was born December 18, 1989, to parents Shannon and Jeff Benson, and raised in Anaheim Hills, California. She has one older sister, Shaylene Benson.

Career.

Early work.

Benson began dancing competitively at age three, studying ballet, jazz, tap and hip hop. She began singing in choirs and musicals at a young age, performing a solo at her church at age four. When she was eight years old she signed with Ford Models, and appeared in a number of print ads.  Benson appeared on the daytime soap "Days of Our Lives" as Abigail Deveraux from 2004 to 2007.  Benson made her big screen debut with a bit part in the 2004 comedy "13 Going on 30". She starred as Carson in "" (2007), the fourth installment of the "Bring It On" franchise. The role required her to both overcome her fear of heights to perform the cheerleading stunts, and to end her contract with "Days of our Lives":  She recalled working on a film set instead of a soap opera set "definitely weird", because she would spend days working on one or two scenes, whereas on the "Days of Our Lives" set, she filmed two or three episodes a day. For "Bring It On: In It to Win It", she had to attend cheerleading practice, which was "hard for [her], because [she is] afraid of heights." Nonetheless, she was "glad" to do her own stunts, even though she "wasn't expecting it to be so hard."  In 2008, she appeared in the Lifetime original film "", where she played head cheerleader Brooke Tippit, a character loosely inspired by Karrissa Theret of the Fab Five. The film is based on a true story which took place at McKinney North High School in Texas. She became good friends with her onscreen mother Tatum O'Neal, from whom she learned about acting. Furthermore, she was excited to land a supporting role in "Bart Got a Room", which aired mainly on film festivals in 2008 before having a limited release in 2009, because it allowed her to work with William H. Macy. She also played a witch disguised as a cheerleader in a 2008 episode of The CW series "Supernatural".  In 2009, Benson starred in ABC's short-lived supernatural comedy television series "Eastwick". The show was based on John Updike's novel, "The Witches of Eastwick", and the 1987 film adaption of the same name. The series only lasted 13 episodes before ABC cancelled the series due to low ratings but has since gained a cult following.

"Pretty Little Liars".

In December 2009, Benson was cast as Hanna Marin in the ABC Family mystery-thriller teen drama series "Pretty Little Liars", based on the novel series by Sara Shepard. Hanna is the "diva" and "It girl" of the group, having taken Alison DiLaurentis' place as the most popular girl at Rosewood High in Alison's absence. The series premiered to 2.47 million viewers with Benson's performance being praised by critics. She also received a number of awards and nominations. Benson reprised the role in the spin-off series "Ravenswood" in two episodes.

2010–present.

In 2010, Benson starred in the television film "Christmas Cupid" alongside Christina Milian and Chad Michael Murray, which also aired on ABC Family. In January 2012, Benson was cast in the film "Spring Breakers", after Emma Roberts dropped out due to creative reasons. The film centers on four college students who are arrested and bailed out by a drug and arms dealer, who sends them out to do some dirty work on spring break. The film co-starred Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, and James Franco. Filming took place in March and April 2012, and the film was released in March 2013.  In the January 21, 2013, episode of the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother", Benson appeared as Carly Whittaker, Barney Stinson's half-sister who dated Ted Mosby. That same month, Benson became the face of eveningwear designer Faviana.  She starred in the 2015 independent horror thriller film "Ratter", playing Emma Taylor, a girl who is stalked through her technological devices. That same year, she also appeared in "Pixels" as Lady Lisa, a fictional game character brought to life. In 2016, Benson appeared in the biographical comedy-drama film "Elvis & Nixon" as Margaret.

Music.

Benson was featured on "Creep" by G-Eazy, a cover version of the Radiohead song. She also appeared in the music videos for NLT's "That Girl", One Call's "Black Light", and Hot Chelle Rae's "Honestly".

Personal life.

Benson was in a relationship with English model and actress Cara Delevingne from May 2018 to April 2020.

Ashley Victoria Benson (born December 18, 1989) is an American actress and model. She is known for her role as Hanna Marin in the teen mystery-drama series "Pretty Little Liars" (2010–2017). Benson has starred in films, including "" (2007), "Christmas Cupid" (2010), "Spring Breakers" (2012), "Ratter" (2015), "Chronically Metropolitan" (2016), and "Her Smell" (2018).


Description.

"A. guatemalensis" is a conical tree growing 20 to 35 meters tall and 60 to 90 cm in girth. The branches grow largely horizontally. The bark is a blackish-brown and is divided into plates. The branchlets are reddish-brown to deep blackish-red and pubescent. The buds are globular-ovoid, resinous, and roughly 5 mm in length. The leaves are somewhat comb-like or nearly pectinate in arrangement. They are unequal and deep green above and waxy in texture underneath. They measure 1.5 to 5.5 cm long by 1.2 to 2 mm wide. Stomata are usually absent above, but appear in 8 to 10 lines below. They contain two marginal resin canals and the apex of the leaf is notched and emarginate. The female cones are oblong-cylindric and the apex is pointed to somewhat flattened. They are yellowish-brown in colour with a violet bloom and measure 8 to 11.5 cm long by 4 to 4.5 cm wide. The scales are oblong, or broader than long. The bracts are hidden, about one half the height of the scale and are cuneate-obovoid in shape. The seeds are a light brown nut to 9 mm in length with a wing to 1.5 cm long"

Taxonomy.

There are two recognised varieties of "A. guatemalensis", namely:

Ecology.

"A. guatemalensis" is listed as endangered by the IUCN due to timber exploitation and loss of habitat. It characteristically grows in deep fertile soils, which are desirable for agriculture by local inhabitants (especially for coffea plantations). It was reported as being a common tree up until the 1940s. Large populations may still remain in Honduras, but data is currently deficient. Some evidence suggests that the areas of each remaining stands in Guatemala (except for the forest of Los Altos de San Miguel Totonicapán) are usually no larger than 3 square kilometers. Furthermore, the cone crops are irregular and germination is typically poor. Among the remaining populations, the forest of Los Altos de San Miguel Totonicapán in Guatemala is said to harbor the largest and best-conserved stands by area of 52,000-acres (26,060 hectares), though these are also threatened by illegal logging. As a result of its status it has become illegal to harvest in some countries where it is native and it is listed in CITES Appendix I, making its international trade illegal. The Central American And Mexico Coniferous Resources Cooperative (CAMCORE) has also begun programmes to protect the tree in the wild.  In Mexico, "A. guatemalensis" is found on the Pacific slopes of the Sierra Madre del Sur and the southern Sierra Madre Occidental, in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacan, Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit, and Zacatecas. Typical habitat is on volcanic soils between 1800 and 3700 meters elevation, in areas of cool, moist climate with oceanic influence.

Abies guatemalensis, the Guatemalan fir or pinabete, is an evergreen tree native to Central America and is the southernmost member of the genus "Abies" being spread to the south lower than 14° N. Its range is from southern (less from western and central) Mexico in the north to Honduras and El Salvador in the south. It is a warm-loving and moisture-loving tree of the tropical mountain coniferous and mixed cloud forests of these countries. Guatemalan fir is an almost completely non-frost-resistant tree. Due to logging and loss of habitat, the tree is considered threatened and is protected in CITES Appendix I.


Nomenclature.

Where the acyl chloride moiety takes priority, acyl chlorides are named by taking the name of the parent carboxylic acid, and substituting "-yl chloride" for "-ic acid". Thus: When other functional groups take priority, acyl chlorides are considered prefixes — "chlorocarbonyl-":

Properties.

Lacking the ability to form hydrogen bonds, acid chlorides have lower boiling and melting points than similar carboxylic acids. For example, acetic acid boils at 118 °C, whereas acetyl chloride boils at 51 °C. Like most carbonyl compounds, infrared spectroscopy reveals a band near 1750 cm.  The simplest stable acyl chloride is ethanoyl chloride or acetyl chloride; methanoyl chloride (formyl chloride) is not stable at room temperature, although it can be prepared at –60 °C or below. Acyl chloride is not soluble in water. Instead, it decomposes in water.

Synthesis.

Industrial routes.

The industrial route to acetyl chloride involves the reaction of acetic anhydride with hydrogen chloride: Propionyl chloride is produced by chlorination of propionic acid with phosgene:  Benzoyl chloride is produced by the partial hydrolysis of benzotrichloride:

Laboratory methods.

In the laboratory, acyl chlorides are generally prepared in the same manner as alkyl chlorides, by replacing the corresponding hydroxy substituents with chlorides. Thus, carboxylic acids are treated with thionyl chloride (SOCl), phosphorus trichloride (PCl), or phosphorus pentachloride (PCl):  The reaction with thionyl chloride may be catalyzed by dimethylformamide. In this reaction, the sulfur dioxide (SO) and hydrogen chloride (HCl) generated are both gases that can leave the reaction vessel, driving the reaction forward. Excess thionyl chloride (b.p. 74.6 °C) is easily evaporated as well. The reaction mechanisms involving thionyl chloride and phosphorus pentachloride are similar; the mechanism with thionyl chloride is illustrative: Another method involves the use of oxalyl chloride: The reaction is catalysed by dimethylformamide (DMF), which reacts with oxalyl chloride in the first step to give the iminium intermediate.  The iminium intermediate reacts with the carboxylic acid, abstracting an oxide, and regenerating the DMF catalyst.  Finally, methods that do not form HCl are also known, such as the Appel reaction:  and the use of cyanuric chloride (CNCl):

Reactions.

Nucleophilic reactions.

Acyl chlorides react with water yielding the carboxylic acid:  Acyl chlorides are used to prepare acid anhydrides, esters, and amides by reacting acid chlorides with: a salt of a carboxylic acid, an alcohol, or an amine, respectively. The use of a base, e.g. aqueous sodium hydroxide or pyridine, or excess amine (when preparing amides) is desirable to remove the hydrogen chloride byproduct, and to catalyze the reaction. While it is often possible to obtain esters or amides from the carboxylic acid with alcohols or amines, the reactions are reversible, often leading to low yields. In contrast, both reactions involved in preparing esters and amides via acyl chlorides (acyl chloride formation from carboxylic acid, followed by coupling with the alcohol or amine) are fast and irreversible. This makes the two-step route often preferable to the single step reaction with the carboxylic acid.  With carbon nucleophiles such as Grignard reagents, acyl chlorides generally react first to give the ketone and then with a second equivalent to the tertiary alcohol. A notable exception is the reaction of acyl halides with certain organocadmium reagents which stops at the ketone stage. The nucleophilic reaction with Gilman reagents (lithium diorganocopper compounds) also afford ketones, due to their lesser reactivity. Acid chlorides of aromatic acids are generally less reactive those of alkyl acids and thus somewhat more rigorous conditions are required for reaction.  Acyl chlorides are reduced by lithium aluminium hydride and diisobutylaluminium hydride to give primary alcohols. Lithium tri-tert-butoxyaluminium hydride, a bulky hydride donor, reduces acyl chlorides to aldehydes, as does the Rosenmund reduction using hydrogen gas over a poisoned palladium catalyst.

Electrophilic reactions.

With Lewis acid catalysts like ferric chloride or aluminium chloride, acyl chlorides participate in Friedel-Crafts acylations, to give aryl ketones: Because of the harsh conditions and the reactivity of the intermediates, this otherwise quite useful reaction tends to be messy, as well as environmentally unfriendly.

Hazards.

Low molecular weight acyl chlorides are often lachrymators, and they react violently with water, alcohols, and amines.

In organic chemistry, an acyl chloride (or acid chloride) is an organic compound with the functional group -COCl. Their formula is usually written RCOCl, where R is a side chain. They are reactive derivatives of carboxylic acids. A specific example of an acyl chloride is acetyl chloride, CHCOCl. Acyl chlorides are the most important subset of acyl halides.


Soviet offensive.

On 18 November 1918 the People's Council of Latvia proclaimed the Independence of the Republic of Latvia and created the Latvian Provisional Government headed by Kārlis Ulmanis.  On 1 December 1918 the newly proclaimed republic was invaded by Soviet Russia. Much of the invading army in Latvia consisted of Red Latvian Riflemen, which made the invasion easier. The Soviet offensive met little resistance.  In the north Alūksne was taken on 7 December, Valka on 18 December, and Cēsis on 23 December, in the south Daugavpils was taken on 9 December, and finally Pļaviņas on 17 December.  Riga was captured by the Red Army on 3 January 1919. By the end of January the Latvian Provisional Government and remaining German units had retreated all the way to Liepāja, but then the Red offensive stalled along the Venta river.  The Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic was officially proclaimed on 13 January with the political, economic, and military backing of Soviet Russia.

Liberation of Kurzeme and the coup d'etat.

On 18 February, an agreement was signed between Latvia and Estonia, starting formation of the North Latvian Brigade led by Jorģis Zemitāns on Estonian territory.  On 3 March, the German and Latvian forces commenced a counterattack against the Red Latvian Riflemen. Tukums was recaptured from the Bolsheviks on 15 March, and Jelgava on 18 March.  On 16 April, the Baltic nobility organised a coup d'etat in Liepāja and a puppet government headed by Andrievs Niedra was established. The provisional national government took refuge aboard the steamship "Saratov" under British protection in Liepaja harbour.  On 22 May, Riga was recaptured by the Freikorps and an organised persecution of suspected Bolshevik supporters began, with an estimated 174 (according to the head of Rīga's Gendarmerie) to 4,000–5,000 people (according to local social democrats and communists) being shot. At the same time the Estonian Army including the North Latvian Brigade loyal to the Ulmanis government started a major offensive against the Soviets in north Latvia. By the middle of June the Soviet rule was reduced to the area surrounding Latgale.

German–Latvian conflict.

After the capture of Riga the German forces advanced north towards the Latvian city of Cēsis. The objective of the German forces had now clearly become the establishment of German supremacy in the Baltic by eliminating the Estonian military and Latvian national units, not the defeat of the Bolsheviks. The Estonian commander General Johan Laidoner insisted the Germans withdraw to a line south of the Gauja river. He also ordered the Estonian 3rd Division to seize the Gulbene railroad station.  On June 19, 1919, the Landeswehr and the Iron Division launched an attack to capture Cēsis. Initially, the Freikorps captured the town of Straupe and continued their advance toward the town of Limbaži. The Estonians launched a counterattack and drove the Freikorps out of the town. On June 21, the Estonians received reinforcements and immediately attacked the Landeswehr under Alfred Fletcher, who was forced to withdraw from an area to the northeast of Cēsis. The Iron Division attacked from Straupe towards Stalbe in an effort to relieve pressure on the Landeswehr. On the morning of June 23, the Germans began a general retreat toward Riga.  The Allies again insisted that the Germans withdraw their remaining troops from Latvia, and on July 3 intervened to impose an armistice between Estonia, Latvia, and the Landeswehr and Freikorps when the Latvians were about to march into Riga. By its terms the legitimate government of Ulmanis was to be restored, the Baltic German Landeswehr be placed under the command of the British officer Harold Alexander and the Iron Division to leave Latvia. The government of Ulmanis returned to Riga on 8 July 1919 and the Landeswehr became a component of the Latvian National Army.

Bermondt offensive.

The Iron Division, however, did not leave Latvia. Instead Major created a German Legion from over a dozen Freikorps units and turned the units over to the West Russian Volunteer Army. In total, the Iron Division transferred over 14,000 men, 64 aircraft, 56 artillery pieces, and 156 machine guns. Six cavalry units and a field hospital were also transferred. The offensive by the reformed German Army was subsequently defeated by the Latvian Army, which received assistance from British and French warships and Estonian armoured trains.

The Latvian War of Independence (), sometimes called the Latvia's freedom fights () or the Latvian War of Liberation (, "War of Latvian Liberation"), was a series of military conflicts in Latvia between 5 December 1918, after the newly proclaimed Republic of Latvia was invaded by Soviet Russia, and the signing of the Latvian-Soviet Riga Peace Treaty on 11 August 1920.


Life and career.

Giedroyć was born into a Polish-Lithuanian noble family, with the title of "kniaź", prince. His schooling in Moscow was interrupted by the October Revolution, when he returned home to Minsk. During the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921 his family left Minsk for Warsaw, where he finished the Jan Zamoyski gymnasium in 1924. He went on to study law and Ukrainian history and literature at the University of Warsaw. As a journalist and civil servant in interwar Poland, he maintained contacts with leading Ukrainians and urged the Roman Catholic Church to improve relations with the Greek Catholic Church to which most Ukrainians belonged, insisting that Poland's success as a national state depended on satisfying the aspirations of minorities so that minority nationalists would not have convincing arguments against Polish statehood. He thus took the side of Józef Piłsudski as against the National Democrats. In 1930 he took over as editor of the weekly "Dzień Akademicki" ("Academic Day") which he soon transformed into the biweekly "Bunt Młodych", renaming it "Polityka" in 1937. During World War II he served under General Władysław Anders in the Polish Army and kept up friendly contacts with representatives of other nationalities. After the war he moved to Paris, where he published and edited a leading Polish-émigré literary-political journal, "Kultura" (1947–2000), which promoted a peaceful settlement of Poland's eastern borders, and accepted the results of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Yalta Conference, the (Giedroyc-Mieroszewski doctrine), even though many Poles regarded these as betrayals of Poland. This helped to lay the groundwork for Poland's successful eastern policy after the fall of communism. His closest collaborator was Juliusz Mieroszewski, who provided the theoretical justification for Polish recognition of the borders with Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania (whose future independence he predicted long before it came about).  He died in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France.  In 2006 the Polish Sejm declared the year 2006 as the "Year of Jerzy Giedroyć."

Jerzy Władysław Giedroyc (; 27 July 1906 – 14 September 2000) was a Polish writer and political activist and for many years editor of the highly influential Paris-based periodical, "Kultura".


Arnold van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle

Life.

Arnold Joost van Keppel was born in Zutphen in the Dutch Republic about 1670 and was the heir of a junior branch of an ancient and noble family in Gelderland, and 12th in descent from Walter van Keppel, living in 1179. He achieved fame and wealth as the right-hand man of William III of Orange. He became page of honor to William III in his mid-teens, possibly as early as 1685. It has been claimed that he was William's lover, but no conclusive evidence has been discovered. Keppel accompanied William to England in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.  While some have suggested their association began when Keppel was only 16, others argue a later date, possibly at the time of a hunting accident when he is said to have attracted the king's attention by his uncomplaining demeanor upon breaking a leg. Public commentary on the relationship intensified in 1692 when Keppel began to receive grants of land from the king. He became Groom of the Bedchamber and Master of the Robes in 1695. In 1696, he was created the Viscount Bury in Lancashire, and the Baron Ashford of Ashford, Kent. On 10 February 1697, William made Van Keppel the Earl of Albemarle. In 1699, he was awarded the command of the First Life Guards.  In 1700, William gave Albemarle extensive lands in Ireland, but Parliament obliged the king to cancel this grant. William instead granted him £50,000. The same year he was created a Knight of the Garter. He served both with the English and Dutch troops, was major-general in 1697, colonel of several regiments and governor of's-Hertogenbosch.  Handsome and engaging, he rivaled Portland (whose jealousy he aroused in the royal favour), possessed William's full confidence, and accompanied him everywhere. In February 1702 William, then prostrated with his last illness, sent Albemarle to the Netherlands to arrange the coming campaign, and he only returned in time to receive William's last commissions on his deathbed, including being entrusted with the king's private papers.  After the death of William III, who bequeathed to him ƒ200,000 and the lordship of Bredevoort, Albemarle returned to the Netherlands, took his seat as a noble in the States-General, and became a general of cavalry in the Dutch army. He joined the forces of the allies in 1703 in the War of Spanish Succession, was present at the Battle of Ramillies in 1706, and at Oudenaarde in 1708, and distinguished himself at the siege of Lille. He commanded at the siege of Aire in 1710, led Marlborough's second line in 1711, and was general of the Dutch forces in 1712, being defeated at Denain after the withdrawal of Ormonde and the English forces and taken prisoner. He died on 30 May 1718, at the age of forty-eight.

Family.

Albemarle married Geertruid Johanna Quirina, daughter of Adam van der Duyn, by whom he had :  Among his direct descendants are both wives of Prince Charles (Diana, Princess of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall), and author Violet Trefusis, who was a daughter of Alice Keppel (Alice Frederica Keppel, née Edmonstone), royal mistress of Edward VII, George Keppel, son of the 7th Earl of Albemarle, and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.

References.

Attribution:

Arnold Joost van Keppel, 1st Earl of Albemarle,, and lord of De Voorst in Guelders (Gelderland) (; baptized 30 January 167030 May 1718), was a Dutch military leader who fought for King William III of England and became the first Earl of Albemarle. He was the son of Oswald van Keppel and his wife Anna Geertruid van Lintelo. De Voorst is a large country house near Zutphen, financed by William III, and not unlike the royal palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn.


Literary works.

She made her debut in 1988 with a poem published in a literary review from Bucharest.

Poems of Linda Maria Baros in translation.

Linda Maria Baros' poems were published in over 25 countries, in anthologies and literary reviews, as, for example, "Pleiades" (United States of America) or "Poetry Review", "Horizon Review" (England).  Her poems have also been published in Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Mexico, Serbia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia, Ukraine, Republic of Moldavia, Latvia, Morocco, Bangladesh, Iran, Japan, Finland etc.  In 2011, the "Arthur Rimbaud" Museum in France commissioned Canadian sculptor Michel Goulet to engrave some of Linda Maria Baros' lines of poetry on an objet d'art made of stainless steel.  Linda Maria Baros took part in over 500 poetry readings and in over 50 poetry festivals.

Translations.

Over 30 books : she translated from Romanian into French poetry by Nichita Stănescu, Angela Marinescu, Marta Petreu, Ioan Es. Pop, Mircea Bârsila, Floarea Ţuţuianu, Magda Cârneci, Simona Popescu etc. From French/English/Spanish/Nederlands, she translated into Romanian poetry by Henri Michaux, Boris Vian, Guy Goffette, Collette Nys-Mazure, José Luis Reina Palazón, Maria Antonia Ortega, Jan H. Mysjkin or novels by Alphonse Daudet, Johanna Spyri, James Oliver Curwood etc.  She also published some anthologies of poetry:

Reviews.

She collaborates with poetry, literary criticism and translations at the reviews: "Poetry Review", "Horizon Review" (England), "Pleiades", "International Notebook of Poetry" (USA), "Contre-jour", "Langage & créativité" (Canada), "Po&sie", "Aujourd'hui poème", "NUNC", "Poésie 2003", "Europe", "Seine et Danube", "La Revue littéraire", "Pyro", "Confluences poétiques", "Ici & Là", "MIR", "La traductière", "Hauteurs", "Littérales", "Le Capital des mots", "Thauma", "L’Écho d’Orphée", "Le Bateau Fantôme", "La page blanche", "Levure Littéraire" (France), "Observator München", "Galateea" (Germany), "Bunker Hill" (Netherlands), "Alora, la bien cercada", "El Coloquio de los Perros", "ABC" (Spain), "Poëziekrant", "Deus ex machina", "Le Journal des Poètes", "Langue vive", "Revolver" (Belgium), "Scritture Migranti", "Formafluens" (Italy), "La Revue de Belles Lettres" (Switzerland), "Le Quotidien", "Tageblatt", "Le Jeudi" (Luxembourg), "Poetika", "Zlatna greda", "Književni list", "Gradina" (Serbia), "Lirikon 21" (Slovenia), "România literară", "Viata românească", "Luceafărul", "Adevărul literar si artitic", "Ziua literară", "Arges", "Calende", "Tribuna", "Familia", "Apostrof", "Astra", "Noua literatură", "Conta", "Arca" (Romania), "Électron libre" (Morocco), "Shirdanra" (Bangladesh), "Beagle" (Japan) etc.

Schoolbooks.

The poem "The Mine Horses" was included into "Limba si literatura română. Manual de clasa a XII-a" ("Romanian language and literature. 12th-grade schoolbook"), Paralela 45 Publishing House, 2007, Bucharest, Romania.

Anthologies.

Linda Maria Baros' poems were published in over 40 anthologies, as:

Linda Maria Baros (born 6 August 1981 in Bucharest) is a French-language poet, translator and literary critic, one of the most powerful new voices on today's poetry scene (the famous French literary award "Prix Guillaume Apollinaire" – 2007 and "The Poetical Calling Prize" – 2004). She lives in Paris, France.


Background.

After World War II, the Soviet Union lagged behind the U.S. in development of nuclear weapons, so it started a rapid research and development program to produce a sufficient amount of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. The Mayak plant was built in haste between 1945 and 1948. Gaps in physicists’ knowledge about nuclear physics at the time made it difficult to judge the safety of many decisions. Environmental concerns were not taken seriously during the early development stage. Initially Mayak was dumping high-level radioactive waste into a nearby river, which flowed to the river Ob, flowing farther down to the Arctic Ocean. All six reactors were on Lake Kyzyltash and used an open-cycle cooling system, discharging contaminated water directly back into the lake. When Lake Kyzyltash quickly became contaminated, Lake Karachay was used for open-air storage, keeping the contamination a slight distance from the reactors but soon making Lake Karachay the "most-polluted spot on Earth".  A storage facility for liquid nuclear waste was added around 1953. It consisted of steel tanks mounted in a concrete base, underground. Because of the high level of radioactivity, the waste was heating itself through decay heat (though a chain reaction was not possible). For that reason, a cooler was built around each bank, containing 20 tanks. Facilities for monitoring operation of the coolers and the content of the tanks were inadequate. The accident involved waste which was from the sodium uranyl acetate process used by the early Soviet nuclear industry to recover plutonium from irradiated fuel; this is discussed by Foreman in his review on nuclear accidents. The acetate process is a special process which was never used in the West; the idea is to dissolve the fuel in nitric acid, alter the oxidation state of the plutonium, and then add acetic acid and base. This converts the uranium and plutonium into a solid acetate salt.

Explosion.

In 1957 the cooling system in one of the tanks containing about 70–80 tons of liquid radioactive waste failed and was not repaired. The temperature in it started to rise, resulting in evaporation and a chemical explosion of the dried waste, consisting mainly of ammonium nitrate and acetates (see ammonium nitrate–fuel oil bomb). The explosion, on 29 September 1957, estimated to have had a force of about 70–100 tons of TNT, threw the 160-ton concrete lid high into the air. There were no immediate casualties as a result of the explosion, but it released an estimated 20 MCi (800 PBq) of radioactivity. Most of this contamination settled out near the site of the accident and contributed to the pollution of the Techa River, but a plume containing 2 MCi (80 PBq) of radionuclides spread out over hundreds of kilometers. Previously contaminated areas within the affected area include the Techa river, which had previously received 2.75 MCi (100 PBq) of deliberately dumped waste, and Lake Karachay, which had received 120 MCi (4,000 PBq).  In the next 10 to 11 hours, the radioactive cloud moved towards the north-east, reaching from the accident. The fallout of the cloud resulted in a long-term contamination of an area of more than, depending on what contamination level is considered significant, primarily with caesium-137 and strontium-90. This area is usually referred to as the East-Ural Radioactive Trace (EURT).

Aftermath.

Because of the secrecy surrounding Mayak, the populations of affected areas were not initially informed of the accident. A week later (on 6 October 1957), an operation for evacuating 10,000 people from the affected area started, still without giving an explanation of the reasons for evacuation.  Vague reports of a "catastrophic accident" causing "radioactive fallout over the Soviet and many neighboring states" began appearing in the western press between 13 and 14 April 1958, and the first details emerged in the Viennese paper "Die Presse" on 17 March 1959. But it was only in 1976 (18 years after) that Soviet dissident Zhores Medvedev made the nature and extent of the disaster known to the world. In the absence of verifiable information, exaggerated accounts of the disaster were given. People "grew hysterical with fear with the incidence of unknown'mysterious' diseases breaking out. Victims were seen with skin'sloughing off' their faces, hands, and other exposed parts of their bodies". Medvedev's description of the disaster in the "New Scientist" was initially derided by Western nuclear industry sources, but the core of his story was soon confirmed by Professor Leo Tumerman, former head of the Biophysics Laboratory at the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow.  The true number of fatalities remains uncertain because radiation-induced cancer is clinically indistinguishable from any other cancer, and its incidence rate can be measured only through epidemiological studies. One book claims that "in 1992, a study conducted by the Institute of Biophysics at the former Soviet Health Ministry in Chelyabinsk found that 8,015 people had died within the preceding 32 years as a result of the accident". By contrast, only 6,000 death certificates have been found for residents of the Techa riverside between 1950 and 1982 from all causes of death, though perhaps the Soviet study considered a larger geographic area affected by the airborne plume. More recent epidemiological studies suggest that around 49 to 55 cancer deaths among riverside residents can be associated to radiation exposure. This would include the effects of all radioactive releases into the river, 98% of which happened long before the 1957 accident, but it would not include the effects of the airborne plume that was carried north-east. The area closest to the accident produced 66 diagnosed cases of chronic radiation syndrome, providing the bulk of the data about this condition. To reduce the spread of radioactive contamination after the accident, contaminated soil was excavated and stockpiled in fenced enclosures that were called "graveyards of the earth". The Soviet government in 1968 disguised the EURT area by creating the East Ural Nature Reserve, which prohibited any unauthorised access to the affected area.  According to Gyorgy, who invoked the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the relevant Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) files, the CIA had known of the 1957 Mayak accident since 1959, but kept it secret to prevent adverse consequences for the fledgling American nuclear industry. Starting in 1989 the Soviet government gradually declassified documents pertaining to the disaster.

Current situation.

The level of radiation in Ozyorsk, at about 0.1 mSv a year, is harmless, but the area of the EURT is still heavily contaminated with radioactivity.

The Kyshtym disaster was a radioactive contamination accident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a plutonium production site in Russia for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel reprocessing plant of the Soviet Union.


Plant morphology and harvesting.

The tree is small to medium in size, reaching in height. The branchlets are not glabrous or finely pubescent, long, usually deciduous; the leaves are simple, subsessile and closely set along branchlets, light green, resembling pinnate leaves. The flowers are greenish-yellow. The fruit is nearly spherical, light greenish-yellow, quite smooth and hard on appearance, with six vertical stripes or furrows.  Ripening in autumn, the berries are harvested by hand after climbing to upper branches bearing the fruits. The taste of Indian emblic is sour, bitter and astringent, and it is quite fibrous.

Buddhist symbolism.

In the Buddhist tradition, half an amalaka fruit was the final gift to the Buddhist sangha by the great Indian emperor Ashoka. This is illustrated in the Ashokavadana in the following verses: "A great donor, the lord of men, the eminent Maurya Ashoka, has gone from being lord of Jambudvipa [the continent] to being lord of half a myrobalan" (Strong, 1983, p. 99). In Theravada Buddhism, this plant is said to have been used as the tree for achieving enlightenment, or Bodhi, by the twenty first Buddha, named Phussa Buddha.

Traditional uses.

Culinary use.

Pratapgarh is one of the largest producers and suppliers of Indian gooseberries. In this region, the fruit is commonly pickled with salt, oil, and spices. The amla fruit is eaten raw or cooked into various dishes. In Pratapgarh, tender varieties are used to prepare "dal" (a lentil preparation), and "amle ka murabbah", a sweet dish made by soaking the berries in sugar syrup until they are candied. It is traditionally consumed after meals.  In the Batak area of Sumatra, Indonesia, the inner bark is used to impart an astringent, bitter taste to the broth of a traditional fish soup known as "holat".

Traditional medicine.

In traditional Indian medicine, dried and fresh fruits of the plant are used. All parts of the plant are used in various Ayurvedic medicine herbal preparations, including the fruit, seed, leaves, root, bark and flowers. According to Ayurveda, amla fruit is sour ("amla") and astringent ("kashaya") in taste ("rasa"), with sweet ("madhura"), bitter ("tikta") and pungent ("katu") secondary tastes ("anurasas"). Its qualities ("gunas") are light ("laghu") and dry ("ruksha"), the postdigestive effect ("vipaka") is sweet ("madhura") and its energy ("virya") is cooling ("shita").  In Ayurvedic polyherbal formulations, Indian gooseberry is a common constituent, and most notably is the primary ingredient in an ancient herbal "rasayana" called "Chyawanprash".

Other uses.

Commonly used in inks, shampoos and hair oils, the high tannin content of Indian gooseberry fruit serves as a mordant for fixing dyes in fabrics.

Chemical constituents.

These fruits are reputed to contain high amounts of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and have bitter taste that may derive from a high density of ellagitannins, such as emblicanin A (37%), emblicanin B (33%), punigluconin (12%), and pedunculagin (14%). Amla also contains punicafolin and phyllanemblinin A, phyllanemblin other polyphenols, such as flavonoids, kaempferol, ellagic acid, and gallic acid.

Phyllanthus emblica, also known as emblic, emblic myrobalan, myrobalan, Indian gooseberry, Malacca tree, or amla from Sanskrit amalaki is a deciduous tree of the family Phyllanthaceae. It has edible fruit, referred to by the same name.


Early life.

Marano was born in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of college professor Damiano Marano and former actress Ellen Marano, who owns the Agoura Children's Theatre. Her father is of Italian descent. Marano was first introduced to acting at her mother's theatre. At age 5, Marano began expressing interest in acting professionally to her parents along with her older sister Vanessa, who is also an actress. However, her mother had trepidation about the idea of her daughters working in the tough industry of acting. She took them to one of the strictest talent agents in Abrams Talent Agency in hopes that they would be rejected and then lose interest. To her surprise, the agency wanted both Laura and Vanessa. From there, Marano began her career.  Marano attended traditional school while she worked, even when she booked a full-time job on "Austin & Ally", instead of doing school on set. "I go to an actual high school and my friends and everybody there have been so supportive," said Marano. "It's nice when I'm not working to go to that school and be surrounded by really supportive friends."

Career.

2003–2010: "Without a Trace" and "Back to You".

Marano's first acting role was when she was five years old. Since then, she worked for multiple productions at the Stage Door Theater. She has appeared in numerous commercials and had small roles on "Ghost Whisperer", "Medical Investigation", "Huff" and "Joan of Arcadia". Her bigger roles in television have been in "Without a Trace" and other shows. She played the child role of Keira Knightley's character in the film "The Jacket" and had a small flashback role in the film "Superbad". She was a regular cast member on the Fox game show, "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" and played the role of Gracie Carr on FOX's sitcom "Back to You". Marano has since appeared in several episodes of "The Sarah Silverman Program". Initially she was cast in the pilot episode, "Batteries", as the child version of Sarah Silverman, and the writers liked her so much they brought her back for a larger role as a girl Sarah coaches to win a beauty pageant ("Not Without My Daughter"). On the DVD commentary track, co-star Brian Posehn notes that Marano knew everyone else's lines better than they did. She also appeared in "Dexter" as the child version of Debra Morgan. She also played the child version of a character played by Diana Scarwid, Alice Shaw, sister of Angela Petrelli, on "Heroes".

2011–2016: "Austin & Ally" and radio.

In 2011, Marano starred as Ally Dawson on the Disney Channel series "Austin & Ally". In 2013, Marano recorded four solo songs and one duet with Ross Lynch for the soundtrack album "". "Me and You" debuted within the U.S. "Billboard" Kid Digital Songs chart at number thirteen before rising to the sixth spot, spending eleven weeks on the chart. "Redial" debuted at number nineteen before peaking at number eighteen, spending four weeks on the chart. Also in 2013, Marano recorded a duet with her "Austin & Ally" co-star Ross Lynch entitled "I Love Christmas" for Disney Channel's third holiday compilation album, "Holidays Unwrapped". On November 25, 2013, the song was released as a promotional single. On December 14, "I Love Christmas" debuted within the U.S. "Billboard" Holiday Digital Songs chart peaking at number fifty. Marano sings, dances, and writes songs. She hopes to perform in stage musicals in the future.  In 2014, Marano voiced as Rachel in four episodes of "". She also appeared as Hammu in "Fish Hooks" and as Fangs in "Liv and Maddie". Also in 2014, she appeared in a music video produced for British pop-rock group The Vamps and American singer Demi Lovato called "Somebody to You". In March 2015, Marano stated that she had signed a record deal with Universal's Big Machine Records. In the same year, Marano starred in Disney Channel's Original Movie, "Bad Hair Day". The film was first released on February 6, 2015 on Disney Channel and had its premiere broadcast in the US on February 13. She also starring as the young version of Amy in "A Sort of Homecoming", which tells the story of a girl who returns to her home town in Louisiana from her career in New York City upon request of her high school debate coach. In flashbacks, she recalls her senior year, the politics surrounding debate competitions. On January 10, 2016, "Austin and Ally" ended after four seasons.  On January 13, 2016, Marano debuted her own radio talk show on Radio Disney entitled "For the Record with Laura Marano". The weekly one-hour show chronicles Marano's journey as she launches her music career, featuring interviews with a guest star in each episode. The show also provides listeners tips on how one can pursue a career in music. The show has featured various guest stars including Nick Jonas, Ariana Grande, Meghan Trainor, OneRepublic, and Troye Sivan. The first episode of the show, which aired January 12, 2016, guest starred her co-stars of "Austin & Ally".

2016–present: Films and music.

On March 11, 2016, Marano released her debut single called "Boombox". The music video for the single released on April 4, 2016 and accumulated over 6 million views in a week. The video currently holds over 50 million views. It guest stars actor and comedian Ken Jeong, along with his daughter Zooey, and was directed by Cole Walliser. On April 30, 2016, Marano performed the single at the 2016 Radio Disney Music Awards, which aired on Disney Channel on May 1. Marano also performed the song on "Today" as Elvis Duran's Artist of the Month on May 31, 2016. Marano released her second single, "La La", on August 25, 2016. At the end of 2016, Big Machine Records made the decision to drop all of their pop artists, except for Taylor Swift. On May 18, 2017, it was announced that Marano had signed to Warner Bros. Records in 2017. In 2018, they parted ways, because the people who had signed her left Warner Bros.  On October 1, 2018, Marano announced in a Q&A video posted on her YouTube channel that she would be releasing new music as an independent artist. She named her own label Flip Phone Records, as Marano is known for not owning a smartphone and still using a flip phone. On October 5, 2018, she released the single "Me". In January 2019, she released the single "Let Me Cry" along with its music video. In February 2019, Marano performed at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles and released the single "F.E.O.U.". On March 8, 2019, she released her debut EP, "Me", featuring two unheard tracks and a new remix to "F.E.O.U.".

Philanthropy.

In August 2013, Marano was named the 2013 UNICEF's Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF Ambassador, which encouraged children to raise money on Halloween to help children around the world. About the campaign, Laura said "I'm so excited to celebrate Halloween this year by encouraging kids to support UNICEF's lifesaving work. The Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign is a fun, easy way for kids to learn about world issues and to help other kids who are less fortunate." In August 2014, Marano was ambassador for the Disney and Birds Eye Vegetables campaign 'Step up to the plate'. The campaign's goal is to encourage children in the United States to explore healthy foods such as vegetables.

Laura Marie Marano (born November 29, 1995) is an American actress and singer. She starred in the Disney Channel series "Austin & Ally" as Ally Dawson. Marano was one of the five original classmates in "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?". She starred in "Without a Trace" for three seasons and also "Back to You", in both instances playing the daughter of the main characters. Marano starred in the indie film "A Sort of Homecoming". Marano also starred in the 2015 Disney Channel Original Movie "Bad Hair Day". In 2019 Marano starred in the Netflix original movie "The Perfect Date".


History and development.

In 1935 the Imperial Japanese Navy decided to replace the earlier 40 mm Vickers "pom-pom" guns with a 25 mm Hotchkiss design. A party of Japanese officers and engineers traveled to France to evaluate the design in 1935, and an order was placed for a number of guns and mounts for evaluation. Firing tests of these guns were conducted at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in 1935. The first few weapons were built in France under the designation “Type 94” and “Type 95”, with the mass production model produced at the Yokosuka Arsenal being designated “Type 96”.  The Japanese made a number of minor changes to the original Hotchkiss design and production process, changing some components from forgings to castings to simplify production, and replacing the simple conical flash suppressor with a Rheinmetall-type design. A submarine-mountable version of the gun which made extensive use of stainless steel was also produced.  The double-mount type was the first to enter service, with triple mounts following in 1941 and finally single mounts later in 1943.

Design.

The Type 96 25mm Gun is a simple air-cooled gas operated design. The barrel is a forging screwed into the breech mechanism. Additional support is provided to the breech end of the gun barrel by the finned cooling jacket. The barrel is changeable, requiring two men and special tools; the operation took a trained crew approximately five minutes. By adjusting the gas valve setting it was possible to vary the rate of fire between 200 and 260 rounds per minute, with 220 rounds per minute being the standard setting.  The gun mounts were normally provided with one of three gun sights:  Land mountings and all single mountings all used the single open-ring sight. The Type 95 sight was used on ship-based multiple mounts, in the case where the mount has a powered drive linked to a fire director it was used as a backup.  The Type 95 sight was originally designed with a maximum target speed of 600 kilometers per hour; however, experience showed that aircraft often exceeded this speed. To compensate for the problem, a ring was added to the sighting telescope to provide an additional offset for speeds up to 900 kilometers per hour.  The gun was normally used without a gun shield, although some multiple mounts on "Yamato"-class battleships were fitted with Ducol (High tensile steel) shields. Many ship-based mounts also had splinter shields.

Ammunition.

The Type 96 cartridge case was a rimless type design with a deep extraction groove at the base. The projectiles fired by the weapon were slightly unusual in that they had two rotating bands. The forward band was slightly smaller in diameter than the rear band. It was believed that this was to reduce wear on the rifling near the chamber. The case of the cartridge was crimped around the rear rotating band. The complete round weighed approximately with the projectile weighing.  The propellant was 102 grams of single-perforated, graphited grains of nitrocellulose approximately 2 millimeters in diameter and between 2.5 and 4.5 millimeters in length.  Normally one tracer round was added every four or five rounds to aid laying.

Combat record.

The Type 96 was the standard Japanese medium anti-aircraft weapon of the Imperial Japanese Navy, being mounted aboard practically every ship in the fleet. The gun was also used in land bases in the Japanese Empire and in the Japanese overseas combat fronts. These weapons were also used as anti-tank guns in some defensive actions in Pacific theaters and against land objectives in southeast Asia/Chinese mainland during the Pacific War. The gun was used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. It was also used by the Bougainville Revolutionary Army during the Bougainville Civil War which lasted from 1988-1998.

Effectiveness.

In interviews conducted by the U.S. Naval Technical Mission to Japan after the end of the war, Japanese military personnel said it was the most reliable Japanese anti-aircraft weapon, but second in effectiveness to the Type 98 anti-aircraft gun. The Type 96 was most effective when used at ranges of 1,000 meters or less. The Japanese military estimated that it required an average of 1,500 rounds to shoot down an aircraft at a height of 1,000 meters and a range of 2,000 meters, and that fire beyond that range was completely ineffective. Later in the war, when ammunition supply was restricted, firing was held until the targets were within 800 meters range, dropping this ratio to as low as seven rounds per aircraft.  The Type 96 was a mediocre weapon compared to its contemporaries in other navies. It was hampered by slow training and elevating speeds (even in power-operated triple mounts), excessive vibration and muzzle flash, and that the ammunition feed was via a 15-round fixed magazine, which necessitated ceasing fire every time the magazine had to be changed. According to "US Naval Technical Mission to Japan report O-47(N)-2", all magazines had to be loaded by hand as no specialized loading equipment was ever developed. Overall, it was more comparable to the 20mm Oerlikon, though vastly inferior to the 40mm Bofors weapons used by the US and allies in every respect except rate of fire (and only barely in that respect: the Bofors could put out a sustained 120 round/minute because of its constant-fire top-fed ammo clip design, whereas the 25mm's frequent ammo box changes lowered its nominal rate of fire to only half of its theoretical maximum of 260 rounds per minute).  The Japanese ranked in order of seriousness the problems with the gun as:  In "Rapid Fire", Anthony Williams writes that the intermediate calibre weapons (including the US Navy's 1.1"/75 caliber gun 28×199mm L/75) were relatively unsuccessful during World War II: the mounts were much heavier and more complex than smaller calibre guns, but the shells lacked the range and hitting power of the larger 37 and 40 millimeter weapons. The Japanese viewed increasing the caliber of autocannons as the number one priority of research and development in the field.

The was an automatic cannon used by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. A locally-built variant of the French Hotchkiss 25mm anti-aircraft gun, it was designed as a dual-purpose weapon for use against armored vehicles and aircraft, but was primarily used as an anti-aircraft gun in fixed mounts with one to three guns.


Basics.

Attention is paid to unique characteristics of a particular region such as natural elements, human elements, and regionalization which covers the techniques of delineating space into regions. Rooted in the tradition of the German-speaking countries, the two pillars of regional geography are the idiographic study of "Länder" or spatial individuals (specific places, countries, continents) and the typological study of "Landschaften" or spatial types (landscapes such as coastal regions, mountain regions, border regions, etc.).

Approach.

Regional geography is also a certain approach to geographical study, comparable to quantitative geography or critical geography. This approach prevailed during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, a period when then regional geography paradigm was central within the geographical sciences. It was later criticised for its descriptiveness and the lack of theory. Strong criticism was leveled against it in particular during the 1950s and the quantitative revolution. Main critics were G. H. T. Kimble and Fred K. Schaefer. The regional geography paradigm has influenced many other geographical sciences, including economic geography and geomorphology. Regional geography is still taught in some universities as a study of the major regions of the world, such as Northern and Latin America, Europe, and Asia and their countries. In addition, the notion of a city-region approach to the study of geography, underlining urban-rural interactions, gained credence since the mid-1980s. Some geographers have also attempted to reintroduce a certain amount of regionalism since the 1980s. This involves a complex definition of regions and their interactions with other scales.  Regional geography was once used as a basis for the geomorphological works such as those of David Linton and Henri Baulig. Yet, according to Karna Lidmar-Bergström regional geography is since the 1990s not longer accepted by mainstream scholarship as a basis for geomorphological studies.

Notable figures.

Notable figures in regional geography were Alfred Hettner in Germany, with his concept of chorology; Paul Vidal de la Blache in France, with the possibilism approach (possibilism being a softer notion than environmental determinism); and, in the United States, Richard Hartshorne with his concept of areal differentiation. The school of Carl O. Sauer, strongly influenced by Alfred Hettner and Paul Vidal de la Blache, is also seen as regional geography in its broadest sense.

Regional geography is a major branch of geography. It focuses on the interaction of different cultural and natural geofactors in a specific land or landscape, while its counterpart, systematic geography, concentrates on a specific geofactor at the global level.