Effa Louise Manley (née Brooks; March 27, 1897 – April 16, 1981) was an American sports executive. She co-owned the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro leagues with her husband Abe Manley from 1935 to 1948. Throughout that time, she served as the team's business manager and fulfilled many of her husband's duties as treasurer of the Negro National League. In 2006, she posthumously became the first (and, as of August 2023, only) woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, chosen by the Special Committee on Negro Leagues for her work as an executive.

Early life
Manley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she attended school. In 1916, she graduated from Penn Central High School, completing vocational training there in cooking, oral expression and sewing. She entered the hatmaking business.

Manley's racial background is not completely known. Her biological parents may have been white but she was raised by her black stepfather and her mother.

The racial background of Manley's mother Bertha Cole Brooks (née Ford) is contested. Most books say Bertha was German, Effa claimed her maternal grandfather was Native American, but her maternal grandfather was German.  Bertha is listed as black on many censuses and documents, however, this could have been due to census takers and biases. No African ancestry has been proven conclusively.

Most assumed Manley's stepfather was her biological father and therefore classify her as black. However, according to the book The Most Famous Woman in Baseball by Bob Luke, Effa was born through an extramarital union between her seamstress mother, Bertha Ford Brooks, and Bertha's white employer, Philadelphia stockbroker John Marcus Bishop. Daryl Russell Grigsby wrote, "...some insist she was a white woman exposed to black culture, who identified as black. Regardless of her ethnic origins, Effa Manley thought of herself as a black woman and was perceived by all who knew her as just that." Author Ted Schwarz wrote, "She was a white woman who passed as a black...She could stay in any hotel she desired."

In an interview she gave, she seemed to enjoy the confusion her skin color created. She related a story of when her husband, Abe Manley took her to Tiffany's in New York for an engagement ring. She picked out a huge five-carat stone. She remarked at how every salesgirl in the store was on hand to get a glimpse of this "old Negro man buying this young white girl a five-carat ring" and how she got a kick out of it. In 1977, Manley was interviewed for an oral history project which is archived at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Newark Eagles
She married Abe Manley in 1935 after meeting him at a New York Yankees game, and he involved her extensively in the operation of his own club, the Newark Eagles in Newark, New Jersey. She displayed particular skill in the area of marketing and often scheduled promotions that advanced the Civil Rights Movement. Her most noteworthy success was the Eagles' victory in the Negro World Series in 1946. She worked to improve the condition of the players in the entire league. She advocated better scheduling, pay, and accommodations. Her players traveled in an air-conditioned Flxible Clipper bus, considered extravagant for the Negro leagues.

She took over day-to-day business operations of the team, arranged playing schedules, planned the team's travel, managed and met the payroll, bought the equipment, negotiated contracts, and handled publicity and promotions. Thanks to her rallying efforts, more than 185 VIPs—including New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who threw out the first pitch, and Charles C. Lockwood, justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York—were on hand to watch the Eagles' inaugural game in 1935.

Among the Eagles players during her ownership were future major league stars such as Larry Doby, who in 1947 was the first player to integrate the American League, Monte Irvin, and Don Newcombe. Manley was critical of Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey, who signed Jackie Robinson to a minor league contract in 1945. She felt Negro league teams were justified in requesting compensation for players who were signed to major league contracts (Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck did pay her $10,000 compensation for Doby's contract, with another $5,000 when he stayed on the Indians roster). Manley was also critical of Negro league fans who supported Rickey because they felt he was integrating the major leagues due to civil rights causes rather than her summation of Rickey seeking business opportunity for his motivation. She also was critical of Robinson when he talked of the disorganization of the Negro leagues, asking him to not forget his beginnings and the contributions the Negro leagues had made to the game.

Activism

Her influence extended beyond baseball; she was active in the Civil Rights Movement and a social activist. Before the civil rights movement, Manley supported "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" boycotts. As part of her work for the Citizens' League for Fair Play, Manley organized a 1934 boycott of stores that refused to hire black salesclerks. After six weeks, the owners of the store (Blumstein's Department Store) gave in, and by the end of 1935 some 300 stores on 125th Street employed black clerks. Manley was the treasurer of the Newark chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and often used Eagles games to promote civic causes.

In 1939 she held an "Anti-Lynching Day" at Ruppert Stadium, selling buttons that read "Stop Lynching" to support efforts to pass federal anti-lynching legislation. During World War II she arranged for entertainers to perform for segregated Black troops stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey when they were barred from segregated USO clubs and canteens.

At this time most blacks were barred from practicing medicine. The Booker T. Washington Community Hospital, which offered training for black doctors and nurses, opened due in a large part to money raised from the Newark Eagles. They played numerous benefit games to raise money for new medical equipment. They also raised money for black Elks lodges, a major part of urban black social life. The Eagles worked especially hard for groups that promoted the welfare of Newark's black population. In an exhibit honoring the Negro leagues at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, there is a banner given to the team by the Newark Student Camp Fund in recognition of their efforts to help the community.

Another example of the relationship Effa helped forge with the community was copying a practice of another team which allowed the city's youth to attend games for free. Some children could afford the ten-cent fare for the bus ride while others jump on the back of a moving bus to take advantage of the free ballgames. Because of Effa Manley, the Newark Eagles were as important to black Newark as the Dodgers were to Brooklyn.

Manley and Leon Hardwick wrote Negro Baseball ... Before Integration. In addition to covering the Negro leagues from 1935 to 1960, parts of the book are autobiographical.

Legacy

She was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in February 2006. She was the first woman named to the Hall of Fame.

In 2010, her life was the subject of a children's book, She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story, written by Audrey Vernick and illustrated by Don Tate.

Personal life
Manley was married four times and had no children. Her first husband was George Bush, a chauffeur whom she had met in Atlantic City, New Jersey and married in 1920; they later divorced. Her second husband was Abe Manley to whom she was married from 1933 till his death in 1952. She was married Henry Moton Clinton from December 1953 to August 1954 and to Charles Wesley Alexander from 1956 to 1957; Manley stated that she regretted both her marriages after her second one.

Death
By the spring of 1981, Manley's health had deteriorated to the point that she could no longer live in her apartment. She moved into a rest home run by former Negro league player Quincy Trouppe. Manley told Trouppe that she would go to the hospital to get checked out. She had cancer of the colon, which progressed into peritonitis after surgery. Manley had a heart attack and died on April 16, 1981, having never returned to the rest home. She died just four days after boxer Joe Louis, her sports idol, who had been one of the most influential black athletes of that time. Manley was buried in Culver City at the Holy Cross Cemetery.

See also
 Women in baseball

References

External links

1897 births
1981 deaths
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Negro league baseball executives
Sportspeople from Philadelphia
Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
American women chief executives
20th-century American women
20th-century American people
Women baseball executives

Effa Manley


Leets Vale is a village near Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 83 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of The Hills Shire. The Hawkesbury River flows through the locality.

The area is scarcely populated and is not linked by any public transport. It is only accessible by road.

References

Suburbs of Sydney
City of Hawkesbury
Hawkesbury River
The Hills Shire

Leets Vale, New South Wales


A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses  in a specific industry. An industry trade association will generally do advertising, education, publishing, lobbying, and influencing government policies. Associations may offer other services, like running conferences, holding networking or charitable events, or offering classes or educational materials. Many associations are non-profit organizations.

Trade association


The Luke Jillson House, also known as the Fisk House, is a historic house in Cumberland, Rhode Island. The wood-frame house is an excellent local example of Georgian style.  Although a common date given for its construction is 1752, it was more likely built c. 1776 or in 1792, based on stylistic evidence.

The house is two and one-half stories tall with a flank gable roof and two interior brick chimneys, reflecting a central hall plan.  The entrance, centered in a five-bay facade, has fluted pilasters supporting a cushion frieze surmounted by a modillion-trimmed cornice and pediment. A four-story, square, Italianate tower, constructed in the 19th century and connecting to a long, one-story addition, is attached to the rear elevation.

The dwelling is noted primarily for its architecture, which attests to the reputed affluence and prominence of Luke Jillson, about whom little is known. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Providence County, Rhode Island

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island
Houses in Cumberland, Rhode Island
National Register of Historic Places in Providence County, Rhode Island
Georgian architecture in Rhode Island

Luke Jillson House


Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy (also known as The Amanda Knox Story)
 is a 2011 American true crime television film. It stars Hayden Panettiere as Amanda Knox, Paolo Romio as Raffaele Sollecito, Djibril Kébé as Rudy Guede and Amanda Fernando Stevens as Meredith Kercher, and first aired on the Lifetime network on February 21, 2011.

Set between 2007 and 2009, Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy is based on the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, and the subsequent trials of the suspects, Guede, Knox and Sollecito. It was written by Wendy Battles, who has worked on scripts for the American television series CSI: NY and Law & Order, and filmed in Rome, after officials refused to grant the production team permission to shoot in Perugia. The film contains a re-enactment of the murder. In Italy, the television film has been transmitted on Canale 5, on December 3, 2012, after Amanda Knox sent a team of lawyers to Mediaset, to prevent the airing.

After its first broadcast, the film was followed by a one-hour documentary, Beyond the Headlines: Amanda Knox, which examines the Italian judicial system and includes interviews with the parents and friends of Knox, investigators, prosecutors and legal scholars.

Plot

The film depicts events that occurred after Amanda Knox moved to Perugia, Italy, in September 2007, as a foreign exchange student attending language classes at the University for Foreigners.

Knox shares a flat in a cottage with Meredith Kercher, a British student, and two Italian women, Filomena and Laura. In October, Knox meets Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student of computer engineering, at a classical music concert, and they start dating.

On November 1, Kercher is found stabbed to death in her bedroom. Police question both Knox and Sollecito. Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor of Perugia, Giuliano Mignini, discusses the case with the coroner and forensic investigators from Rome. The coroner mentions that multiple bruises were found on Kercher's body, which could indicate a struggle between Kercher and her murderer.  The prosecutor inquires whether more than one person could have been involved in the fatal attack.

During Sollecito's interrogation, he is informed by police that telephone records indicate he has called the emergency number after the Polizia Postale arrived on the day Kercher's body was discovered. He asserts that Knox told him to say that she was not with him at the time of the murder, and that he had not "thought about the contradictions" in his alibi.

Police ask Knox to explain a text message that has been found on her cell phone. The officers claim that Knox had left the message for her employer, pub owner Patrick Lumumba, on the night of the murder to tell him she would meet him later. Several hours later, Knox states that she had met Lumumba in a local square, that they had gone to the cottage with Kercher, and that Lumumba had entered Kercher's room before her death.

Knox, Sollecito and Lumumba are arrested. Under police interrogation, his face swollen with bruises, Lumumba insists he is innocent. Some days later, he is released when a university professor reveals that he had been with him at a pub, and could not have been at the cottage at the time of the murder. Knox's parents travel to Italy to help their daughter, and hire lawyers to defend her.

The forensics team finds a bloody fingerprint at the crime scene that does not match the prints of either Knox or Sollecito. The resulting manhunt leads to the arrest of Rudy Guede, originally from the Côte d'Ivoire, whom Knox and Kercher had met weeks earlier. Guede later goes to trial and is found guilty of murder and sexual assault. Knox and Sollecito are indicted in the same court judgment.

Knox and Sollecito are tried jointly in 2009 on the charges of murder, sexual assault, staging a crime scene, and transporting a lethal knife. Luminol tests in the cottage hallway reveal footprints approximately the size of Knox's feet. DNA experts testify that Knox's blood was found on a bathroom tap, mixed with Kercher's. In Sollecito's apartment, police found a large kitchen knife with Knox's DNA on the handle. The prosecution insists that Knox had argued with Kercher and stabbed her, as presented in an hypothetical flashback set in Kercher's room.

The chief forensics investigator testifies that Sollecito's DNA was found on a metal clasp severed from the back strap of Kercher's bra (presented as being cut off with a knife in the flashback). Sollecito's attorney asks when the bra clasp was discovered. The investigator replies that it was photographed on the first day after the murder, but only collected 47 days later, during which time it had been moved from its original position and passed between the various members of the forensics team. Although the attorney claims that this small amount of DNA is possibly the result of contamination, the investigator replies that, with the exception of the clasp, only a cigarette butt in the kitchen held Sollecito's DNA, stating, "DNA does not fly around".

Eventually, in December 2009, the jury delivers a verdict of guilty: Knox is sentenced to 26 years in prison, Sollecito to 25 years. Knox's father reassures his daughter that he and her mother will appeal the verdict in a new trial. The film closes with a caption stating that the parents of the real-life Knox have both been charged with criminal slander for claiming that police had abused their daughter, and that they face three years' imprisonment if found guilty.

Note: The film is now shown with an amendment noting the subsequent acquittal of Knox and Sollecito on appeal.

Cast
Hayden Panettiere – Amanda Knox
Marcia Gay Harden – Edda Mellas (Amanda's mother)
Vincent Riotta – Giuliano Mignini
Amanda Fernando Stevens – Meredith Kercher
Djibril Kébé – Rudy Guede
Timothy Martin – Patrick Lumumba
Paolo Romio – Raffaele Sollecito
Heather Cave - Deanna Knox
Clive Walton - Curt Knox
Shoboo Kapoor - Arlene Kercher
Mimosa Campironi - Filomena Romanelli
Simonetta Solder - Detective Navarra
Fausto Maria Sciarappa - Detective Alicastro
Valentina Carnelutti - Dr. Patrizia Stefanoni
Francesco De Vito - Inspector Battistelli
Stefano Santospago - Lawyer Giordano
Matthew T. Reynolds - British Reporter (as Matthew Reynolds)

Actresses Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, Emily Blunt and Kristen Stewart were all considered for the part of Knox prior to the casting of Panettiere.

Reception

Before broadcast
On February 3, 2011, Kercher's parents, John and Arline Kercher, described certain scenes in the film as "very distressing". John stated "They are absolutely horrific and I have asked and would hope the pictures are withdrawn" in reference to the scenes in which Kercher is attacked and murdered by her friends. Arline said, "It's awful what these film people have done. Your imagination runs riot as it is about what happened, but to actually see it like this is very different and very distressing. I'm surprised they have gone so far. I was told the original brief and synopsis of the film was to take it up to the point of the killing but not actually show the killing itself. It's obvious from these pictures they are showing the killing. So not only have they upset me and my family but they are also now in extreme danger of being sued by the convicted people's lawyers. In Italy you are regarded as still not being completely convicted until you have had two appeals. If these people win their appeals – which I hope they won't – then they could sue the filmmakers." Kercher's lawyer, Francesco Maresca, expressed his displeasure at the making of the film: "It is inopportune as the trial is still ongoing with two further appeals." Lawyers for Knox and Sollecito formally demanded that Lifetime abandon the production.

After broadcast
On its first airing, the film achieved decent ratings of approximately 2.8 million viewers in the United States. According to The Daily Telegraph, the production of the film would always have been complicated since the case itself contained much doubt and many inconsistencies. Nick Squires of The Daily Telegraph wrote that the film did "a credible job of navigating a complex case without coming down one way or the other on whether Knox and ... Sollecito ... are innocent or guilty."

Differences from reported events
Kercher's family and lawyers, Knox and her family, and Sollecito and his lawyers have all been vocal opponents of the film. Nikki Battiste of ABC News listed 15 points in the film when scenes or lines are fabricated.

Knox's relationships
The film portrays Knox and Sollecito having a picnic in an attempt to establish a relationship. There is no evidence that such a picnic took place, and the weather typical for Italy for the month of October makes the event improbable. The film also shows Knox, Kercher and Guede in attendance at a party featuring drug use. However, both Knox and Guede have stated they were not friends, and the Italian police have stated that there was no communication between them. In addition, the film depicts Kercher confronting Knox about not doing her fair share of house cleaning. In reality, Kercher's friends testified that she was too reserved to confront Knox about this issue.

Knox's statements
In the film, Knox informs her mother that she has been questioned for 13 hours. Knox was interrogated for almost 50 hours in the days prior to her arrest. The film depicts Knox, through the account of a roommate, telling the roommate that Kercher had suffered because her "throat was slit". This leads the prosecution to suspect Knox. Knox did not mention Kercher's throat being cut: in response to a question concerning whether Kercher had suffered, Knox stated, according to the witness, "Of course she suffered. She fucking bled to death."

Trial evidence

The film indicates that police had found Kercher's DNA on the tip of the blade of a knife. The substance that the prosecution claimed included Kercher's DNA was found on the dull side of the blade. In the film, the prosecutor accuses Knox and Sollecito of returning to the murder scene hours later and cutting Kercher's bra from her body and moving the body to stage the crime scene. Neither at the trial nor in the investigation was anything found to indicate that Kercher's body had been moved or that the bra clasp had been removed hours after she died. The film presents the victim as being stabbed horizontally across the throat. Autopsy reports describe the wounds as stabs to the side or back of the neck, with smaller punctures to the front.

To prove the prosecutor's argument that the crime scene was staged, the film indicates that there was broken glass on top of clothes in crime scene photographs. No such photographs exist. In the film, a shop owner contacts the police immediately to tell them that Knox bought some cleaning supplies from him on the morning of the murder. When the witness was originally questioned by police, he did not mention that Knox was in the store and the other worker at the shop testified that Knox was not present at that time. Furthermore, the shop owner did not contact the prosecutor until he was encouraged to do so by reporters months after the murder.

Trial events
In the film, Knox enters the court on a red carpet, dressed in what Battiste describes as a "sexually suggestive" manner, and waving to the reporters. Knox was generally brought in through the rear entrance of the courthouse to avoid the press, and the courthouse does not have a red carpet. Additionally, Knox did not, in Battiste's view, dress in a provocative manner and did not wave to the media. The film portrays Knox and Sollecito sitting near each other and sharing shifty looks during the trial, when in reality they sat farther apart.

In the film, judge Micheli reads the ruling of the sentence as President of a Court composed by himself, two other professional judges (magistrates), and 6 lay judges (members chosen from citizens): in reality he ruled as single judge (as judge for the preliminary hearing). Moreover, the preliminary hearing was also held without the presence of journalists and general audience.

The trial regarding Knox and Sollecito is represented as held in front of a Court composed of 9 judges (3 magistrates and 6 lay judges): actually the Italian legal system does not contemplate this composition. The trial was held in front a "Corte d'Assise", composed of a panel of two professional judges and six lay judges.

See also
 Television in the United States

References

External links

Amanda Knox on Netflix

2010s crime films
2011 television films
2011 films
American crime films
Films directed by Robert Dornhelm
Films about lawyers
Films set in 2007
Films set in 2008
Films set in 2009
Films set in Italy
Films shot in Rome
Lifetime (TV network) films
Crime films based on actual events
2010s English-language films
2010s American films

Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy


The European Court of Auditors (ECA; French: Cour des comptes européenne) is the supreme audit institution of the European Union (EU).  It was established in 1975 in Luxembourg and is one of the seven EU institutions. The Court comprises one member from each EU member state (currently ) supported by approximately 800 civil servants.

History

The ECA was created by the 1975 Budgetary Treaty and was formally established on 18 October 1977, holding its first session a week later. At that time the ECA was not a formal institution; it was an external body designed to audit the finances of the European Communities. It replaced two separate audit bodies, one which dealt with the finances of the European Economic Community and Euratom, and one which dealt with the European Coal and Steel Community.

The ECA did not have a defined legal status until the Treaty of Maastricht when it was made the fifth institution, the first new institution since the founding of the Community. By becoming an institution it gained some new powers, such as the ability to bring actions before the European Court of Justice (ECJ). At first its audit power related only to the European Community pillar of the European Union (EU), but under the Treaty of Amsterdam it gained the full power to audit the finances of the whole of the EU.

Functions
Despite its name, the ECA has no jurisdictional functions. It is rather a professional external investigatory audit agency. The primary role of the ECA is to externally check if the budget of the European Union has been implemented correctly and that EU funds have been spent legally and with sound management. In doing so, the ECA checks the paperwork of all persons handling any income or expenditure of the Union and carries out spot checks. The ECA is bound to report any problems in its reports for the attention of the EU's Member States and institutions, these reports include its general and specific annual reports, as well as special reports on its performance audits. The ECA 's decision is the basis for the European Commission decisions; for example, when the ECA found problems in the management of EU funds in the regions of England, the Commission suspended funds to those regions and is prepared to fine those who do not return to acceptable standards.

In this role, the ECA has to remain independent yet remain in touch with the other institutions; for example, a key role is the presentation of the ECA's annual report to the European Parliament. It is based on this report that the Parliament makes its decision on whether or not to sign off the European Commission's handling of the budget for that year. The Parliament notably refused to do this in 1984 and 1999, the latter case forced the resignation of the Santer Commission. The ECA, if satisfied, also sends assurances to the Council and Parliament that the taxpayers' money is being properly used, and the ECA must be consulted before the adoption of any legislation with financial implications, but its opinion is never binding.

Organisation

The ECA is composed of one member from each EU Member State, each of whom is appointed unanimously by the Council of the European Union for a renewable term of six years. They are not all replaced every six years, however, as their terms do not coincide (four of the original members began with reduced terms of four years for this reason). Members are chosen from people who have served in national audit bodies, who are qualified for the office and whose independence is beyond doubt. While serving in the Court, members cannot engage in any other professional activities.

As the body is independent, its members are free to decide their own organisation and rules of procedure, although these must be ratified by the Council of the European Union. Since the Treaty of Nice, the ECA can set up "chambers" (with only a few Members each) to adopt certain types of reports or opinions.

The ECA is supported by a staff of approximately 800 auditors, translators and administrators recruited as part of the European Civil Service. Auditors are divided into auditor groups which inspect and prepare draft reports for the ECA to take decisions upon. Inspections take place not only of EU institutions but of any state which receives EU funds, given that 90% of income and expenditure is managed by national authorities rather than the EU. Upon finding a fault, the ECA—possessing no legal powers of its own—informs the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which is the EU's anti-fraud agency. The ECA is also assisted by the Secretary-General of the European Court of Auditors, elected by the College of ECA Members, who—along with general management and assistance to the President—draws up draft minutes and keeps archives of decisions, as well as ensuring the publication of reports in the Official Journal of the European Union.

President
The members then elect one of their members as the President of the ECA for a renewable three-year term. The election takes place by a secret ballot of those members who applied for the presidency. The duties of the President (which may be delegated) are to convene and chair the meetings of the ECA, ensuring that decisions are implemented and the departments (and other activities) are soundly managed. The President also represents the institution and appoints a representative for it in contentious proceedings.

The current President is Tony Murphy (from Ireland) who took office on October 1, 2022. He succeeded Klaus-Heiner Lehne (Germany), elected in 2016. The previous presidents were Sir Norman Price (elected in 1977, United Kingdom), Michael Murphy (1977, Ireland), Pierre Lelong (1981, France), Marcel Mart (1984, Luxembourg), Aldo Angioi (1990, Italy), André Middelhoek (1992, Netherlands), Bernhard Friedmann (1996, Germany), Jan O. Karlsson (1999, Sweden), Juan Manuel Fabra Vallés † (2002, Spain), Hubert Weber (2006, Austria), and Vítor Manuel da Silva Caldeira (2007, Portugal).

Secretary-general
The Secretary-General is the ECA's most senior member of staff. Appointed for a renewable term of 6 years, he is responsible for the management of the ECA's staff and for the administration of the ECA. In addition, the Secretary-General is responsible for the budget, translation, training and information technology.

List of secretaries-general
 1989–1994: Patrick Everard
 1994–2001: Edouard Ruppert
 2001–2008: Michel Hervé (France)
 2008–2009: John Speed (ad interim, United Kingdom)
 2009–2020: Eduardo Ruiz Garcia (Spain)
 2020–2020: Philippe Froidure (ad interim)
 Since 2021: Zacharias Kolias (Greece)

Staffing
ECA staff are mainly officials recruited via the reserve lists from general competitions organised by the European Personnel Selection Office external link (EPSO). In certain circumstances, however, the ECA may also engage temporary or contract staff. To be eligible for a post at the ECA, one must be a citizen of one of the European Union Member States.

Traineeships
Just like the other EU institutions, the ECA organises three traineeship sessions per year in areas of interest to its work. Traineeships are granted for three, four or five months maximum, and may be remunerated (€1500 /month) or non-remunerated.

Work
The ECA publishes the results of its audit work in a variety of reports – annual reports, specific annual reports and special reports – depending on the type of audit. Other published products include opinions and review-based publications. In total, the ECA published 93 reports in 2017.
All reports, opinions and reviews are published on the ECA's website in the official EU languages.

Criticism

Statement of assurance
Since 1994 the ECA has been required to provide a "statement of assurance", essentially a certificate that an entire annual budget can be accounted for. This has proved to be a problem, as even relatively minor omissions require the ECA to refuse a statement of assurance for the entire budget, even if almost all of the budget is considered reliable.

This has led to media reports of the EU accounts being "riddled with fraud", where issues are based on errors in paperwork even though the underlying spending was legal. The auditing system itself has drawn criticism from this perception. The Commission in particular has stated that the bar is too high, and that only 0.09% of the budget is subject to fraud. The Commission has elsewhere stated that it is important to distinguish between fraud and other irregularities. The controversial dismissal in 2003 of Marta Andreasen for her criticism of procedures in 2002 has, for some, called into doubt the integrity of the institutions.

It is frequently claimed that annual accounts have not been certified by the external auditor since 1994. In its annual report on the implementation of the 2009 EU Budget, the Court of Auditors found that the two biggest areas of the EU budget, agriculture and regional spending, have not been signed off on and remain "materially affected by error". Nonetheless, the European Commission claims that every budget since 2007 has been signed off.

Terry Wynn, an MEP who served on the Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control and reached the position of chairman, has also backed these calls, stating that it is impossible for the Commission to achieve these standards. In a report entitled EU Budget – Public Perception & Fact – how much does it cost, where does the money go and why is it criticised so much?, Wynn cites consensus that practice in the EU differs from that in the US.  In the US, the focus is on the financial information, not on the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions, 'So, other than in Europe, the political reaction in the US to the failure to obtain a clean audit opinion is only "a big yawn"'.

By comparison, the Comptroller and Auditor General for the United Kingdom stated that there were 500 separate accounts for the UK, and "in the last year, I qualified 13 of the 500.  If I had to operate the EU system, then, because I qualify 13 accounts, I might have to qualify the whole British central government expenditure".  Despite the problems, the Barroso Commission stated that it aimed to bring the budget within the Court's limits by the end of its mandate in 2009.

The ECA made clear in its year report for 2010 that "Responsibility for the legality and regularity of spending on Cohesion Policies starts in the Member States, but the Commission bears the ultimate responsibility for the correct implementation of the budget". In previous reports, the ECA has noted that "Regardless of the method of implementation applied, the Commission bears the ultimate responsibility for the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts of the European Communities (Article 274 of the Treaty)".

Size
The size of the ECA has also come under criticism. Owing to the one-member-per-state system, its College of Members grew from nine to twenty-eight as of 2013. Attempting to get consensus in the body has thus become more difficult; this led to the number of its special reports per year shrinking from fifteen to six between 2003 and 2005, despite its staff growing by 200 over the same period. Some proposals have been for its size to be reduced to five members or just one, possibly with an advisory board with members from each member state. However, neither the European Constitution nor the Treaty of Lisbon proposed any changes to its composition, despite calls by former ECA members and MEPs to embrace change.

Legislative references
 Code of Conduct for the Members and former Members of the Court of Auditors

See also

References

External links
 Archives of the European Court of Auditors at the Historical Archives of the EU in Florence
 Access to documents of the Court of Auditors on EUR-Lex
 European Court of Auditors page on CVCE.eu

Court of Auditors
Government audit
Supreme audit institutions

European Court of Auditors


Khamba Thoibi is one of the longest epic poems in the world. It was composed by Hijam Anganghal. The characters are mostly historical, along with the addition of mythological features. The most important characters of the Khamba Thoibi can be said to include: Thangching, Khuman Khamba, Moirang Thoibi and Nongban. Other significant characters include Khamnu, Kabui Salang Maiba, Iwang Puriklai Chingkhu Telheiba, Chingkhu Akhuba, Puremba, Ngangkha Leima, Senu and Soura. Deities mentioned in the epic include Koiren Leima, Panthoibi, Khuman Apokpa.

List

Ayangleima

Ayangleima (ꯑꯌꯥꯡꯂꯩꯃ) is the name identifying three goddesses, who are the two Koiren Leimas and Panthoibi. All these goddesses are said to play significant role in appearing at the dreams of both Khuman Khamba as well as Moirang Thoibi at appropriate timing to save something from destruction.

Kabui Salang Maiba
Kabui Salang Maiba (ꯀꯕꯨꯏ ꯁꯂꯥꯡ ꯃꯥꯏꯕ) is an old experienced high priest and a king of the Kabul village. He is an old friend of Khuman Puremba. So, after the death of Khuman Puremba, he willingly brought up Khuman Khamba and Khamnu, the children of his friend. He taught several skills and training to Khuman Khamba during the later's stay at his village.

Khamnu

Khamnu (ꯈꯝꯅꯨ) is the daughter of Ngangkhaleima, the wood nymph and Chingkhu Telheiba, the king of Ancient Moirang. But she was born in the house of Khuman Puremba, as her mother got a second marriage to the later. After the demise of her parents, she brought up her younger brother, Khuman Khamba, bearing every sufferings right from her childhood.

Khuman Apokpa

Little is mentioned about Khuman Apokpa (ꯈꯨꯃꯟ ꯑꯄꯣꯛꯄ), the progenitor of the Khuman dynasty in the epic. The cult of Khuman Apokpa is mainly worshipped by the people of Khuman blood. Once when Moirang Thoibi visited him, unable to think what should be done, Khuman Khamba wear an elongated basket and hide himself in a corner of the house. When the princess saw him, she asked Khamnu what is the object. At this, Khamnu replied that it is the Khuman Apokpa. Though witty Thoibi knew the truth, she willingly bow down to Khamba.

Khuman Khamba

Khuman Khamba (ꯈꯨꯃꯟ ꯈꯝꯕ) is the son of Khuman Puremba, a brave warrior and Ngangkhaleima, a wood nymph. He is best known for being a paragon of far reaching adventures and masculinity. He is a lover of Moirang Thoibi and after killing the Khoirentak tiger, he got married to the princess.

Khuman Puremba
Khuman Puremba (ꯈꯨꯃꯟ ꯄꯨꯔꯦꯝꯕ) or Khuman Purenba (ꯈꯨꯃꯟ ꯄꯨꯔꯦꯟꯕ) is a grandson of a Khuman prince, who once fled from the Khuman kingdom to Ancient Moirang trying to prevent political turmoil and lead a peaceful life. He is a brave warrior and a floriculture minister of the Moirang kingdom. He is best known for capturing the nine tigers alive from the wild.

Moirang Thoibi

Moirang Thoibi (ꯃꯣꯏꯔꯥꯡ ꯊꯣꯏꯕꯤ), also known as Ewanglon Thoibi (ꯏꯋꯥꯡꯂꯣꯟ ꯊꯣꯏꯕꯤ), is the daughter of Chingkhuba (Chingkhu Akhuba), the younger brother of Chingkhu Telheiba, the then king of Ancient Moirang. For the king and his brother have no ward other than the princess, she grew up as the darling of the entire kingdom. She is the lady love of Khuman Khamba, for whose chemistry gets envied by Nongban. Legend says she and her lover, Khuman Khamba first performed a devotional dance form in the premise of the Ebudhou Thangjing Temple, which was later known as the Khamba Thoibi Jagoi.

The term "Thoibi" means perfection or completion of beauty and accomplishments.

Ngangkhaleima
Ngangkhaleima (ꯉꯥꯡꯈꯂꯩꯃ) or Ngangkhareima (ꯉꯥꯡꯈꯔꯩꯃ) is a wood nymph (Helloi). She had heard about the fame of Khuman Puremba from a very long time and wished to marry him. So, she sent the nine demigods transfigured into nine ferocious tigers to attack the villagers so that Khuman Puremba may charged defensive force against the beasts. At this, she took the advantage of meeting him in the woods. From the very first meet, she seduced him to marry. But fate does not permit them unite so soon. Their relationship was interrupted by Chingkhu Telheiba, the Moirang king. The king asked Puremba to offer the lady for his own harem. Unable to reject the king, he did. Ngangkhaleima gets conceived having Khamnu in her womb. It during that time the king returned her back to Puremba. So, after the birth of Khamnu, Khuman Khamba was born to the true lovers.

Nongban

Nongban (ꯅꯣꯡꯕꯥꯟ) is the principal villain character in the epic saga. He is a man of Angom blood lineage. He is a suitor of Moirang Thoibi, besides having numerous wives. Knowing the fact that the princess loves Khuman Khamba, he devised many evil plots to get rid of him. But every time, Thangching and other gods save Khuman Khamba from danger.
Later, he died when a tiger attacked him in the hunt.

Senu
Senu (ꯁꯦꯅꯨ) is the closest friend and a maid of Moirang Thoibi. Legend says that she is the actual daughter of Chingkhu Akhuba, who after returning from a journey, found a baby girl on the way, brought her to home. During the very time, Chingkhu Akhuba's wife gave birth to a baby girl at home. Thoughtlessly, Chingkhu Akhuba placed the stranger girl along the side of his own daughter. When his wife felt conscious, she mistook the stranger girl as her own baby and brought her up as Moirang Thoibi while her own blood grew up as a servant girl, Senu.

Soura
Soura (ꯁꯧꯔꯥ) is a servant of Nongban. He is often given important tasks by his master because of his witty attitudes and skillful performance.

Thangching

Thangching (ꯊꯥꯡꯆꯤꯡ) is the director of the story from the beginning till end. Every characters are playing their role according to his direction. Sometimes, he sent his good lady, Koiren Leima to inform alarming news to Khuman Khamba and Moirang Thoibi at their dreams. In Ancient Moirang, he is the greatest of all the gods. So, the Lai Haraoba festival is dedicated especially for him.

References

Meitei literature

List of characters in the Khamba Thoibi


Gorky Park is a 1983 American mystery thriller film based on the book of the same name by Martin Cruz Smith. The film was directed by Michael Apted.

The film stars William Hurt as Arkady Renko, Lee Marvin as Jack Osborne, Joanna Pacuła as Irina Asanova, Rikki Fulton as Major Pribluda, Brian Dennehy as William Kirwill, Ian McDiarmid as Professor Andreev, Michael Elphick as Pasha and Ian Bannen as Prosecutor Iamskoy. The plot follows Renko, a Moscow police investigator, on the trail of a gruesome triple murder that leads him into a web of government corruption.

Upon release, Gorky Park was a box office disappointment, barely earning back its $15 million budget, but received positive reviews from critics. Pacuła was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture and Elphick for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. Dennis Potter won a 1984 Edgar Award for his screenplay for the film.

Plot
Moscow militsiya officer Arkady Renko is called to a clearing near the Gorky Park ice rink, where three bodies – two men and one woman – have been discovered. All were shot in the chest and their faces and finger tips removed; the two men were also shot in the mouth. Renko becomes anxious when the KGB, led by his nemesis Major Pribluda, refuses to take over the investigation. Renko traces the woman's skates to a movie set worker, Irina Asanova, who claims they were stolen. The pathologist identifies one young man as a foreigner, likely an American. Renko asks Professor Levi Andreev to reconstruct the faces of the woman and the American man.

At the dacha of Chief Prosecutor Iamskoy, Renko makes the acquaintance of American sable importer Jack Osborne, who is accompanied by Asanova. Renko also crosses paths with William Kirwill, a New York detective investigating the disappearance of his brother James.

Renko eventually identifies the American as James Kirwill and the others as Valerya Davidova and her boyfriend Kostia Borodin. Renko and his partner, Pasha (Michael Elphick) interrogate Golodkin (Alexei Sayle), a black market dealer with KGB ties, who confesses that Osborne commissioned him to build a religious chest, but the three victims built another one. Renko sends Pasha with Golodkin to get the chest at his apartment, where they are both shot dead by an unseen assailant. Renko's suspicion of Osborne mounts following several polite but tense conversations. When a KGB officer attempts to kill Asanova with a forced overdose, Renko saves her. Hiding out in his apartment, they become involved romantically although she doesn't entirely trust him. Kirwill learns that Osborne's chest was designed to smuggle out six live sables and break the Soviet monopoly, potentially earning Osborne millions. Osborne had promised to smuggle Asanova's friends out of the Soviet Union; Asanova is convinced that Valerya has escaped to Manhattan and clings to the belief that Osborne will do the same for her.

Renko confronts Asanova with Prof. Andreev's reconstruction of Valerya's head, forcing her to accept she has been murdered. She confesses to the plot and flees. Renko and Kirwill go to retrieve James's reconstructed head, but a KGB agent emerges with it. They follow him to Iamskoy's dacha and watch in horror as Osborne and Iamskoy supervise the head's destruction. Renko confronts Iamskoy in a bath house and Iamskoy admits that he kept Renko on the case to pressure Osborne into paying a larger bribe so he could smuggle out the sables. He offers to cut Renko in, but Renko reveals that he has recorded their conversation. Iamskoy and Renko struggle over a gun, which goes off and kills Iamskoy.

Osborne flees to Stockholm, telling the KGB he will only deal with Renko. The KGB forces Renko to supervise a trade for the sables, with the understanding that both the sables and Osborne must be killed. Renko meets Osborne at his apartment and finds Asanova. She confesses that she slept with Osborne to gain his trust and has negotiated safe passage to America for both herself and Renko. She then reveals that Osborne is planning to double cross everyone, as he has twelve sables, not just six. Renko meets with Kirwill and they predict that, following the exchange, the KGB will kill Asanova, Renko and Osborne.

The next morning Renko, Pribluda and two other KGB agents drive to Osborne's secluded farm. They discover Kirwill tied to a tree and disemboweled; he came to get revenge for James and killed Osborne's dogs before being shot. Osborne produces six dead sables, but Renko, realizing neither side will let the other live, goads the KGB agents into attacking. In the ensuing shootout Pribluda and the KGB agents are killed; Renko manages to grab a gun and hide in the woods with Asanova. Moving closer to the farm, he discovers the remaining live sables caged up. Asanova emerges from the woods and Osborne threatens to kill her. When Renko emerges to give up, Asanova shoots Osborne. She asks Renko to go away with her, but Renko reveals he agreed to kill Osborne in return for her freedom, and that they would both be killed if he did not return. Renko returns to his job in Moscow.

Renko releases the sables, which run off into the woods as he recalls Asanova's promise that they will meet again one day.

Cast
 William Hurt as Officer Arkady Renko
 Lee Marvin as Jack Osborne
 Brian Dennehy as Detective William Kirwill
 Ian Bannen as Chief Prosecutor Andrei Iamskoy
 Joanna Pacula as Irina Asanova
 Michael Elphick as Pasha Pavlovich
 Richard Griffiths as Anton
 Rikki Fulton as Major Pribluda
 Alexander Knox as The General
 Alexei Sayle as Golodkin
 Ian McDiarmid as Professor Levi Andreev
 Niall O'Brien as KGB Agent Rurik
 Henry Woolf as Levin
 Jukka Hirvikangas as James Kirwill
 Marjatta Nissinen as Valerya Davidova
 Heikki Leppänen as Kostia Borodin
 Elsa Salamas as Babushka
 Anatoli Davydov as KGB Agent Nicky

Filming
Gene Kirkwood and Howard W. ("Hawk") Koch Jr. purchased the film rights to Gorky Park in 1981 for $250,000. Martin Cruz Smith claimed he was offered the chance to write the screenplay but turned it down. Filming was delayed until February 1983 because of scheduling conflicts with the director John Schlesinger, who would eventually be replaced with Michael Apted, and various cast changes.

Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino were both considered for the role of Arkady Renko before Hurt's casting, while Cary Grant and Burt Lancaster were considered for the role of Jack Osborne and Roman Polanski was considered for the role of Prof. Andreev.

The Soviet Communist Party condemned the film as anti-Communist and anti-Russian and denied the crew access to shoot in Moscow.

Gorky Park was filmed in Helsinki and Stockholm. The Kaisaniemi public park in the Helsinki centre was set as the Gorky amusement park.

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78% based on reviews from 27 critics, with an average rating of 6.6/10. On Metacritic the film has a score of 60% based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Janet Maslin called it "a taut, clever thriller throughout, with Mr. Apted's direction establishing its intensity immediately and sustaining it well. Ralf G. Bode's cinematography and James Horner's score go a long way toward setting a hauntingly bleak mood, and the supporting players, particularly Brian Dennehy and Ian Bannen, are excellent". Though she found it odd that Hurt would affect an English accent, she found his performance "rivetingly strange".

Roger Ebert found the depiction of Soviet society to be the most interesting aspect of the film, and he credited Apted's direction for never letting the procedural lag. Ebert also praised the casting, even if it relied on typecasting an actor like Marvin. "He uses actors who are able to bring fully realized characters to the screen, so we don't have to stand around waiting for introductions".

Home media
Gorky Park was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 1, 2003, as a Region 1 widescreen DVD and to Blu-ray Disc by Kino Lorber (under license from MGM) on October 21, 2014.

References

External links

1983 films
Arkady Renko
Edgar Award-winning works
1980s English-language films
Films based on American novels
Films based on crime novels
Films directed by Michael Apted
Films set in Moscow
Films set in the Soviet Union
Films shot in Finland
Orion Pictures films
Films with screenplays by Dennis Potter
Films scored by James Horner
Films shot in Sweden
Films shot in Helsinki
Films shot in Stockholm

Gorky Park (film)


Automatic block signaling (ABS), spelled automatic block signalling or called track circuit block (TCB) in the UK, is a railroad communications system that consists of a series of signals that divide a railway line into a series of sections, called blocks. The system controls the movement of trains between the blocks using automatic signals. ABS operation is designed to allow trains operating in the same direction to follow each other in a safe manner without risk of rear-end collision.

The introduction of ABS reduced railways' costs and increased their capacity. Older manual block systems required human operators. The automatic operation comes from the system's ability to detect whether blocks are occupied or otherwise obstructed, and to convey that information to approaching trains. The system operates without any outside intervention, unlike more modern traffic control systems that require external control to establish a flow of traffic.

History
The earliest way of managing multiple trains on one track was by use of a timetable and passing sidings. One train waited upon another, according to the instructions in the timetable, but if a train was delayed for any reason, all other trains might be delayed, waiting for it to appear at the proper place where they could pass safely. Operation of trains by timetable alone was supplemented by telegraphed train orders beginning in 1854 on the Erie Railroad. A railroad company dispatcher would send train orders to stations manned by telegraphers, who wrote them down on standardized forms and handed them to train crews as they passed the station.

A manual block system in the United States was implemented by the Pennsylvania Railroad about 1863, a couple of decades before other American railroads began using it. This system required a railroad employee stationed at each signal to set the signals according to instructions received by telegraph from dispatchers. English railroads also used a "controlled manual" block system, which was adapted for use in the U.S. by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1882.

The first use of automatic block signalling in the United Kingdom was installed on the Liverpool Overhead Railway on its opening in 1893. Instead of track circuits, the system used a setup of trackside mechanical, and later, electrical instruments (both functionally similar to treadles) that made contact with passing trains in order to trigger motor-operated mechanical signals. The first use of track circuit operated automatic block signalling in Britain was installed in 1902 by the LSWR's West of England line between Andover junction and Grateley which operated pneumatically powered mechanical signals.

By 1906, the Interstate Commerce Commission reported that of the  of railroad in the United States that used a block system, there were  protected by the manual block system, and only  of automatic block, on either single or double track.

However, as time went on, many railroads came to see automatic block signaling as cost effective, since it reduced the need for employees to manually operate each signal, reduced the repair costs and damage claims resulting from collisions, made possible a more efficient flow of trains, reduced the number of hours trains and crews sat idle, and decreased overall transit times from point to point.

Basic operation

Most ABS systems use three- or four-block arrangements, where an obstruction in the first block will prompt a warning upon entering the second block, and allow full speed for trains entering the third. Where blocks are short or higher capacity is needed, four or more blocks are used; trains are then given multiple warnings of an impending obstruction. For basic block status, the red/yellow/green system of signaling is nearly universal, with red indicating an obstructed block, yellow indicating that an obstructed block is ahead, and green indicating that no obstruction is to be expected.

In the United Kingdom

In the UK, automatic signals are used where there are no ground frame, flat junctions, railroad switch facing and trailing, manually controlled level crossing, neutral sections, or other interlocking functions. It is standard practice to have an overlap after the signal. These overlaps can vary from , with the standard overlap being .

Single-direction ABS

The most common forms of ABS were implemented on double-track rail lines in high-density areas that exceeded the capacity provided by either timetable and train order or other manual forms of signaling. ABS would be set up in such a way to cover train movements only in a single direction for each track. The movement of trains running in that direction would be governed by the automatic block signals which would supersede the normal superiority of trains, where such systems applied. Movement of trains operating against the established flow of traffic would still require train orders or other special manual protections to prevent a collision.  Therefore, under ABS operation trains moving in the wrong direction incurs additional operational overhead and may not be well supported by the track infrastructure.

See also
 Absolute block signalling
 Centralized traffic control

 Track warrant

References

Further reading

1871 establishments in the United States
1871 in rail transport
1871 introductions
Railway signalling block systems

Automatic block signaling


Basnet () with ancient spelling Basnyat () is a surname belonging to Kshetri caste in Nepal.

Basnet clans
Some of the Basnet clans are Shreepali Basnet, Khapatari Basnet, Khulal Basnet, Lamichhane Basnet and others.

Shreepali Basnet
Shreepali Basnet is clan among Basnet. They claim Bharadwaj Gotra. This clan was politically significant than other Basnet clans. Shivaram Singh Basnyat, the commander of Gorkhali forces belonged to Shreepali Basnet clan. Abhiman Singh Basnet was a minister of Kshetri caste.

Khapatari Basnet
Khapatari/Khabatari Basnet is another clan among Basnets. They claim Kaushik Gotra. Khabatari claim their lineage to Raghuvanshi King Ram. Some of the Khabatari Basnets were warriors in the Nepalese Army. Colonel Pahalman Singh Basnyat of this clan was awarded with the title of "Shree 1" prefix. General Singha Bahadur Basnyat, the Chief of Nepalese Army belonged to this clan.

Notable Basnets
Shovit Basnet
Salon Basnet
Nischal Basnet
Yogesh Basnet

References

Surnames
Nepali culture

Basnet


Young man playing the lute is an oil painting executed in 1624 by the Dutch Golden Age artist Judith Leyster. It is now in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, and is a period copy of the same subject by Frans Hals. It was acquired by the museum as a painting by Frans Hals and was skipped by the researcher Juliane Harms in 1927, being finally attributed to Leyster by Seymour Slive in 1974.

Provenance
The painting was sold in Amsterdam in 1822, but was in Dordrecht by 1850 where it was later bequeathed to the museum in 1870 by L. Dupper Wz.  in 1883 it was documented by Wilhelm von Bode as by Hals and in 1910 Hofstede de Groot called it a copy of the version in the collection of the Baron Gustave de Rothschild, Paris (now in the Louvre).

According to Hofrichter, the copy is better documented than the original, because a drawing by David Bailly is dated 1624 and is clearly drawn from the copy. A painted copy also exists that is either based on the copy or the drawing, based on the part in the hair. The date of 1624 makes the painting one of the earliest works by Leyster and is distinguished by the upward glance that became her trademark in later works.

See also
List of paintings by Judith Leyster
List of paintings by Frans Hals

References

1633 paintings
Paintings by Judith Leyster
Paintings in the Rijksmuseum
Paintings by Frans Hals
Musical instruments in art

Copy of Lute Player by Frans Hals


The giant anteater, Myrmecophaga, is an animal that lives in Central and South America.It is also known as the ant bear

It the only mammal without teeth. Its diet consists of termites and ants, hence the name. It is the largest anteater: its length is between 182 cm and 217 cm. Males weigh between 33 and 41 kg, female are 27 and 39 kg. This species lives on the ground, in contrast to other living anteaters and sloths which are arboreal or semi-arboreal. It forages in open areas and rests in more forested habitats.

Mode of life
The giant anteater is adapted to eat termites and ants, and does not have any teeth in its mouth. It uses its front claws to dig them up and its long, sticky tongue to collect them. They eat about 30,000 ants and termites every day.

The tongue can reach up to , longer than the length of the skull, and move in and out around 160 times per minute (nearly three times per second). The anteater's tongue has little to no attachments to the hyoid and this is what allows it to flick its tongue at such distances and speed. The hyoid apparatus is large, V-shaped and flexible and supports the tongue as it goes in and out of the mouth. Before being swallowed, insects are crushed against the palate.

The giant anteater knuckle-walks, meaning its front toes are curled under like a fist when it moves.  It is one of only a few animals other than primates that do this.

Related pages
 Anteater
 Termite
 Ant

References

Xenarthrans
Mammals of South America
Mammals of North America

Giant anteater


Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (/fəˈriːd zəˈkɑriə/; born 20 January 1964) is an Indian-American journalist. Zakaria was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, to Rafiq Zakaria and Fatima Zakaria. Zakaria earned his Bachelor of Arts from Yale University. Zakaria has been nominated five times for the National Magazine Award. He lives in New York City. Sheik Abdul Rahman

Zakaria is best known for hosting the TV show Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN. The show mostly is about International Politics. Zakaria has written five books about foreign policy, and has written for Time magazine, Newsweek, and the New York Times. Though a native of India, he is a naturalized US citizen. Zakaria was raised in a Muslim family but is not religious. On his political views, Zakaria calls himself a centrist.

1964 births
American journalists
Living people

Fareed Zakaria


Mallika Sengupta (; 1960–2011) was a Bengali poet, feminist, and reader of Sociology from Kolkata, known for her "unapologetically political poetry".

Biography
Mallika Sengupta was the head of the Department of Sociology in Maharani Kasiswari College, an undergraduate college affiliated with the University of Calcutta in Kolkata. She was much better known for her literary activity. The author of more than 20 books including 14 volumes of poetry and two novels, she was widely translated and was a frequent invitee at international literary festivals.

For twelve years in the 90s she was the poetry editor of Sananda, the largest circulated Bengali fortnightly (edited by Aparna Sen). Along with her husband, the noted poet Subodh Sarkar, she was the founder-editor of Bhashanagar, a culture magazine in Bengali.

English translations of her work have appeared in various Indian and American anthologies. In addition to teaching, editing and writing, she was actively involved with the cause of gender justice and other social issues.

She had undergone breast cancer treatment starting in October 2005 and died on 28 May 2011.

Activism and literary themes

Sengupta was also active in a number of protest and gender activism groups. Her fiery, combative tone is noticeable in many poems, e.g. "While teaching my son history":
 Man alone was both God and Goddess
 Man was both father and mother
 Both tune and flute
 Both penis and vagina
 As we have learnt from history.

  – from Mallika Sengupta, Kathamanabi, Bhashanagar, kolkata, 2005, (tr. poet)
often dealing with women's marginalised role in history:
after the battle said chenghis khan
the greatest pleasure of life,
is in front of the vanquished enemy
to sleep with his favourite wife.

   – Juddha Sheshe Nari    – from Mallika Sengupta, Kathamanabi, Bhashanagar, kolkata, 2005, (tr. amitabha mukerjee)

Particularly evocative is her feminist rendition of the legend of Khana, a medieval female poet whose tongue was allegedly cut off by her jealous
husband:
 In Bengal in the Middle Ages
 Lived a woman Khana, I sing her life
 The first Bengali woman poet
 Her tongue they severed with a knife
 Her speechless voice, "Khanar Bachan"
 Still resonates in the hills and skies
 Only the poet by the name of Khana
 Bleeding she dies.

   – Khana, tr. amitabha mukerjee

Awards and honours

Junior Fellowship for Literature from the Dept. of Culture, Govt. of India (1997–99)
Sukanto Puroskar from the Govt. of West Bengal (1998)
Bangla Academy award from the Govt. of West Bengal (2004)
Has been invited to poetry readings, conferences and seminars in Sweden (1987), Australia (1994), USA (2002 & 2006), Czech Republic (2009) and Bangladesh (1998 & 2002) as part of Indian writer's delegation.

Works

Poetry

 Challish Chander Ayu, Virus publication, 1983
 Ami Sindhur Meye, Prativas publication, Kolkata, 1988
 Haghare O Debdasi, Prativas publication, Kolkata, 1991
 Ardhek Prithivi, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 1993,
 Meyeder Aa Aaa Ka Kha, Prativas publication, Kolkata, 1998
 Kathamanabi, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 1999,
 Deoyalir Rat, Patralekha, Kolkata, 2001
 Amra Lasya Amra Ladai, Sristi Prakashani, Kolkata, 2001 Book Excerptise (2 translations)
 Purushke Lekha Chithi, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 2003,  Book Excerptise (1 poem online)
 Chheleke History Parate Giye, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 2005
 Shrestha Kabita, Kolkata, Dey's Publication, 2005
 Aamake Sariye Dao Valobasa, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 2006,
 Purusher Janyo Eksho Kabita, Deep Prakashan, Kolkata, 2007
 O Janemon Jibananada, Banolata Sen Likhchhi, Kolkata, Ananda Pub. 2008
 Brishtimichhil Barudmichhil, Kolkata, Ananda Pub. 2010

Poetry in English translation

 Carriers of Fire, Bhashanagar, Kolkata, 2002
 Kathamanabi, her voice and Other Poems, Bhashanagar, kolkata, 2005

Novels
 Seetayan, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 1995,
 Sleelatahanir Pare, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 1996,
 Kabir Bouthan, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 2011,

Books on sociology of gender
 Strilinga Nirmana, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, 1994,
 Purush Noi Purushtantra, Vikash Grantha Bhavan, Kolkata, 2002
 Bibahabichchhinnar Akhyan, Banglar Samaj O Sahitye, Kolkata, Papyrus, 2007

Translation
 Akaler Madhye Saras, translation from Kedarnath Singh's Hindi poems, Sahitya Akademi, Kolkata, 1998

Bengali poetry anthology
 Dui Banglar Meyeder Shreshtha kabita, Upasana, Kolkata, 2003

References

External links
 Mallika Sengupta and the Poetry of Feminist Conviction.  (4 bilingual poems)
 The unsevered tongue: modern poetry by Bengali women, tr. amitabha mukerjee.  Nandimukh samsad, kolkata, 2005. (4 poems with translations, excerpts)

20th-century Bengali poets
Indian feminists
1960 births
2011 deaths
Bengali Hindus
20th-century Bengalis
21st-century Bengalis
Bengali writers
Bengali poets
21st-century Bengali poets
Bengali female poets
Academic staff of the University of Calcutta
Writers from Kolkata
Poets from West Bengal
20th-century Indian women writers
20th-century Indian social scientists
21st-century Indian women writers
21st-century Indian social scientists
20th-century Indian educational theorists
21st-century Indian poets
20th-century Indian poets
20th-century Indian writers
20th-century Indian novelists
20th-century Indian essayists
21st-century Indian writers
21st-century Indian novelists
21st-century Indian essayists
21st-century Indian educational theorists
20th-century Indian educators
20th-century Indian women educators
21st-century Indian educators
21st-century Indian women educators
Indian educators
Indian novelists
Indian women novelists
Indian essayists
Indian women essayists
Indian women poets
Indian writers
Indian poets
Indian sociologists
Indian feminist writers
20th-century Indian women educational theorists
Indian women sociologists
Indian editors
Indian women editors
Indian magazine editors
Indian political writers
Scientists from West Bengal
Women scientists from West Bengal
People from Nadia district
Women educators from West Bengal
Educators from West Bengal
20th-century women educators

Mallika Sengupta


Corymbia ellipsoidea is a species of tree that is endemic to Queensland. It has rough bark on the trunk and larger branches, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of seven, creamy white flowers and barrel-shaped to urn-shaped fruit.

Description
Corymbia ellipsoidea is a tree that typically grows to a height of  and forms a lignotuber. It has red-brown over dull, white to cream or grey tessellated bark that is persistent on the trunk, reddish, scaly or flaky bark that is shed in small polygonal flakes on the larger branches, and smooth grey, pink or cream-coloured bark on the thinnest branches. Adult leaves are the same dull, grey-green colour on both sides, linear to narrow lance-shaped, lance-shaped or curved,  long and  wide, tapering to a narrow, flattened petiole  long. The flowers are borne on the ends of the branchlets on a thin, branched peduncle  long, each branch of the peduncle with three or seven buds on thin pedicels  long. Mature buds are oval or pear-shaped,  long and  wide with a rounded or flattened operculum. Flowering has been observed in January and February and the flowers are white or cream-coloured. The fruit is a woody barrel-shaped to urn-shaped capsule  long and  wide with a distinct, often flared neck and the valves enclosed in the fruit.

Taxonomy and naming
This eucalypt was first formally described in 1987 by Denis Carr and Stella Carr and was given the name Eucalyptus ellipsoidea. In 1995 Ken Hill and Lawrie Johnson changed the name to Corymbia ellipsoidea.

Distribution and habitat
Corymbia ellipsoidea is locally abundant in scattered locations, growing in woodland on sandy soil on granite ridges from the Atherton Tableland, south west to the Newcastle Range near Forsayth and south to near Charters Towers

Conservation status
This eucalypt is classified as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.

See also
 List of Corymbia species

References

ellipsoidea
Myrtales of Australia
Flora of Queensland
Plants described in 1987
Taxa named by Maisie Carr

Corymbia ellipsoidea


Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC, 576 U.S. 446 (2015), is a significant decision of the United States Supreme Court for several reasons. One is that the Court turned back a considerable amount of academic criticism of both the patent misuse doctrine as developed by the Supreme Court and the particular legal principle at issue in the case. Another is that the Court firmly rejected efforts to assimilate the patent misuse doctrine to antitrust law and explained in some detail the different policies at work in the two bodies of law. Finally, the majority and dissenting opinions informatively articulate two opposing views of the proper role of the doctrine of stare decisis in US law.

The narrow issue in Kimble v. Marvel was whether the Court should overrule the 50-year-old proposition in Brulotte v. Thys Co., 379 U.S. 29 (1964), that a patent license agreement requiring royalties for the period beyond the life of the licensed patent was unenforceable under the Supremacy Clause, state contract law notwithstanding, because it involved a misuse of patent rights. The Supreme Court in the Kimble case refused to overrule Brulotte and its doctrine against post-expiry royalties.

Criticism of Brulotte

In 1964 the Supreme Court decided Brulotte v. Thys Co., in which it held that a contract to pay patent royalties beyond the expiration of the patent was unenforceable. The decision was widely criticized in academic circles and by the patent bar, as well as in lower court decisions. The thrust of the criticism was that the patent misuse doctrine should be based on antitrust law principles, and that conduct without a significant anticompetitive effect should not be proscribed.

In its opinion in the Kimble case, the Supreme Court listed some of the criticism suggesting that the Brulotte decision was wrong and should be overruled:

 Scheiber v. Dolby Labs., Inc., 293 F. 3d 1014, 1017–1018 (CA7 2002) (Posner, J.) (Brulotte has been "severely, and as it seems to us, with all due respect, justly criticized . . . However, we have no authority to overrule a Supreme Court decision no matter how dubious its reasoning strikes us, or even how out of touch with the Supreme Court's current thinking the decision seems")
 Ayres & Klemperer, Limiting Patentees' Market Power Without Reducing Innovation Incentives: The Perverse Benefits of Uncertainty and Non-Injunctive Remedies, 97  985, 1027 (1999) ("Our analysis . . . suggests that Brulotte should be overruled").

Other criticism of Brulotte includes the following:

 Harold See and Frank M. Caprio, The Trouble with Brulotte: The Patent Royalty Term and Patent Monopoly Extension, 1990 Utah L. Rev. 813 (1990).
 Note, Patents: Supreme Court Holds Post-Expiration Royalty Agreements Unlawful Per Se, 1965  L.J. 836, 841 (1965) ("Thus, the ambiguity in Brulotte, so long as it remains unresolved, may greatly limit marketing available to [patentees].").
 Paul Goldstein, Federal System Ordering of the Copyright Interest, 69  49, 70 (1969) (" In the presence of only the most attenuated federal interest, and absent any generalized public concern, the Brulotte rule gives to the federal courts a broad and probably illegitimate supervisory power over state administration of private contracts.").
 Richard A. Posner. Transaction Costs and Antitrust Concerns in the Licensing of Intellectual Property, 4 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 325, 332 (2005) ("Brulotte does not reflect the Supreme Court's current thinking about competition and monopoly, but it will continue to bind the lower courts until the Supreme Court decides to overrule it.").
 In addition, decisions of the Federal Circuit have held that a patent cannot be held to have been misused without a showing of substantial anticompetitive effects, except where the Supreme Court has expressly ruled otherwise.

Other commentators, however, have rejected adoption of an antitrust lens for analysis of patent misuse:

 Robin C. Feldman, The Insufficiency of Antitrust Analysis for Patent Misuse, 55  L.J. 399, 422 (2003) ("the antitrust rule of reason focuses on one particular issue: the impact on competition, rather than all possible equitable considerations" relevant to patent policy); id. at 448 ("A behavior that retards the progress of science would be of concern to patent policy" but antitrust tests are not attuned to this type of problem.")
 Marshall Leaffer, Patent Misuse and Innovation, 10 J.  L. 142, 148 (2010) ("patent misuse should transcend the contours of traditional antitrust law and should concern itself with policy of patent law and the effect on innovation").

Background

In 1990, plaintiff Stephen Kimble obtained U.S. Patent No. 5,072,856 on a toy that allows children and other persons interested in role-playing as "Spider-Man" to shoot a spider web—really, pressurized foam string—"from the palm of [the] hand."

Defendant Marvel Entertainment, LLC makes and markets products featuring Spider-Man. Kimble sought to sell or license his patent to Marvel's corporate predecessor and met with its president to negotiate a contract. But the company instead began marketing the "Web Blaster"—a toy that, like Kimble's patented invention, enables users to mimic Spider-Man by shooting foam string. Kimble sued Marvel in 1997, alleging breach of contract and patent infringement. The parties settled that litigation and Marvel agreed to purchase Kimble's patent in exchange for a lump sum (of about a half-million dollars) and a 3% running royalty on Marvel's future sales of the Web Blaster and similar products. The parties set no end date for royalties, apparently contemplating that they would continue for as long as customers wanted to buy the product.

Marvel subsequently learned of the Brulotte decision and realized that under the Brulotte doctrine it was not obliged to pay royalties after the patent expired. Kimble sued Marvel for breach of contract and Marvel counterclaimed for a declaration that it was no longer obligated to pay Kimble after the patent expired. Marvel prevailed in the litigation.

The Ninth Circuit reluctantly affirmed. It said:

The . . . criticism [of Brulotte] is particularly apt in this case. The patent leverage in this case was vastly overshadowed by what were likely non-patent rights, and Kimble may have been able to obtain a higher royalty rate had the parties understood that the royalty payments would stop when the patent expired. Nonetheless, Brulotte and its progeny are controlling. We are bound to follow Brulotte and cannot deny that it applies here.

Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment below, 6-3, largely on stare decisis grounds, but in the course of its ruling the Court explained why the Brulotte decision was correct and its critics wrong, as to the substantive law.

Majority opinion

The majority opinion by Justice Elena Kagan began by explaining how the US patent system reflects a congressional "balance between fostering innovation and ensuring public access to discoveries." Consequently, once the statutory term of the patent monopoly ends, "the right to make or use the article, free from all restriction, passes to the public."

The Court elaborated the point:

In case after case, the Court has construed those laws to preclude measures that restrict free access to formerly patented, as well as unpatentable, inventions. In one line of cases, we have struck down state statutes with that consequence.  By virtue of federal law, we reasoned, "an article on which the patent has expired," like an unpatentable article, "is in the public domain and may be made and sold by whoever chooses to do so." In a related line of decisions, we have deemed unenforceable private contract provisions limiting free use of such inventions. . . .[F]or example, we determined that a manufacturer could not agree to refrain from challenging a patent's validity. Allowing even a single company to restrict its use of an expired or invalid patent, we explained, "would deprive ... the consuming public of the advantage to be derived" from free exploitation of the discovery. And to permit such a result, whether or not authorized "by express contract," would impermissibly undermine the patent laws.

"Brulotte was brewed in the same barrel," the Court said. Agreements under which patent royalties must be paid after the patent expires "conflict with patent law's policy of establishing a 'post-expiration . . . public domain' in which every person can make free use of a formerly patented product."

Brulotte is no bar to business arrangements to defer payment or create joint enterprises, the Court observed. Nonetheless, "Kimble asks us to abandon Brulotte in favor of 'flexible, case-by-case analysis' of post-expiration royalty clauses 'under the rule of reason,' " as under the antitrust laws. But the antitrust approach requires courts to undertake a complex analysis "taking into account a variety of factors, including specific information about the relevant business, its condition before and after the [practice] was imposed, and the [practice's] history, nature, and effect. . . a full-fledged economic inquiry into the definition of the market, barriers to entry, and the like."

Putting aside for the moment the merits and demerits of taking an antitrust approach to the issue, the court turned to the role of stare decisis, acknowledging that sometimes it "means  sticking to some wrong decisions." The reason for that is that usually it is "more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right." Moreover:

Overruling precedent is never a small matter. Stare decisis—in English, the idea that today's Court should stand by yesterday's decisions—is a foundation stone of the rule of law. Application of that doctrine, although not an inexorable command, is the preferred course because it promotes the evenhanded, predictable, and consistent development of legal principles, fosters reliance on judicial decisions, and contributes to the actual and perceived integrity of the judicial process. It also reduces incentives for challenging settled precedents, saving parties and courts the expense of endless relitigation.

Therefore, for the courts to reverse course there must be a "special, justification" over and beyond just a belief that the precedent was wrongly decided. This is especially true for statutes, as in this case: For "critics of our ruling can take their objections across the street, and Congress can correct any mistake it sees." Moreover, in this case, "Congress has spurned multiple opportunities to reverse Brulotte"—50 years or more during which Congress repeatedly amended the patent laws without disturbing Brulotte and it even "rebuffed bills that would have replaced Brulotte 's per se rule with the same antitrust-style analysis Kimble now urges."

The Court then returned to the patent policy issues it had described earlier. They reinforced the reasons for following stare decisis here and not disturbing the Brulotte precedent.

"First, Brulottes statutory and doctrinal underpinnings have not eroded over time." There was no change in the law, by judicial or congressional action. "[T]he core feature of the patent laws on which Brulotte relied remains just the same. . . .Brulotte, then, is not the kind of doctrinal dinosaur or legal last-man-standing for which we sometimes depart from stare decisis." To the contrary, overruling Brulotte could undermine other case law and thus "unsettle stable law."

Second, contrary to the critics, "nothing about Brulotte has proved unworkable." The ease of determining whether a license call for royalty payments after patent expiration "appears in still sharper relief when compared to Kimble's proposed alternative. Recall that he wants courts to employ antitrust law's rule of reason to identify and invalidate those post-expiration royalty clauses with anti-competitive consequences." That procedure requires an "elaborate inquiry" that "produces notoriously high litigation costs and unpredictable results." For that reason, "trading in Brulotte for the rule of reason would make the law less, not more, workable than it is now."

According to Kimble, the Court states, post-expiration royalties are not anticompetitive; they are procompetitive. They lead to lower royalty rates during the patent term, which leads to lower consumer prices. Also, more companies can afford the cheaper licenses, fostering competition among the licensees. Even assuming that this is true, the Court responded, it misconceives the basis for Brulotte. "If Brulotte were an antitrust rather than a patent case, we might [decide] as Kimble would like." But this is a patent case—a patent misuse case. It rests on patent policy. "Congress had made a judgment: that the day after a patent lapses, the formerly protected invention must be available to all for free." The "choice of what patent policy should be" lies with Congress.

Finally, the Court insisted: "In adhering to our precedent as against such complaints, we promote the rule-of-law values to which courts must attend while leaving matters of public policy to Congress." The Court concluded with a literary flourish, by quoting from Amazing Fantasy #15, the source of one of the most famous themes of Spider-Man—with great power comes great responsibility.

Dissent

Speaking for himself and Justices Roberts and Thomas, Justice Samuel Alito dissented, asserting that the Court "employs stare decisis, normally a tool of [judicial] restraint, to reaffirm a clear case of judicial overreach." He insisted that Brulotte:

was not based on anything that can plausibly be regarded as an interpretation of the terms of the Patent Act. It was based instead on an economic theory—and one that has been debunked. The decision interferes with the ability of parties to negotiate licensing agreements that reflect the true value of a patent, and it disrupts contractual expectations. Stare decisis does not require us to retain this baseless and damaging precedent. . . . Brulotte was thus a bald act of policy making. It was not simply a case of incorrect statutory interpretation. It was not really statutory interpretation at all.

He denied that the principle that stare decisis applies particularly to decisions based on statutes was relevant here. "When a precedent is based on a judge-made rule and is not grounded in anything that Congress has enacted, we cannot 'properly place on the shoulders of Congress' the entire burden of correcting 'the Court's own error.' "

Justice Alito also rejected the antitrust-patent misuse distinction that the majority made: "Brulotte was an antitrust decision masquerading as a patent case."

Finally, he disagreed about its being Congress's responsibility rather than the Court's to undo Brulotte:

Passing legislation is no easy task. . . .Within that onerous process, there are additional practical hurdles. A law must be taken up for discussion and not passed over in favor of more pressing matters, and Senate rules require 60 votes to end debate on most legislation. And even if the House and Senate agree on a general policy, the details of the measure usually must be hammered out in a conference committee and repassed by both Houses.

Commentary

 Herbert Hovencamp disagreed with the Court's refusal to interpret patent misuse law through an antitrust lens. He favored widespread use of the antitrust rule of reason to judge the legality (and therefore enforceability) of all commercial transactions in this country. The effect, he said, would be to make arrangements like those in Brulotte "join the general run of agreements that are nearly always legal." He explained:

In other words, using antitrust rather than patent law to address post-expiration royalties would not create nearly the tempest of uncertainty that the Court feared. Nearly all of the situations applying it would simply be lawful. A tiny number of cases involving both market power and plausible anticompetitive exclusion or restraint on trade might be addressable under the antitrust laws. Such an approach would give the parties a better set of tools for managing innovation risk in sensible ways.

 Kevin Noonan in the Patent Docs blog lamented the decision, predicting that it will become "another justification for the legitimate scope of patent rights to be constricted to the point that patents no longer are able to promote progress."
 Neil Wilkof in the IP Kat blog puzzled over the "strange judicial bedfellows" making up the six-justice majority: "the four so-called liberal Justices, Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan, joined by arch-conservative Justice Scalia and perennial swing vote Justice Kennedy." The four liberal justices "can be understood as giving expression to the longstanding liberal fear of 'over-extending' IP rights, especially patents, given the anticompetitive effects that in their view lurk in the exercise of patent rights." As for Justice Scalia:

[T]he impetus seems to derive from Justice Scalia's deeply rooted judicial conservatism rather than any concern with the scope of IP rights and their exploitation (or how the Brulotte rule has worked in practice). What is interesting is how he split ranks from the other three so-called conservative justices, Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Thomas and Alito, who focused on what they viewed as the deeply flawed and anachronistic foundations that undergird the Brulotte decision. Justice Scalia seems to ignore these factors in favour of doctrinal considerations, which brought him to the same result as his liberal colleagues.

 Gene Quinn, in the IP Watchdog, marveled at the role of stare decisis in this case: "If you were going to write a ridiculous piece of fiction that no one in the industry would believe the plot would start with the United States Supreme Court citing stare decisis in a patent case." He compared the approach in Kimble with that in recent patent-eligibility decisions such as Alice v. CLS Bank, which he argued took an opposite view of stare decisis.
 Richard H. Stern, in the European Intellectual Property Review, views Kimble favorably, and sees it as reaffirming a line of previous Supreme Court precedents holding that the misuse doctrine is based on patent policy, not antitrust policy:
The effect of the Kimble decision would seem to be to roll back the line of Federal Circuit decisions culminating in Princo, which had made a showing of substantial anti-competitive effect in the relevant market an essential element of proof in most misuse cases. Kimble reaffirms the doctrine of [those Supreme Court] cases holding that misuse is not antitrust and does not need a showing of actual anticompetitive effect.

He wonders, however, whether determining what is patent policy will prove elusive, and points to areas where courts have differed—in particular, whether all types of misuse should result in unenforceability of the misused patent until the misuse is purged, rather than in just a requirement that the misuse must stop. He therefore predicts further litigation because "the Kimble decision will not make those who think the present US patent misuse doctrine is too harsh creep away and vanish into mouse holes."

See also
 List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 576
 Patent misuse

References

External links
 Text of decision

2015 in United States case law
Marvel Comics
Spider-Man
United States misuse law
United States patent case law
United States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court
United States Supreme Court cases

Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC


Tomás Pina Isla (born 14 October 1987) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Real Murcia CF.

He amassed La Liga totals of 301 matches and eight goals over 12 seasons, with Mallorca, Villarreal and Alavés. He also played in Belgium and China.

Club career

Mallorca
Pina was born in Villarta de San Juan, Ciudad Real, Castilla–La Mancha. After finishing his football development with amateurs CD Móstoles, he moved to RCD Mallorca in the summer of 2008.

Pina made his professional – and La Liga – debut with the latter on 31 January 2010, playing the last ten minutes in a 2–1 away loss against Xerez CD after coming on as a substitute for Bruno China. He spent the vast majority of his first professional season with the reserve team, in the Segunda División B.

Villarreal
On 5 July 2013, after Mallorca's top-flight relegation, Pina signed a five-year deal with Villarreal CF, in turn promoted. He scored his first goal for his new team on 4 October, starting and closing a 3–0 home win over Granada CF.

Pina was heavily played during his three-year spell at the Estadio El Madrigal by manager Marcelino García Toral, whether as a starter or a replacement. In the 2015–16 campaign he appeared in 36 games in all competitions, his only goal helping oust SSC Napoli from the UEFA Europa League as his 59th-minute long-range lob from the left flank earned a 1–1 away draw and a 2–1 aggregate victory in the round of 32.

Brugge and Alavés
On 4 July 2016, the 28-year-old Pina moved abroad for the first time in his career, joining Club Brugge KV from Belgium until 2020. On 7 August of the following year, he returned to Spain and its top tier after agreeing to a one-year loan deal with Deportivo Alavés with a buyout clause.

On 12 August 2018, Pina signed a permanent three-year contract with the Glorioso.

Later career
Pina joined Henan F.C. of the Chinese Super League on 28 July 2022. The 35-year-old returned to Spain in August 2023, on a deal at Primera Federación club Real Murcia CF.

Career statistics

References

External links

1987 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Ciudad Real
Spanish men's footballers
Footballers from Castilla–La Mancha
Men's association football midfielders
La Liga players
Segunda División B players
Tercera División players
Primera Federación players
CD Móstoles footballers
RCD Mallorca B players
RCD Mallorca players
Villarreal CF players
Deportivo Alavés players
Real Murcia CF players
Belgian Pro League players
Club Brugge KV players
Chinese Super League players
Henan F.C. players
Spanish expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium
Expatriate men's footballers in China
Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium
Spanish expatriate sportspeople in China

Tomás Pina


The Syrena was a  Polish automobile model first exhibited at the Poznań Trade Fair in 1955 and manufactured from 1957 to 1972 by the Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych (FSO) in Warsaw and from 1972 until 1983 by Fabryka Samochodów Małolitrażowych (FSM) in Bielsko-Biała. 177,234 were manufactured by FSO and 344,077 by FSM, a total of 521,311. During its remarkably long production run it underwent only minor modifications.

The Syrena was produced in various models: 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, while the most popular model was the 105. All were two-door sedans with two-stroke engines, initially of two cylinders. In 1965 the Syrena received a larger three-cylinder engine.

From 1968 a prototype model named laminat was produced. A van called Syrena Bosto and a pick-up called the R20 were also produced. A coupé Syrena Sport and a hatchback Syrena 110 (in 1966) remained prototypes only.

A Siren is a mermaid who, according to the legend, protects the river Wisła and the Polish capital city, Warsaw. She is featured on the city's coat of arms. Also a diminutive name Syrenka (little siren) is commonly used for the car in Poland.

History
At first, Polish engineers wanted Syrena to have a four-stroke air-cooled engine and a self-supporting chassis. But due to a lack of deep-drawn metal parts and cost reductions, the first Syrena 100 cars were supposed to have a wooden bodywork covered with leather-like material. The cars were powered by 2-stroke engines designed by engineer Fryderyk Bluemke. The first two prototypes of Syrena were made in December 1953. One – with a wooden framework, was constructed by Stanisław Panczakiewicz, while the second, steel-bodied car was made by Stanisław Łukaszewicz. They met halfway by combining the first car's design with the steel bodywork of the second one (with one exception – the roof remained wooden). By March 1955 FSO had built 5 prototypes of Syrena 100.

In September all of the prototypes took part in an experimental rally covering a distance of 5600 km. One of the cars, driven by Karol Pionnier, crashed, revealing the weak structure of the roof. As a result, the engineers decided to use steel instead of wood for this part of the car. One of the prototypes was exhibited at the Poznań Trade Fair in autumn 1955. On 20 March 1957 the mass production of Syrena 100 started.

Syrena 100

Syrena 100 was designed by engineers Stanislaw Lukasiewicz, Stanisław Panczakiewicz and Fryderyk Bluemke. It was introduced to the public in June 1955 at the 24th Poznań Trade Fair. The car aroused much interest, which prompted the government to put it into production. At first, the production rate was to be 10,000 cars a year. Because of financial reasons, Syrena 100 and the much larger Warszawa automobile shared many parts. As a result, the Syrena was much heavier than intended (950 kg).

Syrena 101

In 1960 Syrena underwent a first, minor modernisation. The improved car had a pneumatic fuel pump and a different type of carburetor. It also received new twin windscreen wipers and a better suspension.

Syrena 102

The Syrena 102, produced in 1962 and 1963, had slightly different body details. The "S" version of this model shared an engine with Wartburg 312. Around 150 examples of Syrena 102S were produced.

Syrena 103

Syrena 103 (1963–66) had a restyled front and a different engine.

Syrena 104

The next model lasted from 1966 to 1972. It had a new, three-cylinder engine, a synchronized gearbox and restyled tail lights.

Syrena 105

The 105 was the last Syrena design. It was produced from 1972 to 1983 by the FSM factory and was badged accordingly. Unlike its predecessors it had regular front doors instead of "suicide" ones. The "Lux" version, produced from 1974, had the gear lever and handbrake between the front seats. The 105 served as a basis for two other models – Syrena R-20, which was a pick-up and a van – Bosto.

A 1983 FSM Syrena 105L finished in yellow was featured in series 10 episode 10 of the British television program Wheeler Dealers.  Presenter Mike Brewer purchased the car in Poland for zł7,000 (the equivalent of £1,400) and drove it back to the show's UK-based workshop where it underwent repairs and upgrades by mechanic Edd China. The colour was changed to red and white in homage to the Polish flag. Other work included upgrades to the steering box, refurbishing the drum brakes, replacing the dynamo with an alternator and replacing the radio. The total cost of procuring and upgrading the car reached £5454. The completed car was driven to the Polish embassy where ambassador Witold Sobków took a ride with them. The car was later sold for £8,000 to the bubble car museum in Lincolnshire.

Syrena Bosto

The Syrena Bosto panel van and its pickup truck sister, the Syrena R-20, were first introduced to the 104 models of the Syrena. The name is an acronym of Bielski Osobowo-Towarowy, or "Passenger-Cargo [car] of Bielsko." The first model of the Bosto was revealed in December 1971, at the newly constructed FSM factory in Bielsko-Biala in southern Poland. The final model finished production 30 April 1983. Overall, approximately 135,000 Bostos were built.

The Bosto 104B started official production in 1972, and was available as a four-seater van, capable of carrying 200 kg of freight, or as a two-seater cab with a 350 kg load rating. The second edition, Syrena Bosto 105B, replaced the 104 in 1976. Essentially the same vehicle stylistically, the differences were in construction. Uprated semi-elliptical springs from the FSO Warszawa, an increased fuel tank borrowed from the FSO 125p, and the handbrake moved to the "standard" position between the front seats were the main modifications. As with the Syrena saloon the 3-cylinder, 2-stroke engine was mounted longitudinally in front of the front axle and powered the front wheels through a gearbox with driveshafts coming sideways out of it.

The driver's compartment was separated from the rear load space by a single sheet bulkhead, and additional roof-fixed netting. Because the Bosto was designed for heavy loads, as opposed to the sedan version of the Syrena, the suspension underneath was modified. An extended chassis held a rear trailing axle on leaf suspension, each with a hydraulic suspension damper. This allowed a lower floor level, and in turn allowed FSM to borrow directly parts from the Zuk A05/A06.

Dimensions
Weight: 950 kg
Wheelbase: 2300mm
Length: 39650mm
Rear Compartment: H-1600 mm x W-1470 mm

Syrena Sport

In 1960 a prototype Syrena Sport was produced with a fibreglass body and a four-stroke two-cylinder engine. However, this model was not put into production.

See also
List of Eastern European cars

References

External links

 Syrena club
  History of Warsaw's "Syrena" emblem
 Syrena on  autohistories.org

Syrena
Science and technology in Poland
Cars introduced in 1957
1960s cars
1970s cars
1980s cars
Front-wheel-drive vehicles
Sedans

FSO Syrena


General elections were held in Nepal in two phases on 26 November and 7 December 2017 to elect the 275 members of the fifth House of Representatives, the lower house of the Federal Parliament of Nepal. The election was held alongside the first provincial elections for the seven provincial assemblies. A political deadlock between the governing Nepali Congress and the winning left-wing coalition over the system used to elect the upper house led to delay in forming the new government. Following the announcement of final result by the Election Commission, K.P. Oli of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) was sworn in as Prime Minister on 15 February 2018 by the President according to Article 76 (2) of the constitution. He passed a Motion of Confidence on 11 March 2018 with 208 votes.

References

Politics of Nepal

2017 Nepalese general election