World War II.

World War II broke out soon after Carius graduated from school. He enlisted in the army and was only accepted after twice being rejected as unfit for military service for being underweight. He first served in the infantry before volunteering for the Panzer branch; his father referred to tanks as "metal deathtraps." Carius was transferred to the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion in 1943 and fought in the northern sectors of the Eastern Front.  At the beginning of 1945 he was made commander of a Jagdtiger company of the 512th Heavy Anti-tank Battalion, which by that time was engaged in fighting on the Western Front. On 8 March 1945, the 2nd Company was directed to the front line near Siegburg, where it took part in the defense of the Rhine against the American forces crossing the river, with limited success. Eventually, after being trapped in the Ruhr Pocket east of the Rhine, he ordered all his Jagdtigers destroyed to prevent enemy forces from capturing them intact and then surrendered to the US Army on 7 May. He was released from captivity on 21 May, two weeks later.  He is considered a "panzer ace", credited with destroying more than 150 enemy tanks and one plane; most of his kills were on the Eastern Front.

Later life.

After the war, Carius studied pharmacy at Heidelberg University and set up a pharmacy which he named the "Tiger Apotheke" as a tribute to the Tiger tank. He also authored a book about his wartime experiences called "Tigers in the Mud", which was released in 1960. Carius ran his pharmacy until retiring in 2011. He died on 24 January 2015 at age 92.

Otto Carius (27 May 1922 – 24 January 2015) was a German tank commander in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.


Early life.

He was born in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm in 1941. His father died of leukaemia when Jiří Raška was nine years old, leaving his mother to raise four children on her own. His interest in winter sports was not surprising. His cousin and uncle, both active jumpers, took him as their disciple. ""We were saying that children in Frenštát are born with skis on their feet,"" Raška said in the interview for Czech newspaper Lidové noviny. Raška was however also active in other sports, like football, cycling and handball.

Introduction to ski jumping.

As a young jumper he got into coach Zdeněk Remsa's legendary group, the “Remsa Boys”. When military service on Šumava threatened Raška’s budding career, Remsa arranged his entrance into the military sports club Dukla Liberec. In 1964 he travelled to the Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck as a substitute. There he watched Josef Matouš, who led after the first round and had an opportunity to become the second Czech Winter Olympic medalist, but ended up without a medal. Four years later, Raška was in a similar situation.

Career successes.

Thanks to the fourth place in the 1966 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships and a second place in the Four Hills Tournament, he travelled to the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble as one of the favourites. Raška himself was hoping to take the fifth place and would not have been disappointed with the tenth place. Czech writer Ota Pavel described his first jump in the normal hill event: ""It was a beautiful flight in the infinite silence, that took short human age. Painter and editor Ota Mašek nearly fainted, photographer Jarda Skála stopped photographing. Coach Remsa was washing his face with snow and squeaking Norwegian Wirkola stopped squeaking."" Raška jumped 79 metres, which was less than Austrian Baldur Preiml, but thanks to better style he led after the first round. In the second jump he did not fare well, reaching only 72.5 meters, but he went on to victory. Jiří Raška became the first Czech winner in the Winter Olympics. He added the silver medal in the large hill event, beaten only by Vladimir Beloussov of the Soviet Union.  That year he managed to win six races in a row. At the 1970 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Vysoké Tatry, over a hundred thousand visitors came to see him jump. He finished second in the large hill event and eighth in the normal hill event.  In 1969 he became a world record holder for only one day. At the new ramp in Planica he jumped 164 meters, four meters more than was the day-old record of his rival Bjørn Wirkola of Norway. However, the following day his record was broken by Manfred Wolf (165 m) from East Germany. Raška's other successes included a silver medal at the World Championships in the large hill in 1970, victory in the Four Hills Tournament the year after, bronze in the historically first Ski-flying World Championships, and fifth place in the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo.  In 1974 he became a coach but continued with active jumping. ""I decided to end immediately as the first junior beats me,"" he said to the Hospodářské noviny (Czech newspaper). Thus he ended his competition career in 1976 after being defeated by František Novák.

Coaching career.

Between 1994 and 1996 he was together with Medal and later on Malec coach of the Czech representation. During the 1990s he was also a coach of the Czech junior representation and vice-chair of the Czech Ski Union. In the Union’s poll he was elected as a Czech skier of the century. He died in 2012 in Nový Jičín.

Jiří Raška (; 4 February 1941 – 20 January 2012) was a Czechoslovakian ski jumper. He is regarded as the most famous Czech ski jumper, Olympic winner of the century.


History.

The idea for a zoological garden in Prague was first proposed in 1881 in a newspaper article by Count Sweerts-Spork, on the occasion of the marriage of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Princess Stéphanie of Belgium. In 1919, at a meeting of the advisory board for mathematics and natural sciences at the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment, a committee was established to start the preparatory work on the establishment of the zoo. The zoo was opened to the public on 28 September 1931.  In 1938, the first artificially bred Andean condor in the world was hatched and reared, and the first artificially bred polar bear, a female named Ilun, followed in 1942. In 1959 Dr. Zdeněk Veselovský was appointed as director of the zoo. Under his leadership, the zoo achieved some world-class successes in the area of breeding and scientific research.  In 1971 a new pavilion opened for large mammals, including elephants, hippos and rhinos, followed by a big cat pavilion in 1991.  In 2001 the first artificial breeding of a Przewalski's Horse in the world took place at the zoo. In 2002 Prague suffered the worst floods in its history. A large part of the zoo was flooded and 134 animals died. Well known is the story of Gaston, a sea lion, which the Vltava and Elbe rivers took to Germany, where Gaston died of total exhaustion. However, thanks to a big wave of solidarity and donations, Prague Zoo greatly flourished in the next decade.  In 2004 the country's largest and most expensive animal pavilion, named the "Indonesian Jungle", was opened, and the first Western gorilla was born in Czech Republic, named Moja. This was followed in 2007 by the first breeding of a Komodo dragon in Prague Zoo. In 2009 a new exhibition for brown fur seals was opened, with an enlarged swimming pool and a grandstand. The following year saw a Texas tortoise bred in Europe for the first time.  In 2011 Moja, a western gorilla famous from the multimedia project "The Revealed", was moved to Cabarceno Natural Park in Spain. Four Przewalski's horses were transported to Mongolia to be released into the wild as part of Return of the Wild Horses reintroduction and in situ conservation project.  In 2012 the zoo saw its highest number of babies born, numbering 1,557 from 211 species, including the world's first breeding of the crowned river turtle and the rufous-cheeked laughingthrush, as well as Prague Zoo's first breeding of the red panda. In 2013 a large new Elephant Valley pavilion was introduced and the first elephant was born in Prague Zoo, named Sita. The zoo was flooded in June the same year for a second time, but most animals were evacuated in time.  In 2014, a pavilion was opened for 33 critically endangered Chinese giant salamanders, including three adults. The collection features the largest of such salamanders in Europe.  After 13 years of waiting, the zoo is among the three unique zoos in the world, which have a breeding pair of Lesser Antillean iguana.

Prague Zoological Garden (Czech: "Zoologická zahrada hl. m. Prahy") is a zoo in Prague, Czech Republic. It was opened in 1931 with the goal to "advance the study of zoology, protect wildlife, and educate the public" in the district of Troja in the north of Prague. In 2013, the zoo occupied with in use for exhibits, and housed around 5,000 animals from just 676 species, including 132 species listed as threatened.


Location.

The Altiplano is an area of inland drainage (endorheism) lying in the central Andes, occupying parts of northern Chile and Argentina, western Bolivia and southern Peru. Its height averages about 3,750 meters (12,300 feet), slightly less than that of the Tibetan Plateau. Unlike conditions in Tibet, the Altiplano is dominated by massive active volcanoes of the Central Volcanic Zone to the west, such as Ampato (6288 m), Tutupaca (5,816 m), Parinacota (6348 m), Guallatiri (6071 m), Paruma (5,728 m), Uturunku (6,008 m) and Licancabur (5,916 m), and the Cordillera Real in the north east with Illampu (6,368 m), Huayna Potosí (6,088 m), Janq'u Uma (6,427 m) and Illimani (6,438 m). The Atacama Desert, one of the driest areas on the planet, lies to the southwest of the Altiplano; to the east lies the humid Amazon rainforest.  The Altiplano is noted for hypoxic air caused by very high elevation.

History.

At various times during the Pleistocene epoch, both the southern and northern Altiplano were covered by vast pluvial lakes. Remnants are Lake Titicaca, straddling the Peru–Bolivia border, and Poopó, a salt lake that extends south of Oruro, Bolivia. "Salar de Uyuni", locally known as "Salar de Tunupa", and "Salar de Coipasa" are two large dry salt flats formed after the Altiplano paleolakes dried out.

Climatic zones.

The term Altiplano is sometimes used to identify the altitude zone and the type of climate that prevails within it: it is colder than that of the "tierra fría" but not as cold as that of the tierra helada. Scientists classify the latter as commencing at an elevation of approximately 4,500 meters (or about 15,000 feet). Alternate names used in place of "altiplano" in this context include "puna" and "páramos".

Climate.

In general the climate is cool and humid to semi-arid and even arid, with mean annual temperatures that vary from near the western mountain range to near Lake Titicaca; and total annual rainfall that ranges between less than to the south west to more than near and over Lake Titicaca. The diurnal cycle of temperature is very wide, with maximum temperatures in the order of and the minimum in the order of.  The coldest temperatures occur in the southwestern portion of the Altiplano during the winter months of June and July. The seasonal cycle of rainfall is marked, with the rainy season concentrated between December and March. The rest of the year tends to be very dry, cool, windy and sunny. Snowfall may happen between April and September, especially to the north, but it is not very common (between one and five times a year).

Geology.

Several mechanisms have been put forth for the formation of the Altiplano plateau; hypotheses try to explain why the topography in the Andes incorporates this large area of low relief at high altitude (high plateau) within the orogen:

The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the area where the Andes are the widest. It is the most extensive area of high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The bulk of the Altiplano lies in Bolivia, but its northern parts lie in Peru, and its southern parts lie in Chile and Argentina.


History.

Situated in the diocese of Langres, Morimond was founded in 1115 by Count Odelric of Aigremont and his wife Adeline of Choiseul and settled from Citeaux. The first abbot, known as a "pillar of the Cistercians", was Arnold the German. Thanks to his energy and influence, Morimond grew very rapidly, and established numerous colonies in France, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Spain, and Cyprus. The only daughter-house in England and Wales was Dore Abbey, founded in 1147. Amongst the best-known were Ebrach Abbey in Germany (1126); Heiligenkreuz Abbey in Austria (1134); and Aiguebelle Abbey in France (1137), which was later restored by the Reformed Cistercians. Over the next two centuries Morimond continued to be active in the foundation of new Cistercian houses, so much so that towards the end of the 18th century, Morimond counted amongst its filiations nearly seven hundred monasteries and nunneries.  Briefs from various popes placed the principal Military Orders of Spain under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Abbot of Morimond: the Order of Calatrava (1187); the Order of Alcantara (1214); the Order of Christ in Portugal (1319), and later on, those of the Orders of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus in Savoy.  The name "Morimond" is from the Latin ""mori mundo"", or "Die to the world": all who entered these Cistercian abbeys in the 12th century renounced worldly life. One of the famous men who passed through Morimond was Otto of Freising, son of Margrave Leopold III of Austria and his spouse Agnes, daughter of Emperor Henry IV. He studied in Paris and then entered the abbey, of which he became abbot. Pope Benedict XII, third of the Avignon popes (1334–1342), also began his career as a monk in Morimond.  The cruciform abbey church with three aisles and closed choir, the sides of which are occupied by chapels linked by a gangway, was built to be restrained and severe, according to the Cistercian building prescriptions, without towers or artistic adornment. In 1572, during the Wars of Religion, and again in 1636 in the Thirty Years' War, Morimond was destroyed; it was abandoned in 1791 in the French Revolution. Only the church survived, but fell into ruin during the 19th century.

Remains.

Today, of the medieval structures, only a fragment of the north aisle is still standing, although there remain from the 18th century the gateway, the library and some pavilions and arcades.

Morimond Abbey is a religious complex in Parnoy-en-Bassigny, Haute-Marne department, in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France. It was the fourth of the four great daughter abbeys of Cîteaux Abbey, of primary importance in the spread of the Cistercian Order, along with La Ferté to the south, Pontigny to the west and Clairvaux to the north.


Early life.

Henry was born at Mělník, the third surviving son of King John of Bohemia (1296–1346) and his wife, the Přemyslid princess Elizabeth (1292–1330). John Henry therefore was the younger brother of Emperor Charles IV. At the time of his birth, the marriage of his parents was already broken; his mother fled to the court of their son-in-law Duke Henry XIV of Bavaria, and John Henry was raised in Cham, Upper Palatinate.

County of Tyrol.

King John made attempts to reconcile with his former rival Henry, duke of Carinthia and count of Tyrol, whom he had deposed as king of Bohemia in 1310. In 1327, his younger son John Henry and Henry's daughter, Countess Margaret of Tyrol, were betrothed. As Henry had no sons, King John expected a considerable enlargement of the Luxembourg lands and control over the Tyrolean mountain passes to Italy. John Henry and Margaret were married on 16 September 1330 at Innsbruck. Their suzerain, Emperor Louis IV, in the same year secretly promised Carinthia, the March of Carniola, and large parts of Tyrol to Henry's nephews Dukes Albert II and Otto of Austria.  Henry died on 2 April 1335, and Emperor Louis IV consequently gave Carinthia and southern Tyrol including the overlordship of the prince-bishoprics of Trent and Brixen to the Austrian dukes. King John felt deprived. He put an end to his quarrels with King Casimir III of Poland and campaigned in Austria. A peace was concluded at the city of Enns on 9 October 1336, when John renounced Carinthia, while Margaret and John Henry gained Tyrol.  John Henry's brother Charles acted as regent for his 14-year-old brother John Henry and soon came into conflict with the Tyrolian nobility. Furthermore, John Henry and his wife had developed a strong aversion to each other. Margaret finally took the lead of the insurgence against her husband, when she refused him the access to Castle Tyrol on 1 November 1341. John Henry fled to the Patriarchal State of Aquileia, while his wife claimed that their marriage had never been consummated. Margaret was backed by Emperor Louis IV, who himself had plans to assure the Tyrolian heritage for the House of Wittelsbach. He had the scholars Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham render an opinion that the marriage was not valid. In 1342, Margaret took her inheritance of Tirol to her next husband, the Emperor's eldest son Margrave Louis I of Brandenburg.  Humiliated, John Henry returned to Bohemia. Furious King John allied with Pope Clement VI, who banned both Louis and Margaret; nevertheless, the Luxembourg rule over Tyrol was terminated. In 1346 John died in the Battle of Crécy and was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles.

Margraviate of Moravia.

After John Henry's marriage was conclusively terminated according to canon law in 1349, he married Margaret, daughter of Duke Nicholas II of Opava, and Charles IV gave him the Margraviate of Moravia as appanage. In turn, John henry had to renounce all rights to the Bohemian throne. His second marriage produced several sons, including the future Margrave Jobst of Moravia. After Margaret of Opava died in 1363, John Henry married Margaret, the daughter of Duke Albert II of Austria and widow of Margaret of Tyrol's son from her marriage with Louis, Count Meinhard III of Tyrol.  John Henry is buried at St Thomas's Abbey, in Brno.

John Henry of Luxembourg (, ; 12 February 1322 – 12 November 1375), a member of the House of Luxembourg, was Count of Tyrol from 1335 to 1341 and Margrave of Moravia from 1349 until his death.


Life and career.

Kantor was born to Marian Kantor-Mirski and Helena Berger. His family were staunch Catholics. His mother was related to composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, through her German father. Born in Wielopole Skrzyńskie, Galicia (then in Austria-Hungary, now in Poland), Kantor graduated from the Cracow Academy in 1939. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, he founded the Independent Theatre, and served as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków as well as a director of experimental theatre in Kraków from 1942 to 1944. After the war, he became known for his avant-garde work in stage design including designs for "Saint Joan" (1956) and "Measure for Measure" (1956). Specific examples of such changes to standard theatre were stages that extended out into the audience, and the use of mannequins as real-life actors.  In 1955, with a group of visual artists disenchanted with the growing institutionalization of avant-garde, he formed a new theatre ensemble called Cricot 2. In the 1960s, Cricot 2 gave performances in many theatres in Poland and abroad, gaining recognition for their stage "happenings". His interest was mainly with the absurdists and Polish writer and playwright Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (also known as "Witkacy"). Stage productions of Witkacy's plays "The Cuttlefish" (1956) and "The Water Hen" (1969) were regarded as his best achievements during this time. A 1972 performance of "The Water Hen" was described as "the least-publicised, most talked-about event at the Edinburgh festival".  "Dead Class" (1975) was the most famous of his theatre pieces of the 1970s. A TV-Movie of the production was made in 1977, directed by Andrzej Wajda. In the play, Kantor himself played the role of a teacher who presided over a class of apparently dead characters who are confronted by mannequins representing the characters' younger selves. He had begun experimenting with the juxtaposition of mannequins and live actors in the 1950s.  His later works of the 1980s were very personal reflections. As in "Dead Class", he would sometimes represent himself on stage. In the 1990s, his works became well known in the United States due to presentations at Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club which inspired Lower East Side cultural leaders such as the Nuyorican poet Giannina Braschi.  Throughout his life, Kantor had an interesting and unique relationship with Jewish culture; despite being a nominal Catholic Kantor incorporated many elements of what was known as "Jewish theatre" into his works.  Kantor died in Kraków.  The new Center for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor, was opened in Krakow in 2014.

Tadeusz Kantor (6 April 1915 – 8 December 1990) was a Polish painter, assemblage and Happenings artist, set designer and theatre director. Kantor is renowned for his revolutionary theatrical performances in Poland and abroad. Laureate of Witkacy Prize - Critics' Circle Award (1989).


Early years.

André Glucksmann was born in 1937 in Boulogne-Billancourt, the son of Ashkenazi Jewish parents from Austria-Hungary. His father was from Bukovina, which later became part of Romania, and his mother from Prague, which later became the capital of Czechoslovakia.  Glucksmann's father was killed in World War II, and his mother and sister were active in the French Resistance. The family "narrowly escaped deportation to the camps" during the Holocaust, which influenced Glucksmann's developing ideas of "the state as the ultimate source of barbarism".  He studied at the Lycée la Martinière in Lyon, and later enrolled at École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud. His first book, "Le Discours de la Guerre", was published in 1968.

Career.

Early career.

In 1975 he published the anti-Marxist book "La Cuisinière et le Mangeur d'Hommes" - subtitled "Réflexions sur l'État, le marxisme et les camps de concentration", in which he argued that Marxism leads inevitably to totalitarianism, tracing parallels between the crimes of Nazism and Communism. In his next book "Les maitres penseurs", published in 1977 and translated into English as "Master Thinkers" (Harper & Row, 1980), he traced the intellectual justification for totalitarianism back to the ideas articulated by various German philosophers such as Fichte, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche. In the years of the Vietnam War, Glucksmann rose to national prominence after expressing his support for Vietnamese boat people. He began working with Bernard-Henri Lévy criticizing Communism. Both had formerly been well known Marxists. Shortly afterwards they became known, along with others of their generation who rejected Marxism, as New Philosophers, a term coined by Lévy.

1980s and 1990s.

In 1985, Glucksmann signed a petition to President Reagan urging him to continue his support for the Contras in Nicaragua. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Glucksmann became an advocate for the use of nuclear power. In 1995 he supported the resumption of nuclear tests by Jacques Chirac. He supported the NATO intervention in Serbia in 1999. He also called for Chechnya to become independent.

Philosophy.

In his book "Dostoyevsky in Manhattan", Glucksmann asserts that nihilism, particularly as depicted by Dostoyevsky in his novels "Demons" and "The Brothers Karamazov", is the 'characteristic form' of modern terrorism. Drawing on Ivan Karamazov's dictum that "If there is no God, everything is permitted", Glucksmann argues that:  The inner nature of nihilistic terrorism is that everything is permissible, whether because God exists and I am his representative, or because God does not exist and I take his place.  His 2006 book "Une rage d’enfant" is an autobiography which talks about how his experiences as a young Jew in occupied France led to his interest in philosophy and his belief in the importance of intervention:  My style of thinking is to compare what happens on the TV, in the news and so on, and then extract what I can from books of philosophers to understand it. Philosophy for me is like subtitles. The problem comes from current events but the answer is supplied by philosophy.  Glucksmann criticises the notion that Islamic terrorism is a product of the clash of civilizations between Islam and the West, arguing that the first victims of Islamic terrorism are Muslims:  Why do the 200,000 slaughtered Muslims of Darfur not arouse even half a quarter of the fury caused by 200-times fewer dead in Lebanon? Must we deduce that Muslims killed by other Muslims don’t count – whether in the eyes of Muslim authorities or viewed through the bad conscience of the West?

Later years.

Glucksmann supported military action by the West in Afghanistan and Iraq, and was highly critical of Russian foreign policy, supporting for example Chechen independence. However, he was against the Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence from Georgia, arguing that Georgia is essential to maintaining European Union "energy independence," vis-a-vis Russia, through access to oil and gas reserves in the former Soviet republics: "If Tbilisi falls, there will be no way to get around Gazprom and guarantee autonomous access to the gas and petroleum wealth of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan". As proof of Russia's plans to use energy blackmail, Glucksmann referenced a biting anti-Gazprom satirical song performed at the annual satirical award show "Silver Rubber Boot", which made jokes like: "If the Eurovision Song Contest denies victory to Russia again, we are going to drive to their concert and block their gas with our bodies!" Glucksmann cited this as evidence that the Russian people want to cut off gas to Ukraine and Europe. He wrote:  Consider a popular song performed by a military choir in Moscow. Its chorus depicts the "radiant future" that Gazprom is preparing: "Europe has a problem with us? We will cut off its gas..." The Russian public loves the song.  Glucksmann supported Nicolas Sarkozy for the April–May 2007 presidential election.  In August 2008 he co-signed an open letter with Václav Havel, Desmond Tutu, and Wei Jingsheng calling upon the Chinese authorities to respect human rights both during and after the Beijing Olympic Games.  He was a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.

Death.

Glucksmann died in Paris on 10 November 2015 at the age of 78.  In reaction to his death, President François Hollande said that Glucksmann always "listened to the suffering of peoples". Former president and opposition leader Nicolas Sarkozy commented on Glucksmann's death by saying: "[Glucksmann] turned a page in French thought from the second half of the 20th Century".

Works.

"Note: Many of his works were translated into German by his long-term colleague Helmut Kohlenberger."

André Glucksmann (; 19 June 1937 – 10 November 2015) was a French philosopher, activist and writer. He was a leading figure of the new philosophers.


Early life and career.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili was born into an aristocratic family of Prince Ioseb Cholokashvili at the family estate at Matani in the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti (then part of the Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire). The contemporary Russian administrative documents spelled his surname "Челокаев" (Chelokayev). Cholokashvili attended the Gymnasium for Nobility in Tiflis (Tbilisi), which was then directed by the historian Ekvtime Takaishvili. In 1909 he was drafted into the Russian military. He served in the 16th Tver Dragoon Regiment and returned to Georgia with the rank of podporuchik in 1912.  With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Cholokashvili was recalled to active duty and assigned to lead a cavalry squadron on the Austro-Hungarian front. Wounded later that year, he was transferred to the Caucasus Front. During the Battle of Sarikamish in December 1914, he commanded a cavalry squadron under General Vasily Gabashvili and distinguished himself by capturing and defending a strategic fortification known as "the Eagle's Nest" against the overwhelming Ottoman troops. He was severely wounded and awarded the Gold Sword for Bravery in 1916. After treatment at the St. Nino Hospital in Tiflis, he was enlisted in the nascent Georgian Cavalry Legion which marched into Persia as part of General Baratov's 1915–1917 expedition. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to the rank of podpolkovnik (lieutenant-colonel).

Independent Georgia.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Cholokashvili returned to Georgia and became involved in Georgia's independence movement. He joined the National Democratic Party of Georgia and helped organize national cavalry units early in 1918. After Georgia declared its independence as a Democratic Republic in May 1918, Cholokashvili was put in charge of a squadron in the Cavalry Division of the People's Guard of Georgia commanded by Colonel Giorgi Khimshiashvili. In this capacity, Cholokashvili served in the campaigns against Armenia (December 1918 – January 1919), White Russian forces (February–October 1919), pro-Bolshevik rebels in Gori (November–December 1919), and in a raid in the Batumi Oblast (February–March 1920). In April 1920, Cholokashvili and several of his fellow officers were dismissed from service after they protested against what they saw an unjustified dismissal and arrest of their colleague on criminal charges.  When the Soviet Russian Red Army invaded Georgia in February 1921, Cholokashvili was still negotiating his return to the army. He accompanied General David Chavchavadze to western Georgia to recruit volunteers for the Georgian cavalry. By the time they formed two cavalry squadrons and took to the field, Tiflis had fallen and a Soviet republic had been proclaimed in Georgia. In March 1921, the Georgian government and military leadership sailed in European exile; Cholokashvili remained in Georgia.

Partisan leader.

As the Soviets pushed for the efforts to consolidate their power in Georgia, an underground opposition movement emerged. In February 1922, Cholokashvili was arrested by the Soviet security agents on charges of "counter-revolutionary activities" in Sighnaghi in his native Kakheti, but he escaped and took to the mountainous Pankisi Valley, where he formed a group of followers known as the Band of Sworn Men (შეფიცულთა რაზმი) and joined the rebellious Khevsur mountaineers. The Bolsheviks used air force and artillery to squash the uprising. With Chechnya as his refuge, Cholokashvili and his guerrillas held out for two years. Revenge killings of the Soviet secret police executioners made him a folk hero.  Foreign diplomats reported that "the affair of Chelokaev" was a source of much trouble for the Bolshevik military leaders. The Soviet officialdom and historians referred to the movement as "political banditry". In his 1976 study of the Georgian revolt, the Soviet Russian historian Trifonov wrote that "the most numerous and dangerous band was that of Chelokaev. In the fall of 1922 it consisted of about 500 persons."  In August 1924, Cholokashvili left his mountainous refuge once again to join a larger anti-Soviet uprising in Georgia. He took command of the single largest rebel unit operating in eastern Georgia. Cholokashvili raided the town of Manglisi on 29 August, but, unable to get closer to Tiflis, he withdrew and attacked the Bolsheviks at Dusheti. Hunted down by the Soviet forces, Cholokashvili escaped on several occasions before conceding defeat. In September 1924, he fled across the porous border with Turkey. The Cholokashvili family—his wife and two little daughters—were rounded up and put in jail; his father-in-law was executed. Kakutsa's younger brother, Simon, had been killed earlier, during the revolt in Kakheti.

Emigration.

After leaving Georgia, Cholokashvili moved from Turkey to France, where many Georgian political émigrés had found refuge. He and his followers settled down at Viroflay, but received a cool welcome from the Leuville-sur-Orge-based Georgian government-in-exile, dominated by the Social-Democrats (Mensheviks). The Mensheviks treated Cholokashvili, a former nobleman, with suspicion, but were eager to exploit his standing among the Georgian nationalists for their political ends. On the other hand, Kakutsa (and many of his fellow military officers such as General Giorgi Kvinitadze) contemned the Mensheviks for their alleged disregard of national interests and indifference to the army. Later in the 1920s, Cholokashvili was close to the right-wing nationalistic organization Tetri Giorgi.  Making use of and contributing to further division among the Georgian émigrés, the Soviet intelligence leadership, especially, Lavrenty Beria, a Georgian, was able to infiltrate the expatriate Georgian community. Beria now targeted Cholokashvili, whose wife and children he held hostage. He even tried to bribe him into making a pro-Soviet recantation, but Cholokashvili demurred. Beria then foisted forged gold coins on Kakutsa and denounced him to the French police in 1927. Cholokashvili was arrested, but acquitted of charges. Cholokashvili was then framed for stealing French War Ministry funds. The Soviet agents also spread rumors that Kakutsa planned to assassinate the exiled Menshevik leaders, Noe Zhordania and Noe Ramishvili. Beria's designs were foiled as Kakutsa's health rapidly declined; he died of tuberculosis, in 1930, at the Plaz-Coutant sanatorium near Passy, Haute-Savoie.  Cholokashvili was first buried at the Cimetière de Saint-Ouen. He was later reburied to the Leuville Cemetery of Georgian émigrés and, finally, to the Mtatsminda Pantheon in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, in 2005.

Legacy.

Under the Soviet rule, Cholokashvili's name was expurgated from the Georgian history for several decades. With the rise of nationalist and pro-independence movements in the 1980s, Kakutsa re-emerged as a major symbol of Georgian patriotism and resistance to the Soviet regime. In October 1990, his closest companion and comrade-in-arms, the 94-year-old émigré Aleksandre Sulkhanishvili, returned from his 66-year-long exile to a hero's welcome in Tbilisi, bringing Kakutsa's banner to Georgia. Sulkhanishvili died less than a month after his return and was buried in his native village.  On 20–21 November 2005, Cholokashvili's remains were brought to Georgia and afforded a state funeral, in the presence of high-ranking government and church officials and thousands of Georgians, at the Mtatsminda Pantheon. In 2007, Cholokashvili's portrait was depicted on Georgia's new 200-lari banknote. The same year, Tbilisi's Marjanishvili Theatre staged Levan Tsuladze's successful production of "Kakutsa Cholokashvili", an epic patriotic play by Guram Kartvelishvili.

Kaikhosro "Kakutsa" Cholokashvili (; ;, "Kaikhosro Chelokayev") (July 14, 1888 – June 27, 1930) was a Georgian military officer and a commander of an anti-Soviet guerrilla movement in Georgia. He is regarded as a national hero in Georgia.


Description.

The development of "Clemenceau" represented France's effort to produce its own class of multi-role aircraft carriers to replace the American and British ships provided at the end of World War II. The ship had a small but effective design, using some of the elements of United States carriers, but on a smaller scale. The vessels were given relatively heavy gun armament for their size, and some stability problems were encountered which required bulging the hull.  The "Clemenceau"-class aircraft carriers are of conventional CATOBAR design. The landing area is long by wide; it is angled at 8 degrees off of the ship's axis. The flight deck is long. The forward aircraft elevator is to starboard, and the rear elevator is positioned on the deck edge to save hangar space. The forward of two catapults is at the bow to port, the aft catapult is on the angled landing deck. The hangar deck dimensions are by - with overhead.  "Clemenceau" went through a major refit from September 1977 to November 1978. She was refitted again with new defensive systems from 1September 1985 to 31August 1987, this included the replacement of four of the 100 mm guns with a pair of Crotale surface-to-air missile launchers. She was modified in 1978 to enable her aircraft to deliver several AN 52 bombs. In 1993 she was modified again to take nuclear capable Air-Sol Moyenne Portée missiles.

History.

Career.

Throughout the course of the aircraft carrier's lengthy career, it participated in the majority of French naval operations. From 12January to 5February 1962, "Clemenceau" participated in a NATO exercise known as "BigGame" with the United States Sixth Fleet in the western Mediterranean as an anti-submarine aircraft carrier. This was followed from 9March to 2April with another NATO exercise called OTAN Dawn Breeze VII, in the Gibraltar zone.  In January 1968, "Clemenceau" participated in the search for the lost submarine in the Mediterranean when contact was lost from port at Toulon. "Minerve" remained lost until French Defence Minister Florence Parly announced on 22 July 2019 that the wreck had been discovered.  During the same year, the carrier was deployed to the south Pacific for French nuclear bomb testing in Polynesia including Canopus, the first French hydrogen bomb. With the deployment of the fleet, codenamed Alfa Force (), the naval force present around two atolls represented more than 40% of the tonnage of the entire French navy. "Clemenceau" was the flagship of a fleet composed of forty ships.  During 1974–1977 "Clemenceau" was deployed off the African coast in the Indian Ocean in "Operation Saphir I" and "Operation Saphir II" in support of newly independent Djibouti. During the Lebanese Civil War "Clemenceau" was deployed in the East Mediterranean in 1983–84. The carrier rotated with, providing constant on-station air support to French peacekeepers in the Multinational Force in Lebanon FSMB and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon UNIFIL. The carrier's main support engagement was in "Operation Olifant". In 1987–1988 she participated in "Operation Prométhée" in the Gulf of Oman during the war between Iraq and Iran. The Promethée battle force (Task Force 623), included "Clemenceau", the mine counter-measures support ship "Loire", and s "Meuse", "Var", and "Marne". In 1990, escorted by the cruiser and the tanker "Var", she transported 40 helicopters, (SA-341F/ -342 Gazelles, SA-330 Pumas), three Br-1050 Alizés and trucks to Iraq during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The carrier was mainly engaged in "Operation Salamandre" in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea during the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait. During 1993 to 1996 "Clemenceau" completed several tours including combat operations and air patrol over the former Yugoslavia in Operation Balbuzard () in order to support the UN's troops, then "Salamandre" in the Adriatic Sea during the Yugoslav Wars.  "Clemenceau" operated around the world with a career total of more than one million nautical miles traveled, the equivalent of circumnavigating the globe 48 times. The carrier has passed 3,125 days at sea, with 80,000 hours of function, and conducted more than 70,000 catapult-launches.  In 1983, the "bâtiment" was the first unit of the French Navy to embark female personnel. Three women were assigned on board: one "maître principal", one "secrétaire militaire" and one "premier maître".  Loyal to the tradition of the French Navy, "Clemenceau" welcomed on board numerous fine art painters, some for a week and others for up to two months.

Disposal.

On 31 December 2005, "Clemenceau" left Toulon to be dismantled in Alang, India despite protests about improper disposal and a lack of facilities for the management of toxic waste. On 6January 2006 the Supreme Court of India temporarily denied access to Alang. After having been boarded by activists, held by Egyptian authorities, and then transiting the Suez Canal on 15January, a court ruling by the "Conseil d'État" ordered "Clemenceau" to return to French waters. Able UK, based at the Graythorp yard near Hartlepool received a disassembly contract to use accepted practices in scrapping the ship. The dismantling started on 18November 2009 and the break-up was completed by the end of2010.

Clemenceau (), often affectionately called le Clem, was the French Navy's sixth aircraft carrier and the lead ship of her class. The carrier served from 1961 to 1997, and was dismantled and recycled in 2009. The carrier was the second French warship to be named after Georges Clemenceau, the first being a laid down in 1939 but never finished.


Life and career.

After his birth, he was raised under the supervision of the royal governesses Hedvig Ulrika De la Gardie and Charlotte Stierneld in succession.  When he was ten years old, his father was deposed by the Coup of 1809 and the family was forced into exile. The Gustavian party tried to get him accepted as crown prince in 1809 and 1810, but were unsuccessful. Queen Charlotte, wife of the new king, was one of the leading figures of the Gustavian Party, and often visited ex-queen Frederica in her house arrest and worked for prince Gustav to be acknowledged as heir to the throne. She wrote of this issue in her diaries: during a dinner, General Georg Adlersparre told her that Jean Baptiste Bernadotte had asked whether she had any issue, and was interested when he found she had not. She said that the throne already had an heir in the deposed King's son. Adlersparre became upset and expressed the opinion of his party that none of the instigators of the coup would accept this as they feared that the boy would take revenge against them when he became King, and that they would go as far as take up the old rumour that the deposed King was, in fact, illegitimate and the son of Queen Sophia Magdalena and Count Adolf Fredrik Munck af Fulkila to prevent this.  Between the time after the coup and before the royal family left Sweden, they were held under house arrest. During that period, Queen Charlotte described him in her famous diary as an obedient and dutiful child with a great ability to learn. He was not haughty as his younger sister Princess Sophie, but humble. Rather, he seemed too quiet and too careful for his age. When Princess Sophie asked him why their father was no longer King, he told her that it was best not to talk about it. He asked no questions and did not appear to miss his father. After he was told that his father had been deposed, he acted embarrassed towards his mother. However, when she told him that he too had lost his position as heir, he cried and embraced her without a word. The announcement gave him much relief and happiness.  In 1816, he assumed the title of Count of Itterburg. He served as an officer to the Habsburgs of Austria, and in 1829, Emperor Francis I created him Prince of Vasa (). During the Greek War of Independence (1821-1829) there was some talk of Gustav becoming its first king, but this never materialized. He was made a Field Marshal-Lieutenant in the Austrian Army in 1836.

Marriage and issue.

In 1828, he became engaged to Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, but political pressure forced an end to any wedding plans. On 9 November 1830, he married in Karlsruhe his first cousin Princess Louise Amelie of Baden (5 June 1811 in Schwetzingen – 19 July 1854 in Karlsruhe). They divorced in 1843. A son, Louis, was born in 1832 but died shortly after birth. Their daughter, Princess Carola, married the Catholic King Albert I of Saxony, but they had no issue.  Gustaf died on 5 August 1877. In 1884, his (and his infant son's) remains were moved to Stockholm, to be buried beside his father.

Prince Gustav Vasa, Count Itterburg (; 9 November 1799 at Stockholm – 4 August/5 August 1877 at Pillnitz), born Crown Prince of Sweden and later called Gustaf Gustafsson von Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Vasa, was the son of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden and Queen Frederica. His Austrian princely title (from 1829) was actually spelled "Wasa".


How it works.

If a member sends a postcard they will receive at least one postcard back from a random postcrosser somewhere in the world.  The first step is to request to send a postcard. The website will display and send the member an email with the address of another postcrosser and a postcard ID (e.g.: US-787) which uniquely identifies that postcard in the system. The member then mails a postcard to that postcrosser and writes the postcard ID on it. The postcrosser receives the postcard and registers it using the postcard ID that is on the postcard. At this point, the sender is eligible to receive a postcard from a different postcrosser. Each member can write a profile text which will be visible to the postcrosser who requested an address. This profile can contain personal information about the recipient or postcard preferences.  Initially each member can have up to five postcards traveling at any time. Every time one of the sent postcards is registered, that postcrosser can request another address. The number of postcards allowed to travel at any single time goes up the more postcards a member sends and stops at 100.  The Postcrossing system allows for the same two members to exchange postcards only once. By default, members will exchange postcards with countries other than their own. Users can decide to exchange postcards with other users in his or her own country. Users are allowed to untick the "send to repeated countries" option in their profile, but this does not guarantee no repetitions.  A small percentage of mailed postcards get lost during their travels, while others may arrive with the postcard ID unreadable and are difficult to register. There are also members who become inactive while postcards are on the way to them. The system behind the website accounts for all these factors and compensates active members by attempting to reduce the difference between the number of sent and received postcards of each member.

Users distribution.

"Last updated February 29, 2020."

History.

The idea for the project was created by Paulo Magalhães, who started the site on July 14, 2005. The motivation was based on the fact that he liked to receive mail, especially postcards. "The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you would probably never have heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises – and who wouldn't like that?"  The project started initially as a hobby for Magalhães, but its unexpected success revealed that the idea was more popular than he ever predicted. He initially hosted the project on an old computer housed in a clothes closet at his home, which was shown to be insufficient. Based on word of mouth, the project quickly expanded over the Portuguese borders where the project was developed.  Over time the project received attention from the media, which contributed to its growth and popularity. Postcrossing reached its first million exchanged postcards on April 11, 2008 and has since grown even more rapidly. It reached the second million on February 26, 2009 with a postcard that traveled from Germany to Norway. The third million was reached on September 24, 2009 with a postcard traveling from Finland to Slovenia. The fourth million was reached on March 28, 2010 with a postcard traveling from the Czech Republic to the Netherlands. The popularity of the site has led to the academic community exploring what makes postcrossing so successful and what other digital communication technologies can learn from that success.  Postcrossing.com celebrated its five-year anniversary on July 14, 2010 with a photography contest for its members. Shortly after celebrating their fifth birthday, Postcrossing.com reached 5,000,000 postcards received on August 24, 2010 with a postcard traveling from Isle of Man (registered under an Italian member) to Thailand. The 7,000,000th postcard was sent on April 4, 2011 from China and received on April 19, 2011 in the Netherlands. The 10,000,000th postcard travelled from Japan to Germany and was registered on January 27, 2012. The 15,000,000th postcard travelled from Germany to Italy and was registered on December 31, 2012. At the moment, 1,000,000 postcards are registered in about two months. In January 2017 the number of postcards passed 39 million.

Postcrossing-themed stamps.

On October 11, 2011, PostNL released the first set of Dutch Postcrossing-themed stamps at the philatelic exhibition Postex in Apeldoorn. The sheet of 10 stamps was designed by communication agency The Stone Twins, and depicted different types of postcards seemingly strewn about (as if scattered on a doormat).  Finland was the second country to follow suit, with Itella launching their own stamps in honor of Postcrossing on September 9, 2013. Designed by Kokoro & Moi, the set includes four different first-class stamps.  On January 2, 2014, Belposhta also launched their own Postcrossing-themed stamps in Belarus. The stamp was designed by Inga Turlo and features the words "Happy Postcrossing" in both English and Belarusian.  On May 28, 2014, Guernsey Post launched a stamp designed by their marketing team, featuring the words "Happy Postcrossing" over an outline of Guernsey with a smiley face, giving the "thumbs-up" to the hobby of Postcrossing.  On January 27, 2015 the Russian Post issued a stamp designed by Olga Shushlebina. The stamp features the words "Я ❤ посткроссинг" (Russian: "I ❤ postcrossing") and schematic pictures of world sights.  On March 25, 2016 the Russian Post again issued a stamp featuring the same words designed by I. Sidenko.  Further Postcrossing stamps were issued on March 29, 2016 by PostNL, in 2016 by Guernsey Post and Polish Post, in 2017 by Indonesia Post, and in 2018 by Swiss Post and Moldova Post. Furthermore, the Åland Islands' Åland Post will launch a Postcrossing-themed stamp on June 7, 2019.

Postcrossing is an online project that allows its members to send and receive postcards from all over the world. The project's tag line is "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!" Its members, also known as postcrossers, send postcards to other members and receive postcards back from other random postcrossers. Where the postcards come from is always a surprise.


Biography.

Dumas was born in Alès (Gard), and became an apprentice to an apothecary in his native town. In 1816, he moved to Geneva, where he attended lectures by M. A. Pictet in physics, C. G. de la Rive in chemistry, and A. P. de Candolle in botany, and before he had reached his majority, he was engaged with Pierre Prévost in original work on problems of physiological chemistry and even of embryology. In 1822, he moved to Paris, acting on the advice of Alexander von Humboldt, where he became professor of chemistry, initially at the Lyceum, later (1835) at the École polytechnique. He was one of the founders of the École centrale des arts et manufactures (later named École centrale Paris) in 1829.  In 1832 Dumas became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. From 1868 until his death in 1884 he would serve the academy as the permanent secretary for its department of Physical Sciences. In 1838, Dumas was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The same year he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands and, when that became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1851, he joined as a foreign member. Dumas was president of Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale from 1845 to 1864.  After 1848, he exchanged much of his scientific work for ministerial posts under Napoléon III. He became a member of the National Legislative Assembly. He acted as minister of agriculture and commerce for a few months in 1850–1851, and subsequently became a senator, president of the municipal council of Paris, and master of the French mint, but his official career came to a sudden end with the fall of the Second Empire. Dumas was a devout Catholic who would often defend Christian views against critics.  Dumas died at Cannes in 1884, and is buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, in a large tomb near the back wall. His is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel tower.

Scientific work.

Dumas was one of the first to criticise the electro-chemical doctrines of Jöns Jakob Berzelius, which, at the time his work began, were widely accepted as the true theory of the constitution of compound bodies, and opposed a unitary view to the dualistic conception of the Swedish chemist. In a paper on the atomic theory, published in 1826, he anticipated to a remarkable extent some ideas which are frequently supposed to belong to a later period; and the continuation of these studies led him to the ideas about substitution (metalepsis) which were developed about 1839 into the theory (Older Style Theory) that in organic chemistry there are certain types which remain unchanged even when their hydrogen is replaced by an equivalent quantity of a halide element. The classification of organic compounds into homologous series was advanced as one consequence of his researches into the acids generated by the oxidation of the alcohols.  Dumas also showed that kidneys remove urea from the blood.  Vapour densities and atomic masses  Dumas perfected the method of measuring vapor densities which was also important in determining atomic weights (see below). A known amount of the substance being analyzed was put into a previously weighed glass bulb, which was then sealed and heated in water to vaporize the substance. The pressure was recorded with a barometer, and the bulb is allowed to cool to determine the mass of the vapor. The universal gas law was then used to determine the moles of gas within the bulb.  In an 1826 paper, he described his method for ascertaining vapour densities, and the redeterminations which he undertook by its aid of the atomic weights of carbon and oxygen proved the forerunners of a long series which included some thirty of the elements, the results being mostly published in 1858–1860. He showed "in all elastic fluids observed under the same conditions, the molecules are placed at equal distances". He also determined the atomic weight of titanium, one of the rare earth elements.  Dumas established new values for the atomic mass of thirty elements, setting the value for hydrogen to 1.  Determination of nitrogen  In 1833, Dumas developed a method for estimating the amount of nitrogen in an organic compound, founding modern analysis methods. He made important revisions to the existing combustion methods with a sophisticated pneumatic trough. These revisions were the flushing of the combustion tube with carbon dioxide and the addition of potassium hydroxide in the pneumatic trough. Flushing with carbon dioxide eliminated the nitrogen present in the air that previously occupied the combustion tube, eliminating the need for correction due to nitrogen in the air. The potassium hydroxide dissolved the passing carbon dioxide gas, which left nitrogen as the only gas in the collection tube.  Theory of substitution and theory of chemical types  At the Tuileries palace in Paris, guests of a soiree began reacting adversely to a gas suddenly emitted by the candles. Alexandre Brongniart asked his son-in-law, Dumas, to investigate. Dumas found that the coughing and dangerous fumes were caused by chlorine present in the candle wax. Chlorine had been used to whiten the candles, and Dumas concluded that it must have combined during the candle-making process. This led Dumas to investigate the behavior of chlorine substitution in other chemical compounds.  One of the most important research projects of Dumas was that on the action of chlorine on acetic acid to form trichloroacetic acid – a derivative of essentially the same character as the acetic acid itself. Dumas extended this to a theory (sometimes considered a law) which states that in an organic compound, a hydrogen atom may be substituted for any halogen.  In his published paper on the subject, Dumas introduces his theory of types. Since the trichloracetic acid retained similar properties to acetic acid, Dumas reasoned that there were certain chemical structures that remained comparatively unchanged even if one atom were changed within them. The basis of this theory rests in the natural history of organism classification, which Dumas learned under the botanist de Candolle. This new theory challenged Berzelius's previous theory of electrochemical dualism and was also a competitor of radical theory.

Family.

He married Herminie Brongniart, daughter of Alexandre Brongniart, in 1826.

Jean Baptiste André Dumas (14 July 180010 April 1884) was a French chemist, best known for his works on organic analysis and synthesis, as well as the determination of atomic weights (relative atomic masses) and molecular weights by measuring vapor densities. He also developed a method for the analysis of nitrogen in compounds.


Family.

Joseph was one of fifteen children born to Leopold II and Maria Louisa of Spain. He was born in Florence, where his father was ruling as Grand Duke of Tuscany.  In 1796, he was made Palatine of Hungary ("nádor" in Hungarian). This old title was, in effect, a deputy of the king, when he was absent from the country. Throughout his years in office he supported and promoted economic reforms, public works, and construction projects that aimed to bring Hungary closer to Europe. He did not govern with a heavy hand, harsh measures were usually imposed from Vienna. His years saw the first steamboat and railroad in Hungary, the regulation of the Danube, and the founding of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.  He was very popular among the Magyars, and became the founder of the Hungarian branch of the Habsburg family. His statue now stands in a place of honor at the very heart of Budapest in a square named for him, in front of the Ministry of Finance.

First marriage.

Joseph married the Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia (1783–1801), on 30 October 1799 at Saint Petersburg. He was 23 years old, while she was 16. She died of puerperal fever soon after delivering a short-lived daughter, the Archduchess Alexandrine of Austria, on 9 March 1801 in Buda.

Second marriage.

Joseph's second wife was Princess Hermine of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym (1797–1817). They were married on 30 August 1815 at Schaumburg Castle, when he was 39 and she was 17. She died in childbirth two years later. Both of Joseph's children with Hermine died unmarried and without issue. They were Archduchess Hermine of Austria (14 September 1817, Buda – 13 February 1842, Vienna), and Archduke Stephen, Palatine of Hungary (14 September 1817, Buda – 19 February 1867, Menton).

Third marriage.

Joseph third wife was the Duchess Maria Dorothea of Württemberg, whom he wed on 24 August 1819 at Kirchheim unter Teck. He was 43 years old, and she was 21. They were the parents of five children:  Joseph had one illegitimate son: Gavio Clùtos (2 March 1810 – January 1859).

Joseph Anton Johann, Archduke of Austria (,,, 9 March 1776, Florence – 13 January 1847, Buda), was the Palatine of Hungary from 1796 to 1847. He was the seventh son of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Luisa of Spain.


Plot.

The story begins in the year 1913, when a young man who is the narrator was travelling alone on a hiking trip through Provence, France, and into the Alps, enjoying the relatively unspoiled wilderness. He runs out of water in a treeless, desolate valley where only wild lavender grows and there is no trace of civilization except old, empty crumbling buildings. He finds only a dried-up well, but is saved by a middle-aged shepherd who takes him to a spring he knows of.  Curious about this man and why he has chosen such a lonely life, the narrator stays with him for a time. The shepherd, Elzéard Bouffier, after being widowed, decided to restore the ruined landscape of the isolated and largely abandoned valley by single-handedly cultivating a forest, by planting acorns. He makes holes in the ground with his straight iron staff and drops into them acorns that collected from miles away. He is also growing beech and birch saplings for planting.  The narrator leaves the shepherd, returns home, and later fights in the First World War. In 1920, shell-shocked and depressed after the war, the man returns. He is surprised to see young saplings of all forms taking root in the valley, and new streams running through it, where the shepherd has made dams higher up in the mountains. The narrator makes a full recovery in the peace and beauty of the regrowing valley, and continues to visit the region and M. Bouffier every year. He finds on one visit that Bouffier is no longer a shepherd, because of the sheep eating his young trees, and has become a bee keeper instead.  The valley receives official protection after the First World War, with the French authorities mistakenly believing that the rapid growth of the new forest is a bizarre natural phenomenon, as they are unaware of Bouffier's selfless deeds. Over four decades, Bouffier continues to plant trees, and the valley is turned into a kind of Garden of Eden. By the end of the story, the valley is vibrant with life and is peacefully settled, with more than 10,000 people living there, not knowing they owe their happiness to Bouffier. The narrator tells one of his friends, a government forester, the truth about the new forest, and the friend also helps to protect it.  In 1945, the narrator visits the now very old Bouffier one last time. In 1947, in a hospice in Banon, the man who planted trees peacefully passes away.

Background.

The story itself is so touching that many readers have believed that Elzéard Bouffier was a genuine historical figure and that the narrator of the story was a young Jean Giono himself, and that the tale is part autobiographical. Certainly, Giono lived during this time. While he was alive, Giono enjoyed allowing people to believe that the story was real, and considered it as a tribute to his skill. His daughter, Aline Giono, described it as "a family story for a long time". However, Giono himself explained in a 1957 letter to an official of the city of Digne:Sorry to disappoint you, but Elzéard Bouffier is a fictional person. The goal was to make trees likeable, or more specifically, make planting trees likeable. In the letter, he describes how the book was translated in a multitude of languages, distributed freely, and therefore was a success. He adds that, although "it does not bring me a cent", it is one of the texts of which he is most proud.

Spoken-word recordings.

In 1985 the Paul Winter Consort recorded an album with Robert J. Lurtsema as the narrator. It was made into a book-on-tape in 1990 by Earth Music Productions. In 1992, the American radio show "Hearts of Space" did a musically-accompanied reading (episode 290, first aired on 15 May) with narration by Robert J. Lurtsema. It has also been recorded for BBC Radio 4 with Bill Paterson narrating.

Related works.

The original book has inspired a 2012 book on the same theme: "The Man Who Planted Trees: Lost Groves, Champion Trees, and an Urgent Plan to Save the Planet" by Jim Robbins. Robbins work cites Giono's work and goes on to consider the modern-day work of David Milarch, a Michigan nurseryman.  Environmentalist and silvologist Gabriel Hemery wrote a sequel in 2016 titled: "The Man Who Harvested Trees and Gifted Life". The short story follows a girl's life-long relationship with a forest and its trees.

The Man Who Planted Trees (French title: "L'homme qui plantait des arbres") is a short story published in 1953 by French author Jean Giono. An allegorical tale, it tells the story of one shepherd's long and successful single-handed effort to re-forest a desolate valley in the foothills of the Alps in Provence throughout the first half of the 20th century. It was written in French, but first published in English.


History.

The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria () was a political group founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary as a regional wing of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Founded in Břevnov atop earlier social democratic initiatives, such as the Ouls, it represented much of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament, and its significant role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that led to the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, the party became one of the leading parties of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Its members were split over whether to join the Comintern, which in 1921 resulted in the fracturing of the party, with a large part of its membership then forming the new Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, the party was officially abolished, but its members organized resistance movements contrary to the laws of the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, both at home and abroad. After the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the party returned to its pre-war structure and became a member of the National Front which formed a new governing coalition. In 1948, after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia gained a parliamentary majority, the Czech Social Democratic Party was incorporated into the Communist Party. At the time of the Prague Spring, a reformist movement in 1968, there were talks about allowing the recreation of a Social Democratic party, but Soviet intervention put an end to such ideas. It was only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that the party was recreated. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which came into effect on 1 January 1993, the ČSSD has been one of the major political parties of the Czech Republic, and until October 2017 was always one of the two parties with the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.  At the 1998 parliamentary election, the party won the largest number of seats but failed to form a coalition government, so formed a minority government under its leader Miloš Zeman. With only 74 seats out of 200, the government had confidence and supply from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), under the so-called Opposition Agreement.  At the elections of 2002, the party gained 70 of the 200 seats in the of Deputies of the Czech Republic Chamber of Deputies. Its leader Vladimír Špidla became prime minister, heading a coalition with two small centre-right parties, the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU–ČSL) and the Freedom Union – Democratic Union (US-DEU) until he was forced to resign in 2004 after the ČSSD lost in the European Parliament elections of 2004  The next leader was Stanislav Gross, serving as leader from 26 June 2004 to 26 April 2005 and as prime minister from 4 August 2004 to 25 April 2005. He resigned after a scandal when he was unable to explain the source of money used to buy his house.  The successor of Gross as prime minister was Jiří Paroubek, while Bohuslav Sobotka became acting party leader from 26 April 2005 to 13 May 2006. Paroubek was then elected as the new party leader in the run-up to the June 2006 elections, at which the party won 32.3% of the vote and 74 out of 200 seats. The election at first caused a stalemate, since the centre-right parties plus the Green Party and the centre-left parties each had exactly 100 seats. The stalemate was broken when two ČSSD deputies, Miloš Melčák and Michal Pohanka, abstained during a vote of confidence, allowing a coalition of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the KDU-ČSL, and the Green Party to form a government. Hence the ČSSD went into opposition.  At the 2010 legislative elections on 28 and 29 May, the ČSSD gained 22.08% of the vote but remained the largest party, with 56 seats. Failing to form a governing coalition, it remained in opposition to a government coalition of the ODS, conservative TOP 09 and conservative-liberal Public Affairs parties. Paroubek resigned as leader on 7 June and was succeeded by Sobotka.  The Party remained the largest Party even after the 2013 legislative election of 25 and 26 October 2013 and in December formed a governing coalition with the populist ANO 2011 and the centrist Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party. The leader of ČSSD, Bohuslav Sobotka, became the new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.  The party suffered heavy losses in the 2017 legislative election and was reduced to only 15 seats, the worst result in its history. ČSSD suffered another defeat in the Prague Municipal, local and Senate elections in 2018. ČSSD lost 12 senators (only one managed to win re-election), all Prague deputies and more than half of their local councillors. In 2019 ČSSD lost all their representatives in the European Parliament. Some political commentators have interpreted the string of poor results as a sign of ČSSD losing their position in national politics.

Policy positions.

In economic matters, the ČSSD party platform is typical of Western European social democratic parties. It supports a mixed economy, a strong welfare state, and progressive taxation.  In foreign policy it supports European integration, including joining the eurozone, and is critical of US foreign policy, especially when in opposition—though it does not oppose membership of the Czech Republic in NATO.

Name of the party over time.

Czech lands as part of Austria-Hungary: Czechoslovakia: Czech Republic:

Election results.

Czech Republic wide elections.

Senate.

1996 whole Senate elected (81 seats), in next elections only one third of seats to be contested

Current Representatives.

ČSSD has following members of the government (2013–2017):

The Czech Social Democratic Party (, ČSSD) is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic. It holds 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies following the 2017 legislative election in which the party lost 35 seats. The party has been led by Jan Hamáček since 2018. It has been a junior coalition party within a minority cabinet since June 2018, and was a senior coalition party from 1998 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2017.


Early life.

Wilhelm von Gloeden's background is something of a mystery. Although Gloeden alleged he was a minor German aristocrat from Mecklenburg, the heirs of the baronial branch of the Gloeden family have always insisted that no such person existed in their family records and that his claim to a barony was without warrant; the barony became extinct in 1885 with the death of Baron Falko von Gloeden.  It is believed he was the son of head forester Carl Hermann Gloeden (1820–1862) and his wife Charlotte Maassen (1824–1901; from 1864 Charlotte von Hammerstein).  After studying art history in Rostock (1876), Gloeden studied painting under at the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School (1876–77) until he was forced by lung disease (apparently tuberculosis) to interrupt his studies for a year, convalescing at a sanatorium in the Baltic Sea resort of Görbersdorf, now known as Sokołowsko.

Taormina.

In a search for health, he travelled to Italy (1877–78), first staying in Naples before moving on to Taormina in Sicily. He lodged at the Hotel Vittoria before buying a house near San Domenico Convent. Apart from the period 1915–18, during the First World War, when he was forced to leave Sicily to avoid internment as an enemy alien, he remained in Taormina until his death in 1931.  The mayor of the town in 1872–1882 was the German landscape painter (1843–1939), who had moved there in 1863. Through him, Gloeden became acquainted with the local inhabitants. He set up his photographic studio at first as a hobby and was exhibiting his work internationally by 1893 (London), including Cairo (1897), Berlin (1898–99, including a solo exhibition), Philadelphia (1902), Budapest & Marseilles (1903), Nice (1903 & 1905), Riga (1905), Dresden (1909) and Rome (World Fair 1911). His well-known study of two young boys clinging to an Ionic column was published in "The Studio" (London) in June 1893 (above a nude study by Baron Corvo of Cecil Castle, cousin of Charles Kains Jackson), which brought his work to the notice of a wider public.  In 1895, when his family's fortune was lost through the "Hammerstein affair", Gloeden received as a gift from his friend and patron the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a large-format plate camera. Soon his work brought him visitors from Europe, including royalty, industrialists, writers, including Oscar Wilde in December 1897, and artists. In 1930, Gloeden ceased work as a photographer and sold his house on the Piazza San Domenico in Taormina in return for an annuity and residence rights. Gloeden scrupulously shared the proceeds of his sales with his models. The names of some of the models are known: Pasquale Stracuzzi (known as "Pasqualino"); Vincenzo Lupicino (known as "Virgilio" & seen in the "Boy with Flying Fish" photographs); Peppino Caifasso or Carafasso (who posed as "Ahmed"); Pietro Caspano or Capanu; Nicola Scilio, also spelt Sciglio; Giuseppe De Cristoforo; and Maria Intelisano (niece of the parish priest of nearby Castelmola).  His cousin Guglielmo Plüschow (1852–1930), also a photographer of nudes, helped von Gloeden get more familiar with the technical side of photography (until then von Gloeden had not been a hobby photographer). Other important teachers of von Gloeden were local photographer (1859–1925) in the Via Teatro Greco and the pharmacist/photographer Giuseppe Bruno (1836–1904) in the Corso.

Works.

While today Gloeden is mainly known for his nudes, in his lifetime he was also famous for his landscape photography that helped popularize tourism to Italy. In addition, he documented damage in from the 1908 Messina earthquake, which may explain why the locals mostly approved of his work.  The majority of Gloeden's pictures were made before the First World War, in the years from 1890 to 1910. During the war, he had to leave Italy. After returning in 1918, he photographed very little but continued to make new prints from his voluminous archives. In total, he took over 3000 images (and possibly up to 7000), which after his death were left to one of his models, Pancrazio Buciunì (also spelled Bucini; his dates sometimes given as – but probably should be 1879–1963), known as'(or ') for his North African looks. "" had been Gloeden's lover since the age of 14 when he had first joined his household. In 1933, some 1,000 glass negatives from Gloeden's collection (inherited by Buciuni) and 2,000 prints were confiscated by Benito Mussolini's Fascist police under the allegation that they constituted pornography, and were destroyed; another 1,000 negatives were destroyed in 1936, but Buciuni was tried and cleared at a court in Messina (1939–1941) of disseminating pornographic images. Most of the surviving pictures (negatives and prints) are now in the Fratelli Alinari photographic archive in Florence (which in 1999 bought 878 glass negatives and 956 vintage prints formerly belonging to Buciuni to add to its existing collection of 106 prints) and further prints (which fetch hundreds of pounds at auction) are in private collections or held by public institutions such as the in Milan.

Attitudes towards his work during his lifetime and later.

Gloeden generally made several different kinds of photographs. The ones that garnered the most widespread attention in Europe and overseas were usually relatively chaste studies of peasants, shepherds, fisherman, etc., featured in clothing like togas or Sicilian traditional costume, and which generally downplayed their homoerotic implications. He also photographed landscapes and some studies were of, or included, women. His models were usually posed either at his house, among the local ancient ruins, or on Monte Ziretto (), located two kilometres to the north of Taormina and famous in antiquity for its quarries of red marble. He wrote in 1898: "The Greek forms appealed to me, as did the bronze-hued descendants of the ancient Hellenes, and I attempted to resurrect the old, classic life in pictures...The models usually remained merry and cheerful, lightly clad and at ease in the open air, striding forward to the accompaniment of flutes and animated chatter. More than a few greatly enjoyed the work and anxiously awaited the moment when I would show them the finished picture."  More explicit photos in which boys aged between about 10 and 20, and occasionally older men, were nude (sometimes with prominent genitalia) and which, because of eye contact or physical contact were more sexually suggestive, were traded "under the counter" and among close friends of the photographer, but "as far as is known, Gloeden's archive contained neither pornographic nor erotically lascivious motifs".

Other similar photographers at the time.

Gloeden's cousin Guglielmo Plüschow also photographed male nudes, working in Rome. Plüschow was already a firmly established photographer when Gloeden started doing photographs of his own in the early 1890s. It is even speculated that Gloeden was taught the (then difficult) art of photography by Plüschow. However, Gloeden soon eclipsed Plüschow, and later works by Plüschow often were erroneously attributed to Gloeden. From an artistic standpoint, Plüschow's work is somewhat inferior to Gloeden's as his lighting is often too harsh and the poses of his models look quite stilted.  Up until 1907, Plüschow's assistant Vincenzo Galdi secretly made work which he tried to pass off as Plüschow's own. However, Galdi's pictures lack elegance, often feature females, and generally tend to border on the pornographic.

Wilhelm Iwan Friederich August Freiherr von Gloeden (September 16, 1856 – February 16, 1931) was a German photographer who worked mainly in Italy. He is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boys, which usually featured props such as wreaths or amphoras, suggesting a setting in the Greece or Italy of antiquity. From a modern standpoint, his work is commendable due to his controlled use of lighting as well as the often elegant poses of his models. His innovations include the use of photographic filters and special body makeup (a mixture of milk, olive oil, and glycerin) to disguise skin blemishes.


Description.

Tree.

The mammee tree is – high and is similar in appearance to the southern magnolia "(Magnolia grandiflora)". Its trunk is short and reaches - in diameter. The tree's upright branches form an oval head. Its dark-green foliage is quite dense, with opposite, leathery, elliptic leaves. The leaves can reach wide and twice as long.  The mammee flower is fragrant, has 4 or 6 white petals, and reaches – wide when fully blossomed. The flowers are borne either singly or in clusters of two or three, on short stalks. There can be, in a single flower, pistils, stamens or both, so there can be male, female or hermaphrodite flowers on one tree.

Fruit.

The mammee apple is a berry, though it is often misinterpreted to be a drupe. It is round or slightly irregular, with a brown or grey-brown thick rind. In fact, the rind consists of the exocarp and mesocarp of the fruit, while the pulp is formed from the endocarp. The stem is thick and short. The mammee apple has more or less visible floral remnant at the apex.  Mammee apples' diameter ranges from to. When unripe, the fruit is hard and heavy, but its flesh slightly softens when fully ripe. Beneath the skin, there is a white, dry membrane, whose taste is astringent, that adheres to the flesh. The flesh is orange or yellow, not fibrous, and can have various textures (crispy or juicy, firm or tender). Generally, the flesh smell is pleasant and appetizing.  Small fruits contain a single seed, while larger ones might have up to four. The seeds are brown, rough, oval and around long. The juice of the seed leaves an indelible stain.

Propagation.

Propagation can be done by seed. Germination takes place from 60–260 days. Grafting is the preferred method of propagation.

Distribution and habitat.

The tree comes from tropical South America. In 1529, it was included by Oviedo in his "Review of the Fruits of the New World". It was then introduced to various regions in the Old World: West Africa, particularly Sierra Leone, Zanzibar, Southeast Asia and Hawaii. In the United States, the species is uniquely found in Hawaii and Florida. In the latter state, mammee apples were probably introduced from the Bahamas.  The mammea apple tree is confined to tropical or subtropical climates. In Central America, the species is found to grow up to an altitude of 1,000 m. It thrives best in rich, deep and well-drained soil, but is very adaptive; it also grows on limestone in Jamaica, in the oolithic limestone of the Bahamas, and on ancient coral bedrock in Barbados as well as coral cays off the coast of Florida.  The tree is very sensitive to low temperatures, but seems remarkably resistant to pests and diseases.

Uses.

Traditional medicine.

In Trinidad & Tobago, the grated seeds are mixed with rum or coconut oil to treat head lice and chiggers.  Underripe fruits are rich in pectin, and the tree bark is high in tannin.

Culinary interest.

Though edible, this fruit has received little attention worldwide.  The raw flesh can be served in fruit salads, or with wine, sugar or cream, especially in Jamaica. In the Bahamas, the flesh is first put in salted water to remove its bitterness, before cooking it with much sugar to make a sort of jam. The flesh can also be consumed stewed.  In the French West Indies, an aromatic liqueur, ', or ', is distilled from the mammee flowers. This liqueur is believed to be tonic or digestive.

Other.

Various parts of the tree contain insecticidal substances, especially the seed kernel. In Puerto Rico, mammee leaves are wrapped around young tomato plants to keep mole crickets and cutworms away. In a similar way, the bark gum is melted with fat in Jamaica and Mexico, then applied to feet to repel chiggers or fleas on animals. The same effect is also obtained from infusions of half-ripe fruits.  In the Virgin Islands, the tannin from the bark is used to tan leather. The mammee timber is heavy and hard, yet easy to work; it has received, however, only limited commercial interest.

Mammea americana, commonly known as mammee, mammee apple, mamey, mamey apple, Santo Domingo apricot, tropical apricot, or South American apricot, is an evergreen tree of the family Calophyllaceae, whose fruit is edible. It has also been classified as belonging to the family Guttiferae, which would make it a relative of the mangosteen.


Registration.

The American Paint Horse's combination of color and conformation has made the American Paint Horse Association (APHA) the second-largest breed registry in the United States. While the colorful coat pattern is essential to the identity of the breed, American Paint Horses have strict bloodline requirements and a distinctive stock-horse body type. To be eligible for registry, a Paint's sire and dam must be registered with the American Paint Horse Association, the American Quarter Horse Association, or the Jockey Club (Thoroughbreds). At least one of the parents must be a registered American Paint Horse. There are two categories of registration, regular, for horses with color, and solid Paint-bred, for those without color.

Regular APHA registration.

In addition to bloodlines, to be eligible for the Regular Registry of the American Paint Horse Association (APHA), the horse must also exhibit a "natural paint marking", meaning either a predominant hair coat color with at least one contrasting area of solid white hair of the required size with some underlying unpigmented skin present on the horse at the time of its birth. Or, in the case of a predominantly white hair coat, at least one contrasting area of the required size of colored hair with some underlying pigmented skin present on the horse. Natural Paint markings usually must cover more than two inches and be located in certain designated areas of the body.

Solid Paint-Bred.

Solid colored offspring of two registered Paint parents, called "Solid Paint-Breds" or "Breeding Stock Paints," are also eligible for registration, with certain restrictions. They are able to participate in some recognized Paint breed shows, and there are alternative programs offered, and many incentive programs within the registry are available to Solid Paint-bred horses. If a solid-colored horse is bred to a regular registry Paint horse, it is possible to produce a spotted foal. In some cases, such as the recessive sabino patterns, described below, even a solid colored horse may still carry genes for color. However, in the case of the dominant tobiano pattern, a Breeding Stock Paint will not carry these color genes, though it may retain other desirable traits.

Color.

Each Paint Horse has a particular combination of white and another color of the equine spectrum. Most common are horses with white spots combined with black, bay, brown, and chestnut or sorrel. Less common are horses with spot colors influenced by dilution genes such as palomino, buckskin, cremello, perlino, pearl or "Barlink factor", and champagne, various shades of roan, or various shades of dun, including grullo. Paints may also carry the gray gene and have spots that eventually fade to white hair, though retaining pigmented skin underneath the areas that were once dark.  Spots can be any shape or size, except leopard complex patterning, which is characteristic of the Appaloosa, and located virtually anywhere on the Paint's body. Although Paints come in a variety of colors with different markings and different underlying genetics, these are grouped into only four defined coat patterns: overo (includes frame, splash and sabino), tobiano and tovero and solid.  Breeding Stock Paints can sometimes showcase small color traits, particularly if they carry sabino genetics. Such traits include blue eyes, pink skin on lips and nostrils, roan spots, and minimal roaning.

Paint or Pinto?

The terms "paint" and "pinto" are sometimes both used to describe paint horses. But "Paint" horses are the breed and "Pinto" is actually the coloring of the horse

History.

The American Paint Horse shares a common ancestry with the American Quarter Horse and the Thoroughbred. A registered Paint horse should conform to the same "stock horse" body type desired in Quarter Horses: a muscular animal that is heavy but not too tall, with a low center of gravity for maneuverability, and powerful hindquarters suitable for rapid acceleration and sprinting.  When the American Quarter Horse Association emerged in 1940 to preserve horses of the "stock" type, it excluded those with pinto coat patterns and "crop out" horses, those born with white body spots or white above the knees and hocks. Undeterred, fans of colorful stock horses formed a variety of organizations to preserve and promote Paint horses. In 1965 some of these groups merged to form the American Paint Horse Association.

Uses.

The Paint Horse is used in a variety of equestrian disciplines, most commonly Western pleasure, reining and other Western events, although it is also ridden English in hunt seat or show jumping competition.

Genetic problems.

One medical issue associated with the breed is the genetic disease lethal white syndrome (LWS). Also called Overo lethal white syndrome (OLWS) or, less often, white foal syndrome (WFS), it is linked to a recessive gene associated with the frame overo pattern. Horses that are heterozygous carriers of the gene do not develop the condition and are physically healthy. However, when a foal is born that is homozygous for the LWS gene, it should be humanely euthanized shortly after birth, or else will die within a few days from complications involving an underdeveloped intestinal tract. A DNA test is available for LWS so that horses who are carriers of this gene are not bred to one another. Horses can carry the LWS gene and not visibly exhibit overo coloring; cases have appeared in the offspring of both tobiano and solid-colored parents, though all cases to date are horses that had overo ancestors. LWS is also not unique to Paint Horses; it can occur in any equine breed where the frame overo coat pattern is found.  Due to the heavy influx of American Quarter Horse breeding, some Paints may also carry genetic disorders such as hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP), hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA), equine polysaccharide storage myopathy (called PSSM - polysaccharide storage myopathy - in Paints, Quarter Horses and Appaloosas), malignant hyperthermia (MH) and glycogen branching enzyme deficiency (GBED). The influence of Thoroughbred breeding puts some bloodlines at higher risk for Wobbler's syndrome.

The American Paint Horse is a breed of horse that combines both the conformational characteristics of a western stock horse with a pinto spotting pattern of white and dark coat colors. Developed from a base of spotted horses with Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred bloodlines, the American Paint Horse Association (APHA) breed registry is now one of the largest in North America. The registry allows some non-spotted animals to be registered as "Solid Paint Bred" and considers the American Paint Horse to be a horse breed with distinct characteristics, not merely a color breed.


Early years.

On the death of his godfather, the Earl of Surrey, Edmund was granted the earl's lands north of the Trent, primarily in Yorkshire. In 1359, he joined his father King Edward III on an unsuccessful military expedition to France and was made a knight of the Garter in 1361. In 1362, at the age of twenty-one, he was created Earl of Cambridge by his father.

Military career.

Edmund took part in several military expeditions to France in the 1370s. In 1369, he brought a retinue of 400 men-at-arms and 400 archers to serve with John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, on campaigns in Brittany and Angoulême. The following year, he first joined Pembroke again on an expedition to relieve the fortress of Belle Perche and then accompanied his eldest brother Edward, the Black Prince, on a campaign that resulted in the siege and sack of Limoges. In 1375, he sailed with the Earl of March to relieve Brest, but after some initial success, a truce was declared.  In the 1370s, English envoys entered into an alliance with Ferdinand I of Portugal, where Portugal promised to attack Castile with the Lancastrian army. As a consequence of the Caroline War in France, John of Gaunt was forced to postpone the invasion of Castile. In 1381, Edmund finally led an abortive expedition to press John's claim to Castile, joining with King Ferdinand in attacking Castile as part of the Fernandine Wars. After months of indecisiveness, a peace was again declared between Castile and Portugal, and Edmund had to lead his malcontented troops home.  Edmund was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports on 12 June 1376 and held office until 1381. On 6 August 1385, he was elevated to Duke of York. Edmund acted as Keeper of the Realm in 1394/95 when his nephew, King Richard II of England, campaigned in Ireland and presided over Parliament in 1395. He was also keeper of the realm in 1396 during the king's brief visit to France to collect his child-bride Isabella of Valois. The duke was left as Custodian of the Realm in the summer of 1399 when Richard II departed for another extended campaign in Ireland. In late June of that year, the exiled Henry Bolingbroke landed at Bridlington in Yorkshire. He raised an army to resist Bolingbroke, then decided instead to join him, for which he was well rewarded. He thereafter remained loyal to the new Lancastrian regime as Bolingbroke overthrew Richard II to become King Henry IV.

Later life.

In Richard II's will, Edmund was highly emphasised as the king's heir despite the stronger claims of Henry of Bolingbroke and Edmund Mortimer. This was not due to any preference Richard had for Edmund, but rather a desire the king had to set Edmund's son, Edward, on the throne. Towards the end of his life, in 1399, he was appointed Warden of the West March for a short period. Otherwise, from 1399 onward he retired from public life.  Edmund of Langley died in his birthplace and was interred at King's Langley Priory; however, his tomb was relocated to the nearby All Saints' Church, Kings Langley in 1575 after the priory had been dissolved. When the tomb was moved again during church restoration work in 1877, three bodies, one male and two female, were found inside. His dukedom passed to his eldest son, Edward. He was the last of his siblings to die, and lived the longest out of all of them.

Marriage.

Langley's first wife, Isabella, was a daughter of King Peter of Castile and María de Padilla. She was also the sister of the Infanta Constance of Castile, the second wife of Langley's brother John of Gaunt.  They had two sons and a daughter:  After Isabella's death in 1392, Langley married his second cousin once removed Joan Holland, whose great-grandfather Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, was the half-brother of Langley's grandfather Edward II; she and Langley were thus both descended from King Edward I. The young Joan was the granddaughter of his late sister-in-law Joan of Kent. The marriage produced no children.

Shakespeare's Duke of York.

Edmund, the 1st Duke of York, is a major character in Shakespeare's "Richard II". In the play, Edmund resigns his position as an adviser to his nephew Richard II, but is reluctant to betray the king. He eventually agrees to side with Henry Bolingbroke to help him regain the lands Richard confiscated after the death of Bolingbroke's father, John of Gaunt. After Bolingbroke deposes Richard and is crowned Henry IV, Edmund discovers a plot by his son Aumerle to assassinate the new king. Edmund exposes the plot, but his wife Isabella convinces Henry to pardon her son.

Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, KG (5 June 13411 August 1402) was the fourth surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Like many medieval English princes, Edmund gained his nickname from his birthplace: Kings Langley Palace in Hertfordshire. He was the founder of the House of York, but it was through the marriage of his younger son, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, to Anne de Mortimer, great-granddaughter of Edmund's elder brother Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, that the House of York made its claim to the English throne in the Wars of the Roses. The other party in the Wars of the Roses, the incumbent House of Lancaster, was formed from descendants of Edmund's elder brother John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, Edward III's third son.


Properties.

This star is approximately a quarter the mass of the Sun and has 35% of the Sun's radius. Luyten's Star is at the maximum mass at which a red dwarf can be fully convective, which means that most if not all of the star forms an extended convection zone. It has a stellar classification of M3.5V, with the V luminosity class indicating this is a main-sequence star that is generating energy through the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen at its core. The projected rotation rate of this star is too low to be measured, but is no greater than 1 km/s. Measurements of periodic variation in surface activity suggest a leisurely rotation period of roughly 116 days (which would give a velocity of ~0.15 km/s). The effective temperature of the star's outer envelope is a relatively cool 3,150 K, giving the star the characteristic red-orange hue of an M-type star.  At present, Luyten's Star is moving away from the Solar System. The closest approach occurred about 13,000 years ago when it came within 3.67 parsecs. The star is currently located 1.2 light years distant from Procyon, and the latter would appear as a visual magnitude −4.5 star in the night sky of one of the planets orbiting Luyten's Star. The closest encounter between the two stars occurred about 600 years ago when Luyten's Star was at its minimal distance of about 1.12 ly from Procyon. The space velocity components of Luyten's Star are U = +16, V = −66 and W = −17 km/s.

Planetary system.

In March 2017, two candidate planets were discovered orbiting Luyten's Star. The outer planet, GJ 273b, is a Super Earth in its star's habitable zone. It has a mass of 2.89 ± 0.26 Earth masses and orbits at a distance of 0.09110 ± 0.00002 AU, completing one orbital period in 18.650 ± 0.006 days. While the planet is on the innermost edge of the star's conservative habitable zone, the incident flux is only 1.06S⊕, so it may be potentially habitable if water and an atmosphere are present; depending on albedo, its equilibrium temperature could be anywhere between 206 and 293 Kelvin. The inner planet, GJ 273c, is one of the lightest exoplanets detected by radial velocities, with a mass of only 1.18 ± 0.16 Earth masses. However, it orbits much further in, with an orbital period of only 4.7234 ± 0.00004 days.  GJ 273b is one of the closest known planets in its star's habitable zone.  In 2019, two more candidate planets were detected by radial velocity, making a total of four known planets in the system.  In October 2017, "Sónar Calling GJ 273b", a project by Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) and Sónar, a music festival in Barcelona, transmitted a series of radio signals towards Luyten's star from a radar antenna at Ramfjordmoen, Norway. The signal consisted of a scientific and mathematical tutorial on how to decode the messages and was accompanied by 33 encoded musical compositions by various musicians. A second signal series was transmitted on May 14, 15, and 16, 2018. Assuming anyone is listening, the soonest a response could be expected would be 2036.

Luyten's Star (GJ 273) is a red dwarf in the constellation Canis Minor located at a distance of approximately from the Sun. It has a visual magnitude of 9.9, making it too faint to be viewed with the unaided eye. It is named after Willem Jacob Luyten, who, in collaboration with Edwin G. Ebbighausen, first determined its high proper motion in 1935.