Breath of Fire III is a role-playing video game developed and published by Capcom originally for the PlayStation console as part of the Breath of Fire series. Initially released in Japan on September 11, 1997, the game was later released in North America and Europe in 1998. It is the first game in the franchise to feature three-dimensional graphics and voice acting. The title was developed by director Makoto Ikehara and features a unique jazz-inspired soundtrack by company composers Yoshino Aoki and Akari Kaida. On August 25, 2005, the game was ported and released for the PlayStation Portable handheld system in Japan, and was also released in Europe on February 3, 2006.

The story takes place in a fantasy world where humans live alongside anthropomorphic creatures, and centers on Ryu, the last of The Brood (a race of people who can transform into powerful dragons), as he searches the world to uncover the mystery of his people and reunite with his surrogate family. Ryu's journey takes him into adulthood where he is joined by a number of other characters who aid him in his quest. The game received mostly positive reviews upon release, and would go on to sell more than 679,000 copies in Japan and the United States.

On January 27, 2016, Capcom announced that Breath of Fire III would be re-released as a download in the US in February through the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation Vita, PSTV, and other PSP hardware compatible devices.

Gameplay

Breath of Fire III is a traditional console role-playing game that requires the player to accomplish story-based objectives while battling enemy creatures in a number of fantasy environments. Presented from an overhead isometric viewpoint, the player may rotate the game's camera in any direction around the central character, as well as tilt it up or down to see over or under impeding objects. When traveling through the game's environment, each character can perform a unique special ability that allows the player to solve puzzles or destroy objects, as well as gain access to otherwise hidden areas. The game uses three-dimensional graphics for scenery, buildings, and other objects, while still retaining two-dimensional sprites for characters.

The game introduces a number of new features to the series, including the Master System, which allows any of the game's playable characters to apprentice under specific non-player characters known as masters, which allows them to learn new skills and influence their statistics. An additional feature, the Fairy Village, gives the player the ability to influence the growth of a small town of faeries, which in turn gives them access to special items or in-game features such as mini-games and a sound test. While journeying on the world map, players may set up camp, which can replenish a character's health by resting, as well as allowing them to speak directly to any member of their party. Other series mainstays such as fishing return with a new, expanded interface and point allocation system that keeps track of what fish a player has caught and their size.

Battles in Breath of Fire III occur randomly when a player travels through hostile areas or dungeons during the course of the story. Using a turn-based strategy approach, the game allows a player to input commands at the start of each combat round, which are then carried out in accordance with each character's "agility" rating. A player may choose to attack, defend, cast magic spells, use items, change equipment, or flee from battle entirely. Players can combine chrysms of various attributes in order to let Ryu transform into different dragon forms. While previous Breath of Fire titles allowed groups of four characters to participate in combat, Breath of Fire III restricts the party limit to only three, yet offers a new "formation" system that allows for characters to be arranged in certain patterns for tactical benefits. Battles are won when all enemies are defeated, yielding experience points that go towards gaining characters' levels, which in turn leads to higher statistics and new skills.

Plot

Characters

The main character in Breath of Fire III is Ryu. As a member of the ancient Brood race, Ryu is a human with the ability to transform into powerful dragons, a power he does not fully understand, but pieces together as time goes on. He is accompanied on his quest by several other playable characters, including Nina, a winged princess from the Kingdom of Wyndia and powerful magician; Rei, member of the cat-like Woren tribe and skilled thief; Teepo, an orphaned rogue and longtime friend of Rei's with no memory of his past; Momo, daughter of a famous engineer and inventor; Garr (Garland in the Japanese version), an experienced warrior and member of a group known as the Guardians who serve the goddess Myria; and Peco (Pecoros in the Japanese version), a onion-like creature with limited speech and a connection with nature.

Balio and Sunder, brothers and horse-men, act as mercenaries to a powerful crime lord and frequent adversaries of Ryu. Their boss, Mikba, is the head of a criminal organization with the ability to transform into a demon. Deis returns as a powerful sorceress who knows the secrets of the past. Myria, an ancient Goddess of Destruction, serves as the antagonist once more, though her motives have changed, and she is instead set on preserving the lives of humanity by ordering the deaths of the dragons.

Ryu, Teepo and Rei run afoul of the giant woodsman Bunyan; Mygas, a traveling wizard who is camped outside of McNeil village ; and the self-doubting master of non-lethal combat, Durandal, who provides the party with the skills to impress Hondara, the benevolent Urkan priest who despises violence. Fahl, the tipsy barkeep from Genmel and friend of Balio and Sunder will become one with them after those villains are defeated and if they have fought 30 battles without resting. A strange fishman named Giotto teaches skills once the party reaches a high-enough fishing level. Once Ryu and his team fix Rhapala's lighthouse situation and meet the fairies, the errant fairy Meryleep turns up at a secluded pond, asking for her flower jewel which was stolen by a crow. The party can also use Peco to communicate with Yggdrasil trees. Near the end of the game, the dragon spirit Ladon offers to communicate with Ryu in a similar fashion.

Story
Ryu, a preserved baby dragon unearthed by miners, inadvertently shifts form into a young blue-haired boy and is taken in by wandering thieves named Rei and Teepo, members of the cat-like Woren clan. They believe Ryu to be just an abandoned child.

The trio are hired by a hooded figure named Loki to steal all the money from the town's corrupt mayor. They break into the manor, pilfer the gold, and re-distribute his money among the villagers. The mayor hires two hitmen, the horse brothers Balio and Sunder, to exact revenge on the gang for their theft. Balio and Sunder burn down the trio's home, attack them, and leave them for dead. Ryu awakens in the care of a woodsman who fished him out of the river and found no trace of his friends. Ryu leaves Yraald Region. Ryu comes across Balio and Sunder in Mt. Myrneg. He is stabbed and reanimates into a dragon. The horse brothers take him to the Royal Family in Wyndia to sell him, but he transforms back to human. Balio, Sunder, and Ryu are locked up in the prison, where they meet Nina, child daughter of the King. Balio and Sunder trick Nina into releasing them and Ryu breaks out of his cell. Nina saves Ryu from Balio and Sunder, who are now on their trail.

Ryu and Nina come across a large tower and meet Momo, an inventor and engineer who is researching chrysm. They escape the tower by rocket when bounty hunters arrive looking for them. Momo leads Ryu and Nina to a chrysm research facility. The institute's chairman and colleague of Momo's late father, Dr. Palet, informs the party of a mutant creature causing trouble at the biological waste dump. After defeat, the mutant plant creature gives up its offspring, whom Nina names Peco, to be cared for in its absence. They hop onto a cart to be smuggled back to Wyndia, unaware that Palet sold them out to Balio and Sunder. They are recaptured by Balio and Sunder, transported back to Genmel, and signed up to fight in the arena. Garr, a seasoned warrior, beats Ryu in the arena, and demands Ryu as his prize, sidestepping his deal with the horse brothers. With Garr's help, the team defeats the horse brothers.

Garr agrees to help the group find Rei and Teepo, on the condition that Ryu accompany him to a sacred temple far to the east. They travel to Urkan Region, and arrive at the temple. Inside, Garr reveals the Brood, the race of dragons that once populated the world, was slaughtered by Garr and his fellow guardians at the behest of Myria, an ancient goddess who promised an age of peace in return. Ryu being the last living dragon, Garr attempts to slay him. Ryu beats him and escapes. Having been easily defeated by a child of the Brood, Garr has an epiphany: the Brood did not really fight back against him and the other guardians.

Several years later, reports of a rampaging dragon lead Garr to Ryu, now a young adult. Garr asks forgiveness for his actions against his people and entreats Ryu to help him discover the true motivation behind Myria's genocide of the Brood. Back in Yraald Region, the pair regroups with Nina, who led a regiment in arresting Mayor McNeil for his involvement with the attempt on Ryu's life and the destruction of their home. A weretiger has moved through the village, and Loki was mauled. They track the weretiger, revealed to be Rei. Rei has not seen Teepo since the incident.

The team reunites with Momo, who has been performing experiments at the plant institute with Peco. The party receives information about Myria's whereabouts from a deity named Deis. After traversing the ocean, the group proceeds to the last known village of the Brood, Dragnier. They learn of a battle with Myria millennia ago. The party crosses a desert, and find the ruined city of Caer Xhan, which contains an escalator leading to Myria's fortress.

The group fights its way into the facility's inner sanctum, where they meet Teepo. After surviving the attack by Balio and Sunder by drawing on his latent dragon powers, Teepo was contacted by the Goddess, who convinced him to live in peaceful seclusion in her fortress to spare the world from his destructive power. Unable to convince Ryu or his friends to do the same, Teepo morphs into his Dragon Lord form and fights them to the death. The group makes their way to Myria. She reveals that she exterminated the dragons centuries ago for the same reason she destroyed the world's advanced technology: to keep humanity from inadvertently destroying itself. She presents Ryu the same choice she gave Teepo: to live the rest of his life in peace within her station or be destroyed.

If the player complies with Myria, the game ends with Ryu in Eden. If the player challenges her, the spirit of the great tree Yggdrasil channels itself through Peco and tells Myria she is taking her power too far. Ryu and his friends overcome Myria and then flee the station as it crumbles. Garr reveals that his life must end with Myria's, turning to stone. Deis, now revealed to be Myria's sister, appears before Myria as the station falls apart, stating that they will henceforth leave the world in humanity's hands. Ryu, Nina, Momo, Rei, and Peco begin their long journey home.

Development
Breath of Fire III was developed by members of Capcom's Development Studio 3, including director Makato Ikehara and producers Yoshinori Takenaka and Hironobu Takeshita. The game was the first in the series to feature three-dimensional environments, which were used in conjunction with hand-drawn character sprites designed by series artist Tatsuya Yoshikawa. Yoshikawa created multiple designs for many of the game's characters during production, with some in-game character sprites such as young Ryu and Teepo and adult Nina not matching their final promotional artwork. Before its release in Japan, Breath of Fire III was preceded by a promotional trailer that appeared on a demo disc of Resident Evil 2 that came bundled with the Japanese version of Resident Evil: Director's Cut. Capcom USA announced in August 1997 that the title would receive an English localization in North America, with the release date originally set for January 1998, which would eventually get pushed back to the following March. In Europe, the game was published through French publisher Infogrames (Instead of Capcom's main European partner Virgin Interactive) and was released in October 1998.

In June 2005, Capcom announced that it would be porting Breath of Fire III to the PlayStation Portable handheld system alongside a similar port of Mega Man Legends, with both to be released the following August. The port features a new title logo graphic, and was re-programmed to make use of the handheld's native 16:9 widescreen display. An expanded version of the title's fishing minigame is also included, which can be shared with another PlayStation Portable owner using the system's GameShare function, with the Japanese release including a full-color fishing guidebook as a bonus. An English version of the port was later made available exclusively in Europe in February 2006, which contained the same translation as the original PlayStation release.

On January 27, 2016, Capcom announced that Breath of Fire III would be re-released in February as a download through the PSN network for the PS Vita, PSTV, and other PSP hardware compatible devices. The release announcement applies only to the PlayStation Network's US store.

Audio
The music of Breath of Fire III was composed by Yoshino Aoki and Akari Kaida, two members of Capcom's internal sound team who also provided the vocals for the title's ending song "Pure Again". While previous games in the series used more traditional orchestral compositions, the soundtrack to Breath of Fire III features a unique jazz-inspired motif that focuses on instruments such as piano and xylophone. In September 1997, Capcom released the Breath of Fire III Original Soundtrack published by First Smile Entertainment, which features 31 select songs from the game across a single disc. A complete musical selection for the game would not be made available until March 2006, when the company released the Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box boxset containing music from the first five games in the series. Capcom had originally intended to use the theme song "Machi" (街, lit. City) by rock band Sophia for an opening animation that was to be included in the game but later discarded. The song would later appear in the game's television commercial in Japan, and would be released as a single in July 1997 by Toy's Factory.

In December 1997, Capcom's released the Breath of Fire III Drama Album, a radio drama which features re-enactments of scenes from the game performed by new and returning voice actors. Some characters, such as Momo, Garr, and Peco, are re-cast, now voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi, Akio Ōtsuka, and Yukiko Matsuura respectively, while Kappei Yamaguchi now performs as both child and adult Ryu, and Kyoko Hikami returns as the voice of Nina, who also sings the album's image song, "Harmonica". The album also includes new voiced roles such as Tomohiro Nishimura as Balio, Takehito Koyasu as Sunder, and Sayaka Narita and Omi Minami as Bambi and Bimbi, a team of reporters created especially for the album.

Reception

Breath of Fire III was met with a mostly positive response in Japan, with Famitsu Weekly awarding it 28 out of 40 possible points, while Dengeki PlayStation Magazine awarded it a 79% average. It was also met with a positive critical reception in Europe, with Computer and Video Games awarding it a full five-star rating, concluding that it is a "totally engrossing RPG" and "highly recommended."

Reviewing the Japanese release as an import, GamePro called it "a very enjoyable RPG in which sure craftsmanship is easily evident", giving praise to the colorful graphics and well-constructed battle system yet criticizing its soundtrack, remarking that it "veers widely from unmemorable electronica to hopeless schmaltz, and more often than not, it doesn't add to the atmosphere of the story."

Reception for Breath of Fire III in North America was positive, with the game holding a GameRankings score of 74% based on 12 reviews, all of them from North American publications. GameSpot declared that despite taking the series into 3D gaming, it was still a very "standard" role-playing game, stating that "even with its handful of new features, Breath of Fire III breaks little new ground." IGN similarly declared that "[f]or an RPG, Breath of Fire presents nothing incredibly new, story-wise, however the way in which everything in the game is arranged and executed shows an incredible amount of attention to detail and depth," additionally giving praise to the game's "memorable characters" and "immersive" gameplay. In their review of the North American release, GamePro disagreed about the story, describing it as complex and full of surprising twists and turns. Though they criticized the long load times, frequent battles, and especially the music, describing it as "a compilation of elevator and mall music", they concluded that the epic story line and innovations such as rotating the isometric view to find hidden items and playing the first half of the game as a child make it a worthwhile purchase for RPG fans.

The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly described Breath of Fire III as highly traditional in both story and graphics, but also highly worthwhile due to the massive length, gripping story, and gameplay features like the ability to morph into different dragons. Next Generation likewise considered Breath of Fire III a gift for lovers of traditional, pre-Final Fantasy VII RPGs, particularly praising the English translation, well-developed characters, hand-drawn sprites, and detailed world. They stated that "Breath of Fire III is more than matched against the new breed of visually flashy RPGs on the market." Game Informer called it a "fairly straight-forward RPG" with colorful graphics and good characters, but found the long load times and high rate of enemy encounters to be a hindrance. PlayStation: The Official Magazine called the game a "must buy", calling attention to the game's "clever use of sound effects, detailed animation, and well-written, often humorous dialogue," adding that "to shrug this game off as 'more of the same' in the role-playing department would be a crime." The North American version would go on to sell 230,000 copies in its first year.

PlayStation Portable
The re-release of Breath of Fire III for the PlayStation Portable was received similarly to the first in Japan, with Famitsu giving the game a marginally better score of 29 out of 40.

European reviewers of the game were mixed. Some, like Eurogamer, were critical of the game's aged presentation and gameplay, claiming that "with nine years of intervening genre development since its inception, this is no wunderkind," citing the port's long load times and slow gameplay to be its downfall. Others, such as Play Magazine, found it to be "pretty generic, as all RPGs never fail to be, but does it all expertly, providing a great adventure that will soak up some hours." Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine called the game "archaic yet charming" and recommended it only as a window into the genre's past. The PlayStation Portable version held a score on GameRankings of 71% at the time of the site's 2019 closure.

Sales
The original PlayStation release sold 425,497 copies in Japan during 1997, making it the 24th most-bought game that year, as well as qualifying it for Sony's "PlayStation the Best" distinction, which allowed it to be re-released in December 2000 at a reduced price. The game sold a further 230,800 copies in the United States, adding up to a total of at least  units sold in Japan and the United States.

The PSP version sold 23,448 units in Japan, enough to qualify for a re-release under Capcom's "CapKore" label at a reduced price in January 2007. This adds up to a total of at least  copies sold for both the PlayStation and PSP platforms in Japan and the United States.

Notes

References

1997 video games
Breath of Fire
Infogrames games
Japanese role-playing video games
PlayStation (console) games
PlayStation Portable games
Turn-based role-playing video games
Video games developed in Japan
Video games about dragons
Video games about shapeshifting
Video games scored by Akari Kaida
Video games scored by Yoshino Aoki
Video games with isometric graphics

Breath of Fire III


The Battle of Corbio took place in 446 BC.  General Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus and legatus Spurius Postumius Albus Regillensis led Roman troops to a victory over the Aequi tribes of north-east Latium and the Volsci tribes of southern Latium at the town of Corbio. The Romans had already defeated the Aequi in the Battle of Mount Algidus, so that the Battle of Corbio definitely marked the dominion of the Romans over this tribe.

After an unsuccessful attack by the consul Spurius Furius Medullinus Fusus (consul 464 BC), Quinctius was given consular powers by the Senate so that he could defeat the enemy army which was besieging Furius. The enemy army outnumbered the Romans, so one part of their army attacked Furius' camp while the other part devastated Roman territory.

A few days into the siege, Furius successfully surprised the enemy but decided not to pursue them because he thought the camp would be vulnerable if he did. Furius' brother was surrounded by the enemy during the fight. The consul tried to rescue him, but was wounded. His brother was killed, which greatly lowered Roman morale.

While the Aequi were focused on the Roman camp, Quinctius attacked them from the rear and Furius attacked them from the front. A large part of their army was surrounded, so the Aequi retreated. The exact casualties are unknown, but the Roman casualties were at least 6,000 men. The Aequi didn't take major casualties during this battle, though many were killed in engagements after this battle.

References

Corbio
446 BC
5th century BC in the Roman Republic
440s BC conflicts

Battle of Corbio


The War Memorial Opera House is an opera house in San Francisco, California, located on the western side of Van Ness Avenue  across from the west side/rear facade of the San Francisco City Hall.

It is part of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. It has been the home of the San Francisco Opera since opening night in 1932.

It was the site of the San Francisco Conference, the first assembly of the newly organized United Nations in April 1945.

Architecture
In 1927, $4 million in municipal bonds were issued to finance the design and construction of the first municipally owned opera house in the United States. The architects of the building complex were Arthur Brown Jr., who had also designed the adjacent San Francisco City Hall between 1912 and 1916, and G. Albert Lansburgh, a theater designer responsible for San Francisco's Orpheum and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Completed in 1932, it employs the classic Roman Doric order in a reserved and sober form appropriate to its function commemorating all those who served in World War I (1914/17–1918). A colonnade of paired columns screens colossal arch-headed windows above a severe rusticated basement, a scheme that was influenced by the severe design of the Louvre Colonnade.

The interior contains a grand entrance hall with a high barrel vaulted and coffered ceiling parallel to the street, with overlooks from staircase landings at each end.

The theater space is dominated by a massive aluminum and glass panel chandelier under a blue vault, and the proscenium arch is decorated with gilded figurative sculpture. The theater has 3,146 seats plus standing room for 200 behind the orchestra and balcony sections.

History
The San Francisco Symphony performed most of its concerts in the house, from 1932 to 1980.

In spring of 1945, the United Nations had its San Francisco Conference (UN Conference on International Organization) first organizing assembly there. The UN Charter was later drafted and signed in the Herbst Theatre next door. Six years later in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco, declaring peace with Japan was drafted and signed here and in the Herbst Theatre.

During the years of Kurt Herbert Adler's general directorship, the inadequacies of the house became apparent as the season was expanded. In particular, there was a lack of office space and rehearsal space. In 1974, The Pointer Sisters were the first pop act to perform at the theatre. In 1979 the backstage area was extended, followed in 1981 by the opening of a new wing built onto the house on the Franklin Street side. This gave spaces for sets, coaches, and dancers as well as more administrative space. At the same time, the nearby Zellerbach Rehearsal Hall, with a stage the same size as that of the Opera House, was opened as part of the complex which included the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall.

In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake caused major damage to the Opera House. The architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and the theatrical consulting firm of Auerbach and Associates were retained in 1992 to oversee the building's technical renovation and a seismic retrofit. At this time additional private donations were raised for extensive technical improvements. These include:
State-of-the-art lighting system – which at the time, made it one of the most extensive and sophisticated systems in the world.
Replacement of chambers for a never-installed organ with modern restrooms, sorely needed since the original construction. The organ is not needed with the completion of the nearby Davies Symphony Hall.
An underground extension below the neighboring plaza to accommodate additional dressing rooms and backstage facilities.

Appearances in media
Foul Play (1978 film)
Heart and Souls (1993)
Steve Jobs (film)

References

Bibliography
Tilman, Jeffrey T. Arthur Brown Jr.: Progressive Classicist. New York:  W.W. Norton, 2006

External links

San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center
"Restoring a Beaux-Arts beauty"

1932 establishments in California
Arthur Brown Jr. buildings
Beaux-Arts architecture in California
Buildings and structures completed in 1932
Civic Center, San Francisco
Culture of San Francisco
Music venues completed in 1932
Music venues in San Francisco
Opera houses in California
San Francisco Designated Landmarks
Theatres completed in 1932
Theatres in San Francisco

War Memorial Opera House


Oerbke is an unincorporated German village in Soltau-Fallingbostel district in the southern part of the Lüneburg Heath in Lower Saxony. Oerbke lies on the A7 autobahn east of Bad Fallingbostel and is the seat of administration for the Osterheide area.

History
The farming village of Oerbke was first mentioned in the surviving records in 1256 and, by 1438, there were 8 farmsteads reported in the area as well as 4 individual houses (Kotstellen). The farms and houses were also evident in the registers in 1563, 1589 and 1628, so they were very long-lived here, probably due to the fertile soil. Until 1935 the village had been a purely agricultural settlement for centuries.

During the Third Reich the German armed forces, the Wehrmacht established a prisoner-of-war camp in Oerbke in which up to 30,000 soldiers from the Red Army were housed. After 1945 Oerbke Camp was initially used by the British Forces as a detention centre and displaced persons camp. Later the Oerbke East settlement (Ostsiedlung Oerbke) was used for troops exercising on the Bergen-Hohne Training Area.

Family names
Closely linked to the history and development of the village are long-established families. The oldest family names include:
 1379: henneke hoyers, Odde, henneke luders
 1438: Ludeke in deme Broke, Olveke, Sandman, Hermen Lange, Ghildehus, Hermen Hoyers, Eggerd in der Koten, Henneke Odden, Tideke Ebeling, Hinrik Hoyers, Henneke Luders
 1528: Jacob im Broke, Carsten Hoyger, Roders, Olücke, Hinrick Odden, Marthinß, Laurentius, Bartolt Lüders, Peter, Hans Wobbeken

Cultural monuments

 Cemetery of the Unknown Soldiers (Friedhof der Namenlosen), a war cemetery in which about 30,000 Russian prisoners-of-war from the Second World War are buried in mass graves.

Villages in Lower Saxony
Lüneburg Heath
Heidmark

Oerbke


The Ordinamenta et consuetudo maris ("Ordinances and Custom of the Sea") was a convention governing maritime trade promulgated at Trani in 1063: "the oldest surviving maritime law code of the Latin West".

The Ordinamenta is preserved in a Venetian version appended to a copy of the Statuta Firmanorum, the statutes of the commune of Fermo, printed in a single volume at Venice "under the auspices and care, through the diligence, and at the expense of Marcus Marcellus, a citizen of Venice, and a native of Petriolo, a small village in the circle of Fermo, at the press of Nicholaus de Brentis and Alexander de Badanis, the Lord Leonardo Loredano being Doge, A.D. MDVII" (1507). Two copies of this work were preserved in the municipal archives of Fermo and another in the . Probably the Venetian version was a translation made from the original Latin after 1496, when Trani came under Venetian dominion (where it remained until 1509). The printed version appears under a Latin title, with a Latin subtitle (edita per consules civitatis Trani), possible both original. A few Latin phrases left untranslated also evidence a work of translation. The text in the archives of Fermo was supplied by their then keeper, Filippo Raffaelle, for a critical edition and English translation in the Black Book of the Admiralty.

The text of the Ordinamenta contains the date anno Domini 1063 and specifies the first indiction. This has been cited as "a strong argument in favour of the authenticity of the ordinances", since the first indiction only coincides with the sixty-third year of a century every three hundred years, but it did with 1063. The text also refers to ''electi consoli in arte de mare'', which is translated "Consuls elect of the Guild of Navigators" in the Black Book. Neither the translation "guild" nor that of "company" (typical for Latin societas) for the presumed Latin original, ars, is strictly accurate. Nevertheless, the term has been seen as evidence of the existence of a sailors' corporation at Trani in the mid-eleventh century.

Notes

References

Further reading

G. Coniglio. "La società di Trani e gli 'ordinamenta'." Archivo storico pugliese 24 (1981): 75–88.

Admiralty law
1063
Legal history of Italy
Trani
11th century in law

Ordinamenta et consuetudo maris


Cassowaries (, ) are flightless birds of the genus Casuarius in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites: flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bones. Cassowaries are native to the tropical forests of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and West Papua), the Aru Islands (Maluku), and northeastern Australia.

Three cassowary species are extant. The most common, the southern cassowary, is the third-tallest and second-heaviest living bird, smaller only than the ostrich and emu. The other two species are represented by the northern cassowary and the dwarf cassowary; the northern cassowary is the most recently discovered and the most threatened. A fourth but extinct species is represented by the pygmy cassowary.

Around 90% of the Cassowary diet consists of mainly fruit, although all species are opportunistic omnivores, and take a range of other plant foods, including shoots and grass seeds, in addition to fungi, invertebrates, eggs, carrion, fish, and small vertebrates like rodents, small birds, frogs, lizards, and snakes. Although all ratites can eat meat, Cassowaries, by definition, are the most omnivorous and, therefore, the largest omnivorous bird where meat still forms a minute part of their diet. Indeed, whilst not hypercarnivorous predators like birds-of-prey, cassowaries including juveniles are not picky eaters and are willing to eat anything that could fit in its mouth. They also have the most varied diet in protein consumption, in contrast to other ratites such as ostriches, where meat is largely used as a substitute in harsh times and is limited to mere invertebrates and small animals. Cassowaries are very wary of humans, but if provoked, they are capable of inflicting serious, even fatal, injuries to both dogs and people. The cassowary has often been labeled "the world's most dangerous bird".

Taxonomy, systematics, and evolution
The genus Casuarius was erected by French scientist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his  published in 1760. The type species is the southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius). The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus had introduced the genus Casuarius in the sixth edition of his  published in 1748, but Linnaeus dropped the genus in the important tenth edition of 1758 and put the southern cassowary together with the common ostrich and the greater rhea in the genus Struthio. As the publication date of Linnaeus's sixth edition was before the 1758 starting point of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, Brisson, and not Linnaeus, is considered the authority for the genus.

Cassowaries (from ) are part of the ratite group, which also includes the emu, rheas, ostriches, and kiwi, as well as the extinct moas and elephant birds. These species are recognised:

Most authorities consider the taxonomic classification above to be monotypic, but several subspecies of each have been described, and some of them have even been suggested as separate species, e.g., C. (b) papuanus. The taxonomic name C. (b) papuanus also may be in need of revision to Casuarius (bennetti) westermanni. Validation of these subspecies has proven difficult due to individual variations, age-related variations, the scarcity of specimens, the stability of specimens (the bright skin of the head and neck—the basis of describing several subspecies—fades in specimens), and the practice of trading live cassowaries for thousands of years, some of which are likely to have escaped or been deliberately introduced to regions away from their origin.

The evolutionary history of cassowaries, as of all ratites, is not well known. Genetic evidence suggests that their closest living relatives are emus, and that the dwarf cassowary is more closely related to the Northern Cassowary than either is to the Southern cassowary. A fossil species was reported from Australia, but for reasons of biogeography, this assignment is not certain, and it might belong to the prehistoric Emuarius, which was a genus of cassowary-like primitive emus.

Description

Typically, all cassowaries are shy birds that are found in the deep forest. They are adept at disappearing long before a human knows they are there. The southern cassowary of the far north Queensland rain forests is not well studied, and the northern and dwarf cassowaries even less so. Females are larger and more brightly coloured than the males. Adult southern cassowaries are  tall, although some females may reach , and weigh . However, it is not uncommon to see exceptionally large females topping the scales beyond , with the largest maximum recorded being a southern cassowary at  and  tall. Hence, by technicality, all three species of cassowaries are considered as Asia's largest bird since the extinction of the Arabian ostrich. Moreover, not only is the cassowary Asia's largest bird, within New Guinea, the cassowary is the island's second largest terrestrial animal after the introduction of Cervidaes such as the rusa deer, chital, and fallow deer.

All cassowaries' feathers consist of a shaft and loose barbules. They do not have rectrices (tail feathers) or a preen gland. Cassowaries have small wings with five or six large remiges. These are reduced to stiff, keratinous quills, resembling porcupine quills, with no barbs. The furcula and coracoid are degenerate, and their palatal bones and sphenoid bones touch each other. These, along with their wedge-shaped body, are thought to be adaptations to ward off vines, thorns, and saw-edged leaves, allowing them to run quickly through the rainforest.

Cassowaries have three-toed feet with sharp claws. The second toe, the inner one in the medial position, sports a dagger-like claw that may be  long. This claw is particularly fearsome, since cassowaries sometimes kick humans and other animals with their powerful legs. Cassowaries can run at up to  through the dense forest and can jump up to . They are good swimmers, crossing wide rivers and swimming in the sea.

All three species have a keratinous, skin-covered casque on their heads that grows with age. The casque's shape and size, up to , is species-dependent. C. casuarius has the largest and C. bennetti the smallest (tricorn shape), with C. unappendiculatus having variations in between. Contrary to earlier findings, the hollow inside of the casque is spanned with fine fibers.

Several functions for the casque have been proposed. One is that they are a secondary sexual characteristic. Other suggested functions include batting through the underbrush, as a weapon in dominance disputes, or pushing aside leaf litter during foraging. The latter three are disputed by biologist Andrew Mack, whose personal observation suggests that the casque amplifies deep sounds. This is related to a discovery that at least the dwarf cassowary and southern cassowary produce very low-frequency sounds, which may aid in communication in dense rainforests. The "boom" vocalization that cassowaries produce is the lowest-frequency bird call known and is at the lower limit of human hearing. Recent study suggests that casque acts as a thermal radiator, offloading heat at high temperatures and restricting heat loss at low temperatures.

The average lifespan of wild cassowaries is approximately 18-20 years, with those held in captivity living up to 40 years.

Behaviour and ecology
Cassowaries are solitary birds except during courtship, egg-laying, and sometimes around ample food supplies. The male cassowary defends a territory of about  for himself. Female cassowary have larger territories, overlapping those of several males. While females move among satellite territories of different males, they appear to remain within the same territories for most of their lives, mating with the same, or closely related, males over the course of their lives.

Courtship and pair-bonding rituals begin with the vibratory sounds broadcast by females. Males approach and run with their necks parallel to the ground while making dramatic movements of their heads, which accentuate the frontal neck region. The female approaches drumming slowly. The male crouches on the ground, and the female either steps on the male's back for a moment before crouching beside him in preparation for copulation, or she may attack. This is often the case with the females pursuing the males in ritualistic chasing behaviours that generally terminate in water. The male cassowary dives into water and submerges himself up to his upper neck and head. The female pursues him into the water, where he eventually drives her to the shallows, where she crouches making ritualistic motions of her head. The two may remain in copulation for extended periods of time. In some cases, another male may approach and run off the first male. He will climb onto her to copulate, as well.

Males are far more tolerant of one another than females, which do not tolerate the presence of other females.

Reproduction

The cassowary breeding season starts in May to June. Females lay three to eight large, bright green or pale green-blue eggs in each clutch into a heap of leaf litter prepared by the male. The eggs measure about  – only ostrich and emu eggs are larger.

The male incubates those eggs for 50–52 days, removing or adding litter to regulate the temperature, then protects the chicks, which stay in the nest for about 9 months. He defends them fiercely against all potential predators, including humans. The young males later go off to find a territory of their own.

The female does not care for the eggs or the chicks, but rather moves on within her territory to lay eggs in the nests of several other males. Young cassowaries are brown and have buffy stripes. They are often kept as pets in native villages (in New Guinea), where they are permitted to roam like barnyard fowl until nearing maturity. Caged birds are regularly bereft of their fresh plumes.

Diet

Cassowaries are predominantly frugivorous, but omnivorous opportunistically when small prey is available. Besides fruits, their diet includes flowers, fungi, snails, insects, frogs, birds, fish, rats, mice, and carrion. Despite their similar omnivorous foraging behaviour, cassowaries and introduced wild boars had co-existed for thousands of years in New Guinea, even though it should have dictated that both species should be in direct competition such as in the case in the cassowary population in Queensland, Australia.

Fruit from at least 26 plant families has been documented in the diet of cassowaries. Fruits from the laurel, podocarp, palm, wild grape, nightshade, and myrtle families are important items in the diet. The cassowary plum takes its name from the bird.

Where trees are dropping fruit, cassowaries come in and feed, with each bird defending a tree from others for a few days. They move on when the fruit is depleted. Fruit, even items as large as bananas and apples, is swallowed whole. Cassowaries are a keystone species of rain forests because they eat fallen fruit whole and distribute seeds across the jungle floor via excrement.

In more urbanised areas, especially in Queensland, Australia, 'urbanised' Cassowaries have adopted to also feed on picnic blankets, tables and baskets or backyard bird feeders and compost heaps, thereby consuming a wide range of non-natural and non-native foods as well.

Role in seed dispersal and germination

Cassowaries feed on the fruit of several hundred rainforest species and usually pass viable seeds in large, dense scats. They are known to disperse seeds over distances greater than a kilometre, thus playing an important role in the ecosystem. Germination rates for seeds of the rare Australian rainforest tree Ryparosa were found to be much higher after passing through a cassowary's gut (92% versus 4%).

Predators
In its main home of New Guinea, cassowaries are the island's largest and most dominant and formidable bird. As such, adult cassowaries have no natural enemies other than humans (and even then, the birds are rarely hunted due to their reputation, with juveniles being preferred over adults for ceremonial purposes), but their chicks are vulnerable to large pythons, monitor lizards, New Guinea singing dogs, and Papuan eagles. Adult males aggressively defend their chicks. While adult males usually scare off most predators, a chick will occasionally be separated in the chaos and become a potential target.

However, in the relic populations of north-eastern Australia, the cassowary population faces threats from vehicles, and are in danger of being outcompeted by wild boars, with their eggs being most vulnerable to boar predation. Their chicks also face dangers and predation from domesticated dogs, which results in a widespread decline in the Australian mainland. It is unknown why the cassowary population in Australia is in decline, as the New Guinea population has dealt with introduced wild boars, dogs and feral cats for thousands of years longer with little to no impact on its population, suggesting that either the cassowaries of New Guinea had long adapted to human-introduced species or that the rich biodiversity of New Guinea allowed for additional niche partitioning.

As for eating the cassowary, it is supposed to be quite tough. Australian administrative officers stationed in New Guinea were advised that it "should be cooked with a stone in the pot: when the stone is ready to eat, so is the cassowary".

Distribution and habitat
Cassowaries are native to the humid rainforests of New Guinea, nearby smaller islands, East Nusa Tenggara, the Maluku Islands, and northeastern Australia. They do, however, venture out into palm scrub, grassland, savanna, and swamp forest. Whether some island populations are natural or the result of human trade in young birds is unclear. They can also be easily spotted in some national parks such as Mellwraith Range National Park, Paluma Range National Park, and Jardine National Park in Australia.

Status and conservation

The southern cassowary is endangered in Queensland. Kofron and Chapman, when they assessed the decline of this species, found that of the former cassowary habitat, only 20–25% remains. Habitat loss and fragmentation is the primary cause of decline. They then studied 140 cases of cassowary mortality, and found that motor-vehicle strikes accounted for 55% of the deaths, and dog attacks produced another 18%. Remaining causes of death included hunting (five cases), entanglement in wire (one case), the removal of cassowaries that attacked humans (four cases), and natural causes (18 cases), including tuberculosis (four cases). The cause for 14 cases was indicated as "for unknown reasons".

Hand feeding cassowaries poses a significant threat to their survival because it lures them into suburban areas. There, the birds are more susceptible to encounters with vehicles and dogs. Contact with humans encourages cassowaries to take food from picnic tables. Feral pigs also are a significant threat to their survival. They destroy nests and eggs of cassowaries, but their worst effect is as competitors for food, which may be catastrophic for the cassowaries during lean times.

In February 2011, Cyclone Yasi destroyed a large area of cassowary habitat, endangering 200 of the birds–about 10% of the total Australian population.

The Mission Beach community in far north Queensland holds an annual Cassowary Festival in September, where funds are raised to map the bird's habitat.

In captivity
The cassowary has solitary habits and breeds less frequently in zoos than other ratites such as ostrich and emu. Unlike other ratites, it lives exclusively in tropical rainforest, and reproducing this habitat carefully is essential. Unlike the emu, which will live with other sympatric species, such as kangaroos, in "mixed Australian fauna" displays, the cassowary does not cohabit well among its own kind. Individual specimens must even be kept in separate enclosures, due to their solitary and aggressive nature. Territoriality is one of their most important characteristics.

The double-wattled cassowary (C. casuarius) is the most popular species in captivity, and it is fairly common in European and American zoos, where it is known for its unmistakable appearance. , only Weltvogelpark Walsrode in Germany has all three species of cassowaries in its collection: single-wattled cassowary (Casuarius unappendiculatus) and Bennett's cassowary (Casuarius bennetti). If subspecies are recognised, Weltvogelpark Walsrode has C. b. westermanni and C. u. rufotinctus.

Relationship with humans

Role in Papuan cultures and semi-domestication

There is evidence that the cassowary may have been domesticated by humans thousands of years before the chicken. Some New Guinea Highlands societies capture cassowary chicks and raise them as semi-tame poultry, for use in ceremonial gift exchanges and as food. They are the only indigenous Australasian animal known to have been partly domesticated by people prior to European arrival and colonization and by definition, the oldest form of domesticated animal and the largest domesticated bird. The Maring people of Kundagai sacrificed cassowaries (C. bennetti) in certain rituals. The Kalam people considered themselves related to cassowaries, and did not classify them as birds, but as kin. Consequently, they use the Pandanus register of the Kalam language when eating cassowary meat.

Studies on Pleistocene/early Holocene cassowary remains in Papua suggest that indigenous people at the time preferred to harvest eggs rather than adults. They seem to have regulated their consumption of these birds, possibly even collecting eggs and rearing young birds as one of the earliest forms of domestication.

Urbanisation of local cassowary population

In extremely urbanised areas where Cassowaries used to naturally live such as in Queensland, Australia, the local Cassowary population had adapted to its less forested grounds. Increasing urbanisation has increased the likelihood of human-cassowary interaction, a potentially dangerous mix. Although cassowary populations have faced challenges in these urban areas in Northeastern Australia and parts of New Guinea, the cassowaries have proven to be surprisingly quite adaptable in contrast to the Kiwis of New Zealand, making them the largest and most urbanised birds in the world. It was found that cassowaries in these urban environments changed their diets accordingly, with urbanised cassowaries actually consuming an even greater proportion of fruits from exotic plants (~30%) but still incorporating a significant proportion of fruits from native plants in their diet. Likewise, as aforementioned, the high concentration of human activity in the urban ecology also equates to a higher concentration of food diversity and food waste, with these 'urbanised' cassowaries foraging for food scraps, bird feeders and outdoor picnic/food venues without fear from humans or domesticated animals due to the birds' size and reputation. Due to their omnivorous nature, cassowaries are able to eat all types of human food, including processed ones if they feel like it, although fruit still remains their favourite choosings. The high concentration of human activity as well as vehicles, mixed with domesticated animals and less forest coverage, had also changed their behaviours. These 'city' cassowaries were shown to exist in a higher state of activity and rested less than individuals inhabiting more intact swathes of rainforest, actively moving between urban gardens and the rainforest. The study give evidence that these birds showed a surprising amount of flexible foraging strategy that has enabled them to persist in rainforest-fragmented landscapes.

Attacks
Cassowaries have a reputation for being dangerous to people and domestic animals. During World War II, American and Australian troops stationed in New Guinea were warned to steer clear of them. In his 1958 book Living Birds of the World, ornithologist Ernest Thomas Gilliard wrote:

The inner or second of the three toes is fitted with a long, straight, murderous nail which can sever an arm or eviscerate an abdomen with ease. There are many records of natives being killed by this bird.

This assessment of the danger posed by cassowaries has been repeated in print by authors, including Gregory S. Paul and Jared Diamond. A 2003 historical study of 221 cassowary attacks showed that 150 had been against humans; 75% of these had been from cassowaries that had been fed by people, 71% of the time the bird had chased or charged the victim, and 15% of the time they kicked. Of the attacks, 73% involved the birds expecting or snatching food, 5% involved defending their natural food sources, 15% involved defending themselves, and 7% involved defending their chicks or eggs. Only one human death was reported among those 150 attacks.

The first documented human death caused by a cassowary was on April 6, 1926. In Australia, 16-year-old Phillip McClean and his brother, age 13, came across a cassowary on their property and decided to try to kill it by striking it with clubs. The bird kicked the younger boy, who fell and ran away as his older brother struck the bird. The older McClean then tripped and fell to the ground. While he was on the ground, the cassowary kicked him in the neck, opening a  wound that severed his jugular vein. The boy died of his injuries shortly thereafter.

Cassowary strikes to the abdomen are among the rarest of all, but in one case in 1995, a dog was kicked in the belly. The blow left no puncture, but severe bruising occurred. The dog later died from an apparent intestinal rupture.

Another human death due to a cassowary was recorded in Florida on April 12, 2019. The bird's owner, a 75-year-old man who had raised the animal, was apparently clawed to death after he fell to the ground.

See also
 Corythoraptor
 Dromaeosauridae

References

Citations

Cited texts

  Cites "authorities" for the death claim.

Further wording
 Rothschild, Walter (1899). A Monograph of the Genus Casuarius. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. 15, pt. 5, December 1900.

External links

 Cassowary videos, photos and sounds on the Internet Bird Collection

Extant Zanclean first appearances
Flightless birds
Higher-level bird taxa restricted to the Australasia-Pacific region

Cassowary


is a Japanese anime series by Nippon Animation.
It is the fourth production in the World Masterpiece Theater series (Calpis Family Theater back then). It is based on the French novel En Famille by Hector Malot. The series originally aired on Sundays from January 1, 1978 until December 31, 1978, spanning 53 episodes.

It has been dubbed in several languages for some regions, such as Iran, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Latin America, the Arabic Speaking World, Germany, Romania, Thailand, and the Philippines.

A re-edited footage film with some newly re-recorded lines and a new narration was also released in Japan in 1990.

En Famille

The anime is based on the novel En Famille by Hector Malot, which is also translated as Nobody's Girl. Another work by the author, Sans Famille, has a very similar story. That work was used as the basis of an anime film, Chibikko Remi to Meiken Kapi, as well as two separate anime series, Nobody's Boy: Remi and Remi, Nobody's Girl. The latter series should not be confused with The Story of Perrine.

Plot
13-year-old Perrine Paindavoine is the daughter of an Anglo-Indian mother, Marie, and a French father, Edmond, who dies in Bosnia at the very beginning of the story. Before dying, Edmond asks his wife and Perrine to return to his hometown, Maraucourt, where Perrine's grandfather, Vulfran, owns a factory and a family mansion. Perrine and her mother run a traveling photo studio on their journey to France. Upon reaching Paris, however, Marie falls ill. Although they sell everything they have to spend on medication, Marie eventually dies. On her deathbed, she reveals that Perrine must not expect a welcome from her grandfather. Vulfran strongly opposed Edmond's marriage and as such, he detests Perrine.

After the burial, Perrine embarks on an arduous journey to Maraucourt, traveling almost  on foot and barely surviving starvation. Once there, she assumes the identity of Aurelie to assess the situation in advance: Maraucourt is a town whose primary function is to house the workforce of its cotton mill, which Mr. Paindavoine owns. As such, the blind, stern Mr. Paindavoine is virtually the local ruler of the town and is feared by everyone, even his irresponsible nephew who expects to inherit the factory.

Aurelie secures a job of pushing rail carts in the factory. Soon, however, she is promoted to factory's interpreter, as she speaks both French and English fluently. Ultimately, through her efficiency, loyalty, and (unbeknownst to many) compassion, she becomes Vulfran's personal secretary and is invited to live in his mansion. Vulfran gradually grows fond of Aurelie, who has become his all-time companion without him asking. Coming so close to her grandfather, Aurelie learns about his personal life: Having virtually no loving relative, Vulfran has started a search for Edmond, intent to bring him home. Aurelie translates his foreign communications but does not dare to mention that his search is in vain, because Vulfran makes no secret of his hatred for Edmond's wife and daughter, blaming them for stealing his son away, which hurts Aurelie.

Eventually, Vulfran is informed of the premature death of Edmond in Bosnia. The bad news is proved almost fatal, as Vulfran is struck down by grief and only survives the ordeal through the passionate care of Aurelie, who helps him recover. Vulfran is grateful to Aurelie; during a visit from the elderly "grandmother Françoise", once Edmond's nanny, he proclaims that Aurelie is an angel sent by God to save him because such unconditional love is unique for a total stranger. Françoise, a mutual friend of Aurelie since her arrival in Maraucourt, replies that the angel curiously resembles Edmond. Vulkan immediately sends his lawyer to investigate Aurelie's background and also acknowledges that if she is truly his granddaughter, he must make up for having said terrible things about Edmond's family in front of her.

After receiving confirmation that Aurelie is indeed Perrine, Vulfran undergoes dangerous eye surgery to see his granddaughter's face. He also orders the construction of a daycare center and healthy dormitories for the workers of the factory.

Episodes List
1. Setting Out (January 1, 1978)

2. A Long Journey (January 8, 1978)

3. Mother's Strength (January 15, 1978)

4. The Rebel Count (January 22, 1978)

5. Grandfather and Grandson (January 29, 1978)

6. Two Mothers (February 5, 1978)

7. The Circus Boy (February 12, 1978)

8. The Drunk Donkey (February 19, 1978)

9. Business Rivals (February 26, 1978)

10. The Camera Thieves (March 5, 1978)

11. Baron Does His Best (March 12, 1978)

12. An Audience of Two (March 19, 1978)

13. Crossing The Alps (March 26, 1978)

14. In A Beautiful Country (April 2, 1978)

15. France! France! (April 9, 1978)

16. Mother's Decision (April 16, 1978)

17. An Inn in Paris (April 23, 1978)

18. The Old Man At The Gate (April 30, 1978)

19. The Boy From Downtown Paris (May 7, 1978)

20. Farewell, Palikare (May 14, 1978)

21. Mother's Last Words (May 21, 1978)

22. Unforgettable Friends (May 28, 1978)

23. Solo Journey (June 4, 1978)

24. A Beautiful Rainbow (June 11, 1978)

25. Palikare! That's My Palikare! (June 18, 1978)

26. Kind Rouquerie-obasan (June 25, 1978)

27. Grandfather's Cold Face (July 2, 1978)

28. Working in Paindavoine Factory (July 9, 1978)

29. A Hut By The Lake (July 16, 1978)

30. All By Herself (July 23, 1978)

31. Perrine's Guests (July 30, 1978)

32. Her Secret Name (August 6, 1978)

33. Theodore's Wallet (August 13, 1978)

34. An Unforgettable Day (August 20, 1978)

35. The English Letters (August 27, 1978)

36. Joy and Anxiety (September 3, 1978)

37. Grandfather's Large Hand (September 10, 1978)

38. Her Lovely Dress (September 17, 1978)

39. A Letter From India (September 24, 1978)

40. Baron's Calamity (October 1, 1978)

41. A Castle-Like Château (October 8, 1978)

42. Rosalie's Sorrow (October 15, 1978)

43. On Sunday' Perrine... (October 22, 1978)

44. A Malicious Woman (October 29, 1978)

45. News From Bosnia (November 5, 1978)

46. Vulfran's Sorrow (November 12, 1978)

47. Aurelie's Face (November 19, 1978)

48. The Fire (November 26, 1978)

49. A Time for Joyful Tears (December 3, 1978)

50. The First Snow of Winter (December 10, 1978)

51. Grandfather's Eyes (December 17, 1978)

52. An Unforgettable Christmas (December 24, 1978)

53. Spring Cometh (December 31, 1978)

Characters

Reception
Since its animation style was unsophisticated, the production was considered as mediocre. But near the end of the production, it became one of the most highly regarded pieces within World Masterpiece Theater.

References

External links

1978 anime television series debuts
1990 anime films
1990 films
Adventure anime and manga
Anime and manga set in France
Drama anime and manga
Hector Malot anime series
Historical anime and manga
Sat.1 original programming
Television shows set in France
World Masterpiece Theater series

The Story of Perrine


Palazzo di San Clemente (also called Palazzo del Pretendente) is a residential palace in Florence, Italy.

History
Along the current Via Capponi there was a small building visible in the plan of the city from 1584, which was acquired and enlarged by Luigi di Toledo, brother of Grand Duchess Eleanor of Toledo. Late Renaissance art biographer Giorgio Vasari speaks about it in the Life of Jacopo Sansovino.

In 1634 the Guadagni family bought it, entrusting architect Gherardo Silvani with the renovation of the palace and the garden (1644).  The edifice was thus transformed into a suburban villa, of the type then known as a Casino. The family owned it until 1777, when they sold it to Bonnie Prince Charlie, who then used the alias of count of Albany; since the latter was the legitimist pretender to the thrones of England, Scotland, Ireland and France, the palace is also called Palazzo del Pretendente. Later it went to Simone Velluti Zati, duke of San Clemente, hence the current name. Russian prince Nikolai Demidov was his guest here in 1882.

The edifice is a seat of the Faculty of Architecture of  the University of Florence.

Sources

San Clemente
Charles Edward Stuart
University of Florence

Palazzo di San Clemente


Asian bond markets are growing rapidly as Asian borrowers switch away from short term bank loans towards longer term debt financing. Although Asia also includes countries of the Middle East, some CIS countries and the vast majority of the land mass of Russia and Turkey, in financial markets it is often only East Asia and South Asia that are included in the term.

Issuance
Issuance in Asia is predominantly issued by sovereign issuers but corporate bonds are becoming an important source of growth in Asian fixed-income markets. Currently issuance is predominantly in US dollars, although local currency issuance is also growing. Asian governments, central banks and the Asian Development Bank are keen to see the expansion of Asian bond markets over the next few years in order to help provide finance for the large infrastructural development that the region needs over the next decade. Alongside the expansion of the bond markets, Asian governments and central banks are currently discussing the creation of an Asian Currency Unit. The ADB has suggested that bonds may also be issued in ACU over the next few years. This would help lower the financing costs for Asian issuers who have substantial trade links with other countries in the region.

Asian issuers tends to have a much higher credit rating than other sovereign debt, particularly those in Latin America because of the strong economic underpinnings and low political risks. Most Asian countries have ratings which are investment grade.

History
Asian economies suffered badly from the East Asian financial crisis in 1997 and subsequently academic research has identified the over-reliance on short term bank financing as a major cause of economic failure. Governments and central banks are keen to encourage the expansion of the Asian bond markets in order to reduce the reliance on short term bank loans and so avoid the economic catastrophe that occurred in 1997/1998.

Investing in Asian bonds
Large investors can buy bonds directly, whereas smaller investor tend to invest via mutual funds. The two major Asian bond indices are the HSBC Asian Bond Index and the JP Morgan JACI Index.

As part of the Asian Bond Market Initiative, nine Pan Asian Bond funds have been launched. These passively managed funds are designed to provide an efficient mechanism for investors to buy local currency funds. Whilst their low fees provide funds at an attractive price, the fee scales discourage active management and provides limited incentive for managers to promote these funds. As a result, these funds are not widely known.

The managers of the 8 single market funds are;

ABF China Bond Index Fund, China Asset Management Corporate Limited
ABF Hong Kong Bond Index Fund, HSBC Investments (Hong Kong) Limited
ABF Indonesia Bond Index Fund, PT Bahana TCW Investment Management
ABF Korea Bond Index Fund, Samsung Investment Trust Management Company Limited
ABF Malaysia Bond Index Fund, AmInvestment Management Sdn. Bhd.
ABF Philippines Bond Index Fund, Bank of the Philippine Islands
ABF Singapore Bond Index Fund, DBS Asset Management Limited
ABF Thailand Bond Index Fund, Kasikorn Asset Management Company Limited

Asian Bond Markets Initiative
Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI), which was endorsed at the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers Meeting in Manila, the Philippines on 7 August 2003, aims to develop efficient and liquid bond markets in Asia, enabling better utilization of Asian savings for Asian investments. It would also contribute to the mitigation of currency and maturity mismatches in financing.

The activities of the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) is focused on (1) Facilitating access to the market through a wider variety of issuers and (2) Enhancing market infrastructure to foster bond markets in Asia.

See also
Developing countries' debt
Emerging Market Debt

External links
A pile of BRICs or Asian CHIKS?
AsianBondsOnline
Asian Bond Fund
Asian Bond Market Initiative
The Asian Bond Market: 12 Things to Know Asian Development Bank

Bond market

Finance in Asia

Bond markets in East Asia and South East Asia


Rosauro C. Almario (30 August 1886 – 11 March 1933) was a prominent Filipino writer in the Tagalog language.  He was a respected journalist, editor, nationalist, politician, newspaper manager, and a proponent of anti-graft practices. Almario's works revealed his inclination to nationalism, revolutionary ideas, tradition, and customs.  He supported the development of writing literature using Tagalog and the other languages of the Philippines.  As a writer, Almario used pen names such as R.O. Noel, Batang Simoun, Matanglawin, Ric A. Clarin, Raxa Soliman, Petronio, and El Satirin. He was also known as the editor of pagkakaisa, a daily newspaper and he also was a general manager of the La opinion newspaper-1926.

Family
Born in Tondo, Manila, Almario was the third among nine children.  He was the son of Estanislao Almario and Rosalia Cagne. Estanislao Almario was a cabeza de barangay (barangay captain or head of the barrio) who once served as a clerk in the Spanish military, while Rosalia Cagne was a seamstress.  Almario's father died when Almario was only around ten years of age.  He married Leonor de Ocampo, with whom Almario had five children, namely the twins Generoso and Amalia, Bonifacio, Liwayway, and Simoun.  Generoso Almario was a lawyer and Simoun Almario had an executive position at a local radio station.

Education
He was taught by two teachers during his childhood.  One was by the teacher known as "Maestro Sevilla". The other teacher was Eugenio de Lara.  De Lara was a lawyer and a Tondo school supervisor who taught  Almario elementary Latin.  Almario studied the Spanish language and the English language at the Liceo de Manila.  He wanted to become a lawyer but was not able to complete his studies for the degree.

Career

Political career
Almario worked for the Bazar Siglo XX, a place owned by Luis R. Yangco. After passing the second-grade civil service examination, Almario began working as a clerk at the Bureau of Education on 10 August 1904. By 6 July 1909, he started working for the Bureau of Prisons, and then moved to the Bureau of Posts on 18 January 1911. He became chief of the Office of the Mayor in Manila on 1 August 1918. In 1919, Almario became the assistant secretary of Mayor Justo Lukban. On 6 July 1920, Almario became the secretary of Mayor Ramon Fernandez. Apart from being Mayor Fernandez's secretary, Almario acted as the supervisor of Manila's reformatories, asylums, and playgrounds. Both Fernandez and Almario resigned, as a sign of protest, upon the reinstatement of Governor-General Leonard Wood to the secret service of the City of Manila. He won a seat for the Municipal Board of Manila (now Manila City Council) in 1925. Although a known graft-buster, Almario was convicted for libel and was exiled to Lolomboy, Bulacan in February 1927. The case made him a popular figure among the masses. In 1928, he won the Municipal Board elections in Manila. In 1930, Almario became president of the Municipal Board of Manila.

Literary career
Almario was the editor of Pagkakaisa, a daily newspaper.  He later became  the general manager of the La Opinion newspaper.  Among his works as a writer was the Tagalog-language essay Ano ang Ligaya sa Ibabaw ng Lupa? (What is Happiness on the Surface of the Earth?) written in 1907 and the award-winning Spanish-language essay Que Es Pueblo (What is [a] Town).  His novels included the titles Pinatatawad Kita [You are Forgiven] (1910), Ang Mananayaw [The Dancer] (1910), Mga Anak-Bukid [Children of the Farmlands] (1911), Mga Dahong Luksa [Grieving Leaves] (1912), and Nang Si Eba ay Likhain [When Eve was Created] (1913).

There is a school in Tondo manila named after Him.

References

External links

Filipino journalists
Filipino essayists
Tagalog-language writers
Spanish-language writers of the Philippines
Filipino novelists
Filipino editors
People from Tondo, Manila
Manila City Council members
Writers from Manila
1886 births
1933 deaths
Nacionalista Party politicians
20th-century novelists
20th-century essayists
20th-century journalists

Rosauro Almario


The 2006 Mexico DC-9 drug bust was a 2006 arrest that resulted in the seizure of 5.5 tons of cocaine in the Mexican city of Ciudad del Carmen. The drugs were smuggled into the country using a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15. Both plane and drugs were seized by Mexican authorities; according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), it was one of the largest seizures of narcotics in recent Mexican history.

Drug seizure

The aircraft departed Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas, Venezuela on the afternoon of April 10, 2006. Approximately 90 minutes into the flight, it returned to the Caracas airport and refueled before resuming its flight. Rather than continue on its reported flight plan, however, the plane made an emergency landing at the Ciudad del Carmen airport, claiming hydraulic problems with the landing gear. Mexican army troops were waiting for the plane on its arrival. When they boarded the aircraft, they found 5.5 tons of cocaine packed into 128 identical black suitcases.

According to news reports, the pilot of the DC-9 escaped, but the co-pilot was arrested. In addition, the crew of a Mexican registered business jet attempting to make a rendezvous with the DC-9 at the airport was also arrested.

In 2007 the DEA claimed the seizure was one of Mexico's largest, referring to it as one of the highlights of a DEA program called "Operation All Inclusive".

Notes

2006 in Mexico
2006 in Venezuela
Illegal drug trade in Mexico
McDonnell Douglas DC-9
2006 crimes in Mexico

2006 Mexico DC-9 drug bust


Allan G. Bense (born October 6, 1951) is an American businessman and politician. He served in the Florida State house from 1998 to 2006.  He serves as the chairman and chief executive officer of Bense Enterprises.

Biography

Early life
Allan Bense was born in Panama City, Florida on October 6, 1951, and the youngest child of Herbert and Bette Bense. Both of his parents died at the age of 45, he worked his way through Junior High School, High School, and College as a janitor, waiter, mechanic, salesman, and more. He began his business career deeply in debt after college. He received a Bachelor of Science in 1972 and a Master of Business Administration in 1974, both from Florida State University.

Career
He served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1998 through 2006. He was Speaker of the House from 2004 through 2006.  He is currently chairman of the Board of Bense Enterprises.  He serves on the board of directors of Capital City Bank Group ( CCBG: NASDAQ ).  He is a partner in several companies with interests in road building, mechanical contracting, healthcare, insurance, general contracting, golf courses, pavement marking, farming and others.
He is the immediate past chairman of the James Madison Institute, a Florida-based think tank; A member of the board of directors for Triumph Gulf Coast which is responsible for spending 1.5 billion in BP money in Northwest Florida; immediate past chairman of the board of trustees for Gulf Coast Regional Hospital (40 years).  He is the immediate past chairman of the Board of Florida State University, past chairman of the board of the Florida Chamber of Commerce; past chairman of the board of the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission; past chairman of the board of the  Florida Council on Military Base and Mission Support; past vice chairman of Enterprise Florida ( the governor is the honorary chairman ); past chairman of the board of the Bay Economic Development Alliance;

He married his wife Tonie Johnson Bense in 1975, and they have three children: Courtney Weatherford, Jason Bense, and Taylor Bense. Tonie owns two dance studios, has 500 students, 13 instructors, and teaches 16 classes a week.  Courtney is a full-time mother of 4 and active in several volunteer groups in Wesley Chapel, Florida. Her husband, Will Weatherford is the immediate past Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Jason Bense is a partner with Allan Bense in a construction business, and Taylor Bense is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and is a musician in New York City.  In addition, Bense's older sister, Dr. Judith Bense, just recently retired as president of the University of West Florida, one of Florida's twelve public universities.

References

1951 births
Living people
Speakers of the Florida House of Representatives
Republican Party members of the Florida House of Representatives
Florida State University alumni
People from Panama City, Florida

Allan Bense


The first season of the AMC western-drama television series Hell on Wheels premiered on November 6, 2011 and concluded on January 15, 2012, comprising 10 episodes. The series was created and produced by Joe and Tony Gayton, who wrote four episodes. They also served as the series' showrunners. The series' executive producers include the Gaytons, Jeremy Gold, John Shiban, and David Von Ancken.

The season follows Cullen Bohannon, a former Confederate soldier who works as a foreman on the railroad as he tries to track down the Union soldiers who murdered his wife. His quest leads him to the settlement that accompanied the construction of First Transcontinental Railroad, referred to as "Hell on Wheels" by the Union Pacific company men, laborers, mercenaries, prostitutes, support workers, surveyors, and others who make the mobile encampment their home.

The first season was met with favorable reviews from critics, and the premiere was watched by 4.4 million viewers – AMC's second most watched series premiere in history, following The Walking Dead. In January 2012, following the season one finale, AMC put out a press release confirming Hell on Wheels as the network's second-highest rated original series behind The Walking Dead, averaging three million viewers per episode.

Cast

Main cast
The first season has eight series regulars.

 Anson Mount as Cullen Bohannon, a former Confederate soldier who is determined to avenge the deaths of his son and his wife, Mary. (10 episodes)
 Colm Meaney as Thomas "Doc" Durant, a businessman and investor in the First Transcontinental Railroad, where he hopes to make his fortune. (10 episodes)
 Common as Elam Ferguson, a recently freed slave who is trying to find his place in the world. He works as security and general assistant to Bohannon. (10 episodes)
 Dominique McElligott as Lily Bell, a recent widow; her husband was a surveyor working on the transcontinental rail project. (10 episodes)
 Tom Noonan as Reverend Nathaniel Cole, a minister who formerly participated in Bleeding Kansas prior to the Civil War; he is sick of the slaughter and wants to help the whites and Indians avoid another war. (9 episodes)
 Eddie Spears as Joseph Black Moon, a Cheyenne who must choose between the new world and the traditions of his ancestors. (9 episodes)
 Ben Esler as Seán McGinnes, an ambitious young Irishman looking to make his fortune in the West. (7 episodes)
 Phil Burke as Mickey McGinnes, Seán's brother, who has travelled with Seán to America. (7 episodes)

Recurring cast

Production

Conception
On November 8, 2011, co-creator Joe Gayton spoke of the series' origins. "We [Tony and I] started talking and remembered this story, American Experience, which was this really great documentary, and I thought, 'God, that's great. I just learned a bunch of stuff I had never learned before.' You just have this cursory information that the Chinese and the Irish built the railroad, but it got in underneath all the dirt and stuff that went on, with the financing of it, and the greed and corruption. And then, I heard about this Hell on Wheels place and I went, 'What a great setting for a western.' So, we pitched that to Jeremy Gold [at Endemol] and ended up taking it to AMC, and they loved it," he said.

Hell on Wheels was created by Joe and Tony Gayton in late 2008, and Endemol USA's scripted television division, headed by senior vice president of original programming Jeremy Gold, came on board to develop the series for AMC. On May 18, 2010, AMC placed a pilot order for Hell on Wheels with Endemol USA. Joe and Tony Gayton wrote the pilot, David Von Ancken was attached to the project as director, with Jeremy Gold, Joe Gayton and Tony Gayton serving as executive producers. On July 6, 2010, Endemol USA announced that they had entered into a partnership with Entertainment One, who would serve as the production studio on the project. Part of the deal between the two companies included provisions of international distribution, with Endemol retaining rights to the series across Europe, while Entertainment One acquired rights to Hell on Wheels in all remaining territories. As a result of the deal, Entertainment One also holds global rights for DVD and Blu-ray sales, as well as video-on-demand and other digital distribution services. The Canadian production company Nomadic Pictures was brought onto the project to serve as co-producers alongside Entertainment One. The pilot was delivered to AMC executives in November 2010. On November 12, 2010 it was reported by Deadline that the executives at AMC were impressed with the pilot, and, coupled with the fact that the network had just cancelled their drama series, Rubicon, were likely to order Hell on Wheels to series.

On December 15, 2010, AMC green-lighted the series with an order of 10 episodes. Along with the series pickup, AMC announced that Nomadic Pictures would again co-produce the series, as they had done for the pilot, with Mike Frislev and Chad Oakes joining the series as producers while John Shiban and David Von Ancken joined the series as executive producers; Von Ancken had previously served as director on the pilot. The network also announced that John Morayniss and Michael Rosenberg would oversee production for Entertainment One, while Joel Stillerman and Susie Fitzgerald would oversee production for AMC.

Filming
Filming of the first season took place in Calgary, as well as areas in central and southern Alberta, Canada. The T'suu T'ina Native Indian Reservation, an Indian reserve in southern Alberta, was the location for most of the exteriors.

Episodes

Reception

Critical reception

Hell On Wheels first season received "generally favorable" reviews from critics. Metacritic gave it a score of 63 out of 100 based on 27 reviews.  The Washington Posts Hank Stuever rated the show highly, commenting, "Hands down, the most intriguing show on the fall slate. Though imbued with epic sweep, 'Hell on Wheels' is a western at heart, even if that heart is cold. Plenty of guns, knives, arrows, scalpings – mixed with the incendiary socio-psychological wounds left in the Civil War's wake."  Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times says the show "takes its cues more from the movies than from life ... Still, for all the unlikely things [the creators] make happen in order to get their characters into place, and the dogged refusal of a couple of those characters to become interesting at all, the show gathers steam as it goes on."  The Wall Street Journals Nancy Dewolf Smith considers the series "like a bag of unpolished stones ... Despite striking performances even in many of the smaller roles, the actors sometimes are made to symbolize very modern obsessions, e.g., with race and gender."  Brian Lowry of Variety thinks "while the diverse mix of characters could work to the program's advantage over the long haul, jumping to and fro among them creates a diluted, herky-jerky ride in the early going."<ref name="Lowry">Lowry, Brian. Hell on Wheels, Variety, November 3, 2011.</ref>

Ratings

The pilot premiered on November 6. 2011. It was watched by 4.4 million viewers – AMC's second-highest series premiere in history, following The Walking Dead. Among key demographics, the pilot episode delivered 2.4 million viewers in adults 18–49. Among adults 25–54, it delivered 2.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen. The total viewership bested network slot rivals CSI: Miami or Pan Am. The sixth episode was watched by 2.15 million viewers, the lowest viewership of the first season and had a 0.6 rating with the 18-49 age range. The viewership numbers eventually rebounded with the season one finale being watched by 2.84 million viewers and maintained its steady 0.7 rating with the 18-49 age range. In January 2012, following the season one finale, AMC put out a press release confirming Hell on Wheels as the network's second-highest rated original series behind The Walking Dead, averaging three million viewers per episode.

Home media release

DVD and Blu-ray sets
In May 2012, AMC released the first season of Hell on Wheels in DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. Entitled "Hell on Wheels - The Complete 1st Season", the package includes three discs that contain all 10 episodes; extras such as "Recreating the Past: The Making of Hell on Wheels''", "Crashing a Train: From Concept to Camera"; and episode, character, and making-of featurettes; as well as behind-the-scenes footage.

Soundtrack
In August 2012, the network released the soundtrack from the first season, featuring the Emmy-nominated theme song by Gustavo Santaolalla and music by Kevin Kiner. It is only available on iTunes for now.

References

External links

Fiction set in 1865
Hell on Wheels (TV series)

2011 American television seasons
2012 American television seasons

Hell on Wheels (season 1)