Background.

In the First Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese navy came to understand the combat effectiveness of small, fast torpedo equipped warships over larger, slower ships equipped with slow-loading and often inaccurate naval artillery. The "Murakumo"-class vessels were the first class of destroyers to be procured by the Imperial Japanese Navy, but were purchased almost simultaneously with the. Four ships were ordered under the 1896 fiscal year budget ("Murakumo" and "Shinonome" on 15 January 1897, and "Yūgiri" and "Shiranui" on 7 May 1797), and an additional two under the 1897 budget ("Kagerō" and "Usugumo" on 6 May 1898). All were ordered from John I. Thornycroft & Company in Chiswick, England. The last two were slightly (71⁄2 tons) heavier than the first four, and thus had 11⁄2 inches greater draught.

Design.

The design of the "Murakumo"-class destroyers was based on Thorneycroft's two-stack destroyers for the Royal Navy (from 1913 known as the ) also known as the "Thirty Knotters". Although slightly smaller than the "Ikazuchi" class, they had the same armaments.  All "Murakumo"-class vessels had a flush deck design with a distinctive "turtleback" forecastle that was intended to clear water from the bow during high speed navigation, but was poorly designed for high waves or bad weather. The bridge and forward gun platform were barely raised above the bow, resulting in a wet conning position. More than half of the small hull was occupied by the boilers and the engine room. With fuel and weaponry, there was little space left for crew quarters.  All were powered by triple expansion steam engines for and had coal-fired water-tube boilers. Armament was one QF 12-pounder gun on a bandstand on the forecastle, five QF 6 pounder Hotchkiss guns (two sited abreast the conning tower, two sited between the funnels and one on the quarterdeck) and 2 single tubes for torpedoes.

Operational history.

All six "Murakumo"-class destroyers arrived in Japan in time to be used during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. All were present at the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the final crucial Battle of Tsushima.  The "Murakumo"-class vessels reclassified as third-class destroyers on 28 August 1912, and were removed from front-line combat service. "Usugumo" was wrecked in a typhoon in July 1913, but was salved and restored to service; "Shinonome" was lost when she broke in two during a typhoon off Taiwan on 23 July 1913 and not recovered.  The five surviving vessels were again used in combat with the start of World War I, during the Battle of Tsingtao and in the operations to seize German colonial possessions in the South Pacific.  After the war, "Murakumo" and "Yūgiri" were demilitarized, and used as depot ships in 1919–20, and then as auxiliary minesweepers in 1920. "Shiranui" and "Kagerō" served as tenders to the torpedo school in 1918, and were for disposal at Kure in April 1922 (broken up in 1923). "Usugumo" was similarly struck from the Navy List in 1922, and was broken up in 1927.

The ("Gathering Clouds") were a class of six torpedo boat destroyers (TBDs) of the Imperial Japanese Navy, built in Britain in 1897-99. The class is also sometimes referred to as the ("Daybreak"). All were named after celestial phenomena.


Composition history.

The opera was the result of a commission during Prokofiev's successful first visit to the United States in 1918. After well-received concerts of his works in Chicago (including his First Symphony), Prokofiev was approached by the director of the Chicago Opera Association, Cleofonte Campanini, to write an opera. Conveniently, Prokofiev had drafted a libretto during his trip to the US; he had based it on Carlo Gozzi's play in the "Commedia dell'arte" tradition, (which was itself based on Giambattista Basile's fairy tale "The Love for Three Oranges"). The eventual libretto was adapted by Prokofiev from Vsevolod Meyerhold's translation of Gozzi's play. The adaptation modernized some of the "Commedia dell'arte" influences and also introduced a dose of Surrealism. Due to Prokofiev's own scanty knowledge of English, and as Russian would have been unacceptable to American audiences, the initial version was set in French, with the possible assistance of the soprano Vera Janacopoulos, as "L'Amour des trois oranges".  The opera received its premiere performance on 30 December 1921 at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, conducted by Prokofiev. It received its first Russian production in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) in 1926 and has since entered the standard repertoire of many opera companies.  Probably the best-known piece in the opera is the "March", which was used by CBS in the radio-drama series "The FBI in Peace and War" that was broadcast from 1944 to 1958. Prokofiev also quotes the march in act 2 of his ballet "Cinderella" (Op. 87).

Performance history.

The initial criticisms of the Chicago production were generally harsh, e.g., "it left many of our best people dazed and wondering", "Russian jazz with Bolshevik trimmings" and "The work is intended, one learns, to poke fun. As far as I am able to discern, it pokes fun chiefly at those who paid money for it". The newspaperman and author Ben Hecht, however, gave it an enthusiastic review: "There is nothing difficult about this music – unless you are unfortunate enough to be a music critic. But to the untutored ear there is a charming capriciousness about the sounds from the orchestra".  The opera was not performed again in the United States until 1949 when the New York City Opera resurrected it. As staged by Vladimir Rosing and conducted by Laszlo Halasz, the production was successful. "Life" magazine featured it in a color photo spread. The New York City Opera mounted a touring company of the production, and the opera was again staged in New York for three successive seasons.  The opera is now widely performed around the world. A 1988 production by Richard Jones for Opera North, later seen at English National Opera, New York City Opera and elsewhere, used "scratch'n'sniff" cards handed out to the audience, suggesting various scents matching events in the staging (gunshots, Truffaldino's "wind", the aroma of oranges).

Synopsis.

Prologue.

Advocates of Tragedy, Comedy, Lyric Drama and Farce argue for their favourite form before the curtain goes up for a play. The "Ridicules" (Cranks) round them up and tell them they are to witness "The Love for Three Oranges".

Act 1.

The King of Clubs and his adviser Pantalone lament the sickness of the Prince, brought on by an indulgence in tragic poetry. Doctors inform the King that his son's hypochondria can only be cured with laughter, so Pantalone summons the jester Truffaldino to arrange a grand entertainment, together with the (secretly inimical) prime minister, Leandro.  The magician Tchelio, who supports the King, and the witch Fata Morgana, who supports Leandro and Clarice (niece of the King, lover of Leandro), play cards to see who will be successful. Tchelio loses three times in succession to Fata Morgana, who brandishes the King of Spades, alias of Leandro.  Leandro and Clarice plot to kill the Prince so that Clarice can succeed to the throne. The supporters of Tragedy are delighted at this turn of events. The servant Smeraldina reveals that she is also in the service of Fata Morgana, who will support Leandro.

Act 2.

All efforts to make the Prince laugh fail, despite the urgings of the supporters of Comedy, until Fata Morgana is knocked over by Truffaldino and falls down, revealing her underclothes—the Prince laughs, as do all the others except for Leandro and Clarice. Fata Morgana curses him: henceforth, he will be obsessed by a "love for three oranges". At once, the Prince and Truffaldino march off to seek them.

Act 3.

Tchelio tells the Prince and Truffaldino where the three oranges are, but warns them that they must have water available when the oranges are opened. He also gives Truffaldino a magic ribbon with which to seduce the giant (female) Cook (a bass voice) who guards the oranges in the palace of the witch Creonte.  They are blown to the palace with the aid of winds created by the demon Farfarello, who has been summoned by Tchelio. Using the ribbon to distract the Cook, they grab the oranges and carry them into the surrounding desert.  While the Prince sleeps, Truffaldino opens two of the oranges. Fairy princesses emerge but quickly die of thirst. The "Ridicules" give the Prince water to save the third princess, Ninette. The Prince and Ninette fall in love. Several soldiers conveniently appear, and the Prince orders them to bury the two dead princesses. He leaves to seek clothing for Ninette so he can take her home to marry her, but, while he is gone, Fata Morgana transforms Ninette into a giant rat and substitutes Smeraldina in disguise.

Act 4.

Everyone returns to the King's palace, where the Prince is now forced to prepare to marry Smeraldina. Tchelio and Fata Morgana meet, each accusing the other of cheating, but the "Ridicules" intervene and spirit the witch away, leaving the field clear for Tchelio. While Leandro and the Master of Ceremonies see that the palace is prepared for the wedding, Tchelio restores Ninette to her natural form. The plotters are sentenced to die but Fata Morgana helps them escape through a trapdoor, and the opera ends with everyone praising the Prince and his bride.  Prokofiev compiled a 15–20 minute orchestral suite from the opera for concert use. The suite is in 6 movements:  The composer made the above transcription for piano solo.

Recordings.

Videos.

In French  In Russian Vladimir Vasov  In English

References.

Notes Sources

The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33, also known by its French language title (, "Lyubov' k tryom apel'sinam"), is a satirical opera by Sergei Prokofiev. Its French libretto was based on the Italian play "L'amore delle tre melarance" by Carlo Gozzi. The opera premiered at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, on 30 December 1921. The original Italian and French titles actually mean "The love of the Three Oranges", which makes the word "for" in the English version of the title a slight corruption or mistranslation.


History.

The plant is native to the Caribbean, where the Arawak/Taino people were the first to use it and cultivate it. In 1560, Jean Nicot de Villemain, then French ambassador to Portugal, brought tobacco seeds and leaves as a "wonder drug" to the French court. In 1586 the botanist Jaques Dalechamps gave the plant the name of "Herba nicotiana", which was also adopted by Linné. It was considered a decorative plant at first, then a panacea, before it became a common snuff and tobacco plant. Tobacco arrived in Africa at the beginning of the 17th century. The leaf extract was a popular pest control method up to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1851, the Belgian chemist Jean Stas documented the use of tobacco extract as a murder poison. The Belgian count Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé had poisoned his brother-in-law with tobacco leaf extract in order to acquire some urgently needed money. This was the first exact proof of alkaloids in forensic medicine.

Habitat and ecology.

"N. tabacum" is a native of tropical and subtropical America but it is now commercially cultivated worldwide. Other varieties are cultivated as ornamental plants or appear as a weed.  "N. tabacum" is sensitive to temperature, air, ground humidity and the type of land. Temperatures of are best for adequate growth; an atmospheric humidity of 80 to 85% and soil without a high level of nitrogen are also optimal.

Parasites.

The potato tuber moth ("Phthorimaea operculella") is an oligophagous insect that prefers to feed on plants of the family Solanaceae such as tobacco plants. Female "P. operculella" use the leaves to lay their eggs and the hatched larvae will eat away at the mesophyll of the leaf.

Botanical description.

"Nicotiana tabacum Linné" is a robust annual branched herb up to tall, with large green leaves and long, trumpet-shaped, white-pinkish flowers. All parts of the plant are sticky, being covered with short viscid-glandular hairs which exude a yellow secretion containing nicotine.

Leaves.

Varied in size, the lower leaves are the largest at up to long, short-stalked or unstalked, oblonged-elliptic, shortly acuminate at the apex, decurrent at the base, the following leaves decrease in size, the upper one sessile and smallest, oblong- lanceolate or elliptic.

Flowers.

In terminal, many flowered inflorescences, the tube long, in diameter, expanded in the lower third (calyx) and upper third (throat), lobes broadly triangular, white-pinkish with pale violet or carmine colored tips tube yellowish white; calyx with five narrowly triangular lobes which are long. A capsular ovoid or ellipsoid, surrounded by the persistent calyx and with a short apical beak, about long. Seeds are very numerous, very small, ovoid or kidney shaped, brown.

Part used.

Almost every part of the plant except the seed contains nicotine, but the concentration is related to different factors such as species, type of land, culture and weather conditions. The concentration of nicotine increases with the age of the plant. Tobacco leaves contain 2 to 8% nicotine combined as malate or citrate. The distribution of the nicotine in the mature plant is widely variable: 64% of the total nicotine exists in the leaves, 18% in the stem, 13% in the root, and 5% in the flowers.

Phytochemicals.

Natural tobacco polysaccharides, including cellulose, have been shown to be the primary precursors of acetaldehyde in tobacco smoke. The main polyphenols contained in the tobacco leaf are rutin and chlorogenic acid. Amino acids contained include glutamic acids, asparagine, glutamine, and γ-Aminobutyric acid  Pyridine alkaloids are present in tobacco as free bases and salts. Nicotine accounts for 90-95% of the plant's pyridines with Nornicotine and anatabine accounting for roughly 2.5% each. Pyridyl functional groups present in minute amounts include anabasine, myosmine, cotinine and 2, 3′-bipyridyl.  The tobacco plant readily absorbs heavy metals from the surrounding soil and accumulates them in its leaves. These are readily absorbed into the user's body following smoke inhalation.  Tobacco also contains the following phytochemicals: glucosides (tabacinine, tabacine), 2,3,6-trimethyl-1,4-naphthoquinone, 2-methylquinone, 2-napthylamine, propionic acid, anthalin, anethole, acrolein, cembrene, choline, nicotelline, nicotianine, and pyrene.

Ethnomedicinal uses.

The regions that have histories of use of the plant include:

Other uses.

A protein of the White–Brown complex subfamily can be extracted from the leaves. It is an odourless, tasteless white powder and can be added to cereal grains, vegetables, soft drinks and other foods. It can be whipped like egg whites, liquefied or gelled and can take on the flavour and texture of a variety of foods. It is 99.5% protein, contains no salt, fat or cholesterol.

Main use.

All parts of the plant contain nicotine, which can be extracted and used as an insecticide. The dried leaves can also be used; they remain effective for 6 months after drying. The juice of the leaves can be rubbed on the body as an insect repellent. The leaves can be dried and chewed as an intoxicant. The dried leaves are also used as snuff or are smoked. This is the main species that is used to make cigarettes, cigars, and other products for smokers. A drying oil is obtained from the seed.

Curing and aging.

After tobacco is harvested, it is cured (dried), and then aged to improve its flavor. There are four common methods of curing tobacco: air curing, fire curing, flue curing, and sun curing. The curing method used depends on the type of tobacco and its intended use. Air-cured tobacco is sheltered from wind and sun in a well-ventilated barn, where it air dries for six to eight weeks. Air-cured tobacco is low in sugar, which gives the tobacco smoke a light, sweet flavour, and high in nicotine. Cigar and burley tobaccos are air cured.  In fire curing, smoke from a low-burning fire on the barn floor permeates the leaves. This gives the leaves a distinctive smoky aroma and flavor. Fire curing takes three to ten weeks and produces a tobacco low in sugar and high in nicotine. Pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and snuff are fire cured.  Flue-cured tobacco is kept in an enclosed barn heated by flues (pipes) of hot air, but the tobacco is not directly exposed to smoke. This method produces cigarette tobacco that is high in sugar and has medium to high levels of nicotine. It is the fastest method of curing, requiring about a week. Virginia tobacco that has been flue cured is also called bright tobacco, because flue curing turns its leaves gold, orange, or yellow.  Sun-cured tobacco dries uncovered in the sun. This method is used in Greece, Turkey, and other Mediterranean countries to produce oriental tobacco. Sun-cured tobacco is low in sugar and nicotine and is used in cigarettes.  Once the tobacco is cured, workers tie it into small bundles of about 20 leaves, called hands, or use a machine to make large blocks, called bales. The hands or bales are aged for one to three years to improve flavor and reduce bitterness.

Nicotiana tabacum, or cultivated tobacco, is an annually-grown herbaceous plant. It is found in cultivation, where it is the most commonly grown of all plants in the genus "Nicotiana", and its leaves are commercially grown in many countries to be processed into tobacco. It grows to heights between 1 and 2 meters. Research is ongoing into its ancestry among wild "Nicotiana" species, but it is believed to be a hybrid of "Nicotiana sylvestris", "Nicotiana tomentosiformis", and possibly "Nicotiana otophora".


History.

RER E opened on 14 July 1999 between Haussmann – Saint-Lazare and Chelles–Gournay. The construction included a tunnel between Haussmann – St-Lazare and Magenta (which serves Gare de l'Est and Gare du Nord).  The line was first extended with a new branch from Noisy-le-Sec to Villiers-sur-Marne on 30 August 1999. This branch was extended to Tournan on 14 December 2003.  On 13 December 2015, Rosa-Parks station opened in the 19th arrondissement of Paris.

Extension.

RER E is to be extended from Haussmann – Saint-Lazare to La Défense, from where it will take over the branch of RER A to Nanterre, Sartrouville and Poissy. It would then take over a section of SNCF tracks (currently carrying Transilien J) to reach Mantes-la-Jolie. Partial revenue service is expected to begin in 2022, full service in 2024.  An eight kilometre tunnel will be dug between Haussmann–St-Lazare and La Défense. An intermediate station at Porte Maillot will offer a transfer to RER C. The extension is expected to reduce the load on central sections of RER B (between Gare du Nord and Châtelet) and RER A (between La Défense and Auber) by 10-15%. Additionally, transfers will be shifted away from current transfer hub Châtelet.

Operation.

Names of services.

Like all the other RER lines, each train is named after the route it takes. The first letter designates the destination, the second indicates whether the train will call at every station or not.  Regular names of services of trains departing from Paris are, among others, "TAVA" (stops at Magenta, Rosa Parks, Pantin, Noisy-le-Sec, Val de Fontenay, and all stations from Villiers-sur-Marne to Tournan), "VOHE" (stops at every station, all the way to Villiers-sur-Marne), "COHI" (stops at every station all the way to Chelles–Gournay).

RER E is one of the five lines in the Réseau Express Régional (English: Regional Express Network), a hybrid suburban commuter/rapid transit system serving Paris, France and its suburbs. The RER E line travels between Paris and eastern suburbs, with all trains serving the stations in central Paris, before branching out towards the ends of the line. The line runs from the western terminus Haussmann–Saint-Lazare (E1) to the eastern termini Chelles–Gournay (E2) and Tournan (E4). It is operated by SNCF.


Biography.

Erik Mongrain taught himself guitar from the age of 14. As a boy, he was mostly interested in sports but picked up an interest in the guitar and began to teach himself to play by ear. Erik started out playing the electric guitar, but developed an interest in classical and acoustic guitar after hearing the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. He taught himself to read music and began composing.  Mongrain was inspired early on by the work of Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain. When he was 18, he heard the work of guitarist Don Ross and he thought: "This was a new revelation to me. I finally found my niche." After that, he was heavily influenced by the work of Michael Hedges, and also began to experiment with a technique known as lap tapping.  Mongrain plays live shows in the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada, and England. He started out busking in the streets, before he was discovered in Spain; His music is featured in a documentary produced by Lance Trumbull for the Everest Peace Project. He was featured on the cover of Guild Guitar Company Magazine. Erik was featured in Le Journal de Montréal and many other acoustic guitar magazines. His first full-length album, "Fates", was released in December 2006 on his website as a series of individually buyable/downloadable songs. The physical CD was released in June 2007 (May for Japan).  In 2007, Mongrain went on a tour around the world, particularly in Europe, Asia and America. He performed also at the famous Montreal International Jazz Festival and at the "Studio-théâtre" of the Place des Arts of Montreal where the live performance was recorded. Mongrain was invited for the premiere of the « World Music Heritage », a drive by Gontiti on the national Japanese network (NHK).  The iVideosongs company have filmed four clips including "Equilibrium". The clips are tutorials of Mongrain's lap tapping style, downloadable on the company's Web site.  His "AirTap!" video has been viewed over 6 million times on YouTube.  On October 21, 2008, Mongrain launched his second album "Equilibrium" which contained nine new compositions.. The album was recorded in July 2008 in "The Dragon Crossing studios" owned by Paul Reed Smith (PRS Guitars) and located in Annapolis, Maryland. Musicians such as Michael Manring on fretless bass and Bill Plummer on synthesizers contributed to the album.  The album was launched live on Mongrain's official website (streamed broadcast) on 21 October 2008.  In August 2012, he released a 10-track album called Forward.

Erik Mongrain (born April 12, 1980 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian composer and guitarist. He has a unique and dark acoustic style, with a wide array of different techniques, approaches and textures reminiscent of Michael Hedges.


Bidding process.

On 4 April 2006, the IAAF announced that nine countries (United States, South Korea, Australia, Sweden, Spain, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Croatia and Morocco) had submitted expressions of interest for hosting the 2011 World Championships.

Candidates.

When the seeking deadline passed on 1 December 2006, four candidate cities (Brisbane, Daegu, Moscow and Gothenburg) had confirmed their candidatures. Gothenburg backed out later that month, citing lack of financial support from the Swedish government.  Brisbane was announced as the Australian candidate with the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre (formally ANZ Stadium) as the proposed venue for a championships to be held in July or August. The stadium previously hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games and 2001 Goodwill Games. Brisbane also had an unsuccessful bid for the 2009 World Championships in Athletics.  Daegu was the city chosen for the Korean bid, following on from an initial application to host the 2009 edition. Daegu had previously hosted the 2003 Summer Universiade and three matches of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The World Championships in Athletics had never been staged in mainland Asia, although it has taken place twice in Japan.  The Russian bid had Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium as the proposed venue. The city hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics and the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships.  Among the intent candidates were Casablanca (Morocco) and Split (Croatia), both of which were failed bidders for the 2009 World Championships in Athletics. The Spanish candidate was rumored to be either Madrid or Valencia, but Spain eventually settled for Barcelona as a candidate for the 2013 World Championships in Athletics. The United States intent candidate city matched those bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympics: Chicago, Los Angeles or San Francisco.

Selection.

The IAAF announced Daegu as the winning candidate at the IAAF Council Meeting in Mombasa on 27 March 2007. Its victory was based on "the quality of the stadiums and [meeting] the need for good crowds." IAAF's officials also praised Daegu's "ambition and challenging spirit" as key to its winning bid. Both Moscow and Brisbane later confirmed their candidacy to host the 2013 World Championships in Athletics – a selection process won by the Russian capital.

Results.

Men.

The events in the men's section ended with a world record in 4 x 100 metres relay set by Jamaica and several world's leading results. Jamaica dominated the sprinting events, while Kenya and Ethiopia dominated the longer track events. In the field events, the United States and Germany were most successful, winning four and three gold medals respectively. Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt, both from Jamaica, won two gold medals, being the most successful athletes in the men's events.  In the 100 m final the largely favored Usain Bolt was disqualified for a false start, enabling Yohan Blake to win the crown with a time of 9.92 s. In the 200 m Bolt won with a time of 19.40 s, which was the fastest time ever not to be a world record at that point. Blake and Bolt, along with countrymen Nesta Carter and Michael Frater, ran in the 4 x 100 metres relay, setting a new world record with a time of 37.04 s. In the 10,000 metres event, World Champion Kenenisa Bekele did not finish the race. The world record holder in 800 m, David Rudisha, won the event with his first gold medal at the World Championships. On the last day, Kenyan Abel Kirui became the first marathon winner to retain the title at the next World Championships.  Most of the field events ended with new winners, but Dwight Phillips retained the long jump title, becoming only the second man after Ivan Pedroso to win four golds at the World Championships in this event.  Ethiopia's Imane Merga was originally awarded the bronze medal in the Men's 5000 metres, but he was later disqualified for having run inside the curb of the running track for some 10 to 15 metres. His teammate Dejen Gebremeskel was elevated to the bronze medal as a result.  Cuba's Dayron Robles finished first in the race of the Men's 110 metres hurdles, but was disqualified for interfering with Liu Xiang twice before and over the last barrier. Jason Richardson was awarded the Gold, Liu the Silver, and Andy Turner promoted to the Bronze medal position.

Women.

During the championships, Russia was the most successful country in the women's events, winning seven gold medals, followed by the United States with six. Most successful female athlete was Allyson Felix having won two relay golds and silver and bronze in her individual events. On the first day of the Championships, the athletes of Kenya made an astonishing performance, winning all six medals available in the two events. Kenya also dominated the long-distance events, while Jamaica and the United States the sprinting. In the field events, Russia was dominant, winning four gold medals.  Following a series of retests of stored samples and biological passports, a number of athletes were stripped of medals because of doping.

Field.

Original gold medalist Tatyana Chernova of Russia was stripped of her gold medal on 29 November 2016 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with Ennis and Oeser promoted to gold and silver respectively and the bronze awarded to Karolina Tymińska of Poland.

Anti-doping programme.

On 4 November 2011 the IAAF reported that 2 of the 468 urine samples had produced adverse analytical findings. The samples of Portuguese runner Sara Moreira, a finalist in the women's steeplechase, and Korean relay runner Hee-Nam Lim had both tested positive for methylhexaneamine. Analysis of blood samples is still ongoing.  In March 2012 the Trinidad and Tobago track and field authorities announced that Semoy Hackett had tested positive for methylhexaneamine at the Trinidad and Tobago national championships prior to the World Championships. Her results in the women's 100 metres were annulled and the Trinidadian 4 x 100-metre relay team were also disqualified from fourth place.  An anonymous poll conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency at the event showed that an estimated 29% of the athletes present at the World Championships had used a banned substance within the last 12 months.

Medal table.

Initially, host nation South Korea failed to win any medals at these championships, a fate shared with Sweden in 1995 and Canada in 2001. This was changed in 2015, South Korean athlete Kim Hyun-sub was promoted from sixth place to bronze medalist in the 20 km walk after the disqualification of three Russian race walkers for doping offences.

Participating nations.

On the entry lists prior to the competition, a total of 1943 athletes from 202 national teams were set to participate in the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. The number of accredited athletes that actually participated at the event was 1848, while the total of countries represented was 204.

The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011.


Life.

Early years.

Born in the royal court of Madrid, Joanna was the daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (who was the first king of united Spain, officially King of Aragon and King of Castile) and his wife Isabella of Portugal. Therefore, her paternal grandparents were Philip of Castile and Joanna of Castile, and her maternal grandparents were Manuel I of Portugal and Maria of Aragon. She was the sister of King Philip II of Spain and Maria of Austria.  Among others, Joanna held the titles of Archduchess of Austria, Infanta of Castile and of Aragon, and princess of Burgundy.  Named for the saint's day of her birth (June 24 is the Nativity of St. John the Baptist) and in honor of her paternal grandmother, Juana of Castile, Joanna of Austria was motherless at the age of four and was entrusted to Doña Leonor de Mascareñas. By age eight she could understand Latin and could play several musical instruments.

Princess of Portugal.

On January 11, 1552, at the age of seventeen, she married her double first cousin, the fifteen-year-old crown prince of Portugal, John Manuel of Portugal, by proxy in Toro. She arrived at the Portuguese court in November 1552.  The marriage was cut short when John Manuel died of tuberculosis at age sixteen on January 2, 1554. However, Joanna was pregnant by that time, and the future Portuguese king Sebastián I was born on January 20, 1554.  Joanna returned to Spain in May 1554 at the request of her father, leaving her newborn son with her mother-in-law, the Portuguese Queen Catherine of Austria, who was Charles' youngest sister.

Regent of Spain.

Shortly after Sebastian's birth, Joanna was called back to Madrid by her brother Philip to act as regent during his absence in England from 1554. She filled this role with intelligence and efficiency. Joanna never remarried and never returned to Portugal. She never saw her son Sebastian again, although she sent him letters and had portraits of him painted at various ages so she could see what he looked like.  In 1557, Joanna founded the Convent of Our Lady of Consolation ("Nuestra Señora de la Consolación") for the nuns of the order of Poor Clares, also known as "Discalced Clarisses" (in Spanish, clarisas descalzas) because they did not wear covered shoes, and only walked either barefoot or in sandals, now known as the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales, or convent of the "barefoot royals", partly due to her affiliation and that the convent continued to attract aristocratic women as nuns. This convent is now a national monument and holds an art collection. It was founded in the royal palace where Joanna was born and where Charles V had lived when in Madrid.  Joanna repeatedly intervened in favor of the new order of the Jesuits, founded by Ignatius of Loyola. In 1555, she is reputed to have been admitted surreptitiously to the male-only Jesuit order under the name of a pseudonym, Mateo Sánchez.

Joanna of Austria (in Castilian, "doña Juana de Austria"; in Portuguese, "Dona Joana de Áustria", 24 June 1535 – 7 September 1573) was Princess of Portugal by marriage to John Manuel, Prince of Portugal. She served as regent of Spain to her brother Philip II of Spain during his trip to England to marry Mary I in 1554-1556, and from 1556 to 1559. She was the mother of King Sebastian of Portugal.


Playing career.

Šlégr was drafted 23rd overall by the Vancouver Canucks in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft. Šlégr played parts of three seasons with the Canucks, before being traded to the Edmonton Oilers for Roman Oksiuta, where he played for parts of two seasons. He spent the 1996–97 season playing in Södertälje SK in Sweden. He then returned to the NHL, where he had been traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a 3rd round draft pick, and played three and a half seasons there. In January 2001, he was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers for a 3rd round draft pick. Atlanta traded Šlégr to the Detroit Red Wings for Yuri Butsayev and a 3rd round draft pick in March 2002 and won the Stanley Cup with the Red Wings that season.  He signed as a free agent with Vancouver in September 2003, but was traded to the Boston Bruins in January 2004 for a conditional pick after falling out of favor with Vancouver Canucks coach Marc Crawford. Šlégr spent the 2004–05 NHL lockout season with HC Litvínov in the Czech Republic before returning to the Boston Bruins for the 2005–06 season. After leaving the NHL, Šlégr returned to the Czech Republic to play for HC Litvínov, and for EHC Biel of the NLA during the 2007 playoffs.

International play.

Šlégr won a gold medal in the 2005 World Championships and 1998 Olympics for the Czech Republic, and a bronze medal in the 1992 Olympics for Czechoslovakia. Along with the Stanley Cup he won with the Detroit Red Wings in 2002, Šlégr won all three major trophies in ice-hockey, gaining entry to the prestigious Triple Gold Club.

Political career.

In the 2010 elections, Šlégr was elected into the Chamber of Deputies as a candidate of the Czech Social Democratic Party in the Ústecký kraj, a region in northern Bohemia. Although the Social Democrats won the elections, they found themselves isolated and a right-wing government led by Petr Nečas was formed instead, forcing the Social Democratic Chairman, Jiří Paroubek, to resign. Šlégr, loyal to Paroubek, followed the former chairman in 2011 when he left the Social Democrats and founded a new party, the National Socialists – 21st Century Left. Since he had refused to resign, Šlégr remained in the Parliament as an unaffiliated MP.  Šlégr announced on June 14, 2013 that he was "going back to the clean environment among athletes" and stepped down from his position.

Personal life.

He is the estranged son of former Vancouver Canucks defenceman Jiří Bubla. He legally changed his surname from Bubla to his stepfather's surname of Šlégr as a child.  Šlégr was married 15 years with Kateřina Šlégrová. The couple split in November 2010 and divorced in February 2013. Šlégr married Lucie Králová in May, 2015.

Jiří Šlégr (; born 30 May 1971) is a Czech former professional ice hockey defenceman, and was a member of the 2001–02 Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup championship team after being acquired in a late-season trade. Šlégr was inducted into the Czech Ice Hockey Hall of Fame on December 12, 2019.


Early life.

Walter Rothschild was born in London as the eldest son and heir of Emma Louise von Rothschild and Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, an immensely wealthy financier of the international Rothschild financial dynasty and the first Jewish peer in England.  The eldest of three children, Walter was deemed to have delicate health and was educated at home. As a young man, he traveled in Europe, attending the University of Bonn for a year before entering Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1889, leaving Cambridge after two years, he was required to go into the family banking business to study finance.  At the age of seven, he declared that he would run a zoological museum and, as a child, he collected insects, butterflies and other animals. Among his pets at the family home in Tring Park were kangaroos and exotic birds. As a boy, Rothschild was once dragged off his horse and assaulted by workmen while on a hunting ride near Tring, an experience that he personally attributed to antisemitism.  At 21, he reluctantly went to work at the family bank, N M Rothschild & Sons in London. He worked there from 1889 to 1908. He evidently lacked any interest or ability in the financial profession, but it was not until 1908, at the age of 40, that he was finally allowed to give it up. However, his parents established a zoological museum as a compensation and footed the bill for expeditions all over the world to seek out animals.  Rothschild was tall, suffered from a speech impediment and was very shy, but he had his photograph taken riding on a giant tortoise and drove a carriage harnessed to four zebras to Buckingham Palace to prove that zebras could be tamed.  Though he never married, Rothschild had two mistresses, one of whom bore him a daughter.

Zoological career.

Rothschild studied zoology at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Meeting Albert Günther sparked his interest in the taxonomy of birds and butterflies.  Although Rothschild himself travelled and collected in Europe and North Africa for many years, his work and health concerns limited his range and beginning while at Cambridge he employed others (explorers, professional collectors and residents) to collect for him in remote and little-known parts of the world. He also hired taxidermists, a librarian and, most importantly, professional scientists to work with him to curate and write up the resulting collections: Ernst Hartert, for birds, from 1892 until his retirement at the age of 70 in 1930 and Karl Jordan for entomology, from 1893 until Rothschild's death in 1937.  At its largest, Rothschild's collection included 300,000 bird skins, 200,000 birds' eggs, 2,250,000 butterflies and 30,000 beetles as well as thousands of specimens of mammals, reptiles and fishes. They formed the largest zoological collection ever amassed by a private individual.  The Rothschild giraffe ("Giraffa camelopardis rothschildi"), a subspecies with five ossicones instead of two, was named after him. Another 153 insects, 58 birds, 17 mammals, three fish, three spiders, two reptiles, one millipede and one worm also carry his name.  Rothschild opened his private museum in 1892. It housed one of the largest natural history collections in the world and was open to the public. In 1932, he was forced to sell the vast majority of his bird collection to the American Museum of Natural History after he had been blackmailed by a former mistress. On his death in 1937, the museum and all of its contents were given in his will to the British Museum (of which the Natural History Museum, London was then a part), the greatest accession that the institution has ever received. The Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum at Tring is now a division of the Natural History Museum.  Following a visit to Hungary in 1902, Rothschild brought six live edible dormice ("Glis glis") back to Tring. Some of them escaped and started breeding successfully in the wild. They have now become a localised pest over an area of approximately 200 square miles in a triangle between Luton, Aylesbury and Beaconsfield, and there are estimated to be at least 10,000 of them. Even though considered an invasive species, they are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.  Rothschild was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Giessen in 1898, was elected a Trustee of the British Museum in 1899 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1911.

Political career.

Walter Rothschild was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Aylesbury from 1899 until he retired from politics at the January 1910 general election.

Military activities.

Despite his health, Rothschild served part-time as an officer in a Territorial Army unit, the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry, where he was a captain from July 1902, promoted to major in 1903 and retiring in 1909.

Zionism and Balfour Declaration.

As an active Zionist and a close friend of Chaim Weizmann, he worked to formulate the draft declaration for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. On 2 November 1917, he received a letter from the British foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to his London home at 148 Piccadilly. In the letter, the British government declared its support for the establishment in Palestine of "a national home for the Jewish people". The letter became known as the Balfour Declaration.

Peerage.

Walter inherited the British peerage title "Baron Rothschild" from his father Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild in 1915. He died in 1937 at Tring Park, Hertfordshire, aged 69, and was buried in Willesden Jewish Cemetery, London. He had no legitimate children and his younger brother Charles Rothschild had predeceased him, so the title was inherited by his nephew (Nathaniel Mayer) Victor Rothschild.  He also inherited the title "Baron de Rothschild" ("Freiherr von Rothschild") of the Austrian nobility, which was an authorized title in the United Kingdom by Warrant of 27 April 1932.  In 1838, Queen Victoria had authorized the use of this Austrian title in the United Kingdom.

Publications.

Rothschild is the author of around 765 publications. Of these 27 were co-authored with Ernst Hartert and 16 with Karl Jordan. He published 278 articles in the "Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club" and 318 articles in the "Novitates Zoologicae", a journal which he established in 1894 with himself, Hartert and Jordan as editors.  His publication include:

External links.

<br>of the Austrian Empire

Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild (8 February 1868 – 27 August 1937), was a British banker, politician, zoologist and scion of the Rothschild family. As a prominent Zionist leader, he was presented with the famous Balfour Declaration which pledged to a Jewish national home in Palestine. Rothschild was the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 1925 to 1926.


History.

Beginnings.

The area has been populated at least since the 1st century BC. The earliest mention of the town itself is in the 12th century "Chronica Boëmorum" by Cosmas of Prague. He mentions the town of "Cladzco" as belonging to the Bohemian nobleman Slavník in 981, father of Bishop Adalbert of Prague and progenitor of the Slavník dynasty.

Bohemian-Polish Borderland.

Held by the Přemyslid dukes of Bohemia, the town was also claimed by the Polish kings, which led to a series of armed conflicts: King Bolesław I Chrobry campaigned Kladsko in 1003, but soon after was expelled by Emperor Henry II. In 1080 the Polish duke Władysław I Herman married Judith Přemyslid, daughter of the Bohemian duke Bretislav I and their son, the warlike Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth claimed Kladsko as the dowry of his mother. In turn the Bohemian prince (duke from 1125) Soběslav I campaigned Kladsko and burnt the town to the ground, but rebuilt it shortly afterwards. He also rebuilt and strengthened the castle located on a high rock overlooking the town.

A region of Bohemia.

In 1137 by the agency of Emperor Lothair III of Supplinburg the rivals finally concluded a peace treaty by which Bolesław ceded all claims to the land of Kladsko to Soběslav. The area thereafter remained an integral part of Bohemia, though the fief was at times held by Silesian dukes: About 1280 German king Rudolph I of Habsburg, having defeated King Ottokar II of Bohemia, gave Kladsko to his ally Duke Henry IV Probus of the Silesian Piasts, it nevertheless returned to Bohemia after Henry's death in 1290. In 1310 Count John the Blind from the House of Luxembourg by marriage inherited Bohemia and again granted Kladsko for life to the Piast dukes Henry VI the Good from 1327 to 1335 and Bolko II of Ziębice from 1336 to 1341.  In 1348 the "Provincia Glacensis" became – still as a region within the Bohemia proper – part of the Crown of Bohemia. The town developed rapidly until the start of the Hussite Wars in the 15th century, which left Kladsko depopulated by plagues, partially burnt, and demolished by several consecutive floods. It was not until the 16th century that the local economy began to recover from the previous wars.  In 1458 King George of Poděbrady with the consent of Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg elevated Kladsko to a county ("hrabství Kladské"), held by his second son Viktorin, who thereby received the status of an Imperial count "(Reichsgraf)". Under his Poděbrad successors it still remained an integral part of Bohemia as an "outer region" ("vnější kraj") south of the adjacent Silesian province.  When in 1526 Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria from the House of Habsburg was enthroned as King of Bohemia, the County too became part of the Habsburg Monarchy; however the local counts retained their powers and the Bohemian kings ruled this land as suzerains. Since 1549 the County of Kladsko was under administration of the Wittelsbach until Albert V, Duke of Bavaria released it in 1567 for Emperor Maximilian II.  In 1617 the first census was organised in the County. The city itself had approximately 1,300 houses and over 7,000 inhabitants. However, two years after the census took place the Thirty Years' War started. Kladsko had joined the Protestant Bohemian Estates and even after the defeat at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 refused to submit to Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg. Between 1619 and 1649 the town was besieged by Imperial troops several times and although the fortress was never captured, over 900 out of 1,300 buildings were destroyed by fire and artillery and the population dropped by more than a half. After the war the Habsburg rulers put an end to all local self-government, and the County existed in name only.

Conquest by Prussia.

When in 1740 King Frederick II of Prussia started the First Silesian War he occupied most of Silesia and also the County of Kladsko, which the king considered to be a vital forward post at the border with the Austrian lands under Empress Maria Theresa. It was therefore occupied by Prussian troops and by the 1742 Treaty of Breslau annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, again confirmed after the Seven Years' War by the 1763 Treaty of Hubertusburg. It was not until 1818, when King Frederick William III finally incorporated the County into the Prussian Province of Silesia, although Czech and Austrian influence is still evident in the architecture and culture of the region. The title of a "Count of Glatz" was part of the full title of the Prussian kings and German Emperors, but autonomy of the County was irretrievably lost.

Claim by Czechoslovakia and incorporation into Poland.

After World War I the Czechoslovak state laid claims to the region of Kladsko, particularly because of the Czech Corner where Czech language and culture were still prevalent. These territorial demands were flatly rejected however by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With the implementation of the Oder-Neisse line at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, most of the territory of Prussian Silesia – including Kladsko – became part of the Republic of Poland. Its native German and Czech population was expelled. According to canon law however, the area was part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Prague until 1972.

The County of Kladsko (,, ) was a historical administrative unit within Bohemia as a part of the Kingdom of Bohemia and later in the Kingdom of Prussia with its capital at Kłodzko (Kladsko) on the Nysa river. The territory comprises the Kłodzko Land with the Kłodzko Valley in center within the Sudetes mountain range and roughly corresponds with the present-day Kłodzko County in the Polish Lower Silesian Voivodeship.


Background.

Since Duke Bretislaus I of Bohemia had implemented the inheritance principle of agnatic seniority in the 11th century, the order of succession in Bohemia, many rivalling scions of the ramified Přemyslid dynasty waged war against each other. The claimants to the Prague throne sought for formal recognition by the Holy Roman Emperor, actually, the accession required the active support by the Bohemian nobility.  The Přemyslid duke Vladislaus I of Bohemia, ruling since 1109, likewise had to struggle to consolidate his authority, defying the claims raised by his brother Bořivoj II who had reached his enfeoffment by Emperor Henry IV in 1101. When Vladislaus died in 1125 his succession was disputed among his surviving brother Soběslav I and his Moravian cousin Otto II, duke in Olomouc and Brno. Otto could appeal to the agnatic seniority principle, he also reached the support of Vladislaus' widow Richeza of Berg and King Lothair III.

Battle.

In November 1125 King Lothair met with Bavarian nobles in Regensburg. They settled for a campaign into Bohemia in favour of Otto the Black who, according to the chronicler Otto of Freising, had offered a considerable sum of money. The Bohemian nobles received an ultimatum either to expel Soběslav or to face a punitive expedition.  Duke Soběslav I, represented by negotiators in Regensburg, prepared for war. He made the Bohemian aristocracy rally to his support, strongly referring to the legacy of Saint Adalbert of Prague and Duke Wenceslas. In the winter of 1125–26 he had defensive works and encampments erected along the Kulmer Steig route, the presumed gateway of Lothair's troops. As the thaw set in, Lothair on February 18 crossed the Bohemian border at the Nakléřov Pass with his army and met Sobeslav's troops either near Chlumec or in the vicinity of the "Lotarův vrch" ("Lothair Mountain") near Jílové. The exact location of the battle is not known.  A vanguard of about 200 heavy armoured knights commanded by Otto the Black was immediately attacked by Bohemian forces in a narrow valley, while the main army under King Lothair found itself entrapped with no option to withdraw back to the mountain pass. The battle ended in a crushing defeat of the Imperial troops. Otto fell in action, and Lothair was captured with many of his liensmen like Margrave Albert the Bear and Landgrave Louis I of Thuringia. Soběslav won a convincing victory, and released his captives on the condition of his investiture.

Aftermath.

Soběslav enfeoffment by King Lothair ended the state of war. Though formally the victor paid homage to the defeated, the duke strengthened his position and was able to affront all threats to his rule in Bohemia until his death in 1140. To commemorate his victory, he had a rotunda built on top of the Říp Mountain and consecrated by the Olomuc bishop Jindřich Zdík, one of the oldest Czech national monuments.

Sources.

"This page is a translation from the German Wikipedia article of the same name."

The Battle of Chlumec was the culmination of a 12th-century war of succession in the Duchy of Bohemia. It occurred on 18 February 1126 in the vicinity of the village of Chlumec () near Chabařovice on the southern slopes of the Eastern Ore Mountains. The Bohemian forces led by Duke Soběslav I defeated an Imperial contingent of troops under King Lothair III of Germany and his Moravian ally Duke Otto II the Black.


Description.

Common milkweed is a clonal perennial herb growing up to tall. Its ramets grow from rhizomes. All parts of common milkweed plants produce white latex when broken. The simple leaves are opposite or sometimes whorled; broad ovate-lanceolate; up to long and broad, usually with entire, undulate margins and reddish main veins. They have very short petioles and velvety undersides.  The highly fragrant, nectariferous flowers vary from white (rarely) through pinkish and purplish and occur in umbellate cymes. Individual flowers are about in diameter, each with five cornate hoods and five pollinia. The seeds, each with long, white flossy hairs, occur in large follicles. Fruit production from selfing is rare. In three study plots, outcrossed flowers had an average of about 11% fruit set.

Ecology.

Many kinds of insects visit "A. syriaca" flowers, and some kinds pollinate them, including "Apis mellifera" (Western honey bees) and "Bombus" spp. (bumble bees). In the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Region, the introduced "A. mellifera" was the most effective and most important diurnal pollinator with regard to both pollen removal and pollen deposition. However, when considering the self-incompatibility of "A. syriaca", "A. mellifera" was not the most important pollinator because of its high self-pollination rate compared to "Bombus" spp. Additionally, the rate of self-pollination increased more rapidly with the number of flowers per inflorescence in "A. mellifera" than in native "Bombus" spp.  Many insect species feed on common milkweed, including the red milkweed beetle ("Tetraopes tetrophtalmus"), large milkweed bug ("Oncopeltus fasciatus"), small milkweed bug ("Lygaeus kalmii"), milkweed aphid ("Aphis nerii"), milkweed leaf beetle ("Labidomera clivicollis"), milkweed stem weevil ("Rhyssomatus lineaticollis"), milkweed tiger moth ("Euchaetes egle") and monarch butterfly ("Danaus plexippus"). Monarch larvae consume only milkweeds, and monarch populations may decline when milkweeds are eliminated with herbicides.  Efforts to increase monarch butterfly populations by establishing butterfly gardens require particular attention to the butterfly's food preferences and population cycles, as well to the conditions needed to propagate milkweed. For example, in the Washington, D.C. area and in the northeastern United States, monarchs prefer to reproduce on "A. syriaca", especially on young, soft leaves. As monarch reproduction in that area peaks in late summer when "A. syriaca" leaves are old and tough, the plant needs to be cut back to assure that it will be regrowing rapidly and producing young leaves when monarch reproduction reaches its peak. In the Washington, D.C. area one can have such leaves in July, August, and early September during the main oviposition period in three ways. First, one can grow seedlings. Second, one can cut large shoots to about half their height in June and July before or after they bloom. Third, one can cut large shoots to the ground in June and July. Cut plants often produce new shoots from their rhizomes. It is advisable to let some large, mature shoots remain in summer and fall because large monarch larvae, milkweed tiger moth larvae, and other native species feed on mature leaves. Milkweed bugs commonly feed on follicles. Monarch larvae can consume small seedlings to the ground. To save seedlings, one can transfer larvae from seedlings to larger shoots.  Deforestation due to European settlement may have expanded the range and density of common milkweed. This plant can become invasive; it is naturalized in several areas outside of its native range, including Oregon and parts of Europe. However, in the last three decades mostly in the United States, milkweed populations have diminished dramatically due to factors such as increased habitat loss due to development, roadside median mowing, and herbicide use. Subsequently, this has played a significant part in the monarch butterfly's 90% population decline since the 1990 peak of 1B migrators as the milkweed can no longer survive among the corn and soybean rows.

Growing "A. syriaca" in a garden.

Monarch Watch provides information on rearing monarchs and their host plants. "Asclepias syriaca" seeds require a period of cold treatment (cold stratification) before they will germinate.  Plant "A. syriaca" or its seeds in a sunny location with good drainage and moist soil. The species spreads by both cloning from rhizomes and by sprouting from seeds. Plants start to spread by both methods within a few years.  Female monarchs frequently lay their eggs on small, tender shoots, and larvae favor such shoots as food. As monarch reproduction peaks in late summer when "A. syriaca" leaves are usually old and tough, cut back the plants in June - August to assure that they will produce new shoots at that time. Retain some mature plants that will later distribute their seeds and whose leaves will feed rhizomes that will produce next year's shoots.  The nonnative "Aphis nerii" (oleander aphid) can become abundant on milkweed shoots and stunt them. One can control this aphid by spraying soapy water on aphid groups, then immediately rinsing the groups with plain water. It might take more than one application to the same shoot on different days to control the aphids. The soapy water also kills aphid predators and parasites. However, the aphid outbreaks can be so large, that they can markedly harm milkweeds before their natural enemies control them. To make the soapy water, use one teaspoon of a dish detergent, used for hand-washing dishes, per quart of water.

Human uses.

The plant's latex contains large quantities of glycosides, making the leaves and follicles (often called "seed pods", although they are not botanical pods) toxic to sheep and other large mammals, and potentially humans (though large quantities of the foul-tasting parts would need to be eaten). The young shoots, young leaves, flower buds and immature fruits are all edible raw.  Concerns about milkweed bitterness and toxicity can be traced back to Euell Gibbons, author of "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" (1962). It is theorized that Gibbons inadvertently prepared common dogbane ("Apocynum cannabinum"), a poisonous somewhat similar-looking plant instead. He devised a method to remove the bitterness and toxicity by plunging the young shoots into boiling water (not cold) and cooking for one minute, repeating the procedure at least three times to make the plant safe to eat. Gibbons' method was copied from book to book, dominating edible plants literature for forty years. Most modern foragers consider the bitterness and toxicity issue a myth. The plants have no bitterness when tasted raw, and can be cooked like asparagus, with no special processing.  Failed attempts have been made to exploit rubber (from the latex) and fiber (from seeds' "floss") production from the plant industrially. The fluffy seed hairs have been used as the traditional background for mounted butterflies and other insects. The compressed floss has a beautiful silk-like sheen. The plant has also been explored for commercial use of its bast (inner bark) fiber which is both strong and soft. U. S. Department of Agriculture studies in the 1890s and 1940s found that common milkweed has more potential for commercial processing than any other indigenous bast fiber plant, with estimated yields as high as hemp and quality as good as flax. Both the bast fiber and the floss were used historically by Native Americans for cordage and textiles. Milkweed has also been cultivated commercially to be used as insulation in winter coats.

Asclepias syriaca, commonly called common milkweed, butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed, is a species of flowering plant. It is in the genus "Asclepias", the milkweeds. This species is native to southern Canada and of much of the conterminous eastern U.S., east of the Rocky Mountains, excluding the drier parts of the prairies. It grows in sandy soils and other kinds of soils in sunny areas. It was one of the earliest North American species described in Jacques-Philippe Cornut's 1635 work "Canadensium Plantarum Historia". The specific name was reused by Linnaeus due to Cornut's confusion with a species from Asia Minor.


Milkweed flowers.

Members of the genus "Asclepias" produce some of the most complex flowers in the plant kingdom, comparable to orchids in complexity. Five petals reflex backwards revealing a gynostegium (fused stamen filaments and styles) surrounded by a five-membrane corona. The corona is composed of a five paired hood and horn structure with the hood acting as a sheath for the inner horn. Glands holding pollinia are found between the hoods. The size, shape and color of the horns and hoods are often important identifying characteristics for species in the genus "Asclepias".  Pollination in this genus is accomplished in an unusual manner. Pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains or tetrads, as is typical for most plants. The feet or mouthparts of flower-visiting insects such as bees, wasps and butterflies, slip into one of the five slits in each flower formed by adjacent anthers. The bases of the pollinia then mechanically attach to the insect, so that a pair of pollen sacs can be pulled free when the pollinator flies off, assuming the insect is large enough to produce the necessary pulling force (if not, the insect may become trapped and die). Pollination is effected by the reverse procedure, in which one of the pollinia becomes trapped within the anther slit. Large-bodied hymenopterans are the most common and best pollinators, whereas monarch butterflies are not good pollinators of milkweed.  "Asclepias" species produce their seeds in pods termed follicles. The seeds, which are arranged in overlapping rows, bear a cluster of white, silky, filament-like hairs known as the coma (often referred to by other names such as pappus, "floss", "plume", or "silk"). The follicles ripen and split open, and the seeds, each carried by its coma, are blown by the wind. Some, but not all, milkweeds also reproduced by clonal (or vegetative) reproduction.

Ecology.

American milkweeds are an important nectar source for native bees, wasps, and other nectar-seeking insects, though non-native honey bees commonly get trapped in the stigmatic slits and die. Milkweeds are also the larval food source for monarch butterflies and their relatives, as well as a variety of other herbivorous insects (including numerous beetles, moths, and true bugs) specialized to feed on the plants despite their chemical defenses.  Milkweeds use three primary defenses to limit damage caused by caterpillars: hairs on the leaves, cardenolide toxins, and latex fluids. Data from a DNA study indicate that, generally, more recently-evolved milkweed species ("derived" in botany parlance) use these preventative strategies less but grow faster than older species, potentially regrowing faster than caterpillars can consume them.  Research indicates that the very high cardenolide content of "Asclepias linaria" reduces the impact of the OE parasite, "Ophryocystis elektroscirrha", on the monarch butterfly, "Danaus plexippus". By contrast, some species of "Asclepias" are extremely poor sources of cardenolides, such as "Asclepias fascicularis", "Asclepias tuberosa", and "Asclepias angustifolia".

Uses.

Milkweed is not grown commercially in large scale, but the plant has had many uses throughout human history. Milkweed has a long history of both medicinal, every day and, military use that most people aren’t even aware of. The Omaha Indian’s, from Nebraska, the Menomin which was from Wisconsin and upper Michigan, Dakota’s from Minnesota and, the Ponca Indians from Nebraska used it for a medicinal and everyday usage ages ago. They used it for everything from a diarrheic, relief from sore throats, it was chewed for swelling and rashes, new mothers that could not produce milk would drink it, it was used to treat colic, it was used to expel tapeworms, it was used to cure snakebite and for a contraceptive. Heart-leaf milkweed was used by the Miwok tribes of California for its stems, which they dried and used for cords such as strings and ropes. The milkweed filaments from the coma (the "floss") are hollow and coated with wax, and have good insulation qualities. During World War II, more than of milkweed floss was collected in the United States as a substitute for kapok. Milkweed is grown commercially as a hypoallergenic filling for pillows and as insulation for winter coats.  A study of the insulative properties of various materials found that milkweed floss was outperformed by other materials in terms of insulation, loft, and lumpiness, but it scored well when mixed with down feathers. Milkweed fibers are also used to clean up oil spills. The bast fibers of some species can be used for rope. Milkweed latex contains about two percent latex and was attempted as a source of natural rubber by both Nazi Germany and the United States during World War II. No record has been found of large-scale success.  "Asclepias" is also known as "Silk of America" which is a strand of common milkweed ("Asclepias syriaca") gathered mainly in the valley of the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. The silk is used in thermal insulation, acoustic insulation, and oil absorbents.  Milkweed also contains cardiac glycoside poisons that inhibit animal cells from maintaining a proper K, Ca concentration gradient. As a result, many natives of South America and Africa used arrows poisoned with these glycosides to fight and hunt more effectively. Milkweed is toxic and may cause death when animals consume large quantities of the plant. Milkweed also causes mild dermatitis in some who come in contact with it. Nonetheless, it can be made edible if properly processed.  The leaves of "Asclepias" species are a food source for monarch butterfly larvae and some other milkweed butterflies. These plants are often used in butterfly gardening and monarch waystations.  However, some milkweed species are not suitable for butterfly gardens and monarch waystations. For example, "Asclepias curassavica", or tropical milkweed, is often planted as an ornamental in butterfly gardens. Year-round plantings in the USA are controversial and criticised, as they may be the cause of new overwintering sites along the U.S. Gulf Coast, leading to year-round breeding of monarchs. This is thought to adversely affect migration patterns, and to cause a dramatic buildup of the dangerous parasite, "Ophryocystis elektroscirrha". New research also has shown that monarch larvae reared on tropical milkweed show reduced migratory development (reproductive diapause), and when migratory adults are exposed to tropical milkweed, it stimulates reproductive tissue growth.  Monarch caterpillars do not favor butterfly weed ("Asclepias tuberosa") because the leaves of that milkweed species contain little toxin (cardiac glycosides). Some other milkweeds may have similar characteristics.

Species.

Some Asclepias species:  There are also 12 species of "Asclepias" in South America, among them: "A. barjoniifolia", "A. boliviensis", "A. curassavica", "A. mellodora", "A. candida", "A. flava", and "A. pilgeriana".

Formerly classified species.

Species formerly classified under the genus "Asclepias" include:

Asclepias is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to humans and many other species, primarily due to the presence of cardenolides, although, as with many such plants, there are species that feed upon them (i.e. leaves) and from them (i.e. nectar). The genus contains over 200 species distributed broadly across Africa, North America, and South America. It previously belonged to the family Asclepiadaceae, which is now classified as the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the dogbane family, Apocynaceae.


Biography.

Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna in 1552 to Prospero Fontana and Antonia de' Bonardis. She was baptized on August 24, 1552 at the cathedral of San Pietro. Her elder sister Emilia died in 1568 when Lavinia was sixteen. Prospero was a prominent painter of the School of Bologna at the time and served as her teacher. Caroline P. Murphy suspects that financial issues may have prompted Prospero to train Lavinia as a painter. Her earliest known work, "Child of the Monkey", was painted in 1575 at the age of 23. Though this work is now lost, another early painting, "Christ with the Symbols of the Passion", painted in 1576, is now in the El Paso Museum of Art. Bolognese society at large was supportive of Fontana's artistic career, providing opportunities and connections that were not available to women in other locales. She began her commercial practice by painting small devotional paintings on copper, which had popular appeal as papal and diplomatic gifts, given the value and lustre of the metal. In the 1580s, she was known as a portraitist of Bolognese noblewomen who competed for her services. The high demand for portraits painted by Fontana was reflected in the large sums of money she earned during this period. Her relationships with female clients were often unusually warm; multiple women who sat for portraits, such as the Duchess of Sora Constanza Sforza Boncompagni, later served as namesakes or godmothers for Fontana's children. In addition to portraits, she later created large scale paintings with religious and mythological themes which sometimes included female nudes.  Fontana married Gian Paolo Zappi (alternate spellings include Giovan and Fappi) in June 1577. The couple moved into Prospero's house in Bologna and Lavinia painted professionally, adding Zappi to her signature. She gave birth to 11 children, though only 3 outlived her: Flaminio, Orazio, and Prospero. Zappi took care of the household and served as an agent and painting assistant to his wife, including painting minor elements of paintings such as draperies. Fontana attended classes at the University of Bologna, and was listed as one of the city's 'Donne addtrinatte' (women with doctorates) in 1580.

Roman period (1603-14).

Fontana and her family moved to Rome in 1603 at the invitation of Pope Clement VIII. She gained the patronage of the Buoncompagni, of which Pope Gregory XIII was a member. She was subsequently appointed as Portraitist in Ordinary at the Vatican. Lavinia thrived in Rome as she had in Bologna and Pope Paul V himself was among her sitters. She was the recipient of numerous honors, including a bronze portrait medallion cast in 1611 by sculptor and architect Felice Antonio Casoni. According to Jean Owens Schaefer, the reverse side of the medal depicts Pittura, an allegorical figure representing painting. He also posits that this is the first visual rendition of Cesare Ripa's 1603 description of Pittura.  She was elected into the Accademia di San Luca of Rome. She died in the city on August 11, 1614 and was subsequently buried at Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

Legacy.

The "Self-Portrait at the Clavichord with a Servant" is considered to be her masterpiece. It was painted as a betrothal gift to the Zappi family as evidenced by Fontana describing herself as a virgin in the signature and stating that she painted while looking at herself in a mirror as a testament to the accuracy of the depiction. There are over 100 works that are documented, but only 32 signed and dated works are known today. There are 25 more that can be attributed to her, making hers the largest oeuvre for any female artist prior to 1700. Some of her portraits, often lavishly paid for, have been wrongly attributed to her contemporary Guido Reni. Chief among these are "Venus;" "The Virgin lifting a veil from th sleeping infant Christ"; and the "Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon".  Lavinia is immortalized as the subject of "Portrait of a Woman" (1595) by Paolo Veronese. She was the only woman artist featured in Giulio Mancini's "Considerazioni sulla pittura" (Considerations on Painting). The naturalism of her paintings is highly praised and the beauty of her paintings is linked to her own physical attractiveness.  Fontana influenced Alberto de' Rossi and Alessandro Tiarini. Aurelio Bonelli may have studied under her.

Artistry.

Artistic influences.

Lavinia's youthful style resembled that of her father, Prospero. As a student of Ludovico Carracci, she gradually adopted the Carracciesque style, with strong quasi-Venetian coloring.  Sofonisba Anguissola, Caterina Vigri, and Properzia de' Rossi may have influenced Fontana's artistic career.

Counter-Reformation.

The Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent's recommendations for religious art defined Fontana's treatment of subjects and themes in her paintings. Excellent status as a daughter, wife, and mother was a prerequisite to her career due to the moral standards of the day. Demand for portraits of family and children rose due to the Roman Catholic Church's emphasis on family values.

Style.

The influence of Mannerism is noticeable in Fontana's close attention to detail in her paintings and the significance of the materials surrounding the subject. Fontana's self-portraiture strikes a balance between presenting the artist as a distinguished lady and as a professional artist. This depiction of two coexisting roles was common for sixteenth-century women artists.

Controversy.

Nudity.

Among art historians, there is a controversy over Fontana's depiction of the nude female form in her paintings. Liana De Girolami Cheney argues that the naturalism of the figures may indicate that Fontana used live nude models. Caroline P. Murphy argues that while body parts are well rendered, the figures as a whole are disproportionate, similar to Prospero's rendering of human anatomy. Additionally, Murphy points out that during Lavinia's lifetime, it was socially unacceptable for women to be exposed to nudity; if it was discovered that she used live nude models, her reputation would be tarnished. She instead suggests that like Sofonisba Anguissola, Fontana had family members model for her. Further, Linda Nochlin explains that the art academy barred women from viewing any nude body, despite this being a crucial part of training.

Lavinia Fontana (August 24, 1552 – August 11, 1614) was a Bolognese Mannerist painter best known for her portraiture. She was trained by her father Prospero Fontana and was active in Bologna and Rome. She is regarded as the first female career artist in Western Europe as she relied on commissions for her income. Her family relied on her career as a painter, and her husband served as her agent and raised their eleven children. She was perhaps the first woman artist to paint female nudes, but this is a topic of controversy among art historians.


History and tactics.

The regiment flew harassment and precision bombing missions against the German military from 1942 until the end of the war. At its largest, it had 40 two-person crews. The regiment flew over 23,000 sorties, dropping over 3,000 tons of bombs and 26,000 incendiary shells. It was the most highly decorated female unit in the Soviet Air Force, with many pilots having flown over 800 missions by the end of the war, and twenty-three having been awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title. Thirty-two of its members died in the war.  The regiment flew in wood-and-canvas Polikarpov U-2 biplanes, a 1928 design intended for use as training aircraft (hence its original designation prefix of "U-") and for crop dusting, which also had a special U-2LNB version for the sort of night harassment attack missions flown by the 588th, and to this day remains the most-produced wood-airframed biplane in aviation history. The plane could carry only two bombs at a time, so eight or more missions per night were often necessary. Although the aircraft was obsolete and slow, the pilots took advantage of its exceptional maneuverability; it also had a maximum speed that was lower than the stall speed of both the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, which made it very difficult for German pilots to shoot down, with the exception of fighter ace Josef Kociok, who grounded the regiment for an entire night by shooting down four of their planes on the night of 31 July 1 August 1943.

Cold welcoming.

This all-female flying squadron was not welcomed into the military with open arms. Many of their male counterparts saw them as inferior and treated them with lack of respect. The women of the regiment were also given hand-me-downs of uniforms and over-sized shoes by the men, as well as rudimentary tools (such as rulers, flashlights, pencils, etc) that lacked the "luxury" that the male soldiers received with their tools (e.g.- radar, guns, radios, etc.).

Timeline and operations.

Members of the regiment were deployed from the Engels Military Aviation School to the Southern Front as part of the 218th Division of the 4th Air Army on 23 May 1942, where they arrived on 27 May.

Sorties.

Throughout the course of the war the regiment accumulated approximately 23,672 sorties in combat, including in the following battles: In total the regiment collectively accumulated 28,676 flight hours, dropped over 3,000 tons of bombs and over 26,000 incendiary shells, damaging or completely destroying 17 river crossings, nine railways, two railway stations, 26 warehouses, 12 fuel depots, 176 armored cars, 86 firing points, and 11 searchlights. In addition to bombings, the unit performed 155 supply drops of food and ammunition to Soviet forces.

Personnel.

In total, 261 people served in the regiment, of whom 32 died of various causes including plane crashes, combat deaths and tuberculosis. 28 aircraft were written off.

Repressed personnel.

Senior Engineer Sofiya Ozerkova was sentenced to death by a military tribunal in 1942, but she was later acquitted after her sentence was suspended and she was reinstated to her position. Mechanics Raisa Kharitonova and Tamara Frolova were sentenced to ten years of imprisonment for dismantling a flare (used by navigators to illuminate bombing targets) and using the small silk parachute to sew undergarments. Both of them were retrained as navigators, but Frolova was killed in action in 1943.

Honored personnel.

Twenty-three personnel from the regiment were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, two were awarded Hero of the Russian Federation, and one was awarded Hero of Kazakhstan.

Other women's regiments.

On 8 October 1941, Order number 0099 specified the creation of three women's regiments—all personnel from technicians to pilots would be entirely composed of women. The other two regiments were the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, which used Yak-1 fighters, and the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment, which used twin engine Pe-2 dive bombers. Later the unit received the Guards designation and reorganized as the 125th Guards Dive Bomber Regiment. Although all three regiments had been planned to have women exclusively, none remained all-female. The 586th and 588th Regiments employed male mechanics, the 586th because no women had received training to work on the Yakovlev fighter planes before the war. The 586th's woman commander, Major Tamara Aleksandrovna Kazarinova, was replaced by a man, Major Aleksandr Vasilievich Gridnev, in October 1942. The 587th Regiment was originally under the command of Marina Raskova, but after her death in 1943, a male commanding officer, Major Valentin Vasilievich Markov, replaced her. The 587th's Petlyakov Pe-2 dive bombers also required a tall person to operate the top rear machine gun, but not enough women recruited were tall enough, requiring some men to join the aircrews as radio operator and tail gunner. The 588th Regiment's staff driver and searchlight operatives were also male.

"Night Witches" (;, ) was a World War II German nickname for the all female military aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, known later as the 46th "Taman" Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, of the Soviet Air Forces. Though women were initially barred from combat, Major Marina Raskova used her position and personal contacts with the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Joseph Stalin, to obtain permission to form female combat units. On October 8, 1941, an order was issued to deploy three women's air-force units, including the 588th Regiment. The regiment, formed by Major Marina Raskova and led by Major Yevdokiya Bershanskaya, comprised primarily female volunteers in their late teens and early twenties.


History.

The collections originate from the professional engineering school (founded in 1717 in Prague), continued by the Prague Polytechnical Institute (founded in 1806) and finally the opening of the Czech industrial museum, founded by Vojtěch Náprstek in 1874. Further parts of his collections were transferred to the museum later in the 20th century. The modern origin is the Technical Museum of Bohemia, opened to the public in 1910 in the Schwarzenberg Palace, renamed the Czechoslovakian Technical Museum in 1918 (with the founding of the state of Czechoslovakia) and moved to its present building in 1942. It was designed by Milan Babuška, the winner of an architectural competition in Functionalist style. The collection moved out during Nazi occupation, then was gradually returned, only fully occupying the main building in the 1990s.  In 1995 three new galleries were opened: Industrial Design, Single Building, and Fine Arts. Industrial design particularly featured early Czech motorcycles and light fittings, and their processes of manufacture. The Single Building Gallery is used for quarterly exhibitions of models and designs of buildings which have some topical relevance such as an anniversary. The Fine Arts gallery features paintings and sculptures from the 17th to 20th century of subjects related to industry, science and technology.  In 2001 the museum opened a Railroad Museum that contains about 100 railway vehicles.  The 2002 European floods caused damage to some 200 cubic metres of documents at the museum - in a location separate to the main building. Work involved in drying and restoring the materials continued until 2013.  The National Technical Museum was closed from September 2006 to February 2011 for extensive renovations.

Significant exhibits.

Aviation pioneer Jan Kašpar donated the aircraft, with which he had flown his first flight from Pardubice to Velká Chuchle in 1911, to the National Technical Museum in Prague, where it is still on display among many other historic aircraft. Mercedes-Benz W154 (1939), Rudolf Caracciola's car is the most valuable exhibit of the muzeum. Tatra 80 (1935), President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk's car is the most precious Czech car.

The National Technical Museum () (NTM) in Prague is the largest institution dedicated to preserving information and artifacts related to the history of technology in the Czech Republic. The museum has large exhibits representing approximately 15% of its total collection. The museum also manages substantial archives consisting of approximately 3,500 linear shelf meters of archival material and about 250,000 books. The museum was founded in 1908 and has been in its current location (adjacent to Letná Park) since 1941.


Goal.

Symfony aims to speed up the creation and maintenance of web applications and to replace repetitive coding tasks. It's also aimed at building robust applications in an enterprise context, and aims to give developers full control over the configuration: from the directory structure to the foreign libraries, almost everything can be customized. To match enterprise development guidelines, Symfony is bundled with additional tools to help developers test, debug and document projects.  Symfony has a low performance overhead used with a bytecode cache.

Technical.

Symfony was heavily inspired by the Spring Framework.  It makes heavy use of existing PHP open-source projects as part of the framework, including:  Symfony also makes use of its own components, which are freely available on the Symfony Components site for various other projects:

Sponsors.

Symfony is sponsored by SensioLabs, a French software developer and professional services provider. The first name was Sensio Framework, and all classes were therefore prefixed with sf. Later on when it was decided to launch it as open-source framework, the brainstorming resulted in the name symfony (being renamed to Symfony from version 2 and on), which matches the existing theme and class name prefixes.

Real-world usage.

Symfony's own website has a comprehensive list of projects using Symfony and a showcase of websites built with Symfony.

Releases.

Symfony manages its releases through a time-based model; a new Symfony release comes out every six months: one in May and one in November. This release process has been adopted as of Symfony 2.2, and all the "rules" explained in this document must be strictly followed as of Symfony 2.4.  The standard version of Symfony is maintained for eight months, whereas long-term support (LTS) versions are supported for three years. A new LTS release is published biennially.  The current LTS release is version 4.4 as per https://symfony.com/releases/4.4

Symfony is a PHP web application framework and a set of reusable PHP components/libraries. It was published as free software on October 18, 2005 and released under the MIT license.


Early life and education.

López Portillo was born in Mexico City, to his father José López Portillo y Weber (1888–1974), an engineer, historian, researcher, and academic, and to Refugio Pacheco y Villa-Gordoa. He was the grandson of José López Portillo y Rojas, a lawyer, politician, and man of letters. He was the great-great-great grandson of José María Narváez (1768–1840), a Spanish explorer who was the first to enter Strait of Georgia, in present-day British Columbia, and the first to view the site now occupied by Vancouver. He studied law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) before beginning his political career.

Early career.

After graduating, he began his political career with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1959. He held several positions in the administrations of his two predecessors before being appointed to serve as finance minister under Luis Echeverría, a close friend from childhood, between 1973 and 1975.

Presidency.

Domestic policy.

López Portillo was elected unopposed in 1976, though in any event the PRI was so entrenched that he was effectively assured of victory when Echeverría chose him as the PRI's candidate. To date, he is the last Mexican president to run unopposed.  When he entered office, Mexico was in the midst of an economic crisis. He undertook an ambitious program to promote Mexico's economic development with revenues stemming from the discovery of new petroleum reserves in the states of Veracruz and Tabasco by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the country's publicly owned oil company. In 1980, Mexico joined Venezuela in the Pact of San José, a foreign aid project to sell oil at preferential rates to countries in Central America and the Caribbean. The economic confidence that he fostered led to a short-term boost in economic growth, but by the time he left office, the economy had deteriorated and gave way to a severe debt crisis and a sovereign default.  One of his last acts as president, announced during his annual State of the Nation address on September 1, 1982, was to order the nationalization of the country's banking system.  During his presidential term, his critics accused him of corruption and nepotism.  An electoral reform conducted during his presidential term increased the number of members of the Chamber of Deputies to 400: 300 being elected single-seat constituencies by plurality vote ("uninominals") and 100 being elected according to proportional representation ("plurinominals"). The reform furthermore opened the electoral process for small opposition parties.

Foreign policy.

In 1981, the Cancun Summit, a North-South dialogue, took place. The summit was attended by 22 heads of state and government from industrialized countries (North) and developing nations (South). During López Portillo's presidential term, Mexico supported the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua. In 1977, after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, Mexico resumed diplomatic relations with Spain. Also, Pope John Paul II visited Mexico for the first time.

Presidential succession.

In the year leading to the end of his term as president on December 1, 1982, López Portillo personally chose two candidates as possibilities to replace himself, following the succession ritual established by his party. One, Javier García Paniagua, would have been appointed if a man of greater political skill were needed. The other, ultimately his successor, was Miguel de la Madrid, who was chosen for his financial and administrative skills, which were deemed much more necessary after the devaluation of the peso in February 1982 and the subsequent economic crisis.  On September 1, 1982, at his final annual Address to the Congress ("Informe de Gobierno"), López Portillo gave a famous speech where he condemned businessmen and bankers responsible for the capital flight, claimed that the crisis was not his fault ("I'm responsible for the helm, but the storm is not my fault"), announced the nationalization of the banks ("They have looted us, but Mexico is not finished, they won't loot us again!"), and asked for forgiveness over his mistakes as President and the economic crisis. He famously broke in tears during his speech after asking for the forgiveness of Mexico's poor. This passionate speech, however, did little to repair his image, and he remains one of the most unpopular Mexican presidents in recent history.  López Portillo was the last economic nationalist president to emerge from the ranks of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Subsequent presidents have all been for free trade ("librecambismo").

Personal life and death.

López Portillo's first wife was Carmen Romano. However, López Portillo after his presidency divorced Carmen and married in 1995 his longtime partner, the Yugoslavian-born actress Sasha Montenegro. They had two children (Nabila and Alejandro) but later separated.  He was the brother of late Mexican novelist Margarita López Portillo, who died on May 8, 2006, of natural causes.  He died in Mexico City when he was 83 years old. He was the victim of a cardiac complication generated by a pneumonia. He was buried at the Pantheon Federal District military.

Public image and opinion.

In a national survey conducted in 2012, 25% of the respondents considered that the López Portillo administration was "very good" or "good", 17% responded that it was an "average" administration, and 44% responded that it was a "very bad" or "bad" administration.

José Guillermo Abel López Portillo y Pacheco, (; 16 June 1920 – 17 February 2004) was a Mexican lawyer and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 51st President of Mexico from 1976 to 1982. López Portillo was the only official candidate in the 1976 Presidential election, being the only President in recent Mexican history to win an election unopposed.


Family background.

The house of Petrović came originally from Herzegovina and settled in Njeguši around 1400. Niegosch was born around 1425 and became the Voivode of Njegoš.  Crown Prince Nicholas descends from Danilo Petrović-Njegoš who obtained the hereditary Dignity of Vladika (Prince-Bishop) of Montenegro in 1711 when it became a theocracy. Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš was recognized as Sovereign Prince of Montenegro by Russia on 21 March 1852, and established succession by male primogeniture. His successor, Prince Nikola I assumed the style of "Royal Highness" on 19 December 1900, and the title of King 28 August 1910.  Nikola is also related to the former royal House of Obrenović through Jevrem, younger full brother of Miloš Obrenović I, Prince of Serbia.  During World War I the Petrović Njegoš family were forced to flee the country in 1915 after the Army of Montenegro was overwhelmed by the troops of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the end of the war, territories of Montenegro joined the Kingdom of Serbia, while the Podgorica People's Assembly abolished the Kingdom of Montenegro and deposing the Petrović Njegoš dynasty.  The family gained the French citizenship as they made their home in France where Nikola I of Montenegro died in exile in 1921. The same year, King Nikola's maternal grandson, Alexandar Karađorđević (Prince Nikola I's cousin) became king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, of which Montenegro had become a part. Though the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed on 13 November 1918, it was never recognized by Nikola I, who maintained a government-in-exile, which was headed by the ex-king's former aide-de-camp and ambassador to Washington, General Anto Gvozdenović, until the Conference of Ambassadors at Paris gave international recognition to the union 13 July 1922.  Nikola I's heir at death was his eldest son, Crown Prince Danilo (titular King Danilo II), who "abdicated" after one week, recognising his cousin's reign over Serbia (including the territories of Montenegro) and Yugoslavia. Family's dynastic claim was taken up by his grandson, Michael, Prince of Montenegro, the titular King Mihajlo I, who was the father of Prince Nikola II and died in exile in 1986.  Though Prince Nikola II is "de jure" King of Montenegro he uses the style of "His Royal Highness Crown Prince" or "His Royal Highness Prince Nikola II of Montenegro."

Biography.

Prince Nikola II was born in an internment camp in Occupied Czechoslovakia on July 7, 1944. He is the only son and heir of the late Prince Michael of Montenegro, Grand-Duke of Grahovo and Zeta, who lived in exile until his death in 1986, and Geneviève Prigent (1919–1991), a French citizen. Prince Michael was regarded by Montenegro's monarchists as king from 7 March 1921. His parents married on 27 January 1941 and divorced in Paris, France, on 11 August 1949, exactly 5 weeks after his 5th birthday. Genevieve received custody of young Nikola and raised him largely as a single mother. Growing up in France, Prince Nikola barely saw his father, knew very little about Montenegro and was raised and educated as a Frenchman.  Nikola was an active participant in the campaign for the restoration of Montenegro's independence, preceding the referendum on the separation of the former kingdom from the provisional State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.  Prince Nikola made public pronouncements of his willingness to return to the Montenegrin throne if that were the wish of the people. In July 2010 the government of Montenegro made a formal offer to provide Nikola with a €3,000 monthly stipend (equal to that of the President), granting his family with an annual €300,000 civil list, a formal residence in Cetinje and the return of the Petrović Njegoš historic family home in Njeguši. This offer was rejected because Nikola believed that the proposal did not deal adequately with the issue of property compensation, as more than thirty properties were alleged to have been confiscated from the dynasty after the monarchy was overthrown. Furthermore, he believed that the bill would prevent the dynasty from participating in political life and restrict the ability of members of the dynasty to speak freely about certain subjects. He also said that the civil list amount that was announced in the press was not actually contained in the proposed version of the bill that he was shown.  Owing to his stance on this bill, Nikola chose not to attend the celebrations of the centenary of the Kingdom of Montenegro that were held on 28 August 2010. Instead he celebrated in private.  Legislation passed later in 2011 revised the conditions offered to the prince, and was accepted by Prince Nikola on behalf of his family, who said he was now "entirely satisfied". In addition to aspects of the previous offer, Nikola was given use of the first floor of the former royal palace and named as a special representative for the government of Montenegro.  The Montenegrin state promised to pay €4.3 million in compensation for lost assets to a family fund, and pay Crown Prince Nikola a monthly salary equal to that of the president.

Education.

Nikola was educated in France. In 1964 he was admitted to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and between 1965 and 1967 he attended training courses in several architectural practices. Between 1967 and 1971 he worked on several architectural projects, including a winter sports resort in Avoriaz, France, and with Shamaï Haber on several university science faculties.  In 1971, he was awarded a diploma in Architecture and admitted to the Société Française des Architectes. Nikola has stated that he wishes to construct the first eco-built residence in Montenegro when designing his family's new home in Cetinje.

Marriage and children.

In 1976 he married Francine Navarro in Trebeurden, Côtes-du-Nord on 27 November. She died in Paris on 6 August 2008. Together they raised a family at Les Lilas, France;

Honours, awards and arms.

Coat of arms.

He bears the Montenegrin Coat of Arms, which can be seen at the centre of the Flag of Montenegro. The Royal Coat of Arms is borne by the head of the Petrović Njegoš Dynasty, and differs from the family Coat of Arms.  The Constitution of 2007 maintained "the tradition" of King Nikola I: the adopted Coat of Arms was a crowned silver eagle with the sara in one and the scepter in the other claw, and charged on its breast was a red shield with the lion passant.  The 2011 Law on the Status of the Descendants of the Petrović Njegoš Dynasty states that Prince Nikola II "may use the heraldic symbols of the Petrović Njegoš dynasty" (Article 6).

Royal Standard.

In Petrović Njegoš's standard there is a red background bordered by white, with the double-headed eagle and the initials in Cyrillic N.II (Nikola II) on its breast, with the lion passant underneath. This standard is flown over the Prince’s palace at Cetinje. It is also used as a distinguishing insignia on vehicles, ships, aircraft and in the Military. The other version is a tricolor with initials NII and a crown on top.

Crown Prince Nicholas of Montenegro (; born 7 July 1944) is the Head of the House of Petrović-Njegoš, which reigned over Montenegro from 1696 to 1766 and again from 1782 to 1918.