is a Japanese manga series by Sakurako Gokurakuin. The manga was serialized in Square Enix's seinen magazine Young Gangan between December 2004 and August 2015. A special epilogue volume to the manga began serialization in the same magazine in May 2017. An anime adaptation produced by Seven Arcs and directed by Keizō Kusakawa aired in Japan between July and September 2008, and a second season aired between July and September 2010. Both seasons were licensed in North America by Funimation, until their license expired in 2017. The central character of the series is Minato Sahashi, a ronin who has failed his college entrance examinations two years in a row. His life changes, however, when he meets several women with special powers called "Sekirei" and is dragged into a battle to possibly decide the fate of the world.

Plot

In Tokyo, known as , in 2020, 19-year-old Minato Sahashi is extremely intelligent, yet due to his major lack of self-confidence has failed the college entrance exam twice.

The same day of his second failure, Minato meets a girl named Musubi, who literally falls out of the sky on top of him. Minato soon learns that she is a member of an extraterrestrial race known as the "Sekirei", and she chooses him as her "Ashikabi", one of the mysterious set of humans that have the genetic trait and can make a contract by kissing the Sekirei; this binds the Sekirei to the Ashikabi and allows them to use their full power in elimination battles with other Sekirei. Made up of 108 cute girls, attractive buxom women and bishōnen, the Sekirei battle in a competition known as the "Sekirei Plan" organized by Hiroto Minaka, the chairman and founder of the mysterious and powerful MBI Corporation.

Minato quickly learns that being the partner of a Sekirei is not all fun and games, especially when five other Sekirei choose him as their Ashikabi, each also forming a contract/bond with him. Now Minato must find a way to survive both the life-threatening battles of the Sekirei Plan and his partners' fierce competition for him.

Terminology

Sekirei
 are superpowered beings with a different genetic code that may react to a human's, and who have been "modified" to be able to exist on Earth. The Sekirei spaceship crashed on Earth in 1999 on , and was found by two students, Hiroto Minaka (future MBI chairman) and Takami Sahashi (future MBI head researcher and Minato's mother). On board, the pair had found 108 life-forms, described as "One pillar and 107 baby birds".
 The first of them (a pillar, shown as #00, later renumbered and known as #01 Miya) was an adult.
 Eight (later known as #02–09) were embryos, also known as the "Single Numbers".
 99 others (later known as #10–108) were fertilized eggs.
The adult and the eight embryos are also known as the "Single Numbers". It is hinted that unwinged Single Numbers are equal or even more powerful than their winged counterparts. All of the Sekirei had been given adjustments for the Sekirei Plan, especially the Single Numbers. The adjustments had been used not only for enabling them to exist on Earth but also for making them stronger and for controlling and strengthening their power. Each Sekirei has a , a unique ability that allows them to perform powerful attacks. In order to use the Norito, a Sekirei must engage in mucosal contact with (i.e.,  be kissed by) their Ashikabi prior to reciting it. Sekirei that are under the same Ashikabi can also merge their powers/techniques in order to create more powerful techniques; this puts most Ashikabi at a disadvantage, as only a few Ashikabi possess more than one Sekirei.

Ashikabi
 are humans with unique DNA that enable them to empower the Sekirei destined to serve them. Through mucosal contact (kissing) between a Sekirei and its Ashikabi, a Sekirei without wings can become a "winged" or "emerged" Sekirei. Unlike Sekirei, who are mostly buxom women or handsome young men, Ashikabi can be quite innocuous as they can appear in any gender, age and even status. In the series, the power of an Ashikabi can be determined not only by the number of Sekirei he or she has in his or her disposal, but by the bond between them. As the Sekirei battle escalates, five Ashikabi in particular, emerged as the favorites to win the Sekirei Fight, each having winged at least three Sekirei. One of them is Natsuo Ichinomi, an employee of MBI who is also the leader of the Disciplinary Squad, while each one of the other four controls a different area in the city; Minato Sahashi in the North, Hayato Mikogami in the South, Izumi Higa in the East and Nishi Sanada in the West. If an Ashikabi dies or is killed, all Sekirei winged by him or her will also perish.

Jinki
, are eight mysterious artifacts numbered from #1 to #8, also found on the Sekirei spaceship. If all eight of them are gathered, it is possible that they can be used to terminate all Sekirei if the wielder desires. Upon all Sekirei being winged, Minaka puts all Jinki in MBI's possession as prizes for the matches of the Third Stage, and only the Ashikabi with a Jinki are allowed to keep participating in the Sekirei Battle by the end of the stage.

Sekirei Plan
The , known to Minaka and others as the "Game", is a competition in which the Sekirei and their Ashikabi must fight for survival until the last one of each remains. The true purpose of the plan is unknown, but it is implied to be sinister to some extent. The second anime season ended with the Second Stage completed, but before the Third Stage matches begin.
First Stage: The Sekirei are adjusted and released in Tokyo. Thereafter, they must find Ashikabi in order to be winged. This stage ends when 90% of the Sekirei have been winged.
Second Stage: Teito becomes a closed city and no Sekirei or Ashikabi can leave. The Ashikabi must then wing the remaining unwinged Sekirei, and every Ashikabi and their Sekirei must defeat at least one Sekirei.
Third Stage: A series of battle royales between Ashikabi for possession of the Jinki. Only the Ashikabi who secure at least one of the Jinki until the end of this stage are eligible to advance.
Final stage: The remaining Ashikabi are brought with their Sekirei to Kamikura Island and must fight among each other for the right to ascend to the Heavenly Palace Kouten and fight the pillar for the prize awaiting the ultimate winner of the Sekirei Battle.

Media

Manga

Sekirei is a manga series written and illustrated by Sakurako Gokurakuin. It was serialized in Square Enix's seinen manga magazine Young Gangan between December 3, 2004 and August 21, 2015. Square Enix published 18 tankōbon volumes between June 25, 2005 and October 24, 2015. A sequel to the manga titled  began serialization in Young Gangan on May 2, 2017. Yen Press licensed the original series in North America and began releasing the series with the first volume digitally in November 2015. They later began releasing the series in print in omnibus volumes combining two volumes into one in July 2017.

Drama CD
A drama CD entitled Sekirei Original Drama CD was released on July 25, 2007 by Frontier Works.

Anime

The first 12-episode anime series adaptation produced by the animation studio Seven Arcs and directed by Keizō Kusakawa aired in Japan between July 2 and September 17, 2008. The anime is licensed by Aniplex in Japan. The first season is mostly faithful to the overall story structure of the manga series, covering roughly the first fifty-one chapters of the series. The opening theme is  and the main ending theme is "Dear sweet heart"; both songs are performed by Saori Hayami (#88 Musubi), Marina Inoue (#9 Tsukiumi), Kana Hanazawa (#108 Kusano) and Aya Endo (#2 Matsu). The ending theme used in episode eleven is  by Hayami. Six DVDs of the first season were released between October 22, 2008 and March 25, 2009. The sixth DVD volume was supplemented with an original video animation (OVA) episode, , featuring Kusano participating in the shopping race with Musubi and Tsukiumi. A Blu-ray box set of the first season was released on June 30, 2010 with three Blu-ray discs and one additional CD. At Anime USA 2009, Funimation announced that the anime's first season was licensed and a DVD box set was released on November 23, 2010.

A second season entitled  began airing on July 4, 2010 on Tokyo MX and on July 6, 2010 on some other Japanese networks. The first episode of Sekirei: Pure Engagement was pre-aired on June 13, 2010. The opening theme is  and the ending theme is ; both songs are performed by Hayami, Inoue, Hanazawa and Endo, as in the first season. The ending theme for episode 10 is  by Hayami. A single containing both songs was released on July 21, 2010. The limited edition of the single came bundled with a special three-minute OVA, classified as episode 0, titled . The full 28-minute version of the OVA was released with the first BD/DVD volume of the second season on August 25, 2010. As with the first season, Pure Engagement is licensed in North America by Funimation, and released the series on January 3, 2012. Funimation's licenses for both seasons expired on February 9, 2017. Manga Entertainment released Pure Engagement in the United Kingdom on November 19, 2012.

Video game

A video game for PlayStation 2 entitled  was released on October 29, 2009 by Alchemist in limited and regular editions. Two music pieces implemented for the game's music consist of  and "Survive Baby Survive!", both of them performed by Saori Hayami, Marina Inoue, Kana Hanazawa and Aya Endo. The limited edition version was bundled with figures of Musubi and Tsukiumi with Kusano in a panda suit, a 40-minute drama CD, and an illustration of Matsu. While Musubi, Tsukiumi, Matsu, Kusano, Miya, Homura, Uzume and Minato reprise their roles from the anime and manga, four new characters were created by Alchemist consisting of two Sekirei, one Ashikabi and a baby as video game-only characters.

The game takes place in the Sekirei timeline, being played as a visual novel. Minato and the Sekirei of Izumo Inn encounter new characters consisting of Sekirei No. 54,  (Haruka Tomatsu), Sekirei No. 57,  (Ayahi Takagaki), Ashikabi  (Yuichi Nakamura) and a baby referred to as  (Haruka Tomatsu). The plot centers around the discovery of said baby, who is being pursued by unknown persons after Minato and the Sekirei find her abandoned in the city.

Reception
Volume eight of the Sekirei manga made the top 30 manga sold in Japan, holding third place with 103,811 copies sold from February 24 to March 2, 2009. Volume nine placed 17th out of 30 with 65,732 copies sold from December 21–27, 2009. From June 28 to July 4, 2010, volume ten sold 47,019 copies for a total amount of 120,991 in 20th out of 30.

References

External links
 Manga official website
 Anime official website
 Video game official website

Aniplex
Extraterrestrials in anime and manga
Harem anime and manga
Fiction set in 2020
Funimation
Gangan Comics manga
Romantic comedy anime and manga
Seinen manga
Seven Arcs
Square Enix franchises
Science fantasy anime and manga
Yen Press titles

Sekirei


Setthathirath (; 1534–1572) is considered ane o the great leaders in Lao history. Throughout 1560s up till his daith, he successfully defendit his kinrick o Lan Xang against military campaigns o Burmese conqueror Bayinnaung, who haed awready subdued Xieng Mai (Chiang Mai) in 1558 an Ayutthaya in 1564. Setthathirath wis a prolific builder an erectit mony Buddhist monuments includin Wat Xieng Thong in Louang Phrabang an the That Luang in Vientiane.

Daith an eftermath
In 1572, a conspiracy atween a Lord Phya Nakhon an the umwhile abbot o Wat Maximavat, who held personal grudges against Setthathirath, led tae the king's murther in the soothren frontier o the kintra. He wis 38 years o age.

Acause Setthathirath left ae a toddler as his heir, the child's maternal grandfaither, a military commander o common birth named Saensurin (or Sene Soulintha), declared hissel king. This began a period o turbulence, wi different men rulin unsteadily for short periods, which saw the kintra finally conquered bi Bayinnaung in 1574, wi a fratricide bi a croun prince; wi a rebellion led bi someane claimin tae be Setthathirath-resurrectit; an wi a nine-year period in which the kintra haed nae king. (The Burmese woud rule Laos for aichteen years.) Quarrels an conflicts amang the feudal nobility an their follaeins led tae disruptions an unrest athin the population. There wis little peace in Laos till King Sourigna Vongsa ascendit the throne in 1633 (possibly 1637).

References
Lorrillard, Michel (1999) "La Succession de Setthathirat : réappréciation d'une période de l'histoire du Lan Xang," Aseanie 4 December 1999, pp. 44–64.

Phothisane, Souneth. (1996). The Nidan Khun Borom: Annotated Translation and Analysis,
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Queensland. [This is a translation of a Lan Chang chronicle]

Wyatt, David K. and Aroonrut Wichienkeeo (1995). The Chiangmai Chronicle. Chiangmai:
Silkworm Books, pp. 118–127 [This source records the history of Setthathirath as a ruler of both Lan Chang and Chiang Mai]

Wyatt, David K., Thailand: A Short History, New Haven (Yale University Press), 2003. [Concise description of his reign]

1534 births
1572 daiths
Monarchs o Laos
Murthert monarchs
Tai history
Laotian militar leaders

Setthathirath


Alfred Kennerley (10 October 1810 – 15 November 1897) was an Australian politician and Premier of Tasmania from 4 August 1873 until 20 July 1876.

Kennerley was born in Islington. He was a man of means who came from England to Australia when young and settled in New South Wales. On 18 February 1834 at Windsor he married Jane, daughter of Richard Rouse of Rouse Hill House. When his father died Kennerley leased his land and sold his livestock, planning to return to England. He sailed with his wife for London in March 1842 and returned to Sydney in January 1845. He resumed farming at Bringelly, became a magistrate and, in trust for his wife, acquired from Rouse more property in Parramatta. Kennerley was not robust and found the climate very trying. In 1853 he returned to England with his wife.

In June 1857 the Kennerleys arrived at Hobart in the Gloucester and named their new home Rouseville. He became an alderman about 1860, and was mayor in 1862, 1863, 1871 and 1872. He was elected to Parliament and on 4 August 1873 became premier without office.

On 15 August 1873, William Lodewyk Crowther threatened Kennerley with violence when Kennerley mentioned Crowther's theft of Aboriginal Tasmanian remains:

His ministry initiated a policy of public works, but though there was really little difference between the parties, there was a good deal of political strife, and it was difficult to get anything constructive done.  Kennerley became discouraged and resigned on 20 July 1876. This was the only time he was in office, but he was well known for the remainder of his long life as a staunch supporter of the Church of England, and as one of the most philanthropic and high-principled citizens of Hobart. He died in his eighty-eighth year on 15 November 1897. His wife died many years before him and he had no children.

References

1810 births
1897 deaths
Members of the Tasmanian Legislative Council
Premiers of Tasmania
Mayors and Lord Mayors of Hobart
Politicians from Islington (district)
19th-century Australian politicians
English emigrants to colonial Australia
Tasmanian local councillors

Alfred Kennerley


A variety show is a show that features a variety of performing acts. These may include actors, musicians and singers, acrobats and jugglers, animal trainers, magicians, comedians, puppeteers, and other kinds of performers.

Ed Sullivan hosted a long-running variety show on CBS, from the 1940s to the early 1970s. The Smothers Brothers hosted a comedy/variety show in the late 1960s. Other performers hosted successful variety shows through the years.

Variety shows were a good "breaking ground" for new acts, in the early years of television. They were also useful to established performers, to give them steady work and regular exposure to audiences.

Interest in the format lessened in the United States during the 1970s. Dolly Parton tried to start a new variety show in the 1980s, but it did not last. Performance competition shows, like The Gong Show, Star Search, and today American Idol became the new breaking ground for performers.

The variety show format is still sometimes imitated by  comedy programs. Television talk shows carry much of the spirit of variety shows, in offering a variety of entertainers to appear.

Television programs

Variety show


Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. She was also called "Lady Day", a nickname that her friend and musical partner Lester Young gave her. Holiday was a very important influence on jazz and pop singing. The way that she sang was similar to the way jazz musicians played their instruments. She was admired for her very personal and intimate way of singing. Critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever."

She co-wrote some songs which have become jazz standards, like "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing jazz standards written by other people, like "Easy Living" and "Strange Fruit".

Early life
Holiday was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1915, a Roman Catholic. She had a difficult childhood, which affected her life and career. Not much is known about her early life, but there are stories about it in her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, which was published in 1956. Later, it was found out that some parts of this book were wrong.

Holiday got her pseudonym, or stage name, from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and Clarence Holiday, the man who was probably her father. At the beginning of her career, she spelled her last name "Halliday", but then changed it back to "Holiday" (they are pronounced the same, 'Hahliday', in American English).

People have never been sure who Holiday's father was. This is because her birth certificate said her father was called Frank DeViese. Some people now think that this was a mistake that somebody made when she was born.

Holiday's mother was called Sadie Fagan. Fagan became pregnant when she was 13 years old. Her parents threw her out of her home in Baltimore, and she went to Philadelphia where her daughter Eleanora (Billie Holiday) was born. Fagan moved back to Baltimore and married Clarence Holiday, who was probably her baby's father, but they later divorced. When she was 10 years old, Holiday often missed school. When she said that she had been raped, she was sent to The House of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic reform school. She was allowed out two years later, with the help of a family friend. Holiday moved to New York City with her mother in 1928. In 1929 Holiday's mother saw a neighbor, Wilbert Rich, raping Holiday. Rich was sentenced to three months in jail. But after her incident as a rape victim she was still constantly raped by drunk men in her neighborhood. She almost got pregnant by a drunk man walking down their street.

Early singing career
Holiday later said that in 1930 she worked as a prostitute in a brothel, and was imprisoned for a short time for solicitation (prostitution). In the 1930s in Harlem, New York City, she started singing for tips in night clubs, and got a job at Pod's and Jerry's, a famous Harlem jazz club. In 1933 she was working at a club called Monette's. She was discovered by a talent scout called John Hammond.

Hammond helped Holiday to record her first songs in November 1933 with Benny Goodman: "Your Mother's Son-In-Law" and "Riffin' the Scotch". In 1935 she recorded more songs with a group led by pianist Teddy Wilson. They recorded "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Miss Brown To You".

Teddy Wilson was signed to Brunswick Records by John Hammond to record pop songs in the new 'swing' style for jukeboxes. They were allowed to improvise the music. Holiday was very good at improvising the melody line to fit the emotions.

Holiday also wrote songs during the 1930s, like "Billie's Blues", "Tell Me More (And Then Some)", "Everything Happens For The Best", "Our Love Is Different", and "Long Gone Blues".

A tenor saxophonist called Lester Young often accompanied Holiday. He had been a boarder at her mother's house in 1934 and she got on well with him. Young gave her a nickname, "Lady Day" and she called him "Prez." She spent three months working at Clark Monroe's Uptown House in New York in 1937. In the late 1930s, she also worked as a big band singer with Count Basie and Artie Shaw. She was one of the first black women to work with a white orchestra (Artie Shaw's).

"Strange Fruit"
In the 1930s, Holiday was recording for Columbia Records. She heard of a song called "Strange Fruit". It was based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. The poem had been set to music and was performed at teachers' union meetings. It was heard by a night club owner called Barney Josephson and he told Holiday about it. She sang the song at Josephson's club in 1939. At first she was worried that it might make people angry. She later said that the song reminded her of her father's death, and that this was partly why she did not want to perform it at first. In a 1958 interview, she also said that many people did not understand what the song meant: "They'll ask me to sing that sexy song about the people swinging", she said.

The music producers at Columbia Records thought that subject of the song (the lynching of black people)  might upset people. A music producer called Milt Gabler said that Holiday could record it for his label called Commodore Records. That was done in April 1939 and Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" over the next twenty years. The song did not get played on the radio but still sold well. Gabler said that this was because the other side of the record was "Fine and Mellow", which was a jukebox hit. Later, she recorded "Strange Fruit" again for Verve.

1944-1950
In 1944, Holiday went to work, still with Milt Gabler, at Decca Records. She was 29 years old. Her first songs for Decca were called "Lover Man" and "No More". "Lover Man" was a song written for her. It is about a woman who has never known love, and it became one of her biggest hits.

In November 1944, Holiday recorded three songs, "That Ole Devil Called Love", "Big Stuff", and "Don't Explain". Holiday wrote "Don't Explain" after she caught her husband, Jimmy Monroe, with lipstick on his collar. After that, Holiday didn't record any songs until August 1945. She recorded, "Don't Explain", "Big Stuff", "You Better Go Now", and "What is This Thing Called Love?". In 1946, she recorded songs called "No Good Man" and "Good Morning Heartache", "The Blues Are Brewin", and "Guilty". In February 1947, Holiday recorded two hits, "There Is No Greater Love" and "Deep Song". She also recorded "Solitude" and "Easy Living", songs that she had recorded with Teddy Wilson in the 1930s.

Holiday's next recording was after she came out of prison in 1948. She recorded this time with a vocal group called the Stardusters. She recorded "Weep No More" and "Girls Were Made to Take Care of Boys". She was worried that people wouldn't like the recordings and recorded two more songs without the group, "My Man" and Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy". These became very popular.

The next year, Billie had more hits. She sang a version of Bessie Smith's, song "T'Ain't Nobody's Business if I Do", "Gimme A Pigfoot (And A Bottle of Beer)", "Do Your Duty", and "Keeps on Rainin'", to her lush "You're My Thrill" and "Crazy He Calls Me". She also recorded a song that she wrote called "Somebody's On My Mind".

In her last recording in 1950, she recorded two songs. Both of them were backed by strings, horns, and a choir. She recorded her own "God Bless the Child" and "This is Heaven to Me".

Movies
In 1947, Holiday was in a film with Louis Armstrong called New Orleans.  The musical drama film featured Holiday singing with Armstrong and his band and was directed by Arthur Lubin. Holiday was not pleased that she had to play a maid. In her autobiography she said:

"I thought I was going to play myself in it. I thought I was going to be Billie Holiday doing a couple of songs in a nightclub setting and that would be that. I should have known better. When I saw the script, I did. You just tell one Negro girl who's made movies who didn't play a maid or a whore. I don't know any. I found out I was going to do a little singing, but I was still playing the part of a maid."

Holiday was also in the 1950 Universal-International short film 'Sugar Chile' Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet, where she sang "God Bless the Child" and "Now, Baby or Never".

1947 arrest and comeback
On May 16, 1947, Holiday was arrested for the possession of narcotics and drugs in her New York apartment. On May 27, 1947, she had to go to court. Holiday pleaded guilty (admitted that she had the drugs) and was sentenced to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. Holiday said she never "sang a note" at Alderson even though people wanted her to. She was released early (March 16, 1948) because of her good behavior. When she arrived at Newark, everybody was there to welcome her back, including her pianist Bobby Tucker.

Her manager Ed Fishman thought of the idea to have a comeback concert at Carnegie Hall. Holiday was worried at first because she thought that nobody would want her back, but she decided do it. On March 27, 1948, the Carnegie concert was very successful. She did sang songs like Cole Porter's "Night and Day" and "Strange Fruit". The concert was not recorded.

Holiday was arrested again on January 22, 1949, at a hotel in San Francisco.

1950s

Holiday said that she began using hard drugs in the early 1940s. She had married trombonist Jimmy Monroe on August 25, 1941. When she was still married to Monroe, she started a romantic relationship with trumpeter Joe Guy, who was also her drug dealer. She lived with him as his wife (called a common law wife) and divorced Monroe in 1947. She also separated from Guy. After of she was arrested and convicted for possessing drugs in 1947, she was not allowed to work in clubs in New York for the rest of her life. The only time she was able to was when she sang at the Ebony Club in 1948, where she had the permission of John Levy.

In the 1950s, Holiday's health became bad, because of her drinking alcohol, using drugs and her relationships with abusive men. Her voice became rough, but some people say that her singing became more emotional.

On March 28, 1952, Holiday married Louis McKay, a man who worked for the Mafia.  McKay, like most of the men in her life, was abusive, but he did try to get her to stop using drugs. They later separated.

On November 10, 1956, she performed two concerts before big audiences at Carnegie Hall.

Holiday went on  tour Europe for the first time in 1954 with Buddy DeFranco and Red Norvo. When she went back to Europe, almost five years later, she went on television for Granada's Chelsea at Nine, in London. This was one of the last times she was on television. Her last studio recordings were made for MGM in 1959, with Ray Ellis and his Orchestra, who had also accompanied her on Columbia's Lady in Satin album
in 1958. The MGM recordings were released after Holiday's death on an album called Last Recordings.

Holiday's autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, was published in 1956. It was ghostwritten by William Dufty, a New York Post writer and editor who was married to Holiday's close friend Maely Dufty. He wrote the book quickly after talking to Holiday in his apartment, as well as using earlier interviewers. His wanted to let Holiday tell her story her way.

Holiday never had any children of her own, but had two godchildren: singer Billie Lorraine Feather, daughter of Leonard Feather, and Bevan Dufty, son of William Dufty.

Death
On May 31, 1959, Holiday was taken to the Metropolitan Hospital in New York. She had liver and heart disease. Police officers were at the door to her room. She was arrested for drug possession as she lay dying and her hospital room was raided by the police. They kept guarding her at the hospital until she died from cirrhosis of the liver on July 17, 1959. In the last years of her life, she had gradually lost her earnings, and she died with $0.70 in the bank and $750 in cash.

Notes

References
 Jack Millar, Fine and Mellow: A Discography of Billie Holiday, 1994,
 Julia Blackburn, With Billie,
 John Chilton, Billie's Blues: The Billie Holiday Story 1933-1959,
 Donald Clarke, Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon,
 Angela Y. Davis, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday,
 Leslie Gourse, The Billie Holiday Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary,
 Farah Jasmine Griffin, If You Can't Be Free, Be A Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday,
 Billie Holiday with William Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues,
 Chris Ingham, Billie Holiday,
 Burnett James, Billie Holiday,
 Stuart Nicholson, Billie Holiday,
 Robert O'Meally, "Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday",

1915 births
1959 deaths
African American musicians
American autobiographers
American jazz musicians
American people convicted of drug offenses
American Roman Catholics
American singer-songwriters
Deaths from cirrhosis
Disease-related deaths in New York (state)

Billie Holiday


Erythrae or Erythrai () later Litri, was one of the twelve Ionian cities of Asia Minor, situated 22 km north-east of the port of Cyssus (modern name: Çeşme), on a small peninsula stretching into the Bay of Erythrae, at an equal distance from the mountains Mimas and Corycus, and directly opposite the island of Chios. It is recorded that excellent wine was produced in the peninsula. Erythrae was notable for being the seat of the Erythraean Sibyl. The ruins of the city are found north of the town Ildırı in the Çeşme district of Izmir Province, Turkey.

History

According to Pausanias (Paus. 7.3.7), the founder was Erythrus, the son of Rhadamanthus, who established himself here with a body of Cretans, Carians, and Lycians.
At a later period came Knopos (Strab. 14.633), son of Codrus, with an Ionian colony, whence the city is sometimes called Cnopopolis (Κνωπούπολις). The city did not lie exactly on the coast, but some little distance inland, and had a harbor on the coast named Cissus (Livy, 36.43).

In the 7th century BC as an Ionian city of Asia Minor, Erythrae was a member of the Pan-Ionian League. Sometime during the 7th century, Erythrae fought a war against the neighbouring island of Chios. (Herodotus 1.18).  The city gained fame as a producer of millstones during the period of tyrannical rule.

Erythrae was never a large city, it sent only eight ships to the Battle of Lade. The Erythraeans were for a considerable time subject to the supremacy of Athens, but towards the close of the Peloponnesian War they threw off their allegiance to that city. After the battle of Cnidus, however, they received Conon, and paid him honours in an inscription, still extant.

Erythrae was the birthplace of two prophetesses (sibyls) --one of whom, Sibylla, is mentioned by Strabo as living in the early period of the city; the other, Athenais, lived in the time of Alexander the Great. The Erythraean Sibyl presided over the Apollonian oracle.

About 453 BC, Erythrae, refusing to pay tribute, seceded from the Delian League. A garrison and a new government restored the union, but late in the Peloponnesian War (412 BC) it revolted again with Chios and Clazomenae.

Later it was allied alternately with Athens and Persia. About the middle of the 4th century BC, the city became friendly with Mausolus: in an inscription found on the site, he is called a benefactor of Erythrae. About the same time the city signed a treaty with Hermias, Tyrant of Assus and Atarneus, based on reciprocal aid in the event of war.

In 334 BC the city regained its freedom through Alexander the Great who, according to Pliny (HN 5.116) and Pausanias (2.1.5), planned to cut a canal through the peninsula of Erythrae to connect Teos bay with the gulf of Smyrna.

When Alexander returned to Memphis in April 331 BC, envoys from Greece were waiting for him, saying that the oracles at Didyma and Erythrae, which had been silent for a long time, had suddenly spoken and confirmed that Alexander was the son of Zeus. The timing proves that Alexander was already thinking that he was of a more than human nature when he entered Greece: after all, the people of Didyma and Erythrae can never have known that Alexander was recognized as the son of Ra and wanted to be called 'son of Zeus'.

Erythrae was later associated with Pergamum and with Rome, and after the death of Attalos III in 133 BC, when the Pergamene kingdom was bequeathed to the Romans, it flourished as a free city ("civitas libera") attached to the Roman province of Asia.

At this time, Erythrae was renowned for its wine, goats, timber, and millstones, as well as its prophetic sibyls, Herophile and Athenais.

In the Roman period the city was plundered, and its importance faded after the earthquakes of that region in the 1st century AD.

The city experienced a revival of some sorts under the later Roman Empire and into the Byzantine period. Bishops are attested from 431 to 1292, and an archon, a minor governor, was based in the city in the 9th and 10th centuries.

Pausanias, at the Description of Greece writes that in the city there was a temple of Athena Polias and a huge wooden image of her sitting on a throne, she holds a distaff in either hand and wears a firmament on her head.

The people of Erythrae dedicated a statue of Epitherses (Ἐπιθέρσης) at Olympia, Greece. Epitherses was a native who won two boxing prizes at Olympic Games, two at Pythian Games and also victories at Nemean Games and the Isthmian Games. His father was Metrodorus (Μητρόδωρος).

Recent times
From the mid-18th century until the early 20th century, Litri was a considerable place and port, extending from the ancient harbour to the acropolis. It attracted smaller coasting steamers, and there was an active trade with Chios and Smyrna (modern day Izmir).

Remains
The archaeological site is situated within the settlement zone of the present-day Turkish village of Ildırı. The site was explored in depth in the 1960s by Professor Ekrem Akurgal, leading to precious discoveries, but has been left somewhat unattended since. The ruins include well-preserved Hellenistic walls with towers, of which five are still visible. The acropolis (280 ft) has a theatre on its northern slope, and eastwards lie many remains of Byzantine buildings.

See also
List of ancient Greek cities
List of traditional Greek place names

Attribution

Some of the text has been found on the website dedicated to the museum of The Temple of Athena in Erythrae which can be found in the external links section of this page.

References

External links

History of Erythrae Created by Dale E. Landon, Professor Emeritus of History, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites
Encyclopædia Britannica Concise
View Erythrai in Google Earth
The Temple of Athena Polias at Erythrae

Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey
Ionian League
Geography of İzmir Province
Former populated places in Turkey
History of İzmir Province
Populated places in ancient Ionia
Members of the Delian League
Greek city-states
Çeşme District

Erythrae


A complex number is a number, but is different from common numbers in many ways. A complex number is made up using two numbers combined. The first part is a real number, and the second part is an imaginary number. The most important imaginary number is called , defined as a number that will be -1 when squared ("squared" means "multiplied by itself"): . All the other imaginary numbers are  multiplied by a real number, in the same way that all real numbers can be thought of as 1 multiplied by another number. Arithmetic functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division can be used with complex numbers. They also follow commutative, associative and distributive properties, just like real numbers. The set of complex numbers is often represented using the symbol .

Complex numbers were discovered while attempting to solve special equations that have exponents in them. These began to pose real problems for mathematicians. As a comparison, using negative numbers, it is possible to find the x in the equation  for all real values of a and b, but if only positive numbers are allowed for x, it is sometimes impossible to find a positive x, as in the equation .

With exponentiation, there is a difficulty to be overcome. There is no real number that gives −1 when it is squared. In other words, −1 (or any other negative number) has no real square root. For example, there is no real number  that solves the equation . To solve this problem, mathematicians introduced a symbol i and called it the imaginary unit. This is the imaginary number that will give −1 when it is squared.

The first mathematicians to have thought of this were probably Gerolamo Cardano and Raffaele Bombelli. They lived in the 16th century. It was probably Leonhard Euler who introduced writing  for that number.

All complex numbers can be written as  (or ), where a is called the real part of the number, and b is called the imaginary part. We write  or  for the real part of a complex number . So, if , we write . Similarly, we write  or  for the imaginary part of a complex number ; , for the same . Every real number is also a complex number; it is a complex number  with .

A complex number can also be written as an ordered pair , where both a and b are real numbers. Any real number can simply be written as , or as the pair .

Sometimes,  is written instead of . In electrical engineering for instance,  means electric current, so writing  can cause a lot of problems because some numbers in electrical engineering are complex numbers.

Operations over complex numbers

Addition, subtraction, multiplication and exponentiation (raising numbers to exponents) are all possible with complex numbers. Division is also possible with complex numbers, as long as the divisor is not zero. Some other calculations are also possible with complex numbers.

The rule for addition and subtraction of complex numbers is pretty simple:

Let , then , and .

Multiplication is a bit different:

Another notable operation for complex numbers is conjugation. A complex conjugate  to  is .
It is pretty simple, but is important for calculations, because  is actually a real number for all complex :

.

Because of that, we can use it to do division:

Other forms of describing complex numbers

Complex numbers can be shown on a so-called complex plane. If you have a number , you can go to point a on the real axis and point b on the imaginary axis, and draw a vector from  to . The length of this vector can be calculated using the Pythagorean theorem, and the angle of this vector is simply the angle between the positive real axis and this vector—going counterclockwise. The length of a vector for a number  is called its modulus or absolute value (written as ), and the angle is called its argument ().

This leads to the trigonometrical form of describing complex numbers: by the definitions of sine and cosine, it follows that for all :

This is closely connected to De Moivre's formula.

There exists even another form, called exponential form.

Conclusion

With the introduction of complex numbers to math, every polynomial with complex coefficients has roots in complex numbers. This introduction also helped to open a path to the creation of another kind of numbers, which could help resolve and explain many different problems. These include the hypercomplex numbers, sedenion, hyperreal numbers, surreal numbers and many others. For more, see types of numbers.

Related pages

 Complex plane
 Mandelbrot set
 Riemann sphere

References

Other websites
 A search for complex number at Wikibooks

Numbers

Complex number


Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans (Ferdinand Philippe Louis Charles Henri Joseph; 3 September 1810 – 13 July 1842) was the eldest son of King Louis Philippe I of France and Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. He was born in exile in his mother's native Sicily while his parents were the Duke and Duchess of Orléans. Ferdinand Philippe was heir to the House of Orléans from birth. Following his father's succession as King of the French in 1830, he became the Prince Royal of France and Duke of Orléans. He died in 1842, never to succeed his father or see the collapse of the July Monarchy and subsequent exile of his family to the United Kingdom.

Early life
Born in Palermo in September 1810, during his parents' exile, he was given the title Duke of Chartres (and was called Chartres within the family circle). He was baptised Ferdinand Philippe Louis Charles Henri Joseph and known as Ferdinand Philippe in honour of his grandfathers, Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Philippe Égalité. Despite having been born in exile, he held the rank of prince of the blood and was styled Serene Highness. As the eldest son, he was the heir to the title of Duke of Orléans, head of the House of Orléans (a cadet branch of the Bourbons of France descended from the only brother of Louis XIV).

The young prince first visited France in 1814 during the First Restoration, settling there more permanently in 1817. In 1819 his father put him in the care of a tutor, M. de Boismilon, at the Collège Henri-IV. Louis Philippe wished his son to receive a liberal education on a foundation of complete equality with his fellow students. Ferdinand Philippe was highly successful in his studies and took courses at the École polytechnique. After a trip to Great Britain (visiting both England and Scotland) in 1819, he went to Lunéville to join the 1er régiment de hussards, of which he was made colonel by Charles X in 1824. In September 1824, King Charles X granted him the style "Royal Highness", a style maintained by Ferdinand Philippe at his father's accession to the throne six years later.

July Revolution

In 1830, during the July Revolution, the young Duke of Chartres was on garrison duty at Joigny. He made his regiment wear the cockade of France and quickly led them to aid the uprising in Paris. He was temporarily stopped at Montrouge, and entered Paris on 3 August at the head of his regiment. When his father was offered the French throne by the Chamber of Deputies, Prince Ferdinand Philippe received the title of Duke of Orléans, Prince of Orléans, and also became Prince Royal, the heir apparent to the throne. Upon entering the Conseil (at his father's bidding), Ferdinand Philippe, who had something of a temper, criticised the time lost by ministers' prevarications and was frequently embroiled in skirmishes with the doctrinaires, to whom he wished to impart the sentiments of revolutionary youth. When Casimir Periero was nominated president of the Conseil in March 1831, he accepted the post only on condition that Ferdinand Philippe be excluded from the Conseil.

In November 1831, the young Duke of Orléans and Maréchal d'Empire Nicolas Soult, Duc de Dalmatie, were sent to repress the Canut revolts. He acquitted himself of this difficult task without violence and managed to rapidly appease opponents of the July Monarchy, even gaining a certain popularity. During the cholera outbreak in 1832, he did not hesitate to take real risks in visiting the most sickly patients at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, accompanied by Casimir Perier (who caught the disease and died). In the eyes of the people and the press he was seen as a generous prince, sincerely preoccupied with the plight of the poor, and he became a sort of icon for the dynastic opposition of politician Odilon Barrot, who saw in him the only prince capable of reconciling modern France's democratic aspirations with the heritage of its monarchical past. On 2 March 1832 he was granted an annual income of 1 million francs under his father's new Civil List.

Military career

In 1831, under Maréchal Count Gérard, Ferdinand Philippe and his young brother Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours, set out on their first campaign. When the princes entered Belgium in 1831, they eagerly visited the plain of Jemmapes, where their father had fought in 1792. The following year, Ferdinand Philippe returned to Belgium in command of the vanguard brigade of the Armée du Nord. On 20 November 1832 he was before the citadel of Antwerp, and commanded the trenches on the night of 29/30 November. During the attack on the Saint-Laurent Lunette, he launched himself onto the parapet amidst a hail of projectiles to lead the action and arouse his soldiers' courage.

In 1835, when Maréchal Count Clauzel was sent to Algeria as Governor General, the young Prince Royal asked his father for permission to accompany him, so he could fight the Emir Abd El-Kader. He participated with Clauzel's army in the Battle of Habrah, where he was wounded, and in the capture of Mascara in December 1835. He then participated in the taking of Tlemcen in January 1836. When he returned to Paris, it was with an aura of military glory, and he returned to Algeria in autumn 1839 to take possession of the country's interior (from Constantine to Algiers) for France alongside Maréchal Count Valée. He left Constantine on 16 October, three days after the second anniversary of the town's capture, and reached Algiers on 2 November via Sétif and the Iron Gates pass. Abd-el-Kader saw this as a violation of the Treaty of Tafna and unleashed jihad upon the French. This led to an escalation in tension and, ultimately, Algeria's wholesale occupation by France. Ferdinand Philippe set out for Algeria a third time in March 1840, taking with him his younger brother the Duke of Aumale, tutoring him in his first military experience. Present at the battles of Affroun, Oued'Ger and Bois des Oliviers, he was put in charge of directing the attackers in the capture of Teniah de Mouzaïa. After this campaign he was recalled to France for good.

This brilliant military career increased his popularity and prestige. He also devoted himself to the improvement of the troops' living conditions and morale. At Saint-Omer he organised the chasseurs de Vincennes, who became the chasseurs d'Orléans in 1836, and re-formed the chasseurs de Vincennes à pied. He laid the foundations for a Histoire des Régiments, commissioned by order of the Minister of War, and began writing the regimental histories of the two regiments he had himself commanded.

Marriage negotiations
Ferdinand Philippe's marriage had long been one of the July Monarchy's major political affairs. Had it not been for the 1830 Revolution, he would have married the sister of Henri, Count of Chambord, Louise d'Artois (1819–1864). Her family called off the marriage plans when Ferdinand Philippe's branch of the family 'usurped' the throne. From 1835, after an assassination attempt by Giuseppe Fieschi and his co-conspirators, Ferdinand Philippe's father had been obsessed with the marital prospects of his son, then 25. Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil noted, in her Souvenirs, that if the Prince Royal died young after having fathered a male heir, the July Monarchy would be faced with the prospect of a regency, in all its political uncertainty – thus, for her, the wisest course consisted of marrying off the King's third son, then the fourth, then the fifth, guaranteeing Louis Philippe descendants, all the while leaving several men around the throne who could take over from him if he died suddenly.

At this time the July Monarchy was searching for new allies in Continental Europe so they would not have to depend solely on the United Kingdom. Talleyrand, fresh from renouncing his embassy to London and close to the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, pointed in this direction. The King at first envisaged a rapprochement with Russia via Württemberg. King Wilhelm I, widower of Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, had two daughters of marriageable age, Princesses Marie (born 1816) and Sophie (born 1818). Wilhelm I's sister Catharina had already made an inauspicious French marriage alliance to Jérôme Bonaparte and so Wilhelm declined the proposition as humiliating. He later was to accept Marie's even more humiliating marriage to Count Alfred von Neipperg in 1840. Queen Louise wrote to her parents on Marie's marriage that "We see singular things. It was not at all probable that this daughter, who the king of Württemberg did not wish to give to Chartres for fear of his ending his days [in exile] in America, should end up marrying a miserable little Austrian officer without illustriousness and of very ordinary birth."

Louis Philippe next envisaged an alliance with Austria via the marriage of his son to Archduchess Maria Theresa (born 1816), daughter of Archduke Karl, Duke of Teschen (German: Herzog von Teschen). Queen Marie Amélie was highly favourable to such a match as she was herself a daughter of an Austrian archduchess (Maria Carolina of Austria), and Archduke Karl was not opposed to it. However, Karl faced determined opponents on two sides – Prince Metternich, who did not want to repeat his error in marrying Marie Louise to Napoléon I, and Archduchess Sophie, a Bavarian princess and sister-in-law of the new Kaiser Ferdinand I, who dominated the Vienna court with her strong personality, and was awaiting her son Franz-Josef's ascent to the imperial throne. France's ambassador to Vienna, the Count of Sainte-Aulaire, who had been put in charge of preparing the ground for an Austrian match, felt the possibility was difficult if not completely impossible. The new President of the Conseil, Adolphe Thiers, dreamed of concluding such a match and becoming a new Duke of Choiseul as the maker of a spectacular reversal in the alliances of Europe.

Ferdinand Philippe and his younger brother, the Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours, set out on a European tour on 2 May 1836. Ferdinand Philippe and Queen Marie-Amélie got off to a bad start when the young French Prince Royal refused to shave off the proud beard that had set a fashion among French youth. She wrote back to Queen Louise complaining that "there was a lack of tact there and of sentiments of convenience that afflicted me. [...] I believe that Leopold I can say to him that a goatee beard on the face of a prince royal is contrary to all German manners. Here, [such a beard] is neither handsome nor fortunate, there it can be fatal." The two French princes were a great success in Berlin and Vienna, staying at the latter from 29 May to 11 June. However, the Marquis de Sémonville commented that "everyone has shaken their hand, but no one was close to them". Even if the young Prince Royal decidedly liked Archduke Karl and his daughter, Prince Metternich and the Archduchess Sophie put up a major barrage of problems, and news of Thiers (impatient to conclude the match) being on his way was enough to convince Louis Philippe to make a marriage proposal. He was refused, though to play to French susceptibilities the official version was that the refusal was because of the "feelings" of Archduchess Marie-Thérèse. Queen Louise wrote to her mother on 14 June 1836: "I am upset to see that you have thrown your all behind the cause of Austria [...] I have always thought that Chartres was of too high birth to marry she who seems to him the most minor princess in Germany; and I avow that I would better like to see him marry a princess from Lippe or Waldeck who was good and pretty and of robust health, rather than an archduchess of Austria who would bring us all sorts of evils in her dowry. [...] Napoleon, in this situation, was able to make sacrifices to ally himself with Austria; and we all saw what profit he got from it. But we are not upstarts, and have no need of ennobling ourselves by uniting with the house of Lorraine".

The two young princes returned to France via Italy. At Trent they were received by Her Imperial Majesty Marie Louise, the former Empress Consort of the French, who could not refrain from tears at the similarity between the Prince Royal and her son, the late Duke of Reichstadt. At Milan they stayed with Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria, Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia, where they heard the news of Alibaud's assassination attempt on King Louis Philippe on 25 June. After the Austrians' refusal of the match, only two potential Catholic princesses remained (Louis-Philippe confided to one of his familiars "I would prefer her to be a Catholic. You believe it is nothing, the Carlists believe it is everything; and I myself believe that it is neither here nor there"), and these were both very young for marriage (born in 1821): Princess Januaria of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, and the Infanta Isabella of Spain, daughter of the Infante Francisco de Paula, younger brother of King Ferdinand VII. The former was excluded by her remoteness, and the latter due to her family's unfortunate history (her mother Princess Luisa Carlotta of the Two Sicilies, niece of Queen Marie-Amélie, was monstrously obese) and her physical appearance (she was red-haired and thin; Queen Louise wrote to Queen Marie-Amélie on 21 November 1836 that "I send you her portrait, that Leopold found hideous. Her hair especially is frightening in terms of the children she will have. If all her family are ginger, this will afflict them [too]".

Marriage
Some possibilities were also seen among the Protestant German princesses. Via his great-niece the Duchess of Dino, Talleyrand suggested Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel (born 1817 to a cousin of the Elector of Hesse and his wife, a Danish princess), whilst Queen Louise suggested Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (born 1818 to the Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Princess Amelia of Wurtemberg, and who finally ended up marrying King George V of Hanover in 1843), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (daughter of an elder brother of King Leopold I of the Belgians; she was actually raised a Catholic and married the Prince Royal's younger brother, the Duke of Nemours, in 1840).

However, the negotiators' choice finally came to rest on Duchess Helene Luise Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (known as Hélène, 1814–1858), daughter of the late Prince Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and his wife Princess Caroline Louise of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. For Ferdinand Philippe, it was a convenient alliance but one without much attraction; Metternich quipped that she was "petite but of a good house". She was the niece of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, whose wife was born Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (this did not avoid difficulties for the marriage in Berlin, which the French ambassador there, the Count Bresson, succeeded in resolving). Nicholas I of Russia, for his part, affected disdain of the marriage, proclaiming that such a minor marriage was not worth the trouble to prevent.

The Duke of Broglie was sent to Germany as ambassador extraordinary with the aim of presenting the official marriage request and bringing the princess back to France. An anonymous but virulent libel against the House of Orléans was published by a prince of the House of Mecklenburg. That House avoided the marriage, so that Duchess Hélène was only accompanied to France by her father's widow, Augusta of Hesse-Homburg. The marriage was celebrated on 30 May 1837 at the Château de Fontainebleau, since Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen, the Archbishop of Paris, had used the pretext of religious differences to forbid it from taking place in Notre Dame de Paris. The civil ceremony occurred in the galerie Henri II on 30 May 1837, presided over by the Baron Pasquier, whom the King rewarded on 27 May by making him Lord Chancellor of France. The Catholic ceremony was presided over by Romain-Frédéric Gallard, Bishop of Meaux, in the chapel of Henri IV, whilst the Lutheran one was celebrated by Pastor Cuvier in the Salon Louis Philippe. As his witnesses, Ferdinand Philippe had the four vice-presidents of the Chamber of Peers: Baron Séguier, Count Portalis, the Duke of Broglie, and the Count de Bastard; the president and four vice presidents of the Chamber of Deputies: Dupin, Jean-Louis Calmon, Delessert, Jacqueminot, Cunin-Gridaine; three maréchals: the Duke of Dalmatie, the Count de Lobau and Gérard, as well as the Prince de Talleyrand, the Duke of Choiseul, and Count Bresson, France's minister to Berlin.

The ceremony was well attended, but there was a notable lack of foreign ambassadors, except for Baron von Werther (Prussia), Count Le Hon (Belgium), and the chargé d'affaires of Mecklembourg. The reception was brilliant; the Duchesse de Maillé observed:

The marriage was very happy and produced two children: Prince Philippe, Count of Paris (1838–1894), who was Prince Royal, and Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres (1840–1910).

Patron of the arts
Ferdinand Philippe loved literature, music, and the fine arts, and had a pronounced taste for collecting, "making his choice slowly, like a true lover [of the arts]". Each year he spent 100,000 to 150,000 francs from his Civil List allowance on art purchases or cultural patronage. In his vast apartments in the Palais des Tuileries he gathered medieval and Renaissance objects, ceramics by Bernard Palissy, Hispano-Moorish majolica and ceramics, Chinese and Japanese porcelain, and furniture by Caffieri, Oeben, Riesener, and Jacob.

He was passionate about modern painters, buying several canvasses from Ary Scheffer and Newton Fielding, both of whom had taught Ferdinand Philippe landscape painting from 1822 to 1830. He possessed works by Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix (The Prisoner of Chillon, The Assassination of the Bishop of Liège, Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard), Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (The Defeat of the Cimbri), Eugène Lami, Ernest Meissonnier, and Paul Delaroche. He loved landscapes by painters of the Barbizon school, notably Camille Corot, Paul Huet, and Théodore Rousseau. He commissioned Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to paint Antiochus and Stratonice (1833), bought his Œdipus and the Sphinx in 1839, and commissioned his portrait from him in 1840.

Himself a talented draughtsman, Ferdinand Philippe made amateur engravings – twelve etchings and lithographs by him are known, including a satire showing the sleeping Gulliver with Lilliputians all round him on foot and on horseback and a sign referring to the alarmist proclamation of 11 July 1792 by the Legislative Assembly that declared the fatherland to be in danger.

Death

In 1842, the Duke was scheduled to leave for Saint-Omer to review part of the army of which he had been made the commander that was engaged at the Marne. He planned to travel from the Tuileries Palace to Neuilly-sur-Seine on 13 July 1842 to say goodbye to his family, and, for the sake of expediency, opted for an open carriage. When the horses of his carriage ran out of control at Sablonville in the Hauts-de-Seine département; he lost his balance and fractured his skull, and, despite the best attentions of his doctors, the 31-year-old Duke died some hours later, surrounded by family members who had rushed to the scene. Alfred de Musset evoked the accident in his poem Le Treize Juillet (in the collection Poésies nouvelles).

Ferdinand Philippe's funeral service was held in Notre Dame which was covered not in black fabric (of which there wasn't enough) but, at the suggestion of the architect Visconti, black paper. He was interred in an elaborate tomb in the Chapelle Royale, in Dreux, Eure-et-Loir.

Deprived of the popular support his eldest son had had, Louis Philippe and his régime fell six years later. He, his family, and Ferdinand Philippe's widow Princess Hélène went into exile in Great Britain. There, Hélène died nearly 16 years after her husband, on 18 May 1858 in Richmond, Surrey. Because Hélène was a Protestant, she could not be buried in the Catholic Chapelle Royale at Dreux. Instead, a room with a separate entrance was built attached to the chapel and a window was opened between her tomb and her husband's. The sculpture of the Protestant princess rests atop her tomb, depicting her reaching through the opening to the tomb of her beloved Catholic prince and husband Ferdinand Philippe.

Issue
Prince Philippe, Count of Paris (1838–1894), Prince Royal, married Princess Marie Isabelle of Orléans, Infanta of Spain (1848–1919), and had issue.
Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres (1840–1910), married Princess Françoise of Orléans (1844–1925) and had issue.

Ancestry

Honours
  Kingdom of France: Knight of the Holy Spirit, 30 May 1825
 : Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold, 10 March 1833
 :
 Knight of St. Januarius
 Grand Cross of St. Ferdinand and Merit
 : Knight of the Golden Fleece, 1 July 1837
 : Grand Cross of the Tower and Sword

In fiction
Ferdinand-Philippe was used by Hanns Heinz Ewers as a character in his novella "Die Herzen der Könige" (The Hearts of the Kings).

Notes

Sources
  Guy Antonetti, Louis-Philippe, Paris, Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2002

  Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans, Souvenirs 1810–1830, texte établi, annoté et présenté par Hervé Robert, Genève, Librairie Droz S.A., 1993
  Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans, duc d'Orléans, Lettres 1825–1842, publiées par ses fils le comte de Paris et le duc de Chartres, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1889

1810 births
1842 deaths
Nobility from Palermo
Princes of France (Orléans)
Burials at the Chapelle royale de Dreux
Dukes of Chartres
Dukes of Orléans
Heirs apparent who never acceded
Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain
Military personnel from Palermo
Children of Louis Philippe I
Sons of kings

Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans


Beiersdorf AG is a German multinational company that manufactures personal-care products and pressure-sensitive adhesives headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. Its brands include Elastoplast, Eucerin (makers of Aquaphor), Labello, La Prairie, Nivea, Tesa SE (Tesa tape) and Coppertone.

Although its shares are publicly listed, Beiersdorf is controlled by Maxingvest AG (parent company of Tchibo), which directly owns 50.49% of shares.

Corporate structure and business segments
Beiersdorf is organized in two separate business segments: consumer business and Tesa. The consumer business segment focuses on skin care, while the Tesa business, on self-adhesive products. Besides Nivea, Beiersdorf is the owner of other brands like 8x4, Eucerin, Labello, La Prairie, Hansaplast and Florena.

Divisional organization
In 1974, the company introduced a divisional organization for cosmed, medical, pharma and Tesa. In 1989, the divisional organization was changed into skin care, adhesive products and wound care. The product range of Nivea and Tesa was expanded—especially Nivea products - the typical cream, sun creams, anti-age products and baby care. In April 2001, the Tesa business segment was founded as an independent unit within Beiersdorf. Tesa focuses on developing self-adhesive products.

Affiliates worldwide
Beiersdorf is a global company with more than 160 affiliates worldwide. Its headquarters are located in Hamburg, Germany, as well as its research centre where new products are developed. With Nivea and Labello, the company had two strong brands from the first day and developed quickly into an international company. Due to the Second World War, the process of expansion temporarily stopped. It took some years to come back on the international stage as Beiersdorf had to rebuy the trademark rights. But at the end of the 1990s, 70 percent of the company's sales revenue was being generated outside Germany. Europe is the key market with 58 locations but the company keeps building its presence in markets around the world. The site in Vienna is being developed to a center for Central and Eastern Europe. Regional research centers are located in Wuhan (China) and Silao (Mexico) so the scientists can respond more effectively to the needs of the local markets.

History

The first steps

The company was founded in 1882 by pharmacist Paul Beiersdorf in Hamburg and sold to Oscar Troplowitz in 1890. Paul Beiersdorf's patent for the manufacture of coated plasters, dated 28 March 1882, is regarded as the foundation date of the company.

In 1909, their first lip care stick, named Labello, was launched. Troplowitz kept working with his scientific consultant Paul Gerson Unna and the German chemist Isaak Lifschütz on a new skin care cream. As Lifschütz found the emulsifier Eucerit (= "the beautiful wax"), the basic ingredient of the Nivea Crème was finally there, and they started selling the skin care cream in December 1911.

The company kept growing: while in 1890 there were only eleven employees, in 1918 the company already employed about 500 people. In 1892 Troplowitz bought a property for the new company's headquarters and Beiersdorf moved to Hamburg-Eimsbuettel. Due to this, the company could switch to a mechanical system and to expand the product range. As Troplowitz kept networking internationally, the products became known worldwide.

Oscar Troplowitz and his co-partner Otto Hanns Mankiewicz both died in 1918. Due to this, Beiersdorf had to change its legal form. Finally, on 1 June 1922 the stock company P. Beiersdorf & Co. AG was founded. In the same year Hansaplast was released. In 1925, the design of the Nivea Crème tin was changed to the blue and white tin which is still used.

In 1928, the Beiersdorf stocks were dealt for the first time on the stock exchange in Hamburg. Globally, more than 20 production sites existed. Numerous products like shaving cream or shampoo were launched in the 1930s. When Beiersdorf celebrated its 50th company anniversary in 1932, it already employed more than 1.400 employees. In 1936, Tesa was introduced as umbrella brand for self-adhesive technology. The first product was the transparent self-adhesive film known as Tesa film.

During the Second World War
Due to the pressure of the Nazis, in 1933 Jewish board members, such as the chairman Willy Jacobsohn, had to resign. Jacobsohn emigrated to Amsterdam and managed the international subsidiaries up to the year 1938 when he left Amsterdam and went to the US. During the Nazi regime, Carl Claussen was chairman and led the company through the difficult time. Elly Heuss-Knapp, married to Theodor Heuss and after the war the new First Lady of the Federal Republic of Germany, was a freelancer at Beiersdorf and responsible for important parts of the Nivea advertising. She took care of keeping the advertising messages free from Nazi ideology. After the war, most of the production sites and the administration building in Hamburg lay ruined. Furthermore, most of the international subsidiaries had been expropriated and Beiersdorf lost the Nivea trademark rights. In 1949, Beiersdorf generated a turnover of 30 million Deutsche Mark.

After the 1950s
In 1951, the company launched its first deodorizing soap. This was the beginning of the 8x4 brand.
In the year 1972, Beiersdorf employed more than 10.000 people worldwide. In 1974, the company established a divisional organization, divided into cosmetics, medical, pharma and Tesa. Also, Max Herz' heirs (Tchibo) took over a share of 25 percent of the company.
In 1981 Beiersdorf had a turnover of 2 billion Deutsche Mark. A few years later, in 1989, the company started to change its strategic orientation to focus on three key areas: skin care, adhesives technology and wound management. Beiersdorf aligned its range of products according to these key areas and expanded the Nivea and Tesa product ranges. The company standardized the production processes, unified the international brand policy and focused on cosmetics. The Nivea ranges were the most successful, including the cream including anti-ageing, baby and sun care products.

In the 1990s, Beiersdorf repurchased the last missing trademark rights, especially in Great Britain, Australia and South Africa; and became one of the biggest skin care brands in the world. Finally, in 1997 the last trademark right was bought back by buying a majority stake of the Polish company Beiersdorf-Lechia S.A. in Poznan (today: Nivea Polska sp. z o.o.).

Since 2000
In 2001, Tesa was founded as a subsidiary of Beiersdorf AG. From the very first year, Tesa could assert its position in the market. Today it offers about 6,500 different adhesive products and adhesive systems.

On 1 April 2001, the company founded an independent subsidiary, BSN Medical, as a joint venture of Beiersdorf (Hamburg) and the British-based, American-owned Smith & Nephew (London) and serves the market for surgical dressing, orthopaedics and phlebology. BSN Medical had 350 employees in Germany and 3,400 worldwide in 2004. The annual turnover was €504 million and its operating income reached €70 million. In 2006 BSN medical was sold to Montagu Private Equity for €1.03 billion.

Another subsidiary, "Beiersdorf Shared Services GmbH" was founded in 2002.
BSS, to which Beiersdorf's IT and accounting services were outsourced, operates independently but serves as an internal partner for the whole Beiersdorf group. BSS employs 350 people worldwide, 275 of them in Hamburg.

In 2003, a 2-year bidding war ended. Procter & Gamble, an American competitor, had sought to purchase Beiersdorf and proposed a take-over deal to Allianz insurance, which then held 19.6% of Beiersdorf's stock. Fearing that Procter & Gamble was interested only in Beiersdorf's brands and not in the company as a whole, many in Hamburg preferred to retain local ownership. The city of Hamburg and its state-owned holding company HGV created such a solution. The Herz family, owner of the German company Tchibo, who already had a stake in Beiersdorf, increased their holdings to 49.9%. Allianz still held 3.6%; Beiersdorf AG bought up 7.4% of its shares, of which 3% were given to the Beiersdorf pension fund. Another share holder, a private family, retained their share. This public-private alliance ensured that Beiersdorf's headquarters would remain in Hamburg and continue to provide hundreds of jobs, while paying taxes of approximately €200 million annually. In June 2009 Allianz reduced its holdings from 7.2 to 2.88 percent.

Beiersdorf has been present in India since the 1930s through its brand Nivea. For over 70 years, all of Beiersdorf's products were imported. However, Beiersdorf built its first manufacturing facility in the Sanand, Gujarat. This factory also houses an R&D facility which focuses on innovations for Indian consumers as well as other markets.

In 2006, the first Nivea Haus in the world opened on Hamburg's Jungfernstieg; others opened in the following years, e.g. in Berlin and Dubai.

Beiersdorf was fined by Autorité de la concurrence in France in 2016 for price-fixing on personal hygiene products.

Stock exchange
Since 22 December 2008, Beiersdorf AG has been traded on the Deutschen Aktienindex (DAX).

References

External links

1920s initial public offerings
Chemical companies established in 1882
Companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Cosmetics companies of Germany
German brands
German companies established in 1882
Manufacturing companies based in Hamburg
Multinational companies headquartered in Germany
Personal care companies

Beiersdorf


Dupatta (, ) is a long scarf that is an important part of many South Asian women's suits. Some "dupatta suits" include the salwar kameez, the trouser suit, and the kurta. The dupatta is also worn over the Hindu outfit of lehenga or ghaghra- choli. The dupatta has long been a symbol of modesty in South Asian dress. It is traditionally worn across both shoulders. However, the dupatta can also be worn like a cape around the entire torso. The material for the dupatta varies according to the suit: cotton, georgette, silk, chiffon, and more. The other names for dupatta are chunri and chunni (sometimes shortened to 'unni' by many Gujaratis).

There are various modes of wearing the unsewn dupatta. When not draped over the head in the traditional style, it is usually worn with the middle portion of the dupatta resting on the chest like a garland with both ends thrown over each respective shoulder. When the dupatta resting is worn along with the salwar-kameez it is casually allowed to flow down the front and back.

The use of the dupatta has definitely undergone a metamorphosis over time. In current fashions, the dupatta is frequently draped over one shoulder, and even over just the arms. Another recent trend is the short dupatta often seen with kurtas and Indo-Western clothing. Essentially, the dupatta is often treated as an accessory in current urban fashion. Nevertheless, the dupatta remains an integral part of Indian clothing and Pakistani clothing. Its nowadays a blend of fashion with the tradionalism.

Other websites
 Article about Dupatta at indiaprofile.com

Headgear

Dupatta


Daire Nolan (born 1 December 1968) is an Irish dancer and choreographer best known for his work in Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames.

Nolan has been dancing since the age of ten under the guidance of his parents Rose and Tony Nolan in Limerick and is no stranger to the international stage. He is undoubtedly the most famous "baddie" (evil stage character) within the Irish dance world since he was the original "Dark Lord" in Michael Flatley's show, Lord of the Dance. He later played the role in Flatley's show, Feet of Flames. He left the show in 2001.

Twice World champion and three times All-Ireland champion, Nolan has performed throughout Europe and in the United States of America, South Africa, Canada, Israel and Australia. He has also appeared on numerous television shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Rosie O'Donnell Show in the USA, and Des O'Connor Tonight in Britain. Nolan performed on Michael Flatley's tribute programme on RTÉ's The Late Late Show special during 2000. He has also performed with The Chieftains in the past and at the Oscars in Los Angeles in 1998.

After leaving Lord of the Dance Nolan joined the cast of To Dance on the Moon a production which has already played to in excess to 1 million people throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan. Both Nolan and his brother Cian has played a major role in the development of this production, as well as Legend of the Knight and Dance of Desire.

A past under-20 Munster Rugby player and All Ireland long jump and triple jump champion, Nolan has since retired from stage dancing and now resides in Limerick with his wife Carol, his two daughters Fia and Alva and his son Shay. He currently works in Element Six in Shannon. Nolan and his brother Cian are dance choreographers for all Ceol Chiarrai productions.

In January 2009, he was chosen as the Irish judge for the American dance show, Superstars of Dance.

References

1968 births
20th-century Irish people
21st-century Irish people
Living people
Performers of Irish dance
Irish male dancers
People from Limerick (city)

Daire Nolan


The Galli (singular: Gallus) were eunuch priests of the goddess Cybele or Agdistis. They were temple attendants sometimes wandering the streets begging for charity, and in return they told people's fortunes. The Galli wore feminine clothing and grew their hair long, wearing earrings, necklaces, and heavy make-up. At festivals to Cybele and Attis they danced around wildly to loud music and whipped themselves until they bled. The newcomers to the priesthood would voluntarily castrate themselves.

Archigallus
In Rome, the head of the galli was known as the Archigallus. A number of archaeological finds depict the Archigallus wearing luxurious and extravagant costumes. The Archigallus was always a Roman citizen chosen by Rome's college of priests, and the term of service lasted for life. Along with the institution of the Archigallus came the Phrygianum sanctuary and the rite of the taurobolium, two aspects of the Cybele cult which the Archigallus had responsibility, as well as presiding over the Galli priests.

Priests

Galli


बहनि धाःगु सूर्द्य क्षितिज स्वया क्वय् दूगु दिंया कालखन्द ख। न्हि व बहनि जाना दिं दइ। छन्हुइ २४ घौ दइ व मौसम, अक्षांश, भूगोल आदिया आधारय् बहनिया ई म्हो वा अप्व जुइ।

Duration and geography
Nights are shorter than days on average due to two factors. One, the sun is not a point, but has an apparent size of about 32 minutes of arc. Two, the atmosphere refracts sunlight so that some of it reaches the ground when the sun is below the horizon by about 34 minutes of arc. The combination of these two factors means that light reaches the ground when the centre of the sun is below the horizon by about 50 minutes of arc.

Without these effects, day and night would be the same length at the autumnal (autumn/fall) and vernal (spring) equinoxes, the moments when the sun passes over the equator. In reality, around the equinoxes the day is almost 14 minutes longer than the night at the equator, and even more closer to the poles. The summer and winter solstices mark the shortest night and the longest night, respectively.

The closer a location is to the North or South Pole, the larger the range of variation in the night's length. Although equinoxes occur with a day and night close to equal length, before and after an equinox the ratio of night to day changes more rapidly in locations near the poles than in locations between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.  In the Northern Hemisphere, Denmark has shorter nights in June than India has.  In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctica has longer nights in June than Chile has.  The Northern and Southern Hemispheres of the world experience the same patterns of night length at the same latitudes, but the cycles are 6 months apart so that one hemisphere experiences long nights (winter) while the other is experiencing short nights (summer).

Between the pole and the polar circle, the variation in daylight hours is so extreme that for a portion of the summer, there is no longer an intervening night between consecutive days and in the winter there is a period that there is no intervening day between consecutive nights.

On other celestial bodies
The phenomenon of day and night is due to the rotation of a celestial body about its axis, creating the illusion of the sun rising and setting. Different bodies spin at very different rates, however. Some may spin much faster than Earth, while others spin extremely slowly, leading to very long days and nights. The planet Venus rotates once every 224.7 days – by far the slowest rotation period of any of the major planets. In contrast, the gas giant Jupiter's sidereal day is only 9 hours and 56 minutes. A planet may experience large temperature variations between day and night, such as Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. This is one consideration in terms of planetary habitability or the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Impact on life

The disappearance of sunlight, the primary energy source for life on Earth, has dramatic impacts on the morphology, physiology and behavior of almost every organism. Some animals sleep during the night, while other nocturnal animals including moths and crickets are active during this time. The effects of day and night are not seen in the animal kingdom alone, plants have also evolved adaptations to cope best with the lack of sunlight during this time. For example, crassulacean acid metabolism in a unique type of carbon fixation which allows photosynthetic plants to store carbon dioxide in their tissues as organic acids during the night, which can then be used during the day to synthesize carbohydrates. This allows them to keep their stomata closed during the daytime, preventing transpiration of precious water.

Humans and the night

Social and economic factors

Throughout the rest of history, night has primarily been a time of resting and sleep for humans, since little work or labor can be done in the dark. On the other hand, clandestine activities such as romance, sex, prostitution, and criminal and police activity flourish.

As artificial lighting has improved, especially after the Industrial Revolution, night-time activity has increased and become a significant part of the economy in most places. Many establishments, such as nightclubs, bars, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants, gas stations, distribution facilities, and police stations now operate 24 hours a day or stay open as late as 1 or 2 a.m. Even without artificial light, moonlight sometimes makes it possible to travel or work outdoors at night.

Cultural aspects

Night is often associated with danger and evil, because bandits and dangerous animals can be concealed by darkness. The belief in magic often includes the idea that magic and magicians are more powerful at night. Similarly, mythical and folkloric creatures as vampires, and werewolves are thought to be more active at night. Ghosts are believed to wander around almost exclusively during night-time. In almost all cultures, there exist stories and legends warning of the dangers of night-time. In fact, the Saxons called the darkness of night the 'death mist'.

लिधंसा

बहनि


Michael A. Heller is a Professor of Real Estate Law at Columbia Law School. He concentrates on property law. Heller coined the term "tragedy of the anticommons" while working as a law professor at University of Michigan Law School in a 1998 Harvard Law Review article, "The Tragedy of the Anticommons: Property in the Transition from Marx to Markets."

Heller is a graduate of the Quaker Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, Harvard College, and Stanford Law School.  He worked as a summer associate at the Washington, DC white shoe law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP.

From 1994 to 2002, Heller taught at the University of Michigan Law School. He joined the Columbia Law School faculty in 2002.

Heller has focused on private property laws and international property dilemmas by publishing such articles as "The Liberal Commons" (with Hanoch Dagan) in the Yale Law Journal in 2001, and "A Property Theory Perspective on Russian Enterprise Reform," in Assessing The Rule of Law in Transition Economies, also in 2001. His "Tragedy of the Anticommons" has sparked a debate among intellectual property theorists that continues to be discussed today. In 2008, Heller's book, The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives, was published.

References

External links
 Michael Heller, AtGoogleTalks, August 19, 2008

Harvard College alumni
Stanford Law School alumni
Columbia University faculty
Living people
Columbia Law School faculty
University of Michigan Law School faculty
Sidwell Friends School alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Arnold & Porter people

Michael Heller (law professor)


High Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic German spoken in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg and in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Intelligibility of these dialects to non-Alemannic speakers tends to be limited.

Language area
The High Alemannic dialects are spoken in Liechtenstein and in most of German-speaking Switzerland (Swiss Plateau), except for the Highest Alemannic dialects in the Swiss Alps and for the Low Alemannic (Basel German) dialect in the North West.

Therefore, High Alemannic must not be confused with the term "Swiss German", which refers to all Alemannic dialects of Switzerland as opposed to Swiss variant of Standard German, the literary language of diglossic German-speaking Switzerland.

In Germany, High Alemannic dialects are spoken in Southern Baden-Württemberg, i.e. the Markgräflerland and in the adjacent area south of Freiburg im Breisgau up to the Black Forest (Schönau). It is also spoken in the southern Sundgau region beyond the Upper Rhine, which is part of Alsace, France. In Vorarlberg in Western Austria, a form of High Alemannic is spoken around the Rheintal as well.

Subdivisions
High Alemannic is traditionally subdivided in an Eastern and Western language area (Sprachraum), marked by the Brünig-Napf-Reuss line across the cantons of Aargau and Lucerne (Luzern).

Eastern High Alemannic includes Zurich German, Lucerne German, and the dialects of Eastern Switzerland.

Western High Alemannic includes Bernese German, the German dialects of Solothurn and Fribourg, as well as most dialects of Aargau and the northern parts of the canton of Lucerne.

Features
The distinctive feature of the High Alemannic dialects is the completion of the High German consonant shift, for instance chalt  'cold' vs. Low Alemannic and standard German 'kalt' .

References

Swiss German language
German dialects
Languages of Liechtenstein

High Alemannic German


Autofocus is a procedure for finding the correct position of the lens for a scene. The autofocus feature can be provided in a system which includes a movable optical element, a motor, an image sensor and a processing unit. The autofocus procedure is done by changing the lense position and image quality measurements in each position. The position that provides the image with the best quality will be used as the best focus.

The image quality may be estimated using image gradients. To speed-up the autofocus procedure, the autofocus is done in two steps: the first run over the full range of the lenses movement with a significant step will provide the estimated position which will be improved in the second run over the small range with a small step. Interpolation between the few best positions may improve the results accuracy.

Optics

Autofocus


The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 movie written and directed by the Wachowskis.  It is a sequel to The Matrix (1999). It is a prequel to The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Resurrections.

Plot

In this movie, the humans and the machines are at war. The machines have taken over everywhere except for the city of Zion, which is buried four kilometers below the surface. In this world, the machines have created the Matrix, which looks like the real world but it is a trick. A few hundred humans have been "unplugged" and see the real reality, which is dark and barren. The humans find out that the machines are digging to invade that area and they want to stop it.

One group of humans, led by Morpheus, believe in something called the prophecy. They believe that The One (a human named Neo) will save the humans. Another group, led by Commander Jason Lock, believes that the prophecy does not make sense and try to defend Zion with ships and humans.

Neo is called to see the Oracle. After he meets the Oracle, he gets into a fight with Smith. Smith is an old friend of his. He used to be an Agent, which meant that he was very powerful. However Neo defeated him at the end of the first movie. Smith says that he has new powers. He is able to touch someone and that someone becomes part of him. He and hundreds of these clones try to defeat Neo, but they are not very powerful and Neo beats them.

Smith later touches someone named Bane. Now Smith controls an unplugged human, making him very dangerous. As Bane, Smith tries to kill Neo, but another human named the Kid accidentally stops that from happening when he comes to say goodbye to Neo. Later, the humans line all of their ships together. They hope to trigger their EMPs all at once to stop the machines (the EMP kills all electronics within their radius). Smith/Bane, on one of these ships, triggers the EMP before they are supposed to and ruins the attack.

Neo and his crew try to fulfill the prophecy. They pick up a man named the Keymaker. They must get into a special room within a certain time limit. The power must be cut. The machines, which just beat back the surprise attack, attack one of the ships and the power comes back on. Trinity, Neo's girlfriend, gets into the system and turns off the power again.

Neo meets a man named the Architect. He tells Neo that the prophecy is not true and that the machines will destroy Zion. It is The One's job to let it be destroyed and to pick new people to form a new Zion. The One must also touch the source. Neo learns that Trinity is in trouble and will die. Instead of doing what the Architect tells him, he saves Trinity.

Morpheus is not happy that the war is not over yet. He says that the war should have been over when The One touched the source. Neo tells Morpheus what the Architect said. The machines attack the ship that Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo are on. They escape. Neo uses his powers to disable all the attacking machines, but falls unconscious. Another ship picks them up. The movie ends in the ship hospital room, where Bane and Neo are lying.

Cast
 Keanu Reeves as Neo
 Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus
 Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity
 Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith
 Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe

Box office
The response to this movie was big.  It made $91 million in its first weekend at the box office, beating out the $50 million record set by Hannibal (2001) for an R-rated movie.  Its final total of $281 million in the United States was the highest ever for an R-rated movie until The Passion of the Christ (2004) beat it with $370 million.

Other websites

2003 science fiction movies
Matrix series
Drone movies
IMAX movies
Sequel movies
Warner Bros. movies
Movies directed by The Wachowskis

The Matrix Reloaded


The Sickhouse is a 2008 horror film, directed by Curtis Radclyffe, produced by Charlotte Wontner and starring Gina Philips, Kellie Shirley and Alex Hassell.

Plot
Anna is an ambitious young archaeologist who desperately needs the kudos of an important find, but her work is ruined when the authorities suddenly shut down the old hospital in which she is working. Plague spores contaminate its medieval foundations. Anna is convinced that this ancient plague site holds an even darker secret. In her research she has stumbled on a murderous pattern of unexplained child deaths. This is a very cold case; the children disappeared in 1665, the year of the Great Plague. The 'suits' at her museum don't buy her theories and they give the approval for the hospital's imminent demolition. That night Anna risks everything, and breaks back into the hospital to prove her suspicions.

Reaching for a mysterious ancient artifact, she slips and falls. Meanwhile, Nick's 21st birthday celebrations are culminating in chaos. He just wanted a good night out with girlfriend Joolz, best mate Steve, and Steve's younger brother, Clive. But a little innocent joy-riding goes badly wrong. After a fatal hit-and-run the teenagers hide out in the hospital and their fates become intertwined with Anna's. With luckless synchronicity, two worlds collide and the ancient force that has snared the young people starts to play out its cruel game. Anna has unwittingly resurrected the malevolent spirit of a hideous medieval plague doctor, and one by one they will all encounter his evil reincarnation - their fates mirroring the cruel deaths of his victims 350 years ago. History is repeating itself.

Anna works against the clock to unlock the secrets of the murderous plague doctor. In a twisted version of Alice Through The Looking Glass, the young people find themselves fighting for their lives - and souls - in a long-forgotten medieval underworld. The only way out is for Anna to confront the plague doctor. Can she destroy him, and stop his evil spreading like a plague epidemic, into today's world? A shocking mystery that began centuries ago needs solving but even Anna cannot see that she herself is the final piece of the puzzle. Time is her enemy and death is only the beginning.

Cast

References

External links

2008 films
2008 horror films
British horror films
2000s English-language films
2000s British films

The Sickhouse


Elisa Rebeca Bridges (May 24, 1973 – February 7, 2002) was an American actress and model. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for December 1994, and Playboy's Video Playmate of the Month for September 1996. She appeared in several video productions from Playboy Home Video from 1996 to 2000. After appearing in Playboy, she modeled frequently on assignments in Los Angeles, Miami, and Hawaii. She also appeared as a model for Perfect 10. She was born in Miami and raised in Dallas.

On February 7, 2002, Bridges died in a guest bedroom of the Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles mansion of Edward Nahem, a longtime acquaintance of Hugh Hefner. Nahem last saw Bridges the previous evening and knew she had a noon appointment the following day, then became concerned after arriving home that evening and finding her car still in the driveway. He found her unresponsive in her bed and attempted CPR as instructed by 911 operators; paramedics arrived and pronounced her dead on the scene. The room contained no illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia; a bottle of Xanax was found in her purse and a plastic cup with a white, powdery substance was found in the bathroom wastebasket. Although Playboy stated that she died of natural causes, the official coroner's report listed her "manner of death is accident ... Acute intoxication by the combined effects of heroin, methamphetamine, meperidine and alprazolam".

See also

List of deaths from drug overdose and intoxication

References

External links

1973 births
2002 deaths
Models from Houston
Actresses from Houston
1990s Playboy Playmates
Deaths by heroin overdose in California
Drug-related deaths in California

Elisa Bridges


A digital system is a something that represents information by using digits. Each digit represents a small amount of information because each digit comes from a small set of choices. A digit can be decimal (one of the ten choices from 0 through 9), as in the display of a digital clock. A digit can be binary (either 0 or 1).  A binary digit is called a bit. Digital computers and digital communication like the internet usually use binary. The meaning of each bit depends on the place where it is used. For example, a bit can represent 'Yes' or 'No', or it can represent 'True' or 'False'. A large amount of information, like a picture, can be represented by using a list of many bits.

A digital system is different than an analogue (US- analog) system, which represents information in a continuous way.

The word digital is most commonly used in computing and electronics.

Usage
 Digital electronics
 Computer

Electronics

Digital


Carrara is a city in the province of Massa-Carrara (Tuscany, Italy), famous for white or blue-gray marble, and for being a city "symbol" of international anarchism.

History
Carrara was ruled by Pisa in (1235), Lucca in (1322), Genoa in (1329), and Milan in (1343). After Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan died in 1477, Carrara was controlled by Tommaso Campogregoso, lord of Sarzana, and the Malaspina family.

Carrara and Massa made up the Duchy of Massa and Carrara from the 15th to the 19th century.
In 1929, the cities of Carrara, Massa and Montignoso were mixed in a single big city, called Apuania. In 1945 "Apuania", was separated, and the cities, were returned free.

Important monuments
 Cathedral (12th century).
 Ducal Palace (16th century), now the seat of the Fine Arts Academy.

Economy and culture

Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome for buildings, like the Pantheon and Trajan's Column in Rome. Many sculptures of the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo's David, were made from Carrara marble.

The city has academies of sculpture and fine arts and a museum of statuaries and antiquities. The local marble is exported around the world.

Famous people born in Carrara
 Pietro Tacca, an important sculptor
 Pietro Tenerani, sculptor born in 1800
 Carlo Finelli, sculptor
 Gianluigi Buffon, goalkeeper of the Juventus team and of the Italian National Football Team
 Pellegrino Rossi, economist and politician
 Emanuele Repetti, geographic
 Domenico Zaccagna, geologist
 Maurizia Cacciatori, volleyball player
 Danese Cattaneo, sculptor and poet
 Arturo Dazzi, sculptor
 Gino Lucetti, anarchist
 Giorgio Chinaglia, football player
 Belgrado Pedrini, partisan and anarchist
 Renato Ricci, an important man in the fascist era
 Goliardo Fiaschi, anarchist

Other websites
 Official website

Cities in Tuscany
Settlements in Massa-Carrara

Carrara


Cornellà de Llobregat is a municipality in Baix Llobregat in Catalonia, Spain. It is on the left of the Llobregat river.

History

The history of Cornellà de Llobregat is defined by three principal factors: its proximity to the city of Barcelona, its being an area of passage from the capital of Catalonia, and the presence of the Llobregat River. Its name is of Roman origin (Cornelianus) and the first written reference to the city dates from 980 AD, although the city was incorporated into Barcelona's territory in the thirteenth century.

Municipalities in Catalonia

Cornellà