was a colonel in the Imperial Japanese Army and a commander of Japanese troops during the strategically significant Guadalcanal campaign in the Pacific theater of World War II. He was posthumously promoted to major general.

Biography
Oka was a native of Wakayama Prefecture and a graduate of the 24th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1912. As a lieutenant, he served in the IJA 7th Infantry Regiment, followed by the IJA 77th Infantry Regiment. In 1924, he received specialized training in armored warfare, but remained in the infantry all of his career. He was promoted to major in 1930, lieutenant colonel in 1935 and colonel in March 1939.

In June 1939, Oka became commander of the 4th sector of the 8th Border Patrol Force under the Kwantung Army guarding the Manchukuo border against the Soviet Union. In June 1940, he was assigned command of the IJA 124th Infantry Regiment, which participated in combat operations in the Second Sino-Japanese War. He was then scouted by General Kiyotake Kawaguchi for the proposed invasion of Port Moresby in New Guinea and reassigned to the southwest Pacific front in 1942, landing on Guadalcanal together with the forces commanded by Colonel Kiyonao Ichiki.

Oka commanded a portion of Japanese troops from the 35th Infantry Brigade in a losing effort during the Battle of Edson's Ridge in September, 1942.  He later successfully defended the Matanikau River area during the September, 1942 Matanikau action.  During the Battle for Henderson Field, he led the 1,200 troops of the 124th Infantry Regiment across the Matanikau and attacked U.S. Marine defenses early on October 26, 1942, but his attack was thrown back with heavy losses to his men, contributing to the overall decisive Japanese defeat in this battle.

At the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse in January 1943, Oka and the 1st and 3rd Battalions from the 124th unsuccessfully attempted to defend a terrain feature called the Sea Horse from American attacks.  After losing possession of the feature and surrounding areas, Oka and his surviving troops escaped to friendly lines.  Japanese records indicate that he was killed soon after this, but some sources suggest he may have been evacuated with the rest of the Japanese forces during Operation Ke and survived the campaign. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of major general.

References

External links

Footnotes

1890 births
1943 deaths
People from Wakayama Prefecture
Japanese military personnel killed in World War II
Japanese generals

Akinosuke Oka


The grey-hooded parakeet (Psilopsiagon aymara), also known as the Aymara parakeet or Sierra parakeet, is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae. It is found in northwestern Argentina and Bolivia.
Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland.

Description
The grey-hooded parakeet is a small, slender parakeet growing to a length of about . The upper parts are green and the flanks and underwing coverts are greenish-yellow. The forehead and crown are brownish-grey, and the chin, throat and breast are whitish-grey, sometimes with a bluish tinge at the side of the breast. The belly is green with a bluish tinge. The upper side of the long, narrow, pointed tail is green and the underside is grey. The beak is flesh-coloured, the iris is brown and the legs and feet are brownish-grey. The sexes are similar in appearance, but the male often has a more vivid grey breast, and immature birds have shorter tails.

Distribution and habitat
The grey-hooded parakeet is native to the southern Andean Yungas, its range extending from southern Bolivia to northern Argentina, and possibly the northern fringes of Chile. It is a bird of arid shrubby or wooded habitats, wooded ravines, and dense shrubby areas near villages or agricultural land. Its altitudinal range is from about .

Ecology
The grey-hooded parakeet is a gregarious bird, forming small flocks of about twenty birds, several of which groups may gather together at watering places. The flocks roam the countryside in rapid low, undulating flight, sometimes resting on top of or among the branches of shrubs and small trees, making twittering and warbling sounds rather similar to those made by a barn swallow. They feed in low vegetation, consuming grass seeds, seeds of plants in the aster family, berries and fruits, also foraging on the ground for fallen seeds and fruits. Breeding takes place in November. The nest is situated in a hole excavated in an earth bank, in a crevice, in a hole in a cactus or sometimes in a ruined building. Several nests are sometimes grouped together semi-colonially. Clutches are usually of four or five eggs.

Status
The  grey-hooded parakeet is a fairly common bird and has a very extensive range. No particular threats to this bird are known and the population is believed to be stable. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".

References

grey-hooded parakeet
grey-hooded parakeet
Birds of the Southern Andean Yungas
grey-hooded parakeet
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Grey-hooded parakeet


Sylhet Protidin is a major daily newspaper in Bangladesh, published from Sylhet in the Bengali language. In 2007, the paper's editor, Ahmed Noor, was arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion and allegedly tortured.  A fact finding report by human rights group Odhikar suggests that para-military forces threatened to close the newspaper down in 2007.

Notes

Bengali-language newspapers published in Bangladesh
Daily newspapers published in Bangladesh
Newspapers published in Sylhet

Sylhet Protidin


Klingenmünster Abbey () was a Benedictine monastery in the village of Klingenmünster in Bad Bergzabern, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

History
All the abbey's documents were destroyed in the fire of 840, leaving its foundation and earlier history obscure. It seems likely that it began as a foundation of Dagobert I for monks under the Rule of Saint Columbanus in 626. It was certainly in existence by 780 under Fleido as abbot, later Bishop of Speyer. In 840 the monastery burnt down and the request of the monks for funds for its re-building, addressed to Otkar, Archbishop of Mainz, previously abbot of Klingenmünster, constitutes the first direct documentary evidence.

It was an Imperial abbey by the time of Hatto I, in the 9th century.

In the 11th century a monk of Klingenmünster, Gottschalk, brought the abbey to prominence by his appointment as notary to Emperor Henry IV in the Imperial chancery between 1071 and 1084.

In the 12th century Abbot Stephan (in office from 1094 to 1114), originally from Ebersheim Abbey and also abbot of Weissenburg, Selz and Limburg Abbeys before in addition becoming abbot of Klingenmünster, significantly increased the abbey's possessions by attracting donations and grants of land and by advantageous land purchases, which in turn increased the abbey's standing and influence.

In 1115 Adalbert I, Archbishop-Elector of Mainz (and brother of Frederick, Count of Saarbrücken), freed the abbey of all royal, episcopal and advocatial services and impositions. This seems however to have been with a view to removing obstacles to the easy advancement of Adalbert's own kindred within the abbey. By the beginning of the 13th century most of its territories and possessions had been transferred into the hands of his relatives, the Counts of Leiningen and Zweibrücken.

In 1223 Pope Honorius III placed the abbey under direct papal protection, but its position was irretrievably lost. It now served as a place of accommodation for the younger sons of the local nobility, and by the latter half of the 15th century had lost any semblance of discipline or adherence to any Rule. Repeated warnings from various bishops failed to bring about the necessary reforms or halt the decline.

By 1490 the community contained only four members and on 18 November 1490 Pope Innocent VIII ordered its conversion into a secular collegiate foundation (Stift). The last abbot, Eucharius von Weingarten, became the first prior.

It suffered considerable loss in the time of Johann, the third prior (from 1499 to 1506) from a Bavarian feud and the Landshut War of Succession, and in order to stave off financial ruin much of its remaining property had to be mortgaged. Despite an Imperial writ of protection, the Stift was sacked in the German Peasants' War of 1525 by the peasantry of Pleisweiler and Oberhofen. Finally, when the Reformation was introduced into the Electorate of the Palatinate between 1565 and 1567, Klingenmünster was secularised and its few remaining assets transferred to the Elector.

The premises were demolished except for the church, which remains as the parish church of St. Michael and was re-modelled in the 18th century in the Baroque style.

Notes

Sources
 Festschrift des katholischen Stiftspfarramts St. Michael, Klingenmünster, 1995

External links
Klingenmünster Village official website

Benedictine monasteries in Germany
Monasteries in Rhineland-Palatinate

de:Reichskloster Klingenmünster

Klingenmünster Abbey


A trough is a box-like drinking vessel for farm animals.  Other senses of the word refer to things that are lower than their surroundings, like a trough:

 Trough (physics)
 Trough (meteorology);
 Trough (geology);
 a trough is also a noticeable and statistically recordable decline in an economy or graph.
 in chemistry it can be a Langmuir Blodgett Trough

See also trow.

Trough


Boules (, ), or jeu de boules, is a collective name for a wide range of games similar to bowls and bocce in which the objective is to throw or roll heavy balls as closely as possible to a small target ball, called the jack. 'Boules' itself is a French loanword that usually refers to the game especially played in France.

Boules-type games are traditional and popular in many European countries and are also popular in some former French colonies in Africa and Asia.  Boules games are often played in open spaces (town squares and parks) in villages and towns.  Dedicated playing areas for boules-type games are typically large, level, rectangular courts made of flattened earth, gravel, or crushed stone, enclosed in wooden rails or back boards. To win, a team must reach 15 points, with a few exceptions.

Boules games in history

As early as the 6th century BC the ancient Greeks are recorded to have played a game of tossing coins, then flat stones, and later stone balls, called spheristics, trying to have them go as far as possible. The ancient Romans modified the game by adding a target that had to be approached as closely as possible. This Roman variation was brought to Provence by Roman soldiers and sailors. A Roman sepulchre (now in the Campana Collection in the Louvre) shows children playing this game, stooping down to measure the points.

After the Romans, the stone balls were replaced by wooden balls. In the Middle Ages, Erasmus referred to the game as  in Latin, but it became commonly known as boules (i.e. 'balls'), and it was played throughout Europe. King Henry III of England banned the playing of the game by his archers – he wanted them to be practicing archery, not playing boules.  In the 14th century, Charles IV and Charles V of France forbade the sport to commoners; only in the 17th century was the ban lifted.

By the 19th century, in England the game had become bowls or "lawn bowling".  In France it was known as  and was played throughout the country. The French artist Meissonnier made two paintings showing people playing the game, and Honoré de Balzac described a match in .

In the South of France, the game evolved into  (or ), in which players rolled their boules or ran three steps before throwing a boule. The game was extremely popular in France in the second half of the 19th century (the first official club was established in France in 1854).  It was played informally in villages all over Provence, usually on squares of land in the shade of plane trees.  Matches of  around the start of the 20th century are memorably described in the memoirs of novelist Marcel Pagnol.

In 1910, an offshoot of  called  pétanque was developed in the town of La Ciotat, in Provence.  It eventually became the dominant boules sport in France, and is widely played in other European countries.

Types
Boules games may be sub-divided into two categories based on typical throwing technique:
 games where the balls are rolled (for example, bocce)
 games where the balls are thrown (for example, pétanque, bocce volo)
Boules games may also be subdivided into two other categories based on typical throwing technique:
 games where there is a "run up" to the throw (for example, boule lyonnaise, bocce volo)
 games where there is no "run up" to the throw (for example, pétanque)
Alternatively, boules games may be subdivided into categories based on the structure and material of the ball:
 games where the balls are solid and made out of wood, or a wood-like plastic, composite, or epoxy resin similar to billiard balls (for example, bocce)
 games where the balls are hollow and made out of metal, typically steel or bronze (for example, pétanque, bocce volo)
 games where the balls are stuffed and made out of leather or some similar soft material (boccia, "soft pétanque")
Alternatively, boules games may be subdivided into categories based on the shape of the ball:
 games where the balls are spherical (most boules games)
 games where the balls are not spherical, but have a shape bias designed to cause the ball to travel a curved path (bowls)
There may be other variations as well, for instance in the way the ball is launched, in the dimensions of the playing area, whether obstacles (such as trees) are considered in-bounds or out-of-bounds, and whether it is legal to play balls off of enclosing boards or obstacles.
 Balls are typically thrown underhand (as in softball) rather than overhand (as in baseball).  In games where the balls are rolled, the delivery is typically done with the palm of the hand up, whereas in games where the balls are thrown, the delivery is typically done palm down.  A palm-down delivery can give a thrown ball backspin, which helps to keep it from rolling away from the spot to which it has been thrown.
 Bocce, a rolling game, is played on a smooth, prepared court with markers and sideboards; the sideboards are a recognized part of the game and shots may be bounced off of the sideboards.  In contrast, pétanque, a throwing game, can be played on almost any relatively flat, unprepared outdoor surface.  Sideboards are not a recognized part of the game — although an out-of-play line (or "dead boule line") is.
Finally, some boules games (bocce, pétanque) began as variations of earlier games, deliberately created and designed to accommodate the needs of players with physical disabilities.

Such variations produce a wide variety of boules-type games played all over the world.

Terminology
  is a French word for 'ball'.
  (plural: bocce) is an Italian word for 'ball'
  (roughly, 'flying' or 'in flight') is derived from the Italian verb  meaning 'to fly'
 The small wooden target ball is usually called the jack in English,  ('target') or  ('piglet') in French, or  ('little ball' or 'bullet') in Italian.
In Italian bocce, balls may be thrown in three ways: ,  and .
 A  shot or  is the way of pointing a ball by rolling the ball as close as possible to the pallino.
 A  or  shot is the way of knocking an opponent's ball away that is very close to the pallino by rolling very fast. The player is allowed to make a run of two to four steps before delivering the ball.
 A  shot is the way of hitting an opponent's ball that is very close to the pallino by throwing through the air and hitting directly the opponent's boule (or the pallino), with the restriction that the ball may first strike the ground within 50 cm of the target.

Balls
There is a wide variation in the size and materials of the balls used in boules-type games.

Originally, in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, the balls were probably made of stone.

Gallic tribes, which were introduced to boules by the Romans, used wooden boules.  In 19th-century France, boules were typically made of a very hard wood, boxwood root.

In the mid-19th century,  techniques were developed for the mass production of iron nails.  Following this technological improvement, boxwood balls studded with nails (boules cloutées) were introduced in an effort to improve the durability of the balls.  This eventually led to the development of balls that were completely covered in nails, creating a ball that appeared almost to be made of metal.

By the 1920s, the growing popularity of boules in France created a demand that could not be satisfied using the available supplies of natural boxwood root, which were beginning to disappear.  Paul Courtieu and Vincent Miles had the idea of manufacturing a ball made entirely of metal. Avoiding steel-based alloys (which were too hard and rust-prone) they developed an alloy based on aluminum and bronze, and (in 1923) patented a metal ball made of two welded-together hemispheres.  A year later, in 1924, they filed a patent for a ball that was cast in a single piece -- La Boule intégrale.   Louis Tarchier and Jean Blanc are generally credited with developing, around 1925, the process by which virtually all metal boules are manufactured today—steel blanks are pressed into hollow hemispheres which are then soldered together and machined to make a hollow steel boule.

Today, some boules sports (e.g. bocce) still use wooden (or epoxy composite) balls, while others (e.g. pétanque) use metal balls.  The wooden balls used in bocce tend to be bigger than the smaller metal balls used in pétanque.

Games
The same game can be known by different names in different languages and locations or the same name can be used for different local variations of a game.

The category of boules games includes the following:
 Bocce is the ancestral sport of most boules games.  It is a rolling game using wooden balls and a run-up throwing technique.
 Bocce volo (boule lyonnaise) is a throwing game using metal balls and a rather complicated run-up.
 Boccia is a form of bocce adapted for players who use wheelchairs and has been part of the Paralympic Games since the 1984 Summer Paralympics.
 Bolas criollas is a bocce-like game played in Venezuela
 Bowls or "lawn bowls" is a British game similar to bocce
 Jeu provençal or boule lyonnaise, similar to bocce volo
 Pétanque originally evolved from jeu provençal as an adaptation for a player with a disability affecting the legs. However, it quickly became popular among able-bodied players. It is a throwing game using metal balls, but there is no run-up.  Players' feet must remain firmly on the ground.
 Punto, raffa, volo (note that this is a single name consisting of three comma-separated words) is a type of bocce governed by the Italian Confederazione Boccistica Internazionale (CBI).

International boules organizations
The Confédération Mondiale des Sports de Boules (CMSB) was created (on 21 December 1985 in Monaco) by three international boules organizations for the purpose of lobbying the Olympic committee to make boules sports  part of the summer Olympics. To date, its efforts have been unsuccessful.  However, boccia has been part of the Paralympic Games since the 1984 Summer Paralympics. The organizations that joined together to create the CMSB were the following:
 Confederazione Boccistica Internazionale (CBI) (raffa)
 Fédération Internationale de Boules (FIB) (boule Lyonnaise)
 Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FIPJP) (pétanque)

See also
 Klootschieten
 Varpa
 Curling, essentially a variant of boules played on ice
 Bowls

References

Ball games
Bowling
Throwing sports

Boules


The Old Curiosity Shop is a 1914 British silent drama film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Mai Deacon, Warwick Buckland and Alma Taylor. It was based on the 1841 novel The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens, and was the first of three film adaptations of the story by Bentley. It was made by the Hepworth Company, the leading British film studio before the First World War.

Cast
 Mai Deacon as Little Nell
 Warwick Buckland as Grandfather Trent
 E. Felton as Quilp
 Alma Taylor as Mrs. Quilp
 Jamie Darling as The Single Gentleman
 Willie West as Dick Swiveller
 Billy Rex as Tom Codlin
 S. May as Sampson Brass
 Bert Stowe as Short
 Sydney Locklynne as Jerry
 Moya Nugent as Marchioness
 R. Phillips as Mrs. Jarley

Bibliography
 Giddings, Robert & Sheen, Erica. From Page To Screen: Adaptations of the Classic Novel . Manchester University Press, 5 May 2000
 Mee, John. The Cambridge Introduction to Charles Dickens. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

External links

1914 films
1910s historical drama films
British historical drama films
1910s English-language films
Films directed by Thomas Bentley
British silent feature films
Films based on The Old Curiosity Shop
Films set in England
Films set in London
Films set in the 1840s
Hepworth Pictures films
British black-and-white films
1914 drama films
Silent historical drama films
1910s British films

The Old Curiosity Shop (1914 film)


Aleksander Čeferin (; born 13 October 1967) is a Slovenian lawyer and football administrator. Between 2011 and 2016, he was president of the Football Association of Slovenia. Since September 2016, he has been the president of UEFA.

Early career
After graduating from Ljubljana University's law faculty, Čeferin went to work for his family's law firm, developing a special interest in representing professional athletes and sports clubs. He later took over from his father as company director. His brother Rok is currently Vice President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, to which he was initially elected as a judge in 2019. His sister Petra is an architect and a professor in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Ljubljana.

Administrative roles
In 2005, Čeferin took a formal interest in local football through his work with the executive board of futsal club FC Litija. A member of the executive committee of amateur side FC Ljubljana Lawyers since 2005, he served as a member at NK Olimpija Ljubljana from 2006 to 2011. In 2011, Čeferin was elected president of the Football Association of Slovenia. He also served as a second and third vice-chairman of the UEFA Legal Committee from 2011 to 2016.

President of UEFA

First election
On 14 September 2016, Čeferin was elected the seventh President of UEFA, automatically becoming a vice-president of FIFA in the process. He polled 42 votes at the UEFA Congress in Athens, beating Dutchman Michael van Praag, who received 13 votes. Čeferin's presidential manifesto and campaign centred on the need for UEFA to adopt good governance reforms and his proposals were approved in April 2017 by the 41st Ordinary UEFA Congress in Helsinki. These reforms included the introduction of term limits for UEFA presidents and UEFA Executive Committee members and the provision that Executive Committee candidates must hold an active office (president, vice-president, general secretary, or CEO) with their national association.

Work during first term
One of Čeferin's initial priorities was to work on ways to improve competitive balance in European football and to reduce the gap between the elite clubs and the rest. A series of meetings were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon with key stakeholders to align on a strategy and to explore options available. Čeferin pledged to strengthen the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFPR) measures put in place in 2009, and supervised amendments to the regulations for the new competition cycle 2018–21. Thanks to the FFPR, European clubs reported €600 million in profits in 2017, compared to the €1,700 million combined losses in 2011.

Other statutory changes approved at the congress in Helsinki included the strengthening of the UEFA Governance and Compliance Committee with two additional independent members, and the granting of two full member positions on the UEFA Executive Committee to representatives of the European Club Association (ECA). A representative of the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) was later also added to the UEFA Executive Committee in February 2018 at the 42nd Ordinary UEFA Congress in Bratislava.

As part of his objective to consolidate communication and collaboration with key football stakeholders, Čeferin worked to strengthen ties with members of the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the European Commission. Investment in grassroots and women's association football has also been at the core of Čeferin's mandate. While record grants for the development of football were announced at the 42nd UEFA Ordinary Congress in February 2018, UEFA also pledged to increase the funding of women's football development projects by 50% in October 2018. He also oversaw the signing of UEFA's first-ever sponsorship deal dedicated entirely to women's football in December 2018.

Second election
On 7 February 2019, Čeferin was re-elected by acclamation for a new four-year term at the 43rd Ordinary UEFA Congress in Rome. During his acceptance speech, he reinforced a message of unity to ensure that "European football remains united, that European football remains respectful, respectable and respected, and that European football continues to demonstrate solidarity and bring hope."

Work during second term
When the 2019–20 football season was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UEFA was still able to conclude all of its senior club competitions under the stewardship of Čeferin, as final-eight tournaments were successfully held for the Champions League, Europa League, and Women's Champions League in Portugal, Germany, and Spain, respectively.

Čeferin always refused the creation of an independent Super League and guaranteed it would never happen on his watch, which led to clashes with FIFA president Gianni Infantino. On 19 April 2021, after the European Super League proposal was publicised, Čeferin threatened potential sanctions on the participating members in a press conference in Montreux. On 20 April, Čeferin urged the owners and presidents of the breakaway clubs, especially the English ones, to change their minds. In his speech at the Ordinary 45th UEFA Congress, he said: "Gentlemen, you made a huge mistake. Some will say it is greed, others disdain, arrogance, flippancy or complete ignorance of England's football culture. It does not matter. What does matter is that there is still time to change your mind. Everyone makes mistakes." Following Čeferin's appeal and a number of public protests by football fans in the United Kingdom, most clubs involved in the Super League turned their backs on the project, as it collapsed three days after it had been announced.

Position on 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Čeferin expressed strong condemnation of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, banning Russia from UEFA competitions until further notice. He quickly removed St. Petersburg as the host city of the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final. Čeferin has expressed, however, that until further notice he "sees no reason to remove" its key ally Belarus from international football.

Third election
On 5 April 2023, the 47th UEFA Congress, held in Lisbon, unanimously re-elected Čeferin as UEFA President for the period 2023–27. In his acceptance speech, the president thanked delegates for their support. "It is a great honour but mainly it is a great responsibility towards ... football." Čeferin then echoed the pledge that he delivered after his first election in Athens: "I promise you that I will never forget that we are here because of football. We will put football first, always. I will do whatever I can to protect football together with you."

Work during third term
In April of 2023, UEFA announced the creation of a new Football Board. The advisory body, approved by the UEFA Executive Committee at its last meeting in Lisbon, is designed to give an institutional yet independent voice of experience and expertise on fundamental football-related topics, including the Laws of the Game, refereeing, match calendar, elite youth development and players well-being. Members of the board include Zinedine Zidane, José Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Paolo Maldini, Gareth Southgate and Gareth Bale.

Philanthropy
Čeferin was elected chairman of the UEFA Foundation for Children in November 2017, taking over from former European Commission president José Manuel Barroso. The UEFA Foundation for Children supports humanitarian projects around the world linked to children's rights in areas such as health, education and integration.

Also in November 2017, Čeferin joined the football-led charity movement Common Goal, pledging to give 1% of his salary to the organization's charity projects. About the movement, Čeferin said: "I firmly believe that football has the power to change the world and I was inspired by Juan Mata to join the Common Goal movement. I call upon everyone in the football family – players, coaches, clubs and leagues – to show they care about social responsibility and donate to causes that they believe in."

In March 2022, the members of the board of trustees of the UEFA Foundation for Children and its chairman, Aleksander Čeferin, allocated the 2022 UEFA Foundation Award of €1 million to help children in Ukraine as well as child refugees in neighbouring countries as a result of the war which erupted in the region.

One year later, in February 2023, UEFA and its partner, the UEFA Foundation for Children, made an initial donation of €200,000 to support the vast humanitarian operation assisting victims of two devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria.

Honours
In 2016, Čeferin was voted sports personality of the year by the Slovenian sports newspaper Ekipa SN. This was the ninth edition of the award, which is voted on by newspaper journalists and readers. In January 2019, SportsPro Media included Čeferin in the exclusive list of most influential people in the sports industry. He was also selected as one of the people of the year by World Soccer in its first issue of 2019.

In September 2021, Čeferin was named "2021 Best Executive" by the World Football Summit (WFS) Awards, "in recognition of his exemplary leadership in combating the European Super League and delivering a hugely successful UEFA Euro 2020 tournament in the midst of a global pandemic". The WFS Awards judges acknowledged Čeferin's inspiring management role whilst UEFA faced a uniquely testing time for the organisation and the football world as a whole.

Čeferin's frontline role in defeating the so-called European Super League and opposing a biennial World Cup was formally recognised in November 2021 when he was included on Politico's prestigious annual list of the most influential people in Europe.

In January 2022, Slovenian newspaper Delo declared UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin the Person of the Year for 2021 for "suppressing in a swift action the plan of the richest clubs to establish a super-league and thus destroy the European model of sport".

Personal life
Čeferin is married to his wife Barbara and is a father of three girls. He is fluent in Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, Italian, and English. He grew up supporting Hajduk Split. Čeferin is a 4th Dan black belt in Shotokan Karate. He is also a motorsport aficionado and has crossed the Sahara Desert five times, four by car and once by motorcycle. As a teenager, Čeferin served in the Yugoslav People's Army in 1986 and later served as a Slovenian Territorial Defence soldier in the Slovenian War of Independence in 1991.

References

External links

Čeferin and Partners
uefa.com

1967 births
Living people
Lawyers from Ljubljana
University of Ljubljana alumni
Shotokan practitioners
Football people in Slovenia
Slovenian sports executives and administrators
Presidents of UEFA
Association football executives
Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 4th class
20th-century Slovenian lawyers

Aleksander Čeferin


The Source (also known as The Secret Craft in the United Kingdom and The Surge on DVD in the United States) is a 2001 film directed by S. Lee Taylor and starring Mathew Scollon, Melissa Renée Martin, Edward DeRuiter, and Alice Frank. The story concerns four teenagers who obtain superhuman powers allowing them to control others.

Plot
The film opens by following a moody goth named Reese, who befriends three other outcasts like him: Zack, a rich nerd; Ashley, Zack's sister; and Phoebe, a flower child.  They go to a forest and find a glowing rock. They gain powers from just stepping into its presence, and they use these powers to intimidate and humiliate people who have made fun of them over the years. Zack gains telepathy, Phoebe gains telekinesis/psychokinesis, Ashley gains speech-induced psychic suggestion, and Reese gains the ability to heal or hurt others/himself using his mind.

However, her power goes to Ashley's head; and she begins to take over the school, using mind control. She attacks her brother Zack and tries to kill Phoebe and Reese. They force her to heal Zack, but she forces Phoebe to levitate off the building and drop to the ground. Reese (because of his ability to heal or hurt) takes his own hearing away, when Ashley tries to control him; and he breaks the piece of the rock she had around her neck. He heals Phoebe; but, when they return to destroy the glowing rock, it has disappeared. Ashley is committed to a mental institution; but a former teacher brings her more of the glowing rock. The movie ends with her eyes turning blue, indicating that her powers have returned.

Main cast
Mathew Scollon as Reese Hauser
Melissa Reneé Martin as Ashley Bainbridge
Edward DeRuiter as Zack Bainbridge
Alice Frank as Phoebe Lewis
Johnny Venocur as Jerry Hauser
Ronald Rezac as Principal McKinley
Roger Kristian Jones as Moss Man
Steven Glinn as Raimy
Mark Wood as Mr. Jessup
David Castro as Lane
Paul Taviani as Mr. Bartlett
Anna DeCardi as Miss Dunn
David Anders as Booji (as David Holt)
Cory Travalena as Bane
Aaron Deakins as Pugg

Distribution
The film was released in the United Kingdom, under the title, "The Secret Craft", on March 11, 2002, via Third Millennium, while it retained its original title for its television airings on The Horror Channel. In the United States, the film carried the alternative title, "The Surge", for VHS and DVD, with both formats being made available on September 17, 2002, from Alchemy''.

References

External links

2002 films
2002 science fiction films
The Asylum films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films

The Source (2001 film)


Harry Becker (1865–1928) was an English painter, draughtsman and printmaker from East Anglia.

Biography
Harry Becker was born in Colchester, Essex in 1865. He studied at the Antwerp Academy in Belgium, and in the atelier of Carolus-Duran in Paris. He first went to London in 1913. He then moved to Wenhaston and Darsham.

He illustrated Adrian Bell's Suffolk trilogy (Cordoroy, Silver Ley, and The Cherry Tree).

His daughter Margaret Janet Becker wrote the History of Blythburgh and also regarding Wenhaston Church.

References

David Thompson: Harry Becker 1865 - 1928. Wildlife Art Gallery, Lavenham, 2002

1865 births
1928 deaths
Artists from Colchester
19th-century English painters
English male painters
20th-century English painters
British draughtsmen
English printmakers
20th-century British printmakers
People from Suffolk Coastal (district)
20th-century English male artists
19th-century English male artists

Harry Becker (artist)


Antidisestablishmentarianism is a political position. It means "to keep an established church". An official state church is called the "established" church, so a disestablishmentarian is a person who wants to stop the state church. These people say a state church hurts the freedom of religion. These people say the state should be secular, meaning religion and the country are separate. This idea is called disestablishmentarianism. So antidisestablishmentarianism wants to keep the state church.

It is famous because it is one of the longest words in the English language.

History in England
The word comes from England in the 1800s. In England, Ireland and Wales, there was an official state church called the Anglican Church. Ireland disestablished in 1871, and Wales disestablished in 1920. England still has the Anglican Church as the state church.

In 2014 Nick Clegg, who was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats at the time, said that he thought the Church of England should no longer be the established church. David Cameron, who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said the establishment helps the church and state.

As a word
Antidisestablishmentarianism is one of the longest words in the English language. It has 28 letters and 12 syllables. It is considered to be the longest word, if you do not count technical terms. For example, "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" is a technical term for a lung disease made by people who wanted it to be the longest word.

In pop culture
The word became famous because of a popular television show in the 1950s called The $64,000 Question, where someone spelled it and won. Duke Ellington, a jazz artist, had a song called "You're Just an Old Antidisestablishmentarianismist". Eminem, a rapper, used the word in his song "Almost Famous".

Construction of the word
 establish
 to set up, put in place, or institute
 dis-establish
 to end the established status of something, in this case a state church
 disestablish-ment
 the separation of church and state
 anti-disestablishment
 do not want disestablishment
 antidisestablishment-ary
 about anti-disestablishment
 antidisestablishmentari-an
 someone who does not want disestablishment
 antidisestablishmentarian-ism
 the movement or ideology that does not want disestablishment

Related pages
State religion
Freedom of religion
Secularism
Multiculturalism

References

Long words
Religion in England

Antidisestablishmentarianism


Starting Out is the title of seven series of programmes made for UK schools by ATV and Central from 1973 to 1992. The writers included Catherine Storr, Dave Simpson, Anthony Horowitz and Grazyna Monvid. Comprising 56 episodes in total, the series were repeated until 1994.

The episodes were designed for older pupils who were about to leave school and who would soon be starting out on life as adults. A new series was made roughly every three years and was totally unrelated to that which came before, so that it was self-contained and relevant to the needs of each new generation of pupils. Several of the series were first broadcast late at night for preview by an adult audience, sometimes months before they were available to pupils.

The cast across the seven series included Joanna Lumley, Kirsten Hughes, John Savident, Kevin Lloyd, Rolf Saxon, Katharine Levy, Chris Gascoyne, Hywel Williams-Ellis, Nicholas Bond-Owen, Amanda Noar, Nick Conway, Perry Cree, David Nunn, Carol Chell, Rebecca Lacey and Ian Mercer.

Scripts from four episodes of the third series by Monvid were published as Choices: Four Plays from ITV's 'Starting Out' Series in 1986,<ref>Choices: Four Plays from ITV's 'Starting Out' Series  (Heinemann Floodlights) 1986  on 'Google Books]</ref> (reprinted as Challenges: Four Plays from ITV's 'Starting Out' Series (Heinemann Floodlights) 1988), while scripts from the 1989 series by Horowitz were published as Starting Out''.

Series
Series 1 (1973) written by Catherine Storr — 10 episodes about three girls, their boyfriends and their brothers
Series 2 (1976) written by Catherine Storr — 10 episodes about a group of teenagers who meet a young man who is on probation.
Series 3 (1980) written by Ben Steed, Dave Simpson and Sheila Yeger — 10 episodes about a teenage couple and their families, and the consequences of their actions.
Series 4 (1982) written by Grazyna Monvid — 5 episodes about a step-family starting a new life in a new area.
Series 5 (1986) written by Grazyna Monvid — 8 episodes about an inner-city youth club and the young people who go there.
Series 6 (1989) written by Anthony Horowitz — 8 episodes about a family and the trouble that their son has got into.
Series 7 (1992) written by Grazyna Monvid — 5 episodes about a boy and a girl who both run away from home for different reasons.

References

1973 British television series debuts
1992 British television series endings
1970s British television series
1980s British television series
ITV children's television shows
Television series by ITV Studios
Television shows produced by Associated Television (ATV)
Television shows produced by Central Independent Television
English-language television shows

Starting Out (British TV series)


Gloucester Road ( ; ) is a major highway in Hong Kong. It is one of the few major roads in Hong Kong with service roads. It was named on 14 June 1929 after Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, to commemorate his visit to Hong Kong that year. The road is 2.2 kilometres in length and has a speed limit of 70 km/h.

Location
Gloucester Road is in the north of Wan Chai and East Point on Hong Kong Island. It connects to Harcourt Road at its western end and in the east along the west side of Victoria Park it spit-ends into both Causeway Road and the Tai Hang Road flyover. It formed part of Hong Kong's Route 4 and connects to the Island Eastern Corridor via Victoria Park Road before completion of Central–Wan Chai Bypass. The road is connected to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel near the Canal Road Flyover. It runs almost parallel to Lockhart Road.

History

The road was built between 1922 and 1929 by reclamation as a two-lane road on the seafront. It then only connected the Royal Naval Arsenal Yard in Admiralty and Percival Street in Causeway Bay. It was extended to Cleveland Street after World War II. A canal west of Victoria Park Road is also reclaimed to form part of Gloucester Road.

The completion of Cross-Harbour Tunnel, Aberdeen Tunnel and other major thoroughfares around it increased traffic output, and thus a new road adjoined to Gloucester Road was built in the 1960s and opened in 1972, which was named "Waterfront Road"(海傍大道). The original Gloucester Road was then converted to one sided traffic heading westbound only. A number of flyovers was built. In 1980, the two roads was unified under the same name of Gloucester Road. The original Gloucester Road has been since known as "Inner Gloucester Road" or "Gloucester Road service road".

Travelling time
Vehicles traveling on Gloucester Road can choose two separate routes: North Point and Cross-Harbour Tunnel. During peak hours, the average time required to travel to Western Kowloon is 5-8 minutes; the average time required to travel to North Point is 15-20 minutes.

Landmarks
 The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, main campus (No. 1-3)
 Revenue Tower (No. 7-9)
 Telecom House (No. 4-6)
 Immigration Tower (No. 13-15)
 Wan Chai Tower (No. 10-12)
 Luk Kwok Hotel (No. 70-72)
 Wanchai Meetinghouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (No.118)
 Old Wan Chai Police Station, built in 1932, a Grade II Historic Building (No. 123)
 Wan Chai Sports Ground
 The Gloucester (No. 211-216)
 Sino Plaza (Nos. 256-258)
 Elizabeth House (No. 241-255)
 World Trade Centre (No. 277-279)
 Police Officer Club (No. 259-261)
 The Excelsior hotel (No. 280-282)
 Windsor House (No. 313-315)
 Noonday Gun, across the road from the Excelsior
 China Resource Building
 Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter
 Central Plaza (No. 16-18)
 Pico Tower (No. 64-66)
 Sun Hung Kai Centre (No. 25-27)
 Lamborghini Hong Kong Showroom (No. 66)

See also
 List of streets and roads in Hong Kong

References

External links

Google Maps of Gloucester Road

Former Part of Route 4 (Hong Kong)
Causeway Bay
Wan Chai
Roads on Hong Kong Island

Gloucester Road, Hong Kong


Maria Bashir (b. 1970) is a lawyer from Afghanistan.  She is the only woman to have the job of prosecutor in the country. She has 15 years experience in the Afghan government. During the time of the Taliban, she was not permitted to work.  Instead, she had an illegal school for girls in her house. In 2006, after the time of the Taliban, she worked as Chief Prosecutor General of Herat Province. In 2010, she had 87 cases; mostly about corruption and oppression of women.

In 2011, she received the International Women of Courage Award from the U.S. Department of State.

Life

Bashir was the oldest child in her family.  She was a very good student. Her father encouraged her to study. When she graduated, she had to choose three subjects for graduate school.  Her three choices were law, law, and law. The Minister for Higher Education approved her to study law. She got a law degree from Kabul University.  Later she studied in Kabul for one year to be a prosecutor.

In 1996, after she graduated, Bashir got married.  She moved to Herat, her husband's city.  Her husband has an import business in China. Bashir has two sons and a daughter. The oldest son studies in Germany.  The other two children study at home, because of death threats against Bashir and her family.

Work

After Bashir finished school, she went to work at the Attorney General's office.  She worked as a criminal investigator in Kabul, and later in Herat.

After Bashir moved to Herat, in 1995, the Taliban came.  They stopped women from working. Bashir stayed in the house, like the other women.  The Taliban made it illegal for girls to read or work. This ensured that women and girls remained dependent on men. Bashir started an underground school in her house. The students hid their books inside shopping bags.

In 2001, the American invasion allowed women to start work again.  Bashir went back to her old job as a criminal investigator. When the Attorney General visited Herat in 2006, he met with prosecutors from four provinces.  Bashir was the only woman at the meeting. The Attorney General said he was happy with Bashir's murder case against the husband of Afghan poet and journalist Nadia Anjuman.  The Attorney General made Bashir the Chief Prosecutor General of the province.

The new Afghan constitution

The U.S. government welcomed Bashir as a sign of Westernization after the Taliban.  The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew Bashir to Washington for talks. However, Bashir said many negative things about the new constitution.  The new constitution gave equal rights to women, but many judges still used the old Islamic Sharia Law. Bashir said the new law did not give women freedom to choose their husbands.  She also said that men were not sent to trial for adultery, but women were stoned to death for the same thing.  In divorce, the husband always got the children; women thought suicide was better. On the subject of corruption, Bashir wanted to stop appointments based on ethnic groups. She also wanted more money for officials.  She said the corruption would not stop if the officials had to find more money somewhere.

Awards

The International Women of Courage Award 2011.
List of the 100 most influential people in the world composed by Time, for 2011.

References

Other websites
 2011 International Women of Courage Awards, U.S. State Department photostream on Flickr
Secretary's International Women of Courage Award (U.S. Department of State)

Women who received the International Women of Courage Award
Living people
Afghan people
1970 births
Lawyers
Kabul University alumni
Herat Province

Maria Bashir


Wawel Dragon Statue () is a monument at the foot of the Wawel Hill in Kraków, Poland, in front of the Wawel Dragon's den, dedicated to the mythical Wawel Dragon. Installed in 1972, the statue is capable of breathing fire on demand.

Legend

The Wawel Dragon (Polish: Smok Wawelski) is a famous dragon in Polish mythology who lived in a cave at the foot of Wawel Hill on the banks of the Vistula River. One of the many popular stories about the dragon takes place in Kraków during the reign of King Krakus, the city's mythical founder. In the legend, the dragon terrifies local villagers by destroying their houses and eating up their young daughters. Desperate to solve the problem, King Krakus promises his daughter Wanda's hand to any brave man who can defeat the dragon. A cobbler named Skuba takes up the challenge and stuffs a lamb with sulphur for the dragon to eat. Skuba leaves the lamb near the dragon cave and the unwary beast devours the bait. Soon after, the dragon's thirst grows unbearable and he drinks so much water from the River Vistula that he explodes from the uncontainable volume. King Krakus then weds his daughter Wanda to the victorious Skuba.
In the oldest, 12th-century version of this tale, written by Wincenty Kadłubek. the dragon was defeated by two sons of a King Krak, Krakus II and Lech II.

Statue
The statue was designed by Polish sculptor Bronisław Chromy and completed in 1969; it was installed in its present location in 1972, a  date commonly repeated in other sources; Bielowicz notes that the statue was made in 1969 but was not unveiled in its current location till 1972. The statue is made out of bronze and stands on a large limestone boulder. It is  tall.

Some early designs for the statue included a more traditional water fountain. A later variant proposed that it should be partially submerged in the nearby Vistula river, but this was rejected. In the end, the statue was designed to breathe fire; it was also modernized recently so that the fire breath can be triggered by a SMS text message (the statue can do so at minimum 15 seconds intervals). The service is popular, and receives at least 2,500 requests a day. The fire uses natural gas as fuel. Without any text messages, the fire breaths occur at about five-minute intervals.

The statue has been described as a "traditional" element of the modern Kraków landscape, and as a major tourist attraction of the city, particularly for children.

References

Wawel
Monuments and memorials in Kraków
1972 establishments in Poland
1972 sculptures
Sculptures of dragons
Fire arts
Articles containing video clips

Wawel Dragon (statue)


is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the 2020s and focuses on protagonists Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki as they play through various virtual reality MMORPG worlds, and later their involvement in the matters of a simulated civilization. Kawahara originally wrote the series as a web novel on his website from 2002 to 2008. The light novels began publication on ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint from April 10, 2009, with a spin-off series launching in October 2012. The series has spawned twelve manga adaptations published by ASCII Media Works and Kadokawa. The novels and the manga adaptations have been licensed for release in North America by Yen Press.

An anime television series produced by A-1 Pictures, known simply as Sword Art Online, aired in Japan between July and December 2012, with a television film Sword Art Online: Extra Edition airing on December 31, 2013, and a second season, titled Sword Art Online II, airing between July and December 2014. An animated film titled Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale, featuring an original story by Kawahara, premiered in Japan and Southeast Asia on February 18, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 9, 2017. A spin-off anime series titled Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online premiered in April 2018, while a third season titled Sword Art Online: Alicization aired from October 2018 to September 2020. An anime film adaptation of Sword Art Online: Progressive titled Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night premiered on October 30, 2021. A second film titled Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night premiered on October 22, 2022. A live-action series based on the light novels is set to be produced by Netflix. Six video games based on the series have been released for multiple consoles.

Sword Art Online has received widespread commercial success, with the light novels having over 30 million copies sold worldwide. The anime series has received mixed to positive reviews, with praise for its animation, musical score, and exploration of the psychological aspects of virtual reality, but criticisms for its pacing and writing.

Synopsis

Setting
The light novel series spans several virtual reality worlds, beginning with the game, Sword Art Online (SAO), which is set in a world known as Aincrad. Each world is built on a game engine called the World Seed, which was initially developed specifically for SAO by Akihiko Kayaba, but was later duplicated for Alfheim Online (ALO), and later willed to Kirito, who had it leaked online with the successful intention of reviving the virtual reality industry. A third world known as Gun Gale Online (GGO) appears in the third arc and is stylized as a first-person shooter game instead of a role-playing game, and is the main setting of Alternative Gun Gale Online. It was created using the World Seed by an American company. A fourth world appears in the fourth arc known as the Underworld (UW). The world itself was created using the World Seed as a base, but it is as realistic as the real world due to using many powerful government resources to keep it running.

Plot

In 2022, a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online (SAO) was released. With the NerveGear, a helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. Both the game and the NerveGear were created by Akihiko Kayaba. On November 6, 10,000 players log into SAOs mainframe cyberspace for the first time, only to discover that they are unable to log out. Kayaba appears and tells the players that they must beat all 100 floors of Aincrad, a steel castle which is the setting of SAO, if they wish to be free. He also states that those who suffer in-game deaths or forcibly remove the NerveGear out-of-game will suffer real-life deaths.

A player named Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya is one of 1,000 testers in the game's previous closed beta. With the advantage of previous VR gaming experience and a drive to protect other beta testers from discrimination, he isolates himself from the greater groups and plays the game alone, bearing the mantle of "beater", a portmanteau of "beta tester" and "cheater". As the players progress through the game Kirito eventually befriends a young woman named Asuna Yuuki, forming a relationship with and later marrying her in-game. After the duo discover the identity of Kayaba's secret ID, who was playing as "Heathcliff", the leader of the guild Asuna joined in, they confront and destroy him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.

In the real world, Kazuto discovers that 300 SAO players, including Asuna, remain trapped in their NerveGear. As he goes to the hospital to see Asuna, he meets Asuna's father Shouzou Yuuki who is asked by an associate of his, Nobuyuki Sugou, to make a decision, which Sugou later reveals to be his marriage with Asuna, angering Kazuto. Several months later, he is informed by Agil, another SAO survivor, that a figure similar to Asuna was spotted on "The World Tree" in another VRMMORPG cyberspace called Alfheim Online (ALO). Assisted in-game by his cousin and adoptive sister Suguha "Leafa" Kirigaya and Yui, a navigation pixie (originally an AI from SAO), he quickly learns that the trapped players in ALO are part of a plan conceived by Sugou to perform illegal experiments on their minds. The goal is to create the perfect mind-control for financial gain and to subjugate Asuna, whom he intends to marry in the real world, to assume control of her family's corporation. Kirito eventually stops the experiment and rescues the remaining 300 SAO players, foiling Sugou's plans. Before leaving ALO to see Asuna, Kayaba, who has uploaded his mind to the Internet using an experimental and destructively high-power version of NerveGear at the cost of his life, entrusts Kirito with The Seed a package program designed to create virtual worlds. Kazuto eventually reunites with Asuna in the real world after thwarting an attack from Sugou and The Seed is released onto the Internet, reviving Aincrad as other VRMMORPGs begin to thrive.

One year after the events of SAO, at the prompting of a government official investigating strange occurrences in VR, Kazuto takes on a job to investigate a series of murders involving another VRMMORPG called Gun Gale Online (GGO), the AmuSphere (the successor of the NerveGear), and a player called Death Gun. Aided by a female player named Shino "Sinon" Asada, he participates in a gunfight tournament called the Bullet of Bullets (BoB) and discovers the truth behind the murders, which originated with a player who participated in a player-killing guild in SAO. Through his and Sinon's efforts, two suspects are captured, though the third suspect, Johnny Black, escapes.

Kazuto is later recruited to test an experimental FullDive machine, Soul Translator (STL), which has an interface far more realistic and complex than the previous machine he had played, to help RATH, a research and development organization under the Ministry of Defense (MOD), develop an artificial intelligence named A.L.I.C.E. He tests the STL by entering the Underworld (UW), a virtual reality cyberspace created with The Seed package. In the UW, the flow of time proceeds a thousand times faster than in the real world, and Kirito's memories of what happens inside are restricted. However, when Johnny Black ambushes and mortally wounds Kazuto with suxamethonium chloride, RATH recovers Kazuto and places him back into the STL to preserve his mind while attempts are made to save him. During his time in Underworld, Kirito befriends Eugeo, a carver in a small village of Rulid, and helps him on a journey to save Alice Zuberg, his friend who was taken by a group of highly skilled warriors known as the Integrity Knights for accidentally breaking a rule of the Axiom Church, the leaders of the Human Empire. He and Eugeo soon find themselves uncovering the secrets of the Axiom Church, led by a woman only known as "The Administrator", and the true purpose of Underworld itself, while unbeknownst to them, a war against the opposing Dark Territory is brewing on the horizon. They meet Alice, now an Integrity Knight, and though she does not remember them, Kirito helps her remember her true identity: a form of true artificial intelligence known as A.L.I.C.E. In the battle against the Administrator, Kirito manages to slay her, though Eugeo dies in the process, to Kirito's dismay.

Meanwhile, in the real world, conflict escalates as American forces raid RATH's facility in the Ocean Turtle in an effort to take A.L.I.C.E. for purposes unknown. Two of the attackers - Gabriel "Vecta" Miller and Vassago "Prince of Hell" Cassals - take control of two Dark Territory characters as they unite the Dark Territory's inhabitants to aid them. With help from all his friends, Kirito manages to stop the attackers as well as foreign players lured by Vassago, and safely extract A.L.I.C.E. from UW, who gains a physical body - with Gabriel and Vassago being killed both virtually and physically in the process. However, Kirito does not log out in time before the flow of time is restored and spends 200 years in UW (about 2 weeks in the real world) with Asuna, who stayed behind for Kirito. After awakening they have their memories of 200 years in underworld removed under Kirito's request, though RATH employee Takeru Higa secretly keeps a backup consciousness of his 200 year self, who have unknown plans for the Underworld.

One month later, Kirito, Asuna, and the others have their accounts forcibly migrated to Unital Ring, a new VRMMORPG which incorporates locations from all the other environments they previously visited, and investigate the cause while meeting some familiar faces.

Production
Reki Kawahara wrote the first volume in 2001 as a competition entry for the 2002 ASCII Media Works , but refrained from submitting it as he had exceeded the page limit; he instead published it as a web novel under the pseudonym Fumio Kunori. Over time, he added three further main arcs and several short stories which, like the first arc "Aincrad", were later adapted into the light novels. In 2008, he participated in the competition again by writing Accel World, this time winning the Grand Prize. Aside from Accel World, he was requested to get his earlier work, Sword Art Online, published by ASCII Media Works. He agreed and withdrew his web novel versions.

For the protagonist Kirito, Kawahara was asked if Kirito's personality and character were based on his own; he answered that he usually does not put aspects of himself into his characters, and jokingly remarked: "but if I had to say there was a point of similarity between Kirito and myself, it is the fact that neither of us are good at forming parties. We [both] tend to play solo in these games a lot." He also noted that the female characters in the story were not based on anyone he knew in the real world, stating: "I don't usually make a character, setting, or anything before I start writing. As I write the story, the girls become what they are now. So, somehow, I don't know exactly, but somehow, my subliminal idea or some hidden emotion creates the characters to be strong and capable." He added that he wrote the series to demonstrate that he views online gaming not as a social ill or escape from real life, but rather decided to show games in a more positive light in his light novels. Kawahara also noted that the character of Asuna might have been created a little too perfectly.

Publication

After Kawahara's request for Sword Art Online to be published was approved, he started working with illustrator abec on the light novel series. The first volume was published in print on April 10, 2009, and 27 volumes have been published as of October 7, 2022. The first eight volumes of the light novel series told the story arcs for Sword Art Online, Alfheim Online, and Gun Gale Online. The Alicization story arc was covered by volumes 9 through 18, while volumes 19 and 20 told a side story called Moon Cradle. Kawahara plans on writing "one more big arc" called Unital Ring that will go back to the real world, and it is the first arc not based on the original web novel. The Unital Ring story arc began in volume 21, which was released in Japan on December 7, 2018.

Kawahara also writes the Sword Art Online: Progressive series, which covers Kirito's adventures on the first few floors of Aincrad. The first volume of Progressive was released on October 10, 2012, and eight volumes have been released as of June 10, 2021. The first volume of a light novel series based on Sword Art Online titled Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, written by Keiichi Sigsawa with illustrations by Kouhaku Kuroboshi, was published by ASCII Media Works on December 10, 2014. An original 100-page prequel novel to Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale written by Kawahara, titled Hopeful Chant, was released to people who watched the film in Japan during  March 4–10, 2017.

At their Japan Expo USA panel, Yen Press announced the rights to publish the light novels; the first volume was released on April 22, 2014. Yen Press later announced their license of the Sword Art Online: Progressive series, which is scheduled for release in 2015. The novels are also published in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, with future plans for publications in France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and others.

There are a number of dōjinshi (fan works) written by Kawahara under the pseudonym Fumio Kunori, titled . An 80-page assemblage of some of the Material Edition volumes was published on February 13, 2011; another, Material Edition: Remix, was published on September 6, 2019. The latest release is Material Edition volume 29 on May 12, 2019. The author has also created some other dōjinshi including Lisbeth Edition, Silica Edition and Pina Edition under cooperation with Kurusu Tatsuya from ponz.info. It is reported that these dōjinshi gain traction from the involvement of the original author in its creation process, as well as from supplying more details on characters from the original work.

Media

Manga

There are ten manga adaptations of the series, all written by Reki Kawahara and published by ASCII Media Works. , illustrated by Tamako Nakamura, was serialized in Dengeki Bunko Magazine between the September 2010 and May 2012 issues. Two tankōbon volumes of Aincrad were released on September 27, 2012. A comedy four-panel manga, titled  and illustrated by Jūsei Minami, began serialization in the September 2010 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine. The first volume of Sword Art Online was released on September 27, 2012. A third manga, titled  and illustrated by Hazuki Tsubasa, began serialization in the May 2012 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine. The first volume of Fairy Dance was released on October 27, 2012; the third volume was released on June 27, 2014. The Aincrad and Fairy Dance manga have been acquired for release in North America by Yen Press. The first volume of Aincrad was published on March 25, 2014.

A spin-off manga starring Lisbeth, Silica, and Leafa, titled  and illustrated by Neko Nekobyō, began serialization in the July 2013 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine. Following the discontinuation of Dengeki Bunko Magazine in April 2020, the manga was moved to the DenPlay Comic website. Girls Ops was licensed by Yen Press in November 2014, the first volume of which was released on May 19, 2015. A manga adaption of Sword Art Online: Progressive, illustrated by Kiseki Himura, began serialization in the August 2013 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine. The manga ended serialization in the magazine's May 2014 issue and was transferred to Dengeki G's Comic starting with the June 2014 issue. The Progressive manga adaption has been licensed by Yen Press, with the first two volumes released in January and April 2015, respectively.

A sixth manga, titled Sword Art Online: Phantom Bullet and illustrated by Kōtarō Yamada, had its first chapter serialized in the May 2014 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine, with following chapters being digitally serialized on Kadokawa's Comic Walker website. A seventh manga, titled Sword Art Online: Calibur and illustrated by Shii Kiya, was serialized in Dengeki G's Comic between the September 2014 and July 2015 issues. A single compilation volume was released on August 10, 2015. An eighth manga, titled Sword Art Online: Mother's Rosario and also by Tsubasa, is based on the seventh volume of the novel series and began serialization in the July 2014 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine. A ninth manga, an adaptation of Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, began serialization in the November 2015 issue of Dengeki Maoh.

A tenth manga, titled Sword Art Online: Project Alicization and illustrated by Kōtarō Yamada, based on the Alicization arc of the light novel series, began serialization in the September 2016 issue of Dengeki Bunko Magazine. It moved to Web DenPlay Comic due to the discontinuation of Dengeki Bunko Magazine.

Anime series

An anime adaptation of Sword Art Online was announced at Dengeki Bunko Autumn Festival 2011, along with Reki Kawahara's other light novel series, Accel World. The anime is produced by Aniplex and Genco, animated by A-1 Pictures and directed by Tomohiko Ito with music by Yuki Kajiura. The anime aired on Tokyo MX, tvk, TVS, TV Aichi, RKB, HBC and MBS between July 7 and December 22, 2012, and on AT-X, Chiba TV and BS11 at later dates. The series was also streamed on Crunchyroll and Hulu. The anime is adapted from the first four novels and parts of volume eight.

The anime has been licensed in North America by Aniplex of America and an English-language dub premiered on Adult Swim's Toonami from July 27, 2013 to February 15, 2014. The series was released by Aniplex of America in four DVD and Blu-ray sets, with special extras on the BD sets, between August 13 and November 19, 2013. Manga Entertainment released the first series on BD/DVD in the United Kingdom in December 2013, whilst Madman Entertainment released the series in Australia and the English-language version began airing on ABC Me on June 7, 2014. Sword Art Online has been available on Netflix in North America since March 15, 2014.

A year-end special, titled Sword Art Online Extra Edition, aired on December 31, 2013. The special recapped the previously aired anime series and included some new footage. Extra Edition was streamed worldwide a few hours after its airing in Japan. The two-hour-long special was available on Daisuki worldwide except for French-speaking areas, as well as China and Korea. Daisuki offered subtitles in various languages such as English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and German. English-speaking countries, Mexico, Central and South America could also watch the stream on Crunchyroll. Extra Edition was also simulcast in Korea on Aniplus cable channel and in China on the LeTV streaming website. French-speaking countries could watch on the Wakanim streaming website. The Blu-ray Disc and DVD of Extra Edition was released on April 23, 2014 in Japan. The limited edition included a Yui character song titled "Heart Sweet Heart" by Kanae Itō and an original side story written by Kawahara titled .

At the end of the special, the anime television series was confirmed for a second season, titled Sword Art Online II, which premiered on July 5, 2014. The first 14 episodes of the second season are an adaptation of volumes five and six the light novels that cover the Phantom Bullet arc. Episodes 15 to 17 cover the Calibur arc from volume 8 of the novels, with episodes 18 to 24 covering volume 7 of the novels, the Mother's Rosario arc. Premiere screening events of the second season were held in the United States, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan before the television premiere between June 29 and July 4, 2014. At Katsucon, it was announced that the English dub of the second season would air on Toonami beginning March 28, 2015.

The third season of Sword Art Online, titled Sword Art Online: Alicization, and a spin-off anime, titled Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, were announced in 2017. Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, animated by 3Hz, premiered in April 2018. Sword Art Online: Alicization aired from October 6, 2018 to March 30, 2019, with a one-hour world premiere which aired in Japan, the United States, Australia, France, Germany, Russia and South Korea on September 15, 2018. The English dub of the third season premiered on February 9, 2019 on Toonami. The season was originally announced to air for four cours, and adapt from the novel's ninth volume, Alicization Beginning, to the eighteenth volume, Alicization Lasting. However, the season ended at episode 24 on March 30, 2019 (completing the fourteenth volume of the novel, Alicization Uniting), and continued on October 12, 2019 with a second part titled War of Underworld.  The second half of the War of Underworld series was originally scheduled to premiere in April 2020, but due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, it was rescheduled to air from July 11 to September 19, 2020.

Music
Yuki Kajiura composed the soundtrack for the Sword Art Online anime, which was later released in the limited edition of the anime's fourth and seventh Blu-ray and DVD volumes. The first volume of the second season's soundtrack was bundled with the limited edition of the season's third and seventh Blu-ray and DVD volumes.

For the first 14 episodes of season one, the opening theme song is "Crossing Field" by LiSA, and the ending theme song is  by Haruka Tomatsu. From episode 15 onward, the opening theme is "Innocence" by Eir Aoi, and the ending theme is "Overfly" by Luna Haruna. The main theme for Sword Art Online: Extra Edition is  by Eir Aoi.

For the second season, the first opening theme is "Ignite" by Eir Aoi, and the first ending theme is "Startear" by Haruna. The second opening theme is "Courage" by Tomatsu, and the second ending theme is "No More Time Machine" by LiSA, with the third ending theme being , also by LiSA. The song "Catch the Moment" by LiSA is used as the theme song to Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale.

For the third season, the first opening theme is "Adamas" by LiSA, and the first ending theme is  by Eir Aoi. The second opening theme is "Resister" by Asca, and the second ending theme is "Forget-me-not" by ReoNa, with episode 19 featuring , also sung by ReoNa.

For the second part of the third season, the first opening theme is "Resolution" by Tomatsu, and the first ending theme is "Unlasting" by LiSA. The second opening theme is "Anima" by ReoNa, and the second ending theme is "I will..." by Eir Aoi. The song  by LiSA was used as the theme song to Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night, while the song  by Eir Aoi was used as the theme song to Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night.

A number of character songs were included in the Blu-ray and DVD volume releases of the anime. These were collected into two compilation albums: Sword Art Online Song Collection, which included character songs released in the season one volumes, was released on August 27, 2014, while Sword Art Online Song Collection II, which included character songs released in the season two volumes, was released on March 22, 2017.

In celebration of the anime's 10th anniversary, the song  was used as the theme song for the commemorative event "Sword Art Online: Full Dive", held on November 6, 2022. The song was composed by Yuki Kajiura and performed by ReoNa, ASCA and Eir Aoi, who were in charge of previous opening and ending themes for the series.

Theatrical films
An animated film titled Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale, featuring an original story by Kawahara set after the events of Sword Art Online II, premiered in Japan and Southeast Asia on February 18, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 9, 2017.

After the finale of Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld, an anime adaptation of Sword Art Online: Progressive was announced. It was later revealed to be a new film titled Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night, which premiered on October 30, 2021.  Inori Minase is joining the cast as the new character Mito.  Ayako Kōno is directing the film, with Kento Toya designing the characters, Yuki Kajiura returning to compose the music, and A-1 Pictures returning for production.

After the premiere of Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night, a sequel film titled Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night was announced. The film was scheduled for September 10, 2022, but was later delayed due to production issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is premiered on October 22, 2022.

During the commemorative event "Sword Art Online: Full Dive", a new film project was announced. The project is described as an original work with stories not used in the light novels.

Video games
A stage event at the Dengeki Bunko Autumn Festival 2011 revealed that Reki Kawahara's light novels would get video game adaptations. The first Sword Art Online adaptation, titled , was published by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation Portable. The game follows an alternate storyline, in which a glitch causes Kirito and the other players to remain in Sword Art Online despite defeating Heathcliff, and players from other VMMORPGs such as Leafa and Sinon get sucked into the game themselves. The game was released in both regular and limited edition box sets on March 14, 2013.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment is a PlayStation Vita game released in Japan on April 24, 2014. Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment takes place in the same alternative storyline as Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment, and it includes all content of "Floor Clearing" from that previous game with the addition of new unexplored "Hollow Area" of Aincrad. The protagonist Kirito fights a mysterious player who becomes one of the key characters in the game. The game sold 145,029 physical retail copies within the first week of release in Japan, topping the Japanese software sales charts for that particular week. The game had also been released in Taiwan by Namco Bandai Games Taiwan with Chinese and English subtitles. A digital-only North American, European and Australian release was released in August 2014.

A third video game developed by Artdink and titled Sword Art Online: Lost Song was released in Japan on March 26, 2015 on the PlayStation 3 and Vita platforms, with an English version being released in Asia. The game's producer revealed in October 2014 that the game is an open-world action RPG featuring an original storyline, set within Alfheim Online, where characters are able to fly. The game sold 139,298 physical retail copies on the PlayStation Vita in addition to another 55,090 units on the PlayStation 3 within its first week of release in Japan, ranking second and sixth place respectively within the Japanese software sales charts for that particular week, narrowly behind Bloodborne taking the top spot.

A fourth game titled Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization was released in Japan for the PS4, Vita, and Windows on October 27, 2016 and worldwide on November 8, 2016 for the PS4 and Vita.

A social network game called Sword Art Online: End World was released for Japanese feature phones and smartphones on February 28, 2013 with more than 1 million registered users. It was discontinued in September 2017. Another freemium game for Android and iOS titled Sword Art Online: Code Register launched in 2014, and over 3,000,000 users have downloaded the game. Another game called Sword Art Online: Progress Link designed for the Mobage browser game platform on smartphones was released on February 10, 2015. The game was terminated on July 29, 2016.

Kirito, Asuna, Leafa, Yuuki and SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online protagonist LLENN appear in Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, a fighting game by Sega featuring various characters from works published under the Dengeki Bunko imprint. A browser game titled Sword Art Quest and its sequel smartphone game, Sword Art Quest II provide challenges to users to upgrade their characters to receive rewards. There is also a paid Android game titled SAO -Log Out- that users can download and play with characters from the series and obtain wallpapers from it.

A virtual reality massive multiplayer online game was in development by Kadokawa and IBM Japan, but was only a demo and will not be released as a full game.

An action role-playing game titled Accel World vs. Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight was announced in October 2016. The game is a crossover with Accel World, published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Windows via Steam, and was released to western audiences on July 7, 2017.

 is a Chinese 3D role-playing game where the player can control 3D characters and experience Sword Art Online, Alfheim Online, and Gun Gale Online. It is developed by Yun Chang Game under Bandai Namco's supervision. The game is being distributed and is operating under Bandai Namco Shanghai, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Qihoo 360 on Chinese platforms. The game was launched on Android on May 26, 2016 and on iOS on June 9, 2016 after a brief period of closed beta, though it is officially still in an "open beta" phase.

Bandai Namco released Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag RPG for Android and iOS in August 2016. It was released outside of Japan on January 24, 2017. Featuring content from the anime series, Ordinal Scale, and some original shorts written for event characters, players are allowed to play solo and progress through the story, or join up with others online to farm special items, equipment, and materials. Common events include ranked challenges against other players, floor clearing, character introductions and seasonal events. Players have the choice of spending real money to speed-up their progress. However, the game was discontinued in August 30, 2021. While Memory Defrag is delisted from the app stores, the game is still available to play via offline version of the app if the person downloaded the game before the termination date.

Bandai Namco released the Sword Art Online: Integral Factor free-to-play MMORPG for Android and iOS in December 2017, created in conjunction with prolific mobile MMO developer . The English version was released in March 2018. It adapts the Aincrad arc starting from Floor 1 and gradually exploring every floor one-by-one. It allows playing as a player-created avatar.

A game based on Gun Gale Online, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, was released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows on February 23, 2018.

Bandai Namco Entertainment released the Sword Art Online VR: Lovely Honey Days mobile game for iOS and Android devices in Japan in October 2018. The game's first episode is free-to-play, while the second episode and so on can be purchased as additional content.

Bandai Namco released Sword Art Online Arcade: Deep Explorer in Japanese arcades on March 19, 2019. It is an exploration action RPG that supports up to three players in online co-op and it is the first arcade game in the Sword Art Online series.

A video game based in the Underworld of Project Alicization, Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris, was announced by Bandai Namco for release on the PS4, Xbox One, and Windows. The game is also the first game in the franchise to faithfully follow the canon storyline in the initial stage, adapting from Alicization Beginning, volume 9, to Alicization Uniting, volume 14. Following that, the game features a different arc focusing on Medina Orthinanos. Originally, the game was going to be released in May 2020, but it was delayed to July 10, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A China-exclusive mobile MMO, Sword Art Online: Black Swordsman Ace, was released in 2021.

In 2022, the mobile game Sword Art Online: Variant Showdown was released to coincide with the anime's 10th anniversary. In the future it will feature a battle royale mode, a first for an SAO game.

Bandai Namco announced the video game Sword Art Online: Last Recollection in March 2023. It was released worldwide on October 6, 2023. ReoNa performed the game's theme song, "VITA".

Live-action series

Skydance Television announced on August 2, 2016 that they had acquired the global rights to produce a live-action television adaptation of Sword Art Online light novel series. Laeta Kalogridis has been attached to write a script for the pilot, and will also serve as executive producer for the series alongside Skydance CEO David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross. Skydance has stated their intent to "fast-track" the launch of the series, along with plans to follow the TV series with the release of a Sword Art Online virtual reality experience. In February 2018, it was reported that the live-action series had been sold to Netflix.

Reception

Sales
According to Oricon, Sword Art Online was the top selling light novel series of 2012, with eight volumes figuring among the top selling light novels. It was ranked first in the 2012 and 2013 Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! rankings, as well as top five placement in 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and top 10 in 2019. It was also the second best selling light novel series in the first half of 2016 in Japan, selling 489,374 copies. Sword Art Online: Progressive sold 321,535 copies in the same time period. By 2017, the series has an estimated 20 million copies in print worldwide. By 2021, the series has 26 million copies in print. The number of sales have reached 30 million in 2022.

Critical response
Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku hails Sword Art Online as the smartest series in recent years, praising its deep insight on the psychological aspects of virtual reality on the human psyche, its sociological views on creating a realistic economy and society in a massively multiplayer online game setting, and the writing staff's ability to juggle a wide variety of genres within the series. Eisenbeis particularly noted how the romance between Kirito and Asuna is explored bringing "definition to exactly what love is like in a virtual world." However, at the time of this preliminary review, he had only watched the first 12 episodes of the series. He has since gone on to review the second half of the series, lauding its excellent use of plot twists and praising its well-written and believable villain. However, he felt that some of the initial positive aspects of the series were lost in the second half, such as the focus on psychological repercussions and social interactions that could be realistically seen in an online game. Criticism was also levied towards the aspect of turning Asuna into a damsel in distress, stating that a female lead as strong as her was "reduced to nothing but the quest item the male lead is hunting for." Eisenbeis closes his review of the series by stating in regards to the two halves, "Both, however, are enjoyable for what they are."

Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network has criticized the series as having pacing problems, logical gaps and "sloppy writing". Theron Martin of the same website criticized the story as struggling "to achieve and maintain the level of gravitas that life-or-death danger should have", while calling it unwilling to commit to Kirito's "lone wolf" image. DeviceCritique explained that Sword Art Online influences the virtual reality market to grow, and referenced the Oculus Rift as a prime example of the starting point of virtual reality. It also praised Sword Art Online for exploring the psychological and social aspects of virtual reality gaming.

While the anime received criticism in western media, the later light novel arcs, such as Mother's Rosario and Alicization, received praise. Anime News Network reviewer Theron Martin praised many of the volumes of the Alicization arc, saying that the author's writing had improved. Martin also praised the anime adaptation of the Alicization arc, describing the opening episode as "about the best adaptation that could be hoped for of the relevant source material".

Cultural impact
Kirito makes a cameo appearance in the eighth episode of the anime series Eromanga Sensei, with Yoshitsugu Matsuoka reprising his role.

Sword Art Online is sometimes considered to be part of the isekai genre, although Kawahara himself does not agree. The 2012 anime adaptation of Sword Art Online popularized the isekai genre in anime, which led to more isekai web novels being published on the website Shōsetsuka ni Narō ("Let's Become Novelists") and a number of Narō isekai novels being adapted into anime.

Ernest Cline, the writer of 2011 novel Ready Player One, discussed Sword Art Online in an interview, noting how he met its writer Reki Kawahara at an event in Japan where they discussed how they independently developed similar ideas related to virtual reality. It has also been noted that the Phantom Bullet (Gun Gale Online) arc released in print in 2010 depicts an early fictional battle royale game called Bullet of Bullets.

On June 12, 2015, the now-inactive Chinese Ministry of Culture listed Sword Art Online II among 38 anime and manga titles banned in China. In July 2020, Sword Art Online became one of seven manga titles to be removed from Books Kinokuniya in Australia for claims of promoting child pornography.

In the 2020 edition of Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, Sword Art Online was voted by the public in an online poll and by a jury (critics, influencers, and other people related to the light novel industry) as the best light novel series of the 2010s, being the first in the ranking with 1,728.95 points.

Notes

References

External links

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Sword Art Online


Mason Dam is a dam near Baker City, Oregon, in Baker County, of the north-eastern part of the state.

Mason Dam is a water conservation project of the United States Bureau of Reclamation, an earthen and rockfill dam originally constructed from 1965 through 1968.  Owned by the Bureau, it is operated by the local Baker Valley Irrigation District.  The nearby Thief Valley Reservoir from 1932 is part of the same Baker Project.

The dam is 167 feet high, and the reservoir has a capacity of 114,000 acre-feet.  It impounds the water of the Powder River to create Phillips Reservoir, which covers 2,235 acres and offers recreational fishing, boating, camping, etc.  The lake is surrounded by the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest.

Baker County is in the process of adding a hydroelectric power plant at the dam which would sell power to Idaho Power through a nearby 138 kilovolt transmission line

See also
List of lakes in Oregon

References

Buildings and structures in Baker County, Oregon
Dams in Oregon
United States Bureau of Reclamation dams
Dams completed in 1968
1968 establishments in Oregon
Wallowa–Whitman National Forest

Mason Dam


Inner transition metals (ITM) are chemical elements on the periodic table. They are normally shown in two rows below all the other elements. They include elements 57-71, or lanthanides, and 89-103, or actinides. The lanthanides are very similar, and the actinides are all radioactive.

ITMs have three incomplete outermost nucleus shells and are all metals. In some cases they are quite malleable and ductile. Many lanthanides such as Lutetium are used in the lighting industry. Actinides do not occur in nature (except for thorium and uranium), and are highly unstable.

The last electrons enter into the f orbitals of these elements, so they belong to the F-block. The general electron configuration is (n-2)f^0-14(n-1)d^0-2np^6ns^2 where n= 6-7.

+

Inner transition metal


Rosa cymosa is a species of climbing rose native to China, where it grows from the east coast in Fujian to western Sichuan at up to 1300 m, in warm areas in scrub and gorges, and in bamboo plantations. It is sometimes called the elderflower rose as its flower formation resembles elderberry (Sambucus) flowers.

Rosa cymosa has long smooth or hairy stems to 5 m, with a few, hooked thorns. Shoots and leaves are bright red when young. The leaflets are narrowly lanceolate, rounded at the base, and acuminate with a slender, curved point. Stipules are narrow and not attached to the stalk, or soon falling. The pedicels are slender. Flowers small and numerous, in a compound umbel or corymb, creamy-white, 1–1.5 cm across. The hips very small and round, around 5 mm across, and are dull or scarlet-red in color with many small seeds.

Rather tender, probably best grown in a greenhouse or conservatory in frosty climates. Flowers in late May and early June.

References

External links

cymosa
Flora of China

Rosa cymosa


António I Vita a Nkanga (or Mvita a Nkanga) was a mwenekongo of the Kingdom of Kongo who ruled from 1661 to his defeat and death at the Battle of Mbwila on October 29, 1665. He was elected following the death of King Garcia II. Like the former king, António I pursued a foreign policy focused on removing the Portuguese from his region.

Policy against the Portuguese
Since 1620, Kongo and Portugal had been in a near-constant state of war with the only intervals coming after decisive BaKongo victories. After almost 30 years of decline in the face of BaKongo, Mbundu and Dutch military victories, the Portuguese had retaken their colonial possession in Luanda while establishing a tenuous peace with their old enemies.  Feeling threatened by Portugal's return on Kongo's southern border, António I sought to renew Kongo's war against the Portuguese with a new alliance similar to the one at the Battle of Kitombo. Unable to rely on the Dutch for assistance, he sent emissaries to Spain but failed to procure an alliance. He also contacted Kongo's Mbundu allies in Matamba and the semi-independent kingdoms of Dembos and Mbwila.

On December 22, 1663, Alfonso VI of Portugal ordered Vidal Negreiros to take control of the Kongo copper mines, exploit the deposits and send the ore by ship to Lisbon.  António I of Kongo responded by denying the existence of the mines and proclaiming that he "is in no way indebted to the King of Portugal".
Vidal Negreiros prepares his army for battle and Antonio I responds with a vibrant call to war, the two met in Mbwila, along the Ulanga River.

Death at the Battle of Mbwila
The Portuguese got wind of these plans and were also pressing claims to sovereignty over the small kingdom of Mbwila. When a succession dispute between Mbwila's king (supported by Kongo) and his aunt (supported by Portugal) erupted, the rivals both came with armies to settle the dispute. At the Battle of Mbwila, the BaKongo suffered their worst military defeat. This resulted in the death of hundreds, which included King António had led a contingent of 400 swordsmen into the battle. King António I was decapitated during or shortly after the battle (his head buried with royal honours by the Portuguese), while his crown and sceptre were taken to Portugal as trophies.

Aftermath
King António died with no heir apparent. Many of the men who could have taken his place died or were captured at the battle, including his seven-year-old son. The ruling House of Kinlaza and the opposing House of Kimpanzu fought furiously over the throne causing a devastating civil war. The heyday of the Kingdom of Kongo was at an end, and it would take forty years for the kingdom to be reunited.

See also
Kingdom of Kongo
Battle of Mbwila
House of Kinlaza

References

17th-century births
1665 deaths
Manikongo of Kongo
Military personnel killed in action
17th-century monarchs in Africa

António I of Kongo


Brief Lives is a book by John Aubrey. It's a collection of biographies that Aubrey wrote about, among others, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, John Dee, Thomas Browne, Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund Halley, Ben Jonson, Thomas Hobbes, William Petty and William Shakespeare. Aubrey wrote the book while collecting information for a scholar named Anthony Wood.

Biographies (books)
17th-century books
1690s books

Brief Lives


Fuchs dystrophy is an hereditary disease that affects the cornea, the clear front part of the eyes. It is also known as   Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD)  or Fuchs endothelial dystrophy (FED). The disease is named after Ernst Fuchs  (1851-1930), an Austrian ophalmologist (eye doctor) who first described it in 1910.  Ernst Kraupa, a German eye doctor also described the disease in 1920. The disease usually affects older people. More women than men are affected. The disease seems to be caused by a genetic defect, it is not contagious.

Usually, there is a fluid between the inside of the cornea, and the rest of the eye. Special cells at the inside of the cornea move this fluid in and out of the eye. In people with Fuchs dystropy, these cells die and can no longer move the fluid. This leads to a build-up of fluid in-between the two layers and a cloudy appearance in the cornea. Treatment is effective and good vision can often be restored to affected people. Eye surgeons can use a variety of operations using cornea transplantation using donated material from dead people. Eye drops can also be a treatment under the right circumstances. About 4% of people over the age of 40 get Fuchs' dystrophy in the United States.

Gallery

Diseases and disorders of the eye

Fuchs' dystrophy


Nha Trang is a municipality o Khanh Hoa province, in Nam Trung Bo (Vietnam), 485 km north of Ho Chi Minh Ceety. Its population stands at aboot 393,244 fowk (2011). The ceety is locatit on the richt bank o the Cai River. Nha Trang is located at 1,230 km south o Hanoi.
Cam Ranh Airport is 30 km south of Nha Trang.

Ceeties in Vietnam

Nha Trang


Cephalotaxus wilsoniana is a species of coniferous tree in the yew family, Taxaceae. Its common names include Taiwan plum yew, Taiwan cow's-tail pine, and Wilson plum yew. It is endemic to Taiwan, scattered in montane forests at altitudes of 1400-2700 meters. Cephalotaxus wilsoniana is mostly dioecious, because it's scattered with broad-leaved trees, the fecundity is not strong. In addition, the seed maturity period is very long. Germination and growth are also slow. Therefore, Cephalotaxus wilsoniana is not a common tree species in Taiwan.

This taxon is sometimes considered to be a variety of Cephalotaxus harringtonii.

This conifer grows up to 9 meters tall with drooping branches and reddish brown flaky bark. It grows in scattered populations in the woodlands of Taiwan. It is sometimes cultivated in local gardens.

The wood of Cephalotaxus wilsoniana is light yellowish brown with dense structure and excellent quality, which can be used for construction, furniture, agricultural appliances. A variety of plant alkaloids can be extracted from leaves, branches, roots and seeds.

References

wilsoniana
Endemic flora of Taiwan
Trees of Taiwan
Taxa named by Bunzō Hayata

Cephalotaxus wilsoniana