Solheim Cup

# Solheim Cup

## Abstract

The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian - American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force behind its creation.

The inaugural Cup was held in 1990, and the event was first staged in even numbered years until 2002, alternating years with the Ryder Cup (the equivalent men's event). As part of the general reshuffling of team golf events after the one-year postponement of the 2001 Ryder Cup following the September 11 attacks, the Solheim Cup switched to odd numbered years beginning in 2003. Another reshuffle of team golf events took place in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Solheim Cup will return to even numbered years from 2024 onwards.

The United States teams have won the cup eleven times, compared with eight for Europe. The current holders are the US, who regained the cup with a 15.5–12.5 win in 2024.

## The cup

The trophy is a cut-glass Irish Waterford Crystal, designed in 1990 by one of Waterford's top designers, Billy Briggs. Weight: about 20 pounds. Height: 19 inches, including the mahogany base. Diameter of wooden base: 8 inches. Diameter at top: 4 inches.

## Format

The tournament is played over three days. Since 2002, there have been 28 matches — eight foursomes and eight four-balls played on days 1 and 2, and 12 singles on the final day. This format is also used in the Ryder Cup. Before 1996, and also in 2000, the Solheim Cup used a similar, but abbreviated format.

One point is awarded to the team that wins each match; in the event of a tie, both teams score half a point. After all matches are complete, the team with more points wins or retains the Cup. Any ties are broken in favor of the defending champion team.

In addition to the indicated number of players, each team includes one captain and a set number of assistant captains (three as of 2015), none of whom play in the matches.

## Team qualification and selection

The U.S. team is selected by a points system, with American players on the LPGA Tour receiving points for each top-twenty finish on tour. Through the 2013 event, U.S. citizens born outside the country were ineligible for consideration; beginning in 2015, eligibility for Team USA was expanded to include many more categories of (female) U.S. citizens. For the European team, up to 2005, seven players were selected on a points system based on results on the Ladies European Tour (LET). This allowed top European players who competed mainly on the LPGA Tour to be selected to ensure that the European team was competitive. Since 2007, only the top five players from the LET qualify and another four are selected on the basis of the Women's World Golf Rankings. This reflects the increasing dominance of the LPGA Tour, where almost all top European players spend most of their time. In addition, each team has a number of "captain's picks", players chosen at the discretion of the team captains, regardless of their point standings, though in practice the captain's picks are often the next ranking players.

## Captains

Team captains are typically recently retired professional golfers with Solheim Cup playing experience, chosen for their experience playing on previous Cup teams and for their ability to lead a team.

## Results

In the 18 competitions through 2023, the United States leads the series 10 to 8 (including 1 tie where Europe retained as holders).

## Future venues

Bernardus Golf has previously hosted three editions (2021, 2022, 2023) of the men's European Tour 's Dutch Open and will be the Netherlands' first Solheim Cup or Ryder Cup venue.

Valhalla Golf Club has hosted the men's PGA Championship four times in 1996, 2000, 2014 and 2024 as well as the Senior PGA Championship twice in 2004 and 2011. Despite being a first-time Solheim Cup venue, it previously hosted the Ryder Cup in 2008 and will become just the fourth course after The Greenbrier, Muirfield Village and the Gleneagles Hotel 's PGA Centenary to host both events.

## Records

- Most appearances: 12 ° Laura Davies (Eur), 1990–2011

- Most points: 25 ° Laura Davies (Eur) (22–18–6 record)

- Most singles points won: 7 ° Juli Inkster (USA) (6–1–2 record)

- Most foursome points won: 11 1 ⁄ 2 ° Annika Sörenstam (Eur) (11–3–1 record)

- Most fourball points won: 11 1 ⁄ 2 ° Cristie Kerr (USA) (11–5–1 record)

- Top point percentage (Minimum of 3 Solheim Cup Matches) ° Janice Moodie (Eur) (7–2–2) 72.7% ° Carin Koch (Eur) (10–3–3) 71.9% ° Leona Maguire (Eur) (8–3–1) 70.8% ° Dottie Pepper (USA) (13–5–2) 70.0% ° Christina Kim (USA) (6–2–2) 70.0%

- Most points in a single contest: 5 ° Caroline Hedwall (Eur) 2013

- Youngest player: 17 years, 149 days ° Charley Hull (Eur) 2013

- Oldest player: 51 years, 91 days ° Juli Inkster (USA) 2011

Sources


São João da Ponte

# São João da Ponte

## Abstract

São João da Ponte is a municipality in the north of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. As of 2020, the population numbered 25,098 within the total area of 1,849 km². The elevation is 561 meters. It became a municipality in 1943.

The city is part of the IBGE statistical microregion of Montes Claros; the distance to the city of Montes Claros is 107 kilometers. Neighboring municipalities are: Ibiracatu, Varzelândia, Verdelândia, Lontra, Japonvar, Janaúba, Patis, Montes Claros and Capitão Enéas.

The principal economic activities of the municipality include cattle raising (109,000 head in 2006) and agriculture, with the main crops being rice, sugarcane, corn, sorghum, and bananas. There are also a number of small transformation industries. The GDP of the municipality is R$ 64,761,000 (as of 2005). The rural area employs as many as 11,000 workers in 3,405 establishments; however, only about 127 of the farms have tractors. There are 466 automobiles in all of the municipality.

## Health and education

The health care system of the municipality includes 12 clinics and one hospital with 58 beds, whereas the educational sector is based upon 50 primary schools and four middle schools.

- MHDI:.626

- State ranking: 795 out of 853 municipalities

- National ranking: 4,203 out of 5,138 municipalities

- Life expectancy: 67

- Literacy rate: 62

The highest ranking municipality in the Minas Gerais statistical region is Poços de Caldas with a MHDI of 0.841, while the lowest is Setubinha with a MHDI of 0.568 (as of 2000). Nationally, the highest is São Caetano do Sul in the São Paulo region with a value of 0.919, while the lowest was Setubinha.


1989–90 in Swiss football

# 1989–90 in Swiss football

## Abstract

The following is a summary of the 1989–90 season of competitive football in Switzerland.

## Nationalliga A

### Qualification phase

### Championship group

The first eight teams of the qualification phase competed in the Championship round. The teams took half of the points (rounded up to complete units) gained in the qualification as bonus with them.

## Nationalliga B

### Qualification phase

### Promotion/relegation round

### Relegation round NLB/1. Liga

The last six teams in each of the two qualification phase groups competed in two relegation groups against relegation to the 1. Liga 1991–92. The teams received ranking bonus points from their qualifying groups (7th place 6 pts; 8th place 5 pts; 9th place 4 pts; etc). There was to be one direct relegation in each group, plus a play-out against relegation between both second last placed teams.

### Relegation play-out

FC Montreux-Sports won 7–1 on aggregate and FC Zug were relegated to 1990–91 1. Liga.

## 1. Liga

### Group 1

### Group 2

### Group 3

### Group 4

### Promotion play-off

Urania Genève Sport win 2–0 on aggregate and continue to the finals.

Concordia/Folgore Lausanne win 2–0 on aggregate and continue to the finals.

SC Burgdorf win 4–1 on aggregate and continue to the finals.

SC Kriens win 3–2 on aggregate and continue to the finals.

SC Burgdorf win 6–3 on aggregate and are promoted to Nationalliga B.

Urania Genève Sport win 7–4 on aggregate and are promoted to Nationalliga B.

The play-off for the third promotion place was played on 16 June 1990 in Châtel-St-Denis.

Concordia/Folgore Lausanne win, but refused promotion, so SC Kriens are promoted to Nationalliga B.

The play-off for the 1. Liga championship was played on 16 June 1990 in Châtel-St-Denis.

Urania Genève Sport ' win and become 1. Liga champions. '

### Relegation play-out

FC Raron continue to the final.

FC Vaduz continue to the final.

FC Raron win 4–3 on aggregate and remain in the division. FC Vaduz are relegated to 2. Liga.

## Swiss Cup

### Early rounds

The routes of the finalists to the final, played on 4 June 1990 at the Wankdorf in Bern:

### Final

## Swiss Clubs in Europe

- Luzern as 1988–89 Nationalliga A champions: 1989–90 European Cup and entered 1989 Intertoto Cup

- Grasshopper Club as 1988–89 Swiss Cup winners: 1989–90 Cup Winners' Cup and entered 1989 Intertoto Cup

- Sion as league third placed team: 1989–90 UEFA Cup

- Wettingen as league fourth placed team: 1989–90 UEFA Cup and entered 1989 Intertoto Cup

- Bellinzona: entered 1989 Intertoto Cup

## Sources

- Switzerland 1989–90 at RSSSF

- Cup finals at Fussball-Schweiz

- Intertoto history at Pawel Mogielnicki's Page

{ { 1989–90 in Swiss football } }


Jonathan Compas

# Jonathan Compas

## Abstract

Jonathan Compas (born January 9, 1986) is a former American football center. He was signed by the Oakland Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2009 after playing college football at UC Davis.

Compas has also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New England Patriots, and Washington Redskins.

## Early years

Compas is the youngest of two children of Gerald and Linda Compas (née Fitzgibbon). He is the grandson of Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr. and nephew of Richard B. Fitzgibbon III. He is the great-nephew of Alice Fitzgibbon Rose DelRossi, a former Stoneham, Massachusetts, politician and selectwoman.

## College career

After graduating from Carlsbad High School in 2004, Compas played football at UC Davis. In 2004, he was redshirted and later selected as Scout Defense Player of the Week after the Northern Colorado game. The following year, he started the first six games as right guard, before being sidelined by injury. In 2006, he started all eleven games at right tackle and picked up one tackle (on an interception) early in the third quarter against cross town rival Sacramento State University. That same year he was an All-American pick by The Sporting News. Then in 2007, he earned second consecutive GWFC all-academic honors while managing to start eleven games.

## Professional career

Before his career with the Buccaneers, Compas signed with the Oakland Raiders as a free-agent in April 2009. On September 1, 2009, he was claimed off waivers from the Oakland Raiders by Tampa Bay. He was released by the Buccaneers on September 4, 2010. Following his release from the Buccaneers, Compas was picked up by the New England Patriots. Compas holds a masters degree from University of San Diego in business administration.


Pulse link repeater

# Pulse link repeater

## Abstract

In telecommunications, a pulse link repeater (PLR) is a device that interfaces concatenated E and M signaling paths.

A PLR converts a ground, received from the E lead of one signal path, to − 48 VDC, which is applied to the M lead of the concatenated signal path.

In many commercial carrier systems, the channel bank cards or modules have a "PLR" option that permits the direct concatenation of E&M signaling paths, without the need for separate PLR equipment.


Michael Sprott

# Michael Sprott

## Abstract

Michael Sprott (born 16 January 1975) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2018. He held the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles in 2004 and the EBU European Union heavyweight title twice between 2005 and 2007. He was the winner of the 14th Prizefighter series.

## Career

After a quiet amateur career, Sprott turned pro in November 1996 under the old Frank Bruno trainer, Terry Lawless. He won 11 fights, including a points win over veteran Michael Murray before taking on Harry Senior in September 1998 for the Southern Area Heavyweight title. Senior, a respected sparring partner, had recently dedicated himself to being a full-time professional, and took Sprott out in 6 rounds with body shots. Sprott came back with 3 wins before falling apart in 3 rounds versus British contender Wayne Llewelyn in October 2000.

Seemingly relegated to journeyman status, In February 2001 in London, Sprott scored an upset when he outpointed the once-beaten German Timo Hoffmann, who had lost only to Vitali Klitschko. He travelled to Germany for the rematch, controversially outpointed by Hoffmann in a result that was jeered loudly by the German crowd.

In November 2001, he travelled to South Africa to face hard hitting fringe contender Corrie Sanders. In a brief and entertaining fight, Sprott rocked the southpaw before being decked himself, and suffering a controversial stoppage by the referee, with even the South African commentators deploring the stoppage.

In February 2002, Keith Long pulled out from a British and Commonwealth title fight with Danny Williams, and Sprott flew in from a holiday in Jamaica on only a few days notice. After a few rounds he ran out of gas and was stopped in the seventh round, but showed he could compete at national level. It was around this time that Sprott brought in trainer John Bloomfield, who spent six years with Frank Bruno.

After this challenge, Sprott went on a successful run of form, winning 8 fights, including knockouts of Pele Reid (KO7), ex-British champ Michael Holden (KO4), Mark Potter (KO3), and Colin Kenna (KO1), setting up a rematch with Williams.

In September 2003, Sprott qualified for another shot at Williams and his titles, but after a far more competitive fight, Sprott was the victim of several low blows. When he complained to the referee he was controversially knocked out by a Williams left hook.

In January 2004, Sprott narrowly outpointed Williams in their third and final fight (115-114), lifting the British and Commonwealth titles. A few months later Williams would knockout Mike Tyson, however Sprott would lose his titles in his first defense, matched with fast undefeated Matt Skelton (12-0), Sprott was mauled and stopped in the 12th. His last fight of 2004 was a win against Czech heavyweight champ Robert Šulgan in Bethnal Green.

In 2005, Sprott would take the first of many trips abroad fighting top prospects, usually at short notice. In April he beat the German amateur star Cengiz Koc, but in October was beaten on points by Olympian Paolo Vidoz in a European title fight, both fights in Germany. In December he fought future European champ Vladimir Virchis in Austria, but was once-again the victim of a controversial decision loss.

In February 2006, he outboxed veteran Antoine Palatis in Scotland, but in a WBA Eliminator in July was hammered in 8 one-sided rounds by undefeated Ruslan Chagaev. Despite the loss he went back to Germany and beat a third German prospect when he upset undefeated southpaw Rene Dettweiller in November.

During his travels in Germany, Sprott had picked up the second-tier European Heavyweight title, the "EU" title, which he defended against 2000 Olympic Gold medallist Audley Harrison in London, February 2007. Harrison had demolished Danny Williams in his last fight and was on course to face Matt Skelton in a world title eliminator. A 9/2 underdog with most bookies, Sprott came off the floor in the 1st round to score a rare stoppage win by knocking Harrison clean out in the 3rd with a left hook; and seemingly ending his career.

On 14 July 2007, Sprott lost to Matt Skelton in a 12-round contest. The fight was of a very poor standard with Skelton winning on points.

On 31 May 2008, Sprott travelled to Germany to face hot prospect, and the WBA's #4 ranked contender Taras Bidenko. Sprott was outpointed in a 10-round unanimous decision, with 2 judges scoring the bout 97–93, and the other seeing it 97–94.

On 14 March 2009, Sprott fought former WBO heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster and lost a unanimous decision.

He fought Alexander Ustinov on 20 June 2009, but lost by unanimous decision after ten rounds. However he beat German Werner Kreiskott by round 1 TKO in March 2010 and this earned him a shot at the vacant European Boxing Union title against old foe Audley Harrison at Alexandra Palace in April 2010. Sprott was leading the bout on all three scorecards before Harrison knocked out Sprott with seconds remaining of round 12.

On 9 October 2010, a 35-year-old Sprott competed in Sky's 'PrizeFighter' series (Heavyweights), reaching the final where he fought Matt Skelton. It was third time lucky for Sprott, who had lost his previous 2 contests with the 43-year-old Skelton, Winning on a split decision (29-28 Skelton 29-28 sprott 29-28 sprott) after the 3 round contest and winning £32,000 in 'winner take all' prize money. In September 2011, he suffered a third defeat in a European heavyweight title bout when he lost a unanimous points decision to Ukrainian Alexander Dimitrenko in Hamburg.

## Outside the ring

Michael Sprott has a son called Darnell born around 2001. Darnell's name is stitched on the shorts Sprott wears for his professional contests. In recent contests Sprott's shorts have also displayed the name of his late sister Ginette, who took her own life in September 2009 after a long battle with depression.

He lists his hobbies as weights, travelling and meeting new people. Outside boxing, Sprott enjoys rugby and the Wimbledon Championships. His favourite football teams are Reading FC and Arsenal F.C.


Savva Lika

# Savva Lika

## Abstract

Savva Lika (Greek: Σάββα Λίκα, Albanian: Vojsava Lika born 27 June 1970) is a Greek retired javelin thrower.

## Life and athletic competitions

Savva Lika was born Vojsava Lika in Krujë District, Albania, the daughter of ethnic Albanian parents. She is of the Albanian Orthodox faith. She represented Albania prior to 2002. On October 11, 1987, under trained from coach Enver Mysja at only 17, she became champion of Albania and set a new national record of javelin throw with 53.30m.

She migrated to Greece in 1997.

Her personal best throw is 63.13 metres, achieved at the 2007 World Championships, August 2007 in Osaka, Japan in which she took the 5th place.

She retired after the Hellenic Championship in 2014.


Kate Stewart

# Kate Stewart

## Abstract

Kate Stewart (born 16 January 1995), also formerly known as KStewart, is an English singer-songwriter. She featured on the vocal version of Oliver Heldens's " Koala ", and her song "Ain't Nobody" charted at number 86 on the UK Singles Chart. On 23 November 2018, she released her first EP, named In the Beginning.

## Life and career

### 1995-2017: Early life and career beginnings

Kate Stewart was born on 16 January 1995 in London and grew up in Maida Vale. She grew up in an artistic family: her father is a comedian and her mother was a dancer. Stewart has a brother who is a music producer and songwriter. She was educated at Arts Educational Schools, London (ArtsEd) in Chiswick, where she learned musical theatre. She initially wanted to be an actress, but later turned to music.

In 2014, under the name "KStewart", she released her first single "Tell Me 'Bout That", which she collaborated in concert with British duo Bondax. During these years, she worked and collaborated with many artists such as Matoma, Sean Paul, Yungen, TCTS, and Craig David. Stewart was invited to perform her music with French DJ David Guetta for Danse avec les stars, the French equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing. Stewart was signed to Warner Music Group, making pop-oriented music.

### 2018-present: In the Beginning

In May 2018, Stewart announced her new project and released the first single "Loving You", at the same time going independent and changing her stage name to "Kate Stewart". On 23 November 2018, she released her first EP "In the Beginning" under the label Platoon. On 11 February 2019, Stewart released a music video for "Bad Enough". Later in 2019, she announced a collaboration with singer and songwriter Ryan Ashley for the song "Innocent", which was released on 3 June.

## Artistry

### Influences

Stewart grew up listening to pop artists such as Whitney Houston, Destiny's Child, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera. Other musicians she admire include D'Angelo and Frank Ocean.

### Voice

Stewart is a soprano and possesses a three-octave vocal range. Her voice has received comparisons with Ariana Grande and Jorja Smith.

## Discography

### EPs

### Singles


2024 Copa Perú

# 2024 Copa Perú

## Abstract

The 2024 Peru Cup season (Spanish: Copa Perú 2024), the largest amateur tournament of Peruvian football. The District Stage (Spanish: Ligas Distritales) started in February - March, and the National Stage (Spanish: Etapa Nacional) started in November. The winner and runner-up will be promoted to the Liga 2 and the 24 Departmental champions will be promoted to Liga 3.

## Departmental stage

Departmental Stage: 2024 Ligas Departamentales del Perú

The following list shows the teams that qualified for the National Stage.

## National Stage

In 2024 the National Stage has grown to 50 teams, and the new National Stage, designed by matchVision, is played under Regional using the POT System, with all the Regions of Peru represented. The National Stage starts in the second week of October.

This phase features the 50 teams that qualified from the Departmental Stage. Each team plays 3 games at home and 3 games away, for a total of 6 games against 3 different geographical rivals. The departmental stage winners only play against departmental runners-up, and vice versa. All the teams are positioned in one general table. After 6 matches, the team in places 1 to 32 are qualified directly to the Round of 32. The teams in places 33 to 50 are eliminated.

The winner and runner-up of the National Stage will be promoted to the Liga 2.

### League table

## Final Rounds

### Quarterfinals

### Semifinals

### Final


Atlanta United 2

# Atlanta United 2

## Abstract

Atlanta United 2 are the reserve team of the Major League Soccer club Atlanta United FC. The team plays in MLS Next Pro, the official reserve league of MLS. The team was established on November 14, 2017 and began their first professional season in March 2018.

## History

In November 2017, the USL, a Division II sanctioned league by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), announced that Major League Soccer 's Atlanta United had acquired a USL affiliate team and would begin play in the 2018 season. On January 9, 2018, the team name was revealed as Atlanta United 2.

### MLS Next Pro

MLS announced that it would be one of the next eight teams to join MLS Next Pro in 2023.

## Stadium

The team played their inaugural season at Coolray Field in Lawrenceville, Georgia, with a capacity of 7,362 for soccer games. Coolray Field is a Triple-A baseball stadium originally built in 2008 for the Gwinnett Stripers, the Atlanta Braves Triple-A affiliate. The stadium has been fitted for semi-professional soccer in a standard baseball to soccer pitch configuration.

The premium boxes and all stadium areas will still be available for soccer games, and the field will also be the same standard length at 70 by 110 yards (64 m × 101 m).

Atlanta United 2 announced, on December 14, 2018, that they would play their 2019 home matches at Fifth Third Bank Stadium in Kennesaw, Georgia.

## Players and staff

### Roster

## Year-by-year

## Statistics

### Most appearances

### Most goals


Russian language

# Russian language

## Abstract

Russian is an East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living East Slavic languages, and is also a part of the larger Balto-Slavic languages. It was the de facto and de jure official language of the former Soviet Union. Russian has remained an official language in independent Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel.

Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide. It is the most spoken native language in Europe, the most spoken Slavic language, as well as the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia. It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers, and the world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers. Russian is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station, one of the six official languages of the United Nations, as well as the fourth most widely used language on the Internet.

Russian is written using the Russian alphabet of the Cyrillic script; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without—the so-called "soft" and "hard" sounds. Almost every consonant has a hard or soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Stress, which is often unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically, though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. замо́к and за́мок), or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names.

## Classification

Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family. It is a descendant of Old East Slavic, a language used in Kievan Rus', which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn, the other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian.

Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin, Polish, Dutch, German, French, Italian, and English, and to a lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic, Turkic, Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew.

According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency.

## Standard Russian

Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between the Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from the government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries. Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and the broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages.

The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language (современный русский литературный язык – "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose at the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter the Great and developed from the Moscow (Middle or Central Russian) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language.

Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution, the spoken form of the Russian language was that of the nobility and the urban bourgeoisie. Russian peasants, the great majority of the population, continued to speak in their own dialects. However, the peasants' speech was never systematically studied, as it was generally regarded by philologists as simply a source of folklore and an object of curiosity. This was acknowledged by the noted Russian dialectologist Nikolai Karinsky, who toward the end of his life wrote: "Scholars of Russian dialects mostly studied phonetics and morphology. Some scholars and collectors compiled local dictionaries. We have almost no studies of lexical material or the syntax of Russian dialects."

After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930:

The language of peasants has a motley diversity inherited from feudalism. On its way to becoming proletariat peasantry brings to the factory and the industrial plant their local peasant dialects with their phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, and the very process of recruiting workers from peasants and the mobility of the worker population generate another process: the liquidation of peasant inheritance by way of leveling the particulars of local dialects. On the ruins of peasant multilingual, in the context of developing heavy industry, a qualitatively new entity can be said to emerge—the general language of the working class... capitalism has the tendency of creating the general urban language of a given society.

## Geographic distribution

In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, in the Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by the number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi -Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese.

Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics.

### Europe

In Belarus, Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus. 77% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2019 Belarusian census, out of 9,413,446 inhabitants of the country, 5,094,928 (54.1% of the total population) named Belarusian as their native language, with 61.2% of ethnic Belarusians and 54.5% of ethnic Poles declaring Belarusian as their native language. In everyday life in the Belarusian society the Russian language prevails, so according to the 2019 census 6,718,557 people (71.4% of the total population) stated that they speak Russian at home, for ethnic Belarusians this share is 61.4%, for Russians — 97.2%, for Ukrainians — 89.0%, for Poles — 52.4%, and for Jews — 96.6%; 2,447,764 people (26.0% of the total population) stated that the language they usually speak at home is Belarusian, among ethnic Belarusians this share is 28.5%; the highest share of those who speak Belarusian at home is among ethnic Poles — 46.0%.

In Estonia, Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population, according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook, and is officially considered a foreign language. School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics, and in 2022, the parliament approved a bill to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools and kindergartens will start in the 2024-2025 school year.

In Latvia, Russian is officially considered a foreign language. 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 18 February 2012, Latvia held a constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools. On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in the final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in Latvian. From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only. On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from 1 January 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM) should be only in Latvian or a language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service.

In Lithuania, Russian has no official or legal status, but the use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language. However, English has replaced Russian as lingua franca in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language. In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008). According to the 2011 Lithuanian census, Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population.

In Moldova, Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law. On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication. 50% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2014 Moldovan census, Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian.

According to the 2010 census in Russia, Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of the respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents).

In Ukraine, Russian is a significant minority language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 5 September 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed a new education law which requires all schools to teach at least partially in Ukrainian, with provisions while allow indigenous languages and languages of national minorities to be used alongside the national language. The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. The 2019 Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" gives priority to the Ukrainian language in more than 30 spheres of public life: in particular in public administration, media, education, science, culture, advertising, services. The law does not regulate private communication. A poll conducted in March 2022 by RATING in the territory controlled by Ukraine found that 83% of the respondents believe that Ukrainian should be the only state language of Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age and language groups. On the other hand, before the war, almost a quarter of Ukrainians were in favour of granting Russian the status of the state language, while after the beginning of Russia's invasion the support for the idea dropped to just 7%. In peacetime, the idea of raising the status of Russian was traditionally supported by residents of the south and east. But even in these regions, only a third of the respondents were in favour, and after Russia's full-scale invasion, their number dropped by almost half. According to the survey carried out by RATING in August 2023 in the territory controlled by Ukraine and among the refugees, almost 60% of the polled usually speak Ukrainian at home, about 30% – Ukrainian and Russian, only 9% – Russian. Since March 2022, the use of Russian in everyday life has been noticeably decreasing. For 82% of respondents, Ukrainian is their mother tongue, and for 16%, Russian is their mother tongue. IDPs and refugees living abroad are more likely to use both languages for communication or speak Russian. Nevertheless, more than 70% of IDPs and refugees consider Ukrainian to be their native language.

In the 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular former Warsaw Pact countries.

### Asia

In Armenia, Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.

In Azerbaijan, Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country. 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.

In China, Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang and the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Russian was also the main foreign language taught in school in China between 1949 and 1964.

In Georgia, Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language.

In Kazakhstan, Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of the population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, and understand the spoken language. In October 2023, Kazakhstan drafted a media law aimed at increasing the use of the Kazakh language over Russian, the law stipulates that the share of the state language on television and radio should increase from 50% to 70%, at a rate of 5% per year, starting in 2025.

In Kyrgyzstan, Russian is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan. The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population. Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group.

In Tajikistan, Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under the Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation. 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business.

In Turkmenistan, Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca in 1996. Among 12% of the population who grew up in the Soviet era can speak Russian, other generations of citizens that do not have any knowledge of Russian. Primary and secondary education by Russian is almost non-existent.

In Uzbekistan, Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication. It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the lingua franca of the country and the language of the elite. Russian is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook.

In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia, and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006.

Around 1.5 million Israelis spoke Russian as of 2017. The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in the country. There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus. See also Russian language in Israel.

Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan.

In Vietnam, Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English.

### North America

The Russian language was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left. In Nikolaevsk, Alaska, Russian is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle, Spokane, Toronto, Calgary, Baltimore, Miami, Portland, Chicago, Denver, and Cleveland. In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially the generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to the United States Census, in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States.

## As an international language

Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following:

- United Nations

- International Atomic Energy Agency

- World Health Organization

- International Civil Aviation Organization

- UNESCO

- World Intellectual Property Organization

- International Telecommunication Union

- World Meteorological Organization

- Food and Agriculture Organization

- International Fund for Agricultural Development

- International Criminal Court

- International Olympic Committee

- Universal Postal Union

- World Bank

- Commonwealth of Independent States

- Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

- Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

- Eurasian Economic Community

- Collective Security Treaty Organization

- Antarctic Treaty Secretariat

- International Organization for Standardization

- International Mathematical Olympiad

The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station – NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to the Apollo–Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975.

In March 2013, Russian was found to be the second-most used language on websites after English. Russian was the language of 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian was used not only on 89.8% of.ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain.su. Websites in former Soviet Union member states also used high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian was the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese.

## Dialects

Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between the two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern, Central (or Middle), and Southern, with Moscow lying in the Central region.

The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly, a phenomenon called okanye (оканье). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e⁓i̯ɛ/ in place of Proto-Slavic * ě and /o⁓u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/, respectively. Another Northern dialectal morphological feature is a post-posed definite article -to, -ta, -te similar to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian.

In the Southern Russian dialects, instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced in such positions (e.g. несл и is pronounced, not) – this is called yakanye (яканье). Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/, a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and /x⁓xv⁓xw/, whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/, /v/, and final /l/ and /f/, respectively. The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects).

## Comparison with other Slavic languages

During the Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) times all Slavs spoke one mutually intelligible language or group of dialects. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian, and a moderate degree of it in all modern Slavic languages, at least at the conversational level.

## Derived languages

- Balachka, a Ukrainian dialect spoken in Krasnodar region, Don, Kuban, and Terek, brought by relocated Cossacks in 1793 and is based on the so-called "southwest Russian" dialect (Ukrainian dialect). During the Russification of the aforementioned regions in the 1920s to 1950s, it was replaced by the Russian language.

- Esperanto has some words of Russian and Slavic origin and some features of its grammar could be derived from Russian.

- Fenya, a criminal argot of ancient origin, with Russian grammar, but with distinct vocabulary

- Lojban, Russian is one of its six source languages, weighed for the number of Russian speakers in 1985.

- Medny Aleut language, an extinct mixed language that was spoken on Bering Island and is characterized by its Aleut nouns and Russian verbs

- Padonkaffsky jargon, a slang language developed by padonki of Runet

- Quelia, a macaronic language with Russian-derived basic structure and part of the lexicon (mainly nouns and verbs) borrowed from German

- Runglish, a Russian-English pidgin. This word is also used by English speakers to describe the way in which Russians attempt to speak English using Russian morphology or syntax.

- Russenorsk, an extinct pidgin language with mostly Russian vocabulary and mostly Norwegian grammar, used for communication between Russians and Norwegian traders in the Pomor trade in Finnmark and the Kola Peninsula

- Surzhyk, a range of mixed (macaronic) sociolects of Ukrainian and Russian languages used in certain regions of Ukraine and adjacent lands.

- Trasianka, a heavily russified variety of Belarusian used by a large portion of the rural population in Belarus

- Taimyr Pidgin Russian, spoken by the Nganasan on the Taimyr Peninsula

## Alphabet

Russian is written using a Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound:

Older letters of the Russian alphabet include ⟨ ѣ ⟩, which merged to ⟨ е ⟩ (/je/ or /ʲe/); ⟨ і ⟩ and ⟨ ѵ ⟩, which both merged to ⟨ и ⟩ (/i/); ⟨ ѳ ⟩, which merged to ⟨ ф ⟩ (/f/); ⟨ ѫ ⟩, which merged to ⟨ у ⟩ (/u/); ⟨ ѭ ⟩, which merged to ⟨ ю ⟩ (/ju/ or /ʲu/); and ⟨ ѧ ⟩ and ⟨ ѩ ⟩, which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨ я ⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/. While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ ъ ⟩ and ⟨ ь ⟩ originally indicated the pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/, /ĭ/.

### Transliteration

Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz, and мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš'. Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding, which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs are available offering this Unicode extension, which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards.

### Computing

The Russian language was first introduced to computing after the M-1, and MESM models were produced in 1951.

### Orthography

According to the Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent (знак ударения) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress. For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: замо́к (zamók – "lock") – за́мок (zámok – "castle"), сто́ящий (stóyashchy – "worthwhile") – стоя́щий (stoyáshchy – "standing"), чудно́ (chudnó – "this is odd") – чу́дно (chúdno – "this is marvellous"), молоде́ц (molodéts – "well done!") – мо́лодец (mólodets – "fine young man"), узна́ю (uznáyu – "I shall learn it") – узнаю́ (uznayú – "I recognize it"), отреза́ть (otrezát – "to be cutting") – отре́зать (otrézat – "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like афе́ра (aféra, "scandal, affair"), гу́ру (gúru, "guru"), Гарси́я (García), Оле́ша (Olésha), Фе́рми (Fermi), and to show which is the stressed word in a sentence, for example Ты́ съел печенье? (Tý syel pechenye? – "Was it you who ate the cookie?") – Ты съе́л печенье? (Ty syél pechenye? – "Did you eat the cookie?) – Ты съел пече́нье? (Ty syel pechénye? "Was it the cookie you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners.

## Phonology

The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using a formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows:

(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)

### Consonants

Russian is notable for its distinction based on palatalization of most of its consonants. The phoneme / ts / is generally considered to be always hard; however, loan words such as Цюрих and some other neologisms contain / tsʲ / through the word-building processes (e.g. фрицёнок, шпицята). Palatalization means that the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. In the case of /tʲ/ and /dʲ/, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication (affricate sounds; cf. Belarusian ць, дзь, or Polish ć, dź). The sounds /t, d, ts, s, z, n, rʲ/ are dental, that is, pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the alveolar ridge. According to some linguists, the "plain" consonants are velarized as in Irish, something which is most noticeable when it involves a labial before a hard vowel, such as мы, /mˠɨː/, "we", or бэ, /bˠɛ/, "the letter Б".

### Vowels

Russian has five or six vowels in stressed syllables, /i, u, e, o, a/, and in some analyses /ɨ/, but in most cases these vowels have merged to only two to four vowels when unstressed: /i, u, a/ (or /ɨ, u, a/) after hard consonants and /i, u/ after soft ones. These vowels have several allophones, which are displayed on the diagram to the right.

## Grammar

Russian has preserved an Indo-European synthetic - inflectional structure, although considerable leveling has occurred.Russian grammar encompasses:

- a highly fusional morphology

- a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements: a polished vernacular foundation; a Church Slavonic inheritance; a Western European style.

- a polished vernacular foundation;

- a Church Slavonic inheritance;

- a Western European style.

The spoken language has been influenced by the literary one but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features.

In terms of actual grammar, there are three tenses in Russian – past, present, and future – and each verb has two aspects (perfective and imperfective). Russian nouns each have a gender – either feminine, masculine, or neuter, chiefly indicated by spelling at the end of the word. Words change depending on both their gender and function in the sentence. Russian has six cases: Nominative (for the grammatical subject), Accusative (for direct objects), Dative (for indirect objects), Genitive (to indicate possession or relation), Instrumental (to indicate 'with' or 'by means of'), and Prepositional (used after the locative prepositions в "in", на "on", о "about", при "in the presence of"). Verbs of motion in Russian – such as 'go', 'walk', 'run', 'swim', and 'fly' – use the imperfective or perfective form to indicate a single or return trip, and also use a multitude of prefixes to add shades of meaning to the verb. Such verbs also take on different forms to distinguish between concrete and abstract motion.

## Vocabulary

The number of listed words or entries in some of the major dictionaries published during the past two centuries, are as follows:

## History and literary language

No single periodization is universally accepted, but the history of the Russian language is sometimes divided into the following periods:

- Old Russian or Old East Slavic (until the 14th or 15th century)

- Middle Russian (14th or 15th century until the 17th or 18th century)

- Modern Russian (17th century or 18th century to the present)

The history of the Russian language is also divided into Old Russian from the 11th to 17th centuries, followed by Modern Russian.

The political reforms of Peter the Great (Пётр Вели́кий, Pyótr Velíky) were accompanied by a reform of the alphabet, and achieved their goal of secularization and Westernization. Blocks of specialized vocabulary were adopted from the languages of Western Europe. By 1800, a significant portion of the gentry spoke French daily, and German sometimes. Many Russian novels of the 19th century, e.g. Leo Tolstoy 's (Лев Толсто́й) War and Peace, contain entire paragraphs and even pages in French with no translation given, with an assumption that educated readers would not need one.

The modern literary language is usually considered to date from the time of Alexander Pushkin (Алекса́ндр Пу́шкин) in the first third of the 19th century. Pushkin revolutionized Russian literature by rejecting archaic grammar and vocabulary (so-called высо́кий стиль — "high style") in favor of grammar and vocabulary found in the spoken language of the time. Even modern readers of younger age may only experience slight difficulties understanding some words in Pushkin's texts, since relatively few words used by Pushkin have become archaic or changed meaning. In fact, many expressions used by Russian writers of the early 19th century, in particular Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov (Михаи́л Ле́рмонтов), Nikolai Gogol (Никола́й Го́голь), Aleksander Griboyedov (Алекса́ндр Грибое́дов), became proverbs or sayings which can be frequently found even in modern Russian colloquial speech.

During the Soviet period, the policy toward the languages of the various other ethnic groups fluctuated in practice. Though each of the constituent republics had its own official language, the unifying role and superior status was reserved for Russian, although it was declared the official language only in 1990. Following the break-up of the USSR in 1991, several of the newly independent states have encouraged their native languages, which has partly reversed the privileged status of Russian, though its role as the language of post-Soviet national discourse throughout the region has continued.

The Russian language in the world declined after 1991 due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and decrease in the number of Russians in the world and diminution of the total population in Russia (where Russian is an official language), however this has since been reversed.

According to figures published in 2006 in the journal " Demoskop Weekly " research deputy director of Research Center for Sociological Research of the Ministry of Education and Science (Russia) Arefyev A. L., the Russian language is gradually losing its position in the world in general, and in Russia in particular. In 2012, A. L. Arefyev published a new study "Russian language at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries", in which he confirmed his conclusion about the trend of weakening of the Russian language after the Soviet Union's collapse in various regions of the world (findings published in 2013 in the journal " Demoskop Weekly "). In the countries of the former Soviet Union the Russian language was being replaced or used in conjunction with local languages. Currently, the number of speakers of Russian in the world depends on the number of Russians in the world and total population in Russia.

## Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Russian:

Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своем достоинстве и правах. Они наделены разумом и совестью и должны поступать в отношении друг друга в духе братства.

The romanization of the text into Latin alphabet:

Vse lyudi rozhdayutsya svobodnymi i ravnymi v svoyem dostoinstve i pravakh. Oni nadeleny razumom i sovest'yu i dolzhny postupat' v otnoshenii drug druga v dukhe bratstva.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.


IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack

# IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack

## Abstract

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is a 2024 Indian Hindi -language crime thriller drama television mini series about the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 in 1999. It is directed by Anubhav Sinha and written by Adrian Levy and Trishant Srivastava. Produced by Sarita Patil and Sanjay Routray under Matchbox Shots and Benaras Mediaworks, it stars an ensemble cast led by Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Dia Mirza and Arvind Swamy.

The series premiered globally on Netflix on 29 August 2024. It has become the most watched show on Netflix for the week 2-8 September.

## Cast

- Vijay Varma as Captain Sharan Dev, head pilot of IC 814 (based on Captain Devi Sharan)

- Naseeruddin Shah as Cabinet Secretary Vinay Kaul, IAS (based on Prabhat Kumar)

- Pankaj Kapur as Vijaybhan Singh, Minister of External Affairs (based on Jaswant Singh)

- Arvind Swamy as DRS, Secretary of MEA

- Dia Mirza as Shalini "Sha" Chandra, Editor of India Headlines

- Kumud Mishra as Ranjan Mishra, Joint Secretary of RAW

- Manoj Pahwa as Mukul Mohan, Additional Director of IB

- Aditya Srivastava as V K Agarwal, Head of RAW

- Additi Gupta as Air Hostess Chhaya

- Patralekha Paul as Air Hostess Indrani

- Amrita Puri as Nandini Martin, Reporter of India Headlines newspaper

- Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Abhijeet Kumar, senior officer in the MEA

- Pooja Gor as Simar Dev, Sharan's wife

- Kanwaljit Singh as J P Kohli, Director of IB

- Anupam Tripathi as Ram Chandra Yadav, RAW agent in Kathmandu

- Yashpal Sharma as Sanjay Mehta (cameo appearance)

- Sushant Singh as Lt. General Ravi Shankar, Director General of NSG (cameo appearance)

- Karan Desai as First Officer Sunil Sachdeva, secondary pilot of IC 814

- Girish Dhaneja as Flight Engineer Rajendra Nangia, IC 814

- Mu'azzam Bhat as Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, Foreign Minister of Afghanistan

- Asif Ali as Usmani

- Meer Sadhwani as Nabibullah Barkazai

- Harminder Singh as Shahid Akhtar Sayeed alias "Doctor" (hijacker)

- Diljhon as Sunny Ahmed Qazi alias "Burger" (hijacker)

- Rajiv Thakur as Ibrahim Akhtar alias "Chief" (hijacker)

- Kunal Chopra as Zahoor Mistry (hijacker)

- Kamal Batra as Sakir (hijacker)

## Production

It is adapted from the book Flight Into Fear by Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chowdhury. In December 2023, A series on Amazon Prime Video was canceled due to Tandav controversy.

In February 2024, The series was announced on Netflix. The trailer of this series was released on 19 August 2024.

## Reception

### Critical response

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and stated that "Authentic and to the point, Vijay Varma starrer is as good a web series as any we have seen this year" Shubham Kulkarni of OTT Play gave the series 4/5 stars and stated " IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack doesn't forcefully create a hero and Anubhav Sinha wins exactly there when he honours each being who managed to save even themselves." Divya Raje Bhonsale of Mathrubhumi rated the series 4/5 stars and states "A gripping Netflix series based on the 1999 Kandahar hijack, 'IC 814' features an impressive ensemble cast and a razor-sharp script. Must-watch for fans of historical dramas." A critic for Bollywood Hungama rated the web series 3.5 stars out of 5 and wrote "On the whole, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack sees the coming together of some of the most talented names of Indian cinema and also throws light on the shocking aspects of the 1999 hijack episode. Due to the taut execution, strong script and of course the ensemble cast, the show is sure to get a huge viewership."

Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com rated the series 3.5 stars out of 5 stars and notes " IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack begins by asking why the hijack lasted seven days and ends in wondering if the good guys fought the bad ones hard enough." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the series 3/5 stars and notes "The Vijay Varma-Naseeruddin Shah-Pankaj Kapur show keeps it grounded, even when it’s in the air, and manages to distribute the tension evenly throughout." Shreyas Pande from Cinema Express rated the series 2.5 stars out of 5 stars and states "It’s a new leap here, as he (Anubhav Sinha) makes his web series debut and largely creates an engaging experience by showing nearly all that transpired during the dreadful hijack. Yet, something seems amiss. As the credits roll, you know certain information and it is just about enough to leave you curious. Nothing more, nothing less." Devansh Sharma of Hindustan Times notes "But in his (Anubhav Sinha) debut web series, he pulls off the Herculean task of telling a historical hijack story through a holistic, accurate, and non-judgemental lens." Anuj Kumar of The Hindu notes "Anubhav Sinha recreates the story of the longest hijack in Indian aviation history with precision, fairness and a touch of humanity."

Vir Sanghvi, a veteran journalist, slammed the filmmakers for being naive and misleading, suggesting that the series offers a whitewashed portrayal of an ISI operation while failing to accurately represent the threat posed by the hijackers.

## Inaccuracies

Several experts, high-ranking officers, senior journalists and the crew of the flight, including the former RAW chief A.S. Dulat and Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, have criticized the series for its historical inaccuracies and not showing the passengers' perspective correctly.

AS Dulat, then chief of RAW, told India Today TV "There’s no doubt that the ISI had a role in this. It wasn’t just based on our intelligence reports; a well-known Pakistani journalist was in Kandahar at the time. He reported that it was obvious the ISI was orchestrating and controlling the entire operation". G Parthasarathy, India's high commissioner to Pakistan at the time of the IC 814 hijacking, calls Sinha's portrayal of al-Qaida and Taliban role "ridiculous". He said in an interview, "It was totally Pakistani involvement. The persons concerned were Pakistanis. The people they wanted released were Pakistanis. So there is no question of al-Qaida, that's the farthest thing to say".

The series also shows intelligence from the Kathmandu RAW team on a possible hijacking of an Indian aircraft reaching the agency's headquarters in Delhi, which has been denied by multiple officers of RAW, including the former RAW chief, AS Dulat.

The series is also criticized for its gentle portrayal of the hijackers, with hijackers being empathetic towards the injured crew and passengers on board, while in reality, the hijackers had killed a person onboard and stabbed a German citizen Satnam Singh.

The series also failed to show the hijackers' attempts to religiously convert the passengers on board. Ipseeta Menon, one of the survivors of the hijack, recalled how the hijackers tried to convert them. She said "The Netflix series has missed the long speeches by 'Doctor'". She also said "The high tension among the passengers hasn't been captured well".

### Names of terrorists

The series has been criticized for changing the Pakistani terrorists real names to code names and Hindu names. The identities of the five hijackers were determined to be Ibrahim Akhtar (from Bahawalpur), Shahid Akhtar Sayeed, Sunny Ahmed Qaz i, Zahoor Mistry (all three from Karachi) and Shakir (from Sukkur). However, the series used their code names like Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, Burger, and Chief. This decision has led to accusations that the series downplays the identities of the terrorists, which some viewers argue dilutes the historical context and impact of the real events. Historian and Journalist Hindol Sengupta called the film “pathetic” for what he sees as its glorification of terrorists. He added that the series doesn't acknowledge the long-term impact of the terrorists released during the hijacking, diminishing the severity of the real-life events.

Journalist Neelesh Mishra, who has written a book on the hijacking, said "All the hijackers assumed false names. That is how they referred to each other and how the passengers referred to them throughout the hijacking". He also clarified that he hasn't seen the series

Pooja Kataria, one of the survivors of IC814 hijack who was returning from her honeymoon in Kathmandu, said that the controversy over the show is unnecessary. She said "I have seen it. The controversy which is going on is needless. There is nothing like this, true event has been depicted and they (hijackers) had code names and they used to call each other using those names." She recalled that one of the hijacker with code name Burger gave her a shawl for her birthday, had conversations with the passengers and played Antakshari game during the hijacking.

Following the public uproar, India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting directed the content chief of Netflix India to appear before it and offer an explanation about the allegedly contentious aspects of the web series. Netflix responded by saying it would add new opening disclaimers to include the real and code names of the hijackers. However, some viewers outside India reported that this disclaimer was missing in version shown outside of India and was only present in the Indian version of it.


Marco Van Hees

# Marco Van Hees

## Abstract

Marco Van Hees (born 15 March 1964) is a Belgian tax specialist, politician and former member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of the Workers' Party of Belgium, he represented Hainaut from June 2014 to May 2024.

Van Hees was born on 15 March 1964 in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe. He has degree in political sciences from the Université libre de Bruxelles. He worked briefly for ASLK/CGER before becoming a civil servant at Federal Public Service Finance. He was also a trade union representative for the General Labour Federation of Belgium (FGTB). He was a journalist at Solidaire, the Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB)'s magazine, for many years and has written several books.

Van Hees contested the 2010 federal election as the PTB's first placed candidate in the French speaking electoral college but the party failed to win any seats in the Senate electoral college. He was elected to the Chamber of Representatives at the 2014 federal election. He was re-elected at the 2024 federal election He contested the 2024 federal election as the PTB's 17th placed candidate in Hainaut but was not re-elected.

Van Hees lives in Morlanwelz and has two children. He plays the guitar in a band called Flying Shoes.

## Works


Warren Byrd

# Warren Byrd

## Abstract

Warren Byrd (born January 24, 1965) is an Afro-American jazz pianist, vocalist and composer.

He performs live and tours as a solo pianist and vocalist with, his own band: the Byrdspeak Ensemble, is co-leader with Jewish bassist and composer David Chevan of the Afro-Semitic Experience, with Dutch trumpeter and composer Saskia Laroo and her formations.

## Biography

He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, as the youngest of sixteen and started to sing in the church choir at age 4. He first started to play the piano at age nine and to compose piano two years later. His teacher piano and music theory was the church music director Thomassian Neely. He went to South Catholic High School and got lessons there from R. Lesie Childs. During his teens he got interested in theatre and performed with the Hartford Stage Company. He graduated in 1983 from high school and earned a full scholarship Classical Voice at Hartt College of Music but abandoned his studies to pursuit jazz piano studies, primarily self-taught. Between 1983 and 1989 he continued to perform in theatre and dance as actor and musician with the Performing Ensemble and the Hartford Contemporary Dance Ensemble, became a choir director at a Baptist Church in Hartford, worked with Nubian Nation from 1991 to 1993; with Orchestra Espada from 1989 till 1996; with Mike DiRubbo Quartet; the Explorers Quintet with trombonist Steve Davis, Mixashawn Quartet. He worked as a sideman with Eddie Henderson, Archie Shepp, Javon Jackson, J.D. Parran, Houston Person, Roseanne Vitro, and with Hartford musicians including Paul H. Brown, Nat Reeves, Norman Gage, and Mario Pavone. He placed in the top 25 of the 1999 Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition and was nominated for Advocate’s Best of Hartford Keyboardist 8 times between 1994 and 2002. Current performances include with his own formations, the Saskia Laroo Band, Duo Laroo/Byrd, The Afro-Semitic Experience.

## Discography

1998 Warren Byrd, David Chevan - Avadim Hayinu (Once We Were Slaves) (CD) Reckless DC Music

2000 Warren Byrd - Truth Raised Twice (CD) Byrdspeak Productions

2000 David Chevan, Warren Byrd - Let Us Break Bread Together (CD) Reckless DC Music

2004 Funk de Nite - J-5 (CD album) Laroo Records

2011 Saskia Laroo & Warren Byrd - Two Of A Kind, Collaboration, A Tribute To Miles & Monk (CD, Album) Laroo Records, Byrdspeak Productions

2014 Saskia Laroo Band - Live in Zimbabwe (DVD, CD album) Laroo Records

2016 M.A. Bakker* Featuring Warren Byrd - Rejected Scripts (CD, Album) Maarten Bakker

2019 Saskia Laroo - Trumpets Around The World (Cd, vinyl album) Laroo Records

2020 Warren Byrd - Truth Raised Twice (CD) Laroo Records / Byrdspeak Productions (re-release)

## Performances

2020: India (World Jazz Fest in Mumbai and Goa), the Netherlands, the US

2019: Burundi (Dutch Kings Day), the Netherlands, Thailand (Krabi Naga Fest), the US

2018: the Netherlands, the US, Vietnam (Dutch Kings Day, 45 year relations Holland-Vietnam

2017: Serbia (Dutch Kings Day), South Korea, the Netherlands, the US

2016: Belgium, China Tour, Croatia Tour, France, India Tour, Indonesia tour, the Netherlands, the US.

2015: Bangla Desh, Italy, India, Lithuenia (Klaipeda Jazz Festival), Poland, the Netherlands (Aalsmeer Jazz Weekend, Amersfoort & Apeldoorn Jazzfestivals), Russia, the US (a.o. Cape Cod, MA; Carlyle, PA)

2014: Germany, the Netherlands, Poland (Jelenia Gora Jazzfest), the US (a.o. Atlanta, GA; Winston Salem, NC; Sacramento, GA)

2013: DR Congo (Jazzkif Fest), Thailand (a.o. Bangkok Festivals), the Netherlands (a.o. festivals Amersfoort, Zandvoort), the US, Zimbabwe (a.o. HIFA)

2012: Mexico & Guatemala (a.o. Eurojazz), Oman (Sohar Music Festival), US (a.o. Distinctively Dutch Tour), the Netherlands (a.o. Festivals Breda, Leeuwarden, Oisterwijk)

2011: Belgium (a.o. Gouvy Jazz), Brazil (Rio das Ostras Jazz e Blues Fest), Canada (Sunfest), Croatia, Finland (Imatra Big Band Fest), India, the Netherlands, the US.

2010: Belgium, Bulgaria (Balcik Fest), Chile (8 concerts a.o. Bicentenario, International jazzfest Puerto Montt), Georgia, Germany (Women in Jazz Festival, Halle), Hong Kong (Music Beyond Borders), India, Italy, Moldavia, the Netherlands (jazzfests Amersfoort, Apeldoorn, Heiloo etc), Poland, Russia, Serbia (Nisville Jazzfest), Thailand (Koh Samui JF, Jazzup Bangkok), the US.

2009: ao Bahrain jazzfest, France (Hotel de Ville, Paris), India (jazz Utsav Fest), Kuwait jazzfest, Netherlands (jazzfestivals Almere; Amersfoort; Breda; Hoofddorp), Oman (Sohar Music Fest), Qatar jazzfest, the US (ao Hartford, CT; Chicago, MI; New York; Nedfest, Nederland, Colorado; Boston; Detroit).

2008: Brazil (ao Sampa Jazz Festival /Sao Paulo, Olinda Jazz Fest), Germany (Women in Jazz Festival, Halle), India (Chivas Jazz Fest 4 cities), Moldavia (Ethno Jazzfest), Netherlands, Poland (Era Jazzu),Russia, Singapore (Mosaic Festival), Senegal, Taiwan (Taichung Jazzfest, Holland Days Tainan), Ukraine, the US (Nedfest).

2007: Austria (Steyr Jazzfest), Brazil, China, Croatia (festivals Osijek, Histria), India(2 tours: Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Pune), Italy (Lucca Donna Jazz Fest), Netherlands, Poland(Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa), Ukraine, Russia, South Africa (Cape Town Jazzfest), Swiss (Montreux Jazzfestival), Taiwan, Thailand (Bangkok Festivals), the US (Rochester Jazzfest / Parkville Bluesfest/Montreux-Atlanta Jazzfestival)

2006: Belgium, Croatia (Jazzfestivals Zadar & Losinj), France, Italy (Women Jazz series), Germany, Nepal (Garden of Dreams Jazz Affair), the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovenia (Festival Lent), Swiss (Montreux Jazzfestival), the US.

2005: Austria, Croatia (Split Jazz Festival), Czech Republic (Prague Jazz Festival), France, Indonesia (Java Jazz Festival), Japan, Lebanon (Grand Hills Jazz Festival), the Netherlands, Nicaragua (Tolerancia Festival), Poland (Ladies Festival), Russia, Surinam (Surinam Jazz Festival), the US.

2004: China, Croatia, Czech Republic (Prague Jazz Festival), France, India (Jazz Yatra Festival), Indonesia (Bali Jazz Festival), Kuwait Jazz Festival, Lithuania (Gaida Contemporary Music Festival), the Netherlands, Poland.

2003: Croatia (several international festivals), the Netherlands, Poland (several international festivals), Russia.

2002: Baltic States (Mama Jazz Festival), Croatia, Curacao (Curacao Jazz Festival), France, Germany, the Netherlands, the US.


Nuclear Throne

# Nuclear Throne

## Abstract

Nuclear Throne is a bullet hell roguelike video game developed by Vlambeer. Set in a post-apocalypse world, players are tasked with killing enemies by using various weapons and characters' special abilities to progress through levels and eventually reach the titular Nuclear Throne. The game is widely known for its steep difficulty curve and fast-paced gameplay. Early prototypes of the game were distributed through Steam 's early access program in 2013. Nuclear Throne was released for Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita in December 2015, for Nintendo Switch in March 2019, and for Xbox One in September 2021.

## Gameplay

Nuclear Throne is a top-down shooter roguelike game with bullet hell elements. The game consists of two main game modes: single-player, and a local cooperative gameplay mode. There are also daily and weekly challenge modes, allowing the player to compete against others via the Steam platform for the best score (determined by the number of kills in the playthrough), on the same set of randomly generated levels. The player controls one of a total of 12 characters, 10 of which must be unlocked through play. Two additional secret characters can only be played under special circumstances during play. Each character has an ability unique to them, adding an additional element to the gameplay. These individual abilities allow for different play-styles, improving the variety and replay value of the game. Secondary sprites or skins can be acquired for the characters played if the player completes special or secret tasks. The player progresses through the linear level structure until level 7–3, where the final boss, the Nuclear Throne, who has to be defeated. After this, the player may choose to loop to the beginning of the game again with a greatly increased difficulty. The user may continue looping indefinitely until death.

The game resets upon death. Except for special weapons acquired in a hidden level and "crowns" retained until after defeating the final boss, anything acquired in one playthrough does not carry over to the next. The game has a leveling system, where the player gains experience in the form of radiation pellets, or "rads", dropped by enemies, that allow them to get different mutations and choose what would benefit the character the most out of a selection of four, randomly selected mutations. Upon reaching level 10, the player can choose a character-specific "ultra-mutation".

The player starts with the basic revolver, but they may upgrade by taking weapons from red chests and collect more ammunition from yellow chests. The player can have two weapons equipped at any time, such as a shovel and an assault rifle. The weapons available to the player get increasingly advanced and powerful as the enemies become increasingly difficult and numerous. After looping the game, special "golden" and "ultra" weapons become available. Aside from certain melee weapons, weapons consume one of five different ammo types (bullet, energy, shell, bolt, and explosive).

## Plot

Nuclear Throne features a minimal plot. The game's community has formed theories about Nuclear Throne' s story by analyzing the game's world, environment details and loading tips. Most canon information shared by the developers was revealed during development livestreams.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, characters called mutants have gathered together with the aim of travelling throughout the world to reach the Nuclear Throne. The developers theorize each new run is a new alternate universe, where everybody is alive and they have yet to decide who will attempt to complete the task.

## Development

Vlambeer's Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismail served as the game's designer and producer, respectively, and shared the development work. Paul Veer, who had previously animated Vlambeer's Super Crate Box, returned to contribute art to Nuclear Throne. The game's promotional art was drawn by Justin Chan, an art student hired on the basis of his fan art for early releases of the game. Nuclear Throne ' s music was composed by Jukio Kallio, who had composed for several previous Vlambeer titles. A friend of Kallio's, Joonas Turner, worked on the sound effect design.

Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismael were invited by Notch, to participate in a 48-hour charity game jam called Mojam Humble in 2013. During this game jam the two created a game called Wasteland Kings which later became the prototype to Nuclear Throne. At the beginning of development, Nuclear Throne was created in Game Maker 7 before transitioning to Game Maker Studio to develop the rest of the product, a decision the team later found cumbersome. Nuclear Throne's development was secondary to their other project at the time, Luftrausers, and the team often found themselves progressively adding new features before considering taking the game seriously as a commercial option. Nuclear Throne ' s development took 2.5 years, beginning in February 2013 and releasing into Steam Early Access that same year. During PAX Prime 2013 Vlambeer showed off the prototype for Nuclear Throne, known as Wasteland Kings, with five of the twelve characters playable in the prototype. After the release of Nuclear Throne to early access, this prototype was made for public download. It was revealed by Rami Ismail that the name change was due primarily to a trademark issue with InXile Entertainment. Following the Mojam tradition of livestreaming the development process, the team decided to continue livestreaming their progress for Nuclear Throne which was a development process they later dubbed “Performative Game Development”. The livestreams offered opportunities for the developers to interact directly with their community and increase their game's exposure to new audiences. Rami noticed a significant boost in exposure when other live streamers on the Twitch platform were interacting with and playing Nuclear Throne. For example, they had a significant sales spike when Northernlion, a content creator, played the game on stream. Vlambeer announced PlayStation 4 and Vita releases at the December 2015 PlayStation Experience keynote.

The aspect ratio of Nuclear Throne is permanently set to 4:3 instead of the industry standard 16:9. This was done to create an even balance of visual threats onscreen. Vlambeer generates their random levels using “workers”. This programming system creates tiles and walls beginning from the character with a random amount of distance it can cover. Once the walker reaches the end of its randomized distance it will place an item or object of interest such as an ammo crate or explosive barrel. Each region within the game has its own sets of random generation restrictions creating distinct differences between the progressive areas.

## Release

In January 2016, Vlambeer teamed up with the subscription box company, IndieBox, to offer a physical release of Nuclear Throne. This limited collector's edition included a themed USB drive with DRM -free game file, soundtrack, instruction manual, Steam key, and various custom-designed collectibles.

## Reception

Nuclear Throne has received positive reviews from critics, with the game's PS4 version scoring 82/100 on Metacritic, and the Windows version 89/100.

Alexander Chatziioannou of Hardcore Gamer gave the game a 4 out of 5 saying, " Nuclear Throne is impeccably presented and tightly designed. There is enough variety in characters, upgrades and weapons to ensure that playthroughs never get repetitive and its visceral combat is a joy in itself." Jordan Devore from Destructoid rated the game an 8/10 saying, "it's one of the hardest, most rewarding games I've ever played. But as satisfying as it can eventually become, I think it is far too demanding for its own good."

IGN awarded it a score of 9.0 out of 10, saying " Nuclear Throne is an enjoyably tough run-and-gun with tons of energy and variety to justify hours and hours of replays."


Argument of latitude

# Argument of latitude

## Abstract

In celestial mechanics, the argument of latitude (u {\displaystyle u}) is an angular parameter that defines the position of a body moving along a Kepler orbit. It is the angle between the ascending node and the body.

It is the sum of the more commonly used true anomaly and argument of periapsis.

u = ν + ω {\displaystyle u=\nu +\omega }

where u {\displaystyle u} is the argument of latitude, ν {\displaystyle \nu } the true anomaly, and ω {\displaystyle \omega } the argument of periapsis.


Cameron Devlin

# Cameron Devlin

## Abstract

Cameron Peter Devlin (born 7 June 1998) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a defensive midfielder for Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian and the Australia national team.

## Club career

### Sydney FC

After being part of Sydney FC NPL team, Devlin got a call up to play for Sydney FC in the 2018–19 A-League season, making seven appearances off the bench including an AFC Champions League appearance against Kawasaki Frontale. He scored his first professional goal on 1 March 2019 in a 2–0 win over Adelaide.

### Wellington Phoenix

On 4 July 2019, Devlin signed a two-year deal with the Wellington Phoenix after turning down a contract to stay with Sydney. In his first few months, Devlin only made sporadic appearances off the bench alongside two appearances for the reserve team.

On 14 December 2019, following an injury to regular midfielder Alex Rufer, Devlin made his starting debut for the Phoenix in a 0–0 draw with Melbourne Victory; he quickly became an integral player for the team, being named A-League Player of the Month for December and retaining his starting spot even when Rufer recovered.

### Heart of Midlothian

On 28 June 2021, it was announced that Devlin had signed a two-year deal with the Newcastle Jets. However, by August 2021 a transfer fee had been agreed with the Jets for Devlin to join Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian, subject to the player securing a United Kingdom visa, which he did on 24 August.

## International career

### Youth

In October 2015, Devlin was selected for the Australia under-20 team to play in 2016 AFC U-19 Championship qualification. He made his youth international debut on 4 October 2015, playing in a win over Laos.

Devlin was initially named as a reserve players for the Australian under-23 side at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. He was added to the Australian Olympic squad after the International Olympic Committee expanded squad sizes for the tournament.

Devlin made one appearance at the 2020 Olympic Games, coming on as a late substitute as Australia lost 2–0 to Egypt.

### Senior

Devlin was called up to the Australian senior side for the first time in September 2022 for two friendly matches against New Zealand in the leadup to the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He came on for his senior international debut as a second-half substitute in the second game on 25 September 2022, in Auckland.

On 8 November 2022, it was announced that Devlin was included in the Australian squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Devlin did not take the field in the tournament for Australia, who were eliminated by Argentina in the round of sixteen.

## Honours

Sydney FC

- A-League Championship: 2019

- FFA Cup runner-up: 2018

Individual

- A-League Men Player of the Month: December 2019


Michael Gogov

# Michael Gogov

## Abstract

Michael (Macedonian: Архиепископ Охридски и Македонски г.г. Михаил, romanized: Arhiepiskop Ohridski i Makedonski g.g. Mihail) (20 March 1912 – 6 July 1999) was an Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia. He established the first Macedonian Orthodox parish outside Yugoslavia.

Archbishop Michael was born in Novo Selo, Ottoman Empire (present-day North Macedonia) in 1912. He had been a longstanding professor and dean at the theological faculty of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje before being elected as the leader of the Macedonian Orthodox Church on December 4, 1993.

Archbishop Michael died on July 6, 1999, and is remembered for his great oratory.


# List of NFL players who have posted a perfect passer rating

## Abstract

In the National Football League (NFL), the highest official passer rating that a player can achieve is 158.3, which is called a "perfect passer rating". To qualify, during a single game a player must attempt at least 10 passes, have no interceptions, have a minimum completion percentage of 77.5%, have a minimum of 11.875% of their passes score touchdowns, and have a minimum of 12.5 yards on average per attempt. The passer rating was developed in 1971.

As of the 2024 season, there have been 79 instances of a perfect passer rating in the regular season among 66 players. Seven players have achieved the feat more than once: Ben Roethlisberger four times; Tom Brady, Lamar Jackson, Peyton Manning, and Kurt Warner three times each; and Craig Morton and Ken O'Brien twice each.

Four players have posted a perfect passer rating in a postseason game: Terry Bradshaw, Dave Krieg, Peyton Manning and Don Meredith. Krieg and Manning are the only players to have a perfect passer rating during the regular season and the postseason. No player has posted multiple perfect passer ratings in the postseason.

Ben Roethlisberger (2007) and Lamar Jackson (2019) are the only quarterbacks with multiple perfect ratings in a single regular season. Three teams have had two different quarterbacks achieve a perfect rating in the same season: The 1954 Cleveland Browns with Otto Graham and George Ratterman, the 1973 Atlanta Falcons with Dick Shiner and Bob Lee, and the 1989 San Francisco 49ers with Steve Young and Joe Montana. Peyton Manning had a perfect rating in the 2003 regular season followed by one in the 2003 postseason.

Drew Bledsoe, Robert Griffin III, and Marcus Mariota are the only players to achieve a perfect passer rating in their rookie seasons, with Mariota being the only quarterback to post one in his NFL debut.

Five of these performances were in a losing cause, though Chad Pennington was the only quarterback to play from start to finish and record both a loss and a perfect rating. Fourteen players have had a game in which they earned a perfect 158.3 passer rating and another game in which they earned a 0.0, the lowest possible passer rating, during their career. Geno Smith had a perfect rating and a zero rating in the same season (2014).

## List

## Statistics

Only Nick Foles has accomplished a perfect passer rating with seven touchdowns thrown. Two players have accomplished a perfect passer rating with six touchdowns thrown: Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Thirteen players have accomplished a perfect passer rating with only two touchdowns thrown: it is impossible to achieve a perfect passer rating with less than two touchdowns because of the 10 attempt minimum to qualify and the minimum 11.875% touchdown-to-attempted-pass ratio.

Six players have accomplished a perfect passer rating with 30 or more attempts: Jared Goff, Ken O'Brien, Dak Prescott, Aaron Rodgers, Kurt Warner, and Deshaun Watson.

Ryan Tannehill holds the record for highest completion rate in a perfect game, completing 18 of 19 passes (94.7%) in 2015. Chris Chandler has the best rate for a game with at least 20 pass attempts, completing 23 of 26 passes (88.5%)

Jared Goff has the most passing yards in a perfect game, with 465. Six other players – Nick Foles, Ken O'Brien, Dak Prescott, Aaron Rodgers, and Deshaun Watson– have each accomplished a perfect passer rating with more than 400 passing yards.

Scott Hunter has the fewest passing yards in a perfect game, with 138. Drew Bledsoe and Rich Gannon also achieved a perfect game with less than 150 yards. The lowest number of yards possible for a perfect game is 125, due to the 10 attempt minimum.

Ben Roethlisberger holds the record of accomplishing a perfect passer rating with most yards per pass attempt (19.8.)

Three players have accomplished a perfect passer rating in their rookie season: Drew Bledsoe, Robert Griffin III, and Marcus Mariota. Mariota is the only player to do so in his professional debut. Two players have accomplished a perfect passer rating twice in the same season: Lamar Jackson and Ben Roethlisberger

On two separate occasions, two players achieved a perfect passer rating on the same day. The first occurrence was on October 29, 1978, when Steve Grogan and Brian Sipe each achieved a perfect passer rating. The second occurrence was on September 8, 2019, when both Lamar Jackson and Dak Prescott accomplished the feat.

Tom Brady is the oldest player to have ever post a perfect passer rating, accomplishing the record feat at 43 years, 145 days old. Brady also holds the largest time span between first and last perfect ratings, with 13 years, 66 days.