Naked Among Wolves () is a 1963 East German film directed by Frank Beyer and starring Erwin Geschonneck and Armin Mueller-Stahl. The film is based on author Bruno Apitz's 1958 novel by the same name. The film was remade in 2015 under the direction of Philipp Kadelbach.

Plot
Buchenwald concentration camp, early 1945. A Polish prisoner named Jankowski, who has been on a death march from Auschwitz, brings a suitcase to the camp. When the inmates in the storage building open it, they discover a three-year-old child. Jankowski tells them he is the son of a couple from the Warsaw Ghetto, both of whom perished. Prisoner Kropinski becomes attached to the boy, and begs Kapo André Höfel to save him. Höfel, who is a member of the camp's secret communist underground, consults with senior member Bochow. He is instructed to send the child on the next transport to Sachsenhausen. Höfel cannot bring himself to do so, and hides him. Jankowski is deported to Sachsenhausen alone.

SS man Zweiling stumbles upon Höfel and his friend, fellow communist Pippig, as they play with the child. Knowing well that the American Army is approaching, Zweiling is convinced to turn a blind eye, hoping to present himself as a humane guard to the Americans. His wife tells him to get rid of the boy to avoid punishment by his superiors. Zweiling writes a denunciation letter to the Gestapo, making it appear as if it was composed by a prisoner. Kluttig and Reineboth, two other SS officers, realize that Zweiling was the informant, but choose to ignore it; they begin to search for the child. Kluttig is keen on massacring the camp's surviving prisoners, but commandant Schwahl forbids it, fearing American retribution - although he knows of the secret resistance. Kluttig and Reineboth brutally torture Höfel and Kropinski, but they refuse to tell the boy's whereabouts. The resistance's leaders meet to discuss the crisis, that may bring about an SS crackdown before their planned uprising. They determine to save the child, who is hidden in a barrack.

Reineboth takes all the personnel of the storage chamber to an investigation by the Gestapo. Pippig is subject to horrible torture. After seeing his injuries, prisoner August Rose has a nervous breakdown and confesses all. Pippig dies of his wounds. Kluttig raids the barrack, but cannot find the child.

The SS plan to evacuate the camp. They order camp elder Krämer, who is also the communists' covert leader, to organize the prisoners for transport. Krämer manages to stall the preparations by pretending to cooperate. Resistance leader Bogorski, a Soviet prisoner-of-war, reveals that he hid the child on his own, where Kluttig would not find him. As the deadline for evacuation nears, the boy is taken out from his hiding. Kluttig enters the room where the inmates are gathered, intending to shoot the child, but the prisoners form a wall around him and force Kluttig to leave. Krämer orders an armed uprising. The prisoners, led by Bogorski, drive out the remaining SS. Most of them survive and flee wearing civilian clothing. Höfel and Kropinski are freed from their cells. Krämer takes the boy out as the camp is liberated.

Cast

 Jürgen Strauch: child
 Erwin Geschonneck: Walter Krämer
 Armin Mueller-Stahl: André Höfel
 Fred Delmare: Rudi Pippig
 Gerry Wolff: Herbert Bochow
 Peter Sturm: August Rose
 Viktor Avdyushko: Leonid Bogorski
 Zygmunt Malanowicz: Josef Pribula
 Werner Dissel: Otto Lange
 Bruno Apitz: old man
 Angela Brunner: Hortense Zweiling
 Krystyn Wójcik: Marian Kropinski
 Hans-Hartmut Krüger: Henri Riomand
 Boleslaw Plotnicki: Zacharias Jankowski
 Jan Pohan: Kodiczek
 Leonid Svetlov: Zidkowski
 Christoph Engel: Peter van Dahlen
 Hans Hardt-Hardtloff: block elder
 Werner Möhring: Heinrich Schüpp
 Hermann Eckhardt: Maximilian Wurach
 Peter-Paul Goes: Max Müller
 Günter Rüger: Karl Wunderlich
 Albert Zahn: Otto Runki
 Steffen Klaus: Alfred
 Friedrich Teitge: jailer
 Dieter Wien: block leader
 Friedhelm Eberle: block leader
 Otto Krieg-Helbig: Rottenführer
 Erik S. Klein: Untersturmführer Reineboth
 Herbert Köfer: Hauptsturmführer Kluttig
 Wolfram Handel: Hauptscharführer Zweiling
 Heinz Scholz: Standartenführer Schwahl
 Fred Ludwig: Oberscharführer 'Mandrill' Mandrak
 Joachim Tomaschewsky: Sturmbannführer Weisangk
 Gerd Ehlers: Gestapo commissar Gey

Production

Bruno Apitz, a member of the Communist Party of Germany, was incarcerated at Buchenwald concentration camp from 1937 to 1945. He later recalled that in the last months before liberation, he heard about a little Jewish child who had been harbored by the International Camp Committee and protected from the SS guards. In a 1974 interview, Apitz claimed he swore that "If I will survive, I will tell the story of this child."

After the war, Apitz resided in the German Democratic Republic, working as a journalist and as a dramatist in the state-owned DEFA Studio. On 27 November 1954, Apitz wrote to DEFA's director-general Hans Rodenberg and suggested producing a film about the child's story. Rodenberg rejected the proposal; officially, it was due to the emphasis laid by the East German cultural establishment on depicting active resistance to Fascism rather than passive suffering. Private correspondence also revealed that studio officials regarded Apitz as insufficiently talented to handle the task.

Apitz abandoned the idea to make a film and instead, turned his rudimentary screenplay into a novel. He wrote the book from 1955 to 1958. Historian Bill Niven commented that since April 1955, the 10th anniversary of the camp's liberation, "the collective memory of Buchenwald's communist prisoners was transformed into the official memory of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany", and incorporated into the country's "anti-Fascist legitimization myth". Apitz's novel Naked Among Wolves was published shortly before the dedication of the Buchenwald Memorial Site in 1958. It turned into an instant success, selling 500,000 copies within a year. By 1965, it had been translated into 25 languages and had sold 2,000,000 copies. It was also entered into the East German schools' curriculum. Apitz won the National Prize, 3rd class, in 1958.

Already in April 1959, DEFA chief dramatist Klaus Wischnewski contacted Apitz with a proposition to adapt his novel for the screen, but the author was unwilling and made demands which the studio was unable to accept. Representatives of the Deutscher Fernsehfunk station approached Apitz, and he agreed to produce a television film based on his novel, which was broadcast on 10 April 1960. Although DFF did not conduct regular rating surveys yet, the adaptation was considered a success. The television critic of the newspaper Tribüne published a column praising the series, and called on DEFA to make a version of its own.

During 1960, after prolonged negotiations, Apitz and DEFA settled on an arrangement. Director Wolfgang Langhoff was chosen to direct the planned picture. Being engaged in his duties as manager of the Deutsches Theater, he eventually declined the role. It was then passed on to the young Frank Beyer, who had been working on Star-Crossed Lovers. In early 1962, he and Apitz began working on the planned film.

Beyer originally intended to have Ernst Busch play the role of Krämer, but the singer declined because his face was half-paralyzed from injuries during a bombing raid in World War II. Erwin Geschonneck was chosen in his stead. The director also picked his neighbor's son, the four-year-old Jürgen Strauch, to portray the child saved by the resistance. DEFA sought out foreign actors for the roles of the foreign members of the resistance, like Soviet actor Viktor Avdyushko, who was already well known in East Germany and cast as Bogorski. A minor part was given to Apitz himself - he appeared as an old man caring for the child who is found dead after the camp's liberation. Beyer also retained several of the actors who performed in the television adaptation, like Wolfram Handel, Fred Delmare and Peter Sturm, who was called to depict August Rose for the second time. The actor was very reluctant to take the role and had to be pressured by Apitz and the director, Sturm, who had been twice incarcerated in Buchenwald, was badly depressed by the work on the film, falling ill after it ended.

Deputy Minister of Defence Admiral Waldemar Verner provided more than 3,000 soldiers to be used as extras. Principal photography took place in Buchenwald - which was partly renovated by the Ministry of Construction for this purpose - and in the Babelsberg Studios from 4 May to 10 September 1962. Beyer told historian Bill Niven that the ending scene's score - which was not triumphant, but rather menacing - was the only manner in which he could hint to the existence of the postwar Soviet Special Camp no. 2 in Buchenwald, one of the NKVD special camps that became known to the public only after German reunification. His uncle was imprisoned in one such camp.

Reception

Distribution
On 10 April 1963, the eve of 18th Anniversary of Buchenwald's Self-Liberation, the film had its premiere in East Berlin's Colosseum Cinema. It was released in 24 copies in East Germany, and sold 806,915 tickets in the first year. By 1976, it had been viewed by 1.5 million people in cinemas, a number which rose to 2.5 million until 1994. In addition, 35mm reel copies were supplied to the National People's Army, the League of People's Friendship and to other public organizations. Private screenings were held in West Germany in April 1964 - for example, by the East-German-funded Uni-Doc-Verleih in Munich - but although the government never banned it, a local distributor, Pegasus Film, did not purchase the rights to it until 1967. By that time, the film had already been exported to all the European countries, as well as to Canada, the United States, India, Japan, China, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Guinea. DFF first broadcast it on television in September 1966 and re-ran it five times during the 1970s.

Awards

Naked Among Wolves won a Silver Prize in the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival, in July 1963. Although the Communist Party of the USSR instructed the Soviet members of the jury to award the Grand Prix to the East German entry, Naked Among Wolves narrowly lost it to Federico Fellini's 8½; allegedly, during the thirty-six-hour debate of the jury before the choosing of the winner, members Stanley Kramer, Jean Marais and Sergio Amidei threatened to leave if Beyer received the prize rather than Fellini. Polish member Jan Rybkowski described Naked Among Wolves as a "glossing over of reality."

On 6 October 1963, Apitz, Beyer, cinematographer Günter Marczinkowsky and art director Alfred Hirschmeier received the National Prize of East Germany, 1st degree, for their work. On 14 March 1964, actors Erik S. Klein, Herbert Köfer, Wolfram Handel and Gerry Wolf were all awarded the Heinrich Greif Prize, 1st class, in recognition of their appearance in Naked Among Wolves.

The Evangelical Film Guild of Frankfurt am Main chose Naked Among Wolves as Best Film of the Month for March 1968. The West German Wiesbaden-based National Review of Cinema and Media granted it the assessment "Valuable", its second-highest rating for motion pictures.

Critical response
A day after the premiere, Horst Knietzsch wrote in the Socialist Unity Party's newspaper Neues Deutschland that "with Naked Among Wolves, the filmmakers of our country have fulfilled a national duty. For the first time in German cinema, the human greatness, the courage, the revolutionary fervor and the international solidarity of the political prisoners in the Fascist concentration camps are displayed and set as the main theme of a motion picture... This film will go down in the history of German Socialist cinema." In a column published in East Berlin's Die Weltbühne magazine, Peter Edel noted that while it continued the tradition of DEFA anti-Fascist films like Marriage in the Shadows and Five Cartridges, Naked Among Wolves was the first such to be set in a concentration camp. He called it "the culmination of DEFA's cinematic work on this subject." Helmut Ulrich wrote in Neue Zeit: "Young people - not only they, but they above all - must see this film." Former Buchenwald inmate and Commandant of the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment, Major General Heinz Gronau, who viewed the film in a special screening for survivors before the premiere, told Neues Deutschland that he approved of the manner in which "the proletarian internationalism was emphasized."

The critic of the West German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, who watched the picture in a closed screening held during the 13th Berlin International Film Festival, wrote that "it has a wide scope, and fails to cover it all... It does not reach the level of DEFA works like Man of Straw or The Murderers Are Among Us, but is still an honest, well-made picture." Karl Feuerer from the Hamburg-based Die andere Zeitung wrote in 1964: "As long as the Brown past is not overcome... And people such as Globke and Bütefisch cling to their positions of power... Such pictures are required." In 1968, after it was released in the Federal Republic, Hellmut Haffner from Hamburg's Sonntagblatt commented that "today, it may take five years until a film from Germany arrives in Germany." Die Welt critic Friedrich Luft commented: "The exclusive appearance of the communists in the best roles... Makes the film all too partisan. Thus, one remains skeptical of its important moral more than one would wish. It is a pity that a DEFA film has to be taken in this manner, especially in this case."

The critic of the Greek newspaper Ethnos complained that the film presented "a nice, well-tended Buchenwald, where only the disobedient and the communists are punished severely." The reviewer of Ta Nea commented: "All the 'terrible things' we see in the studio version are not even a pale imitation of Buchenwald's reality... Of course the film was made by Germans, but does it give them the right to talk about the noose without mentioning the victims?"

Penelope Gilliatt, who reviewed the film for The Observer, commented that it was "an artistic micro-cosmos of the German situation from an East German perspective... Well photographed and better than it might have been." Philip Oakes of The Sunday Telegraph opined that Naked Among Wolves was "rough, gory and realistic, but above all meant to serve as entertainment", that it contained "propaganda" and was "a violent variation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther wrote on 19 April 1967: "Another torturing recollection of the horrors of the camps... is rendered a bit less torturing by a fresh and hopeful theme in Naked Among Wolves."

Analysis
Martina Thiele remarked that "Naked Among Wolves is not a holocaust film in the strict sense, but rather a 'testimony of anti-Fascism'." The picture emphasized the international solidarity of the communists, and the racial classifications in the concentration camp were largely overlooked. Daniela Berghahn wrote that, as official East German discourse about the wartime persecution of Jews was subject to a Marxist interpretation of history, the topic was marginalized; in addition, the politics of the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli Conflict made the theme highly sensitive. Berghahn commented that the child was not in the center of the plot, but served as an "infantile victim" who had to be protected by the "communist heroes... Beyer's film reaffirms the official GDR conception of the Holocaust." Thiele also noted that the word 'Jew' is barely mentioned in the film or in the novel, mostly as part of antisemitic slurs used by the antagonists. Bill Niven concluded: "It is not Jews who are seen to suffer, but Germans - for a Jew. Resistance and victimhood reside with Pippig, Höfel and Krämer."

Naked Among Wolves was centered on the inner conflicts of individual persons, unlike earlier films from the 1950s about the history of the wartime resistance. Thomas Heimann remarked that "Beginning from 1960... A new generation of directors, Beyer among them, sought to redress the past in a manner somewhat less conforming to the official view of history... The emphasis was laid on the individual stories... Of the anti-Fascists."
Paul Cooke and Marc Silberman wrote that Naked Among Wolves, like all DEFA's works, "was closely aligned to the state's official historiography and reflected changes in the Party's agenda... A canonical text."; Anke Pinkert commented that "with a younger postwar audience in mind... The films of the early 1960s... Including Naked Among Wolves... Aimed at a more realist approach to history". Thiele pointed out that the one of the important aspects of the plot was that André Höfel's decision to save the child was done in contradiction to party resolutions: "Marcel Reich-Ranicki's explanation to the success of the novel can be also used in regards to the film - in a country in which one of the most popular songs was called The Party is Always Right, people were thankful for a story hinged upon the disobedience of a comrade."

However, the picture still conveyed conservative messages: the film's hero, Krämer, leader of the communists in Buchenwald, is contrasted with the character of August Rose, who betrays his friends. While Rose is portrayed sympathetically, he is a coward nonetheless. Rose is not identified as a communist; according to Thiele, "he is obviously implied to be a Social-Democrat." Another figure was that of Leonid Bogorski, granted a more prominent role than in the novel: Bogorski saves the child completely on his own, a feat which he performs with others in Apitz's original; he also heads the uprising. Klaus Wischnewski, DEFA's chief dramatist, told that he was disturbed by the "stereotypical leadership role which the Soviet Bogorski occupies." Thomas Heimann remarked that Bogorski, who acts as the plot's deus ex machina, represents the "higher authority and wisdom of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union."

Another motif was the flight of the SS officers, who are all seen leaving the camp unharmed, most of them in civilian clothing which they have prepared beforehand. Many reviews of the film in East Germany stressed that the former war criminals had little to fear in the Federal Republic. Bill Niven wrote that the suggestion that the SS fled to West Germany was accentuated in the film more than in the novel, although Beyer was careful not to make explicit parallels between the camp and the FRG. Daniela Berghahn remarked that "the film's production history illustrates how the 'Jewish question' was utilized for political ends": in the early 1960s, during and after the Eichmann Trial, the SED sought to "maximize the propaganda value in a campaign to remind the world that many former Nazis were living in West Germany."

Historical accuracy

Apitz had presented his novel as a fictional story based on true events: in the foreword, he dedicated Naked Among Wolves to "our fallen comrades in arms from all nations... In their honor, I have named many of the characters after some of them."

In 1964, the East Berlin-based Berliner Zeitung am Abend located the child upon whose story the novel was based: Stefan Jerzy Zweig, who survived Buchenwald at the age of four with his father Zacharias, with the help of two prisoner functionaries: Robert Siewert and Willi Bleicher.  Bleicher, a former member of the Communist Party of Germany (Opposition) and the kapo of the storage building, was the one who convinced the SS to turn a blind eye to the child. When Zweig was to be sent to Auschwitz, prisoners who were tasked with compiling the deportees' list erased his name and replaced him with Willy Blum, a sixteen-year-old Sinto boy. Zweig moved to Israel after liberation, and later studied in France. After he was discovered to be the 'Buchenwald child', he settled in East Germany, where he remained until 1972. Zweig received much media and the public attention in the country. Blum's fate was only disclosed after the German reunification.

The self-liberation of Buchenwald, celebrated in East Germany on 11 April, held an important status in national consciousness since the late 1950s, even before the publication of the novel. As shown in the film, the communist prisoners, who had organized a secret resistance network, were purported to have risen up against the SS and liberated themselves before the arrival of the American forces. While the Buchenwald Resistance did exist, it was not dominated solely by communists and its role in the camp's liberation, as well as its conduct in the years before, was greatly embellished for propaganda purposes.

References

Bibliography
Bill Niven. The Buchenwald Child: Truth, Fiction, and Propaganda. Camden House (2007). .
Daniela Berghahn. Hollywood Behind the Wall: The Cinema of East Germany. Manchester University Press (2005). .
Rachel Langford. Marginal Voices, Marginal Forms: Diaries in European Literature and History . Rodopi (1999). .
Martin McCauley. The German Democratic Republic since 1945. Palgrave Macmillan (1986). .
John Rodden. Textbook Reds: Schoolbooks, Ideology, and Eastern German Identity. Pennsylvania State University Press (2006). .
Anke Pinkert. Film and Memory in East Germany. Indiana University Press (2008). .
Paul Cooke, Marc Silberman. Screening War: Perspectives on German Suffering. Camden House (2010). .
Martina Thiele. Publizistische Kontroversen über den Holocaust im Film. Lit (2001). .
Thomas Heimann. Bilder von Buchenwald: die Visualisierung des Antifaschismus in der DDR. Böhlau (2005). .
Thomas Beutelschmidt, Rüdiger Steinlein (editors). Realitätskonstruktion: Faschismus und Antifaschismus in den Literaturverfilmungen des DDR-Fernsehens. Leipziger Universitätsverlag (2004). .
Ralf Schenk (editor). Regie: Frank Beyer. Hentrich (1995). .
Frank Beyer. Wenn der Wind sich Dreht. Econ (2001). .
Ingrid Poss. Spur der Filme: Zeitzeugen über die DEFA. Links (2006). .

External links

Naked Among Wolves trailer and picture gallery on icestorm.de, current copyright owner.
Original poster of Naked Among Wolves on ostfilm.de.
Naked Among Wolves. progress-film.de.
Bruno Apitz und sein Roman "Nackt unter Wölfen". A report by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, including television interviews with Armin Mueller-Stahl and Stefan Jerzy Zweig.
"Nackt unter Wölfen" kommt in die Kinos. Original newsreel footage about the film from 1963 presented by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.
 Nackt unter Wölfen at filmportal.de/en
Shadows and Sojourners: Images of Jews and Antifascism in East German Film.
Frank Beyer: Das Buchenwald-Kind - die wahre Geschichte.
Nackt unter Wölfen. defa-sternstunden.de.
Naked Among Wolves at Rotten Tomatoes.

1963 films
East German films
Films based on German novels
Films directed by Frank Beyer
1960s German-language films
German World War II films
Holocaust films
Films about communism
Films set in Germany
Films set in 1945
Babelsberg Studio films
1960s German films

Naked Among Wolves (1963 film)


Huckleberry is a name used in North America for several plants in two closely related genera in the family Ericaceae: Gaylussacia and Vaccinium. The huckleberry is the state fruit of Idaho.

Some Vaccinium species, such as the red huckleberry, are always called huckleberries. Other species may be called blueberries or huckleberries in different locations.

There is much confusion in naming of berries in American English. The 'garden huckleberry' (Solanum melanocerasum) is not a true huckleberry but a member of the nightshade family.

The fruit of most species of huckleberry can be eaten. The berries are small and round. They are usually less than 5 mm in diameter and contain 10 seeds. Berries range in color from bright red, through dark purple, and into the blues. In taste the berries range from tart to sweet. They have a flavor similar to that of a blueberry. Huckleberries are well liked by many mammals such as bears and humans.

References

Berries
Ericaceae

Huckleberry


The pelagic zone is the open sea or ocean that is not near the coast. The name comes from the Greek πέλαγος (pélagos), which might be translated as "open sea".

To make this clear, seas around continents have continental crust beneath them. They are shallow. Seas away from continents can be very deep, and do not have continental shelves beneath them.

Sub-zones
The pelagic (or open ocean) zone is divided into a number of sub-zones:

 Epipelagic (surface to 200m): the illuminated surface zone where there is enough light for photosynthesis. Because of this, plankton, and the food chain which feeds on it, are in this zone. The top predators are fish such as tuna and many sharks.
 Mesopelagic (from 200m to 1000m): the twilight zone.  Although some light penetrates this deep, it is insufficient for photosynthesis. The name comes from Greek μέσον, middle.
 Bathyal zone (from 1000m to 4000m): by this depth the ocean is almost entirely dark (with only the occasional bioluminescent organism). There are no living plants, and most animals survive by consuming the snow of detritus falling from the zones above, or (like the marine hatchetfish) by preying upon others. Giant squid live at this depth, and here they are hunted by deep-diving sperm whales. From Greek βαθύς (bathys), deep.
 Abyssal zone (from 4000m to the ocean floor): no light penetrates to this depth, and some creatures are blind and colourless. Bioluminescence also occurs in this zone.
 Hadal zone (the deep water in ocean trenches) – the name comes from Hades, the classical Greek underworld. This zone is less well known. Very few species live in the open areas, but many organisms live in hydrothermal vents.

The last three zones are similar in character, and some marine biologists count them as a single zone or consider the latter two to be the one zone. Some define the hadopelagic as waters below 6000 meters, whether in a trench or not.

Other features of the deep ocean
Seamounts
Ocean ridges

Other websites
 The Deep Sea pages at Oceanlink

Biological oceanography
Biomes

Pelagic zone


Liptov () is a historical and geographical region in central Slovakia with around 140,000 inhabitants. The area is also known by the German name Liptau, the Hungarian Liptó, the Latin name Liptovium and the Polish Liptów.

Etymology
The name is derived from some Slavic personal name beginning with Ľub- with a possessive suffix -ov. Ľúbiť – to love, derived personal names are Ľubomír, Ľubota (potentially the Czech House of Lubota) and others. E.g. Ľubtov (pronunciation Ľuptov) - Ľubota's castle or his territory. The form Ľuptov has been preserved in Orava and in a frequent  Slovak surname Ľupták (Liptovian).

History
The first known inhabitants came to Liptov during the Neolithic age around 6000 years ago. Celts represent an important time period of Liptov during the Iron Age. The Celtic tribal village can be seen in the archeological site of Havránok near Liptovský Mikuláš. The first settlements of Slavic people in Liptov region began approximately in the 6th century BC. The first written evidence about Liptov came from 1231 AD during the rule of the Hungarian king Andrew II when Liptov was a permanent comitatus (county) of the Kingdom of Hungary. The dissolution of Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918 led to the creation of Czechoslovakia as a successor country, including Liptov as one of the integral regions of the new state. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, Liptov became the region of present-day Slovakia.

There are currently three remains of castles that were built in the Liptov region. They are the Likava castle, the Liptov castle, and the Liptovský Hrádok castle. Liptov is also a place where the legendary Slovak figure of the 17th and 18th century, Juraj Jánošík, was sentenced to death.

Geography

Historical and cultural centres of Liptov are the towns of Liptovský Mikuláš, Ružomberok and Liptovský Hrádok. Liptov is surrounded by the highest mountains in Slovakia: High Tatras, West Tatras and Chočské vrchy from the north, Low Tatras from the south and Greater Fatra from the west. The longest Slovak river of Váh runs through Liptov and fills the important water reservoir of Liptovská Mara. There are two Slovak national parks with the highest level of protection in the territory of Liptov, they are the Tatra National Park and the Low Tatras National Park.

Tourism

Liptov is one of the most visited regions in Slovakia. There are four public caves: Demänovská Cave of Liberty, Demänovská Ice Cave, Važecká Cave and Stanišovská Cave, the biggest ski resort in Slovakia, Jasná, ski park Malinô Brdo, thermal parks of Tatralandia in Liptovský Mikuláš and Bešeňová and water worlds Gothal in Liptovská Osada and Thermal Paradise in Liptovský Ján as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site of Vlkolínec. The list of museums and galleries include: Liptov Museum and Ľudovít Fulla Gallery in Ružomberok, Slovak Museum of Nature Protection and Spelology, Gallery of P.M. Bohúň and the Centre of Koloman Sokol in Liptovský Mikuláš. Liptov has a rich tradition of folklore culture. The annual folklore festival in the village of Východná is the biggest folklore event in Slovakia attracting thousands of visitors from all around Europe.

The Liptov region has a number of fine churches. In Svätý Kríž, south of the reservoir, is a large 'articular' wooden church belonging to the same group as the one in Hronsek, near Banská Bystrica (see the article in the section on Banská Bystrica Region). This is one of the largest wooden religious buildings in Europe and, like the buildings at Pribylina, was also rescued from the water (it was originally built in the now-vanished village of Paludza). And in the small village of Nižné Matiašovce, at the start of the precipitous route from Liptov to Zuberec (in the Orava valley), is a beautiful wooden-roofed church with defensive stone walls and bastions.

Liptov has two other big tourist draws: a pair of large geo-thermal aquaparks, at Bešeňová (near Ružomberok) and Tatralandia (near Liptovský Mikuláš); and the Demänovská valley.

On the way up the tree-lined Demänovská valley, are two large limestone cave complexes open to the public, the first of which is an ice cave (where the subterranean climate has formed a sort of underground glacier). The second, the Demänovská Cave of Freedom, is a huge complex of galleries featuring many stalactites and stalagmites.

Gallery

See also
Liptauer (Liptov cheese)

References

External links
Region of Liptov at Slovakia.travel
Folklore group in this region
Liptov TravelGuide
Visit Liptov
Liptov by Bicycle
Spectacular Slovakia travelguide - Liptov
Discover Liptov

Counties in the Kingdom of Hungary
States and territories established in the 15th century
Traditional regions of Slovakia

fr:Liptó

Liptov


Utopia is an idea in philosophy. The name comes from a book by Sir Thomas More called Utopia.

Utopia may also be:

In literature:
Utopia (book), a book by Thomas More
Isaac Asimov's Utopia, a science fiction novel by Roger MacBride Allen
Utopia (German science fiction), a German science fiction series

In computer and video gaming:
Utopia (online game), a browser strategy game

In technology:
Utopia (typeface), a style of letters by Robert Slimbach
UTOPIA (Bioinformatics tools)

In movie and television:
Utopia (movie) or Atoll K, a Laurel and Hardy movie
Utopia (1983 movie), a German film
"Utopia" (Doctor Who), an episode of Doctor Who

In music:
Utopia (rock band), a progressive rock group
Utopia (Unexpect album)
Utopia (Utopia album)
Utopía, an album by Belinda
"Utopia" (Goldfrapp song)
"Utopia" (Alanis Morissette song)
"Utopia" (Within Temptation song)

In places:
Utopia, Northern Territory, Australia
Utopia, Florida, U.S.
Utopia, Queens, New York, U.S.
Utopia, Ohio, a former anarchistic community
Utopia, Texas, U.S.

Related pages
Utopia, Limited, a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera

Utopia (disambiguation)


Digital distribution (also named content delivery), is the delivery (through downloading) of any digital content, including audio, e-books, games, PDFs, pictures, software, and video. Digital distribution is handled through a digital distribution platform that's designed to stream the digital content or allow the content to be downloaded in full.

The primary behavior of online distribution is its direct nature of distribution.

Benefits
To make a commercially successful work, artists usually must enter their industry's publishing chain. Publishers help artists advertise, fund and distribute their work to retail outlets. In some industries, particularly video games, artists find themselves bound to publishers, and in many cases unable to make the content they want; the publisher might not think it will profit well. This can quickly lead to the standardization of the content and to the stifling of new, potentially risky ideas.

By opting for online distribution, an artist can get their work into the public sphere of interest easily with potentially minimum business overhead. This often leads to cheaper goods for the consumer, increased profits for the artists, as well as increased artistic freedom. Online distribution platforms typically contain or act as a form of digital rights management.

Online distribution also opens the door to new business models (e.g., the Open Music Model). For instance, an artist could release one track from an album or one chapter from a book at a time instead of waiting for them all to be completed. This either gives them a cash boost to help continue their projects or indicates that their work might not be financially viable. This is hopefully done before they have spent excessive money and time on a project deemed to remain unprofitable. Video games have increased flexibility in this area, demonstrated by micropayment models. A clear result of these new models is their accessibility to smaller artists or artist teams who do not have the time, funds, or expertise to make a new product in one go.

An example of this can be found in the music industry. Indie artists may access the same distribution channels as major record labels, with potentially fewer restrictions and manufacturing costs. There is a growing collection of 'Internet labels' that offer distribution to unsigned or independent artists directly to online music stores, and in some cases marketing and promotion services. Further, many bands are able to bypass this completely, and offer their music for sale via their own independently controlled websites.

An issue is the large number of incompatible formats in which content is delivered, restricting the devices that may be used, or making data conversion necessary.
File sharing
Movie distribution

Digital distribution


Julia Mae Spicher Kasdorf (born December 6, 1962) is an American poet.

Early years and education
Born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, Julia Spicher grew up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh near Irwin, Westmoreland County. Her parents were Mennonites born in Big Valley, Pennsylvania, who chose to leave their rural community in central Pennsylvania to work in an urban setting. Spicher attended Goshen College, in Goshen, Indiana, but completed her B.A. and Ph.D. at New York University. As a student at Goshen College, Spicher visited China in the autumn of 1982 for the Study-Service Trimester at Sichuan Teachers College. She published Moss Lotus, a chapbook of poetry inspired by her experiences in China, as a sophomore English major at Goshen in 1983. She earned her B.A., M.A. in creative writing, and Ph.D. from New York University (1997), where she studied with poet Yehuda Amichai, among others. Her Ph.D. dissertation, Fixing tradition: The cultural work of Joseph W. Yoder and his relationship with the Amish community of Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, was supervised by Gordon M. Pradl.

Spicher Kasdorf began to write poetry seriously during her high school years and credits the Poets in the Schools program for nurturing her interest in writing. Her first published poem appeared in 1977 in Images Remembered II, an anthology of the Poets-in-the-Schools Program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She also wrote in workshops at Summer Happening '79 and under Deborah Burnham and H. L. Van Brunt at Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts in 1980. In 1981, she won the Scholastic Writing Awards with work that was then published in Literary Cavalcade. While a student at Goshen College she also had poems published in With, Builder, Christian Living, and the college publications Record and Broadside.

Career
Kasdorf is the author of three poetry collections--Sleeping Preacher (1992), Eve's Striptease (1998), and Poetry in America (2011)--all published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Sleeping Preacher won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and the Great Lakes College's Association Award for New Writing, and Eve's Striptease was named one of the top 20 poetry books of 1998 by Library Journal. She also co-edited an anthology, Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn, with Michael Tyrell (New York University Press, 2007). Kasdorf was awarded a 2009 NEA fellowship for poetry and is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. She is also the author of a scholarly study of Pennsylvania writer Joseph Yoder, Fixing Tradition, and co-editor of two editions of Pennsylvania local color novels, Rosanna of the Amish by Joseph W. Yoder and The House of the Black Ring by Fred Lewis Pattee. Her essay collection, The Body and the Book: Writing a Mennonite Life, was awarded the Book of the Year award by the Conference on Christianity and Literature. She is Professor of English and Women's Studies at the Pennsylvania State University.

In The Body and the Book, Kasdorf explores the cultural and geographical inspiration for her writing in her Mennonite and Amish communities of origin, as well as in New York City where she studied creative writing and published her first book. In her essay, "A Place to Begin," she comments, "I liked being able to think in the free space between places . . . As poetry's power often comes from linking two unlike things to release new insight, so my life has been charged by the experience of embodying a connection between disparate locations" (p. 8).

Kasdorf was often criticized because she was one of the few Mennonite poets that expressed her encounters publicly. She was one of the first Mennonite poets to cross the boundaries of writers and express encounters that she experienced as a child. For example, in "Sinning", she states, "When I was seven, Mom asked if I knew what rabbits in the hutch were up to. 'Fucking,' farm cousins told me long before. 'We call it intercourse,' she said and began the cautionary tales right then."  This is an example of how Kasdorf's attitude being a Mennonite poet was completely different toward the public. Mennonites consider themselves a closed community which meant that they do not express or associate their personal/ community issues to any outside person(s). They like to keep any or all personal issues within their environment.  However, in Kasdorf's case she took the initiative to not only express personal issues of Mennonites but to publish them and become an award-winning poet for her courageous acts and writing. She covered many topics that one would not expect to read about from a Mennonite poet such as desires, marriage, domestic life, and personal encounters she had with other Mennonites whether it was in her hometown or on her journey to becoming a writer.

Awards and recognition
Spicher Kasdorf won the 1991 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize for her first book, Sleeping Preacher. She has since won the Great Lakes Colleges Award for New Writing (1993), Book of the Year Award from the Conference on Christianity and Literature (2001), and the Pushcart Prize (poetry) (2004). She was awarded an NEA Grant for Poetry in 2009.

Works

Poetry

Moss Lotus (chapbook), with illustrations by Suelyn Lee. Pinchpenny Press, 1983. Published as Julia Spicher.
Sleeping Preacher. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992.
Eve's Striptease. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998.
Poetry in America. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011.
Shale Play: Poems and Photographs from the Fracking Fields, with photographs by Steven Rubin. Penn State University Press, 2018.

Spicher Kasdorf's poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and numerous other journals and anthologies.

Essays, Biography, and Edited Volumes

 The Body and the Book: Writing from a Mennonite Life. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. Reprinted by Penn State University Press, 2009.
Fixing Tradition: Joseph W. Yoder, Amish American. Herald Press, 2003.
Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn. Edited by Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Michael Tyrell. New York University Press, 2007.
Rosanna of the Amish by Joseph W. Yoder, edited by Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Joshua R. Brown. Herald Press, 2008.
The House of the Black Ring: A Romance of the Seven Mountains by Fred Lewis Pattee, with an introduction by Julia Spicher Kasdorf and notes by Joshua R. Brown. Penn State University Press, 2012.

See also
Kauffman Amish Mennonite, also called Sleeping Preacher Churches

References

Further reading
Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2004. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000111881
Julia Spicher Kasdorf. Poets.org. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/362
Hostetler, Ann, ed. Julia Kasdorf. A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry. Iowa City, IA: Univ. of Iowa Press, 2003.

External links
 "Fine: On Maternity and Mortality" by Julia Kasdorf in Literary Mama.
 "Julia Spicher Kasdorf" author web page at Penn State University.
 "Julia Spicher Kasdorf" author personal web page.
"The Writer's Almanac" poems by Julia Spicher Kasdorf

1962 births
Living people
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize winners
American Mennonites
Mennonite poets
People from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
American women poets
21st-century American poets
21st-century American women writers
People from Lewistown, Pennsylvania

Julia Kasdorf


Freddie Frinton (born Frederick Bittiner Coo; 17 January 1909 – 16 October 1968) was an English comedian, and music hall and television actor. He is primarily remembered today as a household name in several Central European countries for his 1963 television comedic sketch entitled Dinner for One, a perennial national television broadcast New Year's Eve favourite there, whilst being largely forgotten in his home country.

Early life
Frinton was born in Hainton Avenue, Grimsby, Lincolnshire, the child of a seamstress, Florence Elisabeth Coo (born 1892), and was brought up by foster parents. He started working in a Grimsby fish processing plant, where he is said to have entertained his colleagues with parodies and jokes, but was eventually sacked. He moved into music hall, where he enjoyed modest success and renamed himself Freddie Frinton.

Career
During the Second World War he made a moderate breakthrough as a comedian. In 1945, Frinton first performed the sketch Dinner for One in Blackpool. As he had to pay a royalty every time he performed the sketch, he bought the rights to Dinner for One in the 1950s, which turned out to be a fateful decision.

In 1964, at the age of 55, Frinton became a belated success as the plumber husband in the popular television sitcom Meet the Wife, which ran for 40 episodes (the wife was played by Thora Hird). The series is mentioned in the Beatles song "Good Morning Good Morning" with the line "It's time for tea and Meet the Wife".

Dinner for One
In 1963, Frinton's Dinner for One was recorded by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) German television station. The role of Miss Sophie was played by May Warden. Watching the (unsubtitled) English language sketch on television has subsequently become a Danish, German, Austrian, Finnish, and Swiss New Year's Eve tradition, with multiple repeats of the comedy short being shown every year from 1972 onwards.

Dinner for One also found fame in Scandinavia where it has been a hugely popular institution on Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian and Swedish television on New Year's Eve for many years, as well as in Belgium in the original version. It has become so popular that several versions in various German dialects have been produced and a version was made for Dutch viewers, with the Dutch actor Joop Doderer playing Frinton's role. It is shown every 23 December on Norwegian television (NRK since 1980), and has been shown on the Australian SBS television network on New Year's Eve for at least the last fifteen years. It also became a family tradition in South Africa when the SABC aired it every New Year's Eve during the 1980s and 1990s. The TV short and its main actor Frinton are far less renowned in Britain than in any of these countries.

Although Frinton originated from Lincolnshire, England, his most famous comedy short had never been shown in full on British television until 2018. It received its first UK screening on 23 November 2018 (more than 50 years after it was made) at the Picture House in Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute, as part of a comedy film festival. The skit was broadcast to a British audience for the first time on 31 December 2018 on the Sky Arts channel.

Personal life
Although he was an actor whose roles often comprised playing being inebriated, Frinton was teetotal in real life, having seen in others the damage that alcohol could do.

Frinton was married twice and had five children. His first marriage was to Maisie Basil in 1931; they had one son together. His second wife was Nora Gratton, whom he married in 1945. They had four children: two daughters and two sons.

Death
On 16 October 1968, Frinton died suddenly from a heart attack in London at the age of 59. His body was buried in the City of Westminster Cemetery, in London.

Partial filmography

References

External links

1909 births
1968 deaths
English male comedians
English male actors
People from Grimsby
Music hall performers
20th-century English male actors
20th-century English comedians
Comedians from Lincolnshire
Male actors from Lincolnshire

Freddie Frinton


Nathaniel Elliot or Sheldon (1705–1780), was an English Jesuit scholar.

Life
Elliot was born 1 May 1705. He entered the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, in 1723 and was admitted to the profession of the four vows in 1741. He adopted the alias of Sheldon, his aunt Mary Anne, daughter of John Elliot, esq., of Gatacre Park, Shropshire, being the wife of Ralph Sheldon, esq., of Beoley, Worcestershire. In October 1748 he was appointed rector of the English College at St. Omer, having been previously socius to the provincial, Henry Sheldon, his cousin; and from 1756 to 1762 he was rector of the English College at Rome. In 1766 he became rector of the Greater College, Bruges, and later in the same year he was nominated provincial of his order in England. While holding this office he resided in the family of Mr. Nevill at Holt, Leicestershire, where he died on 10 October 1780.

Writings
The Occasional Letters on the Affairs of the Jesuits in France was collected and published under his direction, together with The Judgment of the Bishops of France concerning the Doctrine, Government, Conduct, and Usefulness of the French Jesuits (1763). He also made a translation of Giovanni Pietro Pinamonti's treatise on The Cross in its True Light; or, the Weight of Tribulation lessened (1775)

References

1705 births
1780 deaths
18th-century English Jesuits
Clergy from Shropshire

Nathaniel Elliot


, sometimes called , is a castle in Hiroshima, Japan that was the residence of the daimyō (feudal lord) of the Hiroshima Domain. The castle was originally constructed in the 1590s, but was destroyed by the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945. The castle was rebuilt in 1958, a replica of the original that now serves as a museum of Hiroshima's history before World War II.

History
Mōri Terumoto, one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's council of Five Elders, built Hiroshima castle between 1589 and 1599. It was located on the delta of the Otagawa river. There was no Hiroshima city or town at the time, and the area was called Gokamura, meaning "five villages". Beginning in 1591, Mōri Terumoto moved from Yoshida-Kōriyama Castle and governed nine provinces from this castle, including much of what is now Shimane, Yamaguchi, Tottori, Okayama and Hiroshima Prefectures.

When construction on the castle began, Gokamura was renamed Hiroshima, as a more impressive name was called for. "Hiro" was taken from Ōe no Hiromoto, an ancestor of the Mōri family, and "Shima" was taken from Fukushima Motonaga, who helped Mōri Terumoto choose the castle site. Some accounts state that the name "Hiroshima", meaning "wide island", comes from the existence of several large islands in the delta of the Otagawa, near the castle's site.

Following the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Mōri was forced out of the castle, retreating to Hagi in today's Yamaguchi Prefecture. Fukushima Masanori became the lord of Aki and Bingo Provinces (which today make up Hiroshima Prefecture) and of Hiroshima castle. However, the new Tokugawa shogunate forbade any castle construction without permission from Edo; this was part of how the shogunate kept the daimyōs from gaining power and overthrowing the shogunate. When Fukushima repaired the castle following a flood in 1619, he was dispatched to Kawanakajima in today's Nagano Prefecture. Asano Nagaakira then became lord of the castle.

From 1619 until the abolition of the feudal system during the Meiji Restoration (1869), the Asano family were lords of Aki and Bingo Provinces.

After the Meiji Restoration, the castle came to serve as a military facility, and the Imperial General Headquarters was based there during the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894–1895. The foundations of several of the GHQ outbuildings, just a few hundred paces from the castle's main tower, remain today.

During the final months of World War II, the castle served as the headquarters of the 2nd General Army and Fifth Division, stationed there to deter the projected Allied invasion of the Japanese mainland. The castle was destroyed in the atomic bomb blast of August 6, 1945, and for many years, it was believed the castle structure was blown away by the explosion that destroyed Hiroshima, but newly discovered evidence suggests the explosion only destroyed the lower pillars of the castle, and the rest of it collapsed as a result.

The present tower, constructed largely of concrete, was completed in 1958.

Daimyōs of Hiroshima
  Mōri Terumoto (1591–1600)*; 1,120,000 koku
  Fukushima Masanori (1600–1619); 498,223 koku
  Asano Nagaakira (1619–1632); 426,500 koku**
  Asano Mitsuakira (1632–1672)
  Asano Tsunaakira (1672–1673)
  Asano Tsunanaga (1673–1708)
  Asano Yoshinaga (1708–1752)
  Asano Munetsune (1752–1763)
  Asano Shigeakira (1763–1799)
  Asano Narikata (1799–1830)
  Asano Naritaka (1831–1858)
  Asano Yoshiteru (1858–1858)
  Asano Nagamichi (1858–1869)
  Asano Nagakoto (1869–1871)

*The years listed are those in which the lord occupied Hiroshima castle, not the years of his life.

**All of the lords after Asano Nagaakira enjoyed the same 426,500 koku.

Structure

The castle was originally constructed in wood, pine primarily, and had attached wings to the east and to the south. It was completed sometime between 1592 and 1599, and was designated a National Treasure in 1931. The reconstructed castle features the main tower (tenshu) only, which is made primarily of reinforced concrete. Its five floors stand  above the stone foundation, which, in turn, is  high off the ground. However, in 1994, a gate and a yagura in the ninomaru were re-constructed out of wood using the original methods.

An excellent example of a hirajiro'' or flatlands (plains) castle, Hiroshima castle once had three concentric moats in addition to the Otagawa river to the west (now called the Hongawa), which provided an additional natural barrier. The two outer moats were filled in during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and much of what was once within the castle grounds is now modern urban area, including homes, schools, offices and shops. A number of secondary castle buildings, towers and turrets once stood, and a Shinto shrine called Hiroshima Gokoku Jinja is located within the innermost moat, having been moved there after 1945.

Within the castle walls, three trees survived the atomic bombing: a eucalyptus and a willow at approximately 740 m from the hypocenter, and a holly approximately 935 m from the hypocenter. Both specimens are preserved just beyond the Honmaru. Also located inside the Honmaru is the concrete bunker from which the first radio broadcast out of Hiroshima following the atomic bombing was made.

See also
 Japanese castle
 Hiroshima Tōshō-gū

Notes

References
 Hiroshima Castle tourist brochure obtained at the castle.
 James McMullen, "The Worship of Confucius in Hiroshima" Japonica Humboldtiana, vol. 16 (2013) pp. 83-107

Further reading
Benesch, Oleg. "Castles and the Militarisation of Urban Society in Imperial Japan," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 28 (Dec. 2018), pp. 107-134.

External links

 Junji Akechi, "New theory offered for collapse of Hiroshima Castle tower in the bombing" Chugoku Shimbun Website

 Virtual tour of Hiroshima Castle examining its modern history on the Japan's Modern Castles YouTube channel

Castles in Hiroshima Prefecture
Tourist attractions in Hiroshima
Museums in Hiroshima
History museums in Japan
Houses completed in 1599
Historic Sites of Japan
Buildings and structures in Japan destroyed during World War II
Old National Treasures of Japan
Rebuilt buildings and structures in Japan
Lowland castles
Mōri clan

Hiroshima Castle


The athletic nickname of a school, university, college, or institute is the name officially or unofficially adopted by that institution for at least the members of its sports teams. In general, the institution uses this name to describe the people associated with it, especially its current students. It is also adopted by the athletic teams mascot.

Sports words

Athletic nickname


Jan Łaski (1456 in Łask – 19 May 1531 in Kalisz, Poland) was a Polish nobleman, Grand Chancellor of the Crown (1503–10), diplomat, from 1490 secretary to Poland's King Casimir IV Jagiellon and from 1508 coadjutor to the Archbishop of Lwów.

From 1510 Łaski was Archbishop of Gniezno and thus Primate of Poland.

Biography
He was the uncle of his namesake John à Lasco, the noted Protestant reformer, who helped reform the Church of England, and who was called home by King Sigismund II to effect similar reforms in the Commonwealth.  John à Lasco is also famous for his achievement as an auto-didact..

Secretary to the Chancellor
He became a priest, and in 1495 was secretary to the Polish chancellor Zawisza Kurozwęcki, in which position he acquired both influence and experience. The aged chancellor entrusted the sharp-witted young ecclesiastic with the conduct of several important missions. Twice, in 1495 and again in 1500, he was sent to Rome, and once on a special embassy to Flanders, of which he has left an account. On these occasions he had the opportunity of displaying diplomatic talent of a high order.

Secretary to the King

On the accession to the Polish throne in 1501 of Alexander Jagiellon, who had little knowledge of Polish affairs and chiefly resided in Lithuania, Łaski was appointed by the senate the king's secretary, in which capacity he successfully opposed the growing separatist tendencies of the grand-duchy and maintained the influence of Catholicism there.

Chancellor of Poland
So struck was the king by his ability that on the death of the Polish chancellor in 1503 he passed over the vice-chancellor Macics Dzewicki and confided the great seal to Łaski. As chancellor Łaski supported the szlachta, or country-gentlemen, against the lower orders, going so far as to pass an edict excluding henceforth all plebeians from the higher benefices of the church. Nevertheless, he approved himself such an excellent public servant that the new king, Sigismund I, made him one of his chief counsellors.

Primate of Poland
In 1511, the chancellor, who ecclesiastically was still only a canon of Kraków, obtained the coveted dignity of archbishop of Gnesen which carried with it the primacy of the Polish church. In the long negotiations with the restive and semi-rebellious Teutonic Order, Łaski rendered Sigismund most important political services, proposing as a solution of the question that Sigismund should be elected grand master, while Łaski should surrender the primacy to the new candidate of the knights, Albert, Duke in Prussia, a solution which would have been far more profitable to Poland than the ultimate settlement of 1525. In 1513, Łaski was sent to the Lateran council, convened by Pope Julius II, to plead the cause of Poland against the knights, where both as an orator and as a diplomatist he brilliantly distinguished himself. This mission was equally profitable to his country and himself, and he succeeded in obtaining from the pope for the archbishops of Gnesen the title of legati nati.

In his old age, Łaski's partiality for his nephew, Hieronymus Jaroslaw Łaski, led him to support the candidature of John Zápolya, the protégé of the Turks, for the Hungarian crown so vehemently against the Habsburgs that Clement VII excommunicated him, and the shock of this disgrace was the cause of his sudden death in 1531.

Works
 Commune incliti Poloniae regni privilegium (1506; Łaski's Statute; in Polish, Statut Łaskiego)

Collections of synodal legislation
 Statuta provincialia (1512)
 Sanctiones ecclesiasticae tam expontificum decretis quam ex constitutionibus synodorum provinciae excerptae, in primis autem statuta in diversis provincialibus synodis a se sancita (1525)
 Statuta provinciae Gnesnensis (Kraków, 1527)
 De Ruthenorum nationibus eorumque erroribus (Nuremberg)

See also

References

Attribution

 ; which in turn cites:
 Heinrich R. von Zeissberg, Joh. Laski, Erzbischof in Gnesen (Vienna, 1874)
 Jan Korytkowski, Jan Laski, Archbishop of Gnesen (Gnesen, 1880)

External links
 Virtual tour Gniezno Cathedral
List of Primates of Poland

1456 births
1531 deaths
People from Łask
Ecclesiastical senators of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Diplomats of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
16th-century writers in Latin
16th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Archbishops of Gniezno
Chancellors of Poland
People excommunicated by the Catholic Church
Polish nobility
Burials at Gniezno Cathedral
Jan

Jan Łaski (1456–1531)


Gary Wayne Zimmerman (born December 13, 1961) is an American former professional football offensive tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL). Zimmerman played for the Minnesota Vikings from 1986 to 1992 and for the Denver Broncos from 1993 to 1997. He won Super Bowl XXXII with the Broncos against the Green Bay Packers. He was selected to the Pro Bowl seven times and was an All-Pro selection eight times. He attended Walnut High School and the University of Oregon whereby he was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.

Professional career

Los Angeles Express
In 1984, Zimmerman was drafted in the second round (36th overall) by the Los Angeles Express in the 1984 USFL Draft. He subsequently signed with the Express on February 13, 1984 and went on to play in 17 games that season, starting all 17 at left tackle. His Express teammate was future Pro Football Hall of Famer, QB Steve Young. The Express lost in the USFL Semi-Finals to the Arizona Wranglers to end a 10-8 regular season. In 1985, Zimmerman suited up again with the Express, playing in 18 games (starting 17) with a 3-15 club that ended up out of the USFL playoff picture.

Minnesota Vikings
After the USFL folded in August 1986, Zimmerman joined the Minnesota Vikings after they obtained his rights from the New York Giants who drafted him in the 1984 NFL Supplemental Draft of USFL and CFL Players.

During his time in the NFL, Zimmerman was famous for his refusal to interact with the media. This disdain for the sports press came about due to an early incident in his NFL career, after comments made by Zimmerman condemning the Vikings offensive players for a loss were made public by the media. Zimmerman claimed that his teammates ostracized him for speaking ill of his teammates' performance; this led Zimmerman to decide to boycott the sports media as a result, refusing to do interviews or engage in any sort of interaction with them for the rest of his career.

Denver Broncos
Zimmerman ultimately left the Vikings for the Broncos in 1993, and stayed with the team from 1993 to 1997. He would be part of the team's first Super Bowl-winning squad, winning the game in 1997 and was "in spirit" for the 1998 season. Arriving as the veteran player in 1993 to an offense that was made up of mostly rookies, Zimmerman became the de facto leader of the Broncos offensive line on and off the field. Zimmerman started the Denver offensive line tradition of not speaking to the media. It became a long running tradition that would continue on a full decade after his retirement in 1997. In 2007 the NFL created "The Broncos O-line rule" in response, requiring all players to talk to the media.

He played in 184 NFL games, starting 169 of them.

On February 2, 2008, he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Zimmerman joins Reggie White, Sam Mills, Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Marv Levy, George Allen, Bill Polian, and Sid Gillman as former USFL/AFL league members who are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

References

External links

1961 births
Living people
American Conference Pro Bowl players
American football offensive tackles
Denver Broncos players
Los Angeles Express players
Minnesota Vikings players
National Conference Pro Bowl players
Oregon Ducks football players
People from Walnut, California
Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
Players of American football from Fullerton, California
Players of American football from Los Angeles County, California

Gary Zimmerman


The national flag of Bahrain is a white band on the left, with a red area on the right split by five triangles.

Red is the traditional colour for flags of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. The five points are for the five pillars of Islam.

It is very similar to the flag of Qatar, but that flag is darker, has more points, and is longer than the Flag of Bahrain.

History
The oldest known flags of Bahrain were plain red. In 1820, Bahrain made a treaty with the United Kingdom.  A white stripe was added to show the truce. In 1932, a saw-like edge was added to make the flag of Bahrain different from its neighbours.

The flag first had twenty-eight white points. This was changed to eight in 1972. In 2002 the number was changed to five.  This was so that each of the points could stand for one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Bahrain
National symbols of Bahrain

Flag of Bahrain


About 86 per cent of Nicaraguans are European (but not limited to Spanish) or mixed European and of native ancestry. Most Nicaraguans have Spanish ancestors, but the 19th century saw several waves of immigration from other European countries (mainly from Germany). Most of the Mestizo and European population live in the western and central regions of the country and especially in the cities of Managua, Leon and Granada.

About 9 per cent of Nicaragua's population is black or afro-nicaragüense and they are concentrated in the country's eastern coast, and were brought mostly from Jamaica and Haiti when the region was a British protectorate. There is also a smaller number of Garifuna, a people of mixed African, Caribbean, Angolan, Congoan and Arawak descent.

Just 5 per cent of the population are of pure native descent. Nicaragua's pre-Columbian population consisted of the Nahuatl-speaking Nicarao people of the west, and six ethnic groups including the Miskitos, Ramas and Sumos in the Caribbean region. While very few pure-blooded Nicarao people still exist, the Caribbean peoples have remained distinct. In the mid-1980s, the government divided the eastern half of the country - the former department of Zelaya - into two autonomous regions and granted the African and indigenous people of the region limited self-rule.

There is also a small Middle Eastern-Nicaraguan community of Syrian, Armenian, Palestinian and Lebanese people in Nicaragua with a total population of about 30,000, and an East Asian community of Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese people of almost 8,000. The minorities speak Spanish and maintain their ancestral languages as well.

Spanish is spoken by about 90% of Nicaraguans; the Nicaraguan dialect has many similarities to Galician, and also has similarities to Argentinian Spanish which uses "vos" instead of "tu", along with the "vos" conjugation. The black population of the east coast region has English as its first language. Several indigenous peoples of the east still use their original languages.

Roman Catholicism is the major religion, but evangelical Protestant groups have grown recently, and there are strong Anglican and Moravian communities on the Caribbean coast. 0.1% of Nicaragua is Buddhist and the religion has been growing in recent years.

Ninety per cent of Nicaraguans live in the Pacific and central lowlands and the adjacent interior highlands. The population is 54% urban.

Nicaragua
Nicaragua

Demographics of Nicaragua


A pawn shop (also called a pawnshop or pawnbroker) is a shop or business who loans money to people who bring in valuable items which they leave with the pawnbroker. Examples of items that a person may leave are jewellery, gold, watches, cameras, musical instruments, televisions or computers.

The valuables that people leave are called the "collateral". The person can get their valuable item back from the pawnbroker if they pay back the money they were loaned and pay interest on the loan. Interest is like a fee for getting to use someone else's money for a set time period. If the person who has borrowed money from the pawnbroker does not repay the loan and interest within an agreed-upon time limit, the pawnbroker can sell the valuable item to another customer to get back the money they loaned.

To prevent thieves from using pawnshops as a way to get money from stolen goods, many communities have laws requiring that people who bring in valuable items to the pawnshop have to show identification, such as a driver's licence.

Shops

Pawn shop


Reid is the colour that is on the ootside edge o the rainbowe. It is ane o the three primary colours, alang wi blue an yellae.  Reid licht haes a wafflenth atween 630-760 nm.

Reid is the colour o bluid an tomataes. It is whiles uised for tae merk things that's wrang, important, or nae mowes.

Meanin o Reid
Reid micht can represent passion, anger, or luve.  In mony kintras, a reid licht shaws caurs whan thay shoud stap.

In politics, "reid" is sib tae Communism.  The "Reid Airmy" can refer tae the airmy o the auld Soviet Union, or the Fowkrepublic o Cheenae.
It is sib tae the Reid Brigade an aw.

Reid is the colour o fire an bluid, sae it is associate wi energy, weir, danger, docht, determination, as weel as passion, desire, an luve.

Reid is an emotionally intense colour. It is thocht that it tends tae raise bluid pressur an mak fowk braithe fester. It is gey eith tae tak tent o, whit is why stap signs, staplichts, an fire graith is for ordinar pentit reid. In heraldry, reid is aften uised for tae indicate gurr. It is a colour foond in mony naitional banners.

Reid brings tent tae text an eemages. It is a perfit colour for 'Buy Nou' or 'Sneck Here' buttons on Internet banners an wabsteids, acause it can mak some fowk want tae act swith. In adverteesin, reid is aften uised for tae cause erotic feelins (reid lips, reid nails, reid-licht destricts, 'Leddy in Reid', etc). Reid is widely uised for tae indicate danger (heich voltage signs, traffec lichts). This colour is associate wi energy an aw, sae it can be uised for tae promote energy drinks, gemmes, cars, or eetems tae dae wi sports an heich pheesical acteevity.

Optical spectrum

Colour
Rainbow
Wab colours

Reid


The 2009–10 Premier League (kent as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) wis the 18t season o the Premier League since its estaiblishment in 1992. A total o 20 teams competed in the league, wi Chelsea unseating the three-time defending champions Manchester United, scoring a Premier League ricord 103 goals in the process. The season began on 15 August 2009 an concluded on 9 May 2010. Prior tae each opening week match, a minute's applause wis held in memory o Sir Bobby Robson. Nike provided a new match baw – the T90 Ascente – for this season.

References

2009–10 Premier League


In the field of databases in computer science, a transaction log (also transaction journal, database log, binary log or audit trail) is a history of actions executed by a database management system used to guarantee ACID properties over crashes or hardware failures. Physically, a log is a file listing changes to the database, stored in a stable storage format.

If, after a start, the database is found in an inconsistent state or not been shut down properly, the database management system reviews the database logs for uncommitted transactions and rolls back the changes made by these transactions. Additionally, all transactions that are already committed but whose changes were not yet materialized in the database are re-applied. Both are done to ensure atomicity and durability of transactions.

This term is not to be confused with other, human-readable logs that a database management system usually provides.

In database management systems, a journal is the record of data altered by a given process.

Anatomy of a general database log

A database log record is made up of:

Log Sequence Number (LSN): A unique ID for a log record. With LSNs, logs can be recovered in constant time. Most LSNs are assigned in monotonically increasing order, which is useful in recovery algorithms, like ARIES.
Prev LSN: A link to their last log record. This implies database logs are constructed in linked list form.
Transaction ID number: A reference to the database transaction generating the log record.
Type: Describes the type of database log record.
Information about the actual changes that triggered the log record to be written.

Types of database log records

All log records include the general log attributes above, and also other attributes depending on their type (which is recorded in the Type attribute, as above).

Update Log Record notes an update (change) to the database. It includes this extra information:
PageID: A reference to the Page ID of the modified page.
Length and Offset: Length in bytes and offset of the page are usually included.
Before and After Images: Includes the value of the bytes of page before and after the page change. Some databases may have logs which include one or both images.
Compensation Log Record (CLR) notes the rollback of a particular change to the database. Each corresponds with exactly one other Update Log Record (although the corresponding update log record is not typically stored in the Compensation Log Record). It includes this extra information:
undoNextLSN: This field contains the LSN of the next log record that is to be undone for transaction that wrote the last Update Log.
Commit Record notes a decision to commit a transaction.
Abort Record notes a decision to abort and hence roll back a transaction.
Checkpoint Record notes that a checkpoint has been made. These are used to speed up recovery. They record information that eliminates the need to read a long way into the log's past. This varies according to checkpoint algorithm. If all dirty pages are flushed while creating the checkpoint (as in PostgreSQL), it might contain:
redoLSN: This is a reference to the first log record that corresponds to a dirty page. i.e. the first update that wasn't flushed at checkpoint time. This is where redo must begin on recovery.
undoLSN: This is a reference to the oldest log record of the oldest in-progress transaction. This is the oldest log record needed to undo all in-progress transactions.
Completion Record notes that all work has been done for this particular transaction. (It has been fully committed or aborted)

See also
Data logging
Error correction and detection
Hash function
Journaling file system
Log-structured file system
Write-ahead logging
Redo log

Sources
Federal Standard 1037C

References

Database management systems
Transaction processing
Computer logging

Transaction log


The kanga is a colourful fabric similar to kitenge, but lighter, worn by women and occasionally by men throughout the African Great Lakes region. It is a piece of printed cotton fabric, about 1.5 m by 1 m, often with a border along all four sides (called pindo in Swahili), and a central part (mji) which differs in design from the borders. They are sold in pairs, which can then be cut and hemmed to be used as a set.

Whereas kitenge is a more formal fabric used for nice clothing, the kanga is much more than a clothing piece, it can be used as a skirt, head-wrap, apron, pot-holder, towel, and much more. The kanga is culturally significant on Eastern coast of Africa, often given as a gift for birthdays or other special occasions. They are also given to mourning families in Tanzania after the loss of a family member as part of a michengo (or collection) into which many community members put a bit of money to support the family in their grief. Kangas are also similar to Kishutu and Kikoy which are traditionally worn by men. The Kishutu is one of the earliest known designs, probably named after a town in Tanzania, they are particular given to young brides as part of their dowry or by healers to cast off evil spirits. Due to its ritual function they do not always include a proverb.

The earliest pattern of the kanga was patterned with small dots or speckles, which look like the plumage of the guinea hen, also called "kanga" in Swahili. This is where the name comes from, contrary to the belief that it comes from a Swahili verb for to close.

Origins

Kangas have been a traditional type of dress amongst women in East Africa since the 19th century.

Merikani
According to some sources, it was developed from a type of unbleached cotton cloth imported from the US. The cloth was known as merikani in Zanzibar, a Swahili noun derived from the adjective American (indicative of the place it originated). Male slaves wrapped it around their waist and female slaves wrapped it under their armpits. To make the cloth more feminine, slave women occasionally dyed them black or dark blue, using locally obtained indigo. This dyed merikani was referred to as kaniki. People despised kaniki due to its association with slavery. Ex-slave women seeking to become part of the Swahili society began to decorate their merikani clothes. They did this using one of three techniques; a form of resist dying, a form of block printing or hand painting. After slavery was abolished in 1897, Kangas began to be used for self-empowerment and to indicate that the wearer had personal wealth.

Lenços
According to other sources, the origin is in the kerchief squares called lencos brought by Portuguese traders from India and Arabia. Stylish ladies in Zanzibar and Mombasa, started to use them stitching together six kerchiefs in a 3X2 pattern to create one large rectangular wrap. Soon they became popular in the whole coastal region, later expanding inland to the Great Lakes region. They are still known as lesos or lessos in some localities, after the Portuguese word.

Manufacture
Until the mid-twentieth century, they were mostly designed and printed in India, the Far East and Europe. Since the 1950s kangas started to be printed also in the city of Morogoro in Tanzania (MeTL Group Textile Company) and Kenya (Rivatex and Thika Cloth Mills Ltd are some of the largest manufacturers in Kenya) and other countries on the African continent.

Proverbs
In the early 1900s,  proverbs, sayings, aphorisms and slogans were added to kangas. A trader in Mombasa, Kaderdina Hajee Essak, also known as "Abdulla", began to distinguish his kangas with the mark "K.H.E. - Mali ya Abdulla", to which he often added a proverb in Swahili. Initially they were printed in Arabic script, and later in Roman letters.  Towards the eastern part of the region, phrases in Kiswahili are traditional, while in central areas phrases in both Kiswahili and Lingala are popular.

Appearance
 Generally Kangas are 150 cm wide by 110 cm long.
 They are rectangular and always have a border along all four sides.
 Often kangas have a central symbol.
 Most modern kangas bear a saying, usually in Kiswahili.
There are many different ways to wear kangas. One traditional way of wearing the kanga is to wrap one piece as a shawl, to cover the head and shoulders, and another piece wrapped around the waist. Kangas are also used as baby carriers.

Communication vehicle

Typically, kangas consist of three parts: The pindo (wide border), the mji (central motif), Ujumbe or jina (the Kiswahili) is featured on a strip which contains a message. It is less commonly written in Arabic or Comorian. Other countries which produce their own Kangas write the Kanga messages/names in their main languages: in Madagascar (Malagasy Republic) where they are known as lambas, they feature ohabolana, traditional proverbs written in Malagasy; they are also produced in Zambia and Malawi.  This message is called the jina (literally 'name') of the kanga. Messages are often in the form of riddles or proverbs. When giving a kanga as a gift, one must be mindful of the proverb, as they can be somewhat insulting. Occasionally, one of these is given as a gift at a wedding to express a person's opinion that the couple should not be married. However, most of the messages express kind sentiments and good wishes. Some examples of proverbs:
Majivuno hayafai: Greed is never useful
Mkipendana mambo huwa sawa: Everything is all right if you love each other
Japo sipati tamaa sikati: Even though I have nothing, I have not given up my desire to get what I want
Wazazi ni dhahabu kuwatunza ni thawabu: Parents are gold; to take care of them is a blessing
Sisi sote abiria dereva ni Mungu: We are all passengers, God is the driver
Fimbo La Mnyonge Halina Nguvu: Might is right. (lit. "the weak stick has no power")
Mwanamke mazingira tuanataka, usawa, amani, maendelo: We (women) want equality, peace, and progress
Naogopa simba na meno yake siogopi mtu kwa maneno yake: I'm afraid of a lion with its strong teeth but not a man with his words (lyrics).
Leo ni siku ya shangwe na vigelegele: Today is a day for celebrations and ululations.
Mchungulia bahari si msafiri: One who only looks at the sea is not a sailor.

See also

 Capulana

Notes

References
 Beck, Rose-Marie (2001). 'Ambiguous signs: the role of the 'kanga' as a medium of communication', Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere, 68, 157–169.
 Erie Art Museum. "Kanga & Kitenge: Cloth and Culture in East Africa"
 Hanby, Jeanette & David Bygott, (2006) 'Kangas - 101 Uses', HariaStamp Publishers,
 Hongoke, Christine J. (1993) The effects of Khanga inscription as a communication vehicle in Tanzania, Research report, 19. Dar es Salaam: Women's Research and Documentation Project.
 Linnebuhr, E. (1992) 'Kanga: popular cloths with messages', in Werner Graebner (ed.) Sokomoko: Popular Culture in East Africa (Matatu vol. 9). Rodopi, 81–90.
 Parkin, David (2004) 'Textile as commodity, dress as text: Swahili kanga and women's statements', in Ruth Barnes (ed.) Textiles in Indian Ocean Societies. London/New York: Routledge, 47–67.
 Yahya-Othman, Saida (1997) 'If the cap fits: 'kanga' names and women's voice in Swahili society', Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere, 51, 135–149.
 Kahabi, CM. (2010) Kanga and Vitenge in Remanufactured Fashion; University of Manchester.

External links

Kanga pictures
Kanga writings
Collection of and commentary on 436 sayings on East African cloth
Kanga information at Center for African Studies University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

African clothing
East Africa
Skirts
Swahili culture

Kanga (garment)


Tropical Storm Ana was the only tropical cyclone on record in the Atlantic Ocean in the month of April. Ana was the first tropical storm of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Storm Ana was two kinds of storms, a subtropical cyclone, and a tropical cyclone. It formed as a subtropical cyclone on April 20, while it was to the west of Bermuda. It moved towards the east-southeast and began to get better organized. On April 21, the subtropical cyclone became a tropical cyclone. Tropical Storm Ana then turned towards the east-northeast. It quickly lost strength because of wind shear and a close cold front. On April 24, Ana became an extratropical cyclone.

The storm moved near Bermuda, while causing light rainfall. The remnants of the storm also dropped rain in the Azores and the United Kingdom. Stormy sea waters caused by the storm capsized a boat near Florida coastline. The incident killed two people.

Meteorological history

A low pressure area formed to the south, and southwest, of Bermuda on April 18. A trough, which is a type of weather system, brought an area of clouds into the low pressure system. The low pressure system moved towards the north. After turning towards the northwest, the weather system looped southeastward. Thunderstorm activity became stronger near the center of the cyclone. The storm was named Subtropical Storm Ana on April 20, while located about 250 miles (400 km) west of Bermuda.

The subtropical storm moved to the east-southeastward and it continued to get stronger. It is estimated that Ana became a tropical storm by 0000 UTC on April 21. When it became a tropical cyclone, Ana reached its highest winds of 60 mph (95 km/h). Shortly after, Ana came close to Bermuda. Strong wind shear began to remove a lot of the thunderstorm activity from Ana. Ana continued to move  eastward, and early on April 22, the wind shear again removed the thunderstorms from the center of the storm. After turning towards the northeast, the core of Ana merged with a cold front on April 24. Because of t his, Tropical Storm Ana turned into an extratropical cyclone. The remnants of the cyclone sped towards the east-northeastward, before it died out on April 27.

Impact, records, and naming

Before Ana was formed, the government of Bermuda declared a gale warning for the island. When Ana formed, a tropical storm warning was also issued for Bermuda. The storm moved close to Bermuda and dropped 2.63 inches (67 mm) of rainfall the Bermuda International Airport. The winds on the island were light.

Stormy seas from the storm reached the coast of Florida in the United States. A couple of factors, which included the stormy seas, caused a boat to capsize in Jupiter Inlet. Two people on the ship drowned, and the others were rescued. The remnants of Ana dropped 0.87 inches (22 mm) of rainfall in the city of Ponta Delgada in the Azores. Clouds from the remnants of Ana also caused rain in the United Kingdom. Two ships experienced tropical storm force winds because of Ana.

Ana was the second subtropical cyclone on record in the Atlantic basin in the month of April. When the storm became a tropical cyclone, it was also the first Atlantic tropical storm in the month of April. Because the damage from Ana was not bad, the name "Ana" was not retired by the World Meteorological Organization. The name Ana was used again in 2009.

References

Other websites
 A Report on Tropical Storm Ana

Ana
Ana (2003)
Hurricanes in Bermuda
2000s in Bermuda
2003 in Florida

Tropical Storm Ana (2003)


Marvel Comics (or simply Marvel) is an American comic book company that makes "superhero" comic books and the imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. (formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group), part of Marvel Entertainment. Its top rival is DC Comics (the publications of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman). In 2009, The Walt Disney Company bought Marvel for US$4 billion.

Marvel was started in 1939 by Martin Goodman as Timely Comics, and by 1951 had generally become known as Atlas Comics. The Marvel era began in 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others.

The company features many iconic and famous superheroes such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Daredevil, Wolverine, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel, as well as popular superhero teams such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel's most well-known supervillains include Doctor Doom, Magneto, Ultron, Thanos, Kang the Conqueror, Green Goblin, Red Skull, Galactus, Loki, and Kingpin. The majority of its publications takes place within the fictional Marvel Universe, with most locations mirroring real-life places; many major characters are based in New York City. Additionally, Marvel has published several licensed properties from other companies. This includes Star Wars comics twice from 1977 to 1986 and again since 2015.

Marvel Comics has adapted its characters into different forms of media, including action figures, animated/live-action movies, animated/live-action television series, and video games, which have made them even more popular.

History

The precursor to Marvel Comics was founded in 1939 by pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman. In order to capitalize on the growing popularity of comic books—especially those starring superheroes—Goodman created Timely Comics. Timely's first comic book was Marvel Comics no. 1 (cover dated October 1939), which featured several superhero characters, most notably the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. Timely Comics introduced many superhero characters during comics' "Golden Age" in the 1940s, most importantly Captain America, who first appeared in Captain America Comics no. 1 (March 1941). Timely characters were often portrayed as fighting against the Nazis and the Japanese even before the United States entered World War II. As the 1940s came to a close, superheroes fell out of vogue with comic book readers, and Timely canceled the last of its books in this genre in 1950. In 1951, Goodman formed his own distribution company, and Timely Comics became Atlas Magazines. Though there was a brief experiment in bringing back superheroes such as Captain America in 1953, Atlas's output was mostly in other genres such as humour, westerns, horror, war, and science fiction.

In 1956, rival company DC Comics ushered in the so-called Silver Age of comics by reintroducing superhero titles with significant commercial success. In the early 1960s, Atlas changed its name to Marvel Comics. For several decades Marvel and DC were the top companies in the industry. Throughout the 1980s and '90s Marvel changed hands numerous times, becoming a publicly held company in 1991. Questionable management decisions and a general slump in sales in the comic book industry drove Marvel Comics into bankruptcy in 1996. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 1998 and began to diversify its output, launching imprints aimed at a variety of demographics and expanding its cinematic offerings under the Marvel Studios banner. In 2007 Marvel began publishing digital comics. In 2009 the Walt Disney Company purchased the parent company of Marvel Comics.

Marvel Universe
The shared storytelling universe known as the Marvel Universe was unveiled in 1961, when Goodman responded to the growing interest in superhero books by commissioning writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby to create the Fantastic Four. With the release of Fantastic Four no. 1 (November 1961), readers were introduced to a super heroic setting that was, nevertheless, rooted in the real world. Lee and Kirby tried to make their comic book characters more original by allowing them to interact with each other in a realistic fashion, including heroes often fighting or arguing with each other. This trend continued with a flood of other superhero characters introduced by Marvel Comics during the early 1960s, including Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Lee wrote the majority of Marvel's books during that time, and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were the most important and influential artists.

This more realistic approach to characterizations built up Marvel's reputation and began to attract university-age readers. Stories also began to deal with social issues such as pollution, race relations, and drug abuse. A Spider-Man story arc from 1971 dealing with drug abuse had to be submitted without the approval of the Comic Code Authority—the self-regulatory body that had policed comic content since 1954—despite the fact that it was portraying drug use in a negative light. This caused the Comic Code Authority to revise its policy in such matters.

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a new generation of creative talent emerge at Marvel. In 1967 Jim Steranko began to write and draw stories featuring secret agent Nick Fury in the anthology book Strange Tales. Steranko was influenced in his work by James Bond films and the psychedelic and Op art movements, and the resulting stories melded groundbreaking visuals with equally innovative storytelling techniques. Writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne began a long collaboration on The Uncanny X-Men in 1975. The pair revitalized the flagging series with characters such as Wolverine and complex story arcs that soon made the X-Men franchise one of Marvel's best sellers.

In 1985, Mark Gruenwald started a people acclaimed 10-year run as the writer of Captain America. That same year he also began the miniseries Squadron Supreme (1985–86), a deconstructionist take on superheroes that preceded Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen, submitted by DC Comics. The 1980s also saw Frank Miller's stint on Daredevil, which took that book in a darker and grittier direction, reviving sagging sales and making it one of Marvel's best sellers. In 1988, Todd MacFarlane began a popular run as artist on The Amazing Spider-Man. Four years later MacFarlane and a number of other popular artists, including Jim Lee, Erik Larsen, and Rob Liefeld, left Marvel to found rival Image Comics, a company that allowed creators to retain the copyrights of their characters.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, a new wave of writers, including Brian Michael Bendis (Daredevil, The Avengers), Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic Four), and Ed Brubaker (Captain America), became well known for their mature and sometimes controversial takes on Marvel's characters. The 2010s saw the emergence of another new wave of talent, with writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja turning in a visually arresting run on Hawkeye, longtime Spider-Man writer Dan Slott teaming with artist Mike Allred for a bold take on a classic character in Silver Surfer, and writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona breaking new ground with their people acclaimed Ms. Marvel.

Reception
In the 21st century, Marvel's profits were increasingly derived from toys, video games, and other merchandise featuring their most popular characters and from the production of a string of commercially successful movies. Those films differed from prior efforts to translate comics to the big screen in that they were set in a single shared world. That ambitious plan generated huge dividends with The Avengers (2012), a film that featured Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America—three heroes that had scored individual blockbuster successes—and grossed more than $1.5 billion worldwide. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), as it came to be known, grew into one of the most lucrative franchises in film history. Its success spawned a wave of television programs, beginning with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–20) on ABC and continuing with Daredevil (2015–18), Jessica Jones (2015–19), and Luke Cage (2016–18), a string of critically lauded series that appeared on Netflix, as well as other series on Disney+. In 2015 an agreement between Disney and Sony brought Spider-Man (who had previously appeared only in Sony-produced films) into the shared universe; the character would subsequently be available for use by both studios. Marvel Studios, the company's film and television division, continued to set records with its flagship Avengers, but it also packed theatres with relatively unknown heroes such as the Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Ant-Man (2015), and Doctor Strange (2016). In addition, Black Panther (2018) became the first Marvel movie to win an Academy Award; it received Oscars for costume design, original score, and production design. By 2020, more than 20 films had been released under the banner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the franchise's cumulative global box office receipts had topped $22 billion.

Offices
Located in New York City, Marvel has had successive headquarters:
 In the McGraw-Hill Building, where it originated as Timely Comics in 1939.
 In suite 1401 of the Empire State Building.
 At 635 Madison Avenue (the actual location, though the comic books' indicia listed the owner creating-company's address of 625 Madison Ave.)
 575 Madison Avenue.
 387 Park Avenue South.
 10 East 40th Street.
 417 Fifth Avenue.
 A 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m2) space at 135 W. 50th Street.

References

Disney companies
Comics publishing companies

Marvel Comics


Pewter is an alloy made of tin mixed with antimony and copper. It is soft and flexible and it can be melted easily. It dissolves in hydrochloric acid to produce tin(II) chloride, leaving the antimony and copper behind in the hydrochloric acid. In the past, it was used to make knives, forks, spoons and other pieces of cutlery because it was easy to melt down many times. It used to contain poisonous lead, but it does not contain lead anymore as the lead would make people ill when making things with pewter.

Related pages
Stainless steel, another alloy commonly used for silverware

Alloys

Pewter


Elongation is an astronomical term that describes the angle between the Sun and a planet, as viewed from Earth.

When an inferior planet (Mercury or Venus) is visible after sunset, it is near its greatest eastern elongation. When an inferior planet is visible before sunrise, it is near its greatest western elongation. The value of the greatest elongation (west or east), for Mercury, is between 18° and 28°; and for Venus between  45° and 47°. This value varies because the orbits of the planets are elliptical, rather than perfect circles.

Celestial mechanics

Elongation


Kane County Chronicle is a weekly newspaper, published in St. Charles, Illinois, serving Kane County.

Market
The Kane County Chronicle serves central Kane County, located in the Fox Valley region of Illinois, about 40 miles west of Chicago.

History
Samuel W. Durant founded the Valley Chronicle in 1881. In its first issue, Vol. 1, No. 1, on May 27, 1881, Durant listed the paper's goals: "It will stand aloof from personalities, petty neighborhood difficulties, and unauthorized gossip. It will not wage war on its contemporaries, in the interest of any class, political, religious, sectional or otherwise. Its course will be directed with eye single to the dignified position which journalism should occupy, and in the general interests of the valley and surrounding region."

Durant ran the paper until his death in 1891, after which his brother, Pliney A. Durant, took over its operation. Soon after Pliney took over, John F. Dewey became owner and publisher and, shortly after that, the reins were passed on to Albert L. Hall, who in 1899 changed the name of the paper to the St. Charles Chronicle.

Hall's desire for bigger and better things had him starting the Elgin Daily Courier in 1903, and he sold the paper to his sister-in-law, Lina Paschal, which began a family tradition in town. In 1926, Lina Paschal was named St. Charles postmistress. She sold the paper at that time to local philanthropist Lester Norris. Norris held on to the paper for about 20 years before selling the paper to Paul Paschal, grandfather to Rob and Jim Paschal, whose father Don Paschal was a great-nephew to Lina Paschal. Rob and Jim were the fourth generation of the family to run the Chronicle.

In the 1970s and '80s, the Paschals embarked on expansion, starting the Geneva Chronicle in 1973 and buying the Batavia Herald, which was started in 1893, in 1976. The Elburn Chronicle was formed in 1987.

The Chronicle's first office was located in the building where Steel Beam Theater is now, 111 W. Main Street. The company later moved to 16 S. First Ave. A large front door was installed so that the presses could be moved in. In 1966, the Chronicle moved to east Main Street, leaving its old presses downtown and contracting with an offset printing company.

The Paschals sold the newspaper in 1989 to B.F. Shaw Printing Company (now Shaw Media), the fourth oldest continuously owned and operated family newspaper company in the nation, which built the present Chronicle office at 1000 Randall Road in 1990.

In 1990, the Chronicle's four semi-weekly papers, St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, and Elburn, combined into one edition with the name changed to the Kane County Chronicle. Up until 1991, the paper had been published twice a week on Wednesday and Friday. In 1991, it began printing five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, and in 1997, a Monday edition was added. As of 2003, the Chronicle became a daily paper with the addition of a Sunday edition.

Beginning with the 17 March edition, the Chronicle took a new tabloid format. Also, the Chronicle began publishing five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, as it had between 1991 and 1997. Additionally, an increased local news focus was unveiled.

See also
 Northwest Herald

References

External links

 Shaw Media website

Newspapers established in 1881
Newspapers published in Illinois
Companies based in Kane County, Illinois
1881 establishments in Illinois
St. Charles, Illinois
Weekly newspapers published in the United States

Kane County Chronicle


The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the Roman Republic and Empire. The words meant 'greatest bridge-builder'. It was a religious post under the Roman Republic, and a mostly ceremonial post under the Roman Empire. The term was later used in the Roman Catholic Church for the Pope.

Religious leaders

Pontifex Maximus