Martin Anton Delrio SJ (; ; ; 17 May 1551 – 19 October 1608) was a Dutch Jesuit theologian. He studied at numerous institutions, receiving a master's degree in law from Salamanca in 1574. After a period of political service in the Spanish Netherlands, he became a Jesuit in 1580.

He studied or taught at Jesuit colleges across Catholic Europe, including Bordeaux, Douai, Graz, Mainz, Leuven, and Salamanca. He was the friend of the Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius, a relative of Michel de Montaigne, and an enemy of the Protestant scholar Joseph Scaliger. He was the author of a large number of books, including classical commentaries and works of biblical exegesis. He remains, however, best known for his six-volume Magical Investigations (1599–1600), a work on magic, superstition, and witchcraft.

Life

Early life
Martin Delrio was born in Antwerp on 17 May 1551, Whit Sunday, to the Spanish merchant Antonio del Río (d. 17 February 1586) and his wife Eleonora López de Villanova (d. 21 April 1602). The Del Río family were part of a sizeable Spanish community in Antwerp, more than 200 merchants were active in Antwerp in 1540. Young Martin studied at a Latin school in nearby Lier and soon revealed himself as a childhood prodigy. He matriculated at the Old University of Leuven on 1 December 1563, at the age of 12.

There he studied under the humanist Cornelius Valerius and met a number of other young promising scholars, including Andreas Schott, Willem Canter, and Justus Lipsius. In middle age their friendship would significantly change the course of both their lives. Delrio's first publication, an edition of the late Roman grammarian Gaius Iulius Solinus, was based on a manuscript borrowed from Lipsius and included suggested emendations by his tutor Valerius. Delrio also published an edition of Claudian. He was particularly proud of the edition of Senecan tragedy, published in 1576 but which he (falsely) claimed to have completed before his twentieth birthday.

His travels during his peregrinatio academica are difficult to follow. He can be placed at the University of Paris in 1567 and 1568. He also spent some time in Douai where he refused to share a bed with an unnamed famous man (cited by his 1609 Jesuit hagiography as proof of his chastity). In 1572 he matriculated at the University of Salamanca on 1 December 1572 and graduated two years later. At Salamanca he would see 'the remnant of an evil gymnasium' where Muslims had allegedly taught magic.

Political career
Martin Delrio was never destined for one of the religious orders. His family had originally destined him for a political career. His law degree from Salamanca was part of this requirement. The Spanish crown since the days of Catholic Monarchs had particularly valued such degrees. Equally valued were titles of nobility. A legacy left by Martin's grandfather was used to buy him the title of Lord of Aartselaar. On 7 September 1561, at the age of 10, Martin Delrio made his official entry, swearing an oath in which he promised to protect widows and orphans. The Delrio family also paid host to a number of prominent figures on visits to Antwerp, including Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle and Anne of Austria, Queen of Spain, Philip II's fourth wife.

With the onset of the Dutch Revolt members of the family found employment with the Council of Troubles, the repressive institution set up by the new governor-general Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba. A cousin, Luís del Río, was one of the councillors. Martin's father Antonio later became treasurer general of confiscations, in charge of seizing assets. Martin himself would after his return from Spain (sometime in 1576 or early 1577) follow suit. The new governor-general Don John of Austria first made peace and then broke it. Soon after, on 29 October 1577, Don John appointed Martin to the Council of Brabant. Credentials or qualifications were irrelevant; with the exception of one loyalist member who fled to Paris, none of the existing councillors had decided to follow Don John.

Despite Martin's appointment and rapid promotion (he would be made vice-chancellor of Brabant in July 1578), these were tragic years for the Delrio family. Luís was arrested by the rebels, later released but soon died. Martin's father Antonio evaded capture and died a penniless exile in Lisbon. Martin's career also faltered. After the death of Don John, the new governor-general Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma changed course, embarking on a campaign reconciliation. Little attention was paid to those whose loyalty could be taken for granted. Martin seems to have lost his position as vice-chancellor. Another victim seems to have been the memoirs which Delrio composed in honour of his patron Don John of Austria and in ostensible imitation of Caesar's De Bello Gallico. These remained unpublished until the late nineteenth century.

Jesuit career
On 27 December 1579 Martin Delrio wrote from Maastricht to the Jesuit General Everard Mercurian seeking to join the Society of Jesus. Delrio professed a sincere conversion to the religious life, but with his career side-lined and his family connections either dead or in exile he might also have had little choice. At the same time his close personal involvement as well as his family's role in the Dutch Revolt also meant that Martin could only ever see the conflict in religious terms. Not waiting for a reply he headed for Spain entering the Society of Jesus on 9 May 1580.

This by no means put an end to his itinerant existence. When, in 1584, it was decided that he should return to the Low Countries for mission work, he stopped in Bordeaux and stayed there for two years. Whether he met Bordeaux's mayor, the famous essayist Michel de Montaigne, while there, is unclear, but the two men were second cousins on their maternal side. It is at this time that Delrio began work on his first publication since his entry in the Society, a substantially revised and expanded version of his edition of Senecan Tragedy. The Syntagma tragoediae latinae (finally published in 1593–94) was at once a renunciation of secular (classical) interests and an acknowledgement of the seminal role the classics played in Jesuit education.

His travels after 1586 are relatively unclear. In 1587, he was in Mainz, in 1589 in Leuven and Douai, and in 1591–1593 in Liège. At last in 1594 he obtained the position of professor of biblical exegesis at the Jesuit college of Leuven. He would teach (and later publish on) the Old Testament Song of Songs and the Book of Lamentations. (His successor in that chair would be Cornelius a Lapide, possibly the most famous exegete of the Counter-Reformation.) During these years he also gave a number of sermons in honour of the Virgin Mary, which he collected and published under the title Florida Mariana (Marian Blossoms, 1598).

In Leuven he also reunited with his university friend Justus Lipsius, who credited Delrio as the "author of his conversion". Although this vastly overstates the Jesuit's actual role, it did lead to their names and reputations coming forever intertwined. Lipsius, one of the leading humanists of his day, had spent thirteen years teaching in Protestant Leiden and was a bone both Catholics and Protestants fought over. Delrio, whose orthodoxy was never in doubt, posthumously became Lipsius's guarantor.

The founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola had wanted obedience to be the Society's hallmark. Its Constitutions likened the individual Jesuit to "a lifeless body". Delrio's time in Leuven, however, was almost as turbulent as his time in Bordeaux, when he refused to return to the Low Countries. In letters to the Jesuit General in Rome, Claudio Acquaviva, he denounced first the rector of the college and later the provincial hierarchy.

This led the Jesuit to be shipped to Graz in Austria, close to the frontier with the Ottoman Empire. Here he impressed the ultra-orthodox Archduke Ferdinand (who as Ferdinand II would plunge the Holy Roman Empire into the Thirty Years' War). After Delrio's departure for Spain Ferdinand would insistently call for his return.

Delrio had never wanted to leave Spain. When in Leuven he actively lobbied to be returned there, he was sent to Graz instead. In 1604, the Long Turkish War at last provided an excuse for travel to Spain. Delrio spent some time teaching at Valladolid and Salamanca, where he despaired of the quality of the students, describing them as "students for our saliva". In the autumn of 1607 Delrio petitioned Rome to be allowed to return to the Low Countries, which was granted. He left Valladolid on 18 August. On 19 October 1608, three days after his return to Leuven, Delrio breathed his last, the final stop for a person who could apparently not find peace anywhere.

Work
Martin Delrio's Magical Investigations ( or ) first appeared in three volumes in Leuven in 1599 and 1600, printed by Gerard Rivius. It quickly became extraordinarily popular. It was still reprinted in Cologne in 1720 and 1755 and in Venice in 1746, long after the printing of rival works had ceased. Historians have traditionally regarded the work as only a receptacle of the ideas of the Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of the Witches", 1486).

Delrio was credited with importing the beliefs of the Malleus into the Low Countries. Hugh Trevor Roper, for instance, described the book as the "new Catholic Malleus" and claimed that "[i]t was the Catholic reconquest which introduced witch-burning into Flanders, and the Jesuit del Rio who would keep it up", holding the Jesuit directly responsible for the burnings.

Historians have also believed that the work was based on practical experience. Wolfgang Behringer argued that Delrio drew on his experience as a young magistrate, which made him in effect "a colleague of  Nicolas Remy". However, it is now recognized that Delrio's personal experience with witchcraft was really rather limited and that he may never have met an alleged witch.

The Investigations was—in keeping with Delrio's other publications—a work of textual scholarship. It was based on Delrio's knowledge of the classics and familiarity with Church history. Hagiography forms a particular source of inspiration. (Delrio's student Heribert Rosweyde would play an important role in the emergence of the Acta Sanctorum, a Catholic encyclopedia of saints lives.) Delrio also drew on histories of other countries and continents, as well as Jesuit reports from the New World. The textual foundation of the work made it difficult to critique and to replace.

In contrast to works by Henry Boguet and Pierre de Lancre, Delrio's was not based on personal experience. His credibility could less easily be called into question. It has, however, been suggested that, divorced from the real world, as a result its relevance for witchcraft persecutions was rather limited. Sceptics seized on the work's more moderate comments, to Delrio's annoyance. A translation into English began appearing in 2000, making the work accessible to a wider audience.

Publications

Notes

References

External links
 The sole known depiction of Martin Delrio is currently in the Louvre. It shows him standing alongside his younger brother and father. He is about fourteen years old at the time. It can be found here
 The introduction to the Martin Delrio biography can be read free of charge here.

 Online version of the Disquisitiones Magicae, hosted by the French National Library

1551 births
1608 deaths
16th-century Spanish Jesuits
17th-century Spanish Jesuits
Belgian people of Spanish descent
Demonologists
Jesuit theologians
Dutch occult writers
Clergy from Antwerp
16th-century Spanish Roman Catholic theologians
University of Douai alumni
University of Salamanca alumni
Witch hunters
Witchcraft in Spain
Witch trials in Spain

Martin Delrio


Eucalyptus macrocarpa, commonly known as mottlecah, is a species of mallee that is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has smooth bark, usually sessile, heart-shaped adult leaves arranged in opposite pairs, large red flowers and broad conical fruit.

Description
Eucalyptus macrocarpa is a mallee that typically grows to a height of , has a sprawling or spreading habit, and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, shiny, brownish over salmon-pink bark. Its crown is composed of juvenile leaves that are sessile, arranged in opposite pairs, heart-shaped with the bases wrapped around the stem, glaucous,  long and  wide. The flower buds are glaucous and are arranged singly in leaf axils on a peduncle  long and a pedicel up to  long. Mature buds are oval,  long and  wide with a beaked operculum. Flowering occurs from August to January or April or June and the flowers are red, or rarely, creamy white. The fruit is a sessile, woody, broadly conical capsule  long and  wide with the valves protruding above the rim of the fruit.

Taxonomy and naming
Eucalyptus macrocarpa was first formally described in 1842 by William Jackson Hooker from a specimen collected by James Drummond from the "guangan". The description was published in Hooker's book,  Icones Plantarum. In Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Hooker noted "[t]he colour of the flowers is due to the stamens alone; for petals (as in the genus) there are none, and the calyx falls off like the lid of a box". He also noted that "the bright red flowers nestled among the leaves, for a very striking object", and that indigenous people called it "morral".

The specific epithet is derived from the ancient Greek words makros (μακρός) meaning "long" and karpos (καρπός) meaning "fruit". Noongar peoples know the tree as mottlecar.

In 1993, Ian Brooker and Stephen Hopper described two subspecies and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
 Eucalyptus macrocarpa subsp. elachantha Brooker & Hopper  has smaller leaves, buds and fruit than subspecies macrocarpa;
 Eucalyptus macrocarpa Hook. subsp. macrocarpa. The name elachantha is derived from the ancient Greek words elachys meaning "small" and anthos meaning "flower".

Distribution and habitat
Mottlecah grows in sand in undulating heath between Eneabba, Cataby and Kulin. Subspecies elachantha has a more restricted distribution south-east of Geraldton.

Conservation status
Subspecies macrocarpa is classified as "not threatened", but subspecies elachantha is classified as "Priority Four" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife, meaning that is rare or near threatened.

Use in horticulture
Eucalyptus macrocarpa is easily grown from seed, but requires good drainage and a dry, frost-free climate. It was raised from seed in 1842 at Kew Gardens and flowered in 1847.

References

Eucalypts of Western Australia
macrocarpa
Myrtales of Australia
Mallees (habit)
Plants described in 1842
Taxa named by William Jackson Hooker

Eucalyptus macrocarpa


Beef tongue (also known as neat's tongue or ox tongue) is a cut of beef made of the tongue of a cow. It can be boiled, pickled, roasted or braised in sauce. It is found in many national cuisines, and is used for taco fillings in Mexico and for open-faced sandwiches in the United States. In France and Belgium it is served with Madeira sauce, while chrain is the preferred accompaniment in Ashkenazi and Eastern European cuisines. Germans make white roux with vinegar and capers, or horseradish cream, which is also popular in Polish cuisine.

Beef tongue is very high in fat, which contributes up to 72% of its caloric content.  Some countries, including Canada and specifically the province of Alberta, export large quantities of beef tongue.

Preparation

Beef tongue is often seasoned with onion and other spices, and then placed in a pot to boil.  After it has cooked the skin is removed.  Pickled tongue is often used because it is already spiced. If cooked in a sauce, it can then later be reused as a sauce for meatballs or any other food item.

Another method of preparing beef tongue is to scald it in hot water, remove the skin, and then roast it in the oven while making a gravy with the pan drippings.

Beef tongue is used in North America as a major ingredient of tongue toast, an open-faced sandwich prepared for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and sometimes offered as an hors d'oeuvre. It is widely used in Mexican cuisine, and often seen in tacos and burritos (lengua). In Puerto Rican cuisine, lengua al caldero, pot roast tongue, and lengua rellena, braised stuffed tongue, are both served with pique criollo.

In Belgium and France, boiled beef tongue is often prepared with mushrooms in a Madeira sauce but can also be served with a vinaigrette. In Ashkenazi Jewish, Russian and Ukrainian cuisine, boiled tongue is often served with chrain. Beef tongue or veal tongue is also found in classic recipes for Russian salad. In Austria, Germany and Poland, it is commonly served either with chrain or with horseradish cream sauce. The traditional Berlin or North German variant adds capers and vinegar to the sauce based on the broth with white roux.

In Japanese cuisine, the dish gyūtan, originating in the city of Sendai, is made of grilled tongue.

Also, tongue is a part of  Albanian, Argentine, Brazilian,  Bulgarian (tongue with butter), British,  French, Indonesian (semur lidah or beef tongue stew), Italian (typical dish in Piemonte and Liguria),  Colombian, Chinese (braised), Japanese, Korean (hyeomit gui), Filipino, Lithuanian, Latvian, Norwegian, Mexican, Mongolian, Nicaraguan, Persian (as forms of fried, roasted, boiled and eaten cold in a sandwich), Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, South African, Turkish, and Uruguayan cuisine.

See also

 List of beef dishes
Foreleg, cheeks and maw

References

Offal
Tongue
Cuts of beef
World cuisine
Mexican cuisine

Beef tongue


Captain Sir Samuel Brown of Netherbyres KH FRSE (1776 – 13 March 1852) was an early pioneer of chain design and manufacture and of suspension bridge design and construction. He is best known for the Union Bridge of 1820, the first vehicular suspension bridge in Britain.

Naval career
Brown was born in London, the son of William Brown of Borland, Galloway, Scotland and Charlotte Hogg. He joined the Royal Navy in 1795, serving initially on the Newfoundland and North Sea stations. He served as lieutenant on  (1803) and in 1805 joined  as first lieutenant. During his service on Phoenix he took part in the capture of the French frigate . The following year he was appointed to , followed by periods of service aboard  and .

During his service, he carried out tests on wrought iron chain cables, using them as rigging for  in 1806 on a voyage to the West Indies. This so impressed the Admiralty that on his return in 1808 it immediately ordered four vessels of war to be fitted with chain cables.

In 1808 Brown took out patents for twisted open chain links, joining shackles and swivels. His shackle and swivel designs were scarcely improved on for the next 100 years.

By 1811, he was promoted to commander (in 1842 he accepted the rank of retired captain), and his chains were introduced to hold ships' anchors. He retired from the Navy in May 1812. Just four years later, the Royal Navy standardized on iron chain instead of hemp for all new vessels of war.

Chain manufacture

He established a company (known as Samuel Brown & Co and also Brown Lenox & Co) with his cousin Samuel Lenox, based initially at Millwall in east London from 1812 and then, from 1816 at a larger works (a nail works previously operated by William Crawshay Brown), establishing the Newbridge Chain & Anchor Works (Pontypridd) at Ynysangharad, beside the Glamorganshire Canal, in Pontypridd, south Wales, close to large reserves of iron and coal.

His firm went on to supply all the chain to the Royal Navy until 1916, and made the chains for Brunel's , famously photographed by Robert Howlett.

Bridge building
He took out a patent for chain-making in 1816, and patented wrought iron chain links suitable for a suspension bridge in 1817. In the same year, others built Dryburgh Bridge, the first chain-supported bridge in Britain. Brown had been experimenting with a chain-supported suspension bridge already, building a 32m span test structure in 1813.

"When he was thinking about how to build a bridge across the River Tweed, Sir Samuel Brown stopped while observing a spider's web. Right at this time he discovered the suspension bridge." —Charles Bender, 1868.

Brown was also invited to participate in abortive proposals for a suspension bridge at Runcorn. In September 1818, he submitted drawings for Union Bridge over the River Tweed, which was completed in 1820 and survives.

Brown went on to build several further chain bridges, as well as the Trinity Chain Pier in Newhaven, Edinburgh (opened in 1821 and destroyed in a storm in 1898) and the Chain Pier at Brighton (1823–1896). Most of his designs used an unstiffened bridge deck, before it became clear that this form was vulnerable to wind forces and unstable under concentrated loads. His designs were reviewed by eminent engineers including John Rennie and Thomas Telford, and generally approved. Brown's designs were significantly less conservative than his contemporaries, adopting a higher tensile strength for his iron chains.

Major bridges
 Union Bridge, River Tweed, 1820
 Trinity Chain Pier, Scotland, 1821 (destroyed 1898)
 The Royal Suspension Chain Pier, Brighton, 1823 (destroyed 1896)
 Welney Bridge, Norfolk, 1826 (replaced 1926)
 Hexham Bridge, River Tyne, 1826 (replaced 1903)
 South Esk Bridge, Montrose, 1829 (collapsed in 1830 under crowd loading, killing three, and collapsed again in 1838, oscillating in a hurricane)
 Stockton and Darlington Railway Suspension Bridge, River Tees, 1830 (first railway suspension bridge in the world)
 Wellington Suspension Bridge, Aberdeen, 1830–1831
 Norfolk Suspension Bridge, Shoreham-by-Sea was opened in 1834, designed by Brown and William Tierney Clark. Replaced in 1922.
 Kalemouth Bridge, River Teviot, 1835
 Kenmare Bridge, Ireland, 1840 (demolished 1932)

Domestic life
One of his homes was close to the Brighton project, at 48 Marine Parade, now known as Chain Pier House. In 1827, Brown purchased Netherbyres, a country house near Eyemouth in Berwickshire, south-east Scotland. He had the existing house demolished and a new house built (c.1836), which he later sold on 5 March 1852, days before his death.

On 14 August 1822 Brown married Mary Horne from Edinburgh.

Brown was elected a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 7 February 1831. In 1838, Brown was knighted by Queen Victoria.

He died, aged 75, at Vanbrugh Lodge, Blackheath, London on 13 March 1852 and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.

References

Bibliography
 'Samuel Brown in North-East Scotland', Thomas Day, Industrial Archaeology Review, 1985
 'The 19th-Century Iron Bridges of Northeast Scotland', Thomas Day, Industrial Archaeology, 1998
 'Civil Engineering Heritage: Northern England', R.W. Rennison, Thomas Telford Publishing, 1996
 'Union Chain Bridge – Linking Engineering', Gordon Miller, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 159, May 2006, pp 88–95

See also
 Samuel Brown, B. P. Cronin Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004

Bridge engineers
English people of Scottish descent
British ironmasters
English civil engineers
1776 births
1852 deaths
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Royal Navy officers
Burials at West Norwood Cemetery
Sailors from London
19th-century British inventors
Engineers from London
19th-century Royal Navy personnel

Samuel Brown (Royal Navy officer)


Bamako ( Bàmakɔ̌,  Bamako) is the capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2022 population of 4,227,569. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country.

Bamako is the nation's administrative center. The city proper is a cercle in its own right. Bamako's river port is located in nearby Koulikoro, along with a major regional trade and conference center. Bamako is the seventh-largest West African urban center after Lagos, Abidjan, Kano, Ibadan, Dakar, and Accra. Locally manufactured goods include textiles, processed meat, and metal goods as well as mining. Commercial fishing occurs on the Niger River.

Bamako is known for its vibrant music scene, with various genres such as Malian blues, traditional music, and Afrobeat flourishing in Bamako. Many renowned Malian musicians and bands have emerged from the city. Some notable artists are Salif Keita, Oumou Sangaré, Ali Farka Touré, Toumani Diabaté and Amadou & Mariam.

In recent years, Bamako has seen significant urban development, with the construction of modern buildings, shopping malls, and infrastructure projects aimed at improving the quality of life for its residents. The city is home to many notable institutions such as the University of Bamako, the National Museum of Mali, the Mali National Zoo, the Grand Mosque of Bamako, and the Modibo Keita International Airport. The buildings of Bamako have a unique architectural style. The name Bamako ( Bàmakɔ̌ in Bambara) comes from the Bambara word meaning "crocodile river".

History

The area of the city has evidence of settlements since the Palaeolithic era. The fertile lands of the Niger River Valley provided the people with an abundant food supply and early kingdoms in the area grew wealthy as they established trade routes linking across west Africa, the Sahara, and leading to northern Africa and Europe. The early inhabitants traded gold, ivory, kola nuts, and salt. By the 11th century, the Empire of Ghana became the first kingdom to dominate the area.

The Mali Empire grew during the early Middle Ages and replaced Ghana as the dominant kingdom in west Africa, dominating Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, and Mauritania. In the 14th century, the Mali Empire became increasingly wealthy because of the trade of cotton, gold and salt. Bamako became a center of commerce and Islamic learning, but declined when Mali was overthrown by the Songhai.

The Scottish explorer Mungo Park visited Bamako in 1797 and 1806 during his exploration of the Niger River. He estimated that the city at the time held 6000 inhabitants.

In February 1882, Samory Toure defeated the French at the Battle of Samaya outside Kinieran. Faced with Toure's expanding Wassoulou Empire, some of the leaders of the Dyula community in Bamako began making overtures to join the anti-French alliance. The French commander Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes, eager to possess this key strategic location on the Niger, rushed a force to establish a fort there on February 1st 1883. Kebe Brema, Samory's brother, led a force to Bamako to lure the French out of their defenses. They fought two  battles at Woyo Wayanko creek in early April, with Kebe Brema winning the first but eventually being forced to retreat.

Bamako began growing quickly upon being named the capital of French Sudan in 1908. A railroad connecting Bamako to Dakar was completed in 1923.

Mali gained independence from France in April 1960, and the Republic of Mali was later established. At this time, Bamako had a population of around 160,000. During the 1960s, the country became socialist and Bamako was subject to Soviet investment and influence. However, the economy declined as state enterprises collapsed and unrest was widespread. Eventually, Moussa Traoré led a successful coup and ruled Mali for 23 years. However his rule was characterised by severe droughts and poor government management and problems of food shortages.

In the late 1980s the people of Bamako and Mali campaigned for a free-market economy and multiparty democracy. In 1990, the National Congress for Democratic Initiative (Congrès National d'Initiative démocratique, CNID) was set up by the lawyer Mountaga Tall, and the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (Alliance pour la démocratie au Mali, ADEMA) by Abdramane Baba and historian Alpha Oumar Konaré. These with the Association des élèves et étudiants du Mali (AEEM) and the Association Malienne des Droits de l'Homme (AMDH) aimed to oust Moussa Traoré. Under the old constitution, all labor unions had to belong to one confederation, the National Union of Malian Workers (UNTM). When the leadership of the UNTM broke from the government in 1990, the opposition grew. Groups were driven by paycuts and layoffs in the government sector, and the Malian government acceding to pressure from international donors to privatise large swathes of the economy that had remained in public hands even after the overthrow of the socialist government in 1968. Students, even children, played an increasing role in the protest marches in Bamako, and homes and businesses of those associated with the regime were ransacked by crowds.

On 22 March 1991, a large-scale protest march in central Bamako was violently suppressed, with estimates of those killed reaching 300. Four days later, a military coup deposed Traoré. The Comité de Transition pour le Salut du Peuple was set up, headed by General Amadou Toumani Touré. Alpha Oumar Konari officially became president on 26 April 1992.

On 20 November 2015, two gunmen took 170 people hostage in the Radisson Blu hotel. Twenty-one people were killed in the Bamako hotel attack along with the two gunmen during the seven-hour siege.

Geography

Bamako is situated on the Niger River floodplain, which hampers development along the riverfront and the Niger's tributaries. Bamako is relatively flat, except to the immediate north where an escarpment is found, being what remains of an extinct volcano. The Presidential Palace and main hospital are located here.

Originally, the city developed on the northern side of the river, but as it grew, bridges were developed to connect the north with the south. The first of these was the Pont des Martyrs (2-lane with two pedestrian sections) and the King Fahd Bridge (four-lane with two motorcycle and two pedestrian sections). Additionally, a seasonal causeway between the eastern neighborhoods of Sotuba and Misabugu was inherited from colonial times (alternated traffic on one lane with five crossing sections). The Sotuba Causeway (Chaussée submersible de Sotuba in French, and Babilikoroni in Bamanankan) is typically under water from July to January. A third bridge (1.4 km long, 24 m wide, four-lane with two motorcycle and two pedestrian sections) is being built at the same location to reduce downtown congestion, notably by trucks.

Environment

Waste Management Controversy
In 2015, the Bamako city government privatized waste collection in the city. Before the introduction of this program there was a long standing informal waste collection system carried out by "Economic interest groups." Before the privatization these independent groups collected waste throughout the city. After privatization, not only did many waste collectors become unemployed but the corporation that they enlisted to do the job was collecting only 30% of Bamako's waste. The garbage build up creates toxic living conditions and it only worsens when it rains. Due to the prevalence of waste in Bamako's streets, including informal dumping sites near a school, citizens have taken to protesting, marching and it has even escalated to the point of property damage.

Climate
Under the Köppen climate classification, Bamako features a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw). Located in the Sudano-Sahelian zone, Bamako is very hot on average all year round with the hottest months being between March and May. The mildest months are between November and February. During the dry season, rainfall is scarce: virtually none falls between November and April due to the dominance of the Saharan anticyclone and the dry trade winds. The rainy season occurs in the summer with the peak occurring with a few storms beginning in May, then transitioning to the monsoon from June to October.

Administration
The District of Bamako has been divided into six communes (distinguished by numbers, and not named) since Ordinance No. 78-34/CNLM of 18 August 1978, and amended by a law in February 1982 establishing the new boundaries of Communes III and IV. Each commune is administered by the municipal council and a mayor elected from among its members. The last elections were held on 26 April 2009 and the Alliance for Democracy in Mali hold the majority of representatives for the communes.

Communes and neighborhoods
Commune I has a population of 335,407 people (2009) and covers . It is bounded to the north by the rural commune of Djalakorodji (Kati Cercle), west by the Commune II, north-east by the rural commune of Sangarebougou (Kati Cercle), on the east by the rural commune of Gabakourou and south by the Niger River. Nine neighborhoods comprise this commune: Banconi, Boulkassombougou, Djelibougou, Doumanzana Fadjiguila, Sotuba Korofina North, and South Korofina Sikoroni.

Commune II has a population of 159,805 people (2009) and covers . It is bounded to the east by the backwater of Korofina at the west foot of the Point G hill, and to the south by Niger River. The municipality has eleven neighborhoods: Niaréla (the oldest), Bagadadji, Medina-Coura, Bozola, Missira, Hippodrome, Quinzambougou, Bakaribougou, TSF, Industrial Area, and Bougouba. The new Cité du Niger island is also located in the Commune II. The area is the most important in the industry sector in Bamako.

Commune III has a population of 128,872 people (2009) and covers . It is bounded on the north by the Kati, east by the Boulevard du Peuple, which separates it from the Commune II, south by the portion of the Niger River, between the Pont des Martyrs and the Motel de Bamako, and west by the Farako River and Avenue Cheick Zayed El Mahyan Ben Sultan with the neighborhood of ACI-2000. Commune III is the administrative and commercial center of Bamako. It accommodates in particular the two largest markets in the capital, the Grand Market and Dibida. Twenty neighborhoods make up this commune and the villages of Koulouninko and Sirakorodounfing were attached to the Commune III.

Commune IV has a population of 300,085 people (2009) and covers . It is bounded to the east by Commune III, north, west by Kati Cercle and south by the left bank of the Niger River. Commune IV consists of eight neighborhoods: Taliko, Lassa, Sibiribougou, Djikoroni Para, Sébénikoro, Hamdallaye, Lafiabougou and Kalabambougou.

Commune V has a population of 414,668 people (2009) and covers . It is bounded to the north by the Niger River, south by the airport and the commune of Kalabancoro, and to the east by the Commune VI and Niger. It consists of eight neighborhoods: Badalabougou, Sema I, Quartier Mali, Torokorobougou, Baco-Djicoroni, Sabalibougou, Daoudabougou and Kalaban-Coura.

Commune VI has a population of 470,269 people (2009) and covers . This is the largest of the communes that make up Bamako. It consists of ten neighborhoods: Banankabougou, Djanékéla, Faladié, Magnambougou, Missabougou, Niamakoro, Sénou, Sogoniko, Sokorodji and Yrimadio.

Bamako contains the following neighborhoods (quartiers): ACI-2000, Badalabugu, Bajalan I, Bajalan II, Bako Jikoroni, Bagadaji, Bamako Kura, Bankoni, Bolibana, Bozola, Bugudani, Bulkasumbugu, Dar Salam, N'tomikorobougou, Dawdabugu, Dravela, Fajigila, Falaje, Garantigibugu, Jalakoroji, Janekela, Janjigila, Jelibugu, Jikoroni Para, Jumanzana, Hamdallaye, Hippodrome, Kalaban Koro, Kalaban Kura, Korofina, Kuluba, Kulubleni, Lafiabugu, Madina Kura, Magnambugu (Magnambugu Faso Kanu), Misabugu, Misira, Niarela, Ntomikorobugu, Point G, Quartier du Fleuve, Quartier Mali, Quinzanbugu, Sabalibugu I, Sabalibugu II, Safo, Same, Sangarebugu, Saranbugu, Sebeninkoro, Sikoroni, Sirakoro, Senu, Sibiribugu, Sokoniko, Sokoroji, Sotuba, Titibugu, Torokorobugu, TSF-Sans Fil, Wolofobugu, Yirimanjo, Zone Industrielle

Economy

Industry
The District of Bamako concentrates 70% of industrial activity in the country.
 The service sector is the most developed, and the city thrives in crafts and trade.

The traditional commercial center of Bamako was located to the north of the river, and contained within a triangle bounded by Avenue du Fleuve, Rue Baba Diarra, and Boulevard du Peuple. This area contains the Marché Rose and Street Market.

The downtown area is highly congested, polluted, and expensive, and urbanization is sprawling at a rapid pace within a radius of . The largest urbanized area now lies on the southern bank of the Niger River. A modern central business district is rapidly developing immediately west of the downtown area in the ACI-2000 district, taking advantage of a well-designed geometric layout, legacy of the old airport runways and taxiways. A large administrative area is being developed at the junction between ACI-2000 and the King Fadh Bridge, containing most of the state departments (ministries) and administrative services in a central location. Bamako is also the headquarters of many large companies and administrative institutions. Air Mali (formerly Compagnie Aérienne du Mali) has its head office in Bamako. Bamako received much investment by Saudi Arabia for decades which saw a number of important structures being built. In recent years, China has become an important investor in Bamako, developing its infrastructure and facilities.

Agriculture is active in Bamako, with the presence of Bozo fisherman, and it is common to see cattle crossing the streets.

Energy
Much of the electricity is generated from the hydroelectric Sélingué Dam. The drinking water supply in Bamako and Kati is also ensured by a pumping station on the Niger River. However, the capacity of  to provide drinking water per day is insufficient for the needs estimated at  during the hot season between April and June. During this period, frequent water shortages are experienced. A new pumping station was to open in Kabala in 2009.

Architecture

The BCEAO Tower at 20 stories is the tallest building in the West African nation. It sits on the north ("left") bank of the River Niger in the city centre. The BCEAO Tower is the Malian headquarters of the Central Bank of West African States, which provides development banking and government financial and currency services in several Francophone West African nations. Classified as Neo-Sudanic architecture, it is modeled on the Sudano-Sahelian architecture of the famous mosques of Djenne and Timbuktu. The building is located in the busy Commune III neighbourhood, where "Avenue Moussa Tavele" meets the waterside boulevard between the two main Bamako bridges: King Fahd Bridge a block west and Martyrs Bridge three blocks east. Just to the east of the BCEAO complex, a park and formal garden mark where the diagonally running "Boulevard du Peuple" reaches the river. By contrast, small market gardens and launching points or river canoes lie along the river front.

The Cité Administrative (Administrative City) is a complex of buildings located just west of the northern end of the King Fahd Bridge. The complex was begun in 2003 by then President Konaré with the help of funding from the government of Libya. The  Cité Administrative was completed in 2010 and houses many of the offices of the government.

Demographics

Bamako has experienced staggering population growth. In 1884, it had only 2,500 inhabitants, 8,000 in 1908, 37,000 in 1945, and 100,000 in 1960. Today, the population is at least 18 times what it was in 1960, with 1,810,366 recorded at the 2009 census, and continues to attract a rural population in search of work.
Including illegal squatters and temporary workers, some experts believe the population today is well over 2 million. This uncontrolled growth has caused significant difficulties in terms of traffic, sanitation (including access to safe water), and pollution. Bamako hosts a diverse population composed of different ethnic groups in Mali and from neighboring countries.

Over 4.2 million people lived in the city in 2022.

Culture
The National Library of Mali was first created by the Institut Français d'Afrique Noire, an arm of the French colonial government, in 1944. Following Mali's 1960 independence, this library became the Government Library; it would later be renamed again as the National Library of Mali. In 1968, the library was transferred from its initial home in Koulouba to Ouolofobougou, a section of Bamako. The library holds more than 60,000 works, including books, periodicals, audio documents, videos, and software. These materials are available free to the public, though a small subscription fee is required for borrowing privileges. The library also hosts some of the exhibits for African Photography Encounters, a biannual Bamako photography festival.

The National Museum of Mali is an archeological and anthropological museum, presenting permanent and temporary exhibits on the prehistory of Mali, as well as the musical instruments, dress, and ritual objects associated with Mali's various ethnic groups. The National Museum began under French rule as the Sudanese Museum, part of the Institut Français d'Afrique Noire (IFAN) under Théodore Monod. It was opened on 14 February 1953, under the direction of Ukrainian archeologist Yuriy Shumovskyi. Shumovskyi had worked in the museum for nine years, gathering half (nearly 3,000) of today's finds. The museum also houses indoor and outdoor exhibitions of works by local artists.

With the independence of the Republic of Mali in 1960, the Sudanese Museum became the National Museum of Mali, with the new objectives of promoting national unity and celebrating Malian traditional culture. However, lack of financial means and absence of qualified personnel caused some deterioration in the museum's collections. On 30 March 1956, the National Museum moved into a new cemented structure, created by architect Jean-Loup Pivin from traditional Malian designs. Since the 1996 election of former archaeologist Alpha Oumar Konaré to Mali's presidency, the museum's funding has increased considerably, becoming among the best in West Africa. The museum often hosts part of the biannual African Photography Encounters, photography festival held in Bamako since 1994.

Also of note is the Muso Kunda Museum, the Bamako Regional Museum, Bamako Zoo, the Bamako Botanical Gardens, the National Conference Center Tower (NCC), the Souvenir Pyramid, the Independence Monument, Al Quoods Monument, the triangular Monument de la paix, the Hamdallaye obelisk, the Modibo Keita Memorial and many other monuments, the Palais de la Culture Amadou Hampaté Ba and the Point G hill, containing caves with rock paintings.

In 1988, Bamako was the location of a WHO conference known as the Bamako Initiative that helped reshape health policy of sub-Saharan Africa. The yearly held Budapest-Bamako rally has the endpoint in Bamako, with the Dakar Rally often passing through Bamako.

Music
A music boom in Bamako took off in the 1990s, when vocalist Salif Keita and singer-guitarist Ali Farka Touré achieved international fame. It attracted a number of tourists, record producers, and aspiring musicians to the city to try to follow in their footsteps. It is common to see musicians in the streets with djembes and percussion bands playing traditional Bamana rhythms.

Education
In 2011, four universities were founded; the University of Social Sciences and Management of Bamako (USSGB), the University of Humanities and Social Sciences of Bamako (ULSHB), the University of Science, Technology and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB) and the University of Legal and Political Sciences of Bamako (USJPB).

In 1972, the Union Malienne Des Aveugles, an integrated school and centre for the blind and partially sighted, was established.

Places of worship

Among the places of worship, they are predominantly Muslim mosques. There are also Christian churches and temples : Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bamako (Catholic Church), Église Chrétienne Évangélique du Mali (Alliance World Fellowship), Assemblies of God.

Islam

Eyoub Mosque

Transport

The Dakar-Niger Railway links Bamako to Dakar via Kati, Négala, Kita, and Kayes.

In 2015, a rail link to San-Pédro in Ivory Coast is proposed.

The road network links Bamako to Koulikoro, Kati, Kolokani, Ségou, and Sikasso.

The Bamako-Sénou International Airport is  from the city and opened to passengers in 1974. Passenger traffic steadily increased in the early 2000s. Government figures revealed 403,380 passengers in 1999, 423,506 in 2003, 486,526 in 2004, and 516,000 in 2005, and is predicted to reach over 900,000 by 2015 under a low (4%) yearly growth-rate scenario. To date this growth rate has been surpassed. Total air traffic the airport increased by 12.4% in 2007 and 14% in 2008. Most of this increase came in passenger transport, with the number of passengers served increasing by 20% in 2007 and 17% in 2008. Twenty-seven airline carriers operated weekly or better at Bamako-Sénou International Airport in the 2007–2008 period. This continued growth was offset by cargo flights' decline of 16.75% in 2007, and 3.93% in 2008. The highest frequency route is on the Bamako-Dakar sector with 29 weekly non-stop connections. Domestic flights also serve Mali's regional capitals Kayes, Mopti, Timbuktu, Sikasso, Gao, and Kidal. Bamako Senou International Airport is managed by Aéroports du Mali (ADM). Its operations are overseen by the Malian Ministry of Equipment and Transports.

Today, with the new administrative arrangement, the territory of Mali will henceforth comprise twenty (20) Regions instead of eight (08), plus the District of Bamako which will henceforth comprise ten (10) urban communes instead of six (06).

Much of the transportation is either by the Niger River, or by paved roads linking Bamako to other major urban areas. Navigating the river is possible from Koulikoro to Mopti and Gao. The bush taxi is one of the main modes of transport.

Bamako is situated on both sides of the Niger River and three bridges connect the two banks: the Bridge of Martyrs completed in 1960 and renamed in memory of protesters killed in March 1991 by the regime of Moussa Traoré, the King Fahd Bridge, named after the Saudi Arabian donor, and a third bridge, the Pont de l'amitié sino-malienne funded by the People's Republic of China. Located in Sotuba area, it has the objective to decongest traffic in the city.

Healthcare
The Point G hospital, built between 1906 and 1913, covers . A former military hospital, it became a civilian hospital shortly before the independence of Mali, and is situated on a hill overlooking Bamako.

The second hospital of Bamako is the Gabriel Touré Hospital named after a young doctor and humanist Gabriel Touré who was born in 1910 in Ouagadougou and died in 1935 after having been contaminated by a patient with the pneumonic plague. The hospital was established in 1959.

The contract for the building of a new hospital in Bamako, to relieve pressure on the other hospital resources was signed on 27 December 2008. Located in the district of Yirimadio, the department will include a pediatric and obstetrics-gynecology facilities, a department of internal medicine, medical imagery facilities and hospital care with 150 beds to support the emergency services and intensive care. This hospital, like many recent developments in Bamako is financed and equipped with Chinese investment.

In popular culture
Bamako has provided the backdrop or been the subject of books and films such as Bamako, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. The film depicts a trial taking place in Bamako, amid the daily life that is going on in the city. In the midst of that trial, two sides argue whether the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, or perhaps corruption, are guilty of the financial state of many poverty-stricken African countries. The film was first released at the Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2006 and in Manhattan by New Yorker Films on 14 February 2007 and was the recipient of the first Film Award of the Council of Europe given at the Istanbul International Film Festival in April 2007.

Bamako was one of the cities featured in Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, an educational computer game staple of the 1980s.

Notable people

 Tiken Jah Fakoly
 Amadou & Mariam
 Sangaré Niamoto Ba
 Ousmane Cisse
 Idrissa Coulibaly
 Mohamed Coulibaly
 Oumaro Coulibaly
 Massa Makan Diabaté
 Sidy Fassara Diabaté
 Drissa Diakite
 Mahamadou Diarra
 Drissa Diarra
 Moké Diarra
 Lamine Diawara
 Nare Diawara
 Yaya Dissa
 Adama Drabo
 Bakari Fofana
 Amara Morikè Kallé
 Ibrahim Kante
 Salif Keita
 Makan Konaté
 Amadou Konte
 Seydou Badian Kouyaté
 Abdoulaye Maïga
 Hamchétou Maïga
 Modibo Maiga
 Aya Nakamura
 Adama Sanogo
 Amadou Sidibé
 Malick Sidibé
 Noé Sissoko
 Bakary Soumaré
 Tidiani (Jeff) Tall
 Jean Tigana
 Meiya Tireira
 Ali Farka Touré
 Almamy Toure
 Sidi Touré
 Dramane Traoré

Gallery

Twin towns and sister cities
Bamako is twinned with:

 Angers, France (1974)
 Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (1974)
 Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso (1994)
 Bordeaux, France (1999)
 Dakar, Senegal (1973)
 Nouakchott, Mauritania
 Rochester, United States (1975)

See also

 Railway stations in Mali
 List of cities in Mali

References

 Pascal James Imperato. Historical Dictionary of Mali. Scarecrow Press/ Metuchen. NJ – London (1986)
 Ross Velton. Mali: The Bradt Travel Guide. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 2000.

Bibliography

External links

 Bamako-culture.org (French language)

Cercles of Mali
Capitals in Africa
Capital districts and territories
Communities on the Niger River

Bamako


Spore Galactic Adventures is an expansion pack for the multigenre game  Spore, developed by Maxis Emeryville and published by Electronic Arts. The US version of the game was released on June 23, 2009. The European version was released on June 26, 2009.

Gameplay
The main feature added to the game is the Adventure Creator. This Creator allows players to create various missions, which are then populated into the Space stage in a manner similar to the other content created in the original game.  Players add elements to the adventure by dragging them from a menu and dropping them into the world. Creatures, vehicles and buildings created using the game's other editors can be selected and placed throughout the world. The player can also set creatures' behaviors from aggressive to friendly, and add speech bubbles. In addition, fixed objects from the previous stages of Spore, as well as gameplay objects like bombs and teleporters, can be added to the game.

Players can select a range of special effects and drop them into the level. Sounds can be added to the game in the same manner, although new sound files cannot be added to the game. A complexity meter exists to prevent too many objects being dropped into the game; it also enables the player to beam down and experience a planet firsthand rather than exploring it with a holographic projection.

Complementing the Adventure Creator is the Planet Creator, which is accessed from within the Adventure Creator. Players select a prebuilt planet and then edit it in a manner similar to the Adventure Creator. Elements such as temperature and atmospheric density can be adjusted using sliders. The planet's terrain is modified using terrain stamps, which are dragged and dropped from the interface. Like the Adventure Creator, a complexity meter exists to prevent too many elements being used to create the planet.

The expansion also adds a Captain Outfitter, which allows players to modify their Space stage creatures by giving them different social tools, weapons, and gear. They are then able to beam down their captains to specialized planets that have missions on them. Missions are greatly varied and may require a range of different tools. RPG elements also exist in the game, in that captains earn points from missions and are able to level up.

Adventure mode
Players can take their space captains on adventures, with each adventure having a specific goal to complete. There are a variety of adventure types, such as saving a planet from the Grox or helping a famous pop star get to his show on time. Completing each adventure awards the space captain experience points much like a role-playing video game and allows the player to choose a piece of equipment for their space captain. As a space captain gains more experience it gets better titles (determined by his empire's beliefs) such as "Thug", "Profiteer", or "Gatherer"; these titles are based on the Captain's archetype.

Development
A space-based expansion pack was first announced mid-October 2008 alongside the Creepy and Cute parts pack. On June 9, 2009, the Spore website was redesigned to prepare for a Galactic Adventure.

Reception

Spore: Galactic Adventures gained generally positive reviews according to Metacritic.com. It was praised for its adventure creator which was seen as complex yet easy to use.

References

External links

2009 video games
Biological simulation video games
Electronic Arts games
MacOS games
Maxis Sim games
Science fiction video games
Spore (2008 video game)
Video game expansion packs
Video games developed in the United States
Windows games
Single-player video games

Spore Galactic Adventures


Milan Kučan (; born 14 January 1941) is a Slovenian former politician who served as the first President of Slovenia from 1991 to 2002. Before being president of Slovenia, he was the 13th President of the Presidency of SR Slovenia from 1990 to 1991.

Kučan also served as the 7th President of the League of Communists of Slovenia from 1986 to 1989.

Early life and political beginnings
Kučan, one of five children, was born in a teachers' family. His parents were Koloman Küčan (1911–1944) and Marija Varga (1917–1975). He was raised in the village of Križevci, located in the largely agrarian border region of Prekmurje in the Drava Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (present-day Slovenia). His father Koloman died during World War II. Kučan's family spent World War II in occupied Serbia, where over 58,000 other Slovenians were resettled from Slovenia by the Nazis.

He later studied law at the University of Ljubljana and soon became involved in the Communist political organizations of the time. In 1968, he became the president of the Slovenian Youth Association, then secretary of the Socialist Alliance of the Working People of Slovenia (a central organization, created to unite all civil society associations under one roof) between 1974 and 1978. He rose to speaker of the National Assembly in 1978, and in 1982 he became representative for the Slovenian Communists in the League of Communists of Yugoslavia's Central Committee in Belgrade.

In May 1986, he became the leader of the League of Communists of Slovenia. At that time, liberal and democratic sentiment started to grow in Slovenia, as opposed to the political atmosphere of Belgrade and Serbia under Slobodan Milošević. Advocating in favour of human rights and European democratic values and principles, Kučan, his party and Slovenia faced increasingly severe political confrontations with Belgrade and Serbia. On 23 January 1990, Kučan and the Slovenian delegation left the Party Congress. This was one of the factors that eventually led to the collapse of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, one of the pillars of the political system of the Socialist Yugoslavia.

Political career

Slovenia was the first of the federal units of Yugoslavia to introduce multi-party democracy and the first multi-party elections were held in April 1990. Kučan was elected President of the Presidency, then a collective body, in 1990, in a ballot against the DEMOS candidate Jože Pučnik.

Kučan strongly opposed the preservation of Yugoslavia through violent means. After the concept of a loose confederation had failed to gain support by the republics of Yugoslavia, Kučan favoured a controlled process of non-violent disassociation that would enable the collaboration of the former Yugoslav nations on a new, different basis.

Slovenia declared its independence on 25 June 1991. In his speech on the occasion, Kučan ended with the words: "Today dreams are allowed, tomorrow is a new day." On 26 June, the Yugoslav army embarked on troop movements that later escalated into the Ten-Day War. As the peace talks began at Brioni, with the European Community as a mediator, the Army started its withdrawal from Slovenia. Kučan represented Slovenia at the peace conference on former Yugoslavia in the Hague and Brussels which concluded that the former Yugoslav nations were free to determine their future as independent states. On 22 May 1992 Kučan represented Slovenia as it became a new member of the United Nations.

After the independence and the international recognition of Slovenia, Kučan was elected as the first President of Slovenia in 1992 with the support of the citizens list. He won another five-year term in 1997–2002, running again as an independent and again winning the majority in the first round. His presidency ended in December 2002. He was succeeded as President by Janez Drnovšek. In March 2003 Slovenia held two referendums on joining the EU and NATO. Milan Kučan took an active part in campaigning for these memberships, in order for Slovenia to achieve the goals it had set upon its independence. In May 2004, Slovenia became a full member of both the EU and NATO.

Since November 2004, Kučan has been a member of the Club of Madrid, an association of former democratic statesmen that works to strengthen democratic governance. He chairs the International Collegium together with Michel Rocard, former French Prime Minister. Since 2004 he is the chairman of Forum 21, a Slovene left-wing think-tank reflecting on issues of relevance for the future development of Slovenia and its position in a global society.

Kučan is also a Member of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, a not-for-profit organization established in 2008 to monitor tolerance in Europe and make recommendations on fighting xenophobia and intolerance on the continent.

Personal life
Kučan married Štefka Kučan in 1964. The couple have two daughters: Ana, a landscape architect and professor at the University of Ljubljana, and Špela, an anthropologist and ethnologist. In 1991 Kučan stated it is the duty of every Slovene to climb Mount Triglav.

Honours and awards
: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1992)
: Grand Cross of the Order of Pope Pius IX (1993)
: Collar of the Order pro Merito Melitensi (1995)
: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (1997)
: Collar of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana (1997)
: Order of the Redeemer (1999)
: Grand Collar of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique (2000)
: Knight Grand Cross of the Grand Order of King Tomislav ("For outstanding contribution to the development of interstate relations and friendship between the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Slovenia.", 5 December 2001)
: Grand Cross (or 1st Class) of the Order of the White Double Cross (2001)
: Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (2001)
: Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (2002)
: Order of the Star of Romania (2002)
: Commander Grand Cross with Chain of the Order of Three Stars (2002)
: Order of the White Eagle (2002)
: Knight of the Order of the Elephant (2001)
: Gold Medal of the Order of Freedom of the Republic of Slovenia (2003)

References

External links

President of the Republic of Slovenia, archived pages
Biography

1941 births
Living people
People from the Municipality of Gornji Petrovci
Prekmurje Slovenes
Slovenian Lutherans
League of Communists of Slovenia politicians
Presidents of Slovenia
Social Democrats (Slovenia) politicians
University of Ljubljana alumni
Recipients of the Order of the Star of Romania
Recipients of the Collar of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana
Grand Collars of the Order of Prince Henry
Collars of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)
Members of the Presidency of the 12th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
Ex officio members of the Presidency of the 13th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
Members of the Central Committee of the 12th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
Members of the Central Committee of the 13th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia

Milan Kučan


Marcus Urban (born 4 August 1971, earlier Marcus Schneider) is a former German  football player. He played with the East Germany national youth football team and in the second division club Rot-Weiß Erfurt in the 1980s and early 1990s. Several years afterwards he came out as a gay man. He has spoken publicly about the difficulties that gay footballers experience, and he is now a spokesperson and campaigner on diversity issues in sport and the workplace.

As a child, he took on his step-father's surname, Schneider, but as an adult he changed it back to his mother's maiden name.

In 2008, the sports journalist Ronny Blaschke published an authorised biography of Urban. This is titled Versteckspieler: Die Geschichte des schwulen Fußballers Marcus Urban ('Hidden Player: the story of the gay footballer Marcus Urban')

Life
Urban was born and grew up in the city of Weimar, which was then in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). From 1984, when he was 13, until 1991 he attended a boarding sports school in the nearby city of Erfurt, support by the 2nd division Bundesliga club FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt (Erfurt city football club; Red and White are the club colours). Such schools were widely used in the former Eastern bloc countries. He trained with East German world sports champions and olympic medal winners. He played for the East German national youth football team from 1986 to 1989, moving through each age class.

In 1990, he was given an amateur contract to play for Rot-Weiß Erfurt. He played against future players of the German national team such as Bernd Schneider, Thomas Linke, Steffen Freund and Frank Rost. He was about to become a professional football player, but in 1991, he decided to quit due to the pressure of having to hide his homosexuality from the football world.

In 1991, he began studies in urban and regional planning at Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar, graduating in 2000 with a master's degree in engineering, specialising in renewable energy. During this time, he spent a semester at Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Naples. He undertook his civilian service year in 1997, working for an organisation that provided special therapies for disabled children based on theatre, music and art.

Urban came out to family and friends in 1994, but it was not until 13 years later, in 2007, that he publicly came out in an interview with the newspaper Welt am Sonntag in which he spoke about the difficulties of gay football players. A year later, his biography was published. Grand Hotel Pictures, a Berlin film production company, started developing a film based on the book in 2009, but as at July 2017, nothing had been released.

Today, he is an adviser on diversity issues and also works as a life coach with individuals and organisations, specialising in the areas of self-confidence, diversity and intercultural skills. He makes appearances on TV, radio and in print media, discussing his experiences as a gay man in sport, and his work in this area. Urban advises the Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund, (German Olympic Sports Confederation) and the Sports Committee of the German Federal Parliament, as well as businesses and non-profit institutions.

Urban is on the management team of the  Verein für Vielfalt in Sport und Gesellschaft ('Association for Diversity in Sport and Business'). In March 2010 he co-founded the diversity expertise network Fußball für Vielfalt ('Football for Diversity'), originally called Fußball gegen Homophobie. This is a project of the :de:Bundesstiftung Magnus Hirschfeld ('Federal Foundation of Magnus Hirschfield'), an organisation that aims to carry on the work of the pioneering social scientist Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), researching LGBT issues and seeking to prevent social discrimination against the LGBT community in Germany.

As at May 2017, Marcus Urban lives in Berlin with his partner. He plays football in the over 40s team for Hertha BSC.

Further reading
 Beasley, Neil (2016) Football's Coming Out: Life as a Gay Fan and Player. [London]: Floodlit Dreams Ltd.
 Blaschke, Ronny (2008) Versteckspieler: Die Geschichte des schwulen Fußballers Marcus Urban. Göttingen: Verlag Die Werkstatt.
 Leibfried, Dirk; Erb, Andreas (2011) Das Schweigen der Männer: Homosexualität im deutschen Fußball. Göttingen: Verlag Die Werkstatt.
 Magrath, Rory (2016) Inclusive Masculinities in Contemporary Football: Men in the Beautiful Game. Abingdon: Routledge.
 Rohlwing, Christoph(2015) Homosexualität im deutschen Profifußball: Schwulenfreie Zone Fußballplatz?. Baden-Baden: Tectum-Verlag.
 Walther-Ahrens, Tanja (2011) Seitenwechsel: Coming-Out im Fußball. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus.

See also
 Homosexuality in association football
 List of LGBT sportspeople

References

External links
 The story of Marcus Urban, a gay soccer player in DDR (YouTube 8:00 min) (An Italian Television report, in Italian)

1971 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Weimar
Sportspeople from Erfurt
East German men's footballers
Footballers from Thuringia
Men's association football midfielders
German gay men
German LGBT footballers
Gay sportsmen
FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt players

Marcus Urban


Stanley Patrick Cobbs (born January 31, 1983) is a former American football running back. He most recently was a member of the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL). He was signed by the New England Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He played college football at North Texas.

Cobbs has also been a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami Dolphins.

Early years
Cobbs was a two-way starter at Tecumseh High School in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, playing both running back and safety for the football team. In his junior year, Cobbs rushed for 1,820 yards and 17 touchdowns. As a senior, he rushed for 2,354 yards and 32 touchdowns as he averaged more than eight yards per carry. His performance on offense earned him all-state honors, while he also earned first-team all-area honors as a defensive back after registering 84 tackles and four interceptions. Cobbs finished his high school career with 4,729 rushing yards and 61 touchdowns on offense, while adding 313 tackles and 16 interceptions on defense. Cobbs also ran track and field in high school, where he participated in the 400 meter dash.

College career
Playing in every game as a true freshman for North Texas in 2001, Cobbs racked up 399 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 93 carries. A season-high 112 yards and two scores against Idaho earned him Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week honors. His 399 rushing yards were best in the Sun Belt Conference. Cobbs also had a 19.2-yard average on kickoff returns, and finished third on the team with 813 all-purpose yards.

Cobbs played in all 13 games as a sophomore in 2002, rushing for 716 yards and eight touchdowns—both second best on the team behind Kevin Galbreath. He had a career game against Louisiana Monroe, rushing for a career-high 128 yards and a team record four touchdowns. Cobbs also led the team in kick return (24.4) and punt return (10.1) average, and had a 50-yard kickoff return in the New Orleans Bowl.

In 2003, Cobbs led the nation in rushing (152.7 yards per game) and scoring (11.5 points per game), while also ranking in the top six in rushing touchdowns (19) and all-purpose yards (1,771 yards). In his first season as the starting running back, Cobbs set three North Texas single-season rushing records and finished in the top five in five different career records. He broke the school record for consecutive 100-yard rushing games, and broke Sun Belt records for rushing yards in a season, rushing yards in a game, as well as rushing touchdowns in a game and longest rush from scrimmage. Cobbs was the only back in the nation to have four 200-yard rushing games that season. The Mean Green were 9-1 when he rushed for more than 100 yards. He also set the Sun Belt single-season mark and the school record with his 1,680 total yards. Cobbs was the first running back at North Texas to lead the nation in rushing and scoring.

In 2004, Cobbs battled numerous injuries in the early part of the season, and after the first few games he took a medical redshirt.

As a senior in 2005, Cobbs was a first team all-Sun Belt Conference running back after leading the conference in total rushing yards with 1,154. Cobbs also led the conference in all-purpose yards with an average of 135.1 yards per game, which is 14 yards per-game better than his closest competitor. In Sun Belt games, Cobbs led the league in rushing yards per game, averaging 127.9—nearly 20 yards per-game more than his closest competitor. His 159.0 all-purpose yards per game against league and was the third-best total in conference history. Cobbs averaged 155 yards rushing in his last four games of the year, including a season-best 197 yards and three touchdowns against Louisiana-Lafayette. He was named the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Week following his performance in the season-opening win against Middle Tennessee State.

Cobbs finished his career at North Texas as the school's all-time leading rusher with 4,050 yards—making him only the 69th player in NCAA history to eclipse the 4,000-yard rushing mark. Cobbs held North Texas and Sun Belt Conference career records for rushing yards (4,050), rushing touchdowns (36), and all-purpose yards (5,255) until 2011, when he was eclipsed in all of those records by Lance Dunbar. He still owns the school record for rushing attempts with 818. He averaged 5.0 yards per carry over his career and was one of only two running backs ever at North Texas to have two 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He also completed 2-of-3 passes with two touchdowns for a career pass efficiency rating of 407.1. Cobbs averaged 21.0 yards on 35 kickoff returns during his career.

Cobbs was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America second team after compiling a 3.3 cumulative GPA during his career. He earned two undergraduate degrees at North Texas—a Bachelor's in applied arts and Science and a Bachelor's in sociology.

Professional career

New England Patriots

Cobbs was originally signed as an undrafted free agent out of North Texas by the New England Patriots on May 15, 2006. Battling for a roster spot, Cobbs led the Patriots in rushing during the preseason with 188 yards and three touchdowns on 38 attempts, while also caught seven passes for 115 yards and a score. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers for an undisclosed draft pick on September 1.

Pittsburgh Steelers
Cobbs was inactive for the team's first regular season game against the Miami Dolphins, as he was still learning the playbook. A day after the game took place, Cobbs was released by the team. After he cleared waivers, Cobbs refused to sign to the Steelers' practice squad and instead was added to the practice squad of the Dolphins.

Miami Dolphins
Cobbs remained on the practice squad of the Miami Dolphins until November 27 when he was promoted to the active roster. The team was in need of depth at the running back position after starter Ronnie Brown suffered a broken hand in a Thanksgiving Day contest against the Detroit Lions just a few days prior to Cobbs' promotion. He went on to play on special teams for three games before being inactive for the final two after Brown's return.

Cobbs remained under contract with the Dolphins in 2007, and earned a backup job in training camp. He did not see action until game 7 (October 21), against the New England Patriots when Brown was once again injured. In that game, Cobbs temporarily replaced Jesse Chatman, who had replaced the injured Brown before suffering an injury of his own. Cobbs made the most of his playing time, running for 14 yards and a touchdown on five carries and caught one pass for nine yards. The touchdown was the first of his NFL career.

Cobbs was third-string in 2008 behind Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. When his limited opportunity to play arrived, he often shined. He displayed play-making abilities. A certainly bright game for Cobbs was against the Texans; he grabbed 3 passes for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns. One being a 58-yard run and the other an 80-yard run. Cobbs finished the year with 12 rushes for 88 yards and one touchdown. He averaged 7.3 yds/att. He received for 19 catches for 275 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 14.5 yds/rec.

In Week 5 of the 2009 season, Cobbs tore a knee ligament after being brought down on a reverse wildcat run versus rival the New York Jets. Lex Hilliard is expected to take his place as the third string running back.

For the 2010 season Patrick Cobbs was selected as one of four captains, along with OT Jake Long, LB Karlos Dansby, and S Yeremiah Bell.

New Orleans Saints
He signed with the New Orleans Saints on August 16, 2011 after Joique Bell was sidelined with a knee injury. Cobbs was released on September 12, 2011 after being placed on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury suffered in the final preseason game.

See also
 List of NCAA major college football yearly scoring leaders

References

External links
Miami Dolphins bio
New England Patriots bio
North Texas Mean Green bio

1983 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Shawnee, Oklahoma
Players of American football from Oklahoma
American football running backs
North Texas Mean Green football players
New England Patriots players
Pittsburgh Steelers players
Miami Dolphins players
New Orleans Saints players

Patrick Cobbs


Agricultural revolution could mean:
Neolithic Revolution (about 10,000 years ago), which formed the basis for human civilization to develop. It is commonly referred to as the 'First Agricultural Revolution'.
Green Revolution (1945-), the use of industrial fertilizers and new crops greatly increases the world's agricultural output.

There are also several more local events related to agriculture and called revolutions:

Muslim Agricultural Revolution (10th century), which led to increased urbanization and major changes in agriculture and economy during the Islamic Golden Age.
British Agricultural Revolution (18th century), which spurred urbanization and consequently helped launch the Industrial Revolution.
Scottish Agricultural Revolution (18th century), which led to the "Lowland Clearances."

Agricultural revolution


Paula Ann Zahn (; born February 24, 1956) is an American journalist and newscaster who has been an anchor at ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, and CNN. She currently produces and hosts the true crime documentary series On the Case with Paula Zahn on the Investigation Discovery channel.

Early life and career
Zahn was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to a schoolteacher/artist mother and an IBM sales executive father. She initially grew up in Canton, Ohio, with her parents and three siblings. The family relocated to Naperville, Illinois, as her father's job required them to move frequently. She once joked that "IBM" really stood for "I've been moved" . She attended Washington Junior High School in Naperville and later graduated from Naperville Central High School in 1974. Zahn also competed in several beauty pageants, making the semi-finals of the 1973 Miss Teenage America Pageant. She continued her education at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, on a cello scholarship, and received firsthand knowledge of the news business by working as an intern at WBBM-TV in Chicago. She graduated in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. Zahn then spent the next 10 years working at local stations around the country, including WFAA-TV in Dallas, KFMB-TV in San Diego, KPRC-TV in Houston, WHDH-TV (then WNEV) in Boston, and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

National career

ABC

In 1987, Zahn accepted an offer to work at ABC News, initially anchoring The Health Show, a weekend program on health and medical issues. Within a few months she was co-anchoring World News This Morning, the network's early morning newscast, and anchoring news segments on Good Morning America as well as substituting for co-host Joan Lunden.

CBS

In 1990, Zahn was offered a job at CBS News, which she took beginning on February 26, 1990, co-anchoring CBS This Morning with Harry Smith.  During this time, she helped cover the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France with Tim McCarver and the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, as well as covering the Waco siege.  Both she and Smith left after changes were made at the morning show in 1996 with their last day being on June 14, 1996.  Zahn then went on to work as anchor of the Saturday edition of the CBS Evening News, as well as substituting for Dan Rather during the week, and contributing reports to 48 Hours, Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel, and CBS News Sunday Morning.

Fox News Channel

In 1999, after nine years at CBS News, Zahn moved to the world of cable news, joining Fox News Channel (FNC), where she anchored Fox Report, the network's nightly newscast. Months later, she helped launch her own prime time news program, The Edge with Paula Zahn.

CNN
Zahn began her work at CNN on September 11, 2001, joining anchor Aaron Brown in the coverage of that day's terrorist attacks as her reaction to the events she witnessed. Although not scheduled to appear on a CNN program, which was still in development, she began a regular morning news shift the next day. By January, she launched her CNN morning news program, American Morning with Paula Zahn.

In 2003, during the Iraq War, Zahn moved back to prime time, hosting a two-hour program labeled Live from the Headlines which offered continuing coverage of the war and other events. Anderson Cooper took over the first of the two hours by early summer, and by September, her show, Paula Zahn Now, premiered.

On July 24, 2007, she announced her resignation from CNN. The final broadcast of Paula Zahn Now aired August 2, 2007.  The announcement came less than a day after CNN hired Campbell Brown, the former co-host of Weekend Today. Initially, guest hosts essentially continued Zahn's program under the title Out in the Open. This was later replaced by election campaign coverage and ultimately Brown's program, Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull.

According to Zahn's goodbye letter penned to CNN staff, she stated "I plan to take a break between jobs and catch my breath before I take on my next role."  In a New York Times interview, which was conducted right after the announcement of her resignation broke, Zahn told Jacques Steinberg that "she had no idea what she would be doing next".

WNET

On November 9, 2008, Zahn became the new co-host of SundayArts on New York City PBS stations WNET and WLIW. The program, which covers the fine arts scene in New York City, is now called NYC-ARTS and airs Thursday evenings.

Investigation Discovery
On January 9, 2009, Discovery Communications announced that Zahn, along with producing partners Scott Weinberger and Scott Sternberg, had entered into a development deal for a true crime documentary series.  On the Case with Paula Zahn premiered October 18, 2009 on the Investigation Discovery cable channel.

PBS
On New Year's Day 2011, Zahn hosted the annual "From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration" episode of the anthology series Great Performances on PBS.

Personal life
Zahn has three children, Austin, Jared, and Haley, with Richard Cohen, a New York City real estate developer. Cohen is Jewish and they are raising the children in his faith. She is not related to actor Steve Zahn.

The couple was in the news in 2004 when the nest of the well-publicized red-tailed hawk Pale Male  was removed from their Manhattan co-op building.  Cohen, president of the co-op board, supported the removal; in 2001 Zahn had spoken approvingly of the hawk and its habit of feeding on rats and pigeons.

In April 2007, Zahn announced she was divorcing Cohen after 20 years of marriage. That same year, Zahn filed a lawsuit against Cohen alleging he had mismanaged 20 years' worth of her career earnings. The lawsuit was dismissed by the New York state court, ruling it "is not a commercial case, rather, it is a matrimonial dispute masquerading as a commercial dispute."

Zahn played cello at Carnegie Hall in May 1992 with the New York Pops orchestra. She is also an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, and has been an active advocate for issues of cancer awareness in general, and breast cancer in particular.

In May 2003, Zahn received an honorary degree from Dowling College of Oakdale, New York.

References

External links

CNN interview December 23, 2005 with Shane Sellers
Video of Zahn as co-host of public media's NYC-ARTS

1956 births
Living people
American broadcast news analysts
60 Minutes correspondents
20th-century American journalists
21st-century American journalists
20th-century American women
21st-century American women
American cellists
American women television journalists
CBS News people
CNN people
Journalists from Ohio
People associated with true crime
People from Canton, Ohio
People from Naperville, Illinois
People from Omaha, Nebraska
Stephens College alumni
Television anchors from Boston
Television anchors from Houston
Television anchors from Los Angeles
Television anchors from San Diego

Paula Zahn


A liquid crystal thermometer, temperature strip or plastic strip thermometer is a type of thermometer that contains heat-sensitive (thermochromic) liquid crystals in a plastic strip that change colour to indicate different temperatures.
Liquid crystals possess the mechanical properties of a liquid, but have the optical properties of a single crystal. Temperature changes can affect the colour of a liquid crystal, which makes them useful for temperature measurement. The resolution of liquid crystal sensors is in the  range. Disposable liquid crystal thermometers have been developed for home and medical use. For example if the thermometer is black and it is put onto someone's forehead it will change colour depending on the temperature of the person.

There are two stages in the liquid crystals:
the hot nematic stage is the closest to the liquid phase where the molecules are freely moving around and only partly ordered.
the cold smectic stage is closest to a solid phase where the molecules align themselves into tightly wound chiral matrices.

Liquid crystal thermometers portray temperatures as colors and can be used to follow temperature changes caused by heat flow. They can be used to observe that heat flows by conduction, convection, and radiation.

In medical applications, liquid crystal thermometers may be used to read body temperature by placing them against the forehead. These are safer than a mercury-in-glass thermometer, and may be advantageous in some patients, but do not always give an exact result, except for the analytic liquid crystal thermometer which shows the exact temperature between .

Liquid crystal thermometers are also commonly used in aquariums, in homebrewing, and in mood rings.

The Liquid crystal thermometer was invented by Bob Parker in California, one of many of the inventor's thermochromic applications patented in the 1970s.

References

Thermometers
Thermochromism
Liquid crystals

Liquid crystal thermometer


John Graham (17541 November 1817) was an 18th-century Scottish painter and teacher of art.

Life

Graham was born in Edinburgh and apprenticed to a coach-painter in Edinburgh, George MacFarquhar. He next moved to London and became a coach-painter. He started studying at the Royal Academy Schools and exhibited there between 1780 and 1797. Graham also painted an Othello and Desdemona for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery.

Graham was nominated four times between 1793 and 1797 for associate membership to the Royal Academy, but failed to win election. Duncan Thomson, in his article in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, paraphrases Joseph Farington, who told Thomas Lawrence, that "Graham was a candidate he would certainly not vote for, in what he considered a very weak field". Thomson speculates that these failures prompted Graham to consider returning to Scotland.

Through the influence of the banker Sir William Forbes, Graham acquired the position of "public Teacher of Art" in Edinburgh in 1798. The painter Benjamin West, who had called Graham "an ingenious man", "felt he was ideally suited for the position". The board of trustees for fisheries, manufactures, and improvements, forerunners of the trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland, had established a drawing academy in 1760 to improve industrial design. Before officially starting his labors, Graham held a public exhibition of his work in Edinburgh. The academy followed the system of the Royal Academy Schools, but did not include drawing from life. Concerned that he was "perceived only as a teacher of artists sponsored by the board", Graham took on several private students, girls at one time of the day and boys at another. Twelve lessons cost two guineas.

According to Armstrong, Betterton, Johnstone, Stephen, and Thomson, he was an "inspirational and effective" teacher and "a number of important nineteenth-century Scottish artists benefited from his teachingDavid Wilkie, William Allan, John Burnet, Alexander Fraser, Walter Geikie, John Watson Gordon, John Henning, and William Home Lizars. In 1859, the Royal Scottish Academy bought his The Disobedient Prophet, writing of Graham that he was a "Master to whom Scottish Art had been considerably indebted". The painting hung in the National Gallery of Scotland until 1896, when it disappeared. Graham painted portraits, including one of the actress Tryphosa Jane Wallis, and Alderman John Boydell. He also painted animal pictures, such as the series of lion and tiger paintings he made of the menagerie in the Tower of London.

Graham died at his home "'after a severe and lingering illness'" on 1 November 1817.

Works
 Daniel in the lions' den (1780)
 Una (1783)
 Ceres in Search of Proserpine (1786)
 The Escape of Mary, Queen of Scots, from Lochleven Castle, presented by Alderman Boydell with a portrait of himself, also of Graham, at Stationers' Hall
 Mary, the Morning before her Execution (1792)
 King David instructing Salomon (1797)
 The Funeral of General Fraser at Saratoga
 The Disobedient Prophet, National Gallery of Scotland

Notes

References

 Thomson, Duncan. "John Graham". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. 2004. Retrieved on 8 February 2008.

Further reading

External links

1817 deaths
1754 births
18th-century Scottish painters
Scottish male painters
19th-century Scottish painters
19th-century Scottish male artists
Academics of the Trustees' Academy

John Graham (painter)


Gregory John Aplin (born 9 October 1952), an Australian politician, was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Albury for the Liberal Party from 2003 until 2019.

Early life and background
Aplin was born in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, on 9 October 1952. He studied at the University of Cape Town, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours. He worked for the Rhodesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before doing national service with the British South Africa Police between 1975 and 1977, during which time he was awarded the General Service Medal. He returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was given a three years posting to Sydney. Aplin was acting Director of the Rhodesia Information Service in Sydney when it was closed by the new Mugabe government in May 1980. In 1980 he then returned to the newly independent Zimbabwe to work for the government in regional development, and arranging state visits.

Greg Aplin has been married to his wife Jill since 1975 and together they have four children. Aplin is a Rotarian and has been awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship, given to members who donate US$1,000 to Rotary International.

Television
Aplin moved to Australia in 1981 and began working in television. He worked in Wollongong, Orange, and Albury, where he became station manager of Prime Television AMV-4, a post he held for 13 years. He won a Logie Award as the Executive Producer of a television programme. In 2001, when Australia's regional television stations were centralising, he became the administration manager for the University of New South Wales School of Rural Health in Albury and Wagga Wagga. A year later he became a researcher and media adviser for Member for Farrer, Sussan Ley.

Political career
When Ian Glachan announced his retirement, Aplin was preselected as the Liberal Party's candidate for the seat in the 2003 state election. He received more than 16,826 first preference votes, out polling the nearest candidate, Albury City Councillor and Independent candidate, Clare Douglas, who received 8,595 first preference votes. Another two Albury City councillors polled third and fourth, with Olympian Rob Ballard receiving 5,267 votes, and Labor Party candidate Nico Matthews receiving 4,710 votes.

Aplin was appointed to the Standing Committee on Natural Resource Management in Public Affairs Committee two months after his election to the Parliament, and is the parliamentary ambassador for Keep Australia Beautiful. He was appointed to the Public Accounts Committee in October 2005. In March 2006, Peter Debnam (who was Opposition leader at the time) promoted Aplin to the Opposition front bench as the Shadow Minister for Housing. Aplin was re-elected at the 2007 and 2011 general elections. Prior to the 2011 general election, Aplin held the shadow portfolio of Mental Health and Aboriginal Affairs under Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell. However, Aplin was not selected to join the O'Farrell ministry, and remained on the backbench under Premiers Mike Baird and Gladys Berejiklian. He retired at the 2019 election.

References

External links
 Liberal Party of Australia NSW Division – Legislative Assembly – Profile: Greg Aplin
 NSW Young Liberals Profile

1952 births
Living people
Zambian people of British descent
White Rhodesian people
Zambian people of English descent
Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
University of Cape Town alumni
British South Africa Police officers
Zimbabwean emigrants to Australia
Zimbabwean exiles
21st-century Australian politicians

Greg Aplin


Ebba Grön was a Swedish punk band formed in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1977. Ebba Grön consisted of Joakim Thåström (lead vocals, guitar), Gunnar Ljungstedt (drums) and Lennart Eriksson (bass guitar, backing vocals). Thåström, Ljungstedt and Eriksson were also known as Pimme, Gurra and Fjodor. After the release of their second album in 1981, they were joined by a fourth member, Anders Sjöholm, also known as Stry Terrarie, on keyboard. The group was disbanded on 21 February 1983.

One of the most famous songs they recorded is a cover version of "Den ena handen vet vad den andra gör" by the Swedish progg band, Blå Tåget. Renamed "Staten och kapitalet", the song expresses an anti-capitalist sentiment about how the state (staten) and the capitalist owned corporations (kapitalet) control and enslave the working classes.

History
During a December 1977 party in Rågsved, a working-class suburb of Stockholm, Thåström, Gurra, and Fjodor formed a band called The Haters. A few days later they changed the name to Ebba Grön after the codeword used by the police in Operation Leo.

One of the first songs performed by Ebba Grön was the controversial Skjut en snut (Shoot a cop), which was never officially recorded. They released their first single Antirock on April 21, 1978. The band bought all the 500 copies themselves and sold them in the streets. After a concert at Långholmsparken, which was recorded by the national radio, they were contacted by the Mistlur record label and offered a contract and to re-release the single.

Ebba Grön started a hectic period of touring all over Sweden, during which they also released two more singles. In 1978, the time had come for their album debut We're Only In It For The Drugs, with songs about the tough, yet boring, lives of young people in working-class suburbs. The anarchist lyrics were very controversial at the time, and the lyrics of Beväpna er (Arm yourselves)—about taking up arms against the government, the bourgeoisie, and the Swedish royal family—could not be printed on the cover. The band also started to get a reputation for troublesome gigs with vandalism and fights. At one gig the band was attacked by Neo-Nazis; Fjodor used his bass to fight them off.

Ebba Grön also covered "White Riot" by The Clash and "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf (which also was recorded in studio) at some of their gigs.

In 1980, Ebba Grön released a single that would become their most famous song, a cover of Blå Tåget's Den ena handen vet vad den andra gör (The One Hand Knows What the Other One is Doing), renamed Staten och kapitalet (The State and the Capital), with  anti-capitalist political lyrics. Their second album Kärlek & Uppror (Love and Rebellion) was released the next year, with the focus of the music shifting slightly away from punk. The catchy melodies and Ebba Grön's image as young rebels appealed to both the punk crowd and a wider audience, making the album a big success.

Later that same year the keyboard player Stry was recruited and brought with him new influences. The single Scheisse was released in 1981 parallel with this: Thåström, Gurra, and Stry released a single with the new project Rymdimperiet (The Space Empire), which would later become Imperiet (The Empire).

During the recording of their second album and the tour that followed, the band was followed by Johan Donner, who was making a documentary about the band. Ebba the Movie was released for the big screen in 1982.

Their third album, simply named Ebba Grön, was released in 1982, and the influence of Stry was even more obvious. The band later said they attempted to make a "Rolling Stones-Album"; a cover of the Stones' Happy was recorded but not included on the album. The album had keyboards and horns, and was more melodic than its predecessors. This was a step away from punk.

When Fjodor ended up in jail for four months for refusing to do his military service it was the beginning of the end for Ebba Grön. But, without Fjodor, the band lived on as Rymdimperiet; they released their first album in 1983, now under the name Imperiet. Musically this album continued the development away from punk rock. But Rasera (Destroy), the first Imperiet album, is sometimes considered the last Ebba Grön album. Imperiet got a good start and would be the leading band of the Swedish rock scene throughout the 1980s.

In 2003, shortly after the death of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones (guitarist of The Clash) traveled to Sweden to play a tribute for the recently deceased musician with Ebba Grön.

Discography

LPs
 We're Only in It for the Drugs (1979) No. 21 SWE)
 Kärlek & uppror (1981) No. 5 (SWE)
 Ebba Grön (1982) No. 1 (SWE)

EPs and singles
 Antirock (Profit/Ung & Sänkt) (1978)
 Prorock (Tyst För Fan/Mona Tumbas Slim Club) (1978)
 Total-Pop (Vad Ska Du Bli?/Häng Gud) (1979) No. 18 SWE)
 Ung & Kåt/Staten & Kapitalet (1980) No. 11 (SWE)
 Scheisse/Tyna bort (1981) No. 3 (SWE)

Compilations
 Samlade singlar (1983) No. 17 (SWE)
 Ebba Grön 1978-1982 (1993) No. 17 (SWE)
 Ebba Grön Live (1998) No. 4 (SWE)
 Boxen (1998) - 4 CDs with the complete works
 Ebba Grön samlingen (2005) - Double CD No. 14 (SWE)

Film
 Ebba the Movie (1982)

References

External links
Thåström official internet page
notfound.se - Pictures of Ebba Grön from 1979/1980
bildrulle.nu - Pictures of Dag Vag and Ebba Grön from October 20, 1980
bildrulle.nu - Pictures of Ebba Grön and Raketerna from March, 1981

Swedish punk rock groups
Musical groups established in 1977
Musical groups disestablished in 1983
Swedish musical quartets

Ebba Grön