Michael Christopher Sheen (born 5 February 1969) is a Welsh actor. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s with stage roles in Romeo and Juliet (1992), Don't Fool with Love (1993), Peer Gynt (1994), The Seagull (1995), The Homecoming (1997), and Henry V (1997). His performances in Amadeus at the Old Vic and Look Back in Anger at the National Theatre were nominated for Olivier Awards in 1998 and 1999, respectively. In 2003, he was nominated for a third Olivier Award for his performance in Caligula at the Donmar Warehouse.

Sheen has become better known as a screen actor since the 2000s, in particular through his roles in various biographical films. For writer Peter Morgan, he starred in a trilogy of films as UK prime minister Tony Blairthe television film The Deal in 2003, The Queen (2006), and The Special Relationship (2010)earning him nominations for both a BAFTA Award and an Emmy. He was also nominated for a BAFTA as the troubled comic actor Kenneth Williams in BBC Four's 2006 Fantabulosa!, and was nominated for a fourth Olivier Award in 2006 for portraying the broadcaster David Frost in Frost/Nixon, a role he revisited in the 2008 film adaptation of the play. He starred as the controversial football manager Brian Clough in The Damned United (2009).

Since 2009, Sheen has had a wider variety of roles. In 2009, he appeared in two fantasy films, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and in 2010, he made a four-episode guest appearance in the NBC comedy 30 Rock. He appeared in the science-fiction film Tron: Legacy (2010) and Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011). He directed and starred in National Theatre Wales's The Passion. From late 2011 until early 2012, he played the title role in Hamlet at the Young Vic. He played a lead role in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 in 2012. In 2013, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Showtime's television drama Masters of Sex.

Sheen played an incarcerated serial killer surgeon in Fox's drama series Prodigal Son (2019–2021), Aziraphale in the BBC/Amazon Studios fantasy comedy series Good Omens (2019–present), and appeared as Chris Tarrant in Quiz (2020). He played himself in the quarantine comedy show Staged (2020–2022) with friend and Good Omens co-star David Tennant throughout the COVID-19 lockdown.

Sheen is politically engaged, and in 2017 he returned his OBE after conducting research on Wales' relationship with England.

Early life
Sheen was born on 5 February 1969 in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, the son of Irene, a secretary, and Meyrick, a British Steel Corporation personnel manager. He has one younger sister, Joanne. The family lived in Llanmartin, near Newport, for 12 years. When he was five, the family moved to Wallasey for work, but settled in his parents' home town of Port Talbot, Glamorgan, three years later.

Director Sam Mendes has described Sheen as "a stage creature" and attributed that to the actor's Welsh roots: "I'm serious. He's Welsh in the tradition of Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton: fiery, mercurial, unpredictable." A keen footballer, Sheen was scouted and offered a place on Arsenal's youth team at the age of 12, but his family was unwilling to relocate to London. He later said he was "grateful" for his parents' decision, as the chances of forging a professional football career were "so slim".

Sheen was raised in a theatrical family, his parents both being involved in local amateur operatics and musicals and, later in life, his father worked as a part-time professional Jack Nicholson lookalike. In his teenage years, Sheen was involved with the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre and, later, the National Youth Theatre of Wales. "It was a brilliant youth theatre", Sheen has said, "and it taught me not only a lot about acting, but also about work ethic; it was very disciplined." He was influenced by the performances of Laurence Olivier and the writings of theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, saying "the combination of those two things kind of blew my head off." Sheen was educated at Blaenbaglan Primary School, Glan Afan Comprehensive School and, finally, Neath Port Talbot College where he sat A-levels in English, Drama and Sociology. He considered studying English at university but instead decided to attend drama school. He moved to London in 1988 to train as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), having spent the previous year working in a Welsh fast-food restaurant called Burger Master to earn money. Sheen was granted the Laurence Olivier Bursary by the Society of London Theatre in his second year at RADA. He graduated in 1991 with a BA in Acting.

Career

Classical stage roles (1991–2001)
Sheen worked predominantly in theatre in the 1990s and has since remarked that he will always feel "slightly more at home" on stage. "It's more of an actor's medium. You are your own editor, nobody else is choosing what is being seen of you." His first professional role, while still in his third and final year at RADA, was in When She Danced at the Globe Theatre in 1991. He later described the role as "a big break. One day, I was at RADA doing a movement class, the next I was at a read-through with Vanessa Redgrave and Frances de la Tour." Milton Shulman of the Evening Standard praised an "excellent" performance while The Observer wrote of "a notable West End debut". In 1992, Sheen's performance in Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Exchange received a MEN Theatre Award nomination and led theatre critic Michael Coveney to declare him "the most exciting young actor of his generation ... a volatile, electrifying and technically fearless performer". His 1993 turn as Perdican in Alfred de Musset's Don't Fool With Love at the Donmar Warehouse was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award. and was described by The Independent as "quite thrilling". Also in 1993, Sheen appeared in the world premiere of Harold Pinter's Moonlight at the Almeida Theatre and made his television debut in the 1993 BBC mini-series Gallowglass.

Sheen played the title role in Peer Gynt in 1994. The Yukio Ninagawa production was staged in Oslo, Tokyo and at the Barbican Centre, London. The Times praised Sheen's "astonishing vitality" while The Independent found him "sensationally good" and noted that "the Norwegian press were grudgingly captivated by the mercurial Welsh boyo". In other 1994 work, Sheen appeared in Le Livre de Spencer at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, Paris and starred in the cross-dressing farce Charley's Aunt at the Royal Exchange. In 1995, he appeared opposite Kate Beckinsale in a production of The Seagull at the Theatre Royal, Bath and, with the encouragement of Thelma Holt, directed and starred in The Dresser at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth. In addition, Sheen made his film debut that year, appearing opposite Kenneth Branagh in Othello. 1996 saw Sheen at the National Theatre for The Ends of the Earth, an original play by David Lan. A minor role in Mary Reilly marked the first of three film collaborations with director Stephen Frears. Sheen's most significant appearance of 1997 was the title role in Henry V, staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at their Stratford-upon-Avon theatre, which earned him a second Ian Charleson Award nomination. The Times praised "a blisteringly intelligent performance". Also in 1997, he appeared in a revival of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming at the National Theatre, directed by Roger Michell, and directed Badfinger, starring Rhys Ifans, at the Donmar Warehouse. The latter was staged by the Thin Language Theatre Company, which Sheen had co-founded in 1991, aiming to further Welsh theatre. He then appeared in the biographical film Wilde, playing Robbie Ross to Stephen Fry's Oscar Wilde. In early 1998 Sheen formed a production company, The Foundry, with Helen McCrory and Robert Delamere to promote the work of emerging playwrights, and produced A Little World of Our Own at the Donmar Warehouse, which gave Colin Farrell his West End debut.

From 1998 to 1999, Sheen starred as Mozart in a successful revival of Amadeus. The Peter Hall-directed production was staged at the Old Vic, London, and later transferred to the Music Box on Broadway. Ben Brantley, chief theatre critic for The New York Times, was particularly vocal in his praise. He noted that "Mr. Sheen elicits a real poetry from the role" and felt that, while watching him, "you start to appreciate the derivation of the term star. This actor is so luminous it's scary!" The Independent found him "quite stunning as Mozart. His fantastically physical performance convinces you of his character's genius and the play catches fire whenever he's on stage." Sheen was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor. In 1999, Sheen explored the role of Jimmy Porter in the National Theatre's production of Look Back in Anger. In 2003, Sheen described the production as "the most enjoyable thing I've ever done ... everything came together". "Sheen has cornered the market in explosive energy", said The Independent, "but this thrilling performance is his finest yet." The Financial Times noted: "As Jimmy Porter, a role of staggering difficulty in every way, Michael Sheen gives surely the best performance London has yet seen from him ... You hang on every word he utters ... This is a dazzlingly through-the-body performance." He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and an Evening Standard Award for Best Actor.

The Deal, The Queen, and Fantabulosa (2002–2006)
At this point in his career, Sheen began to devote more time to film work. Heartlands, a little-seen 2002 film about a naive man's road trip in the Midlands, was his first leading film role. While The Guardian dismissed the "cloying bittersweet-regional-lottery-Britfilm", it noted that "Sheen himself has a childlike, Frank Spencer-ish charm". "It was great to do something that was so different", Sheen has said of the role. "I usually play very extreme characters." Also in 2002, he had a minor role in the action-adventure film The Four Feathers. In 2003, Sheen appeared in Bright Young Things, the directorial debut of his Wilde co-star, Stephen Fry. An adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Vile Bodies, the film followed high society partygoers in decadent, pre-war London. Sheen played a gay aristocrat in an ensemble cast which included James McAvoy, Emily Mortimer, David Tennant, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Broadbent and Peter O'Toole. While the Los Angeles Times said he "shone", The Guardian felt the role "drastically under-uses his talents". Sheen described his character as "possibly the campest man in cinema history" and relished a scene "where I do drugs with [a then 95-year-old] Sir John Mills." In other 2003 film work, Sheen portrayed the werewolf leader Lucian in Underworld and made a brief appearance in the sci-fi film Timeline.

Sheen returned to the stage in 2003 to play the title role in Caligula at the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Michael Grandage. It was the first of just three stage appearances during the 2000s; his young daughter was now based in Los Angeles which made more frequent stage runs in Britain impractical. The Independents critic declared it "one of the most thrilling and searching performances I have ever witnessed" and The Daily Telegraph described him as an "outrageously charismatic actor" with "an astonishing physical presence". The Times praised a "riveting performance" and The Guardian found him "highly impressive ... at one point he attacks his court poet with a single hair-raising leap across a chair and table". Sheen won an Evening Standard Award for Best Actor and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor, and was again nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.

Sheen's breakthrough role was as British politician Tony Blair in 2003's The Deal. The Channel 4 film explored the so-called Granita pact made by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown prior to the 1994 Labour Party leadership election, and was the actor's first collaboration with screenwriter Peter Morgan. Director Stephen Frears cast him because "he was in Mary Reilly and I knew he was brilliant." Filmed while he was playing Caligula nightly on stage, Sheen has remarked, "It's interesting that in searching for monsters to play, you often end up playing leaders." The Daily Telegraph praised his "earnest, yet steely, portrayal" while The Guardian found him "excellent. This is intelligent and honest casting." In 2004, Sheen starred in ITV's Dirty Filthy Love, a comic film about a man dealing with OCD and Tourette's after a marital separation. Sheen spoke of "treading a fine line" because "a lot of the symptoms are intrinsically comical". He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Television Actor and a RTS Best Actor Award. Also in 2004, Sheen played a pompous rock star in the romantic comedy Laws of Attraction and produced and starred in The Banker, which won a BAFTA Award for Best Short Film.

In 2005, Sheen starred in the National Theatre's production of The UN Inspector, a David Farr adaptation of The Government Inspector. The Times wrote of "a scathingly brilliant and inventive performance" while Variety noted that the actor "adds comic finesse to his apparently ceaseless repertoire". The Evening Standard, while conceding that the performance was "technically brilliant", expressed bemusement as to why "one of the most mercurial and inspiring actors we have seems set on impersonating Rik Mayall throughout". Also that year, he took part in the Old Vic's 24 Hour Play, in which The Daily Telegraph felt he "dazzled". In 2005 film work, Sheen starred in Dead Long Enough, a small-budget Welsh/Irish film, with his longtime friend, Jason Hughes. In addition, he had a supporting role in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, made a cameo appearance in The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse and starred in the short film The Open Doors.

Sheen came to international attention in 2006 for his portrayal of Tony Blair in The Queen. The film focused on the differing reactions of the British Royal Family and the newly appointed Prime Minister following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997; it was Sheen's third collaboration with director Stephen Frears and his second with screenwriter Peter Morgan. He enjoyed reprising his role because Blair, at this point in his career, had "a weight to him that he didn't have before". When asked to discuss his personal opinion of Blair, Sheen admitted that the more time he spent working on the character, the "less opinion" he has of the politician: "Now when I watch him on TV or hear his voice, it's sort of like a cross between a family member, a friend and seeing a really old embarrassing video of yourself." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised "a sensational performance, alert and nuanced" while Empire spoke of an "uncanny, insightful performance". Sheen was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His second film appearance of 2006 was a supporting role in Blood Diamond as an unscrupulous diamond dealer.

Also in 2006, Sheen starred as the troubled English comic actor Kenneth Williams in BBC Four's Fantabulosa! In preparation for the role, he lost two and a half stone (approx. 35 lbs), studied archival footage and read Williams' published diaries. Sheen has said he is "fascinated by finding the private side of the public face". The Times found his performance "mesmerising" while The Observer described it as "a characterisation for which the description tour-de-force is, frankly, pretty faint praise". He won a RTS Award for Best Actor, and received his second BAFTA nomination of 2006, for Best Television Actor. Sheen starred in two other BBC television productions in 2006, playing H. G. Wells in H. G. Wells: War with the World and Nero in Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire.

Frost/Nixon and The Damned United (2007–2009)
From 2006 to 2007, Sheen starred as the television broadcaster David Frost in Frost/Nixon at both the Donmar Warehouse and Gielgud Theatre in London and at the Jacobs Theatre on Broadway. The play, written by Peter Morgan, directed by Michael Grandage and co-starring Frank Langella, was a critical and commercial success but Sheen initially accepted the role as a favour to his friends and "never thought it was going anywhere". The Guardian said the actor "exactly captures Frost's verbal tics and mannerisms while suggesting a nervousness behind the self-assurance". "He's got the voice, the mannerisms, the blaze," said the Financial Times, "but, more than that, Sheen – as viscerally exciting an actor as any in Britain today – shows us the hunger of Frost's ambition .. and fox-like instinct for the hunt and the kill." Sheen was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and a Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance. Sheen next appeared in the 2007 film Music Within as a political activist with cerebral palsy. He spoke of having a "responsibility" to accurately portray the condition. Variety said his performance was "remarkable.. utterly convincing", USA Today found him "outstanding" while the Los Angeles Times felt he was "reminiscent of Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot, bringing a vibrancy and wit to the role". Also that year, Sheen starred in the short film Airlock, or How To Say Goodbye in Space with Derek Jacobi and was invited to join the actors' branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

Sheen reprised the role of David Frost in 2008's Frost/Nixon, a film dramatisation of The Nixon Interviews of 1977. Despite appearing in the original stage production in a part written for him by Peter Morgan, Sheen was surprised to have been cast in the film: "Peter said he'd only be prepared to give the rights to someone who would cast me as Frost, which was very nice, but when the studios get their hands on something... Right up until we started filming I was prepared to be disappointed". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times asserted that Sheen embodied his character in a "compelling, intense" performance while The Wall Street Journal felt he was "a brilliant actor" who "grows his character from a bright-eyed social butterfly to a gimlet-eyed interrogator". However, The New York Times felt "the likable, watchable Mr. Sheen has been pitted against a scene-stealer" in Frank Langella's Nixon. Frost himself later said it was "a wonderful performance". Sheen was the recipient of the Variety Award at the British Independent Film Awards 2008., while Langella was nominated for an Academy Award.

In 2009, portrayed another public figure; he starred in The Damned United as the outspoken football manager Brian Clough. The Tom Hooper-directed film focused on Clough's disastrous 44-day tenure as manager of Leeds United and marked Sheen's fifth collaboration with writer Peter Morgan. He said Clough is the real-life character he enjoyed playing most. The Guardian, writing in 2009, declared it the "best performance of his big-screen career" while The Times found him "magnificent". Entertainment Weekly asserted that, despite American audiences' unfamiliarity with Clough, "what's lost in translation is recovered easily enough in Michael Sheen's astonishing performance". Variety noted that his "typically scrupulous channelling of Clough gets the tics and mannerisms right, but also carves a moving portrait of a braggart suddenly out of his depth". Also in 2009, Sheen reprised his role as a werewolf in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, a prequel to the original film. Of his decision to take part, Sheen has said: "My rule of thumb is that I want to do things I'd like to go and see myself." The New York Times felt he was "the movie's greatest asset ... [taking] a lively break from his usual high-crust duties to bring wit, actual acting and some unexpected musculature to the goth-horror flick". Variety said he hit "all the right notes in a star-powered performance that will amuse, if not amaze, anyone who only knows the actor as Tony Blair or David Frost" while Richard Corliss of Time noted that he "tries bravely to keep a straight face"

Sheen had a supporting role in 2009's The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the second film in the highly popular vampire series. In its review, Rolling Stone said: "Late in the film, a real actor, Michael Sheen, shows up as the mind-reading Aro, of the Italian Volturi vampires, and sparks things up. You can almost hear the young cast thinking, 'Is that acting? It looks hard.' So Sheen is quickly ushered out." While The New York Times said he "preens with plausible menace", USA Today felt he "plays the character with more high-pitched giddiness than menace". He was named Actor of the Year at GQ magazine's annual Men of the Year ceremony. Sheen made two one-off stage appearances in 2009; he performed a scene from Betrayal as part of a Harold Pinter tribute evening at the National Theatre and performed improvisational comedy as part of The Groundlings' Crazy Joe Show in Los Angeles.

Hamlet and Masters of Sex (2010–2018)
In 2010, Sheen had a supporting role in the science fiction sequel Tron: Legacy. Referring to his David Bowie-esque character, Sheen has said, "I was paid to show off basically". The Wall Street Journal found little fun in the movie "except for a gleefully campy turn by Michael Sheen" while The New York Times said he "shows up to deliver the closest thing to a performance in the movie". The Daily Telegraph felt his "lively hamming as a cane-swishing nightclub owner merely underlines how impersonal—how inhuman—much else here is". However, USA Today felt his "scenery-chewing performance ... is meant as comic relief, but this movie thunders along so seriously that the attempt at humor feels jarring". In other 2010 film work, Sheen voiced Nivens McTwisp, the White Rabbit, in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Dr. Griffiths in Disney's Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue and appeared as a terrorist in Unthinkable. On television, Sheen's performance in the third instalment of Peter Morgan's Blair trilogy, The Special Relationship, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or Movie. The HBO film examined the "special relationship" between the US and the UK in the political era of Blair and Bill Clinton. It was the sixth collaboration between Sheen and Peter Morgan; both parties have since said they will not work together again "for the foreseeable future". Sheen also made a guest appearance in four episodes of NBC's 30 Rock as Wesley Snipes, a love interest for Tina Fey's Liz Lemon. Fey, the sitcom's star and creator, has said that "he was so funny and delightful to work with". In November 2010, Sheen received the BAFTA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year.

In 2011, Sheen starred in and was creative director of National Theatre Wales's The Passion, a 72-hour secular passion play staged in his hometown of Port Talbot, Wales. In addition to a professional cast, over one thousand local amateurs took part in the performance and as many more volunteers from local charity and community groups were involved in preparations in the months leading up to the play. The event was the subject of both a BBC documentary and The Gospel of Us, a film by director Dave McKean. Sheen has described it as "the most meaningful experience" of his career. The Observer declared it "one of the outstanding theatrical events not only of this year, but of the decade". The Independents critic described it as "the most extraordinary piece of community-specific theatre I've ever beheld". While The Daily Telegraph bemoaned the large-scale production's logistical problems, "overall I found it touching, transformative and, in its own wayward way, a triumph." The Guardian felt it was "so much more than just an epic piece of street theatre..transforming and uplifting". Sheen and co-director Bill Mitchell were jointly honoured as Best Director at the Theatre Awards UK 2011. In 2013, Sheen was nominated for a Best Actor Welsh BAFTA for The Gospel of Us.

Sheen's most notable film appearance of 2011 was a supporting role in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Allen noted that "Michael had to do the pseudo-intellectual, the genuine intellectual, the pedant, and he came in and nailed it from the start". Sheen enjoyed playing "someone who's just absolutely got no sense that he's overstepping the mark or that he's being a bore." The film opened the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and became Allen's highest-grossing film to date. Also in 2011, Sheen starred in Beautiful Boy, an independent drama focusing on the aftermath of a school shooting, voiced the enigmatic and mysterious villain House in the Doctor Who episode "The Doctor's Wife" written by his friend Neil Gaiman and made cameo appearances in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and Resistance. In 2012 film work, Sheen starred opposite Toni Collette in the independent comedy Jesus Henry Christ and reprised his role as the vampire Aro in the final instalment of The Twilight Saga.

Sheen played the title role in Hamlet at the Young Vic in late 2011 and early 2012, a role he first explored in a 1999 BBC Radio 3 production. While there had been tentative plans over the years for both Peter Hall and Michael Grandage to direct Sheen in the play, he eventually asked Ian Rickson. Rickson's production was set in the secure wing of a psychiatric hospital and featured original music by PJ Harvey. The Evening Standard declared Sheen's performance "an audacious achievement" that "will live in the memory" while The Independent praised "a recklessly brilliant and bravura performance." The Daily Telegraph felt that Sheen "could be right up there among the great Hamlets", were it not for Rickson's "mindlessly modish" staging, while The Times found him "unbearably moving". The Guardian described him as "fascinating to watch ... intelligent, inventive and full of insights ... [he] delivers the "What a piece of work is a man" passage with a beautiful consciousness of human potential." The Observer declared him an actor "always worth crossing a principality to see and hear" whose To be, or not to be' is a marvel."

In 2013, Sheen appeared in a supporting role as the boyfriend of Tina Fey in the comedy Admission, with Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice describing the character as "a whiskery, elfin academic who chuckles to himself as he reads the Canterbury Tales prologue aloud in bed, in Middle English, no less. (Sheen is scarily good at this.)" In 2014, he starred in the fantasy children's film Mariah Mundi and the Midas Box. R. Kurt Osenlund of Slant Magazine said "the ever-versatile Sheen brings an artful hamminess to his role" but Matt Pais of RedEye found him "insufficiently zany" in "a part that Robert Downey Jr. would nail but never accept." His second film role of 2014 was a minor role in the political thriller Kill the Messenger. Also in 2014, he starred in IFC's six-episode The Spoils of Babylon, a television parody of classic, sweeping miniseries, in which he played the husband of Kristen Wiig's character.

In 2015, Sheen starred opposite Carey Mulligan in the romantic drama Far from the Madding Crowd as prosperous bachelor William Boldwood. His performance was well received. Anthony Lane of The New Yorker remarked: "How you prevent such a fellow, crushed by his own decency, from sagging into a bearded Ashley Wilkes is no easy task, yet Sheen succeeds, and Boldwood's brave smile grows dreadful to behold." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club found the character "pitiful, and sometimes downright painful to watch. He's not Hardy's Boldwood, but he's a Boldwood. The only sad, genuine moment of the film belongs to him." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian remarked that Sheen's face "is etched with agony and an awful kind of abject adoration, forever trying to find ways to forgive the loved one in advance for rejection. When Sheen's Boldwood confides to Oak that he feels "grief" you really can feel his pain." Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice also referred to the scene where Boldwood expressed his grief, commenting: "Sheen's performance is fine-grained, and the pure Englishness of his understatement is heartrending." Also in 2015, Sheen had well-received comedic television performances in Comedy Bang! Bang!, The Spoils Before Dying and 7 Days in Hell. Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times said his television host in 7 Days in Hell was "played with damp lechery and cigarette-ash mastery." Liz Shannon Miller of Indiewire said he may have "stolen the show" while John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter described him as the "scene-stealer of the bunch".

Between 2013 and 2016, Sheen starred in and produced Showtime's Masters of Sex. He and Lizzy Caplan portrayed the 1960s human sexuality pioneers Masters and Johnson; the series chronicled "their unusual lives, romance and pop culture trajectory, which saw them go from a Midwestern teaching hospital to the cover of Time magazine and Johnny Carson's couch". David Sims of The Atlantic described Sheen's portrayal of Masters as "an intensely honest and unsympathetic one" while Sonia Saraiya of The A.V. Club said Sheen played the role "so seamlessly it's hard to remember that there's a British actor there who has played flamboyant news personalities and prime ministers." Sean T. Collins of The Observer described Masters as "a singularly unappealing figure": "It's not that Michael Sheen is bad in the role. On the contrary! Sheen's skill in playing Masters as an asshole who oscillates between headache-inducing self-repression and volcanic rage renders him unpleasant to spend more than two minutes with at a time." Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter remarked: "Masters has never been very likable. In fact, it's a testament to Sheen's performance— and Caplan's nuanced Johnson offsetting Masters—that anyone still cares what happens to Masters on a personal level." He received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in late 2013.

In 2016, Sheen had supporting roles in the dramas Nocturnal Animals and Norman, and the science fiction romance Passengers. He also reprised his role as the White Rabbit in the fantasy adventure Alice Through the Looking Glass. In 2017, he had supporting roles in the dramatic comedies Brad's Status and Home Again. In 2018, Sheen was cast as unconventional lawyer Roland Blum in season 3 of television series The Good Fight.

Good Omens and Staged (2019–present)

In May 2019 Sheen starred alongside David Tennant in Good Omens, based on the novel of the same name written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and was cast as Chris Tarrant in the TV adaptation of James Graham's stage play Quiz. In September 2019, Sheen began playing the role of Martin Whitly in the American television series Prodigal Son on Fox. In April 2020, Quiz was shown on ITV. On 14 April, when the channel broadcast the second instalment, the continuity announcer introduced him as "Martin Sheen", a different actor. Sheen reacted to this by changing his Twitter handle to "Martin Sheen". In June 2020, Sheen starred alongside David Tennant again in a six-part television lockdown comedy entitled Staged, which was made using video-conferencing software. A second eight-episode series started airing in January 2021. In June 2021, Sheen returned to the London stage, after its protracted period of Covid-19 shutdown, in Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre. A new production of Amadeus, scheduled for December 2022 at the Sydney Opera House, was announced in July 2022 with Sheen as Salieri. Continuing Sheen's professional partnership with Tennant, a third six-episode series of Staged aired in its entirely on 14 November 2022, while a second six-episode series of Good Omens premiered on 28 July 2023.

Charity work
Sheen is the honorary President of Wales Council for Voluntary Action, the lead national body for the voluntary sector in Wales. Accepting the role he explained "I plan to use my role to actively challenge and support WCVA in their impact and role in supporting the community and keeping us focused on what matters locally as well as the need for national leadership". He is also an ambassador for TREAT Trust Wales, and is the Welsh ambassador of Into Film, a charity which offers after-school film clubs to state primary and secondary schools in an effort to improve literacy levels. He is also an ambassador of the environmental charity Keep Wales Tidy.

Sheen is a patron of British charities including Scene & Heard, NSPCC's Child's Voice Appeal, Healing the Wounds, The Relationships Centre, WGCADA (West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse) and Adferiad Recovery, a new organisation providing support for vulnerable people in Wales and their families and carers. He has taken part in a number of charity football matches, including captaining the winning Soccer Aid 2010 team at Wembley Stadium, as well as appearing in the 2012 and 2014 matches. He is a patron of the British Independent Film Awards, an ambassador for the Dylan Thomas Prize and vice-president of Port Talbot Town F.C.
In October 2018, Sheen sponsored a women's football team in Wales.

In 2014, Sheen designed a Shakespeare-themed Paddington Bear statue. Placed outside Shakespeare's Globe, it was one of fifty statues of Paddington located around London prior to the release of the film Paddington, which were auctioned to raise funds for the NSPCC. In 2017 Sheen founded the End High Cost Credit Alliance working to promote more affordable ways to borrow money. That same year Sheen became a Patron of Social Enterprise UK, a charity which supports social projects which benefit local, environmental and co-operative causes. In October 2018 Sheen and Natasha Kaplinsky became vice-presidents (an ambassadorial role) of the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). Sheen is a fundraising partner with the non-profit organization, The White Curl, which supports Welsh charities. In December 2021, Sheen announced that he would be giving all of his future earnings to charities, declaring himself a "not-for-profit actor".

Political and social activism
Sheen is known for political and social activism. Examples include campaigning against high-cost credit agreements, crises in local journalism and describing himself as a not-for-profit actor due to his contributions to social causes.

He has made calls for discussions about Welsh independence and has made comments about the institution of the "Prince of Wales" title.

Personal life
Sheen was in a relationship with English actress Kate Beckinsale from 1995 until 2003. They met when cast in a touring production of The Seagull in early 1995, and began living together shortly afterwards. Their daughter Lily Mo was born in 1999 in London. Their relationship ended in January 2003, soon after the couple moved to Los Angeles. Beckinsale had persuaded director Len Wiseman to cast Sheen in Underworld; but while on set, she and Wiseman fell in love, and subsequently married in 2004.

Sheen had a long-distance relationship with English ballet dancer Lorraine Stewart from late 2004 until mid-2010. He dated Canadian actress Rachel McAdams from autumn 2010 to early 2013. He dated American comedian Sarah Silverman from early 2014 to early 2018.

Sheen now lives in Baglan, Wales with the Swedish actress Anna Lundberg. The couple have two daughters together, born September 2019 and May 2022.

Awards and recognition

Theatre awards
 M.E.N. Theatre Award for Best Actor (1992)—nominated for Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Exchange, Manchester
 Ian Charleson Award (1993)—nominated for Don't Fool with Love at the Donmar Warehouse, London
 Ian Charleson Award (1997)—nominated for Henry V at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon
 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance (1998)—nominated for Amadeus at the Old Vic, London
 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor (1999)—nominated for Amadeus at the Music Box Theatre, Broadway
 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor (1999)—nominated for Look Back in Anger at the National Theatre, Chandigarh
 Evening Standard Award for Best Actor (1999)—nominated for Look Back in Anger at the National Theatre, London
 Evening Standard Award for Best Actor (2003)—win for Caligula at the Donmar Warehouse, London
 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor (2003)—win for Caligula at the Donmar Warehouse, London
 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor (2003)—nominated for Caligula at the Donmar Warehouse, London
 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor (2006)—nominated for Frost/Nixon at the Donmar Warehouse, London
 Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance (2007)—nominated for Frost/Nixon at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, Broadway
 Theatre Award UK for Best Director (2011)—win for The Passion, a site-specific performance in Port Talbot, Wales

Screen awards
 British Academy Television Award for Best Actor (2004)—nominated for Dirty Filthy Love
 Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor (2004)—nominated for Dirty Filthy Love
 British Academy Television Award for Best Actor (2006)—nominated for Fantabulosa!
 Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor (2006)—win for Fantabulosa!
 BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (2006)—nominated for The Queen
 Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor (2006)—nominated for The Queen
 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor (2006)—win for The Queen
 New York Film Critics Online (2006)—win for The Queen
 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor (2006)—win for The Queen
 Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor (2006)—win for The Queen
 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor (2007)—nominated for The Music Within
 Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor (2008)—nominated for Frost/Nixon
 London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actor of the Year (2008)—nominated for Frost/Nixon
 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (2008)—nominated for Frost/Nixon
 Variety Award at the British Independent Film Awards 2008—win
 GQ Magazine's Actor of the Year (2009)—win
 Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture (2009)—nominated for The Damned United
 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie (2010)—nominated for The Special Relationship
 BAFTA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year (2010)—win
 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (2012)—nominated for Midnight in Paris
 Welsh BAFTA Award for Best Actor (2013)—nominated for The Gospel of Us

Return of OBE
Sheen was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours for his services to drama. In 2020, Sheen revealed, during an online interview with Owen Jones, that he had "handed back" the medal after doing research for a lecture on the relationship between Wales and the British state, saying "I didn't mean any disrespect but I just realised I'd be a hypocrite if I said the things I was going to say in the lecture about the nature of the relationship between Wales and the British state." Individuals who voluntarily renounce an honour continue to legally hold it unless it is annulled by the monarch.

Other honours
He was awarded the freedom of the borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales in 2008 for his services in the field of the dramatic arts. He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Newport, the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Swansea University, Aberystwyth University and Swansea Metropolitan University, and has been awarded the James Joyce Award by University College Dublin.

List of performances

In addition to theatre, film and television credits, Sheen has also appeared in many radio productions, particularly in the early years of his career. Notable radio play appearances include Strangers on a Train (1994) opposite Bill Nighy, The Importance of Being Earnest (1995) opposite Judi Dench, Romeo and Juliet (1997) opposite Kate Beckinsale, Troy (1998) and The Pretenders (2004) both opposite Paul Scofield. He has narrated six novels for BBC Radio 4 and Naxos AudioBooks: Crime and Punishment (1994), The Idiot (1995), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1995), A White Merc With Fins (1997), Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013). In 2010, he starred as a chess player in the music video for the Manic Street Preachers' single "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love", alongside actress Anna Friel.

References

External links

 Michael Sheen at the British Film Institute
 Q&A: Michael Sheen
 Comprehensive career Q&A on theartsdesk.com

1969 births
20th-century Welsh male actors
21st-century Welsh male actors
Alumni of RADA
British expatriates in the United States
Critics' Circle Theatre Award winners
Living people
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children people
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People educated at Glan Afan Comprehensive School
Actors from Newport, Wales
Welsh male film actors
Welsh male Shakespearean actors
Welsh male stage actors
Welsh male radio actors
Welsh male television actors
Welsh male voice actors
Welsh nationalists
Welsh television producers

Michael Sheen


Lord Berners, whose full name was Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners,  (born Apley Hall, Shropshire, 18 September 1883; died Faringdon House, Berkshire, 19 April 1950), was a British composer of classical music, novelist and  painter. He is usually called Lord Berners.  He was an amateur composer who is remembered for his strange, eccentric behaviour.

Life
Berners was born in Apley Hall, Bridgnorth, England. The Berners family were related to King Edward III of England.  His father was a naval officer who was not often at home.  He was looked after by his mother and grandmother who was very religious and very strict.  Berners was very interested in lots of things, especially music, but his mother did nothing to help him.

At first he went to boarding school in Cheam.  Then he went to Eton.  He taught himself to compose.  He became a diplomat and travelled to Rome and Constantinople.  In 1919, when his uncle died, he became 14th Baron Berners and 5th Baronet.  He had already composed some music which had been published under the name Gerald Tyrwhitt.

Berners lived an eccentric life.  He lived in Berkshire but also had houses in London and Rome.  He had plenty of money, so that he did not have to work.  He had many friends, including the composers Stravinsky, Lambert and William Walton who dedicated his Belshazzar's Feast to him.

His music
Berners's music is full of Romantic feeling, irony and parody.  He wrote a lot for the theatre.  He composed The Triumph of Neptune in 1926 for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.  His music could often be described as light music.

His eccentricities

Berners started his strange behaviour when he was quite small.  He had heard that a dog could be taught to swim by throwing it into water, so he decided to teach his dog to fly by throwing it out of the window.  The dog was not hurt, but Berners was given a beating.

He was often naughty, making silly traps for people.  He was sent to boarding school in Cheam when he was nine.  There he had a gay relationship with an older boy.  He was then sent to Eton College.  Berners said that he learned nothing there.

Later, when he was grown up, he painted pigeons at his house and once he even had a giraffe as a pet so that he could have tea with it.  He travelled in a Rolls-Royce and kept a clavichord under the front seat.

Death
He died in 1950 at Faringdon House, leaving his estate to his partner Robert ('Mad Boy') Heber Percy, who lived with him at Faringdon.

His epitaph on his gravestone reads:
"Here lies Lord Berners
One of life's learners
His great love of learning
May earn him a burning
Thanks be to the Lord
He never was bored".

1883 births
1950 deaths
Berners, Lord
English Barons
Entertainers from Shropshire
Gay men
LGBT composers
LGBT novelists

Lord Berners


The managerial grid model or managerial grid theory (1964) is a style leadership model developed by Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton.

This model originally identified five different leadership styles based on the concern for people and the concern for production.

The optimal leadership style in this model is based on Theory Y.

The grid theory has continued to evolve and develop. The theory was updated with two additional leadership styles and with a new element, resilience.

In 1999, the grid managerial seminar began using a new text, The Power to Change.

The model is represented as a grid with concern for production as the x-axis and concern for people as the y-axis; each axis ranges from 1 (Low) to 9 (High). The resulting leadership styles are as follows:

 The indifferent (previously called impoverished) style (1,1): evade and elude. In this style, managers have low concern for both people and production. Managers use this style to preserve job and job seniority, protecting themselves by avoiding getting into trouble. The main concern for the manager is not to be held responsible for any mistakes, which results in less innovation decisions.
The accommodating (previously, country club) style (1,9): yield and comply.  This style has a high concern for people and a low concern for production. Managers using this style pay much attention to the security and comfort of the employees, in hopes that this will increase performance. The resulting atmosphere is usually friendly, but not necessarily very productive.
The dictatorial  (previously, produce or perish) style (9,1): in return. Managers using this style also pressure their employees through rules and punishments to achieve the company goals. This dictatorial style is based on Theory X of Douglas McGregor, and is commonly applied by companies on the edge of real or perceived failure. This style is often used in cases of crisis management.
 The status quo (previously, middle-of-the-road) style (5,5): balance and compromise. Managers using this style try to balance between company goals and workers' needs. By giving some concern to both people and production, managers who use this style hope to achieve suitable performance but doing so gives away a bit of each concern so that neither production nor people needs are met.
 The sound (previously, team) style (9,9): contribute and commit. In this style, high concern is paid both to people and production. As suggested by the propositions of Theory Y, managers choosing to use this style encourage teamwork and commitment among employees. This method relies heavily on making employees feel themselves to be constructive parts of the company.
 The opportunistic style: exploit and manipulate. Individuals using this style, which was added to the grid theory before 1999, do not have a fixed location on the grid. They adopt whichever behaviour offers the greatest personal benefit.
 The paternalistic style: prescribe and guide. This style was added to the grid theory before 1999. In The Power to Change, it was redefined to alternate between the (1,9) and (9,1) locations on the grid. Managers using this style praise and support, but discourage challenges to their thinking.

Behavioral elements

Grid theory breaks behavior down into seven key elements:

See also
 Behavior modification
 Leadership
 Three levels of leadership model

References

Organizational behavior
Leadership

Managerial grid model


ToolTalk is an interapplication communications system developed by Sun Microsystems (SunSoft) in order to allow applications to communicate with each other at runtime.

Applications supporting ToolTalk can construct "high-level" messages and hand them off to the system's ToolTalk server, which determines the proper recipients and (after applying permission checks) forwards the message to them. Although originally available only on SunOS and Solaris, ToolTalk was chosen as the application framework for the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) and thus became part of a number of Unix distributions as well as OpenVMS.

While ToolTalk had "object oriented" and "procedural" messages and a complex "pattern" structure which allowed dispatch of messages to processes based on object names, message names, and parameter types, actual desktop protocols never took full advantage of its power. Simpler pattern-matching systems like Apple Computer's AppleScript system did just as well.

The D-Bus standard has superseded ToolTalk in some Unix-like desktop environments.

References

Inter-process communication
Sun Microsystems software

ToolTalk


The Council of State () is a constitutionally established advisory body in the Netherlands to the government and States General that officially consists of members of the royal family and Crown-appointed members generally having political, commercial, diplomatic or military experience. It was founded in 1531, making it one of the world's oldest still-functioning state organisations.

The Council of State must be consulted by the cabinet on proposed legislation before a law is submitted to parliament. The Council of State Administrative Law division also serves as one of the four highest courts of appeal in administrative matters. The King is president of the Council of State but he seldom chairs meetings. The Vice-President of the Council of State chairs meetings in his absence and is the de facto major personality of the institution. Under Dutch constitutional law, the Vice-President of the Council is acting head of state when there is no monarch such as if the royal family were to become extinct.

History

Habsburg Netherlands
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor founded a Council of State on 1 October 1531 as one of three Collateral Councils (the other two were the Privy Council or Secret Council and the Council of Finances) to advise his sister Mary of Hungary, his regent in the Habsburg Netherlands, and her successors, on , in other words the main questions of government, foreign affairs and defense. Members of the council were the great nobles of the realm and a few of the great prelates.

After the accession of Philip II of Spain to the throne and his departure to Spain in 1559 the Council became the forum for the strife between the Spanish representatives in the Council, led by Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle and the Netherlandish grandees like the Prince of Orange and the Counts of Horne and Egmont. The latter faction felt themselves pushed aside and resigned in 1567, leaving the field to a Spanish-dominated Council at the start of the Dutch Revolt. After the death of Luis de Requesens y Zúñiga, then governor-general of the Habsburg Netherlands, in 1576, the Council of State temporarily assumed his authority as representative of king Philip, awaiting the arrival of the new governor-general, Don Juan. Before he could arrive the members of the Council were arrested in a coup by the Brussels garrison. Soon afterwards the Pacification of Ghent was concluded pitting the States-General of the Netherlands against the Spanish crown, represented by Don Juan. When the latter retreated to Namur in early 1577 the Council of State split in two rumps, one joining Don Juan (and forming the nucleus of what would become the Council of State of the Spanish Netherlands and later the Austrian Netherlands) the other remaining close to the rebellious States-General. These members were discharged by king Philip in 1578, formally ending the Council as a Habsburg institution in what was to become the Dutch Republic.

Under Anjou and Leicester
When the Duke of Anjou came to be temporarily recognized as the new sovereign of the rebellious provinces in 1581, a new Council of State was appointed to advise him and to perform certain executive duties, pertaining to defense and finances. This Council soon split in two regional councils, one for the area West of the river Meuse, the other for the area East of that river. The first, residing in Antwerp where the States-General also convened, played the main role up to the departure of the Duke. After his departure the (again unified) Council followed the States-General to Middelburg, Delft, and The Hague. After the assassination of the Prince of Orange in 1584 the Council was given new executive powers and temporarily assumed full executive authority in the place of the Prince. The States-General meanwhile took the lead in the search for another protecting sovereign. This resulted in the Treaty of Nonsuch of 1585 with Elizabeth I of England that explicitly assumed a leading role of the Council in the evolving constitution of the provinces of the Union of Utrecht. Article XIV of the treaty authorised Elizabeth to appoint two English representatives on the Council, besides the Governor-General, who would preside the council. The next articles gave far-reaching authority to the Governor-General, acting with the council, in matters of defense, finance and government. For instance, the Stadtholders of the provinces would henceforth be appointed by the Governor-General and the Council (art. XXIV), though the States of Holland and West Friesland preempted this by appointing Maurice, Prince of Orange stadtholder before the Earl of Leicester, who would accept the Governor-Generalship, conferred on him by the States-General against the wish of Elizabeth, arrived in the Netherlands.
This was the first instance of the way the mighty province of Holland frustrated the policies of Leicester. His attempt to found a new Council of Finances (the old one had been dissolved in 1580), which was supposed to take a number of the financial powers of the Council of State, was quietly thwarted. On the instigation of the Land's Advocate of Holland, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, who was a member of the Council, more and more executive tasks of the Council were taken over by the States-General, to dilute English influence on the Dutch affairs of state. These tasks and this influence of the Council did not return after Leicester had left the Netherlands at the end of 1587.

Under the Dutch Republic
By 1588 the Council had therefore reached the structure and functions it would possess during the entire existence of the Dutch Republic. The Council was henceforth made up of members appointed by the States-General on the nomination of the Provincial States (usually about 12), with two members (between 1598 and 1625 one) appointed by the English government. The stadtholders of the provinces were ex officio members, at least outside the First Stadtholderless Period and Second Stadtholderless Period. The executive powers of the Council were limited to military policy (both on land and sea); administering the Dutch States Army's financial aspects (naval affairs were administered by the five Admiralties, founded by Leicester); and formulating and executing tax policy for the Generality Lands.

The Council usually played a self-effacing role, as laid down in its Instruction of 1651, at the beginning of the first Stadtholderless Period. However, the secretary of the Council, Simon van Slingelandt played a leading role in an attempt at constitutional reform (which would have greatly increased the executive powers of the Council, as intended in the time of Leicester) in 1717. This attempt came to nothing, however.

After the overthrow of the regime of stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange and the founding of the Batavian Republic in 1795, the Council was dissolved, together with the States-General.

Under the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Though an advisory council with the nostalgic name Council of State was again instituted in the waning days of the Batavian Republic in 1805, and also the successor Kingdom of Holland had an institution with that name (modeled on the contemporary French Council of State), these councils disappeared again during the years of the annexation by France (1810-1813). However, after the restoration of Dutch independence in 1813 a new Council of State was founded as laid down in the Constitutions of 1814 and 1815. These constitutions explicitly stated that all "Acts of Sovereign Dignity" by the Sovereign Prince and later the King, would only be enacted after the advice of the Council was heard. These included both Acts of the States-General and Royal Decrees, important, because the first king, William I of the Netherlands liked to rule by decree. The King presided over the new Council, and the Crown-Prince would be a member ex officio after reaching the age of majority. In practice, however, a vice-president presided over the deliberations of the Council, the King only taking over on ceremonial occasions. Members were appointed from all provinces, both "Dutch" and "Belgian". After the Belgian Revolution of 1830 the Belgian members left. The new Kingdom of Belgium did not institute its own Council of State until 1946 as an administrative court.

Under the new constitution of 1848 the Council of State was reformed in the sense that its structure and functions were delegated to an Organic Law. The first such law (the Council of State Act) was enacted in 1861. The most important innovation of this law was that besides the advisory task of the Council in matters of law giving the Council would also advise in cases in which conflicts between administrative organs (like provinces and municipalities) were put before the Crown (king and ministers) for resolution. For this type of advice a new subdivision of the Council was formed that came to act like an administrative court (though the formal decision rested with the Crown). This function of high administrative court was enlarged in the succeeding century. Finally, the 1861 law made the Council the institution that would exercise royal authority in the absence of the king or a regent. This case did happen for short periods in 1889 and 1890, in those periods the Council served as regent for King William III under the Vice-President Gerlach Cornelis Joannes van Reenen.

In 1887 the revised constitution opened the way for making the Council a formal administrative court. This did not actually happen before 1963 when the Wet Beroep Administratieve Beschikkingen (BAB, Administrative Decisions Review Act) was enacted, replaced in 1976 by the Wet Administratief Beroep Overheidsbeschikkingen (AROB, Administrative Decisions Appeals Act). This setup was changed in 1988, because the European Court of Human Rights had deemed in Benthem v Netherlands that the fact that the Council of State was not an independent institution ran contrary to the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. To permanently remedy this defect the "judicial" part of the Council was in 1994 made formally independent from the part that advised on legislative matters. This split in two separate parts was confirmed in the most recent revision (2010) of the Council of State Act.

Membership

Vice-Presidents

References

Sources
  (1995), The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1806, Oxford University Press,  hardback,  paperback
  Geschiedenis Raad van State

External links

Dutch political institutions
High Councils of State
Administrative courts
Constitutional courts
Courts in the Netherlands
Netherlands
1531 establishments in Europe
Courts and tribunals established in 1531
Privy councils

Council of State (Netherlands)


The Aro people or Aros are an Igbo subgroup that originated from the Arochukwu kingdom in present-day Abia state, Nigeria. The Aros can also be found in about 250 other settlements mostly in the Southeastern Nigeria and adjacent areas. The Aros today are classified as Eastern or Cross River Igbos because of their location, mixed origins, culture, and dialect. Their god, Chukwu Abiama, was a key factor in establishing the Aro Confederacy as a regional power in the Niger Delta and Southeastern Nigeria during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Origins and history

The history of the Aros predates Igbo migration and founding of the kingdom of Arochukwu. Before Igbos started arriving to the Aro region in the 17th century, a group of Proto Ibibio migrated to the area and established the Mbot Abasi Kingdom. The Proto Ibibio group originally came from Usak Edet (Isanguele), a segment of the Ejagham in present-day Southern Cameroon. Igbo migrations led by Eze Agwu and Nnachi  into the Aro region started in the mid-17th century. These Igbo migrants were resisted by the indigenous Ibibio. The Aro-Ibibio Wars and the migration of the Akpa from east of the Cross River, formed the nation during the turning point of the 17th century to the 18th century. The Efik were originally from the Ibom Kingdom and might have left before or during the Aro-Ibibio Wars. The Igbo and Akpa alliance, defeated and assimilated the original Ibibio inhabitants after long years of warfare. By this time, the palm oil and slave trade was popular in the hinterland. By the mid-18th century, there were mass migrations of Aro businessmen to the Igbo hinterland and adjacent areas. This migration, influence of their god Chukwu Abiama through priests, and their military power supported by alliances with several related neighboring Igbo and eastern Cross River militarized states (particularly Ohafia, Abam, Ihechiowa, Abiriba, Nkporo, Afikpo, Ekoi, etc.) quickly established the Aro Confederacy as a regional economic power. However, Aro economic hegemony was threatened by the penetration of Europeans, mainly British colonists towards the end of the 19th century. Tensions finally led to bloodshed, and the Anglo-Aro war took place from 1901 to 1902. The Aro Confederacy stoutly resisted but eventually suffered defeat. This helped the British to occupy the rest of what became Eastern Nigeria.

Tradition
The Aros have a rich tradition. One factor is the Ekpe society which is a sacred society originally from east of the Cross River. The highly religious and judicial society took a major part in Aro society. The use of the writing system, Nsibidi, was based on secret societies like Ekpe. Uli, another writing system, occurred mostly in the form of body art.

Another factor is the Chukwu Abiama Temple, which was mediated by the Aro priesthood. They influenced neighbors and allies before the British invasion and destruction of the Chukwu Abiama Temple and Aro priesthood. The Ekeleke masquerade activity was important in Aro settlements. Brought from the Aros in the western Niger Delta, it eventually spread to the Oguta area. They also were known for wearing the popular "George" cloth. The Ikperikpe warrior dance was very famous among warriors in the old days and continues to be in use.

Largest settlements in Eastern Nigeria
Aro Ajatakiri: In Ikwuano, Umuahia, Abia State
Aro Achara: In Ama-asa, Isiala Ngwa, Abia State.
Aro Umu Nkpe: In Isiala Ngwa, Abia State.
Aro Nbawsi: In Isiala Ngwa, Abia State.
Aro Omoba: In Isiala Ngwa, Abia State.
Aro Okporoenyi: In Ikwuano area of Abia State.
Aro Iyama: In Ikwuano, area of Abia State.
Aro Amuru: In Ikwuano, area of Abia State.
Aro Ndizuogu: Ideato area of Imo State (The biggest of all the settlements).
Aro Ikpa: Umunneochi area of Abia state
Aro Ndi Ikerionwu: In Anambra State.
Aro Ajalli: In Anambra State.
Aro Nzerem: In Ebonyi State.
Aro Amokwe: In Udi area of Enugu State.
Aro Isuochi: In Abia State.
Aro Isiokpo/Igwurita Ikwerre area in Rivers State.
Aro Abagana: In Anambra State.
Aro Oru: In Imo State.
Aro Nempi: In Imo State
Aro Ngwa: In Abia State.
Aro Ezeagu: In Enugu State.
Aro Achi: In Enugu State.
Aro Oboro Ite
Aro Kalabari: In Rivers State.
Aro Opobo: In Rivers State.
 Aro Uturu: In Abia State
Aro Anwu Anwu: Eziukwu Durunnihe in Umudurunna ABBA Nwangele LGA Imo State
Aro Okija (Ndi Ezennia Awa Okoro Orji): Anambra State
Aro Egbuoma in [oguta] area of Imo state
Aro Abba, Nwangele, Imo state
Aro Ekwulobia
Aro Awa, Oguta, Imo state
Aro Amauzari, Isiala Mbano, Imo State
Aro Ama-Asa, Isiala Ngwa,Abia State
Aro Umueru, Isiala Ngwa,Abia State
Aro UmuAro, Isiala Ngwa,Abia State
Aro Onicha Ngwa,Abia State
Aro Isuochi, Abia State
Aro Ahuma Abam, Abia State
Aro Ndi Ijere, Ohafia, Abia State
Aro Agbagwu, Uzuakoli, Abia State
Aro Izombe, Imo State
Aro Oru, Imo State
Aro Oji, Owerri, Imo State
Aro Ihite Owerre, Imo State
Aro Iheosu, Imo State
Aro Awa, Imo State
Arochukwu
Aro Confederacy
 Ezi Njoku History

References

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0438/is_1_35/ai_90331352/pg_5
https://web.archive.org/web/20071009081317/http://www.aronetwork.org/others/ibini.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20070322182431/http://www.aronetwork.org/others/index.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20060212061924/http://africanevents.com/AroChuku2003AnnualDinner.htm

Ethnic groups in Nigeria
Ethnic groups in Cameroon
Ethnic groups in Equatorial Guinea

Aro people


In cryptography, the XSL attack is a method of cryptanalysis for block ciphers. The attack was first published in 2002 by researchers Nicolas Courtois and Josef Pieprzyk.  It was claimed that it may break the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cipher faster than a brute force attack.

AES is already widely used in commerce and government for the transmission of secret and classified information. Finding a technique that can decrease the amount of time it takes to break the secret message without having the key could cause wide damage.

In 2004 it was shown by one of the cryptanalysts, that the algorithm does not perform as described in its published paper. In addition, the method requires long effort. Unless shortened, the technique does not reduce the effort to break AES in comparison to a brute force attack. Therefore, it does not affect the real-world security of block ciphers in the near future. However, the attack has caused some experts to insert complexities in the algebraic simplicity of the current AES.

The XSL attack relies on first analyzing the internal design of a cipher then deriving a system of quadratic simultaneous equations. These systems of equations are typically very large, for example 8000 equations with 1600 variables for the 128-bit AES. Several methods for solving such systems are known. In the XSL attack, a specialized algorithm, termed XSL (eXtended Sparse Linearization), is then applied to solve these equations and compute the key.

The attack is well-known and famous for requiring only a handful of known plaintexts to perform. Previous methods of cryptanalysis, such as linear and differential cryptanalysis, often require unrealistically large numbers of known or chosen plaintexts, which make them impossible to realize.

Other websites
 Courtois' page on AES
 "Quadratic Cryptanalysis",  an explanation of the XSL attack by J. J. G. Savard
 "AES is NOT broken" by T. Moh
 Courtois and Pieprzyk paper on ePrint
 Commentary in the Crypto-gram newsletter: 1, 2, 3.
 An overview of AES and XSL

Cryptography

XSL attack


A blockade is a physical blockage of a port or other place. Usually used of enemy ships surrounding a port.

By extension, a blockade is any effort to make sure that supplies, troops, information or aid do not reach an opposing force. Blockades are used in nearly all military campaigns and the tool of choice for economic warfare on an opposing nation. The International Criminal Court planned to include blockades against coasts and ports in its list of acts of war in 2009.

Historical blockades
Historical blockades include:
 The Spartan blockade of Athens following the Battle of Aegospotami, depriving Athens of the ability to import grain or communicate with its empire.
 The Dutch Republic's blockade of the Scheldt between 1585  and 1792, denying Spanish-ruled Antwerp's access to international trade and shifting much of its trade to Amsterdam.
 British blockade of France and its allies during the French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic War
 British blockade of the United States east coast during the War of 1812
 Union Blockade – the Union blockading the coasts of the Confederacy as part of the Anaconda Plan during the American Civil War
 Battle of Iquique during the War of the Pacific
 British blockade of Germany during World War I as a part of the First Battle of the Atlantic resulted in many deaths
The Second Battle of the Atlantic during World War II
 United States blockade of Japan during World War II
 The German blockade of the Scheldt between September 1944 and November 1944, denying to allied shipping use of the port of Antwerp. (See Battle of the Scheldt).
 Soviet land blockade of West Berlin, 1948–1949, known as the Berlin Blockade.
 Egyptian blockades of the Straits of Tiran prior to the 1956 Suez War and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
 United States blockade of Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962
 India blockade of East Pakistan during the 1971 Bangladesh War
 NATO blockade of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1993–1996 during Operation Sharp Guard
 Israeli sea and land blockade of the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the Second Intifada (2000) and up to the present.
 Israeli blockades of some or all the shores of Lebanon at various times during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), the 1982 Lebanon War, and the 1982–2000 South Lebanon conflict – resumed during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Related pages

 Siege

War
Law of the sea
Conflicts

Blockade


Skoll or Saturn XLVII (provisional designation S/2006 S 8) is non-spherical moon of Saturn. Its discovery was announced by Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt and Jan Kleyna on June 26, 2006, from observations taken between January 5 and April 30, 2006.

Skoll is about 6 kilometres in diameter (assuming an albedo of 0.04), and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 17,600,000 km in 869 days, following a highly eccentric and inclined orbit.

It was named in April 2007 after Sköll, a giant wolf from Norse mythology, son of Fenrisulfr and twin brother of Hati.

Other websites
 David Jewitt's pages

Saturn's moons

Skoll (moon)


A cyborg (short for "cybernetic organism") is a theoretical or fictional being with both organic and manufactured parts.

The term was coined in 1960.  D.S. Halacy's Cyborg: evolution of the superman in 1965 spoke of a "new frontier" that was "not merely space, but more profoundly the relationship between 'inner space' to 'outer space' – a bridge...between mind and matter".

The term cyborg is not the same thing as bionic. It is often applied to an organism that has restored or enhanced abilities, done by some artificial part, by or technology that relies on some sort of feedback.

While cyborgs are commonly thought of as mammals, they might also conceivably be any kind of organism and the term "cybernetic organism" has been applied loosely to all sorts of things. The term can also apply to micro-organisms which are modified to perform at higher levels than their unmodified counterparts. It is thought that cyborg technology may form a part of humanity's future.

References

Bionics
Robots
Science fiction

Cyborg


The Cunning Little Vixen (original title: Příhody lišky bystroušky, literally translates to The Adventures of Vixen Sharp-Ears) is an opera by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček.  Janáček loved animals, and in this opera some of the characters are humans but some are animals.  Some of the little animals, (like the grasshopper, frog and cricket) are usually sung by children.

Janáček got the idea of this opera from a cartoon strip called "Sharp-ears" (in Czech: "Bystrouška").  The cartoon was published in a popular daily newspaper Lidové noviny.  It was about a vixen (a female fox) and her adventures in the forest.  He thought that the story would make a good opera.  He made a few changes to the story: he left out a some characters, changed the order of the story a little, and made the humans and the animals behave in a similar way.  It was first performed in Brno on 6 November 1924.

When Janáček died in 1928 the last part of the opera was played at his funeral.

The Story of the opera

A forester is sleeping under a tree.  Nearby a young vixen (here, vixen means baby fox) is playing.  She nearly catches a frog, but the frog jumps away and lands on the forester's nose.  He wakes up and sees the little vixen playing. He catches the vixen and take her home with him.  He gave her a name: "Sharp-ears".

Sharp-ears is unhappy at the forester's cottage.  She is tied up with a rope in the yard. The hens keep teasing her and the dog is boring.  One day she tells the hens that they are silly to stay in the farmyard being bossed about by the rooster.  She tells them they ought to fly away to freedom.  She pretends to die, then jumps up and starts to catch them.  When the forester's wife comes out Sharp-ears bites through the rope and disappears into the forest.

She finds a nice sett (badger's hole) where a badger lives.  She wants to live there herself so she chases the badger out of his home.  One winter's night the forester is drinking in the inn.  He teases the priest and the schoolmaster for not having found someone to love.  They in turn tease the forester for having let the vixen go.  The schoolmaster starts to go home.  He is drunk.  He sees the vixen who reminds him of his former lover, but he is too drunk to catch hold of her.

Sharp-ears meets a handsome young male fox called Goldskin.  The two fall in love.  When she realizes she is pregnant the fox and vixen get married.  The woodpecker is the priest who marries them.  The cubs (baby foxes) are born in the spring.

The forester is still searching the forest for Sharp-ears.  One day he finds a dead hare.  The poacher persuades the forester to make a trap, because he thinks that Sharp-ears will come back to eat the hare.  The cubs arrive and play near the trap.  Sharp-ears realizes the poacher is trying to catch her.  She teases him cruelly and dares him to kill her.  He shoots her with his rifle, then he is very sad.

Some time later the forester is sleeping under a tree.  He wakes up when a frog lands on his hand.  He sees a young vixen playing in front of him.  He tells the young cub that she looks just like her mother.  He reaches out for her but catches a frog instead.  He lets it go.  He realizes that life must go on.

Meaning of the story

Janáček made some changes to the story in the cartoon.  This made it more suitable for an opera.  He did not have all the characters that are in the cartoon, and he changed the order of the story to make it more dramatic.  He compares the human beings with the animals.  For example: we see vixen Sharp-ears falling in love and having a family.  But the forester's friends: the school master and the priest, have not been so lucky with their love-life.  The priest looks like the badger, the woodpecker is like the priest.  When the opera is performed the same singer sometimes sings both parts.  The end of the opera is like the beginning.  This shows that life carries on and one generation follows another.

The Music

The music matches the story beautifully.  There are a lot of tunes with very exciting harmonies.  Sometimes he uses modes and whole-tone scales.  Janáček often makes his music sound like folk music of his country.

1920s operas
Brno
Compositions by Leoš Janáček
1924 works

The Cunning Little Vixen


A diminutive is a formation of a word used to express smallness of the object or quality that is meant with the word the diminutive is formed from.

Examples in English

Diminutives are common in most dialects of English. Terms such as "undies" for underwear and "movie" for "moving picture" are frequently heard terms in English.

Common diminutives are:
 -ey/-ie/-y: dearie, doggy, kitty (this also being the basis of the naming of Brittany i.e. Minor Britain in reference to its cultural ties to the Celts of Great Britain.)
 -ette: diskette, cigarette, kitchenette, suffragette (Suffrage)
 -let: piglet, chicklet, applet, eyelet, gauntlet, tablet
 -ling: duckling, gosling
 -s(y): "Wills", Becks
 -a: Macca, Gazza
 -o: smoko (smoking break)

Linguistics

Diminutive


Espen Rud (born 29 January 1948 in Asker, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz musician (drums), composer, and music arranger, and the son of Norwegian author Nils Johan Rud (1908–93). He is known from numerous recordings and in collaboration with Karin Krog and Dexter Gordon, within Terje Rypdal's trio Min Bul, or the absurd musical theater of Svein Finnerud Trio.

Career
Rud joined the fri jazz band Svein Finnerud Trio (1967–74), was educated at the Norges Musikkhøgskole (1968), was percussionist within Pompel og Pilt (1969), was part of Min bul (1970) in trio with Terje Rypdal and Bjørnar Andresen, and contributed on the Karin Krog album Some other spring (1970), where Dexter Gordon and Kenny Drew also contributed. He also played within the Ivar Antonsen Trio, and led his own Quartet together with Ivar Antonsen, Ditlef Eckhoff and Sture Janson, performing at Moldejazz in 1969.

In the 1980s he started an extensive collaboration with Rikskonsertene (1978–), lately with Hans Mathisen and Jens Fossum («Vi improviserer»). He participated within Chet Baker Quartet, on the release The improviser (1983) including Per Husby and Bjørn Kjellemyr, recorded at Club 7. He also led the band «Kråbøl» (1978–83), from which one can hear performances on his release Hotelsuite (1984), with the band including Rob Waring, Elin Rosseland, Tore Brunborg, Karin Krog and Vigleik Storaas. Rud was performing within New Cool Quartet (1980–89), and was awarded the Buddyprisen 1983.

In the 1990s, he was within a trio including Johannes Eick and Christian Wallumrød. He released the album Rudlende (1998) within his own Sextet «Rudlende», awarded  Spellemannprisen 1998 in the class Jazz (Tore Brunborg, Nils Jansen, Vigleik Storaas, Frode Nymo,  and Terje Gewelt). Rud was on the quartet releases by Ivar Antonsen, Terje Gewelt and Knut Riisnæs. Later he played with Staffan William-Olsson Trio, Magni Wentzel Sextet, and Halvard Kausland/Hans Mathisen.

On his latest solo album Dobbeldans (2011) he connects Jai Shankar's Indian tabla rhythms with Latin grooves, Rud's specialty, but also straight hard swing with a slight taste of Norwegian traditional folk music. For the album title Double Dance, there are a four double coverage. The three saxophonists Frode and Atle Nymo, and Jon Pål Inderberg are challenged for all they are worth, and with everything to play for, which means bass clarinet and baritone saxophone to the bottom, on top soprano, and  with the tenor and alto saxophones in between.

 Asker kommune Culture Award 2022
Buddyprisen 1983
Spellemannprisen 1998 in the class Jazz, for the album Rudlende

Discography (in selection)

Solo albums
1984: Hotelsuite (Odin Records)
1998: Rudlende (Taurus Records) within his own Sextet «Rudlende», awarded Spellemannprisen 1998
2011: Dobbeldans (Curling Legs - CLP CD 121)
2012: Løvsamleren (Curling Legs - CLP CD 127)
2014: Ukjend By (Curling Legs - CLP CD 136)
2017: Carla The Fish (Curling Legs)

As band leader
1984: Hotelsuite (Odin Records), within his Sextet «Kråbøl»

Collaborative works
Within Svein Finnerud Trio
1970: Svein Finnerud Trio (Norsk Jazzforum)
1970: Plastic Sun (Sonet Music)
1970: Travel Pillow (Prisma Records)
2008: The Complete Released Works 1968-1999 (Plastic Strip)

With other projects
1970: Min bul (EmArcy 2003), within Terje Rypdal's Trio Min Bul
1978: Høysang (NorDisc), within Guttorm Guttormsen Quintet feat. Lars Klevstrand
1983: The improviser (Cadence Jazz Records), within the Chet Baker Quartet, including Per Husby & Bjørn Kjellemyr, recorded at Club 7
2012: Prøysen goes jazz (Curling Legs - CLP CD 124), within «Fire fyrer» (additional Torbjørn Sunde, Frode Kjekstad & Sigurd Hole)
With Chet Baker
The Improviser (Cadence Jazz, 1983)
With Karin Krog and Dexter Gordon
Some Other Spring (Sonet, 1970)

References

External links
Thomas Strøonen Official Website

1948 births
Living people
Musicians from Asker
Norwegian Academy of Music alumni
20th-century Norwegian drummers
21st-century Norwegian drummers
Norwegian jazz drummers
Male drummers
Norwegian jazz composers
Spellemannprisen winners
Taurus Records artists
20th-century drummers
Male jazz composers
20th-century Norwegian male musicians
21st-century Norwegian male musicians

Espen Rud


The Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU) (Arabic: ) was founded by Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen on May 30, 1964, following an agreement in 1957 by the Economic Council of the Arab League.

Objectives
According to The Economic Unity Agreement approved on June 3, 1957, the Council of Arab Economic Unity desires to "Organize and consolidate economic relations among the States
of the Arab League on bases that are consistent with the natural and historical links among them; and to provide the best conditions for flourishing their economies, developing their resources and ensuring the prosperity of their countries."
The bases of economic relations between states in the Council of Arab Economic Unity are outlined in Chapter 1, Articles 1 and 2 of The Economic Unity Agreement:

Article 1

Article 1 delineates each member state's rights to:
 Personal and capital mobility
 Free exchange of goods and products
 Exercise of residence and economic endeavors (work, employment, etc.)
 Transit and use of ports and airports
 Possession and inheritance

Article 2

Article 2 behoves the signatories of The Economic Unity Agreement to work towards  the objectives specified in Article 1 by:
 Merging into a unified customs area
 Unifying their import and export policies
 Unifying their regulations with regard to transit
 Jointly negotiating agreements with other states
 Unifying and coordinating legislation to achieve equal conditions of agriculture, industry and trade among member states
 Coordinating legislation with regard to labor and social security
 (a) Coordinating "government and municipal taxes and duties and all taxes pertaining to agriculture, industry, trade, real estate, and capital investments" to achieve equivalent business climates among member states; (b) Avoiding double-taxing nationals of member states
 Coordinating monetary and fiscal policies
 Unifying "statistical methods of classification and tabulations"
 Adopting any other measures consistent with the stated objectives of Articles 1 and 2

Agadir Agreement

"The Agadir Agreement" for the establishment of a free trade zone between the Arab Mediterranean Nations was signed in Rabat, Morocco on 25 February 2004. The agreement aimed at establishing free trade between Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco which was seen as a first potential step in the formation of the Euro-Mediterranean free trade area as envisaged in the Barcelona Process.

The Agreement aims to establish a Free Trade Area among the member states, in addition to increase intra-trade on one hand and with the European Union on the other. It also aims to enhance industrial integration among the Arab Mediterranean countries through the Implementation of the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean rules of origin and the utilization of the principle of cumulation of origin. This will enhance the member states' export capacity towards the EU market and boost attraction for more foreign and European direct investment.

In 2016, the membership of Palestine and Lebanon was approved at the third meeting of Agadir member ministers.

Greater Arab Free Trade Area

The Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) is a pan-Arab free trade zone that came into existence in 1997. It was founded by 14 countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. The formation of GAFTA followed the adoption of the "Agreement to Facilitate and Develop Trade Among Arab Countries" (1981) by the Arab League's Economic and Social Council (ESC) and the approval by seventeen Arab League member-states at a summit in Amman, Jordan of the "Greater Arab Free Trade Area Agreement" (1997). In 2009, Algeria joined GAFTA as the eighteenth member-state. GAFTA is supervised and run by the ESC.

The members participate in 96% of the total internal Arab trade, and 95% with the rest of the world by applying the following conditions:

Instruct the inter-customs fees:
To reduce the customs on Arab products by 10% annually, the 14 Arab states reported their custom tariff programs to the Security Council of the Arab League to coordinate them. Syria was excepted and uses the Brussels tariffs system.
Applying the locality of the Arab products:
All members have shared their standards and specifications to help their products move smoothly from one country to another.
The League has also created a project to apply the Arab Agriculture Pact:
Which is to share the standards of the agricultural sector and inject several restrictions and specifications.
The Arab League granted exceptions, which allowed for a customs rate for certain goods to six members for several goods, however requests for additional exceptions were rejected by Morocco, Lebanon and Jordan.
Private sectors:
The League created a database and a service to inform and promote the private sector's benefits.
Communication:
The Economic and Social Council in its sixty-fifth meeting agreed on pointing a base for communication to ease communication between member states, and to work on easing interaction between the private and public sectors to further apply the Greater Arab Free Trade Area.
Customs Duties:
In the sixty-seventh meeting the Economic and Social Council agreed that a 40% decrease on customs on goods in the past 4 years of the GAFTA would continue and following the decisions at the Amman summit, the members will make efforts to eliminate all customs duties on local goods.

See also
 African Economic Community
 Arab League
 Intergovernmental Authority on Development
 Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development
 Middle East Free Trade Area (disambiguation)
 Arab Monetary Fund
 Arab Maghreb Union
 Euro-Mediterranean free trade area
 Euro-Mediterranean Partnership
 European Neighbourhood Policy
 Third country economic relationships with the European Union
Rules of Origin
Market access
Free-trade area
Tariffs

References

External links
http://www.amf.org.ae/
https://web.archive.org/web/20080506173842/http://www.arableagueonline.org/las/arabic/details_ar.jsp?art_id=124&level_id=110

Arab organizations
Organizations established in 1964
Arab League
Economy of the Arab League
International economic organizations
International organizations based in the Middle East
Trade blocs
Treaties concluded in 1957
Treaties entered into force in 1964
1964 in economics

Council of Arab Economic Unity


A mechanical bull, also known as a Rodeo Bull or Bucking Bronco is a machine that gives the rider sense of riding a bucking animal such as a rodeo bull or horse.

Its speed can be made faster or slower.  Padded flooring is often used around the machine in order to prevent injury to those thrown off it.
A special motor lets the operator to safely control the ride and safety for the rider; this motor allows the operator to stop the ride before a rider is thrown off the machine.  The trained operator at the speed control box controls the unit's speed as well as spin direction.  The equipment has the ability of starting rides very slowly and can be advanced to faster speeds if a rider is able to handle them.  It can go slow and simply spin for beginners and run at a more advanced speed for experts or professionals.

Mechanical bulls have been around for decades as a training machine for rodeo riders, as they enable a rider to improve their rodeo performance and skills without the risk.  Although mechanical bulls are still used for rodeo training, they are also used as an amusement ride,  both as party entertainment and entertainment found in bars, restaurants, and clubs.

As a form of entertainment, the mechanical bull often includes a saddle (even though saddles are not used in real bull riding) and often a model of the head of a bull, complete with horns.   One of the earliest uses as a form of entertainment was at  Bertrand Island Amusement Park in New Jersey), where  a mechanical bucking bronco ride was introduced in the 1930s, under the name of "Ride 'Em Cowboy!".

The commercial use of mechanical bulls gained popular appeal with the release of the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy.  In this movie John Travolta and Debra Winger showed the riding a mechanical bull.  The mechanical bull used in this movie was the El Toro brand of mechanical bull.  This brand of mechanical bull is still being made, but does not carry the same safety features that are available on more current models. Mechanical bulls can also be seen in the films Stir Crazy, and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. In the movie Barnyard, in the night barn, a "Mechanical Man" is seen (as the main characters are cows).

In the television show Strangers with Candy, Jerri Blank's physical education class is uses mechanical bull riding.

A bucking bronco was originally a cowboy term for a horse that jumps about with stiff knees and an arched back.

References

Amusement rides

Mechanical bull


Attila, or Attila the Hun (406-453), was a leader of the Huns from 434 CE until he died in 453 CE. He was one of the most common ruler.

Attila led the Hunnic Empire, and was known as a feared military commander. He invaded Gaul, and nearly captured the city of Aurelianum. In 451 CE, he lost the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, the only one he ever lost. He also invaded Italy and attacked and looted several towns.

Attila died in 453. The traditional account of his death is that it happened the night after his marriage to a woman named Ildiko. The Huns declined in the years immediately after Attila's death.

References

406 births
453 deaths
Asian military people
European military people

Attila the Hun


Botulism is a rare disease caused by a bacteria called Clostridium botulinum. You can get it from eating meat that is not cooked properly. Babies can get it as well as adults.
Symptoms include fever, vomiting, difficulty talking and weakness of the facial muscles. Botulism toxin is a major ingredient in botox, a gel that relaxes the facial muscles to make people look younger.

Botulism is caused by a species of Clostridium, C. botulinum. It is transmitted through food containing endospores or through a wound. The most potent neurotoxin known is produced when the bacteria is exposed to low oxygen and body temperature. Foods which have been improperly canned are responsible for 90% of the cases of botulism. Natural, unpasteurized honey has been known to transmit infection and intoxication with the pathogen and the neurotoxin. Botulism is a neuroparalytic disease causing a flaccid paralysis; the neurotoxin blocks neurotransmitters. This results in an inability to contract muscles. The neurotoxin has been used medically in the management of severe pain by anaesthetists and also cosmetically to reduce wrinkles.

Diseases caused by bacteria
Clostridium

Botulism


Violin ek string instrument hae jiske ek bow se bajawa jaae hae.

Dusra websites
 The history of the violin - A quick overview about the history of the violin, including answers to questions such as "Why old master instruments sound so good"
 National Music Museum- Violins Pictures of violins by Andrea Amati, Cremona, ca. 1560, and other rare instruments.
 Violin Acoustics - University of New South Wales
 Musical Instrument Samples - University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios; anechoic recordings of violin sounds, both arco and pizzicato at various dynamics.
 Videos of famous violinists
 Why is the violin so hard to play? - Answers this question, as well as explaining the mechanics of bowed strings. Technical but very accessible.
 Violin Making, step by step
 The Different Types of Violin Strings

 The history of the violin

Musical instruments

Violin


Tatsumi is a 2011 Japanese-language Singaporean animated drama film directed by Eric Khoo. It is based on the manga memoir A Drifting Life and five earlier short stories by the Japanese manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi. The film is a Singaporean production with Japanese dialogue, and was animated in Indonesia.

The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2011. It later made its box office debut in the Singapore box office on 15 September 2011. The film was selected as the Singaporean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.

Plot

The film follows the career of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, as he begins to work as a comics artist in post-war occupied Japan, meets his idol Osamu Tezuka, and invents the gekiga genre of Japanese comics for adults. Interwoven with the biographical material are segments based on Tatsumi's short stories "Hell", "Beloved Monkey", "Just a Man", "Good-Bye" and "Occupied".

Voice cast
 Tetsuya Bessho
 Yoshihiro Tatsumi

Production

Development
Singaporean director Eric Khoo, who previously exclusively made live-action films but has a past as a comics artist, was first introduced to the works of Yoshihiro Tatsumi during his military service, and says that he immediately was stricken by the sadness and beauty of the stories. When Tatsumi's 840-page autobiographical manga, A Drifting Life, was published in Singapore in 2009, Khoo realised that Tatsumi still was alive and wanted to pay tribute to him. Khoo visited Tatsumi in Japan in October 2009 and received the permission to adapt the work to film. Production was led by Khoo's Singaporean company Zhao Wei Films. The budget of the film corresponded to 800,000 US dollars.

The visual style and storyboards of the film were kept tightly to Tatsumi's original drawings. Khoo said: "You see, Tatsumi loves cinema, and when he created this new movement of comics using strips with real characters, rather than the four-panel manga convention, he produced works that are like storyboards for a film. All we need to do is stretch them out to a widescreen format. And give them multi-planes, like layers, so there is more depth and feel. I also tweaked certain things, changed some of the sequences of the stories, so for the cinema his stories got a new voice."

Casting and staff
Tatsumi himself was involved in the project and oversaw details to secure authenticity, as well as provided the narration for the biographical segments. Other prominent voices were performed by the Japanese stage actor Tetsuya Bessho. Minor characters were played by amateurs from Singapore's Japanese minority. People with roots in Osaka were sought out specifically, and Tatsumi instructed the actors how to speak the Osaka dialect of the 1950s.

Principal production
Animation work started in March 2010 at Infinite Frameworks Studios in Batam, Indonesia. It involved a team of 25 artists who previously had worked mainly on syndicated television shows.

Music
The theme song of this film was composed by director Eric Khoo's then 13-year-old son Christopher. Christopher composed a total of 3 musical compositions for the film.

Critical reception
In a review written at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, the Hollywood Reporter said reviewed that the film "evinces a mood that is unutterably sad, yet indescribably beautiful.", but added that "the sinister and decidedly adult subject matter may scale down its widespread marketability". The reviewer also praised the three music compositions, which she felt "lend the biographical segments a sweetly rueful timbre". The reviewer also said that "the uncompromising, shattering power of the stories, (made) the account of Tatsumi's life seem less engaging."

See also
 Cinema of Singapore
 History of manga
 List of films based on manga
 List of submissions to the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
 List of Singaporean submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

External links

2011 films
2011 animated films
Animated drama films
Anime films based on manga
Biographical films about artists
Films about comics
Films based on biographies
Animated films based on short fiction
Films directed by Eric Khoo
Animated films set in Japan
2010s Japanese-language films
Singaporean animated films
Cultural depictions of cartoonists
Animated films set in the 20th century

Tatsumi (film)