Cixous.

Hélène Cixous first coined "écriture féminine" in her essay "The Laugh of the Medusa" (1975), where she asserts "woman must write her self: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies" because their sexual pleasure has been repressed and denied expression. Inspired by Cixous' essay, a recent book titled "Laughing with Medusa" (2006) analyzes the collective work of Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Bracha Ettinger and Hélène Cixous. These writers are as a whole referred to by Anglophones as "the French feminists," though Mary Klages, Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has pointed out that "poststructuralist theoretical feminists" would be a more accurate term. Madeleine Gagnon is a more recent proponent. And since the aforementioned 1975 when Cixous also founded women's studies at Vincennes, she has been as a spokeswoman for the group "Psychanalyse et politique" and a prolific writer of texts for their publishing house, "des femmes". And when asked of her own writing she says, ""Je suis là où ça parle"" ("I am there where it/id/the female unconscious speaks.")  American feminist critic and writer Elaine Showalter defines this movement as "the inscription of the feminine body and female difference in language and text." "Écriture féminine" places experience before language, and privileges non-linear, cyclical writing that evades "the discourse that regulates the phallocentric system." Because language is not a neutral medium, it can be said to function as an instrument of patriarchal expression. As Peter Barry writes, “the female writer is seen as suffering the handicap of having to use a medium (prose writing) which is essentially a male instrument fashioned for male purposes”. "Ecriture féminine" thus exists as an antithesis of masculine writing or as a means of escape for women.  In the words of Rosemarie Tong, “Cixous challenged women to write themselves out of the world men constructed for women. She urged women to put themselves-the unthinkable/unthought-into words.” Almost everything is yet to be written by women about femininity: about their sexuality, that is, its infinite and mobile complexity; about their eroticization, sudden turn-ons of a certain minuscule-immense area of their bodies; not about destiny, but about the adventure of such and such a drive, about trips, crossings, trudges, abrupt and gradual awakenings, discoveries of a zone at once timorous and soon to be forthright. With regard to phallogocentric writing, Tong argues that "male sexuality, which centers on what Cixous called the "big dick", is ultimately boring in its pointedness and singularity. Like male sexuality, masculine writing, which Cixous usually termed phallogocentric writing, is also ultimately boring" and furthermore, that "stamped with the official seal of social approval, masculine writing is too weighted down to move or change". Write, let no one hold you back, let nothing stop you: not man; not the imbecilic capitalist machinery, in which the publishing houses are the crafty, obsequious relayers of imperatives handed down by an economy that works against us and off our backs; not "yourself". Smug-faced readers, managing editors, and big bosses don't like the true texts of women- female-sexed texts. That kind scares them. For Cixous, "écriture féminine" is not only a possibility for female writers; rather, she believes it can be (and has been) employed by male authors such as James Joyce or Jean Genet. Some have found this idea difficult to reconcile with Cixous’ definition of "écriture féminine" (often termed ‘white ink’) because of the many references she makes to the female body (“There is always in her at least a little of that good mother’s milk. She writes in white ink”.) when characterizing the essence of écriture féminine and explaining its origin. This notion raises problems for some theorists: ""Ecriture féminine", then, is by its nature transgressive, rule-transcending, intoxicated, but it is clear that the notion as put forward by Cixous raises many problems. The realm of the body, for instance, is seen as somehow immune to social and gender condition and able to issue forth a pure essence of the feminine. Such essentialism is difficult to square with feminism which emphasizes femininity as a social construction..."

Irigaray and Kristeva.

For Luce Irigaray, women's sexual pleasure "jouissance" cannot be expressed by the dominant, ordered, "logical," masculine language because, according to Kristeva, feminine language is derived from the pre-oedipal period of fusion between mother and child which she termed the semiotic. Associated with the maternal, feminine language (which Irigaray called "parler femme", womanspeak) is not only a threat to culture, which is patriarchal, but also a medium through which women may be creative in new ways. Irigaray expressed this connection between women's sexuality and women's language through the following analogy: women's "jouissance" is more multiple than men's unitary, phallic pleasure because "woman has sex organs just about everywhere...feminine language is more diffusive than its'masculine counterpart'. That is undoubtedly the reason...her language...goes off in all directions and...he is unable to discern the coherence." Irigaray and Cixous also go on to emphasize that women, historically limited to being sexual objects for men (virgins or prostitutes, wives or mothers), have been prevented from expressing their sexuality in itself or for themselves. If they can do this, and if they can speak about it in the new languages it calls for, they will establish a point of view (a site of difference) from which phallogocentric concepts and controls can be seen through and taken apart, not only in theory, but also in practice.

Critiques.

The approach through language to feminist action has been criticised by some as over-theoretical: they would see the fact that the very first meeting of a handful of would-be feminist activists in 1970 only managed to launch an acrimonious theoretical debate as marking the situation as typically 'French' in its apparent insistence on the primacy of theory over politics. Nonetheless, in practice the French women's movement developed in much the same way as the feminist movements elsewhere in Europe or in the United States: French women participated in consciousness-raising groups; demonstrated in the streets on the 8 March; fought hard for women's right to choose whether to have children; raised the issue of violence against women; and struggled to change public opinion on issues concerning women and women's rights.  Further criticisms of écriture féminine include what some claim is an essentialist view of the body and the consequential reliance on a feminism of 'difference' which, according to Diana Holmes, for instance, tends to "demonize masculinity as the repository of all that (at least from a post-'68, broadly Left perspective) is negative. It also, says Holmes in "French Women's Writings, 1848-1994" (1996), would exclude much of women's writing from the feminist canon.

Literary examples.

As a result of the difficulties inherent in the notion of "écriture féminine", very few books of literary criticism have run the risk of using it as a critical tool. A. S. Byatt offers: "There is a marine and salty female wave-water to be...read as a symbol of female language, which is partly suppressed, partly self-communing, dumb before the intruding male and not able to speak out...thus mirroring those female secretions which are not inscribed in our daily use of language ("langue", tongue)".

Écriture féminine, or "women's writing", is a term coined by French feminist and literary theorist Hélène Cixous in her 1975 essay "The Laugh of the Medusa". Cixous aimed to establish a genre of literary writing that deviates from traditional masculine styles of writing, one which examines the relationship between the cultural and psychological inscription of the female body and female difference in language and text. This strand of feminist literary theory originated in France in the early 1970s through the works of Cixous and other theorists including Luce Irigaray, Chantal Chawaf, Catherine Clément, and Julia Kristeva and has subsequently been expanded upon by writers such as psychoanalytic theorist Bracha Ettinger. who emerged in this field in the early 1990s,


History.

According to the French Army's 2020 Defense White Paper it plans to retire its AMX 10 RC and ERC 90 Sagaie vehicles beginning in 2020 and replace them with up to 250 pieces of a new armored reconnaissance vehicle. A consortium of Nexter, Thales, and Renault Trucks Defense was formed to develop and produce the new vehicle. The same consortium also builds the VBMR Griffon multi-role armored vehicle for the French Army, which shares 70% of its components with the EBRC Jaguar.  On 6 December 2014, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that deliveries will commence in 2020 and a first tranche of 20 Jaguars and 319 Griffons was ordered in April 2017. In total the French Army wants to buy 248 EBRC Jaguar.  On 22 June 2017, Belgium's cabinet approved a plan to purchase 60 Jaguar and 417 Griffon vehicles for €1.1 billion. The vehicles will replace the Belgian Army's Piranha IIIC armored personnel carriers, Pandur I reconnaissance vehicles and Dingo 2 infantry mobility vehicles. The deal includes spare parts and secure communications equipment and delivers are planned to commence in 2025.

Design.

The consortium building the "Griffon" and "Jaguar" is contractually obliged to keep the price per Jaguar under €1 million, therefore the vehicles are based on a 6×6 commercial all-terrain truck chassis and use standard commercial truck engines. The engines have been adapted to use a wider range of fuel. The Jaguar has an overpressure system to maintain constant overpressure in the armored troop compartment to protect it against chemical, biological and radiological threats. For service in hot climates the Jaguar is equipped with air conditioning.  The vehicle is built with STANAG 4569 Level 4 armor protection, giving it defense against 14.5×114mm armor-piercing rounds, 155mm artillery shell splinters, and mine blasts. Electronic defenses include the Thales Group Barage active jamming device to counter IEDs, two sets of Antares missile warning alert systems, a TDA Armements active blocking system, and a roof-mounted Metravib Pilar V gunfire locator.  The Jaguar's primary weapon, mounted in a two-man turret, is the CTA International CT40 cannon firing 40mm case telescoped ammunition with a rate of fire of 200 rounds per minute and a maximum range of 1,500 meters. Two MMP anti-tank guided missiles are fitted to the turret launcher with two reloads stored inside. It also carries a 7.62mm remote controlled machine gun mounted on top of the turret and eight smoke grenades. The Jaguar can lift its cannon 45° up, allowing it to fire on aerial targets.

The EBRC Jaguar (French: "Engin Blindé de Reconnaissance et de Combat"; English: "Armored Reconnaissance and Combat Vehicle") is a French armored reconnaissance and combat vehicle that will replace the French Army's VCAC (HOT missiles equipped VABs), AMX 10 RC and ERC 90 Sagaie reconnaissance and fire support vehicles.


History.

The WIV was founded in 1956 as the Wuhan Microbiology Laboratory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In 1961, it became the South China Institute of Microbiology, and in 1962 was renamed Wuhan Microbiology Institute. In 1970, it became the Microbiology Institute of Hubei Province when the Hubei Commission of Science and Technology took over the administration. In June 1978, it was returned to the CAS and renamed Wuhan Institute of Virology.  In 2015, the WIV's National Bio-safety Laboratory was completed at a cost of 300 million yuan ($44 million) in collaboration with the French government's CIRI lab, and was the first biosafety level 4 (BSL–4) laboratory to be built in mainland China. The establishment of the laboratory was partially funded by the U.S. government and took over a decade to complete from its conception in 2003.  The Laboratory has strong ties to the Galveston National Laboratory in the University of Texas. It also had strong ties with Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory until WIV staff scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng, who were also remunerated by the Canadian government, were escorted from the Canadian lab for undisclosed reasons in July 2019.  The WIV has been a topic of controversy since the start of reporting of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists such as U.S. molecular biologist Richard H. Ebright, who had expressed concern of previous escapes of the SARS virus at Chinese laboratories in Beijing and had been troubled by the pace and scale of China's plans for expansion into BSL–4 laboratories, called the Institute a "world-class research institution that does world-class research in virology and immunology" while he noted that the WIV is a world leader in the study of bat coronaviruses.

Coronavirus research.

In 2005, a group including researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology published research into the origin of the SARS coronavirus, finding that China's horseshoe bats are natural reservoirs of SARS-like coronaviruses. Continuing this work over a period of years, researchers from the Institute sampled thousands of horseshoe bats in locations across China, isolating over 300 bat coronavirus sequences.  In 2015, an international team including two scientists from the Institute published successful research on whether a bat coronavirus could be made to infect HeLa. The team engineered a hybrid virus, combining a bat coronavirus with a SARS virus that had been adapted to grow in mice and mimic human disease. The hybrid virus was able to infect human cells.  In 2017, a team from the Institute announced that coronaviruses found in horseshoe bats at a cave in Yunnan contain all the genetic pieces of the SARS virus, and hypothesized that the direct progenitor of the human virus originated in this cave. The team, who spent five years sampling the bats in the cave, noted the presence of a village only a kilometer away, and warned of "the risk of spillover into people and emergence of a disease similar to SARS".  In 2018, another paper by a team from the Institute reported the results of a serological study of a sample of villagers residing near these bat caves (near Xiyang Township 夕阳乡 in Jinning District of Yunnan). According to this report, 6 out of the 218 local residents in the sample carried antibodies to the bat coronaviruses in their blood, indicating the possibility of transmission of the infections from bats to people.

COVID-19 pandemic.

In December 2019, cases of pneumonia associated with an unknown coronavirus were reported to health authorities in Wuhan. The Institute checked its coronavirus collection and found the new virus had 96% genetic similarity to RaTG13, a virus its researchers had discovered in horseshoe bats in southwest China.  As the virus spread worldwide, the Institute continued its investigation. In February 2020, the "New York Times" reported that a team led by Shi Zhengli at the Institute were the first to identify, analyze and name the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), and upload it to public databases for scientists around the world to understand, and publishing papers in "Nature". On 19 February, 2020, the lab released a letter on its website describing how they successfully obtained the whole virus genome: "On the evening of December 30, 2019, after receiving the unexplained pneumonia samples sent by Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, our institute organized the strength overnight and worked for 72 hours to solve the problem. On January 2, 2020, the whole genome sequence of the new coronavirus was determined". In February 2020, the Institute applied for a patent in China for the use of remdesivir, an experimental drug owned by Gilead Sciences, which the Institute found inhibited the virus in vitro; in a move that raised concerns regarding intellectual property rights. The WIV said it would not exercise its new Chinese patent rights "if relevant foreign companies intend to contribute to the prevention and control of China’s epidemic".

Concerns as source.

In January 2020, conspiracy theories circulated that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from viruses engineered by the WIV, which were refuted on the basis of scientific evidence that the virus has natural origins. In mid-January, U.S. intelligence agencies reported to U.S. officials that they had not detected any alarm within the Chinese government that would suggest the outbreak had emerged from a government laboratory. In an opinion column in the "Washington Post", Josh Rogin wrote that US State Department cables from 2018 raised safety concerns about WIV's research on bat coronaviruses. In April 2020, at the request of Trump administration officials, U.S. intelligence agencies began investigating whether the outbreak originated from the accidental exposure by WIV scientists studying natural coronaviruses in bats. The "New York Times" reported that senior officials in the Trump administration were pressuring intelligence agencies to find evidence for the unsubstantiated theory that the virus leaked from the laboratory, leading to concern among some intelligence analysts that intelligence assessments would be distorted to serve a political campaign to lay blame on China for the outbreak. US President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have claimed to have evidence of the lab theory, but have offered no further details.  Leading virologists have disputed the idea that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from the institute. The virologist Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, which studies emerging infectious diseases, has had a 15-year collaboration with Shi Zhengli, a leading WIV virologist, to study bat coronaviruses. Daszak noted estimates that millions of people who live or work in proximity to bats in Southeast Asia are infected each year with bat coronaviruses. In an interview with Vox, Daszak comments, "There are probably half a dozen people that do work in those labs. So let's compare 1 million to 7 million people a year to half a dozen people; it's just not logical." Jonna Mazet, Professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Davis and director of the PREDICT project to monitor emerging viruses, has commented that staff at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were trained by U.S. scientists as part of the PREDICT program and follow high safety standards, and that "All of the evidence points to this "not" being a laboratory accident."

Research centers.

The Institute contains the following research centers:

The Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (WIV; ) is a research institute on virology administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Located in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei, it opened mainland China's first biosafety level 4 (BSL–4) laboratory in 2015. The Institute has strong ties to the Galveston National Laboratory in the United States, the Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie in France and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada.


History.

The French army has been preparing to replace the VAB since the early 2000s. According to the Army's 2020 Defense White Paper it plans to buy up to 2,122 VBMR vehicles between 2018 and 2025. A consortium of Nexter, Thales, and Renault Trucks Defense is building the vehicles. The same consortium also builds the EBRC Jaguar reconnaissance and combat vehicle for the French Army, which shares 70% of its components with the VBMR Griffon.  On 6 December 2014, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that deliveries will commence in 2018 and a first tranche of 319 Griffons and 20 Jaguars was ordered in April 2017. In total the French Army wants to buy 1,722 VBMR 6x6 Griffon and 400 VBMR 4x4 at a later date.  On 22 June 2017, Belgium's cabinet approved a plan to purchase 60 "Jaguar" and 417 “Griffon” vehicles for €1.1 billion. The vehicles will replace the Belgian Army's Piranha IIIC armored personnel carriers and Dingo 2 infantry mobility vehicles. The deal includes spare parts and secure communications equipment and deliveries are planned to commence in 2025.

Design.

The vehicle is based on a 6×6 commercial all-terrain truck chassis and will carry up to eight infantry soldiers. The consortium building the "Griffon" and "Jaguar" is contractually obliged to keep the price per Griffon under €1 million. Currently, six versions of the Griffon are planned, with four of these (Armored Personnel Carrier, Command Post, Ambulance, and Artillery Observer) ordered in the first tranche. After 2021 a much lighter 4 × 4 version might be ordered, which will be used as a reconnaissance vehicle.  The vehicles are designed for simple maintenance and logistics. For example, Griffon and Jaguar both use standard commercial truck engines, which have been adapted to use a wider range of fuel. The vehicle has an overpressure system to maintain constant protection to the troop compartment against chemical, biological and radiological threats. For service in hot climates, the Griffon is equipped with air conditioning.

Armament.

The Griffon is equipped with a remote weapons station that can be armed with either a 12.7mm or 7.62mm machine gun, or a 40mm automatic grenade launcher. The addition of two Missile Moyenne Portée (MMP) anti-tank guided missiles is optional. Eight launchers for smoke grenades are fitted to the remote weapon station, which also includes an acoustic sniper localisation system.

The VBMR Griffon () is a French multi-role armored vehicle that will replace the French Army's VAB armored personnel carrier.


Biography.

Ehud Weiner (later Manor) was born in Binyamina. He had two brothers, Zvi and Yehuda. He graduated from the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa in 1959. He was married to actress Ofra Fuchs for 40 years; together, they had three children: Gali, Libby and Yehuda (Yadi), who was named after Manor's late brother., a fallen soldier in War of Attrition in 1968. Ehud's other brother, Ze'ev, committed suicide in 2003 as a result of financial trouble.  Ehud Manor, who had been a heavy smoker earlier in his life, was diagnosed with lung cancer in the early 2000s. Although he recovered, the cancer treatment weakened his heart, and he died suddenly on April 12, 2005, aged 63, of cardiac arrest.

Music and songwriting career.

Ehud Manor began working for Israel radio in the 1960s as a musical editor. He changed his surname to Manor as it was customary at the time for radio announcers to adopt Hebrew names.  During his career, he wrote over 1,250 Hebrew songs, including "Ein Li Eretz Acheret" (I Have No Other Country), "Brit Olam" (Everlasting Covenant), "Ba-Shanah ha-Ba'ah" (Next Year) which became an international standard, "Zo Yalduti HaShniya" (This Is My Second Childhood), and "Ahi HaTza'ir Yehuda" (My Younger Brother Yehuda). The latter was written in memory of his brother, who was killed during his military service in 1968.  He wrote the lyrics to several Israeli Eurovision Song Contest entries, including the 1978 winner "Abanibi", the 1975 entry "At Va'Ani (You and Me)" with its singer Shlomo Artzi, the 1983 entry "Khay" (Alive) and the 1992 song "Ze Rak Sport" (It's Just Sports).  Several of his songs commemorate his fond memories of his childhood in Binyamina, the most famous of which is "Yemey Binyamina" (The Binyamina Days). Several streets and roundabouts in his native town are named after him and his songs.

Literary career.

Also a successful translator, Manor translated more than 600 works into Hebrew, including such Broadway hits as "Cabaret" and "Les Misérables". In addition, he translated Barney songs into Hebrew for the Israeli coproduction "Hachaverim Shel Barney".

Awards and recognition.

In 1998, Manor was awarded the Israel Prize for Hebrew song. The prize committee noted that "For the past 30 years, he has expressed our mood through the hundreds of songs he has written together with the finest composers. The man who declared that he had no other country is the laureate of the Israel Prize."  Shortly before he died, Manor was chosen to receive an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University in recognition of his prolific activity in the field of Hebrew music.  Manor's songs are the most played on Israeli radio.

Ehud Manor (Hebrew: אהוד מנור; born Ehud Weiner; July 13, 1941 – April 12, 2005) was an Israeli songwriter, translator, and radio and TV personality.


History.

Early.

Sexual manuals have existed since antiquity, such as Ovid's "Ars Amatoria", the "Kama Sutra" of Vatsyayana, the "Ananga Ranga" and "The Perfumed Garden for the Soul's Recreation". ("Prostitution in the City of Paris"), an early 1830s study on 3,558 registered prostitutes in Paris, published by Alexander Jean Baptiste Parent-Duchatelet (and published in 1837, a year after he died), has been called the first work of modern sex research.  The scientific study of sexual behavior in human beings began in the 19th century. Shifts in Europe's national borders at that time brought into conflict laws that were sexually liberal and laws that criminalized behaviors such as homosexual activity.

Victorian Era to WWII.

Despite the prevailing social attitude of sexual repression in the Victorian era, the movement towards sexual emancipation began towards the end of the nineteenth century in England and Germany. In 1886, Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing published "Psychopathia Sexualis." That work is considered as having established sexology as a scientific discipline.  In England, the founding father of sexology was the doctor and sexologist Havelock Ellis who challenged the sexual taboos of his era regarding masturbation and homosexuality and revolutionized the conception of sex in his time. His seminal work was the 1897 "Sexual Inversion", which describes the sexual relations of homosexual males, including men with boys. Ellis wrote the first objective study of homosexuality (the term was coined by Karl-Maria Kertbeny), as he did not characterize it as a disease, immoral, or a crime. The work assumes that same-sex love transcended age taboos as well as gender taboos. Seven of his twenty-one case studies are of inter-generational relationships. He also developed other important psychological concepts, such as autoerotism and narcissism, both of which were later developed further by Sigmund Freud.  Ellis pioneered transgender phenomena alongside the German Magnus Hirschfeld. He established it as new category that was separate and distinct from homosexuality. Aware of Hirschfeld's studies of transvestism, but disagreeing with his terminology, in 1913 Ellis proposed the term "sexo-aesthetic inversion" to describe the phenomenon.  In 1908, the first scholarly journal of the field, "Journal of Sexology" (Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft), began publication and was published monthly for one year. Those issues contained articles by Freud, Alfred Adler, and Wilhelm Stekel. In 1913, the first academic association was founded: the "Society for Sexology".  Freud developed a theory of sexuality. These stages of development include: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency and Genital. These stages run from infancy to puberty and onwards. based on his studies of his clients, between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Wilhelm Reich and Otto Gross, were disciples of Freud, but rejected by his theories because of their emphasis on the role of sexuality in the revolutionary struggle for the emancipation of mankind. Pre-Nazi Germany, under the sexually liberal Napoleonic code, organized and resisted the anti-sexual, Victorian cultural influences. The momentum from those groups led them to coordinate sex research across traditional academic disciplines, bringing Germany to the leadership of sexology. Physician Magnus Hirschfeld was an outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, founding the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights.  Hirschfeld also set up the first Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexology) in Berlin in 1919. Its library housed over 20,000 volumes, 35,000 photographs, a large collection of art and other objects. People from around Europe visited the Institute to gain a clearer understanding of their sexuality and to be treated for their sexual concerns and dysfunctions.  Hirschfeld developed a system which identified numerous actual or hypothetical types of sexual intermediary between heterosexual male and female to represent the potential diversity of human sexuality, and is credited with identifying a group of people that today are referred to as transsexual or transgender as separate from the categories of homosexuality, he referred to these people as 'transvestiten' (transvestites). Germany's dominance in sexual behavior research ended with the Nazi regime. The Institute and its library were destroyed by the Nazis less than three months after they took power, May 8, 1933. The institute was shut down and Hirschfeld's books were burned.  Other sexologists in the early gay rights movement included Ernst Burchard and Benedict Friedlaender. Ernst Gräfenberg, after whom the G-spot is named, published the initial research developing the intrauterine device (IUD).

Post WWII.

After World War II, sexology experienced a renaissance, both in the United States and Europe. Large scale studies of sexual behavior, sexual function, and sexual dysfunction gave rise to the development of sex therapy. Post-WWII sexology in the U.S. was influenced by the influx of European refugees escaping the Nazi regime and the popularity of the Kinsey studies. Until that time, American sexology consisted primarily of groups working to end prostitution and to educate youth about sexually transmitted diseases. Alfred Kinsey founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University at Bloomington in 1947. This is now called the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. He wrote in his 1948 book that more was scientifically known about the sexual behavior of farm animals than of humans.  Psychologist and sexologist John Money developed theories on sexual identity and gender identity in the 1950s. His work, notably on the David Reimer case has since been regarded as controversial, even while the case was key to the development of treatment protocols for intersex infants and children.  Kurt Freund developed the penile plethysmograph in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s. The device was designed to provide an objective measurement of sexual arousal in males and is currently used in the assessment of pedophilia and hebephilia. This tool has since been used with sex offenders.  In 1966 and 1970, Masters and Johnson released their works "Human Sexual Response" and "Human Sexual Inadequacy," respectively. Those volumes sold well, and they were founders of what became known as the Masters & Johnson Institute in 1978.  Vern Bullough was a historian of sexology during this era, as well as being a researcher in the field.  The emergence of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s caused a dramatic shift in sexological research efforts towards understanding and controlling the spread of the disease.

21st century.

Technological advances have permitted sexological questions to be addressed with studies using behavioral genetics, neuroimaging, and large-scale Internet-based surveys.

Notable contributors.

This is a list of sexologists and notable contributors to the field of sexology, by year of birth:

Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term "sexology" does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as political science or social criticism.


Shootings.

The shootings took place at around 22:00 local time (UTC+1) on 19 February 2020, in two shisha bars—one at the Midnight Bar in Hanau's central square, and the other at the Arena Bar & Café in Kesselstadt. Reports showed that both bars are mostly frequented by Turkish citizens. The attacker first started aiming at three guests, followed by the waiter who had just served them. The police initiated a large-scale investigation. It was initially reported that the suspects were at large. The gunman, later identified as Tobias Rathjen, then drove home where he shot his mother while his father was able to escape. He then shot himself. He and his mother were discovered by police at 05:15 the next day when they gained entry.

Victims.

The nine people killed by the attacker during the two shootings were identified as four Germans (two of whom with Kurdish origins, another of Sinti origins, and another with Afghan nationality) two Turks, a Bosnian, a Bulgarian, a Romanian. The owner of one of the shisha bars was among the victims. Three immediately died in the first shooting, five immediately died in the second, and a ninth victim died in hospital the next day. The attacker shot and killed his German mother before committing suicide.  Two Turkish-Germans, an Afghan-German and a Cameroonian were among the five people injured.

Perpetrator.

The gunman was identified as 43-year-old Tobias Rathjen, a far-right extremist. He published a manifesto and videos on his personal website, showing his political beliefs and theories surrounding US President Donald Trump stealing his slogans, eugenics, and expressing frustration that he could never experience an intimate relationship with a woman due to psychological issues during his lifetime. He stated that he had been guided by voices inside his head since birth and that he was being followed by secret agents. Rathjen expressed a hatred for migrants, especially for people from the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and North Africa. He also expressed a hatred for German citizens who allowed immigrants into their country, and considered them as "impure".  According to Germany's general prosecutor Peter Frank, Rathjen had contacted German authorities with his conspiracy theories three months before the attack: on 6 November 2019, Rathjen had written a letter to the Public Prosecutor General urging action against a "secret service" organisation, which he claimed was tapping into people's brains to control world events. He called on authorities to "approach me and communicate with me". No action was taken in response. Parts of this 19-page letter were virtually identical to his 24-page manifesto published on his website in February 2020, but it was unclear whether it included any threats against ethnic minorities.  Near the Arena Bar, text linked to the perpetrator's website was found written in graffiti on a wall before it was covered over by police.

Investigation.

Federal prosecutors are treating the attack as terrorism, with officials saying there is evidence the gunman was a far-right extremist, as well as signs of xenophobic motives for the killings. Peter Beuth, the Minister of the Interior in the state of Hesse, stated on 20 February that a homepage found by investigators indicated a right-wing political motive for the shootings. A letter and a video clip of a confession were reportedly discovered and are being analysed by the police.

Reactions.

As a result of the shootings, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cancelled a planned trip to Halle and expressed her condolences to the victims' families. The president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, also offered condolences. Some Turkish citizens were among the victims of the shooting; the Turkish government described it as a form of racism and urged a prompt investigation. German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, his wife Elke Büdenbender, and the Hesse minister-president Volker Bouffier attended a vigil at one of the shooting sites. Pope Francis extended his sympathy to the families who lost their loved ones during the shooting incident in Hanau, through the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.  On 23 February, 10,000 mourners marched through the streets of Hanau, in order to show unity and support for the victims. The mayor of Hanau gave a speech to the gathering.  On 24 February, in response to the shootings, the United Kingdom proscribed Sonnenkrieg Division, the British branch of the American neo-Nazi organisation Atomwaffen Division, as a terrorist group. Another UK-based far-right organisation, System Resistance Network, was also proscribed as an alias for National Action, which had been proscribed as a terrorist organisation since 2016.

The Hanau shootings occurred on 19 February 2020, when nine people were killed and five others wounded in a terrorist shooting spree by a far-right extremist targeting two shisha bars in Hanau, near the city of Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. After the attacks, the gunman returned to his apartment, where he killed his mother and then committed suicide. The massacre was called an act of terrorism by the German Minister of Internal Affairs. The perpetrator has not been linked to a terrorist organisation or extremist group.


Location.

The 2021 contest will be held at Rotterdam Ahoy in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the 2019 edition with the song "Arcade", performed by Duncan Laurence. The announcement was made during the broadcast of "", which aired on 16 May 2020.  It will be the fifth time that the Netherlands has hosted the contest, the last time having been the 1980 contest. Rotterdam Ahoy had previously hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007.

Preparations.

Prior to the announcement and following the cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, the organising EBU (European Broadcasting Union) began talks with the Dutch public broadcasters AVROTROS, NOS and NPO, as well as the city of Rotterdam, which were to organise the 2020 contest, on the possibility of staging the 2021 contest in the city. On 23 April 2020, the municipal council of Rotterdam approved an increased budget after Dutch media reported that the city would require an additional €6.7 million to host the contest. The decision was imminent as it was required that the EBU be informed by late April if Rotterdam was willing to host contest. AVROTROS, NOS and NPO had until mid-May 2020 to find an alternative if Rotterdam declined to host the event. In May 2020, the Dutch authorities decided to tighten up local laws for holding mass events until the vaccine for COVID-19 was found, making the event's staging uncertain, however, AVROTROS had continued talks with the Dutch government.

Format.

Dates.

The 2021 contest is set to be held on 18, 20, and 22 May 2021.

Stage design.

During the announcement of the dates of the 2021 contest, Sietse Bakker, executive producer of the 2021 contest, stated that the planned 2020 stage design will also be used in the 2021 contest. The design is inspired by the slogan "Open Up" and the typical Dutch flat landscape. The Eurovision stage was designed by German stage designer Florian Wieder, who also designed the stages for the contests in 2011–12, 2015, and 2017–19. Unlike the 2019 contest, the green room was placed inside to the main performance venue.

Executive supervisor.

In January 2020, the EBU announced that Martin Österdahl would become the executive supervisor for the Eurovision Song Contest after the 2020 edition, succeeding Jon Ola Sand. Before his appointment, Österdahl had been an executive producer for the and editions, and had been a member of the Eurovision Song Contest reference group between 2012 and 2018.

Entries.

Following the cancellation of the 2020 contest, the EBU explored the option of allowing the songs selected for the 2020 contest to compete in the 2021 contest, which need to be discussed with the Eurovision Song Contest reference group and the national broadcasters. Victoria, the planned participant for Bulgaria in 2020, publicly expressed her support for such a move. However, on 20 March 2020, the reference group decided that, in accordance with the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest, the 2020 songs would not be eligible to compete in the 2021 contest.

Backing vocals.

On 18 June 2020, the EBU announced that pre-recorded backing vocals will be allowed for one year. The use of recorded backing vocals will be entirely optional. Each delegation can choose to use backing singers, whether on or off stage. A combination of live and recorded backing vocals will be also allowed. All lead vocals performing the melody of the song, including an eventual use of a so-called lead dub, shall still be live on or off stage in the arena.

Opening and interval acts.

Lenny Kuhr, one of the winners of the 1969 contest, and Alexander Rybak, winner of the 2009 contest, who were both due to perform at the cancelled 2020 contest, have expressed willingness to perform at the 2021 event.

Production.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 will be a co-production between three related Dutch television organisations — AVROTROS, Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS), and Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (NPO) — of which each assumed a different role. Sietse Bakker and Astrid Dutrénit will serve as executive producers, while Emilie Sickinghe and Jessica Stam will serve as deputy executive producers

Provisional list of participating countries.

Returning artists.

After the cancellation of the 2020 contest, the following countries' participating broadcasters announced that, for the 2021 contest, they would internally select the same artists initially selected for 2020: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.  So far, the contest is set to feature one representative who also previously performed as a lead vocalist for the same country, and three artists who participated in other Eurovision events or as backing vocalists for the same of for another country. Senhit represented at the semi-final in. Destiny Chukunyere won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 for Malta and provided backing vocals for Michela Pace for Malta in. Stefania for Greece, represented the in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016 as part of the group Kisses. Vincent Bueno provided backing vocals for Nathan Trent for in.

Semi-finalists.

The following countries have confirmed their intent to participate in the 2021 contest.

Other countries.

Eligibility for potential participation in the Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active EBU membership that would be able to broadcast the contest via the Eurovision network. The EBU issues invitations to all active members. Associate member does not need an invitation for the 2021 contest, as it had previously been granted permission to participate at least until 2023.

Broadcasters and commentators.

All participating broadcasters may choose to have on-site or remote commentators providing an insight about the show to their local audience and, while they must broadcast at least the semi-final they are voting in and the final, most broadcasters air all three shows with different programming plans. Similarly, some non-participating broadcasters may still want to air the contest. These are the broadcasters that have confirmed their broadcasting plans and/or their commentators:

The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 is set to be the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest is set to take place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, after the country won the. The Netherlands was due to host the, before it had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcasters AVROTROS, Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (NPO) and Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS), the contest will be held at Rotterdam Ahoy and will consist of two semi-finals on 18 and 20 May, and the final on 22 May 2021.


Early life.

Nazli was born on 25 June 1894 into a family of Turkish and French origin. Her father was Abdur Rahim Sabri Pasha, minister of agriculture and governor of Cairo, and her mother was Tawfika Khanum Sharif. Nazli had a brother, Sherif Sabri Pasha, and a sister, Amina Sabri.  She was the maternal granddaughter of Major General Mohamed Sherif Pasha, prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, who was of Turkish origin. She was also a great-granddaughter of the French-born officer Suleiman Pasha.  Nazli first went to the Lycée de la Mère-de-Dieu in Cairo, and later to the Collège Notre-Dame de Sion in Alexandria. Following the death of her mother, she and her sister were sent to a boarding school in Paris for two years. After returning, Nazli was forced to marry her Turkish cousin, Khalil Sabri. However, the marriage ended in divorce after eleven months. After the separation, she stayed at the house of Safiya Zaghloul, where she met Zaghloul's nephew Saeed Zaghloul; the two were engaged until Saeed broke up with her during his exile with his uncle Saad Zaghloul following the 1919 revolution.

Queen.

The Sultan of Egypt, Fuad I first saw Nazli at an opera performance. On 12 May 1919, Fuad proposed to her, although he was 25 years her senior. On 24 May 1919 Nazli married Sultan Fuad I at Bustan Palace, Cairo. It was the second marriage for both Nazli and Fuad. She later moved to the "haramlek" in the Abbasiya Palace. She was under pressure from her husband to produce a son, and was warned that she would be confined to the haremlek if she did not do so.  After the birth of their only son, Farouk, she was allowed to move into Koubbeh Palace -the official royal residence- with her husband. When Fuad's title was altered to King, she was given the title of Queen. She then had four daughters: Fawzia, Faiza, Faika, and Fathia.  Restricted to the palace throughout most of Fuad's reign, she was permitted to attend opera performances, flower shows, and other ladies-only cultural events. As her upbringing had left her remarkably educated, cultured and emancipated for an Egyptian woman of the time, she found this prescribed existence backward and stifling. It was said that whenever the royal couple fought, she was slapped by the king and confined to her suite for weeks. It was also alleged that she tried to commit suicide by overdosing on aspirin.  Nazli accompanied the king during part of his four-month tour of Europe in 1927, and was much fêted in France because of her French ancestry. With the inauguration of Parliament in 1924, she was among the royal attendees at the opening ceremony, seated in a special section of the guest gallery.

Later years.

Following the death of King Fuad in 1936, her son Farouk became the new King of Egypt, and she became the Queen Mother. Her brother Sherif Sabri Pasha served on the three-member Regency Council that was formed during Farouk's minority. In 1946, Nazli left Egypt and went to the United States for treatment for a kidney ailment.  In August 1950, King Farouk deprived the Queen Mother, and her daughter Princess Fathia of their rights and titles. This was due to latter's marriage, which Nazli supported, but was against Farouk's wishes, to Riyad Ghali Effendi, a Coptic Christian. Nazli later converted to Christianity, changing her name to Mary-Elizabeth.  In 1955 Nazli purchased, for $63,000, a 28-room mansion in Beverley Hills, where she lived with Fathia, her son-in-law, and their two children, and led an active social life.  In 1965, Nazli attended the funeral of Farouk, in Rome.  Following Fathia's divorce, Nazli moved to a small apartment in Westwood, Los Angeles, where Fathia eventually joined her after temporarily moving to Hawaii.  To meet debt demands, in 1975 Nazli sent her principal jewellery to auction at Sothebys, including a magnificent art deco tiara (720 diamonds weighing 274 carats) and matching necklace commissioned in 1938 from Van Cleef & Arpels. They sold for $127,500 and $140,000 respectively. However, Nazli and Fathia still ended up in bankruptcy court. In 1978, Fathia's jewellery was also sold to meet debts.  In 1976, Nazli sent a request to the then President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, that passports be provided to her and Princess Fathia to give them right of return to Egypt. Eventually she settled in the US, due to her painful illness. She died on 29 May 1978 in Los Angeles, California.

Legacy.

Queen Nazli's art deco necklace reappeared at a Sotheby's sale in December 2015. The Queen ordered the necklace with a matching tiara for her daughter's wedding. The necklace is formed by 600 round and baguette diamonds arranged in a sunburst motif.

In popular culture.

In 2007, Queen Nazli was played by Egyptian actress Wafaa Amer in the Drama "El-malek Farouk".  In 2008, Rawia Rashed published a book about Queen Nazli, titled "Nazli, Malika Fi El Manfa" ("Nazli, A Queen in Exile"). Based on this book, an Egyptian TV series provided an account for the life of Queen Nazli, Queen in Exile, starring Egyptian actress Nadia Al Jundi in 2010.

Nazli Sabri (; ; 25 June 1894 – 29 May 1978) was the first queen consort in the Kingdom of Egypt from 1919 to 1936. She reigned as the second wife of Fuad, King of Egypt.


Background.

On 12 January, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, who had initially come to the attention of the WHO on 31 December 2019.  Unlike SARS of 2003, the case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.

Timeline.

February 2020.

On 25 February 2020, Switzerland confirmed the first case of COVID-19, a 70-year-old man in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino bordering Italy, who had previously visited Milan tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.  On 27 February, a 28-year-old IT worker from Geneva, who had recently returned from Milan, tested positive and was admitted to the Geneva University Hospital. A 55-year-old Italian who worked in an international company also tested positive in Geneva. Two Italian children, who were on vacation in Graubünden, tested positive and were hospitalised.  A 26-year-old man in Aargau, who had gone on a business trip the week before and stayed in Verona, tested positive and was hospitalised. A 30-year-old woman, who had visited Milan, was admitted to a hospital in Zurich. A 49-year-old man living in France and working in Vaud was confirmed positive in Vaud.  A young woman, who had travelled to Milan, tested positive in Basel-Stadt. She worked in a daycare centre in Riehen, and after her test had been confirmed, the children at the daycare were put into a two-week quarantine. On 28 February, her partner, a 23-year-old man, also tested positive in Basel-Landschaft.

March 2020.

On 3 March, the University of Zurich announced six confirmed cases of coronavirus at the Institute of Mathematics. As of 5 March, there are 10 confirmed cases at the University of Zurich, at least 7 at the I-Math and 1 at the Center of Dental Medicine.  On 5 March, the Lausanne University Hospital announced that a 74-year-old female coronavirus case had died overnight. The patient had been hospitalised since 3 March, and had been suffering from chronic illness.  On 11 March, a 54-year-old male died from COVID-19 in the Bruderholz Hospital in Basel-Landschaft, marking the fourth fatal case in Switzerland. He had joined a religious event in Mulhouse, France previous to contracting the virus and suffering from pneumonia.

Government response.

On 27 February, following the confirmation of COVID-19 cases in the region, Graubünden cancelled the Engadine Skimarathon.  On 28 February, the Federal Council banned events involving more than 1,000 people in an effort to curb the spread of the infection. Multiple events such as carnivals and fairs were either postponed or cancelled. Geneva Motor Show, Baselworld, Bern Carnival and the Carnival of Basel were cancelled. University of Bern replaced all face-to-face lectures with more than 250 attendees with online lectures.  On 6 March 2020, the Federal Council announced a 'changed strategy' with a focus on the protection of the most vulnerable individuals, i.e., older persons and persons with pre-existing conditions.  On 13 March 2020, the Federal Council decided to cancel classes in all educational establishments until 4 April 2020, and has banned all events (public or private) involving more than 100 people. It has also decided to partially close its borders and enacted border controls. The canton of Vaud took more drastic measures, prohibiting all public and private gatherings with more than 50 people, and closing its educational establishments until 30 April.  On 16 March 2020, the Federal Council announced further measures, and a revised ordinance. Measures include the closure of bars, shops and other gathering places until 19 April, but leaves open certain essentials, such as grocery shops, pharmacies, (a reduced) public transport and the postal service.  The government announced a 42 billion CHF rescue package for the economy, which includes money to replace lost wages for employed and self-employed people, short-term loans to businesses, delay for payments to the government, and support for cultural and sport organisations.  On 20 March, the government announced that no lockdown would be implemented, but all events or meetings over 5 people were prohibited. Economic activities would continue including construction.  Those measures were prolonged until 26 April 2020.  On 16 April, Switzerland announced that the country will ease restrictions in a three-step, gradual way. The first step will begin on 27 April, for those who work in close contact with others, but not in large numbers. Surgeons, dentists, day care workers, hairdressers, massage and beauty salons can be opened with safety procedures applied. DIY stores, garden centres, florists and food shops that also sell other goods can also be opened. The second step will begin on 11 May, assuming the first step is implemented without problems, at which time other shops and schools can be opened. The third step begin on 8 June with the easing of restrictions on vocational schools, universities, museums, zoos and libraries.

Statistics.

As with most countries, the number of people actually infected with COVID-19 in Switzerland is likely to be much higher than the number of confirmed cases, especially as, since 6 March 2020, the Swiss government has had an official policy of not testing people with only mild symptoms.  Growth factor is defined as today's new cases / new cases on the previous day. It is an indicative of the evolution of the epidemic.  Status as of 12 May 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Switzerland on 25 February 2020 when the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed following a COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. A 70-year-old man in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino which borders Italy, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The man had previously visited Milan. Afterwards, multiple cases related to the Italy clusters were discovered in multiple cantons, including Basel-City, Zürich, and Graubünden. Multiple isolated cases not related to the Italy clusters were also subsequently confirmed.


Design & Development.

The Mitsubishi K3M was designed by British aeronautical engineer and aircraft designer Herbert Smith, from Sopwith working in Japan for Mitsubishi. The prototype, designated Mitsubishi 4MS1, made its maiden flight in 1930. The aircraft was strut-braced high-wing cabin monoplane, with fixed wide-track landing gear, and was powered by a single water-cooled radial piston engine. Pilot and gunner were located in separate open cockpits, with an instructor and two pupils in the enclosed cabin in the fuselage. Later passenger variants seated five passengers in the cabin.  Total production of all versions was around 625 aircraft, with production mostly undertaken by Kyushu Hikoki K.K. and Aichi Kokuki. Production continued until 1941, and examples pressed into service as liaison aircraft in the postwar period were found in a variety of national markings.

Operational history.

The first version of the K3M offered to the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service was prone to stability problems, and more importantly, problems with the water-cooled Mitsubishi-built Hispano-Suiza 8A eight-cylinder liquid-cooled engine.  The improved K3M2 used a Hitachi Amakaze 11 nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, rated at for take-off and at sea level. The first K3M2 production examples entered service in 1932 as the Navy Type 90 Crew Trainer. It was superseded in production with the K3M3, using a Nakajima Kotobuki air-cooled engine.  The Navy Type 90 Crew Trainer was primarily a land-based aircraft; however, a few were fitted with floats.  The Imperial Japanese Army Air Force had an interest in the aircraft as part of its modernization program, and as a potential supplement to the Nakajima Ki-6. Two examples were acquired and tested, and the airframe was given the designation of Ki-7. One prototype used a Mitsubishi Type 92 nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine and the other a Nakajima Kotobuki nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine. However, the IJAAF opted not to order either version into production.  The civil version was offered to commercial operators with a Nakajima-built Bristol Jupiter VI nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine. The Mitsubishi K3M was used for both civil and military roles and some remained in operation until well after World War II.

The was a trainer built by Mitsubishi which was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in an extremely wide variety of roles, including light transport, liaison aircraft, utility aircraft and occasionally light bomber. Its Allied reporting name was Pine.


Background.

Before holding governmental positions, Mehmed Pasha had been a "silahdar", a high-ranking position in the sultan's guard.  He married princess Gevherhan Sultan, the daughter of sultan Ahmed I and Kösem Sultan.

Governor of Egypt.

Before his first term as grand vizier, Mehmed Pasha was appointed as governor of Egypt in 1607, a post he held until 1611. In 1604, three years before he assumed the office, the Governor of Ottoman Egypt Maktul Hacı Ibrahim Pasha was murdered by mutinying sipahi soldiers of his own troops. This event caused three years of instability in Egypt, with the subsequent two governors, Hadım Mehmed Pasha and Yemenli Hasan Pasha unable to completely quell the rebellion.  When Mehmed Pasha came into office, his strong-handed methods and personality allowed him to suppress the sipahis and abolish the illegal "tulba" protection tax they had been imposing on the Egyptian countryside. After first landing at Alexandria, he gathered public support by visiting the tombs of local saints and treating the Mamluks well, ordering repairs on Mamluk-built buildings and structures. He then proceeded to execute district governors who had allowed the sipahis to impose the "tulba" and warned others of the same fate.  Tensions came to a head in February 1609, when the rebels gathered in the city of Tanta and met at the tomb of Ahmad al-Badawi, Egypt's most popular saint, to swear that they would resist Mehmed Pasha's efforts; they then began to gather troops and pillage villages for supplies. Mehmed Pasha also gathered troops, although some of his officers suggested diplomacy, which Mehmed agreed to, sending a mufti named Altıparmak Mehmed Efendi and an officer to negotiate with the rebels. The mufti advised the rebels to give into "those in authority," and upon refusal, Mehmed Pasha's forces began to mobilize.  Mehmed Pasha's forces met the rebels just north of Cairo. The rebels, discouraged, lost the battle, and the pasha's forces summarily executed over 250 of them, while others were later exiled to Yemen.  In the aftermath of this event, Mehmed Pasha became known as "Kul Kıran" ("slavebreaker" in Turkish) for subjugating the Mamluks and the soldiers to Ottoman rule. He went on to promote public works and attempted to reform the fiscal and military organization of the Egypt eyalet, reducing the number of local beys to 12, although this measure was later abandoned. In 1611, he was recalled to the capital Constantinople by the sultan.

Grand Vizierates.

Mehmed Pasha was grand vizier from 17 October 1614 to 17 November 1616, and again from 18 January 1619 to 23 December 1619. While in office, he was usually called Kara Mehmed Pasha, the nickname "ox" having been invented behind his back (although he almost certainly must have overheard it) by virtue of his heavy build and his father having been a blacksmith for cattle in the Karagümrük quarter of Constantinople. History retained this nickname rather than "Kara", which means "black" in Turkish and which may refer to one's complexion or hair or, in the figurative, to courage and daring.  One episode during his time as grand vizier involved an attack on Vienna accompanied with only 47 raiders, and without having informed the sultan or any other authority in the Ottoman capital; it ended in complete failure and nearly cost him his head. Some historians consider his foray as a third siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Turks, alongside the better known incidences, undertaken first by sultan Süleyman the Magnificent in 1529 and later by grand vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha in 1683.

Governor of Aidin.

In between his two terms as grand vizier, he held the office of governor of Aidin Vilayet (then a province covering a large part of western Anatolia), and his governorship is marked by the construction of a caravanserai in Kuşadası, named the Öküz Mehmed Pasha Caravanserai after him, aimed at attracting international trade through the port there (which shifted, in time, much more towards the port of İzmir upon the preference displayed by European merchants). The caravanserai in Kuşadası is used as a luxury hotel and shopping center today. He has had another solid caravanserai built in Ulukışla on the way to a campaign against the Safavids during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18), which eventually ended with a decisive Ottoman defeat.

Death.

He was strangled to death in office in 1619 by a young Janissary whose favors he had sought.

"Öküz" Mehmed Pasha ("Mehmed Pasha the Ox"; died 23 December 1619), also known as Kara Mehmed Pasha ("the Black") or "Kul Kıran" Mehmed Pasha ("the Slavebreaker"), was an Ottoman statesman and military commander of the early 17th century who held the office of Grand Vizier twice, the first time from 17 October 1614 to 17 November 1616 (during the reign of Ahmed I) and the second time from 18 January 1619 to 23 December 1619 (during the reign of Osman II the Young). He was also governor of Egypt from 1607 to 1611. Okuz Mehmed's nickname "Kul Kiran" (slavebreaker) came from his success in crushing the mutiny in Egypt during the early 1600s (soldiers were often known as kul or slave).


Classification.

"Baccharis halimifola" was first described and named by Carl Linnaeus in his "Species Plantarum", published in 1753. No subspecies or varieties are recognized within the species.  This species is the northernmost member of the large Western Hemisphere genus Baccharis in the aster family (Asteraceae).  "Senecio arborescens", a Neotropical species, was confused with "Baccharis halimifolia" in the past.

Description.

"Baccharis halimifolia" is a fall-flowering shrub growing to about 12 ft (4 m) high and comparably wide, or occasionally a small tree. Its simple, alternate, thick, egg-shaped to rhombic leaves mostly have coarse teeth, with the uppermost leaves entire. These fall-flowering "Baccharis" plants are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate individuals. Their flowers are borne in numerous small, compact heads in large leafy terminal inflorescences, with the snowy-white, cotton-like female flower-heads showy and conspicuous at a distance.  The species is sometimes confused with the marsh-elder ("Iva frutescens"), with which it often co-occurs, but the "Baccharis" has its leaves alternate, while those of the "Iva" are opposite.

Ecology.

"Baccharis halimifolia", usually found in wetlands, is unusually salt-tolerant, and often found along salty or brackish shores of marshes and estuaries, and the inland shores of coastal barrier islands. In Florida, it is also found along ditches, in old fields, and in other disturbed areas. Other habitats in the northeastern United States include freshwater tidal marshes and open woods and thickets along the seacoast.  The flowers produce abundant nectar that attracts various butterflies, including the monarch ("Danaus plexippus"). These dense shrubs also provide wildlife food and cover.

Invasiveness.

In Australia, "B. halimifolia" is an invasive species along the coast of southern Queensland and New South Wales. As biological control the rust fungus "Puccinia evadens" is used. The species has also become naturalized in Europe and in New Zealand.  In the northeastern United States, the species has become common well inland of the shrub's natural range along various major highways where road salt is heavily used, sometimes forming conspicuous displays when flowering in the fall, as along I-95 in Howard County, Maryland.

Toxicity.

The seeds of "Baccharis halimifolia" are toxic to humans.

Uses.

"Baccharis halimifolia" is occasionally cultivated, useful as a hedge or border as well as a specimen plant. In southern Louisiana, it has been traditionally used as a medicine to treat inflamed kidneys and fever.

Baccharis halimifolia is a North American species of shrubs in the daisy family. It is native to Nova Scotia, the eastern and southern United States (from Massachusetts south to Florida and west to Texas and Oklahoma), eastern Mexico (Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Quintana Roo), the Bahamas, and Cuba.


Gameplay.

"Valorant" is a team-based tactical shooter and first-person shooter set in the near-future. Players assume the control of agents, characters who come from a plethora of countries and cultures around the world. In the main game mode, players join either the attacking or defending team with each team having five players on it. Agents have unique abilities and use an economic system to purchase their abilities and weapons. The game has an assortment of weapons including sidearms, submachine guns, shotguns, machine guns, assault rifles and sniper rifles. Automatic weapons such as the "Spectre" and "Odin" have recoil patterns which have to be controlled by the player in order to be able to shoot accurately.  In the standard game mode, the match is played over 24 rounds, and the first team to win 13 rounds wins the match. The attacking team has a bomb-type device called the Spike, which they need to plant on a site. If the attacking team successfully protects the Spike and it detonates, they get a point. If the defending team successfully defuses the Spike, or the 100-second round timer expires, the defending team gets a point. If all the members of a team are eliminated, the opposing team earns a point. After twelve rounds, the attacking team switches to the defending team and vice versa. If a match ends with a 12-12 score, a sudden death round is added (with no side switching taking place).  In the Spike Rush mode, the match is played over 7 rounds, so the first team to win 4 rounds wins the match. To further reduce the gameplay's length, loadouts are random every round and every attacking player carries the spike that they can plant at any site.

Development.

"Valorant" was developed and published by Riot Games, who have previously developed "League of Legends". Development started in 2014, within their research and development division. Joe Ziegler, "Valorant" game director, is credited with the initial idea of "Valorant" while formulating potential games with other Riot developers. David Nottingham is the creative director for "Valorant". Trevor Romleski, former "League of Legends" designer and Salvatore Garozzo, former professional player and map designer of "" are game designers for "Valorant". Moby Francke, former Valve developer, who has been art and character designer for "Half-Life 2" and "Team Fortress 2", is the art director.  "Valorant" was built using Unreal Engine 4, which allowed the development team to focus on gameplay and optimizations. In order to reach 30 frames per second on minimum hardware requirements, its engineering team, led by Marcus Reid, who previously worked on "Gears of War 4", had to make several modifications to the engine, such as editing the renderer using the engine's mobile rendering path as base. They also optimized server performance by disabling character animations in non-combat situations and removing unnecessary evaluations in the hit registration proccess.

Release.

"Valorant" was first teased under a tentative title "Project A" in October 2019. It was officially announced on March 1, 2020, with a gameplay video on YouTube called "The Round". The closed beta of the game was launched on April 7, 2020. For a chance to obtain a beta access key, players were required to sign up for accounts with both Riot Games and the streaming platform Twitch. This beta ended on May 28, 2020, with the game being fully released on June 2, 2020.

Reception.

"Valorant" has been compared to Valve's "", with both games having two teams of five attempting to plant a bomb, and Blizzard's class-based shooter "Overwatch".  Austen Goslin of "Polygon" praised the beta of "Valorant" describing it as refined and "one of the most fun tactical shooters I've played". On the first day of its beta launch, "Valorant" amassed the second most concurrent viewers for any game ever on Twitch, with 1.7 million viewers tuning in across dozens of streams. Only another game from Riot Games, "League of Legends", has seen more viewers - when 1.73 million watched the 2019 World Championship final.

Anti-cheat software controversy.

The game has been criticized for its anti-cheat software, Vanguard, as it was revealed to run on a kernel driver, which allows access to the computer system. OSNews expressed concern that Riot Games and its owner, Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent, could spy on players and that the kernel driver could be potentially exploited by third parties. However, Riot Games stated that the driver does not send any information back to them, and launched a bug bounty program to offer rewards for reports that demonstrate vulnerabilities with the software.

Valorant (stylized as VALORANT) is a free-to-play multiplayer tactical first-person shooter developed and published by Riot Games, for Microsoft Windows. Announced under the codename "Project A" in October 2019, the game began a closed beta with limited access on April 7, 2020, and was fully released on June 2, 2020.


Premise.

"Tell Me a Story" takes "the world's most beloved fairy tales and reimagines them as a dark and twisted psychological thriller. Set in modern-day New York City, the first season of this serialized drama interweaves "The Three Little Pigs", "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Hansel and Gretel" into an epic and subversive tale of love, loss, greed, revenge, and murder."  The second season of the show, set in Nashville, Tennessee, reimagines the princess-themed tales "Beauty and the Beast", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella".  Had it been renewed, it was planned that the third season would have included adaptations of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Jack and the Beanstalk", and "Rapunzel".

Music.

Musical performances were featured throughout the series' second season, all performed by Natalie Alyn Lind. On February 11, 2020, CBS All Access released the official soundtrack containing full versions of the second season's songs.

Production.

Development.

On November 30, 2017, it was announced that CBS All Access had given "Tell Me a Story" a series order. The show is being developed for American audiences by Kevin Williamson and is based on the Spanish television series "Érase una vez" created by Marcos Osorio Vidal. Williamson is also set to write the series and executive produce it alongside Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor. The series is being produced by Kaplan's production company Kapital Entertainment. On May 9, 2018, it was reported that Liz Friedlander would direct and executive produce the first two episodes. On December 17, 2018, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a second season. On May 11, 2020, the series was canceled after two seasons. However, it will be re-aired on The CW.

Casting.

In May 2018, it was announced that Billy Magnussen and Kim Cattrall had been cast in the series' lead roles. In June 2018, it was reported that Danielle Campbell, Paul Wesley, James Wolk, Dania Ramirez, and Sam Jaeger had joined the main cast. In July 2018, it was announced that Davi Santos, Zabryna Guevara, and Dorian Missick had been cast in series regular roles. In August 2018, it was reported that Michael Raymond-James, Kurt Yaeger, Rarmian Newton, and Paulina Singer had joined the cast in a recurring capacity.

Filming.

Principal photography for season one began on June 28, 2018, in New York City, New York. and ended in early November 2018. Filming for season two began on July 1, 2019, and wrapped on December 18, 2019.

Release.

On August 5, 2018, it was announced during the Television Critics Association's annual summer press tour that the series would premiere on October 31, 2018. The second season premiered on December 5, 2019.

Marketing.

On July 19, 2018, the series held a panel at San Diego Comic-Con in San Diego, California moderated by "Entertainment Weekly"s Henry Goldblatt and featuring executive producer Kevin Williamson as well as series stars Paul Wesley and James Wolk. The panel included the premiere of an exclusive teaser trailer for the series. On August 5, 2018, a "sneak peek" trailer for the series was released. On October 5, 2018, the official trailer for the series was released, first premiering during the series' panel at the annual New York Comic Con.

Premiere.

On October 23, 2018, the series held its official premiere at the Metrograph theater in New York City, New York. Those in attendance included creator Kevin Williamson, executive producer Dana Honor, and cast members Becki Newton, Danielle Campbell, Dania Ramirez, and James Wolk.

Reception.

The series has been met with a mixed response from critics upon its premiere. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 54% approval rating with an average rating of 5.31 out of 10 based on 13 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Despite an enticing cast and promising premise, "Tell Me a Story"s overly plotted, grim take on Grimm's Fairy Tales fails to enchant." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 43 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."  In a positive review, "Refinery29"s Sesali Bowen commended the series saying, ""Tell Me A Story" captures its viewers to put themselves in the shoes of some of their favorite fables with its realism. So far it's better for it. This new CBS All Access program has enough to stand on without it thanks to an array of characters who are interesting if not a little cliche." In a more mixed critique, "Variety"s offered the series qualified praise saying, "For all its faults, the series is enthusiastically pulpy, moving with a propulsive energy that, to be frank, most streaming dramas lack. It's not nearly operating on the same prescient level as, say, "The Good Fight", nor quite the radical re-imagining of fairy tales as advertised. But if nothing else, "Tell Me a Story's" got a wicked bite that might serve it well when trying to grab curious viewers on a streaming platform that doesn't quite have anything else like it." In an outright negative assessment, "RogerEbert.com"s Brian Tallerico criticized the series saying, "There are talented TV veterans in "Tell Me a Story", likely lured by Williamson's pedigree, but even they fail to give what could reasonably be called good performances. The pacing, the dialogue, the (complete lack of) visual language, the world building—it's impossible to point to a single element that works."

Home media.

The first season was released on DVD in Region 1 on October 1, 2019.

Tell Me a Story is an American psychological thriller web television anthology series created by Kevin Williamson for CBS All Access. Based on the Spanish television series "Cuéntame un Cuento", it depicts iconic fairy tales reimagined as modern-day thrillers. Each season features a mostly different cast ensemble, with Danielle Campbell and Paul Wesley appearing in both seasons of the series.


Biography.

Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart was the son of Gaspard de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquis of Mortemart, and of Louise de Maure, "suo jure" Countess of Maure. His younger brother, Louis de Rochechouart de Mortemart, died without children in 1669.  He spent a great part of his childhood with the future king of France Louis XIII, until the assassination of the latter's father, Henry IV, in 1610. In 1630, he was named the First Gentleman of the Chamber to Louis XIII, which entitled him to a pension of 6000 livres. He also maintained the confidence of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu and was an intimate of the Spanish-born queen, Anne of Austria.  He and his some of his descendants cultivated what became known as the "esprit Mortemart", a particular type of wit which "allowed impossible things to be said".  He was popular at the royal court, although his brother Louis and his cousin François de Rochechouart had been banished for their involvement in the Day of the Dupes in November 1630, when the enemies of Cardinal Richelieu mistakenly believed that they had succeeded in persuading Louis XIII to dismiss Richelieu from power.  In 1632, he married Diane de Grandseigne (1615 – 11 February 1666), the daughter of Jean de Grandseigne, Marquis de Marsillac, and of Catherine de La Béraudière, "dame de Villenon".  A year after his marriage, he was created a Knight of the Orders of the King.  During his infancy, till he succeeded his father, he was known as the Marquis de Vivonne, a subsidiary title which was raised to a duchy in 1668.  When his father died in 1643, he took the title of "Marquis de Mortemart".  On 23 December 1663, Louis XIV raised the Marquisate of Mortemart, to a duchy. The same day, Anne de Noailles became Duke of Noailles; the two families were united in 1723 when Gabriel's grandson, Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Count of Toulouse, the son of "Madame de Montespan", married a granddaughter of Anne, Marie Victoire de Noailles.  In 1669, he was named Governor of Paris.  Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart died in Paris on 26 December 1675.

Titles, styles, and arms.

Titles and styles.

Peer of France, Prince of Tonnay-Charente, Viscount of Rochechouart (the oldest title in France, 980), Marquis of Montpipeau (granted by Louis XIII), Count of Limoges (1661), Duke of Vivonne (1668). Lordships and parishes of Montrol, Nouic, Blond, Vaulry, Beuilaufa, Le Fraisse, Javerdat, Saint-Victurnien (Barony), Oradour-sur-Glane (Châtellenie) along with the Baronies of Châtellenies of Lussac, Verrières and Dienné.

Arms.

"Parti de trois et coupé de un, qui font huit quartiers: 1, de gueules au croissant de vair (Maure); 2, d'azur à trois fleurs de lys d;or au bâton de gueules (Bourbon); 3, de gueules a neuf mâcles d'or (Rohan); 4, burelé d'argent et d'azur à trois chevrons de gueules (La Rochefoucauld); 5, d'argent à la guivre d'azure engoulant un enfant au naturel (Milan); 6, de gueules aux chaînes posées en croix, sautoir et orle d'or (Navarre); 7, de gueules au pal de vair (des Cars); 8, d'hermine plain (Bretagne); sur le tout, fascé-ondé-enté d'argent et de gueules (Rochechouart)."

Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Duke of Mortemart (1600 – 26 December 1675) was a French nobleman and father of the "Marquise de Montespan". He was a friend of the French King Louis XIII.


Background.

In February 1963, Helen Shapiro was Britain's most successful female singer (having first achieved chart success two years earlier at the age of 14) and The Beatles were fifth on the bill as part of her nationwide tour of the United Kingdom. Her artist and repertoire manager, Norrie Paramor, was looking for new material for a country and western album she planned to record in Nashville, Tennessee and suggested that the Beatles compose a song especially for her. "Misery" was started backstage before The Beatles' performance at the King's Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, on 26 January 1963, and later completed at Paul McCartney's Forthlin Road home. At the time, McCartney commented: "We've called it 'Misery', but it isn't as slow as it sounds, it moves along at quite a pace, and we think Helen will make a pretty good job of it." But Paramor considered it unsuitable, and so British singer and entertainer Kenny Lynch, who was on the same tour, recorded it instead (HMV Pop 1136), thus becoming the first artist to cover a Lennon–McCartney composition although he failed to enter the charts with it. In 1973, Lynch appeared in the cover photograph for McCartney's album, "Band on the Run".  When the Beatles needed original material for their "Please Please Me" LP they recorded it themselves, giving its treatment, according to writer Ian MacDonald, "a droll portrait of adolescent self-pity". It was credited to McCartney and Lennon in that order, as were all other Lennon & McCartney originals on the "Please Please Me" album. The songwriting credit was changed to what would become the more familiar "Lennon–McCartney" for their second album, "With the Beatles". McCartney: "It was our first stab at a ballad and had a little spoken preface. It was co-written. I don't think either of us dominated on that one, it was just a job, you could have called us hacks, hacking out a song for someone." (Barry Miles. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now).  The Beatles recorded "Misery" on 11 February 1963 (marathon session) in 11 takes. Norman Smith was the engineer.  Normal studio multi-track tape speed at the time was 15 ips (inches per second), but “Misery” was recorded at 30 ips, as George Martin intended to personally add piano at a later date, and preferred playing this at half-tempo an octave below.  Helen Shapiro had starred in her own film called "It's Trad, Dad!" (released UK 16 April 1962) which was directed by Richard Lester, who later directed The Beatles' films "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!."

"Misery" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1963 debut album "Please Please Me". It was co-written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. According to Lennon, "It was kind of a John song more than a Paul song, but it was written together." McCartney was to say: "I don't think either one of us dominated on that one, it was just a hacking job."


Etymology.

The name "YouTuber" refers to individual(s) whose main or only platform are YouTube channel(s), personalized subpages of the YouTube video sharing platform.

History.

The Internet domain name "codice_1" was activated on February 14, 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, when they worked for PayPal. The first YouTube channel "Jawed" was created on April 23, 2005 PDT (April 24, 2005 UTC) by the YouTube co-founder of the same name. He uploaded the first YouTube video, a short vlog clip titled "Me at the zoo", on the same day.  In October 2005, YouTube introduced the ability to subscribe to YouTube channels. "The New York Times" claims that most YouTube videos up until 2006 were focused on different forms of talent, citing back-flip stunts, lip-syncing, and other people's talents being uploaded via clips such as clips of Saturday Night Live. By June 2006, recognized Hollywood and music industry firms had begun to establish formal business ties with "homegrown" YouTube talent—the first believed to be comedian blogger Brooke "Brookers" Brodack (through Carson Daly), then singer Justin Bieber (through Usher), and physician-become-political satirist Bassem Youssef (through an Egyptian television network). In 2007 YouTube started its "Partner Program", an ad-revenue-sharing arrangement that allowed for YouTubers to make money off the videos they uploaded to YouTube.  By October 2015, there were more than 17,000 YouTube channels with more than 100,000 subscribers, and nearly 1,500 with more than a million. These numbers have grown to almost 44,000 channels with at least 250,000 subscribers in January 2019.

Influence.

According to multiple studies, YouTubers have become an important source of information and entertainment for the millennial-generation. Influential YouTubers are frequently described as microcelebrities. Since YouTube is widely conceived as a bottom-up social media video platform, microcelebrities do not appear to be involved with the established and commercial system of celebrity culture but rather appear self-governed and independent. This appearance, in turn, leads to YouTubers being seen as more relatable and authentic, also fostered by the direct connection between artist and viewer using the medium of YouTube.  These microcelebrities often communicate with their viewers which gives a more friendly outlook. The content- creators of YouTube (YouTubers) create content on a wide range of variety including vlogs,instructive, how to, informative videos and more.  In a 2014 survey conducted by the University of Southern California among 13-18 year-olds in the United States on whether 10 YouTube celebrities or 10 traditional celebrities were more influential, YouTube personalities took the first five spots of the ranking, with Smosh ranking as most influential. When repeated in 2015, the survey found six YouTubers on the first ranks, with KSI ranked as most influential.  Several prominent YouTubers and their influence were subjects for scientific studies, such as Zoella and PewDiePie. Because of this level of influence, Robert Hovden argued for the creation of a new index similar to the g-index and h-index to evaluate a person's output and impact on YouTube.

Commercial success.

The success of their YouTube videos has made YouTubers the target of corporate sponsors who pay to be included in the videos. In 2015, "Forbes" reported that Felix Kjellberg, known on YouTube as PewDiePie, had earned $12 million in 2014, more than some popular actors such as Cameron Diaz or Gwyneth Paltrow. In 2015, NME stated that "vlogging has become big business". In 2018, Walmart, Nordstrom, and others sought YouTube stars as influencers. Additionally, YouTube stars have crossed over to other media platforms including late-night television such as Canadian Youtuber Lilly Singh, who hosts A Little Late with Lilly Singh on NBC.

A YouTuber, also known as a YouTube content creator, is a type of videographer or entertainer who produces videos for the video-sharing website YouTube, sometimes being supported by networks. Some YouTube personalities also have corporate sponsors who pay for product placement in their clips or production of online videos. These content-creators are often referred as "influencers".


History.

A successor to the first-generation iPhone SE had been a source of rumor since 2017, the year after the device was released. The name was also subject to speculation. Guesses included (most prevalently) iPhone SE 2, iPhone SE 2020, and iPhone 9 due to design similarities with the iPhone 8.  In March 2020, cases for the phone were reportedly being shipped to Best Buy, showing an iPhone with an iPhone 8-sized body and a single camera lens. Belkin screen protectors for the iPhone SE were also listed on the online Apple Store, cross-compatible with the base models of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6S, iPhone 7, and iPhone 8. However, references to the iPhone SE were quickly removed.  On April 15, 2020, the second-generation iPhone SE was announced in a press release note on Apple's website. It was marketed as "A powerful new smartphone in a popular design", and was released worldwide on April 24, 2020.

Specifications.

Design.

The iPhone SE features an aluminum frame, with glass front and back. It shares the same physical sizes and dimensions as the iPhone 8, except for a centered Apple logo and no iPhone branding. Therefore, phone cases designed to fit the iPhone 8 will also fit the iPhone SE. The second-generation iPhone SE also shares the same top and bottom bezels as the iPhone 8, including the Home button (integrated with the same second-generation Touch ID).  The iPhone SE is available in three colors: Black, White, and a Product Red edition. Though the offered colors line up with those of the iPhone 8 (Silver, Space Gray, and Product Red respectively, with no equivalent to the Gold model), the iPhone SE uses a noticeably deeper shade of black, a brighter shade of white, and a lighter shade of Product Red. Unlike the silver iPhone 8 (and all prior white and silver iPhones since the iPhone 4), the 2020 iPhone SE features black bezels around the display on all models, in line with the color schemes of the iPhone 11 and iPhone XR.

Size.

With a screen diagonal of, the second generation of the iPhone SE was among the smallest mainstream in-production smartphones at the time of its release. However, it is still thirty percent larger than the first generation variant, whose screen diagonal measures. Dan Seifert from The Verge declared the second-generation SE a "nail in the coffin" for small phones.  This was affirmed by CNET, who stated that "Apple's decision to not build a brand-new 4-inch phone is telling. It signals that the company will probably never bring back the tiny iPhone, no matter how badly people crave it."

Hardware.

The iPhone SE incorporates the Apple A13 Bionic system on a chip (SoC), with the integrated M13 motion coprocessor, and third-generation neural engine. It is available in three internal storage configurations: 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB. The SE has the same IP67 rating for dust and water resistance as the iPhone 8. The phone lacks the ultra-wideband features enabled by the U1 chip found in the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. Despite the phone's smaller size which may lead to increased thermal throttling, the SE's A13 SoC runs at the same peak CPU frequencies as the iPhone 11. Unlike the first-generation model, the second-generation iPhone SE doesn't feature a standard 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack.

Display.

The iPhone SE features the same Retina HD display found on the iPhone 8, using LCD technology with True Tone and wide color gamut (Display P3). The display has a resolution of 1334 x 750 pixels, like the previous 4.7" iPhones. The pixel density is 326 PPI, the same as on all iPhones with LCD displays since the introduction of the Retina display on the iPhone 4, excluding the Plus models. The pressure-sensing 3D Touch feature found on the iPhone 8 has been replaced with Haptic Touch on the iPhone SE, which does not work for notifications. It can play HDR10 and Dolby Vision content despite not having an HDR-ready display, done by down-converting the HDR content to fit the display while still having some enhancements to dynamic range, contrast, and wide color gamut compared to standard content.

Camera.

The iPhone SE features a single 12 MP rear camera, similar to the single camera system of the iPhone 8, capable of recording 4K video (at 24, 30, or 60 fps), 1080p HD video (at 30, or 60 fps), or 720p HD video (at 30 fps). The camera has an aperture of f/1.8, autofocus, optical image stabilization, and a quad-LED True Tone flash. The phone can also take panoramas up to 63 MP, and shoot photos in burst mode. The front camera is 7 MP with an aperture of f/2.2 and autofocus, capable of shooting 1080p HD video at 30 fps. The camera interface adopts "Quicktake" from the 11 and 11 Pro, which allows the user to long-press the shutter button to take a video. The burst function can now be accessed by swiping the shutter button to the left.  The new image signal processor and neural engine of the SE support several camera functions not supported on the iPhone 8. Like the 11 and 11 Pro, the rear camera supports next-generation Smart HDR. The rear camera also supports extended dynamic range video up to 30 fps, stereo recording and cinematic video stabilization. Both the front and rear cameras of the iPhone SE support Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting. Like the 11 and 11 Pro, Portrait mode has depth control and an advanced bokeh effect (blurring effect of the out-of-focus background around the portrait). However, the usage of older sensor hardware results in some limitations—the iPhone SE does not support the Night Mode or Deep Fusion features of the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. The SE's implementation of Portrait mode only natively supports images of humans, as the hardware does not produce depth maps through the use of focus pixels and instead relies on software-based machine learning.

Software.

The iPhone SE originally shipped with iOS 13.4 supporting Apple Pay and Apple Card. A special iPhone SE-exclusive build of iOS 13.4.1, an update fixing bugs related to Bluetooth and FaceTime, was released on April 23, 2020 (a day prior to the device's official release), making it a day-one software update.

The second-generation iPhone SE (also known as the iPhone SE 2 or the 2020 iPhone SE) is a smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the 13th generation of the iPhone, alongside the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro/Pro Max models. Announced on April 15, 2020, the iPhone SE directly replaced the iPhone 8 series, while also being the successor to the smaller and lighter first-generation iPhone SE. Pre-orders began on April 17, 2020, and the phone was subsequently released on April 24, 2020. It was released with a starting price of, and positioned as a budget phone.


Description.

"Muntingia calabura" is a shrub or tree up to 12 m tall with spreading branches. The leaves are alternate, distichous, oblong or lanceolate, 4–15 cm long and 1–6 cm wide, with toothed margin and covered in short hairs. The flowers are small (up to 3 cm wide), solitary or in inflorescences of two or three flowers, with five lanceolate sepals, hairy, five obovate white petals, many stamens with yellow anthers, and a smooth ovoid ovary. Fruit, an edible berry, is red at maturity, about 1.5 cm wide.

Distribution and habitat.

"M. calabura" is native to southern Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and western South America south to Bolivia and Argentina. It is present in tropical climate in disturbed lowland areas from sea level to 1000 m of elevation.

Ecology.

This species colonize disturbed habitats in tropical lowland areas, becoming part of the secondary vegetation, as well as gallery forests. It thrives in poor soil, able to tolerate acidic and alkaline conditions and drought, but doesn't grow on saline conditions.  The seeds are dispersed by birds and fruit bats.  Although native to tropical America, "M. calabura" has been introduced in Southeast Asia and naturalized there and in other tropical parts of the world.

Vernacular names.

Common names include:

Uses.

"M. calabura" is planted as a source of timber and fuel. Its soft wood used for rural construction, while the bark is fibrous and used for making ropes.  The fruits are edible and in some cases sold in markets, as they can be eaten raw or processed as jam; leaves can be used for making tea. Also, traditional medicinal uses have been reported for the leaves (headaches, prostate problems, reduce gastric ulcers), bark (antiseptic), flowers (antiseptic, reduce swelling, antispasmodic), and fruits (respiratory problems; antidiarrheic).  It is planted as an ornamental species, and also because the flowers are a source of nectar and pollen for the beekeeping industry.  The tree is also planted along river banks in Brazil, as fallen fruits attract fish.  "M. calabura" has a potential as a useful species for restoration of disturbed areas and stopping soil erosion. It also offers shelter for wildlife, as it is a source of food for about 60 species of birds and mammals.

Cultivation.

"M. calabura" can be propagated from seed, seedlings, or cuttings. In Costa Rica, seeds set in the wet season, but require conditions of light and temperature found in forest gaps. In a test where seeds were placed in wet paper towel at 25 °C, a total of 44% of seeds germinated in white light, while none germinated in dark conditions.

Cultural References.

Sri Lankan author Carl Muller chose this tree as the title for his first novel, "The Jam Fruit Tree." In the novel, the tree represents the Burgher community of Sri Lanka, "a race of fun-loving, hardy people, much like the jam fruit tree which simply refuses to be contained or destroyed." The book won the Gratiaen Prize for the best published work in the English language in 1993.

Muntingia is a genus of plants in the family Muntingiaceae, comprising only one species, Muntingia calabura, and was named in honour of Abraham Munting. It is native to the neotropics, from Mexico south to Bolivia. In Kerala it is seen in the areas adjacent to the Western Ghat. Usually it serves as a shade plant. The edible fruit ripens during November to January and is said to help diabetic patients. A small reduction was recorded in patients' blood sugar levels after consumption. A popular belief is that this tree leads to prosperity. 'Kattilanthi' is the colloquial name which means 'wild cherry'. It is also known as "Company Pazham" in the Palakkad Walayar area. The tree is quite common in the dry land of Palakkad and planted for its shade along highways.