Description.

Hostas are herbaceous perennial plants, growing from rhizomes or stolons, with broad lanceolate or ovate leaves varying widely in size by species from 1–18 in (3–45 cm) long and 0.75–12 in (2–30 cm) broad. The smallest varieties are called miniatures. Variation among the numerous cultivars is even greater, with clumps ranging from less than four in (10 cm) across and three in (8 cm) high to more than six ft (200 cm) across and four ft (130 cm) high. Leaf color in wild species is typically green, although some species (e.g., "H. sieboldiana") are known for a glaucous waxy leaf coating that gives a blue appearance to the leaf. Some species have a glaucous white coating covering the underside of the leaves. Natural mutations of native species are known with yellow-green ("gold") colored leaves or with leaf variegation (either white/cream or yellowish edges or centers). Variegated plants very often give rise to sports that are the result of the reshuffling of cell layers during bud formation, producing foliage with mixed pigment sections. In seedlings variegation is generally maternally derived by chloroplast transfer and is not a genetically inheritable trait.  The flowers of hosta are produced on upright scapes that are woody and remain on the plant throughout winter, they are generally taller than the leaf mound, and end in terminal racemes. The individual flowers are usually pendulous, 0.75–2 in (2–5 cm) long, with six tepals, white, lavender, or violet in color and usually scentless. The only strongly fragrant species is "Hosta plantaginea", which has white flowers up to four in (10 cm) long; it is also unusual in that the flowers open in the evening and close by morning. This species blooms in late summer and is sometimes known as "August Lily".

Taxonomy.

Taxonomists differ on the number of "Hosta" species; there may be as many as 45. Accordingly, the list of species given here may be taken loosely. The genus may be broadly divided into three subgenera. Interspecific hybridization occurs since all the species have the same chromosome number (2n = 2x = 60); except "H. ventricosa" which is a natural tetraploid that sets seed through apomixis. Many cultivated hostas formerly described as species have been reduced to cultivars; these often have their names conserved, and retain Latinized names which resemble species names (e.g., "Hosta" 'Fortunei').  Accepted species as of October 2014:

Cultivation.

Hostas are widely cultivated, being particularly useful in the garden as shade-tolerant plants whose striking foliage provides a focal point. The plants are long-lived perennials that are winter hardy in USDA Zones 3 to 8 and recommended for heat zones 8 to 1. Though "Hosta plantaginea" originates in China, most of the species that provide the modern plants were introduced from Japan to Europe by Philipp Franz von Siebold in the mid-19th century originating from shady locations with more moisture than they are generally cultivated. Newer species have been discovered on the Korean peninsula as well. Hybridization within and among species and cultivars has produced numerous cultivars, with over 6,100 registered and named varieties, and perhaps as many more that are not yet registered with the American Hosta Society. Cultivars with golden- or white-variegated leaves are especially prized. Popular cultivars include 'Francee' (green leaves with white edges), 'Gold Standard' (yellow leaves with green edges, discovered by Pauline Banyai) 'Undulata' (green leaves with white centers), 'June' (blue-green leaves with creamy centers), and 'Sum and Substance' (a huge plant with chartreuse-yellow leaves). Newer, fragrant cultivars such as 'Guacamole' are also popular.  The American Hosta Society and the British "Hosta" and "Hemerocallis" Society support Hosta Display Gardens, often within botanical gardens. Hostas are frequently exhibited at major shows such as the Chelsea Flower Show.

Cultivars.

The following is a list of cultivars that have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Toxicity.

While usually grown for ornamental purposes in the United States, all species of hosta are edible, and are commonly grown as vegetables in some Asian cultures.  However, hostas are toxic to dogs, cats, and horses due to the saponins contained in the plant. Symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea.

Pests and diseases.

Hosta leaves and stems are eaten by deer, rabbits, slugs and snails, and the roots and rhizomes are eaten by voles, all of these can cause extensive damage to collections in gardens. Some varieties seem more resistant to slug damage, which is more prevalent later in the growing season, than others. Insect pests include Vine weevils and cutworms.  Foliar nematodes, which leave streaks of dead tissue between veins, have become an increasing problem where pesticide use has decreased.  A potexvirus called 'Hosta Virus X' was first identified in Minnesota, USA in 1996. Plants that are infected are destroyed to prevent its spread as the disease can be transmitted from plant to plant by contaminated sap. Symptoms include dark green "ink bleed" marks in the veins of yellow-colored leaves, and/or tissue collapse between veins. It can take years for symptoms to show, so symptomless plants in infected batches should also be considered infected.

Hosta (, syn. "Funkia") is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name giboshi. Hostas are widely cultivated as shade-tolerant foliage plants. The genus is currently placed in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, and is native to northeast Asia (China, Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East). Like many "lilioid monocots", the genus was once classified in the Liliaceae. The genus was named by Austrian botanist Leopold Trattinnick in 1812, in honor of the Austrian botanist Nicholas Thomas Host. In 1817, the generic name "Funkia" was used by German botanist Kurt Sprengel in honor of Heinrich Funk, a collector of ferns and alpines; this was later used as a common name and can be found in some older literature.


Life.

Born "Isabella Maria Luisa Antonietta Ferdinanda Giuseppina Saveria Dominica Giovanna" at "Buen Retiro Palace" in Madrid, Isabella was an Infanta of Spain and grew up at the court of her grandfather, Philip V of Spain. Her father was the Spanish Prince Philip, who was Duke of Parma in Italy. Her mother was the 14-year-old Élisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of Louis XV of France. Isabella's parents' marriage was not happy, and for nearly 10 years Isabella remained an only child. Isabella was very close to her mother and was distraught when she died of smallpox in 1759. Henceforth, Isabella was convinced she would die young, as well.

Marriage.

In 1760 a marriage was arranged between Isabella and Archduke Joseph of Austria, heir to the Habsburg Monarchy. After a marriage by proxy, Isabella was escorted to Austria. On 6 October 1760, at the age of 18, Isabella married Joseph II in a ceremony lasting for days. Joseph was thrilled with his new bride and overwhelmed Isabella with his love. In return, she increasingly locked herself away, so much so that shortly after their wedding, Isabella was plunged into melancholy. This marriage signaled the first marital union of Philip I of Castile's most senior descendant (by absolute primogeniture), with the Royal House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

Relationship with Maria Christina.

The princess spent most of her time in the Viennese court, not with her husband, but with his sister, Archduchess Maria Christina, who later became, by marriage, Duchess of Saxony-Teschen. The two women seemed to have had a romantic lesbian affair. During the few years Isabella and Christina knew each other, they exchanged 200 letters and "billets" while living at the same court. They spent so much time together that they earned the comparison with Orpheus and Eurydice.  Isabel and Mimi were united not only by a shared interest in music and art but also by a deep mutual love. Every day they wrote long letters to each other in which they revealed their feelings. While the letters of Maria Christina showed her happy nature, Isabel's feelings were mixed and, in her expressions of affection, showed a certain pessimism, reflecting her growing obsession with death.  In one such letter, Isabella wrote:  In a different letter, she wrote: ""I am told that the day begins with God. I, however, begin the day by thinking of the object of my love, for I think of her incessantly.""  Only the letters of Isabella have been preserved; those of Maria Christina were destroyed after her death.

Pregnancies and depression.

However, as wife of the heir to the throne, Isabella knew that her duty was to give birth to a healthy heir. Despite this, the princess developed disquieted feelings toward her husband, spurred by anxieties over sexual intimacy and the possibilities of pregnancy.  By late 1761, one year into the marriage, Isabella was pregnant. It was an especially difficult pregnancy, and Isabella suffered symptoms of physical illness, melancholy and lingering fears of death. Joseph, infatuated and inexperienced, failed to fully understand his wife's misery. On March 20, 1762, after nine months of mental and physical strain, Isabella gave birth to a daughter they named Maria Theresa. Isabella remained bedridden for 6 weeks after giving birth.  In August 1762 and January 1763 Isabella suffered two separate miscarriages that aggravated her mental unrest, causing her to fall into a depression that eroded her will to live.  In 1763, Isabella was six months pregnant with a baby girl when she contracted smallpox. On 22 November of the same year, this brought on premature labor ending in the death of the child, who was given the name Maria Christina, a few hours after birth. In total, out of four pregnancies, only one child survived infancy.

Death.

Isabella followed her daughter in death at Schönbrunn Palace in 1763, a week after giving birth to her. She was buried in Maria Theresa's vault in the Imperial Crypt Vaults in Vienna. Joseph could not find comfort and did not recover from the death of his wife.  His second marriage (January 1765 – May 1767) to Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria was unhappy and did not produce children. Subsequently, in August 1765, Isabella's father-in-law Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor died, and Joseph succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor with the title of Joseph II. (In 1767, Maria Josepha died of smallpox.)  Isabella had predicted even before her death that their daughter would follow this same road shortly after. Her forebodings were fulfilled on 23 January 1770, when the little Archduchess Maria Theresa died at age 7 of pleurisy. The loss was overwhelming for Joseph. After the death of his only child, Joseph withdrew increasingly from public life.

Princess Isabella of Parma (Isabella Maria Luisa Antonietta Ferdinanda Giuseppina Saveria Domenica Giovanna; 31 December 1741 – 27 November 1763) was the daughter of Infante Felipe of Spain, Duke of Parma, and his wife, Louise Élisabeth, eldest daughter of Louis XV of France and Maria Leszczyńska. At 18, Isabella was married to Archduke Joseph of Austria, later Joseph II, with whom she was not happy, finding more fulfilment in her close friendship with his sister Archduchess Maria Christina. The difficult birth of her daughter Maria Theresa, followed by two miscarriages, affected her mental condition, and she died soon after giving birth to another stillborn daughter.


Processes.

The processes are named after the medium used to donate. The three main methods used are: "gas nitriding", "salt bath nitriding", and "plasma nitriding".

Gas nitriding.

In gas nitriding the donor is a nitrogen-rich gas, usually ammonia (NH), which is why it is sometimes known as "ammonia nitriding". When ammonia comes into contact with the heated work piece it dissociates into nitrogen and hydrogen. The nitrogen then diffuses onto the surface of the material creating a nitride layer. This process has existed for nearly a century, though only in the last few decades has there been a concentrated effort to investigate the thermodynamics and kinetics involved. Recent developments have led to a process that can be accurately controlled. The thickness and phase constitution of the resulting nitriding layers can be selected and the process optimized for the particular properties required.  The advantages of gas nitriding over other variants are:  The disadvantages of gas nitriding are:

Salt bath nitriding.

In salt bath nitriding the nitrogen donating medium is a nitrogen-containing salt such as cyanide salt. The salts used also donate carbon to the workpiece surface making salt bath a nitrocarburizing process. The temperature used is typical of all nitrocarburizing processes: 550 to 570 °C. The advantages of salt nitriding is that it achieves higher diffusion in the same period of time compared to any other method.  The advantages of salt nitriding are:  The disadvantages are:

Plasma nitriding.

Plasma nitriding, also known as "ion nitriding", "plasma ion nitriding" or "glow-discharge nitriding", is an industrial surface hardening treatment for metallic materials.  In plasma nitriding, the reactivity of the nitriding media is not due to the temperature but to the gas ionized state. In this technique intense electric fields are used to generate ionized molecules of the gas around the surface to be nitrided. Such highly active gas with ionized molecules is called plasma, naming the technique. The gas used for plasma nitriding is usually pure nitrogen, since no spontaneous decomposition is needed (as is the case of gas nitriding with ammonia). There are hot plasmas typified by plasma jets used for metal cutting, welding, cladding or spraying. There are also cold plasmas, usually generated inside vacuum chambers, at low pressure regimes.  Usually steels are beneficially treated with plasma nitriding. This process permits the close control of the nitrided microstructure, allowing nitriding with or without compound layer formation. Not only is the performance of metal parts enhanced, but working lifespans also increase, and so do the strain limit and the fatigue strength of the metals being treated. For instance, mechanical properties of austenitic stainless steel like resistance to wear can be significantly augmented and the surface hardness of tool steels can be doubled.  A plasma nitrided part is usually ready for use. It calls for no machining, or polishing or any other post-nitriding operations. Thus the process is user-friendly, saves energy since it works fastest, and causes little or no distortion.  This process was invented by Dr. Bernhardt Berghaus of Germany who later settled in Zurich to escape Nazi persecution. After his death in late 1960s the process was acquired by Klockner group and popularized globally.  Plasma nitriding is often coupled with physical vapor deposition (PVD) process and labeled Duplex Treatment, with enhanced benefits. Many users prefer to have a plasma oxidation step combined at the last phase of processing to produce a smooth jetblack layer of oxides which is resistant to wear and corrosion.  Since nitrogen ions are made available by ionization, differently from gas or salt bath, plasma nitriding efficiency does not depend on the temperature. Plasma nitriding can thus be performed in a broad temperature range, from 260 °C to more than 600 °C. For instance, at moderate temperatures (like 420 °C), stainless steels can be nitrided without the formation of chromium nitride precipitates and hence maintaining their corrosion resistance properties.  In the plasma nitriding processes, nitrogen gas (N) is usually the nitrogen carrying gas. Other gasses like hydrogen or Argon are also used. Indeed, Argon and H can be used before the nitriding process during the heating of the parts to clean the surfaces to be nitrided. This cleaning procedure effectively removes the oxide layer from surfaces and may remove fine layers of solvents that could remain. This also helps the thermal stability of the plasma plant, since the heat added by the plasma is already present during the warm up and hence once the process temperature is reached the actual nitriding begins with minor heating changes. For the nitriding process H gas is also added to keep the surface clear of oxides. This effect can be observed by analysing the surface of the part under nitriding (see for instance ).

Materials for nitriding.

Examples of easily nitridable steels include the SAE 4100, 4300, 5100, 6100, 8600, 8700, 9300 and 9800 series, UK aircraft quality steel grades BS 4S 106, BS 3S 132, 905M39 (EN41B), stainless steels, some tool steels (H13 and P20 for example) and certain cast irons. Ideally, steels for nitriding should be in the hardened and tempered condition, requiring nitriding to take place at a lower temperature than the last tempering temperature. A fine-turned or ground surface finish is best. Minimal amounts of material should be removed post nitriding to preserve the surface hardness.  Nitriding alloys are alloy steels with nitride-forming elements such as aluminum, chromium, molybdenum and titanium.

History.

Systematic investigation into the effect of nitrogen on the surface properties of steel began in the 1920s. Investigation into gas nitriding began independently in both Germany and America. The process was greeted with enthusiasm in Germany and several steel grades were developed with nitriding in mind: the so-called nitriding steels. The reception in America was less impressive. With so little demand the process was largely forgotten in the US. After WWII the process was reintroduced from Europe. Much research has taken place in recent decades to understand the thermodynamics and kinetics of the reactions involved.

Nitriding is a heat treating process that diffuses nitrogen into the surface of a metal to create a case-hardened surface. These processes are most commonly used on high-carbon, low-alloy steels. They are also used on medium and high-carbon steels, titanium, aluminium and molybdenum. In 2015, nitriding was used to generate unique duplex microstructure (Martensite-Austenite, Austenite-ferrite), known to be associated with strongly enhanced mechanical properties Typical applications include gears, crankshafts, camshafts, cam followers, valve parts, extruder screws, die-casting tools, forging dies, extrusion dies, firearm components, injectors and plastic-mold tools.


Biography.

Born Carmen Mária Štefánia Farkašová, from 1937 to 1942 Hegerová attended ballet school at the National Theater in Bratislava. After completing her primary education in Komárno in 1950, she worked as a clerk for Škoda Works and as a teacher at a vocational school. From 1951 to 1953, Hegerová attended professional theatrical courses at the State Theater Conservatory, then in 1957 joined the company of the Petr Jilemnický Theatre in Žilina.  In 1954, Hegerová played the title role in the film "Frona" under the name Hana Čelková. 1957 saw her first appearance as a singer in "Tatra Revue" in Bratislava. After she came to Prague, the foremost Czech actor Jan Werich offered her an engagement in the ABC Theatre, however, she refused. From 1958 to 1961, she performed at the Rokoko Theatre in Prague, and from 1961 to 1966 at the Semafor Theater where she appeared in the jazz opera "Dobře placená procházka" by Jiří Suchý (libretto) and Jiří Šlitr (music), and film "Kdyby tisíc klarinetů" ("If a Thousand Clarinets"). Hegerová's repertoire included many chansons by Czech and Slovak authors, and also Czech versions of songs from the repertoire of Édith Piaf (""Mylord""), Jacques Brel (""Ne me quitte pas""), and songs by Kurt Weill (""Surabaya Johnny"", ""The Barbara Song"") and many others. In 1967, Hana Hegerová appeared at the Paris Olympia with the songs of Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. She also performed at the World's Fair in Montreal. From 1977 to 1981, during the Czechoslovak normalization, Hegerová was forced to stop her activities abroad, and her concert activities were also restricted in Czechoslovakia. Following the Velvet Revolution she began to perform more often in public. During this time she received many music awards, for example, the "Platinum Disc" in 1992 and the Czech "Gramy" in 1996. In 2002, Hana Heregová received a Medal of Merit from Czech President Václav Havel.  In August 2011, the national press announced that the diva decided to retire from the music industry, saying for MusicServer: "I have decided that I no longer want it. I don't want to sing, I don't want to go public. I want to get rid of stress. Simply, Hana Hegerová enterprise is terminated, only Hana Hegerová remains as a private person who finally wants to enjoy peaceful days with her dog. Wish me luck so that there are still lots of them left."  In December 2014, she was hospitalized with serious heart problems in the General University Hospital ("Všeobecná fakultní nemocnice") in Prague.

Hana Hegerová (born October 20, 1931), is a Slovak singer and actress. Often referred to as the Queen of Czechoslovak chanson, she gained popularity primarily as a singer of chanson. Outside of her homebase, Hegerová has attained a recognition especially in German-speaking countries. She lives in Prague, Czech Republic.


Structure.

Rhodopsin consists of two components, a protein molecule also called scotopsin and a covalently-bound cofactor called retinal. Scotopsin is an opsin, a light-sensitive G protein coupled receptor that embeds in the lipid bilayer of cell membranes using seven protein transmembrane domains. These domains form a pocket where the photoreactive chromophore, retinal, lies horizontally to the cell membrane, linked to a lysine residue in the seventh transmembrane domain of the protein. Thousands of rhodopsin molecules are found in each outer segment disc of the host rod cell. Retinal is produced in the retina from vitamin A, from dietary beta-carotene. Isomerization of 11-"cis"-retinal into all-"trans"-retinal by light sets off a series of conformational changes ('bleaching') in the opsin, eventually leading it to a form called metarhodopsin II (Meta II), which activates an associated G protein, transducin, to trigger a cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) second messenger cascade.  Rhodopsin of the rods most strongly absorbs green-blue light and, therefore, appears reddish-purple, which is why it is also called "visual purple". It is responsible for "monochromatic" vision in the dark.  Several closely related opsins differ only in a few amino acids and in the wavelengths of light that they absorb most strongly. Humans have eight other opsins besides rhodopsin, as well as cryptochrome (light-sensitive, but not an opsin).  The photopsins are found in the cone cells of the retina and are the basis of color vision. They have absorption maxima for yellowish-green (photopsin I), green (photopsin II), and bluish-violet (photopsin III) light. The remaining opsin, melanopsin, is found in photosensitive ganglion cells and absorbs blue light most strongly.  In rhodopsin, the aldehyde group of retinal is covalently linked to the amino group of a lysine residue on the protein in a protonated Schiff base (-NH=CH-). When rhodopsin absorbs light, its retinal cofactor isomerizes from the 11-cis to the all-trans configuration, and the protein subsequently undergoes a series of relaxations to accommodate the altered shape of the isomerized cofactor. The intermediates formed during this process were first investigated in the laboratory of George Wald, who received the Nobel prize for this research in 1967. The photoisomerization dynamics has been subsequently investigated with time-resolved IR spectroscopy and UV/Vis spectroscopy. A first photoproduct called photorhodopsin forms within 200 femtoseconds after irradiation, followed within picoseconds by a second one called bathorhodopsin with distorted all-trans bonds. This intermediate can be trapped and studied at cryogenic temperatures, and was initially referred to as prelumirhodopsin. In subsequent intermediates lumirhodopsin and metarhodopsin I, the Schiff's base linkage to all-trans retinal remains protonated, and the protein retains its reddish color. The critical change that initiates the neuronal excitation involves the conversion of metarhodopsin I to metarhodopsin II, which is associated with deprotonation of the Schiff's base and change in color from red to yellow.  The structure of rhodopsin has been studied in detail via x-ray crystallography on rhodopsin crystals. Several models (e.g., the "bicycle-pedal mechanism", "hula-twist mechanism") attempt to explain how the retinal group can change its conformation without clashing with the enveloping rhodopsin protein pocket. Recent data support that rhodopsin is a functional monomer, instead of a dimer, which was the paradigm of G-protein-coupled receptors for many years.

Phototransduction.

Rhodopsin is an essential G-protein coupled receptor in phototransduction.

Function.

The product of light activation, Metarhodopsin II, initiates the visual phototransduction pathway by stimulating the G protein transducin (G), resulting in the liberation of its α subunit. This GTP-bound subunit in turn activates cGMP phosphodiesterase. cGMP phosphodiesterase hydrolyzes (breaks down) cGMP, lowering its local concentration so it can no longer activate cGMP-dependent cation channels. This leads to the hyperpolarization of photoreceptor cells, changing the rate at which they release transmitters.

Deactivation.

Meta II (metarhodopsin II) is deactivated rapidly after activating transducin by rhodopsin kinase and arrestin. Rhodopsin pigment must be regenerated for further phototransduction to occur. This means replacing all-trans-retinal with 11-cis-retinal and the decay of Meta II is crucial in this process. During the decay of Meta II, the Schiff base link that normally holds all-trans-retinal and the apoprotein opsin (aporhodopsin) is hydrolyzed and becomes Meta III. In the rod outer segment, Meta III decays into separate all-trans-retinal and opsin. A second product of Meta II decay is an all-trans-retinal opsin complex in which the all-trans-retinal has been translocated to second binding sites. Whether the Meta II decay runs into Meta III or the all-trans-retinal opsin complex seems to depend on the pH of the reaction. Higher pH tends to drive the decay reaction towards Meta III.

Retinal disease.

Mutation of the rhodopsin gene is a major contributor to various retinopathies such as retinitis pigmentosa. In general, the disease-causing protein aggregates with ubiquitin in inclusion bodies, disrupts the intermediate filament network, and impairs the ability of the cell to degrade non-functioning proteins, which leads to photoreceptor apoptosis. Other mutations on rhodopsin lead to X-linked congenital stationary night blindness, mainly due to constitutive activation, when the mutations occur around the chromophore binding pocket of rhodopsin. Several other pathological states relating to rhodopsin have been discovered including poor post-Golgi trafficking, dysregulative activation, rod outer segment instability and arrestin binding.

Microbial rhodopsins.

Some prokaryotes express proton pumps called bacteriorhodopsins, archaerhodopsins, proteorhodopsins, and xanthorhodopsins to carry out phototrophy. Like animal visual pigments, these contain a retinal chromophore (although it is an all-"trans", rather than 11-"cis" form) and have seven transmembrane alpha helices; however, they are not coupled to a G protein. Prokaryotic halorhodopsins are light-activated chloride pumps. Unicellular flagellate algae contain channelrhodopsins that act as light-gated cation channels when expressed in heterologous systems. Many other pro- and eukaryotic organisms (in particular, fungi such as "Neurospora") express rhodopsin ion pumps or sensory rhodopsins of yet-unknown function. Very recently, microbial rhodopsins with guanylyl cyclase activity have been discovered. While all microbial rhodopsins have significant sequence homology to one another, they have no detectable sequence homology to the G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) family to which animal visual rhodopsins belong. Nevertheless, microbial rhodopsins and GPCRs are possibly evolutionarily related, based on the similarity of their three-dimensional structures. Therefore, they have been assigned to the same superfamily in Structural Classification of Proteins (SCOP).

Rhodopsin (also known as visual purple) is a light-sensitive receptor protein involved in visual phototransduction. It is named after ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon) for "rose", due to its pinkish color, and ὄψις (ópsis) for "sight". Rhodopsin is a biological pigment found in the rods of the retina and is a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). It belongs to opsins. Rhodopsin is extremely sensitive to light, and thus enables vision in low-light conditions. When rhodopsin is exposed to light, it immediately photobleaches. In humans, it is regenerated fully in about 30 minutes, after which rods are more sensitive.


Club career.

Early career.

Born in Kampen, Overijssel, Stam started his career with local amateur football club DOS Kampen. On 15 August 1992, Stam made his professional debut for FC Zwolle in a 1–1 draw against SC Heracles in the Eerste Divisie. He became a first team regular right away and moved to Eredivisie club Cambuur Leeuwarden for the following season, but relegated in his first season which brought him back into the Eerste Divisie. Two seasons at Cambuur earned him a transfer to Eredivisie club Willem II. At Willem II, he immediately impressed at the Eredivisie level, which meant his final breakthrough. A shock 1–0 home victory over Ajax led to Stam's transfer to PSV Eindhoven in the same season in which they eventually won the KNVB Cup, his first professional trophy.

PSV.

Stam was a key player for PSV in the 1996–97 season, as the team won the Eredivisie league championship and the Johan Cruyff Shield. Individually, Stam won the VVCS Footballer of the Year award.  In 1998, Stam became the then most expensive Dutch football player in history and the most expensive defender in history when Manchester United bought him for £10.6 million.

Manchester United.

Stam spent three seasons at Manchester United, during which time United won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup, the Intercontinental Cup and the UEFA Champions League. He scored his only goal for the club in a 6–2 away victory against Leicester City.  Early in the 2001–02 season, Stam was controversially sold to Lazio in Italy after Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was reportedly furious with allegations Stam had made in his autobiography "Head to Head" about himself and the club. Stam made numerous statements in the book about his views on opposing players, and notoriously alleged that Ferguson's approach to buy him was done without the permission of PSV. Laurent Blanc was signed as his replacement.  In 2007, however, Ferguson described the decision to sell Stam as an error: "At the time he had just come back from an achilles injury and we thought he had just lost a little bit. We got the offer from Lazio, £16.5m for a centre back who was 29. It was an offer I couldn't refuse. But in playing terms it was a mistake. He is still playing for Ajax at a really good level." On the financial report, Manchester United announced the fee was £15.3 million; Lazio declared the fee was £16 million.

Lazio.

During his time with Lazio, Stam was found guilty of having the banned steroid nandrolone in his system following a Serie A game, and received a five-month ban, which was eventually reduced by a month after appeals. He was the second Lazio player suspended in 2001, after Fernando Couto. In his last season at the club, he won the Coppa Italia.

Milan.

Stam joined Milan after UEFA Euro 2004. He reached his second Champions League final with the "Rossoneri" in 2005, but was a runner-up after his team was defeated by Liverpool in a penalty shoot-out.

Ajax.

On 30 January 2006, it was announced that he would return to the Eredivisie and play for Ajax, where he signed a two-year contract for a €2.5 million transfer fee. Stam was named team captain upon his arrival at the club. In his first season, he won both the Johan Cruyff Shield and the KNVB Cup; another Johan Cruyff Shield was added to his trophies at the start of the 2007–08 season.  On 29 October 2007, Stam announced his retirement from professional football with immediate effect after playing six league games for Ajax in the 2007–08 league season. His final game was in a 0–0 draw against NEC on 20 October 2007.

International career.

Stam made his debut for the Netherlands on 24 April 1996 in a 1–0 defeat to Germany. He was also an important player in the Dutch team that finished fourth in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.  During UEFA Euro 2000, he once again reached the semi-finals with the Dutch team, hosted in his home country and Belgium. Stam missed an important penalty kick in the penalty shoot-out in the semi-finals, which led to defeat against Italy.  Stam reached his third semi-finals in an international competition with his nation at Euro 2004 in Portugal and retired from international football after the tournament. The reason cited for his international retirement was that he wanted to focus on his new team, Milan, as well as his family.  In total, he played 67 matches for the Netherlands, scoring three goals.

Post-playing career.

In October 2008, Stam returned to Manchester United as a scout for the club, responsible for most of South America.

Soccer Aid.

Stam has been involved with Soccer Aid, which puts celebrities and football legends together in two teams (England and Rest of the World) for a charity game in aid of UNICEF. Stam has appeared in five Soccer Aid matches 2008, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018.

Coaching and managerial career.

In 2009, Stam became an assistant coach for PEC Zwolle, and on 30 October was appointed caretaker manager. Following his stint with Zwolle, Stam penned a three-year contract with Ajax in 2013 as an assistant coach, and as defensive coach starting in the 2013–14 Eredivisie season. On 28 May 2014, Stam was revealed as one of the new managers of Jong Ajax, the reserve team in the Eerste Divisie. He was joined by Andries Ulderink and they signed a contract beginning on 1 July 2014 and lasting until 30 June 2016.

Reading.

On 13 June 2016, Stam was appointed as manager of English Championship club Reading on an initial two-year contract. He enjoyed a successful first season with the club, leading them to the Championship play-offs. On 4 July 2017, Stam signed a new two-year contract extension with Reading, keeping him at the club until 2019. On 21 March 2018, Reading announced that Stam had left the club with immediate effect following a run of one win in 18 league matches left the team 20th in the league table.

PEC Zwolle.

On 28 December 2018, Stam was appointed as the new manager of Eredivisie club PEC Zwolle on a year-and-a-half contract.

Feyenoord.

On 6 March 2019, Feyenoord announced that Stam would succeed Giovanni van Bronckhorst as Feyenoord's new manager. He signed a two-year contract, effective 1 June 2019. Following a 0–4 defeat to Ajax, Stam resigned on 28 October 2019, saying "I've thought about this for a long time. My final conclusion is that it's better for the club, the players and myself if I step aside."

FC Cincinnati.

On 21 May 2020, Major League Soccer club FC Cincinnati announced that Stam would succeed interim manager Yoann Damet. He signed a year-and-a-half contract.

Honours.

PSV  Manchester United  Lazio  Milan  Ajax  Individual

Jakob "Jaap" Stam (; born 17 July 1972) is a Dutch football manager for FC Cincinnati in Major League Soccer and former professional player. Stam played primarily as a centre-back. He was known for possessing "a rare combination of speed, strength and ball-playing ability", as well as an excellent positional sense. Due to his wide range of skills, in his prime he was also capable of playing as a full-back on the right flank.


Definition.

The term Bregenz Forest Mountains refers to the range according to the Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps (AVE); the term Bregenz Forest, by contrast, refers to a landscape or region which is part of the Bregenzer Ache basin area. As a result, the Bregenz Forest Mountains and the Bregenz Forest are not conterminous.  The Bregenz Forest region also includes the southwestern parts of the Allgäu Alps. On the other hand, the Bregenz Forest Mountains reach, to an extent, into the landscapes of the eastern Rhine Valley, as well as to the Walgau Valley of the Ill River and the Großes Walsertal in the south.  As the range is not geologically uniform, the name is rarely used outside of Alpine literature, is also not used in Vorarlberg state geography and land-use planning and belongs to one of the most disputed mountain groups in the AVE. According to an alternative orographically and hydrologically-oriented mountain range classification (Hubert Trimmel, 1962), the mountains belong to a Rhine Valley–Walgau–Bregenz Forest group.

Geography.

The mountain range is part of a landscape arranged in several tiers rising from the Rhine Valley in the west up to the adjacent Lechquellen Mountains. Most of the area is shaped by a Mittelgebirge character with extended forests and Alpine pastures, except for small High Alpine region in the southeast.

Neighbouring ranges.

The Bregenz Forest Mountains are bordered by the following other Alpine ranges:

Peaks.

The main peaks of the Bregenz Forest Mountains include the following: see Coordinates Bregenz Forest Mountains  Other important and well-known peaks in the Bregenz Forest Mountains (in order of height):

Nature Conservancy.

Due to the remoteness of some areas, there are many nature reserves that can be found in the Bregenz Forest Mountains.

Tourism.

Mountain huts.

In the Bregenzerwald mountains there are comparatively few alpine huts with overnight accommodation. This is due to the fact that the majority of the mountain tours can be undertaken as day trips from the valley valleys.  Mountain huts run by the Austrian Alpine Club: There are many more huts and restaurants in this region. Therefore, it is advisable to inquire about the exact opening hours and the accessibility of the huts at the Alpenverein or in the valley resorts.

Long-distance Routes.

The nordalpine long distance route (DE: Nordalpine Weitwanderweg 01) and the Limestone Alps Way (DE: Kalkalpenweg) runs through the central part of the Bregenzerwald mountain range with the following sections: The greater part of this section is still in the Lechquellen Mountains. It is only at the Faschina Pass (Faschinajoch) that the Bregenzerwald Forest is entered. The Via Alpina, a cross-border hiking trail with five partial routes through the whole Alps, runs along the edge of the Bregenzerwald mountain range.  The Red Trail of the Via Alpina runs as follows with two stages through the Bregenzerwald Mountains:

Fixed Rope Routes.

Geology and geography of the Bregenzerwald Mountains are not exactly conducive to the construction of climbing routes. As easy-to-get-on routes of the simplest level can still apply:

The Bregenz Forest Mountains, also the Bregenzerwald Mountains (), are a range of the Northern Limestone Alps, named after the town of Bregenz. The Bregenz Forest Mountains are entirely located in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg.


History.

In 1620, after losing The Battle of White Mountain on November 8, the leading Moravian members of the anti-Habsburg insurrection were imprisoned in Špilberk for several years. The town of Brno bought the castle in 1560 and made it into a municipal fortress. The bastion fortifications of Špilberk helped Brno to defend itself against Swedish raids during the Thirty Years' War, and then successful defence led to further fortification and the strengthening of the military function of the fortress.  At the same time Špilberk was used as a prison. Protestants were the first prisoners forced to serve time here, followed later by participants in the revolutions of 1848–49, although hardened criminals, thieves and petty criminals were also kept here. Franz Freiherr von der Trenck, Austrian soldier and one of the most controversial persons of the period was also jailed and died here on October 4, 1749. Later, apart from several significant French revolutionaries captured during the coalition wars with France, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, famous as the former postmaster of Sainte-Menehould who had arrested King Louis XVI, was the most known of them all. A group of fifteen Hungarian Jacobins led by the writer Ferenc Kazinczy was also especially noteworthy. More than a quarter of a century later, from 1822 on, specially constructed cells for "state prisoners" in the northern wing of the former fortress were filled with Italian patriots known as Carbonari, who had fought for the unification, freedom and independence of their country. The poet Silvio Pellico, who served a full eight years here, made the Špilberk prison famous all over Europe with his book "Le mie prigioni – My prisons".  The last large "national" group of political prisoners at Špilberk consisted of nearly 200 Polish revolutionaries, mostly participants in the Kraków Uprising of 1846. After that, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph dissolved the Špilberk prison in 1855, and after departure of the last prisoners three years later, its premises were converted into barracks which remained as such for the next hundred years.  Špilberk entered public consciousness as a centre of tribulation and oppression on two more occasions; firstly, during the First World War when, together with military prisoners, civilian objectors to the Austro-Hungarian regime were imprisoned here, and secondly in the first year of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Several thousand Czech patriots suffered in Špilberk at that time, some of whom were put to death. For the majority of them however, Špilberk was only a station on their way to other German prisons and Nazi concentration camps. In 1939–41, the German army and Gestapo carried out an extensive reconstruction at Špilberk in order to turn it into model barracks in the spirit of the so beloved romantic historicism of the German Third Reich ideology.  The Czechoslovak army left Špilberk in 1959, putting to a definite end its military era. The following year, Špilberk became the seat of the Brno City Museum.

Špilberk Castle (German: "Spielberg", locally "Špilas") is a castle on the hilltop in Brno, Southern Moravia. Its construction began as early as the first half of the 13th century by the Přemyslid kings and complete by King Ottokar II of Bohemia. From a major royal castle established around the mid-13th century, and the seat of the Moravian margraves in the mid-14th century, it was gradually turned into a huge baroque citadel considered the harshest prison in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and then into barracks. This prison had always been part of the Špilberk fortress and is frequently referenced by the main character, Fabrizio, in Stendahl's novel, "The Charterhouse of Parma."


History.

The Estadio Mestalla was inaugurated with a friendly match on 20 May 1923 between Valencia CF and Levante UD. The new stadium had a capacity of 17,000 spectators, which was increased to 25,000 four years later. During the Civil War, the Mestalla was used as a concentration camp and storage warehouse. It would only keep its structure, since the rest was an empty plot of land with no terraces and a grandstand damaged during the war.  During the 1950s, the Mestalla was renovated, resulting in a stadium with a seating capacity of 60,000 spectators. It was severely damaged by the flood of October 1957 when the Turia River broke its banks. The stadium soon returned to operational use with some more improvements, such as the addition of artificial lighting, and was inaugurated during the 1959 Fallas festivities.  In 1969, the stadium's name was changed to Estadio Luis Casanova, to honour club president Luis Casanova Giner. The change lasted for a quarter of a century, when Casanova admitted that he was completely overwhelmed by such an honour and requested in 1994 that the stadium's name be returned to Mestalla.  1972 saw the inauguration of the club's head office, located in the back of the numbered terraces. It consisted of an office designed in the avant-garde style with a trophy hall, which held the flag the club was founded on. The summer of 1973 ushered in another change at Mestalla, the introduction of goal seats, which meant the elimination of fourteen rows of standing room terraces.

Future.

A replacement stadium, Nou Mestalla, started construction in 2007, but is yet to be completed. The new stadium is due to have a capacity of 61,500.

Internationals and Cup Finals.

Mestalla held the Spain national football team for the first time in 1925. It was chosen the national team's group venue when Spain staged the 1982 World Cup, and at the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, all of Spain's matches up to the final were held at Mestalla, as they won Gold.  Mestalla has been the setting for important international matches, has held nine cup finals, has also been a temporary home for Levante UD, home of the Spanish national team and exile for Castellón and Real Madrid in the European Cup. Mestalla hosted the 2011 Copa del Rey Final between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid C.F., and the 2014 Copa del Rey Final between the same two teams. In total the stadium hosted ten Copa del Rey finals with the first one played in 1926.

1982 FIFA World Cup.

The stadium was one of the venues of the 1982 FIFA World Cup (known as "Luis Casanova Stadium" at the time of the tournament), and held the following matches:

Transport.

Metro: Aragón station (Lines 5 and 7) Metrovalencia  Facultats station (Lines 3 and 9) Metrovalencia  Bus lines:  Amadeo of Savoia street in: line 32.  Reyes Prosper street: line 71.  Avenida de Aragón: lines 10, 12, 80, 41 and 79  Avenida Blasco Ibáñez: lines 10, 29, 30, 31, 71, 79, 81, 89 and 90.

Mestalla (, ) is a football stadium in Valencia, Spain. The stadium is the home of Valencia Club de Fútbol and has a capacity of 48,600 seats, making it the 7th-largest stadium in Spain, and the largest in the Valencian Community. The North Stand of the stadium is known for its very steep section.


Life.

Charles had as appanage the counties of Valois, Alençon and Perche (1285). He became in 1290 count of Anjou and of Maine by his marriage with Margaret, eldest daughter of Charles II, titular king of Sicily; by a second marriage, contracted with the heiress of Baldwin II de Courtenay, last Latin emperor of Constantinople, he also had pretensions on this throne. But he was son, brother, brother-in-law, son-in-law, and uncle of kings or of queens (of France, of Navarre, of England, and of Naples), becoming, moreover, after his death, father of a king (Philip VI).  Charles thus dreamed of more and sought all his life for a crown he never obtained. In 1284, the pope recognized him as King of Aragon (under the vassalage of the Holy See), as son of his mother, in opposition to King Peter III, who after the conquest of the island of Sicily was an enemy of the papacy. Charles then married Marguerite of Sicily, daughter of the Neapolitan king, in order to re-enforce his position in Sicily, supported by the Pope. Thanks to this Aragonese Crusade undertaken by his father Philip III against the advice of his brother, the future Philip the Fair, he believed he would win a kingdom and won nothing but the ridicule of having been crowned with a cardinal's hat in 1285, which gave him the sobriquet of the "King of the Cap." He would never dare to use the royal seal which was made on this occasion and would have to renounce the title.  His principal quality was to be a good military leader. He commanded effectively in Flanders in 1297. The king quickly deduced that his brother could conduct an expedition in Italy against Frederick II of Sicily. The affair was ended by the peace of Caltabellotta.  Charles dreamed at the same time of the imperial crown and married in 1301 Catherine de Courtenay, who was a titular empress. But it needed the connivance of the Pope, which he obtained by his expedition to Italy, where he supported Charles II of Anjou against Frederick II of Sicily, his cousin. Named papal vicar, he lost himself in the imbroglio of Italian politics, was compromised in a massacre at Florence and in sordid financial exigencies, reached Sicily where he consolidated his reputation as a looter and finally returned to France discredited in 1301–1302.  Charles was back in shape to seek a new crown when the German king Albert of Habsburg was murdered in 1308. Charles's brother, who did not wish to take the risk himself of a check and probably thought that a French puppet on the imperial throne would be a good thing for France, encouraged him. The candidacy was defeated with the election of Henry VII as German king, for the electors did not want France to become even more powerful. Charles continued to dream of the eastern crown of the Courtenays.  He did benefit from the affection which Philip the Fair, who had suffered from the remarriage of their father, brought to his only full brother, and he found himself given responsibilities which largely exceeded his talent. Thus it was he who directed in 1311 the royal embassy to the conferences of Tournai with the Flemish; he quarreled there with his brother's chamberlain Enguerrand de Marigny, who openly flouted him. Charles did not pardon the affront and would continue the vendetta against Marigny after the king's death.  He was doggedly opposed to the torture of Jacques de Molay, grand master of the Templars, in 1314.  The premature death of Louis X in 1316 gave Charles hopes for a political role, but he could not prevent his nephew Philip, from taking the regency while awaiting the birth of Louis X's posthumous son. When that son (John I of France) died after a few days, Philip took the throne as Philip V. Charles was initially opposed to Philip's succession, for Louis X had left behind a daughter, Joan. However, he later switched sides and backed Philip V, probably realizing that Philip's precedent would bring him and his line closer to the throne.  In 1324, he commanded with success the army of his nephew Charles IV (who succeeded Philip V in 1322) to take Guyenne and Flanders from King Edward II of England. He contributed, by the capture of several cities, to accelerate the peace, which was concluded between the king of France and his niece, Isabella, queen-consort of England.  The Count of Valois died 16 December 1325 at Nogent-le-Roi, leaving a son who would take the throne of France under the name of Philip VI and commence the branch of the Valois: a posthumous revenge for the man of whom it was said, "Son of a king, brother of a king, uncle of three kings, father of a king, but never king himself." Had he survived for three more years and outlived his nephew, Charles would have become King of France in his own right. Charles was buried in the now-demolished church of the Couvent des Jacobins in Paris – his effigy is now in the Basilica of St Denis.

Marriages and children.

Charles was married three times.  His first marriage, in 1290, was to his double second cousin Margaret, Countess of Anjou, (1272–1299), daughter of King Charles II of Naples. They had the following children:  In 1302 he remarried Catherine I of Courtenay (1274–1307), titular Empress of Constantinople. They had four children:  Finally, in 1308, he married Mahaut of Châtillon (1293–1358), daughter of Guy III of Châtillon, Count of Saint Pol. They had also four children:  Charles de Valois was also known to have one natural child by an unknown mother. This child was placed in a nunnery, and yet was also treated as a legitimate heir to estates, being granted title to lands in Avignon upon her majority:

In fiction.

Charles is a major character in "Les Rois maudits" ("The Accursed Kings"), a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon. He was portrayed by in the 1972 French miniseries adaptation of the series, and by Jacques Spiesser in the 2005 adaptation.

Charles of Valois (12 March 1270 – 16 December 1325), the third son of Philip III of France and Isabella of Aragon, was a member of the House of Capet and founder of the House of Valois, whose rule over France would start in 1328.


Early life.

Princess Hermine was born in Greiz as the fifth child and fourth daughter of Heinrich XXII, Prince Reuss of Greiz (28 March 1846 – 19 April 1902), and Princess Ida Mathilde Adelheid of Schaumburg-Lippe (28 July 1852 – 28 September 1891), daughter of Adolf I, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe. Her father was the ruler of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, a state of the German Empire, in what is present-day Thuringia. Princess Hermine's disabled elder brother became Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz in 1902.  Upon her mother's early death, she was raised at the court of Princess Louise of Prussia, daughter of Emperor Wilhelm I, and her husband Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden. Like Hermine's father, Princess Louise was an implacable enemy of Prince Bismarck.

First marriage.

Princess Hermine was married on 7 January 1907 in Greiz to Prince Johann George Ludwig Ferdinand August of (11 September 1873 – 7 April 1920).  They were the parents of five children:

Marriage to ex-Emperor Wilhelm II.

In January 1922, a son of Princess Hermine sent birthday wishes to the exiled German Emperor Wilhelm II, who then invited the boy and his mother to Huis Doorn. Wilhelm found Hermine very attractive, and greatly enjoyed her company. The two had much in common, both being recently widowed: Hermine just over a year and a half before, and Wilhelm only nine months prior.  By early 1922, Wilhelm was determined to marry Hermine. Despite grumblings from Wilhelm's monarchist supporters and the objections of his children, 63-year-old Wilhelm and 34-year-old Hermine married on 5 November 1922 in Doorn. By all accounts, it was a happy marriage. Hermine's first husband had also been older than she was, by fourteen years. Wilhelm and Hermine were 4th cousins once removed through mutual descent from Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and 5th cousins through common descent from King George II of Great Britain.  In 1927, Hermine wrote "An Empress in Exile: My Days in Doorn", an account of her life up to that time. She cared for the property management of Huis Doorn and by establishing her own relief organization, she stayed in contact with monarchist and nationalist circles in the Weimar Republic. Hermine also shared her husband's antisemitism. She remained a constant companion to the aging emperor until his death in 1941. They had no children.

Later life.

Following the death of Wilhelm, Hermine returned to Germany to live on her first husband's estate in Saabor, Lower Silesia. During the Vistula–Oder Offensive of early 1945, she fled from the advancing Red Army to her sister's estate in Rossla, Thuringia. After the end of the Second World War, she was held under house arrest at Frankfurt on the Oder in the Soviet occupation zone, and later imprisoned in the Paulinenhof Internment Camp. On 7 August 1947, aged only 59, she died suddenly of a heart attack in a small flat in Frankfurt, while under strict guard by the Red Army occupation forces. She was buried in the Antique Temple of Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, in what would become East Germany. Some years earlier, it was the resting place of several other members of the Imperial family, including Wilhelm's first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.

Dramatic representation.

In 2014, Janet McTeer played a fictional Princess Hermine in "The Exception" alongside Christopher Plummer as Kaiser Wilhelm II.

In Popular Culture.

The humorous novel "Mad, Mad Marjorie" by Andrew Shaffer, Hermine features as the object of boyhood adulation of the character Andreas Stackenwalter.

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz (; 17 December 1887 – 7 August 1947), widowed Princess of Schönaich-Carolath, was the second wife of Wilhelm II (1859–1941). They were married in 1922, four years after he had abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia.


Description.

The wingspan is 55–60 mm. in the female 60 to 70 mm for the male. The upper side of the wings is dark brown, with metallic blue-violet hues in the male, and it has a clear postdiscal band on the hindwing and several light spots on the forewing. These clear areas can be presented in two different aspects: they are white on the butterflies of the nominal form "ilia", and clear fawn in the form "clytie". For both forms, the forewing also has an orange-coloured ocellus, which makes it possible to differentiate the species from "Apatura iris". A similar ocellus is present on the hindwing in both species. The reverse side of the forewing is brown and the back of the hindwing is dull brown with, as in "Apatura iris", an orange ocellus centered black. Mounted specimens

Biology.

"A. ilia" flies from May to September in one or two generations. It feeds on tree honeydew and flies near their summit. It goes down only to find moisture, honeydew shrubs or excrement. The eggs are laid singly on leaves. The caterpillar host plants are willows and poplars, in particular "Populus tremula" and "Populus nigra". "A. ilia" either pupates in the same year or winters as a young caterpillar, becoming brown, stuck to a twig. The greyish green chrysalis hangs from a leaf or twig.

Biotope.

Flourishes only in damp deciduous woods with good naturalness, forests or edges of interior clearings and river valleys at altitudes between sea level and about 600m.

Ecology and distribution.

It is present in most of Europe and across the Palearctic to Japan. However, it is absent from the European Mediterranean islands and the southernmost regions, from the majority of Spain and Portugal, southern Italy and Greece, as well as Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland, northern Germany and the British Isles).  This species belongs to a group of 35 European butterflies for which ecologists had sufficient data to assess the possible movements of their range in Europe. Of these 35 butterflies studied, Apatura ilia was an exception it is the only species that has seen the northern limits of its area move slightly down to the south while its southern limit remained stable.

Apatura ilia, the lesser purple emperor, is a species of butterfly native to most of Europe and east across the Palearctic. It is named for its similarity to the purple emperor butterfly.


Club career.

Sweden.

Nordahl started out at Hörnefors IF in Sweden before moving to first Degerfors IF and then IFK Norrköping. He won four Swedish championships with IFK Norrköping and once scored seven goals in one game. During his time in Swedish clubs, Nordahl scored 149 goals in 172 matches.

Italy.

Nordahl transferred to A.C. Milan on 22 January 1949. Later, he would team up with his national team strike partners, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm to form the renowned Gre-No-Li trio. Playing eight seasons with Milan, he is Serie A's multi-top-scorer a record five times (1949–50, 1950–51, 1952–53, 1953–54 and 1954–55). Nordahl is also Milan's all-time top-scorer, with 210 league goals.  Nordahl is the third-highest Serie A goalscorer of all time, with 225 goals in 291 matches, only behind Silvio Piola and Francesco Totti. That makes Nordahl the top goalscorer among non-Italian players, and he is also the most "efficient" goalscorer goals in Serie A ever with 0.77 goals/match.. He was nicknamed "il pompiere" (the fireman), because of his former job while he played in Sweden. After leaving Milan, Nordahl played for Roma for two seasons. Nordahl's record for most goals scored in Serie A (not including Divisione Nazionale, before Serie A was installed) of 35 in 1949–50 in a season was broken by Gonzalo Higuaín in the 2015–16 season who scored 36. Nordahl, together with the mentioned Gre-No-Li is today legendary in Milan. When Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko scored his 100 goal in Serie A for Milan, it is said that some old Milanese supporters commented: "Well he can double that number, and then add another 26, then, and just then, he has passed "Il Cannoniere"."

International career.

Nordahl was first called up to the Swedish national team in 1942. In 1948, he helped Sweden to win the Olympic football tournament, becoming the tournament's top scorer on the way. The Swedish team also included his brothers Bertil and Knut Nordahl. Nordahl's transfer to Milan forced him to retire from the national team, as the rules at the time prevented professionals from the Swedish national team, being not called to 1950 FIFA World Cup along his fellows Gren and Liedholm. In his 33 matches in the national team, he scored a total of 43 goals.

Nils Gunnar Nordahl (; 19 October 1921 – 15 September 1995) was a Swedish football player. A highly prolific, powerful, and physically strong striker, with an eye for goal, he is best known for his spell at A.C. Milan from 1949 to 1956, in which he won the Scudetto twice, and also the title of "pluricapocannoniere", with an unprecedented five top scorer ("Capocannonieri") awards, more than any other player in the history of the Italian championship.


Evidence.

Grauballe Man was initially dated to the late 3rd century BC by analysing the stratigraphic layer of peat that his body was found in. This date was subsequently confirmed by radiocarbon dating his liver, the results of which were published in 1955.

Life.

Information about the Grauballe Man's life have been ascertained from his remains. His hands were smooth and did not show evidence of hard work, indicating that Grauballe Man was not employed in hard labour such as farming. Study of his teeth and jaws indicated that he had suffered from "periods of starvation or a poor state of health during his early childhood." The man's skeleton showed signs of significant calcium deficiency, and his spine also suffered the early stages of "spondylosis deformans", a generalized disease of aging that is secondary to the degeneration of intervertebral disks. Due to the shrinkage that the corpse suffered in the bog, the man's actual height is not known. It is known that he had dark hair, although this too was altered in the bog, and now appears reddish in colour.

Death.

The corpse was not found with any artifacts or any evidence of clothing, indicating that when he died he was entirely naked, or his clothing had deteriorated, something that had also happened with the Tollund Man. The actual manner of his death was by having his throat cut ear to ear, severing his trachea and oesophagus. Such a wound could not have been self-inflicted, indicating that this was not suicide. A damaged area to the skull that was initially thought to have been inflicted by a blow to the head, has since been determined by a CT scan to have been fractured by pressure from the bog long after his death. He was around 30 years old when he died.

Discovery, preservation and exhibition.

The Grauballe Man's body was first discovered buried in the bog on 26 April 1952 by a team of peat diggers. One of the workmen, Tage Busk Sørensen, stuck his spade into something that he knew was not peat; upon revealing more they discovered the head protruding from the ground, and the local postman, who was passing, alerted the local doctor as well as an amateur archaeologist named Ulrik Balslev. With the body still in the peat, various locals came to visit it over the next day, one of whom accidentally stepped on its head. The following morning, Professor Peter Glob from the Prehistory Museum at Aarhus came to visit the body, and arranged for it to be removed to the museum, still encased in a block of surrounding peat.  Glob and his team decided that they should not only research the body but that they should also attempt to preserve it so that it could be exhibited to the public. This concept was new at the time as most of the bog bodies previously discovered had been re-buried, sometimes in consecrated ground, with the Tollund Man which had been discovered two years earlier having only its head preserved. Despite the warnings of some scientists who believed that the corpse should immediately undergo preservation, it was exhibited straight away in order to capitalise on public interest. Indeed, the scientists' fears were proved right, as mould started to appear on certain areas of the body as a result of it having to be kept permanently moist.  The body then underwent research, including a post-mortem, and then preservation, which was organised by conservator C. Lange-Kornbak, who had to decide on the best way to do this, as no entire bog body had ever been preserved before. He examined various methods for doing so, before deciding on a programme of tanning the body to turn it into leather and then stuffing it with oak bark. In 1955, the body went on display at the Moesgaard Museum near Aarhus, only to be removed for a time in 2001-2002 when it underwent more modern scientific study, including radiological study, CT scanning, 3D visualisation, stereolithography and analyses of the gut contents.

Modern culture.

The Grauballe Man is the subject of a poem by Seamus Heaney, as is the Tollund Man.

The Grauballe Man is a bog body that was uncovered in 1952 from a peat bog near the village of Grauballe in Jutland, Denmark. The body is that of a man dating from the late 3rd century BC, during the early Germanic Iron Age. Based on the evidence of his wounds, he was most likely killed by having his throat slit. His corpse was then deposited in the bog, where his body was naturally preserved for over two millennia. He was not the only bog body to be found in the peat bogs of Jutland: with other notable examples Tollund Man and the Elling Woman, Grauballe Man represents an established tradition at the time; it is commonly thought that these killings, including that of Grauballe Man, were examples of human sacrifice, possibly an important rite in Iron Age Germanic paganism.


History.

1944–1955: The first decade.

Before the Second World War, the city of Lille had two clubs in Ligue 1; Olympique Lillois and Sporting Club Fivois. Weakened by the war, the two clubs decided to merge in the autumn of 1944, giving birth to Lille Olympique Sporting Club (LOSC). Within its first decade of existence, the new club won two league titles and reached the second place for four consecutive seasons. In the Coupe de France the club accumulated five wins in seven finals, including five successive finals. The final of the Latin Cup was also reached.

1956–1980: Lille loses its way.

Lille were relegated for the first time in 1956. The club became a mid-table side and in the late 1960s, after a long period of anonymity, and weighed down by a lack of facilities and resources, Lille abandoned its professional status. It was feared that the club might disappear. However, some young leaders, such as Max Pommerolle, came and gave new impetus to the club. Nevertheless, the results remained erratic and the only titles that ignited the fans' passions were won in the Second Division.

1980–2000: Laying the foundations for future success.

In July 1980, Lille was the first French club to opt for the status of a mixed economy company, of which the city of Lille became the majority shareholder. The team of presidents Amyot, Deschot and Dewailly all struggled to compete with the top teams in the country. Jacques Amyot's resignation in 1990 led to three more difficult years for the club which compromised its very existence. It took Bernard Lecomte's arrival in 1993 to set the club finances on the road to recovery. After a final relegation in 1997, the team trained by Bosnian coach Vahid Halilhodžić was soon promoted back to the elite, in the same year the French Football League was privatised.

2000–present: A steady climb to the top.

In just its first season back in the top flight 2000–01 French Division 1, Lille qualified for Europe for the first time in the club's history, booking its place in the 2000–01 Champions League. On the back of the club's new status, Lille entered into a decisive new era under the guidance of chairman and chief executive officer Michel Seydoux and coach Claude Puel. The club left the historical Stade Grimonprez-Jooris to join the Stadium Lille Métropole and became a regular on the European scene. Amongst its most emphatic results was the 1–0 victory over Manchester United at the Stade de France in 2005, the 2–0 triumph over Milan in San Siro in 2006 and the 1–0 home win over Liverpool in 2010. A steady development off the pitch (inauguration of the Domaine de Luchin training complex in 2007, opening of the Grand Stade in 2012), coupled with the sporting progression under the expert hand of coach Rudi Garcia, took Lille back to the summit of the French game with the League and Cup double in 2011 (56 years after the club's last trophy). In 2012, LOSC confirmed its place at the top table of the domestic game with another qualification for Europe's most prestigious club competition, the Champions League in 2012–13. With the club finishing just outside the UCL places that season, Garcia left to join Roma, while former Montpellier coach René Girard was appointed the new Lille manager. After two years in charge of the club, Girard left his role as the head coach by mutual consent. He was joined by assistants Gerard Bernadet and Nicolas Girard in making the exit. In May 2015, the Ivory Coast national team head coach Hervé Renard was appointed as the new manager. On 11 November 2015, Renard was terminated as manager and was replaced by Frederic Antonetti. On 23 November 2016, a year after being appointed, Lille terminated Antonetti's contract with the club lying second last in the table. In March 2017, Lille appointed Marcelo Bielsa as new manager of the club. In November 2017, Bielsa was suspended by Lille following an unauthorized trip to Chile with the club lying second from bottom on the table again and only managing 3 wins from the first 14 games of the season.  On 23 December 2017, Bielsa was terminated by Lille and replaced with former Saint-Etienne manager Christophe Galtier. After a difficult 2017–2018 season, Lille managed to avoid relegation to Ligue 2 by defeating Toulouse 3–2 in the second last game of the campaign.  In the 2018–19 Ligue 1 season, Lille secured the second place to qualify for the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League group stage, they returned to the competition after a seven-year absence.

Stadiums.

Stade Pierre-Mauroy was inaugurated in 2012. Originally named the "Centre Olympique de Lille Est", the club's sporting venue is spread over five hectares and features three natural grass football pitches and one synthetic pitch, as well as a number of buildings including a medical centre and gymnasium. These attributes had seen the club house part of the LOSC Youth Academy here, before all the club's operations were moved to the Domaine de Luchin in Camphin-en-Pé.

Club rivalries.

The Derby du Nord is a football match contested between Lille and RC Lens. The derby name refers only to their geographical location in France since Lille is the only club of the two actually situated in the department of Nord. Lens are situated in the western department of Pas-de-Calais. The name can also refer to matches involving Lille and Valenciennes as both clubs are located within Nord, however, the match historically refers to matches involving Lille and Lens. As a result, the Lille–Valenciennes match is sometimes referred to as "Le Petit Derby du Nord". The two clubs first met in 1937 when Lille were playing under the Olympique Lillois emblem. Due to each club's close proximity towards each other being separated by only and sociological differences between each club's supporters, a fierce rivalry developed. The Derby du Nord is underpinned by social and economic differences, since the city of Lens is known as an old, working-class, industrial city and Lille as a middle-class, modern, internationally oriented one. Nowadays the matches, which can spark intense feelings on both sides, have gained prominence as they may determine berths in continental competitions.

Management and staff.

Lille Olympique Sporting Club – LOSC Lille ()

Coaching history.

Former coaches include Georges Heylens (1984–89), a former Belgian international player, Jacques Santini (1989–92), who coached the France national team between 2002 and 2004, Bruno Metsu (1992–93), who coached the Senegal national team at the 2002 World Cup, Pierre Mankowski (1993–94), who was formerly the assistant coach of the France national team and Vahid Halilhodžić (1998–02), who can be credited with the club's revival in the late nineties. Rudi Garcia, who played for Lille from 1980 to 1988, replaced Claude Puel at the beginning of the 2008 season. Puel had been with Lille since 2002. Thanks to his successes with the club, Puel had been approached by Portuguese club Porto to replace José Mourinho and league rivals Lyon to replace Alain Perrin; he finally decided to join Lyon after six seasons at the club.

Lille Olympique Sporting Club (), commonly called LOSC, also referred to as LOSC Lille, Lille OSC or simply Lille, is a French professional association football club based in Lille in Hauts-de-France. The club was founded in 1944 as a result of a merger and plays in Ligue 1, the first division of French football. Lille has played its home matches since 2012 at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in nearby Villeneuve d'Ascq, which replaced the club's previous home of Stade Lille-Metropole in the same community.


Early life and education.

Henrietta Szold was born in Baltimore, Maryland, December 21, 1860. She was the daughter of Rabbi Benjamin Szold of Hungarian birth, who was the spiritual leader of Baltimore's Temple Oheb Shalom. She was the eldest of eight daughters. In 1877, she graduated from Western High School. For fifteen years she taught at Miss Adam’s School and Oheb Shalom religious school, and gave Bible and history courses for adults. Highly educated in Jewish studies, she edited Professor Marcus Jastrow's Talmudic Dictionary. To further her own education, she attended public lectures at Johns Hopkins University and the Peabody Institute.

Career.

Szold established the first American night school to provide English language instruction and vocational skills to Russian Jewish immigrants in Baltimore. Beginning in 1893, she worked as the first editor for the Jewish Publication Society, a position she maintained for over 23 years. "The sole woman at the JPS, Szold's duties included the translation of a dozen works, writing articles of her own, editing the books, and overseeing the publication schedule.  In 1896, one month before Theodor Herzl published his magnum opus, "Der Judenstaat", Szold described her vision of a Jewish state in Palestine as a place to ingather Diaspora Jewry and revive Jewish culture. In 1898, the Federation of American Zionists elected Szold as the only female member of its executive committee. During World War I, she was the only woman on the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs.  In 1899 she took on the lion's share of producing the first "American Jewish Year Book", of which she was sole editor from 1904 to 1908." She also collaborated in the compilation of the "Jewish Encyclopedia".  In 1902, Szold took classes in advanced Jewish studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. However, its rabbinic school was for men only. Szold begged the school's president, Solomon Schechter, to allow her to study, he did only with the provision that she not seek ordination. Szold did well at the seminary, earning the respect from other students and faculty alike. Her commitment to Zionism was heightened by a trip to Palestine in 1909, at age 49. Here, she discovered her life's mission: the health, education and welfare of the Yishuv (pre-state Jewish community of Palestine). Szold joined six other women to found Hadassah, which recruited American Jewish women to upgrade health care in Palestine. Hadassah's first project was the inauguration of an American-style visiting nurse program in Jerusalem. Hadassah funded hospitals, a medical school, dental facilities, x-ray clinics, infant welfare stations, soup kitchens and other services for Palestine's Jewish and Arab inhabitants. Szold persuaded her colleagues that practical programs open to all were critical to Jewish survival in the Holy Land. She founded Hadassah in 1912 and served as its president until 1926.  In the 1920s and 1930s she was a supporter of Brit Shalom, a small organization dedicated to Arab-Jewish unity and a binational solution. In 1933 she immigrated to Palestine and helped run Youth Aliyah, an organization that rescued 30,000 Jewish children from Nazi Europe. In October 1934 Szold laid the cornerstone of the new Rothschild-Hadassah-University Hospital on Mount Scopus. In 1942, she was one of the co-founders of the Ihud party which advocated the same program.

Personal life.

Szold never married and never had children of her own. While she was in her forties, she had an unrequited relationship with Talmudic scholar Rabbi Louis Ginzberg. He was fifteen years her junior, and he returned her feelings only platonically. After their relationship ended, she expressed her sadness: "Today it is four weeks since my only real happiness was killed." Years afterward, she said: "I would exchange everything for one child of my own."  Szold was the oldest of eight daughters and had no brothers. In Orthodox Judaism, it was not the norm for women to recite the Mourners' Kaddish. In 1916, Szold's mother died, and a friend, Hayim Peretz, offered to say Kaddish for her. In a letter, she thanked Peretz for his concern but said she would do it herself.  Szold's answer to Peretz is cited by "Women and the Mourners' Kaddish," a responsum written by Conservative Rabbi David Golinkin. This responsum, adopted unanimously by Conservative Judaism's Va'ad Halakhah (Law Committee) of the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel, permits women to recite the Mourners' Kaddish in public when a minyan is present. Szold was religiously traditional, but advocated a larger role for women in Rabbinic Judaism.

Death.

On February 13, 1945, at age 84, Henrietta Szold died in the same Hadassah Hospital she helped to build in Jerusalem. She was buried in the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  From 1948 to 1967, the Mount of Olives was cut off from the rest of Jerusalem by the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and the 1949 Armistice Agreements. After Israel regained the region in the Six-Day War, Kalman Mann, then-director general of Hadassah Medical Center, went with a group of rabbis to the cemetery to assess the condition of Szold's grave. They found that it had been paved over by a road built by the Jordanians, who had also vandalized many grave markers. They were able to locate Szold's burial site using a cemetery chart and "counting the indentations in the ground". The grave was later rebuilt and remarked with a new stone marker in an official ceremony.

Legacy.

Kibbutz Kfar Szold, in Upper Galilee is named after her. The Palmach, in recognition of her commitment to "Aliyat Hanoar" Youth Aliyah, named the illegal immigration (Ha'apalah) ship "Henrietta Szold" after her. The ship, carrying immigrants from the Kiffisia orphanage in Athens, sailed from Piraeus on July 30, 1946, with 536 immigrants on board, and arrived on August 12, 1946. The passengers resisted capture, but were transferred to transport for Cyprus.  In 1949, Hadassah inaugurated the Henrietta Szold prize, which was awarded that year to Eleanor Roosevelt.  The Henrietta Szold Institute, National Institute for Research in the Behavioral Sciences, located in Jerusalem, is named after her. The institute is Israel's foremost planner of behavioral science intervention and training programs.  Public School 134 on Manhattan's Lower East Side in New York City is also named after her.  In Israel, Mother's Day is celebrated on the day that Szold died, on the 30th of Shevat.  In the northwest corner of Szold's home city of Baltimore, Szold Drive, a short street in a residential neighborhood with homes built in the 1950s, is named after her as well. The northernmost part of the street is in Baltimore County.  In New York City, Szold Place, formerly Dry Dock Street runs from East 10th Street to East 12th Street in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan.

Awards and honors.

In 2007, Szold was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.

Henrietta Szold (, ; December 21, 1860 – February 13, 1945) was a U.S. Jewish Zionist leader and founder of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. In 1942, she co-founded Ihud, a political party in Mandatory Palestine dedicated to a binational solution.


Launch preparations.

On 23 October 1960, the prototype R-16 had been installed on launching pad 41 ("") awaiting final tests before launch. The missile was over 30 m long, 3.0 m in diameter and had a launch weight of 141 tons. The rocket was fueled with the hypergolic pair of UDMH as fuel and a saturated solution of dinitrogen tetroxide in nitric acid as the oxidizer — which was used because of the high boiling temperatures and hence storability of the fuel and oxidizer, despite being extremely corrosive and toxic. These risks were accounted for in the safety requirements of the launch procedures, but Nedelin's insistence on achieving a test launch ahead of the November 7 anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution resulted in extreme schedule pressure, in a context of substantial emerging engineering difficulties. Ultimately pre-launch tests began to overlap with launch preparations.

Accident.

A short circuit in the replaced main sequencer caused the second-stage engine to fire while being tested before launch. This detonated the first stage fuel tanks directly below, destroying the missile in an enormous explosion. Before seeking refuge, the camera operator remotely activated automatic cameras set around the launching pad that filmed the explosion in detail. People near the rocket were instantly incinerated; those farther away were burned to death or poisoned by the toxic fuel component vapors. Andrei Sakharov described many details: as soon as the engine fired, most of the personnel there ran to the perimeter, but were trapped inside the security fence and then engulfed in the fireball of burning fuel. The explosion incinerated or asphyxiated Nedelin, a top aide, the USSR's top missile-guidance designer, and over 70 other officers and engineers. Others died later of burns or poisoning. Missile designer Mikhail Yangel and the test range commanding officer survived only because they had left to smoke a cigarette behind a bunker a few hundred metres away, but nonetheless suffered burn injuries.

Aftermath.

Complete secrecy was immediately imposed on the events of 24 October by Nikita Khrushchev. A news release stated that Nedelin had died in a plane crash and the families of the other engineers were advised to say their loved ones had died of the same cause. Khrushchev also ordered Leonid Brezhnev to head an investigation commission and go to the site. Among other things, the commission found that many more people were present on the launch pad than should have been — most were supposed to be safely offsite in bunkers.  When Brezhnev arrived at the firing range in 25 October, he said: "Comrades! We do not intend to put anyone on trial; we are going to investigate the causes and take actions to recover from the disaster and continue operations.” But, I. A. Doroshenko was punished by the event.  Afterwards, Yangel was asked by Nikita Khrushchev "But why have you remained alive?" Yangel answered in a trembling voice: "Walked away for a smoke. It's all my fault." Later he suffered a heart attack and was off work for months.  After the committee presented its report, the R-16 program resumed in January 1961 with first successful flight in 2 February 1961. The delay to the R-16 spurred the USSR toward the development of more effective ICBMs and sparked Khrushchev's decision to install IRBMs in Cuba. Before the disaster Yangel had ambitions to challenge Sergei Korolev as leader of the Manned Space program, but he was directed to focus on the R-16.  A memorial to the victims of the test was erected in the first half of the 1960s in the Park of Baikonur and is still visited by RKA officials before any manned launch.

Official acknowledgment.

A news release stated that Nedelin had died "in a plane crash while on an undisclosed mission." The Italian news agency Continentale first reported on 8 December 1960, from undisclosed sources, that Marshal Nedelin and 100 people had been killed in a rocket explosion. "The Guardian" reported on 16 October 1965, that captured spy Oleg Penkovsky had confirmed details of the missile accident, and exiled scientist Zhores Medvedev provided further details in 1976 in the British weekly magazine "New Scientist". However, it was not until 16 April 1989, that the Soviet Union acknowledged the events, with a report appearing in the weekly newsmagazine "Ogoniok".

The Nedelin catastrophe or Nedelin disaster was a launch pad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960 at Baikonur test range (of which Baikonur Cosmodrome is a part), during the development of the Soviet ICBM R-16. As a prototype of the missile was being prepared for a test flight, an explosion occurred when the second stage engine ignited accidentally, killing an unknown number of military and technical personnel working on the preparations. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, news of it was suppressed for many years and the Soviet government did not acknowledge the event until 1989. The disaster is named after Chief Marshal of Artillery Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin, who was killed in the explosion. As commanding officer of the Soviet Union's Strategic Rocket Forces, Nedelin was head of the R-16 development program.


Early life and education.

Marcel was born on 7 December 1889 in Paris, France. His mother Laure Meyer, who was Jewish, died when he was young and he was brought up by his aunt and father, Henry Marcel. When he was eight he moved for a year where his father was minister plenipotentiary.  Marcel completed his DES thesis ("", roughly equivalent to an MA thesis) and obtained the "agrégation" in philosophy from the Sorbonne in 1910, at the unusually young age of 20. During the First World War he worked as head of the Information Service, organized by the Red Cross to convey news of injured soldiers to their families. He taught in secondary schools, was a drama critic for various literary journals, and worked as an editor for Plon, the major French Catholic publisher.  Marcel was the son of an agnostic, and was himself an atheist until his conversion to Catholicism in 1929. Marcel was opposed to anti-Semitism and supported reaching out to non-Catholics.  He died 8 October 1973 in Paris.

Existential themes.

He is often classified as one of the earliest existentialists, although he dreaded being placed in the same category as Jean-Paul Sartre; Marcel came to prefer the label "neo-Socratic" (possibly because of Søren Kierkegaard, the father of Christian existentialism, who was a neo-Socratic thinker himself). While Marcel recognized that human interaction often involved objective characterisation of "the other", he still asserted the possibility of "communion" – a state where both individuals can perceive each other's subjectivity.  In "The Existential Background of Human Dignity", Marcel refers to a play he had written in 1913 entitled "Le Palais de Sable", in order to provide an example of a person who was unable to treat others as subjects.  Roger Moirans, the central character of the play, is a politician, a conservative who is dedicated to defending the rights of Catholicism against free thought. He has set himself up as the champion of traditional monarchy and has just achieved a great success in the city council where he has attacked the secularism of public schools. It is natural enough that he should be opposed to the divorce of his daughter Therese, who wants to leave her unfaithful husband and start her life afresh. In this instance he proves himself virtually heartless; all his tenderness goes out to his second daughter, Clarisse, whom he takes to be spiritually very much like himself. But now Clarisse tells him that she has decided to take the veil and become a Carmelite. Moirans is horrified by the idea that this creature, so lovely, intelligent, and full of life, might go and bury herself in a convent and he decides to do his utmost to make her give up her intention... Clarisse is deeply shocked; her father now appears to her as an impostor, virtually as a deliberate fraud...  In this case, Moirans is unable to treat either of his daughters as a subject, instead rejecting both because each does not conform to her objectified image in his mind. Marcel notes that such objectification "does no less than denude its object of the one thing which he has which is of value, and so it degrades him effectively."  Another related major thread in Marcel was the struggle to protect one's subjectivity from annihilation by modern materialism and a technologically driven society. Marcel argued that scientific egoism replaces the "mystery" of being with a false scenario of human life composed of technical "problems" and "solutions". For Marcel, the human subject cannot exist in the technological world, instead being replaced by a human object. As he points out in "Man Against Mass Society" and other works, technology has a privileged authority with which it persuades the subject to accept his place as "he" in the internal dialogue of science; and as a result, man is convinced by science to rejoice in his own annihilation.

Influence.

For many years, Marcel hosted a weekly philosophy discussion group through which he met and influenced important younger French philosophers like Jean Wahl, Paul Ricœur, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Marcel was puzzled and disappointed that his reputation was almost entirely based on his philosophical treatises and not on his plays, which he wrote in the hope of appealing to a wider lay audience. He also influenced phenomenologist and Thomistic philosopher Karol Wojtyla (later Pope John Paul II), who drew on Marcel's distinction between "being" and "having" in his critique of technological change.

Main works.

His major books are the "Metaphysical Journal" (1927), "Being and Having" (1933), "Homo Viator" (1945), "Mystery of Being" (1951), and "Man Against Mass Society" (1955). He gave the William James Lectures at Harvard in 1961–1962, which were subsequently published as "The Existential Background of Human Dignity".

Gabriel Honoré Marcel (1889–1973) was a French philosopher, playwright, music critic and leading Christian existentialist. The author of over a dozen books and at least thirty plays, Marcel's work focused on the modern individual's struggle in a technologically dehumanizing society. Though often regarded as the first French existentialist, he dissociated himself from figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre, preferring the term "philosophy of existence" or "neo-Socrateanism" to define his own thought. "The Mystery of Being" is a well-known two-volume work authored by Marcel.


History.

Born in 1848 in Greece, Spyros Metaxa was a descendant of a family of silk merchants. His first foray into business was in the trade of fine goods. During his professional travels, he was exposed to a number of different spirits and wines from all around the world. Spirits of his time tended to be harsh on the palate, without much aroma or character. Spyros Metaxa wanted a smoother drink and created Metaxa in 1888.  Aided by his brothers, Elias and Alexander, Spyros Metaxa built his first distillery in 1888 in Piraeus, the port of Athens. The "Salamina Warrior", the Metaxa emblem, is said to have been inspired by a medallion found in the foundations of the distillery.  Metaxa became a commercial success, started being exported to countries across the Mediterranean, and in 1900 was exported to the US.  In 1968, the distillery and the Metaxa cellars were relocated to new facilities in Athens' northern suburb of Kifissia where they are today.  Although it was first compared to a Cognac, and later to a brandy, Metaxa is not classified in either of these spirit categories due to the presence of the Muscat wines and the Mediterranean botanicals.

Creation.

The company's current Metaxa master, the equivalent of a master distiller or master blender, Constantinos Raptis, is the fifth since 1888. For more than 25 years, he has overseen the entire production process.  Raptis selects Muscat wines from Samos for aromatic concentration and intensity, and wine distillates for their character. The wine distillates and Muscat wines are aged separately, until he decides they are ready to be combined in Limousin oak casks. Mediterranean botanicals are added as the final touch.

Samos.

The island of Samos is in the Eastern Mediterranean. The highest mountain is Mount Ambelos (1,160m). Ampelos means "vine" in Greek. Here the slopes of the mountain are covered in vineyards, mainly of the Muscat grape. Grapes are cultivated in terraces and hand-picked.  Muscat grapes grow well in few places around the world. Warm sun, a tough mineral soil and rainfall at the right times of year are all part of the island's natural life. Samos produces some of the most aromatic wines in the world.

MΕΤΑΧΑ () is a Greek amber spirit created by Spyros Metaxa in 1888. Its taste comes from the combination of Muscat wines from the island of Samos, aged wine distillates, and Mediterranean botanicals.