Early life and education.

Trachtenberg was born in New York City, the younger of two daughters of Lana, a bank manager, and Michael Trachtenberg, a fiber-optics engineer, Jewish immigrants from Russia and Germany, respectively. Trachtenberg had a religious upbringing, and her grandparents reside in Israel. She was raised with her older sister, Irene, in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where she attended junior high school at The Bay Academy for the Arts and Sciences. She later attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. She is fluent in Russian.

Career.

Beginnings (1988–2003).

Trachtenberg made her first television appearance at the age of three, in a commercial for Wisk detergent. She went on to feature in over 100 more commercials. Her first television role was in the second season of "Law & Order"; her first credited role was as Nona F. Mecklenberg on the Nickelodeon series "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" from 1994 until 1996. During the same period she played Lily Montgomery on the soap opera "All My Children".  Trachtenberg's film career began in 1996 with the title role in "Harriet the Spy", for which she had to leave "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" while its third season was running. She then starred in the short-lived television series "Meego", which garnered her a Young Artist Award. She returned to film in 1999 for "Inspector Gadget". She also starred in the film "Can't Be Heaven". In the summer of 2000, she took on the role of Dawn Summers in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", remaining in the role until the show ended in 2003. She also hosted the Discovery Kids series "Truth or Scare" from 2001 to 2003.

Rise to fame (2004–2007).

After "Buffy" and "Truth or Scare", Trachtenberg appeared in the comedy film "EuroTrip". She also had a recurring role in the HBO series "Six Feet Under", as Celeste, a spoiled pop star for whom Keith Charles served as a bodyguard. In March 2005, she played the title character in Walt Disney Pictures' comedy sports drama film "Ice Princess". Trachtenberg played Casey Carlyle, a science whiz, who is torn between a future in academia and her newfound dream of being a professional figure skater.  In 2004, Trachtenberg played Wendy in Gregg Araki’s film adaptation of Scott Heim’s novel, “Mysterious Skin.” Wendy is the best friend of Neil (Joseph Gordon Levitt), a teenage hustler in small-town Kansas. The film debuted at the 2004 Venice Film Festival.  In April 2006, Trachtenberg guest-starred in the episode of "House", "Safe". She revealed on the December 22, 2006, episode of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" that "House" was her favorite show, and that she was friends with one of the producers and had asked to be a guest star.  In November 2006, Trachtenberg guest starred in season six of the crime drama "". In the episode "", she played the role of Willow, a kidnapped video blogger, likely based on lonelygirl15. Trachtenberg also appeared in the Fall Out Boy music video for "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", the Joaquin Phoenix-directed music video for "Tired of Being Sorry" by Ringside, and the video for the Trapt song "Echo".  In 2006, Trachtenberg starred in "Black Christmas", the remake of the 1974 slasher of the same name. In 2007, she was cast as the female lead in an ABC comedy pilot called "The Hill", based on the newspaper of the same name in Washington, D.C.

Worldwide recognition (2008–2010).

Trachtenberg provided the voice of Tika Waylan for "", a direct-to-video animated film based on the novel of the same name. She appeared on The CW hit show "Gossip Girl", as Georgina Sparks, who recently left rehab and brings back the dark past Serena van der Woodsen desperately wants to leave behind. She returned to the show for a multiple-episode story arc towards the end of season two. Trachtenberg appeared in the season-three finale and in season four. She also appeared several times in season five, and in almost every episode of season six, the show's final season. In 2009, Trachtenberg was a cast member on the NBC drama "Mercy"; the series lasted one season.

Recent works (2011–present).

On June 9, 2011, Trachtenberg guest-starred on "Love Bites", as Jodie, who, after being unceremoniously dumped, decides – with a vengeance – to accept her ex's offer to "be friends". She reprised the role on June 16, 2011, and in the series finale on July 21, 2011. In the same year, Trachtenberg was a guest-star on "Weeds" during its seventh season, portraying Emma, a rival pot dealer who causes problems for Silas Botwin. In June 2012, Trachtenberg was cast in the film "The Scribbler", produced by Gabriel Cowan.  In the "Criminal Minds" episode "Zugzwang", Trachtenberg played Diane Turner, the criminal stalker to Spencer Reid's girlfriend, Maeve Donovan. She returned to film with the 2009 film "17 Again". She also had a small role in the comedy film "Cop Out". In March 2011, she was the featured cover girl in "Maxim".  In fall of 2015, Trachtenberg starred in the online series "Guidance" as Anna, the high school guidance counselor.  In early April 2017 on the occasion of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"'s 20th anniversary, Trachtenberg reflected on the backlash her "Buffy" character, Dawn, received from fans over the years to "Entertainment Weekly".

Michelle Christine Trachtenberg (; born October 11, 1985) is an American actress and model. She played Jenny in "EuroTrip" (2004), Nona Mecklenberg in "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" (1994–1996), Dawn Summers in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (2000–2003), Harriet M. Welsch in "Harriet the Spy" (1996), and Georgina Sparks in "Gossip Girl" (2007–2012).


Accession.

Charles was born in Paris. Acceding to the duchy at the age of thirteen after his father had been assassinated, he was expected to carry on his father's leadership against the Burgundians, a French faction which supported the Duke of Burgundy. The latter was never punished for his role in Louis' assassination, and Charles had to watch as his grief-stricken mother Valentina Visconti succumbed to illness not long afterwards. At her deathbed, Charles and the other boys of the family were made to swear the traditional oath of vengeance for their father's murder.  During the early years of his reign as duke, the orphaned Charles was heavily influenced by the guidance of his father-in-law, Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, for which reason Charles' faction came to be known as the Armagnacs.

Imprisonment.

After war with the Kingdom of England was renewed in 1415, Charles was one of the many French noblemen at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415. He was discovered unwounded but trapped under a pile of corpses. He was taken prisoner by the English, and spent the next twenty-four years being moved from one castle to another in England, including the Tower of London, and Pontefract Castle – the castle where England's young King Richard II, cousin once removed of the then incumbent English King Henry V, had been imprisoned and died 15 years earlier at the age of 33. The conditions of his confinement were not strict; he was allowed to live more or less in the manner to which he had become accustomed, like so many other captured nobles. However, he was not offered release in exchange for a ransom, since the English King Henry V had left instructions forbidding any release: Charles was the natural head of the Armagnac faction and in the line of succession to the French throne, and was therefore deemed too important to be returned to circulation.  After his capture, his entire library was moved by Yolande of Aragon to Saumur, to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Poetry.

It was during these twenty-four years that Charles would write most of his poetry, including melancholy works which seem to be commenting on the captivity itself, such as "En la forêt de longue attente". He is often credited with writing the first Valentine's Day poem.  The majority of his output consists of two books, one in French and the other in English, in the "ballade" and "rondeau" fixed forms. Though once controversial, it is now abundantly clear that Charles wrote the English poems which he left behind when he was released in 1440. Unfortunately, his acceptance in the English canon has been slow. A. E. B. Coldiron has argued that the problem relates to his "approach to the erotic, his use of puns, wordplay, and rhetorical devices, his formal complexity and experimentation, his stance or voice: all these place him well outside the fifteenth-century literary milieu in which he found himself in England."  One of his poems "Is she not passing fair?", translated by Louisa Stuart Costello, was set to music by Edward Elgar. Claude Debussy set three of his poems to music in his "Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans", L.92, for unaccompanied mixed choir.

Freedom.

Finally freed in 1440 by the efforts of his former enemies, Philip the Good and Isabella of Portugal, the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy, he set foot on French soil again after 25 years, by now a middle aged man at 46 and "speaking better English than French," according to the English chronicler Raphael Holinshed. Philip the Good had made it a condition that the murder of Charles' father Louis of Orleans by Philip's own father, John the Fearless, would not be avenged. (John himself had been assassinated in 1419.) Charles agreed to this condition prior to his release. Meeting the Duchess of Burgundy after disembarking, the gallant Charles said: "M'Lady, I make myself your prisoner." At the celebration of his third marriage, with Marie of Cleves, he was created a Knight of the Golden Fleece. His subsequent return to Orléans was marked by a splendid celebration organised by the citizens.  He made an unsuccessful attempt to press his claims to Asti in Italy, before settling down as a celebrated patron of the arts. He died at Amboise in his 71st year.

Marriage and children.

Charles married three times. His first wife Isabella of Valois (daughter of Charles VI of France and widow of Richard II of England), whom he married in Compiègne in 1406, died in childbirth. Their daughter, Joan married John II of Alençon in 1424 in Blois.  Afterwards, he married Bonne of Armagnac, the daughter of Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, in 1410. Bonne died before he returned from captivity. The couple had no issue.  On his return to France in 1440, Charles married Marie of Cleves in Saint-Omer (daughter of Adolph I, Duke of Cleves) and had three children:

In fiction and popular culture.

Charles appears as "Duke of Orléans" in William Shakespeare's "Henry V." In the 2012 television adaptation "The Hollow Crown," Charles is played by French actor Stanley Weber and is inaccurately portrayed as dying at Agincourt.  The critically acclaimed historical novel "Het Woud der Verwachting / Le Forêt de Longue Attente" (1949) by Hella Haasse (translated into English in 1989 under the title "In a Dark Wood Wandering") gives a sympathetic description of the life of Charles, Duke of Orléans.  Charles is also a major character in Margaret Frazer's "The Maiden's Tale", a historical mystery and fictional account of a few weeks of his life in England in the autumn of 1439, shortly before his release in 1440.  Charles is a minor character in the historical fiction novel "Crown in Candlelight" by Rosemary Hawley Jarman.  Charles is referenced as the author of "the first known Valentine" in Netflix original "Big Mouth"'s Valentine's Day special, "My Furry Valentine".

Charles of Orléans (24 November 1394 – 5 January 1465) was Duke of Orléans from 1407, following the murder of his father, Louis I, Duke of Orléans, on the orders of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. He was also Duke of Valois, Count of Beaumont-sur-Oise and of Blois, Lord of Coucy, and the inheritor of Asti in Italy via his mother Valentina Visconti, daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan.


Early life.

Johann II was the elder son of Aloys II, Prince of Liechtenstein and Countess Franziska Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau. He ascended to the throne shortly after his 18th birthday, and as such his reign is the longest precisely documented tenure of any European monarch since antiquity in which a regent was never employed. Rama IX of Thailand exceeded this reign by just 35 days.

Law and reform.

In 1862, Johann II issued Liechtenstein's first constitution. Later, after Liechtenstein left the German confederation in 1866 and after World War I, Johann II granted a new constitution in 1921. It granted considerable political rights to common Liechtensteiners, the latter making the principality a constitutional monarchy. This constitution survives today but with revisions, most notably in 2003.  Liechtenstein left the German Confederation in 1866. Not long after, the army of Liechtenstein was abolished as it was regarded as an unnecessary expense.

Foreign affairs.

Johann II somewhat cooled relations with Liechtenstein's traditional ally, Austria-Hungary and its successor states, to forge closer relations with Switzerland, particularly after World War I. Liechtenstein was neutral during World War I, but the war broke Liechtenstein's alliance with Austria-Hungary and led it to go into a customs union with Switzerland. Late in Johann's reign, in 1924, the Swiss franc became Liechtenstein's official currency.

Patron of the arts.

Johann II added much to the Liechtenstein Princely Collections. Although considered a prominent patron of the arts and sciences during his long reign, Johann II was also considered to be rather unsociable and did not participate in social events. He never married or had any children, like several other members of his family.  Between 1905–1920, Schloss Vaduz was renovated and expanded. Prince Johann II did not live in the castle or even Liechtenstein, though his successors would eventually move there in 1938. Schloss Vaduz would be their home.  Upon his death in 1929, Johann II was succeeded by his brother Franz I.

Johann II (; 5 October 1840 – 11 February 1929), also known as Johann II the Good ("Johann II der Gute"), was the Prince of Liechtenstein between 1858 and 1929. His reign of 70 years and 91 days is the second-longest of any monarch in European history, after that of Louis XIV of France, and third-longest overall after Louis XIV and Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.


History.

The party was founded in 1887 in Arendal and first ran in elections to the Storting in 1894. It entered the parliament in 1903 and steadily increased its vote until 1927, when it became the largest party in Norway. The party were members of Communist International (Comintern), a communist organisation, between 1918 and 1923.  From the establishment of "Vort Arbeide" in 1884, the party had a growing and notable organisation of newspapers and other press outlets. The party press system eventually resulted in "Norsk Arbeiderpresse" ("Norwegian Labour Press", now "A-pressen"). In January 1913, the party had 24 newspapers and 6 more newspapers were founded in 1913. The party also had the periodical "Det 20de Aarhundre". In 1920, the party had 33 newspapers and 6 semi-affiliated newspapers. The party had its own publishing house, Det norske Arbeiderpartis forlag, succeeded by Tiden Norsk Forlag. In addition to books and pamphlets, Det norske Arbeiderpartis forlag published "Maidagen" (annual May Day publication), "Arbeidets Jul" (annual Christmas publication) and "Arbeiderkalenderen" (calendar).  From its roots as a radical alternative to the political establishment, the party grew to its current dominance through several eras. The party experienced a split in 1921 caused by a decision made two years earlier to join the Comintern and the Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway was formed. In 1923, the party left the Comintern while a significant minority of its members left the party to form the Communist Party of Norway. In 1927, the Social Democrats were reunited with Labour. Some Communists also joined Labour whereas other Communists tried a failed merger endeavor which culminated in the formation of the "Arbeiderklassens Samlingsparti".  In 1928, Christopher Hornsrud formed Labour's first government, but it lasted only two weeks. During the early 1930s, Labour abandoned its revolutionary profile and set a reformist course. Labour then returned to government in 1935 and remained in power until 1965 (except for the World War II exile period between 1940–1945 and one month in 1963). During most of the first twenty years after World War II, Einar Gerhardsen led the party and the country. He is often referred to as "Landsfaderen" (Father of the Nation) and is generally considered one of the main architects of the rebuilding of Norway after World War II. This is often considered the golden age of the Norwegian Labour Party. The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1938 and 1940. In 1958, two Workers' Youth League members (Berge Furre and Kåre Sollund) contacted MPs of the Labour Party to have MPs sign a petition as a part of what is known as the Easter Uprising of the Labour Party. All the MPs who signed, except one, later retracted their signatures.  Other periods of the Labour Party's leadership of the national government have been 1971–1972, 1973–1981, 1986–1989, 1990–1997 and 2000–2001. In the 2001 Norwegian parliamentary election, the party reached a low point of 24.3% of the popular vote, but it was still the largest party in the Storting. In the 2005 Norwegian parliamentary election, the party regained support and received 32.7% of the popular vote. It was the leading partner in the centre-left red–green coalition which won a majority in the 2005 Norwegian parliamentary election. Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg became prime minister and lead a coalition government, the first coalition government that the Labour Party has entered. Stoltenberg was previously prime minister from 2000 to 2001.  In 2011, the party changed its official name from the Norwegian Labour Party ("Det norske arbeiderparti") to the Labour Party ("Arbeiderpartiet"). The party claimed there had been confusion among voters at polling stations because of the difference between the official name and the common use name of Labour Party. The name change caused "Arbeiderpartiet" to appear on the ballot, eliminating any potential confusion. On 22 July 2011, a terrorist opened fire at the Labour Party's youth camp (ages 13–25), killing 69 people and killing 8 more in Oslo by a bomb towards a government building (which was led by the Labour Party).  In the 2013 Norwegian parliamentary election, the party-led coalition lost the election, but Labour remained the largest party in the Storting. This election ended the nearly ten years rule of Stoltenberg, who remained the party leader until he stepped down to be appointed Secretary General of NATO. Jonas Gahr Støre was chosen as new party leader on 14 June 2014. In 2017, the party was targeted by hackers suspected to be from Russia.

Organisation.

As of 2015, the party has about 56,000 members. They are organised at county level, municipality level and in about 2,500 local associations. The party had about 200,500 members at its peak in 1950.  The supreme body of the party is the Party Congress which is held every two years. The highest body in between the congresses is the National Delegate's Meeting which is made up of the Executive Board and two delegates from each of the 19 counties.  The executive board consists of 16 elected members as well as the leadership of the party. As of 2015, the leadership is party leader Støre, deputy leaders Hadia Tajik and Trond Giske and general secretary Kjersti Stenseng. The party has varied between having one of two deputy leaders  Since 2005, the party has a policy requiring full gender parity at each level of the organisation above ordinary membership.  The party's youth organisation is the Workers' Youth League and there is a network for women within the party. The party participates in elections to the Sami Parliament of Norway and work related to this has its own organisational structure with seven local groups, a bi-yearly congress, a national council and the Labour group in the Sami parliament.

The Labour Party (Bokmål: "Arbeiderpartiet"; Nynorsk: "Arbeidarpartiet"; A/Ap), formerly the Norwegian Labour Party (Norsk: "Det norske Arbeiderparti", DNA), is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It was the senior partner of the governing red–green coalition from 2005–2013 and its leader Jens Stoltenberg served as Prime Minister. The party is led by Jonas Gahr Støre.


Foreign policy and monumental program.

Despite his astuteness in dealings with matters at home, Osorkon II was forced to be aggressive on the international scene. The growing power of Assyria was accompanied with increased meddling in the affairs of Israel and Syria – territories well within Egypt's sphere of influence.  Osorkon II devoted considerable resources into his building projects by adding to the temple of Bastet at Bubastis, which featured a substantial new hall decorated with scenes depicting his Sed festival and images of his queen, Karomama. Monumental construction during his reign also was performed at Thebes, Memphis, Tanis, and Leontopolis. Osorkon II also built Temple J at Karnak during the final years of his reign and it was decorated by his high priest, Takelot F (the future king, Takelot II). Takelot F was the son of the deceased high priest Nimlot C and, thus, Osorkon II's grandson.  Now, all of Osorkon II's sizeable stone statues are known to be re-used works of earlier periods that merely were re-inscribed for Osorkon II, including the famous "Cairo-Philadelphia statue of Osorkon II". Osorkon II was the last great Twenty-second Dynasty king of Tanis, ruling Egypt from the Delta to Upper Egypt. His successor, Shoshenq III, lost the effective control of Middle and Upper Egypt that Osorkon II had assembled into a united Egypt.  Many officials may be dated to the reign of Osorkon II. Ankhkherednefer was "inspector of the palace", Paanmeny probably was his chief physician, Djeddjehutyiuefankh was the "fourth prophet of Amun", and Bakenkhons was another "prophet of Amun" during his reign.

Reign length.

Approximately 837 BC, Osorkon II died and he was buried in Tomb NRT I at Tanis. Currently, he is believed to have reigned for more than 30 years, rather than just 25 years as had been interpreted earlier. The celebration of his first Sed Jubilee previously was thought to have occurred in his Year 22, but the Heb Sed date in his Great Temple of Bubastis is damaged and also may be read as Year 30, as Edward Wente notes. The fact that this king's own grandson, Takelot F, served him as High Priest of Amun at Thebes–as the inscribed walls of Temple J prove – supports the hypothesis of a longer reign for Osorkon II.  Recently, it has been demonstrated that Nile Level Text 14 (dated to Year 29 of an Usimare Setepenamun) belongs to Osorkon II on palaeographical grounds. This finding suggests that Osorkon II likely did celebrate his first Heb Sed in his Year 30 as was traditionally the case with other Libyan era kings, such as Shoshenq III and Shoshenq V. In addition, a Year 22 Stela from his reign preserves no mention of any Heb Sed celebrations in that year, as would be expected (see Von Beckerath, 'infra').  While Osorkon II's precise reign length is unknown, some Egyptologists, such as Jürgen von Beckerath – in his 1997 book Chronology of the Egyptian Pharaohs – and Aidan Dodson have suggested a range of between 38 and 39 years. However, these much higher figures are not verified by the current monumental evidence. Gerard Broekman gives Osorkon II a slightly shorter reign of 34 years. English Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen, in a 2006 "Agypten und Levante" article, now accepts that if Nile Level Text 14 is correctly attributed to Year 29 of Osorkon II, then the reference to Osorkon's Sed Festival jubilee should be amended from Year 22 to Year 30. Kitchen suggests that Osorkon II would have died shortly afterward, in his Year 31.

Marriages and children.

Osorkon II is known to have had at least four wives: Other children of record included:  Other possible children attributed to Osorkon II include his successor Shoshenq III and the King's Daughter Tentsepeh (D), the wife of General Ptahudjankhef, who was a son of Nimlot C and hence, a grandson of Osorkon II.

Successor.

David Aston has argued in a JEA 75 (1989) paper that Osorkon II was succeeded by Shoshenq III at Tanis rather than Takelot II Si-Ese as Kitchen presumed because none of Takelot II's monuments have been found in Lower Egypt where other genuine Tanite kings, such as Osorkon II, Shoshenq III, and even the short-lived Pami (at 6-7 years) are attested on donation stelas, temple walls, and annal documents. Other Egyptologists, such as Gerard Broekman, Karl Jansen-Winkeln, Aidan Dodson, and Jürgen von Beckerath have endorsed this position as well. Von Beckerath also identifies Shoshenq III as the immediate successor of Osorkon II and places Takelot II as a separate king in Upper Egypt. Gerard Broekman writes in a recent 2005 GM article that, "in light of the monumental and genealogical evidence", Aston's chronology for the position of the twenty-second dynasty kings "is highly preferable" to Kitchen's chronology. The only documents that mention a king Takelot in Lower Egypt, such as a royal tomb at Tanis, a Year 9 donation stela from Bubastis, and a heart scarab featuring the nomen 'Takelot Meryamun' — now have been attributed exclusively to king Takelot I by Egyptologists today, including Kitchen.  The English Egyptologist Aidan Dodson, in his book "The Canopic Equipment of the Kings of Egypt", observes that Shoshenq III built "a dividing wall, with a double scene showing Osorkon II" and him "each adoring an unnamed deity" in the antechamber of Osorkon II's tomb. Dodson concludes that while one may argue Shoshenq III erected the wall to hide Osorkon II's sarcophagus, it made no sense for Shoshenq to create such an elaborate relief if Takelot II really had intervened between him and Osorkon II at Tanis for 25 years, unless Shoshenq III was Osorkon II's immediate successor. Shoshenq III must, hence, have wished to associate himself with his predecessor – Osorkon II. Consequently, the case for establishing Takelot II as a Twenty-second Dynasty king and successor to Osorkon II disappears, as Dodson writes. Takelot II instead founded the twenty-third dynasty of Egypt and ruled a divided Egypt by administering Middle and Upper Egypt.

Tomb.

The French excavator Pierre Montet discovered Osorkon II's plundered royal tomb at Tanis on February 27, 1939. It revealed that Osorkon II was buried in a massive granite sarcophagus with a lid carved from a Ramesside-era statue. Only some fragments of a hawk-headed coffin and canopic jars remained in the robbed tomb to identify him. While the tomb had been looted in antiquity, what jewellery that remained "was of such high quality that existing conceptions of the wealth of the northern Twenty-first and Twenty-second dynasties had to be revised."

Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon II was the fifth king of the Twenty-second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt and the son of King Takelot I and Queen Kapes. He ruled Egypt from approximately 872 BC to 837 BC from Tanis, the capital of that dynasty.


Law and physics.

Smeaton was born in Austhorpe, Leeds, England. After studying at Leeds Grammar School he joined his father's law firm, but left to become a mathematical instrument maker (working with Henry Hindley), developing, among other instruments, a pyrometer to study material expansion. In 1750, his premises were in the Great Turnstile in Holborn.  He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1753 and in 1759 won the Copley Medal for his research into the mechanics of waterwheels and windmills. His 1759 paper "An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Natural Powers of Water and Wind to Turn Mills and Other Machines Depending on Circular Motion"<ref name="Phil. Trans. 1759 51:100-174; doi:10.1098/rstl.1759.0019"></ref> addressed the relationship between pressure and velocity for objects moving in air (Smeaton noted that the table doing so was actually contributed by "my friend Mr Rouse" "an ingenious gentleman of Harborough, Leicestershire" and calculated on the basis of Rouse's experiments), and his concepts were subsequently developed to devise the 'Smeaton Coefficient'. Smeaton's water wheel experiments were conducted on a small scale model with which he tested various configurations over a period of seven years. The resulting increasing efficiency in water power contributed to the Industrial Revolution.  Over the period 1759–1782 he performed a series of further experiments and measurements on water wheels that led him to support and champion the "vis viva" theory of German Gottfried Leibniz, an early formulation of conservation of energy. This led him into conflict with members of the academic establishment who rejected Leibniz's theory, believing it inconsistent with Sir Isaac Newton's conservation of momentum.

Smeaton coefficient.

In his 1759 paper "An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Natural Powers of Water and Wind to Turn Mills and Other Machines Depending on Circular Motion" Smeaton developed the concepts and data which became the basis for the "Smeaton coefficient", the lift equation used by the Wright brothers. It has the form:  where:  The Wright brothers determined with wind tunnels that the Smeaton coefficient value of 0.005 was incorrect and should have been 0.0033. In modern analysis, the lift coefficient is normalised by the dynamic pressure instead of the Smeaton coefficient.

Civil engineering.

Smeaton is important in the history, rediscovery of, and development of modern cement, identifying the compositional requirements needed to obtain "hydraulicity" in lime; work which led ultimately to the invention of Portland cement. Portland cement led to the re-emergence of concrete as a modern building material, largely due to Smeaton's influence.  Recommended by the Royal Society, Smeaton designed the third Eddystone Lighthouse (1755–59). He pioneered the use of 'hydraulic lime' (a form of mortar that will set under water) and developed a technique involving dovetailed blocks of granite in the building of the lighthouse. His lighthouse remained in use until 1877 when the rock underlying the structure's foundations had begun to erode; it was dismantled and partially rebuilt at Plymouth Hoe where it is known as Smeaton's Tower. Deciding that he wanted to focus on the lucrative field of civil engineering, he commenced an extensive series of commissions, including: Smeaton is considered to be the first expert witness to appear in an English court. Because of his expertise in engineering, he was called to testify in court for a case related to the silting-up of the harbour at Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk in 1782. He also acted as a consultant on the disastrous 63-year-long New Harbour at Rye, designed to combat the silting of the port of Winchelsea. The project is now known informally as "Smeaton's Harbour", but despite the name his involvement was limited and occurred more than 30 years after work on the harbour commenced. It closed in 1839.

Mechanical engineer.

Employing his skills as a mechanical engineer, he devised a water engine for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in 1761 and a watermill at Alston, Cumbria in 1767 (he is credited by some with inventing the cast-iron axle shaft for water wheels). In 1782 he built the Chimney Mill at Spital Tongues in Newcastle upon Tyne, the first 5-sailed smock mill in Britain. He also improved Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric engine, erecting one at Chacewater mine, Wheal Busy, in Cornwall in 1775.  In 1789 Smeaton applied an idea by Denis Papin, by using a force pump to maintain the pressure and fresh air inside a diving bell. This bell, built for the Hexham Bridge project, was not intended for underwater work, but in 1790 the design was updated to enable it to be used underwater on the breakwater at Ramsgate Harbour. Smeaton is also credited with explaining the fundamental differences and benefits of overshot versus undershot water wheels. Smeaton experimented with the Newcomen steam engine and made marked improvements around the time James Watt was building his first engines ().

Legacy.

Smeaton died after suffering a stroke while walking in the garden of his family home at Austhorpe, and was buried in the parish church at Whitkirk, West Yorkshire. He is highly regarded by other engineers, having contributed to the Lunar Society and founded the Society of Civil Engineers in 1771. He coined the term "civil engineers" to distinguish them from military engineers graduating from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. The Society was a forerunner of the Institution of Civil Engineers, established in 1818, and was renamed the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers in 1830. His pupils included canal engineer William Jessop and architect and engineer Benjamin Latrobe.  The pioneering constant of proportionality describing pressure varying as the square of the velocity when applied to objects moving in air was named "Smeaton's coefficient" in his honor. Based on his concepts and data, it was used by the Wright brothers in their pursuit of the first successful heavier-than-air aircraft.  Smeaton is one of six civil engineers depicted in the Stephenson stained glass window, designed by William Wailes and unveiled in Westminster Abbey in 1862. A memorial stone commemorating Smeaton himself was unveiled in the Abbey on 7 November 1994, by Noel Ordman, President of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers.  John Smeaton Academy, a secondary school in the suburbs of Leeds adjacent to the Pendas Fields estate near Austhorpe, is named after Smeaton. He is also commemorated at the University of Plymouth, where the Mathematics and Technology Department is housed in a building named after him. A viaduct in the final stage of the Leeds Inner Ring Road, opened in 2008, was named after him.  In 2003 Smeaton was named among the top 10 technological innovators in "Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950". He is mentioned in the song "I Predict a Riot" (as a symbol of a more dignified and peaceful epoch in Leeds history; and in reference to a Junior School House at Leeds Grammar School, which lead singer Ricky Wilson attended) by the indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs, who are natives of Leeds.

John Smeaton (8 June 1724 – 28 October 1792) was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Smeaton was the first self-proclaimed "civil engineer", and is often regarded as the "father of civil engineering". He pioneered the use of hydraulic lime in concrete, using pebbles and powdered brick as aggregate. Smeaton was associated with the Lunar Society.


Biography.

Ronnie Dean Coleman was born on May 13, 1964, in Monroe, Louisiana. In 1984 he graduated "cum laude" from Grambling State University (GSU) with a BSc in accounting. While at the university, he played American football as a middle linebacker with the GSU Tigers under coach Eddie Robinson. After graduation, he failed to find work as an accountant and instead went to work at a Domino's Pizza outlet, where he would eat the complimentary pizza every day due to being so poor that he could barely afford to eat outside of work. He then became a police officer in Arlington, Texas, where he served as an officer from 1989 to 2000 and a reserve officer until 2003.

Bodybuilding.

Coleman's fellow officer Gustavo Arlotta suggested he attend the Metroflex gym, owned by amateur bodybuilder Brian Dobson. Dobson offered Coleman a free lifetime membership if he allowed Dobson to train him for the upcoming Mr. Texas bodybuilding competition that year. After training for Mr. Texas, Coleman won first place in both the heavyweight and overall categories. He also defeated Dobson himself. Coleman won his first competition as a professional, the Canada Pro Cup, in 1995. The following year, he won the contest again, then went on to win the 1997 Russian Grand Prix. He also participated in powerlifting competitions in the mid-1990s.  His rise at the top in the professional circuit of bodybuilding was relatively slow: for his first participation at the Mr. Olympia contest (the most prestigious worldwide) in 1992, he wasn't ranked; then in 1994 he placed 15th, then 10th in 1995, 6th in 1996, and 9th in 1997 when Dorian Yates won his sixth and last title before retiring. At the 1998 Mr. Olympia, the favorite was Kenneth Wheeler, with Nasser El Sonbaty, Kevin Levrone and Shawn Ray considered as the most serious contenders; but Coleman – who had won the Night of Champions earlier that year and was starting to be recognized as one of the very best in the discipline – appeared greatly improved and won his first title, beating Wheeler by a few points, and beginning the longest streak of victories in the history of the contest (tied with Lee Haney), with eight titles from 1998 to 2005. In 2001, he became the first man to win both the Arnold Classic and the Mr. Olympia titles the same year (only Dexter Jackson has repeated this feat, in 2008). He finally lost the Mr. Olympia title in 2006 when Jay Cutler finally beat him after placing second three consecutive years; it was only the second time in the history of the contest that a reigning champion having won more than once lost his title while still competing (after Sergio Oliva losing to Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1970). Coleman placed 4th in 2007, which was his last participation.  Coleman's success as a professional bodybuilder has led to many product endorsements and other opportunities in his career. He has visited places such as Brazil, Austria, China, and Australia. He also made many guest appearances at gym openings all around the United States. When training, Coleman preferred to use free weights rather than machines in order to maximize his flexibility and range of motion. He has made three training videos: "The Unbelievable", "The Cost of Redemption", and "On the Road". In these videos, he gives tips for more experienced weightlifters, while warning against overexertion and improper form.  Coleman supports the Inner City Games, an organization co-founded by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1991. He was the recipient of the 2001 Admiral in the Texas Navy Certificate Award from Texas Governor Rick Perry for outstanding achievements in bodybuilding and for the promotion of physical fitness. In 2011, he launched Ronnie Coleman Signature Series, a company that provides sports nutrition and wellness products for bodybuilders and other athletes.  The extreme weights he used over the course of his career competing as a powerlifter and then a bodybuilder (like squats and deadlifts with 800 lbs) took a toll on his body, and since 2007 he has had to undergo a series of surgeries: two hip replacements and various attempts at alleviating chronic pain from damaged intervertebral discs. Coleman later revealed that he has continued to train despite his deteriorated condition, but could only use light weights now to try to prevent muscle loss, and that some of those surgeries (each one costing between $300,000 and $500,000) had such poor outcomes that he may never be able to walk unassisted again. He feels no regret, though, considering that he was determined to be at the top at any cost, and that, if anything, he regrets not having done even more to set his mark and consolidate his legacy.  In 2018, Vlad Yudin documented Coleman's life and career in the documentary "Ronnie Coleman: The King", released on Netflix. For the film, rap artist Quan made a song called "Flexin' on Them (Ronnie Coleman)" inspired by Coleman's bodybuilding career.  Some of Coleman's vocal gimmicks, popularized in his training videos where he regularly utters them as a form of self-encouragement, like "Yeah buddy!", "Light weight baby!" or "Nothing but a peanut!", have become commonplace in the bodybuilding community all over the world.

Personal life.

Coleman is a devout Christian.  Coleman met French-Lebanese personal trainer Rouaida Christine Achkar at a sports exposition in Paris on March 22, 1998, and they were married in Beirut on December 28, 2007. They divorced shortly after.  On April 11, 2016, Coleman married personal trainer Susan Williamson. They have four children.

Ronnie Dean Coleman (born May 13, 1964) is an American retired professional bodybuilder. The winner of the Mr. Olympia title for eight years in a row, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time. Alongside his eight Mr. Olympia wins, he held the record for most wins as an IFBB professional with 26 titles (since broken by Dexter Jackson).


History.

Background.

After the fall of Constantinople to the crusaders in 1204, Boniface of Montferrat, the leader of the crusade, was expected by both the Crusaders and the defeated Byzantines to become the new emperor. However, the Venetians felt that Boniface was too closely tied to the Byzantine Empire, as his brother Conrad had married into the Byzantine imperial family. The Venetians wanted an emperor whom they could control more easily, and with their influence, Baldwin of Flanders was elected as emperor of the new Latin Empire.

Establishment.

Boniface reluctantly accepted this, and set out to conquer Thessalonica, the second-largest Byzantine city after Constantinople. At first he had to compete with Emperor Baldwin, who also wanted the city. He then went on to capture the city later in 1204 and set up a kingdom there, subordinate to Baldwin, although the title of "king" was never officially used. Late 13th and 14th century sources suggest that Boniface based his claim to Thessalonica on the statement that his younger brother Renier had been granted Thessalonica on his marriage to Maria Komnene in 1180.  In 1204–05, Boniface was able to extend his rule south into Greece, advancing through Thessaly, Boeotia, Euboea, and Attica. The boundaries of the actual Kingdom of Thessalonica seem to have extended only up to Domokos, Pharsalus, and Velestino: southern Thessaly, with the towns of Zetounion and Ravennika, was under governors appointed by the Latin Emperor, and the principalities of southern Greece were only Boniface's feudal vassals. Emperor Henry of Flanders' expedition against the rebellious Lombard barons of Thessalonica in 1208–09, however, ended the feudal dependency of the southern principalities—the Duchy of Athens, the Marquisate of Bodonitsa, the Lordship of Salona, and the Triarchy of Negroponte—on Thessalonica, replacing it with direct imperial suzerainty.

The Lombard Rebellion.

Boniface's rule lasted less than two years before he was ambushed by Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria and killed on September 4, 1207. The kingdom passed to Boniface's son Demetrius, who was still a baby, so actual power was held by various minor nobles of Lombard origin. These nobles, under the regent Oberto, began plotting to place William VI of Montferrat, Boniface's elder son, on the throne, and openly defied the Latin Emperor Henry of Flanders. Henry marched against them in 1209 and forced their submission. As a result, Henry's brother Eustace then became regent for Demetrius.

War with Epirus and fall.

Taking advantage of this situation, Michael I of Epirus, a former ally of Boniface, attacked the kingdom in 1210, as did the Bulgarians. Henry of Flanders eventually defeated both, but after Michael's death in 1214, his brother and successor Theodore began anew the assault on the kingdom. Over the next nine years Theodore gradually conquered all of Thessalonica except the city itself, as the Latin Empire could spare no army to defend it while they were busy fighting the Byzantine Empire of Nicaea in Asia. In 1224, just as Demetrius had become old enough to take power for himself, Theodore finally captured Thessalonica and the kingdom became part of the Despotate of Epirus.

Titular claimants.

The kingdom was claimed by titular kings of the house of Montferrat until 1284 and also by the dukes of Burgundy; Baldwin II of Constantinople had promised the title to Hugh IV should he regain the Latin Empire.

The Kingdom of Thessalonica () was a short-lived Crusader State founded after the Fourth Crusade over conquered Byzantine lands in Macedonia and Thessaly.


Biography.

Marie Casimire and her sister were the only surviving children of Henri de la Grange d'Arquien, a French nobleman. She came to Poland at the age of five years as a lady in waiting to Marie Louise Gonzaga, the French-born Queen of Poland from 1645 to 1672, wife and consort to two Polish kings — Władysław IV Vasa and later his brother (who succeeded him) John II Casimir Vasa. At the court she met John Sobieski, who arrived there in 1656, but she was first married to Jan "Sobiepan" Zamoyski in 1658, with whom she had four children, all died in infancy. Zamoyski died in 1665 and the widowed Marie Casimire eventually married Sobieski on the 14 July the same year. The couple had thirteen children together, but only four of them survived until adult age — Jakub, Aleksander, Konstanty and Teresa (who later became "Kurfürstin" of Bavaria and mother to Emperor Karl VII).  John Sobieski was elected King of Poland in 1674, not without the influence of his wife. As the Queen of Poland, Marie Casimire quickly became unpopular, as she supported the proposed Polish–French alliance, while at the same time striving to gain privileges for her family from the French king Louis XIV.  The Royal couple became famous for their love letters, most of which were written from 1665 to 1683, when they were parted either due to John III Sobieski's military engagements or her travels to Paris. The letters give insight not only into the authentic feelings of the loving couple, but also their reflections on contemporary issues and difficulties, as well as down-to-earth matters concerning the royal household and little day-to-day decisions made by the monarch, who often consulted his wife about them. Published long after the death of both of them, they can be credited with popularizing the King's way of addressing the Queen by the very diminutive form of her first name — "Marysieńka". She is widely remembered and referred to in Poland that way.  Marie Casimire was a hard, arrogant, self-centered woman. With all their love, the king and the queen quarreled, and after the king's death, their son hurried to send his mother to a distinguished exile in Rome, where she was expected to be accepted with the same respect and prestige as Christina, Queen of Sweden, a well-known art patron and founder of the Academy of Arcadia. But Marie Casimire did not enjoy Queen Christina's virtues, neither her nobility, her intelligence, nor her intellect. She believed that her devoted support of Catholicism vis-a-vis the Turks would receive an enthusiastic reception from the church in Rome, but that the Swedish queen, who had converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, had also elevated her status in the eyes of the Vatican. Nevertheless, Marie Casimire was well received and became a music patron who was mainly patronized by Domenico Scarlatti. In his role as maestro di Capella, he composed and produced seven operas with her, as a continuation of the operas written by his father, Alessandro.  Marysieńka spent the last one and a half years of her life in France, where in January 1716 she died after rinsing the stomach administered by a doctor. The coffin was moved to the chapel of St. Eustace in the church of St. Savior in Blois. On the other hand, the heart was put in a casket in the local Jesuit church (it was later lost during the French Revolution). Then in 1717, the coffin with Marysieńka's body was buried in the Capuchin church in Warsaw, next to John III. In 1733, both bodies were transported to the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow.

Issue.

Marie Casimire first married Jan "Sobiepan" Zamoyski (1627–1665) on March 3, 1658 in Warsaw. They had four children, all of whom died in infancy:  Zamoyski himself died April 2, 1665. Marie Casimire remarried in July of that year to the future Jan III Sobieski. This marriage was famously happy and the couple had thirteen children, though many did not survive to adulthood:

Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien (), known also by the diminutive form "Marysieńka" (28 June 1641, Nevers – 30 January 1716, Blois) was queen consort to King John III Sobieski, from 1674 to 1696.


Early life.

Boniface was the third son of William V of Montferrat and Judith of Babenberg, born after his father's return from the Second Crusade. He was a younger brother of William "Longsword", Count of Jaffa and Ascalon, and of Conrad I of Jerusalem. His youthful exploits in the late 1170s are recalled in the famous "epic letter", "Valen marques, senher de Monferrat", by his good friend and court troubadour, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. These included the rescue of the heiress Jacopina of Ventimiglia from her uncle Count Otto, who was intending to deprive her of her inheritance and send her to Sardinia. Boniface arranged a marriage for her. When Albert of Malaspina (husband of one of Boniface's sisters) abducted Saldina de Mar, a daughter of a prominent Genoese family, Boniface rescued her and restored her to her lover, Ponset d'Aguilar. Like the rest of the family, he also supported his cousin Frederick I Barbarossa in their wars against the independent city communes of the Lombard League.  Boniface's eldest brother, William, had died in 1177, soon after marrying Sibylla, the heiress presumptive to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1179, the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos offered his daughter Maria Porphyrogenita as a bride to one of the sons of William V. Since Boniface, like his older brother Conrad, was already married, and Frederick was a priest, the youngest brother, Renier, married her instead, only to be murdered along with her during the usurpation of Andronikos.  In 1183, Boniface's nephew Baldwin V was crowned co-king of Jerusalem. William V went out to the kingdom to support his grandson, leaving Conrad and Boniface in charge of Montferrat. However, in 1187, Conrad also left for the East: Isaac II Angelos had offered his sister Theodora to Boniface as a wife, to renew the family's Byzantine alliance, but Boniface had just married for the second time, while Conrad was a recent widower.  In 1189, Boniface joined the council of regency for Thomas I of Savoy, son of his cousin Humbert III, until the boy came of age about two years later. In 1191, after the new Emperor Henry VI granted him the county of Incisa, a fifteen-year war broke out against the neighbouring communes of Asti and Alessandria. Boniface joined the Cremona League, while the two cities joined the League of Milan. Boniface defeated the cities at Montiglio in June that year, but the war as a whole went badly for the dynasty's interests. At Quarto, he and Vaqueiras saved his brother-in-law Alberto of Malaspina when he was unhorsed. The first phase of the war ended with a truce in April 1193. By now, Boniface was Marquis of Montferrat, following the deaths of his father in 1191 and of Conrad, the newly elected king of Jerusalem, in 1192. No claim to Montferrat ever seems to have been made on behalf of Conrad's posthumous daughter, Maria.  In June 1194, Boniface was appointed one of the leaders of Henry VI's expedition to Sicily. At Messina, amid the fighting between the Genoese and Pisan fleets, Vaqueiras protected his lord with his own shield – an act which helped the troubador win a knighthood from Boniface that year, after the campaign's successful conclusion: Henry's coronation in Palermo. In October 1197, the truce with Asti ended. Boniface made an alliance with Acqui in June 1198. There were numerous skirmishes and raids, including at Ricaldone and Caranzano, but by 1199 it was clear the war was lost, and Boniface entered into negotiations.  Throughout the 1180s and 1190s, despite the wars, Boniface had nevertheless presided over one of the most prestigious courts of chivalric culture and troubador song. In the 12th century, the Piedmontese language (which in the present day reflects more French and Italian influences) was virtually indistinguishable from the Occitan of Southern France and Catalonia. Besides Vaqueiras, visitors included Peire Vidal, Gaucelm Faidit, and Arnaut de Mareuil. Boniface's patronage was celebrated widely. To Gaucelm, he was "Mon Thesaur" ("My Treasure"). Curiously, Vaqueiras sometimes addressed him as "N'Engles" ("Lord Englishman"), but the in-joke is never explained. His sister Azalaïs, Marchioness of Saluzzo, also shared this interest and was mentioned by Vidal.

Fourth Crusade.

When the original leader of the Fourth Crusade, Count Theobald III of Champagne, died in 1201, Boniface was chosen as its new leader. He was an experienced soldier, and it was an opportunity to reassert his dynasty's reputation after defeat at home. Boniface's family was well known in the east: his nephew Baldwin and brother Conrad had been kings of Jerusalem, and his niece Maria was the heir presumptive to the kingdom.  Boniface's cousin Philip of Swabia was married to Irene Angelina, a daughter of the deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos and niece of Conrad's second wife Theodora. In the winter of 1201 Boniface spent Christmas with Phillip in Hagenau, and while there also met with Alexios Angelos, Isaac II's son, who had escaped from the custody of his uncle Alexios III Angelos. At this time the three discussed the possibility of using the crusading army to restore Alexius' right to the throne. Both Boniface and Alexius travelled separately to Rome to ask for Pope Innocent III's blessing for the endeavour; however, Boniface was specifically told by Innocent not to attack any Christians, including the Byzantines.  The Crusader army was in debt to the doge of Venice, who had provided their fleet. He instructed them to attack the rebellious cities of Trieste, Moglia, and Zara and beat them into submission before sailing for Cairo. The Pope was angered by these Christian cities being attacked by a Crusader army. The doge, Enrico Dandolo, was now the true war leader of this Crusade, with Boniface as only a figurehead. Alexius Angelus made many promises to the Crusaders and their principal financer, the doge of Venice, for riches and honors if they would help him reclaim his empire. Dandolo placated the Pope by having Alexius Angelus promise to submit the Orthodox Church to Rome when he was restored to his throne in Constantinople. This being done, the fleet set sail for Constantinople in 1203.  After the conquest of Constantinople in 1204, Boniface was assumed to be the new emperor, both by the western knights and the conquered Byzantine citizens. However, the Venetians vetoed him, believing that he already had too many connections in the Empire and, likely, felt that they would not have as much influence in the empire if Boniface was in control. Instead, they chose Baldwin of Flanders. Boniface founded the Kingdom of Thessalonica and also held all the territories that lay east of Bosphorus and territories in Crete, though he later conceded Crete to Baldwin. Late 13th and 14th century sources suggest that Boniface based his claim to Thessalonica on the statement that his younger brother Renier had been granted Thessalonica on his marriage to Maria Komnene in 1180.  Boniface was killed in an ambush by the Bulgarians on 4 September 1207, and his head was sent to Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan. The loyal Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, who had followed him to the East, probably died with him: it is significant that he composed no "planh" (lament) in his memory.

Family.

Boniface was first married c. 1170 to Helena del Bosco. They had three children:  In 1205 in Constantinople he married Margaret of Hungary, daughter of King Béla III of Hungary and widow of Emperor Isaac II Angelos. They had one child:

Further reading.

<br

Boniface I, usually known as Boniface of Montferrat (;, "Vonifatios Momferratikos") (c. 1150 – 4 September 1207), was the ninth Marquis of Montferrat (from 1192), the leader of the Fourth Crusade (1201–04) and king of Thessalonica (from 1205).


Taxonomy.

The Eurasian wigeon was described by Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his "Systema Naturae" under the binomial name "Anas penelope". "Anas" is the Latin for "duck", and "penelope" refers to a duck that was supposed to have rescued Penelope when she was thrown into the sea. Her name derives from Ancient Greek πήνη "pene", "braid" and ὤψ "ops" "appearance", from the ruse she used to deter suitors while her husband Ulysses was absent.

Description.

This dabbling duck is long with a wingspan, and a weight of. The breeding male has grey flanks and back, with a black rear end, a dark green speculum and a brilliant white patch on upper wings, obvious in flight or at rest. It has a pink breast, white belly, and a chestnut head with a creamy crown. In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake looks more like the female. The female is light brown, with plumage much like a female American wigeon. It can be distinguished from most other ducks, apart from American wigeon, on shape. However, that species has a paler head and white axillaries on its underwing. The female can be a rufous morph with a redder head, and a gray morph with a more gray head.

Distribution.

It breeds in the northernmost areas of Europe and the Palearctic. It is the Old World counterpart of North America's American wigeon. It is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range. It migrates to southern Asia and Africa. In Great Britain and Ireland, the Eurasian wigeon is common as a winter visitor, but scarce as a breeding bird in Scotland, the Lake District, the Pennines and occasionally further south, with only a handful of breeding pairs in Ireland. It can be found as an uncommon winter visitor in the United States on the mid-Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It is a rare visitor to the rest of the United States except for the Four Corners and the southern Appalachians.

Behaviour and habitat.

The Eurasian wigeon is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some taller vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing, which it does very readily. It nests on the ground, near water and under cover. It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and will form large flocks. They will join with flocks of the American wigeon in the United States, and they also hybridize with them. This is a noisy species. The male has a clear whistle that sounds like: "pjiew pjiew", whereas the female has a low growl : "rawr".  The Eurasian wigeon is one of the species to which the "Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds" (AEWA) applies. Its conservation status is Least Concern.

The Eurasian wigeon, also known as widgeon ("Mareca penelope") is one of three species of wigeon in the dabbling duck genus "Mareca". It is common and widespread within its Palearcticrange.


Base concepts.

Let "n" be a composite integer with prime factor "p". By Fermat's little theorem, we know that for all integers "a" coprime to "p" and for all positive integers "K":  If a number "x" is congruent to 1 modulo a factor of "n", then the will be divisible by that factor.  The idea is to make the exponent a large multiple of "p" − 1 by making it a number with very many prime factors; generally, we take the product of all prime powers less than some limit "B". Start with a random "x", and repeatedly replace it by formula_2 as "w" runs through those prime powers. Check at each stage, or once at the end if you prefer, whether is not equal to 1.

Multiple factors.

It is possible that for all the prime factors "p" of "n", "p" − 1 is divisible by small primes, at which point the Pollard "p" − 1 algorithm gives you "n" again.

Algorithm and running time.

The basic algorithm can be written as follows:  If in step 6, this indicates there are no prime factors "p" for which "p-1" is "B"-powersmooth. If in step 7, this usually indicates that all factors were "B"-powersmooth, but in rare cases it could indicate that "a" had a small order modulo "n". By the way, when the maximum prime factors of "p-1" for each prime factors "p" of "n" are all the same in some rare cases, this algorithm will fail.  The running time of this algorithm is ; larger values of "B" make it run slower, but are more likely to produce a factor.

Example.

If we want to factor the number "n" = 299.

How to choose "B"?

Since the algorithm is incremental, it can just keep running with the bound constantly increasing.  Assume that "p" − 1, where "p" is the smallest prime factor of "n", can be modelled as a random number of size less than. By Dixon's theorem, the probability that the largest factor of such a number is less than ("p" − 1) is roughly "ε"; so there is a probability of about 3 = 1/27 that a "B" value of "n" will yield a factorisation.  In practice, the elliptic curve method is faster than the Pollard "p" − 1 method once the factors are at all large; running the "p" − 1 method up to "B" = 2 will find a quarter of all 64-bit factors and 1/27 of all 96-bit factors.

Two-stage variant.

A variant of the basic algorithm is sometimes used; instead of requiring that "p" − 1 has all its factors less than "B", we require it to have all but one of its factors less than some "B", and the remaining factor less than some. After completing the first stage, which is the same as the basic algorithm, instead of computing a new  for "B" and checking, we compute  where and check if produces a nontrivial factor of "n". As before, exponentiations can be done modulo "n".  Let {"q", "q",...} be successive prime numbers in the interval and "d" = "q" − "q" the difference between consecutive prime numbers. Since typically, are even numbers. The distribution of prime numbers is such that the "d" will all be relatively small. It is suggested that. Hence, the values of,,,... (mod "n") can be stored in a table, and be computed from, saving the need for exponentiations.

Pollard's "p" − 1 algorithm is a number theoretic integer factorization algorithm, invented by John Pollard in 1974. It is a special-purpose algorithm, meaning that it is only suitable for integers with specific types of factors; it is the simplest example of an algebraic-group factorisation algorithm.


Biography.

A layman and a soldier, Geoffroi was appointed Marshal of Champagne from 1185 and joined the Crusade in 1199 during a tournament held by Count Thibaud III of Champagne. Thibaud named him one of the ambassadors to Venice to procure ships for the voyage, and he helped to elect Boniface of Montferrat as the new leader of the Crusade when Thibaud died.  Although Geoffroi does not say so specifically in his own account, he probably supported the diversion of the Crusade first to Zara and then to Constantinople. While at Constantinople he also served as an ambassador to Isaac II Angelus, and was in the embassy that demanded that Isaac appoint Alexius IV co-emperor.  After the conquest of the Byzantine Empire in 1204 he served as a military leader, and led the retreat from the Battle of Adrianople in 1205 after Baldwin I was captured by the forces of the Second Bulgarian Empire. In recognition of his services, Boniface of Montferrat gave to Geoffroi the city of Messinopolis in Thrace. After the Crusade, he was named Marshal of the Latin Empire.  In 1207 Geoffroi began to write his chronicle of the Crusade, "On the Conquest of Constantinople". It was in French rather than Latin, making it one of the earliest works of French prose. Villehardouin's account is generally read alongside that of Robert of Clari, a French knight of low station, Niketas Choniates, a high-ranking Byzantine official and historian who gives an eyewitness account, and Gunther of Pairis, a Cistercian monk who tells the story from the perspective of Abbot Martin who accompanied the Crusaders.  Villehardouin's nephew Geoffroi I of Villehardouin went on to become Prince of Achaea in Morea (the medieval name for the Peloponnesus) in 1209. Villehardouin himself seems to have died shortly afterwards. His son Erard had taken, in 1213, the title of "seigneur de Villehardouin". There is evidence of his children raising memorials for him in 1218, suggesting he died around this time.

Geoffroi de Villehardouin (c. 1150 – c. 1213–1218) was a knight and historian who participated in and chronicled the Fourth Crusade. He is considered one of the most important historians of the time period, best known for writing the eyewitness account "De la Conquête de Constantinople" ("On the Conquest of Constantinople"), about the battle for Constantinople between the Christians of the West and the Christians of the East on 13 April 1204. The "Conquest" is the earliest French historical prose narrative that has survived to modern times. Ηis full title was: "Geoffroi of Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne and of Romania".


Life.

Koyré was born in the city of Taganrog, Russia on 29 August 1892 into a Jewish family. His original name was Alexandr Vladimirovich Koyre (Александр Владимирович (Вольфович) Койре). In Russia he studied in Tiflis, Rostov-on-Don and Odessa, before pursuing his studies abroad.  At Göttingen, Germany (1908–1911) he studied under Edmund Husserl and David Hilbert. Husserl did not approve of Koyré's dissertation, whereupon Koyré left for Paris, to study at the Collège de France and the Sorbonne during the period 1912–1913 under Bergson, Brunschvicg, Lalande, Delbos and Picavet. Following Husserl's "Cartesian Meditations", a series of lectures given in Paris in February 1929 (and one of the more important of Husserl's later works), Koyré met again with Husserl repeatedly.  In 1914 he joined the French Foreign Legion as soon as the war broke out. In 1916 he volunteered for a Russian regiment fighting on the Russian front, following a cooperation agreement between the French and Russian governments.  In 1922 Koyré completed his two State doctorate (then called "Doctorat ès lettres") theses. The same year he started teaching in Paris at the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), and became a colleague of Alexandre Kojève, who eventually replaced him as lecturer on Hegel. In 1932 the EPHE created a Department of History of Religious Thought in Modern Europe for him to chair. He retained this position until his death.  During the years 1932–34, 1936–38, and 1940–41, Koyré taught in Fuad University (later Cairo University) where, along with André Lalande and others, he introduced the study of modern philosophy to Egyptian academia. His most important student in Cairo was Abdel Rahman Badawi (1917–2002) who is considered the first systematic modern Arab philosopher. Koyré later joined the Egyptian National Committee of the Free French.  During World War II, Koyré lived in New York City, and taught at the New School for Social Research. After World War II, he was a frequent visitor to the United States, spending half a year at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton each year from 1955 to 1962 and also teaching as a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin, and Johns Hopkins. His lectures at Johns Hopkins would form the nucleus of one of his best known publications, "From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe" (1957). Koyré was general secretary and Vice President of the Institut International de Philosophie, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a recipient of the George Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society, and of the Silver Medal of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.  He died in Paris on 28 April 1964.

Work.

Though best known as a philosopher of science, Koyré started out as a historian of religion. Much of his originality for the period rests on his ability to ground his studies of modern science on the history of religion and metaphysics.  Koyré focused on Galileo, Plato and Isaac Newton. His most famous work is "From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe", a series of lectures given at The Johns Hopkins University in 1959 on the rise of early modern science and the change of scientists' perception of the world during the period from Nicholas of Cusa and Giordano Bruno through Newton. Though the book has been widely heralded, it was a summation of Koyré's perspective rather than an original new work.  Koyré was suspicious of scientists' claims to prove natural or fundamental truths through experiments. He argued these experiments were based on complicated premises, and that they tended to prove the outlook behind these premises, rather than any real truth. He repeatedly critiqued Galileo's experiments, claiming that some of them could not have taken place, and disputed the results Galileo claimed and which modern historians of science had hitherto accepted.  According to Koyré, it was not the experimental or empirical nature of Galileo's and Newton's discoveries that carried the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, but a shift in perspective, a change in theoretical outlook toward the world. Koyré strongly criticized what he called the "positivist" notion that science should only discover given phenomena, the relations between them and certain laws that would help to describe or predict them. To Koyré science was, at its heart, theory: an aspiration to know the truth of the world, of uncovering the essential structures from which phenomena, and the basic laws that relate them, spring.  Koyré was also interested in the correlations between scientific discoveries and religious or philosophical worldviews. Like Husserl in his later studies, Koyré claimed that modern science had succeeded in overcoming the split, inherent in traditional Aristotelian science, between Earth and Space, since these were now both seen as governed by the same laws. On the other hand, another split had now been created, between the phenomenal world inhabited by man and the purely abstract, mathematical world of science. Koyré aimed to show how this "first world", the world of human dwelling (personal and historical), apparently irrelevant to modern naturalistic research, was by no means irrelevant for the very constitution and development of this research. Koyré consistently sought to show how scientific truth is always discovered in correlation with specific historical, even purely personal, circumstances.  Koyré's work can be seen as a systematic analysis of the constitutive achievements that resulted in scientific knowledge, but with particular emphasis on the historical, and specifically human, circumstances that generate the scientists' phenomenal world and serve as foundation for all scientific constitutions of meaning.  Koyré influenced major European and American philosophers of science, most significantly Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos and Paul Feyerabend. In 1961 he was awarded the Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society.

Criticism.

In the course of his studies of Galileo, Koyré famously claimed that the experiments with weights falling and rolling on inclined planes that Galileo described in his writings probably had not been carried out in practice, but were instead thought experiments intended to illustrate his deductions. Koyré argued that the precision of the results reported by Galileo was not possible with the technology available to him and quoted the contemporary judgement of Marin Mersenne, who had questioned the feasibility of reproducing Galileo's results. Furthermore, according to Koyré, Galileo's science was largely a product of his Platonist philosophy and did not really derive from experimental observations.  Koyré's conclusions were first challenged in 1961 by Thomas B. Settle, who as a graduate student at Cornell University succeeded in reproducing Galileo's experiments with inclined planes using the methods and technologies described in Galileo's writing. Later, Stillman Drake and others worked through Galileo's notes and demonstrated that Galileo was a careful experimentalist whose observations did play a pivotal role in the development of his scientific system that he later claimed in his published work. Koyré has been further criticised for his claim about Galileo's Platonism, which he saw as a synonym with mathematics and mathematization of nature. As the Italian scholar Lodovico Geymonat has proved, in fact, Platonism as a tradition does not helpfully illuminate the development of Galileo's mathematical studies which are mostly concerned with applied mathematics, engineering and mechanics fields that neither Plato nor Platonist authors were much interested in.

Alexandre Koyré (, ; 29 August 1892 – 28 April 1964), also anglicized as Alexander Koyre, was a French philosopher of Russian origin who wrote on the history and philosophy of science.


Life and career.

James was born in Oxford, the daughter of Sidney James, a tax inspector, and educated at the British School in Ludlow and Cambridge High School for Girls. She had to leave school at the age of sixteen to work because her family did not have much money and her father did not believe in higher education for girls. She worked in a tax office for three years and later found a job as an assistant stage manager for a theatre group. In 1941, she married Ernest Connor Bantry White, an army doctor. They had two daughters, Clare and Jane.  When White returned from the Second World War, he was experiencing mental illness, and James was forced to provide for the whole family until her husband's death in 1964. With her husband in a psychiatric institution and their daughters being mostly cared for by his parents, James studied hospital administration and from 1949 to 1968 worked for a hospital board in London. She began writing in the mid-1950s, using her maiden name ("My genes are James genes").  Her first novel, "Cover Her Face", featuring the investigator and poet Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard, named after a teacher at Cambridge High School, was published in 1962. Many of James's mystery novels take place against the backdrop of UK bureaucracies, such as the criminal justice system and the National Health Service, in which she worked for decades starting in the 1940s. Two years after the publication of "Cover Her Face", James's husband died, and she took a position as a civil servant within the criminal section of the Home Office. She worked in government service until her retirement in 1979.  On 7 February 1991, James was created a life peer as Baroness James of Holland Park, "of Southwold in the County of Suffolk". She sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative. She was an Anglican and a lay patron of the Prayer Book Society. Her 2001 work, "Death in Holy Orders", displays her familiarity with the inner workings of church hierarchy. Her later novels were often set in a community closed in some way, such as a publishing house or barristers' chambers, a theological college, an island or a private clinic. "Talking About Detective Fiction" was published in 2009. Over her writing career, James also wrote many essays and short stories for periodicals and anthologies, which have yet to be collected. She revealed in 2011 that "The Private Patient" was the final Dalgliesh novel.  As guest editor of BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme in December 2009, James conducted an interview with the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, in which she seemed critical of some of his decisions. Regular "Today" presenter Evan Davis commented that "She shouldn't be guest editing; she should be permanently presenting the programme." In 2008, she was inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame at the inaugural ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards.  In August 2014, James was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to "The Guardian" opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.  James' main home was her house on Holland Park Avenue, the area from which she took her title: she also owned homes in Oxford, and Southwold.  James died at her home in Oxford on 27 November 2014, aged 94. She is survived by her two daughters, Clare and Jane, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Film and television.

During the 1980s, many of James's mystery novels were adapted for television by Anglia Television for the ITV network in the UK. These productions have been broadcast in other countries, including the US on the PBS network. They featured Roy Marsden as Adam Dalgliesh. According to James in conversation with Bill Link on 3 May 2001 at the Writer's Guild Theatre, Los Angeles, Marsden "is not my idea of Dalgliesh, but I would be very surprised if he were." The BBC adapted "Death in Holy Orders" in 2003, and "The Murder Room" in 2004, both as one-off dramas starring Martin Shaw as Dalgliesh.  Her novel "The Children of Men" (1992) was the basis for the feature film "Children of Men" (2006), directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. Despite substantial changes from the book, James was reportedly pleased with the adaptation and proud to be associated with the film.

Books.

Novels.

Adam Dalgliesh mysteries  Cordelia Gray mysteries  Miscellaneous novels  Short stories Omnibus editions

Selected awards and honours.

Honours.

Honorary doctorates  Honorary fellowships

Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, (3 August 1920 – 27 November 2014), known professionally as P. D. James, was an English crime writer. She rose to fame for her series of detective novels featuring police commander and poet Adam Dalgliesh.


Description.

The Egyptian plover is a striking and unmistakable species. The 19–21 cm long adult has a black crown, back, eye-mask and breast band. The rest of the head is white. The remaining upperpart plumage is blue-grey, and the underparts are orange. The longish legs are blue-grey.  In flight, it is even more spectacular, with the black crown and back contrasting with the grey of the upperparts and wings. The flight feathers are brilliant white crossed by a black bar. From below, the flying bird is entirely white, apart from the orange belly and black wing bar. After landing, members of a pair greet each other by raising their wings in an elaborate ceremony that shows off the black and white markings. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are duller and the black marking are intermixed with brown.

Habitat and range.

The Egyptian plover is a localised resident in tropical sub-Saharan Africa. It breeds on sandbars in very large rivers.

Behaviour.

This usually very tame bird is found in pairs or small groups near water. It feeds by pecking for insects. The call is a high-pitched "krrr-krrr-krrr".

Breeding.

Its two or three eggs are not incubated, but are buried in warm sand, temperature control being achieved by the adult sitting on the eggs with a water-soaked belly to cool them. If the adult leaves the nest, it smooths sand over the eggs, though if it is frightened the job may be hasty. The chicks are precocial, and can run as soon as they are hatched and feed themselves shortly afterwards. The adults cool the chicks in the same way as with the eggs. The chicks may drink water from the adult's belly feathers. The adults bury the chicks in the sand temporarily if danger threatens.

Supposed relationship with crocodiles.

The bird is sometimes referred to as the crocodile bird for its alleged symbiotic relationship with crocodiles. According to Herodotus, the crocodiles lie on the shore with their mouths open and a bird called "trochilus" flies into the crocodiles' mouths so as to feed on decaying meat lodged between the crocodiles' teeth. The identification of the trochilus with any particular plover is doubtful, as is the cleaning symbiosis itself; no known photographic evidence exists, and the written accounts are considered suspect by the biologist Thomas Howell.

The Egyptian plover ("Pluvianus aegyptius"), also known as the crocodile bird, is a wader, the only member of the genus "Pluvianus". Formerly placed in the pratincole and courser family, Glareolidae, it is now regarded as the sole member of its own monotypic family Pluvianidae.


Name.

The Lands of the Bohemian Crown () are called "země Koruny české" or simply "Koruna česká" (Crown of Bohemia or Bohemian Crown) and "České země" (i.e. Czech lands) in Czech language, the adjective "český" referring to both "Bohemian" and "Czech". The German term "Länder der Böhmischen Krone" is likewise shortened to "Böhmische Krone" or "Böhmische Kronländer". Native names include,, and. The denotation Lands of the Crown of Saint Wenceslas ("země Koruny svatováclavské") refers to the Crown of Saint Wenceslas, part of the regalia of the Bohemian monarchs.

History.

Přemyslids.

In the 10th and 11th century the Duchy of Bohemia, together with Moravia (the Margraviate of Moravia from 1182 on), and Kłodzko Land were consolidated under the ruling Přemyslid dynasty.  Duke Ottokar I of Bohemia gained the hereditary royal title to the Duchy of Bohemia in 1198, from the German (anti)−king Philip of Swabia, for his support. Along with the title, Philip also raised the duchy to the Kingdom of Bohemia rank. The regality was ultimately confirmed by Philip's nephew the German king Frederick II, later the Holy Roman Emperor (1220−1250), in the Golden Bull of Sicily issued in 1212.  The Přemyslid king Ottokar II of Bohemia acquired the Duchy of Austria in 1251, the Duchy of Styria in 1261, the Egerland in 1266, the Duchy of Carinthia with the March of Carniola and the Windic March in 1269 as well as the March of Friuli in 1272. His plans to turn Bohemia into the leading Imperial State were aborted by his Habsburg rival King Rudolph I of Germany, who seized his acquisitions and finally defeated him in the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld.

Luxembourgs.

In 1306 the House of Luxembourg began producing Bohemian kings upon the extinction of the Přemyslids. They significantly enlarged the Bohemian lands again, including when King John the Blind vassalized most Polish Piast dukes of Silesia. His suzerainty was acknowledged by the Polish king Casimir III the Great in the 1335 Treaty of Trentschin. John also achieved the enfeoffment with the Upper Lusatian lands of Bautzen (1319) and Görlitz (1329), by the German king Louis IV. King John's eldest son Charles IV was elected King of the Romans in 1346 and succeeded his father as King of Bohemia in the same year. In 1348, Charles IV introduced the concept of the "Crown of Bohemia" ("Corona regni Bohemiae" in Latin), a term which designated the whole state hereditarily ruled by the kings of Bohemia, not only its core territory of Bohemia but also the incorporated provinces.  The Luxembourg dynasty reached its high point, when Charles was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1355. By his Imperial authority he decreed that the united Bohemian lands should endure regardless of dynastic developments, even if the Luxembourgs should die out.  In 1367 he purchased Lower Lusatia from his stepson Margrave Otto V of Brandenburg and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Beside their home County of Luxembourg itself, the dynasty held further non-contiguous Imperial fiefs in the Low Countries, such as: the Duchy of Brabant and Duchy of Limburg, acquired through marriage by Charles' younger half-brother Wenceslaus of Luxembourg in 1355; as well as the Margraviate of Brandenburg purchased in 1373. As both the King of Bohemia and the Margrave of Brandenburg had been designated Prince-electors in the Golden Bull of 1356, the Luxembourgs held two votes in the electoral college, securing the succession of Charles's son Wenceslaus in 1376.  With King Wenceslaus, the decline of the Luxembourg dynasty began. He himself was deposed as King of the Romans in 1400. The Duchies of Brabant, Limburg (in 1406), and even Luxembourg itself (in 1411) were ceded to the French House of Valois-Burgundy; while the Margraviate of Brandenburg passed to the House of Hohenzollern (in 1415). Nevertheless, the joint rule of the Bohemian Lands outlived the Hussite Wars and the extinction of the Luxembourg male line upon the death of Emperor Sigismund in 1437.

Jagiellons.

Vladislas II of the Jagiellon dynasty, son of the Polish king Casimir IV, was designated King of Bohemia in 1471, while the crown lands of Moravia, Silesia, and the Lusatias were occupied by rivaling King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. In 1479 both kings signed the Treaty of Olomouc, whereby the unity of the Bohemian crown lands was officially retained unchanged and the monarchs appointed each other as sole heir. Upon the death of King Matthias in 1490, Vladislas ruled the Bohemian crown lands and the Kingdom of Hungary in personal union.

Habsburgs.

When Vladislas' only son Louis was killed at the Battle of Mohács in 1526 ending the Jagiellon dynasty rule in Bohemia, a convention of Bohemian nobles elected his brother-in-law, the Habsburg archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, as the new king of the Bohemian crown lands. Together with the Archduchy of Austria "hereditary lands" and the Hungarian kingdom, they formed the Habsburg Monarchy, which in the following centuries grew out of the Holy Roman Empire into a separate European power. Attempts by the Bohemian Protestant Reformation estates to build up an autonomous confederation were dashed at the 1620 Battle of White Mountain, whereafter the administration was centralised at Vienna. Moreover, the Habsburg rulers lost the Lusatias to the Electorate of Saxony after the Thirty Years' War in the 1635 Peace of Prague, and also most of Silesia with Kladsko to the Kingdom of Prussia after the First Silesian War in the 1742 Treaty of Breslau.  In the Modern era, the remaining crown lands of Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia became constituent parts of the Austrian Empire in 1804, and later the Cisleithanian half of Austria-Hungary in 1867.  After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, these became the historic regions usually referred to as the Czech lands forming the Czech Republic. Austrian Silesia with the Hlučín Region is today known as Czech Silesia, with the exception of eastern Cieszyn Silesia which passed to the Second Polish Republic in 1920.

The Lands of the Bohemian Crown, sometimes called "Czech lands" in modern times, were a number of incorporated states in Central Europe during the medieval and early modern periods connected by feudal relations under the Bohemian kings. The crown lands primarily consisted of the Kingdom of Bohemia, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire according to the Golden Bull of 1356, the Margraviate of Moravia, the Duchies of Silesia, and the two Lusatias, known as the Margraviate of Upper Lusatia and the Margraviate of Lower Lusatia, as well as other territories throughout its history.


Early life.

Mary Rand is the daughter of Eric and Hilda Bignal. She was born and grew up in Wells, Somerset, England. At 16, Millfield School offered her an athletics scholarship. She excelled in all sports and won All-England Schools' titles. She was outstanding at high jump, long jump and hurdles. In 1956, she was a guest of the Olympic squad at a training camp in Brighton, where she beat Britain's best high jumpers.

Athletics career.

At 17, Rand set a British record of 4046 points in the pentathlon. She won a silver medal in the 1958 Commonwealth Games long jump and came fifth in the high jump. One month later she came seventh in the European pentathlon championship.  In the 1960 Olympics in Rome, she set a British record of 6.33m in the qualifying round of the long jump, which if repeated, would have won a silver in the final. In the final she fouled two of the three jumps and finished ninth. She also finished fourth in the 80m hurdles. She won a bronze medal in the European championship long jump in 1962.  At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Rand set an Olympic record in the long jump in the qualifying rounds, jumping 6.52m. In the final she beat the favourite, world record holder Tatyana Schelkanova of the USSR and Poland's Irena Kirszenstein. Her first jump of 6.59m was a British record. However, in the fifth round, on a wet runway with a headwind of 1.6 metres a second, she broke the world record, leaping 6.76m to take gold. Her record lasted four years until it was broken at altitude by Viorica Viscopoleanu in the subsequent Olympics.  Rand won silver medal in the pentathlon, her 5035 points putting her second in the all-time rankings. She was beaten to the gold by Irina Press, whose biological sex has been the subject of speculation. She also won a bronze as a member of the Great Britain team that finished third in the 4×100 metres relay.  Six days after Rand won the gold medal, her roommate Ann Packer won the 800 metres. Packer said: "Mary was the most gifted athlete I ever saw. She was as good as athletes get, there has never been anything like her since. And I don't believe there ever will."  Rand was made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1965 New Year's Honours List and voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 1964.  After Tokyo, her training was less intensive, but she won a gold the long jump at the 1966 Commonwealth Games. Due to injury, she failed to make the 1968 British Olympic team and retired in September that year.  Rand also held the world record in the triple jump from 1959 to 1981; it was unofficial as a world record in the women's triple jump was not recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federations until 1990.  There is a plaque commemorating the world record long jump (6.76 metres) by Rand at the 1964 Olympic Games in the Market Place in Wells. She was succeeded as Golden Girl of British athletics by her friend and London Olympiades club-mate, Lillian Board.  In 2009, Rand was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame.  On 26 January 2012 Wells awarded her the Freedom of the City, following a campaign started by Wells resident Tony Williams.

Personal life.

Around 1960 Bignal dated Dutch decathlete Eef Kamerbeek. In 1961 she met rower Sid Rand. Three days after meeting she agreed to marry him and they married five weeks later. They had a daughter, Alison. The marriage lasted five years.  In December 1969, she married her second husband, American Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympics' decathlon champion. This marriage lasted 22 years and they had two daughters, Samantha and Sarah. She later married John Reese and lives with him in Atascadero, California, in the United States. She holds dual UK/US citizenship.

Mary Denise Rand, MBE (née Bignal on 10 February 1940) is a former English track and field athlete. She won the long jump at the 1964 Summer Olympics by breaking the world record, the first British female to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field. She remains the only Great Britain female athlete to win three medals in a single Games.


Examples of Frankish buildings.

Merovingian, Carolingian and Ottonian  Ottonian and Holy Roman Empire

Imperial styles.

Carolingian art.

Carolingian art is the roughly 120-year period from about 780 to 900, during Charlemagne's and his immediate heirs' rule, popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance. Although brief, it was very influential; northern European kings promoted classical Mediterranean Roman art forms for the first time, while also creating innovative new forms such as naturalistic figure line drawings that would have lasting influence. Carolingian churches generally are basilican, like the Early Christian churches of Rome, and commonly incorporated westworks, which is arguably the precedent for the western facades of later medieval cathedrals. An original westwork survives today at the Abbey of Corvey, built in 885. After a rather chaotic interval following the Carolingian period, the new Ottonian dynasty revived Imperial art from about 950, building on and further developing Carolingian style in Ottonian art.

Ottonian art.

Germanic pre-Romanesque art during the 120-year period from 936 to 1056 is commonly called Ottonian art after the three Saxon emperors named Otto (Otto I, Otto II, and Otto III) who ruled the Holy Roman Empire from 936 to 1001.  After the decline of the Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire was re-established under the Saxon (Ottonian) dynasty. From this emerged a renewed faith in the idea of Empire and a reformed Church, creating a period of heightened cultural and artistic fervour. It was in this atmosphere that masterpieces were created that fused the traditions from which Ottonian artists derived their inspiration: models of Late Antique, Carolingian, and Byzantine origin.  Much Ottonian art reflected the dynasty's desire to establish visually a link to the Christian rulers of Late Antiquity, such as Constantine, Theoderich, and Justinian as well as to their Carolingian predecessors, particularly Charlemagne.  Ottonian monasteries produced some of the most magnificent medieval illuminated manuscripts. They were a major art form of the time, and monasteries received direct sponsorship from emperors and bishops, having the best in equipment and talent available.

Regional styles.

Croatia.

In the 7th century the Croats, with other Slavs and Avars, came from Northern Europe to the region where they live today. The first Croatian churches were built as royal sanctuaries, and the influence of Roman art was strongest in Dalmatia where urbanization was thickest. Gradually that influence was neglected and certain simplifications and alterations of inherited forms, and even creation of original buildings, appeared.  All of them (a dozen large ones and hundreds of small ones) were built with roughly cut stone bounded with a thick layer of malter on the outside. Large churches are longitudinal with one or three naves like Church of Holy Salvation () at the spring of the river Cetina, built in the 9th century, along with the Church of Saint Cross in Nin. The largest and most complicated central based church from the 9th century is dedicated to Saint Donatus in Zadar.  Altar rails and windows of those churches were highly decorated with transparent shallow string-like ornament that is called "pleter" (meaning to weed) because the strings were threaded and rethreaded through itself. Motifs of those reliefs were taken from Roman art; sometimes figures from the Bible appeared alongside this decoration, like "relief in Holy Nedjeljica" in Zadar, and then they were subdued by their pattern. This also happened to engravings in early Croatian script – Glagolitic. Soon, the Glagolitic writings were replaced with Latin on altar rails and architraves of old-Croatian churches.  From the "Crown Church of King Zvonimir" (so called "Hollow Church" in Solin) comes the altar board with "figure of Croatian King" on the throne with Carolingian crown, servant by his side and subject bowed to the king.  By joining the Hungarian crown in the twelfth century, Croatia lost its full independence, but it did not lose its ties with the south and the west, and instead this ensured the beginning of a new era of Central European cultural influence.

England.

Anglo-Saxon art covers the period from the time of King Alfred (885), with the revival of English culture after the end of the Viking raids, to the early 12th century, when Romanesque art became the new movement. Prior to King Alfred there had been the Hiberno-Saxon culture, producing in Insular art the fusion of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic techniques and motifs, which had largely ceased in Ireland and Northern England with the Viking invasions. Anglo-Saxon art is mainly known today through illuminated manuscripts and metalwork.

France.

After the demise of the Carolingian Empire, France split into a number of feuding provinces, so that lacking any organized Imperial patronage, French art of the 10th and 11th centuries became localised around the large monasteries, and lacked the sophistication of a court-directed style.  Multiple regional styles developed based on the chance availability of Carolingian manuscripts (as models to draw from), and the availability of itinerant artists. The monastery of Saint Bertin became an important centre under its abbot Odbert (986–1007) who created a new style based on Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian forms. The nearby abbey of Saint Vaast created a number of works. In southwestern France at the monastery of Saint Martial in Limoges a number of manuscripts were produced around year 1000, as were produced in Albi, Figeac and Saint-Sever-de-Rustan in Gascony. In Paris there developed a style at the abbey of Saint Germain-des-Prés. In Normandy a new style developed from 975 onward.

Spain and Portugal.

The first form of Pre-Romanesque in Spain and Portugal was the Visigothic art, that brought the horse-shoe arches to the latter Moorish architecture and developed jewellery.  After the Moorish occupation, Pre-Romanesque art was first reduced to the Kingdom of Asturias, the only Christian realm in the area at the time which reached high levels of artistic depuration. (See "Asturian art"). The Christians who lived in Moorish territory, the Mozarabs, created their own architectural and illumination style, Mozarabic art.  The best preserved Visigothic monument in Portugal is the Saint Frutuoso Chapel in Braga.

Italy.

Southern Italy benefited from the presence and cross-fertilization of the Byzantines, the Arabs, and the Normans, while the north was mostly controlled first by the Carolingians. The Normans in Sicily chose to commission Byzantine workshops to decorate their churches such as Monreale and Cefalù Cathedrals where full iconographic programmes of mosaics have survived. Important frescos and illuminated manuscripts were produced.

See also.

Pre-Romanesque art and architecture is the period in European art from either the emergence of the Merovingian kingdom in about 500 CE or from the Carolingian Renaissance in the late 8th century, to the beginning of the 11th century Romanesque period. The term is generally used in English only for architecture and monumental sculpture, but here all the arts of the period are briefly described.