A Man Called Hero is a 1999 Hong Kong wuxia film directed by Andrew Lau. It is loosely based on the manhua series Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword by Hong Kong artist Ma Wing-shing. It won the 1999 Golden Horse Award for Best Visual Effects.

Plot
The story begins in early Republican China. After passing a test, Hero Hua is accepted by Pride, a master swordsman, as his second apprentice. When he returns home, he is horrified to see that his parents have been murdered by foreigners for opposing the opium trade. That night, Hero breaks up the foreigners' party and kills them in revenge. He spends the rest of the night with his lover, Jade. The next morning, he flees from China to avoid arrest and sails to America.

16 years later, Hero's childhood friend, Sheng, and Hero's son, Sword Hua, arrive in New York City on the first day of the Chinese New Year. They visit China House, the biggest inn in Chinatown, where they see a lion dance performance led by the Boss of China House. A group of thugs show up and demand that the Boss hand over a monk, Luohan, whom they believe is hiding in China House. After defeating and driving away the thugs, the Boss brings Sword and Sheng to meet Luohan. Luohan tells them how he met and befriended Hero on board the ship bound for America, and their experiences as labourers in Steel Bull Canyon. Later, Sword and Sheng visit Jade's grave, where Sheng tells Sword how he and Jade travelled to New York City 16 years ago in search of Hero. Hero and Jade were reunited and married in New York City. While visiting the shop where Sword's parents took their wedding photographs, Sword and Sheng sense someone following them. Sword surprises the stalker and corners her after a brief chase through the streets. She identifies herself as Kate, the daughter of Hero's senior, Shadow.

Kate leads Sword and Sheng to her father. Shadow tells them how he rescued Hero from Steel Bull Canyon when Hero was buried in the sand after being falsely accused of murdering two men. Hero and Shadow encountered the Five Elements Ninjas and defeated them. During the fight, Hero injured the female ninja, Wood, but spared her life and sent her for medical treatment. When Wood develops a crush on Hero, the Gold Ninja, who is secretly in love with Wood, becomes very jealous. Jade had just given birth to a pair of twins in China House when the Gold Ninja set fire to the building. During the chaos, Bigot, a traitor, kidnapped Sword's twin sister and disappeared. There have been no news of her since then. Jade died in Hero's arms shortly after due to excessive blood loss during childbirth.

Shadow continues narrating the story. After Jade's death, Hero met a fortune teller, who told him he was born under the Star of Death and is destined to lead a life of loneliness because misfortune will befall those who are close to him. Hero entrusted his baby son, Sword, to Sheng before leaving with Shadow to meet their master, Pride. In Japan, they witnessed a duel between Pride and his rival, Invincible. Pride defeated Invincible but sustained internal injuries and died not long after the duel. Before his death, Pride passed Hero the martial arts manual China Secret and transferred all his inner energy to him.

Back in the present at China House, the Boss, Sword, Sheng, Luohan and others come up with a plan to liberate the labourers at Steel Bull Canyon. They disguise themselves as a Chinese opera troupe, infiltrate the canyon, and catch the supervisors off guard in a surprise attack. Luohan sacrifices himself in a suicide attack to stop the supervisors from throwing explosives at the escaping labourers. Sword corners Bigot and demands the whereabouts of his twin sister, but Bigot suddenly pulls out a pistol and shoots him. Bigot is about to kill Sword when Hero shows up and finishes him off. Hero uses his inner energy to create an explosion and prevent a group of horsemen from advancing further. They return to China House in triumph.

Sword is happy to see his father in person for the first time after hearing the stories about him. However, Hero appears cold towards his son and constantly keeps a distance away because he strongly believes the fortune teller's words that he will lose his loved ones if he gets close to them. Hero also meets Wood, who has maintained her crush on him for the past 16 years, but he refuses to accept her. She warns Hero that her master, Invincible, has arrived in New York City. Since Pride is dead, Invincible turns on Hero, Pride's successor, to finish the duel. The next morning, Invincible shows up at China House and fights with the Boss and Sword until Hero appears and stops him. Hero and Invincible then duel on top of the Statue of Liberty. In the meantime, Black Dragon Commander leads his men to attack China House but are eventually forced to leave by the police. At the Statue of Liberty, Hero eventually defeats and destroys Invincible. Before the movie ends, Sword and Sheng prepare to leave America while Hero watches them from a distance and walks away in the opposite direction.

Cast

 Ekin Cheng as Hero Hua
 Shu Qi as Wood Ninja
 Kristy Yang as Jade
 Nicholas Tse as Sword Hua
 Yuen Biao as Boss of China House
 Jerry Lamb as Sheng
 Dion Lam as Shadow
 Jordan Chan as Shadow (voice)
 Anthony Wong as Pride
 Ken Lo as Monk Luohan
 Francis Ng as Invincible
 Elvis Tsui as Bigot
 Mark Cheng as Gold Ninja
 Sam Lee as Fire Ninja
 Grace Yip as Kate
 Jude Poyer as Bull
 Cheng Pei-pei as Hero's mother
 Wong Ban as Manager of China House
 Yu Ka-ho as Earth Ninja
 Benjamin Yuen as Water Ninja
 Thomas Hudak as Black Dragon commander
 Hon San as Big Stone
 Frankie Ng as Moon
 Wong Chi-hung
 Fung Wai-lun
 Huang Kai-sen
 Lam Chi-tai
 Wang Xin-fen
 Wong Chun-chung
 Liu Yue
 Wang Xin-feng
 He Jun
 Wang Jiang-hua
 Zhang Jin-shuang
 Lu Yang

Music
The music and songs for the film were composed by Chan Kwong-wing.

 Tin Sat Ku Hsing (天煞孤星; Star of Death), the theme song, performed in Cantonese by Ekin Cheng. Cheng also sang the Mandarin version of this song, titled Tianya Haijiao (天涯海角; To the Ends of the Earth).
 Faa Cheng Ho (花正好; The Flower is Good), insert song, performed in Cantonese by Ekin Cheng. Cheng also sang the Mandarin version of this song, titled Ni Zou Dao Na Li (你走到哪裡; Wherever You Go).
 Dai Yat Ngan (第一眼; First Glance), insert song, performed in Cantonese by Nicholas Tse.

Awards and nominations

Awards
 1999 Golden Horse Film Awards
 Best Visual Effects - Centro Digital Pictures Limited

Nominations
 1999 Golden Horse Film Awards
 Best Film Editing - Danny Pang
 Best Action Choreography - Dion Lam
 19th Hong Kong Film Awards (2000)
 Best Action Choreography - Dion Lam
 Best Costume Make Up Design - Lee Pik-kwan
 Best Original Film Score - Chan Kwong-wing
 Best Original Film Song - Albert Leung, Chan Kwong-wing
 Best Sound Design - Zeng Jingxiang

See also
 The Blood Sword
 The Blood Sword 2
 The Legend of Hero

References

External links

1999 films
Hong Kong martial arts films
Wuxia films
Films directed by Andrew Lau
Adaptations of works by Ma Wing-shing
Films based on Hong Kong comics
Live-action films based on comics
Japan in non-Japanese culture
1990s Hong Kong films

A Man Called Hero


Mascarpone (, , ) is a soft Italian acid-set cream cheese. It is recognized in Italy as a  ("traditional agri-food product").

Outside Italy, mascarpone is sometimes mispronounced as "marscapone", even by food professionals.

Production process
After denaturation of the cream, the whey is removed without pressing or aging. Mascarpone may also be made using cream and the residual tartaric acid from the bottom or sides of barreled wine.

The traditional method is to use three tablespoons of lemon juice per pint of heated heavy cream. The cream is allowed to cool to room temperature before it is poured into a cheesecloth-lined colander, set into a shallow pan or dish, and chilled and strained for one to two days.

Origins
Mascarpone originated in the Italian region of Lombardy in the area between Lodi and Abbiategrasso south of Milan, probably in the late 16th or early 17th century. Popularly, the name is held to derive from mascarpa, an unrelated milk product made from the whey of stracchino (a young, barely aged cheese), or from mascarpia, a word in the local dialect for ricotta. Unlike ricotta, which is made from whey, mascarpone is made from cream.

Uses
Mascarpone is milky-white in colour and is easy to spread. It is used in various Lombardy dishes and is considered a specialty in the region.

Mascarpone is one of the main ingredients in tiramisu. Sometimes it is used instead of, or along with, butter or Parmesan cheese to thicken and enrich risotto. Mascarpone also is used in cheesecake recipes.

See also
Crème fraîche
List of dairy products

References

External links

Cow's-milk cheeses
Cream cheeses
Lombard cheeses

Mascarpone


Adipocytes, also known as lipocytes and fat cells, are the cells that primarily compose adipose tissue, specialized in storing energy as fat. Adipocytes are derived from mesenchymal stem cells which give rise to adipocytes through adipogenesis.  In cell culture, adipocyte progenitors can also form osteoblasts, myocytes and other cell types.

There are two types of adipose tissue, white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT), which are also known as white and brown fat, respectively, and comprise two types of fat cells.

Structure

White fat cells

White fat cells contain a single large lipid droplet surrounded by a layer of
cytoplasm, and are known as unilocular. The nucleus is flattened and pushed to the periphery. A typical fat cell is 0.1 mm in diameter with some being twice that size, and others half that size. However, these numerical estimates of fat cell size depend largely on the measurement method and the location of the adipose tissue. The fat stored is in a semi-liquid state, and is composed primarily of triglycerides, and cholesteryl ester. White fat cells secrete many proteins acting as adipokines such as resistin, adiponectin, leptin and apelin. An average human adult has 30 billion fat cells with a weight of 30 lbs or 13.5 kg. If a child or adolescent gains sufficient excess weight, fat cells may increase in absolute number until age twenty-four. If an adult (who never was obese as a child or adolescent) gains excess weight, fat cells generally increase in size, not number, though there is some inconclusive evidence suggesting that the number of fat cells might also increase if the existing fat cells become large enough (as in particularly severe levels of obesity). The number of fat cells is difficult to decrease through dietary intervention, though some evidence suggests that the number of fat cells can decrease if weight loss is maintained for a sufficiently long period of time (>1 year; though it is extremely difficult for people with larger and more numerous fat cells to maintain weight loss for that long a time).

A large meta-analysis has shown that white adipose tissue cell size is dependent on measurement methods, adipose tissue depots, age, and body mass index; for the same degree of obesity, increases in fat cell size were also associated with the dysregulations in glucose and  lipid metabolism.

Brown fat cells

Brown fat cells are polyhedral in shape. Brown fat is derived from dermatomyocyte cells. Unlike white fat cells, these cells have considerable cytoplasm, with several lipid droplets scattered throughout, and are known as multilocular cells. The nucleus is round and, although eccentrically located, it is not in the periphery of the cell. The brown color comes from the large quantity of mitochondria. Brown fat, also
known as "baby fat," is used to generate heat.

Marrow fat cells
Marrow adipocytes are unilocular like white fat cells.  The marrow adipose tissue depot is poorly understood in terms of its physiologic function and relevance to bone health. Marrow adipose tissue expands in states of low bone density but additionally expands in the setting of obesity. Marrow adipose tissue response to exercise approximates that of white adipose tissue. Exercise reduces both adipocyte size as well as marrow adipose tissue volume, as quantified by MRI or μCT imaging of bone stained with the lipid binder osmium.

Development
Pre-adipocytes are undifferentiated fibroblasts that can be stimulated to form adipocytes. Studies have shed light into potential molecular mechanisms in the fate determination of pre-adipocytes although the exact lineage of adipocyte is still unclear. The variation of body fat distribution resulting from normal growth is influenced by nutritional and hormonal status dependent on intrinsic differences in cells found in each adipose depot.

Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into adipocytes, connective tissue, muscle or bone.

The precursor of the adult cell is termed a lipoblast, and a tumor of this cell type is known as a lipoblastoma.

Function

Cell turnover

Fat cells in some mice have been shown to drop in count due to fasting and other properties were observed when exposed to cold.

If the adipocytes in the body reach their maximum capacity of fat, they may replicate to allow additional fat storage.

According to some reports and textbooks, the number of adipocytes can increase in childhood and adolescence, though the amount is usually constant in adults. Individuals who become obese as adults, rather than as adolescents, have no more adipocytes than they had before.

Body fat cells have regional responses to the overfeeding that was studied in adult subjects. In the upper body, an increase of adipocyte size correlated with upper-body fat gain; however, the number of fat cells was not significantly changed. In contrast to the upper body fat cell response, the number of lower-body adipocytes did significantly increase during the course of experiment. Notably, there was no change in the size of the lower-body adipocytes.

Approximately 10% of fat cells are renewed annually at all adult ages and levels of body mass index without a significant increase in the overall number of adipocytes in adulthood.

Adaptation
Obesity is characterized by the expansion of fat mass, through adipocyte size increase (hypertrophy) and, to a lesser extent, cell proliferation (hyperplasia). In the fatty tissue of obese individuals, there is increased production of metabolism modulators, such as glycerol, hormones, macrophage-stimulating chemokines, and pro-inflammatory cytokines, leading to the development of insulin resistance. Production of these modulators and the resulting pathogenesis of insulin resistance are probably caused by adipocytes as well as immune system macrophages that infiltrate the tissue.

Fat production in adipocytes is strongly stimulated by insulin. By controlling the activity of the pyruvate dehydrogenase and the acetyl-CoA carboxylase enzymes, insulin promotes unsaturated fatty acid synthesis. It also promotes glucose uptake and induces SREBF1, which activates the transcription of genes that stimulate lipogenesis.

SREBF1 (sterol regulatory element-binding transcription factor 1) is a transcription factor synthesized as an inactive precursor protein inserted into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane by two membrane-spanning helices. Also anchored in the ER membrane is SCAP (SREBF-cleavage activating protein), which binds SREBF1. The SREBF1-SCAP complex is retained in the ER membrane by INSIG1 (insulin-induced gene 1 protein). When sterol levels are depleted, INSIG1 releases SCAP and the SREBF1-SCAP complex can be sorted into transport vesicles coated by the coatomer COPII that are exported to the Golgi apparatus. In the Golgi apparatus, SREBF1 is cleaved and released as a transcriptionally active mature protein. It is then free to translocate to the nucleus and activate the expression of its target genes.

Clinical studies have repeatedly shown that even though insulin resistance is usually associated with obesity, the membrane phospholipids of the adipocytes of obese patients generally still show an increased degree of fatty acid unsaturation. This seems to point to an adaptive mechanism that allows the adipocyte to maintain its functionality, despite the increased storage demands associated with obesity and insulin resistance.

A study conducted in 2013 found that, while INSIG1 and SREBF1 mRNA expression was decreased in the adipose tissue of obese mice and humans, the amount of active SREBF1 was increased in comparison with normal mice and non-obese patients. This downregulation of INSIG1 expression combined with the increase of mature SREBF1 was also correlated with the maintenance of SREBF1-target gene expression. Hence, it appears that, by downregulating INSIG1, there is a resetting of the INSIG1/SREBF1 loop, allowing for the maintenance of active SREBF1 levels. This seems to help compensate for the anti-lipogenic effects of insulin resistance and thus preserve adipocyte fat storage abilities and availability of appropriate levels of fatty acid unsaturation in face of the nutritional pressures of obesity.

Endocrine role
Adipocytes can synthesize estrogens from androgens, potentially being the reason why being underweight or overweight are risk factors for infertility. Additionally, adipocytes are responsible for the production of the hormone leptin. Leptin is important in regulation of appetite and acts as a satiety factor.

See also
List of human cell types derived from the germ layers

References

External links

 – "Connective Tissue: unilocular (white) adipocytes "
 – "Connective Tissue: multilocular (brown) adipocytes"

Sequestering cells
Human cells
Connective tissue cells

Adipocyte


Ra.One  is a 2011 Indian science fiction superhero movie. It was released on October 26, 2011. The main characters of the it are "G.One", Shekhar Subramaniam (both played by Shahrukh Khan), and "Ra.One" (played by Arjun Rampal). It also stars Kareena Kapoor, Armaan Verma, Shahana Goswami, Tom Wu, Dalip Tahil and Satish Shah in supporting roles.

Plot
In 2010, London, Jenny Nair, an employee of UK-based company Barron Industries, introduces a new technology that allows objects from the digital world to enter the real world using the wireless transmissions from multiple devices. Shekhar Subramanium, who also works for the company, is given a final chance to devise with a video game with a difference. To impress his sceptical son Prateek, and upon the request of his wife Sonia, Subramanium uses his son's idea that the antagonist be more powerful than the protagonist.

Shekhar's colleague Akashi provides the moves of the game's characters, Jenny does the programming and Shekhar gives his face to the game's protagonist G.One, whilst the antagonist Ra.One is faceless and has substantially greater powers than those granted to G.One, including shapeshifting. Ra.One is imbibed with a self-learning artificial intelligence. The game has three levels, and either of the players can only be killed in the third level using a special gun that holds a single bullet. While designing the game, Akashi notices some malfunctions but ignores them. When the game is finally launched, it receives a standing ovation and Prateek loves it so much that he insists on playing it instantly. He logs in under the alias 'Lucifer' and proceeds to the second level, but is interrupted by Akashi. The self-aware Ra.One, being unable to end his turn with Lucifer, becomes determined that Lucifer shall die. When the mainframe fails to shut down, Akashi calls Shekhar, who notices a problem with the game. Ra.One uses the new technology to enter the real world and breaks free and goes to find Lucifer.

Ra One first threatens Akashi and asks him where Lucifer is. When Akashi fails to reply, Ra One abruptly abducts and murders him. After Shekhar finds the dead Akashi, he rushes home; however, he is found by Ra.One. In an attempt to save his son, Shekhar claims that he is Lucifer. However, Ra.One scans Shekhar's I.D. and, discovering he has lied, kills him. Prateek notices the strange circumstances of his father's death and realises that Ra.One has come to life. He and Jenny attempt to bring G.One to life. Meanwhile, Sonia tells Prateek that the family will return to India. Having taken the form of Akashi, Ra.One chases them, but G.One enters the real world through Jenny's computer and causes a gas explosion which saves them and temporarily destroys Ra.One. G.One takes Ra.One's H.A.R.T., without which Ra.One is weakened. Sonia finds she cannot leave G.One and takes him along with them to India through Shekhar's passport. G.One promises Sonia that he will protect Prateek from any harm. Ra.One returns to life, takes the form of a billboard model, and tracks G.One and Prateek.

During Prateek's birthday party, Ra.One hypnotises Sonia, assumes her form and kidnaps Prateek. Ra.One then instructs G.One to give him his H.A.R.T. back, and sends the real Sonia in an uncontrollable Mumbai Suburban Railway train. G.One saves Sonia just in the nick of time (though the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is destroyed) and returns to save Prateek. The game resumes, with Prateek controlling G.One's moves. Following a lengthy fight, both of the characters reach the third level. With little power left, G.One and Prateek trick Ra.One into shooting G.One without his H.A.R.T. attached, which leaves Ra.One helpless. Furious, Ra.One creates ten copies of himself. Prateek, unable to differentiate the real Ra.One, asks G.One to quote one of Shekhar's sayings: "If you join the forces of evil, its shadows shall always follow you". The pair then realise that only one of the ten Ra.Ones has a shadow: the original one. G.One shoots and destroys him, and after absorbing Ra.One's remains, transports himself back into the digital world.

Several months later, Prateek and Sonia return to the UK, where Prateek finally manages to restore G.One to the real world, much to his and his mother's joy.

Cast
 Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role as
Shekhar Subramaniam: A game designer who designed the game 'Ra.One' and its characters: Ra.One, the antagonist, and G.One, the protagonist.
G.One: The protagonist of the game 'Ra.One' who is made to enter the real world by taking physical form to stop Ra.One.
 Arjun Rampal as Ra.One: The antagonist of the game, an immensely powerful virtual character that is designed to be stronger than G.One and has the ability to take any human form. Ra.One takes physical form and enters the real world.
 Kareena Kapoor as Sonia S. Subramaniam: Shekhar's wife and Prateek's mother.
 Armaan Verma as Prateek Subramaniam / Lucifer: Shekhar and Sonia's son and an ace video game player who goes by the name 'Lucifer' while playing games as his character name.
 Shahana Goswami as Jenny Nair
 Tom Wu as Akaashi and Ra.One's first avatar
 Dalip Tahil as Barron
 Satish Shah as Iyer

Additionally, Priyanka Chopra and Sanjay Dutt appears in cameos as Desi Girl and Khal Nayak respectively. Suresh Menon and Delnaaz Irani also appear in cameos as a taxi driver and while Irani plays a school teacher aboard the hijacked train. Amitabh Bachchan provides the voiceover for the introduction sequence of the game 'Ra.One' in the film. The character Chitti, played by Rajinikanth, from Enthiran also appears in the film. The character is computer-generated and not played by the actor himself.

2011 science fiction movies
2010s superhero movies
2010s Indian movies
2011 movies
2010s Hindi-language movies
2010s chase movies

Ra.One


Beamer is a LaTeX document class for creating presentation slides, with a wide range of templates and a set of features for making slideshow effects.

It supports pdfLaTeX, LaTeX + dvips, LuaLaTeX and XeLaTeX. The name is taken from the German word "Beamer" as a pseudo-anglicism for "video projector".

Method
The Beamer class is not the first LaTeX class for creating presentations, and like many of its predecessors (such as slides, seminar, prosper, powerdot), it has special syntax for defining "slides" (known in Beamer as "frames").

Slides can be built up on-screen in stages as if by revealing text that was previously hidden or covered. This is handled with PDF output by creating successive pages that preserve the layout but add new elements, so that advancing to the next page in the PDF file appears to add something to the displayed page, when in fact it has merely redrawn the page.

The list of features supported by Beamer is quite long. The most important features, according to the user guide are:

 Beamer can be used with pdfLaTeX, LaTeX+dvips, LuaLaTeX and XeLaTeX. LaTeX+dvipdfm isn't supported.
 The standard commands of LaTeX still work. A \tableofcontents will still create a table of contents, \section is still used to create structure, and itemize still creates a list.
 Overlays and dynamic effects can be easily created.
 The appearance of presentations can be modified using themes.
 The layout, the colors, and the fonts used in a presentation can easily be changed globally, while preserving control over the most minute detail.
 A special style file allows for the use the LaTeX source of a presentation directly in other LaTeX classes such as article or book. This makes it easy to create presentations out of lecture notes or lecture notes out of presentations.
 The final output is typically a PDF file, making it highly portable and worry-free, in the sense that a given presentation will always look the same no matter the machine it is opened on.

Source code for Beamer presentations, like any other LaTeX file, can be created using any text editor, but there is specific support for Beamer syntax in AUCTeX and LyX.

Beamer supports syntax of other LaTeX presentation packages, including Prosper, Powerdot and Foils, by using compatibility packages.

Output options
Beamer provides the ability to make "handouts", which is a version of the output suitable for printing without the dynamic features, so that the printed version of a slide shows the final version that will appear during the presentation. For actually putting more than one frame on the paper, the pgfpages package is to be used.

An "article" version is also available, rendered on standard sized paper (like A4 or letter), with frame titles used as paragraph titles, no special slide layout/colors, keeping the sectioning. This version is suitable for lecture notes or for having a single source file for an article and the slides for the talk about this article.

Dependencies
Beamer depends on the PGF and xcolor packages for some of its features.

See also

 Powerdot – a LaTeX class for making professional-looking presentation slides

References

Further reading

External links

 Beamer home page
 beamerposter – a Beamer extension for scientific conference posters in DIN-A0 size or bigger
 Beamer Theme Matrix
 wiki2beamer: Tool to create Beamer presentations from a wiki-like syntax
 Dohmen, Klaus (2010). Dual Screen Presentations with the LaTeX Beamer Class under X – from The PracTeX Journal
 Beamer2Thesis
 BeamerikZ - A Latex class for creating TikZ based Beamer presentations

Tutorials
 Introduction to Beamer – How to make a presentation
Beamer Presentations: A 5-Part Tutorial for Beginners (Overleaf)
 Using beamer.cls: "An intentionally incomplete guide" from LaTeX for Logicians
 Beamer by Example from PracTEX Journal, many examples of both TeX source and formatted output
 Introduction to Beamer on Wikibooks
 A presentation using the LaTeX Beamer class (short guide – samples)

Free presentation software
Free TeX software
Presentation software
TeX SourceForge projects

Beamer (LaTeX)


infySEC is a company that provides cybersecurity services to medium-sized enterprises and governments across the world located in Chennai, India. It focuses on security technology services, security consulting, security training, and research and development.

History
The company was founded in 2010 by T. Vinod Senthil, an ethical hacker, along with Adhavan Rajadurai. They gathered a team of security professionals and started the company with the objective of providing cybersecurity services and training. Within two years of inception, they had Karthick Vigneshwar, a Risk & Forensics Expert, join them for technical support.

In November 2009, Senthil was the first person in Chennai to demonstrate wardriving, and he assisted the cyber crime department and NDTV Hindu NEWS.

In July 2013, the company conducted an event dubbed "E-HACK", a 24-hour hackathon.

The company presented at ASSOCHAM for two consecutive years on cybersecurity.

In 2016, the company was awarded as a notable startup by That Startup Story.

The company has completed over 200 security projects for various countries including Australia, the Maldives, and Dubai, as well as various governments, and has conducted 1000+ workshops to raise awareness of the issue of cybersecurity.

Products
Its products include Capture The Flag, for cybersecurity enthusiasts to test their skills in the field of cybersecurity; an ad-free Android app called CyberSec Tabloid for cybersecurity news updates; and a free Android app called AndroSentry that helps to monitor Android devices and includes a theft tracker, a call blocker,  a virus scanner, and an app locker.

References

External links

 DoWebScan website security scanner
 Capture the Flag
 Cyber Sec Tabloid, Cyber Security News Hub
 Andro Sentry, Mobile Security and Antivirus

Companies based in Chennai
Indian companies established in 2010
Computer security companies
2010 establishments in Tamil Nadu
Computer companies established in 2010

Infysec


Pterostylis hamiltonii, commonly known as the red-veined shell orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. As with similar orchids, the flowering plants differ from those which are not flowering. The non-flowering plants have a rosette of leaves but the flowering plants lack a rosette and have a single flower with leaves on the flowering spike. This greenhood has a green and white, striped flower with reddish-brown markings and forms colonies, sometimes of thousands of plants.

Description
Pterostylis hamiltonii is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with an underground tuber and when not flowering, a rosette of bluish-green leaves, each leaf 5–14 mm long and 5–12 mm wide. Flowering plants usually have a single flower 25–30 mm long and 12–15 mm wide borne on a spike 50–150 mm high with four to six stem leaves 20–40 mm long and 2–8 mm wide. The flowers are white with green or reddish-brown stripes and markings. The dorsal sepal and petals are fused, forming a hood or "galea" over the column. The dorsal sepal curves forward with a thread-like tip 1–3 mm long. The lateral sepals are erect and held closely against the galea. They have thread-like ends 20-25 long and between their bases there is a broad, flat sinus with a central notch. The labellum is 15–20 mm long, about 3 mm wide, dark red and curved and protrudes above the sinus. Flowering occurs from late May to early August.

Taxonomy and naming
Pterostylis hamiltonii was first formally described in 1810 by William Henry Nicholls and the description was published in The Victorian Naturalist from a specimen collected near Boyup Brook. The specific epithet (hamiltonii) honours Alex. G. Hamilton, (1852-1941) "a veteran in the field of botanical research".

Distribution and habitat
The red-veined shell orchid is found between Toodyay and the Stirling Range where it usually grows in thickets of Allocasuarina huegeliana on or near granite outcrops in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions.

Conservation
Pterostylis grandiflora is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.

References

hamiltonii
Endemic orchids of Australia
Orchids of Western Australia
Plants described in 1933

Pterostylis hamiltonii


The Sanni ()  are mentioned by Strabo (1st century BC/1st century AD), Pliny the Elder (1st century AD) and Arrian (2nd century AD) as a people settling  near Trebizond (in today's Turkish Black Sea Region).
In the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, their territory extended to the north-east until the river Ophis, and covered both the littoral and the mountainous hinterland. Pliny grouped together the Sanni who lived in the region of Trebizond and the Heniochi as one single nation.
He also mentions other Sanni, living further on the Colchis littoral, past the mouth of the Rioni.

According to Theodoret of Cyrrus (5th century AD), the Sanni and Lazi were two different tribes. In the first centuries AD, Sanni people living in the region of Trebizond  were paying tribute to the Roman Empire. However, they tried to avoid heavy direct taxation and later left the coastal areas for the  mountains. In the 6th century, Procopius still mentions them as living near the source of the Boasi (today the Chorokhi, or Çoruh River).

There have been various interpretations of the ethnonym in Georgian literature;
some scholars, such as Simon Kaukhchishvili, suggest that it is related to the name "chan" or its variants, long present in Greek mythological narratives about Colchis; others, among them Arnold Chikobava, see it as derived from the name still given to Mingrelian people in the Svan language Zan (see also Zan language).
In the opinion of S. Dzhanashia, San was indeed an endonym of ancient Colchians, which later evolved into the forms Zan in the north of Colchis (Mingrelia) and Chan in the southern part (which would become Lazistan).
The form Τζάνοι (Chani) can be found in Byzantine authors such as Procopius, but Sanni can be found as recently as the 12th century.
Today, Chani is still used as an ethnonym for the Laz people.

References

გეორგიკა. ბიზანტიელი მწერლების ცნობები საქართველოს შესახებ, ს. ყაუხჩიშვილის გამოც., ტ. 3, თბ., 1965
მიქელაძე თ., ძიებანი კოლხეთისა და სამხრეთ-აღმოსავლეთი შავიზღვისპირეთის უძველესი მოსახლეობის ისტორიიდან (ძვ. წ. II-I ატასწლეულები), თბ., 1974;
ჯანაშია ს., თუბალ-თაბალი, ტიბარენი, იბერი, შრომები, ტ. 3, თბ., 1959.

Ethnic groups in Georgia (country)
Ancient peoples of Georgia (country)
Tribes in Greco-Roman historiography

Sanni


Neufchâtel is a French cheese product from Neufchâtel-en-Bray, in Seine-Maritime, Normandy. It generally takes the form of a heart or a small brick. It has a salty taste, and a similar texture to Camembert cheese. It is made from unpasteurized cow's milk. This cheese is protected by an Appellation d'origine contrôlée - meaning that no other area can claim to make it.

French cheeses
Seine-Maritime

Neufchâtel


Courtney Warren Campbell (April 29, 1895 – December 22, 1971) was an American lawyer, World War I veteran, and politician who served one term as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, from 1953 to 1955. He represented Florida's 1st congressional district, then based in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Background

Campbell, the son of Thomas Courtney Campbell and Ellen Minor Campbell, was born in Chillicothe, Missouri, and educated at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, and thereafter the University of Missouri at Columbia. During World War I, he served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1924 in Missouri and Florida and practiced from 1924 to 1928 in Tampa. He also worked as a citrus farmer, banker, and land developer. He was married to the former Henrietta Hisgen.

Political life
Campbell served as the assistant attorney general of Florida and from 1941 to 1946 was a member of the Florida War Labor Relations Board. From 1942 to 1947, he was a member of the Florida State Road Board. In 1948, the Davis Causeway across Tampa Bay was renamed the Courtney Campbell Causeway in his honor. Campbell had spearheaded efforts to ensure repairs and beautification of the causeway.

Later career and death
After his single term in Congress, Campbell returned to his extensive business and civic interests and resided in Clearwater, Florida. He died in Dunedin, Florida, and is interred at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Clearwater.

References

1895 births
1971 deaths
Citrus farmers from Florida
People from Chillicothe, Missouri
People from Clearwater, Florida
Florida lawyers
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Florida
University of Missouri alumni
Westminster College (Missouri) alumni
United States Army personnel of World War I
United States Army officers
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century American politicians

Courtney W. Campbell


On December 28, 2005, XM Satellite Radio announced that it had teamed up with Neural Audio Corporation to introduce XM HD Surround, XM HD Surround broadcasts XM channels in 5.1 digital surround sound. For a time XM broadcast a variety of special shows and live music performances in this format. According to the press release, Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc., and Yamaha will introduced home audio systems capable of playing XM HD Surround in 2006.

The 5.1 surround sound is encoded in the stereo wave for transmission and is thus compatible with any mono/stereo/matrix-style receiver. If played on a 5.1 audio set equipped with Neural Surround decoder, the watermarks (i.e. spatial cues) in the waveforms are detected and the signal is recovered to its original 5.1 form. The technology is similar to parametric stereo, in which a mono signal is recovered to stereo. The bitrate for XMHD surround broadcasts is ~70 kbit/s using aacPlus from Coding Technologies.

XM HD Surround Channels (as of 12/11/08)
 XM77 Sirius XM Pops - Classical Popular Music

External links
 XM Satellite Radio
 Neural Audio
 Brief description of XM HD Surround technology

XM Satellite Radio

XM HD Surround


François Compaoré (born 11 January 1954) is a Burkinabé politician. He was Economic Adviser to the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré, from 1989 to 2014; he is Compaoré's younger brother.

Life and career
At the Fifth Ordinary Congress of the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), François Compaoré was designated as a member of the CDP's National Executive Secretariat, with the post of Secretary of the Associative Movement, on 4 March 2012. He ranked 11th on the National Executive Secretariat.

By 2012, François Compaoré was "considered the new CDP strongman", and speculation centered on the possibility that he could succeed his brother at the time of the 2015 presidential election. Unless the constitution was amended prior to that point, Blaise Compaoré would be unable to stand for another term, as he would have exhausted the constitutional limit of two terms.

In the December 2012 parliamentary election, Compaoré stood as the second candidate on the CDP's candidate list for Kadiogo Province, which includes Ouagadougou, the capital. The CDP won four of the available seats in Kadiogo, thus securing Compaoré a parliamentary seat. He nevertheless chose not to sit as a Deputy in the National Assembly, leaving his substitute to take his seat.

In 2014, he fled to Benin when his brother lost power.

References

Burkinabé politicians
Living people
1954 births
21st-century Burkinabé people

François Compaoré


The Statue of Unity is a tribute to the Indian leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, unveiled on 31 October 2018. This statue is a patriotic symbol of the legacy of a man who spent his life in the struggle for freedom. As a mark of respect the government built the statue of sardar vallabhbhai naming it a statue of unity.this statue is located at his birthplace in Gujarat. The statue is designed by Ram V. Sutar. The total amount for the project is US $430 million. The statue stands 182 metres high, making it one of the tallest monuments in the world, second to the St. Louis Arch.

The Statue of Unity is at Sadhu Bet Island. A 12 km square lake will create the atmosphere of equality and diversity. A special trust called as "Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust" has been created for to manage the place. The statue is made with steel frame and reinforced concrete. For durability, the statue has been given bronze plating.  The statue has a 153 m high viewing deck able to hold 200 visitors. It has a panoramic view of the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

It has been designed to withstand winds of velocity of 60 metres/second, and is also claimed to be earthquake resistant.  A total of 22,500 tons of cement forms the core structure of this monument. The iron used in the construction was collected from old farm equipment throughout India. A team of 700 Indian workers worked on the cementing and casting.

References

Statues
2018 works
Gujarat

Statue of Unity


Bezalel Rakow (15 May 1927 – 20 July 2003) was a British orthodox rabbi who headed Gateshead's Jewish community. He was the chair of the Council of Torah Sages of Agudas Yisroel of Great Britain.

Born in Frankfurt, Germany into a distinguished rabbinical family, Bezalel Rakow was a direct descendant of Rabbi Yomtov Lipman Heller, (author of the Tosafos Yomtov commentary on the Mishnah). His father, Rabbi Yomtov Lipman Rakow, a pupil of the great Volozhin yeshiva, had been a rosh yeshiva in Frankfurt-on-Main. In 1939, he, aged 10, his parents and his brother Benzion Rakow were granted asylum, and settled in London.

Aged 18, he enrolled in Gateshead Kollel where he obtained rabbinical ordination and gained a reputation as a Talmudic scholar. In 1948, he married Miriam, daughter of Gateshead's then communal rabbi Naftoli Shakowitzky. The couple moved to Montreux, Switzerland, where he took up a position teaching in the local yeshivah. In 1964, following his father-in-law's death, he returned to Gateshead to assume his position, thus becoming one of Orthodox Judaism's recognised world leaders.

In 2002, Rabbi Rakow was at the center of debate between Jewish orthodoxy and the features of modernity that he perceived as threatening orthodox values. When British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his book The Dignity of Difference (2002), expressed the notion that Judaism might learn from other faiths, Rabbi Rakow publicly demanded that Sacks repudiate the thesis of the book and withdraw it from circulation.

External links
The Guardian, Obituary: Rabbi Bezalel Rakow, from: Geoffrey Alderman

1927 births
2003 deaths
20th-century English rabbis
20th-century Swiss rabbis
British Orthodox rabbis
Burials at Har HaMenuchot
Haredi rabbis in Europe
People from Gateshead
People from Montreux

Bezalel Rakow


The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport.

Supercars events take place in all Australian states and the Northern Territory, with the Australian Capital Territory formerly holding the Canberra 400. Usually, an international round is held in New Zealand, with events previously being held in China, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. The Melbourne SuperSprint championship event is also held in support of the Australian Grand Prix. Race formats vary between each event, with sprint races between  in length, street races between  in length, and two-driver endurance races held at Sandown and Bathurst. The series is broadcast in 137 countries and has an average event attendance of over 100,000, with over 250,000 people attending major events such as the Adelaide 500.

The vehicles used in the series are loosely based on road-going cars. Cars are custom made using a control chassis, with only certain body panels being common between the road cars and race cars. To ensure parity between each make of car, many control components are used. All cars currently use either a 5.4L or 5.7L Naturally aspirated V8 engine. Originally only for Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores, the new generation V8 Supercar regulations, introduced in 2013, opened up the series to more manufacturers. Nissan were the first new manufacturer to commit to the series with four Nissan Altima L33s followed briefly by Erebus Motorsport with Mercedes-Benz E63 AMGs and Garry Rogers Motorsport with Volvo S60s. The series returned to a Ford and Holden duopoly in 2020 with the departure of Nissan, while Ford replaced the Falcon with the Mustang in 2019. Holden announced its final year of competition in 2022, to be replaced by the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the 2023 season.

History

Group 3A

The concept of a formula centred around V8-engined Fords and Holdens for the Australian Touring Car Championship had been established as early as mid-1991. With the new regulations set to come into effect in 1993, Ford and Holden were both keen to know the details of the new formula by the end of 1991, putting pressure on the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) to provide clarity on the matter. However, CAMS was waiting to see what the FIA did with its proposed international formula for 2.5- and 2.0-litre touring cars.

The new rules for the ATCC were announced in November 1991 and indicated that the V8 cars would be significantly faster than the smaller-engined cars. In 1992, CAMS looked at closing the performance gap between the classes, only to have protests from Ford and Holden, which did not want to see their cars beaten by the smaller cars. In June 1992, the class structure was confirmed:

 Class A: Australian-produced 5.0-litre V8-engined Fords and Holdens
 Class B: 2.0-litre cars complying with FIA Class II Touring Car regulations
 Class C: normally aspirated two-wheel drive cars complying with 1992 CAMS Group 3A Touring Car regulations: This class would only be eligible in 1993.

Both the Ford Falcon EB and Holden Commodore VP ran American-based engines, which were restricted to 7,500 rpm and a compression ratio of 10:1. The Holden teams had the option of using the Group A-developed 5.0-litre Holden V8 engine, although this was restricted to the second-tier privateer teams from 1994 onwards, forcing the major Holden runners to use the more expensive Chevrolet engine. The V8s were first eligible to compete in the endurance races of 1992. The distinctive aerodynamics package, consisting of large front and rear spoilers, was designed partly with this in mind, to give the new cars a better chance of beating the Nissan Skyline GT-Rs in those races.

The new rules meant that cars such as the turbocharged Nissan Skyline GT-R and Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth were not eligible to compete in 1993, while cars such as the BMW M3 were. However, the M3 received few of the liberal concessions given to the new V8s and also had an extra  added to its minimum weight, so with the Class C cars eligible for 1993 only, the German manufacturer's attention switched to the 2.0-litre class for 1994.

Cars from all three classes would contest the 1993 Australian Touring Car Championship, as well as non-championship Australian touring car events such as the Bathurst 1000. However, for the purposes of race classification and points allocation, cars competed in two classes:
 Over 2,000 cc
 Under 2,000 cc

Originally, the 2.0-litre class cars competed in a separate race to the V8s. This was changed for the second round of 1993 after only nine entrants were in the 2.0-litre class for the first round at Amaroo Park.

With the new regulations intended to be a parity formula, protests by the Holden teams indicated that the Fords had an aerodynamic advantage after they won the opening three rounds, beating the Commodores comprehensively. After round five at Winton, Holden was granted a new front and rear wing package. The BMWs were also allowed new splitters and full DTM-specification rear wings. Disparity between the Fords and Holdens continued to be a talking point during the next few years, with various concessions given to each manufacturer to try to equalise the two cars.

From 1995, the 2.0-litre cars, now contesting their own series as super touring cars, became ineligible for the Australian Touring Car Championship. They did not contest the endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst, leaving these open solely to the 5.0-litre Ford and Holden models.

V8 Supercars

The Australian Vee Eight Super Car Company (AVESCO) – a joint venture between the Touring Car Entrants Group of Australia (TEGA), sports promoters IMG and the Australian Motor Sports Commission – was formed in November 1996 to run the series. This set the foundation for the large expansion of the series during the following years. The category also adopted the name 'V8 Supercars' at this time, though the cars themselves were much unchanged. A new television deal with Network Ten and Fox Sports was organised, although this had follow-on effects for the Bathurst 1000 later in the year.

In February, Tony Cochrane and James Erskine left IMG. Together with David Coe, they formed Sports and Entertainment Limited (SEL) in April 1997. TEGA would have a 75% share in AVESCO, with SEL owning the other 25%. TEGA was responsible for the rules and technical management of the series and the supply of cars and drivers, while SEL was responsible for capturing and maintaining broadcasting rights, sponsorship, licensing, and sanction agreements.

The expansion of the series began in 1998, with the first round to be held in the Northern Territory taking place at Hidden Valley Raceway. In 1999, a new street race on a shortened version of the Adelaide Grand Prix Circuit became one of the first festival-style events, which would become common in later years. Australia's capital city, Canberra, hosted its first event on the Canberra Street Circuit in 2000. In 2001, a championship round was held in New Zealand for the first time, at Pukekohe Park Raceway. In 2002, the V8 Supercar support event at the Indy 300 on the Gold Coast became a championship round, having been a non-championship event since 1994.

Major format changes were made for 1999, with the incorporation of the endurance races into the championship. Control tyres were used for the first time, with Bridgestone selected as the supplier. The series was also renamed from the "Australian Touring Car Championship" to the "Shell Championship Series", by virtue of Shell's sponsorship of the category. Reverse-grid races were introduced for multiple rounds in 2000 before being confined to just the Canberra round for 2001. Also in 2001, compulsory pit stops were introduced at certain rounds and the Top Ten Shootout was used at all rounds. The control tyre supplier changed from Bridgestone to Dunlop in 2002 and the series name was changed to the "V8 Supercar Championship Series" after Shell discontinued their sponsorship.

Project Blueprint

Discussions about parity had returned in 2000, with  trimmed from the front spoiler of the Commodore after Holden, in particular, the Holden Racing Team, had dominated in 1998 and 1999. This was in response to the  removed from the Falcon in previous seasons, and coincided with a  trim from the Falcon's rear spoiler. The small reduction for the Holden teams was quickly addressed with both cars receiving the same front splitter shortly afterwards, but the Falcon's rear wing remained trimmed. Ford had threatened to withdraw from the series, but nothing came of this. After Holden again dominated in 2001 and 2002, a new set of regulations, dubbed "Project Blueprint", was introduced in 2003 to close the performance gap between the Commodore and the Falcon, thus creating closer, fairer racing. Project Blueprint was developed by Paul Taylor and Wayne Cattach, who spent two years designing a formula which would eliminate most of the differences between the Fords and Holdens.

Project Blueprint had the chassis pick-up points, wheelbase, track, and driving position become common across both manufacturers. The Holdens were now able and required to use double-wishbone front suspension, similar to that of the Falcon, rather than the MacPherson struts used previously, and a Watts link at the rear rather than a Panhard. The aerodynamic packages were comprehensively tested and revised and differences in the porting of each of the manufacturers' engines were also removed. The performance of the new Ford BA Falcon and Holden VY and VZ Commodores was fairly even for the next four years, with Ford winning the championship in 2003, 2004, and 2005 and Holden winning in 2006. Reverse-grid races were used at certain events in 2006 before unpopularity with the drivers, teams, and fans saw them abolished halfway through the season.

The Holden VE Commodore caused controversy when it was introduced in 2007. The production model was longer, wider, and taller than the rival Ford BF Falcon and outside of the limits set by Project Blueprint. As a result, the VE race car was granted custom bodywork – namely shortened rear doors and a lowered roofline to meet the regulations. Despite this, the VE was approved for use in the series, along with the BF Falcon, after several months of preseason testing. Sequential gearboxes were introduced in 2008 and became compulsory by the end of the year. In 2009, E85 (a fuel consisting of 85% ethanol and 15% unleaded petrol) was introduced in an effort to improve the environmental image of the sport. Carbon dioxide emissions decreased by up to 50%, but fuel consumption was increased by 30% to produce the same power as before. 2009 also had the introduction of a soft compound tyre at certain events to try to improve the quality of the racing and create different strategies.

In 2005, AVESCO changed its name to V8 Supercars Australia (VESA). The series continued to expand during this time, with races held outside of Australasia for the first time. The series travelled to the Shanghai International Circuit in China in 2005, originally on a five-year agreement, however the promoter of the race dropped their support and the series did not return thereafter. 2006 saw the series travel to the Middle East, with an event held at the Bahrain International Circuit in Bahrain. Multiple new street circuits appeared on the calendar in 2008 and 2009, with new events held in Hamilton in New Zealand, Townsville in North Queensland and at Sydney Olympic Park. The series' Middle East expansion continued in 2010 with a second round held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. In November 2010, the series was granted international status by the FIA for the 2011 season, allowing the series to race at up to six international venues each year. As a result, the series name was changed to the 'International V8 Supercars Championship'.

2008 saw the separate boards of directors of VESA and TEGA merge into a single board that was solely responsible for the administration of the category. The new board of directors was composed of four TEGA representatives, two members from SEL and two independent directors. In 2011, TEGA and SEL entered a sale agreement with Australian Motor Racing Partners (AMRP), which had significant financial backing from Archer Capital. This agreement saw SEL lose its 25% stake in V8 Supercars, with Archer Capital taking up a 60% share and TEGA the other 40%. A new board of directors was appointed, with two TEGA representatives and two AMRP representatives.

In 2011, Archer Capital purchased a 65% shareholding in the series with the teams owning the other 35%. In December 2021, both Archer Capital and the teams sold their shareholdings to Race Australia Consolidated Enterprises.

New Generation V8 Supercar

In the middle of 2008, a project led by Mark Skaife was organised by V8 Supercars to investigate future directions for the sport. The project had the primary objective of cutting costs to $250,000 per car through the use of control parts and to create a pathway for new manufacturers to enter the series, provided that they have a four-door saloon car in mass production. The new formula, called "Car of the Future", was scheduled to be introduced before or during the 2012 season. The plan was publicly unveiled in March 2010 and was shown to incorporate several key changes to the internal workings of the car. The chassis and the cooling, fuel and electronics systems would all be changed to control parts, with changes to the engine, drivetrain, rear suspension, wheels and the control brake package. The safety of the cars was also to be reviewed and improved. While the plans were well received by all of the teams, Holden Motorsport boss Simon McNamara warned potential new manufacturers to stay out of the championship just hours after the plans were released, claiming that they would "gain nothing" from entering the series.

Major changes were revealed to include a switch from a live rear axle to independent rear suspension; the use of a rear transaxle instead of a mid-mounted gearbox; the repositioning of the fuel tank to in front of the rear axle to improve safety; replacing the windscreen with a polycarbonate unit; and a switch from  to  wheels. In 2011, it was announced that the Car of the Future would not be introduced until 2013. In February 2012, Nissan confirmed that they would enter the series under Car of the Future regulations with Kelly Racing. Later in 2012, Australian GT Championship team Erebus Motorsport announced they would be running Mercedes-Benz cars in the championship, taking over Stone Brothers Racing. In June 2013, Volvo announced it would enter the series in 2014 in a collaboration with its motorsport arm, Polestar Racing and Garry Rogers Motorsport. In November 2013 the Car of the Future moniker was dropped in favour of the name "New Generation V8 Supercar".

The series continued its international expansion in 2013, with the first event in North America held at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. In 2015, five drivers took part in a series of demonstration races at the Kuala Lumpur Street Circuit as part of the KL City Grand Prix. This was intended to be a precursor to the series holding a championship event at the circuit in 2016, in a push from CEO James Warburton to build series exposure in Asia. The event was later cancelled due to legal issues affecting the circuit.

Gen 2 Supercar
In December 2014, Supercars released details concerning the future of the category. New regulations, dubbed Gen2 Supercar, were introduced in 2017 to allow the use of two-door coupé body styles and turbocharged four- or six-cylinder engines. However, no teams elected to build cars to these alternate engine specifications. Cars were still required to be based on front-engined, rear-wheel drive, four-seater production cars that were sold in Australia. The chassis and control components were carried over from the New Generation V8 Supercar regulations, while engine and aerodynamic parity was reviewed

Supercars Championship
In April 2016, the series reached an agreement with Virgin Australia to rename the series to the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship on 1 July.

For the 2021 season, this changed to the Repco Supercars Championship on a 5-year deal, extended to an 8-year deal at the end of 2022.

Gen 3 Supercar
After being first announced in 2020, and after being delayed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gen 3 regulations were introduced for the 2023 Supercars Championship. The main aim was to create closer racing, to reduce costs and to increase road-relevance for the manufacturers. To do this, sweeping aerodynamic changes were made to cut the generated downforce.  This reduced the amount of "dirty" air created, and made the cars more challenging to drive. The regulations continued previous changes to ensure technical parity between cars, helping to keep power, downforce and drag levels identical. Engines were also changed, to increase longevity and decrease the cost of a rebuild.

Supercar specifications

The current Gen 3 regulations are a complete refresh of the previous generation. The current cars are the Ford Mustang GT and the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

The full list of regulations, Sporting and Technical, can be found on the Supercars website in the operations manual

Bodyshell
The body of each car is based on its corresponding production car in Right Hand Drive and with homologation requirements. The bodies of both models are aerodynamically balanced through these homologations requirements, along with general balancing upon entering  Composite and Exotic materials are generally not permitted. The tail lamps are carried over from the road car, while the windscreen is replaced by a polycarbonate unit. The cars also carry cameras for broadcasting.

The bodies are built around a chassis provided by official accredited builders, including certain race teams. Currently, Triple Eight Engineering homologate the Chevrolet Camaro and Dick Johnson Racing homologate the Ford Mustang.

Many safety features are utilised to protect the driver in the event of a crash. The fuel tank is positioned in front of the rear axle to prevent it from being damaged or ruptured in a rear end impact. The driver is seated towards the centre of the car and extra reinforcement is used on the roll cage on the driver's side to lessen the risk of injury in a side-on collision. The cars also feature a collapsible steering column and a fire extinguisher system.

Aerodynamics
All cars have an aerodynamics package consisting of a front spoiler and splitter,and a rear wing. The aerodynamics package for each manufacturer is homologated after a series of tests which ensure that the different body styles produce near-identical downforce and drag numbers.

Weight
The minimum weight of each car is  including the driver and excluding the fuel, with a minimum load of 725 kg over the front axle. The minimum weight for the driver is 95 kg and includes the driver dressed in a full racing suit the seat and seat mountings and any ballast needed to meet the minimum weight.  Some other components also have a minimum weight, such as the engine and the front uprights

Engine and drivetrain
All cars must be front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, and powered by a V8 engine designated by Supercars for use in the respected model of car, and balanced in power and weight. Currently, the GM engine (for use in the Camaro) is a 5.7L V8 with a single camshaft and two valves per cylinder. The Ford engine (For use in the Mustang) is a 5.4L V8 with four camshafts and 4 valves per cylinder. These engines were designed to be cheaper and have a higher longevity compared to previous engines, along with being more road-relevant.

Power is transferred from the engine to the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential transaxle with an integrated spool differential. The individual gear ratios and the final drive ratio are fixed with drop gears at the front of the transaxle allowing the teams to alter the overall transmission ratio for different circuits. The cars use a triple plate clutch. The cars run on E75 fuel with a fuel tank capacity of about 130 Litres

An electronic control unit (ECU), provided by MoTeC, is used to monitor and optimise various aspects of the engine's performance. Numerous sensors in the car collect information which is then transmitted to the team, allowing them to monitor things such as tyre wear and fuel consumption and find potential problems with the car. The ECU is also used by officials during the scrutineering process. During the race it can also serve functions such as to automatically limit a car's speed.

Suspension
All cars are required to use a double wishbone setup for the front suspension and independent rear suspension. Both the front and rear suspension systems feature adjustable shock absorbers and an anti-roll bar which, as of the introduction of the Gen 3 regulations, can not be adjusted from inside the car

Brakes
The cars use disc brakes supplied by AP Racing on the front and rear, with the master cylinders provided by AP Racing or former control brake supplier Alcon. The front discs have a diameter of  and a six-piston caliper, while the rear discs are  diameter and have a four-piston caliper.

Wheels and tyres
The cars use  control wheels, produced by Rimstock and supplied by Racer Industries, and control tyres from Dunlop. Supercars are provided with Soft, Supersoft, and Hard slick tyres as well as grooved wet tyres for each event, The requirement to use varying compounds and how many tyres need to be changed per race are dependent on the event

Cost
The Gen 3 Supercar regulations were intended to reduce the cost of building a car (without engine) from around $450,000 to $250,000, with the cost of an engine coming down from around $120,000 to $50,000.

Unfortunately the regulations didn't reduce the costs of making a new Supercar with costs estimated to be around $600,000 for a new car.

The costs of competing in the championship are considerably higher than the purchase price of a car.  There is no budget cap, though caps have been proposed.  One estimate puts the season cost for teams at "1.2 to 3 million (Australian) dollars per car" per season.

Series structure

Teams and drivers
In order to compete in the Supercars Championship, drivers are required to hold a CAMS National Circuit Competition Licence, or a licence of an equivalent or higher level. Each car entered is required to have a Teams Racing Charter (TRC), formerly known as a Racing Entitlements Contract (REC). A TRC is a contract between Supercars and a team which outlines the team's entitlements and obligations. TRCs may be leased by their owners to another party for a maximum of two years, after which the owner must either use it themselves or sell it. A racing number is tied to each TRC, with teams able to apply for a TRC number to be changed. The defending series champion is entitled to use the number 1, with the original TRC number of that car reserved and not able to be used by another team without the agreement of its owner.

The TRCs were originally issued in 1999. Known as TEGA franchise agreements, they were divided into three categories – Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3. Twelve Level 1 franchises were issued to those teams that had competed in the series full-time since its inception in 1997:

A thirteenth was later issued to Bob Forbes Racing. A Level 1 franchise required a team to race at least one car at all events, and at various times allowed a team to enter up to four cars. Other teams received Level 2 and Level 3 franchises based on their level of participation. The structure was changed a number of times before the present system of 28 RECs was arrived at in 2011. Supercars bought a number of RECs as they became available in order to achieve a long-held desire to reduce the field to 28 cars.

At the end of 2013, Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, Tony D'Alberto Racing and Triple F Racing each returned a REC to Supercars. These were put up for sale in 2014, but no bids were received. One was reclaimed by Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport in 2015 after a legal fight. At the end of 2014, a further REC was returned by James Rosenberg Racing. In April 2015, Supercars launched a tender for one REC for the 2016 season, with Triple Eight the successful bidder.

Teams consist of one to four cars, with most one-car teams forming a technical alliance with a larger team. Only the REC holders are allowed to compete at each event, although "wildcard" entries are accepted for the endurance races, with a maximum of six extra cars on top of the regular 28. Both Supercars and Development Series teams have entered wildcard entries in previous years. In 2014, the first wildcard entry for a sprint race was issued when Dick Johnson Racing entered a third car for Marcos Ambrose at the Sydney 500.

Teams are required to employ a co-driver for each car during the two endurance races due to the increased race distance and the need for driver substitutions during the race. Teams were able to pair their full-time drivers in one car until a rule change in 2010 that required each full-time driver to remain in his own car and be joined by a co-driver not competing full-time in the series. The Drivers Championship title is awarded to the driver who accumulates the most points over the course of the season. If there is a points tie for the series win, the champion will be decided based on the number of races won by each driver (if there is still a tie, it is based on second-place finishes and so on). Teams also compete for the Teams Championship, with the champion team being decided in the same manner as the Drivers Championship. For Teams Championship points scoring purposes, teams with four cars are separated into a pair of two-car teams, while teams with three cars are split into a two-car team and a single-car team. The Teams Championship dictates the pit lane order for the following season.

The defending driver has the right to carry the number 1 the following year. However, Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin elected to retain their existing numbers in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2022.

Development series

A second-tier series, the Dunlop Super2 Series, is run as a support category to the main series at certain events. Initially for privateers who did not have the funding of the professional teams in the late 1990s, the series now serves the dual purpose of developing young drivers before they compete in the main series and a means for main series teams to give their endurance co-drivers more racing experience prior to the endurance races. Teams in the Dunlop Super2 Series compete with cars previously used in the main series.

A third V8 Supercar-based series, the Kumho Tyres V8 Touring Car Series, has been run since 2008 but has no involvement with the Supercars Championship or Dunlop Super2 Series, instead running on the programme of the Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships. However, since 2016, several rounds have been run as support categories at Supercars events.

Race formats
In 2023, there are three racing formats: SuperSprint, two-race rounds and endurance.

In previous years, formats included SuperSprint events, International SuperSprint events, SuperStreet events and Enduro Cup events.

Qualifying
In 2023, there are two qualifying formats, format 1 and format 2. In format 1, the grid position for a race is determine a single qualifying session with all drivers taking part. In format 2, qualifying is split up into 3 sessions. In Q1 the back five grid positions are filled by the five slowest cars with the remaining cars advancing to Q2. In Q2 the same process is repeated for the next 10 grid positions. In Q3 the top 10 grid positions are filled either using a normal qualifying session or by giving each driver one chance to set a lap time in a 'top-ten shoot-out'.

Multiple races in the same location during a race weekend may or may not use different qualifying formats.

SuperSprint

In 2023, the SuperSprint format will be used for the Melbourne SuperSprint (previously known as the Melbourne 400), the Perth SuperSprint, the Tasmania SuperSprint, the Sydney SuperNight, the Darwin Triple Crown and The Bend SuperSprint.

The format was previously used for the Phillip Island SuperSprint, Winton SuperSprint and the Ipswich SuperSprint.

The SuperSprint format generally involves three (at the Melbourne Supersprint four) races, each with separate qualifying sessions, on the Saturday and the Sunday. Some races use the same qualifying format for each race while other use format 1 and 2 on different days.

In previous years, the Phillip Island and Sydney Motorsport Park events featured a single one-hour practice session on Saturday, while all other SuperSprint events have two one-hour practice sessions on the Friday with a fifteen-minute practice session on Saturday. The Winton and Ipswich events featured an extra thirty-minute session on Friday for endurance co-drivers. The SuperSprint format featured a fifteen-minute qualifying session held on Saturday to decide the grid for the race on the same day. A single twenty-minute session was held on Sunday morning to decide the grid for the Sunday race. The Darwin event also featured a top ten shootout (a session where the fastest ten qualifiers complete one flying lap each to determine the top ten on the grid) following the Sunday qualifying session. A single  race was held on Saturday with a single  race was held on Sunday.

International SuperSprint
The International SuperSprint format was used at the Auckland SuperSprint.

Three thirty-minute practice sessions are held on Friday, while Saturday and Sunday both consist of two ten-minute qualifying sessions which set the grid for the pair of  races held on each day.

Two-race Weekends
The two-race round format, previously known as the SuperStreet format, covers those races not branded as a SuperSprint or an endurance race. In 2023 the format will be used in the Newcastle 500, the Townsville 500, the Gold Coast 500 and the Adelaide 500.

This format generally involves two races on the Saturday and Sunday of the race weekend, 250 km in length. Unlike the SuperSprint, refuelling is allowed.

In previous years, two thirty-minute practice sessions took place on Friday at each SuperStreet event, while a thirty-minute practice session is held on Saturday at Adelaide. The Adelaide event features a fifteen-minute qualifying session on Friday to determine the grid for the Saturday race, while the other events have a single fifteen-minute session on Saturday. All four events feature a twenty-minute session followed by a top ten shootout both on Saturday and Sunday. The Adelaide 500, Newcastle 500, Townsville 500 and Gold Coast 500 feature a single  race on each of Saturday and Sunday.

Endurance races

In 2023, there are two endurance races, the Bathurst 1000 and the Sandown 500. In previous years, the Gold Coast race was run as an endurance race and the driver who won the most points over the three races was awarded the Enduro Cup.

This format is a single endurance race over either 500 or 1000 km with refuelling allowed and multiple drivers required. The Bathurst race takes around six hours to complete with the Sandown race taking around half that.

In previous years, the Sandown 500 and the Gold Coast 600 both featured three thirty-minute practice sessions held on Friday, with Sandown having an extra session on Saturday. Practice for the Bathurst 1000 consists of six one-hour sessions held across Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Qualifying for the Sandown 500 involves a twenty-minute session followed by a pair of  "qualifying races" held on Saturday. The grid for the first race is based on the qualifying session; the grid for the second race is based on the results of the first. The results of the second race determine the grid for the main race on Sunday. Co-drivers must compete in the first of the qualifying races while the main driver must compete in the second. The Bathurst 1000 features a single forty-minute qualifying session on Friday afternoon followed by a top ten shootout on Saturday. The Gold Coast 600 had two twenty-minute qualifying sessions, one each on Saturday and Sunday, with the Sunday session followed by a top ten shootout. The Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 both have a twenty-minute warm-up session on Sunday morning.

The Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000 feature single races held on Sunday, at  and  in length respectively. The Gold Coast 600 consisted of two  races with one held on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Points system
Points are awarded as follows at all championship events. Various different points scales are applied to events having one, two, three or four races, ensuring that a driver will be awarded 300 points for winning all races at any event. Points are awarded to all cars that have covered 75% of the race distance, provided they are running at the completion of the final lap and with a final lap time within 200% of the race winner's fastest lap. At the endurance events, both drivers earn the total points awarded to the finishing position of the car.

Notable events

Bathurst 1000

The Bathurst 1000, also known as the "Great Race" and held in some form since 1960, is the most famous race on the Supercars calendar, as well as the longest both in terms of race distance and race time. The race is run over 161 laps of the Mount Panorama Circuit,  in total, taking between six and seven hours to complete. The event has historically attracted crowds of nearly 200,000 people. The Peter Brock Trophy, named after nine-time Bathurst 1000 winner Peter Brock, is awarded to the winners of the race. The trophy was introduced in 2006 following Brock's death in a crash at the Targa West rally one month prior to the race.

Sandown 500

The Sandown 500 was first held as a six-hour race in 1964 and has been labelled as the traditional "Bathurst warm-up" race. Like the Bathurst 1000, the Sandown 500 is run over 161 laps. Due to the shorter track length of Sandown Raceway, the race is only  and runs for between three and four hours. The Sandown 500 was not held for Supercars from 1999 to 2002 and from 2008 to 2011. During these years, the  endurance races took place at Queensland Raceway (1999–2002) and the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit (2008–2011).

Adelaide 500

The Adelaide 500, also known as the "Clipsal 500" and "Superloop 500" under former sponsorship names, is the premier car race in South Australia. It is the largest V8 Supercars race in the country by crowd numbers. Beginning in 1999, the race is held in the eastern streets of the Adelaide CBD, on a reduced version of the Adelaide Street Circuit previously used by the Grand Prix. After being shut down in 2020 by former Liberal premier Steven Marshall over alleged "cost-blow outs" due to Coronavirus, the race has been revived by the victory of SA Labor Leader Peter Malinauskas in the 2022 South Australian state election, and returned in early December 2022, with Supercars Australia committed to bringing it back "bigger then ever". Held over four days, the event consists of two 250 kilometre races for the V8 Supercars, and additionary practise and qualifying races. The event has several categories of races throughout the four days, including Super2 Series, Formula 5000, SuperUtes Series, Touring Car Masters, Australian GT, and the Australian Carrera Cup as well as others. The race is accompanied by live music performances, of which the likes of Kiss, Keith Urban and Robbie Williams have previously performed, as well as food, activities, and an RAAF F/A 18A Hornet display each day in the skies above the city. The last champion of the Adelaide 500 was Broc Feeney in 2022.

Newcastle 500

In 2004, Supercars introduced the name "Grand Finale" for the final round of the season (having called it "The Main Event" in 2003 and the "V8 Ultimate" in 2001 and 2002). The Grand Finale was held at Sandown Raceway in 2001 and 2002, Sydney Motorsport Park in 2003 and 2004, Phillip Island in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and Oran Park Raceway in 2008. The Grand Finale name was used until 2008 before the Sydney 500 became the final event of the series in 2009. The Sydney 500 was held around the streets of Sydney Olympic Park. Its format was similar to the Adelaide 500, with a  race held on both Saturday and Sunday. Despite having a relatively simple layout, the circuit was one of the more challenging on the calendar – as evidenced in the 2010 Saturday race when, in wet conditions, the top three championship runners all slid into the wall at the same time – effectively handing the title to James Courtney. The Sydney 500 was held for the final time in 2016. The event at Sydney Olympic Park was replaced in 2017 with a new street race in Newcastle,  north of Sydney, which consists of the streets in the eastern suburbs of the city. From 2023 onwards, Newcastle 500 became the season opener.

Media coverage

Television
The series is currently broadcast on Fox Sports and the Seven Network. Fox Sports shows all practice and qualifying sessions live along with the races. Seven shows only seven events live which are Adelaide, Melbourne, Townsville, Sandown, Bathurst, Gold Coast and Newcastle with the rest shown as a highlights package after the races have finished. The coverage is produced by Supercars Media, a specialist production company for Supercars Australia. Supercars Media provides the commentary for each race, with former champion and Bathurst winner Mark Skaife as lead commentator, along with Neil Crompton as expert commentator. Both Fox Sports and Seven use their own commentary team for pre- and post-race coverage. Supercars Media records the series in 1080i high-definition, with many cars carrying four or more onboard-cameras, though HD coverage is available only to subscribers of Foxtel HD.

In 2020, Seven Network and Foxtel signed a five-year deal worth $200 million to televise the Repco Supercars Championship from 2021 to 2025. Seven Network will broadcast six rounds live and show highlights for other races it is not able to broadcast. Foxtel's deal remains the same, it will show all races live and ad free on Fox Sports.

The series had previously been broadcast on Seven Network, from 1963 to 1996 and from 2007 to 2014, Network Ten and Fox Sports from 1997 to 2006 and from 2015 to 2020, During the years of Network Ten and Fox Sports continued to broadcast the series once a year for the Melbourne 400 championship races, which are a support category at the Formula One Rolex Australian Grand Prix, which was broadcast by Ten and Fox Sports. Previously when the Nine Network held the Formula One Rolex Australian Grand Prix broadcast rights in Australia, they would broadcast the Supercars support races at the Formula One Rolex Australian Grand Prix. All support category races were tied up with the Formula One Rolex Australian Grand Prix broadcast rights as a package.

Ten's television series RPM, which has aired from 1997 to 2008, in 2011 and from 2015 onwards, has covered Supercars, alongside other motorsports. From 2007 to 2014, Seven broadcast a weekly 25-minute show titled V8Xtra on non-racing weekends. The dedicated Supercars program covered news and feature items relating to the series. Since 2015, Fox Sports has broadcast a similar show, Inside Supercars, a weekly one-hour long program featuring a panel led by Rust and Mark Skaife. In the same year, Fox Sports also launched an observational show Supercars Life, featuring behind the scenes footage from race weekends and features on drivers' lives away from the track. In 2018, Inside Supercars was superseded by a new show on Fox Sports, Supercars Trackside. Instead of being filmed in a studio midweek, the show is filmed on the Thursday before and the Sunday after each race meeting at the circuit.

The television broadcast of the Bathurst 1000 has won a Logie Award for the Most Outstanding Sports Coverage seven times, most recently for the 2017 Bathurst 1000. Foxtel broadcast the 2018 Bathurst 1000 in 4K resolution, the first such broadcast in Australian sport.

Current TV broadcasters
Supercars races are broadcast on the following channels:

Other media

The series has its own live streaming pay-per-view service, Superview. The service, which started in 2013, currently shows all races as well as qualifying sessions. In 2021 the service was brought to YouTube which shows complete broadcasts including support races. The service is not available in New Zealand and Australia due to their current broadcasting rights with Sky Sport and Fox Sports.

The series has its own website, which contains information about the series, drivers, teams and events and news articles, and a radio show, V8 Insiders. News is also featured on motorsport websites such as Speedcafe and V8Sleuth. A media deal with News Corp Australia has been in place since 2009.

Video games

Supercars have made several licensed appearances in video games, including in Codemasters' V8 Supercars series in the 2000s and Turn 10 Studios' Forza series in the 2010s. From 2011 to 2014, an online championship, sanctioned by Supercars, was contested on iRacing. In 2017, Supercars launched an eSports competition using Forza Motorsport 6 and Forza Motorsport 7, which expanded to six rounds in 2018. The Supercars Eseries moved to the iRacing platform in 2019 with championship teams including Triple Eight Race Engineering and Walkinshaw Andretti United entering teams into the series alongside eSports teams. An additional Eseries was held in mid 2020 with all championship drivers competing during the hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Records

 Figures accurate as of 11 June 2023 (after Race 15 of the 2023 Supercars Championship).
 Bold text indicates active full-time drivers, teams and manufacturers.
 Italics indicates drivers who are still active, but not on a full-time basis.
 The above records relate to the Australian Touring Car Championship (1960–1998), the Shell Championship Series (1999–2001), the V8 Supercar Championship Series (2002–2010), International V8 Supercars Championship (2011–2016) and the Supercars Championship (2016–present).

See also

 Australian Touring Car Championship
 List of Australian Touring Car and V8 Supercar champions
 List of Australian Touring Car Championship races
 List of Australian Touring Car and V8 Supercar driver records
 Supercars Hall of Fame

References

Works cited

External links

Supercars Australia website

Auto racing series in Australia
Motorsport categories in Australia
Professional sports leagues in Australia
Recurring sporting events established in 1997
Sports leagues established in 1997

Touring car racing series
1997 establishments in Australia

Supercars Championship


Mihail Jora (; 2 August 1891, Roman, Romania - 10 May 1971, Bucharest, Romania) was a Romanian composer, pianist, and conductor.
Jora studied in Leipzig with Robert Teichmüller. From 1929 to 1962 he was a professor at the Bucharest Conservatoire. He worked from 1928 to 1933 as a director/conductor of the Bucharest Broadcasting Orchestra. In 1944 he became vice-president of the Society of Romanian Composers: however, he soon came into criticism of the new communist government being accused of formalism (see Zhdanov Doctrine). In 1953, he was rehabilitated and allowed to rejoin the Composers' Union.

He composed six ballets, one symphony, two major orchestra works, and many pieces for piano, chamber-music, choral and vocal music.

References

1891 births
1971 deaths
Armenian composers
Romanian composers
Armenian conductors (music)
Romanian people of Armenian descent
University of Music and Theatre Leipzig alumni
Academic staff of the National University of Music Bucharest
Recipients of the Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic
20th-century conductors (music)
20th-century composers
Herder Prize recipients

Mihail Jora


The Tartu Peace Treaty is an international agreement signed between Estonia and Soviet Russia in Tartu on February 2, 1920. It marked the end of the War of Independence. It fixed Estonia's eastern border, and Soviet Russia recognized the independence of the Republic of Estonia. This was the first time that Estonia was recognised as an independent country. It was the first treaty the soviets signed.

Before that Estonia had been a province of Imperial Russia since 1721.

Russia gave up "forever all sovereign rights that Russia had regarding the people and land of Estonia". Estonia got rid of all obligations to Russia and got 15 million gold rubles or 11.6 tons of gold from the Russian gold fund. In the 1920s, Soviet Russia sold a large part of the huge reserves of gold and precious metals taken from people and churches to Western countries through the Estonian bank G. Scheel & Co. Many Estonian businessmen and the Estonian state became rich because of this. The Russians did not do everything they agreed to. The things they took from the collections of the University of Tartu were not returned - and still havent been. Some land granted to Estonia by the Treaty is still under Russian control.

After the treaty about 38,000 Estonians moved from Russia to Estonia.  More people wanted to move and were stopped by the Russians.

References

History of Estonia
History of the Soviet Union
1920s treaties

Treaty of Tartu (Estonia–Russia)


Antithesis is the fowert studio album bi technical daith metal baund Origin. It wis released throu Relapse Records, on Aprile 1, 2008. It peaked at #21 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chairt.

Track listing
 "The Aftermath" – 4:39 (Lee, Ryan)
 "Algorithm" – 3:32 (Lee, Turner)
 "Consuming Misery" – 4:06 (Lee, Turner, Flores)
 "Wrath of Vishnu" – 4:44  (Lee, Ryan)
 "Finite"– 3:08 (Lee, Ryan)
 "The Appalling" – 2:55 (Lee, Turner, Flores)
 "Void" – 0:40 (Lee, Longstreth)
 "Ubiquitous" – 5:34 (Lee, Turner, Flores)
 "The Beyond Within" - 3:20 (Lee, Ryan)
 "Antithesis" - 9:32 (Lee, Ryan)

The quote afore the title track Antithesis is frae J. Robert Oppenheimer. He is best kent for his role as the scienteefic director o the Manhattan Project: the Warld War II effort tae develop the first nuclear wappens at the secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. In reference tae the Trinity test in New Mexico, whaur his Los Alamos team first testit the bomb, Oppenheimer famously recawed the Bhagavad Gita: "Nou I am become Death, the destroyer o warlds."

Antithesis wis ranked # 7 on Decibel Magazine's Top 40 Metal Releases o 2008

Antithesis wis ranked # 6 on Metal Maniacs Top 40 metal Releases o 2008

The civer bears strang resemblance tae a portrait o a xenomorph that wis paintit bi H.R. Giger.

Personnel
 James Lee - Vocals
 Paul Ryan - Guitar, Vocals
 Jeremy Turner - Guitar, Vocals
 Mike Flores - Bass, Vocals
 John Longstreth - Drums

Production
Arranged & Produced Bi Origin
Ingineered Bi Robert Rebeck
Mastered Bi Scott Hull

References

2008 albums
Origin albums
Relapse Records albums

Antithesis (album)