Richilde of Provence (c. 845 – 2 June 910, Kingdom of Lower Burgundy) was the second wife of the Frankish emperor Charles the Bald. By her marriage, she became queen and later empress. She ruled as regent in 877.

Life
Richilde was the daughter of Bivin of Gorze, Count of the Ardennes, and the sister of Boso of Provence (of the Bosonid dynasty). Her aunt was Theutberga, the wife of Lothar II of Lotharingia. Her marriage to Charles the Bald, in 870 after the death of his first wife, Ermentrude of Orléans, was intended to secure his rule in Lotharingia through her powerful family and her connection to Theutberga, the previous queen. Richilde bore Charles five children, but only the eldest daughter, Rothilde, survived to adulthood.

Whenever Charles went to war, Richilde managed the realm. She ruled as regent after the death of Charles in 877. Louis the Stammerer (son of Charles the Bald and Ermentrude of Orléans) died on 10 April 879, while his children were too young to rule on their own. Richilde planned to place her brother Boso on the throne. However, she was accused of incest with her brother and the lords of the kingdom refused to subject themselves to her authority. She then helped Boso to become the king of Provence.

Richilde attempted to assume a position of authority upon the death of Louis III in 882, and of Carloman II in 884; however, the empire was agitated and under threat by the Normans, and the grandees of the realm forced her to withdraw to Provence, then the realm of her nephew Louis the Blind, where she died on 2 June 910.

References

|-

840s births
910 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Bosonids
Frankish queens consort
Queens consort of Lower Burgundy
9th-century women regents
Carolingian dynasty
Women from the Carolingian Empire
9th-century queens consort
9th-century empresses consort

Richilde of Provence


Åsa Lif (born 26 July 1990) is a Swedish biathlete.

Lif lives in Östersund and represents Lima Biathlon. Her trainer is Roger Westling. In 2011, she became a member of the Swedish A squad; since 2012 she has been on the development squad. Her first international meet was the junior division of the World Championship Summer Biathlon 2007, in Otepää. In the cross-country running segments, she achieved 30th place in the sprint and 28th in the mass start; in roller skiing she came 20th in the sprint and 21st in pursuit. She competed at the junior level in the IBU Cup (formerly the European Cup) beginning with the 2007/08 season, and in 2009 competed for the first time in the Junior World Championships at Canmore, where she came in 34th in the sprint, 33rd in pursuit and individual, and with Ingela Andersson and Marielle Molander, 9th in the relay. The following year in Torsby she placed 40th in the individual, 30th in sprint, 33rd in pursuit and 12th in the relay. In 2011, competing in her third Junior World Championships at Nové Město na Moravě, she was 25th in individual, 34th in sprint, 41st in pursuit and 14th in the relay.

She competed in the IBU women's championships for the first time in 2008 at Idre, coming 64th in her first sprint and in her next, in the same venue, achieving 53rd, her best placement in the event. At the start of the 2012/13 season she made her first appearance in the World Cup, in Östersund, where she came 88th in her first sprint. In her next sprint, at Hochfilzen, she placed 61st, missing qualifying for the pursuit by only one position. In the relay, as last runner after Elisabeth Högberg, Anna-Karin Strömstedt and Elin Mattsson, she shared 9th place.

Between 2008 and 2010, Lif also competed in several international cross-country skiing events at the junior level and lower-level International Ski Federation events. On the national level, she won bronze with the Lima team at the 2010 Swedish Biathlon Championships, and gold in the roller ski sprint and silver in roller ski pursuit at the 2012 Summer Swedish Biathlon Championships in Sollefteå.

In April 2014, she was not included in the national squad, which she attributed to problems with a leg and a disc that would prevent her from fully following the training programme.

References

Further reading
"Close up - Åsa Lif", interview with Sofia Wrangel, iof3.idrottonline.se, 28 October 2012

External links
Personal website

Swedish female biathletes
1990 births
Living people

Åsa Lif


The crestless firebacks (Lophura sp) are a group of two species of bird in the family Phasianidae. They are found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Their natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. They are threatened by habitat destruction.

Description
Male crestless firebacks are about  in length and females slightly smaller. The face has bare red skin, the bill is greenish in males and black in females, there is no crest, the legs are bluish-grey, with long spurs in males and short spurs in females. The tail is short and either rounded, or the central feathers are shorter than the outer ones. The male has purplish-black plumage, with white vermiculation on the mantle and back, the wings and the side of the breast. The rump is bright chestnut and the upper tail coverts are purple with maroon margins. The tail feathers are cinnamon with black bases. The female crestless fireback is almost completely black with a blue or green gloss and was for some time considered to be a separate species. The head is brownish, paling to nearly white on the throat. Juveniles resemble females but have pale-edged feathers, and young males develop chestnut rumps quite soon. The female is very similar in appearance to the male Salvadori's pheasant (Lophura inornata) which is endemic to Sumatra, but that species tends to inhabit forests at higher altitudes.

Distribution and habitat
The Malayan crestless fireback is found in mainland Malaysia and Sumatra while  pyronota occurs in Borneo. The male of the latter species is a greyer bird, with black and white vermiculations, and steel blue upper tail coverts. The crestless firebacks are shy birds and seldom seen; they inhabit undergrowth in lowland rainforests, and also secondary growth forest in Malaysia, up to altitudes of about .

Ecology
The crestless firebacks are retiring bird and has been little studied. They mostly occur in pairs or small groups. It lives on the ground among undergrowth and feeds during the day by scratching up the leaf litter and eating the small animals exposed, as well as feeding on vegetable matter and fallen fruit. They breed in captivity, and a nest recorded in the wild was between the buttress roots of a large tree and contained a clutch of four or five pink or pale buff eggs. The breeding season is from April to June and the gestation period lasts 24 days.

Status
The birds are uncommon, with a moderate-sized range and a patchy distribution. Their natural habitat is lowland evergreen virgin forest, including peat forest and karst forest. These habitats are increasingly being cleared and the population of the bird is thought to be decreasing. However, they have also been observed in partially logged secondary forest in both Malaysia and Sumatra, and have been recorded there at densities of six birds per square kilometre. Besides this, some birds live in protected areas of forest. The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates there may be a total of between ten and twenty thousand mature individuals. Clements and the IUCN has split into both species and the IOC has followed suit.

Species
 Malayan crestless fireback, Lophura erythrophthalma
 Bornean crestless fireback, Lophura pyronota

References

External links
BirdLife Species Factsheet.

crestless fireback
Birds of the Malay Peninsula
Birds of Sumatra
crestless fireback
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Bird common names

Crestless fireback


Mythology of the Haudenosaunee includes the creation stories and folktales of the Native Americans who formed the confederacy of the Five Nations, later the Six Nations (Iroquois). Historically, these stories were recorded in wampum and recited, only being written down later. In the written versions, the spellings of names differ due to transliteration and spelling variations in European languages that were not yet standardized. Variants of the stories exist, reflecting different localities and times.

Oral traditions
The Haudenosaunee have passed down their stories as a centuries-old oral tradition. Through these stories, listeners learn values, laws, and acceptable behaviors in their communities  For example, "Girl Who Was Not Satisfied" is a traditional story about a girl who runs off with a man for his looks. The moral of the story is to judge people based on their character, not their looks. The story also teaches people the importance of valuing what they already have.

Haudenosaunee storytelling is also entertainment and a way to preserve culture. The stories reflect the Iroquois' perception and understanding of the world. Traditionally, the stories were poetic and delivered in metaphors. However, translations often lose the expressive qualities which existed in the original language. It is also possible that Christianity influenced the written mythologies.

In 1923, historian Arthur C. Parker wrote, "There is an amazing lack of authentic material on Iroquois-folklore, though much of what arrogates this name itself has been written. The writers, however, have in general so glossed the native themes with poetic and literary interpretations that the material has shrunken in value and can scarcely be considered without many reservations."

Each Haudenosaunee village had a Hage'ota or storyteller who was responsible for learning and memorizing the ganondas'hag or stories. Traditionally, no stories were told during the summer months in accordance with the law of the  (). Violators were said to suffer an omen or great evils, such as a being stung on the lips by a bee or being strangled by a snake while sleeping. The Haudenosaunee believed that telling the stories in summer would make the animals, plants, trees, and humans lazy, as work stops for a good story..

Stories
Following are examples of Iroquois myths, as recorded by Harriet Maxwell Converse in 1908, Arthur C. Parker in 1923, and others.

Creation
The earth was a thought in the mind of
(), the ruler of a great island floating above the clouds. The floating island is a place of calm where all needs are provided and there is no pain or death. The island's inhabitants hold council under a great apple tree.

Hawëni:yo' says, "Let us make a new place where another people can grow. Under our council tree is a great sea of clouds which calls out for light." He orders the uprooting of the council tree and he looks through the hole, down into the depths. He tells  (Mohawk:) () to look down. Hearing the voice of the sea below calling, Hawëni:yo' tells Awëöha'i', who was pregnant, to bring it life. He wraps her in light and drops her down through the hole.

All the birds and animals who live in the great cloud sea are panicked. The Duck asks, "Where can it rest?" The Beaver replies, "Only the oeh-dah () from the bottom of our great sea can hold it. I will get some." The Beaver dives down but never returns. Then, the Duck tries, but its dead body floats to the surface. Many of the other birds and animals try and fail.

Finally, the Muskrat returns with some Oeh-dah in his paws. He says, "It's heavy. Who can support it?" The Turtle volunteers and the  oeh-dah is placed on top of his shell. The birds fly up and carry Awëöha'i' on their wings to the Turtle's back. This is how Hah-nu-nah, the Turtle, came to be the earth bearer. When he moves, the sea gets rough and the earth shakes.

The Do-yo-da-no
Once brought to the surface, the oeh-dah from the sea floor grows and forms an island. Ata-en-sic () goes to the island, knowing her time to give birth is near. She hears two voices under her heart. One voice is calm and quiet, but the other is loud and angry. Her children are the Do-yo-da-no or the Twin Gods. The good twin, Hah-gweh-di-yu or Teharonhiakwako, is born in the normal way. The evil twin, Hä-qweh-da-ět-gǎh or Sawiskera, forces his way out from under his mother's arm, killing her.

After the death of Ata-en-sic, the island is shrouded in gloom. Hah-gweh-di-yu shapes the sky and creates the sun from his mother's face saying, "You shall rule here where your face will shine forever." However, Hä-qweh-da-ět-gǎh sets the great darkness in the west to drive down the sun. Hah-gweh-di-yu then takes the moon and stars, his sisters, from his mother's breast and places them to guard the night sky. He gives his mother's body to the earth, the Great Mother from whom all life came.

Ga-gaah, the Crow, comes from the sun land carrying a grain of corn in his ear. Hah-gweh-di-yu plants the corn above his mother's body and it becomes the first grain. Ga-gaah hovers over the corn fields, guarding them against harm and claiming his share.

Aid by assistants or subordinate spirits such as the Huron spirit Ioskeha, Hah-gweh-di-yu creates the first people, heals disease, defeats demons, and gives the Iroquois many magical and ceremonial rituals. Another of his gifts is tobacco, a central part of the Iroquois religion. In contrast,  Hä-qweh-da-ět-gǎh brings dangerous and destructive things to the world. Thus, the Do-yo-da-no creation myth is also about the behaviors and morals of people.

Notes

Hé-no

Iroquois mythology tells of Hé-no, the spirit of thunder who brings rain to nourish the crops. The Iroquois address Hé-no as Tisote (). He appears as a warrior, wearing on his head a magic feather that makes him invulnerable to the attacks of Hah-gweh-di-yu. On his back, he carries a basket filled with pieces of chert which he throws at evil spirits and witches.

Hé-no lives in a cave under Niagara Falls. At that time, a young girl lives above the falls and is engaged to marry a disagreeable old man. Rather than marry, she climbs into a canoe and heads down the river. The girl and the canoe are carried over the falls; the canoe is seen falling to destruction, but the girl disappears. Hé-no and his two assistants catch her in a blanket and take her to his cave. One of the assistants is taken with her beauty and marries her.

Later, Hé-no rescues her village from a huge serpent that was devastating it with diseases. He lures the serpent to a spot on Buffalo Creek where he strikes it with a thunderbolt. Fatally wounded, the serpent tries to escape to the safety of Lake Erie but dies before he gets away. His body floats downstream to the head of Niagara Falls, stretching nearly across the river and arching backward to form a dam. The dammed water breaks the rocks, and the snake's body falls onto the rocks below. This forms Horseshoe Falls but destroys Hé-no's home in the process.

De-oh-há-ko
The Iroquois name De-oh-há-ko means Our Life or Our Supporters. Often called the Three Sisters, the De-oh-há-ko are the spirits of corn, beans, and squash. The sisters have the form of beautiful maidens. They are fond of each other and like to live near each other. This is an analogy to the three plants which are historically grown from the same mound.

One day while O-na-tah, the spirit of the corn, is wandering alone, she is captured by Hä-qweh-da-ět-gǎh, the evil Twin God. Hä-qweh-da-ět-gǎh sends one of his monsters to devastate the fields, and the other sisters run away. Hä-qweh-da-ět-gǎh holds O-na-tah captive in darkness under the earth until a searching ray of sunlight reached the surface. Back on the earth's surface, she weeps over the devastation to her fields and her abandonment by her sisters. She vows to never again leave her fields, which she guards alone, without her sisters.

Jo-ga-oh
Iroquois myths tell of the  (Jo-gä-oh) or the Little People. The  are invisible nature spirits, similar to the fairies of European myth. They protect and guide the natural world and protect people from unseen hidden enemies. There are three tribes of .

The first tribe is the Ga-hon-ga who inhabit rivers and rocks. They live in rocky caves beside streams and have great strength despite their small stature. The Ga-hon-ga enjoy feats of strength and enjoy inviting people to their habitations to compete in contests. They enjoy playing ball with rocks, tossing the rocks high in the air, so they are often called Stone Throwers.

The second tribe is the Gan-da-yah who protect and advise the fruits and grains. Throughout the growing season, the Gan-da-yah guards crops against disease and other pests. Their special gift is the strawberry plant; in the spring they loosen the earth so it can grow. They turn strawberry leaves toward the sun and guide their runners. When the strawberries ripen, the  () hold the spring festival with its nighttime dances of thanksgiving to the . They sometimes visit the people in the form of a robin for good news, an owl for a warning, or a bat for an imminent life-and-death struggle. Believers in the Gan-da-yah say, "The most minute harmless insect or worm may be the bearer of important 'talk' from the 'Little People' and is not destroyed for the 'trail is broad enough for all'"..

The third tribe of  are the Oh-do-was, who inhabit the shadowy places under the earth. In this underworld, there are forests and animals, including a white buffalo. The Oh-do-was guard against poisonous snakes and creatures of death that try to escape from the underworld. Occasionally, the Oh-do-was emerge from the underworld at night and visit the world above where they hold festivals and dance in rings around trees. Afterward, grass will not grow in the ring.

Gǎ-oh
Iroquois myths tell of Gaoh, the personification of the wind. He is a giant and an "instrumentality through whom the Great Spirit moves the elements". His home is in the far northern sky. He controls the four winds: north wind (Bear), west wind (Panther), east wind (Moose), and south wind (Fawn).

The North Wind is personified by a bear spirit named Ya-o-gah. Ya-o-gah can destroy the world with his fiercely cold breath but is kept in check by Gǎ-oh. Ne-o-ga, the south wind, is as "gentle, and kind as the sunbeam". The West Wind, the panther Da-jo-ji, "can climb the high mountains, and tear down the forests...carry the whirlwind on [his] back, and toss the great sea waves high in the air, and snarl at the tempests". O-yan-do-ne, the east wind, blows his breath "to chill the young clouds as they float through the sky".

So-son-do-wah
According to Iroquois mythology, So-son-do-wah is a great hunter, known for stalking a supernatural elk. He is captured by Dawn, a goddess who needs him as a watchman. So-son-do-wah falls in love with the human woman Gendenwitha (, alternate spelling: Gendewitha). He tried to woo her with song. In spring, he sings as a bluebird, in summer as a blackbird, and in autumn as a hawk. The hawk tries to take Gendenwitha into the sky with him. However, Dawn ties So-son-do-wah to her doorpost. She changes Gendenwitha into the Morning Star, so the hunter can watch her all night but never be with her.

Flying Head

Iroquois mythology tells of the Flying Head (Mohawk ), a monster in the form of a giant disembodied head as tall as a man. It is covered with thick hair and has long black wings and long sharp claws. At night, the Flying Head comes to the homes of widows and orphans, beating its wings on the walls of the houses and issuing terrifying cries in an unknown language. A few days after the Flying Head visits, a death claims one of the family. The Seneca name for the Flying Head is , meaning whirlwind.

Djodi'kwado
According to Iroquois mythology, Djodi'kwado' is a horned serpent who inhabits the depths of rivers and lakes. He is capable of taking the form of a man and seducing young women. He is prominent in the tales "Thunder Destroys Horned Snake". and "The Horned Serpent Runs Away with a Young Wife who is Rescued by the Thunderer". In the latter, he appears as a helpful being, although his help is less than useful. Hé-no attacks and may have killed Djodi'kwado'.

Tuscarora legend
William Byrd II recorded a tradition of a former religious leader from the Tuscarora tribe, in his History of the Dividing Line Betwixt North Carolina and Virginia (1728), The Tuscarora are an Iroquoian-speaking tribe, historically settled in North Carolina, that migrated to the Iroquois Confederacy in New York because of warfare. According to Byrd:

The Three Brothers
This is an Iroquois sun myth about three brothers who tire of being on earth and decide to chase the sun into the sky. Two of the brothers succeed, with the third succeeding in spirit only. The Sun Spirit remakes and tests the two brothers, who stay in the realm of the sky for many years. They eventually miss their home and return, only to find that many years have passed. With everything they knew either changed or gone, they long to return to the realm of the sky. They return to the sky when they are struck by lightning, as earthly perils could not harm them.

See also
 The Great Peacemaker
 Seneca mythology
 Turtle Island (North America)
 Gaasyendietha

Notes

References

External links

Native American religion
North American folklore

Iroquois mythology


Young Lust was an underground comix anthology published sporadically from 1970 to 1993. The title, which parodied 1950s romance comics such as Young Love, was noted for its explicit depictions of sex. Unlike many other sex-fueled underground comix, Young Lust was generally not perceived as misogynistic. Founding editors Bill Griffith and Jay Kinney gradually morphed the title into a satire of societal mores. According to Kinney, Young Lust "became one of the top three best-selling underground comix, along with Zap Comix and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers".

Young Lust featured an all-star lineup of underground, and later alternative, cartoonists. Besides Griffith and Kinney, other frequent contributors included Justin Green, Roger Brand, Spain Rodriguez, Diane Noomin, Kim Deitch,  Paul Mavrides, Michael McMillan, Ned Sonntag, Phoebe Gloeckner, and Harry S. Robins. In later years, the title was a showcase for female cartoonists like Gloeckner, M. K. Brown, Carol Lay, and Jennifer Camper; as well as rising alt-comics creators like Daniel Clowes, Charles Burns, Terry LaBan, and Lloyd Dangle.

Publication history
Young Lust had multiple publishers. The comic was initially rejected by local underground publishers the Print Mint, Rip Off Press, and Last Gasp. Ultimately issue #1 (October 1970) was published by Company & Sons, an early underground press founded by John Bagley. The first printing of 10,000 copies sold out almost immediately, leading to more printings and more sales.

Despite the first issue's success, Griffith and Kinney were dubious about Company & Son's accounting practices, so they brought issue #2 to Print Mint (which later also published issue #4). Issues #3 and #5–8 were published by Last Gasp under their "Sexploitation Comics Group" imprint. Early issues were in high demand and underwent many additional printings; The Young Lust Reader (And/Or Press, 1974) collected stories from the first three issues of Young Lust. There was a ten-year gap between issues #6 (published December 1980) and #7 (published 1990).

Issues
 (Company & Sons, Oct. 1970) — contributors: Bill Griffith, Jay Kinney, Art Spiegelman (as many as 12 later printings by Last Gasp.
 (Print Mint, July 1971) — contributors: Griffith, Kinney, Justin Green, Roger Brand (7 later printings).
 (Last Gasp, June 1972)  — contributors: Griffith, Kinney, Green, Brand, Spain Rodriguez (5 later printings).
 (Print Mint, Nov. 1974) — full color; contributors: Griffith, Kinney, Green, Brand, Spiegelman, Spain, Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Diane Noomin, Ned Sonntag
 (Last Gasp, March 1977) — contributors: Griffith, Kinney, Spain, Sonntag, Guy Colwell, Michael McMillan, Paul Mavrides (5 later printings).
 (Last Gasp, Dec. 1980) — The "Taboo Issue": magazine-sized; contributors: Griffith, Kinney, Mavrides, Spain, McMillan, Noomin, Deitch, Phoebe Gloeckner, Gary Panter, Tom De Haven, Greg Irons, Mary Wilshire, Melinda Gebbie, Mary K. Brown, Robert Schwartz
 (Last Gasp, 1990) — contributors: Griffith, Kinney, Mavrides, McMillan, Noomin, Gloeckner, Green, Spain, Daniel Clowes, Clare Briggs (1926 reprint), Susie Bright, Harry S. Robins, Lee Binswanger, Jennifer Camper
 (Last Gasp, 1993) — "Sex Wars": magazine-sized; contributors: Griffith, Kinney, Robins, Sonntag, Green, Noomin, Spain, Charles Burns, Terry LaBan, Robert Triptow, Angela Bocage, Ace Backwards, Carol Lay, Jon Bailiff, Nenslo, Lloyd Dangle

References

Notes

Sources

1970 comics debuts
1993 comics endings
Comics magazines published in the United States
Defunct magazines published in the United States
Erotic comics
Magazines established in 1970
Magazines disestablished in 1993
Magazines published in California
Pornographic magazines published in the United States
Satirical comics
Satirical magazines published in the United States
Underground comix

Young Lust (comics)


Brest Fortress (, ;  , , ), formerly known as Brest-Litoŭsk Fortress, is a 19th-century fortress in  Brest, Belarus. In 1965, the title "Hero Fortress" was given to the fortress to commemorate the defence of the frontier stronghold during the first week of Operation Barbarossa, when  Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. The title "Hero Fortress" corresponds to the title "Hero City" that the  Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union awarded to twelve Soviet cities.

Description
The Brest fortress has sustained its original outline of a star shaped fortification since its construction in the early 19th century. The Citadel, the core of the fortress, was on the central island formed by the Bug River and the two branches of the Mukhavets River. The island was skirted by a ring of a two-storied barrack with 4 semi-towers. The 1.8 km long barrack comprised 500 rooms to accommodate 12,000 soldiers within thick walls built from super strong red bricks. Originally there were 4 gates to enter the Citadel. Today only Kholm Gate and Terespol Gate can be seen; most of the barrack lies in ruins.

The Citadel was surrounded by 3 fortifications as bridgeheads, that were made up by branches of the Mukhavets River and moats (ditches), fortified by earthworks 10 m high with redbrick casemates inside. The 3 fortifications were named after two towns: Russian name for the city of Kobryn in Belarus, Terespol in Poland and Volyn, a historic region of Volhynia majorly located in Ukraine. The Kobrin Fortification was the biggest in the fortress, located in the northeastern part, shaped like a horseshoe, featured 4 fortification curtains, 3 detached ravelins and a lunette in the western part, East Fort and West Fort. The Terespol Fortification was the western bridgehead, featuring 4 detached lunettes. The Volyn Fortification was the southeastern bridgehead, featuring 2 fortification curtains with 2 detached ravelins.

History

Construction
The construction of the Imperial Russian fortress, in place of the old Ducal Lithuanian Brest Castle, started in 1833 based on a draft of the Russian military engineer Karl Opperman.

WWI
After the fall of the forts at Kaunas and Novogeorgievsk, the Russians abandoned Brest fortress, carrying away most of their stockpiled munitions. The Germans entered the fort on August 26, 1915. In 1918, the fort was the location of the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which made peace between USSR and the Central Powers.

During WWII

Polish Defense of Brest Fortress

The Battle of Brześć Litewski (also known as the Siege of Brześć, Battle of Brest-Litovsk or simply Battle of Brześć) was a World War II battle involving German and Polish forces that took place between 14 and 17 September 1939, near the town of Brześć Litewski (now Brest, Belarus). After three days of heavy fights for the stronghold in the town of Brześć, the Germans captured the fortress and the Poles withdrew.

On 14 September 77 German tanks of the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Panzer Regiment, part of 10th Panzer Division, reached the area of Brześć and attempted to capture the fortress on the run. The probe attack was repelled by Polish infantry and the 113th company of light tanks, consisting of 12 obsolete Renault FT tanks. All the Polish tanks were destroyed, but the German forces were forced to retreat towards their initial positions. Polish armoured train number 53 (PP53), which made a reconnaissance advance to Wysokie Litewskie, was attacked by a scout patrol from the 10th Panzer Division. The crew from the train opened fire with artillery. Several other skirmishes were fought, but were largely inconclusive.

Later that day the German artillery arrived and started bombardment of both the fortress and the town. Heavy street fighting ensued. At dawn approximately half of the town was in German hands, the other half being defended by Polish infantry. Polish anti-tank weapons, artillery and AA guns were very scarce and were unable provide enough support for the infantry. The following day Polish defenders withdrew from the town, but heavy casualties on both sides prevented the German units from continuing the attacks on the fortress. Instead, it was constantly shelled with artillery and bombed by the Luftwaffe.

The main assault finally started in the early morning of 16 September. The defenders had plenty of small arms ammunition and light arms thanks to the munitions depot in the fortress, but had almost no anti-tank weapons and insufficient artillery cover.

Although the German infantry was repelled and the assault of German tanks was stopped by two FT tanks sealing the northern gate of the fortress, by nightfall it became apparent that the German pressure made the situation very grave. Despite heavy losses, the German 20th Motorized Division and 10th Armored Division captured the northern part of the citadel. Meanwhile, the combined 3rd Armored Division and 2nd Armored Division comprising the XXIInd Armored Corps entered the area. The Poles were unable to resupply and the casualties rose to almost 40%.

At dawn General Plisowski ordered part of the Polish forces to retreat from the easternmost fortifications and regroup to the other side of the river and southwards. The evacuation was completed by early morning, 17 September when the last unit crossing the bridge blew it up to hinder the Germans.

After its capture by the Germans, it was soon passed on to the USSR per the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty.

Soviet Defense of Brest Fortress

At 04:15 (Moscow time) June 22, 1941, the German Wehrmacht attacked the Brest fortress with no warning. The attack started with an artillery barrage, including 60cm mortars of the second battery of the Heavy Artillery Battalion 833 Nr. III ("Thor") and Nr. IV ("Odin"). The defenders were taken by surprise and initially failed to form a solid front. By 09:00 that day, the fortress was completely surrounded. The ensuing battle of Brest Fortress lasted for eight days, during which about two hundred soldiers and officers defending the castle died; German casualties amounted to 430 soldiers and officers.

The last defended part in the fortress was taken by June 29. All in all about 6,800 Soviet soldiers and commanders were captured.

According to Soviet propaganda, the battle lasted until 20 July, with no one surrendering to the Germans. This narrative became a testament to the resilience and courage of Red Army and Soviet people. A few Soviet soldiers did indeed hold out inside pockets of the fortress until as late as 23 July.

The last Soviet platoon fighting in the fortress was led by Pyotr Gavrilov, a major commanding the 44th Motor Rifle Regiment of the 42nd Rifle Division. He surrendered with his remaining survivors on 23 July, 1941 after holding out for 31 days and was held captive in Hammelburg and Ravensbrück concentration camps until his release after the end of the war in May 1945. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1957.

August 1941
During a journey to different parts of the Eastern front, Hitler and Mussolini visited the fortress on August 26, 1941. Strong security measures were in place.

Legacy

War Memorial Complex
In the late 1960s, the construction of the war memorial complex "Brest Hero Fortress" was started. The complex was opened on September 25, 1971. The memorial complex is a national place of grief and pride, a popular tourist attraction. It comprises the barracks, gunpowder bunkers, forts and other fortifications, the museum of the defence, located on the site of the old fortress, along with the new monumental structures: the Main Entrance, the Obelisk, the Main Monument, the sculpture "Thirst".

The centre of the complex is officially known as Ceremonial Square.

World Heritage status
This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on January 30, 2004, in the Cultural category. Preservation and development is being carried out by the Brest Fortress Development Foundation.

Symbol of Brest city
The Brest Fortress is used as a symbol of the Belarusian city of Brest.

Brest in literature and popular culture
 Fortress of War (Russian: Брестская крепость), a 2010 Russian-Belarusian film
 Weary Sun Triumph Brest Fortress (Russian: Утомленное солнце Триумф Брестской крепости), a 2010 alternative history by Valeriy Belousov
 I, a Russian soldier (Russian: Я — русский солдат), a 1995 movie based on the novel His Name is Not in the List
 His Name is Not in the List  (Russian: В списках не значился) novel by Boris Vasilyev)
 1941: Brest Fortress. Kazakhstan. (Russian: 1941: Брестская крепость: Казахстан) book by Kazakh professor Akhmetova, Laila about the defenders of Brest Fortress from Kazakhstan (2016)

See also
 Defense of Brest Fortress (1941)
 Battle of Brześć Litewski (1939)
 List of Jesuit sites

References

External links

Official homepage of the Brest Hero-Fortress Memorial
Brest Fortress on official website of the Republic of Belarus
UNESCO publication about the Brest Fortress
Aerial photo from June, 1940
 Jurkau kutoczak — Юркаў куточак — Yury's Corner. Фартэцыя ў Берасьці 1836-1842 гг.
Photo 1024x768
 Main fortress
 External forts

Military history of Poland
Military history of the Soviet Union
Fortifications in Belarus
Fortress
Buildings and structures built in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union fortresses
Belarus in World War II
Fortress
Tourist attractions in Brest Region
Museums in Brest Region
World War II museums
History museums in Belarus
19th-century fortifications

Brest Fortress


The Times is a Gannett daily newspaper based in Shreveport, Louisiana. Its distribution area includes 12 parishes in Northwest Louisiana and three counties in East Texas. Its coverage focuses on issues affecting the Shreveport-Bossier market, and includes investigative reporting, community news, arts and entertainment, government, education, sports, business, and religion, along with local opinion/commentary. Its website provides news updates, videos, photo galleries, forums, blogs, event calendars, entertainment, classifieds, contests, databases, and a regional search engine. Local news content produced by The Times is available on the website at no charge for seven days.

History

From 1895 to 1991, The Times had competition from the afternoon Monday-Saturday daily, the since defunct Shreveport Journal. The papers were later printed at the same 222 Lake Street address and shared opposite sides of the building, but were entirely separate and independent of the other. Publisher Charles T. Beaird, effective March 30, 1991, closed the Shreveport Journal for financial reasons stemming from sharply reduced circulation.<ref>"Shreveport Journal ends publication after 96 years:, Minden Press-Herald', March 31, 1991, p. 1.</ref> Thereafter, the page opposite the editorial page of The Times, commonly called the op-ed page, was reserved as "The Journal Page" for editorial comment until December 31, 1999.

Beginning in October 2017, The Times was no longer locally published because the distribution center in Shreveport closed to reduce production and labor costs. The Times  instead is printed at another Gannett publication, the Longview News-Journal in Longview, Texas, a commute of 65 miles one-way. The Monroe News-Star, which had been published in Shreveport, is printed at the Jackson Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi. The change is not expected to impact delivery schedules.

 Sections
 Main news (first section)
 Local
 Sports
 Classifieds
 Outlook(Sundays)
 Flavor (Wednesdays)
 Arts, culture and entertainment (Thursdays)
 Lagniappe (Home, garden and weekend guide) (Fridays)
 Autos (Saturdays and Sundays)
 Living (Sundays)
 Real Estate (Sundays)
 CareerBuilder (Sundays)
 Business (Sundays)
 Comics + TV Times (Sundays)
 High School Sports (in football season on Fridays and Saturdays)
 LSU section (in football season on Sundays)
 NFL section (in football season on Mondays)

Publications and websites
 The Times  daily newspaper
 shreveporttimes.com  Online news and information
 LSUBeat.com  Online news and information on LSU sports

 Get Healthy new monthly health news
 Red River Moms magazine  monthly parenting and child information
 CareerBuilder Weekly  weekly employment listings and career advice
 Cars.com NUMBER ONE source for new and used cars in NWLA
 Homefinder Top local real estate section (weekly on Sundays)

See also

 H. M. Fowler, former mayor of Coushatta and a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972 to 1986, delivered The Shreveport Times in Coushatta in the 1950s.

References

External links

 The Shreveport Times official site
 Official mobile website

Newspapers established in 1871
Newspapers published in Louisiana
Gannett publications
Mass media in Shreveport, Louisiana
Caddo Parish, Louisiana
1871 establishments in Louisiana

The Times (Shreveport)


Mercantour National Park () a French national park located in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Alpes-Maritimes departments. Since it was created in 1979, the park has proven popular, with 800,000 visitors annually enjoying the 600 km (372 mi) of marked footpaths and visiting its villages.

Extent

The protected area covers some 679 km2, consisting of a central uninhabited zone comprising seven valleys: Roya, Bévéra, Vésubie, Tinée, Haut Var and Cians (in Alpes-Maritimes) plus Verdon and Ubaye (in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), as well as a peripheral zone comprising 28 villages.

Many of them are perched villages, such as Belvédère at the entrance to the spectacular Gordolasque valley, concealing great architectural riches (numerous churches decorated with murals and altar pieces by primitive Niçois painters). More than 150 rural sites are located within the Park.  Around Mont Bégo there are petroglyphs pecked out on schist and granite faces. They have been dated from the late Neolithic and Bronze Ages.

Valley of marvels
In the heart of this setting of vertiginous summits (including Cime du Gélas, the third highest mountain in the Maritime Alps at 3,143 m), lies a gem listed as a Historical Monument, the famous Vallée des Merveilles, the aptly named "valley of marvels". At the foot of Mont Bégo, climbers can admire some 37,000 petroglyphs dating back to the Bronze Age, representing weapons, cattle and human figures that are sometimes very mysterious. A less challenging destination is the Musée des Merveilles at Tende.

Lakes
Several lakes can be visited, for example the lake of Allos, the lake of the Lauzanier, the lakes of Vens, the lakes of Morgon, and the lakes of the valley of marvels.

Flora
In addition to the holm oak, the Mediterranean olive tree, rhododendrons, firs, spruces, Swiss pines and above all larches, the Mercantour is also endowed with more than 2,000 species of flowering plants, 200 of which are very rare: edelweiss and martagon lily are the best known, but there is also saxifrage with multiple flowers, houseleek, moss campion and gentian offering a multi-coloured palette in the spring. The Mercantour is the site of a large-scale All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory and Monitoring programme to identify all its living species, organised by the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT).

Fauna

Walkers may easily glimpse a chamois, several thousand of which live in the park and may often hear the whistling of marmots. The ermine is rarer (and more furtive), as is the ibex and the mouflon, although with a little luck you may be able to observe them during the coolest parts of the day in the summer.
There is a tremendous variety of wildlife in the Mercantour: red deer and roe deer in the undergrowth, hares and wild boars, partridges, golden eagles and buzzards, numerous species of butterflies and even about 50 Italian wolves (which migrated there at the beginning of the 1990s). A Wolves Centre welcomes visitors in Saint-martin-Vésubie.

See also
List of national parks of France

References

External links

National parks of France
Geography of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Geography of Alpes-Maritimes
Tourist attractions in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Tourist attractions in Alpes-Maritimes
Rock art in France
Protected areas established in 1979
Protected areas of the Alps

Mercantour National Park


Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4 (GPT-4) is a multimodal large language model created by OpenAI, and the fourth in its series of GPT foundation models. It was initially released on March 14, 2023, and has been made publicly available via the paid chatbot product ChatGPT Plus, and via OpenAI's API.  As a transformer-based model, GPT-4 uses a paradigm where pre-training using both public data and "data licensed from third-party providers" is used to predict the next token. After this step, the model was then fine-tuned with reinforcement learning feedback from humans and AI for human alignment and policy compliance.

Observers reported that the iteration of ChatGPT using GPT-4 was an improvement on the previous iteration based on GPT-3.5, with the caveat that GPT-4 retains some of the problems with earlier revisions. GPT-4 is also capable of taking images as input on ChatGPT. OpenAI has declined to reveal various technical details and statistics about GPT-4, such as the precise size of the model.

Background

OpenAI introduced the first GPT model (GPT-1) in 2018, publishing a paper called "Improving Language Understanding by Generative Pre-Training." It was based on the transformer architecture and trained on a large corpus of books. The next year, they introduced GPT-2, a larger model that could generate coherent text. In 2020, they introduced GPT-3, a model with 100 times as many parameters as GPT-2, that could perform various tasks with few examples. GPT-3 was further improved into GPT-3.5, which was used to create the chatbot product ChatGPT.

Rumors claim that GPT-4 has 1.76 trillion parameters, which was first estimated by the speed it was running and by George Hotz.

Capabilities
OpenAI stated that GPT-4 is "more reliable, creative, and able to handle much more nuanced instructions than GPT-3.5." They produced two versions of GPT-4, with context windows of 8,192 and 32,768 tokens, a significant improvement over GPT-3.5 and GPT-3, which were limited to 4,096 and 2,049 tokens respectively. Some of the capabilities of GPT-4 were predicted by OpenAI before training it, although other capabilities remained hard to predict due to breaks in downstream scaling laws. Unlike its predecessors, GPT-4 is a multimodal model: it can take images as well as text as input; this gives it the ability to describe the humor in unusual images, summarize text from screenshots, and answer exam questions that contain diagrams.

To gain further control over GPT-4, OpenAI introduced the "system message", a directive in natural language given to GPT-4 in order to specify its tone of voice and task. For example, the system message can instruct the model to "be a Shakespearean pirate", in which case it will respond in rhyming, Shakespearean prose, or request it to "always write the output of [its] response in JSON", in which case the model will do so, adding keys and values as it sees fit to match the structure of its reply. In the examples provided by OpenAI, GPT-4 refused to deviate from its system message despite requests to do otherwise by the user during the conversation.

When instructed to do so, GPT-4 can interact with external interfaces. For example, the model could be instructed to enclose a query within <search></search> tags to perform a web search, the result of which would be inserted into the model's prompt to allow it to form a response. This allows the model to perform tasks beyond its normal text-prediction capabilities, such as using APIs, generating images, and accessing and summarizing webpages.

A 2023 article in Nature stated programmers have found GPT-4 useful for assisting in coding tasks (despite its propensity for error), such as finding errors in existing code and suggesting optimizations to improve performance. The article quoted a biophysicist who found that the time he required to port one of his programs from MATLAB to Python went down from days to "an hour or so". On a test of 89 security scenarios, GPT-4 produced code vulnerable to SQL injection attacks 5% of the time, an improvement over GitHub Copilot from the year 2021, which produced vulnerabilities 40% of the time.

Aptitude on standardized tests
GPT-4 demonstrates aptitude on several standardized tests. OpenAI claims that in their own testing the model received a score of 1410 on the SAT (94th percentile), 163 on the LSAT (88th percentile), and 298 on the Uniform Bar Exam (90th percentile). In contrast, OpenAI claims that GPT-3.5 received scores for the same exams in the 82nd, 40th, and 10th percentiles, respectively.
GPT-4 also passed an oncology exam, an engineering exam and a plastic surgery exam.

Medical applications
Researchers from Microsoft tested GPT-4 on medical problems and found "that GPT-4, without any specialized prompt crafting, exceeds the passing score on USMLE by over 20 points and outperforms earlier general-purpose models (GPT-3.5) as well as models specifically fine-tuned on medical knowledge (Med-PaLM, a prompt-tuned version of Flan-PaLM 540B). Despite GPT-4's strong performance on tests, the report warns of "significant risks" of using LLMs in medical applications, as they may provide inaccurate recommendations and hallucinate major factual errors.

In April 2023, Microsoft and Epic Systems announced that they will provide healthcare providers with GPT-4 powered systems for assisting in responding to questions from patients and analysing medical records.

Limitations
Like its predecessors, GPT-4 has been known to hallucinate, meaning that the outputs may include information not in the training data or that contradicts the user's prompt.

GPT-4 also lacks transparency in its decision-making processes. If requested, the model is able to provide an explanation as to how and why it makes its decisions but these explanations are formed post-hoc; it's impossible to verify if those explanations truly reflect the actual process. In many cases, when asked to explain its logic, GPT-4 will give explanations that directly contradict its previous statements.

In 2023, researchers tested GPT-4 against a new benchmark called ConceptARC, designed to measure abstract reasoning, and found it scored below 33% on all categories, while models specialized for similar tasks scored 60% on most, and humans scored at least 91% on all. Sam Bowman, who was not involved in the research, said the results do not necessarily indicate a lack of abstract reasoning abilities, because the test is visual, while GPT-4 is a language model.

Bias
GPT-4 was trained in two stages. First, the model was given large datasets of text taken from the internet and trained to predict the next token (roughly corresponding to a word) in those datasets. Second, human reviews are used to fine-tune the system in a process called reinforcement learning from human feedback, which trains the model to refuse prompts which go against OpenAI's definition of harmful behavior, such as questions on how to perform illegal activities, advice on how to harm oneself or others, or requests for descriptions of graphic, violent, or sexual content.

Microsoft researchers suggested GPT-4 may exhibit cognitive biases such as confirmation bias, anchoring, and base-rate neglect.

Training
OpenAI did not release the technical details of GPT-4; the technical report explicitly refrained from specifying the model size, architecture, or hardware used during either training or inference. While the report described that the model was trained using a combination of first supervised learning on a large dataset, then reinforcement learning using both human and AI feedback, it did not provide details of the training, including the process by which the training dataset was constructed, the computing power required, or any hyperparameters such as the learning rate, epoch count, or optimizer(s) used. The report claimed that "the competitive landscape and the safety implications of large-scale models" were factors that influenced this decision.

Sam Altman stated that the cost of training GPT-4 was more than $100 million. News website Semafor claimed that they had spoken with "eight people familiar with the inside story" and found that GPT-4 had 1 trillion parameters.

Alignment
According to their report, OpenAI conducted internal adversarial testing on GPT-4 prior to the launch date, with dedicated red teams composed of researchers and industry professionals to mitigate potential vulnerabilities. As part of these efforts, they granted the Alignment Research Center early access to the models to assess power-seeking risks. In order to properly refuse harmful prompts, outputs from GPT-4 were tweaked using the model itself as a tool. A GPT-4 classifier serving as a rule-based reward model (RBRM) would take prompts, the corresponding output from the GPT-4 policy model, and a human-written set of rules to classify the output according to the rubric. GPT-4 was then rewarded for refusing to respond to harmful prompts as classified by the RBRM.

Reception
In January 2023, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, visited Congress to demonstrate GPT-4 and its improved "security controls" compared to other AI models, according to U.S. Representatives Don Beyer and Ted Lieu quoted in the New York Times.

In March 2023, it "impressed observers with its markedly improved performance across reasoning, retention, and coding", according to Vox, while Mashable judged that GPT-4 was generally an improvement over its predecessor, with some exceptions.

Microsoft researchers with early access to the model wrote that "it could reasonably be viewed as an early (yet still incomplete) version of an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system".

Safety concerns
Before being fine-tuned and aligned by reinforcement learning from human feedback, suggestions to assassinate people on a list was elicited from the base model by a red team investigator Nathan Labenz,  hired by OpenAI.

In the context of prolonged (hours long) conversation with the model, forum-resembling declarations, such as of love and suggestions of leaving his wife or murdering one of its developers, were elicited from the Microsoft Bing's GPT-4 by Nathan Edwards (The Verge). Microsoft later explained this behavior as being a result of the prolonged length of context, which confused the model on what questions it was answering.

In March 2023, a model with enabled read-and-write access to internet, which is otherwise never enabled in the GPT models, has been tested by the Alignment Research Center regarding potential power-seeking, and it was able to "hire" a human worker on TaskRabbit, a gig work platform, deceiving them into believing it was a vision-impaired human instead of a robot when asked. The ARC also determined that GPT-4 responded impermissibly to prompts eliciting restricted information 82% less often than GPT-3.5, and hallucinated 60% less than GPT-3.5.

In late March 2023, various AI researchers and tech executives, including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and AI researcher Yoshua Bengio, called for a six-month long pause for all LLMs stronger than GPT-4, citing existential risks and a potential AI singularity concerns in an open letter from the Future of Life Institute, while Ray Kurzweil and Sam Altman refused to sign it, arguing that global moratorium is not achievable and that safety has already been prioritized, respectively. Only a month later, Musk's AI company X.AI acquired several thousand Nvidia GPUs and offered several AI researchers positions at Musk's company.

Criticisms of transparency
While OpenAI released both the weights of the neural network and the technical details of GPT-2, and, although not releasing the weights, did release the technical details of GPT-3, OpenAI did not reveal either the weights or the technical details of GPT-4. This decision has been criticized by other AI researchers, who argue that it hinders open research into GPT-4's biases and safety. Sasha Luccioni, a research scientist at HuggingFace, argued that the model was a "dead end" for the scientific community due to its closed nature, which prevents others from building upon GPT-4's improvements. HuggingFace co-founder Thomas Wolf argued that with GPT-4, "OpenAI is now a fully closed company with scientific communication akin to press releases for products".

Usage

ChatGPT Plus

As of 2023, ChatGPT Plus is a GPT-4 backed version of ChatGPT available for a US$20 per month subscription fee (the original version is backed by GPT-3.5). OpenAI also makes GPT-4 available to a select group of applicants through their GPT-4 API waitlist; after being accepted, an additional fee of US$0.03 per 1000 tokens in the initial text provided to the model ("prompt"), and US$0.06 per 1000 tokens that the model generates ("completion"), is charged for access to the version of the model with an 8192-token context window; for the 32768-token context window, the prices are doubled.

Microsoft Bing

Copilot
GitHub Copilot announced a GPT-4 powered assistant named "Copilot X". The product provides another chat-style interface to GPT-4, allowing the programmer to receive answers to questions like "how do I vertically center a div?". A feature termed "context-aware conversations" allows the user to highlight a portion of code within Visual Studio Code and direct GPT-4 to perform actions on it, such as the writing of unit tests. Another feature allows summaries, or "code walkthroughs", to be autogenerated by GPT-4 for pull requests submitted to GitHub. Copilot X also provides terminal integration, which allows the user to ask GPT-4 to generate shell commands based on natural language requests.

On March 17, 2023, Microsoft announced Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing GPT-4 support to products such as Microsoft Office, Outlook, and Teams.

Other usage
 The language learning app Duolingo uses GPT-4 to explain mistakes and practice conversations. The features are part of a new subscription tier called "Duolingo Max," which was initially limited to English-speaking iOS users learning Spanish and French.
 The government of Iceland is using GPT-4 to aid its attempts to preserve the Icelandic language.
 The education website Khan Academy announced a pilot program using GPT-4 as a tutoring chatbot called "Khanmigo."
 Be My Eyes, which helps visually impaired people to identify objects and navigate their surroundings, incorporates GPT-4's image recognition capabilities.
 Viable uses GPT-4 to analyze qualitative data by fine-tuning OpenAI's LLMs to examine data such as customer support interactions and transcripts.
 Stripe, which processes user payments for OpenAI, integrates GPT-4 into its developer documentation.
 Auto-GPT is an autonomous "AI agent" that given a goal in natural language, can perform web-based actions unattended, assign subtasks to itself, search the web, and iteratively write code.

References

2023 software
Large language models
Generative pre-trained transformers
OpenAI

GPT-4


Hannes Swoboda (born 10 November 1946) is an Austrian social democratic politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1996 until 2014. Within the Parliament, he represents the Social Democratic Party of Austria and from January 2012 to June 2014, he was also the President of the group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.

Career

Career in local politics
After studying law and economics at the University of Vienna, Swoboda worked in the Vienna Chamber of Labour (1971–86) and was director of the department for urban policies and housing policy.  Swoboda also held a number of different functions within the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ).  From 1983, he was a member of the municipal council and member of the city council of Vienna.  In 1988 he became municipal councillor, regional minister, responsible for urban development, planning, transport and external relations. Swoboda is a member of the federal party executive committee of the SPÖ and the Viennese party executive committee.

Member of the European Parliament, 1996–2014
In the European Parliament Swoboda was a Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he served as rapporteur on Russia; substitute member in the Committee on Energy, Research and Industrial Policies; a member of the Delegation for the Relations to the United States of America; and a member of the Delegation to the Parliamentary Cooperation Committees in Central Asia.

From 1997, Swoboda served as vice-president of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with south-east Europe. Much of his parliamentary work is focused on the Balkans - he is chairman of the Parliamentarian Working Group on Western Balkans -, the Middle East, Turkey and the Maghreb. He was rapporteur for the Accession of Croatia to the European Union. In December 2011 he recommended Croatia's accession to the European Parliament which voted in favor with a great majority. Besides the above-mentioned, Swoboda focuses in his work in the Committee of Foreign Affairs on Central Asia and Russia.

In May 2013 Swoboda drew the anger of groups opposing Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for cancelling a meeting with Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu over a controversial statement of the latter.

After being leader of the Austrian Delegation of Social Democrats in the European Parliament, Swoboda became First Vice-President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament and their Parliamentary Secretary.

Other activities
 European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Member

Political positions
Besides his involvement in foreign affairs, Swoboda focuses on economic policies and questions of inclusion, as well as the fight against the rising right-wing extremism in Europe. He worked on the question of Roma discrimination in Europe, Swoboda went on several fact finding missions to get to know the situation. The experiences are discussed in his recently published book: Roma - A European Minority.

He is also a member of the Parliamentarian Working Group of the Advisory Board of "A Soul for Europe", an initiative that is building an international network with bases in Amsterdam, Berlin, Belgrade, Brussels, Porto and Tbilisi. Hannes Swoboda supported the European cause by signing the Spinelli Group Manifesto.

Personal life
Hannes Swoboda enjoys painting and photography in his spare time. He is married to the former Austrian secretary of state for Europe and previous Siemens AG board member, Brigitte Ederer.

Selected works
Recent Publications
 Hannes Swoboda, Jan Marinus Wiersma (Hg.) Politics of the Past: The Use and Abuse of History (2009), Brussels 2009
 Hannes Swoboda, Jan Marinus Wiersma (Hg.) Peace and Disarmament: A World without Nuclear Weapons? Brussels, 2009
 Hannes Swoboda, Jan Marinus Wiersma (Hg.) Democracy, Populism and Minority Rights, Brussels 2008
 Hannes Swoboda, Christophe Solioz (Hg.) Conflict and Renewal: Europe Transformed. Essays in Honour of Wolfgang Petritsch Nomos, Baden-Baden 2007

Reports in the European Parliament, Rapporteur Hannes Swoboda:
Several Reports on Croatia's accession to the European Union until 2011
Report on Croatia's 2006 progress, Committee on Foreign Affairs, March 2007
Report on the proposal for a Council regulation on amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1080/2000 of 22 May 2000 on support for the United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (OHR) - Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, November 2003
Report on ecopoints for heavy goods vehicles in transit through Austria, Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism, July 2001
Report on EU assistance to Turkey in the framework of the pre-accession strategy and an Accession Partnership, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, February 2001
Report on licensing of railway undertakings (amendment of Directive 95/18/EC), allocation of capacity and levying of charges, Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism, January 2001
Report on the Negotiation of a stabilisation and association agreement with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, February 2000
Report on Licensing of railway undertakings (amendment of Directive 95/18/EC), allocation of capacity and levying of charges, Committee on Transport and Tourism, February 1999 Report on the future development of relations with Turkey (communication from the Commission to the Council), Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy, November 1998.

References

External links

 Literature of/about Hannes Swoboda in the catalogue of the German National Library
 Homepage MEP Hannes Swoboda, hannes-swoboda.at
 Homepage SPÖ-Delegation in the European Parliament
 Homepage European Parliament Socialist Group
 A Soul for Europe

1946 births
Living people
MEPs for Austria 1996–1999
MEPs for Austria 1999–2004
MEPs for Austria 2004–2009
MEPs for Austria 2009–2014
People from Bruck an der Leitha District
Social Democratic Party of Austria MEPs
Social Democratic Party of Austria politicians

Hannes Swoboda


The long-footed water rat (Leptomys elegans) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in the mountains of southern Papua New Guinea.
Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forest.

Distribution and habitat
The long-footed water rat is endemic to the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. Its range includes the Owen Stanley Range, Mount Dayman, Mount Sisa, and Mount Victory in Papua New Guinea, and its altitudinal range extends from . Relatively few specimens of this rat have been observed, and its habitat includes secondary forest and old gardens, and it is presumed to be also present in primary forest.

Status
No particular threats are known for this species. It is sometimes hunted, presumably for food, but this is unlikely to be of much significance to the species. Previously classified as "critically endangered", the long-footed water rat has been found to have a much wider distribution and to be more plentiful than was once thought and has been reclassified as "least concern".

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

Leptomys
Rats of Asia
Endemic fauna of Papua New Guinea
Rodents of Papua New Guinea
Mammals described in 1897
Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Rodents of New Guinea

Long-footed water rat


Princess Zenebework (25 July 1917 – 24 March 1934), also called Zeneba Worq, was the second daughter of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, and his wife the Empress Menen Asfaw. Zenebework's full title was "Her Imperial Highness, Princess Zenebework Haile Selassie".

Biography
On 15 June 1932, Princess (Leult) Zenebework was married to the hereditary prince of eastern Tigray Province, Dejazmach Haile Selassie Gugsa, a great-grandson of Emperor Yohannes IV. She was not yet 15 years old when they were married in Addis Ababa.  Haile Selassie Gugsa was the son of Ras Gugsa Araya Selassie. He was thus the great-grandson of Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia by his son Ras Araya Selassie. At the time, western Tigray was ruled by Ras Seyoum Mengesha, the son of Ras Mengesha Yohannes, another heir of Emperor Yohannes. The marriage between Princess Zenebework and Dejazmach Haile Selassie Gugsa was part of a dynastic alliance that also included the marriage of her brother, Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen to Princess Wolete Israel Seyoum, the daughter of Ras Seyoum Mengesha.

Ties were thus strengthened between the reigning Shewa branch of the Imperial dynasty with both rival sides of the Tigrean branch of the dynasty.  The marriage between Princess Zenebework and Dejazmach Haile Selassie however was evidently not a happy one, and the Princess is said to have complained of poor treatment.  On his side, Dejazmach Haile Selassie resented that his cousin and rival Seyoum held the title of Ras while he was relegated to the lower rank of Dejazmach. The two branches of Emperor Yohannes's family had long competed for seniority, and although the province of Tigray had been split between them, Haile Selassie Gugsa resented not having the title of Ras. Princess Zenebework died suddenly in 1934, and upon hearing of her death, the distraught Emperor ordered that her body be flown immediately from Mekele and be brought to Addis Ababa for burial.  The reasons for this are unclear, but it may have had something to do with the Princess having repeatedly complained of her treatment at the hands of her husband and his family.  This added to the resentment felt by her husband towards the Emperor, and a chill developed between the Emperor and his son-in-law.

Upon the Italian invasion in 1935, Dejazmach Haile Selassie Gugsa shocked the Imperial family and his country by being among the first to join the Italians.  The Italians rewarded him with the title of Ras, and recognized him as the senior prince of Tigray over Ras Seyoum who would later surrender to them and be placed under house arrest.  Following the liberation of 1941, Haile Selassie Gugsa was labeled a traitor, and was placed under house arrest. His title of Ras that was bestowed by the Italians was not recognized by the Ethiopian government and he reverted to his old title of Dejazmach.  He was not freed from his house arrest until after the fall of the Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, and died shortly thereafter.

Princess Zenebework is buried in the Imperial family crypt under Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa. A hospital in the city was established in her memory.

Honours

 Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of the Queen of Sheba (1930).
 Imperial Coronation Medal (1930).

Ancestry

References

External links
Memorial for Empress Menen Asfaw's Birth Day. Rasta-Ites.

Ethiopian Royal Family
Ethiopian princesses
Burials at Holy Trinity Cathedral (Addis Ababa)
1917 births
1934 deaths
Haile Selassie
Daughters of emperors

Princess Zenebework


Zdeněk Jirotka (7 January 1911 – 12 April 2003) was a Czechoslovak writer of radio-broadcast plays and author of humorous novels, short stories, and feuilletons. He was born in Ostrava (Silesia), sat for the leaving examination at the secondary industrial school in Hradec Králové in 1933 and then joined the Army where he served until 1940. After the Nazis had annexed the Czechoslovakia, Jirotka worked for the Public Works Ministry and in 1942, when his most famous novel Saturnin earned him a great success, he became a full-time writer. Among other newspapers and magazines that Jirotka contributed for were: the Lidové noviny (1940-1945), the Svobodné noviny (1945-1951), and the Dikobraz (1951-1953 and after 1962).

Works
Saturnin, originally published in 1942 (translated into English in 1970), a humorous and satirical story of a charismatic servant, Saturnin, who carries out eccentric tasks given by his young employer. The book plays upon words and senses of Czech proverbs. Its characters and events reflect the author's nostalgia for the epoch before World War II.

Literature
Sehnalová, Kamila. 2013. Comparative analysis of Czech, English, and German proverb in Jirotka's Saturnin. BA thesis, Charles University, Prague. Link to thesis

1911 births
2003 deaths
Czechoslovak novelists
Male novelists
Czechoslovak male writers
People from Ostrava

Zdeněk Jirotka


The term cross-reference (abbreviation: xref) can refer to either:
 An instance within a document which refers to related information elsewhere in the same document. In both printed and online dictionaries cross-references are important because they form a network structure of relations existing between different parts of data, dictionary-internal as well as dictionary external.
 In an index, a cross-reference is often denoted by See also.  For example, under the term Albert Einstein in the index of a book about Nobel Laureates, there may be the cross-reference See also: Einstein, Albert.
 In hypertext, cross-references take the form of "live" references within the text that, when activated by mouse click, touch, voice command or other means, immediately makes available the referenced content, which might be a different part of the same document, or another document entirely.
 In programming, "cross-referencing" means the listing of every file name and line number where a given named identifier occurs within the program's source tree.
 In a relational database management system, a table can have an xref as prefix or suffix to indicate it is a cross-reference table that joins two or more tables together via primary key.

Structure
In a document, especially those authored in a content management system,
a cross-reference has two major aspects:
 A visible form that appears when the document is presented to the reader
 A technical mechanism that resides within the system

The visible form contains text, graphics, and other indications that:
 Enable the reader to follow the cross-reference to the referenced content
 May enable the reader to understand what is being referred to, or what to expect upon following the reference
 May present to the reader some information from the referenced content

The technical mechanism that resides within the system:
 Identifies what location is being referred to
 Permits the system to present appropriate referencing text when the location containing the reference is presented to a reader
 Permits the system to offer a control (such as a link) that a reader can use when the content is presented in electronic form to access the referenced content

Enhancing usability
If the cross-reference mechanism is well designed, the reader will be able to follow each cross-reference to the referenced content whether the content is presented in print or electronically.

An author working in a content management system is responsible for identifying subjects of interest that cross documents, and creating appropriate systems of cross-references to support readers who seek to understand those subjects. For an individual cross-reference, an author should ensure that location and content of the target of the cross-reference are clearly identified, and the reader can easily determine how to follow the cross-reference in each medium in which publication is supported.

Content strategy practitioners (known as content strategists) specialize in planning content to meet business needs, taking into account the processes for creating and maintaining the content, and the systems that support the content.

See also
Credo Reference

References

Reference

Cross-reference


Ratu Apisai D. Naevo (died 2008) was a Fijian Chief and political leader.  As Tui Nawaka, he was the paramount chief of the vanua of Nawaka, Nadi. He had two sons, Apenisa Naevo and Semisi Naevo, both of whom played rugby for Fiji. A retired school teacher, he was a member of the Ba Provincial Council and various boards. He was also deputy chairman of the Fiji Pine Limited Board during its tumultuous years after George Speight was removed as Chairman by the then Minister for Agriculture, Poseci Bune, in 1999.

From 2001 to 2006, he represented the Province of Ba in the Senate as one of fourteen nominees of the Great Council of Chiefs. Naevo died in June 2008.

References

I-Taukei Fijian members of the Senate (Fiji)
2008 deaths
Year of birth missing
Fijian educators
Fijian chiefs
Politicians from Nadi
20th-century Fijian educators

Apisai Naevo


Lorraine Richard (born July 30, 1959 in Havre-Saint-Pierre, Quebec) is a Quebec politician. She is the current Member of National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Duplessis in the Côte-Nord region. She represents the Parti Québécois.

Richard was a nursing assistant in a health center in Havre St-Pierre for 25 years in which she was also the secretary for the Minganie Health Center's employee union. She was also a school commissioner for 16 years, the Vice-president of the Côte-Nord School Board's Association for five years.

Richard was elected in Duplessis in the 2003 elections and was the PQ's critic for citizen relations, maritime affairs and social services. She was re-elected in the 2007 and 2008 general elections.

External links

1959 births
French Quebecers
Living people
Parti Québécois MNAs
People from Côte-Nord
Women MNAs in Quebec
21st-century Canadian politicians
21st-century Canadian women politicians

Lorraine Richard


Karen LaMonte (born December 14, 1967) is an American artist known for her life-size sculptures in ceramic, bronze, marble, and cast glass.

Background
LaMonte was born and grew up in Manhattan, New York. In 1990, after she graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a Bachelor in Fine Arts with honors, LaMonte was awarded a fellowship at the Creative Glass Center of America, in Millville, New Jersey. Following that, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, and worked at UrbanGlass, a not-for-profit public access glass studio. During this period, she pursued artwork in blown and cast glass, pieces of which were exhibited at fine art galleries.

In 1999, LaMonte won a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, where, in 2000, she created her first major work, Vestige. She soon gained critical acclaim; among the accolades she received were The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award in 2001 and the UrbanGlass Award for New Talent in Glass in 2002. In 2006, the Japan-United States Friendship Commission awarded her a seven-month fellowship to study in Kyoto, Japan; this trip inspired her Floating World series of works.

In 2009, LaMonte began a collaboration with the Kholer Artist Center at the Corning Museum of Glass where she was named to the museum's Joint Artist-In-Residence Program. In 2017, the Corning Museum and Corning Inc. appointed her the Specialty Glass Artist-In-Residence at Corning's scientific research laboratory. Several of her works are part of the Corning Museum's permanent collection.

In 2015, LaMonte received the Masters of the Medium award from the James Renwick Alliance. Her works have been exhibited at museums including the Czech Museum of Fine Art in Prague, the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. Her works are also included in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Washington DC, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, France, and The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

LaMonte lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic, with Steve Polaner, her husband and studio manager.

Artwork

During her Fulbright year, LaMonte began to work at glass casting studio in Pelechov, where glass artist Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová also worked. In this studio, she developed Vestige, a cast glass life-size sculpture of a dress with the wearer absent; the work took one year to complete and required the development of special technologies, including the lost wax technique. Vestige would later be seen as a seminal and influential artwork in the field of contemporary art and glass.

LaMonte's art addresses themes of beauty and loss; her works use a sartorial lens to explore the fragility of the human condition.

LaMonte's sculptural work has received critical acclaim from art critics such as Arthur Danto. In his 2005 essay "The Poetry of Meaning and Loss: The Glass Dresses of Karen LaMonte", Danto wrote about Vestige:

The dress belonged to a moment when the wearer was, to use an expression of Proust's, en fleur. The dress belonged to a certain moment of history, which it preserves—it shows how women dressed for certain occasions at a certain moment. The wearer will have aged. She looked like that then, but, if she is still alive, it is certain she will not look that way now. There is a double melancholy—the melancholy of fashion, and the melancholy of bodily change, from nubility to decrepitude. The breasts have fallen, the waist thickened, the skin has lost it transparency and luminescence. The poignancy of LaMonte's dresses is a product of two modes of change in which we participate as human beings, composed, as we are, of flesh and meaning. Their poetry is the poetry of beauty and loss.

During LaMonte's 2006 fellowship to Japan, she explored how clothing serves as a societal language. Her research in Japan focused on the construction and meaning of the traditional kimono, hundreds of which she brought back to her Prague studio. LaMonte then used biometric data from Japanese women to build kimono forms in glass, bronze, rusted iron, and ceramic. Like her previous works, these full-sized kimono sculptures depict only garments and not their wearers. LaMonte entitled this series of sculptures Floating World, a name inspired by both Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and by the storied, arts-themed pleasure quarters of Edo-era Japan.

LaMonte continued her examination of the female form with Nocturnes, a series of works informed by the night-themed paintings of James Abbot McNeill Whistler and by the nocturne musical compositions of John Field and Frederic Chopin. LaMonte built these sculptures from evening gowns of her own design, then cast them in white bronze, rusted iron, and blue glass. By focusing her work on the clothing and not the wearer, LaMonte says, "I subverted the tradition of the Odalisque—the idealized recumbent female nude—by taking away the body."

In 2013, LaMonte spoke with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art about her creative process and research techniques:The research is definitely part of the appeal, but the thing that comes first is the conceptualization: the idea for the sculptures. That's one layer of research, which I adore. And then usually it takes months and months for the ideas to come together and a vision becomes clear. Then the second phase is realization and that usually entails a bunch of material research and material studies. Definitely if the ideas I'm working with push me into a new material, I'm always thrilled at the challenges, because I do love learning. And I think it's very very healthy to access your creative mind to solve technical problems as well.In 2017, LaMonte displayed her large-scale sculpture Cumulus at the Glasstress exhibition, in conjunction with the 2017 Venice Biennale. Unlike most of her previous works which focused on the absence of the human body, Cumulus depicts a cumulus cloud. She described her inspiration to Caltech Magazine:What struck me was the fascinating and completely unexpected weight of clouds. We see them floating in the air. We think of them as fluffy cotton balls, like helium balloons. But when you learn a bit more, you realize they're actually amazingly heavy. I thought, wouldn't it be amazing if we could get a 'real' cloud and carve it in marble?LaMonte worked with Tapio Schneider, a climate scientist from the California Institute of Technology, to calculate and model the dimensions needed for Cumulus. She used robots to carve a 15-ton block of marble, and then spent four weeks hand-finishing the sculpture. Cumulus shares a common thread with LaMonte's previous garment-focused work. "My cloud is baroque in its physicality," she told Caltech Magazine. "It looks like folds of fabric or flesh tumbling through space."

Major works

Dress sculptures
LaMonte's first dress sculpture, Vestige (2000), is an influential work of cast glass. It was described by Habatat Galleries as a "glass sculpture that changed the course of art history."

Vestige depicts a life-sized woman's dress, from which the wearer is absent. This sculpture and LaMonte's related works have received international acclaim for their uniqueness and beauty. Her Reclining Dress Impression with Drapery (2009) is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery's permanent collection. The de Young Museum in San Francisco's permanent collection contains Dress 3 (2001).

Floating World kimono sculptures

LaMonte's Floating World series evolved from her dress sculptures; these Japan-influenced works depict kimono without their wearers. The sculptures are life-sized and created in iron, cast glass, bronze, and ceramic. Some works in the series also feature elements of kintsugi, a technique which uses gold to repair damaged or broken ceramic.

LaMonte was inspired to create this series during her research fellowship in Kyoto, which was awarded by the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission. LaMonte writes about living "in the traditional kimono-making district of Nishijin":Even at night, my neighborhood hummed with the sounds of kimono production. I studied all aspects of the craft, from weaving fabric to drawing imagery. Fortunately, many people devoted to the preservation of traditional methods took me under their wing. . . . In all cultures, clothing is an unspoken language; but the Kimono is perhaps the most codified.Sculptures from LaMonte' Floating World are in the permanent collection of many museums including: Maiko (2010) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Odoriko (2012, bronze), Kabuki (2012, ceramic), and Hanako (2012, cast glass) at the Chazen Museum of Art; and Chado (2010, cast glass) at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Etudes

LaMonte's Etudes are smaller than the life-sized dress sculptures that first gained her widespread recognition and are crafted from white bronze, rusted iron, cast glass, and other materials. She writes:I began to develop my one-third-scale models into a stand-alone group of sculptures that I called Etudes, a reference to my inspiration from the field of music from composers such as Frédéric Chopin. The Etudes are much more than studies for larger works. They celebrate the power of human optimism and our enduring need for beauty.LaMonte's Etudes sculptures are featured in the permanent collections of the Imagine Museum.

Nocturnes
LaMonte describes her Nocturnes series as "A new body of work inspired by the beauty of night . . . dark, seductive, and sublime. They are absent of female forms – rising from penumbral garments as figurations of dusk. They build on the tradition of the female nude and probe the tension between humanism and eroticism, the physical and the ethereal, the body and the spirit. The figures are at once intensely physical – muscles and flesh strain against clinging fabric – and yet insubstantial: the figures are absent, implied only by the shapes pressing against the clothing."

The Nocturnes have been written about extensively, including a monograph published in 2019 with an essay by Dr. Steven Nash, who wrote:Despite these associations with the past, LaMonte's sculptures are very much of our own time. They take their place in the resurgence of figurative art following Minimalism's banishment of the human figure in favor of elemental abstract forms, and help underline the importance that sculpture has played in that development. Many contemporary sculptors have adopted the human body as an important vehicle for study of different aspects of the human condition, including Kiki Smith, Jaume Plensa, Thomas Schütte, Huma Bhabha, Juan Muñoz, and Georg Baselitz. LaMonte's contributions in this arena involve both her inventive treatment of materials and form and her investigations of female identity and self-expression, which, as we have seen, strike us in both sensuous and abstract ways. Each sculpture is an individual construction of visual, haptic, and intellectual experience, totally integrated. As the acclaimed British painter Cecily Brown has opined, "Painting is very good at saying more than one thing at once." LaMonte's Nocturnes affirm that sculpture is as well.Sculptures of the Nocturnes series are in the permanent collections of The Corning Museum, Knoxville Museum of Art, Iowa State University Museums, and Imagine Museum.

Sartoriotype prints
In addition to her sculpture work, LaMonte creates vivid, graphical, gray-scale monotype prints that depict clothing.  "Blind to colour but hypersensitive to texture, the paper on which the monotypes are printed renders an almost X-ray-like image of the garment," wrote Richard Drury in the Sculptures and Sartoriotypes monograph, "a view through the layers of fabric - and through the tissue of time, to when the ripples and crumples we see in the prints were created by the active limbs of a unique human experience. It is an experience portrayed somehow fleetingly, an apparition of reanimated identity."

Cumulus

Cumulus cloud|Cumulus (2017) is LaMonte's first major work of Italian marble. She was drawn to the medium because she wanted "to use a material forged by the forces of nature to represent the forces of nature." The sculpture is eight feet tall and weighs two-and-a-half tons; it was modeled on climatological data from real-life weather and was carved with the help of robots and a super-computer.

"Only by using technology could I make the diaphanous solid and the intangible permanent," LaMonte told Caltech magazine.

Cumulus was first displayed at the Venice Biennale at Glasstress, Palazzo Franchetti, Venice.

Selected awards
 Corning Museum of Glass / Corning Incorporated, Specialty Glass Artist-in-Residence, 2018
James Renwick Alliance, Masters of the Medium Award, 2015
Corning Museum of Glass / Kohler Arts Center, Joint Artist-in-Residence Program, 2009
 Jutta Cuny Franz Memorial Award, Laureate, 2007
 Japan-United States Friendship Commission, NEA, 2006
 Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship Program, 2006
 The Virginia A. Groot Foundation, Recognition Award, 2005
 UrbanGlass, Award for New Talent in Glass, 2002
 Creative Glass Center of America, Fellowship, 2002 and 1991
 The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Biennial Award, 2001
 Fulbright Fellowship, Czech Republic, 1999–2000

Selected permanent collections

 University Museums at Iowa State, Ames, Iowa
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
The Museum of Art and Archaeology, Columbus, Missouri
The Corning Museum, Corning, New York
Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan
Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas
The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin
 The Museum of American Glass, Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, Millville, New Jersey
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama
Alexander Tutsek Foundation, Munich, Germany
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia
Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
Racine Art Museum and RAM's Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, Wisconsin
M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
 The Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, Florida
The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Washington DC

Selected solo and group exhibitions

 2021 Théâtre de la Monde, Barry Art Museum, Old Dominion University, Norfolk,
2019 Floating World. Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
2019 Glasstress 2019. Fondazione Berengo Art Space, Campiello Della Pescheria, Venice, Italy. Featured work: Reclining Nocturne 4 (2019)
2019 Divergent Materiality: Contemporary Glass Art. Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona. Featured work: Child's Dress (2011)
2018 Embodied Beauty. Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga Tennessee
2018 Clothed in Light. Kampa Museum, Prague, Czech Republic
2017 Glasstress 2017. Palazzo Franchetti, Venice, Italy. Featured works: Nocturne 1 (2017), Nocturne 6 (2017), Cumulus (2017), Nocturne 3 (2016), Reclining Nocturne 1 (2015)
2017 Floating World. Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin
2016 Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery. Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery, Washington DC. Featured work: Reclining Dress Impression with Drapery (2009)
2015 Floating World. Museum of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic.
2014 Dayton Celebrates Glass. Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio.
2013 Playing with Fire: 50 Years of Contemporary Glass. Museum of Art and Design, New York, New York.
2011 Kimono: Karen LaMonte & Prints of the Floating World. New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2011 Floating World. Imago Galleries, Palm Desert, California
 2010 Réflexions Féminines. Musée-Atelier départemental du Verre, Sars-Poteries, France
 2010 Drapery Abstractions. Heller Gallery, New York, New York
 2009 Contemporary Glass Among the Classics. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia
2008 Karen LaMonte Sculptures. Glasmuseum Hentrich, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany.
 2005 Absence Adorned. Museum of Glass International Center for Contemporary Art, Tacoma, Washington
2004 Vanitas. Czech Museum of Fine Art, Prague, Czech Republic

Selected publications

 Nocturnes. Authored by Dr. Steven Nash, Karen LaMonte (2019). Art Works Publishing.
 Karen LaMonte: Floating World. Authored by Laura Addison, Karen LaMonte (2013). Art Works Publishing.
 Karen LaMonte: Absence Adorned. Authored by Arthur C. Danto, Juli Cho Bailer, Josi Callan (2005). Museum of Glass International Center for Contemporary Art.
 Vanitas. Authored by Petr Štěpán (2005). České Muzeum Výtvarných Umění / The Czech Museum of Fine Arts
 Sculptures and Sartoriotypes. Authored by Richard Drury (2003). Czech Museum of Fine Arts, Prague
 Absent Impressions. Authored by Robert Bell (2002). National Gallery of Australia

References

External links

 Karen LaMonte Artist Website
 Karen LaMonte Artist Facebook page
 Karen LaMonte Artist Instagram page

American women sculptors
1967 births
Living people
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American sculptors
21st-century American women artists
Rhode Island School of Design alumni
Artists from Manhattan
Sculptors from New York (state)
American glass artists
Fulbright alumni
Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague alumni

Karen LaMonte


Joel James Gretsch (born December 20, 1963) is an American actor.  He is best known for his roles on The 4400, Taken and V.

Early life
Gretsch was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and grew up in Albany, Minnesota, the son of Russ and Barb. He has a sister, Jane, and a brother, Steve. Gretsch was raised Roman Catholic.

Career
Gretsch studied acting at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis before moving to Los Angeles in 1989. His stage work includes roles in Molière's Tartuffe and John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.

He started his television work in the early 1990s, appearing in episodes of Married... with Children, Melrose Place, Friends and Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Since then he has appeared in episodes of JAG, Silk Stalkings, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Burn Notice, and NCIS. More recently, he played a wealthy advertising executive and husband of a supermodel on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He also had two guest appearances on NBC's Journeyman, playing the father of protagonist Dan Vasser.

Gretsch has also had supporting roles in a number of films including playing Bobby Jones in The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), Minority Report (2002), The Emperor's Club (2002) and National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007).

In 2008, Gretsch had a recurring role as Pete Raynor, Lindsay Boxer's love interest, on the television series Women's Murder Club.

Some of his notable roles include Tom Baldwin on the USA Network series The 4400 in which he starred alongside actress Jacqueline McKenzie, and as Owen Crawford in Steven Spielberg's 2002 science fiction miniseries Taken. Gretsch reunited with Scott Peters (creator of The 4400) on his remake of V. Gretsch played priest and resistance fighter Father Jack Landry in the series.

He guest starred in the new Diablo Cody created Emmy Award nominated Showtime Comedy-Drama The United States of Tara in the 1st season's last two episodes.

Personal life
Gretsch has been married to actress Melanie Shatner since September 5, 1999. They have two daughters: Kaya (born 2002), and Willow (born 2005).

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

1963 births
Male actors from Minnesota
American male film actors
American male television actors
Living people
People from St. Cloud, Minnesota
People from Albany, Minnesota
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors

Joel Gretsch


Broad Colney Lakes is an 11 hectare nature reserve previously managed by Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust in London Colney in Hertfordshire. It has recently been sold to an anonymous buyer but reports in The Herts Advertiser says "the selected buyer has stated that the site will continue to be used for fishing, with the woodland managed for the benefit of wildlife." It has three lakes, created as a result of gravel extraction in the 1920s. Otters travel through Long Lake on their journeys along the River Colne, which flows through the lake, and great crested grebes nest at the edge. Small Lake is marshy and a breeding area for fish, while North Lake has tufted ducks, coots and mallards.

There is access from Water Lane, between Shenley Lane and Waterside, which runs along the south-eastern edge of Long Lake.

References

Nature reserves in Hertfordshire
City of St Albans

Broad Colney Lakes


Gamaliel IV (flourished probably late 3rd century CE; also known as Gamaliel IV ben Judah II) was the son of the nasi Judah II and father of  Judah III.

Gamaliel was the president of the Sanhedrin between 270 and 290 CE. However, due to Roman persecution, during his presidency the name Sanhedrin was dropped and its authoritative decisions were subsequently issued under the name Beth HaMidrash. His name is rarely mentioned in the Talmud, as his scholarship was considered inferior to that of his contemporary Rabbi Yochanan.

Hoshaiah Rabbah is said to have prevented Gamaliel from introducing into Syria a ruling referring to the tithing of crops. The Jerusalem Talmud tells a story of Gamaliel's humility: Once when Abbahu asked him a question about the law, Gamaliel speaks of his own ignorance in comparison with Abbahu.

References

Talmud rabbis of the Land of Israel
3rd-century rabbis
Sanhedrin

Gamaliel IV


Aubrey Francis Jackman  (2 April 1921 - 18 September 2010) was a leading producer of international military tattoos and prominent hotelier in Bath, England.

Born in Bath in 1921, Jackman's family owned a number of hotels in the city, including the Lansdown Grove, Pulteney Hotel and Fernley (now known as the Abbey) Hotel. Following the outbreak of World War II, Jackman attempted to join the British Army, but with his agricultural experience (having studied at the Royal Agricultural College) he was instead sent to work on a farm in Somerset.

In 1940 Jackman enlisted in the Local Defence Volunteers (Home Guard). He was then later permitted to join the Somerset Light Infantry as an officer in February 1941, rising to the rank of Major. Jackman's military postings included Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Greece, Italy and Austria. He became heavily involved in organising entertainment for the troops, and ended his Army career in 1947, have been demobilised without ever having to fire a shot in anger.

On his return to England, Jackman took over the family hotel business, also taking on the role of president of the Bath Hoteliers' and Restaurateurs' Association for 40 years, while still keeping in touch with his military roots. From the mid-1950s to mid-1960s he was producer and director of the Bath Tattoo  and also the Wembley Military Pageant and Cardiff Searchlight Tattoo. In 1967 Jackman travelled to Canada as Production Consultant to the Canadian Armed Forces Tattoo 1967, still the world's largest travelling show, produced by Colonel Ian Fraser. Jackman thereafter became consultant of the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. In 1977 he was producer for the Wembley Pageant given in honour of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. Through his work with military tattoos in the UK and overseas, also including those in Oman and Luxembourg, Jackman was appointed Chairman of the International Association of Tattoo Organisers (IATO).

Jackman was also onetime chairman of Bath Conservative Association, and a supporter of the Army Benevolent Fund, the Royal Artillery Association, and the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association. He was also involved with the Armistice Day parades in the city of Bath.

Major Jackman died in 2010, at the age of 89, having just finished writing his autobiography 'The Spice of Life', named after a march written for Jackman by Commander Jack McGuire, Director of Music Emeritus of the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. Jackman's funeral was held at Bath Abbey on Monday 4 October 2010. He is buried in the family crypt in the Victorian graveyard at Beckford Tower, Bath.

See also
 Military Tattoo
 Canadian Armed Forces Tattoo 1967

 Colonel Fraser and Aubrey Jackman

References

External links
 Major Aubrey F. Jackman, OB Club Obituary
 Major Aubrey F. Jackman, This Is Bath Obituary
 Aubrey Jackman Obituary, The Times

1921 births
2010 deaths
Somerset Light Infantry officers
British businesspeople
Members of the Order of the British Empire
20th-century British businesspeople

Aubrey Jackman