Early life.

Molko was born in Brussels, Belgium, to an American father of Italian heritage and a Scottish mother. He has an older brother named Stuart. Molko's family moved frequently during his childhood; the family lived in Dundee, Liberia, Lebanon, the village of Longeau in Belgium, before eventually settling in the town of Sandweiler, in Luxembourg.  Although Molko was brought up in a strict household that disapproved of artistic expression (his father wanted him to become a banker), he rebelled by assuming an androgynous image, wearing nail polish, lipstick, and eyeliner, and listening to punk music. He initially attended the European School of Luxembourg (ESL), but left because he was bullied. He completed his secondary education at the American International School of Luxembourg (AISL), before studying drama at Goldsmiths College in London.

Career.

Although Molko and Placebo co-founder Stefan Olsdal had both attended the American International School of Luxembourg (AISL), they had not been friends. When Molko was living in London, he ran into Olsdal at South Kensington tube station and invited him to one of his gigs he played with Steve Hewitt in a group called Ashtray Heart.  Along with Hewitt and Olsdal, Molko had a role in the 1998 film "Velvet Goldmine", for which Placebo performed the T. Rex song "20th Century Boy". He played Malcolm, a singer of the fictional glam rock band, "The Flaming Creatures", who resembled the early Alice Cooper band.  During Placebo's live performances Molko has played a number of instruments, including guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, harmonica and saxophone.

Personal life.

Molko is bisexual. He has a son, who was born in 2005.  Molko has been open about his use of recreational drugs: in a 1997 interview with "Kerrang!" magazine he admitted that heroin was "probably the only drug on this planet I haven't tried". However, he later admitted to using heroin as well. Pharmaceutical drugs are also referenced, as evidenced by the band's name as well as the album "Meds" and its title track. Molko admitted in 2003 that many of his initial excesses were due to his mental health issues; he was officially diagnosed with major depressive disorder in his late twenties. He claimed in 2016 that he gave up drugs completely after the recording and release of "Meds".  In December 2012 Molko received an Honorary Fellowship from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Collaborations.

He has performed, as a guest vocalist and with other artists on Placebo's records, on tracks by:  Molko wrote the English lyrics to "Pink Water 3", a song by Indochine from the album "Alice & June", released in 2005.  Molko was friends with David Bowie; Bowie sang on Placebo's "Without You I'm Nothing" and on the "20th Century Boy" cover live.

Equipment.

Molko uses a variety of guitars. In the "Sleeping With Ghosts" era, he used Gibson SGs ("The Bitter End", "Every You Every Me", "Plasticine", "Black-Eyed", "Without You I'm Nothing", "Special K", "Bulletproof Cupid", "Soulmates/Sleeping With Ghosts", "Special Needs", "This Picture"), Fender Jaguars ("Allergic", "Nancy Boy", "Bionic", "Centrefolds"), a Fender Thinline Telecaster ("Taste in Men"), a Fender Jazzmaster ("Pure Morning"), and a Fender Bass VI ("Slave to the Wage"). For amplification he used a Marshall 6100LM.  Through the "Meds" tour, he used Gretsch Duo Jets ("Infra-Red", "Because I Want You", "Song to Say Goodbye", "One of a Kind", "The Bitter End", "Running Up that Hill", "Special K"), Gibson SGs ("Special Needs", "Every You Every Me", "Black-Eyed", "Without You I'm Nothing"), a Fender Jaguar ("Drag", "Nancy Boy", "I Know"), a Fender Thinline Telecaster ("Twenty Years", "Taste in Men"), and a Gibson Chet Atkins SST ("Meds"). His amplifier was a Fender Twin Reverb.  In the "Battle for the Sun" tour, he still used Gretsch Duo Jets ("Devil in the Details", "Come Undone", "Follow The Cops Back Home"), a Gibson SG ("Bright Lights"), Fender Cyclone ("Ashtray Heart", "The Never-Ending Why", "Breathe Underwater", "Teenage Angst"), a Gibson Les Paul ("For What It's Worth", "Speak in Tongues", "Julien", "Meds"), a Fender Telecaster Thinline ("Kitty Litter"), and a Fender Toronado ("Battle for the Sun"). His pedalboard consisted of a Boss TU-2 chromatic tuner, Electro Harmonix Holy Grail reverb, MXR Phase 90 phaser, two Electro Harmonix Hot Tubes distortion units, Boss DD-3 delay, MXR Distortion + booster, MG Monovibe chorus/vibrato, Electro Harmonix No. 1 Echo delay and a Radial Loopbone effect chain switcher.  In 2010, he signed an endorsement contract to use Orange amps.

Brian Molko (born 10 December 1972) is a Belgian-born British-American musician and songwriter who is the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Placebo. He is known in particular for his distinctive nasal, high-pitched vocals, feminine/androgynous appearance, aggressive guitar style and unique tunings.


Personal life.

Anastasia Baburova was the only child of her parents Eduard Fyodorovich Baburov and Larisa Ivanovna Baburova who were both professors at the Sevastopol National Technical University.  In 2000, she began studying at the Management-Faculty of the Black Sea branch of the Moscow State University in Sevastopol. Together with her mother she became a Russian citizen in the year 2000. She went to Moscow in 2001 and became a student in international law at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. In 2003, she married a fellow journalistic student, Alexander Frolov, whom she met in 2000 during her studies in Sevastopol. In 2004, Baburova became a journalist student at the Moscow State University. Along with her studies, she worked as a freelance journalist for "Vechernyaya Moskva", "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" and "Izvestia". In the summer of 2007, Baburova and Frolov divorced.  Beginning in October 2008, she investigated (as a freelance-journalist) Russian Neo-Nazi Groups for "Novaya Gazeta".  Besides Russian and Ukrainian, which she considered her native languages, she also spoke English and French.

Political activity.

Baburova's political activity may be traced back to her having witnessed an attack by neo-Nazis on a foreigner, after which she wrote in her diary, "It is difficult to look in the eyes of a Korean student, who has only just been stuck in the temple by two juvenile thugs... they waved 'Sieg Heil' towards the tram and ran off."  Baburova was active in the anarchist environmentalist movement. She participated in the activities of ecological camps, in social fora, including the Fifth European Social Forum in Malmö 2008, organised the 'Anti-capitalism 2008' festival, demonstrated widely, and was involved in anti-fascist activities more generally.  In July 2008, Baburova participated in a demonstration against the felling of the Khimki Forest. For her involvement in another protest against the eviction of former pork factory workers from the Moscow factory, 'Smena' and impoverished CIS immigrants she would spend a night in prison. The day before her murder, Anastasia appeared at the anarcho-communist unity event 'Autonomous Action'. Earlier she had written an article on behalf of the journal 'Avtonom'.

Journalistic activity.

Throughout 2008, Anastasia Baburova worked on the editorial team of the Russian newspaper, "Izvestia", and had had dozens of articles published by both "Izvestia" and "Financial News", particularly on finance. In December 2008, she resigned from this post over the political course of the newspaper, which, according to the British weekly newspaper "The Economist", may be characterised by "nationalism, spinelessness and cynicism".

Death and investigation.

Baburova became the fourth "Novaya Gazeta" journalist to be killed since 2000.  At first it was reported that Baburova had been wounded in an attempt to detain Markelov's killer, but later Russian law enforcement authorities declared that Baburova was shot in the back of her head. Baburova died a few hours after the attack at a Moscow hospital.  Then President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko sent her parents a condolence telegram on 23 January 2009. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave his condolences 6 days later.  On 26 January 2009, Baburova was buried in the central city cemetery of her home town of Sevastopol.  In November 2009, Russian authorities declared the end of the criminal investigation. The murder suspects were 29-year-old Nikita Tikhonov and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Eugenia Khasis, members of a radical neo-Nazi nationalistic group. According to investigators, Tikhonov was the one who committed the murder, while Khasis reported to him, by cell phone, the movements of Markelov and Baburova right before the assault. The motive of the murder was revenge for Markelov's prior work as a lawyer in the interests of anti-Russian activists. The murder suspects were arrested, and were reported to have confessed. In May 2011, Tikhonov was sentenced to life imprisonment, and Khasis was sentenced to 18 years in prison.  According to Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer, the details of the murder indicate involvement of Russian state security services. He stated:

Anastasia Baburova ( "Anastasia Eduardovna Baburova", "Anastasia Eduardivna Baburova"; 30 November 1983 – 19 January 2009) was a journalist for "Novaya Gazeta" and a student of journalism at Moscow State University. She was born in Sevastopol, Ukrainian SSR.


Characteristics.

Traditional military values of bravery, sacrifice, sense of duty, and camaraderie are emphasized, and the action is usually described from the point of view of a soldier. Typically, the technology is more advanced than that of the present and described in detail. In some stories, however, technology is fairly static, and weapons that would be familiar to present-day soldiers are used, but other aspects of society have changed. For example, women may be accepted as equal partners for combat roles. In many military science fiction stories, technological advances are often basic to plot developments. Some works draw heavy parallels to human history and the fact that scientific breakthroughs or new doctrine can severely change the outcome of battles and the way war is fought. Many works explore how progress or changes to the aforementioned affect military doctrine and also how the protagonists and antagonists reflect on and adapt to these changes.  Several subsets of military science fiction overlap with space opera, concentrating on large-scale space battles with futuristic weapons. At one extreme, the genre is used to speculate about future wars involving space travel, or the effects of such a war on humans; at the other, it consists of the use of military fiction plots with some superficial science fiction trappings. The term "military space opera" is occasionally used to denote this subgenre, as used for example by critic Sylvia Kelso when describing Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. Another example of military space opera would be the Battlestar Galactica franchise and Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel "Starship Troopers".  The key distinction of military science fiction from space opera is that the principal characters in a space opera are not military personnel, but civilians or paramilitary. Military science fiction also does not necessarily always include an outer space or multi-planetary setting like space opera.

History.

Precursors for military science fiction can be found in "future war" stories dating back at least to George Chesney's story "The Battle of Dorking" (1871). Other works of fiction followed, including H.G. Wells's "The Land Ironclads". Eventually, as science fiction became an established and separate genre, military science fiction established itself as a subgenre. One such work is H. Beam Piper's "Uller Uprising" (1952) (based on the events of the Sepoy Mutiny). Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" (1959) is another work of military SF, along with Gordon Dickson's "Dorsai" (1960), and these are thought to be mostly responsible for popularizing this subgenre's popularity among young readers of the time.  The Vietnam War resulted in veterans with combat experience deciding to write science fiction, including Joe Haldeman and David Drake. Throughout the 1970s, works such as Haldeman's "The Forever War" and Drake's "Hammer's Slammers" helped increase the popularity of the genre. Short stories also were popular, collected in books like "Combat SF", edited by Gordon R. Dickson. This anthology includes one of the first Hammer's Slammers stories as well as one of the BOLO stories by Keith Laumer and one of the Berserker stories by Fred Saberhagen. This anthology seems to have been the first time SF-stories specifically dealing with war as a subject were collected and marketed as such. The series of anthologies with the group title "There Will be War" edited by Pournelle and John F. Carr (nine volumes from 1983 through 1990) helped keep the category active, and encouraged new writers to add to it.  A special twist was introduced in Harry Turtledove's "Worldwar series" depicting an alternate history in which WWII is disrupted by extraterrestrials invading Earth in 1942, forcing humans to stop fighting each other and unite against this common enemy. Turtledove depicts the tactics and strategy of this new course of the war in great detail, showing how American, British, Soviet and German soldiers and Jewish guerrillas (some of them historical figures) deal with this extraordinary new situation, as well as providing a not unsympathetic detailed point of view of individual invader warriors. In the war situation posited by Turtledove, the invaders have superior arms, but the gap is not too wide for the humans to bridge. For example, the invaders have more advanced tanks, but the German Wehrmacht's tank crews facing them - a major theme in the series - are more skilled and far more experienced.

Viewpoints.

A number of authors have presented stories with political messages of varying types as major or minor themes of their works.  David Drake has often written of the horrors and futility of war. He has said, in the afterwords of several of his "Hammer's Slammers" books (1979 and later), that one of his reasons for writing is to educate those people who have not experienced war, but who might have to make the decision to start or endorse a war (as policy makers or as voters) about what war is really like, and what the powers and limits of the military as an instrument of policy are.  David Weber has said that:

Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that features the use of science fiction technology, mainly weapons, for military purposes and usually principal characters that are members of a military organization involved in military activity, usually during a war; occurring sometimes in outer space or on a different planet or planets. It exists in literature, comics, film, and video games.


Medical use.

VNS devices are used to treat drug-resistant epilepsy and treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (TR-MDD). Specifically, it is used for treatment-resistant focal epilepsy. As of 2017 the efficacy of VNS for TR-MDD was unclear.

Adverse events.

For the treatment of epilepsy generally the left vagus nerve is stimulated at mid-cervical region. The adverse effects of this stimulation include cardiac arrest, bradycardia, voice alteration and hoarseness, cough, shortness of breath, pain, a tingling sensation, nausea, and headache; difficulty swallowing has also been reported as common, as well as sleepiness.  In randomized controlled trials for epilepsy conducted in the United States, one-third of the subjects had some type of an increase in seizures, with 17 percent having greater than a 25 percent increase, some had 100 percent increase or more.

Mechanism of action.

As of 2017 little was understood about exactly how vagal nerve stimulation modulates mood and seizure control.  The vagus is the tenth cranial nerve and arises from the medulla; it carries both afferent and efferent fibers. The afferent vagal fibers connect to the nucleus of the solitary tract which in turn projects connections to other locations in the central nervous system. Proposed mechanisms include an anti-inflammatory effect, as well as changes in monoamines.

Devices and procedures.

The device consists of a generator the size of a matchbox that is implanted under the skin below the person’s collarbone. Lead wires from the generator are tunnelled up to the patient’s neck and wrapped around the left vagus nerve at the carotid sheath, where it delivers electrical impulses to the nerve.  Implantation of the VNS device is usually done as an out-patient procedure. The procedure goes as follows: an incision is made in the upper left chest and the generator is implanted into a little "pouch" on the left chest under the collarbone. A second incision is made in the neck, so that the surgeon can access the vagus nerve. The surgeon then wraps the leads around the left branch of the vagus nerve, and connects the electrodes to the generator. Once successfully implanted, the generator sends electric impulses to the vagus nerve at regular intervals. The left vagus nerve is stimulated rather than the right because the right plays a role in cardiac function such that stimulating it could have negative cardiac effects. The "dose" administered by the device then needs to be set, which is done via a magnetic wand; the parameters adjusted include current, frequency, pulse width, and duty cycle.  "Wearable" devices are being tested and developed that involve transcutaneous stimulation and do not require surgery. Electrical impulses are targeted at the aurical (ear), at points where branches of the vagus nerve have cutaneous representation; such devices had been tested in clinical trials for treatment resistant major depressive disorder as of 2017.

History.

In 1997, the US Food and Drug Administration's neurological devices panel met to consider approval of an implanted vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) for epilepsy, requested by Cyberonics (which was subsequently renamed to LivaNova).  The FDA approved an implanted VNS for TR-MDD in 2005.  In April 2017, the FDA cleared marketing of a handheld noninvasive vagus nerve stimulator, called "gammaCore" and made by ElectroCore LLC, for episodic cluster headaches, under the de novo pathway. In January 2018, the FDA cleared a new use of that device, for the treatment of migraine pain in adults under a 510(k) based on the de novo clearance.

Controversy.

Although the use of VNS for TRD has been endorsed by the American Psychiatric Association, the FDA's approval of VNS for TRD remains controversial. According to Dr. A. John Rush, vice chairman for research in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, results of the VNS pilot study showed that 40 percent of the treated patients displayed at least a 50 percent or greater improvement in their condition, according to the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Many other studies concur that VNS is indeed efficacious in treating depression. However, these findings do not take into account improvements over time in patients without the device. In the only randomized controlled trial VNS failed to perform any better when turned on than in otherwise similar implanted patients whose device was not turned on.

Research.

Because the vagus nerve is associated with many different functions and brain regions, clinical research has been done to determine its usefulness in treating other illnesses, including various anxiety disorders, obesity, alcohol addiction, chronic heart failure, prevention of arrhythmias that can cause sudden cardiac death, autoimmune disorders, and several chronic pain conditions.  VNS has also been studied in small trials of people with neurodevelopmental disorders, generally who also have had epilepsy, including Landau-Kleffner syndrome, Rett syndrome, and autism spectrum disorders. VNS is being studied as of 2018 as a treatment for migraines and fibromyalgia.

Transcutaneous.

As of 2015 VNS devices were being developed that were not implanted, but rather transmitted signals through the skin, known as transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS). Electrical impulses are targeted at the auricle of the ear at points where branches of the vagus nerve are close to the surface. It is non-invasive and based on the rationale that there is vagus nerve distribution on the surface of the ear. tVNS is being studied for stroke and the treatment of depression.

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a medical treatment that involves delivering electrical impulses to the vagus nerve. It is used as an add-on treatment for certain types of intractable epilepsy and treatment-resistant depression. Frequent side effects include coughing and shortness of breath. Serious side effects may include trouble talking and cardiac arrest.


Building.

The Kremlin Senate is located in the northern part of the Kremlin grounds, between the Kremlin Arsenal and the former, now demolished, Kremlin Presidium (the site of which is planned to be a park). It is shaped like an isosceles triangle with each side approximately in length, and with one side directly adjacent to the Kremlin Wall parallel to Red Square. The building has three floors and is painted in the same yellow color as many other administrative buildings within the Moscow Kremlin.  The triangular structure has an inner courtyard, and is divided by hallways into a central pentahedral portion and two side trihedral portions. In the middle of the main façade is an arched passage fashioned like a triumphal arch leading to the inner yard. Inside is Rotunda Hall (diameter, internal height), once called "The Pantheon of Russia". Its green dome, carrying the state flag as seen from the Red Square, would later become a Soviet propaganda icon. However, originally it carried a statue of St. George, then a statue of Justice (destroyed by French troops in 1812). The exterior styling of the building is an unusual mix of Doric and Ionic order columns.  Inside the building, the large “Catherine Hall” is designed as a parade room, where especially important ceremonies are held. This is a circular hall, with a 24.7 meter diameter under extensive bas-relief ornamentation depicting Catherine as the Greek goddess Minerva.

History.

The Governing Senate was an institution created by Tsar Peter the Great in 1711. It had six departments, four of which were in St Petersburg and two of which were in Moscow. Empress Catherine the Great had been a frequent guest in Moscow at the time when the city, neglected by past monarchs, did not have enough state offices. She ordered the construction of a building to house the Moscow branches of the Governing Senate, namely the national judiciary administration and the seat of elected administration for the Moscow region. The new building was designed by Matvey Kazakov who had participated in the design of the Moscow Arsenal, and construction was started in 1776 by Karl Blank on a large triangular property in the north-east of the Moscow Kremlin, following a 1775 draft by Kazakov. The site once housed the Trubetskoy family palace and at least three churches. In 1779 Blank was demoted, and Kazakov took the lead. He envisaged Governing Senate as a “Temple of Law”, and designed the structure in a Neoclassical style characterized by symmetry and rigour. The building was completed in 1787, with interior work continuing to 1790.  Kazakov's building cost 759,000 roubles. According to Ivan Kondratiev, Catherine was so impressed by the building that she gave Kazakov her gloves, saying "I'll pay your bills later, for now - this is a token for your wife". She indeed repaid Kazakov with diamonds, promotion and a pension. The building later served as a model for several other official buildings in other Russian cities in the late 18th and 19th centuries.  Later, in line with legal reforms of Catherine's successors, the building lost its national functions and became the seat of Moscow Regional Court (Здание Московских судебных установлений) and several other state offices.  In 1905, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov, the military governor of Moscow, was assassinated just outside the Moscow Senate by Ivan Kalyayev. This was commemorated by a, designed by Victor Vasnetsov in 1908. In 1918, the monument was destroyed by the Bolshevik administration.

Modern history.

After the 1917 Russian Revolution and relocation of the capital to Moscow, the Kremlin Senate served as the seat of the Soviet government, including the Politburo. Vladimir Lenin had his study and private apartment on the third floor in 1918-1922. Later, the Senate housed Joseph Stalin's study and conference hall. Stalin maintained a small service apartment within the Kremlin Senate, although he chose not to live within the Senate building as his main residence. In 1955, Lenin's apartments were opened to public access; however, in 1994, all exhibits of this museum were relocated to Gorki Leninskiye and the Senate closed its doors to the public again. From 1946 through the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Council of People's Commissars, later known as the Council of Ministers and as the Cabinet of Ministers, was based in this building.  In 1994-1998, Senate building was converted to house the Russian presidential administration. An indiscriminate reconstruction from scratch destroyed Kazakov's interiors. Preservation advocate Alexei Komech reported from the site: "... crushed walls, ripped air ducts and piles of 200 year old bricks remind me of wandering around ruins of Berlin's Reich Chancellery in 1946". Present-day photographs also show that the builders destroyed and paved the chestnut garden that used to grace the Senate's courtyard in the 1970s.

The Kremlin Senate () is a building within the grounds of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia. Initially constructed from 1776 to 1787, it originally housed the Moscow branch of the Governing Senate, the highest judiciary and legislative office of Imperial Russia. Currently, it houses the Russian presidential administration and is a highly secured and restricted area closed to the public. At present, only the southern corner façade, opposite the Tsar Cannon can be viewed.


Biography.

Born in Jerusalem towards the end of the Mandate era, Meridor is the son of Eliyahu Meridor, a longtime political associate of Menachem Begin in the Irgun and Herut (which he represented in the Knesset), and Ra'anana Meridor, an associate professor of Classics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  He served in the armored corps and then studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gaining an LL.B. He then worked as an attorney at the Tel Aviv law firm of Haim Zadok & Co..

Political career.

After serving as Cabinet Secretary between 1982 and 1984 (under Begin and Yitzhak Shamir), Meridor ran for the Knesset in the Likud list for the 1984 election. As a freshman member, he was appointed chairman of two legislative subcommittees. He was re-elected in 1988, and was appointed Minister of Justice in Shamir's unity government of 1988–90 and in Shamir's Likud government of 1990–92. He retained his seat in the 1992 and 1996 elections, and was appointed Minister of Finance by Binyamin Netanyahu in 1996.  After successive clashes with Netanyahu, Meridor left the cabinet in June 1997. His public image suffered during that period, when he was compared to Hamlet (for his indecisiveness) and to a fraidy cat on a popular TV show, "Hartzufim".  In 1998, together with several other Likud and Labor Party members, he co-founded "Israel in the Centre", which later became the Centre Party. He was elected as a Centre Party MK in the 1999 elections, and was appointed chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. After Ariel Sharon became Prime Minister in 2001, Meridor was made a Minister without Portfolio. During his time in the Knesset he also served as the Knesset observer to the Council of Europe.  Meridor lost his seat following the 2003 elections.  After leaving the Knesset, Meridor served as international chair of the Jerusalem Foundation. He took part in the Winograd Commission that investigated Israel's actions in the 2006 Lebanon War.  In the run-up to the 2006 elections, Meridor received offers by Labor and Yisrael Beiteinu, but he seemed to harbor hopes of being called to Kadima's list. However, his inclusion was vetoed by Ariel Sharon's sons, Gilad and Omri Sharon. He later rejoined Likud, and won seventeenth place on the party's list for the 2009 elections. He returned to the Knesset after the party won 27 seats. In the Netanyahu cabinet formed after that election, Meridor was appointed Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy, and Deputy Prime Minister.  Meridor ran in the Likud primaries for the 2013 elections, but he failed to win a realistic place on the Likud list.

Family.

Meridor's father was Eliyahu Meridor, a member of the Knesset.  Meridor's wife Liora is a senior economist, who held several posts in the Bank of Israel, the private sector, and government-sponsored panels. They have four children. Their son Shaul Meridor is the deputy director of the Allocation Branch at the Ministry of Finance.  Dan Meridor has three younger siblings. Haggit Hurvitz is Head of Pediatrics at the Bikur Holim Hospital. Avital Darmon is Director of the Applied Research Initiative in Education. Sallai Meridor was Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization from 1999–2005, and was appointed as Israeli ambassador to the United States in 2006.

Dan Meridor (, born 23 April 1947) is an Israeli politician and minister. A longtime member of the Likud party, in the late 1990s he became one of the founders of the Centre Party. He rejoined Likud a decade later, and returned to the Knesset following the 2009 elections. Meridor served at various times as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Minister of Justice and Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy in the Israeli Cabinet. In 2014, Meridor succeeded Avi Primor as president of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, an institute of international affairs which operates under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress.


Biography.

Felix Pinchas Rosenblüth (later Rosen) was born in Berlin, Germany. He was brought up in Messingwerk Finow and attended the Wilhelms Gymnasium in Eberswalde from 1892 to 1904. In 1905 he left to study law at the universities of Freiburg and Berlin, graduating in 1908. He served in the Imperial German Army in World War I. Always active in Zionist circles, Rosen was Chairman of the Zionist Federation of Germany from 1920–1923, and eventually migrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1926 where he practiced as a lawyer and helped create the Central European Immigrants Association.  Rosen was married three times, first to Annie Lesser with whom he had two children, Hans and Dina, who with their mother settled in London in 1933 and whom Rosen visited regularly until the end of his life. In 1935 he married Hadassah Calvary with whom he had a daughter, Rivka, who died in 1942 aged seven; Hadassah died of cancer in 1945. In 1950 he married Johanna Rosenfeld (born Ettlinger) who also predeceased him. Through his second and third wives he gained four step sons.

Political career.

In 1942 Rosen founded the New Aliyah Party, and was elected to the Assembly of Representatives on its list in 1944. In 1948 he was among the signatories of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, which he helped create. (In 2019 Israel's Supreme Court ruled that drafts of the declaration, commissioned by Rosen from fellow-lawyer Mordechai Beham, were of national importance and State, not private, property.)  In the 1949 elections, the New Aliyah Party became the Progressive Party, winning Rosen a seat in the Knesset. In 1950, when David Ben-Gurion was unable to form a coalition, the President gave the task to Rosen, as head of the Progressive Party. Rosen handed the reins to Mapai, recognizing its indispensability.  Rosen became the country's first Minister of Justice, an office to which he brought a strong reputation for intellect and probity. He retained his seat and Ministerial position in the 1951, 1955 and 1959 elections. Soon after the 1959 election the Progressive Party merged with the General Zionists to form the Liberal Party.  The new party won the third largest number of seats in the 1961 elections but was not invited into the coalition, and Rosen lost his ministerial position. In order to consolidate opposition to Mapai's hegemony within Israeli politics, the Liberal Party merged with Herut to form Gahal. Rosen, however, was unhappy with the merger, and led a breakaway of seven MKs to found the Independent Liberals. He was elected to the sixth Knesset but resigned from the Knesset on December 23, 1968, and retired from politics. His departure from the political stage was greeted by one newspaper as, "The end of the aristocracy" and in another by a cartoon captioned: "Another Channukah miracle!... An MK resigns because of age."  Rosen was a long-term friend of David Ben-Gurion who broke with Rosen after the Lavon affair, a botched Israeli sabotage operation in Egypt, in which Rosen sided with Lavon who had been (almost certainly falsely) accused of masterminding the mission, after which it is said Ben-Gurion refused to talk to Rosen again.  On his death Pinhas Rosen received a state funeral.

Awards.

In 1973, Rosen was awarded the Israel Prize, in jurisprudence.

Pinchas Rosen (, born Felix Rosenblüth, 1 May 1887 – 3 May 1978) was an Israeli statesman, and the country's first Minister of Justice, serving three times during 1948–51, 1952–56, and 1956–61. He was also leader of the Independent Liberals during the 1960s.


Geography.

Gilo is located on a hilltop in southwestern East Jerusalem separated from Beit Jala by a deep gorge. The Tunnels Highway to Gush Etzion runs underneath it on the east, and the settlement of Har Gilo is visible on the adjacent peak. Beit Safafa and Sharafat are located north of Gilo, while Bethlehem is to the South.

History.

Biblical era.

A site dating to the period of Israelite settlement during Iron Age I (1200 – 1000 BCE) was identified and excavated at the modern site of Gilo. The site revealed a small planned settlement with dwellings along the perimeter of the site, together with pottery dating to the twelfth century BC. The southern part of the Iron Age site at Gilo is believed to be one of the earliest Israelite sites from this period. The site was surrounded by a defensive wall and divided into large yards, possibly sheep pens, with houses at the edges. Buildings at the site are amongst the earliest examples of the pillared four room house characteristic of Iron Age Israelite architecture, featuring a courtyard divided by stone pillars, a rectangular back room and rooms along the courtyard. The foundations of a structure built of large stones were also uncovered, possibly a fortified defense tower.  The biblical town of Giloh is mentioned in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 15:51) and the Book of Samuel (II Sam 15:12). Some scholars believe that biblical Giloh was located in the central Hebron Hills, whereas the name of the modern settlement was chosen because of its proximity to Beit Jala, possibly a corruption of Giloh. During the construction of the modern suburb of Gilo, archaeologists discovered a fortress and agricultural implements from the period of the First Temple period above the shopping center on Rehov Haganenet. Between Givat Canada and Gilo Park, they unearthed the remains of a farm and graves from the Second Temple period. Roman and Byzantine remains have also been found at various sites.

Modern era.

According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated land from several Palestinian villages/towns in order to construct Gilo:  During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Egyptian army positioned its artillery at Gilo, heavily shelling West Jerusalem. An attempt to advance on Jerusalem from Gilo was beaten back in a fierce battle. Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, located just north-east of Gilo, changed hands three times, ultimately remaining part of Israel, but Gilo remained on the side of the Green Line held by the Kingdom of Jordan until 1967.  In 1970, the Israeli government expropriated 12,300 dunams of land to build Ring Neighborhoods around Jerusalem on land conquered in the Six-Day War.  Gilo was established in 1973. According to some sources, the land belonged to the Palestinian villages of Sharafat, Beit Jala and Beit Safafa. With its expansion over the years, Gilo has formed a wedge between Jerusalem and Beit Jala-Bethlehem.

Demography.

In 2017, Gilo had a population of 30,900. From its inception, Gilo has provided housing to new Jewish immigrants from around the world. Many of those who spent their first months in the country at the immigrant hostel in Gilo, including those from Iran, Syria, France and South America, chose to remain in the neighborhood. Since the large influx of Soviet Jews in the 1990s, Gilo has absorbed 15% of all immigrants of that wave settling in Jerusalem. The immigrant hostel is now the site of an urban kibbutz, Beit Yisrael. Gilo is a mixed community of religious and secular Jews, although more Haredi families are moving in.

Schools and institutions.

Beit Or (Home of Light), a hostel for autistic young adults, opened in Gilo in March 2008. The Ilan home for handicapped adults is located in Gilo. Gilo has 35 synagogues. In 2009, the Gilo community center, one of the largest in the country, introduced a new hybrid water heating system that saves energy and greatly reduces pollution. Park Gilo has a large adventure playground for children.

Settlement debate.

Because Gilo is located beyond the 1949 Green Line, on land occupied since the Six-Day War, the United Nations, the European Union and Japan refer to it as an illegal settlement.  Israel disputes this, and considers it a neighborhood of Jerusalem. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Gilo community council director Yaffa Shitrit, invited the world "to come and see the neighborhood of Gilo and to understand the geography. We're not a settlement, we're part of the city of Jerusalem, we're a neighborhood like Katamon." Palestinians regard it as occupied territory and make no distinction between Gilo and the West Bank settlements.  Plans to expand Gilo have drawn criticism from the United States and United Kingdom. Israel maintains that it has the right to build freely in Gilo because the neighborhood is within (expanded) Jerusalem municipal borders and not a West Bank settlement. In 2009, the Jerusalem Planning Committee approved construction of 900 new housing units in Gilo, sparking a fresh round of global criticism.

Arab-Israeli conflict.

From 2000, Beit Jala, a predominantly Palestinian Christian town, was used as a base by Fatah's Tanzim gunmen to launch sniper and mortar attacks against Gilo. The Israeli government built a concrete barrier and installed bulletproof windows in the homes and schools on the periphery of Gilo, facing Beit Jala. The attacks on Gilo subsided after Operation Defensive Shield, with the rate slowing to three incidents of gunfire that year. On August 15, 2010, following years of relative quiet, the IDF started dismantling the concrete barrier, nearly a decade after its construction.  Seventeen of the 19 passengers killed in the Patt Junction bus bombing were residents of Gilo.

Gilo () is an Israeli settlement in south-western East Jerusalem, with a population of 30,000, mostly Jewish inhabitants. Although it is located within the Jerusalem Municipality, it is widely considered a settlement, because as one of the five Ring Neighborhoods built by Israel surrounding Jerusalem, it was built on land in the West Bank that was occupied by and effectively annexed to Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War and 1980 Jerusalem Law.


History.

The Old Town was established in the 13th century. Initially surrounded by an earthwork rampart, prior to 1339 it was fortified with brick city walls. The town originally grew up around the castle of the Dukes of Mazovia that later became the Royal Castle. The Market Square ("Rynek Starego Miasta") was laid out sometime in the late 13th or early 14th century, along the main road linking the castle with the New Town to the north.  Until 1817 the Old Town's most notable feature was the Town Hall built before 1429. In 1701 the square was rebuilt by Tylman Gamerski, and in 1817 the Town Hall was demolished. Since the 19th century, the four sides of the Market Square have borne the names of four notable Poles who once lived on the respective sides: Ignacy Zakrzewski (south), Hugo Kołłątaj (west), Jan Dekert (north) and Franciszek Barss (east).  In the early 1910s Warsaw Old Town was the home of the prominent Yiddish writer Alter Kacyzne, who later depicted life there in his 1929 novel "שטאַרקע און שוואַכע" (Shtarke un Shvache, "The Strong and the Weak"). As depicted in the novel, the Old Town at that time was a slum neighborhood, with poor families - some Jewish, other Christian - living very crowded in subdivided tenements which had once been aristocrats' palaces. Parts of it were bohemian, with painters and artists having their studios, while some streets were a Red-light district housing brothels.  In 1918 the Royal Castle once again became the seat of Poland's highest authorities: the President of Poland and his chancellery. In the late 1930s, during the mayoralty of Stefan Starzyński, the municipal authorities began refurbishing the Old Town and restoring it to its former glory. The Barbican and the Old Town Market Place were partly restored. These efforts, however, were brought to an end by the outbreak of World War II.  During the Invasion of Poland (1939), much of the district was badly damaged by the German Luftwaffe, which targeted the city's residential areas and historic landmarks in a campaign of terror bombing. Following the Siege of Warsaw, parts of the Old Town were rebuilt, but immediately after the Warsaw Uprising (August–October 1944) what had been left standing was systematically blown up by the German Army. A statue commemorating the Uprising, "the Little Insurgent," now stands on the Old Town's medieval city wall.  After World War II, the Old Town was meticulously rebuilt. In an effort at anastylosis, as many as possible of the original bricks were reused. However, the reconstruction was not always accurate to prewar Warsaw, sometimes deference being given to an earlier period, an attempt being made to improve on the original, or an authentic-looking facade being made to cover a more modern building. The rubble was sifted for reusable decorative elements, which were reinserted into their original places. Bernardo Bellotto's 18th-century "vedute", as well as pre-World War II architecture students' drawings, were used as essential sources in the reconstruction effort; however, Bellotto's drawings had not been entirely immune to artistic licence and embellishment, and in some cases this was transferred to the reconstructed buildings.

Squares.

The Old Town Market Place ("Rynek Starego Miasta"), which dates back to the end of the 13th century, is the true heart of the Old Town, and until the end of the 18th century it was the heart of all of Warsaw. Here the representatives of guilds and merchants met in the Town Hall (built before 1429, pulled down in 1817), and fairs and the occasional execution were held. The houses around it represented the Gothic style until the great fire of 1607, after which they were rebuilt in late-Renaissance style.  Castle Square ("plac Zamkowy") is a visitor's first view of the reconstructed Old Town, when approaching from the more modern center of Warsaw. It is an impressive sight, dominated by Zygmunt's Column, which towers above the beautiful Old Town houses. Enclosed between the Old Town and the Royal Castle, Castle Square is steeped in history. Here was the gateway leading into the city called the Kraków Gate ("Brama Krakowska"). It was developed in the 14th century and continued to be a defensive area for the kings. The square was in its glory in the 17th century when Warsaw became the country's capital and it was here in 1644 that King Władysław IV erected the column to glorify his father Sigismund III Vasa, who is best known for moving the capital of Poland from Kraków to Warsaw. The Museum of Warsaw is also located there.  Canon Square ("plac Kanonia"), behind St. John's Cathedral, is a small triangular square. Its name comes from the 17th-century tenement houses which belonged to the canons of the Warsaw chapter. Some of these canons were quite famous, like Stanisław Staszic who was the co-author of the Constitution of May 3, 1791. Formerly, it was a parochial cemetery, of which there remains a Baroque figure of Our Lady from the 18th century. In the middle of the square, is the bronze bell of Warsaw, that Grand Crown Treasurer Jan Mikołaj Daniłowicz, founded in 1646 for the Jesuit Church in Jarosław. The bell was cast in 1646 by Daniel Tym - the designer of the Zygmunt's Column. Where the Canon Square meets the Royal Square is a covered passage built for Queen Anna Jagiellon in the late 16th century and extended in the 1620s after Michał Piekarski's failed 1620 attempt to assassinate King Sigismund III Vasa as he was entering the Cathedral. Also the thinnest house in Warsaw is located there.

Recognition.

In 1980, Warsaw's Old Town was placed on the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites as "an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction of a span of history covering the 13th to the 20th century.  The site is also one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments ("Pomnik historii"), as designated September 16, 1994. Its listing is maintained by the National Heritage Board of Poland.

Warsaw Old Town ( and colloquially as "Starówka") is the oldest part of Warsaw, the capital city of Poland. It is bounded by the "Wybrzeże Gdańskie" (Gdańsk Boulevards), along with the bank of the Vistula river, "Grodzka", "Mostowa" and "Podwale" Streets. It is one of the most prominent tourist attractions in Warsaw. The heart of the area is the Old Town Market Place, rich in restaurants, cafés and shops. Surrounding streets feature medieval architecture such as the city walls, St. John's Cathedral and the Barbican which links the Old Town with Warsaw New Town.


List of qualified teams.

Bahrain and Chile qualified for their first ever handball World Championship. Austria qualified for the first time since 1993, which, coincidentally, was also hosted by Sweden.  The following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament:

Draw.

The draw was held on 9 July 2010 at the Scandinavium at Gothenburg, Sweden.

Squads.

Each nation had to submit a squad of 16 players.

Match officials.

On 25 October 2010, the match officials for the tournament were confirmed.

Preliminary round.

Twenty-four participating teams were placed in the following four groups. After playing a round-robin, the top three teams in each group advanced to the Main Round. The last three teams in each group played placement matches.

Tie-breaking criteria.

For the three game group stage of this tournament, where two or more teams in a group tied on an equal number of points, the finishing positions will be determined by the following tie-breaking criteria in the following order

Main round.

The top three teams of every preliminary group advanced to the Main round. Every team kept the points from preliminary round matches against teams who also advanced. In the main round every team had 3 games against the opponents they did not face in the preliminary round. The top two of every group advanced to the Semifinals, the other teams played placement matches.

Final round (Kristianstad/Malmö).

Final.

The final was played at a sold-out Malmö Arena in Malmö between France and Denmark, and was followed by 12,462 spectators. In addition, the match was aired on both major Danish public television channels DR1 and TV 2 with 2,670,000 viewers, making it the most watched sport event in Denmark ever.

First half.

The French team started the match with a 2–0 lead, and maintained a lead until the 17th minute, where Denmark started a 3–0 run and equalised at 9–9 with a penalty shot by Anders Eggert. On the next attack, Mikkel Hansen received the Danes' first two-minute suspension, allowing France to open another three-goal lead. The half time score was 15–12 in favor of France.

Second half.

The second half started with France maintaining a lead of at least two goals in the first 15 minutes. But a couple of saves in a row by the well-tempered Niklas Landin Jacobsen, meant that Mikkel Hansen could equalise to 24–24 with 11 minutes to play. Still, France took the lead once again, but with five minutes remaining and the French lead at 29–27, Jérôme Fernandez was penalized with a 2-minute suspension. Denmark took advantage, scoring two goals and making it 29–29 with 3:30 remaining. In the last minute, the French found themselves one goal ahead, 31–30. The Danish coach Ulrik Wilbek used a team timeout with 25 seconds to go to prepare the team for the last attack. Three seconds were left, when the Dane Bo Spellerberg scored from left back a positional shot in the bottom of the goal for 31–31, deferring the match to overtime.

Overtime.

In the 64th minute, the Danes recorded their first lead in the match when scoring 33–32, but within the next minute the French scored two goals overturning the result. The first half of the overtime ended with a French lead of 34–33.  The second half of overtime began with veteran Lars Christiansen scoring a penalty and evening the score at 34–34. The French took the lead from there, though, and secured the win at 36–34 when Thierry Omeyer saved a Mikkel Hansen 9m shot with just over one minute to go. Michael Guigou scored the last goal of the game with one second to go to the final score 37–35. The match ended 37–35 in favor of France. Nikola Karabatić and Mikkel Hansen, both scored 10 goals in the final, with Karabatić chosen the MVP of the championship, and Hansen the best goalscorer.

The 2011 World Men's Handball Championship, the 22nd event hosted by the International Handball Federation, was held in Sweden from 13–30 January, 2011. All matches were played in Malmö, Lund, Kristianstad, Gothenburg, Skövde, Jönköping, Linköping and Norrköping.


History.

The company was founded by local investor groups in Győr in 1896.  In 1899, the Rába had started to export to foreign countries : it supplied railway passenger carriages to Egypt, the East Indies, Southern Africa, city tramcars to Amsterdam and Antwerp. The carriages of the London underground railway were constructed and manufactured in the Rába company. The London Underground Railway ordered 30 multiple-unit trains, 66 passenger cars for multiple-unit trains and bogies. In 1904, the production of the first petrol engine powered trucks started. In 1914, the company started to produce its first passenger automobiles: The RÁBA Alpha. The steward's office ordered a special RÁBA Grand for the personal use of Emperor Charles I of Austria.  Rába's trucks originally used cabins supplied by West German MAN, but from 1980 on DAF's F241 cabin was used. A few Roman cabs (of MAN origins) were also supplied from Romania in return for engines. Rába's engine mainstay was itself of MAN origins, with the old D21 inline-six diesel massaged up to with the help of turbocharging and intercooling.  In the 1980s, Rába built no more than about 2,000 trucks per year, although it was Hungary's third biggest employer. Being an important provider to Hungarocamion, a publicly operated international trucking firm, helped raise their international profile. In 1985, Rába's business mostly consisted of engine and axle manufacturing, with only 15% of turnover being represented by trucks. Of these trucks, however, nearly 90 per cent were exported, with the lion's share going to Yugoslavia. In 1986, Rába introduced a more powerful, diesel engine (D11TLL) in order to help their trucks compete internationally and to meet Hungarocamion's needs. The new engine range was loosely based on the earlier MAN units, but were now of 11.05 litres, and were developed together with the Linz Institute of Graz, Austria.

The RÁBA Automotive Group (), commonly known as Rába, is a Hungarian public limited company, listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange. Rába engineers, manufactures and customizes automotive components, specialty vehicles and axles for commercial vehicles, agri-machinery and earth-movers. The Rába has been building axles as well as complete vehicles since 1902. The company has three strategic business units. The company is headquartered in Győr, employing more than 2000 people.


Plot.

Professor John Oldman is packing his belongings onto his truck, preparing to move to a new home. His colleagues show up to give him an impromptu farewell party: Harry, a biologist; Edith, an art history professor and devout Christian; Dan, an anthropologist; Sandy, a historian who is in (unrequited) love with John; Art, an archaeologist; and his younger student Linda.  As John's colleagues press him to explain the reason for his departure, he picks up from a reference to Magdalenian cultures by Dan and slowly, and somewhat reluctantly, reveals that he is a prehistoric caveman himself from that precise period. He states that he has lived for more than 14 millennia, and that he relocates every ten years to keep others from realizing that he does not age. He begins his tale under the guise of a possible science-fiction story, but eventually stops speaking in hypotheticals and begins answering questions from a first-person perspective. His colleagues refuse to believe his story but accept it as a working hypothesis in order to glean his true intentions. John relates he was a Sumerian for 2000 years, later a Babylonian, and eventually went East to become a disciple of the Buddha. He claims to have had a chance to sail with Columbus (admitting that at the time he still believed the earth was flat) and to have befriended Van Gogh (one of whose original paintings he apparently owns, a gift from the artist himself).  In the course of the conversation, each guest questions John's story based on knowledge from their own academic specialty. Harry struggles with how biology could allow for the possibility of a human being living for so long. Art, arguably the most skeptical of the group, questions prehistory. He exclaims that John's answers, although correct, could have come from any textbook; John rejoins that, like any human, his memory is imperfect and he only sees events from his own narrow, hence not omniscient, perspective. Dr. Will Gruber, a psychiatry professor who arrives at Art's request later that afternoon, questions if John feels guilt for outliving everyone he has ever known and loved. He then threatens John with a gun (later revealed to have been unloaded) before temporarily leaving. John then learns from Harry that Will's wife had died the previous day after a long illness.  The discussion veers to religion, and John mentions that he does not follow any. Even though he does not necessarily believe in an omnipotent God, he does not discount the possibility of such a being's existence. Pressed by the group, John reluctantly reveals that in trying to take the Buddha's teachings to the west, into the eastern Roman Empire, he became the inspiration for the Jesus story. After this revelation, emotions in the room run high. Edith (the representative "true believer" of the group) begins crying. Will demands that John end his tale and give the group a sense of closure by admitting it was all a hoax, and threatens to have John involuntarily committed for psychiatric evaluation should he refuse to do so. John appears to ruminate over his response before finally "confessing" to everyone that his story was a prank.  John's friends leave the party with various reactions: Edith is relieved; Harry and Dan indicate an open mind; Art never wants to see John again; Will still believes John needs professional help; Sandy and Linda clearly believe John. After everyone else but Will and Sandy have left, Will overhears John and Sandy's conversation, which suggests the story could be true after all. John mentions some of the pseudonyms he has used over the years, and Will realizes one was his father's name. He asks John questions that only a very close acquaintance could answer. When John answers them correctly, Will has an emotional breakdown, suffers a heart attack, and dies in their arms. After the body has been taken away, Sandy realizes that (if the story is true) this is the first time John has seen one of his grown children die. John wordlessly gets in his truck and starts to drive to an unknown destination. Having apparently reconsidered, he then stops and waits for Sandy, who walks over to the truck and departs with him.

Cast.

In order of appearance:

Production.

The story is Jerome Bixby's last work, which he completed on his deathbed in April 1998. Bixby dictated the last of his screenplay to his son, screenwriter Emerson Bixby. After Jerome Bixby's death, the script was given to Richard Schenkman to direct on a budget of just US$200,000 (). The film was shot in 8 days after a week of rehearsals.

Release and marketing.

The film screened at the San Diego Comic-Con Film Festival in July 2007, and premiered theatrically in Hemet, California, and Pitman, New Jersey, in October 2007. It was released on DVD in North America by Anchor Bay Entertainment on November 13, 2007, and became available for digital rental and sale at iTunes on September 22, 2009. It won the grand prize for Best Screenplay and first place for Best Feature at the Rhode Island Film Festival in August 2007.

Publicity through filesharing.

In 2007, producer Eric D. Wilkinson publicly thanked users of BitTorrent who distributed the film without express permission, saying that it lifted the profile of the film far beyond the financier's expectations; he encouraged fans to purchase the DVD or donate.

Reception.

IGN gave it an 8 out of 10, calling it "intellectual sci-fi".  DVD Verdict criticized the heavy-handed ending, saying that one's opinion of the film would be shaped by views on religion.

Awards.

The film has been nominated for and won numerous awards.

Soundtrack.

All original music for the film was performed by Mark Hinton Stewart.

Play.

In 2012, Richard Schenkman adapted the film to a play, which received positive reviews.  In 2013, the theater play was staged in Greece.

Sequels.

A sequel, "", was released in 2017. Filming had begun on June 2, 2016, ending on June 16. The producers have stated on Facebook that it could be the first in a series.  This followed two previous attempts at producing sequels. A Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a sequel named "The Man From Earth II: Man From Earth Millennium" was announced in September 2013, but it was not able to collect the minimum-required supporting by October 2013.  Another attempt was made to crowdfund a series, "Man From Earth: The Series", based on the film. The second crowd-funding effort completed successfully in August 2014.

The Man from Earth is a 2007 American drama science fiction film written by Jerome Bixby and directed by Richard Schenkman. It stars David Lee Smith as John Oldman, the protagonist. The screenplay was conceived by Jerome Bixby in the early 1960s and completed on his deathbed in April 1998.


History.

After World War II, the French government had organised the state-owned radio and television channels into a single body, Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF). However its offices and studios were spread out over forty different locations in Paris. In 1952 the decision was made to construct a central headquarters which would house all the offices and studios in one location. The government acquired a 38,000 square meter tract of land in the 16th arrondissement on the banks of the Seine for the future building. Previously the site of a gasworks which had been decommissioned in 1928, and then a stadium, the location was considered ideal because of its proximity to the Eiffel Tower and its radio transmitters. A competition was held in 1953 to choose the architect. The winner from the 26 entrants was Henry Bernard who had won the Prix de Rome in architecture in 1938 and had participated in the post-war reconstruction of Caen.  The final model of the Maison was exhibited in March 1959 at the newly opened Center of New Industries and Technologies. The building was completed four years later and officially inaugurated by Charles de Gaulle on 14 December 1963.In his speech de Gaulle emphasised the importance of broadcasting and of the building itself as a symbol of France's grandeur and modernity: Radio is a human activity, in other words a collective activity. It is undoubtedly nourished by the skill of individuals. But to be valid, it needs the combined effort of teams. And this is why this complex and imposing, but unitary and circular building is a sign of the organization, concentration and cohesion that are necessary for its audience and its influence. At the end of 1974, French television and radio were split into two separate organizations. The building became the headquarters of Radio France exclusively and known as "Maison de la Radio".  In March 2003 the Paris Prefect of Police ordered the evacuation of the central tower because it no longer met fire-safety regulations. The 368 personnel who worked in the tower were transferred to another building on Rue du Général-Mangin. However, by this time the entire building was in need of major upgrading, repair, and refurbishment and a debate ensued as to whether it would be more appropriate and economical to build a completely new headquarters for Radio France. In the end it was decided to renovate the existing building with most of its personnel and broadcasting stations operating there during the project despite the extra costs this would entail. The process began in 2004 when an international competition was announced for the contract to design and carry out the renovation. In October 2005 the contract as awarded to Architecture-Studio and work began shortly thereafter. The initial budget for the work was €384 million, revised upwards in 2007 by €33 million to include an underground car park and a new organ for the main auditorium. The building was re-opened to the public in November 2014 with a gala concert by Radio France's two orchestras, the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France and the Orchestre national de France, in the Maison's newly constructed Grand Auditorium. In 2016, the renovated Studio 104 reopened with a concert featuring both classical music and performances by Eddy Mitchell and Agnes Obel. However, final touches to the building and its landscaping would continue into 2017.

In film.

Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 dystopian science fiction film "Alphaville" was partially shot at Maison de la Radio. Goddard used no special props or futuristic sets. Instead, the film used recently built modernist glass and concrete buildings such as the Maison and the CNIT that in 1965 were still considered new and strange architectural designs.  Nicolas Philibert's documentary film "", shot over a six-month period in 2011, won Best Documentary at the 2014 "Étoiles d'or du cinéma français" awards and was nominated for Best Documentary in the César Awards that same year.

Maison de la Radio is the headquarters of Radio France. It is located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris near the Eiffel Tower. Built in the shape of huge ring 500 meters in circumference, with a central utility tower, the building houses the administrative offices, broadcasting studios, and performance spaces for all of Radio France's national stations and its four permanent ensembles—Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre national de France, Chœur de Radio France and Maîtrise de Radio France. The building was designed by Henry Bernard and completed in 1963. It underwent a major renovation beginning in 2005 and began reopening to the public in 2014 with the inauguration of its new auditorium.


Early life.

Born at Novxanı, near Baku, Mammad Amin Rasulzade received his education at the Russian-Muslim Secondary School and then at the Technical College in Baku. In his years of study he created ""Muslim Youth Organisation Musavat"," first secret organisation in Azerbaijan's contemporary history, and beginning from 1903 Rasulzade began writing articles in various opposition newspapers and magazines. At that time, his anti-monarchist platform and his demands for the national autonomy of Azerbaijan, aligned him with Social Democrats and future Communists. In 1904 he founded the first Muslim social-democrat organisation "Hummet" and became editor-in-chief of its newspapers, "Takamul" (1906–1907) and "Yoldash" (1907). Rasulzade also published many articles in non-partisan newspapers such as ', "Irshad", and the journal '. His dramatic play titled "The Lights in the Darkness" was staged in Baku in 1908.  Rasulzade and his co-workers were representatives of the Azerbaijani intelligentsia. Most of them, including Rasulzade himself, had been members of the Baku organization of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (Bolsheviks) in 1905. A photograph is extant in Soviet archives, showing Rasulzade with Prokopius Dzhaparidze and Meshadi Azizbekov, Bolsheviks who later became famous as two of the 26 Baku Commissars shot during the civil war. During the First Russian Revolution (1905–1907), Rasulzade actively participated in revolutionary developments. As the story goes, it was Rasulzade who saved young Joseph Stalin in 1905 in Baku, when police were searching for the latter as an active instigator of riots.  In 1909, under the persecution from Tsarist authorities, Rasulzade fled Baku to participate in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911. While in Iran, Rasulzade edited "Iran-e Azad" newspaper, became one of the founders of Democrat Party of Persia and began publishing its newspaper "Irān-e Now" which means "New Iran" and which has been described as "the greatest, most important and best known of the Persian newspapers, and the first to appear in the large size usual in Europe". In 1911, Rasulzade also published his book ""Saadet-e bashar"" ("Happiness of Mankind") in defense of the revolution.  After Russian troops entered Iran in 1911 and, in cooperation with British, assisted Qajar Court to put an end to Iranian Constitutional Revolution, Rasulzade fled to Istanbul, then capital of Ottoman Empire. Here, in the wake of Young Turk Revolution, Rasulzade founded a journal called "Türk Yurdu" ("The Land of Turks"), in which he published his famous article "İran Türkleri" about the Iranian Turks.

The Musavat Party and Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

After the Amnesty Act of 1913, dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, Rasulzade returned to Baku, left the Hummet party he was previously member of, and joined the then secret Musavat (Equality) party in 1913, established in 1911, which initially promoted pan-Islamist, pan-Turkist and Socialist ideas, or more precisely Pan-Islamism yet with affinity for greater cultural bonds with the Turkic world, and which eventually became Azerbaijani nationalist party, and quickly became its chief. In 1915 he started to publish the party's newspaper ""Açıq Söz"" (Open word) which lasted till 1918. When the February Revolution happened, Musavat together with other secret political parties in the Russian Empire, were quickly legalized and became a leading party of Caucasian Muslims after it merged with Party of Turkic Federalists headed by Nasib Yusifbeyli. The October revolution in 1917 lead to the secession of Transcaucasia from Russia and Rasulzade became head of Muslim faction in the Seym, the parliament of the Transcaucasian Federation. After the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Federation, the Muslim faction re-organized into the Azerbaijani National Council, whose head Rasulzade was unanimously elected in May 1918.  On 28 May 1918 the Azerbaijani National Council, headed by Rasulzade, declared an independent Azerbaijan Republic. Rasulzade also initiated the establishment of Baku State University together with Rashid Khan Gaplanov, minister of education with the funding of oil baron Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev in 1919. Rasulzade taught Ottoman literature at the University. After the collapse of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in April 1920, Rasulzade left Baku and went into hiding in the mountainous village of Lahıc, Ismailli to direct the resistance to Sovietization. But in August 1920, after the Soviet Russian army crushed the rebellions of Ganja, Karabakh, Zagatala and Lankaran, led by ex-officers of the Azerbaijani National Army, Rasulzade was arrested and brought to Baku. It was only due to an earlier rescue of Joseph Stalin, as Rasulzade hid Stalin from the police, that Rasulzade was released and transferred from Azerbaijan to Russia. For the next two years, Rasulzade worked as the press representative at the Commissariat on Nations in Moscow. He was seconded to Saint Petersburg in 1922 from where he escaped to Finland.

Exile.

For the rest of his life, Rasulzade lived in exile first in Turkey. Between 1923 and 1927, he was an editor-in-chief of the magazine called "New Caucasus" (""Yeni Qafqasya"") which was suspended by the Kemalist government by the request of Moscow. Rasulzade continued to publish various articles, newspapers, and magazines from 1928 till 1931 in Turkey. However, the 1931 suppression of the emigre publications coincided with Rasulzade's expulsion from Turkey, and some saw it as the result of caving in to Soviet pressure. In exile Rasulzade published a pamphlet titled "O Pantiurkizme v sviazi s kavkazskoi problemoi" ("О Пантюркизме в связи с кавказской проблемой", Pan-Turkism with regard to the caucasian problem), in which he firmly stated his view: Pan-Turkism was a cultural movement rather than a political program. Thus, he went to Poland in 1938, where he met his wife, Vanda, niece of Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski, then to Romania in 1940. Finally, after World War II, he went back to Ankara, Turkey in 1947, where he participated in the politics of the marginal Pan Turkic movement. Due to sensitivity of his presence in either Turkey or Iran, and being often exiled, Rasulzade "cherished bad memories of both Iran and Turkey". In his appeal to Azerbaijani people in 1953 through Voice of America, he stressed his hope that one day it will become independent again. He died in 1955, a broken man according to Thomas Goltz, and was buried in Cebeci Asri cemetery in Ankara.

Legacy and honors.

Rasulzade was commemorated by many memorials throughout Azerbaijan, such as Baku State University, which was named after his honor. Rasulzade was depicted on the obverse of the Azerbaijani 1000 manat banknote of 1993-2006.  The Mehmet Emin Resulzade Anatolian High School was named after him and is a public high school at Ankara, Turkey.

Major works.

Rasulzades works include:

Mammad Amin Rasulzade (, ), ( 31 January 1884 – 6 March 1955) was an Azerbaijani statesman, scholar, public figure and the head of the Azerbaijani National Council. His expression ""Bir kərə yüksələn bayraq, bir daha enməz!"" ("The flag once raised will never fall!") became the motto of the independence movement in Azerbaijan in the 20th century.


Founding conference.

At the founding conference (6 to 8 February 2009), 630 delegates voted on a series of documents, which had gone through a long process of amendment and re-amendment in local and regional assemblies.  However, a number of contentious issues within the party – especially those relating to secularism, religion and islamophobia – were left open for further debate, leading to a number of difficulties and a tendency to devote considerable time and energy on internal debates, rather than activity.  The party's name was originally intended to be temporary; a vote on the name was held at the founding congress, where NPA won over "Revolutionary Anticapitalist Party" ("Parti anticapitaliste révolutionnaire") with 53% of the vote.

Structure.

Besancenot has stated that it has no single leader and is instead run collectively, being represented by elected spokespersons.  The basic structure of the party is the local committee, which organises local activities. A National Political Council decides on general policy. Delegates to the Council are elected at the congress on a proportional basis, ensuring the representation of different tendencies or 'platforms'.

Ideals.

The party's stated aim is to "build a new socialist, democratic perspective for the twenty-first century".  Olivier Besancenot has said that the party will be "the left that fights anticapitalist, internationalist, antiracist, ecologist, feminist struggles, opposing all forms of discrimination". The LCR's distinctive identification with Trotskyism will not be continued by the NPA.  Unlike in previous LCR documents, although feminism is very present, patriarchy theory is not mentioned. Such issues as the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan, a rise in the minimum wage and public services, however, are accepted by all members of the NPA.

Alliances and splits.

Debate continues within the NPA about what sort of alliances with other groups are acceptable. The majority of militants emphasize the dangers of allying with forces which are likely to end up in joint local or national governments with the Socialist Party (PS). A minority believes there is work to be done in wide alliances with antiliberal parties of the left, such as the Party of the Left (PG).  In January 2009, the NPA signed a joint declaration with several other parties of the left, calling for the building of the January 29 national strike. A minority (16%) claimed that such unity in the strike movements means sufficient basis can be found for joint slates at the European elections, while the majority made a sharp distinction between alliances for social movements and electoral alliances. The party received 4.98% of the vote in the European election.  Discussions were held in the course of 2009 with other parties to the left of the PS, concerning the possibility of joint slates for the regional elections in 2010. Finally, the NPA presented independent lists in a majority of regions, but joined the Left Front in three regions, and the Left Party in two others.  Since its foundation, the NPA has suffered a number of breakaways, and by the beginning of 2015 total membership had declined to 2,100, compared with 9,200 at the time of its Founding Conference in February 2009. In addition to the loss of individual members, three organised groups have left the party in order to join the Left Front: Gauche Unitaire in 2009, Convergences et Alternative in 2011 and the largest of the three, Anticapitalist left (Gauche Anticapitaliste) in July 2012.  In addition, failure to reach the required level of support in the presidential and parliamentary elections has deprived the party of state funding, leading to a financial crisis. As a result of these setbacks, the NPA is engaged in an internal debate with the aim of refounding the party and reforming its internal structures. However, the NPA continues to be active in various social movements. It produces a weekly newspaper, "Tout est à nous!" (originating as a slogan to be chanted on demonstrations, the name roughly translates as 'Everything belongs to us!') and a monthly magazine of the same name.  In December 2013, the Revolutionary Marxists faction in the Fourth International declared the Anticapitalism and Revolution current in the NPA and criticized the reformist orientation of the party.

Controversy.

The party became the target of criticism after Ilham Moussaïd, a Muslim woman wearing a hijab, became a candidate for 2010 regional elections. Supporters of the party were noted to chant slogans against Islamophobia and the party's move was considered by some as "radical pragmatism".

The New Anticapitalist Party (, abbreviated NPA) is a far-left French political party founded in February 2009. The party launched with 9,200 members and was intended to unify the fractured movements of the French radical Left, and attract new activists drawing on the combined strength of far-left parties in presidential elections in 2002, where they achieved 10.44% of the vote. (Being 7% in 2007 and 13% in 2012).


Early life.

Ewen was born and brought up in Plaistow, London, the child of Trevor and Carol Ewen. Her mother is Jamaican while her father is of Italian descent and was raised in Scotland. Trevor is blind and partially deaf, while Carol is partially blind. Because of her parents' disabilities, Ewen is a caregiver to both of her parents as well as her two younger siblings, Shereen and Kiel. Ewen started singing and taking dance classes before she was even four. She attended New City Primary School then Brampton Manor Academy before transferring to the Sylvia Young Theatre School (SYTS) after receiving a scholarship. While a student at SYTS, she appeared in the television productions "The Bill", "Casualty", "Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle" and "The Ghost Hunter". At the age of ten, Ewen went to an open audition for "The Lion King". She was offered the part of Young Nala.

Career.

2002–09: Early career and Eurovision.

Ewen appeared in the children's dance DVD, "How To Dance". She was briefly featured in the video for Busted's "What I Go to School For". From 2003 to 2004 she appeared in the Australian series "Out There". In 2005, Ewen became a member of the girl group Trinity Stone, which signed with Sony BMG. The group disbanded in 2007. She later recorded with rapper Kwamé, who was impressed with her work on MySpace. She released a digital single, "Got You", in 2008 under Kwame's Make Noise label. Ewen co-wrote the song "A Little Bit" for the girl group Booty Luv, as well as the song "Let Me Be Me" for Jessica Mauboy. In early 2009, Ewen acted in the first episode of the series "Myths".  In January 2009, Ewen was approached for and participated in the process to select the UK representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. She was selected to represent the UK with her performance of the song "It's My Time", composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who accompanied her on piano. Ewen finished in fifth place at Eurovision, the highest placing for the UK since 2002. Having already signed with Polydor Records before the Eurovision selection, Ewen began working on her debut album.

2009–11: Sugababes and solo projects.

In September 2009, Ewen joined the group Sugababes as the replacement for Keisha Buchanan. While her single, "My Man", had been released the week she joined the trio, promotional activities for it were cancelled. Nonetheless, it debuted at number 35 on the UK Singles Chart. In an interview with the BBC, Ewen confirmed her commitment to the Sugababes was her main priority and that her solo album had been put on hold. Ewen did not meet the members of the Sugababes until two days before the video shoot for their single "About a Girl" in Los Angeles, having been flown there without being notified that she would be replacing Buchanan. "About a Girl" debuted at number eight in the UK. "Sweet 7" was released in early 2010 after multiple delays during 2009, and charted at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart. The second single to feature Ewen's vocals, "Wear My Kiss", peaked at number 7 in the UK.  The Sugababes began recording an eighth studio album in April 2010. In late 2010, Ewen became the face of Miss Ultimo lingerie. In 2011, the group and their management, Crown Talent & Media Group, left their record label of ten years, Island Records, for a new three-album distribution deal with Sony Music's RCA Records. Crown Talent & Media Group was the acting record label. A promotional single under the new label, "Freedom", was released for free on 25 September 2011. In November 2011, Ewen flew to Australia to appear on "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here Now!".

2013–present: Broadway and television work.

On 2 January 2013, Ewen was revealed as one of the celebrity contestants in ITV's new diving show "Splash!". She was the first to be eliminated from the competition, and later revealed she only did the show for the money. On 15 March 2013, Ewen confirmed that Sugababes would record new music at some point during 2013, stating: "I think we will probably come back together again at the end of the year. There will definitely be more recording but, there is no release date anytime soon." In June 2013, Ewen was featured on the Lost Witness track "Fly". On 1 August 2013, she revealed the Sugababes were no longer recording in the studio together, stating the group was "pretty much done" and confirming that she had started work on her debut solo album.  In April 2015, Ewen was taking to the stage in the Musical Godspell. The show concluded in May.

Stage.

In summer 2014, Ewen played the supporting role of Clara in the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre production of Porgy and Bess. The musical opened to 4 and 5 star reviews, with The Guardian writing of Jade's performance, "Jade Ewen brings a moving simplicity to Clara, who follows her heart and pays the price." In April 2015, Jade was due to have a lead role in "Godspell" at the Hackney Empire, before moving on to a 28-venue national tour. Ewen had to drop out due to ill health, saying she was "saddened" to withdraw. In September 2015, it was announced that Jade would be joining the cast of "In the Heights" in its West End transfer, in the role of Vanessa. The musical received positive reviews. In November 2015 it was announced that she would play the role of Princess Jasmine in the musical "Aladdin" at the Prince Edward Theatre., which she performed until shortly before the musical's closure in 2019.

Jade Louise Ewen (born 24 January 1988) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and a former member of the girl group Sugababes. Ewen began her singing career in a girl group named Trinity Stone, which signed with Sony BMG in 2005 but disbanded in 2007 without releasing an album. In 2009, after winning the right, she represented the United Kingdom in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest by performing the Andrew Lloyd Webber / Diane Warren penned "It's My Time". She finished in fifth place, making her the most successful British Eurovision act since 2002.


Personal life.

Neustädter's mother is ethnic Russian. Neustädter's ancestors in the paternal line were ethnic Germans who lived on territories of Russian Empire and later, USSR. Following World War II, ethnic Germans were forcibly relocated by the Soviet government. Neustädter's family was relocated into Central Asia. He is the son of Peter Neustädter, a former Kyrgyz-born Kazakhstani footballer for Mainz 05 and former manager of Mainz 05 II. He was born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR, while his father was playing for Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. He was raised by his mother and grandparents in Kyrgyzstan, while his father was still an active football player. Due to his heritage and birth, he was eligible to play for Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in international competitions.  On 30 May 2016, Neustädter was granted Russian citizenship, having received his new Russian passport at the Russian Consulate in Bonn.  He is fluent in German, Russian, and English, by speaking three languages.

Club career.

Neustädter began his career in 1. FSV Mainz 05's youth team, before being promoted to Mainz 05 II in July 2006. After playing in Mainz's first team during the 2008–09 season, he signed a three-year contract with Borussia Mönchengladbach. With "die Fohlen", Neustädter enjoyed a particularly successful 2011–12 season, finishing fourth and qualifying for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League.  At the end of the 2011–12 season, Neustädter left Mönchengladbach and joined Schalke 04 on a free transfer, signing a four-year contract running until 30 June 2016.  In July 2016, after turning down a new contract at Schalke, Neustädter signed a three-year deal at Fenerbahçe S.K. of Turkey.  On 9 August 2019, he signed a one-year contract with Russian club FC Dynamo Moscow.

International career.

Neustädter played twice for Germany U-20, making his debut as a substitute against Italy U-20 on 9 April 2008. He scored a goal against Switzerland U-20 on 22 April 2008.  The Football Federation of Ukraine has expressed interest in calling up Neustädter for their national team. Neustädter, who was born in Ukrainian SSR, has indicated that he would be likely to accept a call-up if asked. He would first require to obtain a Ukrainian passport in order to be eligible for national team duties.  On 9 November 2012, Neustädter was called up for the Germany squad to face the Netherlands in a friendly match five days later. He made his debut for Germany in this match as a late substitute for Schalke team-mate Lewis Holtby.  In January 2016, Neustädter met with members of the Russian Football Union in order to be able to possibly play for the Russia national team in the future. On 21 May 2016, he was called up to represent Russia at UEFA Euro 2016. On 1 June 2016, Neustädter made his debut for Russia, in a 2–1 friendly loss to the Czech Republic, as a 64th-minute substitute. He started Russia's first two games during the final tournament in France, where Russia failed to proceed through the group stage.  On 11 May 2018, he was included in Russia's extended 2018 FIFA World Cup squad. He was, however, not included into the final World Cup squad.

Career statistics.

International goals.

(Russia score listed first, score column indicates score after each Neustädter goal)

Roman Petrovich Neustädter (; born 18 February 1988) is a Russian professional footballer who plays for Dynamo Moscow in the Russian Premier League. Ethnically German and born in the Soviet Union, Neustädter played for Germany at various youth levels, then being capped twice by the Germany national football team in 2012 and 2013. He switched allegiance to Russia in 2016.


Popularity.

According to Netcraft's November 2016 Web Server Survey, Nginx was found to be the second-most widely used web server across all "active" sites (18 percent of surveyed sites) and for the top million busiest sites (28 percent of surveyed sites). According to W3Techs, it was used by 38 percent of the top 1 million websites, 50 percent of the top 100,000 websites, and by 57 percent of the top 10,000 websites. According to BuiltWith, it is used on 38 percent of the top 10,000 websites, and its growth within the top 10k, 100k and 1 million segments increased. A 2018 survey of Docker usage found that Nginx was the most commonly deployed technology in Docker containers. Wikipedia uses Nginx as its SSL termination proxy. In OpenBSD version 5.2 (November 2012), Nginx became part of the OpenBSD base system, providing an alternative to the system's fork of Apache 1.3, which it was intended to replace, but later in version 5.6 (November 2014) it was removed in favor of Apache with OpenBSD's own httpd(8).

Features.

Nginx can be deployed to serve dynamic HTTP content on the network using FastCGI, SCGI handlers for scripts, WSGI application servers or Phusion Passenger modules, and it can serve as a software load balancer.  Nginx uses an asynchronous event-driven approach, rather than threads, to handle requests. Nginx's modular event-driven architecture can provide more predictable performance under high loads.  Nginx default configuration file is codice_1.

Mail proxy features.

Other features include upgrading executable and configuration without client connections loss, and a module-based architecture with both core and third-party module support.  The paid Plus product includes additional features such as advanced load balancing and access to an expanded suite of metrics for performance monitoring.

Nginx vs Nginx Plus.

There are two versions of Nginx: OSS Nginx and Nginx Plus. Nginx Plus offers additional features not included in OSS Nginx, such as active health checks, session persistence based on cookies, DNS-service-discovery integration, Cache Purging API, AppDynamic, Datalog, Dynatrace New Relic plug-ins, Active-Active HA with config sync, Key-Value Store, on-the-fly with zero downtime updates upstream configurations, and key‐value stores using Nginx Plus API and web application firewall (WAF) dynamic module.

Nginx vs Apache.

Nginx was written with an explicit goal of outperforming the Apache web server. Out of the box, serving static files, Nginx uses much less memory than Apache, and can handle roughly four times as many requests per second. However, this performance boost comes at a cost of decreased flexibility, such as the ability to override systemwide access settings on a per-file basis (Apache accomplishes this with an.htaccess file, while Nginx has no such feature built in).  Nginx also has a reputation of being harder to install and configure than Apache. Formerly, adding third-party modules to Nginx required recompiling the application from source with the modules statically linked. This was partially overcome in version 1.9.11 on February 2016, with the addition of dynamic module loading. However, the modules still must be compiled at the same time as Nginx, and not all modules are compatible with this system; some require the older static linking process.  Nginx is generally considered to be less stable on Windows Server than it is on Linux, while Apache has equal support for both.

Nginx Unit.

Nginx Unit is an open-source web application server, released in 2017 by NGINX, Inc. to target multi-language microservices-based applications. The initial release supported applications written in Go, PHP, and Python. By version 1.11.0, the support was extended to Java, Node.js, Perl, and Ruby applications; other features include dynamic configuration, request routing, and load balancing.

History.

Igor Sysoev began development of Nginx in 2002. Originally, Nginx was developed to solve the C10k problem, and to fill the needs of multiple websites including the Rambler search engine and portal, for which it was serving 500 million requests per day by September 2008.  Nginx Inc. was founded in July 2011 by Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov to provide commercial products and support for the software.  The company's principal place of business is San Francisco, California, while legally incorporated in British Virgin Islands.  In October 2011, Nginx, Inc. raised $3 million from BV Capital, Runa Capital, and MSD Capital, Michael Dell's venture fund.  The company announced commercial support options for companies using Nginx in production. Nginx offered commercial support in February 2012, and paid Nginx Plus subscription in August 2013.Support packages focus on installation, configuration, performance improvement, etc. Support includes proactive notifications about major changes, security patches, updates and patches.  Nginx, Inc. also offers consulting services to assist customers in custom configuration or adding additional features.  In October 2013, Nginx, Inc. raised a $10 million series B investment round led by New Enterprise Associates. That round included previous investors, as well as Aaron Levie, CEO and founder of Box.com. In December 2014, Nginx raised a $20 million series B1 round led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from e.ventures (formerly "BV Capital"), Runa Capital, Index Ventures and Nginx's own CEO Gus Robertson.  In October 2017, Nginx, Inc. announced general available Nginx Amplify SaaS providing monitoring and analytics capabilities for Nginx.  In September 2017, Nginx announced an API management tool, NGINX Controller, which would build off of their API Gateway, NGINX Plus.  In June 2018, Nginx, Inc. raised $43 million in Series C Funding in a round led by Goldman Sachs "to Accelerate Application Modernization and Digital Transformation for Enterprises".  On 11 March 2019, F5 Networks acquired Nginx, Inc. for US$670 million.  On 12 December 2019, it was reported that the Moscow offices of Nginx Inc. had been raided by police, and that Sysoev and Konovalov had been detained. The raid was conducted under a search warrant connected to a copyright claim over Nginx by Rambler—which asserts that it owns all rights to the code because it was written while he was an employee of the company.. On 16 December 2019, Russian state lender Sberbank, which owns 46.5 percent of Rambler, called an extraordinary meeting of Rambler's board of directors asking Rambler's management team to request Russian law enforcement agencies cease pursuit of the criminal case, and begin talks with Nginx and with F5.

Nginx (pronounced "engine X", ) (stylized as NGINX or nginx or NginX) is a web server which can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache. The software was created by Igor Sysoev and first publicly released in 2004. A company of the same name was founded in 2011 to provide support and "Nginx plus" paid software.


Taxonomy.

The ears are less prominent in "L. tardigradus tardigradus" compared to "Loris lydekkerianus". The ears of "L. tardigradus nycticeboides" are almost invisible.

Description.

This small, slender primate is distinguished by large forward-facing eyes used for precise depth perception, long slender limbs, a well-developed index finger, the absence of tail, and large prominent ears, which are thin, rounded and hairless at the edges. The soft dense fur is reddish-brown color on the back, and the underside is whitish-grey with a sprinkling of silver hair. Its body length on average is, with an average weight of a mere. This loris has a four-way grip on each foot. The big toe opposes the other 4 toes for a pincer-like grip on branches and food. It has a dark face mask with central pale stripe, much like the slow lorises.  "L. tardigradus tardigradus" is reddish brown in the back and creamy yellow below, while "L. tardigradus nycticeboides" is dark brown dorsally and very light brown in upperparts.

Behavior.

The red slender loris favors lowland rainforests (up to 700 m in altitude), tropical rainforests and inter-monsoon forests of the south western wet-zone of Sri Lanka. Masmullah Proposed Forest Reserve harbors one of few remaining red slender loris populations, and is considered a biodiversity hotspot. The most common plant species eaten was "Humboldtia laurifolia", occurring at 676 trees/ha, with overall density at 1077 trees/ha. "Humboldtia laurifolia" is vulnerable and has a mutualistic relationship with ants, providing abundant food for lorises. Reports from the 1960s suggest that it once also occurred in the coastal zone, however it is now thought to be extinct there.  The red slender loris differ from its close relative the gray slender loris in its frequent use of rapid arboreal locomotion. It forms small social groups, containing adults of both sexes as well as young animals. This species is among the most social of the nocturnal primates. During daylight hours the animals sleep in groups in branch tangles, or curled up on a branch with their heads between their legs. The groups also undertake mutual grooming and play at wrestling. The adults typically hunt separately during the night. They are primarily insectivorous but also eat bird eggs, berries, leaves, buds and occasionally invertebrates as well as geckos and lizards. To maximize protein and nutrient uptake they consume every part of their prey, including the scales and bones. They make nests out of leaves or find hollows of trees or a similar secure place to live in.

Reproduction.

Females are dominant. The female reaches her sexual maturity at 10 months and is receptive to the male twice a year. This species mates while hanging upside down from branches; individuals in captivity will not breed if no suitable branch is available. The gestation period is 166–169 days after which the female will bear 1–2 young which feed from her for 6–7 months. The lifespan of this species is believed to be around 15–18 years in the wild.

Threats.

This slender loris is an endangered species. Habitat destruction is a major threat. It is widely trapped and killed for use in supposed remedies for eye diseases and get killed by snakes, dogs, and some fish. Other threats include: electrocution on live wires, road accidents and the pet trade.

Conservation.

The red slender loris was identified as one of the top-10 "focal species" in 2007 by the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) project.  One early success has been the rediscovery of the virtually unknown Horton Plains slender loris ("Loris tardigradus nycticeboides"). Originally documented in 1937, there have only been four known encounters in the past 72 years, and for more than 60 years until 2002 the sub-species had been believed to be extinct. The sub-species was rediscovered in 2002 by a team led by Anna Nekaris in Horton Plains National Park. The late 2009 capture by a team working under the Zoological Society of London's EDGE programme has resulted in the first detailed physical examination of the Horton Plains sub-species and the first-ever photographs of it. The limited available evidence suggests there may be only about 100 animals still existing, which would make it among the top five most-threatened primates worldwide.

The red slender loris ("Loris tardigradus") is a small, nocturnal strepsirrhine primate native to the rainforests of Sri Lanka. This is #6 of the 10 focal species and #22 of the 100 EDGE mammal species worldwide considered the most evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered. Two subspecies have been identified, "L. t. tardigradus" and "L. t. nycticeboides".