is a Japanese bodybuilder and professional wrestler better known by his ring name . He is currently a freelancer, working most notably for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a four-time World Tag Team Champion with longtime partner Zeus as "The Big Guns". Kurakawa is also a former two-time Osaka Pro Wrestling Tag Team Champion with Zeus, and a former IWF Heavyweight Champion.

Professional wrestling career

Osaka Pro Wrestling (2009-2014)
The Bodyguard made his first appearance in Osaka Pro Wrestling in the fall of 2008, assisting Tigers Mask in completing his heel turn. Originally called Kurofuku, his strength was evident from the start and immediately started to cause trouble by helping Tigers win matches. Soon, he began a long-running feud started with Zeus, which eventually led to him being outed as former professional bodybuilder Noboru Kurakawa, the winner of two Musclemania Japan competitions in 2002 and 2007. To build heat for their feud, Kurakawa (now known as The Bodyguard) and Zeus engaged in some power battles, including an arm-wrestling contest that had no clear winner. Bodyguard would make his official in-ring debut as The Bodyguard at Hurricane 2009 in a loss to Zeus.

In August 2010, Bodyguard turned on Tigers Mask, aligning himself with Asian Cougar and Orochi to form Joker. In January 2011, Bodyguard was kicked out of Joker by Kuuga after they attempted to illegally help in a match against Zeus, only for Bodyguard to refuse, wanting to win the match fairly. After the match, Bodyguard was attacked and beaten down by Joker, but was saved by Zeus, who cleared everyone out of the ring and shook hands with Bodyguard after the match, signalling a mutual respect between the two and ending their long-running rivalry. Soon after, they formed a tag team. Known as the Big Guns, they won the Osaka Pro Tag Titles in February 2011, but lost them to Joker in March. Various injuries kept him sidelined for a good portion of 2011, but he was able to return to active competition in the fall. A knee injury once again sidelined him in early 2012, but he returned for a Big Guns produced show in May. Shortly after that, he announced that other than for Big Guns-related matches, his new ring name would be "Macho Samurai". At Hurricane 2012, Bodyguard aggravated his knee injury during a three way Tag Title match, and shortly after announced that he needed surgery. The surgery and recovery kept him out for 8 months.

He returned to the ring in March 2013, announcing that he would become a full-time Osaka Pro roster member. The Big Guns began to achieve more success shortly after, winning the Osaka Tag Festival in June and the Osaka Pro Wrestling Tag Team Championship for the second time in October. At the same time, Zeus also won the Osaka Pro Wrestling Championship and the 2013 Tennozan Tournament. Zeus and Bodyguard faced each other in the finals, with Zeus coming out on top. On March 1, 2014, it was announced that Osaka Pro would be folding due to financial difficulties and on April 20, all of its workers would become freelancers. Zeus and Bodyguard eventually vacated all of their championships, and on April 20 wrestled their last match in OPW to date, teaming with Quiet Storm in a loss to Billyken Kid, Bull Armor Takuya and Black Buffalo.

All Japan Pro Wrestling (2014–present)
On March 28, 2014, Zeus and The Bodyguard made their debuts for AJPW, defeating Menso re-Oyaji and Sushi.
On May 16, they received an opportunity at the World Tag Team Championship, but were unable to defeat defending champions Evolution (Joe Doering and Suwama). Zeus and Bodyguard both participated in the 2014 Ōdō Tournament as singles competitors, with Zeus being eliminated in the second round by eventual winner Go Shiozaki and Bodyguard in the first round by Takao Omori. The Big Guns also participated in the 2014 World's Strongest Tag Determination League, finishing with 8 points but not making it to the final.

Both Zeus and The Bodyguard participated in the 2015 Champion Carnival Tournament, with Zeus finishing the tournament with 3 points in Block B and Bodyguard finishing with 2 points in Block A. On May 31, they received another shot at the World Tag Team Championship, but were unable to defeat Xceed (Go Shiozaki and Kento Miyahara). On August 15, Zeus and Bodyguard scored a big win, defeating former World Tag Team Champions Akebono and Yutaka Yoshie. They once again participated in the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in 2015, losing their first two matches but managing to win the rest of their matches, and make it into the finals, finishing the tournament with 8 points. In the final, they were defeated by Kento Miyahara and Suwama. On December 23, Zeus and Bodyguard finally captured the World Tag Team Championship, defeating Wild Burning (Jun Akiyama and Takao Omori).

On February 21, Zeus and Bodyguard made their first successful defence of the World Tag Team Championship, defeating Nextream (Jake Lee and Kento Miyahara). On June 15, Zeus and Bodyguard lost the World Tag Team title to Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi. On November 27, they defeated Sekimoto and Okabayashi to regain the championship.

Acting career
The Bodyguard stars in the Emilio Insolera film Sign Gene, the first superhero film about deaf mutants who have superhuman powers through the use of sign language. The film was be released on September 14, 2017.

Personal life
Outside of professional wrestling, Kurakawa co-owns "King Gym", a power and strength gym in his hometown of Osaka, Japan with tag team partner Kensho Obayashi.

Championships and accomplishments

Bodybuilding
Musclemania Japan (2002, 2007)

Professional wrestling
All Japan Pro Wrestling
World Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Zeus
January 2 Korakuen Hall Heavyweight Battle Royal (2021)
Big Japan Pro Wrestling
BJW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Daisuke Sekimoto
Independent Wrestling Federation
IWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Pro Wrestling Land's End
All Asia Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Osaka Pro Wrestling
Osaka Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Zeus
Osaka Tag Festival (2013) – with Zeus
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Ranked No. 165 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2018

References

1968 births
Japanese male professional wrestlers
Living people
Sportspeople from Osaka
Japanese bodybuilders

21st-century professional wrestlers
World Tag Team Champions (AJPW)
BJW Tag Team Champions
All Asia Heavyweight Champions
Osaka Tag Team Champions

The Bodyguard (wrestler)


Tauride Palace () is one of the largest and most historically important palaces in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Construction and early use

Prince Grigory Potemkin of Tauride commissioned his favourite architect, Ivan Starov, to design his city residence in a rigorous Palladian style. Starov's design called for an extensive park, later the Tauride Garden, and harbour in front of the palace, which would be linked with the Neva River by a canal. Building work began in 1783 and lasted for six years. The 13-bay front of the palace has a Tuscan portico and is topped by a shallow dome. A square vestibule leads to an octagonal hall, with the huge "Catherine Hall" beyond. This had eighteen Ionic Greek columns on either side and opens into a large, enclosed winter garden with a central circular colonnade. Considered the grandest nobleman's residence of 18th-century Russia, Tauride Palace served as a model for innumerable manors scattered across the Russian Empire.

Shortly before his death, on 28 April 1791, Potemkin used the palace to host unprecedented festivities and illuminations with the purpose of winning the Empress's waning affections. The ball was described by Gavrila Derzhavin in the longest of his poetry compositions.

Royal acquisition and use

Several months after the owner's death, Catherine II purchased his palace and ordered architect Fyodor Volkov to transform it into her summer townhouse. Volkov was responsible for many improvements in the grounds, including the construction of the theatre in the east wing and the church in the west wing. In the garden, he designed the Admiralty Pavilion, gardener house, orangery, glass-houses, bridges, and ironwork fences.  The sculpture named the Venus Tauride (now in the Hermitage Museum) was kept in the palace from the end of the eighteenth century until the mid-nineteenth, and derives its name from it.

The exterior appearance of the palace was rather plain and contrasted sharply with the riotous luxuriance of its interiors. The domed hall, one of the largest in Russia, was connected by a  columned gallery with a winter garden. The decoration of every major room – including the Chinese Hall and the Tapestry Parlour – was destroyed after 1799, when Emperor Paul, who detested all the things his mother liked, gave over the palace to his favourite cavalry regiment to be used as stables and barracks.

In the 19th century, the palace was refurbished by Carlo Rossi and Vasily Stasov as a residence for minor royalty. It was then used to host balls and exhibitions until 1906, when it was transformed into the seat of the first Russian parliament, the Imperial State Duma.

Use during the Russian revolution

Immediately after the February Revolution of 1917, Tauride Palace housed the Russian Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet, in opposite wings of the palace. (In early March the Provisional Government moved to the Marinsky Palace.) The abortive Russian Constituent Assembly held its meetings there in 1918. In May 1918 Bolsheviks used the building to hold their 7th Congress, where they first named themselves the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

Post-revolutionary uses
From 1920 to 1991, the Tauride Palace was used for the High Party School. Since the 1990s, Tauride Palace has been home to the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS). On this account, a large glass-covered annex was erected immediately behind the palace, in the Tauride Gardens.

References

Works cited
Dyachenko L.I., Krotov M.I. Tavrichesky dvorets: proshloe i nastoyashee. SPb, 2002.
Shuysky V.K. Tavrichesky dvorets. SPb, 2003.

External links

Tauride Palace in Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg
 Official website

Carlo Rossi buildings and structures
Houses completed in 1789
Palaces in Saint Petersburg
Royal residences in Russia
Government buildings in Russia
Russian Provisional Government
Legislative buildings in Europe
Palladian architecture
Neoclassical architecture in Russia
Neoclassical palaces
Seats of national legislatures
1789 establishments in the Russian Empire
Government buildings with domes
Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg

Tauride Palace


Due to the successful passage of a law in November 2008, the lawful practice of polygamy in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan is almost impossible. When Kurdistan was divided (from 1994 to 2005), polygamy was abolished under areas controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan while legal under regions controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party. The severe restrictions on polygamy provoked a fierce outcry within the Islamic community, many of which feel polygamy to be their right as Muslims as it is ordained by the Qur'an. Feminist groups, on the other hand, viewed the legislation as a semi-victory; as they will not stop until they have fully abolished polygamy in the region.

References

Iraqi Kurdistan
Marriage, unions and partnerships in Iraq
Women's rights in Iraq
Women's rights in Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan

Polygamy in Iraqi Kurdistan


Lieutenant-Colonel Giles Alexander Meysey Vandeleur, DSO (2 September 1911 – 9 March 1978) was a British Army officer during the Second World War.

He was the only son of Alexander Moore Vandeleur of Cahercon, Kildysart, Co. Clare, Ireland and the Hon. Violet Meysey-Thompson. His father belonged to the prominent landowning family from Kilrush, County Clare. His mother was a daughter of Henry Meysey-Thompson, 1st Baron Knaresborough. His father was killed in action in the early months of World War I; his mother remarried Sir Algar Howard.

He was commissioned into the Irish Guards as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1931. As acting Commanding Officer of the 2nd Armoured Battalion Irish Guards, he served under his cousin Brigadier Joe Vandeleur (their grandfathers were brothers) in the breakout of XXX Corps during Operation Market-Garden. He went on to become acting commander of the British 5th Guards Armoured Brigade in 1945. He retired from the Army in 1949.

In the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far, based on Operation Market-Garden, Michael Byrne played Giles Vandeleur and Michael Caine played Joe.

He was married four times: firstly to Jean Salmond, and secondly to Pamela Wood: both marriages ended in divorce. He married thirdly Margarita de Lỏpez, who died in 1970, and fourthly Esmếe Hutcheson, who died in 1973.

Vandeleur died on 9 March 1978.

References

Irish Guards officers
British Army personnel of World War II
1911 births
1978 deaths
Companions of the Distinguished Service Order

Giles Vandeleur


The evolution of photosynthesis refers to the origin and subsequent evolution of photosynthesis, the process by which light energy is used to assemble sugars from carbon dioxide and a hydrogen and electron source such as water. The process of photosynthesis was discovered by Jan Ingenhousz, a Dutch-born British physician and scientist, first publishing about it in 1779.

The first photosynthetic organisms probably evolved early in the evolutionary history of life and most likely used reducing agents such as hydrogen rather than water. There are three major metabolic pathways by which photosynthesis is carried out: C3 photosynthesis, C4 photosynthesis, and CAM photosynthesis. C3 photosynthesis is the oldest and most common form. A C3 plant uses the Calvin cycle for the initial steps that incorporate  into organic material. A C4 plant prefaces the Calvin cycle with reactions that incorporate  into four-carbon compounds. A CAM plant uses crassulacean acid metabolism, an adaptation for photosynthesis in arid conditions. C4 and CAM plants have special adaptations that save water.

Origin

Available evidence from geobiological studies of Archean (>2500 Ma) sedimentary rocks indicates that life existed 3500 Ma. Fossils of what are thought to be filamentous photosynthetic organisms have been dated at 3.4 billion years old, consistent with recent studies of photosynthesis. Early photosynthetic systems, such as those from green and purple sulfur and green and purple nonsulfur bacteria, are thought to have been anoxygenic, using various molecules as electron donors. Green and purple sulfur bacteria are thought to have used hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide as electron and hydrogen donors. Green nonsulfur bacteria used various amino and other organic acids. Purple nonsulfur bacteria used a variety of nonspecific organic and inorganic molecules. It is suggested that photosynthesis likely originated at low-wavelength geothermal light from acidic hydrothermal vents, Zn-tetrapyrroles were the first photochemically active pigments, the photosynthetic organisms were anaerobic and relied on  without relying on H2 emitted by alkaline hydrothermal vents. The divergence of anoxygenic photosynthetic organisms at the photic zone could have led to the ability to strip electrons from  more efficiently under ultraviolet radiation. There is geochemical evidence that suggests that anaerobic photosynthesis emerged 3.3 to 3.5 billion years ago. The organisms later developed a Cholophyll F synthase. They could have also stripped electrons from soluble metal ions although it is unknown.

The first oxygenic photosynthetic organisms are proposed to be -dependent. It is also suggested photosynthesis originated under sunlight, using  emitted by volcanoes and hydrothermal vents which ended the need for scarce H2 emitted by alkaline hydrothermal vents. Oxygenic photosynthesis uses water as an electron donor, which is oxidized to molecular oxygen () in the photosynthetic reaction center. The biochemical capacity for oxygenic photosynthesis evolved in a common ancestor of extant cyanobacteria. The first appearance of free oxygen in the atmosphere is sometimes referred to as the oxygen catastrophe. The geological record indicates that this transforming event took place during the Paleoproterozoic era at least 2450–2320 million years ago (Ma), and, it is speculated, much earlier. A clear paleontological window on cyanobacterial evolution opened about 2000 Ma, revealing an already-diverse biota of blue-greens. Cyanobacteria remained principal primary producers throughout the Proterozoic Eon (2500–543 Ma), in part because the redox structure of the oceans favored photoautotrophs capable of nitrogen fixation. Green algae joined blue-greens as major primary producers on continental shelves near the end of the Proterozoic, but only with the Mesozoic (251–65 Ma) radiations of dinoflagellates, coccolithophorids, and diatoms did primary production in marine shelf waters take modern form. Cyanobacteria remain critical to marine ecosystems as primary producers in oceanic gyres, as agents of biological nitrogen fixation, and, in modified form, as the plastids of marine algae. Modern photosynthesis in plants and most photosynthetic prokaryotes is oxygenic.

Timeline of photosynthesis on Earth

Symbiosis and the origin of chloroplasts

Several groups of animals have formed symbiotic relationships with photosynthetic algae. These are most common in corals, sponges and sea anemones. It is presumed that this is due to the particularly simple body plans and large surface areas of these animals compared to their volumes. In addition, a few marine mollusks Elysia viridis and Elysia chlorotica also maintain a symbiotic relationship with chloroplasts they capture from the algae in their diet and then store in their bodies. This allows the mollusks to survive solely by photosynthesis for several months at a time. Some of the genes from the plant cell nucleus have even been transferred to the slugs, so that the chloroplasts can be supplied with proteins that they need to survive.

An even closer form of symbiosis may explain the origin of chloroplasts. Chloroplasts have many similarities with photosynthetic bacteria, including a circular chromosome, prokaryotic-type ribosomes, and similar proteins in the photosynthetic reaction center. The endosymbiotic theory suggests that photosynthetic bacteria were acquired (by endocytosis) by early eukaryotic cells to form the first plant cells. Therefore, chloroplasts may be photosynthetic bacteria that adapted to life inside plant cells. Like mitochondria, chloroplasts still possess their own DNA, separate from the nuclear DNA of their plant host cells and the genes in this chloroplast DNA resemble those in cyanobacteria. DNA in chloroplasts codes for redox proteins such as photosynthetic reaction centers. The CoRR Hypothesis proposes that this Co-location is required for Redox Regulation.

Evolution of photosynthetic pathways

In its simplest form, photosynthesis is adding water to  to produce sugars and oxygen, but a complex chemical pathway is involved, facilitated along the way by a range of enzymes and co-enzymes. The enzyme RuBisCO is responsible for "fixing"  – that is, it attaches it to a carbon-based molecule to form a sugar, which can be used by the plant, releasing an oxygen molecule along the way. However, the enzyme is notoriously inefficient, and just as effectively will also fix oxygen instead of  in a process called photorespiration. This is energetically costly as the plant has to use energy to turn the products of photorespiration back into a form that can react with .

Concentrating carbon
The C4 metabolic pathway is a valuable recent evolutionary innovation in plants, involving a complex set of adaptive changes to physiology and gene expression patterns. About 7600 species of plants use  carbon fixation, which represents about 3% of all terrestrial species of plants.  All these 7600 species are angiosperms.

C4 plants evolved carbon concentrating mechanisms. These work by increasing the concentration of  around RuBisCO, thereby facilitating photosynthesis and decreasing photorespiration. The process of concentrating  around RuBisCO requires more energy than allowing gases to diffuse, but under certain conditions – i.e. warm temperatures (>25 °C), low  concentrations, or high oxygen concentrations – pays off in terms of the decreased loss of sugars through photorespiration.

One type of C4 metabolism employs a so-called Kranz anatomy. This transports  through an outer mesophyll layer, via a range of organic molecules, to the central bundle sheath cells, where the  is released. In this way,  is concentrated near the site of RuBisCO operation. Because RuBisCO is operating in an environment with much more  than it otherwise would be, it performs more efficiently. In C4 photosynthesis, carbon is fixed by an enzyme called PEP carboxylase, which, like all enzymes involved in C4 photosynthesis, originated from non-photosynthetic ancestral enzymes.

A second mechanism, CAM photosynthesis, is a carbon fixation pathway that evolved in some plants as an adaptation to arid conditions. The most important benefit of CAM to the plant is the ability to leave most leaf stomata closed during the day. This reduces water loss due to evapotranspiration. The stomata open at night to collect , which is stored as the four-carbon acid malate, and then used during photosynthesis during the day. The pre-collected  is concentrated around the enzyme RuBisCO, increasing photosynthetic efficiency. More  is then harvested from the atmosphere when stomata open, during the cool, moist nights, reducing water loss.

CAM has evolved convergently many times. It occurs in 16,000 species (about 7% of plants), belonging to over 300 genera and around 40 families, but this is thought to be a considerable underestimate. It is found in quillworts (relatives of club mosses), in ferns, and in gymnosperms, but the great majority of plants using CAM are angiosperms (flowering plants).

Evolutionary record

These two pathways, with the same effect on RuBisCO, evolved a number of times independently – indeed, C4 alone arose 62 times in 18 different plant families.  A number of 'pre-adaptations' seem to have paved the way for C4, leading to its clustering in certain clades: it has most frequently developed in plants that already had features such as extensive vascular bundle sheath tissue. Whole-genome and individual gene duplication are also associated with C4 evolution. Many potential evolutionary pathways resulting in the  phenotype are possible and have been characterised using Bayesian inference, confirming that non-photosynthetic adaptations often provide evolutionary stepping stones for the further evolution of .

The C4 construction is most famously used by a subset of grasses, while CAM is employed by many succulents and cacti. The trait appears to have emerged during the Oligocene, around ; however, they did not become ecologically significant until the Miocene, . Remarkably, some charcoalified fossils preserve tissue organised into the Kranz anatomy, with intact bundle sheath cells, allowing the presence C4 metabolism to be identified without doubt at this time. Isotopic markers are used to deduce their distribution and significance.

C3 plants preferentially use the lighter of two isotopes of carbon in the atmosphere, 12C, which is more readily involved in the chemical pathways involved in its fixation. Because C4 metabolism involves a further chemical step, this effect is accentuated. Plant material can be analysed to deduce the ratio of the heavier 13C to 12C. This ratio is denoted . C3 plants are on average around 14‰ (parts per thousand) lighter than the atmospheric ratio, while C4 plants are about 28‰ lighter. The  of CAM plants depends on the percentage of carbon fixed at night relative to what is fixed in the day, being closer to C3 plants if they fix most carbon in the day and closer to C4 plants if they fix all their carbon at night.

It is troublesome procuring original fossil material in sufficient quantity to analyse the grass itself, but fortunately there is a good proxy: horses. Horses were globally widespread in the period of interest, and browsed almost exclusively on grasses. There's an old phrase in isotope palæontology, "you are what you eat (plus a little bit)" – this refers to the fact that organisms reflect the isotopic composition of whatever they eat, plus a small adjustment factor. There is a good record of horse teeth throughout the globe, and their  has been measured. The record shows a sharp negative inflection around , during the Messinian, and this is interpreted as the rise of C4 plants on a global scale.

When is C4 an advantage?
While C4 enhances the efficiency of RuBisCO, the concentration of carbon is highly energy intensive. This means that C4 plants only have an advantage over C3 organisms in certain conditions: namely, high temperatures and low rainfall. C4 plants also need high levels of sunlight to thrive. Models suggest that, without wildfires removing shade-casting trees and shrubs, there would be no space for C4 plants. But, wildfires have occurred for 400 million years – why did C4 take so long to arise, and then appear independently so many times? The Carboniferous period (~) had notoriously high oxygen levels – almost enough to allow spontaneous combustion – and very low , but there is no C4 isotopic signature to be found. And there doesn't seem to be a sudden trigger for the Miocene rise.

During the Miocene, the atmosphere and climate were relatively stable. If anything,  increased gradually from  before settling down to concentrations similar to the Holocene. This suggests that it did not have a key role in invoking C4 evolution. Grasses themselves (the group which would give rise to the most occurrences of C4) had probably been around for 60 million years or more, so had had plenty of time to evolve C4, which, in any case, is present in a diverse range of groups and thus evolved independently. There is a strong signal of climate change in South Asia; increasing aridity – hence increasing fire frequency and intensity – may have led to an increase in the importance of grasslands. However, this is difficult to reconcile with the North American record. It is possible that the signal is entirely biological, forced by the fire- and grazer- driven acceleration of grass evolution – which, both by increasing weathering and incorporating more carbon into sediments, reduced atmospheric  levels. Finally, there is evidence that the onset of C4 from  is a biased signal, which only holds true for North America, from where most samples originate; emerging evidence suggests that grasslands evolved to a dominant state at least 15Ma earlier in South America.

See also
Photorespiration
Evolution of plants

References

Evolutionary biology
Photosynthesis

Evolution of photosynthesis


The Dâmbovița () is a river in Romania. It has its sources on the Curmătura Oticului, a mountain pass that separates the Iezer Mountains from the Făgăraș Mountains proper. It passes through Bucharest and flows into the river Argeș near Budești, in Călărași County. Its length is  and its basin size is . Dâmbovița County is named after the river.

Name
The name of the Dâmbovița is of Slavic origin, derived from Common Slavic dǫbŭ (дѫбъ), meaning "oak", as it once flowed through the oak forests of the Wallachian Plain. Its upper course, upstream from the Valea Vladului, is also called Valea Boarcășului.

Dâmbovița in Bucharest
For centuries, Dâmbovița was the main source of drinking water for the city of Bucharest. While there were a few dozen water wells, most of the water in Bucharest was distributed by water-carriers.

Bucharest folklore mentions the waters of Dâmbovița as "sweet", and even at the beginning of the 18th century, Anton Maria del Chiaro considered it "light and clean". However, toward the end of the 18th century, as the population of Bucharest increased, the river ceased to be as clean, and hence the need of the aqueducts. The earliest aqueducts with public fountains (cișmele) were built during the rule of Prince Alexander Ypsilantis.

Many watermills were built on the Dâmbovița, most of them owned by the prince, the monasteries or boyars.

Dâmbovița used to have two tributaries in Bucharest:
 Dâmbovicioara, on the right bank, which probably flowed in what is the area where Sființii Apostoli street is located.
 Bucureștioara, which rose from a pond located in what is now Grădina Icoanei.
Additionally, there was a branch, Gârlița, which formed an island, Ostrovu.

The Dâmbovița often flooded Bucharest, especially the left bank, which was lower. After the great 1775 flood, Ypsilantis ordered a branch canal to be built, in order to prevent, or at least diminish the effects of such flooding; in 1813, Prince Ioan Caragea decided to clean up the river bed. The portion of the river flowing through the capital was channelled twice: in 1883 (to combat regular floods), and in the late 1970s, to aid in the replanning of the Central area and the construction of the Bucharest Metro. To prevent floods, in 1986 a dam was built between the Crângași and Militari quarters, and Morii Lake artificial lake was created.

Dâmbovița has never been navigable, but there has been an unsuccessful attempt in 1902 to introduce boats on the river.

Early in its history, Bucharest had few bridges over the Dâmbovița, as the right bank was only sparsely populated. The estates of some boyars used to extend on both banks of the river and they had footbridges. Currently, there are sixteen bridges over Dâmbovița River in central Bucharest.

Glina Wastewater Station
The Dâmbovița was polluted before the opening in 2011 of the Glina Wastewater Station, the biggest ecological project in Romania, which treats the sewage water that pours into the channel which is built below the river floor. Before entering Bucharest, the river's water is already treated by the company "Compania de Apă Târgoviște". After exiting Bucharest, the Dâmbovița water were polluted, due to the hundreds of millions of cubic meters of raw sewage that were dumped every year directly into the channel below the river, but now the quality of water is much improved.

In Bucharest, the river is vertically divided into 2 separated parts. In the lower part, under the Dâmbovița river floor, there is a channel which contains the sewage from the city. The two flows join into a single flow when exiting Bucharest. There are river plants and fish that live in the upper side of the river and sometimes one can even see some fishermen on the shores.

The quality of the water was very much improved as of October 10, 2011 with the opening of Glina Wastewater Station, which is the first sewage treatment plant of Bucharest, with a capacity of , while a second one, which will clean all the water (with a capacity of 12 m3/s) should be finalized by 2015.

Tributaries
The following rivers are tributaries to the river Dâmbovița (from source to mouth):

Left: Valea Vladului, Berevoiu, Luțele Mari, Luțele Mici, Valea lui Aron (Comisu), Valea Comisului, Pârâul Nemțoaicelor, Răchita, Valea lui Stanciu, Valea Turcilor, Tămașul, Valea Dragoslăvenilor, Valea lui Ivan, Valea Largă, Valea Seacă, Valea Speriatei, Valea Gruiului, Berila, Dâmbovicioara, Valea Orățiilor, Valea Cheii, Ghimbav, Valea Luncii, Valea Caselor, Hotarul, Olăneasca, Valea Runcului, Valea Jocii, Valea Bădenilor, Valea Grecului, Valea lui Coman, Valea Chiliilor, Valea Pleșei, Valea Măgurii, Valea Vlazilor, Valea Ulmului, Valea Largă, Râul Alb, Gârlița Satului, Ilfov, Bâldana, Colentina, Pasărea

Right: Colții lui Andrei, Izvorul Foișorului, Valea Barbului, Izvorul Hotarului, Pârâul Larg, Valea lui Aron (Dracsin), Bălțatul, Dracsin, Cascue, Pârâul Căciulelor, Valea Șaului, Clăbucet, Oncioaia, Valea Arșiței, Râușor, Valea Frasinului, Stoeneasca, Mușcel, Aninoasa, Câlnău, Gruiu

Localities
The river flows through the following communes, towns and cities: Rucăr, Dragoslavele, Stoenești, Malu cu Flori, Cândești, Vulcana-Băi, Voinești, Mănești, Dragomirești, Lucieni, Nucet, Conțești, Lungulețu, Chiajna, Bucharest (city), Plătărești, Vasilați, Budești (town).

Gallery

References

Rivers of Romania
Rivers of Bucharest

Rivers of Argeș County
Rivers of Dâmbovița County
Rivers of Ilfov County
Rivers of Călărași County
Place names of Slavic origin in Romania

Dâmbovița (river)


Ars Magica is the second novel of Spanish author Nerea Riesco, first published on May fourth 2007. Its rights are sold for translation in Italian, German, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Romanian.

Synopsis
Spain, early 17th century. A woman is found lifeless in Santesteban. All signs point to a murder committed by the Devil and his followers. The region is being scourged for months by the sorcerers, even though the prior year eleven people were burned alive in a sorcery trial. The people are scared. To appease them the Santo Oficio decides to promote a grace edict to forgive those who admit their agreements with the Devil. The severe inquisitor Alonso de Salazar y Frías is tasked with enforcing the edict by covering the region. But what nobody knows is that Salazar doesn't believe anymore in sorcery or spells and, even worse, he does not believe in the Devil anymore, because he has lost his faith. To reveal the mystery of the witches, Salazar will use the anatomy studies from Leonardo da Vinci, forensic technics he learned in Rome, apothecary knowledge to analyse magical ointments... he finally will base his investigation on verifiable facts to establish factual truths instead of suppositions.

Meanwhile, a young woman called Mayo from Labastide-d'Armagnac, who was, following her birth statements, the bastard daughter of the Devil and a mortal woman, travels selling spells. Mayo lost her female companion because this one was arrested during the last auto-da-fé, even if she wasn't condemned. To find her, Mayo decides to follow the steps of Salazar, whom she protects with her spells, even if he does not suspect anything about her beneficial actions.

During their journey, both will face the diabolical powers which will obstruct their plans, the lack of faith and the death of those they love.

The spells
Every chapter's title in the novel refers to a spell or magical formula conceived to resolve a particular problem. Reading the book the reader progressively discovers love potions, invisibility techniques, solutions to lose the vellus hair, recipes to temporarily transform into animal shapes... all the remedies appearing in Ars Magica are a part of the Spanish lore, transmitted generation after generation, and draw their origins deep back in time. The spells and ritual magic were really used at that time, and nowadays some people still use them, even if they ignore their origin. Ars Magica ("the art of magic" in Latin) is then not only a novel but also a book of spells.

The actual story
In marked contrast to what happened in the rest of Europe, in Spain the Inquisition didn't show a particular interest on persecuting witchcraft. Nevertheless, on November the 6th 1610 was celebrated in Logroño what was called the auto de fé de las brujas ("the witches' auto-da-fé"), where eleven people in the Navarre region were condemned to burn. But this auto-da-fé wasn't enough to appease the people's fears, who pretended to continue suffering about the Devil deeds.

One of the inquisitors in charge of the case, Alonso de Salazar y Frías, was sent to the region a year after that auto-da-fé with the intention to promulgate a grace edict which forgave the devil followers if they admitted their guilt.

Salazar interrogated, investigated and compiled information about the sect. This information (for which he was later called "the witches' advocate") denied all what to the moment was thought about sorcerers, to the point that he even said there weren't sorcerers or bewitched until it was talked or written about them.

The resulting file of his investigations took more than 5,000 sheets of paper, all of them bound in eight volumes which, incomprehensibly, never were published. So, this way, the innovative Salazar was almost forgotten for historical record. The documentation was put aside in a basement until it was discovered by American historian Henry Charles Lea. He mentioned then this documentation on his 1906 work about the Spanish Inquisition. Salazar became worldwide famous and in 1941 the Englishman Charles Williams dedicated his book Witchcraft to Salazar (to the immortal memory of Alonso de Salazar y Frías).

The witches
The Pope Gregory IX founded the inquisition courts in 1231. Dominicans and Franciscans were in charge of the organisation, conceived to maintain under control those who refused to live under the Catholic Church's rule.

Unlike in other countries the Spanish Inquisition wasn't submitted to the direct authority of Rome. Rather than that it was ruled by a general inquisitor, designated by the King of Spain. This way the Spanish Inquisition became one of the organs of the state, serving it, and the clerics who directed this organ were also public servants. So the Spanish Inquisition didn't apply punishments, but decided about the punishment that the regular civil authority usually had to apply.

References

Historical novels
2007 novels
21st-century Spanish novels
Inquisition in fiction
Novels set in Spain

Ars Magica (novel)


Joan Elies Adell i Pitarch (born 1968) is a Catalan-language poet and essayist.

Biography
Joan Elies Adell was born in Vinaròs, Baix Maestrat, Castellón Province, Valencian Community. A graduate in audiovisual communication with a doctorate in Catalan philology, he is a professor of philology at the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona, and of literary theory at Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona. At present, he is the Director of "Espai Llull", Office of the Government of Catalonia in the Sardinian city of Alghero.

He has written on literary theory, cultural theory, Catalan literature and music, and is part of Hermeneia, a research project at the Open University of Catalonia, dedicated to the investigation of the relationships between new technologies and literary studies.

Poetry
La matèria del temps (1994)
Ocèa immobil (1995)
A curt termini (In the Short Term, 1997)
Un mateix cel (A similar sky, 2000)
Encara una olor, which won the Alfons el Magnànim prize, 2003)
La degradacio natural dels objectes (The natural degradation of objects, for which he won a prize at the Jocs Florals literary competition in Barcelona in 2004).
Pistes falses (False Clues, 2006) for which he won the Màrius Sampere prize

Essays
Notes per a una redefinicio dels estudis literaris catalans (Notes for a redefinition of Catalan literary studies), 1996, which won the Alambor prize)
Mètodes i ideologia en la historiografia de la literatura catalana (Methods and ideology in the historiography of Catalan literature), which won a prize from the Association for the Promotion of Catalan Culture in 1997
Musica i simulacre a l'era digital (Music and simulacra in the digital age, 1997)

References

Diccionari de la Literatura Catalana, 2008

1968 births
Living people
People from Vinaròs
Writers from the Valencian Community
Catalan-language poets

Joan Elies Adell i Pitarch


St. Urban's Abbey () is a former Cistercian monastery in the municipality of Pfaffnau in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland.  It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

History

The monastery was founded in 1194 on a land grant from the Freiherren of Langenstein and of Kapfenberg.  The mother church was Lucelle Abbey.  It was first mentioned in 1196 as sanctus Urbanus and in 1201 as cenobium sancti Urbani.

The first monastery was a single monk's cell in Kleinroth, which is now in the municipality of Langenthal.  In 1195, the first monks moved about  down the valley to establish a larger monastery building.  During the 13th century, the monastery expanded with land grants from local nobles and became a major landowner in the Langeten and Rot valleys.  Over the following centuries it continued to expand acquiring property and rights throughout the region. By 1266, the monastery had become an abbey with an abbot who was also responsible for several surrounding nunneries.  In 1234, a small monastery was founded in Gottesgarten near the village of Kleinroth.  This monastery may have been a daughter house to St. Urban's until 1237 when it transferred to Olsberg.  In 1280, the Abbey acquired a small chapel at Fribach, which became a local Marian pilgrimage site until the Protestant Reformation.

Starting in the middle of the 13th century, the monks in the Abbey gained citizenship in several surrounding towns.  The Abbey owned farms in many of the surrounding villages and even owned a vineyard on the shores of Lake Biel.  Also, in the 13th century, they established a brick factory which produced elaborate decorated bricks for export.  This medieval brick operation eventually grew into the Roggwil AG brick factory which is still in operation.

In 1407 the city of Lucerne took over the Vogtei office over the Abbey, making the city the secular ruler over the Abbey.  During the 1490s Lucerne began interfering with the monastery leadership to force St. Urban's to reform many aspects of monastic life.  However, the reforms helped make the Abbey into a leading Cistercian house in Switzerland.  The Abbey was secure enough that it weathered a devastating fire in 1513 without problems.  In 1537, the abbot was raised to become a mitred abbot.  However, the surrounding Swiss Confederation prevented the abbot from expanding his power or creating an ecclesiastical state around the Abbey.

During the 17th century, the Abbey supported the creation of a pan-German Cistercian council and the goals of the Counter-Reformation.  During this time, the Abbey expanded both physically and socially.  Increasingly, the monks at St. Urban's came from noble or patrician families.  By the 19th century, the Abbey was home to an average of 20-50 members.

In 1690, Abbot Ulrich Glutz built a new baroque chapel to house the Ulrich chasuble relic, the vestment of St. Ulrich from the 10th Century, which had become a popular relic for pilgrims.  Then, in 1711, Abbot Malachy Glutz had the Vorarlberg architect Franz Beer rebuild the church and convent buildings in the baroque style.

The first mention of a school at the Abbey was in 1470.  By 1500, it became a center of humanism and reform scholarship.  The school remained in operation over the following centuries and in 1780 it became the first teacher training college in Switzerland.  From 1841-47 it was the cantonal teacher training college.

During the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803) the Abbey was placed under secular management and became the center of its own municipality.  In 1814 the Abbey was assigned to the municipality of Pfaffnau.  The last abbot, Friedrich Pfluger, initiated a series of reforms.  However, shortly after his death in April 1848, the Abbey was secularized by the liberal cantonal government.  The property, church treasure and choir pews were sold.  The Abbey library was transferred to the cantonal archive and library.  The monastery buildings changed hands several times after 1853.  In 1859 the Basel silk industrialist Johann Jacob Richter-Linder bought the Abbey and converted it into a silk factory.  In 1870, the Canton of Lucerne, bought the building complex back and established a psychiatric hospital there.  This hospital opened in 1873 and remained in the Abbey until a new hospital was built in 1977-87.  The village of Sankt Urban grew up around the hospital in the 1930s to provide housing for the hospital staff.  Portions of the Abbey are now used for cultural purposes such as concerts or tours.

The Gottfried Keller Foundation aims the acquisition of major works from Switzerland and abroad, to entrust them as loans to Swiss museums or to return them to their original locations, such as the choir of the St. Urban Abbey. The collection comprises more than 8,500 paintings, sculptures and other art objects in around 110 museums respectively locations in Switzerland.

References

External links

Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Lucerne
Cistercian monasteries in Switzerland
1194 establishments in Europe
Buildings and structures in the canton of Lucerne
Tourist attractions in the canton of Lucerne
12th-century establishments in Switzerland
Monasteries dissolved under the Swiss Reformation
Christian monasteries established in the 12th century

Saint Urban's Abbey


MacRumors is an American website that reports and aggregates Apple Inc.- and Mac-related news, rumors, and information.

The website is updated on a daily basis with new articles. It also provides a selection of other content including guides, tutorials, videos, and a podcast. MacRumors is a prominent website within the Apple community, featuring a popular forum with over one million members. It has been credited with helping to build a positive community around Apple.

The site was founded in February 2000 by Arnold Kim and remains a privately owned publication. Kim has been profiled in publications including The New York Times and hailed as "Apple Rumor King" owing to his work on MacRumors.

The company's headquarters are located in Glen Allen, Virginia, but the editorial staff work remotely from around the world. Eric Slivka is the site's Editor-in-Chief. As of 2023, MacRumors has 11 full-time employees. The tagline of the website is "News and Rumors You Care About".

MacRumors has been credited as a pioneering blog. It is one of the world's most popular technology websites, most valuable blogs, and highest-traffic Apple-centric blogs. MacRumors is said to know "more about Apple than Apple management does".

MacRumors and its editors are frequently ranked among the top technology news publications and authors on technology news aggregator Techmeme, and its work is often cited by mainstream news outlets like CNBC, Bloomberg, and others. The website's editors have distinct styles.

Content

News and rumors
MacRumors publishes news articles about Apple, including, but not limited to, its product development operations, software, services, supply chain, corporate affairs, and retail aspects. During Apple events, where the company unveils new products and services, MacRumors operates a liveblog and publishes articles in real-time.

In addition to Apple's official developments, MacRumors curates rumors and reports from other sources. Apple has a famously intense culture of corporate secrecy that inspires interest in its upcoming product announcements and speculation. As such, reporting appropriately sourced information about Apple's plans comprises a key element of MacRumors coverage.

By consolidating reports and cross-referencing claims, MacRumors aims to keep track of Apple news and rumors as they develop.  For example, the website attempts to infer the design of next-generation Apple products before the launch. The features and attributes of the iPod, MacBook, iPhone, and Apple Watch were revealed on MacRumors "long before" Apple launched them. It scrutinizes the source of information posted on the website and uses an evidence-based approach, assessing track records, corroboration, and plausibility of rumors in relation to Apple's past behavior and overall history – seeking to provide an accurate picture of the company's behind-the-scenes endeavors.

MacRumors primarily functions as an aggregator of rumors from other sources rather than posting exclusive leaks to avoid legal difficulties. Nevertheless, MacRumors occasionally breaks original stories, such as revealing the name of the iPad using trademark filings in prior to its announcement in 2010.

Buyer's Guide
Apple does not provide advance warning of when product updates are imminent. MacRumors hosts a specialized "Buyer's Guide" to help average shoppers avoid buyer's remorse by clarifying when is a good time to buy a particular Apple device based on the timing of its introduction, how long the company usually waits to refresh the product, and rumors about impending hardware updates. It also provides comparative Buyer's Guide articles to help Apple customers weigh up different product lines and make purchasing decisions.

Forum
MacRumors is home to a large, community-oriented Apple- and Mac-focused forum with over 1.1 million members and over 31 million forum posts as of August 2023. Every news article on the site is simultaneously posted to the forums for discussion.

Videos and podcast
MacRumors has a corresponding YouTube channel hosted by video producer Dan Barbera that provides content related to the website's coverage, including noteworthy Apple rumors, new product launches, reviews, tutorials, and more. As of August 2023, the MacRumors YouTube channel has over half a million subscribers and 152 million video views.

MacRumors also has a weekly podcast,  titled The MacRumors Show, that discusses the latest Apple news. It is hosted by Barbera and senior editor Hartley Charlton, and the podcast is offered in both audio and video formats on various platforms. The podcast often features prominent YouTubers and industry figures as guests, such Rene Ritchie, iJustine, and John Gruber. It is distributed by AudioBoom.

Business
MacRumors is a high-traffic monetized internet business that offers banner ads, conducts affiliate marketing, and sells video, newsletter, and podcast sponsorship. Forum members can purchase a paid membership subscription that allows users to filter front page stories according to their preferences, remove all ads, get access to private forums, and help to support the site.

As of April 30, 2012, according to Quantcast, MacRumors received an average 65,890,912 page views globally per month, and 7,567,679 visitors per month globally. Website traffic often increases dramatically during Apple events, such as WWDC. The website continues to have tens of millions of unique visitors every month.

Market Influence
At least two independent studies have directly linked MacRumors coverage of news and rumors to Apple (ticker symbol "AAPL") stock returns. Its impact is lessened during the period following Apple's official announcements because "new information has already been received and absorbed by the market through previous leakages". While comments posted on MacRumors articles have also been correlated with returns, positive comments have a lower impact on Apple's stock returns than negative and neutral comments.

 History
2000s
Kim conceived of MacRumors during the dot-com bubble as a hobby. He launched MacRumors as a solo enterprise on February 24, 2000 during his fourth and final year of medical school at the Medical College of Virginia, requiring "little financing". The site was initially designed as an independent blog to dissect the secrets of Apple, his favorite technology company. It was originally based on Slashdot.

In 2002, Kim screenshot and published details about schematic drawings of a new, aluminum case for the Power Mac G5 that were initially posted on MacRumors''' forum. Apple sent Kim a takedown request and he complied, but the news had already spread. The following year, Kim received a subpoena to hand over information with regards to the leak. An Apple contract worker was subsequently charged with misappropriation of trade secrets in connection to the case.

In 2002, some forum members complained about political discussion taking over the website, leading to the opening of a specific politics subforum. The subforum was closed in 2003 but reopened as a Politics, Religion, Social Issues subforum with stricter rules shortly thereafter. Around 2003 to 2004, ad revenue from the site started growing significantly. In 2005, MacRumors started "turning a substantial profit".

During his January 10, 2006 keynote address to the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs poked fun at the rumor community by pretending to create a "Super Secret Apple Rumors" podcast during his demonstration of new features in GarageBand.

Apple's introduction of the iPhone in 2007 marked a turning point for MacRumors. While it had grown significantly before 2007, the launch of the iPhone opened up widespread public interest in Apple's products. The site then grew to a volume of traffic that was sustainable in terms of revenue.

Kim worked on MacRumors part-time as a hobby until 2008, when he gave up his job at a private nephrology practice in Richmond to work on the site full-time. While he had some assistance from part-time freelancers, Kim was doing everything for the site—editorially and technologically—himself. MacRumors reached around 40 million pageviews per month later that year. The 2008 global financial crisis did not "tangibly" affect MacRumors.

Advertising revenue rose further in 2009 and 2010. Eric Slivka was MacRumors first full-time member of staff, hired by Kim in early 2009. Later that year, the company hired four full-time employees, increasing the site's capacity to cover Apple news and rumors.

During the Macworld 2009 keynote, the site's live coverage on the separate domain MacRumorsLive.com was hacked to insert inappropriate content into the text and photo live feeds, some of which related to the health of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The incident was particularly controversial because it came amid multiple false reports of Jobs' death. MacRumors ended its coverage early and the episode provoked a volatile reaction on Twitter. Kim apologized following the event. It subsequently emerged that the hackers appeared to be associated with imageboard site 4chan.

2010s
In 2010, MacRumors celebrated its 10th anniversary and set out plans for a site redesign that came into effect the following year. In May 2010, the website reached 10 million forum posts and 438,000 forum members, and was ranked among the top 500 U.S. websites. The site also launched its first annual blood drive, seeking to encourage members of the Apple community to donate blood.

Following several scandals, discussion of alleged worker exploitation by Apple suppliers captured the MacRumors forums in 2010. In 2012, a study by the Erasmus School of Economics found that MacRumors articles have an impact on Apple stock returns.

While MacRumors  has had a YouTube channel since January 17, 2006, it did not begin regularly posting original video content until September 2014.

On October 16, 2014 at an Apple Special Event keynote, senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi pretended to "triple down on secrecy" by hiring Stephen Colbert as "Supreme Commander of Secrecy." He poked fun at "spaceship" rumors related to the construction of Apple Park, seemingly referring to the rumor community supported by the website.

Around 2016 to 2017, the MacRumors editorial team began to experiment with podcasting. In 2019, a study by researchers at Columbia University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong linked MacRumors' coverage to Apple's stock returns. It concluded that MacRumors "significantly influences Apple's abnormal returns".

2020s
In 2020, MacRumors celebrated its 20th anniversary. By the end of the year, the site had 11 full-time employees.

In July 2021, MacRumors announced that it was immediately closing down its Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum, prohibiting all political and social issue discussions from the site with the exception of News stories that are explicitly categorized under Political News. MacRumors launched its podcast titled The MacRumors Show hosted by Barbera and Charlton in December 2021. The podcast's first guest was renowned Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman.

In 2023, Kim was interviewed on an episode of The MacRumors Show podcast recorded in Orlando, Florida to discuss the history of the website. A special episode was recorded at the Apple Podcasts studio in Apple Park, California following the announcement of the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. Barbera was given an early demo of the device.

In popular culture
American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter Jason Segel is a MacRumors reader and often brings up his affection for the website publicly. In the DVD commentary for 2008 comedy film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Segel told Mila Kunis that he enjoyed learning about Apple's upcoming releases and was a fan of MacRumors. "I love macrumors.com," Segel said, "it's tomorrow's Mac news today". The commentary jokingly suggested that he had a deal with MacRumors to promote the site. Kim was fond of the tagline invented by Segel, leading to it becoming officially adopted by the site.

When promoting "Otherworld" in 2017 alongside Kirsten Miller, Segel once again mentioned his fondness for MacRumors, commenting that "Every morning when I wake up I immediately go on to macrumors.com to see what's new".

 Sister sites

Mobile video game website TouchArcade is MacRumors' sister site since it is owned by Kim. He founded TouchArcade in 2008 with Blake Patterson.MacRumors'' and TouchArcade were also sister sites with App Store discovery and price tracking site AppShopper until June 2021, when Kim took the decision to shut it down. Apple was apparently discontented with services that aggregated and indexed information from the App Store.

See also

 Apple community
 List of Internet forums
 TouchArcade

References

External links
  – official site
  – official forums site

Internet forums
Internet properties established in 2000
Macintosh websites

MacRumors


Konami '88, released as '88 Games in North America and as Hyper Sports Special in Japan, is the third in the Track & Field game series by Konami, where players test their Olympic skills against other world-class athletes. As the title implies, it is loosely based on (but not licensed by) the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

Gameplay
The objective of the game is to compete in a series of Olympic events and beat the other players. The player must achieve the gold medal in each event in order to qualify for the next or the game will end. The events are played in the following order:
 100m Dash: Race against the other athletes as well as the clock. This is just a warm-up compared to the events to come.
 Long Jump: Player dashes to the line, leaps, and propels his body as far as he is able. The player controls the speed and angle of the jump.
 400m Relay (qualifying heat): Speed and timing are crucial in this event. Player must coordinate the baton hand-off perfectly for the best qualifying time.
 Skeet Shooting: Player can aim left and right at the clay pigeons and must prove that he is a sure shot. A chance for bonus points is given for excellent marksmanship.
 110m Hurdles: Player sprints down the track, timing his jumps perfectly to clear all of the hurdles and reach the finish line in time.
 Archery: This is a trial of the player's proficiency in using a bow and arrow. The player can decide the direction and force of the wind, which will help in demonstrating his skill as a sharpshooter.
 Javelin: The player darts to the line and throws the javelin with all his might. The player controls the height of the javelin.
 High Jump: Another test of speed and strength as the player runs to the line and hurls his body over the bar. The player can control his angle above the bar.
 400m Relay - The Final Race: The final test of physical training as the player faces the challenging relay again.

Tips
 100 Meter Dash: both players finish at the same time = +3000 pts.
 Long Jump: Jumping a distance of 6.66 meters = +3000pts.
 110 Meter Hurdles: both players finish at the same time = +3000 pts.
 Javelin Throw:
 Skeet Shooting: Shooting every plate and a flying saucer will fly across the screen. A bird will appear and the player can shoot it twice and earn +5000 per hit. The player can achieve max score of 18200.
 Archery: Getting a bullseye on the last shot and unlocking a bonus shot at a cat with an apple on its head.
 High Jump: Making every jump without missing at all + 3000 pts.

Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Konami '88 on their September 1, 1988 issue as being the twenty-second most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

References

External links

1988 Summer Olympics
1988 video games
Arcade video games
Arcade-only video games
Konami games
Summer Olympic video games
Video games set in 1988
Video games set in Seoul
Konami arcade games
Video games developed in Japan
Multiplayer and single-player video games

Konami '88


John Thomas Ness (20 August 1871 – 24 January 1947) was an Australian politician.

He was born at Young to shipbuilder Thomas Ness and Isabella, née Sellars. After attending public schools he was farming wheat at Temora from around 1894 to 1904. On 1 January 1898 he married Bertha Mary Ann Matuschka in New Zealand, with whom he had four children. In 1904 he became a produce and fuel merchant, later establishing John Ness, Son & Co. From 1909 to 1934 he was president of the Dulwich Hill School of Arts, and he served from 1908 to 1922 on Marrickville Council (mayor 1915–17, 1918–19). In 1922, he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as a Nationalist member for Western Suburbs; with the reintroduction of single-member districts in 1927 he was elected to represent Dulwich Hill. Defeated in 1930, he was re-elected in 1932 as a United Australia Party candidate. Ness served until 1938; he died at Dulwich Hill in 1947.

References

1871 births
1947 deaths
Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales
United Australia Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Mayors of Marrickville
Australian farmers
New South Wales local councillors

John Ness


North Western Metropolitan Area (NWMA) is a name given to the densely populated area of Europe situated at the demographic core of the old-line members of the European union. It has about 137 million inhabitants and comprises parts of Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The center of the NWMA is formed by the triangle with apexes at London, Brussels and Paris; this central area is sometimes called the Central Capitals Region (CCR).

References
North Western Metropolitan Area - European Commission

Geography of Europe

North Western Metropolitan Area


Gardams Building is a heritage-listed retail building at 114 Queen Street, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1881. It is also known as Rutter and Sons. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

History
This building was constructed in late 1881 and occupied by January 1882.

The deed of grant for allotment 11A was made to Auguste Deleuse in September 1881, following the 1880 demolition of the convict barracks which had occupied the site since 1827. A government decision to dispose of this Crown land prompted the redevelopment of that portion of the northern side of Queen street bounded by Albert Street and the first Brisbane Town Hall (now Country Comfort Hotel site). Deleuse erected a two storeyed building with basement, and negotiated a five year lease with jeweller Thomas Gerrard.

Ownership of the property transferred to John Ferguson in April 1888. Ferguson, MLA for Rockhampton at the time, was also a building contractor and mining investor. His purchase of this site appears to have been speculative. After Fergusons death in 1906 title passed to various trustees who retained the site until its purchase by Gardams Silk Store Pty Ltd at auction in August 1950. Tenants at the time of sale were Rutter and Son, chemists, who had been there since the latter years of World War I.

In addition to the original building, another brick building with ground, mezzanine and two upper floors fronting Burnett Lane was included in the sale. Sewerage maps indicate a structure in that position from at least 1913. This building has been incorporated within the present Gardams premises. The building continued to be used by Gardams until the heritage listing in 1992. Gardams have subsequently relocated to another site. Since 2013, Flight Centre operate their Brisbane flagship store in the building.

Description
Gardam's building is a small scale Victorian era commercial building that features some elaborate Italianate detailing. It has two storeys of stuccoed brick on a stone basement.

At street level the facade has been modernised with large plate glass shop windows and a recessed central entrance. However, the upper facade remains as it was when the building was constructed. Three window openings with round arched heads fill the upper facade. The elaborate hood moulds of the arches are carried by fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals. This arrangement gives the impression of arcading on the upper facade. Within the openings are timber sash windows. Large stylised vermiculated keystones rise from the arches to support the cornice. At either end of the upper facade large fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals also support the cornice.

The cornice is an elaborate element of the facade considering the size of the building. It has large brackets and ornamented dentils. Above the cornice is a parapet with a central triangular pediment. At the ends of the parapet are pedestals and an open Italianate balustrade runs between these and the pediment. Three large cast cement urns crown the pedestals and the pediment.

The building at the rear of the site fronting Burnett Lane was originally separate, but has been amalgamated with the front building during the present ownership. Evidence of this connection can be clearly seen from the upper level of the rear building. A connection has also been made at the first floor level in the front section of the building to allow access to the same level of the neighbouring Hardy Brothers building.

This example of a small scale Victorian commercial building is part of a surviving group of buildings of similar scale and detail from this era fronting Queen Street and as such contributes greatly to the streetscape.

Heritage listing
Gardams was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria.

The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.

Gardams Building is significant as evidence of the secondary phase of development in Queen Street during the early 1880s, initiated by the disposal of the convict barracks.

The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

Gardams remains a good example of a small two-storeyed commercial building of the Victorian era with ornate detailing.

The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

Aesthetically, it is significant as a part of a group of surviving 1880s commercial buildings which contribute to the streetscape of Queen Street.

References

Attribution

External links

Queensland Heritage Register
Commercial buildings in Queensland
Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register
Heritage of Brisbane
Buildings and structures in Brisbane
Brisbane central business district

Gardams Building


Pennsylvania Route 341 (PA 341) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The route runs  from PA 230 in Londonderry Township in Dauphin County east to PA 241 in South Londonderry Township in Lebanon County. The route is a two-lane undivided road known as Colebrook Road for its entire length, passing through rural areas. Along the way, PA 341 crosses PA 743 near Deodate and passes through Upper Lawn. An eastbound truck route, PA 341 Truck, bypasses the route between PA 230 and PA 743. PA 341 was first designated onto its current alignment by 1930, running between U.S. Route 230 (US 230, now PA 230) and PA 241. The route was fully paved in the 1930s. Between the 1930s and 1940s, PA 341 headed southeast along Lawn Road to end at PA 241 in Lawn.

Route description

PA 341 begins at an intersection with PA 230 in Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, where PA 341 Truck heads east along PA 230. From this intersection, the route heads northeast along two-lane undivided Colebrook Road, running through rural residential areas before it comes to a bridge under the PA 283 freeway. The road curves east and passes through wooded land with a few homes. PA 341 intersects Toll House Road, which heads south to an interchange with PA 283, and runs east-northeast into agricultural areas with some trees and homes. The route comes to a bridge over the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Interstate 76) and continues through rural land as it enters Conewago Township. The road turns east and runs through a mix of farmland and woodland with a few homes. PA 341 passes through the community of Deodate before it intersects PA 743, at which point PA 341 Truck returns to the route. The route heads northeast into farmland with some trees and residences past this intersection.

PA 341 enters South Londonderry Township in Lebanon County, continuing east through rural areas with some homes. In the community of Upper Lawn, the route turns northeast to remain along Colebrook Road and runs through agricultural land with some woods. PA 341 turns southeast and comes to its eastern terminus at an intersection with PA 241.

History
When Pennsylvania first legislated routes in 1911, what is now PA 341 was not given a legislative number. PA 341 was designated by 1930 to run from US 230 (now PA 230) east of Middletown east to PA 241 near Colebrook along its current alignment. At this time, the route was paved for a short distance east of US 230 and in the Deodate area while remainder was unpaved. The entire length of the route was paved in the 1930s. Also, the route was realigned to head southeast along Lawn Road to end at PA 241 in Lawn. PA 341 was realigned back to its current eastern terminus in the 1940s.

Major intersections

PA 341 Truck

Pennsylvania Route 341 Truck is an eastbound truck route of PA 341 between PA 230 in Londonderry Township and PA 743 in Conewago Township, where trucks with three or more axles are prohibited. The truck route heads east from the western terminus of PA 341 on PA 230 for a short distance. PA 341 Truck turns north onto Toll House Road and reaches an interchange with the PA 283 freeway. From here, the route follows PA 283 east through Conewago Township to the next exit with PA 743 in Mount Joy Township, Lancaster County. The truck route heads north on PA 743, entering Conewago Township in Dauphin County, before returning to PA 341 near the village of Deodate.

See also

References

External links

Pennsylvania Highways: PA 341

341
Transportation in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Transportation in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Route 341


Michel Am-Nondokro Djotodia (born c. 1949) is a Central African politician who was President of the Central African Republic from 2013 to 2014. He was the first Muslim to hold that office in the predominantly Christian country.  Djotodia was a leader of the almost entirely Muslim Séléka rebel coalition in the December 2012 rebellion against President François Bozizé. Following a peace agreement, Djotodia was appointed to the government as First Deputy Prime Minister for National Defense in February 2013. When the peace agreement unravelled, Séléka captured Bangui and Djotodia took power on 24 March 2013. He promised to lead a transition to new elections in which he would not be a candidate, but his time in office was marked by escalating sectarian violence, and he was ultimately pressured into resigning by regional leaders on 10 January 2014.

Background and early rebel activities
Djotodia was born in Gordil, Vakaga, French Equatorial Africa (modern day Central African Republic), reportedly in 1949. He is Muslim, and as one, he is part of a religious minority population in the mostly Christian Central African Republic. He lived in the Soviet Union for about 10 years. While he was there, he furthered his tertiary studies in the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia and became fluent in Russian, got married and had children. When he returned to Vakaga he was regarded as an intellectual, well-educated man who spoke various languages in addition to French and Sango. Although he was noted for being politically ambitious he was an obscure figure, little known outside his native region, and worked in the civil service. He was a tax official during the 1980s.

Having studied economic planning in the Soviet Union, Djotodia worked at the Central African Republic's Ministry of Planning and subsequently at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served for a time as Consul in the Sudanese city of Nyala.

Djotodia soon became involved in a milieu of rebel activity; he was one of the founders and leading members of the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity rebel group in 2006. He lived in exile in Cotonou, Benin during the war. In November 2006 he was arrested together with his spokesman Abakar Sabon without trial by Beninese forces at the behest of the government of Central African President François Bozizé. They were released in February 2008 after agreeing to participate in peace talks with the CAR government.

Rebellion

In December 2012, Djotodia was a key leader in the Séléka rebel coalition when it succeeded in rapidly taking control of a large portion of the country. At peace talks in January 2013, President Bozizé agreed to appoint a prime minister from the opposition and incorporate the rebels into the government. Following negotiations, a national unity government, headed by Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye, was appointed on 3 February 2013; it was composed of Bozizé supporters, the opposition, and rebels. Djotodia received the key post of First Deputy Prime Minister for National Defense.

Presidency
The peace agreement unraveled in March 2013, as Séléka resumed seizing towns, accusing Bozizé of failing to keep his promises. The rebels kept their five ministers, including Djotodia, from going to Bangui. Djotodia said that rebel soldiers made the decision, not himself. There was speculation that, while Djotodia may have been content with his prominent new government post, others in Séléka wanted to take power outright. After days of fighting, the rebels captured Bangui on 24 March 2013, forcing Bozizé to flee the country, and Djotodia declared himself President. Djotodia said that there would be a three-year transitional period and that Tiangaye would continue to serve as Prime Minister.

Djotodia promptly suspended the constitution and dissolved the government, as well as the National Assembly. He then reappointed Tiangaye as Prime Minister on 27 March 2013. Top military and police officers met with Djotodia and recognized him as President on 28 March 2013. A new government headed by Tiangaye was appointed on 31 March 2013; Djotodia retained the defense portfolio.

On 3 April 2013, African leaders meeting in Chad declared that they did not recognize Djotodia as President; instead, they proposed the formation of an inclusive transitional council and the holding of new elections in 18 months, rather than three years as envisioned by Djotodia. Speaking on 4 April, Information Minister Christophe Gazam Betty said that Djotodia had accepted the proposals of the African leaders; however, he suggested that Djotodia could remain in office if he were elected to head the transitional council. Djotodia accordingly signed a decree on 6 April for the formation of a transitional council that would act as a transitional parliament. The council was tasked with electing an interim president to serve during an 18-month transitional period leading to new elections.

The transitional council, composed of 105 members, met for the first time on 13 April 2013 and immediately elected Djotodia as interim President; there were no other candidates. A few days later, regional leaders publicly accepted Djotodia's transitional leadership, but, in a symbolic show of disapproval, stated that he would "not be called President of the Republic, but Head of State of the Transition". According to the plans for the transition, Djotodia would not stand as a candidate for President in the election that would conclude the transition.

In the months that followed Séléka's takeover, the group was criticized for continuing to perpetrate violence against civilians. Djotodia was formally sworn in as President on 18 August 2013. On that occasion he said that he hoped to be "the last of my countrymen to have to take up arms in order to come to power". He also vowed that he would not stand as a presidential candidate.

Resignation
Sectarian violence between Muslims and non-Muslims continued to escalate, and Djotodia faced pressure from regional leaders and the international community due to his apparent inability to control the situation. Djotodia resigned as President at a summit held in N'Djamena on 10 January 2014. He then went into exile in Benin on 11 January. He was welcomed at Cotonou Airport by Benin's Foreign Minister Nassirou Bako Arifari, who said that Benin received Djotodia "at the request of member states of the Economic Community of Central African States" as a "contribution to the search for peace in central Africa."

Séléka announced in July 2014 that Djotodia had been restored as leader of the group.

Notes

References

External links

 Biographical information on Michel Djotodia

Heads of state of the Central African Republic
Leaders who took power by coup
Central African Republic diplomats
Central African Republic exiles
Central African Republic Muslims
Central African Republic people imprisoned abroad
1949 births
Living people
Prisoners and detainees of Benin
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia alumni
People from Vakaga
People of the Central African Republic Civil War
Defense ministers of the Central African Republic

Michel Djotodia


John Arthur Lithgow (born October 19, 1945) is an American movie, stage, voice, television actor, poet, author, and musician. He began acting in 1972. He was in the movies The World According to Garp, Footloose, Terms of Endearment, Shrek, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and in The Campaign. Lithgow was nominated for an Academy Award for each movie.

He played Arthur Mitchell on Showtime's Dexter and won Golden Globe and Emmy Awards for his acting. He played the protagonist Dick Solomon in sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun.

Lithgow was born on October 19, 1945 in Rochester, New York and studied at Harvard University. Lithgow was married to Jean Tayton from 1966 until they divorced in 1980. Lithgow has been married to Mary Yeager since 1981. Lithgow has three children, Ian, Phoebe, and Nathan Lithgow.

References

Other websites

1945 births
Living people
American movie actors
American television actors
American stage actors
American voice actors
American poets
Musicians from New York (state)
Musicians from New Jersey
Actors from New York (state)
Writers from New York (state)
Actors from New Jersey
Writers from New Jersey
Golden Globe Award winning actors
Emmy Award winning actors
Tony Award winning actors
Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Drama Desk Award winners
Saturn Award winners
People from Rochester, New York

John Lithgow


Zytronic is a manufacturer and developer of touch technology products based in Blaydon upon Tyne, United Kingdom.

Zytronic designs composite component touch technologies that optimise the performance of electronic display  applications and manufacture projected capacitive technology based touch sensors and their associated controllers which are used in public access and industrial applications.

Zytronic supply touch technology for use in a variety of heavy use, self-service touch interactive systems, and has been selected by major companies, such as The Coca-Cola Company for Coca-Cola Freestyle  machine, BSH Bosch and Siemens for some domestic appliances, Microsoft Envisioning Lab for an experimental multi-monitor workstation and also powered portable tablets in the Natural History Museum and payment terminals for bicycle rental stations as deployed in the City of London and a number of global cities.

Corporate information

The Zytronic Group consists of two companies; the parent company is Zytronic Plc which was incorporated in 2000 and admitted to the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in July 2000; and the operating subsidiary Zytronic Displays Limited.

Zytronic Displays Limited manufactures laminated optical products from radio frequency interference and electromagnetic interference (RFI/EMI) glass panels, optical displays used on ATMs, to other of electronic displays used in a wide variety of industries.

Since July 2000, Zytronic Displays Limited has developed technology relating to the operation of the touch sensors, the lamination techniques and processes, and developed a range of interactive touch sensor products based upon patented projected capacitive technology (PCT).

The Group operates from three factories in Tyne and Wear, UK with a representative and distributor network in 39 countries covering Americas, EMEA countries and APAC regions.

Technology and applications

Touch Screen Technology

Zytronic touch sensor products employ an embedded sensing element and are based on projected capacitive technology. licensed from Binstead Designs in 1998 (see history page 4 of reference). The PCT sensing mechanism that forms the basis of Zytronic's touch sensors consists of a matrix of micro-fine copper capacitors embedded into a durable laminated glass composite. A special feature of this technology is its ability to operate through a thick protective overlay. As a result the touch display can be completely protected from external factors and has a far greater resistance to rough treatment of all forms – abrasion, shock, vibration, extreme heat levels, adverse weather conditions and exposure to harmful chemicals in contrast with other traditional touch sensing techniques, such as optical, acoustic, capacitive, infra-red or resistive screens.

Optical Filters

Optical filters are used to enhance the readability of all types of electronic displays by controlling light transmission, reflection and absorption. The filters can also provide protection of the display from abrasion and damage from impact thereby extending the life of the display, for example tinted or neutral density substrates/interlayers to improve contrast.

Customised optical filters enhance electronic display performance and minimise electromagnetic emissions by using micro-fine mesh or transparent conductive coatings for electromagnetic shielding. The conductive coatings are also used for static dissipation.

EMI and RFI shielded filters

A shielded window is the optimum solution for reducing radio frequency interference ("RFI") and other electrical/magnetic interference ("EMI") transmitted through monitors, LCD instrument panels and inspection windows fitted to electronic equipment.

Applications

Due to the high durability, environmental stability and ability to survive the everyday rigours of outdoor and indoor environments, PCT sensing mechanisms are used in a range of self-service applications such as entertainment and gaming applications, e.g. video jukeboxes, DVD vending machines, drive through restaurant kiosks, ATMs, petrol pumps, medical screens and industrial computers.

See also
Touchscreen
Multi-touch
Capacitive sensing
Resistive touchscreen
Optical filters
Touch switch
Human interface device
Laminated glass

References

Electronics companies of the United Kingdom
Companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market

Zytronic


Jaime Mirtenbaum Zenamon (born 1953) is a classical guitarist and composer. He was born in La Paz, Bolivia, and studied guitar and composition in Israel, Spain and Portugal as well as in South America. He taught at the Berlin Academy of Music from 1980 to 1992. He now lives in Curitiba, Brazil.

In addition to advanced concert repertoire, he has written a number of pieces for beginning and intermediate guitar students, some of which have been included in collections of student repertoire.

Articles
Duo Borgomanero-Zenamon divulga roteiro de concertos com entrada livre October 2006, by Desiderio Peron (INSIEME)
Jaime Zenamon e Daise Sartori apresentam Conserto Natalino December 2005 (Campo Mourão)

External links
Biography at edition ex tempore
Info (at arton Konzertdirektion, Berlin)
Zwischen Tradition und Moderne - der Komponist Jaime Zenamon über seine Arbeit (Interview in German)

20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Bolivian classical guitarists
Bolivian composers
Bolivian male musicians
Bolivian expatriates in Brazil
Bolivian expatriates in Germany
Bolivian people of German descent
Composers for the classical guitar
People from Curitiba
People from La Paz
1953 births
Living people
Male classical composers
20th-century guitarists
21st-century guitarists
20th-century male musicians
21st-century male musicians

Jaime Mirtenbaum Zenamon


The Opel Antara is a compact crossover SUV which was marketed by Opel from 2006 to 2015. Based on the Theta platform, the Antara closely shared its underpinnings and powertrains with the Chevrolet Captiva. However, it only offered five seats instead of seven, and features a different exterior and interior design. Sales commenced in November 2006, as the indirect successor to the Isuzu-based Frontera range.

In the United Kingdom, the car was sold as the Vauxhall Antara, in Australasia the car was badged as the Holden Captiva 5/Captiva MaXX, and in the United States and Canada it had been sold as the Saturn Vue. The Antara was marketed as the GMC Terrain in the Middle East, Daewoo Winstorm MaXX in South Korea, and as the Chevrolet Captiva Sport in the Americas except Chile, where it was sold as an Opel.

Production
The Antara was first previewed by the three door Opel Antara GTC (Gran Turismo Crossover) concept car, presented at the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show. The Antara GTC is based on the three door Chevrolet T2X SUV. A similar three door SUV was later displayed at the 2006 New York International Auto Show as the Saturn PreVue.

The production Antara was a longer five door SUV, similar to the Chevrolet S3X and the closely related Chevrolet Captiva.

Facelift
In November 2010, a facelift was announced. The front end was revised, and both front and rear lights were refreshed. The new Opel badge also appear on the Opel Antara, respectively. On the inside, there was a revised centre console with more storage space and materials, improved instrument graphics and interior lighting.

An electric parking brake, a hill assistance system, and a "shift up" indicator to optimise fuel economy in manual transmission versions were all now standard. Introduced with the facelift was a new, Euro 5 compliant 2.2 litre diesel engine which replaced the previous 2.0 litre, and updated version of 2.4 litre petrol.

Production ended in March 2015, with the car's indirect successor being the Grandland X, which was launched in September 2017.

Powertrain

Market

Americas

General Motors in the United States and Canada introduced the Opel Antara as part of the Saturn division under the name "Saturn Vue" in 2007 for the 2008 model year. Saturn had earlier previewed the design at the April 2006 New York International Auto Show as the "Saturn PreVue" concept, and again in production guise at the 2007 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, held from November to December 2006.

The Antara based model represents the second iteration of the "Vue" nameplate, with production moved to Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. The Ramos Arizpe facility also supplies the Colombian, Mexican, Brazilian and Uruguayan markets with the Antara, although it is badged "Chevrolet Captiva Sport" in these countries.
In Chile it was sold as Opel Antara from Germany and shared market with its sister Chevrolet Captiva which came from South Korea.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) awarded the model year of 2008 Vue its Top Safety Pick after receiving a good overall score in both the front and side impact tests.

Trim levels include the "XE", "XR", the sports oriented "Red Line", and the "Green Line" hybrid. Saturn fitted the Vue with the  2.4 litre Ecotec inline four. The  3.5 litre V6 and the 3.6 litre V6 rated at  were optional.

The "Red Line" uses the same 3.6 litre V6 from the "XR", adding several sporting changes, including manual shifting of the six speed automatic transmission, a reduction in ride height of approximately , and a sport tuned suspension. Exterior appearance changes for the "Red Line" include 18 inch alloy wheels, and a more aggressive front bumper, tail lamps and exhaust tips.

The front wheel drive only "Green Line" petrol/electric hybrid uses the same mild BAS Hybrid system with the 2.4 litre engine as the first generation Vue. Software updates and optimisations have smoothed the operation while also improving fuel economy. Under the 2008 EPA standards, the Vue is listed at / city/highway.

Saturn dropped the "Green Line" badge for 2009, in favour of the name "Hybrid". A full hybrid model featuring GM's two-mode system was to have been introduced for the 2009 year model. This would have combined with an electric motor with a direct injection version of the 3.6 litre V6 providing a combined output of  and  of torque.

This version was to have maintained the  towing capacity of the standard 3.6 litre variant and would have utilised the 2MT70 continuously variable automatic transmission. Saturn was also expected to release a plug-in hybrid version of the two mode hybrid platform for the model year of 2010.

This was to have been the first plug in hybrid with the system offered as original equipment.

For the model year of 2010, little was changed from the previous year — the most prominent being the deletion of the "Red Line" trim and the slight gain in power output for the four cylinder engine range. Production of the 2010 model year Vue ceased in 2009, following the closing of the Saturn brand.

This decision did not affect the assembly of the "Chevrolet Captiva Sport" for Latin and South American markets. After Saturn's demise, GM planned to retail the upcoming two mode hybrid Vue as a Buick from the model year of 2011. It would have included the 8 kWh lithium-ion battery pack found in Chevrolet Volt.

GM subsequently cancelled its production plan of the Buick following negative reception, while concurrently announcing the plug in hybrid powertrain would be transferred to another vehicle during 2011.

In the end of 2011, for the model year of 2012, the Mexico built Chevrolet Captiva Sport was imported into the United States for fleet buyers. This decision was made to fill the void for compact crossovers as Chevrolet phased out the HHR. The model of 2012 was available with a 2.4 litre inline four (LS trim) or 3.0 litre V6 (LT and LTZ), with both engines mated to a six speed automatic transmission.

All wheel drive is optional on LTZ. The V6 and optional all wheel drive were dropped by July 2013.

The Captiva Sport was discontinued in the United States in August 2014, as Chevrolet directed fleet buyers to the Equinox SUV or the new City Express van instead. The Captiva Sport was also discontinued in Mexico around October 2015 after the reintroduction of the Chevrolet Equinox. However, the Ramos Arizpe facility continued to assemble it for the other Latin American markets until 2017 when it was replaced by the third generation Equinox.

Australia

The market in Australia received the Antara as part of the range of the Holden Captiva from 2006 until October 2015. When introduced in November 2006 after being announced the previous September, the Antara based Holden was known as the "Captiva MaXX", selling alongside the cheaper Chevrolet Captiva based Holden models.

It was offered with a single powertrain, a five speed automatic equipped 3.2-litre V6. The MaXX remained on sale in Australia until 2008, although New Zealand sales continued until the end of 2009.

In a reversal of the Antara based Captiva's previous market position, Holden in December 2009 reintroduced the model as the price leading five seater "Captiva 5", while the more expensive Chevrolet based seven seat only models were rebranded "Captiva 7".

Holden fitted the Captiva 5 with the 2.4 litre petrol engine only. Front wheel drive models employed the five speed manual transmission only, with the five speed automatic variant tendered only in conjunction with all wheel drive.

Series II revisions were announced for Captiva 5 in February 2011, with sales commencing in March. The changes included the implementation of the facelift, including a new mesh grille insert with thin air intakes, chrome bezelled fog lamps, and new tail lamp lenses. The Series II Captiva 5 also gained updated powertrains, with an uprated 2.4 litre inline four petrol engine, and the  2.2 litre turbo diesel.

Six speed manual and automatic transmissions are fitted with the petrol engine, with diesel available only with the six speed automatic.

References

External links

Antara
Compact crossover sport utility vehicles
All-wheel-drive vehicles
Front-wheel-drive vehicles
Cars introduced in 2006
2010s cars
Cars discontinued in 2015

Opel Antara